Fall weather is vegetable beef soup making time. I made this soup using tomatoes, turnips, potatoes, green        
beans, carrots, onions and parsley from my garden. It hit the spot on a cool cloudy fall day!

I picked the last of my winter squash from my garden today. I will probably freeze some since this is too much squash to eat now.                                                

                                                                   
To freeze winter squash, wash and cut in half. Remove the seeds and pulp and discard. Cut the squash meat into 1 inch squares and cut off the outer rind. Boil the cut-up pieces for about 10 minutes until they are soft but not mushy. Drain and cool quickly in ice water. When cool, drain and mash using a potato masher and pack into pint or quart freezer bags and freeze. These will be used for a cooked winter squash side dish or for pumpkin pies this winter. I can't wait!

 My garden still has lots of jalapeno peppers, so I thought I would make some nachos with cheese, chips and these peppers, chopped onion and chopped Roma tomatoes all fresh out of my garden!

                                    Anyone for nachos? These are ready to go under the broiler.

How about this Northstar sweet bell pepper growing in my garden that is now turning red! They are very meaty and tasty.

I picked my Serrano Tampiqueno peppers this morning. The seeds were started indoors on April 2, 2012 and the 2 plants were set out in the garden on May 26, 2012. The maturity time on these peppers is 85 days which is longer than most of the peppers I plant, but they did fine probably due to our nice warm and dry September. They are very hot either green or red. When they are all red, I will dry these whole in the dehydrator and use them in chili and other spicy dishes.

Every year I save a few large mature bean pods and allow them to dry so I can thresh out the seed and save it for use next year to plant in my garden. I plant a green pole bean and a bush yellow bean so I keep the seed separated. Beans will not cross-pollinate  so they can be planted next to one another. They also are non-hybrid, thus I can save the seed, provided I keep the weevil out.

I keep the seed beans in labeled and dated envelopes and store with my other seeds for use next year. Any extra beans are mixed together (in a paper bag) and kept in the kitchen to be used to make bean soup! This year the extra was about 1 pound of beans.

Halloween will soon be here. Want to make caramel apples from scratch? You will need a candy therometer.
                        1 dozen freshly picked crisp apples of your choice
                        1 dozen candy apple sticks
For caramel:
                        1 large can condensed milk
                        2 cups sugar
                        1 3/4 cups white corn syrup (I use Karo)
                        4 teaspoons vanilla
                        2 cubes butter
Optional:
                        1 cup cone dipping chocolate
                        1 cup chopped nuts (peanuts, walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts)
                     

1. Wash and dry apples and insert the sticks. Set aside.
2. In a heavy sauce pan over medium high heat, add all caramel ingredients except vanilla. Stir constantly until the thermometer reads 210 degrees F. Reduce heat to medium and continue stirring until thermometer reaches 248 degrees F. Remove from heat.
3. Add the vanilla and stir.
4. Dip the apples into the warm caramel to coat, then set on a sheet of wax paper to cool.
5. When cool, dip the apples in warm cone dipping chocolate and then into nuts. Return to wax paper to cool.

Enjoy!