10-mile Hike

Last Sunday, we took a drive to the far east-end of our county to a little town called Packwood.  From there, we drove about 5 miles into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest so that we could hike to Packwood Lake.

Unlike our adventure in July to find a hidden lake, this was a well-tread path that led us deep into the woods and brought us right to the lake.  The forest was gorgeous. Green moss on the floor... towering trees...peaceful and quiet.  It was a 4.5 mile hike into the lake from the trailhead.  We wandered around the lake a bit, but didn't get the whole way around due to time constraints.

Connor tried to catch some trout... Marie was hoping to find wild blackberries... Neither of us had any luck.  But, we still considered it a lovely day.  On our hike back to the car (about an hour and a half), we said our prayers and counted our blessings... Called it church for the week.  It was perfect.

You Gotta Try This!!!

This is the way to welcome the cooler weather of fall: with a delicious beef stew/biscuit pot pie. It is well worth the effort and it really isn't even that much effort for such a fantastic meal.  The only change I made to the recipe was to add about 1.5 lbs of stew meat.  I ate so much that my stomach hurt... seriously couldn't stop. The biscuits are just too yummy! Thanks Mags for introducing me to Joy the Baker... love her blog!

Beer Can Chicken!!!

That little yard bird is just about done.....I love beer can chicken and so does Marie.  We haven't prepared one all summer long, so we were do.  I kept it simple.  I made a marinade with olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, paprika, chipolte chile powder, garlic, salt and pepper. I chopped up half a bunch of cilantro and rubbed it all over. I marinaded the bird for a few hours. You need a tall can to cook the average size bird.  I settled for the Champagne of Beer.

You know that nectar really added the needed flavor!!!

To go along with the bird I stuffed some of our home grown Anaheim peppers.  They were delicious.

Vibrant green!

Bacon....say it!

Along with some home grown grilled squash.

It was a great meal!  Come join us next time.

Helianthus annuus

Well, 2 of the 4 fat bottom sunflower girls have been harvested.  It truly is amazing that one sunflower seed can produce thousands of others.  I love toasted and salted sunflower seeds.  I remember growing sunflowers along our backyard fence as an early teen.  I let them dry on the stalk and then picked the seeds and toasted in a warm oven.  To make a long story short....I did it again, but this time I soaked them in a brine overnight before roasting.  I roasted them for about an hour in a 300F oven.  When they were done I tossed them in a very small amount of olive oil.  I divided them in two separate batches and mixed in salt and pepper in one batch and garlic in the other.

Sunflower heads consists of many individual flowers.  The left one has them removed.  Those our our onions in the back right.  I am curing them in the garage right now.

I cut most of the stalk off and strung them on some nylon twine.

Pickn' tha seeds!

24 hours in the brine.

Going into the oven.

I collected about 1/2 gallon of seeds.  Yum......

Bumper Crop

Tonight we (Connor actually) decided to pick what we could out of the garden. Our nights are (oh so sadly) getting colder and things aren't really growing as much as they had been during our little two week summer.

As you can see we harvested carrots (6 lbs!!!), beets, corn, jalapenos, and tomatoes.  We also had some zucchini, but they got cooked up for dinner before the photo session.

Connor canned/pickled some sliced jalapenos.

Here is a pic of our giant sunflowers. (This girl has seriously tripled in size since this pic... and she has 3 big sisters too! Fat bottomed sunflowers make the rockin world go round!)

All brought to you by your local farmer... Willie Tucker! (Ain't he cute??!)
No thanks to our fat, lazy cats...would you look at this guy?? Just look at him. He has a rough life...

Blackberry Jam

So.... I caught a little blackberry fever last week.  EVERYONE around here talks about blackberries being the quintessential fruit of September.  Blackberry pies, blackberry wine, blackberry jam.  I decided to give the latter a try.  How hard could it be?  Well... it wasn't as easy as my sweet neighbor said it would be (mostly because I am not patient enough), but I got it to work out eventually.

Our streets and paths and yards are lined with these invasive blackberry bushes.  These blackberries aren't as sweet as true wild blackberries, and they aren't as juicy as cultivated ones. Plus, they have a lot of thick seeds.  But, they are gorgeous and free and I found them to be delicious.

I cooked up 9 cups of berries with 6 cups of sugar.  Supposed to stir til thick... Well, I quit a little early since I am impatient.  Ended up with Blackberry Syrup the first time around.

Second time around I had some perfect jars of jam.  I didn't actually have to waste the syrup. Just popped open the cans, cooked the syrup for a bit longer, re-washed and sanitized the jars, re-filled, and did another round in a hot water bath.  
I have already eaten a jar. Might have to make some more this weekend... Connor and I are going to hike a trail to Packwood Lake. I am hoping I can find some of the wild blackberries which supposedly make a nearly seedless jam. 
xoxox Wishing for family.