Keeping busy doing nothing much

This is the scene that greeted me yesterday morning.....





This is the second time it's snowed and it's not even the middle of October yet. What happened to Fall?? The Old Farmer's Almanac is said to be predicting a long, snowy, cold winter. Could they be right? It's off to a good start.

There hasn't been much quilty activity going on around here except for going to Quilt Club last night. Our friend Lori from SD & her sister joined us. Her sister doesn't sew but I think she got a kick out of watching the whole proceeding. Luanne, our hostess had us do string blocks....would you believe we got all 48 of them sewed. We jabber a lot, but we work as fast as we talk. We're well-fed too...Luanne brought all kinds of goodies and some absolutely fantastic cheesecake made by her daughter-in-law.

What's been keeping me busy lately is dehydrating apples & pears, making deer jerky and some chokecherry jelly. The dehydrator has been working overtime...the pears are getting too ripe too fast.



The picture includes the three "do-overs".....jelly that didn't set up. Wouldn't you know it was the box of Sure-Jell that I just bought that didn't set up....the 5-yr. old boxes and the boxes from last year worked just fine. Go figure!!!

Since it's pear season and pear season is short, I've been making French Pear Pie every few days. Yum. And since we've been eating so much pie it's probably a good thing the season is short.



It's really not fair to show a picture of food without the recipe so here it is:

FRENCH PEAR PIE

Single pie crust to fit your pie pan.

Filling:

Enough peeled, sliced pears to fill pan
3 T. frozen orange juice concentrate
1/2 t. dried lemon peel
2 heaping T. cornstarch or Clear-Jel (I prefer the *Clear-Jel)

Mix thoroughly, pour into pie shell.

Topping:

1 C. flour
1/2 sugar (increase both of these a little if your pan is larger than 9")
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/3 - 1/2 C. softened butter or margarine

Mix well and put on top of filling, pat it down firmly. Bake at 375 for 45-50 min.
Test with a toothpick to be sure pear filling is done.

Cool and enjoy with a generous helping of vanilla ice cream on top.

* The catch with using Clear-Jel is that it is only available on-line or from Amish bulk food stores.