Over the next few weeks I plan to update parts of the blog, especially the pictures in the side bar. We'll see...
So to get myself restarted here's an almost wordless
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Back Into Action....
For some strange reason, I'm ready to blog again. I'm not quite sure what it is, maybe having a new baby in the house and wanting to document his changes and growth. Or maybe I'm just ready for a somewhat creative outlet. Or maybe I'm just ready again to voice my thoughts and reflect on them. Or maybe it's because it's because I made pear sauce yesterday (which was the last thing I posted before a VERY long break.) Whatever it is...I'm ready to be back in action. I'm not making any promises on how often I'll be posting, but I'm here if nothing else to type some thoughts and post a few pictures.
Over the next few weeks I plan to update parts of the blog, especially the pictures in the side bar. We'll see...
So to get myself restarted here's an almost wordlessWednesday is it Thursday already? Oh well. I told you no promises. :)
Over the next few weeks I plan to update parts of the blog, especially the pictures in the side bar. We'll see...
So to get myself restarted here's an almost wordless
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Pear Sauce
Even though December is here, and for us in SE Alaska, winter and the snow is definitely here too, and you're probably thinking about holiday baking, I have a recipe for you that's a little more fall worthy. Nonetheless, this is still delicious and pretty simple too. And since fresh pears are still available at reasonable prices, I wanted to share a new recipe we discovered this fall.
It all started when we brought back a box of apples and pears from Hood River after traveling for my grandma's funeral. I had grand dreams of canning the glorious bartlett pears in juice and marveling at a shelf full of canned mason jars. However, Alaska Airlines apparently didn't read their fragile stickers all over our box because my pears were no where near glorious any longer. They weren't a total waste, but I had to shift gears and think of new ways to use them. I ended up making a really delicious pear jam with cranberries and cinnamon. And I also had several left over and decided to make pear sauce. I knew the kids would like it but I was surprised by how much Shawn and I liked it too. In fact, it was so good I bought more pears a few weeks later when they were on sale and made this again.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Braces
You're probably thinking what we were at our first orthodontist consult: "Braces?! But she's only 7." Well our trusted orthodontist explained to us that she didn't need braces for straightening like many preteens. Hers was a space issue. If you click each photo it should enlarge for you and you can see her teeth a little more close up. The photo below was taken the day we went to the orthodontist for the actual installation. You can see that her top two front teeth are so far apart she had a large gap between them. And into the tiny slivers of space on either side is where the front side teeth (called lateral incisors) are supposed to fit. Not gonna happen, right? That's what the orthodontist thinks too. He predicts that the lateral incisors would have come in behind the front teeth, resulting in what's called a cross bite.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Big Day for a Little Man
We had a rather momentous occasion recently, although it's nearly been 2 months ago now. Our second born started his first day of formal schooling. That's right, the little man started preschool!
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Homemade Graham Crackers
This summer I had the opportunity to try making graham crackers. We had a small group over to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday around a campfire in our backyard. Since my sister-in-law was bringing over the bulk of the food for the party, I offered to make graham crackers and have some s'more ingredients. I at least am really glad I did because I enjoyed the best s'more I've ever had. Hands down! And I know it was the softer, delicious homemade graham cracker that made the difference.
Monday, October 22, 2012
The Backyard Flock
First of all our new group of mail order chicks are doing well. They have grown SO much and are now basically full grown. (Remember this post from when they were so cute and fluffy?)
In the photos below, the chicks were 7 weeks old and had just moved out from their large box under a heat lamp in the shop. We partitioned off a section of our shed for them to live in while they grew and matured. They did pretty well during their first night in a new place, but it was the second night that we discovered they were young escape artists.
We were watching TV after the kids had been put to bed. We hopped up during commercials to look for a munchie in the kitchen when we noticed two chicks walking up to the back door at nearly 10 PM. (Remember this was late June so it was still light, but starting to get dusk.) So we rushed outside and found most of them rather quickly. They hadn't gone too far...except for Muffy. That's her below. She's the quiet one. And with her coloring and the darkness fast setting in. We were soon using flashlights to search our yard and then a good area of the neighborhood. We eventually gave up looking for her that night. I was just sick to my stomach that night wondering what would become of a poor defenseless baby chick. Dogs, bears, eagles, ravens, plenty of predator hazards. I got up a few times during the early morning hours and checked the backyard and again a few more times after Shawn had left for work. Then finally in a defeated "well, I guess I'll at least go check on the big girls and the garden" attitude I tromped out the backyard again. That's when I heard a distinctive cheep in the distance. When I heard it again I started moving towards the sound. I kept hearing more cheeps so I picked up my pace. Then I finally got a view of what I knew was her--three houses down the street!!!--in a neighbors yard being pounced on by another neighbors puppy. I scared that mangy thing off her and was really worried I was too late. But as soon as I picked her up I could tell she didn't have any major injuries. She was lucky to escape with just two mild cuts and some missing feathers. I'm pretty sure her attack had started just before I first heard first peep. So yeah, I save her life. And that dog is definitely on my bad list.
For one reason or another our little miss has decided that the barred rock chickens are hers. Not sure why, but she really likes them and so do I. Lately she's gotten really good at catching them to love on them a bit.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Blueberry Pickers
First of all, I must confess that the pictures in this post are not recent. They were taken at the end of July on a very hot summer day for SE Alaska. It seems like such a far cry from the weather we're experiencing now. We're practically done with fall already. In fact, the near permanent dusting of snow on the mountain peaks around our house are telling us that winter is not far away.
Nevertheless, I wanted to share our little family's love for picking wild blueberries. Each one of my children had their first experiences with berry picking while they were nestled into a baby carrier of some sort. So I guess they've never known a summer without berry picking of some kind. In the Juneau area blueberries are the most easily available of all wild berries. We've tried picking in several different spots and each spot seems to be more fruitful :) than the last. This year we seem to have found the perfect spot. So perfect in fact, I'm not sure I can bring myself to publicly identify it's location. The berries are in such abundance there that we picked that location a total of 3 times this year. One of those pickings was a final fall harvest in September that I took the little babe on while the other two were in school.
These photos are from our first picking this summer. You have to walk along a pretty decent trail to get to the alpine berries, so we were hiking along for a while hoping the berries would be as amazing as we were told. Notice my doubting comrades in the photo below. They both took turns be the party poopers of the the group and requesting that we turn back. But we pushed on and found a berry pickers gold mine.
The little babe was all business on this outing. He was a really productive little berry picker. I thought I would be using the bucket he's got in this picture, but you can see he was determined to fill it himself.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
A Lovely Lady
In my last post, I mentioned the recent passing of my grandma. It's been just about a month since she passed away and yesterday would have been her 86th birthday. Even before her passing, I didn't know what to say or write about her in a post like this. In fact, I wasn't completely sure what to say about other things either...thus a break from blogging.
A month later, I still don't think I can adequately describe what she meant to me. Although, I'm sure you can imagine. She was my grandma, and who doesn't LOVE their grandma? I loved being with her, learning from her, watching her, loving her. I know several of my traits as an adult are linked to hers, especially my "always have to be doing something" nature. She could never sit still and neither can I. And coincidentally many of the things I am interested in as an adult, are things she was skilled at: sewing, gardening, cooking, canning and teaching bible class.
(both of my grandmother's at my grandpa's funeral--summer 2011)
Aside from the industrious tasks that she always kept busy doing, I learned a lot about caring for others by watching my grandma. Before my grandpa passed away during the summer of 2011, I watched her care for him like no one else could. His decline was slow and difficult with added elements of dementia. Despite her own physical limits, she cared and loved for him continually.
She also cared for her family. She and my grandpa went out of their way to be at so many of our events growing up. Lots of games, meets, concerts, baptisms, high school and college graduations and of course weddings. My grandparents were even the second pair to make it to the hospital the day our little miss was born. And they probably would have beat my parents to meet their first great grandchild, but they had farther to drive. :-)
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Re-Entry
After a SUPER busy summer, I think I was nearing burn-out on this blog. It was starting to feel like a chore and unnoticed. Then our family got some news that sent my heart spinning. My grandmother became ill and passed on to her heavenly reward within about a week's time. While I wasn't sad for her, I also didn't really know what to say. My desire to write about other topics was also temporarily quenched. There just weren't any words flowing from my heart to the keyboard. Sometimes those things take time.
And any other mother out there will agree with me that after a big emotional event like that, there's always a time of readjustment to get things back to normal. Well, I think I've finally found a way to re-enter the blog world following our readjustment.
If you're one of the folks who came by to visit us on this blog and found "no one home", thanks for not giving up on us/me and continuing to swing by. And if not and you just randomly came by and have notice we've been "home" (on the blog) for a week now, no worries ( I deserve it!). I'm glad you came by. Either way...welcome! Would you like a glass of sweet tea? Make yourself comfortable and let's chat. :)
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Kari's Homemade BBQ Sauce
Recently I've been on a bit of a DIY kick in the kitchen. But it hasn't all been recent. Over the past few years I've slowly replaced some of our pantry or staple items that are usually store bought, with homemade versions. I've gotten into the habit of making my own bread for sandwiches, ice cream, most of our jams, and some salad dressings. Then there's other things that I've at least tried but haven't out right replaced the store bought version with yet. Most of those trials I hope to eventually turn into regular kitchen habits, but we'll see...baby steps.
Usually when I decide to try my hand at making a homemade version of something often purchased at the store, it's for one of two reasons, or both: cost and realizing the item has an ingredient list longer than my index finger. Are you like me? Do you get a bit suspicious of weird ingredients that you can't even pronounce?
Well one food item that has bugged me whenever I would purchase it was BBQ sauce. When Shawn and I lived in Japan--it's been 8 years since we moved back ya'll!!!!--we couldn't find good old american BBQ sauce on the store shelves of our neighborhood grocery store, Maruhei. Nor could we find it at the liquor store down the street, Yamaya. Yes, I said liquor store. They actually double as international grocery stores in Japan. So we frequented the one near our apartment and got VERY excited when they started carrying flour tortillas! Anyway, back to the sauce...they had none to purchase. So I knew making BBQ sauce was totally do-able, I mean everyone at a grilling contest probably has their own homemade secret sauce, right? Well in my search for a good recipe, I was roadblocked by ingredients that I couldn't find in Japan. The main one was hickory smoke--blast you hickory smoke! Finally a good friend who we worked and worshiped with in Japan found out that I was in need of a BBQ sauce recipe and she shared hers with me. It was just what I was looking for: simple ingredients and fantastic taste.
I made Kari's recipe often during the three years that we lived there and we always enjoyed it. But somewhere along the way, live got busy--ahem, three children--and I turned to store bought sauces. But I always felt a little guilty about it because I knew the homemade version wasn't all that difficult. But recently I came up with a good way to use BBQ sauce that the whole family enjoys (more on that in a future post), so I tried my hand at making this sauce again. Now I double or even triple it and keep the leftovers in the fridge so I can have it ready for the next meal. This fall I may even try making an extra large batch and canning it. We'll see how busy life gets during Shawn's annual moose hunt.
Kari's Homemade BBQ Sauce
from Kari Littlejohn
makes about 1 quart
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 - 1/2 of an onion chopped in slices
1-4 cloves of garlic, diced or pressed
3/4 cup ketchup (natural if preferred)
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/8 cup worcestershire sauce
1/8 cup soy sauce (low sodium if preferred)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard or prepared spicy mustard (I always used the spice mustard in Japan cause I couldn't find the dry--tasted just great)
2 teaspoons chili powder
juice of 1/2 lemon and slices from the other half.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onion and garlic and saute for a few minutes until soft and fragrant.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer for a few minutes until the onions look done. Store in a container in the fridge for several weeks, maybe even months if you like to live on the edge. :-)
If the weather isn't hinting at fall where you live like it is here, then you probably have some grilling opportunities ahead of you in the near future. Maybe Labor Day? If you have the chance, then I encourage you to give this BBQ sauce a try. I think you'll enjoy the sweet and tangy flavor on just about anything you add it to. Plus you can feel good abut what you're feeding your family--simple ingredients you can pronounce. Except maybe for that worcestershire sauce. That's a tricky one.
Monday, August 27, 2012
School Begins
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Gallivanting
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