In the kitchen

I don't know if it's the time of year, or 2nd trimester nesting, or just feeling better after my sinus/ear infection, but we've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen! Here are my three little helpers, ready to help roll out pie crust. First there was one, then two, then the littlest one carried a chair over to stand on as well. Cute, but where am I supposed to stand?? Here was our finished cherry pie--there wasn't quite enough dough for a top and bottom crust, and I didn't feel like making more, so I used a play-do cutter to make these shapes. Not blue-ribbon worthy, but I thought it worked out pretty well!
We've also made apricot jam (with apricot pulp ready to go from my Grandma); salsa; and today tackled crabapple jelly. I've never made it before, thankfully the crabapples were the biggest I've ever seen, so it wasn't too bad. I didn't have any cheesecloth to squeeze the juice from, so used an old clean T-shirt cut into a square. Then for the first time, I tried a hot water bath to seal the jars so I wouldn't have to put them all in the freezer...and it worked! Yeah! Now I have a 5-gallon bucket of apples and some pears to mess with...