Hey Mikey!

Mikey our Great Grandson is almost six months old.

We got to see him on Saturday.  He has quite a personality, he smiles and tries to talk ( according to his Mother he can squeal.)  I call it finding his voice!

Mikey and his Great Aunt Jen

Mikey looks very much like his Mother, they have the same shape face, same little nose and dark brown eyes.

Maddie in 1998

I gave her the usual Great Grandmotherly advice.  Keep a hat on that baby in the hockey arena.  Put an undershirt on him all winter long…she said “a onesie?”  Yes…he can wear two onsies in the winter.  Babies need that extra layer of clothing.  I explained before onsies…all baby undershirts had a tab that you could pin down with the cloth diaper…and that kept it from riding up.  I had both short sleeved and long sleeved undershirts for my girls.

Heck I wore an undershirt in the wintertime until I traded it for a bra and then wondered if I should wear my undershirt over or under my bra.

Grands: Paige

Last Saturday we traveled to see Paige play with her team The St Kate Wildcats against The Concordia Cobbers.

Paige is number 15

Near the net!

Sadly the Wildcats scored only one goal to the Cobbers two goals.  It was still a fun game to watch.

Paige in line to shake hands after the game.

We got to see her for a few minutes before she boarded the bus back to the cities.  I asked her what she was going to do on the bus…sleep was the answer.

She also got to see her nephew Mikey for just a little bit.

Mikey watched the game and was especially interesed in the Zamboni…typical for a little boy!

Recipe Report

It was an adventure in cooking this week.  Far Guy and I work pretty good in the kitchen together…he tends to read EVERY instruction and I tend to go with the flow …he measures and I do not. I irritate him more than he irritates me.

I hit the jackpot with my Kraft Food and Family Magazine for recipes this week. I subscribe to their magazine but many of their recipes can be found online.  As a disclaimer I receive no compensation from them.

First we made a root vegetable latke…with shredded potatoes, sweet potato and parsnip.  Far Guy gave it an 8 and I gave it a 7.  It was served with carrots and pan fried pork chops.

Here is the comparison photo.  If I had left it under the broiler longer it would have been browner…or if I had smeared butter on the top!

The next night we worked together on BBQ Adobo Chicken.  Yummy… it even awakenedold people’s taste buds we didn’t know we had!  We both gave it a 10! 

It was a keeper recipe.  I modified it a bit. 

Combine 4 1/2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp garlic salt and 1/2 tsp cumin.  Cover your chicken with this mixture.  Heat oven to 400 place chicken on olive oil sprayed foil lined baking sheet.  Bake about 45 minutes ( for thighs) longer or shorter depending on your chicken pieces. Mix 3/4 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce  and 1/4 cup ketsup.  Baste chicken and bake about 8 more minutes, flip, baste some more and then bake another 8 minutes. We like our chicken done but not dry…pull off the bone juicy is good.

This chicken was served with leftover root vegetable latke.

Finally I was the sous chef for Far Guy’s Adventure.  He made a Cheesy Sausage Frittata with Red Peppers.

I think he would just as soon have me be a silent sous chef in his kitchen.

We gave it an 8 out of 10.  I will modify the recipe a bit…cut the eggs to four and we won’t have leftovers.  Chance liked it too.  This dish can be prepared the night before you need it for breakfast.  Or made in the afternoon and refrigerated until you bake if for supper cause it is a dark dreary cold day and you need a nap.

This frittata was served with fruit.

I have made recipe cards as requested, Far Guy said “Well are you going to keep that magazine forever or will the recipes we like be lost?”

Can you tell with the first bite and taste if you like something?   I can.  Far Guy has to have about four bites to make a decision...sometimes the food tastes better to him after a couple of bites.

Veteran’s Day

Today is the day to thank all the Veterans in our lives. Those that serve now and those who have served.  Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air National Guard, Army National Guard at home or overseas….THANK YOU!

Far Guy

My baby brother, my nephew, my dad and my husband.  Thank you all!

Luckily these family members made it home.

My Paternal Grandparents were not so lucky. Five of their twelve sons were in the military.

They all returned but one.

My Uncle Arthur is buried in the Sicily Rome American Cemetery in Italy.  He was 23 years old when he was wounded and died during the invasion of Italy.

Some gave all.

Clear and Cold

Cold here…put another log on the fire! The wind chill is below zero.  November in Minnesota can be any kind of weather, I have seen it 70 degrees and –20 degrees.  The worst part is the roads, it can rain one minute and be freezing rain the next.

It is a damp cold here as usual until the lake is frozen and we get a little more snow cover.

I heard the Northern Lights were great this week.  I thought about going out to see if I could see them…can’t see anything back here in the woods except the sky above your head. So that would involve getting dressed warmly, getting into a cold car and driving out to the cemetery where I can see what is going on…all the while knowing Chance is serenading Far Guy cause I left him behind.  It is just easier to stay at home.

 

I have many projects I am working on.  I should make a list…right now I think I will put make a list on my list of things to do.

Deer Sign

We have been walking on the deer trails in the afternoon, the trails in the woods are not icy like the road is.  Our property is posted so we feel safe wandering out on our own property during the day.  Deer Hunting ends this weekend.  The main hunting area that my family uses is way north of our property. Three deer have been harvested up there.

 

It is very quiet in the woods.  No birds or squirrels except near our home.  It is good exercise for a Border Collie’s nose…he often has to be called back to the main trail.  His hearing is getting worse…and sometimes he thinks he is the leader and picks a more brushy trail.

There are a few widowmakers hanging near the trails.  (The branch stuck up in a tree.)

These are spots where deer have bedded down for the night. There were three spots in this area.  Probably a doe and two fawns or maybe the triplet fawns.

And deer sign is all along the trail.  ( Just incase you city folk don’t know what deer poop looks like.)

I take my small fit in your pocket camera.  I must have it on a setting to take square photos!

It snowed again after our walk yesterday. But next week it may warm up! It isn’t so bad, there are no skeeters, ticks, flies or snakes.

Wistful Wednesday: Home On leave

June of 1973, we were home on leave in Minnesota.  We had been at Lowry AFB in Denver Colorado and were headed for MacDill AFB in Tampa Florida.

Trica was 14 months old then and we had a little Scottie mix mutt of a dog named Snuffer who would live a good long time.  We traveled light.  Everything we had fit in the back of a pickup truck.

 

My baby brother was home then, he was honorably discharged from the Navy due to a knee injury.

Being home was bitter sweet, we didn’t know when we would be back or when we would see loved ones or relatives again but we were excited to see a different part of the United States.  Florida is a long way from Minnesota.  Far Guy orignally had orders for Bitburg Germany. (He had requested Grand Forks ND, Minot ND and Mountain Home ID) We were upset with the orders for Germany…I wouldn’t be able to go for a long time because we would have to save up for my plane ticket and Tricas and our dog Snuffer would have to be quarantined for six months either that or stay with Far Guy’s parents.  One of the single guys offered to trade his spot at MacDill and Far Guy took the trade…the next day we could have had Mountain Home and $100…but a trade is a trade.

Military life had a fair amount of twists and turns.

Thank you to the Veteran’s in my life.  My husband, my father, my baby brother, my nephew, my uncles and many of my cousins.

Change

I hate the time change.  I am a tad more cranky than normal…not sure why, we are on no schedule other than Chance wanting someone to be up and preparing supper and his dish of food at 5:30 to be consumed at 6PM.  He is kind of bossy that way, he now thinks it’s great that we are on the ball and eating supper early!! Soon enough his tummy will be on the new schedule.

I am trying some new recipes this week.  Three of them…a BBQ chicken recipe, cause I was hungry for BBQ.  A root vegetable latke recipe that I will prepare with a couple of pork chops and then a cheesy sausage frittata with red peppers ( cause green ones give me indigestion). 

I subscribe to many “foodie” type magazines and rarely find a main dish recipe that we may like… either they take too many ingredients some of which we have never heard of or it has some ingredient we don’t like…like ricotta cheese. Some recipes have to be adapted a bit.

It is cold here and damp, we still have snow on the ground…it was about 15 F or –5C eh here yesterday morning.  That little nip in the air produced a grocery list as long as my arm.   The roads are icy…especially here in the woods (It rained and then snowed and then rained and then snowed.)  Far Guy is back to walking round and round in the house. We are hoping for a thaw…or for weather at least above freezing to wash the windows one last time.

 

Flowers from last summer.  This huge basket of flowers hung on the pole along the street in front of the house where Far Guy was born and raised.

Sewing Challenged

Far Guy went shopping.  He bought some new pants, with cargo pockets for his new fancy smancy phone.  After the pants were washed they needed to be hemmed.  IF he would wear his cowboy boots all the time they wouldn’t be too long.

He lugged down the sewing machine from it’s box upstairs…I reminded him that the cardboard box is not as sturdy as it was 43 years ago…it is really his sewing machine….he bought it.

I had to buy some thread the same color as the new duds. Some pants had to be cut off and then hemmed..one pair I just tipped the hem over once and sewed it.  Far Guy asked me if I shouldn’t be measuring?  Well if he wants them measured vs eyeballed he should take them to a real seamstress.

Now instead of looking at men’s cute butts I am looking at the hems of their pants.

Far Guy’s sewing machine is not as old and rusty as this one…but it is 43 years old…a Sears Kenmore  practically an antique…if it were a car it would be in mint condition with only a few miles.

Cords for Reading Glasses

I have a number of pairs of reading glasses.  Most of the time I just grab the pair with the cord that keep them around my neck.   I wear cords out… they get dirty/sweaty and I toss them away or the little plastic thingy breaks.  Some are way to short, some are too long.  Some hurt my neck, some got tangled in my hair.  Some held my glasses at a perfect length to catch pieces of food …hard to see anything when one lens has lettuce and dressing on it.  Not to mention that you feel stupid when you raise them up to read something and everyone notices the lettuce.

One day I was shopping and saw a perfect cord.  Then I got an idea…I could make my own afterall I had many of the supplies.   I attempted to make one during the Craft Retreat back in September…I was not strong enough with my bum hand to crimp the beads…besides that my first attempt was way to heavy..it was real pretty but too heavy.

Yesterday I tore it apart and recreated it.

I bought the one in front, it was the inspiration.

 

I made the tourquoise one and I am working on another in the background, that one is shades of blue.

If you wear reading glasses how do you keep track of them?  If you wear them with a cord around your neck when they are not in use…leave me a comment …I may make you one.

End of the week

I have six more Christmas Cards to create.  I packaged up all the Christmas Ornaments to mail or deliver later this month.  Yeah me, soon I can work on other projects!

We had a clinic appointment, they should make those places fragrance free as Far Guy had difficulty breathing after his appointment…it took about an hour for him to feel “normal” again after we left the building.

We visited one of our favorite antique shops…a few old photos were purchased and a woody station wagon with a surfboard that will find a place near the train set.

Deer Hunting Season starts today.

I hunted early.  No license needed.

These two were eating along the back road last Tuesday when I drove by they just looked at me, so I rolled down my window and snapped a few photos.

We still have snow…and more is forcast for the weekend.  Old Man Winter has arrived.  I thought maybe he was just making an early visit but it sounds like he may be staying….the bum anyways.

Bingo

I went with my Dad to bingo last night and he got a bingo!  As much as he likes the game he gets frustrated when he doesn’t win.  My Mother really doesn’t like bingo.  If I go then the vehicle is warm by the time I get there and I see that he gets safely in and out and back home again.  My Mother gets a few hours to do what ever she wants. 

Dad said “When I was a kid about 14 years old ( about 1940) and was at the County Fair I played bingo, three cards were on a piece of cardboard and it cost five cents to play.  We used corn to mark the numbers.  I used to be pretty lucky and would play a long time….I won cupie dolls and dogs…gave the dolls to the girls and the dogs to little boys…I didn’t keep a thing.  I just like the game of bingo.”

Dad’s potatoes in bloom last summer.

My adventure

About six weeks ago my niece Toots gave birth to a much awaited baby boy named Ray.  She and her husband live a little more than an hour away.  I had a gift for the baby and wanted to deliver it before he out grew it and before the weather and the roads got bad.  They also live about ten miles from a second hand shop that usually has old photos.

Some of the roads near one of the lakes had icy curves but other than that it was a nice drive.

I enjoyed seeing their new home, meeting the dogs, having a good visit with Toots and of course meeting baby Ray.  I got to hold him for a good long time. Ray is my sister Julie’s grandson.

His little outfit says Hero and he had a golden cape attached to the back.

I finally irritated him enough taking his photo that he woke up!   He is a much loved little boy.

It seems I picked a really good day to be gone. The next day we had our third snow.

We have 2+ inches of snow on the ground. I guess we are beginning our six months of winter.

So I had a good adventure… stopping to take photos whenever I wanted,  visiting at a second hand shop where I am known as “the old picture lady,” meeting baby Ray and I topped off the day by getting back to town just in time for my oil change appointment.  Far Guy and Chance did just fine by themselves for the day.

Halloween Report

I missed two Batman characters and a little Batgirl.  I was still in town.

Luckily another niece came by with her “five.”

A lumberjill, a witch, a clown, a lumberjill and a lion.

We had to have a few photos. Then their Dad went and got the little witches hat from the vehicle.

This witch smiles with her eyes.

We had some fun with the clown mask.  The girls all thought that Far Guy looked good with hair.

So all in all we had just 8 goblins.  Can you say leftover candy?   Uffda.