A couple of days ago it was 1 times 2. Today, 12 times 1. Our Frederick is turning 12 today!
Can you believe it's been 12 years since this cute boy was born?
And it really doesn't seem that long since he cruised around and snatched this quesadilla off someone else's plate to munch on.
He's always had such interesting things to be intrigued by. Take a recent fascination with Blobfish.
I have to tell you that over the past couple of weeks since I've been laid up, my kids and grandkids have been coming over periodically to visit, bring me pictures, bring treats, and clean. my. house. Frederick has been right there with the stick vacuum going over the kitchen and dining rooms. All of it has been appreciated.
We love this boy....rooster legs and all, as we love all our grandchildren. Happy birthday to Frederick!!!!
OK, I'm warning you now that this post has nothing but pictures of a sick, ugly leg.
That weird shaded part of my leg is an area of compromised circulation I've dealt with, with medication and compression socks for years.
Over several days there was increased redness and tenderness and more fevers. I visited doctors, had ultrasounds to check for deep blood clots, started on oral antibiotics. Nothing worked. The redness and swelling got worse and worse until late Friday night, my husband carted me over to the hospital ER. My lab values were totally out of whack, kidney function was down, liver tests were up and every infectious marker was through the roof. They were sufficiently concerning, that I earned a 3 AM ultrasound of my liver.
I was strapped into IV antibiotics and repeated lab draws. Then there was the MRI to see if infection was in the deep tissue and/or bone. Thankfully, it wasn't, and that's what was the final checkmark to get me released on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, the weird area on the front of the leg started to weep, dry out, and crack. So basically my leg looks like Freddy Krueger's face. It's still very tender and swollen. In fact when I get up to walk somewhere different, it feels like hot pitchforks stabbing my foot. So now I'm home on 2 different kinds of oral antibiotics, which have already been changed out once because of extreme nausea. Home Health has been here doing wound care and drawing more labs. Basically, I'm sitting around with my leg in the air, listening to people tell me it's going to be "a long process." And hey, I'm pretty sure I've met my insurance deductible for the year.
In the kitchen this week, my husband was at that all-important Sportsman's Expo in Salt Lake, which meant I foraged for dinners while he was gone. Earlier in the week, though, there was some cooking that happened. and this was a new recipe I tried.
Now, I've been wanting to try this recipe for a couple of weeks, but things kept coming up and the ingredients sat in the fridge for a bit. I found the recipe in this recipe book. I'm really trying to be better about using the cookbooks and not just collecting them. A couple of things about this recipe. The original timing for it was during the week I turned up with Covid and I did something I've never in my life done before....grocery pick up. I can see how this would be appealing, but the stores in my town that offer it are much more expensive than my usual grocery store, so it's not something I'm going to do long-term. When I ordered the supplies for this, the only way I could get prosciutto was wrapped around some mozzarella. I just laid the little rolls down the middle like the recipe calls for and it worked just fine. I left out the provolone, which isn't my favorite cheese anyway. In the interest of full disclosure, the basil leaves had wilted by the time I made this sandwich so they didn't make it in. I also forgot the peppers...totally spaced them, but I didn't miss either thing. Another change I made was....well, you all know I make bread. I wasn't going to pay for someone else to make bread dough, so I made up a 1 loaf recipe, then divided the dough in half and split my ingredients between the two chunks of dough. I ended up with 2 sandwich loaves, one of which I froze. This is a really flavorful recipe that both my husband and I liked a lot.
Stromboli
2 Tablespoons olive oil
One 1-pound loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
1/3 cup prepared pesto
8 oz. thinly sliced salami
6 ounces thinly sliced capitol or prosciutto
6 ounces large pepperoni slices
8 slices provolone cheese
8 fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup drained pepperoncini, chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Ranch dressing
Preheat oven to 400°. Oil a sheet pan with 1 Tablespoon olive oil (I used a sheet of parchment paper instead) and set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the bread dough into a large rectangle. As you can see, I'm not really great at creating an exact rectangle, but it all comes together.Spread the pesto over the dough, leaving a 1" margin all the way around. Lay the meat and cheese down the center, then the peppers and basil leaves.
Fold in the short ends first, then one of the long sides, and then roll it up to enclose all the stuff you've just put on there.
Using a sharp knife, cut some vents along the top, and brush the whole things with the remaining olive oil, then sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.
Bake until deep golden, 23-25 minutes. Slice and serve with Ranch dressing for dipping. This reheats well, but tastes really good cold for lunch, too. Serves 6
Valentine's Day plays out a little differently now that we don't have littles in our home.
These arrived, as they always do. And as they always do, they make me sigh a little bit. He still loves me. But the heart-shaped pizza will be giving way today to a steak dinner for my carnivorous love. I'm not much of a red meat eater any more, but he assures me he'll grill it just the way I'll eat it, which means not mooing, like he likes his. When those long-held traditions do give way, it makes me a little nostalgic, so let's just take a short Valentine retrospective, shall we?
This is an example of blending traditions. There was doorbell ditching in my husband's family every year.
This is circa 2007....that's 15 years!
I still had littles in the house then....almost 12, almost 15, and almost 18. This makes me sigh a little, too.
I've spent a large part of my time dealing with issues involving my mother. She is 86, and lives here in town. She's also starting to have some memory issues. Sometimes she's aware she's having memory issues, and sometimes she isn't. She's been a widow since she was 48 and has always been very independent, and proud of that fact. When her memory gets in the way, though, she sometimes becomes a different person....kind of snarky and accusatory. Occasionally she can't remember how to get to places she has been to many, many times. It's a difficult process for both of us, especially when she insists I need to do something immediately, and I have something else going. No one can lay a guilt trip like one's mother. Anyway, lots of stuff going on this week...a physical, multiple trips to the pharmacy and the post office. I try to take her some meals each week since her cooking has really slowed down.
This happened. Eric and Evan's wife, Jan, put together a new computer chair for me when the family was here last week for Sunday dinner. It's been in the box next to the desk for several weeks, and I've talked to my husband about making it happen, but if it doesn't involve chasing a critter, or stuffing a critter, or planning for when and how to do either of those things, or shopping for equipment to do either of those things, or applying for tags to do those things....it's just not on his radar.
The new chair replaces this one, so you can see it was needed, and I really appreciated their efforts.
Aaaaaaand you can see the example of what I was saying earlier. We are in The Dark Time here, when there are no critters to chase, but there are still fish in the ponds, so my husband was able to get outside this week and stand around in the freezing weather, yanking trout out of the ponds. They are nice and fat, due in part he says, to toxic mega-colon from eating moss. That's his diagnosis and he's sticking to it. He likes to smoke these on the Traeger that makes everything taste like ham. Does that make these Hish or Fam? He's been out of town this weekend at the big sportsman's expo in Salt Lake....yet another example of his single minded focus. After he left, I came home from a pharmacy trip with my mother to this:
What is this you ask? This is Gus' dog barf. There was more of this where that came from, reinforcing the point that something almost always goes wrong when my husband leaves town.
In happier news, sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, I got this little picture from Collin's family. There's another sweet grandbaby coming to their house in late spring. This was the let's-see-what-flavor-it-is ultrasound, and while we had that slight girl hiccup with Marc's little one coming next month,
this little guy let the world know that testosterone will rule at Collin's house.
My daughter sent these cute bath time photos of the boys, Jack on the left and Leo on the right.
This is a favorite activity of theirs. They are interacting more with each other these days. Sometimes it's just to snatch away something the other one has, but other times it's actual play.
After being sick at Christmas, 2 weeks tending grandkids, and working our way through Covid, I had a little time to work on projects that have been sitting on the work table for a while, starting with this one.
The pattern was originally to be finished as a pincushion, but I decided to keep it flat and attach it to a small clipboard for display. It's hard to see, but the clusters of white Colonial knots are sheep.
You'll see that I concentrated on projects that just needed a bit of finishing to be complete.
I seem to be in a bit of a sheep stage.
This penny mat measures about 10"x12".
I'd started this card kit before the holiday, but things got hectic the closer we came to Christmas, as you might imagine.
It had a lot of pre-made die cuts that made embellishing cards very easy.
I had a good time mixing and matching for card fronts. I got a total of 18 cards of varying sizes,
including a few mini-slimline cards,
and some regular slimline cards, this one embossed and filled in with metallic watercolors.
I'm working my way through the last few weeks of the year with the Project Life app.
All of these stories have been told here on the blog, but it's always good to see the year's event unfold as I see the pages come together for the family yearbook.
One more week to put together and then I can place the order for the yearbook.
I tried my recipe for refried beans in the Instant Pot with a bit of a change.
I used this recipe's liquid measurement and timing instructions. It took 45 minutes of pressure cooking, and about 30 minutes of release time, and I had refried beans. If you forget to put beans in the crock pot early, then this is a great solution. I just wanted to try it to see if it worked.
Marc's family invited me for dinner one night last week while my husband was out of town. My assignment was dessert, and not wanting to have to go out an purchase ingredients, and at the same time not wanting to spend a huge amount of time, I settled on a want-to-try recipe from one of my Pioneer Woman recipe books. It worked very well for what I needed. It tasted good, and while the chocolate chip "frosting" is warm, you can layer on whatever holiday-themed sprinkles you happen to have in the cupboard. That said, it was very obvious to me that I spread the batter too thin. The measurement in the recipe in my book said "1/3" thick," and I didn't pull out a ruler to check it. Next time I'll make it a little thicker. It tasted fine, but got a little crispy around the edges. Notes on this recipe---> Erring on the slightly thicker side is probably a good thing. The batter doesn't fill the whole cookie sheet. If you try to reach all the corners with it, these are going to be cracker cookies. You could top this with any kind of chocolate chip you want. These work up very quickly and are great for a last-minute treat.
Spreads
1 c. Brown Sugar
1 c. Softened Butter
1 whole Egg
2 c. Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/4-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together brown sugar and butter. Add egg and mix together. Add flour, salt, and vanilla, and mix together well.
Spread dough onto cookie sheet to a thickness of 1/4 to 1/2-inch.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until slightly brown. At this point, pull out of the oven and sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top. Return to oven for 1 minute. Remove and spread melted chips over the top. Cut into squares.
This is a picture I found on my camera roll that was taken on January 20.....insert bulging eyeball emoji here. January? Seriously? Right now, this is covered with snow so take that, early spring bulbs!
I switched out a few things on my tray to celebrate February and I kind of like it, especially keeping in mind that I didn't get the "cute arrangement" gene in any way. There were other things that happened...really. Like a mammogram and lab work, a physical, and dinner with one of my kids and their family, but I appear to be woefully out of the habit of taking pictures.
Sent to me from my kids and grandkids this week.....this is ready-for-an-adventure-with Grandpa, Quincy.
Collin's been sick with congestion and a cough, but not Covid. He sent me this picture with the caption, "I feel like this....."
David has also been coughing. He woke up at 5:30 yesterday morning coughing, and crashed in a nap early in the afternoon.
So did John, only he's having GI issues, which everyone hopes don't spread through the whole family.
But at least James had a fun day. They're back east and got some of the weather this week...freezing rain and then snow on top of it. AND at least they didn't lose power.
Isaac had his birthday....
and has lot another tooth. He's got quite the collection of holes in his head right now.
