The Allen Family

Saturday, November 22, 2008

You say potato and I say potatoe!

Potatoes are a screamin deal at the grocery right now so I decided to add them to my long term storage. I'm in love with my pressure canner... though it does still scare me a little. Richard is the sweetest and helped me peel 20 lbs. of potatoes which the book called for to make 7 - 9 quarts.

We had 3 bowls of taters and when it came right down to it we sure didn't need no 20 lbs. So it is 11:30 PM and the second batch of quarts is currently in the canner with another 40 minutes to go. This is way past my bedtime!

Here are the taters cut up into smaller pieces.

The before picture...getting ready to enter the canner.

Here is the finished product. They look pretty good after all. I have set a goal that each week I will do something for my short and long term food storage. Last week was our stake day at the cannery so rice and oats were added. Today it was potatoes and this next week we will all get together and pull meat off of the 4 turkeys we picked up. Should be a very disgusting yet productive activity.

Campin in the backyard

Tyler recently picked up a tent at his favorite store, REI and wanted to test it out. He and Kyle put it up in the backyard AND he proceeded to sleep in it!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Shooting the breeze on a Friday night

Matthew loading his little daringer.
Last Friday for a family activity we decided to go to the shooting range to practice. The boys were jazzed and even the long wait didn't damper their enthusiasm once we got our lanes. Some of us were wearing ear plugs and ear muffs to drown out the noise. Some of those guns sounded like a cannon was going off. We all had a great time!

Here Kyle checks out his accuracy with Tyler and Becky in the background.

Richard, Tyler, Matthew, Kyle and Becky.

Richard and Kyle show off their expertice!

Hubba Hubba.

I couldn't bring myself to shoot the 357 magnum pistol I chose but I did like the 22's I shot.

Kyle shooting.

What form Becky has!

Tyler's stance.

Tyler's Birthday

Tyler opening his gifts. He got a great backpacking/climbing backpack.

A shirt to climb in.

Jordan so excited in the festivities!

Here Tyler blows out the candles on his cake. He requested banana bread with cream cheese frosting and it was WONDERFUL. Kaila made the frosting and it was mighty tasty!

Here Tyler shows off the candle he got from Kyle. Yes...it is the same candle he had given Kyle for his birthday just last month. You gotta love regifting.

Canning Butter

I had read on buildingmyark.blogspot.com how to can butter and thought it would be a good idea. The opportunity presented itself when Richard and I attended a High Priest Social and we were helping clean up afterward. The tables were cleared and tons of butter were brought in only partially used. Since this wasn't a family party (no little fingers playing with it) I volunteered to take it home to try out this method. First you melt the butter and let it gently cook for 5 or more minutes. Then you spoon into hot jars and seal as you would jam. The jars then need to be shaken and shaken and shaken and shaken and shaken some more! The was a whole lot of shakin goin on.

Here is the finished product! So for no money I was able to put aside 8 jars of butter that will stay good on the shelf for 3-4 years.

Allen Reunion

Each year around the end of October we get together with Richard's siblings and their children for a reunion. We used to do this around their fathers birthday and have continued since he passed away. This year Jolyn and Larry hosted the event in their backyard. We chose the middle of the day to accommodate church meetings but little did we know that it would be a sweltering 94 degrees on the first of November! It was warm, especially for Nat and Adam who came from up north. We love to get together and in the 4 siblings who attended we were introduced to 4 new babies that had arrived since the last get together. Thanks Jolyn and Larry for your great hospitality. We all had a great time.