Bread , the staff of life..

I'd always had great plans for our Thanksgiving feasts. Like actually making the dinner rolls... among other things. But when it came down to crunch time.... I usually ran out of energy and those plans went out the window. BUT, this year... Elly May was doing most of the work as I was sort of side lined with health matters . Good thing too because this way we got actual , home made , delicious rolls. She spent hours making them... but it was so worth it.
The dough, made the night before. A double batch , which she decided to combine into one bowl despite some peoples voiced concerns about future rising issues and overflow. No matter, it all fit at the time.

Of course, this is what greeted her the next morning. I think it was worth it just for the wow factor. The blob is out to get you!!!

Deft hands make rolls.

Lots and lots..

And lots... of rolls.

Only so many will fit in the oven at a time , so they were done in batches.

More rising..

Think we have enough ? They were grand . And there are plenty for leftover sandwiches.

The Pie Saga

Elly May is a master pie baker. They are the best ever. Pie day was Wednesday , well , among other things. We were doing a lot on Wednesday. Well , Elly May was anyway.
Blueberry..

Ahem.. are those teeth marks? No.. it couldn't be... J. B..... we won't tell anyone. And we shall keep things pushed a little farther in from the edge of the counter in future.

You have to see this.. I could never figure it out when I made pies. I think it has something to do with straight lines . I can't do straight lines ... but Elly May does straight lines very very well.. and can weave too!

The first layer..

Isn't that cool?

It is like fabric.

The work of a fine artist.

Baked to perfection.

Apple pie.

Crust for Butternut Squash Pie. We grew the butternuts.. In our opinion , butternut makes a FAR better pie than pumpkin. But that is just our personal preference.

We ran out of milk so this ended up with some cream in it and it was very very decadent.

The finished apple.

Decorations for the squash pie.

Aren't they cute?

Ta da! Now on to the rest of the stuff.. she made a lot of bread too. More on that later.

Pre-Thanksgiving prep..

We usually start working on things for Thanksgiving days beforehand.

Elly May's famous bread for stuffing..

Chopped and drying in the oven..

J. B. doing his cat impression chillin on the back of the couch.

What I've spent a lot of time doing of late.... Punker Man is happy anyway.

Cider Pressin' Time

We get apple seconds from our local farmer's market and they had enough for us this past week that we could do a cider pressing to have fresh cider for our Thanksgiving meal. We did the pressing earlier in the week because it is a rather labor intensive project and we were going to have enough to do later in the week.
Being seconds.. we have to cut out the bad spots and so forth..

The giant apple.

J.B. wants to see what is happening .

Let's go bobbing for apples!!!

Ready for pressing.. How about that table cloth eh? Actually it is an old sheet someone gave us from the 60's or thereabouts. I can't imagine waking up and looking at them on my bed. I think it would give me nightmares.

My prized possession

Some are not usable.....

Poor Punker Man injured his shoulder somehow and has been limping this past week. So he was watching from the porch and being miserable.

Liquid gold!!

Mmmmmm... if you've never had fresh pressed cider... you've really missed out in life. It is like nothing you have ever tasted and absolutely NOTHING like apple juice from the store.

Me hanging out and resting with Punker Man because I was supposed to be taking it easy... I did try.

Finished product. It went over really well at our Thanksgiving celebration. As apple season goes on and there are more and more seconds , we ferment a large portion of it into hard cider and then turn in into vinegar. We have about 20 gallons of the stuff turning (hopefully!) into vinegar in an oak barrel right now. We shall see how it turns out. We've never put it in a barrel before , just fermenting it in jars. But I had the barrel.. so we are now using it. So there.

Bottling da Beer

First though.. aren't these cool socks.. oh.. and the slippers. But the socks are just cool. Just thought I should share.

Okay.. we had help this weekend ( thank you!!! ) .. which was a good thing because I've been feeling too whacked to do anything since this cold still insists on haunting me . I suppose it wouldn't be as bad if it was just a plain old cold to someone else but on top of all the other things for me.. well, it just wipes me out too much for beer bottling activities. First off , all the bottles have to be sanitized in the sanitizing bath then dried. The empty dishwasher works great for this . I'd already spent a very very long tiring day washing all the bottles (a few weeks ago) .. getting the labels and glue off and the mold out . I hate washing bottles.. I just hate it.. And I don't even drink the stuff. Why do I do this??? I still haven't figured that out yet.

ANYway, we sanitized the bottles and all the equipment.. well, they did.. I watched and offered encouragement . Then the beer gets siphoned from the secondary fermentor where it has been sitting for the past month into the bucket with the spigot. You are actually supposed to use the siphoning tube and a little bottle filler attachment thingy but Elly May and I have never been able to get it to work. The siphon always breaks and it takes about 5 minutes to fill a bottle and not being the most patient soul in this world.. ahem.. we ditched that method. I know we might be oxidizing some precious stuff by our method but it works.. and it doesn't take years to fill the bottles and the beer tastes fine. Or so I'm told. Oh.. I almost forgot.. the priming sugar goes into the bucket too after it has been boiled and hopefully cooled (oops.. ours didn't have time) . That is what give it carbonation. The sugar reacts with yeast left in the fermented wort and makes bubbles in the bottle. Unless you want to drink it warm and flat like the Brits.. but we like our bubbles here in America .

Okay , I screwed up the order on this.. they get filled , then capped.. Just imagine it that way.

My sole contribution was taking bottles from the dishwasher and handing them over to be filled. Really strenuous.. ;-)

What didn't fit in the bottles went to the Official Tester and Bottle Filler. He has to be paid for his work somehow. ;-) Tasters said there was a very very slight taste of peach. So I'm wondering if it was even worth all the effort to put the peaches in. Maybe after it ages some it will mature in flavor. Next up, Nut Brown Ale. But I need energy for that. But hopefully soon. Then another batch of stout. It is the preferred beer around here apparently . I personally think it all stinks like beer but hey, it makes them happy.