Gleaning

How I love working with Salem Harvest!  This time we gleaned apples, 15 different kinds!  And my kids, in my completely biased opinion, were the cutest kids out there picking apples.  That includes cute Callie, one of A1's friends who tagged along.  L2 even helped with the picking.

Now that I am a connoisseur of apples (based on my minutes and minutes of sampling 5 different kinds of apples), I will share what I have learned:

• Jonah Gold are by far the best apples in the entire world.
• Apple pies (and apple crisps) are best with 2, but preferably 3, different types of apples.
• My husband likes apple chutney (this was a shock to me).
• Granny Smith apples are good for pies, not so good for dehydrating into apple chips.
• It takes a lot longer to can apples than you would think.
• A1 will only eat apples if I peel and slice them, then force her to eat one.  A2, on the other hand, can take down 3 gigantic apples in one sitting.  L2 thinks applesauce is for babies and wants to eat tiny chunks of apples that have texture.  Who knew?!
• Apple pie is easier to make than you would think.
• I need to write down that apple crisp recipe that I have been tweaking into perfection for the past 10 years.  R thought I was still using the recipe in our little newlywed cookbook and tried to make it as a surprise for me while I was taking care of the kids.  I didn't realize how much I had changed it.
• Apples will keep for months in a cold area (like the garage or storage shed), but will turn mushy within a day once moved into the house.
• I am going to have to get a lot more organized if I am going to be dispatching 50 lbs of apples twice a year!

Hello!

Just a quick post to say hello and hope you have a happy day!

A2-isms

This sweet, smart, curious, funny little boy really keeps me on my toes.  He has some of the greatest insights about the world around us.

We were discussing the music we were listening to in the car.
A1: Is this song one of the Hymns? {our Church music}
me: No, it's not that kind of song.
A2: Then is it one of the hers?

One night as I tucked him into bed and kissed him goodnight, he pushed me away and said, "Mom, stop kissing me!"
I replied, "But I like kissing you!"
He immediately rolled over and said, "Could you go away?  I'm trying to sleep."

I'm going to have my hands full as he gets older and more curious about the world and with a stronger opinion about how things work!  But I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love him dearly.

How to Make a Pirate Ship Cake

Or maybe I should call this post "How NOT to Make a Pirate Ship Cake: Don't Repeat My Mistakes."  This cake was truly a labor of love, as in I must truly love the little boy who wanted the cake because I wouldn't have gone through that for just anybody.

Step 1: Have a little boy who becomes obsessed with all things pirate at the age of 4.  Isn't he adorable?

Step 2: Find a pirate ship to give you inspiration.  The Little People Mayflower is close enough to a pirate ship, right?

Step 3: Bake 2 chocolate cakes.  Chocolate because that's what your little boy asked for, and two because you didn't have time (or maybe you just didn't have energy) to make a practice cake last week (besides, who would have eaten that practice cake?  You don't live in the Village anymore, so you don't have a whole slew of people who you can force to eat you cake - I'm looking at you, Renning!) and you are sure that you are going to mess up the first cake, so you better have a back-up, just in case.

Step 4: Wrap the cakes up really well in plastic wrap and freeze for 2 hours.  Or maybe you should freeze them for 4 hours, but you don't have time for that!  You have to make the cake before the party guests arrive.

Step 5: Make your favorite chocolate frosting.  It comes from the recipe your amazing sister-in-law makes with her delicious peanut butter fingers.  Mmmmm!

Step 6: Cut the cake in half, width-wise, and stack one on top of the other.  This should give the ship the height you need to be able to carve it.  Or maybe not.

Step 7: Cut off a long slice along the side and use that to build more height for the aft deck and the poop deck.  And because you're a little immature, laugh at the fact that you are making a poop deck.

Step 8: Cut off the edges of one end to make your prow pointy.  You want your ship to know which direction it is supposed to be selling, right?  Oh, and pile more of the slice from step 7 onto the poop deck to make it taller than the aft deck.

Step 9: Take the whole thing apart so you can glue it together with your amazing chocolate frosting.

Step 10: Start spreading your amazing chocolate frosting.  Oops, your frosting is WAY too thick.  Your amazing frosting is perfect for peanut butter fingers, but not so much for gluing pirate ships together.  You better thin it out a little with some milk.  There, much better!

Step 11: Reassemble the cake, spreading your amazing, thinned-out frosting between each layer with a final coat over the whole thing.  Oops, your decks tried to slide off while you were frosting the whole thing.  You better put some sort of support to make sure they don't fall off.  How about chopsticks?

Step 12: What in the world are you going to do with that other cake?!  You didn't think you would make it this far in the cake-carving process.  You don't want to waste that cake.  You better make a sea for the ship to sail on!

Step 13: Cut the cake in half, height-wise.  You can't really explain this step with words, so just look at the picture.

Step 14: Flip the top half over so you have a somewhat level cake.  You only sail in steady waters; no stormy seas for you!  But where did those big bubbles inside your cake come from?

Step 15: Make your good buttercream frosting.  It's not as amazing as your amazing chocolate frosting, but it is still pretty good!

Step 16: Tint it blue.  You are thinking about Pirates of the Caribbean during this whole thing, and you know that the waters around the Caribbean are a crystal clear turquoise (at least that's what Hollywood tells you).

Step 17: Frost your sea.  You know, that sea would look a lot better if you had made a white cake instead of a chocolate cake in the very beginning.  Try thinking about these things in the future, okay?

Step 18: Transfer your pirate ship to your sea.  Then watch the whole ship fall apart.  Don't take pictures of this part because you are in the other room stomping around in frustration and (admit it!) crying just a little.

Step 19: Come back to find that your wonderful, amazing, brilliant, awesome, magnificent, fantastic, remarkable, tremendous, superb husband has fixed the ship!  Aren't you so glad that you married him?  He used craft sticks (or popsicle sticks, depending on your point of view) to make the back outline of the rear deck, then just stuffed the cake inside the fence of sticks.  Isn't he the smartest man alive?

Step 20: Hide the craft sticks by covering them with your amazing chocolate frosting.  Now it looks like nothing happened!  Your husband is so smart.

Step 21: Sprinkle blue sugar sprinkles all over the sea.  Your sea is going to be Fab-u-lous (with a capital F)!

Step 22: Pile all the scraps of cake from your carving process into a little pile to make an island.  You didn't eat those scraps, did you?  No, you would never eat the scraps of cake that you're working with; that doesn't sound like you at all.

Step 23: Frost the island with tan frosting.  You saved some of your white buttercream frosting from step 15 and tinted it tan, didn't you?  Of course you did.  You were really thinking ahead this time!

Step 24: Push Rolos into one side of the ship to represent cannons.  You didn't push too hard, though; you don't want your ship to start leaning, right?

Step 25: Prepare the other cannons to hold candles.  Use a steak knife to dig holes through the chocolate top of the Rolos and push a candle into the caramel part.

Step 26: Push the candle cannons into the other side of the ship.  For picture purposes, it would have worked a lot better to put the candle cannons on the first side of the ship.  Where is your foresight from step 23?

Step 27: Place Pirrouline cookies as railings.  There, that gives the ship a little more definition and it hides the craft sticks more!

Step 28: Stack Whoppers as cannonballs.  Use your amazing chocolate frosting to glue them together so they don't roll around the ship during hurricanes (if only the pirates of ye olde dayes had known about the astounding powers of your amazing chocolate frosting!).

Step 29: Prepare your pirates for the ship.  Print out and color Jake, Izzy, Cubby, and Skully.  Laminate them (or, since you don't own a laminating machine, simply cover them in packing tape; it's the poor man's laminating machine).

Step 30: Prepare the main sail.  Color a white piece of scrapbook paper with blue strips.  Measure where you want the mast to go through the sail.  With an exacto knife, slice a X through the paper at each point you want the mast to go through the sail.  Push a chopstick through each X.  This technique makes it so the paper won't rip as you push the mast through it and the sails won't fall down (the holes won't be too big).

Step 31: Place the main sail and the pirates on your ship.  Good thinking to put the pirates out front.  But where is Skully?  You taped him to the top of the mast?  Good job, now it looks like he is flying! 

Step 32: Sprinkle yellow sugar sprinkles on your island.  If you are going to have a Fab-u-lous sea, you must have a Fab-u-lous island.  And sprinkle on some star sprinkles.  Now your island is covered in starfish (or as your children keep reminding you, they are sea stars, not starfish.  Geez, Mom!).

Step 33: Create coconut trees.  Cut tropical leaves out of green construction paper and glue them to the top of Pirrouline cookies with your amazing chocolate frosting.  That chocolate frosting sure is useful stuff.  You should have it around all the time!

Step 34: Push your trees into the island and add some coconuts.  Those Whoppers can do double duty as cannonballs and coconuts?  They're also very useful.  Make sure they don't roll away by gluing them to the island with - you guessed it - your amazing chocolate frosting.

Step 35: Stand back and admire your work.  Vow here and now you will never make a pirate ship again!  At least not until your next son asks for one.

Step 36: Devour!  Yum!  That was one tasty pirate ship you made.  But don't rethink your vow!  You still don't want to make another one.

Silver Creek Falls

We decided to take a weekend off from unpacking and went hiking instead.  Our friends, the Bay family, took us to the waterfalls near Silverton.  The weather and the view were equally gorgeous!

the Jensens with the Bay kids, just starting the hike

L2 enjoyed hiking too!

Going through the forest (I never get to be in the picture with R!)

A1 and A2 got to climb through a couple of small caves.

At the base of some small falls

And just so you can be jealous of our new home state, this is what is within a 20-minute drive of our house:

Aren't we so blessed?  You should move here too!

Our BIG Accomplishments

L2 had his six month well-child check, and he is doing magnificently.  He remains in the 75th percentile in height and weight and is off the charts in head circumference (we have yet another lollipop baby!).  By this time, A1 and A2 had both receded to below the 5th percentile, so it looks like we are going to have a big person in this family after all!

Isn't he the most adorable thing you have ever seen?!

In other news, we have recently discovered Lowe's Build and Grow Clinics.  Each month Lowe's offers some kind of project to do with your kids.  If you sign up on the website, they provide the materials and tools for free.  We have had a blast building a Shrek onion cart and a firetruck.

Putting the wheels on our onion carts

I highly recommend looking into your local Lowe's to see if they offer this fun activity.  Our kids were so proud of themselves that they were able to build their own toys and that they got to use actual tools (a small hammer) to do so.  Let your kids be proud too!

New Food Storage

First, happy Halloween! That's out of the way, so on to the real reason for posting.

Now that we live in a green and growing wonderland rather than the urban jungle, I have time and room for food storage.  The leaders in our church have been counseling us to have a year's supply of food and other necessities for decades, so I'm glad that I can finally comply with that counsel.

First, we needed supplies.  I was able to get these huge buckets for a steal off Craigslist (I love Craigslist!).

Now to fill them...

Hmmm...

I hear that fruit is a good thing to freeze and store.  What does Oregon have to offer?  Let's go to the local park!  Blackberries, growing wild!  We were able to pick two big buckets full of them.

The kids grew bored of picking after a while, so they found other ways to entertain themselves.  L2 fell asleep, and A1 and A2 decided to pick him some flowers.  Wasn't that nice?

And here's A1's interpretation of our activity:

[I like to pick blackberese. I got poked allot. A 5 9000 Pinke]

We're still working on spelling! A is for her name, 5 is for how old she is, 9000 is her estimate of how many berries we picked, and Pinke (pink) is her favorite color.

Well, now that we have discovered that we can fill these buckets with food, let's look for other places to do it, shall we?  What?  You have a friend that told you about Salem Harvest, a not-for-profit organization that helps local farmers pick their crops and in return the farmers donate their crops to food banks throughout the city?  Let's get involved!

The way it works is farmers harvest the easily-harvestable (yes, that is a word I just made up) part of their crop and sell it.  The rest would just go to waste, so they allow Salem Harvest volunteers to pick the rest of their crop which is completely donated to whichever food banks need it.  Salem Harvest entices volunteers to show up by allowing us to keep half of what we pick, free of charge.

Here we are picking onions with Salem Harvest.

As a family, we were able to pick 150 lbs of onions.  We decided to only keep 50 lbs, which now that I look at the buckets of onions in my garage is way more than we really need.  So if anyone has any good recipes that involve a lot of onions, I would be interested.

We also participated in an apple harvest and were able to keep about 50 lbs of apples.  As I was using my handy peeler-corer-slicer to prepare the apples for apple pie filling, I ran my hand through the slicer part.  Three knuckles needed repair; luckily R was home so he whipped out his medical kit and stitched me up.  I'm just now getting the use of those fingers back.  Next time I'll have to be a little more careful.

Pioneer Day, Megan-Style

My sister Megan decided to throw a wonderful Pioneer Day celebration at her house.  She invited a bunch of friends and family to enjoy good food, play with new friends, and watch the fireworks just down the street at the junior high school.  A1 and A2 loved playing on her lawn, rolling down her hill.

And L2 enjoyed his first fireworks show.  He didn't even cry during the loud bangs (he didn't sleep either, but can you really expect someone to sleep during such fun things?).

Thanks, Aunt Meggie, for inviting us to your celebration!