Phew! It has been so long since we've posted I'm a little embarrassed. Sometimes life gets in the way of what you really want to be doing. We have been super busy, what can I say? Now that it is December most of our projects have been indoors. The most exciting to date is that we have officially upgraded to a gas stove. It is hard to describe the elegance of cooking with a gas stove as opposed to electric. The one we got is no stainless steel Viking range with six burners and a convection oven. The stove we selected is probably older than Husband and I combined and is not exactly in pristine shape. But somehow it really fits in with our kitchen. That may be because our kitchen desperately needs a remodel but all in good time ( 10+ years probably ).
I must say Husband really did a bang up job installing this antiquated appliance. It is a testament to his energy and willingness to try new tasks that we now have a working gas stove and the house didn't blow up. It took about two or three trips to the hardware store ( what home improvement project doesn't ), a chance meeting with an electrician neighbor who is generous with his knowledge, and some finger crossing, but he did it! And as I baked him a big ole batch of his favorite cookies today I thought how lucky I am. Sheesh! What a sap! But it's true. Thanks Hubby.
These are what's left of the potatoes we harvested from our bin. I'm not ready to say the bin was a success. We only got about 5 or 6 pounds of potatoes and it feels like we could have done better. We speculate that we didn't water enough or perhaps didn't cover them quite correctly as they grew taller inside the bin. Who knows? We'll try again next year!
It was nice to have the potatoes to mash for Thanksgiving though. Husband took on the cooking duties this year and here's a nice pic of the proud chef with his first bird!
Another big project of the fall was doing something with the giant box of Honeycrisp apples Grandma Gwen laid on us during her visit to Seattle from Spokane. That box was daunting but what easier thing to make apples into than applesauce! But then there was so much applesauce I had to go farther and make it into apple butter. I pulled out the Crock Pot, scoured the interwebs for a good recipe and made us some deeelicious cinnamon-y, thick and gooey apple butter! It has been so nice to spread on my morning toast with butter and a sprinkle of Brewer's yeast. Plus, since I didn't get a chance to make jam this year, we have been using it for peanut butter sandwiches. So so good!
