by Judy Handley | Oct 23, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 296: Apple Butter and More
Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warm; High 71, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The weather was glorious today after a rainy start. The temperature was in the low 70’s and the sun was shining. Felt like summer. Unfortunately, I spent my day inside doing the final cooking of the apple butter and then canning it. Job done.
I used a recipe with no added sugar, but I found that I had to add a little sugar to make it really taste like apple butter. I used Muscavado brown sugar and adding a very little went a long way to making the apple butter taste just right. I made it for Heather and hopefully she will like it.
At 3:30 pm on Wednesdays, I pick Ollie up from school and deliver him to his violin lesson. I have to drive about a half mile through my neighborhood to get to the main road. When I got there today, the sun was shining on the field of pink and raspberry colored wild flowers (Cosmos) planted next to the new brewery, Bad Martha’s, that opened in September.
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I love that they planted a field of wild flowers. Such a lovely view every time I drive out of the neighborhood.
Tomorrow I head to New Hampshire for a couple of days to visit with friend Leslie Kole. Fall in New England is so beautiful, so I look forward to the drive and the time with friends. Lastly, I want to wish my wonderful friend Lynne Kirwin, a very happy belated birthday. Her birthday was yesterday and I totally missed it. So happy, happy to Lynne.
by Judy Handley | Oct 22, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 295: Another Busy Day
Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 67, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Chiropractor appointment, water-bath canning of green tomato salsa, laundry, slow cooking the final batch of apples for apple sauce, fun activities with Ollie and Jonah on an early release day from school, annual mammogram, informational email to participants in next week’s New Bedford field trip . . . busy day. Earlier this week my oldest grandson Sam asked me what I do all day every day since I am retired. I laughed and just said that I keep busy! I started my morning with a chiropractor appointment just to keep things aligned, came home and canned the green tomato salsa I made earlier in the week, got the last batch of apples in the slow cooker, and then headed to Heather and Jed’s to be with Ollie and Jonah for part of the afternoon. One Tuesday each month Falmouth students are released from school while the teachers are engaged in professional development or teacher conferences. Today Jonah, Ollie, and neighbor Joey made edible acorns out of Hershey Kisses and Mini-Nilla Wafers.
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I had to leave early to go for my annual mammogram, so Heather and Jed had to rush home after their parent conference about Jonah’s progress at Morse Pond School so Jonah and Ollie wouldn’t be at home alone. Sam went to Woods Hole after school for an early afternoon drum lesson, so he wasn’t at home with Jonah and Ollie. The parent teacher conference was a happy affair–good to know that Jonah is doing great and that his teachers love his enthusiasm. I returned to Heather and Jed’s after my appointment to discuss plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’re not sure what we are doing yet as we need to further check out the possibilities. We’d love to go to Puerto Rico for Thanksgiving, but just not sure we can afford it. I will spend a good deal of tomorrow searching through flight possibilities, but at this point it is not looking encouraging. When it was time for H & J to get dinner ready, we wrapped up our conversations and I headed home. I spent a good deal of the evening doing the final organization of a Newcomers field trip I am leading next week. Tomorrow I get ready for my three-day trip to New Hampshire to visit with my friend Leslie Kole and to go to the retirement party of our mutual friend Cheryl Dolin. I’ll also get to see Detta Porat, so it should be a fun trip. I leave on Thursday morning and return on Saturday. Onward!
by Judy Handley | Oct 21, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 294: Dining-in with Friends
Date: Monday, October 21, 2019
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 64, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This evening was the monthly meeting of my Newcomers Dining-in group. This evening we gathered at Peter and Karen Baranowski’s for a Mexican feast. Karen made chicken enchiladas with a homemade red sauce and all the trimmings. I brought fried green tomatoes as an appetizer, the Woodins brought a salad, the Frieswyks contributed apple pie and ice cream, and the Whites were given a pass tonight due to Olivia’s recent knee surgery. As always, the food was delicious and the company delightful.
First thing this morning, I learned that Heather was home with a sick Sam today. Heather is also fighting a cold that just won’t let go, so she decided to stay with Sam and work at home. I went over early to pick up the apples that we cooked in the slow cooker yesterday to make apple butter and I brought the rest of the apples home with me, along with the slow cooker, to finish the process here. Tomorrow is an early release day and I will spend part of the afternoon with the boys. On Wednesday, I’ll finish up the apple butter making and get it canned before I head to New Hampshire on Thursday. Another busy week.
by Judy Handley | Oct 20, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 293: More Time in the Kitchen
Date: Sunday, October 20, 2019
Weather: Cloudy; High 60, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I headed to Heather and Jed’s this morning to offer help in making apple butter after making chili for Ollie. He is having a hard time kicking this bug and just has not wanted to eat. He loves chili with mac and cheese, so I made the chili and Heather made the mac and cheese for Ollie’s lunch. He didn’t gobble it down like he usually does, but he did eat. So, that was a success. But back to the apples, Heather made an absolutely delicious apple sauce and we put 5 pounds of apples in the slow cooker to make apple butter. I will return tomorrow morning to finish that process. If the slow cooker method is a success, we will make more apple butter that way. But it is slower than just doing all of the apples at once on the stove. Unless the results are fantastic, I think I’ll go back to the regular method. Heather had a book club meeting this afternoon, but I stayed on to help Jed with basement reorganization. I think we were both pleased with the process, but always more to do. While Jed and I were in the basement, the boys were in the front yard doing a little Halloween decorating. By the time Jed and I emerged from the basement, we had spider webs and skeleton bones littering the front yard and Ollie had managed to carve a jack-o-lantern all on his own. 
He did ask me to help a little with scraping out the inside of the pumpkin, but he did all the rest on his own using the child-friendly carving tools. I then went food shopping and came home to make green tomato salsa that I will can tomorrow. Looks like I am going to be spending more time in the kitchen over the next couple of days.
by Judy Handley | Oct 19, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 292: Preserving the Fall Harvest
Date: Saturday, October 19, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 64, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The temperature tonight is going to dip to the mid-30’s, but the daytime temperatures are still warm enough to keep the garden going. I’m still getting enough San Marzano plum-type tomatoes out of Heather’s garden to make a small ball of marinara sauce every couple of weeks. Three times in the last six weeks I have gotten 5 to 6 pounds and that translates into 5 to 6 pints of sauce each time. Today was a marinara sauce day. It was also the day to make chutney. For years I have been making apple chutney in the fall. I don’t eat much chutney these days, but Heather has carried on the tradition and today we used some of the apples they brought home from the family farm in Boothbay, Maine, to make a double batch of chutney. They still have two big bags of apples and Heather would like some apple butter, so I might take on that task tomorrow, along with making green tomato salsa. Whether both get done, we’ll have to see. I was very pleased with the bounty from today’s canning project, adding more marinara sauce and chutney to the winter larder.
I had planned to go to Ollie’s soccer game today, as on the last soccer Saturday I skipped his game to go to Sam’s and Jonah’s. Sam is away at Scout camp this weekend, and unfortunately, Ollie still has a fever so there was no soccer playing for him. Jonah had an away game, but Jed took Jonah while Heather, Ollie, and I stayed home to preserve the fall harvest.
I got a text from Justin yesterday telling me that Coco was going to be in a rodeo today. He sent a photo of her getting ready for the event and then today he sent a video. Justin also sent a photo of Ziggy’s Friday school athletic event. Ziggy is sticking to water sports and the photo is of a small dot far out in the ocean, but I am sure there was a big smile on that small dot’s face.
by Judy Handley | Oct 18, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 291: Return to the Cape, Storm Worse Than I Knew
Date: Friday, October 18, 2019
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 59, Low 55 degrees F
Location: Back Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
After coffee with Alan and breakfast with Helaine, I shopped my way back to the Cape. In doing so, I listened to public radio in between shopping stops. I heard a couple of local reports about how many people on the Cape, particularly in Falmouth, were still without power. Yikes. I started getting the idea that yesterday’s storm did more damage than I realized. I had received a message from friend Olivia White yesterday saying she and Terry were without power, I had received a text from Karen Baranowski with a photo of a flat Menauhant Beach where just two days ago there was a huge mound of sand, and I had seen on Facebook that Jane and Bruce Woodin’s sailboat had a shredded genoa. But somehow, I still didn’t get it. It wasn’t until I got back to Falmouth and stopped by Heather’s that I found that there was no school yesterday due to the power outages. When the weather is so severe that school has to be cancelled, you know it is bad. In addition to having to stay home with the boys yesterday, Heather had to stay home today with a sick Ollie. I wish I had been here to help out, but it is probably best that I didn’t know what was going on until I got home.
I was only away from home for a little over 24 hours, but I have to say it is always good to get back on the Cape. It is cranberry harvest season here, so the view driving to my house from Heather’s was a flooded cranberry field. We don’t have the beautiful splash of color from fall leaves here that is seen further north, but we do have our cranberries. Just beautiful.
