Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Spare Guts
LOL. "Spare guts" is what my Dad always used to call asparagus when I was a kid. No wonder I always thought it was gross and kept in on my 'will not eat' list.
Until DH came along, and, after many years of marriage, asked why I never made asparagus. He insisted that it was good. By then, I had figured out that lot of things I did not like to eat as a kid were pretty good if cooked properly. Fresh was usually better than from a can.
So, when we moved to this little place here and I was thinking of long term food growing, I put in a small asparagus bed. The next spring, I discovered that yes, asparagus is good. In fact, harvested from the garden, put right into the steamer, and served within about 1/2 hr of harvest, it isn't just good, it's awesome!
How awesome is it? It's so awesome that my kids act like it's the best treat in the world! They gobble it up. Even when, late in the season, some of it starts to get a bit woody, they will slice it open and suck out the soft centers of the cooked stalks.
So awesome that last year I expanded my asparagus bed by 50 more crowns. Hopefully in another year I will have so much asparagus that I can pickle some. DH loves pickled asparagus.
Each year, we wait anxiously for the asparagus to peek out of the ground again. I've been checking weekly for about a month (even though I know April is too early here). Since May started, I've been checking every 3-4 days.
Guess what I found yesterday? :0D
Until DH came along, and, after many years of marriage, asked why I never made asparagus. He insisted that it was good. By then, I had figured out that lot of things I did not like to eat as a kid were pretty good if cooked properly. Fresh was usually better than from a can.
So, when we moved to this little place here and I was thinking of long term food growing, I put in a small asparagus bed. The next spring, I discovered that yes, asparagus is good. In fact, harvested from the garden, put right into the steamer, and served within about 1/2 hr of harvest, it isn't just good, it's awesome!
How awesome is it? It's so awesome that my kids act like it's the best treat in the world! They gobble it up. Even when, late in the season, some of it starts to get a bit woody, they will slice it open and suck out the soft centers of the cooked stalks.
So awesome that last year I expanded my asparagus bed by 50 more crowns. Hopefully in another year I will have so much asparagus that I can pickle some. DH loves pickled asparagus.
Each year, we wait anxiously for the asparagus to peek out of the ground again. I've been checking weekly for about a month (even though I know April is too early here). Since May started, I've been checking every 3-4 days.
Guess what I found yesterday? :0D
Spare Guts!
Friday, May 6, 2011
My Annual Roller Coaster Ride
Nope, I haven't been to any amusement parks lately. I simply turned the calendar to May. And with that simple act, I was belted into a runaway car on the wild roller coaster that is my month of May each year.
Winding down the school year should be easy, anticlimactic, right? But it's not. May is more like everything that didn't get done in school so far, must absolutely be crammed into the last few weeks. Projects, reports, field trips, field days, school plays, recognition nights. . . not to mention track and softball seasons and hounding the teens to get out there and turn in job applications for summer employment!
With three kids still at home, I'm often triple-booked four days out of seven each week. Add to that the fact that May is start the garden time in Michigan. . .and that I try to grow as much of our yearly vegetable supply as possible. Before anything can be planted, there is composted manure to haul and till into the soil. And that depends on the weather; so far the garden has been too wet to even think about driving the tractor into. Until now. This weekend looks like it just might be dry enough.
May is a work from sun up to sun down, then crash into bed and sleep like a log, to get up and do it all over again the next day month.
Add to the annual craziness of May:
Winding down the school year should be easy, anticlimactic, right? But it's not. May is more like everything that didn't get done in school so far, must absolutely be crammed into the last few weeks. Projects, reports, field trips, field days, school plays, recognition nights. . . not to mention track and softball seasons and hounding the teens to get out there and turn in job applications for summer employment!
With three kids still at home, I'm often triple-booked four days out of seven each week. Add to that the fact that May is start the garden time in Michigan. . .and that I try to grow as much of our yearly vegetable supply as possible. Before anything can be planted, there is composted manure to haul and till into the soil. And that depends on the weather; so far the garden has been too wet to even think about driving the tractor into. Until now. This weekend looks like it just might be dry enough.
May is a work from sun up to sun down, then crash into bed and sleep like a log, to get up and do it all over again the next day month.
Add to the annual craziness of May:
- DD2 getting confirmed on the first day of the month,
- DD1 & DD2 needing costume creation/alterations for their schools' plays (apparently sewing skills are lacking in mothers these days--I have become locally famous for my rudimentary abilities and am hemming and mending for high school as well as coming up with a 'princesslike' dress out of two very non-princess like pieces for DD2. And creating a Rapunzel braid, out of yarn, that is about 2 foot longer than DD2 is tall)
- DD2 graduating 8th grade, which means she leaves our church's school and needs to be enrolled in the local high school for the coming school year. And choosing her classes for 9th grade and submitting that to the high school so she can be placed with all of her new classmates.
- DS2 graduating high school, so I must get his announcements/open house invitations printed and in the mail this month
- plans/reservations for DS2's open house need to be made and supplies purchased
- our homemade hog roaster hauled out of it's storage spot beside the barn, looked over, any needed repairs done and made ready for the roasting of the pig (currently living at Mother-in-Law's house) that will be the main dish at DS2's party
- keeping in contact with DS1 who has requested leave to come home for his brother's graduation and party, but so far has not gotten word back on if it has been granted
- DS2's grade point makes him a likely candidate for valedictorian or salutatorian, meaning a ride in the local Memorial Day parade, but we won't know for sure until his last day of school which is the Friday before
- having 150 more bales of hay in the loft than I need, so hauling some to auction each non-rainy Saturday this month in an attempt to empty the barn before this year's first cutting comes in
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Tuesday Breakfast
A typical weekday breakfast at this little place here in the spring is fried eggs. Eggs are abundant in the spring, so we eat a lot of them. In the fall and winter, breakfast is usually less egg-intensive, like pancakes or muffins (1 egg for a whole batch rather than 1-2 eggs per person). Normally I'm a one egg, one piece of toast person, whereas DH prefers two of each for his morning meal.
This morning, however, I was feeling a little more hungry than one egg. When I opened the fridge to retrieve the egg carton, debating one egg or two for myself today, my eyes fell upon the carton of turkey eggs--wide open, because it's a chicken egg-sized carton, and turkey eggs are almost twice as big, so the lid won't close.
Perfect! It would still be a one-egg day for me, just a rather bit bigger egg.
This morning, however, I was feeling a little more hungry than one egg. When I opened the fridge to retrieve the egg carton, debating one egg or two for myself today, my eyes fell upon the carton of turkey eggs--wide open, because it's a chicken egg-sized carton, and turkey eggs are almost twice as big, so the lid won't close.
Perfect! It would still be a one-egg day for me, just a rather bit bigger egg.
Turkey egg on the left, large chicken egg on right.
I admit, the first time I ate a turkey egg (late last fall, the first time we had turkeys old enough to lay eggs!), I was a bit afraid. Would I die? Would it taste awful? Would it have a yucky feel in my mouth? It was weird, right? Eating a turkey egg. Who does that?
I do! They are delicious! I don't notice any taste difference between the turkey eggs and the chicken eggs. Maybe because they eat the same diet.
They look the same while cooking:
They look the same on my plate, if maybe a bit larger, like as large as my slice of toast ;0) :
They have the same feel in my mouth (not yucky at all), although I like to think the turkey egg yolk is maybe just a wee bit creamier than a chicken yolk. The jury is still out on that one, since I have not yet convinced the kids and DH to eat a fried turkey egg, only giant deviled eggs made with them.
Monday, May 2, 2011
A Mom Moment
On Sunday, my youngest daughter was confirmed. For any readers who are not Lutheran, that means she completed two years of studying the Bible and the doctrines of the Wisconsin Synod Lutheran church, and is now a communicant member.
An adult as far as the congregation is concerned; she can assist in teaching Sunday school or Vacation Bible School. Or maybe even teach a class herself--DD1 is the 3rd/4th grade Sunday School teacher currently and has been called to teach at VBS this summer. She can be a member of the choir, the Ladies' Fellowship, or the Altar Guild. She can do anything in the church that I can do. The 25 year age difference between us makes no difference in her ability to serve. At church, she is my equal. Next Sunday we will kneel side-by-side at the communion rail. My baby and me.
Confirmation is a very big deal.
Of course, the last few weeks, I have been rather overwhelmed in preparations for her confirmation. There was the dress to buy, the shoes to get, the robe to rent, the leather-bound Study Bible with her name embossed on front to order (the traditional Confirmation gift in my German Lutheran family), the party to plan, the invitations to send out to family and close friends, the meal to prepare for her party, and the church service itself. It is easy, when you are enmeshed in all that, to forget how truly special it is to have your child confirmed.
Today, however, all that is behind me, and I can now feel the joy in my heart that the Lord has given not just myself and my husband, but all four of our children the gift of faith, and eternal life. Today, I am emotional; humbled that lowly me has been so blessed. Overjoyed to know that my children know their Savior and are assured that no matter what this world throws at them, everything will work out for their good in the end.
Training up four children in the way they should go has not been easy. At times, it was downright embarrassing to take them to church, and out of church when they were too loud or rowdy, correct them, take them in again, take them out again, correct them again. . . To wake them all up on dark winter Sunday mornings to get them fed, dressed, and into the van to be to Sunday School on time. To find churches to go to while on vacation, and convince summertime campers to wake up, dress up, and go to an unfamiliar church. To do devotions with them. To teach them to say grace before meals, to pray with them, to teach them to be content and not covetous, to teach them to be givers and not takers. To review their memory work with them. To drag petulant middle schoolers out of bed and to church when they didn't want to go because their friends didn't have to. . . To review more memory work with them. To teach them to listen for God's voice when making decisions, when faced with temptation. To stand up to ridicule for their beliefs.
What is right, is never easy. But it is right. And it is worth it. And I am in awe that God has used me, just little sinful me, to bring four more speakers of the Word to this world.
An adult as far as the congregation is concerned; she can assist in teaching Sunday school or Vacation Bible School. Or maybe even teach a class herself--DD1 is the 3rd/4th grade Sunday School teacher currently and has been called to teach at VBS this summer. She can be a member of the choir, the Ladies' Fellowship, or the Altar Guild. She can do anything in the church that I can do. The 25 year age difference between us makes no difference in her ability to serve. At church, she is my equal. Next Sunday we will kneel side-by-side at the communion rail. My baby and me.
Confirmation is a very big deal.
Of course, the last few weeks, I have been rather overwhelmed in preparations for her confirmation. There was the dress to buy, the shoes to get, the robe to rent, the leather-bound Study Bible with her name embossed on front to order (the traditional Confirmation gift in my German Lutheran family), the party to plan, the invitations to send out to family and close friends, the meal to prepare for her party, and the church service itself. It is easy, when you are enmeshed in all that, to forget how truly special it is to have your child confirmed.
Today, however, all that is behind me, and I can now feel the joy in my heart that the Lord has given not just myself and my husband, but all four of our children the gift of faith, and eternal life. Today, I am emotional; humbled that lowly me has been so blessed. Overjoyed to know that my children know their Savior and are assured that no matter what this world throws at them, everything will work out for their good in the end.
Training up four children in the way they should go has not been easy. At times, it was downright embarrassing to take them to church, and out of church when they were too loud or rowdy, correct them, take them in again, take them out again, correct them again. . . To wake them all up on dark winter Sunday mornings to get them fed, dressed, and into the van to be to Sunday School on time. To find churches to go to while on vacation, and convince summertime campers to wake up, dress up, and go to an unfamiliar church. To do devotions with them. To teach them to say grace before meals, to pray with them, to teach them to be content and not covetous, to teach them to be givers and not takers. To review their memory work with them. To drag petulant middle schoolers out of bed and to church when they didn't want to go because their friends didn't have to. . . To review more memory work with them. To teach them to listen for God's voice when making decisions, when faced with temptation. To stand up to ridicule for their beliefs.
What is right, is never easy. But it is right. And it is worth it. And I am in awe that God has used me, just little sinful me, to bring four more speakers of the Word to this world.
Homemade Sloppy Joes
Several years ago I was given a recipe for some absolutely delicious sloppy joes. They take a bit longer to make than just browning meat and adding a can of sauce (or a can of tomato sauce and a seasoning packet), but all of us at this little place here agree they are worth the work. Plus, using home raised meat from the deep freeze and veggies from the garden, they are practically no cost at all. Definitely not as much as the stuff in the can. And way better. Way, way better.
Start with 1 pound of your favorite ground meat. We use beef or venison, but I would imagine turkey or unseasoned pork would work too. Brown the meat in a 10" skillet, then drain off the grease (if any).
Sprinkle 2 Tbsp flour over the browned, drained meat.
Then add:
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp prepared mustard (not dry mustard)
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
2 Tbsp vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Stir this all together, bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower heat and simmer, uncovered, at least an hour or until desired consistency. Serve on buns.
Start with 1 pound of your favorite ground meat. We use beef or venison, but I would imagine turkey or unseasoned pork would work too. Brown the meat in a 10" skillet, then drain off the grease (if any).
Sprinkle 2 Tbsp flour over the browned, drained meat.
Then add:
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp prepared mustard (not dry mustard)
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
2 Tbsp vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Stir this all together, bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower heat and simmer, uncovered, at least an hour or until desired consistency. Serve on buns.
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