Where Has Summer Gone?

Fall mums starting to bloom.

Hydrangea beginning to bloom.

Where has the summer gone?  The Fall flowers are beginning to bloom, and I can't believe school is starting soon.   My middle grandchild Sam reminded me that he hadn't spent the night for a long time or gotten his birthday present from us.  We wanted to remedy that situation, so Monday afternoon we went to Berlin and picked up Sam.  As a typical nine year old boy, he packed a brown grocery bag, grabbed his pillow and was out the door.  We didn't realize until bedtime that he hadn't packed clean underwear or a toothbrush, but he had three stuffed animals and a bunch of legos.  Priorities are important at that age.  He is a really good eater so it doesn't matter what I make him to eat.  He says I am the best cook of anyone and whatever it is he says "this is the best (blank) ever".  I actually made the Baked Chimichangas that my husband had shared on facebook several times.  I think he shared the recipe again as a reminder to me that he would like to try them.  Of course, I modify every recipe but they were pretty good.  I think you could put diced tomatoes, ripe olives, onion or anything else in the mixture and it would be wonderful.  They are baked and not fried as most chimichangas are, so they aren't as high in calories.

Baked Chicken Chimichangas

8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
8 oz. pepperjack cheese, shredded (I used Mexican blend cheese)
1 1/2 Tbsp. taco seasoning
1 lb. cooked chicken, shredded (I used browned ground beef)
8 flour tortillas (Don't use the extra large ones or you will have too much tortilla to fold and they will be dry).  I tried all sizes and I liked the small to medium size best.
cooking spray
shredded cheddar cheese
green onions, for garnish
sour cream
salsa

Stir together cream cheese, pepperjack cheese and taco seasoning.
Fold in chicken.
Divide among flour tortillas.
Tuck in sides, and roll up each tortilla.
Lay seam side down in a sprayed 9x13" baking dish.
Spray tops of the tortillas with cooking spray.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
Turn the chimichangas over, and bake an additional 15 minutes.
Serve with cheddar cheese, green onions, sour cream, and salsa.


After supper, Sam enjoyed relaxing away from his brother and sister.  He talked to great grandpa and played Minecraft with Papa.  I allowed him to stay up a little too late, but eventually we all went to sleep.  In the morning after breakfast, we arranged for Dylan (second grandchild)  to go with us to Oshkosh. Sam got to choose where to have lunch and where to get a birthday gift.  He chose Buffalo Wild Wings as his favorite place to eat.  Both the boys had eight boneless wings and a drink.

After having two daughters,  I'm not used to being out with young boys.  They talk in a language I don't understand and get amused at the strangest things.  When we finally finished our meals, large drinks and a bathroom break, we were off to the next stop.  I had not heard of this place...

House of Heroes

Super heros are not something I know anything about.  Who knew there was a store full of comic books and stuff related to this.  I did recognize Sheldon and Raj from the Big Bang Theory which is one of my favorite shows.

We found a place to sit down and waited and waited and waited.  Some things were a little frightening, but we didn't interfere.

There was such a big decision to make.  Sam had to decide what he wanted to buy for under $40 and Dylan had to decide if he wanted anything from this store.  Dylan will be twelve on Sunday the 25th, so I might as well get his gift today as well.

More than an hour later and another trip to the bathroom for them, a decision was made.  Sam ended up with two hardcover books and Dylan a small Ironman paperback.  Dylan wanted to go to Target next because there was something there that he would rather have.  We all went in and after hemming and hawing, we finally got a Xbox point card and a Skylander Giant.  Thank goodness I didn't try to buy these gifts on my own because I would have missed the mark entirely.  At this age, no more surprise gifts, we want them to get what they want.

We returned the boys home and went home ourselves.  It was a very nice day for all of us.  Then to top it off, there was a beautiful full moon.  I hope the boys remember this day, because we sure will.

Forming a Lifetime Friendship

For any of you who know my daughter Heather and how she spent last week entertaining the French Fries (as she calls them), you will already know what this blog will be about.

In April of 2012, my grandson Dylan was in fifth grade and ten years old.  His elementary school had an exchange program called French Adventure.  In this program several young French kids came to visit and were paired up with families for a couple weeks.  They went to school and spent all the rest of their time with the family.  Dylan was paired up with a boy named Leo.  They became great friends from the beginning.  Leo fit into my daughters family as if he had known them for all of his life.

Leo and Dylan the first day they met.

After Leo went home, he would call regularly and email.  Through him, they also became friends with the rest of his family.  Then in August of 2012, Dylan, my daughter and son in law traveled to France to spend time with Leo and his family.  They had a wonderful time and plans were made for them to visit Wisconsin this year.  Everything was set for Leo, his sister Margaux and their parents to visit in August.  Then during the winter, Leo's dad got a new job and wasn't able to get time off.  So Leo and his sister traveled alone to Chicago on August 11th, and Heather and Bret picked them up.  They were very tired on the way home to Berlin Wisconsin because there is a seven hour time difference.  They recovered quickly and the next week the kids were shown what life is like in small town Wisconsin.  They come from a large city, so this was a new experience for Margaux.  Leo had experienced some of it the year before.  They went to the Dells for a couple days, went tubing on the Wolf River, got a couple airplane rides from our son in law, went shopping and generally had a fun time.  They mostly ate bacon cheeseburgers and were very put out that we would call our fried potato sticks...French fries.  They were not their idea of real French fries.  They like American candy though.  They brought back the Original Cow Pies that are made in Baraboo, WI for their dad.

They were sad to go home so soon, but Sunday Heather and Dylan took them back to Chicago for the trip home.  Plans are already in the works for another visit next summer.

Dylan, Ewan, Heather, Leo and Margaux

Getting an airplane ride from Bret.

Enjoying the water park.

Driving the go-carts.

Climbing the rock wall.

Riding a four wheeler

Getting ready to go tubing on the Wolf River.

Kids playing in the water is universal.

A Wonderful Memory for Everyone.

Bloggers Block

You know that commercial that shows a person who says that they have reached the end of the internet.  I believe I have reached the end of ideas to blog about.  After writing 228 blogs in 8 months,  I am having bloggers block.  I could write more stories about babysitting our grandchildren.  I doubt if anyone is very interested in that. We went to take care of Ewan for a while today and he drove his blue truck to the park.  Of course, we were with him.

Today Ewan drove his blue truck to the park.

While we were at the park, my daughter drove by.  Sam and Jack wanted to get out and play also.  Sarah ran home to put food into the crockpot and left the boys.  Soon everyone (especially me) got so hot, we decided to return home.  Ewan drove and his cousin Jack hitched a ride.  Sam was too big and had to walk.  As you can see, Ewan was taking his job seriously.

Poor Sam didn't fit, he had to walk.

At about 4:00 we headed home because Friday night is the night we go out for fish.  My dad looks forward to it, and it's one night I don't have to cook.  Sound exciting and worthy of writing about, probably not.

I could write about how sad this time of year is.  Our pond dries up.  The flowers start to fade and turn brown.  The birds are loading up on food so they can leave. The bucks have grown their antlers not realizing that soon they will be hunted down for sport.

Our pond is almost dried up leaving us with a mud flat.

The Orioles are so busy eating jelly.

The hummingbird is getting fatter.

The milkweed it starting to wilt and the flowers are dying off.

This buck has at least 8 points, maybe 10. 

I could write more stories about our town, but no one even knows where in the world Princeton is.  If I get a new original idea, I will write about it.  I noticed the same ideas and recipes are making the rounds over and over again so I'm not going to write about that anymore.  I suspect Pinterest is responsible for that.  So if or when I get motivated again, I will be back. 

Beet Pickles

This is a Tuesday recipe that most of you will not be making, and it was the first time I tried.  If you read my blog, you know that I recently received a large amount of produce.  Fresh Produce  In the batch was a bunch of beets.  My husband will not eat beets in any form.  He says they smell and taste like dirt.  Being a person who doesn't like to waste anything, especially if it is free; I decided to try to make Beet Pickles.  My mother made them every year, and my dad likes them very much.  Since mom isn't around to ask how to do it and dad doesn't know, I did a search for beet pickle recipes.  There are many recipes using a variety of ingredients.  I came up with a recipe from Mr. Food for Amish Beet Pickles.  There aren't any fancy ingredients in them, so I proceeded to try.

The first thing I did was wash all the dirt off.  I read that you leave the root and top stub on, so I did.  Supposedly the nutrients won't escape when they are cooked.   I decided to cook them in the pressure cooker, which is my favorite small appliance. My Favorite Small Appliance   I pressured for twenty minutes,  I took them out and then let them cool.  After beets cook, the skins slip right off.  There is no need to peel them.  I used gloves because I didn't want purple hands and finger nails.

These are cooled, cooked beets.

The skins slide right off.

The beet all cleaned off.

After the beets were all skinned, I sliced them up and warmed them up in the sugar-vinegar mixture. 
Although these may not be for you, they are pretty.  I have to admit, they taste pretty good too.  Much better than I thought they would.  If you want, you can keep these in the refrigerator and use them up.  Or you can put them in jars and can them as you would any type of pickle. 

Amish Pickled Beets

What You'll Need: 

10 fresh red beets
2 teaspoons salt, divided
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 
1 cup water 
  

What To Do:

1. Cut the leafy tops off the beet stems, leaving 2 inches of stem. In a large saucepan, place beets in enough water to cover. Add 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook 1 hour, or until fork-tender.
   
2. Drain beets, allow to cool slightly, then slip off the skins and cut into 1/4-inch slices; discard remaining stems. Return sliced beets to the pot and add remaining salt, the sugar, cider vinegar, and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook 2 to 3 minutes, or until warmed through.
   
3. Transfer to a glass dish or jar , cover, and chill overnight before serving.  The longer they sit the better they taste.
   
   
   

   

   Finished jar of Beet Pickles

I Lost the House Wren Battle, But I Won the War

I have written two other stories about the darn house wrens that taunt me.  On June 22, 2013 I wrote http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/06/never-trust-house-wren.html and I wrote about the taunting in the blog on July 20, 2013 called http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-house-wren-won.html

Throughout the years, this little bird has driven me crazy.

A couple days after I wrote the blog, another egg appeared which made four total.  The mama Wren flitted around never spending a lot of time sitting on the eggs.  Maybe she did at night, but most of the day she sat in the trees and sang.  Last week I saw her with a grub in her mouth, and I thought that the eggs had hatched and she was feeding the young.  At this point, her voice changed and she sounded like she had a sore throat.  It was more of a growl than a trill.  Then a couple days ago, I didn't see her at all.  Once I saw her trying to get into the back of the house and was clearly confused.  So yesterday I decided to look and see what was going on.  Of the four eggs, two were missing, one was unhatched and a newly hatched baby was dead.  I don't know what happened.  As much as I dislike this bird and didn't want it to use the birdhouse, it was sad to see the dead bird.  I cleaned out the house and will disinfect it so it's ready for next spring.

Sometimes you lose the battle but you win the war.

Bees and Butterflies

Tonight I'm posting some of my favorite butterfly photos.  Some are old and some are new.  I mainly wanted to organize them all in one place.  The butterfly population is down this year for some reason.  We hardly had any bees either, until today.  After the rain, they discovered the jelly.  Hopefully we will get more butterflies before the summer is over also.

iphone video that isn't great, but you get the idea

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)

Monarch Butterfly

Here are a couple moths that I don't know the name for.  Anyone who knows, please let me know.

Homemade Ant Killer

I'm a push over, and I let my dad eat at a TV table.  He either eats out on the screen porch or in the dining room but from his recliner.  He has vision problems, so sometimes seeing what he is eating is a challenge.  More often than not, he gets crumbs on the floor.  That's ok, I can vacuum them up.  Lately however, he has been eating a lot of fruit.  What ever he eats usually has sugar on it.  He likes everything sweet.  Even cantaloupe has a couple spoons of sugar on it,  as well as his morning oatmeal.  When he is finished, he sets the bowl aside until I come to get it or he brings it to the sink.  The last week or so, his empty bowl has little ants in it.  I sprayed the outside of the porch with Home Defense, but the ants continued to feast on the left over sweetness.  Then I remembered printing out a homemade natural ant killer recipe.  Amazingly enough, I was able to locate it without a problem.  I mixed some up and set it out in little jar lids on the porch.  The ants found it right away and by the next morning they were gone.  It was amazing and I haven't seen any in his empty dishes for several days.  Then last night I saw some crawling around in the dining room.  They discovered the cookie crumbs on the floor.  I put another little jar cover down with the ant killer in it.  I couldn't sleep last night so I got up.  I noticed the cover was full of ants.  They were eating like crazy.  Then this morning, they were all gone except for the ones who became stuck permanently. 

Homemade Natural Ant Killer

Combine 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water and 1 tablespoon of Borax.  Bring it to a boil and boil for about three minutes.  I then poured it into 6 lids from small jars.  I set them around in the spots I saw the ants.  It really works.  It probably isn't great for pets or kids, but it isn't enough to really hurt like poison is.

Jar lid with the homemade ant killer on our porch.

I don't know where this recipe originated from.  I first saw it in April of 2012 at http://www.stacymakescents.com and then again a year later on a blog I follow called http://www.creeklinehouse.com  I figure if they both posted it, it must work and it does.

Knitting for Victory

Today a friend of mine asked me for a crochet pattern from many years ago.  Apparently I had made her son a baby bunting when he was born.  I don't remember the pattern or what it looked like, but I thought I would look through my patterns to see if one of them sparked my memory.  It was fun looking through them.  I saw patterns for things I had made.  I saw patterns for things I wanted to make and a ton of patterns that I have no idea why I kept.

Rosie the Knitter

In the stack of books, I came across something that I had forgotten about.  A lot of the stuff I have came from my mother in law who would have been 100 years old yesterday, August 6.   The book I found was called Knitting for Victory.  Apparently during World War I and World War II, people on the home front helped in any way they could.  Many people knit for the troops.  Even Eleanor Roosevelt knit for the war effort when she was the first lady.  She was called the first knitter.  Even children and young adults would knit.  On November 24, 1941 Life magazine ran a cover story about it.  It is amazing to me that the country was so cohesive that everyone backed the troops, and that millions of items were hand knit for the cause.  It would be nice to have some of that patriotism and cooperation in this day and age.

This is a good article discussing in detail how people Knit for Victory.

 http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5722

Lemon Loaf

My Tuesday recipe is going to be another Facebook recipe that is making the rounds.   It is Lemon Loaf...supposedly the secret recipe from the lemon loaf they serve at Starbucks.  This one is very good.  I haven't had the best of luck with some of the recipes that have been posted on Facebook.  I made this last weekend for a picnic.  I have to apologize to those who were at the picnic because it had an off taste.  It wasn't the fault of the recipe.  It was my fault (sorry Beth).  I used lemon extract that was pretty old.  I googled it to see how long lemon extract would last.  It said that it doesn't expire, so I used it.  I hadn't tasted the final product before I cut it up and took it.  This week  I did buy new lemon extract and threw the old away.  The second attempt was delicious.  It is moist and lemony.

Top Secret recipe version of Starbucks Lemon loaf.

1 1/2 cup(s) FLOUR
1/2 teaspoon(s) BAKING SODA
1/2 teaspoon(s) BAKING POWDER
1/2 teaspoon(s) SALT
3 EGGS
1 cup(s) SUGAR
2 tablespoon(s) BUTTER; Softened.
1 teaspoon(s) VANILLA
1 teaspoon(s) LEMON EXTRACT
1/3 cup(s) LEMON JUICE
1/2 cup(s) OIL

LEMON ICING
1 cup(s) POWDERED SUGAR; Plus 1 Tablespoon.
2 tablespoon(s) WHOLE MILK; I Used 2%.
1/2 teaspoon(s) LEMON EXTRACT

Instructions
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
Use a mixer to blend together the eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, lemon extract and lemon juice in a medium bowl.
Pour wet ingredient into the dry ingredients and blend until smooth.
Add oil and mix well.
Pour batter into a well greased 9x5-inch loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into center of the cake comes out clean.
Make the lemon icing by combining all the icing ingredients in a small bowl with an electric mixer on low speed.
When the loaf is cool, remove it from pan and frost the top with the icing.
Let the icing set up before slicing.