September 2012

With cooler weather

And the promise of Autumn

We loved September

Our weekdays were fairly ordinary this month, but we took full advantage of the weekends!  Charlie had to be away on business trips for half of the month, so we really tried to make the most out of our time together!

The first weekend in September was extended for Labor Day, and we filled it full with lots of fun activities.  We went to Oklahoma City with our friends, the Elands, and had a picnic by the splash pad.  The babies had a blast crawling around on the water and playing in the sprays.

We also had our new Korean group of students over for lunch for the first time.  Even with somewhat of a language barrier, the conversations were great and we're loving getting to know this new part of our "family."  We've decided to make Wednesday nights our weekly night to get together for dinner this semester - I'm really looking forward to it!  They all give Bruce lots of extra attention, and he's crazy about them too!

The local natural history museum offers free admittance on the first monday of every month, including holidays - so we took advantage of Charlie having the day off for Labor Day and went to look at the "Chinosaurs" - the Chinese dinosaur exhibit.  It really is an incredible museum with much more to explore than just the dinosaurs.  Bruce absorbed it all like a sponge - especially the discovery room where there's lots of hands-on artifacts, themed toys, books and other things for kids to play with.  I have a feeling we'll be going back as often as possible on the free days!

in the car coming home after a long day

The following weekend we went to the Cleveland County Fair and had fun looking at all of the animals.  Charlie really wants to enter our Polish chickens in the open class competition next year.  We'll see.  They could definitely win - it just seems a little ridiculous!

The next weekend we went up to Stillwater to celebrate Yvonne's 60th birthday.  Although we came bearing Dove dark chocolates and a super-rich chocolate cake, I think bringing the grandbaby was the best gift - we really should try to make it up there more often!  Bruce had a lot of fun checking on the cows and feeding the herd of cats.  We attempted to go down to the river, but after meandering through a maze of thick brush and bramble, we discovered it was too washed out and we couldn't quite make it.  Charlie did a great job navigating Bruce through it all though without getting a single scratch!    

ducking under a tangle of branches

The weekend of the 22nd we took our Korean students to the Oklahoma State Fair.  It was Bruce's second time for this grand occasion, but this time, he got to partake in the best part - Fair Food!

Like I mentioned earlier, Monday through Friday this month we've settled into a nice routine.  The days blur together somewhat and pass by quickly.  We start the day between 6:00 and 6:45, play a little and have breakfast.  After that, Charlie takes Bruce for a walk through the neighborhood to watch the school buses, find catalpa bean pods, acorns, pinecones, sticks, utility flag markers - you name it - and to see the litter of kittens around the corner.  I think it's Bruce's favorite 30 minutes of the day! Then, Charlie heads off to work and Bruce and I feed the chickens and the cat, read a few books, and get ready for a nap.  When Bruce wakes up, we play and have lunch and play some more, and then it's time for another nap!  After that nap, we usually get out of the house for awhile until dinner.  Bruce eats dinner around 5:00, then Charlie comes home and they explore the backyard.  (Bruce's second favorite 30 minutes of the day!)  Then it's bath, books, and bedtime at 6:30!  I'm looking forward to when Bruce can stay up a little later without turning into Mr. CrankyPants, but until then, we're enjoying our kid-free evenings.  Even if that means being homebound starting so early. 

Bruce loves the giant fish pillow!

trying to plug a USB cord into the lamp stand

Bruce has gotten so much better at "free" standing and walking while holding on to things - including our hands finally!  He has even taken a couple of independent steps!  He's still not venturing away from his "grip"much though or really walking around by himself yet.  I have a feeling it'll be coming soon though as he's growing real impatient when his push toys don't always cooperate.  He definitely is showing his independence more and more with everything and pushing away my helping hands in the universal "I can do it myself" brush off.  He's still quick to whine a bit though when he does need my help afterall.  So it's a delicate balance of trying to let him do things himself, but being ready to jump in when he's struggling.

At meal times Bruce is starting to show a lot more interest in using utensils now.  He always needs to have a spoon to "practice," but mainly just stirs around the food.  It's funny to watch him pick up a piece of food off of his tray with his fingers, and carefully place it on the spoon - he just won't attempt to put it in his mouth after that!  He also has learned that he can spit things out.  I guess that was a new realization for him.  And boy does he love to spit things out now.  If he has something in his mouth he doesn't like, or is tired of eating, he opens wide his mouth and shakes his head back and forth until the food falls out.  And if it doesn't fall out on its own, he whines until I pick it off his tongue.  Along with spitting things out, he also has gotten better at slurping things in!  Before, if some food didn't quite make it in, he'd use his fist to shove it the rest of the way, but now his little lizard tongue has figured out how to help him out!

Bruce is getting better at independent play, but still would rather be "doing" whatever I'm doing -  which means I don't get a whole lot done!  I did manage to get all of the closets cleaned out and reorganized this month though, and Bruce had a great time "helping" with that.  He'd much rather play with the can full of paintbrushes than any of his toys.  Also, in the process of having all the contents of all the closets strewn about the house, Bruce discovered a passion for shoes and is obsessed with them now!  Whenever he sees shoes, whether they're mine or Charlie's, he drags them over to whoever is closest, and "asks" them to put them on.  And doesn't relent until someone is wearing the shoes.  Now that it's getting a little cooler, and Bruce is walking more outdoors, I finally bought him a pair of shoes - and he can't get enough of them!  When I try to take them off, he whines, or holds his foot up "asking" for me to put them back on.  I don't get it.  Wouldn't he much rather be barefoot?

There's a lot of things I don't get about that boy.  I don't know why he'd rather wear shoes.  Don't they constrict his toes?  I don't know why he loves wearing hats.  Don't they make his head itch?  I don't know why he enjoys playing in the freezer.  It's the freezer.  Isn't it freezing?  Sometimes I think we're so different.  But then I think about how much he likes ice cream, and dancing, and animals, and being outside and I think, me and this kid are going to do just fine together. 

trying to coax the cat to come in...

jamming to music at Sam's

His current favorite toy right now is a wheeled push toy that he got for Christmas.  Up until now, he hasn't given it too much thought, but now we almost have to hide it sometimes because as soon as he sees it, he does a dive bomb out of our arms, or a beeline across the room, and immediately walks/pushes it over to the front door.  We took him outside with it ONE TIME, and now he is determined that that's the only place he can push it around.  I guess I can't blame him - there's a lot more open space outside.  It's just that we can't always take it outside because sometimes it's too hot, or rainy, or dark - and there's no reasoning with a one year old.

When we do get to be outdoors, Bruce has turned his attention upwards this month.  He now recognizes the sound airplanes make and tries to find them in the sky when he hears one.  He also loves to watch birds fly around and perch on telephone wires.  And for some reason, I find it fascinating that he noticed the moon all on his own.  I've never really talked about the moon, or showed it to him in books, but in the mornings the moon is usually still out, and he always points it out for me.  I wonder what he thinks about it. 

yes, those are shoes over his footie pajamas...

Bruce still really enjoys books too, and I can practically recite them all from memory by now.  Added to his list of favorites are his two John Deere Farm ABC and 123 books, Painting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert, Haiku Baby by Betsy Snyder, Time for Bed by Mem Fox and Animal Kisses by Barney Saltzberg .  The animal kisses book is one of those "touch and feel" books that have different textures on each page.  One day, I thought it would be fun for me to make Bruce's feet touch the pages to shake things up a bit.  Well.  Now he has to "read" every time with his feet.  He cracks me up!  It's fun to watch him really inspect every part of the pages in books now too.  He almost always points out the blue bird on every page in the haiku book, and for some odd reason, he always points out the crocus flower when we get to the purple page in the rainbow book.  I really wonder what it is about that crocus that he loves so much.  Maybe we'll have to plant some.

Speaking of which, we never got around to planting anything new in our garden for the fall, so we're down to just peppers and okra.  Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of the okra, so I can't really pickle any of it.  And I always forget at dinner time that it's out there.  The peppers are still doing great, I just haven't found much time to make any jelly.  It's a shame really.  I guess it's just not real high on the priority list these days!

almost full head puffs on our buff girls

We gave half of our chickens away towards the beginning of the month, and are down to just six now.  We have two of each color - silver laced, copper laced, and buff laced.  We were suspicious initially that one of the copper ones was a rooster, but now we're also thinking one of the silvers might be too.  We've heard some rather interesting pseudo-crowing lately, but haven't been able to tell which one is doing it.  They haven't found their "big girl" voices yet, so there's a chance it could be hens testing out their vocals... but I'm doubtful...  I'm betting in the next month we'll know for sure - until then, still no names.  We don't want to waste a good dead aunt on a rooster we'll have to get rid of!

Bruce says, "Pack me, Daddy!"

Charlie has a lot more work related trips on the calendar for this upcoming season.  It's unfortunate that he can't be home more, but we're thankful his job is thriving, and he's getting the opportunity to work on a lot of interesting projects.  I opened a skype account this month so Bruce and Charlie could talk to each other while he's gone - but that means that Bruce can skype with any of you also!  I'm michelle.kolarik on skype - look us up and add us to your contacts - we'd love to chat!

August 2012

It's August again

A whole year since Bruce was born

Closing this chapter

In some ways, this past year has seemed like:

     366 nights of "less than ideal" sleep
     Nearly 1000 hours in the nursing chair
     Close to 300 hours of bouncing to Phil Rice's cd
     Quite possibly 200 hours at the high chair
     At least 3000 diapers
     Over 1200 times strapping Bruce into his car seat
     Probably close to a 100 or more trips to Wal-mart
     And countless miles in the car driving all over the country

In other ways, I feel like this year passed in the blink of an eye, and somehow, while my eyes were closed for that second, my little baby turned into a little boy!

So what is that little boy up to?  He's really working hard on walking and talking!  He can walk all over the place if he has a piece of furniture to hold on to, or has something to push ahead of him.  He hates when you hold his hands though, so there's no walking while cutely attached to our fingers - yet.  We don't feel like we can confidently say we've heard Bruce say any intelligible words, but so far MAYBE we've heard him say truck, cat, hat, touch, duck and Dada.  But that's a stretch.

This month we got out some "big boy" toys for Bruce - and he's crazy about them!  Mainly they're the Little Peoples brand.  He has a hand-me-down air plane, barn, and Noah's ark, along with several gender-ambiguous rolly-poly people and cute animals to go with them.  His favorites include the farmer (naturally, with the straw hat and all) and the mechanic/scientist.  (I can't really tell what he's supposed to be.)  He loves that the plane plays music, and thinks Noah should drive the tow truck rather than stay stuck in the ark.

Playing in the spaceship play area

There's always new games to be found for this kid!  This month he loves throwing a toy, then crawling over to it and throwing it again.  He also thinks it's hilarious when he picks up a piece of "tiny something" on the carpet - he catches my eye so he knows that I know that he knows he's not supposed to have it, starts to put it in his mouth, squeals, then "runs" away - crawls a bit, then whips around to catch my eye again, and does it all again.  He's a nut!  He's also become a little OCD about the way things "should" be.  If you play with a toy a certain way, he tries really hard to play with it the same way.  If you take a lid off of something, he wants to put it back on.  If you take something out of a box, he wants to put it back in.  It's really fun to watch him figure things out, unless he gets frustrated when he can't get it quite right!

Playing in a pillow crate at Sam's Club

It was like quicksand!

Bruce is completely done with baby foods now, and is even venturing on to more sophisticated foods - you know - like tacos.  And spaghetti.  He won't go for the garlic mashed potatoes yet, but all in good time... all in good time.  We've also begun the process of weaning, with fairly good success.  Bruce still seems a little confused by it all, but has been a pretty good sport.  He seems to like cow's milk, and does a decent job drinking out of a cup.  He has trouble with a sippy still, so we just go for the real deal.

At the Taco Truck for a Birthday Lunch!

Probably my favorite new development this month, is that Bruce has started to enjoy books and being read to!  He'll even sit still (almost) in a chair with you while you read to him for a little bit.  Right now his favorite books include Blue Hat, Green Hat and Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Will You Be My Friend by Eric Carle, and The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle.  He never gets tired of them!  (And neither do I)  Bruce has never been interested in cuddling, or sitting on laps, or anything of that nature - he's always on the go - so this has been a welcomed addition to our daily activities!

 

Opening presents with Granny K!

We had a birthday party for Bruce the weekend before his birthday.  We invited some friends over for a hotdog cookout, and were thankful the rain cleared up in time for people to be able to spend time outdoors.  It was a packed house!  We're so thankful so many people love our baby!  Charlie found a great deal on Craig's List for a free tractor tire sandbox, which made a perfect birthday present!

Bruce and his buddy Judah!

ohhhh...  I think I can do that too...

Tractor tire smash cake

Everyone else's cake

The only update I have for our garden is that most of it has died, but the peppers are still hanging in there.  Unfortunately, only the super spicy ones are producing peppers right now, so I can't really do anything with them except string a garland, which I'm planning on doing eventually...   We're going to try to plant some more veggies this weekend now that the weather's calmed down to see if we can get a Fall crop.  It's doubtful we'll be successful, but since we have some seeds leftover from the Spring, why not?

We've hit a few obstacles, but our chickens are doing pretty great!  We started with 17, but three of them died within the first couple of days from shock.  That's pretty typical unfortunately, that's why they sent us some extra to begin with.  Then, the first day we put them in the outside pen, one died from heat exhaustion.  A few days later, I guess a few chickens got the idea to plan an escape.  The lower two feet of the pen has smaller openings in the wire, but towards the top of the cage, the holes are big enough for small chicks to fly out of.  We assumed those holes were too high for our little guys, but we were wrong!  We noticed one night some feathers caught in the upper cage wire, and that one of the girls was limping.  Upon further investigation, we discovered that she had torn a huge gash in her leg.  Thankfully, our neighbors work in the medical field, and Ryan was able to put a few sutures in to help her out!  She camped out inside in the dog crate for a few days, with daily dopings of neosporin and betadine, and has made a complete recovery!  (Good thing too, because she might be our only copper colored hen)  The morning after we noticed the hurt hen, I did a head count on our chicks, and realized we were missing a buff one!  So I guess the two were in on it together, but one made a clean get away!  So we're down to twelve chicks, and I think soon we'll be able to decisively tell which ones are males and which are females.  The plan is to keep six, and then if that turns out to be too many for our hen house, we can always put two up on Craig's List later.  We've been getting friendly with them by offering up some mealworm treats a couple times a day, and I can't wait to give them names!  

Grady County Fair Chickens

Last weekend we adopted a new group of Korean students through the Friends to International Students organization at OU.  We've been a host family for several years, but took a bit of a break last year with Bruce.  It's exciting to get back involved with the program though!  We have five students that will be a part of our family this year.  We're looking forward to having them over for dinners and introducing them to our culture!

We're loving the (somewhat) cooler temperatures and are ready to eagerly embrace the coming Fall season! 



July 2012

Whew!  This month flew by!

My mom and Rick came for a quick visit towards the beginning of the month.  Bruce got lots of extra lovin' along with a couple of servings of Sonic ice cream and he even got to sample the goodness that is Ozzie's Diner.  He tried many items from the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, but mainly chowed down on the French toast.  While Papa Rick played with Bruce, my mom and I had some time to make some of my "famous" pepper jelly, and we even tried a new honeyed yellow tomato butter recipe that turned out amazingly!  After we put Baby to bed at night, we broke out the games and had some fun playing Blokus (a new favorite) and Bananagrams.

Rick and Bruce's Stud Muffin shirts

Downward Dog Yoga

Towards the middle of the month we spent an extended weekend at the farm in Kansas.  One of Charlie's relatives passed away and Charlie was asked to play some music at the memorial service.  Of course he managed to squeeze in some farm chores too, and Bruce and I rode along with him for a bit in the giant tractor while he disked a field.  Bruce also got some major stair climbing practice at the farm house.  I'm not sure what I think about him using his teeth to clamp down on the step above him for leverage though...  On our way home we drove by a sunflower field, so naturally we had to stop for some photos!  

Baby still loves tires!

A few days after we returned from Kansas, our new chicks came!  Five years ago we inadvertently began this adventure of raising backyard chickens.  We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into when Aunt Mildred wandered into our garage and decided to roost in our apple tree, but our lives have been fuller since!  We've had several chickens come and go over the years, but we finally lost Aunt Dooney to a raccoon last month, so it was time to start fresh.  17 little pom-pom headed polish chicks came to us via the US postal service and currently live in a giant dog crate in our guest bedroom.  We're trying to spend some quality time with them every day so they'll be nice and tame - it's so hard though when there's so many of them!  Once we can tell the boys from the girls, we'll narrow it down to 4-6 hens, and then we'll think of some good names to honor our dead great aunts!  Along with the chicks, there are a few ducks that have started to come and tap on our front door asking for crackers.  Bruce likes to feed them too - he takes a cracker, takes a bite, and then drops it for the ducks.  Takes another cracker, takes a bite, and then drops it for the ducks.

Our poor garden has really taken a beating this month from the heat - it looks so shabby that I can't bare to even post a photo!  We got a lot of eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers throughout the month - but everything is at somewhat of a standstill right now.  The okra seedlings are really struggling (but still might pull through) but the green bean seedlings are hanging in surprisingly well, so hopefully we'll see some little pods soon!  We were planning on planting some more corn and a few other things for the fall, but I don't think there's any way they'd survive, so we'll hold out a little longer.  I've posted some recipes from this month - give 'em a try!

The garden isn't the only thing trying to survive the heat!  We invested in a cheapy inflatable baby pool for Bruce this month to help us keep cool and still get some outdoor time.  He loves it, but it's hard to keep him in the pool - this baby cannot be contained!  My friend Janet has a big pool at her house and we've had some nice "float" days there, too.  Bruce loves to splash and be pulled around in the water (and watch the other kiddos that are there), and I of course love to visit with my old "teacher" friends.

Bruce and I have made some indoor play dates too, with four of our favorite people!  Chelsea and Judah, and Kelleigh and Caris are so much fun to spend an afternoon with!  It's incredibly entertaining to watch the babes play around each other, and the mamas love their social time too!  Right now trying to get three naps schedules to coincide can be a challenge, but I'm looking forward to these guys growing great friendships!

Attempting to paint

Even on the days when we just stay around the house, there's always an adventure to be had.  Bruce has transformed our humble abode into something akin to a parkour course - he's pulling up on anything and everything, walking alongside table ledges, walking behind and pushing boxes and chairs around, crawling over table bars and under chair rails - he never sits still!  And just when I think he's explored every possible square inch of this place, he always manages to uncover a new treasure.  He loves rolling balls and tractors all around the house, playing with magnets on the fridge, and making as much noise as he can with found objects.  Still no words, but I think we've noticed him responding to a few words as if he knew what we were saying - so we're making progress!  We also think he's trying really hard to say "truck."  I'm not confident enough to call it his first word, but we'll see!  And I love to hear his heart-melting laugh when we discover new games to play with each other.  Some of our current favorites are "Eat Mama's Belly Button," playing "Bull" where we butt heads and rub our foreheads together (sounds harsh, but he loves it!), and rolling around on pillow forts made by Charlie.    He also really enjoys his morning walks with Charlie pushing him down the sidewalk on his newly restored pedal tractor.    

 

Along with the growing mobility, the number of bumps and bruises, slips and stumbles, whacks and wipe outs - has also increased.  We don't see tears very often - Bruce is quite the tough guy - but when he does have a hard time recovering, we have a great trick.  Bruce loves to check out what's in the fridge!  So when the wailing seems unconsolable, we just go take an inventory of the barbecue sauce and salad dressings.  Works like a charm!  For now...

 

Speaking of the fridge...  Bruce is now just about done with baby food!  He's doing a great job with his table food, and he has even started to feed himself a little.  I cringe a tiny bit when he wants to "help" with the bowl of veggies - and proceeds to squish them to pulp before smearing them all over his face in an attempt to get some in his mouth.  But he's learning, right?  We try to practice more with things like goldfish crackers - they're much easier to clean up!  It's times like these when I wish we had a dog because Mr. Pants just scoffs at the idea of taking care of leftovers.  Bruce's current favorite foods are mandarin oranges, bananas, peas, green beans, Reese's Puffs cereal (shhh...) and hot dogs.  Especially mandarin oranges.

Although Bruce will eat just about anything we offer him, getting him to sit in his high chair without throwing a fit has definitely brought one thing to our attention - we've entered into a whole new world of parenting.  Parenting is now more than just making sure we have plenty of diapers in the closet and that we get home in time to get Bruce down for his nap.  We've now crossed into this scary and unfamiliar territory of having to make decisions that will hopefully guide this little guy to become someone great.

 

 At first, Bruce pointing and grunting to get us to show him things he was interested in was exciting because he was finally communicating with us.  But as the gesturing grew to be incessant, and the grunting turned into demanding shrieks, we knew that some boundaries needed to be put in place.  We've been watching parents for years now, and have really enjoyed reading up on some popular parenting books, but are still trying to figure out what's going to work for our family.  Right now, we don't have consequences in place for Bruce, but the friendly one-liners "Hey!  Not Nice!" and "I'd be happy to let you play with that after lunch!" can be heard reverberating throughout our house all day long.  I know mealtime battles are probably just the first item on a long list of undesierable behaviors that we'll have to coach Bruce through - I just hope that we have the patience and wisdom to make good decisions for this little boy we've been entrusted with!

 

We definitely believe that it takes a village to raise a child,
and we're thankful to be on this journey with all of you and appreciate your love, encouragement, and support along the way!

Balsamic Eggplant Pasta

Ingredients:
2 medium eggplants
salt
1/2 cup basalmic vinegar
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp (or more) dried basil
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced (or more)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 box of bowtie pasta
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Peel and dice eggplants, sprinkle generously with salt
Let the eggplant "weep" for 30 minutes and then rinse off excess salt
Marinate eggplant with basalmic vinegar and herbs for 30 minutes
Saute olive oil and garlic, mix in tomatoes
Cook pasta according to directions
Layer a baking dish with pasta, eggplant mixture, tomato mixture, and cheese sprinkled on top
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes
*Great vegetarian dish, but you could add chicken too!

Eggplant Fries

Ingredients:
Eggplant
salt
1 cup flour
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp salt
1 egg
1 c. milk
1 tbsp mayo

oil for frying

Directions:
Peel eggplant, cut into "fries," and sprinkle generously with salt.
Let the eggplant "weep" for 30 minutes and then rinse off excess salt.
Mix flour, garlic powder, oregano, pepper, and salt together.
Add egg, milk and mayo to flour mixture to make a batter.
Dip eggplant fries into batter and then place in hot oil and fry until golden.
Drain excess oil on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt if desired.
*Great served with Ranch salad dressing!

Bruchetta

Ingredients:
tomatoes (I prefer yellow, but any variety is fine)
onion - red, white or yellow
minced garlic
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
basil, fresh or dried
oregano, fresh or dried
salt
pepper
parmesan cheese

Directions:
This "recipe" is one that you just kind of go with your gut - there aren't exact measurements, just whatever you have on hand or feel like!

Seed and dice tomatoes
Dice onion
Mix together approximately equal portions of tomatoes and onion
Add as much minced garlic as you'd like
Drizzle approximately equal portions of olive oil and basalmic vinegar over the vegetables
Sprinkle in the seasonings to taste
Chill in refrigerator until cool
Before serving, sprinkle with parmesan cheese
Serve with toasted baguette slices or crackers

Yellow Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:
2 pounds yellow tomatoes
3 Granny Smith apples
1 small onion
1 jalapeno pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp mustard seed
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups cider vinegar

Directions:
Seed and chop tomatoes (Remove skins if you feel like it.  Finished product looks nicer, but it doesn't affect quality or taste)
Core and chop apples
Dice onion
Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pot.
Simmer until thick (about 2 hours).  Stir frequently to prevent sticking.
*Can be preserved by canning - process jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.

Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter (Ball's Blue Book recipe)

Ingredients:
5 pounds yellow tomatoes
2 cups sugar
1 cup honey
1 (1-inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 tbsp whole allspice
2 sticks cinnamon

Directions:
To prepare pulp: Wash tomatoes; drain.  Remove core and blossom ends.  Chop roughly.  Cook tomatoes in a large sauce pot until soft.  Press through a sieve or food mill; discard seeds and peel.  Measure 2 quarts tomato pulp.

To Make Butter:  Combine tomato pulp, sugar and honey in a large sauce pot.  Tie ginger and spices in a spice bag.  Add spice bag to tomato mixture.  Cook slowly until thick enough to round up on a spoon.  As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.  Ladle hot butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:
Banana or Anaheim peppers
shredded cheddar or colby jack cheese
turkey bacon slices

Directions:
Cut stem end off peppers, cut a slit the length of the pepper, and remove seeds
Stuff pepper with cheese
Wrap pepper with a slice of turkey bacon
Place peppers on a greased, foil covered cookie sheet
Broil until the cheese melts and bacon crisps, approximately 10 minutes. 

Pepper Jelly

Well, maybe I'll keep this one for myself!  Let me know if you want a jar though!