Recipes: Tasty Yogurt Pancakes

I grew up eating pancakes for breakfast at least twice a week. I liked them plain (I HATED syrup and my mom refused to buy REAL butter) so the taste was really important to me. As an adult, I searched for YEARS to find the perfect recipe but could stand up to my refusal to use white flour, refined sugars, or tons of oil. A few years ago, I found it.

This recipe started out as the Silver Dollar Pancake Recipe from the Joy of Cooking. I have adapted it to use whole grain flour, raw sugar, and greek yogurt (in place of sour cream). What I like about this recipe is that it uses very little flour, and no added fats (except for the oil on the griddle and the fats in the eggs and yogurt). The bulk of the batter is yogurt and eggs, yet the result is a really delicious pancake.

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 1/2 T raw sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda

Wet ingredients:
1 C greek yogurt
2 eggs
1 t vanilla

Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (for the pan)

Combine the dry ingredients and set aside. Combine the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir until just mixed. This batter is thick.

Using a large spoon, drop small sized pancakes onto a hot skillet coated in virgin coconut oil. Cook on one side until you see bubbles forming along the edges of the batter, flip with a spatula. Due to the thick nature of this batter, I use the "wiggle" test to be sure they are cooked through. Using the spatula I press gently on the middle of the pancake. If it moves side to side, it is not yet cooked through.

If I am cooking for myself and my two little girls (5 and 7) I make one batch and usually have a few left over. If I am also cooking for my husband, I make two batches and usually have enough leftover to store in the refrigerator for one more breakfast for the girls.

Do It Yourself: Marshmallow and Toothpick Erector Set

Beatrice with our creation.

It's cold. It's really cold, and Beatrice is bored. Really bored. While we could play another round of Tea Party the game, today I decided to try something a little different. We built a structure out of marshmallows and toothpicks.

Here is what you need to try it too:
One bag of mini marshmallows
AT LEAST 2 -250 count boxes of toothpicks (we use the round ones because my kids are used to being around pointy things, but flat would work too)

Start simply by showing your child how to stick the toothpicks into the marshmallows. Explore basic shapes like barbells, wands, triangles, squares, etc. Move on to more complex shapes like cubes etc. Beatrice and I worked together on our structure. We started by building onto our simple shapes as the structure grew, we talked about what shapes were the strongest (triangles) and how to build support to hold up the structure. As one piece sagged, we built others to hold it up. We played for almost 45 minutes.

Beatrice is 3 and a half years old, and she was able to add to the structure and support her own additions. I helped her if she asked and worked on the "groundwork" to make sure she had a good time building. The structure will continually morph as you build. Parts will sag down as you prop up other parts. Pyramidal supports will hold up sagging sections while emphasizing the importance of supporting structures. See the photos for examples.

Building with blocks, legos, tinker toys or even marshmallows and toothpicks teaches very important spatial and mathematical concepts to your child and is rewarding and fun!


Close-Up

The Masterpiece!

Around Our House: Squash Gone Wild!

ONE days harvest! I am so sick of eating summer squash!

This is the year of the squash! We planted several varieties, but ONE has managed to take over nearly our entire back yard... Zucchino Rampicante Squash.

It IS delicious. It is firmer than regular zucchini, and it is hilarious and slightly pornographic (we like to wear the big ones around our necks while we stroke the swollen bulb at the end for comedic effect).

I was happy to see OTHER neighbors with squash gone wild. I suppose it likes the super wet summer we've had.

Tonight I shall make stuffed squash blossoms. We'll see if we can't stop the reproduction for a few days!


Here is our plant. Taking over the world. Look for it in your neck of the woods any day now...

Around Our House: The Shoulder Incident

The two "bulletholes" on the front. It took three tiny incisions to get the job done.


The "bullethole" on the back.

So many of you may know that in June of 2010 I had shoulder surgery. Most of you probably do not know why, so here goes.

I have hypermobile joints, and I always have (fingers, knees, and shoulders). When I was about 10 I remember jumping into my aunt's swimming pool, finding that something was wrong with my arm, and barely making it to the edge of the pool. I am fairly certain this was the first time my shoulder dislocated (or subluxated). When my shoulder would dislocate, at first I could wiggle it back in joint, but in recent years, reducing (or relocating) the joint required traction. I can remember at least 12 instances of my shoulders dislocating. Here are a few examples of the activities during which dislocation happened:

Swimming (jumping in, and straight swimming)
Skiing
Swinging on a Swing set
Playing air hockey
Sleeping on my belly
Making the bed
Getting up off of the couch
Lobbing the cat (i know i know bad cat mommy)
Stretching

My list of things I wouldn't do kept getting larger and larger. When I was in high school, I actually had a doctor tell me that I was just looking for attention and that if my shoulder had actually dislocated, I would have been in the hospital. In 1998, I learned of a procedure where they would heat shrink the capsular tissues (the sock of tissue that surrounds the joint for stabilization) to create a tighter joint and prevent dislocations. I had this done on both shoulders. As it turns out, this procedure wasn't very successful for most people (a lot of people with recurrent dislocations are athletic) so they no longer do this surgery. For me, it worked pretty well. After the surgeries, I went almost ten years before my next dislocation.

The first of my most recent series of dislocations happened right after Beatrice was born. I was sleeping on an air mattress with a toddler and an infant (right after our move to Iowa before Scott arrived with our furniture) and the damn cat kept walking across us on the bed. I grabbed him and tried to lob him off the bed which caused my left shoulder to come out. It took a lot longer to get back in joint and I was completely freaked out. I took some advil and that was that. About a year and a half later, I was making Sylvia's bed and went to pull myself up and my shoulder went out inferior (down). All of my previous dislocations had been anterior (they went out the front of the joint) which is the most common type of dislocation. Inferior dislocations are rare and mine required traction to get it back in joint (thankfully I have watched a lot of medical dramas on TV, and had the sense to grab the bunk bed and pull down).

After the second time, I started seeing a physical therapist. Fortunately, he had been through the same type of issues, and was very informative about exactly what was going on with my shoulder. After about a month of therapy (with little improvement) i went to see an osteopath (Dr Honkamp). He did x-rays and an MRI and determined, that I had Hill-Sachs defect on the humeral head (which is caused from the soft head of the humerus butting up against bone during the dislocations) and that my caspular tissue was indeed "floppy". I was given the option to either have the surgery or not. On one hand, joints tend to tighten with age. Since I am in my mid 30s, there was a good chance my joints would tighten and this would no longer be a problem. On the other hand, random shoulder dislocations are scary and painful. I opted to wait it out. I decided that if I had another dislocation in a year, I would do the surgery. I lasted 14 months.

My last dislocation was the final straw. When my shoulder would dislocate, it was painful, but the worst result was the three months of painful back spasms and spinal misalignment that would follow. The last dislocation happened while I was stretching (I literally had my arms up over my head and the joint clunked out). I made my appointment with Dr Honkamp that day.

The surgery I had is called a Bankhart Repair. Basically what had happened in my joint was that as my humeral head came out of the socket, it had been pushing the labrum (a disc of cartilage that cups the head of the humerus on the scapula) off of the bone and stretching it out. In addition, the capsule (a cuff of tissue that fits over the entire shoulder joint) was loose (like a pair of socks whose elastic has failed). During the surgery, Dr Honkamp gathered up the loose edge of my labrum and re-sutured it to the scapula. He also added some very stylish pleats to my capsule to make it tighter. It was all done orthoscopically.


This is a before and after of my capsule. To the trained eye, you can see how terribly stretched out it was. For the rest of us, just imagine the blue stitches pulling the big pink center part tighter together.


This the the before and after of my labrum. The photo on the left shows a wispy translucent tissue. That is my labrum all floppy and floating around. The photo on the right shows the stitches reattaching the labrum to my scapula.


This is the backside of my humeral head. The white is cartilage (which should be covering most of the head). The pink is bone. I've had so many dislocations that the cartilage is significantly worn off.

When the surgery was done, I spent a few days in extreme pain. I had a bad reaction to the hydrocodone and had to take an anti-emetic with it to keep from throwing up. I slept a lot (propped up like a princess on ton of pillows). After about two weeks, I was able to function on Darvocet. It took a full month and a half to get down to regular pain meds like Advil and Tylenol. Now, about three months out, I do not need to take anything as the pain is minimal.

I had to wear an immobilizer for a full month (the one the gave me at the surgery center was so hot and ugly I had to make a new one - if you need a pattern to make one for yourself, let me know!) I was not supposed to drive while wearing the immobilizer, but honestly after about two weeks of being driven and being stuck at home with two bored kids, I did some driving. I started physical therapy to regain my range of motion after the first 4 weeks. After 2 months, I started doing a little strengthening. I currently have a good range of motion (I lack a little rotation) and hope to have it strong and normal in the next month or two.

This is a fairly major surgery. They treat the recovery as if the bone has been broken. It is more serious than a rotator cuff surgery. After the surgery, it will take almost six months to get the joint back to "normal". For me the most frustrating part at this point is the weakness of the joint. After a solid two months of atrophy, I find lifting and carrying to be difficult. Most of my pain comes from stress on the joint due to lack of strength. Hopefully this will improve as I continue with physical therapy.

If anyone out there is scheduled for this type of surgery or if you suffer from frequent dislocations, please contact me! I am happy to share my experience.

Around Our House: Bea's 3rd Birthday

Cutting the cake. Note the reuse of our old sea themed shower curtain as a table runner.

Well I am a little late with this post, but for those of you gearing up for your own birthday parties, here's our version of a fun fish party. The girls and I had a great time planning together and working on the decorations and goodie bags. This party was at least four afternoons of crafts and activities.

We started out by making our goodie bags. I found some fun fish stickers, made little packs of gummie worms and swedish fish, and purchased beach balls for all of the kids. We always buy plain paper bags in different colors and have the kids draw on them. It is hard to find printed birthday materials that aren't covered in Disney characters. For the candies, we found clear plastic treat bags and bought bulk packages and divided them up to save some money. I bought the beach balls from Oriental Trading (not a big fan of cheap throw away toys, but the beach balls SHOULD last all summer).

We also bought cheap plain paper plates in fun aquatic colors and had the girls either draw on them or if you kids are too young, have them stick a few theme related stickers on them. We also purchased three rolls of streamers and a package of balloons. I had an old sea themed shower curtain that I cut into table runners and a cover for our fireplace screen. I had also scored a few seaweed like decorations from a garage sale (by the way always look for decorations at thrift stores or garage sales and conversely anything you do not use or can be used again, be sure to try selling at your garage sale or donate to a thrift store).

I like to have a craft for all of the kids to do, so for this party, we made fishing games. Ahead of time, I made the fishing poles. I purchased short (about 12") dowels, twine, and magnets. If you can find magnets with holes, get hose, otherwise the regular ceramic discs are fine.

Do it Yourself Fishing Game:


Craft foam cut into fish shapes with paper clip hooks. Allow the kids to decorate their own with markers and crayons.


Finishing up the poles with hot glue.

12" long dowels about the thickness of a pencil (or wooden chopsticks)
twine
ceramic magnets (with a hole if available)
assorted colors of craft foam
paper clips
hot glue gun and sticks

Cut your twine into 12" long pieces. Tie to one end of the pole and seal it with a small dab of hot glue. If you have magnets with holes, tie them to the other end of the twine. If not, apply a dab of glue to one side of the magnet and stick the twine to the glue allowing yourself enough room to tie the twine around the magnet.

Cut the craft foam into fish shapes including eels, octopuses, starfish, or any other sea creature you can think up. Allow the children to decorate their own fish using markers and stick on shapes. Slip a paperclip over the end of the fish mouth to act as a hook.

This game is fum for all ages, but you should use caution with magnets around small children who might choke on or swallow the magnets (they can come loose from the twine and pose a serious health risk for young children if swallowed).

Day Before the Party

The girls decorated the starfish with sprinkles and I edged them with frosting.

The day before, we baked and decorated our starfish and fish shaped sugar cookies. We also made our gummie worm and peep sushi. If you have ever made real sushi, these are very similar.
Use a rolled out fruit roll-up in place of the seaweed, rice crispie treats as the rice mixture, and gummie worms and peeps for the "meat". Form the sushi rolls while the rice crispie treats are still warm and flexible and thoroughly butter or grease your hands while working.


The candy sushi was a BIG hit. I wish I could claim credit for this one because they are FABULOUS!

Day of the Party

I woke up early and decorated the cake that I had baked the night before. I was going for an aquarium cake. Check with your local library, many have cake pans to loan.


My kids are always grouchy on party day. I can't figure it out.

After squaring away the food, I decorated the house with three rolls of streamers. I made sure to use them all and the effect was really fun.


The food table with streamer skirt.


I put streamers everywhere.


Grandma Louise keeping my very pregnant cousin company. The green seaweed spirals were a garage sale find.

The party was really fun and the girls and I are already planning for the next one...

Around Our House: Blue Violets... For DINNER

Lovely Blue Violets in a tossed salad of fresh picked spinach and dandelion greens accompanied by blooms and leaves of a very resilient Pak Choy that overwintered in our garden.

If you ever needed a good reason not to spray your yard with nasty chemicals, consider all of the edible "weeds" that voluntarily grow each year. One of my favorites (aside from the dandelion) is the Common Blue Violet (Viola papilionacea). Every spring, little heart shaped leaves peek out from the ground to be soon followed by a sea of dainty purple and white blossoms. When I was a little girl, we had violets all over our backyard and spent countless hours picking them and pressing them in books. As a botany student at Iowa State in the late 90s, I discovered these cuties were also edible.

Taken from Peterson Field Guides: Edible Wild Plants by Lee Allen Peterson.
Use: salad, cooked green, soup thickener, tea, candy The tender young leaves can be added to salads or boiled for 10-15 minutes to make a palatable green, or added to soup as an okralike thickener. Violet leaves are rather bland and are best mixed with other greens. The dried leaves can be made into a tea. The flowers can be candied. The leaves are rich in vitamin A and C.

My FAVORITE thing to do with my violets is to add the flowers to salads. In the early spring, when there is not much color in your garden aside from the lovely greens, these little flowers make a cheerful addition.

In the past we've also made candied violets by brushing each petal with a diluted mixture of egg whites and then coating each flower with extra fine granulated sugar and allowing to completely dessicate before storing. One year we packaged these up for Mother's Day.

Other fine edible (midwestern US) plants include white clovers, common plantains (not the bananas), dandelions, lamb's-quarter, day lilies, and shepherds purse (to name a few more common yard weeds). Wild plants typically contain a broader range of phytochemicals and nutrients since they are tasked with having to survive outside of the neatly confined and carefully tended environment of the garden. So before you destroy the bounty that nature has bestowed upon you, take a moment to get to know your weeds (buy a book of your region!) and take a nibble.


Common plantain. Very young leaves can be added to salads or boiled for cooked greens.


Shepherd's Purse. Young greens can be eaten as salad or cooked. Dried seed pods can be ground for a pepper-like seasoning.

Around Our House: ASPARAGUS!

Victory is MINE!

It took two growing seasons, but this, the start of the third growing season, has given us ASPARAGUS! I just cut my first handful about five minutes ago. My stalks are about the size of my fingers and beautifully green. Admittedly, I will have a hard time waiting for Scott to come home for dinner to eat them.

In honor of my asparagus, I want to share one of my favorite asparagus recipes. Lemon asparagus coleslaw.

Lemon Asparagus Coleslaw

1 pound asparagus
1/2 head green cabbage
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 lemon
2T olive oil
salt and pepper

Lightly steam the asparagus (about 3 minutes) and immerse in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Pat dry and slice on the bias into thin slivers. Thinly slice the cabbage and onions. You'll want equal parts asparagus to cabbage. Zest the lemon, and add to the mix. Add the olive oil and the juice from one half of the lemon (unless you like your coleslaw with a bit more zing). Toss and salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4-6.

I also like to add white beans or dried cherry tomatoes to this salad.

Around Our House: Kombucha or Bust - Part 2

Well I have successfully started a kombucha mother from a bottle of Original GT's. Due to the fact that we are total cheapskates, I had to wait about 4 weeks for it to grow to a decent size (our house is at about 65 degrees in the winter). After it warmed up a bit (in the 70s last week!) it really took off.

Last Wednesday, I started my first batch. I am using organic green tea that I bought at Wang's in Urbandale, although next time I think I'll get my tea from Friedrich (they have a great selection of bulk teas). I brewed about 1 1/2 gallons of green tea (about 14 tea bags) and added 2 cups of turbinado sugar (i would have used regular refined since it gets used up by the kombucha mother, but I actually did not have any.) I moved the mother out of the starter jar (never letting her touch metal!) and into the shiny new 2 1/2 gallon jar I bought at target for $19. I also added about 2 cups of the starter kombucha. The remainder I bottled with a slice of ginger and it is sitting on my counter for 5 days then it is into the fridge for consumption! I have heard the first batch used to grow the mother is not as tasty, so we'll see how my first bottles taste.



As you can see it is getting disgusting! In about a week and a half, I should be able to bottle the batch and start the next one! For those of you in the Des Moines area interested in trying this out, I should have mothers to share in the next few months.

Around Our House: Seeds are in the Mail

We ordered seeds for these cute little egg gourds. It is never too early to plan a craft for the kiddos.

Last night Scott and I finally made our seed order from Baker Creek Heirlooms. The catalog showed up in December and we have been oggling it for the last three months.

We ordered from them last year and got a great Purple Podded Pole Bean, that grew more beans than we could ever eat. I was harvesting over 7 pounds every few days! We also got a few orka varieties, pak choy, and three different melons.

This year I made sure to add a good variety of lettuces, broccoli, herbs, carrots, and most importantly squash and pumpkins. I found it the hardest to pick out squash. I love all the different colors and shapes of squash. After making pumpkin pie out of one the the most beautiful Long Island Cheese pumpkins last fall I don't think I can ever use a regular pie pumpkin again.

The girls and I will start planting out seedlings today, and then it is out into the muck to clean up the garden and get it going! I did notice yesterday that some very helpful bunnies have fertilized for us...


I couldn't resist this French pumpkin, Musquee De Provence.

Around Our House: Kombucha or Bust - Part 1

Working from home with the kiddos means that I have strange shifts. Most of my sewing happens at night between the hours of 9pm and 2:30am. Since the girls are alive and ready to rumble at 7am, this often leaves me sleep deprived. I have found that drinking a bottle of kombucha every other day helps me kick the fatigue.

After forking over about $12 for three bottles of kombucha, I have decided to start brewing my own. My first step? Kombucha mother.

I have purchased an original bottle of GT's kombucha (it is raw and unpasteurized). Following the instructions I have been reading online, I will pour this bottle into a jar with some sweet tea and let it sit until I get this...


It might look skanky, but it's fantastic.

Let the process begin.

Around Our House: Painting Painting Painting

Well we could wait no longer for fresh spring breezes, we had to start painting my husband's man cave yesterday. He chose Toasted Pumpkin by Behr for the color. Yes. I let him pick the color. This is how you know I love him. We bought Behr's low VOC paint that is supposed to be paint and primer in one, but I have to say that IF they ever do truly make a one coat paint I do not think it will be in my lifetime. Painting over the bright sky blue with orange is definitely a two coat job.

I suppose it was probably less fumy, but it was still too much for my sensitive head. If we had been able to open the windows, it would have been more tolerable. Today the room smells a little "painty", but not too bad. We will however wait until spring to do the girls' room.

Here are some cute pics of our girls "helping". They like to paint for about ten to fifteen minutes and then they are done and will let us get to work.


The girls hard at work.


My step-brother Josh came over to help. I had him prime over our tree, since it broke my heart to do it (Sylvia and I painted it together when she was 3).

Around Our House: Home Photography Success!

I have recently perfected my photo area. It turns out that out white curtains and a king sized white sheet over our bench make a perfect backdrop when slightly overexposed. The lighting in our front room is good almost all day, especially right now with so much reflected light off of the snow. I like the ephemeral quality of the image.

This set up also seems to work great for photographing my products.


Sylvia is wearing a new pair of pants from my spring and summer line. They are made from recycled jersey and fit like high waters. Check my etsy shop for current clothing listings.


Beatrice is wearing a cute Hannah Anderson pants and dress outfit. I found this one at a yard sale for a dollar. It had a small hole on the knee which I patched with a small piece of coordinating pink jersey, and it turned out great!

Around Our House: Keeping the Kids Busy One Block of Styrofoam at a Time

In an effort to get more time to work in my studio, I have been devising projects for the kids to do while I work. Our latest project came when we ordered our new iMac.

Both girls got a piece of styrofoam. Sylvia (at 5) is old enough to handle a very small hammer, so I give her a handful of nails and a small handcrank drill with a drill bit. She pounds nails and drills holes and sometimes violently beats the tar out of her block of foam. Beatrice (at 2) is a little small for the hammer, so I give her a pincushion full of pins, a handful of buttons, cut off labels, ribbons, and pieces of felt and paper. She happily stabs pins with buttons and ribbons into the foam. Now before you call DHS or try this with your own children, please remember that my kids have grown up around my sewing supplies and have proven to me that they understand which end of the pin is the stabbing side. And of course they are current on their tetanus shots.

This activity helps them with their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. Plus it keeps them busy for about twenty minutes.



Beatrice concentrating on threading buttons onto the pins.



Sylvia wielding her junior sized hammer. She's even got her tongue in on the action.



It's Hammer Time!

Around Our House: Christmas Favorites

Over the years, I have amassed a fairly large collection of ornaments. My own tree started my second year of college when I purchased a 3' tree on clearance. That year I made all of my own decorations using copper (wire and sheets that had come from an estate sale) and metallic raffia. I also made a long strand of Fimo beads that has long since disappeared. This is also the same year I made the first two stockings.



This is the whole set. The first two belong to Scott and I (the two in the middle).



Beatrice's stocking won Best of Show at the Iowa State Fair in 2008. I couldn't have been happier. I saved fabrics for over ten years so our family stockings would match.

Through college I collected unique or weird ornaments whenever I found them. I like to catch end of season clearance sales, but have been know to pay full price.



Is it a dog? Is it a flocked dog with plastic tree branches coming out of its head? No. It is a reindeer. Obviously. Found at Calipso in Valley West Mall 2009



Last year's addition to our creepy snowman collection. While this one isn't particularly creepy, it is covered in glitter and fabulous. Found at Porch Light 2008



This one was so weird it had to come home with me. And if I remember correctly, it came from Target in 2007.



Santa Cop. Nothing says Christmas like getting busted by a billy club wielding Santa. Found at Hobby Lobby 2007

When I was in college, my grandma Louise started the tradition of allowing each of us to select one ornament from the tree each year. I have such strong memories of the ornaments from her tree. A few of my favorites were the little plastic horns (that made noise), the tiny fairy tale books, and all of the ornaments made by my grandma and her friends for the church craft bazaar over the years.



This set of bells came from grandma's tree.



When I was in Los Angeles, Grandma sent me this old ceramic bell that used to be on her tree when she was a little girl.

Since I spend quite a bit of time at craft shows during the holiday season, I have found a number of spectacular handmade ornaments to add to my collection.



This one is made by Skirt. A couple of crafty gals out of Iowa City.



This sweet pinecone was made by Danelle of Monster Fashion

My greatest resource for ornaments has come from my children. I like to spend time each year making ornaments with them. The first year, we used self sticking laminating paper to cover images that we hole punched and hung from strings. Last year, we painted a lot of pre-made ornaments from craft stores. But this year, we made the most fabulous pipe cleaner ornaments. I had the girls both draw faces on circles that we cut out and glued on as heads. The girls then chose doodads for each person to hold. As you can see they turned out amazing!



Made with Sylvia in 2008. I helped to sew the chunk of serger scraps she found on top.



Made with Beatrice 2009. She is just starting to draw faces, for this project, she enjoyed gluing plastic eyes to her colored faces.



Made with Sylvia 2009. Sylvia did such an amazing job drawing faces. This snowman is one of my favorites. I particularly love the carrot he is holding.



Another of Sylvia's. This one is an angel. The idea for this project came from a fun shop on etsy (from whom I purchased three sets of ornaments) Old World Primatives She uses great vintage images atop her lovely ornaments.

In a few days, we will pack up the tree. Each ornament will be carefully packed away so that someday they might grace the trees of my own children and grandchildren. Another great pretty Christmas gone by...

Around Our House: Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

So I have escaped the basement momentarily to host Thanksgiving for our third year. Grandma Louise was kind enough to allow us the honor : )

Shockingly, I just went outside to pick a fresh arugula garnish for our turkey platter!

This year I am keeping with traditional recipes for the sake of time and sanity. I am making the turkey, stuffing, squash, green beans with bacon, pumpkin pie, custard pie, corn on the cob, apple pie (one two crust and one with an amaretti cookie topping, and a tasty selection of pickles from the garden. We grew the squash and beans, and the turkey, apples, bread, eggs, milk, and corn are all produced locally.

I have to skip dinner at my aunt's house to work on orders this year. But it'll be worth it to feel caught up!