Beautiful August 2012

It has been one of the nicest August's in memory, mainly in the upper 70s and 80s with some wind; although rain would be welcome. We haven't had any rain since the 6/10th on August 16th. The garden and the flowers have to be watered daily, some even two times a day.

It is enjoyable to be able to pick the tomatoes from our small garden. Small it is, too, only carrots, onions, four potato plants, four tomato plants, and some lettuce. This fall, after everything is removed, I am going to spray it with roundup to kill the grass, including the invading grass on the edges that continue to creep into the garden.Then we will also increase it by the same size. I would like to try some raspberry plants but don't know where to put them.

Today, the last row, the edge row was sewn around Lance Bjorn's quilt. It turned out so cute. Ashley will need to tell me if she wants it to have a lining or not.As of now, the plan was to put the backing on, it is a lime green plush material that could be fairly warm. The quilt is much larger that was first planned, about 58" including what is going to be turned.It will probably be about 56 when completed.Tomorrow the scissors will be clipping threads and preparing it for the backing.I will take a photo for the blog tomorrow.

The next project will be potholders for the Ya Ya Gang Christmas sale and for Christmas gifts.I came across some great patterns and am excited to try them.

Little Bjorn is so cute. Ashley takes wonderful photos and videos. Today she had some really cute ones of them at a beach and Bjorn decided to taste the sand. I am sure that was a bit gritty!

What is this stuff?

Feels different that my usual food.

Well, it sure tastes different too! Gritty!

I love being a grandmother and great-grandmother!

A Minnesota Summer Day

It is summer salad time; my favorite type is fruit salads made from fresh fruit with orange juice. This morning I made this recipe:
1 peach, sliced
1 nectarine, sliced
1/4 cantaloupe, sliced and cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
 2 kiwi, peeled and cut into small pieces
1 banana, cut into quarters and sliced
Mix together with 1/2 to 3/4 cup orange juice.
Serves four.

We attended Erin Lee and Ryan Murray wedding on Saturday afternoon. Erin was a lovely bride and they make a cute couple. It was so hot though, I went home and then on to the city center for the dinner at four. Ardmore went out and cut CRP after the wedding. I sat with Roxann and Don and some of the Lee family. Very nice and would have been a fun wedding if Ardmore would have come and we could have danced a bit. Good meal!

My turn to bake cookies for choir tomorrow. I wanted to make chocolate drop cookies and headed for Joanne Fluke's Lake Eden Cookbook and found the best recipe. I did a little embellishment as I am a chocaholic.
I doubled this recipe.
CHOCOLATE MINT SOFTIES
Bake 350 degrees for 5 minutes, turn pan and bake additional 5 minutes, you know your own oven, do what you need to do!
2 one-ounce squares of unsweetened baking chocolate (I used choco bake, just set them in a cup of hot water to soften)
1/2 cup butter at room temp
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 tsp peppermint extract, I use Watkins
1/2 tsp chocolate extract, I used 1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecan pieces
1.5 cups of large dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Cream sugar and butter until smooth, add the baking soda and salt and beat, add the chocolate and beat, add the egg and beat, add the extracts and beat.Scrap bowl often.
Add half the flour and mix, add the sour cream and mix well, then add last of flour. Mix in chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop with small ice cream scoop, but be generous. Makes about 3 dozen, depending how big you make them. 
You can also frost them with the following frosting, use a 4 cup measuring cup.
Microwave Chocolate Frostening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk or cream - mix it up
add 1/4 cup butter, cut into chunks.
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
Microwave one minute, stir to get the marshmallows melted, microwave until the marshmallow all dissolve.
Add 1/2 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips to the above and let set for about 30 seconds. Stir and pour over cookies as you desire. You can pour a little and go back and pour more later! I also used mint choco chips when I can find them, usually they are available at Christmas.

Incidentally, Joanne Fluke's cookbook has the greatest recipes and they are all from her mystery books. Have you read her books? If so, you know what I mean.

So what am I reading now? I finished all of Joanne Fluke's books and am waiting for the next one. Right now I have just started reading Minnesota author William Keith Krueger's first book, Iron Lake. I highly recommend it. His books were recommended by one of the guys from my class reunion. I can see I am already hooked! The best  thing is that this author is coming to our Roseau MN library soon!

50th Class Reunion and Retirement - June 30

I will finally complete this and place it on the blog! On Saturday, June 30th I attended my 50th class reunion. Now I don't know about you, but whenever I had heard someone was attending their 50th class reunion, my first thought was, "Oh my, they are getting up there!" I guess that must mean I am getting up there now too!

Aurora-Hoyt Lakes Class of 1962

I spent the past week at my brother's in Hoyt Lakes, which gave me an opportunity to spend some time with my brother and wife and a couple of friends. The reunion was very enjoyable. We had our gathering at The Lodge at Giant's Ridge. It is a choice place to stay, if you have family and plan for a midweek ski trip, they have 2 bedroom villas near the lake for $179 a night. When I was much younger, in my twentieths and thirties, I would take the kids skiing at the Ridge. The last time any of our children skied there would have been when I took Garrett, Eric, Terry and James a couple of times. The Lodge has great banquet and conference centers. Our group of around eighty had an ideal room, although the air conditioning could have been turned on a little more. The food was an excellent buffet.
We did a Class Up-date which was very enlightening. Great to discover what everyone has been doing and is now doing. I am looking forward to our 55th or 60th; will I still be around? I sure hope so and in good health.

I enjoy going to HL as we raised our children there and it brings back many memories. Times spent at the beach all summer until the kids were old enough to go on their own. Bicycle rides out to Fisherman's Point or the Partridge River, golfing at the golf course. I had my opportunity to see all of these places when in HL this past week. My brother took me on a tour of each of these areas, plus the new housing development on White Water Reservoir, and along the Colby Lake housing development and new assisted living housing.
I spent a couple of days visiting with friends. Toots and I spend one whole day together and our friend Barb joined us in the afternoon and then on Monday we went to Virginia to do some shopping and out for lunch. 

I hadn't been back for many years, my brother thought it was about five or six. I guess  visiting on the phone with Toots and my brother appears to make it seem like less time has past.Then my brother and wife come up once or twice a year.

It is interesting to hear how my friends and I are different and alike. We are all readers, but I am the only quilter. They watch soap operas still, I have watched soap operas since I was in my early twenties. Other than that, we picked up right where we left off, friends forever, with a thousand things to say to each other. Great fun!

Saturday!

I love my days off and know I am going to enjoy retirement. I am down to my final seven weeks, it has gone by so fast. I remember last summer. I was so ready to retire then but I needed to pay down my credit card. That said, I am almost to zero now! I wish I would have made my mind up to do this two years ago, but I have enjoyed spending on my family over the 15 years and now it is time to say, sorry, you will need to help me! Chuckle. Lets hope I never get into the type of a situation. I can't see it ever happening, thank goodness.

Today, being Saturday, we always have a nice breakfast together. this morning it was vegy omelet, toast ...

  and Skinny Hummingbird cupcakes, well they really are more like a muffins.

The muffins/cupcakes were something I made on Thursday. I was home for the day and decided to call my visiting teachers to come visit after I had made them. As an after thought I invited them to lunch. We had a wonderful visit. I made a macaroni chicken salad and we sat out on the deck, it was about 75 that day. Amazingly beautiful and we had a very enjoyable visit plus some spiritual thoughts along with it.

I took out the cupcakes for dessert. They were a wonderful hit, I was so happy that it made 23! We could take more than one if we wanted; and we did.

Here is the recipe and the info about the recipe:

"These scrumptious hummingbird cupcakes are super moist and light, full of pineapple, chopped bananas, pecans, cinnamon and spices topped off with a sweet cream cheese frosting.

Hummingbird cake first appeared in Southern Living Magazine back in 1978, originally submitted by Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, North Carolina and is known to have won numerous blue ribbons at county fairs. This skinny version does not disappoint! The flavors are reminiscent of a carrot cake, without the carrots and make the perfect Mother's Day dessert!

Skinny Hummingbird Cupcakes Skinnytaste.com 

Servings:

 22 • Serving Size:  1 cupcake  • Old Points:  4 pts  • Points+:  5 pts Calories: 197.8 • Fat: 6.5 g • Carb: 31.1 g • Fiber: 1.7 g • Sugar: 21.7 g Sodium: 284.2 mg

Ingredients: I made some changes - Enjoy!

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour),1 cup sugar (I used raw), 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg fresh grated, 1/4 tsp ground ginger (I used ½ tsp Chinese 5 spice instead of ginner), 2 tbsp oil, 2 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 cups mashed ripe bananas (I used 2 large bananas she had just purchased that day), 20 oz can crushed pineapple in juice, drained well, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1 cup grated carrots.

For the Frosting:

• 8 oz 1/3-less fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 22 pecan halves - didn’t use on top.

Directions:

To prepare frosting, beat together cream cheese and butter and vanilla, add powdered sugar, beat until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices; stir well with a whisk (I used a mixer from start to finish).

In a medium bowl, combine oil, eggs, and vanilla; stir well. Add banana, pineapple and carrots.; mix well. Fold wet ingredients and chopped pecans with the dry ingredients, batter will be stiff and dry but keep folding it and it will all come together.

Spoon batter into cupcake tin. Bake at 350° for about 23 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Spread frosting over the cupcakes once they are cooled. Garnish each cupcake with a pecan half on top if you want.

Lots of satisfying work completed

It is finally time to rest and recouperate for tomorrow! I feel like I accomplished many things but realize that I actually only accomplished the major things, mowing the lawn, working on the information for the upcoming board meeting, and finishing a section of the Minnesota History Contest.  I am ready for a good night's sleep.
This past week and a half I have been sick with what I call a childhood problem, ear infections. I also have a sinus infection. It came as quite a surprise to hear the doctor say ear infection on Monday. He put me on a Zpak and I am feeling much better now. Not coughing so much either. It was not a good time to get sick but after all that has gone on the past three weeks, I am not surprised I ended up sick.
We had our annual meeting on April 20th at the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Badger. Wonderful program from Minnesota folk singer and story teller, John Berquist. I highly recommend him to anyone. He entertains! He also did artist-in-residence programs in Badger, Roseau and Warroad. I am impressed with how versitile he is. He taught folk dancing to the Roseau second graders, worked with the Jr and Sr. high choirs in Warroad and on Friday spent two sessions with the elementary children in Badger, teaching them about the insturments he uses in his repritore. He was well worth the $2,000 grant we received to have him here.



Badger Students with John Berquist

Well this has taken way longer than I thought so it is definitely time to go to sleep! Night all!

Empty House

We have never had family come to visit consecutively like these last three and a half weeks were.
It was such fun and work!! Now I need to get busy and clean the house!

Today I drove James, Ashley and Lance down to Fargo to "hopefully" catch an Allegiant Air flight to LA. We were so happy to find out that they were able to get on the plane!
They fly standby and when they planned to come on AA from LA the plane only had one seat left and of course they wanted to all go together. It took them two days of finagling to get to Fargo. A week later we had Lanced blessed at church. We do not believe little children need to be baptized until they are eight and only bless them after birth. It was a great experience for us, one of the few times we have been able to be there when a grandchild was blessed and we have missed one baptism.

Lance's blessing - April 8c, 2012.    
Grandpa and Grandma, James and Ashley

Ashley and Lance

James and Lance

James, Ashley and Lance

I am too tired to finish this tonight so will add more tomorrow.