Me, Myself and Memories

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  Noreen 4:43 am on January 16, 2017 Permalink  

  New Chief 

  

  It was time to pull in some extra help in the kitchen. Dennis doesn’t mind helping out and does great in the kitchen.  My dad, Raymond, was able to make himself a fried egg sandwich.  Why such a limited amount of kitchen skills?  My Mom always made sure Raymond had choices in the refrigerator if she was going to be gone over a mealtime.  Love that.  Crab salad is one of our favorite “go to” when a snack is needed. Lots of celery, onions and of course the crab meat. It is actually Pollock. With a lazy Sunday coming to an end, this will be a perfect supper with some toast.

   
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  Noreen 2:34 am on September 9, 2016 Permalink  

  Now this type of day is what I have been waiting for. A bit of breeze, low humidity and low temps. The mosquitoes didn’t get the news flash that they could have the day off. My lawnmower didn’t let me down. We may have grunted a bit as the ground is just like a sponge. The front yard offered up three full bags of clippings. This surely must be the tail end of push, push, push. Here I am all cleaned up and Dennis is still out in the northeast part of the acre on the rider mower. This will be a good grill cheese and tomato soup supper night.

  Something about this day brought back a memory from times gone by. It was this time of the year many years ago that the kid’s dad, Orlin, announced the television was on the blink. Oh my gosh, Downtown South Branch and all it didn’t have to offer and now . . . no television. Though all we could get for reception was Channel 12 – WCCO, it was still the glow of the tube and entertainment. With no fluid funds to take it to Truman for the repair shop, the television set became a rather large knick-nack.

  School had just started with a fair amount of daylight in the early evenings. Kevin found things to do in his make-shift tool shed. It was a concrete block building that had once been a chicken house. Carrie spent more time on the piano. She tried out different recipes that made tasty suppers by the time Orlin and I got home from work. Quiet times in their bedrooms for schoolwork served them well. There was still a fair amount of yard work for all of us, as we were the grounds keepers for the next door church, the cemetery and the parochial school grounds. Fall turned into the early stages of winter. I am not sure how it was revealed to the kids when the television was re-instated after it had been taken to Truman for a new picture tube. The kids didn’t even complain when ole Chuck Pesket was the man of the hour for news or the host of the John Deere Band Wagon. The kids kept on with some of the things that had kept them occupied during that “black out.” It was a good thing.

  If my memory serves me, Orlin had pulled the “television is broken” one time when we lived in Madelia. The television set was actually put into a closet. After a lengthy spell in the closet, Orlin and I came home from being out and about and the kids met us at the door. Oh my gosh! “We just tried plugging it in to see what would happen and it worked!” Poor ole Dad, it’s hard to pull something past kids that have inquiring minds. The wonderful thing is that Carrie and Kevin did have, and still do have, inquiring minds to continue broadening their horizons for themselves and their families. Now that’s a good thing.

   
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  Noreen 3:12 am on March 1, 2016 Permalink
  Tags: Dennis ( 40 ), Kevin ( 8 )   

  Tidy Up 

  After a sewing project or two the threads are everywhere.  As many wastebaskets that I have in various locations in the sewing studio, some are still bound to take flight.  Dennis cleaned the vacuum filter after I was finished and he was wondering if I sat in a corner making small bits of thread.

  

  The bright colors were fun to work with even if some had to be spliced to be able to be used.

  Yesterday after folding up the large turquoise and coral quilt with the embroidery motifs, I had not planned on starting anything new.  I thought I was burned out.  Not!  I was in the process of making tidy the work area when I could not help myself from thumbing through the scrap box.  At the very bottom was a half yard of a printed panel.  It was a panel of the alphabets, three letters to a block.  Before I knew it, I had some scraps for this and a few scraps for that and the challenge was on for making a crib sized quilt.  Not all projects need to be queen or king sized.

  I knew I had supper in the bag.  From roasting out a large turkey from Kersten and Kevin, we had several bags of roasted chopped turkey in the freezer.  I planned on using some cream of chicken soup to add to the turkey for hot sandwiches.  The sandwiches coupled with a lettuce salad and the menu was planned, giving me ample time to sew a few seams.  I did call it quits when I realized I had sewn the last seam placing the right side of the quilt to the wrong side of the border, rather than the two right sides facing each other.

  It wasn’t much fun knowing that the first job of the day was taking the seam ripper out and taking out that last seam.  It did give me time to consider what sort of backing to put on a crib quilt.  When all was said and done, I had taken everything out of each tote to find just the right yardage.  I am not going to mention just how many totes that entailed.  When I saw the Crayon print yard goods, I knew it would be the right fit.  It may have been a good find, but I shot myself in the foot.  As I went through the totes, I weeded out bits of scraps that had been folded into the larger pieces.  I had been working very hard to use up scraps and now my scrap box is again just as full as before all the pot holders and placemats have been cranked out.  This puts a whole new slant on job security.  Care must be given when one is doing a tidy up.

   
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  Noreen 5:54 am on December 14, 2015 Permalink  

  Nice packages of bite size turkey in the freezer to be enjoyed another day. I do not skimp and think every scrap has to be used. For me there is nothing worse than biting into grizzle when thinking about a nice turkey sandwich.

  I was doing some kitchen duty, so Dennis brought in all the squash that was left in the garage and we did a “bake out.” It’s a good feeling to know that they won’t go to waste. Several good packages in the freezer.

  I was done in the kitchen and Dennis took over and used some of the freshly baked squash to mix together a squash dessert. No pie crusts: 2 cups of squash, 1 cup of sugar, one can of evaporated milk, 2 eggs and cinnamon and bake at 325 for an hour. It makes for a fairly healthy treat.

  The weekend was gray and damp, but the weekend has been good.

   
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  Noreen 5:15 am on December 13, 2015 Permalink  

  Here we are on a Saturday evening on Stauffer Avenue.

  Monday when I came home from Kevin’s, I was accompanied by two huge frozen turkeys, both of which were larger than the kids’ apartment oven. One of the frozen turkeys were left in the refrigerator to begin the thawing process.

  This morning at 9:30 a.m. with the oven preheated the turkey went into the oven to roast. At 4:30, the pop up button in the turkey as well as our meat thermometer indicated the 180 degree temperature had been reached. For our evening meal, I enjoyed a portion of one drumstick and one wing. Dennis is a white meat type of person.

  After the turkey has cooled down to take the goodies from the bird, there is going to be a lot of diced and cubed meat to be put into portion bags and frozen for future use. A can of cream of chicken soup and a baggie of cut up turkey will make great hot sandwiches or to be used in a hot dish with noodles and veggies.

  My Dad would be waiting in the wings for a turkey commercial. For the novices out there, a commercial is sliced hot meat in between two slices of bread and then cut in half as they are snuggled up to a mound of mashed potatoes, with the entire fare smothered in hot gravy.

  No doubt some of this bird will be headed north for the contributors to enjoy. It will be some time before bird #2 is roasted. The size of these turkeys must have been in the 11-12 pound range. Look as I might, I did not see the weight on the wrapping of the turkey.

   
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  Noreen 2:28 am on July 29, 2015 Permalink
  Tags: Creamed Cucumbers, Dennis ( 40 ), Mom ( 5 )   

  Dennis Knows How to Shop 

  

  Dennis stopped at the Farmer’s Market this afternoon and he knows how to shop for good produce. That ole cowboy picked out wonderful cucumbers and onions. The slicer that was my Mom’s might look the worse for wear, but I can’t imagine slicing cucumbers or raw potatoes with anything else. It really saves on the hands. Cucumbers, onions with dressing is co-mingling in the refrigerator for supper. It would not surprise me if Dennis had a huge portion of the creamed cucumbers with a slice of butter bread and calls it good. Dennis also knows how good the plate of Peanut Butter cookies is that he found at the same vendor. The Platz family from Springfield work hard at multiple locations with fresh produce, canned produce and the all time favorites in the baked goodies. Wait until they come with their chocolate zucchini bundt cake. Dennis is bound to bring one home touting the benefit of eating zucchini. Ya right!

   
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  Noreen 3:55 am on July 16, 2015 Permalink  

  I had a spurt of energy this morning hitting the porch with coffee in hand at 6:45. With the help of Butter Ball and Snuggles a few weeds were pulled before the alert went out to the mosquitoes that there was fresh meat out and about.

  This evening for supper, I am going to have my first bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich on whole wheat toast of the season. I can hardly wait. While it was still cool out there were 2 lbs. of bacon being baked out in the oven. With restraint, that stash of bacon will serve us well for quite a few meals – whether bacon and eggs or for sandwiches. As I said, “restraint.” We have not had bacon for some time, and it sure smelled good as it was caramelizing in the oven.

   
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  Noreen 3:28 am on February 3, 2015 Permalink  

  I’m Up For It 

  

  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.

   

   
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  Noreen 1:16 am on January 22, 2015 Permalink  

  Wow – That Was Hot 

  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.

   
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  Noreen 3:42 am on January 1, 2015 Permalink  

  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.