Fall is a busy time. We get to deal with all those veggies and fruit you grew or was given to you. I also have black walnut treas in abundance around my property and this year I actually want to get as many nut meats as I possibly can. So I currently have a long list of chores to get done before everything rots. The first was to process the incredibly abundant Concord grapes and I think I ended up with about 3 gallons of grape jelly. Between that and the several gallons of strawberry preserves I made this spring and my kids should be set with PB&J for the next year.

Life is trying really hard to keep me from posting but today I am bound and determined that I am going to get it done. Fall officially arrived and this weekend I harvested my grapes and got almost 2 bushel of huge concord grapes. This was a wonderful year for grapes and I have never had my vines turn out such large and sweet grapes. My pumpkins and winter squash are still going very strong but they are forecasting a frost for tonight and if it is cold enough to kill my plants I will have to harvest the bumper crop of squash hiding among the 40x40 square that is currently just a sea of plants.

The party was a rousing success! Far more people than I expected showed up and we had a grand time. The menu turned out pretty much how I planned except I left out the potato packets because I ended up with Amish potato salad instead. One thing that surprised me was how fast the Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno's were devoured. I had made half of them with my home-grown Bulgarian carrot peppers that are very flavorful but also very spicy. We learned that even a single seed left in them will make your eyes water. Even with the heat lottery going on we ended up making a second batch later in the night.

I realized I forgot the Bay leaf in the brine for the Grilled Chicken recipe and I forgot to link to recipes as I put them online in the menu.

Now I just have to figure out what I am going to server as munchies until my brother gets off work.