Sunday was spent primarily in the kitchen. I’d picked up pie pumpkins in October, but what with getting sick, I had not yet gotten around to converting my squash into puree for pie.

Yes, that’s right. Five pumpkins. We really like pumpkin pie around here.
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So Sunday was spent finally baking down our pumpkins, and, since I won’t be making a turkey for Thanksgiving, making vegetable stock.

I started out working on the stock, since it cooks for quite awhile.
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Homemade pizza! Yum!

Homemade apple pie! Yum!

Leftovers for tomorrow!

YUM!

Anne took some interesting quizzes, so I figured they’d make a good lunchtime first-day-back-after-vacation break.

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More playing with pictures. Feel free to move along if this bores the ever living snot out of you. Or feel free to force the conversation to something that interests you. It’s Friday, so it’s all good.

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Which do you prefer?

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So when we did the Grandmom exchange at Hancock, I picked up some fresh local apples.

Actually, I picked up a LOT of apples, because I prefer a variety of apples in my pie.

With just three of us, an entire pie is just a bit too much–either I’ll eat too much pie, or the pie will go bad before we can finish it. So last year I ordered individual pie slice dishes from the King Arthur Flour Catalog.

First things first, I had way to much filling for the dishes, so the apples didn’t cook down as much as they could have. I also guesstimated the amounts for the other ingredients, but that worked out pretty well.

I used three different kinds of apples for this pie. Matsu, Northern Spy, and Rambo. The Rambo were too soft for my liking (it all but fell apart in the peeler) but since the pies needed to be jucier, they might work well anyway.


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Appetizer:
Sesame Noodles

Dinner:
Cripsy Bean Curd in Garlic Sauce
Sesame Noodles

Dessert:
Sesame Noodles

(contented sigh)

With all the craziness over my website, I have completely neglected to mention that this week is the Buckwheat Festival!

Local buckwheat is in the stores, and you can head over to Preston County for buckwheat cakes.

Which is what we had for dinner today. Mmmmmm!

While we were gone, apple butter from Janiece arrived.

Being a good granddaughter, I opened the box to make sure nothing had broken, and then closed the box back up for my grandmother.

Since we did the Grandmom exchange with my aunt today, Grandmom finally opened the apple butter.

The jar is now sitting by her chair–presumably so no one else will open it first. :)

These are one of the things Michael makes that Grandmom really likes. She says she thinks she likes them better than hamburgers.

Turkey Burgers
~1 lb ground turkey, as high fat as you can find
1 egg
~1/4 cup bread crumbs
minced onion
parsley
garlic powder
kosher salt
fresh pepper

Mush together all ingredients. Make patties and place on foil covered cookie sheet. Cover sheet with foil. If you will eat the burgers the same day, place them in the refrigerator until you’re ready to cook them–at least an hour.

If you’re making them for later, place covered tray in freezer, and freeze several hours or overnight. Stack burgers with waxed paper between layers, wrap tightly in foil, and place in freezer bag. Can be cooked thawed or frozen.

Before summer is completely over, take advantage of fall grilling.

Grilled Veggies

Fresh veggies: zucchini, yellow squash, cherry/grape tomatoes, mushrooms, orange and yellow pepper
Olive oil
White wine vinegar
Fresh parsley
Fresh oregano
Fresh rosemary
Fresh thyme
Fresh garlic
sea salt
Fresh pepper

Slice selected vegetables into large chunks. You’ll want mushrooms (which cook faster) to have larger chunks than the squash, which cooks more slowly.

Place veggies in a gallon sized ziploc bag (or two bags if you’re making a lot of vegetables. Pour olive oil and white wine vinegar over the veggies in approximately equal measure. You’ll want enough liquid to coat the vegetables.

Mince/crush several cloves of garlic (to taste) and add to veggie bag.

Collect your fresh herbs and crush them in a mortal and pestle with sea salt or kosher salt. Add the fresh herbs, salt, and pepper to the bag with the veggies.

Add more vinegar and oil if necessary.

Seal the bag and mix until the vegetables are well coated with the herb/garlic mixture.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours, until you’re ready to grill.

By popular demand (and because I had an incredibly crappy week last week) And also as a guide for Gina, who views baking this recipe with trepidation… Bittersweet Brownies!

I do believe that these are the best brownies in the entire world. Seriously.
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The grocery stores have local peaches now, so I had to pick some up. Since we grilled out on Saturday, I decided to make bourbon peaches. In theory you make them in the oven, but they’re perfect to put on the grill to cook while you’re eating dinner.

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