Apple Pancakes

Happy 1st day of fall!  We picked a bushel of apples two weeks ago and still have about a peck left.  I shredded 2 apples by hand (if you have a food processor that will grate, use it, ours unfortunately broke a couple weeks ago, but it lasted us a good 12 years) to make  

Vegan Apple Pancakes:

 (adapted from Vegan Planet, their recipe is called Flax-Berry Pancakes)

1 1/2 c flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp ground flaxseeds

2 apples, shredded

1 c water
dash of cinnamon

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
Combine flax and water and mix until thick. 
Mix wet ingredients into dry until just combined, then add shredded apple. We ate them with real maple syrup!  This serves 4.

 Olivia and Velvet (who we call "kitty" most of the time) on the trampoline!

 A little turtle...listen to all the voices in the background.  ♥

Baked acorn squash with chopped apples

It's almost fall...the autumnal equinox is Sept. 22nd, just a few days away.  The weather has turned cooler and I'm ready for homemade bread, warm soup and baked squash.

We harvested just 4 acorn squash from our backyard.  I cut 2 in half and scooped out the seeds, filled them up with chopped apples, butter, brown sugar, all spice and cinnamon and baked them.  Mmmm!  I used this recipe as inspiration:  http://www.simplybloomblog.com/2011/10/baked-acorn-squash-with-cinnamon-apples.html
We still have quite a few apples...so juiced 8 of them (about 2 apples yields a cup of cider) for lunch yesterday.  Olivia doesn't like the froth on top, so I spooned it off and ate it.  To complete the meal, we had chicken and carrot salad.

 

 

Yesterday, we did a fun activity inspired by this culinary lesson, since my printer is out of ink, we used the paper bags from Trader Joe's to get "silverware" and make a placemat of proper setting...

 This morning I'm making prosphora as the girls work on their homeschooling lessons independently. It's the first time I've made prosphora in 3-4 months!  As I knead, I'm thinking of the little girl, Salome, who died last February, her parents left us flour.  I'm using that to make prosphora for our church.  I pray that her family, who is now back in Ukraine, is doing well.  ♥  

For lunch today, I am going to make borscht...a soup made with beets and cabbage.

Peach jam...

I made a simple peach jam, just chopped peaches and sugar, cooked on the stovetop...and then added a sprig of rosemary.  It now tastes like peach marmalade.  I really really like it!  I think it would be great over ice cream.

This weekend was Timothy's baptism.  He's the little brother of Sofia, who is battling cancer.  I was honored to be his Godmother. 

I wore my Ukrainian shirt.

63 years old today

 

That's Dad sitting on his mom's lap when he was just 1 year old.  Isn't his mom beautiful?  And in the middle is his father, who looks very much the same and he is 90 now!  We were looking at some old pictures last week.  One my sister took about 20 years ago of Dad next to his shiny red Mack truck.  He was a truck driver for much of his life, in addition to being a priest.  He got a degree in accounting and work in that field was not to his liking, I think too many people wanting him to adjust things so that they could cheat and make more $.  I remember when we lived in Vermont, he took me several times in his big truck to pick up milk from farms.  I loved trying the fresh milk and seeing all the farm cats and kittens gather to lick up any drips of milk.  When he wasn't working, he was home, playing tennis with his kids, going on hikes, camping with us...  He worked hard all his life.  Today is Dad's 63rd birthday!!!

 

 

My father holding the Holy Communion on Sunday Oct. 2, 2010 in his favorite Greek vestments, that are blue and white.  

This is our whole family, Dad in the center, Mom behind him, me and their other 3 daughters and our children, a total of 18 of us, photo taken by my brother-in-law's father in January 2013.

My sisters and I pitched in and bought Dad a TV (the first one he's had in about 20 years)!  When his Parkinson's disease started getting worse, he and Mom decided to subscribe to Netflix, which is really great, because he can choose what he wants to watch (they like nature programs a lot, and below the first thing they chose to watch was an Irish film). 

Yarn along: primary colours

I just finished Chapter 2 (and I ♥ it already) of We The Living by Ayn Rand.  So far, Kira and her parents and sister have returned to Russia, after being away for 5 years.  Her father's textile factory was "nationalized."  I see bits and pieces of Orthodoxy, Kira's sister Lydia wants to go to church and she and her mother cross themselves.  This is the first novel she had published (1936).  I've read several of her other books (Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged), which were published later.
I'm trying to use up the yarn I have by crocheting little critters.  To see more of what people are doing with their yarn, check out this week's "Yarn along."
We're still getting tomatoes from the backyard.  Beets and carrots, too, but as you can see, the chickens like to eat the greens!

Hannah and Olivia are wearing the aprons my parents got for them while in the Ukraine 7 years ago.  I'm so glad they go to go there and also to Russia, before my Dad's Parkinson's disease got worse!  And on Monday, Labor Day, we had a cookout...Aaron, the girl's cousin really liked the mini-vanilla cones from Trader Joe's.