You can always tell when it’s deadline here in my house. Suddenly there are dishes on the counter overnight, overflowing laundry piles, and general mayhem. Even though I just finished up magazine deadline a couple weeks ago, I’m working on another deadline already, this time for the chicken book I told you about a few weeks ago. I’m aiming to have it done by Thursday so I can send it back to the office for proof-reading. Normally I proof my own work, but when I get into heavy editing my brain switches over from “punctuation and spelling” to “structure and flow.” And besides, the gals in the office catch more errors than I do anyway.

But today my problem is not that I have only a few more days to turn a bazillion tid-bits of information into a swell book. Nope, today my problem is that I can’t think, because of all this mess. I’m one of those types who just can’t function in a messy environment, which is a little odd because I tend to be messy myself. I like to have a completely clean (or at least mostly tidy) house before I work on any project (even if it means doing the dishes before sitting down in the evening to knit on the Man’s socks). So I guess it’s no surprise that today, instead of getting right to work this morning, I’ll be cleaning the house, making up some good snacks for the kids (and me!), and tidying up my desk. In so doing, I’ll be loosing the cogs in my brain for a more efficient, more enjoyable (if that’s even possible) deadline.

No doubt about it, this weekend ushered in the chilly weather here. Gavin has been outgrowing his clothing at an alarming rate, so the only sweater that fits him now is the one I made for him when he was a baby. The sleeves are starting to get a little short, but the body is quite stretchy, so it will fit for the rest of the winter, I think. The yarn is wool that I hand spun, and the pattern is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s  sweater formulas in Knitting Without Tears. I modified it by adding a split neck with buttons (like a Henley). I made the hat (and a matching one for the Man) this spring.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, joined by a couple of Marines Erik works with. It was my most successful dinner party by far. All of the dishes looked pretty and tasted delicious. I don’t have the best track record, so I’m wonderfully proud of myself for pulling this off. At the last minute I threw together an experiment. I took two jars of carrots that I canned up a few weeks ago, threw them in a skillet with a few peeled purple pearl onions (I first boiled the onions for three minutes, then peeled them), and sauteed them together for a few minutes in olive oil. Then I added a tablespoon of butter and a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, and kept shuffling them around on low until everything was dissolved and the veggies were nice and shiny. That was it! It took about six minutes total, and it was delicious! If you start with fresh carrots it probably would take a few more minutes.

Yesterday, while my little man was napping, Olga and I got a bunch done in the kitchen. She’s getting to be a great helper, and always wants to be involved in whatever Mama and Daddy are doing. When we’re in the kitchen, she sits up on one of the barstools to reach the counter. We’re making pumpkin pies from scratch for Thanksgiving, so I had Olga scoop out the pumpkin seeds for me while I checked over my ingredients and shopping list.

Then I steamed the pumpkins for ten minutes, let them cool to touch, and scooped out the flesh. I’ll make the pies on Wednesday, so I put the pulp in the fridge (it only lasts a few days in the fridge, so freeze it if you’re steaming your pumpkins farther in advance).

Next we turned about ten pounds of apples into applesauce. I have an apple peeler similar to this model at Lehman’s Hardware (mine is green). In my opinion, it’s absolutely worth the investment. Besides, it’s fun to play with. Olga was begging to use it, so I let her peel and slice the apples. We really love the French Applesauce recipe from Joy of Cooking.

Here it is; double, triple, or quadruple as needed:

3 pounds apples, cored, peeled, sliced (use a variety of apples for the best sauce)
.5 to .75 cup apple juice or cider
1 to 1.5 tablespoons lemon juice (if desired)
1 cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Cover and simmer until tender and applesauce-like (we like ours chunky), then add:

6 tablespoons honey
.5 to 1 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
.5 teaspoon ground mace (optional)

Cook another minute or so until the honey has blended in well, then remove from heat and add:

.75 to 1 teaspoon vanilla

[Added 26 November: In order to keep this safely for storage, you’ll need to water bath can the apple sauce. Check your Ball Blue Book for the correct time for your altitude. Also another note, above is the original recipe, written for about 3 pounds of apples. When I made my batch, I started with about 10 pounds of apples, so I tripled the recipe.]

Chunky applesauce like this is great to eat on toast, with pork, on ice cream, with oatmeal, with a little cream… or really, just about anytime. I got eight pints out of this batch. (A safety note: If you’re going to make applesauce to feed to your little babies, make sure you do not use honey–it can contain traces of botulism which babies under one year of age will not tolerate well. Generally, by one year old babies will have enough various “good” digestion helpers in their gut to safely consume honey.)

I’ll admit it: Ever since deadline, I’ve been avoiding my computer. This issue was grueling for me. I’ve needed all week just to get my house back in order, tame my wild children, and feed my half-starved man.

To catch up a bit–the dress I started a few weeks ago to wear to the Marine Corps Ball is still hanging, partially completed, in my sewing room. The pattern is lovely, but the dress just needed “something” and I didn’t have time to think about it or work on it during deadline. So instead, I looked thru my closet and found this dress I made a couple years ago (for a Ball we ended up not attending) that just needed a little finishing work. I finished it, we looked fabulous, I forgot my camera. Sorry.

The yellow/gold dress will still go on to become a real, finished dress, just maybe not one fancy enough to wear to next year’s Ball.

Right now my children and husband are all napping, so I’m taking a bit of a break. I starched some linens earlier, to use on Thanksgiving Day. We’re expecting to feed a few of the younger Marines in Erik’s unit, so I’m planning to cook for an army, as they say… though that’s really not right, because you’d never say an army of Marines… But anyway, we’re going to stick to the basics this year, just lots of them: turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls, greenbeans, yams, pumpkin pie (Jackie Clay’s recipe is the - best - ever!), stuffing, and some good brewski.