Post-Thanksgiving delight

I love a good cooking blog. A friend put me onto The Pioneer Woman Cooks, which is entertaining as well as full of great photos and delicious-and-decadent recipes. There is also Gluten-free Girl, whose blog I frequent in aid of Josh and Bethany's gluten-free-ness. Then I ran across this one, Mennonite Girls can Cook. So if you love cooking blogs too, check them out.
After Thanksgiving, I had a hankering for some good squash soup from one of my famous kabochas. It's a recent discovery of mine, that squash is good for something besides cookies and breads. So here are my instructions, with some pretty pictures.
Note, my recipe is, as always, flexible and adaptable. I never met a recipe that I didn't like to play with!

So first, roast the squash upside down in the oven till tender. Or microwave it, like the recipe says. I roasted mine, not having read the recipe yet. Here it is, nice and steamy and juicy.


Nasty, tough shell goes into the compost bin, of course, along with the seeds. I may have volunteer mystery squash vines in my compost next year.


I added sweet peppers to the original recipe, I like the slight tanginess that it adds to the soup. I used some from my freezer that were already sauteed.

I used vegetable water along with the turkey stock that was left over from Thanksgiving, then added a dollop of cream instead of the milk.
Flexible, remember?


A deliciously orange pot of soup.


KABOCHA SOUP

1 lb kabocha squash, seeds removed
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 yellow or orange sweet pepper, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp butter
2 cups chicken or beef stock
1 2/3 cup milk
salt and pepper to season

Place kabocha in microwave for a minute. Cut kabocha into small pieces. Saute onion and pepper slices with butter in a soup pot until softened. Add kabocha and saute together. Pour chicken stock in the pot. Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, or until kabocha is softened. Blend the mixture in blender and put it back in the pan. Add milk and bring to a boil, stirring the soup. Season with salt and pepper.
*Makes 4 servings

Haircuts

My Mum took the plunge, after seventy-odd years of long-hair-in-a-bun.


She loves it and wishes she had done it years ago.

Feeling inspired, I told my hairdresser, "Do whatever you want."
Hence, this particularly unflattering self-portrait.
Bearing in mind that it was on the way home from a grueling day at the World's Largest Christmas Bazaar.


It actually looks quite nice most of the time, although I had a hard time keeping hair out of my eyes while conducting a rousing music therapy session at the retirement home this morning. The activities director raved over my hair and said it made me look younger.
Hmmm.

'Tis the season...

...to be sociable, fala-lala-laaah, la-la-la-la.

So, since my whiny little blog post of a few weeks ago, there have been some lovely social developments.
First, my friend Lisa, who totally got it, instigated a Lunch. I truly believe that menopausal women appreciate the significance of Lunch better than any other demographic in the world. When someone actually INVITES you to lunch, as opposed to saying, "We must do Lunch sometime," it means they REALLY want to spend time with you. Doing two of the favourite things of menopausal women everywhere. Eating. And Talking.
So on Monday, after a few false starts, we met in Portland for a party. Our daughters were there, and Bayra, Lisa's daughter-in-law, and our old friend June. There should be a better way to say that. Long-standing friend? Perennial friend? Venerable friend? Antediluvian friend? I dunno, the thesaurus kind of fails me on this one. We ended up at Jake's Grill, after finding the great big wooden doors of the Western Culinary Institute's restaurant closed firmly against our pleas. Jake's was a good default. Fairly good food, reasonable prices, and a cosy booth in the bar. We insisted on a booth in deference to the other customers. Noisy women! Exceptional desserts, which is the most important thing, don't you agree?
So we spent two delightful hours catching up with each other's lives and could have spent longer, but duty called. So the pregnancy-and-childbirth side of the table and the menopausal side of the table hugged, said goodbye, and went our separate ways. I hope we do it again soon. Too bad I forgot my camera.

On Thursday, our Relief Society group has its annual soup dinner at Sleighbells, the ultimate Christmas store. It was fun, but the reason I am telling you this is to give me an excuse to post this photo of my dessert plate. Pumpkin roll, one of my favourite Thanksgiving treats.


I spent another delightful afternoon last Saturday with Bethany (Associate Event Planner) and her friends. We ate a potluck lunch and watched Twilight, the movie. We were a little tough on the movie, although it kind of screams out for criticism in many instances. For example, Edward's glittery skin. Um, not appealing at all. Crusty lizard skin, more like. In the book it sounded so, delicious, somehow. Anyway, I digress. After that treat, we drove over to the local theatre and watched "New Moon," which was infinitely better. Although, have you noticed how Bella NEVER smiles. I'm sure she was happier in the book.
So.
I have to ask.
Jacob?
Or Edward?

A particular Hall of Fame

My hallway of yore was a dark and dreary passageway that only invited you to tuck your head and make a beeline for the bedrooms. Its walls were bare of decoration, covered by the original white, flat paint and a mixture of wallpaper and borders. The space had become increasingly beat up over the years as little bodies careened down the length of carpet, which had also seen better days.
In my opinion, hallways are a complete waste of living space. Especially long, narrow ones like ours. So when we redecorated and re-carpeted the living areas, we carried the new carpet all the way to the bedroom doors. Oh, it was so cushy with that super-duper pad that we had installed. No creaks either, because we added a gazillion new screws to the sub-flooring. All that remained was to scrape off the old wallpaper and slap on a couple of fresh coats of paint.
Ha!
Have you ever used lots of extra glue to ensure that wallpaper stays on your nicely textured wall? And then tried to remove said wallpaper?
Let's just say that it was a test of my tenacity.
Which I mostly won, although the surface is not precisely returned to its original state.
Some time previously we had installed a Solatube, which lit up the darkest part of the hallway. This created several improvements over the dark state. Number one, it was no longer necessary to flip the light switch every time we entered the space. Environmental plus. Number two, the walls were well lit and created a natural viewing space for anyone who cared to linger. Decorating plus. It occurred to me that I was running out of wall space in the rest of the house upon which to display the ever-growing collection of family photos.

Let's see.
Four wall spaces in the hallway.
Four children.
Bingo! A new rogues' gallery.

And here it is.


Bethany's wall. Note the pictures of Natalie and Bethany on the right.


Jonnie's wall.
Not as full as Bethany's yet.
He should work on that.


One of Jonnie's pictures, waiting for Jeff to hang it.
I wonder how long it will sit there.


Charlie's wall. A little sparse so far.


Annie's wall.
Yes, I know.
She was very perturbed too.
Pretty soon I will have a wedding picture to hang.


Around the corner by Jeff's cave.
I mean, room.


The famous Solatube.


The semi-gloss paint was an unfortunate choice, in retrospect, and the woodwork is still beaten up. But on the whole, I am pretty happy with these evolving walls.

Finally, wedding photos

I have been feeling lazy on the blogging end of things.
So here is a photographic post, which I know you have all been awaiting with bated breath. There is a whole sad story about why we didn't get photos sooner, but we finally tracked the guy down and sent Jeff over to his house to pick up the disc. On a positive note, I have acquired some mad computer skills in learning to convert all these photos from RAW format into something more manageable.

Aren't my girls gorgeous?
And talented?

Veggie garden evaluation

I just dug up the rest of the parsnips. I had procrastinated digging them up, thinking I could talk Jeff into it, but he's having knee surgery tomorrow and somehow I don't think the digging is going to happen. It was, however, ridiculously easy, thanks to the raised beds and nice, loose soil. I was impressed with the harvest, if I do say so myself. A couple of the parsnips were over a foot long. As babies, they got rave reviews when roasted with other root vegetables. They were one of my biggest successes this year. I'm already salivating over the mashed carrots and parsnips that we're going to have with the Thanksgiving feast on Thursday. Luckily, the Mustard Seed grew some awesome carrots, because mine were a little on the stingy side.


I also dug a few fingerling potatoes out of the clay pot. They look delicious. I deeply regret getting impatient and digging out the first pot of fingerlings. They were puny and unimpressive. Lesson learned: wait till the greenery dies back.


The grapes were another big success. I borrowed a steamer and we and the neighbours enjoyed many glasses of tasty grape juice and still have a few quarts put away for the cold days of winter yet to come. On a funny side note, I put some juice in a couple of jars for Bethany. She stored one in her pantry, thinking to save it to enjoy later, not knowing that it was not sealed. When she opened it, the juice was fizzy.


No, she didn't drink it.
We had more lemon cucumbers than anyone could have eaten, but Joshie and little Jeff sure enjoyed them, so it was worth it.
The kabocha and other mystery squash have been put to use in soups and sweet breads, with many more left for the winter.
The two kiwi vines survived the summer. Maybe next year we will get a few fruit.
The strawberries were hopeless this year, I'm not sure whether to dig them out and replace them or give them another chance. Laziness denotes another chance.
The kohlrabi were a mixed success. Jeff doesn't love them, but lots of guests were mystified and intrigued by them, and actually liked them. The bulb set was not high though, so I'm thinking they're not worth the space.
Tomatoes. What can I say? Usual problem in Oregon of not ripening before the frost sets in. We got a few, but once again, the Mustard Seed saved my bacon and I have lots of frozen pasta sauce to get me through the winter.
The banana peppers were very fruitful and will find a place in my beds next year.
The rhubarb wasn't quite as rampant as usual, maybe because they were transplanted last fall. Still, we got lots of desserts and I just swapped a bag of frozen chunks for a couple of dozen eggs from a friend, so its usefulness lives on.
The raspberries got way too big for their britches this year. We had a lovely big spring harvest which was blissfully eaten by grandchildren and children and Jeff alike, but the vines spread way into the flowerbeds and lawn. Jeff pulled a lot out but I think we'll have to do something drastic next year. The weather was unkind so we didn't really get a fall crop.
I'm sad to report that the enormous kabocha vine appears to have sucked all the moisture out of the bed and killed one of the blueberry bushes. So I have to either try to root a twig next spring or fork out the money to buy another one. Blueberries need two bushes of different varieties in order to pollinate. I seriously wonder if it's worth trying to grow your own blueberries when we are surrounded by blueberry farms.

So, other than a few renegade carrots and the pot of potatoes, that's it for this year.


Thank goodness for winter, is what I say!

Grandson #1

This here is an honest discussion of my oldest grandson, whose unique personality I have learned to appreciate and cherish.
When Daniel was a baby, he was a little difficult. That is to say, he cried a lot. Then there was the incident when Bethany found him not breathing and he spent several days in the hospital being subjected to all sorts of tests. We were never sure how much of his orneriness resulted from the trauma of this experience. It certainly affected Bethany, who loved him passionately (as any mother does who comes close to losing a child) and became a tad over-protective and, later on, defensive of his mischievous ways. We all fondly recall the RV trip to Nauvoo when he was about six months old. Two weeks, nine people, one RV, thousands of miles, Daniel crying for most of them. We had a blast!
Then once he started walking, he knew no limits. All those precious things that I had been able to leave out when Kenzie was toddling had to be swiftly rescued from ruin when Daniel came upon the scene. He wrecked things constantly. He was a bit of a Mama's boy and, as he got older, was prone to pouting and bursts of anger. Of course, he wasn't always like this, but he was often difficult to handle.
Then all of a sudden, one day I realized that our Daniel had, at the grand age of six, turned into a very nice person. I think part of it might be that Bethany is homeschooling him now, which he likes much better than school. Maybe the rest of it is that he is loved so much, by all of us. I love to have him come and spend the night because he is such good company. We talk about all sorts of things, bake together, make paper airplanes, go shopping (he never nags for things like Kenzie does), go for walks, research topics on the computer, and do his schoolwork. He loves his Mom in particular and is usually kind to his siblings. He has a delightful sense of humour and is very smart. He is a very picky eater but eats the foods that he likes with great relish. A couple of weeks ago we made chocolate chip pancakes and he polished off six of them embellished with chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream. He's my kind of kid.

Here he is, doing his school work.


Making snickerdoodles, his favourite cookie. I think Daniel is going to be an excellent baker. He pays attention, doesn't get bored, and thoroughly enjoys the finished product. He rolled every last one of those dough balls in cinnamon sugar.


The delectable finished product.


While the snickerdoodles were baking Daniel was getting wiggly, so I showed him how to do jumping jacks. Unfortunately, I missed the first couple of minutes where he was hilariously uncoordinated, but this is still pretty funny. Especially because he's on his side. And he's wearing his pajamas for the second day in a row because Dad forgot to bring his clothes.


Daniel and Natalie having fun in a box.


I'm really lucky to be Daniel's Nana. One of the best parts of my life is being able to share time with my grandkids and to help teach them good things. As they get more numerous and I get older, I really enjoy having them come over one at a time. I know my kids loved having one-on-one times with beloved relatives, although it was infrequent, so I am happy to be able to give that to my grandkids.

The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandparent. Sam Levenson.