I am a retired 44-year veteran of the Real Estate Assessment field. As with real estate assessing and how it applies to real estate taxes, one can make many acquaintances, but not many real friends. It was a great career choice.
It has been nearly 10 years since I reclaimed my home and my real passions within my home. I enjoy it more each day and tip my hat to those who I left behind.
Each day I try to stretch myself with the use of my computer as it relates to this site and using it to print out labels for quilts for trying to incorporate photos into my sewing. Life is so full and I know that I have room for more.
When Dennis tells me he is in charge of making meatloaf for supper, I am up for it. Why not? It is as good as going out. I think he has about the same volume of onions as the 1 lb. of ground beef. As I said, this is a treat and I am looking forward to the meatloaf partnering up with some instant potatoes and mixed veggies. We both love onions, so I am sure it is going to be great.
We had a great morning taking off the snow from last night. There was a bit of ice under the two inches of the beautiful, clean stuff. Nevertheless, the job was finished, and with temps in the high twenties, the bare concrete is showing in many spots.
There was a bag of Bear Creek Chili mix in the pantry and that sounded like just the ticket for supper. I always add extra ingredients: browned ground beef, onions, garlic and black beans. As I was stirring in the can of black beans, the label jumped out at me “Black Chili Beans” and they were processed in Chili sauce. Oh my gosh. The mix already had quite a bit of spices and I have always felt it was spicy enough. After everything had simmered a bit, I took a spoon and did a taste test . . . my lips were burning before I got the spoonful of chili swallowed. This did not bode well. My first thought was that there was no way I could throw out all these ingredients what with ground beef being so expensive.
I hit Google and why was I not surprised that there was a solution? By adding table sugar a bit at a time it toned down the hot spice taste. My supper and lips were saved.
I am as good as my word. The brussel sprouts left from Christmas Day made it into my bean and ham soup today. I enjoy using the Bear Creek dry soup mix that comes in a bag with all the seasonings that my cupboard does not have room for. The mix can be used as is with the 8 cups of water that are on the directions. This mix happened to be the Navy Bean Soup Mix. I like to use a few extra ingredients. I was awarded the ham bone from the Curry Christmas gathering dinner. I cooked off the remaining goodies that the bone was holding on to and made good use of all the great flavors. I chopped up the brussel sprouts and added carrots that I had in the refrigerator, sliced fairly thin.
Dennis came in just as I had decided to turn the burner off until this evening. Well . . . of course we did sample a bit for our noon lunch. Dennis would not choose brussel sprouts if it were offered in a side dish, but in with the soup, it added just the right punch. This soup made the perfect fare on this very cold day.
Brisk winds and snow flurries call for a supper of soup. The Bear Creek soup mixes can be used as purchased, or they can be enhanced. I purchase 1 lb. of stew meat and cut it to bite size and brown the meat in a frying pan. To the heated 8 cups of water and seasoned package mix, prepared as per directions, I add the browned beef and a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. It makes for a very hardy soup without needing to have on hand all the seasoning and spices for that wonderful flavor. All of the Bear Creek mixes sell for $3.99 or $4.99, and by adding a bit here and adding a bit there, it becomes several very satisfying meals for Dennis and me.
Dennis enjoyed one of his requested suppers: biscuits and gravy. A tube of 8 biscuits to bake, a half dozen precooked Jimmy Dean sausage patties cut up and a package of white gravy mix with two cups of water. The topping: ketchup. It’s okay, once in a great while, but I could not help but wonder about . . . the nutritional value, which from my calculation, was nonexistent. As I said, once in a great while. I now have the Brussel Sprout card to play. Paybacks are hell.
Fried Zucchini rounds for supper to go with an Angus beef patty off of the grill. I used a dash of turmeric sprinkled in a fry pan with olive oil to preheat while I prepared a bit of dry Bisquick powder with all seasoned salt in a baggie. With a whipped egg in a bowl the 1/2″ Zucchini rounds were coated with the egg followed by a toss into the baggie of dry ingredients before they hit the hot fry pan. Frying them about three minutes on each side coincided perfectly as Dennis was bringing in the grilled Angus patties.
The interesting thing about Zucchini season is that the plants continue to bear until the frost kills the vines. I know before long there will be a host of new recipes circulating, some really weird, to try to use up the ever-bearing produce. The gal that gave us this treasure this morning shared that generally one plant will keep a family of six in fresh produce during the season. Angela has eight plants and her garden used to be a horse pasture. Need I say more?
Dennis, known as a good trooper, had two of the rounds and passed on any additional. For the next several days when I open the refrigerator the remainder of the Zucchini will be haunting me until I try one of those less than usual recipes.
. . . in my own home. More specific, in my basement. I went down to shop for an item from our pantry in the basement. It’s just the handiest to have extra supplies on hand rather than having to make a trip to the grocery store for an item or two. The pantry used to be the cistern that held a supply of water from a well that was on the property. Dennis and his cousin, Bruce, via a jack hammer, created this nook than has become our pantry that could very well feed an entire family if need be.
With the pantry item in hand I stopped to put a few sewing items away that were laying on the table. Our 4-H gal’s project that we had been working on for the last month was finished and the tidying up had not as yet happened. I will add that last night at the 4-H style review her project took several well-deserved ribbons and awards as well as Reserved Grand Champion. Minnesota State Fair here she comes. Smiles all around.
As I put the sewing items away I noticed a thick folder that held some of my Mom’s quilt patterns. I pulled it off of the shelf and sat down at my sewing table. Here were her hand drawn patterns along with the fabric samples. I looked. I touched. I wiped a tear. My Mom. My hero. So much of my adult life’s skills are from her tutelage. The entire time a sewing project was under way with Mom, came the lessons of managing to have more than one iron in the fire, whether it was keeping tabs on something in the oven or dashing out to the clothes line when a rain shower popped up. There was never a sewing challenge that left Mom stumped. Patterns were cut out of sheets of the Hutchinson Leader newspaper if an alteration was needed. Her fingers that had become thick with arthritis could wheel those little stickpins just as if they were an extension of her own fingers. Priceless. Reluctantly I put the folder back in good order. I liked the feeling of calm I had from that folder and it just seemed the natural thing to wander further into my stashes of patterns and fabrics. Remembering the quilts that had left a few odds and ends of fabrics from each of the projects. The end result: I need to work up a scrappy happy quilt to use up the wonderful colorful bits of fabric that were left from the larger projects. Mom would agree.
It was a good thing Dennis was on the ball and decided to start the grill as supper time was right around the corner. I had spent the entire afternoon lost in my wonderful world of scraps, threads and more memories than I had expected. After I had come up from the basement to put the finishing touches on the supper table, I very well had to go back down to the basement for that pantry item that started all of this. All of this? It brought about the peace that passes all understanding.
In life, please remember to give and have no memory of it, or take and remember it always.
The perennial lilies and the annual begonias make for a great color show. Just as the abundant rain allowed for this color show, it has also allowed for a lot of biting bugs to hatch. A quick look around the gardens for a photo op and then it’s heading for shelter from the bugs.
While making a batch of potato salad this afternoon – it took me back to a time as a child when we often had relatives pop in for an unannounced visit on a Sunday afternoon. It wouldn’t take Mom long and she had one kettle boiling eggs, another kettle boiling potatoes with the skins on and an onion ready to dice up. Out of the freezer a ring of homemade bologna was gotten out. Potato salad, ring bologna, pickles and cake made a perfect quick meal. No one ever left our farm home with an empty stomach. Sunday company never stayed late as everyone had a dairy herd that would need tending in the late afternoon. Good memories . . . good times.
I heard the coffee pot go off this morning at seven, and right after that I realized that hubby Dennis was getting dressed. What happened to having coffee in P.J. pants out in the porch? I knew what the morning would hold. Sure enough. By 10:30 the acre had been mowed and both my push mower and Dennis’ rider were in need of being gassed up for next week’s mowing. Gotta bless that man’s heart for enjoying a yard that looks tidy.