In most households there is something that we like to call the “dryer monster” that seems to make socks disappear without a trace. In my house though, we do not have a dryer monster (although the dryer does regularly eat clothes and ruin them). What we have in our house I have not-so-lovingly named “The Vortex”. The Vortex lives in an undisclosed area of our house and it mostly eats shoes. It especially seems to enjoy the flavor of the girls’ shoes, but on occassion it will also eat mine and the boys’ shoes. It seems to prefer a variety of shoes…it won’t ever eat an entire pair of shoes…only one at a time and then it moves on to the next pair.

Currently the girls have about 5 pairs of shoes that fit their feet. I have spent the last few days searching and searching for all their shoes and so has Jan. They have one, count it, ONE complete set of shoes. (ie, all three matching pairs) And do you know why they have one complete set? Because I gave up looking for the missing shoe and bought a whole other pair! This is frustrating. Shoes are expensive. I have looked in their room, under their beds, in their toys, all around the house, behind the washer and dryer, outside, in the cars…you get the idea. I have a bad feeling that we are never going to be seeing all those shoes again. Sad.

The Vortex, while normally prefering shoes, sometimes also eats things like measuring cups, sippy cups and sometimes even Bryce’s homework. If only I could find that Vortex. I’d be a millionaire.

I know, I know a huge no no…but I just read this and I wanted to link it so that I could share with everyone. I know there are a lot of differing opinions to the race for the president, and frankly I’m just ready to have it over with because I’m sick of all the commercials. But I read this and it made me cry. And I think it’s so terribly, terribly important….

Randy Alcorn’s Blog

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

-Nelson Mandela

Last Thursday my friends Heidi, Christine and Andrea came over to my house bright and early and we started a LONG day of canning. Heidi had been to Growers Outlet a couple days before and bought a ton of fruit so we had a lot of work cut out for us. We had 50 lbs of peaches, 50 lbs of pears, 50+ lbs of tomatoes and 2 brown paper grocery bags of apples from Heidi’s grandma’s tree. It was a long 10 hour day…and even then, Heidi had to take home her box of peaches to do at home and I had 2 batches of applesauce still to make and can. But all in all, it was a great day. Such a huge sense of accomplishment when you see all the can’s lined up. This is my first year of serious canning. Last year I dabbled a bit in canning. When my grandma realized that I had acquired an interest in canning, she brought me a gift. Her pressure canner, complete with all the parts and instruction manual from 1962. This is such a treasure to me! Not only do I love old things…but this particular pressure canner has family history! I have always wondered why canning in particular was so nostalgic for me. My mom didn’t really do any canning so I don’t remember this process as a kid. Last night my question got answered. My sister called me last week and asked me if I could look through a box of photos from my dad to see if her birth certificate had gotten mixed up in them. So last night I was looking through the box and consequently through our old photos. As I was doing this I found a package of photos. Let me give you a little background on these particular photos. When I was growing up, my mom’s grandparents lived in Boise, Idaho (my grandma still does) about 3 hours away from Boise, in Riggins Idaho lived my great grandparents in a house that my great grandpa built. We called it “up on the river” because they literally lived right across the street from the Little Salmon River. We went up there almost every year growing up. I have a lot of memories of there that I won’t talk about now…but when I was about Jr High or Highschool, we went up there for the last time. My great grandparents were getting up in years and needed to sell their house and property and move to a retirement home. So since I knew it was the last time I’d ever be there, I took my camera and took pictures of every room in the house.
As I was looking through this particular roll of film, I discovered this picture:

This is my great grandma’s pantry. No wonder that I am nostalgic about canning. My mom never did it, but my great grandma did. And my grandma did…(actually, she still does) I most remember my great grandma always having canned cherries from their many cherry trees that grew on their property. I loved those! But I also remember peaches. It’s so exciting when you find something like this. Even though I didn’t know (or remember) where this came from, I knew that my desire and drive to do home canning came from somewhere. And now I have proof that it’s in my family history. How cool is that?

So the great green experiment continues on in the McKenney household. It was a few days ago that I tried the green tomato bread recipe…but it didn’t last long. The bread got rave reviews from the entire household as well as from some visiting friends yesterday who have requested the recipe. The bread is very similar to zucchini bread and really tastes like fall and not at all like tomatoes which made it a winner for me!

Here is a pic of the bread. And here is the recipe:

1 cup oil

3 eggs, beaten

2 c sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups ground green tomatoes

3 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg (again, I omitted this since I don’t like nutmeg and instead doubled the cloves)

nuts and raisins (optional; I didn’t use)

Stir together oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and green tomatoes. Sift together remaining ingredients and add into tomato mixture. Pour into 2 well oiled loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Yummy!

The fourth and last experiment I did was for Green Tomato Raspberry Jam. Interesting, right? The recipe claimed that it looked and tasted just like raspberry jam….and you know what? They were right! Well, almost. There is a slightly different flavor in there, but really, it is almost the same. I’m anxious to try it after it has set to see how the consistency changes it.