the possibilities of apple preservation

Perhaps you remember a few years back when I posted about  my accumulation of a rather large apple supply. Certainly this year has been no different in that respect. I find myself with boxes of apples and on a hunt for ways to be creative preserving them. This book

has become one of my favorite cookbooks on the subject. The making of apple pectin with the cores, skins, and scraps has entertained me for hours and in the process has taught me the joy of making all sorts of jellies using apple pectin as the base.

Last year we spent a full day with my friend, Laura, and her girls in the making of apple pies to freeze with our abundance of apples. These apple pies froze beautifully and provided bubbly hot apple pies during the winter season to serve our guests. This summer I have make one pie and one tart to freeze so far, but the thought of making all those crusts this year gave me an idea. How about making apple pie filling and canning it to make the pies fresh during the winter months? This is the recipe I used. The only alteration to this recipe was the elimination of the yellow food coloring, instead, I tossed in a few apples peels with the syrup to give it a natural color.

As of today only a few lone apples sit on my kitchen counter. I am not complaining.

Impossible n'est pas francais

After having studied Latin for the past several years we are on to expanding our language study. Rose chose French, and frankly, I'm glad she did.

Before deciding which program I wanted to use, I did some reading on foreign languages and the suggestions of course studies, the specific programs, and even looked at the possibility of an online language course. The majority of the programs I researched were prominently programs of listening and conversing, but finding a program that taught the structure of the language, including grammar, was not as readily available.  Since we are not planning a trip to a French speaking country in the near future, I hoped to find a program that would promote learning to read French, as well as speak it. After all, we are Latin students and reading Latin is the goal of any serious Latin students.

Memoria Press offers this beginning course for learning French. It consists of a teacher book, a student book and an accompanying CD. This along with cd's from Berlitz and another French program (thanks to Alan's stash) we are on our way to learning French.

Good thing too. We found out this weekend that my nephew is marrying a young woman from France. She will be moving here which will give us a fabulous opportunity to converse with a native French speaking person.

Tres bien!

untouched photography

Witt and Claire invited us over for dinner the other evening.

As always the food that Claire laid before us was delicious to the eyes and the taste buds.

 There's no doubt about it, this couple knows how to put together big events as well as intimate gatherings.

My little iphone sufficed with untouched photos of some of the presentations, but the evening  lacked nothing but the grandest brush of goodness.