This has been a good week – and weekend – of cooking and canning! Let’s back up a bit and move forward day by day.
On Friday, LeeLee and I played hooky and went apple-picking down at Hartland Orchard in Markham, Virginia. We picked nearly a bushel of apples and settled up for a bill of $16 — $10 for the apples and $6 for the cider! Not too shabby, seeing as how all those apples would come in handy in days to come (more on that later).
On Saturday, we watched some college football with friends and served my mother’s best recipe of sausage-corn chowder, accompanied beautifully by our friends’ fruit empanadas and crescent rolls (and a few apples for our hosts). No photos – I blame the depression that followed Florida State’s loss – but rest assured there was barely a drop of chowder or a crumb of empanadas left.
Sunday brought with it a canning expedition! I gave apple butter a try for the first (and second) time – I whipped up two batches in just about three hours. And let me tell you … it is so easy to do, and so tasty! And now I’ve got enough apple butter to give to friends and family and, oh, yes, eat myself.
Sunday also brought with it one of my favorite salads – the Spinach, Egg, and Mushroom Salad I’ve made several times now, inspired by the good folks over at $5 Dinners. We enjoyed it Sunday as much as we ever have, and I confess I’m going to miss it in the winter months, when dinner salads don’t have quite the same appeal. Perhaps we can make an exception for this particular salad – it’s got some warmth with the cooked eggs and onions, anyway!
On Monday, I gave the orange-chicken recipe I found over at A Year of Slow-Cooking a try, and it turned out pretty well. It did have one hiccup, which was completely my fault and not the recipe’s – I noticed later that the recipe called for six hours in the Crock-Pot, and my chik’n were in there for more than eight!! And it showed a bit around the edges – some areas were pretty much charcoal by the time I got home! But the rest of the meal was great, and I’ll definitely give this one another try (and follow the directions next time!).
We had a bye day on Tuesday, when I went to see a concert. May not have been frugal, but it was surely fun.
Which brings us to yesterday, when Mama’s famous potato soup made its second appearance of the season in as many weeks. A blustery afternoon led us to believe that soup was really the only remedy, and the potato soup fit the bill, as usual! And we’ve certainly got the potatoes to spare. :)
And with that, we’re back up to date. Look for a new breakdown tomorrow!
:)