Autumn Leaves

Fall is my favorite season, and the only complaint I have is that it's usually too short. This year, that was not the case.  We had a long, beautiful fall, and I felt like I was enjoying the fall colors for weeks which was such a blessing.  I love the beauty of creation...and how God gives that to us to enjoy because He is good and He loves us, and He reveals His love in nature...and He reveals His nature in Creation...   Well, in our little corner of the world, raking leaves is not a bad thing... It's actually kind of a "status symbol".  If you have leaves to rake, you have trees... And the more leaves in the yard, the bigger the trees, which (to us) is always a good thing.  :-)  This year we even had enough leaves to make a pile...  And somebody got a chance to play in that leaf pile...   

Maybe that wasn't who you expected...

But who can resist that face??

Stay . . .

Okay!!



Field of Dreams

 Here is a post that I was working on about 2 months ago... It's a bit out of date, but I'll post it anyway (it'll buy me some time while I organize my life a bit): 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 We've been keeping busy, and taking every opportunity to enjoy the beautiful fall season while it lasts! So, let's rewind a few weeks...to a gorgeous Sunday afternoon late in September. Ever seen the movie "Field of Dreams"?   Well, the men of the Berean softball teams had the memorable opportunity to play ball in a field much like that one...  

Game on! 

And while I took a lot of pictures on that day, I'm admittedly biased.  There's one player in particular that I'm especially fond of...

Making one of his "signature" diving catches...

(and yes, he caught it :-)

A field of dreams indeed.  And a very good day worth blogging about--even if it is a little lot late.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Snap back to December...

Reading this post, I can't believe how quickly time flies!

It doesn't feel like this could have been 4 months ago already...

We were blessed with a long and beautiful fall this year, and we tried to make the most of it, I think.  So, there will be a few more fall posts to come.

I also hope to post a few pictures of some of the little projects that have gone on in recent months, but those are lower on my priority list so I'll get to them if time permits.

Oops...

Hi again . . . I hope you are enjoying your holiday season.  

  I really did plan on editing my blog, but once again, it's been awhile. I had good intentions, but I guess I lacked the time and motivation to keep up... ...and I got behind.   You know it's been a long time since you've blogged when you have to think twice to remember the blog's web address. But I found it. And I remembered the password! Kinda broke my heart when I saw that there were a small remnant of folks who have been checking back these last 3 months. One of my goals for Christmas break is to catch up a bit. I enjoy blogging...but I guess when I get behind I feel overwhelmed rather than inspired. So, I promise...there will be something to look at in the very near future. Probably more pictures than words... (which is probably what you want to see anyway)

An Abundant Harvest

 Several years ago, we planted 2 young apple trees. Over the years, we've gotten some apples. At some point, Mike decided to prune the trees for the very first time.  (We can't agree when it was, but it was before summer. :-) I wish I had a picture, because the pile of branches that he removed from the trees was a bit shocking. Apparently a harsh pruning was just what the trees needed, because we had a record harvest this year! 

 Many of the branches were sagging under the weight of the apples. We had virtually no worms in the apples.  We're not exactly sure why that is because we've never sprayed our trees.  Most of the rejects were ones that a bird or a gopher had "snacked" on. We picked conservatively--rejecting apples with any significant flaws (I like to leave those for the critters to enjoy)... And we still picked nearly 180 pounds of apples! 

We were overwhelmed!

We gave away many of them, and then kept a few for eating,

and saucing.

Yum!

A couple guys down the street got word that we were making applesauce...

And so they showed up on our doorstep to devour some . . . peels.

Ha!  Who knew that apple peels were a delicacy?  :-)

I would say I still have about 25 pounds or so remaining for apple dumplings...and apple crisp...and apple muffins...and apple bars...and maybe some apple oatmeal... 

Any other ideas?

Movin' on Up!

 The other day, we went for a ride in our van... Somebody didn't know where we were going. And when we arrived at our destination... somebody was very contentedly reading a book in the back seat and was completely oblivious to where we were. This greatly pleased her daddy who loves surprises. We picked up a little something for our little somebody that made her very... VERY... happy. 

Can you tell? She had outgrown her first bike, and was sorta hoping maybe we'd get her a new bike for her birthday. But her birthday is in October... So, we thought we'd make her wish come true while she still had some good riding weather. (And when she wasn't expecting it.)  

 

Welcome to the family "Eva". 

A neglected blog. A new season...

 Wow.  It's been awhile, hasn't it? We're still here. I thought I'd blog a lot over the summer because I'd have more free time and more fun stuff to talk about. But I had no desire to sit in front of the computer for most of the summer. Maybe in the next few weeks I'll post a little about some of the indoor and outdoor projects that we did... But for now, I'm gonna dedicate this post to a new season.  I love seasons...don't you? I love the change of seasons.  I especially love fall. I love the colors, and the crisp air.  I love warm sweatshirts and hot drinks and "study dates" in coffee shops. Seems like I was just posting the first signs of spring on the blog... Today is a classic fall day--breezy and overcast...and absolutely beautiful. So, I thought I'd share some first signs of fall:  ~ Pampas grass blowing in the breeze ~

~ Remnants of an abundant harvest ~

 ~ The garden's final blooms ~

~ Leaves kissed with color ~

 

Mmm...  Welcome to fall.  I love it! I hope you're getting out there and drinking it up.  If not, find a little time to immerse yourself in the season and delight in the One who created it for us to enjoy. I love the change of seasons, in nature and in life. God has opened some new doors for our family this fall as well.  It's always so encouraging to see how He uses us from season to season. Maybe you'll hear more about that in the weeks to come, too. But I better save something for later. So, check back soon!  This blog is officially active again.  :-)

Fire roasted pizza...at home!

 Tonight was a beautiful night to have supper on the deck... We tried something new--grilled pizza. Dontcha love it when you try something and it turns out amazing the very first time? I sure do! Tonight was one of those nights, so I thought I'd share my inspiration with you because pizza on the grill is definitely a new family tradition at the Amundson's! Here's a little tutorial...  Setup: Start by placing your stone on the cold grill and heating it as you would in the oven: 

(By the way--this is actually an "after" picture since I forgot to take a before one.  This is what your stone will look like after the intense heat and smoke.  I happen to like the rustic charm--but if you're attached to your pretty brown seasoning then you might want to get a separate stone for grilling...) I tried to maintain around 550* on the grill thermometer (the grate and stone were much hotter, I'm sure).  Our infrared grill can exceed 700*--if yours isn't that hot, it should still work, but will take a little longer to cook the pizza. 

 Finally, to give a touch of that smoke-kissed, fire-roasted flavor, I put a couple of wood pieces on.  Our grill is designed for easy smoking, but I figured out how to do it just fine on our old grill, too.  You can put a wood chunk right on the grate--or even right on the flavor bar/briquettes.  I wanted quick smoke/short duration so I didn't soak the wood. 

 Cooking: So, once you have a hot, smoking grill, you cook the pizza very much like you would on a stone.  We did small-ish pizzas for our first attempt since they were easier to manage getting on and off of the stone.

Rather than rolling/shaping the dough, I went for a "rustic" look, so I just stretched the dough by hand.  Most of our pizzas were sort of oval.

Tonight, we did barbeque chicken pizza.  I had previously seasoned/grilled some chicken tenderloins and chopped them.  We added the toppings in this order:  Trader Joe's barbeque sauce, freshly grated mozzarella cheese, bacon, chicken, onions and sweet freezer corn.  After cooking, we drizzled the pizza with a raspberry sauce that I made (which was basically seedless raspberry jam, a splash of balsamic vinegar, touch of oil, and a couple pinches of cayenne pepper). 

 

Mmm...

The options are endless.  We just used a basic homemade crust...

The crust was what made this pizza so amazing.  There's nothing special about my crust--any crust would do (generously coated with cornmeal to prevent sticking).  The crust was crisp and a touch smoky on the bottom, but the top was so soft and bubbled.  It will be hard to make homemade pizza in the oven again!

The pizza only took 5-7 minutes on our grill.  I removed it when it started to brown on the bottom, and the toppings were heated through.  It was very hot off the grill.

Introducing our "little chef":

I'm already planning to get a bigger stone so that we can do this for company.  They sell rectangular stones that would cook 2-3 of these pizzas at once.  I'm picturing "do it yourself" wood-fired pizza. 

Want to come for a pizza party?  :-)