Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

We have some exciting family events coming up in the next few weeks – including a very special 50th Anniversary Celebration for my parents in which my entire family will gather here at our home for a weekend full of surprises and fun.

To make the “Golden Weekend” go more smoothly, we decided to make as much of the food ahead as we could.

So two of my sisters and a couple of nieces came down for a few days this week and we had our very own “Cook-a-thon” (complete with lots of chocolate and laughter and even some vintage music!)

My kitchen was hopping as we had every available surface covered and in use.

We made 4 cavatini’s that were put in aluminum foil pans and frozen.

We peeled over 70 potatoes and made 3 large pans of make-ahead mashed potatoes. These were also put in aluminum foil pans and frozen.

We baked a large batch of crescent rolls…

…a very large batch of crescent rolls (because you can never have too many hot buttered rolls!)

We also brined, roasted and pulled apart a large turkey, made a batch of hamburger buns, made 8 pounds of taco meat, prepped 4 egg casseroles, made 4 pans of cinnamon rolls that we froze before baking, and covered 40 pieces of chicken in Mom’s original marinade before freezing them in plastic bags.

Whew!

Not only did we make a freezer full of food, we also made some great plans and fun memories.

We discovered once again the truth in the old saying “Helping hands will get things done, half the effort, twice the fun”!

This post is linked up at Design’s by Gollum.

Okay – what in the world is a Blizzard Blog Hop?

Basically it’s a way for other bloggers to get to know each other – like a meet and greet.

We all write a post introducing ourselves and link them altogether – so we can make new friends virtually.

So…from my little corner of the world…welcome!

I’m Melinda.

I’ve been married for almost 20 years to an amazing man and we have 5 great kids.

I adore chocolate – so much so that I started a separate Chocolate Blog.

I despise the taste of coffee – but could smell it all day!

I used to be a classroom teacher – but now my classroom is at home and filled with my own five kids (ages 17 down to 9).

We live in the middle of the nowhere among the hills in southern Iowa. Our nearest neighbors are Amish.

This is the view from my window – but not today. Today it is an ugly brown with patches of dirty snow with frozen mud and dreary dark skies.

You don’t want to see it – trust me – enjoy this view from June when everything is green and lush and beautiful.

My husband and I moved from the  city to our homestead 11 years ago. We lived in a dreary old farmhouse (the hovel) that was already here while we worked to renovate a big beautiful farmhouse (the mansion) that we moved on to the property. It took us 9 years.

We moved in a year ago.

In my spare time I want to learn how to restore the patches of native prairie we have on the property.

Oh – and I want to learn how to take great pictures – well, at least better pictures.

I love fiction books, old quilts, and Hallmark movies.

I don’t like rye bread, politics, and science fiction.

I’m a big gardener – which means I have a big garden and grow really big weeds!

I love cooking and baking.

I shop thrift stores.

I lost almost 40 pounds in the last year.

I’ve been blogging now for almost 3 years.

I blog because I love words. I love to play with words and move them around.  But mostly I blog because I feel a need to create something that doesn’t immediate get eaten!

I blog about my life, my faith, and my family. Sometimes I have deep thoughts. Sometimes I’m just silly.

Thanks for stopping by!

Our Thanksgiving was a little different this year – instead of a quiet meal at home, we volunteered to help serve a community meal at our church for anyone who – like us – didn’t have family close by.

We had never done anything like this before – and no one had any idea how many people would show up and how much food to make.

So we guessed.

Somethings we were right on – like the dressing and the sweet potatoes.

Somethings we weren’t even close.

But all of the left-overs found good homes, many of them ending up here.

The turkey and ham turned into casseroles that now live in my freezer. The mashed potatoes became the most amazingly delicious lefse ever made! The relishes have been eaten on all week.

The only thing that truly stumped me was the left-over cranberry sauce.  It wasn’t the yummy homemade stuff or even the stuff with the real cranberries in it. It was the stuff from the can – the jellied stuff. You know the kind – with the ridges from the can on the outside.

I like it, but not 4 cans worth, cut and partially melted in a ziplock bag. I will admit that this frugal momma almost tossed it to the chickens.

But I didn’t.

I had an inspiration – an “aha” moment.

I decided to turn it into salad.  I would replace the pears in our classic blender jello recipe with the cranberries.  Brilliant!

Cranberry Blender Jello

2 (3-ounce)  packages of Jello (I used strawberry but orange would be yummy as well!)
4 ounces cream cheese
1 can jellied cranberry sauce (or whatever is left-over in the zip-lock bag after the holidays!)
1 1/2 cup boiling water

Mix all ingredients together in blender on high. Pour into a serving bowl and refrigerate until set.

I frosted ours with Cool Whip since we had some of that left-over as well.

Enjoy!

I know this may be hard to believe, but this country gal is getting political.

Yes, me. The one who would rather have a root canal than watch a political debate.

So what changed? Why now?

One man – Bob Vander Plaats.

I heard him speak in June – my husband made me – and I was blown away.

This guy was clearly addressing the problems in our state, and – even more amazingly – gave clear and concise answers on how to solve them. He made sense and I understood it! And boy did I agree with it!

I wanted to cheer!

By the time he finished I looked at my husband and said, “Everybody in Iowa needs to hear this guy! My friends and neighbors need to hear this guy!”

The next thing I know we’ve signed up as volunteers and are planning an event.

We rented a space, sent out invitations, put ads in the paper, made lots of cookies, and prayed that people would come.

They did! And I actually stood up in front of them and introduced Bob Vander Plaats. Do I look as nervous as I felt? (Don’t answer that!)

It was amazing to watch the faces of the people in the crowd as Mr. Vander Plaats spoke – they went from skepticism to excitement, just like I did.

He very concisely laid out his 4 priorities as governor. His points were so clear even the 4th graders in the front row understood them! He then spent several minutes answering questions and personally spoke to every person in the room.

This guy is a class act  and I am honored to be a small part of his team.

So what’s the most important thing that I have I learned so far in this venture into politics?

Get involved early. Find out who’s running and get behind the one you really like. If you don’t get involved now – you have no right to complain about the name on the ballot in November.

Oh… and Republicans like cookies!

My garden has gotten away from me again.

No- it hasn’t run away, but the weeds have totally taken over.

It looks like a lush green pasture that needs to be mowed. Seriously.

Somewhere in that grass there are corn plants – I hope.

It reminds of  the time a few years when the garden had gotten out of control just like this.

Our Amish neighbor had stopped by one evening and saw us out there weeding.

He said, “Got away from you didn’t it? Don’t worry – my kids will come down tomorrow morning and help you weed it.”

Seriously.

The next morning 4 Amish kids showed up at dawn – barefoot, walked out to our garden, and started to weed.

I’m not kidding. We were all still in bed.

I got out to the garden with my children just as quickly as we could and watched in awe as these kids worked.

It was amazing! Two of the kids started at the bottom of the row and pulled the weeds directly around the plants – isolating them.  The other two started working between the rows.

Each child made piles of weeds in the middle of the row.

There was not a weed left.

Those kids worked diligently and quickly until the day heated up. Then they came back in the cool of the evening and worked some more.

I was ready for them though – and had large dishes of ice cream and big glasses of kool-aid waiting.

We tried to help them – but I think we slowed them down more than anything.

It was very humbling to see those kids work so diligently on my garden. It was also very helpful to see how they did it.

My own kids learned how to weed effectively by watching them.

But we obviously haven’t applied that knowledge this summer! I wonder if we can still find the hidden corn plants before it’s to late?!