You Don't See That Every Day

At the beginning of each month I hang a blank calendar page that I fill in with what we're cooking for supper. When I started this practice I would only fill in the week or two. I did this for two reasons - so I would know what items I needed on hand when I went grocery shopping every two weeks (we got paid every two weeks); and so when dinnertime rolled around I wouldn't be wondering what to make. Before this it seemed like we had the same three or four meals all the time and the minions began to gather a rebellion.  I've been doing this for 12 years now. And those once-blank, now-filled-in monthly calendars have been stuck into a binder. I pulled out that binder today and made a list of the meals we have eaten this past year. I came up with 57 meals!  So if I can pull this off, we can go nearly two months without repeating a meal! Of course, there will be some family members that don't like what might be served, but this isn't a restaurant and they'll get to e...

Going to the library is a big deal in our house. The kids beg me to take them more often than whenever the books are due. So last weekend I took the older girls so they could have some fun reading material outside of schoolwork. Which meant I also got to spend almost an hour looking at books. I'm on a cookbook fixation this month. (Swim season is rapidly approaching and rumor has it that my swimmer girl isn't supposed to eat sweets or sugars during the season. It's going to be a challenge to feed this girl. She loves her cookies and ice cream. So do I!) So I am looking at various cookbooks to get some new ideas. Hmm, this sounds a lot like a post I wrote a couple of months ago ... needing new dinner ideas. Anyway, there is a cookbook for just about anything! I came across the Polish cookbooks, and being half Polish, decided to look into them. Just to be fair to my husband's side, I did glance at the Irish ones... but didn't find much in the one I looked at. Head ch...

Every few months I get tired of cooking supper. My inspiration is gone, my zeal and any interest in  meals is zapped. If I can swing it in the budget, we usually end up getting pizza or takeout on those nights. This month I did it a little differently. I told the kids to get in the car, and bring a sweatshirt, because we were going out for dinner. The Mr had to work late in the field, so he didn't come along. We headed west while the kids kept guessing. Eventually they figured out that we were heading to the beach.  We stopped at a favorite park in Lincoln City, to stretch our legs.  Then it was off to Mos for some clam chowder. Yum. We even head enough time to walk on the beach and, as usual happens, throw, er, skip rocks in the water. It was a lovely night. The next night I still hadn't recovered from my lack of cooking syndrome. So we grabbed some takeout and went out to the farm. It was so quiet and peaceful there.  We ate our food, sitting in th...

The Mr. has been in the middle of combining for weeks now. But I am just starting to reap the bounty of the gardens. Today we got peaches! These came from our tree in our own front yard. We planted it a few years ago, and it usualy gave out one, maybe two, peaches each summer. We rarely got to eat them. Today Little K and I picked a bowl full!  16 peaches ready to eat. And just as exciting - there are dozens more on the tree waiting to be picked in a couple of days. I don't know that I will have enough to can from our little tree, but we will be enjoying the fresh sweetness this week.

I've never been graceful. My arms and legs have never had the fluid movement of a ballerina. But there are some days when it's worse than ever. Sunday was one of those days. I dropped the keys. I dropped my pear from dinner, then promptly dropped more dinner food in my lap. Earlier I dropped a library book at the library. It was so bad that my husband suggested I not pickup the 4 year old. That evening I met up with a friend for some 'girl time' and on the way out of the restaurant, I dropped my half of the delicious chocolate cake that I had not finished. Getting ready for bed, I dropped the my face soap. And then, I pull up the Book of Face and see a post about my niece (who is infamous for dropping things also) having dropped her ice cream. I'm glad to know it's genetic.

The farm is in its abundance this time of year. We headed out early this morning to help harvest more garbanzo beans. This time around I got to help. Thankfully it is a lot easier to harvest the beans than it is to weed them, and keep them weeded! While we were there we helped my parents pick produce - ending up with apples, tomatoes, green beans, onions, cabbage, beets, squash, and zucchini. SO many green beans. When we got back home I immediately got to work; first I got the crockpot going with supper - split pea soup; one of our favorites. One of my girls absolutely hates it, but I still make her eat some. Then I had the kids start snipping beans. We had about 4 buckets full of beans to process. I got the jars and all other paraphernalia ready for canning and started in on the process. We finally finished up with it all by 7 pm tonight. And I was so thankful for a crockpot of supper ready and waiting. Because after I started my canning, the kids cracked a bunch of walnuts for m...

Something unusual happened to me today. Since the kids are at VBS all week, either helping or attending, Little K and I have been having some fun. Ok, not really 'fun' to a 3 year old, but we are getting things done! Today we hauled some more stuff out of the house and dropped it at a relative's garage sale. Then we hauled some cans and bottles to be recycled - gotta love the Oregon .05 back deal!! I had a big bag that another relative had given me because they didn't want to be bothered with returning the cans. Free money - I don't mind! So far, nothing out of the ordinary. So here I am in my running clothes, hat in my hair, I didnt' think I looked too bad for 11 in the morning, since I had not even run yet! And K was dressed and happy sitting in the grocery cart handing my cans to recycle. Along comes this older man and he sticks out his hand and says, "You dropped this." Um, what? He is handing me a $20! I told him oh no, it wasn't me. He in...

It's a good thing my husband watches one of my favorite shows with me! I'm talking about "Chopped" not Duck Dynasty! D.D. is not his thing, although I love it. So the other day I was made some soft pretzels in the bread machine. They just didn't turn out "right." It seems most of my breads from the machine are not coming out too well. So, we had all these bready treats to eat, and yet no one really wanted them for a snack. We tried putting honey mustard on them. We tried jam. Still not right. And then my smart husband said, why not melt some butter with garlic salt, and dip the pretzels in them? Aha! Just like in those Mediterranean restaurants, where you dip pieces of bread in olive butter, or such. And so I listened to him, and wow, they were good that way! I guess we can watch a lot more Chopped - it's sinking in subconsciously. We made it out to the farm on Friday to do some work with Grandpa. It was a sunny spring day, but COLD. We loaded ...

Is it donut, or doughnut? Either way it was yummy. Do you remember Grandma's donuts? Oh, the memories! Way back in my childhood, my parents bought a donut maker. (I'm going to go with the shorter spelling.) I remember just a few times of it being used. And somehow - thankfully! - we have inherited it. If any of my siblings want it ... we could probably work out a loaner system. So the two older girls begged me to get a pretzel recipe from the neighbor. And so I complied, because that sounded yummy too. It's winter in Oregon. Homemade bread always makes the gray days better. As they were compiling the ingredients - we've learned from past experience to check first - we realized we were out of unsalted 'real' butter. And I am pretty sure the recipe we had wouldn't work so well with our cheapo margarine. So they dug out the donut maker and 'convinced' me that they could do it. And they made donuts. Hallelujah. They've been listening to me cook...

The second day of this vacation - the kids did not sleep in again! What is the deal?! Oh, yeah, the 2 year old doesn't tell time yet. We spent the morning in the library. What a wonderful building. If I could I would have a room in my house filled with books on shelves. Kind of like that room in the Beauty and the Beast movie. I am so thankful my kids love to read. Going to the library is a joyous occasion for them. Having a limit to how many books they can have - not so happy. But we've had too many "I don't know where it is!" moments to let them have as many as they can. This week we've decided to have them do a report on one of the books they read. Keeping their minds going you know. The Boy got to choose from any of Steinbeck's works. He chose Of Mice and Men. I have to admit I never read the book. I saw the movie back in college. And my dear friends who went with me to see it - Ann and G - did not tell me how it ended - and boy was that a surprise I...

The third day of non-school for us (because I didn't blog about Monday. I might have to remedy that.) But for today - we had a new adventure to conquer. Tea Time. Back when I was new to this mom-thing, my sweet mother-in-law took me out to tea at a real, bona-fide tea house. We got to choose our own tea cups, and the tea that went in it; we could have chosen our own special hats to wear also (but that kind of creeped me out) and we had delicious little finger sandwiches. For years that memory, and the one from the next time we went, have stuck with me. Unfortunately our town has not had a tea house, tea parlor, tea shop of any sort for quite a few years. And we have been left yearning for a special place such as the One that Once Was. I love tea time. I'm not British by any means (Hurrah for Poland and Germany) but I love tea and all the accoutrements that come with it. If I had a kitchen hutch or display case, I would be filling it with tea cups. So somehow (hmmmm, I wonde...

Actually today is the 21st. But it's the Princess' 7th birthday. And we're having a party! Oh boy are we ever! I decided that this year, starting with her birthday and working our way through the 4 other kids, each one gets to have a special birthday party this time around. So first up is the now-7 year old's Campout (Indoors) Birthday Party! She has invited 6 of her friends over (that was a hard list to pare down!) and some are even staying the night. Talk about an excited little girl! We set the tent up in the new playroom. We've got hot dogs to roast, and a bear hunt waiting. There will be potato salad and jello, per the birthday girl's request. Also on the menu - almost-orange-julius; chips, and carrots; And of course, there will be chocolate cake and ice cream. I just made The Best frosting to put on a cake, or in a cake. It reminds me a lot of the filling from ding-dongs (are those still sold anywhere?! ah, the memories.) All it takes is 2 cups of po...

 I came home from church on Sunday to find these in my house. Along with some black roses. Thanks a bunch older brother and sister.  The kids and I headed out to the farm for groceries today. And boy did we come up with some good food!  Little K had a grand time in the dirt. She helped pick carrots, and helped taste-test the beans and carrots and cherry tomatoes. (Boy did we all pay for that later!) She also had fun letting the beans drive the car. I don't know if you can tell, but that car was covered in dirt.  What a fun day! even though I ended up driving back out to the farm for a mattress I had forgotten to pick up while I was there - I didn't mind so much going back to that peaceful place on earth. Tomorrow the cousins arrive here - we are so excited and looking forward to visiting with the other side of the family.

 This room here will someday house a boy. And his football posters. And his OSU t-shirts. This week, or maybe next we will be able to paint it!! Do you know how completely over the top of excitement this is? Well, it is not quite up to moving-in-day excitement, but it is still pretty great! We can paint it! Today (if we had time!) Maybe tonight after the swim meet we could paint it. One more step taken on the path of remodeling. Our two older kids spent some time at Farm Camp this week. Farm camp, for those not in the know, is time spent with my parents at the family farm; it usually involves a lot of weeding and hoeing, especially among a crop or two of garbanzo beans, and in the family garden. It also involves lunch out at a favorite fast food place. This week it even included ice cream. Grandpa was feeling extra generous I think. So I was the one to pick them up yesterday afternoon out at the farm. It is just so pretty out there in the summer. The whe...

I took Little K to the farm yesterday. My plan was to pull some more weeds, while the older 4 were at VBS (vacation Bible school) until noon. Thankfully the rain held off. -- that's not a normal sentence for the summer, except in Oregon. And Washington. So we got there and my dad directed us over to pick the peas! Woohoo! So pick we did. I lost count of how many times K asked for "Another one?" and then gobbled down the peas after I split open the pod. A productive morning for us, peas and lettuce and full tummies.

We all scream for ice cream; because, really, what's better than ice cream to shout about? at least in the food arena...  And yes, that is a lot of ice cream cones. A lot . Guess what we'll be going through for the next few months? If you come to visit, we'll be offering cones for dessert. So we had a neighborhood ice cream party on our block this past Monday. I scored some great deals on Tillamook ice cream at the local Albertson's. You think you have great ice cream in your neck of the woods!? Oh no ... this stuff is so much better than anything else out there. Seriously, Tillamook beats them all, hands down. Try it, you'll see.  So anyway, we stocked up with a bunch of cartons, on sale, and then hauled them out to the street Monday evening. With some chairs, some whipped cream, and toppings from another neighbor's kitchen, we sat and waited. Since the kids had gone around the 'hood earlier in the day handing out invitations, we didn't hav...

School may be out for the summer, but I'm still making after-school snacks. Because these minions of ours just don't stop eating.Which is a good thing, I suppose! I tried a new recipe today, inspired by not having anything better to do (snort, chuckle, ha!) I got it from this awesome blogger otherwise known as Mavis . Of course the original recipe is what I started with, and like most things I touch, I didn't "stay-within-the-lines". I tweaked it to see if the final taste would match what my taste buds were craving. The recipe calls for flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. And then in another bowl vanilla brown sugar, butter, ripe mashed banana, and an egg. Finally add in the chocolate chips. So I had a ripe banana in the freezer waiting for a smoothie, but I decided to use it in cookies instead. And what goes better with banana and chocolate than peanut butter?! Oh yeah! So i scooped up two huge spoonfuls of peanut butter and added it to the recipe. ...

It was time to unload all the photos from my cameras today. And I even found time to do a little blogging. What a week! My husband was able to work from home part of the week, so the computer was not readily accessible to me. It was sure nice to have him around though! I made these cream puffs and they did not last long at all. We devoured them! I went through the boxes and boxes of baby clothes that I have had stored in our 'playroom'. It's all part of my de-clutter and minimalism effort. Plus, I'm pretty dang sure we don't need the baby clothes anymore! The girls' book reports this past week were 'dioramas' that portrayed a scene in the book or an important idea from it. All three wanted to make one - so we've got the kindergartner's book, Bailey goes Camping The 3rd grader did "Princess Alice and the Glass Slipper": And the 5th grader did a Boxcar Children book: In the middle of the week we took part of the day off...