Lutefisk Dinner

If you live in Minnesota then you will see these signs.  Some Norwegians even mark these dates and times on their calendar and discuss who are the better cooks…and which one should not be missed if you are a connoisseur of LUTEFISK.

I am only a tad Norwegian as my great Grandmother Amanda was from Norway. My measly 12.5 % Norwegian does not qualify me to like Lutefisk.

I ate Lutefisk once a long time ago in California. We were visiting Aunt Anna and My Uncle Stanley.  Uncle Stanley’s parents Gustie and Sylvia made it for the Christmas Eve dinner at their home.  Luckily they served roast pork too so I didn’t go hungry.  The pork was much better than the lutefisk.

Lutefisk is a dried cod that is soaked in lye to rehydrate the fish, then it is soaked in water to wash off the lye.  Then cooked…either baked or boiled.  Typically served with butter or a cream sauce and potatoes and fresh baked bread…everything on your plate is white. 

I suppose Swedish meatballs might go good with Lutefisk…perhaps this is their way of attracting the Swedes and the Norwegians. And Pie!   If you are in Bemidji Minnesota on December 10 you can go to this feast…as for me I will pass.

Main Street Tree

The tree is up.  Every year a tree is donated and put up on Main Street.  It is a fundraiser for Hospice. One light was lit in the memory of Far Guys parents.  Hopefully I will get a photo of it at night.

This years tree is very tall and skinny.  Some years they are very bushy and almost brush oncoming cars.

Yes, we park in the middle of the street.  The Main Street is extra wide, the street was laid out that way when there used to be two lumber companies on Main Street and logs were delivered by horse drawn sleighs or wagons.  Once they were unloaded the team could make an immediate u-turn and head back out of town.

There is diagonal parking on both sides of the street and then center parking.  I prefer center parking, it is safer than the diagonal parking especially if a huge pickup parks next to you.  You have to then watch for approaching vehicles reflections in the store windows or back up very slowly.  There are crosswalks at the end of each block but no one uses them.  Everyone jay walks… always has probably always will.

 

Signs

Some signs of the times.

This sign is empty; it used to advertise the Broasted Chicken and pop specials or Welcome Hunters or Welcome Fishermen, depending on the time of year.

The Post Office which is attached to the store is still open but only for a few hours in the mornings.  The steel door in the photo was installed after several break ins at the store.

The store was a mainstay in Osage for many years. We were sad to see it close.  You could tell it was coming, they added an aisle of dollar store “stuff”.  The shelves became emptier as time went on and when the coolers stood empty I began to wonder how long they would hang on.

The Millpond is frozen over.  Some idiot has a fish house out there…hope they caught something and survived to see another day without disappearing under the ice.

Foot Update:  Our daughter the Nurse Practitioner looked at my foot and declared it a Spider or something similar bite.  I am taking some Zyrtec as she suggested but it really makes me sleepy…I get to sleep 14 or more hours after taking it. AND dream oh my…Technicolor adventures for hours and hours.

Thankful For The Five

We had a good Thanksgiving Dinner.  Trica our oldest daughter cooked. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing/dressing, green bean casserole, a berry pie, chocolate pie, apple pie and a veggie tray.  We added corn, pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie.  Jen made Lefsa and the best rolls ever!

Some of those foods I mentioned yesterday from my favorite Thanksgiving Dinner were missing.  But the company made up for it.

Oldest to youngest

Tallest to shortest

Brothers

Sisters

It was fun to have them all together.

They make us smile and keep us on our toes.

Happy Thanksgiving

Turkey, I like dark meat, forget the white meat.  Mashed potatoes with gravy.  Stuffing or dressing what ever you call it with apples and raisins. Sweet potatoes with a little butter and brown sugar.  Corn. Coleslaw with small chunks of apple.  A few pickles and a slice of pumpkin pie. And perhaps something a bit bubbly to drink…champagne would be wonderful…and then a nap.

Wistful Wednesday:Thanksgiving 2006

When I was cleaning out and organizing some photos I found this one…it made me smile.

2006…nine years ago Thanksgiving in Elkhorn Nebraska (suburb of Omaha). Trica our oldest daughter and her husband Dick lived in Nebraska back then.

Savannah with Dakota, Paige with Daphne, Madison with Chance, Noah with Miney and Adam.  Dakota and Daphne are no longer with us.  Chance and Miney are getting older.  Well and those kids..they grew a tad.

Chance ran so hard chasing his ball on the pavement that we didn’t notice he had ripped the pads of his feet until he started limping. He spent several days on his leash laying down with goop on the pads of his feet.  Border Collies never know when to quit.

I think this was the Thanksgiving that someone did deep fried Snickers bars. A Snickers bar frozen and then covered in a batter and deep fried.  I like my Snickers bars just plain…not fried or covered in batter…but the kids thought they were great!

One time at a shopping mall parking lot someone asked Far Guy if he was the Governor of Minnesota.  Minnesota License Plates plus a bald head must equal Governor.

We really enjoyed going to Nebraska several times during the winter, it was warmer there, the grand girls were always happy to see us and there were all kinds of Train Shops and Antique Stores to visit.  We found the people in Nebraska to be very friendly folk.

Bites

Somehow someplace I got a bug bite.  My foot is not liking it at all.  It is swollen and painful.  The swelling is confined to just one foot/ankle and Far Guy says it looks like he can see a small spot where whatever bit me.  I am elevating it when ever possible and waiting for the swelling to go away. Near as I can figure I was bit on Sunday afternoon when I was working upstairs….most likely a spider.

I am supposed to bake today and I will, probably just a little slower than normal.

I will live to see another day.  Rest assured if it gets worse my husband will drag me to the Doctor.

I will share this from a friends Facebook page.

Did you ever hear the tale of the Indian chief who found a rattle snake dying from the cold at the top of a mountain? The snake pleaded with the chief to carry him down the mountain so he could get warm and recover and live. The good hearted chief took pity and took the snake down the mountain. There the snake gave him a deadly bite. The chief asked the rattler how he could do such an evil thing. The rattler replied "you knew I was a rattle snake when you picked me up"!

Morale: compassion should not out weigh common sense.

Me being the smarta$$ that I can be most some days left a comment.

Never trust a talking snake.

Making Soup

We had some snow flurries yesterday, and we heard the roads were slick so we stayed home all day. Far Guy shoveled the walk and patio.

There are some advantages to staying home all day.  We had time to make soup.  We get along fairly well in the kitchen. ( No knife or frying pan fights.)  Have you all discovered the Reynolds Crock Pot Inserts?  We really like them….makes clean up a breeze.  We cooked enough soup for two nights. It made the house smell so good and was done perfectly after my afternoon nap.

Which one did we make this time?  Italian Sausage Soup   1 pound of Italian sausage and some bacon fried up with some onion.  We only use half of this mixture and freeze the other half to make soup again in a couple weeks.  Put in crockpot meat mixture, 2 plus cups of chicken broth, 3/4 cup cream, 2 cups (handfuls) baby spinach, 3 – 4 potatoes sliced thin, season and stir.  If you want to hurry it along cook your potatoes before adding them.  If you add too much spinach the broth turns a little green…but we don’t mind cooked spinach. Chance even likes a little of the broth over his food.  The recipe also calls for garlic but we never add any.  This is a recipe from our youngest daughter Jen who is a really good cook.

Rendezvous Cookware August 2015

Safe place

Odda came a visiting yesterday.  We have been unable to discover what scares her. ..sometimes it is gun shots, sometimes if she knows a butchering is going to happen there on the farm she runs off.  Sometimes I think she just wants to visit. Sometimes it is as if she knows we will call Jo to come and get her and she will get extra attention. We are her safe place.

She and Chance get along just fine. Putz stays at home and doesn’t follow her. She is so happy to see us, her tail wags ninety miles per hour!

Chance and Odda ( Bernese Mountain Dog)

I sat outside with her for awhile, then she came inside to visit.  I decided to take her back home and about that time Steve came to get her.  He was disgusted with her…like all dog owners he wants her to stay home.

The sun was out but the wind was cold.  Our high for the day was 21 F or –6 C eh!

Winter is here

Like it or NOT winter is here.  I am so excited.

My husband who claims he loves me sent out a message on Facebook asking if anyone knew where he could get some Crocks  (Crocs…spelling was never his strong suit) with studs so it wouldn’t be so slippery for me while I was shoveling snow.   What a sweetheart.

I put in a request for a new shovel…my old one is really old and has lost it’s edge. Far Guy said he saw that coming as I was drooling over the pretty red ones at the helpful hardware place last week.

I got the shoveling done and I cleared off the green chairs…I might soak up some Vitamin D someday.

I cleaned out my flour and bread flour containers, washed them up and refilled them in preparation for the baking season.  I tend to buy flour and sugar when ever it is on sale…which isn’t a bad thing unless you cannot fit anymore in the cupboard.   I mix my own bread flour half white flour and half whole wheat. I use the old Tupperware Cereal Containers for my flour and sugar…works great for me and I have them on the top shelf in the cupboard….the containers are easy to grab down from that high shelf.

I finished that series on Netflix How to get away with murder…now I will wait for the next season to be released. It gets a five out of five stars just for the writers and the plot/plots. (Yes I could watch it on ABC but it is the kind of a show you are better off binge watching.)  I watched kinda a strange movie Seeking a friend for the end of the world with Steve Carell I give it a four out of five stars.

The Third Snow

The rain turned to ice and then to snow.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if we could have stayed home.

Far Guy had an early appointment in Fargo ( 85 miles away).  We slipped and slid there early in the morning.  His Doctor ordered a CT Scan of his lungs and an Ultrasound of his liver.  All tests were completed in 42 minutes. The technician said “I thought for sure you would call and cancel.” Nope we wanted to get it over with. The sun came out and the roads dried out and they were just fine until Detroit Lakes where we stopped for breakfast…blueberry pancakes for me yum!  Far Guy had some Chicken Biscuit Gravy thing.

The price of gasoline is  under $2.00 a gallon.

The last 33 miles home were icy.  Three cars in the ditch.  We slid a couple of times.  Enough to say “Oh crap” or worse a couple of times.

This car crossed over three lanes of traffic to hit the ditch.

People were driving too fast, and it didn’t help that the wind was gusting to 40 mph.

Winter is here.

I took a photo of the snow stick just before taking my afternoon nap.  We were glad to be home safe and sound. 

My report:  Far Guy does have a gizzard (gallbladder) all these years I thought he was missing his…but I saw it on the ultrasound.  He also has a liver, and he has a small cyst on his right kidney…which according to the Ultrasound gal is a normal occurrence.

A gift and a project

It is raining and has been for several days.  The sun is not shining here.  It just rains and rains.

Far Guy and Chance braved the rain to get the mail.

There was a note and a gift from Jen.

She is making journals! They are so cute! I think I will use mine to make my lists.

Now for my project.  I talked to Granddaughter Paige, she is going to the winter formal.  Yes she would like a bracelet, her gown is mainly white with a little very pale pink.  Sparkly and white was her suggestion.

I told her I would give it a whirl.  I added a row of pink beads.

If she doesn’t like it I can always rip it apart.  I use very tiny beads called Japanese Delicas.  I use an even count peyote stitch to weave the beads together one by one with a needle and special beading thread.

So I have a pretty place to make my lists now and a project…life is good…other than the rain that will probably be snow soon.

Wistful Wednesday: Chuck and Ardith

A month ago I told our youngest daughter.  “I have some sad news for you, your bestest friend in the whole world died.”  She replied “Oh Chuck died… that is sad.”

Chuck was a thorn in her (teenage) side for two weeks every summer.  He would come to the door and ask  “Can Jenny come out to play?”  When she hollered “NO” at him he would press his nose against the window of the piano room until she would draw the curtains and play piano so loudly she couldn’t hear him.  He would walk away shaking his head saying “I don’t know how they put up with that racket.”   He irritated her and she irritated him.  When he would first show up for his time at the lake she would greet him by saying “Aren’t you dead yet?” He would answer her “No and is that anyway to talk to your bestest friend in the whole world.”

Chuck was from Indiana, he was a Deputy Sheriff and a Jailer…one time he even ran for Sheriff.  He and his wife Ardith would vacation up here the last couple of weeks in August when it was the warmest in Indiana.  Chuck fished everyday he could, Ardith sewed. Ardith was a banker and the church organist, they vacationed with children and grandchildren for one of the weeks and the other was usually their quiet time.

High on their list was going out for supper.

 

Chuck, Gene, Me, Ardith, Sue and Keith (Chucks brother)

The waitress took this photo at Y’s Steakhouse in September of 2000.

We found our way to Chuck and Ardith’s home in Indiana one Fall and had a wonderful visit with them.  They had the cover on their pool and Chance thought it was just a blue tarp…and walked right out on it. Talk about a confused looking dog!

Sadly Ardith would suffer with large cancerous tumors in her abdomen that eventually took her life in 2011.  Chuck was very lonely after Ardith died.  He called a few times to talk and then the calls became fewer and fewer. He came up on vacation a few times but his last visit two years ago he didn’t even attempt to go fishing. Chuck joined Ardith in heaven on October 10 2015.

Chuck had a wonderful sense of humor and could tell stories for hours. Sometimes you didn’t know if he was pulling your leg or not.   He used to kidnap Captain one of our Shelties, Captain could be found in their cottage quite often …for nap time and a snack.

Chuck and Ardith were good friends. It is sad that they are both gone…times change and people die.  But it is still good to have friends that can make you smile long after they are gone.

I wrote about Chuck before Straight Lake: Legend of the Cap.

Lists

I am a list maker.  I make lists on paper and in my head.  I usually write my lists in pencil…easier to erase a bad idea that way.  We have an ongoing grocery list on the fridge and we both try to add items as they are used up.  We also have a list of menus on the fridge…just incase I have a long afternoon nap and someone else wants to cook.

I usually have a project list.  It has been completed so now I need a day or three to figure out what is most important…something or nothing.

Perhaps some old projects will be revisited…or maybe not.

Forget-me-nots July 2015

About ten or twelve years ago I planted some Forget-me-nots and this past summer the conditions were just right for some dormant seeds to bloom.  The tiny flowers are a beautiful shade of blue.  Just goes to show you that sometimes projects that you think are complete are not…OR sometimes projects have lasting effects years later…I am certain my grocery list or list of menus do not qualify.

Perhaps it is still the time change…I don’t feel like making a list…you know Thanksgiving is next week…BUT many things could be accomplished in the ten days before then…or not.

The Weekend’s Gift

We had a nice walk through the woods after Far Guy cleaned out all the birdhouses.  Four Bluebirds made nests in boxes the rest were just filled with twigs from Sparrows or Swallows.

We enjoyed what is probably our last day of 55 F or 12 C eh! and sunshine! The last few days have been a gift!  We sat outside and soaked up the sunshine.  More often that not we get one nice weekend for deer hunting not two.

I walked through the wild gardens.  We mow everything down…other than that it gets no care…what survives…survives. 

On the edge of the gardens I found the seed heads of an Aster.

We are supposed to get rain this week and possibly snow toward the end of the week.  I suppose it is about time to get some of the white stuff which may or may not be a gift.

 

Signs of late Fall

There are many things that signal Fall is nearing an end here in Minnesota.  Yes, sometimes Winter comes way earlier than the Winter Solstice on December 22nd  at 4:48 AM. (38 days away…but who is counting)

For now I am just happy to notice the Wild Rose Hips.

Chance likes to eat them. 

The Milkweed Pods have burst open.   The seeds will be carried in the wind, I hope they germinate next spring so we get more Monarch Butterflies next summer.

I got out my snow boots, they are warmer than crocs with socks.   I ordered myself an new down parka,  I hope it is warm and has long enough sleeves so every time I lift my arm up my forearm isn’t exposed.   Now I need a pair of black or grey mittens.

The cupboards are full along with the deep freeze…if we didn’t like fresh milk or fresh fruits and vegetables we could hunker down for weeks…possibly even a couple of months.

Both vehicles have winter survival “stuff” but I need to change out the hand warmers. Both vehicles were  taken through the Deluxe Carwash this week so that made me happy!

This is the real cold and humid part of the year, until the lake freezes over and the snow covers the ground it is cold and the wind can be just raw. 

Deer Hunting is coming to an end.  My Dad and my other baby brother each got their deer yesterday morning.  One doe and one buck fawn.   So it was a good hunt.

One more thing...Kleenex…I have to make sure I have some in my pocket when I leave the house…my old lady nose likes to run as soon as it hits the cooler air.

Second Snow, Alpha1 and TN

Yes it snowed, but it mostly melted.

Chance and the snow along the edge of the woods.

I didn’t even move the snow shovel to the front door yet.  My sister in law has hers all ready but she lives further north than me!

Alpha 1 Update:

Far Guy has a new Pulmonary Doctor, his last one went into Sleep Medicine so we were without a Doc for a bit.  The new one is from Poland, he speaks English quite well and is easy to understand. (He went to Medical School in Iowa) I think he will be okay, Far Guy got a Kenalog Injection..it seems to help with his shortness of breath. We now have antibiotic and steroids on hand in the event that Far Guy gets sick …we are to begin the medications immediately…the instructions were IF AFTER FIVE DAYS HE IS NOT BETTER HE NEEDS TO BE IN THE HOSPITAL.  I like that I have a hard and fast rule to follow.

The every Thursday Infusions are going well for the most part.  They are not as scary as they first were…Far Guy is working on getting the needle sticks down to one good one…he has done four sticks and two sticks…so he is improving.  I made a step by step list of how things are done so he can refer back to it if need be.  Part of the problem is that his port moves around in his chest a bit…so you have to make sure you anchor it.  He had Lynn at the infusion center check it out and she agrees..the port moves.  The infusions always tire him out.  We stick pretty close to home Thursdays and Fridays…only going for a short ride with the dog.

900+ people a year have to give plasma so that this treatment can continue for just one individual.

I have been in contact with my cousin Kurt who is involved in Medical Research. I also mentioned this observation to the new Pulmonary Dr as his wife is a Neurologist.

Since beginning the infusions with the Aralast for the Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency the Trigeminal Neuralgia pain is much less.  Is there a connection?  Our regular Neurologist says  “No they are not related.”  I am not so sure…how many patients are there out there that have both of these rare disorders?  1 out of 15,000 people get Trigeminal Neuralgia and 1 out of 5,000 people have Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency.

What are the odds that one person would get two rare disorders?  What are the odds that the treatment for one of the rare disorders would make a difference in the other?

I don’t begin to understand all this…but perhaps it will benefit someone else someday.