I Am Ready

                                                                    (image found here)
I have been reading ladies blogs who say they are savoring the last remaining days of summer.  They are sorry to see summer go.  I am not one of those ladies.  I am a fall girl.  I got married in the fall.   I had a baby in the fall.  I love the colors of fall.  I love the smells of fall.  I love all the foods we eat in the fall.  Like stews, soups, apple crisps and hot cocoa. I love wearing sweaters.  I love wearing jeans.  I love wearing my leather Mary Jane shoes.  :)  I love gloves and sweatshirts.  I love having my nose get cold when I am outside.  I love raking leaves.  I love colorful mums.  I love going to the pumpkin patch.  I love the routine and grove we have as a family in the fall.   My girls are ready for school to start again as well.  They still have a couple more weeks to wait.

So, I am a Fall girl.  I can feel it in the air.  I know it is coming.  And, I am ready.

Really Good Recipe For You

Ok, this picture has absolutely nothing to do with this recipe.  But, I love it.  And, I wanted to share some pretty things from my garden with you.  :)

Scalloped Zucchini
2 to 3 zucchini, sliced (or you could use yellow squash)
1/4 onion sliced
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 sleeve buttery crackers, crushed
1/4 cup stick butter, sliced

Layer half of zucchini, onion and cheese in a buttered 9 x 9 baking pan.  Repeat layering until veggies and cheese are all used.  Kind of like lasagna.  :)
Top with crushed crackers and dot with butter slices.
Bake uncovered at 325 degrees until tender.  About 40 minutes or so.  When veggies are tender, it is done.
Serves 4 to 6.

Menu Board

 I finally got my menu board done.

My paper crafty sister helped me while I was home last time.  She did such a nice job on hers!  She has so many fun embellishments sheets of paper.  It was difficult to decide what I wanted to put on my menu board.  But, this is what we came up with.  I love it!  Perfect colors for my granny-smith-apple kitchen.  Now, if the menu board would help prepare the food.  :)

Cherry Jammin

 Since it is fruit season in Michigan, I have been having so much fun making jams with them.  My sweet neighbor gave me some tart beautiful cherries, and they were already pitted for me!!  How nice was that???  I already had two quarts frozen so that gave me a total of five.  I knew I wanted to make jam with them and also a cobbler if I had any left over.

 I followed the directions exactly.  My mama taught me to never take short cuts when canning.  Do exactly what the recipe calls for.  Very important because you don't want your batch to flop.  When I took these jars out of the water bath, they looked runny and thin to me.  So I did what anyone would do........I panicked!!  And, promptly called my mother.  She told me to leave them alone and they would set up.  Lets just say.... I tried my hardest to do that.  But, each time I walked by those beautiful jars I would ever-so-gently touch them and say a little prayer that they would set up for me.

And they did.

Blueberries Galore

 One of the things I wanted to accomplish on my time off from work this week was to pick blueberries.

 Our sweet neighbor, who knows all about fruit and veggies, told us about a wonderful place which happens to be much closer than the one we went to last year.

 The girls at the counter gave us our buckets and told us to head for the blue and white flags.  See all those yummy blueberry bushes out there!  They just went on and on and on.  And, we saw a few rows of raspberry bushes as well.  After we got our buckets filled up, we went inside to weigh how many pounds of berries we had picked.

We picked 18 1/2 pounds of blueberries as a family.  Yippee!!  That did not include the 1/16th pound that ended up in our bellies.  :)
I have them all ready for the freezer here.  I got 24 quart bags filled.  I am going to make jam for the first time with some of these.  And I have some for muffins, cobblers and pancakes for the winter.  Have you ever poured yourself a bowl of frozen blueberries and just ate them?  Yum!!  Its a good thing!

Two Chipmunks

While visiting back home last week, my nephew and I were playing with my computer.  We found this fun place where we could take wacky pictures of ourselves.  This was the chipmunk cam.  I don't think we have ever laughed so hard in our entire lives.  Sometimes it is ok to be silly.  Laughter does a heart good.  :)

Gifts For My Favorite Little People

 The last time we went to visit our sweet friends in Cincinnati, I heard their little boy liked a show on PBS called Super Why.  There is a boy on the show called Wyatt and he wears a superhero cape.  I talked to Elijah and asked him if he wanted a cape like Wyatt.  He told me yes!  I had never made a superhero cape before, but I knew I had to attempt one since he wanted one.  This is what I came up with.  A superhero cape for my little buddy.

He also has a new little sister.  I could not send him something and not include something in the box for her.  I have kept this tutorial for a long time, just waiting for her to get old enough to make it.  Finally, the day came!  I added those little chewing links onto one of the ribbons so she could chew on them.  Her mama thinks a tooth may be making an appearance very soon.  :)