This & That

Around Here This Week

So around here this week...

My husband and I took a couple of days at the cabin. Before we know it, we'll have to use snowmobiles to get in, and it's really nice to still be able to get there easily. We had a little rain while we were there and that made me so happy.

Our friend the blue jay was back looking for a handout. 

We had a couple of really cold days earlier in the week, and even saw a few flakes of snow. Much as I love winter, I really do love having things happen in their season. I'd rather enjoy fall a little longer, since it's my favorite.

"I'm gone" flowers arrived, and it was probably a good thing they did. That will be expounded on at some point.

I had to run to Target and grab a few things. Somehow I ended up in the baby clothing section and may have picked up just a few really cute things. I mean seriously...who can resist?

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, I got so many pictures that I'll be spacing them out over several days. It was a photographic bonanza, which was awesome. There was this picture of a mutant carrot Eric & Elisa harvested from their garden.

There was also a trip to the pumpkin patch, where the perfect pumpkins were procured.

Here is Caroline cleaning the sink. She said she did it, "just to be good." Awwwwww.....

From Collin's family, Alison took several pictures of the boys in the leaves. 

James is just looking so grown up.

David is also getting bigger all the time.

This grin....

....and this one! 

Fall leaves and kids, there's almost just nothing better!

And from Marc's family, it is apparent that Jude has found his nose.

Through Collin's Lens

As I mentioned in a previous post, Collin has been taking a lot of pictures with his camera lately.

This day at the park it was these boys' cute faces. Here's John.

I really like this one of David,

....and this one of James...just very true to life.

I miss these cute faces, but I'm going to go out and see them later this year.

Collin got really close to this.

Just looks really interesting.

Collin also worked on some family pictures. James cracks me up here. He was told to give his biggest smile and I think he managed that.

Collin took a day and went hiking by himself and got some very interesting shots.

He was hoping to get some good leaf shots. He did, but I'm saving the best ones for the weekend.

It's really interesting to see what's different about his part of the country.

A fun few hours for him.

Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf

Meatloaf isn't necessarily in my lexicon of favorite food items, but there's something about it that appeals to a lot of the males in my life. I know my husband has nostalgic memories of his grandmother making it. I tried a recipe recently from one of my Pioneer Woman cookbooks and found it to be very good, and I'm not a meatloaf connoisseur. My husband ate it and deemed it palatable, so palatable that he scraped every bit of it off his plate so it was almost clean enough to put back in the cupboard. I feel that might be a mark of success. It works pretty well for a total oven meal if you serve it with baked potatoes and baked carrots and let everything cook together all at once. I cut the recipe in half for us and still have half left, which I think will become meatloaf sandwiches later in the week. I'm listing out the ingredients for the whole recipe. Notes on this recipe: It says it feeds 8. Maybe 8 lumberjacks who haven't eaten all day. It makes a lot. Also, it takes longer than an hour to cook. My half recipe took about an hour and 15 minutes. The whole thing? You might be starting at noon to get it ready in time for dinner. Just kidding...kind of.

Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf

• 1 cup milk
• 6 slices bread
• 2 pounds ground beef (what you see here is buffalo)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4-1/2 cup minced flat-leaf parsley (I used the dried parsley flakes in my cupboard)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 8-12 thin bacon slices (We call this "skinny" bacon. Don't use thick-cut varieties)

Tomato Sauce:

• 1 1/2 cups ketchup
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 6 Tablespoons dry mustard
• Dash or two of hot sauce or to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.

Pour the milk over the bread and let it soak for several minutes, then add the meat, cheese, seasonings and eggs. Mix together well, but try not to over-work it.

Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan, which will allow the fat to drain. Line the bottom of the broiler pan with foil to simplify clean-up. (I didn't have a broiler pan so I put a cookie rack over a foil-lined 9x13 pan, then wrapped foil around the cookie rack and poked holes in it...that's kind of like a broiler pan, right?)

Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking the ends under the meatloaf. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. (This is what worked for my half recipe. I'd go at least another 15 minutes longer if making the whole recipe. Lay a piece of foil on top if it's getting too brown.)

Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce. Mix all ingredients together and spread 1/3-1/2 over the meatloaf after it's baked that 45 minutes to an hour. Let it bake another 15 minutes. Serve the extra sauce on the side for those who might want it.

 

 

 

This 6-Year Old Boy

Our James is 6 years old today!

He's been so many places in his young life, as his family has moved around when his dad has gotten different military postings.

As a result, he is one of our farthest away grandchildren.

He loves ALL THINGS Jurrasic Park/World...

....and has an encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaur facts.

He's also really good at constructing very elaborate lego vehicles to transport them around his house. We love this boy as we love all our grandchildren. Happy birthday to James!!

Around Here This Week

We're having a special Friday version of Around Here This Week, because tomorrow is a special day.

So around here this week....

Things started off pretty well with this gorgeous sunset. No filters added here.

And from there things seemed to just run downhill. We had a huge leak in the water line between our well and the house.

Several hours of digging later by the well/pump company I called, the leak is patched temporarily, but we will need to have a new line put in sometime next week. And since it can never be easy, there are some issues with where exactly the water comes into the house which will need to be dealt with before it can happen. Along that same vein, the shingles are hanging on, resolving slowly. The pathology came back on my neck spot. It's pre-cancerous, so I have to go back next week and have a bigger bite taken out of my neck. My attempts at baking my pasty skin during the 60's & 70's when I was a teenager will probably result in more bites in the future.

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, I got this one of Caroline's newest collectable creature. Mr. Toad was hiding under the garden plastic when Eric cleaned up their garden this year.

He's now living in unadulterated splendor in his new condo and having crickets and mealworms delivered to his front door.

I wasn't the only one taking pictures of beautiful sunsets. This one came from David and James' mom.

Collin has done a fair amount of camera playing over the past couple of weeks. More of his pictures will be in an upcoming post, but here's John's cute face.

Marc and my husband were in the hills last weekend and they had cell service when they climbed to the top of certain mountains. Marc texted me this picture from one of them.

His wife sent this one of all the boys in matching camo. This is the preferred grown-up Allan male ensemble. Nothing like getting a head start.

It was a good day for pictures with the sun out and the fall colors. Isaac had to pose a little.

Levi's expression was a little different here....

....than it was here. He found some markers while Isaac was at school and colored himself in as a saber-toothed tiger.

Jude has a nice, big grin going.

Speaking of Jude, he's been a little upset that his mom won't let him gather the eggs like his big brothers. The other day he insisted this little acorn be put in the fridge, right by the eggs, just as if it was a real one.

Around Here This Week

So around here this week....

It's pretty much been harvest time. I happened to catch my husband between mountain adventures, and we brought in the sugar pumpkins and the butternut squash.

I used a few for decorating, too.

We also picked the last of the ripe tomatoes, which I bottled whole and then moved on to the apples. The Golden Delicious are ready, and they live up to their name. I know there are trendy apples out there, but for my plebeian taste I think these are just the best all-around apple for eating and baking, and they are especially good right off the tree.

Samson joined us for a while.

We had enough sugar pumpkins that we told the kids they could come get what they wanted.

The selection process can be arduous. You have to find just the right one.

Jude wasn't a fan of the picking process, but he enjoyed being out in the garden. I get a real sense of satisfaction as things get brought in for storage. The rows of filled canning jars, the vegetables in the cooler...it's just a real "all is safely gathered in" self-reliant feeling, especially this year. 

Things then moved along to a trip to the dermatologist to check a spot on my neck that's changed over the past few weeks. I've had a spot there for quite a while but it's become scaly and weird so I though I'd get it checked. It's either a scaly, weird age spot or a small basal cell carcinoma. They took a shave biopsy to look at under the microscope. Should find out next week some time, but the dermatologist says it's no big deal either way. My 60's/70's Southern California upbringing is catching up to me, I think. Those days when we literally tried to bake ourselves by rubbing baby oil on and lying in the sun. If only we'd known. The hits kept on coming, as the next day I broke out with a patch of Shingles rash/vesicles on my inner upper arm. Not fun. I'd been talking to one of my sons about getting the vaccine only a couple of days before. Too bad I hadn't done it before now. It hurts in an annoying stinging/burning/aching way, but still falls far behind childbirth and the kidney stone. I'm on some anti-viral medication and hopefully that will cut the time this hangs on.

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week....I usually send out Halloween boxes to the family and it looks like the vampire teeth were a big hit.

....for all ages. :)

From my daughter....she was able to spend some time with her 2 besties and it did my mama heart good to see them get to be all together. They are really great girls. One of her friends has twin girls that are about a year old, so she's got a great resource when the boys come along.

Like Lightening

Three years has passed in the blink of an eye.

Ephraim is three years old today!

He's right at the stage when he's trying to decide whether naps are something he needs or not.

He's a big fan of dinosaurs and Ninja Turtles right now.

He also really likes it when Grandpa takes him for rhino rides in the pasture. He's pretty sure they're going to crash into something.

He's a sweet boy and we love him, as we love all our grandkids. Happy birthday to Ephraim!

 

The Mother Guilt is Real

This post requires a bit of backstory. It's an established fact that I have six children and I love them all. I also really try to plan ahead in all aspects of my life. I also like things that are fairly uniform and consistent. That being said, when my kids started to graduate from high school, I bought 6 matching picture frames with 6 matching mats. Yes, I like things uniform and consistent but additionally, I didn't want anyone feeling like anybody's pictures and frames were better because they were different. Yep, that's my story. 

Now, life moves on quickly and I kept up with the senior picture framing until I hit Bryce and my daughter. I rationalize it a lot of different ways....there were more grandkids, these were the pictures I took and not a professional, so they weren't as easy to "fix" before framing, I was busy....really busy. For whatever reason or excuse, their picture frames have been empty, leaning against the bookshelf in my craft room for...well, Bryce has been out of high school for 10 years. The more time went on, the more embarrassed I felt about the whole situation, and my kids weren't exactly merciful about it. I'm pretty sure they were as annoyed as I was guilty.

So while my daughter was here last, she and I sat down, found all the pictures on my computer, ordered them and picked them up. Further, we took them and got them framed. They are totally finished, and now it's up to my husband to help me re-vamp the gallery wall upstairs so they all fit. So it's all on him now. The monkey's off my back.....finally.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

I love it when it finally gets cold enough for soup weather. There's just something almost magical about throwing a bunch of stuff into a pot and having it turn into something warm, comforting and really tasty. A couple of weeks ago, I slow-cooked some chicken stock and since the weather was borderline temperature-wise, I decided to take the leap and make a pot of this soup....which was delicious, and I'm giving a lot of credit to that slow-cooked stock. I'm a fan of chicken soup of many kinds. There's a comfort to it, and this particular recipe comes together quickly, aside from the homemade stock, if you're doing that. But really, stock is just like soup. You throw a bunch of stuff in a pot on the stove, or in the slow cooker and let it simmer for a while and it pretty much just takes care of itself. If you're not into doing the stock thing, that's not a problem. Just use canned chicken broth instead. Chicken soup is Mom Food to the Nth degree due to the comfort factor and the ease with which this comes together. I found the recipe in one of the cookbooks I'm using most often these days. I froze half of this recipe and there was still enough for a couple of leftover lunches. Don't let the long ingredient list scare you. A lot of it is seasoning elements. This recipe serves at least 6.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 Tablespoons dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric (I used half this amount)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 6 cups chicken stock or broth
• 16 ounces dry egg noodles or pasta (This seemed lit quite a bit to me, so I used somewhat less)
• 1 cup whole milk or heavy cream
• 4 cups cubed, cooked chicken

In a pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil and sauce the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic until the onion is tender, about 6 minutes. Add the flour and seasonings and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. 

Add the stock and pasta and bring to a boil. Simmer until pasta is al dente (tender, but firm). Stir in milk and cooked chicken and cook until heated through.

Around Here This Week

So around here this week....

Last weekend was General Conference, which is always great. I so look forward to it every April and October. This is in stark contrast to how I felt about it as a child when we got one fuzzy black and white session on some seldom-used TV station in California. My daughter was with us, and we made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I tried a new recipe that rises all night and it worked out really well.

Early this week before my husband left on more fall adventures, we were in the garden picking the last of the ripe tomatoes. At this time of year, the garden always starts looking a little tired. 

We were able to pick quite a few,

and Gus went after one of the butternut squash. Not a good idea, Dog.

My husband helped me juice them all. It was a good morning for it.

Over the course of 3 days I simmered that juice down to tomato sauce consistency using this recipe from the Prairie Homestead site. She said it would only take 3-5 hours to get it reduced by half. This was not my experience. Maybe she's a little braver about how much heat she uses, but I was so afraid of scorching it, I was very cautious. That's happened to me before....scorching a whole batch of my husband's favorite homemade catsup that we had to totally throw out. So yeah, it took days, but I got it done. Tomato sauce is something I swore I'd never can, because it's so cheap to buy at the store. That said, after having a year like 2020 and with viable tomatoes still in the garden, I couldn't just let them go to waste.

Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, there was this picture of General Conference watching at Collin's house.

And there was this one from my daughter showing her bat-making skills.