The Kello Show

Hello all,
I know it's been a long time since I've posted. We were on vacation and we're super busy with work, but I will get some vacation pictures up soon. For now, here's a little video of my girl I just had to share.  Sorry about the quality. I shot it with my cell phone.

Going for a walk is a pretty regular thing around here.  With Kelly and I both working from home, an afternoon stroll is a nice way to break up the monotony of staring at a computer screen.  These are a couple of shots from our walk, because I couldn't resist how precious our little Hannah Beth looked.

Today was Kelly and my first anniversary.  We decided to relive a little of the wedding and ate at the Sassy Onion in Salem. They catered our wedding at the Oregon 4-H Center. The wedding food was stupendous. At least, we heard it was. Kell and I got to eat very little of it, as our photographers wanted us for some shots with the sunset.  We're glad we did the pictures. They were beautiful. We ate breakfast today at the Sassy Onion, and it was really good. 

After we ate, we picked up our cake. The bakery that we ordered from does a free 7" cake decorated like your wedding cake, with one of the cake flavors for your first anniversary.  We picked the chocolate and fudge layer (the others were white cake and marionberry cream, and pink champagne cake with peach cream). It was delicious.

We have had an amazing year since our wedding -- the most amazing part is our beautiful daughter.  We are so lucky. 






I love this picture because she's got Daddy's hand and you can see his wedding ring. 

So, I took all those lovely peaches and pears from the Fruit Loop adventure and canned me up some yummy goodness. Out of about 15 pounds of peaches, I got 6 quarts, 6 pints, and 9 small jars of pureed fruit to feed to our sweet girl when she starts solids. Out of 10 pounds of pears, I got 5 pints.  They are packed pints though. 

I did the peaches Wednesday night, and I do mean night.  Kelly had a headache and went to bed early, but I had to get them done before they went bad.  So, I feed Hannah and kept her in her bouncy seat with me while I blanched, peeled, and sliced.  Then, I feed her again and put her to bed and then put them in the water bath.  I did a hot pack method, so I cooked them in apple juice first for a few minutes.  I decided not to use syrup because I don't want all that sugar, so apple juice was a better choice.

I did the pears today after I took a two hour (!!!) nap.  Thanks for letting me sleep, Kell. The pears went much faster. I think it was because I knew what I needed and had all the tools ready. The house smelled so good from the simmering apple juice. 

This was my first time canning (if you want good directions, Pick Your Own has good ones). I've made jam a couple of times, but this is a little different.  I am so excited. I love knowing where the food we eat comes from and I love that in the dead of winter, when we have no electricity because of a snowstorm*, we will have peaches to eat. Plus, they look so pretty in the pantry.




*Everyone I know that has lived here for a long, long time assures me that getting a lot of snow is really the exception. Well, we've been here three winters and we keep getting a lot of snow. So, I don't believe them anymore.  Last winter, four feet.  We were stuck in the house for about a week.  "Exception" my patella.

Today, Kelly and I decided to take Hannah to the other side of the Mountain -- Hood River -- to visit the Fruit Loop. For those of you who aren't in the know, the Fruit Loop is a 35-mile farm loop through Hood River. We only stopped at about 5 farms, but it was fabulously fun.

At the first stop, Draper Girls' Farm, we bought about 10 lbs of peaches. They are Red Globes, which are good for canning because they have a loose stone.  We also bought some crazy red pears, but I can't recall their name. Can't wait to taste those. 

Our next stop was Alice's. For Labor day, they do a BBQ. I had pulled pork and Kelly had chicken. The cider baked beans and pear slaw were grubbin'! 

Then, we stopped at Lavender Valley. It smelled so delicious.  I wanted to roll around in all the lavender.

Our next stop was the White House. There we took some amazing pictures in the Dahlias.  And, they were pet friendly, so Bella got to get out and stretch her legs. 

Our last stop was a hidden secret.  It was a no-name farm, not officially on the Fruit Loop, but we got pears for 25 cents/lb. And, he said in July he has cherries for 95 cents/lb.  Can you believe it? We are so going to visit him again. Now I have a ton of canning to do.

We had such a great time, and when we got home, there was dinner waiting for us in our mud room.  My co-workers at AEC are awesome and are bringing us meals 3 times a week.  How great are the people I work with? I love 'em!