Fall is in the air!

FALL IS IN THE AIR!  Do you know how I know it's fall?  Because I want to cook and have my house smell wonderful and make beautiful loaves of bread!  And today was a perfect day to do that.  I never get to be home most of the day on Saturdays.  I am usually taking someone to some activity or running errands.  Today I planned on cooking and that is what I did.  Oh, and I lit ALL of my yummy smelling candles.  


Here's a quote I have had on my refrigerator since I was married in 1991..
"In the childhood memories of every good cook there is a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot  and a mom." - Barbara Costikyan.


Confession time: I am by no means a good cook.  But I do have some pretty fond memories of my mom and grandma's cooking and the smells that brought the feelings of safety, comfort and love to me as a child.  One of the things that I always wanted to be able to do for my kid's was give them some memories of good times with food.  Whether it be cooking with me in the kitchen or different events where we made great food to share with friends.  In each of the places we have lived I have tried to learn something different to cook.  In Washington I learned the true differences between apples in order to make a really good apple pie, (you never want to use Fuji apples...too juicy).  In Idaho my friend Kelli taught me the art of bread making that I still haven't perfected.  In Wisconsin I learned how to make a killer Wisconsin cheese soup and perfected my pie crust.  In South Dakota Jerry actually taught me how to cook pheasant...not that I like it, but I learned!  In Minnesota I am learning how to organize my life in order to plan menus and have food ready to pop in the oven...freezer meals.  I'm doing this here, because this is where I have gone back to work and school and have NO time to think about meals other than a Saturday afternoon.


Today I cooked 9 lbs of hamburger, made 3 dozen rolls, 2 loaves of banana bread and put together 6 meals for the freezer.  Yep, I am a tired gal right now, but I feel like I have accomplished alot.   I have seen this really cool idea for meat loaf and I have wanted to do it for a long time but never have, so today I did.  I made mini meat loaves!

These turned out so great and 3 lbs. made 16 good size meat loaf servings.  I have seen this done with stuffing and it's called Stuffin' Muffins.  Same idea applies here but with meat loaf.  Also, I made bread bowls for chili.  When I first saw this done I really felt like a dork because the idea of bread bowls was like a big mysterious and really hard thing to make.  Guess what.  You use Rhodes Bread loaves and cut them in half after they have thawed a little and roll them into balls of dough.  Rise and bake.  My house smell so good!  

After the mini meat loaves had cooled, I put all of them in a gallon size freezer bag and put them in the freezer, so on the nights when I am running late, they can be warmed up in the microwave and served with a veggie and fruit.  Also, barbeque sauce is what we like with these.    So here is the recipe for the mini meat loaves!


Mini Meat Loaves
3 lbs. of hamburger
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced celery
2 T. Worcestershire Sauce
2 tsp. Emerils Essence
2 eggs
Salt & Pepper (I always use fresh ground pepper)


Put everything into a good size mixing bowl and get your hands in there and mix it together!  When everything looks well mixed, you want to take enough mixture into your hand for a golfball size ball.  Put the ball of meat loaf into a regular size muffin tin cup...don't use a liner!  If you use a jumbo size muffin tin you won't have 16 servings of the mixture.  When you have filled all of the muffin cups, put them in the oven @ 400* for about 30-35 min.  I also put a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom rack of the oven to catch the spill over of grease and such.  It is meat loaf!  When you take them out, let them cool off in the tin.  Serve with your favorite side dish and sauce and ENJOY!

Coco smelling the yummy scents of fall and patiently waiting!

Summer full of changes!

When school let out in May, I vowed I would get a bunch of things done!  Paint the stairwell, finish the family room ceiling (there has been a ring of beige paint on our white ceiling for a year), get some bottling done, take the 6 credits I had signed up for, take the kid's to Utah to see family and friends and get a short little family vacation in...ALL before school started August 23rd!


Well, the stairwell did get painted...sort of.  There is still a ring around the ceiling and it is waiting for crown molding.  I did finish the 6 credits and did well.  Got the trip to Utah in and it was a blast!  Had a couple of fun weekends to the cities and one planned for Labor Day with all of us.  The family room is still waiting!  But the best part of this whole summer was the memories that were created and the changes that have occurred in my kid's over the last 3 months.

In July Katey turned 16!  OMG yeah she did!  That was almost as hard for me as turning 40!  On our trip out to Utah we did a couple of college tours and of course one of them was Utah State..(Go Big Blue!)  The great news was that  since Katey is a legacy (Jerry graduated from there) she will get in state tuition.  It is far away from home, but I truly believe (as much as I don't want to admit it) she needs to go there to school.  When we got home from our trip, she took her driving road test and got her license.  OMG yeah she did!  I don't think I can take much more!  Dating, driving, college in two years.  Where did time go when I wasn't watching?

Our trip was a quick one and I wish it could have lasted longer, but Coco missed us.  We went to Lagoon one day and had our big family July birthday party.   Sam and Katey had a good time at Lagoon but this was their first experience with amusement parks so they weren't sure if they like them or not.  It was really hot too.  101* on the day we were there...french fried people we were!   We went out and came back through Yellowstone and Montana.  What beautiful country!  I sure do miss mountains and pine trees.  I loved the drive up from West Yellowstone to Butte.  Awesome!  The kid's had a great time seeing the mountains too.  I think Katey was pretty much on the floor of the car though on the pass over to Yellowstone from Cody Wyoming the whole time.  Flatland kids!  Whose are they?


So here we are at the start of another school year.  Gracie is in 2nd grade, still doesn't have one of her front teeth and has lost another bottom one, Sam is in 7th grade and starting football and Katey is a Junior in High school.  Sam and Katey are now both taller than I am and it makes me sad.  They were just 5 and 3 yesterday!  Where did the time go?  I have to say though I am so proud of the people they are becoming.  They are kind and responsible and respectful.  It could be worse I know.  So Kiddos, here is to a successful year to you all.  May we get through this a little wiser, stronger and better people in the end.  

Love to you all,
Shelly

Coco found a friend....

This morning we woke up and wandered around the house getting everyone ready for the day.  We were up by 6:15, Jerry was getting breakfast ready and said, "Oh, that can be good!"  My first thought was that a pipe burst and water would be all over the kitchen.  It has been in the single digits for a week or so.  Then I walked into the kitchen and found this REALLY BIG DOG staring at us with it's nose pressed up against the kitchen window.  Jerry had piled some of the snow up around the house as insulation, so that is what the dog was standing on...a big pile of snow.  Imagine the Abominable Snow Man staring at you at six in the morning.  Yeah, a little freaky.  

Well, Coco began to go nuts!  Barking and whining until I finally said to let her out.  The two played until it was time for us all to go on our merry way and hoped that "Doggy" would too.  "Doggy" stayed and when Sam and Grace got home, Sam called and let me know the dog had stayed and what should he do.  Now, I know you should never feed a stray animal that you don't want to keep, but dang it!  The big dog was so cute and friendly, I caved and told Sam to get a bucket and feed her.....yes, it's a her.  Thanks Jerry for finding that out for me, 'cause I wasn't goin' there.  "Doggy" ate and ate like she had never seen food.  One thing we could tell is that she is a farm dog, but farm dogs usually don't leave their farms.  We think she is a pup...a really big pup.  But, never mind that, Coco was in Heaven to have a friend to play with.  We made a bed for her in the shed with some straw, but she won't go in.  She lays by the house.  I just hope she will find a warm spot during the night.  

Living on a farm is a whole new thing for me.  You would never find a stray that would come around and want to stay like this anywhere but in the country.  And, if this had been even ten years ago, I would have been making this dog steak and eggs and giving it blankets to sleep on.  Now, the dog got dog food and straw to sleep on and if it is smart enough, it will find the shed. However, when Jerry goes downstairs tomorrow morning, I really want "Doggy" to be there to greet him again...big nose and all.

From my home to yours....warmest wishes!

Little toothless grins!

Don't you love toothless grins?  I do and Grace has had one since the end of October.  In fact, when she wrote her letter to Santa, she did ask for her two front teeth!  It was a struggle to get the little teeth out, but she was brave and let me do it.  The teeth were so loose, you could almost twist them all the way around.  

Here's the difference in kid's though that I find interesting.  And I say interesting because I am an only child and the whole sibling dynamic thing amazes me.  With Katey, my oldest, she pulled almost all of her own teeth out by herself.  She wouldn't let me or Jerry do it at all.  It had to be all her.  I guess she could handle the pain better.  Sam on the other hand has never had loose teeth.  Serious as a heart attack!  His teeth will not lose the roots and they stay in, making the permanent teeth come in over, behind and in front of the baby teeth.  We have always said he has "shark teeth".  But thank heavens Grace has been keeping the Tooth Fairy busy.  Until now!  But that's okay.  If she doesn't lose any more that means she is still my little girl for a little while longer.  

What a Month!

After Christmas I thought we had seen the worst of the weather here in Southwestern Minnesota.  We all started back to school and everyone was glad to be back into the swing of things.  But over the last two weeks, we have had two snow days, and 4 delays of school.  It has been crazy!  This past Sunday however, it was sunny for a few hours and I was really homesick.  It reminded me of early spring in Utah.  Right when the snow starts to melt and and you can see the glimmering of little grass leaves through the snow and muck.  I miss seeing daffodils in March instead of May.  But, bloom where you are planted right?  And enjoy what you have today.

We have all had our winter colds too and feeling better.  I don't know about anyone else, but this cold and flu season wasn't as bad as I had thought.  I am not a fan of flu shots, and we didn't get any and so far so good! Knock on wood. 

My highlight for this month has been that I found one of my best friends from "Once Upon a Time" when I was young, thin, and wrinkle free!  I found her on Facebook and I am ecstatic!  We lost contact after I was married and she served a mission for our church to England.  I moved and have been moving ever since, but low and behold, she is on Facebook now.  It is a funny thing about friends who have known you a long time.  You can go for months and sometimes years, but when you pick up the phone and chat for a while, it all comes back like it was yesterday.  She is the reason I met my husband, so it has been really fun to reconnect.  

Well, the gardening and bulb catalogs will be coming out soon and I just get a little to excited to start planning a garden.  I have one small one that I am trying to get into shape and like to say I have control over.  It is however my husbands domain...all of the gardening.  I guess I should consider myself lucky though.  We have a freezer full of corn and a cellar full of potatoes.  I better start posting a recipe for mashed potatoes or something don't you think?  

Have a great and warm rest of the week...from my home to yours.

How cold is too cold to go out...-29 I would say!

So what does your average family do when it is too cold to go out and even make it to the grocery store? Board games, Wii, read and scrapbook. Those are all things that we usually do when it is -29 outside. Oh, really, that isn't a typo. It was -29 on our outside thermometer this morning at 6 am. Jerry being the farm boy that he is has to know everything about the conditions outside when he wakes up, so we have a digital thermometer for that. I'm not sure where the rain gauge is? Anyway, as I have said before, the heartland was pounded with snow and with the snow storms you can always expect cold. Not just any cold, bitter cold. I grew up in Utah so I love the snow and winter. I lived a half hour from 3 resorts, I know snow. But my friends, there is no cold like it is here. It would be one thing to have all this snow in the winter and be able to go out and play in it, right now, you are 10 minutes to frostbite for any uncovered skin. That is freaking cold!!!

So I have taken this day to do some cooking. I start back to preschool on Monday and want to have a few things in the freezer that I can just pull out and throw in the oven. Today I have browned 6 pounds of hamburger, roasted a chicken in my new cast iron roasting pan that I got for Christmas, cooked some more chicken breasts, made Mexican cheese dip and my Grandma's Enchilada Lasagna. For anyone who knows me, I am a mexican food-aholic! I love any and all mexican food. So when it has been about a month since my last mexican food cooking spree and my family can handle it again, I go for it full boar. Really, I love it!

This recipe from my Grandma is one that she used to make and bring to our house on a Sunday afternoon when she needed an excuse to come see us, (she really never needed an excuse, she just thought she did) and spend the afternoon visiting. This recipe can also be done in the crock-pot. I have cooked it in the morning and put it on low for the day. I serve it with Mexican corn and sour cream.

Enchilada Lasagna
with love from Grandma

1 pkg. of white CORN tortillas (white work better for some reason)
2 pounds hamburger, browned
2 12 oz. cans of Red Sauce/Enchilada Sauce (any brand)
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
4 cups mozzarella cheese

Brown hamburger and drain the grease. Pour 1 can of Red Sauce into the hamburger and taste. If it is spicy enough then don't add the other can. Save it for the top. Spray a 9x 13 pan with non-stick spray and layer a single layer of tortillas. Then layer the browned hamburger, then cheeses in a somewhat thin layer. Continue layering in the pattern until you have 3 layers. When you get to the top, just sprinkle cheese on the top tortillas and drizzle the remaining sauce if any. It will be fine if you just have cheese on the top.

Cover with foil and bake @ 375* for 25 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and melted.

From my home to yours....Enjoy!