With a heavy heart...

My Joey has had quite a presence with his own group of fans online and in person. Sadly, this last Thursday evening we said goodbye to our beloved Mr. Joey - the best boy that any mama and papa could ever ask for (and then some). I posted our news on Thursday evening on Facebook and since then I've been so very comforted by your kind words and *hugs* online and in person at the shop. You have all helped keep me glued together - thank you.

Our home is quiet without Joey and life will feel clumsy for awhile, but I know Mike, Logan and I will find a new rhythm as time goes on. My heart is heavy and words are difficult, so I'll close with a photo that makes me smile and reminds me of how wonderful the last 12+ years have been because of one seriously amazing dude.

Sauerkraut, Salsa and Rainy Days

Life has been crazy the last couple weeks, but things are calming down. I am, in fact, knocking on wood right now.

As I shared recently, we had a date with hubby's family to attend what has now become an annual sauerkraut making event. I've always enjoyed sauerkraut and we've been gifted homemade for years, but the tradition is now being passed down and 2 weekends ago, we attended our 3rd DIY kraut event. It's a relatively simple process with simple supplies: food processor, cabbage, salt, a bucket (ours was previously used for icing) and a good strong kraut smusher.

What is a kraut smusher, you ask? Well, this is ours and I suspect this is why we're invited. *wink* 

After layering shredded cabbage and salt, elbow grease is added and this happens:

Cool, huh? Our bucket of kraut is now fermenting in our basement and will be ready to eat in a few weeks. I can't wait! The day wrapped up with a delicious meal of dumplings, roast pork, sauerkraut, and apple crumble. All in all, a pretty fabulous day!

I also spent some time in the kitchen last week - shocking, I know. Taking the Veggie Fairy's warning that the peppers she delivered were "H.O.T.", I used these lovely veggies for One Tomato, Two Tomato's Roasted Garden Salsa.

Following a recipe is a rare thing for me and I'm so glad I did - it's fabulous and easy!

After adding some of our garden tomatoes, I ended up with 5 pints:

I haven't been in the kitchen much this week. Mr. Joey wasn't feeling well over the weekend and has been at the vet since Monday. After a few days in their care, I'm happy to report that he's feeling much better and coming home today. At nearly 13 years old, we know he's an old boy and we're lucky to have a little more time with him.

The last few days have reminded me how quiet a house without a bossy Siberian Husky is and I can't wait to have a full house again! Neither can this guy:

When it rains, Mr. Logan seriously debates how bad he really has to 'go'. For a dog that's 'all dog', I always find this quirk of his amusing!

I've also been knitting - a lot - so I'll be back with some yarny updates very soon.

Cheers! Alisa

It was a GRAPE day!

My dear hubby and I have been together for 11 years and from the beginning, the first weekend of October has been about his Grandma and her birthday. October has arrived and this last weekend was my Grandma-in-law's birthday celebration, so we were off to northern Wisconsin again. October is the perfect time of year to head north and enjoy the changing of seasons.

After a wonderful birthday lunch for the special lady with 16 family members (that's a lot of 'smart' talking), we returned to Grandma's house where there are always fun surprises...

The backyard orchard had grapes that were ready to be harvested, and harvest we did!

I collected about 2/3 of a bag with some help, then hubby showed up... he's a great grape picker and he filled an entire bag! Note: we weren't sure what we were going to do with these grapes, we were just picking them. We're crazy like that.

This guy was there, too. I like him.

After returning home with bags of grapes, onions, potatoes, and pears, (Grandma's is a one-stop-shop) there was much discussion on what on we were actually going to do with our bounty of grapes.

We settled on:

• Grape juice: 1 cup of grapes, 1/4 cup of sugar and boiling water in a quart jar and water bathed for 10 min - this is the recipe we were given and they're resting now, so I'll update you when we try it.
• Grape jelly: I use Ball's Pectin Calculator for the recipe (it's really quite handy) and we used honey to taste with this low/no sugar pectin:

I've never made grape jelly and hubby has tested and approved my first batch, so we have more jelly making ahead of us this weekend.

Do you have any suggestions for making low/no sugar jelly or jam?

Next weekend we are off to our annual sauerkraut event and I can't wait to share the details on that!

Cheers!