Grape Picking in Naples

Upstate NY is famous for its grapes: concord and white Niagara grapes. We were given some Concord grapes from a friend who couldn't use them, and I used the steam juicer another friend gave me to make delicious grape juice! I think our mouths might stay purple for weeks!

Because we enjoyed the juice so much, and because I wanted more, and because it was so easy to make, we decided to get more grapes, and so drove about 45 minutes. It was only $0.35/lb of grapes. Pretty cheap!

The girls were AWESOME pickers, and in no time we had almost 150 pounds! Whew! I took home 5 boxes of grapes, but only kept four boxes (Another friend asked us to get some). I have since turned three of those into 6.5 gallons of concentrated grape juice. (13 gallons after mixing to a drinkable dilution).

Nica pulling a wagon with empty boxes, ready to be filled with grapes.

Shortly after starting down the hill, Nica lost control and we had a runaway wagon! Thankfully Veronica Morphy caught the wagon and nobody injured. Whew!

Miranda getting ready to pull her wagon.

The row of concords we picked.

Megan showing her green Niagara grapes. They were not as plentiful, but were super sweet! Megan picked an entire box of Concord grapes by herself in half the time the rest of us took.

Nica in her Halloween garb (yes, she is wearing shorts over her pants- it is her signature fashion statement), eating a snack of Halloween fruit Gummies.

Zoë was a fast and hard worker. She found great clumps of grapes (purple or green).

Miranda flitted from side-to-side of the vines, picking here, and there. She loved being outside, with friends, and picking fruit.

We took our friends, the Morphy's (Mom on far left is Veronica, son Garrett, then Zoë, and Mya Morphy on far right).

Zoë was taking a video of the vineyard.

Grape field with beautiful fall colors in the hills surrounding us.

Nica's Fifth Birthday!

Nica was awakened this morning by her sisters singing:

Today it is your birthday
and we sing to let you know
that you will be queen for the day
whatever you say goes!

The girls were ALL excited for Nica's birthday! Pancakes for breakfast, as is Dad's Saturday tradition. Then the girls watched music videos until their mean mom made them do Saturday chores. Then it was outside to play with friends!

Lunch was fruit and cake. Long story made short? Nica's cake fell apart, so I cut it in half and the girls at the part I cut away.

Then, the neighbors were out swimming in their pool and invited the girls to join them. Hip Hooray! Nica, Miranda and Megan swam with the neighbor girls until the wind picked up and the sky looked ominous and Nica's lips were blue (even though the water was 80-degrees!).

Then, more playing with friends until Dad brought home the requested birthday dinner: Burger King.

Skype with Grandma and Grandpa while opening presents. Opened all the new toys (with all her sister's help). Then back outside to play with friends while Travis and I set up the hammock Nana got us this summer.

Birthday cake with sparking candles. Nica picked the colors and was happy with all the swirls, but she was most excited to have little bunnies on top of her cake.

 The girls dashed outside to play in the fading light with friends again. Miranda helped Travis pick tomatoes and cucumbers, and swung on the hammock until she heard her sisters and friends were playing in the front. She dashed to meet them, but the all congregated back at the hammock and started playing on it, with squeals of delight.

 The sun is going down earlier and earlier. I love the sound of the kids squealing and laughing, the sounds of feet running, and happy shouts calling out to each other. Summer is awesome.

Another beautiful sunset seen from the backyard.

Nica planted these seeds in the spring when the outside was still covered in a foot of snow. Then we transplanted them to these pots in May, and finally, on her birthday, her first boutonniere button flower bloomed!

Remember this from a year ago?

Yep, I think they have grown!

Little stinkers!

They sure can be cute!

Thanksgiving Day

As I wrote my sister:

"We had 22 people, 14 of which were children under the age of 9!* running around. It was chaotic, noisy, hectic, and a BLAST! Turkey & gravy, whole-wheat and white rolls from scratch (mmmmm, SO glad I have leftovers!), cranberry chutney, roasted vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, peppers, sweet potato), "sweet" potatoes (banana and honey mixed in with mashed sweet potatoes baked in oven covered with marshmallows), two green salads, lost of soda, home-made peppermint ice cream, pecan pie, and home made pumpkin and apple pies. Mmmm, my tummy is STILL stuffed."

I was especially thankful for the prayer Travis offered. In it he said that he was thankful for the jobs we had to provide for our families, thankful for friends and family, and thankful for the atonement that allows us to repent and be happy.

There are too many things to numerate all I'm thankful for, but the top 2 are: God and Family (even crazy "extended" family!). Good friends, like those we had over for dinner, fall into that "family" category.

The People: The most important part of Thanksgiving, we loved having our friends over: Arick's, Lyman's, & Richardson's.

The "Little" Kid's table:
Thaddeus, Piper, Miranda, Veronica

The rest of the "Little" Kid's table:
Lydia, Paul, Xena

They look thrilled, don't they?
They just received news they couldn't sit at the "adult" table.
Funny, I remember feeling that way on Thanksgiving, too...

Alexandra (Ali) wouldn't even look at the camera, and none of the girls would smile.
So, they got some encouragement from Chris (Miranda's sunbeam teacher and Ali's and Bijoux's dad).

I think they were dying from hunger!
The whole group of table-sitting kids

Nikki with Odessa, the only child who actually joined the adult table.
Julia (not pictured) sat in a high chair and Ace was passed from arms to arms.

The Food: I was responsible for the turkey, rolls, and chutney (YUM! Got the recipe from Buffy, my sister-in-law and it's become a mandatory part of my Thanksgiving dinner). I also chipped in a pumpkin pie. Arick's brought the ice cream and roasted vegetables. Richardson's brought "sweet" potatoes pumpkin and pecan pie, pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies, salad and dressings, soda. Lyman's brought artichoke dip, salad, apple pie.

My dinner plate. Yummmmm.

This was how my turkey turned out before I carved it onto a platter.
It was so tender and well-done that the meat literally fell off the bone!
Made slicing a bit difficult, but the taste was amazing.
Oh, I cooked it in an oven bag for turkeys..

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a day that was memorable, enjoyable, and fulfilling- both physically and in every other aspect.


*8 adults
2 9-year-olds
1 6-year-old
2 5-year-olds
3 4-year-olds
2 2-year-olds
2 1-year-olds
1 10-month-old
1 2-month-old
= 14 kids! And yes, we had a seat for everybody at our tables (well, the infant had a car-seat ;) )

Seder Dinner: A Jewish Passover Feast in November by Mormons

Seems a little strange for Mormons to celebrate a Spring-time Jewish Feast in November.

But, since I am the Seminary (early-morning bible study for high-school students) teacher,, I decided it would be more beneficial to have the Passover Dinner after talking about the Passover. So, after reading and studying Exodus 1-15 this week, we had the Seder Dinner at church with the youth ages 12-18 and their parent(s).

It was amazing! The experience I think is unforgettable. I don't know if we did it right, and I'm sure there are many Jews who would be surprised (and hopefully not offended). The amazing part is that we were able to take these symbols and rituals from the Passover and apply them to our lives, and see of their teaching of The Messiah, who we know to be Jesus Christ.

Many of the adults were really impressed with the entire service. It was not my goal to impress them, but more make an impression on the youth. I don't know if that happened, or what the one young woman or 5 young men (one of them not a member) thought about the dinner and program (I cancelled my Monday morning class since I spent all weekend getting ready for the dinner).

If the only thing the youth learned, though, is that Jesus Christ is really talked about, taught about, in the Old Testament, and that we can learn from Scripture and Truths from other cultures/traditions/religion if we are guided by the Spirit, or even if they were able to feel the Holy Ghost even a little, it was a huge success. Or, if they just realized how much we care about them, I suppose that is enough, too.

Would I attempt this again? YOU BET! I would change some things (such as asking more people to help with the set up, and maybe help cook more of the food). But, it was well worth the effort that my friend, Liz, and I went to to organize and execute this production.

Here are a few photos (courtesy of Kelly Standiford; I didn't bring a camera, unfortunately!):

The Seder Plate, clockwise starting at 12: Bowl of salt water, lamb shank, matzoh, haroset, green herb, roasted (boiled) egg, bitter herb (horseradish).

Our dinner plates, clockwise starting at 12: Roasted leg-of-lamb, latkes, roasted vegetables, zucchini-stuffed chicken.

Passover Chocolate Torte
Star of David and "Shalom" written in Hebrew are symbols of Peace.

Chocolate Torte slice covered in raspberry sauce.
Two words: Decadently Delicious

We set the tables with linens (well, some of the cloths were linens, others were polyester), wine classes (plastic), real silverware, china-looking plates (see dishes above), tea-light candles (battery operated) that had little papers with the star of david cut out of it, candle sticks, and a few other battery-operated candles. There were 6 Seder platters (only the main one pictured above had the shank bone, but otherwise the others were all the same). And each person had a program (see photo with dinner plate). The program contained the script for the leader of the service, and for the people to participate in the readings, sayings, and prayers.

We also had name plates for seating. The dinner menu consisted of those listed above. For recipes, scroll to the end of this post (I strongly recommend all three of them that I posted- they were SUPER yummy!).

Liz and I spent most of the day Saturday prepping food. People brought spinach salad and the chicken we delivered for them to cook. Another YW presidency member came made the Latkes just before the dinner. It still took the 3 of us almost 2+ hours to set up before the dinner and have things ready.

If you are planning to have one of these, budget about $10 per person (if you do everything we did) and then you might even have some funds left over. We cut corners on cost by my printing and sewing the programs (yes, on my sewing machine). I imagine if you went with a more simple dinner, maybe less meat, you'd also have a less expensive feast. Still, this food was really yummy and there was PLENTY (we ended up with lots of left overs that we divided among families).

If you are interested, send me an email  and I'd be happy to send you a PDF of the invitations (see image below) and the program in print and reading format (the print format has double-sided pages that you can print in collated form and then staple or stitch in the middle to make a booklet, the reading format has each individual page on a sheet). If you have a Silhouette cutter, I can send you the files for the "doily" to powder the cake with the star of david and shalom, the tea-light candle covers, and the place cards.

I'm really glad that we put on this program, and for the experience the Seder was. I hope it touched the lives of the youth. But, I know it made a difference in my own studies and understanding of scripture, Jews, and Christ.


RECIPES:

Passover Chocolate Torte
Although not difficult, be sure to give yourself PLENTY of time (at least 3 hours from melting chocolate to being ready to eat the cake). Don't rush any of the steps. Slow melting chocolate, good whipping of eggs, and completely cooling the final torte before inverting on a platter make this flourless cake absolutely melt-in-your-mouth amazing. Liz perfectly described it as a "cross between cheesecake and chocolate cake".

1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (not margarine)
8 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar

5 large egg whites
1/4 cup sugar

Raspberry Sauce:
12 oz frozen raspberries
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line bottom of 9- or 10-inch cake pan with parchment paper.

Separate 8 yolks from whites, saving only 5 of the whites in a separate bowl.

Stir chocolate and margarine in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Cool until lukewarm.

Using electric mixer, beat yolks and 3/4 cup sugar in large bowl until pale and very thick, about 4 minutes. Add chocolate mixture in 2 additions (i.e. slowly) and beat until well blended. Transfer to large bowl.

Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another large bowl until foamy. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar adn beat until whites are stiff but not dry.

Fold 1/3 of whites into chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining whites in 2 more additions. Chocolate mixture will have doubled in volume and appear a lighter "milk chocolate" brown color. Transfer batter into prepared pan.

Bake torte at 350 F until crust forms on top and tester inserted into center comes out with some moist batter and some moist crumbs still attached (about 45 minutes). Top will crack. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack.

Run small sharp knife around torte to loosen. Cool in pan on rack (torte will fall and crack).

Once completely cool, invert onto platter. Can cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Before serving, place doily atop torte. Sift powdered sugar over doily; gently remove doily. Garnish torte as desired. (Raspberry sauce: 12 oz frozen raspberries, thawed with juices, with 1/2 cup sugar pureed in blender then strained; store sauce in fridge until ready to serve).



Zucchini-Stuffed Chicken
Not too much prep and pretty quick to stuff the chicken.

8 bone-in chicken breast halves, with skin
2 zucchinis, shredded
3 cups matzo farfel (available in Kosher section at most grocery stores)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 onion, chopped (opt.)
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 dash garlic powder (or use garlic salt instead of salt and garlic powder)
1 dash onion powder (opt).

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a cookie sheet or 9x13 baking dish. Wash and clean the chicken breasts.
2. Place farfel in a bowl and cover with hot water for 3 or 4 minutes. Drain and squeeze out water.
3. In medium-sized mixing bowl, combine zucchini, farfel, eggs, chicken bullion, onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Place 2 to 3 tablespoons of the stuffing under the skin of each chicken piece and arrange them in pan.
4. Bake at 375 F for 40-50 minutes. Drain off fat and serve.


Roasted Vegetables
This recipe is a little labor intensive, although a food processor makes the work much easier. It's well worth the effort for a colorful and tasty dish.

1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon finely chopped capers
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon tomato paste
salt and pepper

1 red pepper
1 large eggplant
2 large zucchini, sliced
1 pound sweet potato
6 roma tomatoes, quartered

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine marinated ingredients in a bowl and whisk (or shake) thoroughly.
2. Cut eggplant into slices, and sprinkle with salt. Allow to sit for 20-30 minutes. Rinse with water and pat dry.
3. Cut red pepper into strips (removing seeds and membrane), peel sweet potato and slice potato and zucchini.
4. Using 1/2 of the marinade, toss prepared vegetables and coat well. Place on cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, turn and coat again with remaining marinade. Cook for another 15-25 minutes until sweet potatoes are tender and eggplant is soft (not crunchy).

**If making large quantity, can roast different vegetables to desired done-ness and then combine and coat with remaining marinade and bake for 15 minutes.

Preserving

We spent Tuesday morning picking raspberries (YUM!) and cherries (Tara is still laughing at my joyful dance of finding a ladder to reach those yummy bursts of flavor; I'm still trying to get cherry juice stains out of 'Nica's shirt). We spent that same afternoon at the beach with our kids, picnicking, playing in the sand, and having a great time.

Wednesday we took those 30 pounds of cherries and 3 pounds of raspberries and made:

strawberry jam
strawberry fruit leather

Huh? Oh, yeah. Well, we also bout a couple flats of strawberries ($1/lb). We also made

raspberry mango jam
cherry jam
dried mango
dried cherries

I still have some cherries ready to puree and turn into cherry fruit leather, but after making strawberry fruit leather, baking 2 loaves of bread, laundry, and gathering swim things and food for lunch and dinner, I didn't have enough time to do more than pit the cherries for the leather.

Yes, today we spent EIGHT HOURS outdoors, seven-and-a-half of which were spent at the pool. Travis was able to take the afternoon off (he was waiting for some chemicals he ordered to arrive so he could continue with his experiment; he went in for half the day to get some things done, but then decided that since he couldn't do much else and he was going to work on Saturday, he might as well take this afternoon off). So, we ate lunch and dinner at our friend's pool, played and splashed. I think my daughters look more brown than they ever have in their lives. I think Miranda got a little sunburned, but over a tan (so she's REALLY dark). All of them were beyond exhausted when we got home at 7:30 tonight. Whew!

And, what's on the agenda for tomorrow? Well, since I can't go to the beach (which is my first pick, but it's the Venetian Festival in St. Joseph, MI and there's a carnival set up in my parking spot and it'd be waaaayyyy too crowded) we are going berry picking and will bring home our yummy organic blueberries to freeze, jam, and turn into fruit leather. Mmmm, I love blueberries.

I love summer!!!

Oh, yeah, and I'm also supposed to be getting ready for my trip to visit family. Yeah, I've got a bit on my plate...

(Sorry, no pics of today. Need up upload them from some of the other activities we did with Nana while she was here. Maybe if I can create a time-warp to add a few hours to my day... anyone got any ideas how to do that? Even better, how about something that would allow instantaneous travel. That would save me SO much time!)

Strawberry Preserves

In the last 10 days I have purchased 68 pounds of strawberries.

No, that isn't a typo, I didn't mean to say six to eight, but sixty-eight pounds of strawberries.

They were on sale at WalMart for $1/lb (or pint- it seems that those are rather interchangeable with strawberries). I called my friend with whom I spent all last summer gardening and preserving, and asked if she was interested in getting in on putting some of these goodies up for later.

We spent two days slicing and cooking and I spent a third afternoon, and out of those 68 pounds we got:

7 quart-sized bags of dried strawberries
13 pints of jam
3 fruit roll-up sheets (about 15 inches in diameter)


Our first jar of jam is nearly gone. It was SOOOO yummy. I'm not sure how the ones I made today will work out because I used a different pectin & recipe than the one I used with my friend. The dried strawberries are super yummy, and our daughters have devoured bags of them. Well, they would if we let them! We've ended up hiding the bags so they can't get into them. The fruit leather is really good; sweet but not too much so.

I wanted to freeze some strawberries, but not only is my freezer out of space, but I let the last flat of strawberries sit a little too long and ended up dumping out 1/2 of them. I salvaged as much as I could, but moldy strawberries are just not much good for anything. Sad, but I really did run out of time!

In addition to preserving nearly 70 lbs of strawberries, I also decorated a baby shower cake (which took up all of my Thursday), sewed some diaper change kits for friends who just had babies, killed myself doing a P90-X workout, and wrote and administered an end-of-quarter exam for Seminary (yeah, I know, I'm mean) and a myriad of other activities. It's no wonder I'm tired!

I still have a lot of things on my list to do, one of which is to get ready to go to North Caroline for spring break, and I want to sew a picnic backpack (our old one only had settings for 4, and it has fallen apart!). I still have a few items to purchase and a few bags to seam-rip apart, but I'm excited to have a better and bigger backpack for our many outings I'm planning this summer (beach, bike rides, fruit picking, zoo trips, etc.)

The weather hasn't been too cooperative. It's been C-O-L-D. I'm so ready for Spring to really set in, and I'm hoping it arrives soon. I'm really done with 30-degree weather and snow, even if there is sunshine.

Pictures of the cake coming soon...

On the Farm

Last May we went to a local farm to visit some baby animals and go for a pony ride. Zoë and Miranda had a BLAST! Megan was sick and stayed in the van the entire duration of the outing (poor girl!)

We went back to this same farm yesterday. Not for the same reason, although there were two six-week-old kids, a one-year-old milking cow, lots of chickens, sheep, horses, etc. The reason for this visit was to determine if I really wanted to garden.

Some friends of mine have been involved in a co-op gardening thing where they go to a farm, work to plant and cultivate and harvest crops. Then, they get to enjoy the fruits, vegetables, greens of their labors. I've been interested because I LOVE fresh produce, hate paying astronomical prices for good food, have a brown thumb and no good place at our current place to grow anything (OK, I could put some pots down in front of my house, but I have a very difficult time remembering to water!!!)

The lady who runs the farm we visited yesterday said that she was interested in getting a few more families to help with the gardening. She runs the farm not only to provide organic food (she sells eggs and last year pork in addition to some of the produce from her garden), but also for day camps and youth groups to come participate in various means (from working the farm to just petting the animals).

While we were there, the girls got to hold a chicken,

Zoë was the first to take Chicklet.
It took her a minute to figure out
how to hold the little bird, who was most patient,
but she was pretty excited about the whole thing.

Tara and I had our babies, Xena and Veronica,
in our wraps, tucked and covered
as much as we could from the cold air
(it was about 48 F and cloudy and the air was wet. Brrr!)

Alexandra not even squeamish at first,

became more comfortable with the chicken.

Miranda loved holding the little chicken.
She even did pretty well keeping the bird in her arms.

pet and brush a cow,

see (and feel) where the goat milk comes from,
watch a chicken lay an egg and gather that and others up ("EW! It's slimy!") Feed some chickens sitting on eggs, pet a rabbit, give hay to some horses, and walk around the natural prairie fields and pond.


As I wrote to my mother-in-law:

Miranda was tickled pink about all the animals. Megan was more in her element with the nature walks (where she gathered items along her way: a corn husk, a couple of branches, some pod shells, sticks. etc). Zoë had fun with friends and was happy to volunteer to do things first (hold the chicken, open the cage, feed the horse/chicken, brush the cow).

I've considered getting involved in this very carefully. I know that it's going to be a huge time commitment. What garden isn't? Even if you are sharing it with five or six other families. But, it's once a week, the lady in charge seems somewhat flexible about what gets planted, etc. The best part? I can bring all four of my daughters- to help or just play. The other co-op I heard about allows only ONE child, and that one must be able to help. That just won't work for me!

Bijoux's turn to hold Chicklet

Miranda gave the chicken a kiss.
Sweet or Yuck?
Maybe both.

So, I believe that this experience will be a learning one for all of us. A great opportunity to see where food comes from, how much work goes into growing it, and how yummy the home-made stuff can be. Mmm, the thought of those tomatoes are already making my mouth water.

Oh, and the fact that I get to let my kids play with farm animals, roam the fields, and play with friends as well? That's unbeatable. Yup, it's actually my good friend who found this program and asked if I were interested. It's always more fun to have a companion to do thing with- especially a person you enjoy hanging out with, and with whom your kids get along!

Veronica played with Xena's toys
as her sisters were eating our picnic lunch at our friends' house.

Xena was sweet about sharing,
and had fun "talking" with her buddy, Veronica.

So, it seems that Wednesday mornings will now be my Gardening mornings. Let's hope the weather cooperates.