Before and After. Martha's arrangements somewhat more organized

So acting on the urgent need for midwinter fruit, I remembered that I had frozen and stored farm apples in the chest freezer next door, courtesy of good friend, since my own freezer was jammed.  So I moseyed off to retrieve them.  

And remembered that since the freezer is in his outdoor storage closet, he stacks a lot of items on top of it.  Since my wrist is not yet up to moving heavy items, I had to catch him home and get his help, given willingly, to remove all the stuff so I could lift the lid and get into my apples.

The stuff involved auto parts and tools, gardening equipment, picnic items, a pogo stick (!) and various electrical gizmos. And I did get in and find the desired apples.

So home again, here's my favorite dish waiting to be filled. 

 I did make a slight error in the amount of butter for the topping for my apple crumble, Martha recipe, and found I had no oats for it either, having made them all into flour. And I added in walnut flour, great with apples.

So I soldiered on anyway, and it turned out well enough that when we had afternoon tea in the middle of sorting the studio, a lot of it vanished, son playing an active role in this activity to restore his strength.   

The reason it turned out well was that the apples had such flavor, frozen same day as picked, wonderful apples last year, so I could have missed out on more ingredients and still had something good to eat.

And then it was empty again...

Speaking of missing out and being careful not to, note the button on my blog up there about Grow Your Blog 2015.  I'll be posting a special post on that day and invite you to come in, comment, and be in the running for a little giveaway.  

Haven't decided what it will be yet, since I work in many media, but it will be an original artwork by me of some kind.  I'll pick randomly from comments in mid February, date to be announced on  Grow Your Blog Day.  And I'll be glad to visit your blogs, too, if you have them. 

No need to have a blog to enter and comment, though, all readers are eligible.  Last year I discovered some wonderful blogs I hadn't come across before, through this blog party, so I invite you to do the same.  The Fearless Leader of this event is Vicki at Two Bags Full, and if you click on the button, you'll find yourself at her blog.

And, following on the great suggestion at Comptonia, one of the blogs I found last year and have become a devoted follower of, nemmind the grammar, please let me know if any weirdness happens when you comment in here.  Sometimes Blogger installs a function the blog writer is unaware of and I really appreciate a heads-up.  

I do have comment moderation installed, and I'm very quick to read and publish your comments.  But I don't use those awful guess the word and type it in things. If that appears, please tell me and I'll remove it.  

And I do allow anonymous comments, but please do what a number of wise commenters do and insert your name into the body your post so we know who it is!  I'd rather strip out spam than miss the comments of readers who don't happen to have any of the online IDs called for.