Jun232010

The Sam and Davy Show

By Country Gal | June 23, 2010 | Posted in Children, Memories | Tagged , , | Comments (7)

It’s become a tradition every June for my nephew Sam to enjoy a week here at the farm while his big brothers are at church camp.

This year his little brother Davy came to join him.

Sam and Buddy are best friends.

I’m not sure what it is about boys and mud – but I’m sure it’s in the jeans (oops – I mean genes!)

Davy and Pedro have become best buddies this week. Maybe it’s because they both love cars and trucks and things with wheels. …or maybe it’s because Davy knows Pedro has the keys to the 4 wheeler and will give him rides! ;)

Pedro has been so patient with the little guy, reading him tractor stories and letting him sit in every vehicle and pretend to drive.

He even pulled out the pedal car and let Davy sit on it while he pushed him around the yard – for hours and hours.

One morning we got out the little Ertyl farm set and filled a Rubbermaid with wheat berries. Davy had a blast filling the wagons with wheat and dumping it back out. He feed the cows and filled the silos. I had wheat berries all over the basement. :)

Later that night when we gave him a bath, Dagmar took off his diaper and enough wheat berries to make a loaf of bread came spilling out!  “Uh Oh!”

The little guy even had wheat berries imbedded in his tushy! No wonder he was a little wiggly at supper!

Speaking of supper…

Meal time is where Davy and I bonded. I showed him how to put Bugles on his fingers, laughed when he said, “Oops! I burped Aunt Linna” and let him feed his lettuce to his “Buddy bunny” instead of eating it himself.

I even squirted chocolate sauce on the top of his ice cream cone, let him lick it of and then squirted some more on.

I can do that. I’m the aunt. It’s my job.

I love it!

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Memories | Tagged , , | Comments (7)
Jun212010

Cherry Crisp

By Country Gal | June 21, 2010 | Posted in Cooking and Food, Desserts, Harvesting | Tagged , , | Comments (9)

I love, love, love cherries! It was very sad when the same blight that killed my peach trees last year, also took my nicest cherry tree. :(

So when a good friend offered cherries in exchange for some help picking their cherry tree – we jumped at it!

We got the kids all busy picking the loaded tree, and then stoning the cherries.

We had several hand held stoners that worked pretty good, one table top stoner that was a piece of junk, one of her boys just popped the stones out with his hand, but my favorite way was using a straw about 3 inches long. We just poked it into the cherry and it pushed the stone out on the other side.

And yes – there were rotten cherry fights and cherry stone spitting contests – and when we were done – all the kids jumped in the pool and played – some with their clothes on! :)

You’ve heard the saying “Helping hands will get things done – half the effort, twice the fun” – well it’s true – we proved it!

Meanwhile, we took the stoned cherries and put them in freezer bags (about 5 cups per quart bag) split them between us and froze them.

Except for one bag. That bag came home with me and immediately became my favorite Cherry Crisp. The recipe came from my mom – and is my all-time favorite cherry recipe.

Cherry Crisp

Mix together:

2 quart bags of cherries
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. almond flavoring
3 Tbsp. tapioca

Cut together:

6 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 yellow or white cake mix

Place cherry mixture into 9X13, Top with crumb mixture. Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Simple, easy, delicious.

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post at Mouth Watering Monday over at A Southern Fairy Tale, Tasty Tuesday over at Beauty and Bedlam, and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace.

By Country Gal | Posted in Cooking and Food, Desserts, Harvesting | Tagged , , | Comments (9)
Jun192010

A Mosiac of Moments

By Country Gal | June 19, 2010 | Posted in Children, Cooking and Food, Deep Thoughts, Memories | Tagged , , | Comments (4)

Every day is full of moments – little snapshots of life.

Most are mundane, a few are unique, and some are blog worthy.

Here are a few of my most blog worthy moments recently -

1. A Monster Moment - This is the summer that Angel Girl is going to learn to bake independently. She just needs the practice doing the same thing several times to gain confidence – and my trust. We started with bread.

She made her second batch last week but she was in a hurry. I thought she had finished making out the buns very quickly and she hadn’t used very many baking sheets. When I checked them before they were baked I could see why – they were huge! Some of the buns measured 5 inches across.

Monster buns! Yes, her brothers teased her, and yes they loved them!  Can’t wait for batch number 3!

2. Proud Momma Moment: We went to a friend’s house this week to pick pie cherries. She has a little 3 year old with Down’s syndrome. As we were finishing up I heard someone singing our special swinging song and went to investigate.

There was Matt under the tree with the swing in it. He had, of his accord,  gently put their girl in the swing and was pushing her – singing “Swing, swing way up high, swing so high you touch the sky…”

Their little girl was just grinning from ear to ear.

I didn’t realize he even remembered the song.

3. Not So Proud Parenting Moment: At my niece’s wedding, she had the youngest cousins, including my Buddy, act as gift pages. Just before the wedding started they were escorted in and sat with my youngest sister and her husband in the front row. Jan and I were directly behind them.

Buddy had just been seated for a few moments when he suddenly jumped up and dashed back down the center aisle of the church. I was still processing the fact that he ran out of the church when he came running back in – holding a cold bottle of water.

He ran right down the aisle, just as the groom was escorting my parents down. He managed to dodge around  them just as the photographer snapped their picture.

Then he settled back in his seat, opened his water and prepared to enjoy the show! I was very embarrassed until I realized he was sitting with my youngest sister – everyone would just think he was hers! :)

4. Old Lady Moment: I wore a new (to me) pair of shoes to that same wedding. By the time we got to the reception I had some very nice blisters forming.  Since I knew I would be standing and cutting cake for some time – I had my darling husband take my dress shoes to the van and bring in my tennis shoes.

Yes, I put my tennis shoes on for the rest of the evening.  If any one noticed – they were too polite to say anything! :)

I’m sure they were all jealous of my comfort!

How about you? What were your memorable moments this week?

Care to share them?

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Cooking and Food, Deep Thoughts, Memories | Tagged , , | Comments (4)
Jun182010

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Country Gal | June 18, 2010 | Posted in Chocolate, Cookies and Bars, Cooking and Food | Tagged , , , | Comment (1)

chocolate chip peanut butter M & M cookies Everybody has a signature cookie – the go-to recipe that never fails.

This one is mine.

The original recipe “Oatmeal Crispies” came from my Grandma Griner and were a staple in her kitchen when my mom was growing up.

Later they were a staple in my mom’s kitchen. She added chocolate chips and would often bake them as bars.

Now that I’m the mom – I did some more substituting to make them my own.

I added peanut butter in place of some of the margarine and I added baking powder.

The result is my signature cookie – and it is a staple in my kitchen!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies  (aka Auntie M Cookies)

1 cups peanut butter
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups oatmeal
2 cups chocolate chips or M & M’s or combination

Cream together the peanut butter, margarine, white sugar and brown sugar.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and oatmeal.  Add to the creamed mixture and mix well. The dough will be very thick.

Stir in the chocolate chips and M & M’s.

Drop by teaspoonful on ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes or until just starting to brown.

You can grind the oatmeal in the blender before you add it to the flour mixture. It gives a great oatmeal flavor without the extra chewiness.

These travel well and keep really well in the freezer.

Enjoy!

By Country Gal | Posted in Chocolate, Cookies and Bars, Cooking and Food | Tagged , , , | Comment (1)
Jun172010

And Prince Charming Got His Girl

By Country Gal | June 17, 2010 | Posted in Thrifty Ideas | Tagged , | Comments off

The wedding is over.

For a few hours on Friday evening we were all held captive by the love story of my radiant niece and her prince charming.

Through-out the ceremony and the reception I heard many comments on how beautiful everything was – and how delicious the food was.

I just smiled.

I knew that my very frugal sister had worked very hard to create all that beauty and deliciousness – all on a budget.

My amazing mom (you all know her as Nana), with the help of my sister and niece, made all seven of the bridesmaid dresses, and the wedding gown.

Instead of renting tuxes for all seven of the groomsmen, my mom made matching blue vests and silver ties for them to wear with their own black pants, black shoes and white dress shirts.

The attendants, wearing all that beautiful blue and silver, were all the decorations needed to bring color to the front of the church.

The couple had friends provide the music – which was wonderful! They also spent a lot of time planning the ceremony itself – making it meaningful and personal.

For the reception, my sister turned a barn-like room into a romantic and almost intimate space using borrowed tablecloths, candles and twinkle lights. Never underestimate the power of twinkle lights and candles!

For table skirting, she bought twin size white sheets at Wal-Mart for $4 a sheet, cut them in half and pleated them right on the tables using masking tape to hold them. She used a borrowed tablecloth to cover the top of the table – including the masking table.

Then there was the food! My niece and my sister put in lots of hours to make everything from scratch. My sister made hundreds of homemade rolls, and gallons of pulled pork that was served with barbecue sauce on the side.

They hosted a “potato party” and several of their friends came to help them peel, cook and mash hundreds of potatoes to make make-ahead mashed potatoes. They doctored them up a little with cheddar cheese and toasted garlic before being placed in aluminum foil pans and frozen – ready to be baked for the reception.

They did buy prepackaged salads to save time – but added a fancy dressing and croutons to dress it up.

The kitchen help was made up of friends from church who volunteered to help make their day special.

I can’t forget the cake! My niece worked for several years at a high-end bakery that is famous for it’s decadent desserts. The owners made the cake for her – free of charge.

It was luscious! As one of the cake cutters, I stood there for an hour and cut pieces of the three different flavors – decadent chocolate, raspberry vanilla and caramel.

All those layers of ganache!

I so wanted to lick my fingers! :)

It really was a beautiful wedding.  The sanctuary was filled with love – the food and the wedding garments were made with love – and the couple was celebrated with love.

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

By Country Gal | Posted in Thrifty Ideas | Tagged , | Comments off