Yep........ Possums, Christmas Ornaments, Pickling Peppers, Relish all in a week!!

Autumn-ness

Apple Picking Time!!!!  We picked some apples.... Macs, Cortland, and Ozark Gold this year.  I canned some apple pie filling using my favorite apple the Ozark Gold.   I also bought some fresh Cape Cod cranberries  and canned some whole fruit cranberry sauce.

Chocolate Cake and PB Frosting

             Okay just a quickie post for myself and a friend.  Here is a cake from last year (Holley's Birthday), and is now to be revisited this year (Hope's Birthday) in the form of cupcakes.                                           

CAKE:

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® devil’s food cake mix

1 box (4-serving size) chocolate INSTANT pudding and pie filling mix

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

1 cup vegetable or canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips              

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

Grease 2 nine inch cake pans, then sprinkle cocoa powder (gives a better flavor and color than flour)

In large bowl, beat cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla  with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips and pour batter into pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  When cool wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour before frosting,  I used a peanut butter frosting recipe from AllRecipes.com here is the link: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fluffy-peanut-butter-frosting/  You can adjust accordingly, I used a double recipe on both recipes to make the cake pictured.  I then made a "moat" of ganache.. link for that recipe is here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/satiny-chocolate-glaze/detail.aspx.  I then chopped up and cut severeal types of Reese peanut butter cups and decorated to my hearts content.

         

Pickles

Pickles, Pickles and more Pickles....YUP that's what I did today, thanks to my Mum and Pappy purchasing an abundance of cucumbers, I made pickles!!  I am now painfully aware (cut on my index finger and burned fingertips) as to why pickles must sit in a cool dry place for 4-6 weeks to cure.  After a full day of making these lil' buggers nobody wants to see them for a month ;)  However, I know the end result will be well worth it once the cuts and burns have healed :)

Independence Day

Graduation Day was June 14, 2013.  Having an 18 year old who has graduated high school really makes ya think....Holy Crap I am old ;)  Hannah did a wonderful job with her speech, won the Principal's Award, received her diploma and got a job all in one week.  We couldn't be more proud of her.  Before ya think the man handing out the diplomas is a creeper and hugged all the kids, NOPE!!  Perk of having a Dad on the school board.

End of Year

   Well this  next month or so for us is going to be CRAZY!!!  It's a good thing, seems to be the norm in this house.  Hope has an upcoming production of The Wiz, she is really excited about performing on stage.

  Hannah attended prom last Saturday, is accepting an award for the New Hampshire Scholars program on Wednesday.  She leaves for Virginia Beach (class trip) on Thursday.  Graduation is set for June 14th!!   I know as parents we worry about them growing up, but when I see how confident and happy she is I know everything will be alright.

Catching Up?

Slacker, Slacker, Slacker!! Ayup that's me, anyhow here is the past couple months in a nutshell...I dropped the ball on Valentine's day, Hunter had a basketball tournament, Holley went to Winter Carnival, Hannah turned 18 years old, St. Patrick's Day was not a total bust, and yea I had another birthday, which was also Easter, Hannah, Hope,Hunter and I finished our religious education classes and are now "Official Catholics" and can receive communion , and Hope broke her arm yesterday on a scooter.