Friday Night

Here, where Route 165 Curves, Saturday nights take an easy pace. Dinner is always the highlight of our night. I love cooking-the planning, the prepping, the execution and of course, the consumption. It was Italian tonight. I almost tried my hand at homemade pasta...but, it was a long day at work. So, some frozen tortillini it was. However, the sauce was homemade and quite yummy. I found the recipe here: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/five-minute-tomato-sauce-recipe.html This is one of my favorite websites. The sauce was delicious-everything the author describes it to be. I'm always so disappointed with bottled sauces from the grocer's. I'm thinking this will be a permanent addition to my recipe pile.

Along with the pasta, there was the traditional crusty baguette, a fresh salad and marinated mushrooms (my all time favorit-est). Oh, and wine. Yes. A nice cold bottle of that. We're...wine children. Our palates are SO unsophisticated. Riunite has got to be my favorite red wine. It's sweet and slightly tart, and it goes down really easy. And its sort of...bubbly? Reminds me of those drinks someone pushes in your hand at a really crowded party and it tastes so good you have five and before you know it you're half naked wading in the koi pond out back and giggling as little gold fish nibble your toes. Really, I love this wine.

So now I'm pleasantly buzzed, full and Aj's sleeping next to me on our ginormous leather couch. Seriously, have my Saturday nights ever been better? I have these vague memories of dark clubs, sweating and dancing to crazy good music, then I'm distracted by my husband's snoring and the feeling fades. Yeah, Saturday nights here are wonderful. You should stick around for Sunday morning. We get real crazy and listen to bluegrass while cleaning.

Life's good here, where Route 165 curves. It's Saturday night and we're relaxing.

Loyal Friend

I came upon this picture as I was going through ancient photo files on our computer. My heart melts at the sight and even Aj smiles and sighs a little. She is our darling. Sara's the best dog we could ever have hoped for. Her daddy is a golden retreiver and her mother a blue heeler. What an awesome combination. She's playful, gentle, loving and omigosh she's so trustworthy-just like her retreiver ancestors. The heeler maternal blood brings us our protector, our roam-free farm dog who sticks to home like glue without the confines of a leash or fencing, and our sharp nosed ball scenting fiend.

Aj and I want babies. The day for that is rapidly approaching in our life. It gives us great pleasure to know that in Sara, our children will have a playmate and guardian. Years from now, when Sara is a long time gone, buried under the old sycamores, I know when our children begin searching for a dog for their own families, they'll say, "I want a dog just like I had when I was a kid." In in their minds there'll be a brown eyed beauty wagging her tail and chasing balls through the prairie.

Cold Frame

It's huge. We have pictures of me comfortably laying in it and cheesing for the camera. This is probably the best addition I'll be making to our gardening tools this year. I'm toying with the idea of trying to grow some cold season veggie in it right now. Broccoli?? Hmm....lol, I'm actually of the opinion that I need another one. Really, three would be perfect-they have so many uses!

It's been a cold, cold past couple of days. The ice storm was beautiful and Aj and I played in the cold like children that morning. Now, the temps have dropped sub zero and the wind has kicked up. It's SO bitter outside!!

Our bird feeders froze and I tried throwing the seed on the ground so our feathered friends could forage, but the seeds just blew away in the wind. Solution? Open our garage door and fill the copper dish we use as a bird bath in the summer with a pile of seeds. The little birds found the dish and have been gorging themselves silly. The only downside to this solution is that our dog loves bird seed and can't be trusted alone outside, lol. She'd eat the entire bowl full if she had the chance!

Mincemeat

Inlaws are coming-they bring pizza and are welcomed to my home! :) Made Aj and his Dad mincemeat pie. I got icecream for Becky and myself. Neither one of us are much into the mincemeat. This has got to be the best pie crust recipe yet! Very happy with it and I shall have to venture into an apple pie sometime soon. Somebody needs to come visit us so I have an excuse to make pie. Your reward will be the first slice!

The Idle Season

While I wouldn't want to live somewhere it's summer year 'round, winter bores me. It's gray and brown hues, occasionally beautiful and white, are flat. My garden is barren, my home is cold and my car runs like it's powered by hiccupping ponies.

I find myself cooking to get through the quiet season. Cooking so much my kitchen is eternally the warmest spot in the house. Just ask the animals who all gather there to watch me make old fashioned molasses cookies, which smell divine in the winter air. Mince meat pies for Aj. Rum cakes and chocolate truffles. Pot roast and casseroles. Homemade noodles and a simmering crockpot with italian poorboys.

And when I've cooked our pantry empty, I'll (try to) sew. This winter's first project is to make pillow cases complete with zippers and fringe for the four throw pillows to grace our new couch. For as much as we spent on the supplies (40% off at that) we could've bought four very nice premade pillows. But then....I'd just need something else to do. I embroider things. I make little felt pincushions and pins.

Keeping busy is almost an obsession for me. I must have something to do in my hands. Idle time kills me. I can not stop doing something. You might even say I get cranky if I'm not occupied.

But then there are those nights when I get home late and step out of my car only to smell woodsmoke in the air. My home will be quiet, the kitchen dark and empty, the hallway cold. But in the living room, I'll find an orange and yellow fire, the tv on low and my husband waiting on the couch with a quilt for us to snuggle together under. At that moment I find my crazy must-do-something drive shrivel and die on the spot. On those nights I won't pick up a book to read, or a spoon to reheat dinner with. There'll be a pizza already warming in the oven, wine on the counter (because pizza and wine go so good together :) ) and nothing for us to do but veg and laugh. Those nights calm my sometimes frantic pace and give me time to truly appreciate all the things that we work so hard for. I'm reminded that winter is the Sunday of our seasons. I work spring, summer, fall, planting, growing, harvesting, storing, canning. There must be a time of rest. A season of peace. The earth in my garden sleeps. Our chickens slow their production of big brown eggs. Other animals hibernate winter away. I too should slow.

Welcome winter. Welcome snow, ice and wind. The moon draws closer to the earth, it's face so clear in the black night's air. Let the earth sleep. And let the joy of home be all the warmth I need this quiet season.

They're coming. One by one, they're coming

Seed catalogues!!!!!!!! As the good musician Paul Thorn would say: Thank you Jesus, Praise the Lord-only he says it with waaay more bluesy flair than I could.

I get so excited to come home and find a new catalogue. We're expanding the garden this year-starting a more heavily filled herb section. I practically drool over everything. As always, husband has to remind me to keep it practical. Where I would plant a thousand herbs and vegetables only to lose nine hundred and fifty because I'm unable to manage them all-he'd be happy with just four very well tended plants. We'll meet somewhere in the middle and be very happy in the long run.

I have a list of must-have staples we've agreed upon. But I know there's always a little wiggle. This year, my goal is to grow watermelon. Big. Juicy. Sweet and crisp watermelon.