last day of summer vacation

Today is the last day of summer vacation.  Well, summer vacation for the kids.  Mine was over a loooooooooooong time ago.  Yesterday I spent a full day in the kitchen.  Today I just took it easy.

We decided to take a trip to the colony (again)on Saturday. This time we decided to go my way. We drove by their giant farm and the GPS guided us to the middle of a road. Cori and I looked at each other and decided to go down the driveway. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I HATE going somewhere where I am not sure if we are welcome. And, this is their home, you know? So we ventured down the loooooooooong driveway, the whole time I was squirming in my seat. This doesn't feel right, lets just turn around. Ugh. We reached the end of the driveway with no produce in sight and I was just about having a panic attack telling Cori to turn around...TURN AROUND...when...low and behold...a tiny produce sign. We pulled in front of a big pole barn and there it was, the legendary Hutteright (spelling?) Colony produce!!!! We went in and it was wonderful...beans and corn and cucumbers, tomatoes the size of Finn's head (and that is saying something) and carrots....yummmmmmmmmmmm. They also had turkey breasts, smoked turkey and canned jams and beans and pickles. We picked up 2 giant turkey breast, one smoked turkey breast, a 27 pound watermelon, at least 2 1/2 pounds of green beans and 13 giant tomatoes. We also bought a jar of strawberry jam (I wanted the raspberry rhubarb but Cori does not like raspberry stuff so...strawberry it was. We also got 13 ears of corn. DELICIOUS!!

We started off the day with cereal for the kids and coffee for me.  Then, on our way to church, Cori "claimed" his blood sugar was dropping (mmmm hmmm) so we had to stop for some doughnuts and some breakfast sausages and bacon (for after church.) 

Church was fantastic.  I love our pastor.  He is wonderful and inspiring and doesn't yell or give us dirty looks when Finn decides to take off in the middle of the sermon and run to the front of the church.  Instead, she gets hugs and smooches and all the people in the church smile and sigh.  It's very nice.

When we got home, I cooked a massive brunch of eggs, toast, sausage and bacon. 

After brunch I cleaned the tomatoes and started homemade pasta sauce brewing...for 3 hours I cooked that sauce, with garlic and onions  and basil.  Can you smell it?  It was wonderful...all that saucey goodness.

imagine the wonderful smell coming up from this pot!!!

I also made browned butter green beans

and

cream crepes with brown sugar sauce!!!

cream crepes slathered in mandarin oranges and brown sugar sauce

 

holy heavenly supper...

The crepes had sat for about 36 hours so I had to add a little milk to thin the batter but...my mouth is watering just thinking of them...they turned out great.

I goofed the sauce a bit, but the best think about cooking is, no one knows you goof except you.  I plowed ahead like it was exactly how I was supposed to do it and it was wonderful.

For the sauce I used 4 gallons of tomatoes (on in my land...a whole bunch...like 12 big ones...who knows if that is 4 gallons, probably not but it worked for me)

I boiled water (a big pot of water) then I cleaned the tomatoes and then cut a little x in the bottom of each one.  When the water was boiling, I stuff the tomatoes in...now I was supposed to boil them for 5-10 seconds but I boiled them for 10 minutes...oops.  Oh well.  I doused them in cold water after (over) boiling them and then the skin came off super easy.  then I cut eat tomato into quarter and squeezed all the seeds out (and most of juice out...oops...but I did have the strainer over a bowl so I caught all the juice...yay me for thinking ahead) After all the tomatoes were done I took a huge pot and put a 1/4cup of olive oil in along with about 2 tablespoons of minced garlic (fresh pressed is best...it's about 1/2 tsp per clove but I used the already minced and I love garlic...because I think that translates to like 6 cloves of garlic) and an onion and a half (minced) and then cook that over med heat for about 10-14 minutes...until the onions are clear and the garlic is browned...then you plop in all your tomato parts...you cook this slowly over low heat until you can't wait to try it...I cut up 2 jalapenos and added about a tsp of salt too...delicious. You should cook it for about an hour....I cooked it longer so I added all the juice I had squeezed out too...who knows if you would have to do that if you had only boiled them 10 seconds instead of 10 mins??? 

I browned some Italian sausage and hamburger and mixed it in too.  I served it over bow tie pasta. 

yummmmmmmmm

The crepes were divine (Nick said heavenly but I wouldn't go that far)

you make up crepe batter as usual (it's a pretty simple batter) and let it sit for at least 24 hours, covered in your fridge.

heat your crepe pan (or if you are like me and don't have a crepe pan, use the smallest frying type pan you have)    lightly grease the pan (I used butter flavored Crisco but you can use whatever) and heat over med/high heat.  take a quarter cup (well...depending on your pan size you might need less or more) enough to cover your pan.  swirl the batter in the pan so it covers the bottom and cook.  when it is browned on the bottom, your crepe is done.  I stack them with waxed paper between each one...

I make enough so that every person has at least 2 crepes.

up close of the oranges and sauce...don't you want to lick it???

for the cream ones I made, you put ice cream on the non browned side of the crepe, right in the middle, and roll it up like a burrito.  I put mandarin oranges over the top of mine (the kids had strawberries and bananas) and then I covered the whole fandango with brown sugar sauce.  Simple to make, divine to eat.

I have included some pictures...
isn't packed brown sugar beautiful...I could pack it and stack it all day....yummmmmmmm

before the brown sugar sauce was sauce