I'm writing this early this morning before the appling begins for another day. Yesterday I posted all my pictures and had intended to write about them, but by the time I finished writing the little bit I had, the apples (do I really need to say it?) were done and needed my attention, and, well, that was pretty much it for me for the rest of the day!
Anyway, last weekend I processed you-know-whats. We left for Delaware early Tuesday morning. When we got to the trailer there was a huge spider web strung between two trees. That explains the spider web picture. I was very mindful unloading my stuff out of the truck. That's one spider web I didn't want to get tangled in!
On Wednesday, Andy and I walked to one of the outlet centers. It's not too far, but it's still a bit of a hike. We went to the Old Navy outlet and were very pleasantly surprised. They didn't have anything that impressed me for women, but Andy made out like a bandit. Actually, I can't remember the last time we bought clothes for Andy. Mostly he has always worn Tom's hand-me-downs, but now that he and Tom are close in size, there isn't a lot that Tom is handing-me-down! Andy wears a larger shoe size than Tom now - size 11 compared to Tom's 10. At the store Andy found polo shirts for $4.89 and cargo pants and jeans for $9.00 and $11.00. Other shirts were $6.00. When we were checking out, the cashier told us that as of October first that Old Navy outlet would no longer be an outlet, that it was converting into a regular Old Navy retail store and that's why the prices were so low. They had to have the building and entire inventory cleared out by October first. So, after October the prices will be quite a bit higher, but at least the selection for women should improve!
Then we went to the Kitchen Collection where I got an apple peeler/corer/slicer. Praise the Lord! This thing makes life so much easier when processing apple pie filling. The apple goes onto the end and you turn the crank. The peel comes off in one long strip and the apple comes off the end cored and cut like a giant curly fry - all in one piece. For the pie filling I just cut the apple down the middle for two sets of slices. After seeing one apple done this way, Jerry suggested leaving the apple as a giant curly fry and frying it that way and then sprinkling it with cinnamon sugar. I bet that would be good. If I have time I might try that, but I seriously doubt it will be today.
Then after shopping Andy and I decided to treat ourselves to Cracker Barrel. The two of us ate there for not much more we could have gone to McDonald's or Arby's. Andy got the chicken and dumplings. I got the chef salad. Before anyone reading this thinks I'm behaving myself by eating sensibly, I should mention that Jerry's aunt and uncle were shopping the outlets on Tuesday and called Jerry Tuesday night and wanted to meet us at - yep, Cracker Barrel. So I had my meatloaf and mashed potato meal Tuesday night, so I figured I'd better eat sensibly Wednesday! Andy and I worked the peg puzzle while waiting for our order. The caption on the picture tells how I fared!
On Thursday evening we went to visit Hilda, the lady who used to live in front of us here. She moved into her new house in Millsboro two weeks ago. We weren't sure when she was moving in exactly, so we just took a chance on her being there. She had given us her new address before she left here but she didn't have a definite closing date at that time. Anyway, when she opened her door and saw us standing there, at first she looked surprised, then hugged us all. Jerry told her that she will have to move further away or we'd just keep finding her! It was a great visit. We ended up staying until almost 11:00. Jerry fixed some stuff for her, just like he did here! He told her that we'd be coming back next week to give her some apple stuff. Every year I had given her apple pie filling and apple butter, and she gave us black walnuts that she got from a friend's house. She gave us a bunch that she had when she moved, but I need to find a black walnut cracker. A hammer really gets old and doesn't really do the job!
Okay, I think I'm caught up. Oh, one more thing. Yesterday Uncle Jim had his annual bluegrass shindig, but because we only found out about two days before the thing, there was no way we could go, not with apples rotting by the day here and Jerry still needing to work on the chipper after having been gone all week. We really missed it though, and Jerry was very disappointed and kept making references to all the great crab cakes and great music he was missing out on! Aunt Nancy is famous for her crab cakes and she always makes hundreds of crab cake sandwiches for the shindig. The boys and I decided to surprise Jerry so I sent Tom to the store to get "shindig stuff" - crab meat, potato salad, chips and dip, rolls, and I can't think of what else but I know there was more. I couldn't go the store because I had a pot of apple puree needing to be stirred every five minutes. At dinner time the boys and I made crab cakes and all the other fixins and we put bluegrass music on. When we called Jerry in from the garage for dinner, we had our own bluegrass festival going on in our kitchen. Well, it wasn't live music, and there weren't tables groaning with food and desserts, but it was nice anyway.
Okay - NOW I think I'm caught up. Now I'm off to do stuff. Betcha can't guess what?! Oh yeah- I have to get these apples finished this weekend - next weekend I have five bushels of sweet corn coming that will need to be processed. Here we go again..........
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