A Food Blogger I Am Not

Those of you who read on a regular basis know that I don't often blog about my skills in the kitchen.  Not that I don't have any.  I am competent.  I am a from-scratch, simple-food kind of gal, but so many do the food blog thing so well that I rarely step foot into that arena.  Some of the amazing food bloggers I read are Nourished Kitchen, 100 Days of Real Food, The Healthy Home Economist, Whole. New. Mom., Smitten Kitchen, and The Pioneer Woman.

I have been trying, however to overcome my disorganization in the kitchen.  Difficult when your kitchen is still unfinished and this is what your "cabinets" look like.

We are hoping that our cabinet situation will be remedied before Christmas.  The cabinet maker says "Maybe."

Anyway, I have tried without success to get better at the kitchen organizing.  This week I attempted the impossible and cooked ahead for the week.  I am also processing apples from our homeschool field trip to Johnson's Orchard in Bedford, VA.  So, from the work yesterday, I ended up with 2 chicken pot pies (one for now, one to feed the freezer), 2 quarts of chicken stock, 2.5 quarts of venison lentil stew, 1 quart of lentil spread (think hummus), 1 apple pie, 3 quarts of apple butter and 3 quarts of apple sauce.

I still have a half a bushel of apples to process, but can I just say I am an apple butter ninja!  I did it in the crock pot.  I am not usually a fan of apple butter, but wow, this stuff is amazing!  Can't wait to have shelves full of home canned yumminess!

Just because I don't think I can handle another blog post in the next day, here are a couple of pictures from our day of apple picking.

Theo's Mint Chocolate Chip Sweater

I am very proud to say that I have completed my first human-sized sweater as a knitter!

I am usually really hard on myself when it comes to handcrafted items, but in spite of many mistakes (that I can see, but you probably can't) I am in LOVE!  This is the cutest sweater EVER and on Theo... oh my word.  I can't stand it!

Not the greatest shot, but catching him still is almost impossible.  I take what I can get!

It reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream.  That may be why I love it so much.  Theo loves the pocket and practically refuses to take it off.  Of course this makes me love him more! <3

Finished sweater!  

I got the pattern from the book The Yarn Girl's Guide to Knits for Older Kids.  I used Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool  yarn in Nature's Brown for the body.  For the pocket and stripes on the hood I used Bamboospun yarn in Limey.

I am participating in Just Something I Whipped Up over at The Girl Creative and the Sew Darn Crafty party at Sew Many Ways today.