Remember the giganto-pumpkin that was hogging up the mud room floor? Jessica attacked it the other day. She sliced it into chunks as big as her hand, boiled the chunks (in three separate pots), skinned ‘em, and gave them to her trusty assistant (me) to mush ‘em up. I did so, because most of the …

Jessica made a run to town this morning so she’s not around to post her entry for the Friday Recipe. (She had to go to Costco so the checkout guy could look at her haul and smirk “Stockin’ up for the end of the world?” Correct answer: “We have a big family and we live …

Well, a couple of months back Jess and I were driving into town, admiring the elderberry bushes heavily laden with the tiny light-blue berries. Next time we were out together we threw a pair of kitchen shears and a couple of smallish boxes in the back of the Jeep. We drove along a back road …

Jessica wrote today’s post. Her soups are some of my favorite foods, no matter what kind they are. She knows what I like. I am a recipe fanatic. I will admit it. I love recipe books. I clip the recipes I like out of every magazine I legally can. I ask for recipes from those …

Jessica met me on the stairs last night carrying a fresh load of laundry up. She held out Jacob’s freshly-washed baby blanket and said, “Feel this!” With my keen sense of the obvious, I said that it felt soft and fuzzy. She said, “It’s way soft and fuzzy! And clean! It seems like since we …

Here is Sarah examining the first batch of laundry washed with our homemade laundry soap. It was just coming out of the dryer (no clothesline; autumn is pretty rainy around here) when Sarah, age 2, came galloping in to help. She put her head into the dryer and –which is cuter, a dumb old batch …

Well, there it is. When Jess was putting this year’s cider into the root cellar, she had me bring up these two jars—the last of last year’s cider stash. It’s kind of funny that our quantity of cider from last year lined up so tidily with what we produced this year, but there you are. …

We were running out of our previous batch of window/surface cleaner last night so I whipped up some more. Last time I refilled this commercial Windex bottle was the first time I had ever made my own concoction, and it worked so well I don’t think anybody noticed (except the color was a little different). …

Abby Long’s Homemade Twix Bars Crust: 2 cubes butter, softened 1/2 cup sugar 2 cups flour To make crust, cream butter and sugar. Add flour. Knead (or mix) and pat into a jellyroll pan (deep cookie sheet). Bake at 350 for 15-20 min., or until golden brown. Let cool. Filling: 2 cubes butter 1/4 cup …

Well, it’s the best angle I could get for this shot. Each of these shelves goes back two feet, and we tried to space them for maximum efficiency (as we did for the rest of the house), but even then not all the jars fit in the space. Iin this shot you see canned nectarines …