Sick with a cold

I stayed home sick today from work, I have a cold that just popped up. I was fine one minute, then woke up Monday morning with a terrible scratchy throat. I felt worse yesterday, and last night I started to run a fever. Since the babies are due to visit, I thought I better make a huge effort to get better, fast. I took Nyquil, Zicam, sudafed and anything else I could find. I woke up around noon today. I finally started to feel human around 3pm. So, I decided to make a pie I have been dying to try:


Here is the recipe:
Crust:
Crust for 1 10 inch pie

Filling:
4 cups thinly sliced apples
1/2 C. sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 c. fresh or frozen raspberries (thawed and drained if frozen)
1/2 c. cubed or crumbled pure almond paste (from 7-8 oz. can)

Topping:
1/2 c. all flour
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350. Place crust in pie. Flute edges. In large bowl, mix apples, flour, sugar and cinnamon. Stir together, pour into prepared crust. Sprinkle with raspberries. Sprinkle almond paste over raspberries. In a medium bowl, mix 1/2 c. flour, 1/4.c sugar. Cut in butter or margarine until small pea sized pieces. Stir in sliced almonds. Sprinkle evely over almond paste. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, covering crust edges with foil after 30 minutes of baking. Bake until apples are tender in center and topping is golden brown. Serve warm or cool.

I found some picture on the camera of the kids, here is Noah mimicking his dad:



Here is one of Steve's Uncle Jerry, this was taken the night of the Karaoke contest that Michelle came in 2nd place:


We carved a ton of pumpkins for the Halloween party last year, here they are, with a picture that is kind of blurry, but I like how it turned out:



I have been quite the Betty Crocker lately, I wanted to make a New York Cheesecake, and I found a recipe for Apple Bread, I made these a few weeks ago:



I came home one night to find this laying by the back door. Steve thinks it got hit by a car on the highway above the house, it was really creepy having it lay there:



Here is a picture of my little Miss O with her Mom. This is the day we picked them up at the Airport when they took a trip to Disneyworld in Florida, we kept the kids for the week, it was so much fun!:

This is my little sister Wendy taking my picture Karaoke night:

EDIT: "REAL" Grandma & Grandpa

I have heard this term twice this past week in reference to Steve and I. Olivia asked her mom last week if she was coming to see her 'real' grandma. Karen had to dig a little deeper into this little girl's psyche to grasp what she was asking. Upon investigation, she discovered Olivia was referring to me. She wanted to come visit, but only if she could see her 'real' grandma.

Last night, Noah asked his dad if they were coming to see his 'real' grandparents. When Brian asked him what he meant, he told Brian he wanted to come to Iowa to see those grandparents.

I feel bad for the little tykes. They are struggling with grandparents that are less than attentive when they visit. When in my home, as you can guess, they are the only thing I am interested in, their antics just tickle me and I can't get enough. I often wonder if it is because they are so far away?

I would love it if Brian could get closer. He is thinking about LOWES. Wouldn't that be grand?

I had to take these from Karen's blog. Since Olivia is only around Noah, it has been hard to get her interested in 'girl' things. Imagine our surprise when she discovered the tutus I got her are kind of "NEAT". We couldn't be happier. She always wants a purple car, or a pair of spider man socks, or Cars socks when I send things to Noah. Here she is in all her glory, my sweet princess girl:


Noah, my little gentleman, asks if he 'Can have this dance." How sweet is that.

Family Time

Next weekend my daughter, son-in-law and the babies are coming to visit. They spend the first 4 days in Omaha at Brian's folks'. Then we meet at Vala's Pumpkin Patch to have a quick little party for Noah. He'll turn 4 next month, it hardly seems possible. Miss O will turn 3 in January, they are growing so fast, I can't believe it. Isaac turns 20 in November. WOW, the years just fly by when you keep busy.

Hopefully I can get some pictures while they are all here to post. I used to run around with a camera all the time, but lately I forget it or leave it at home. Sad, I miss quite a few photo ops doing that.

My sis just called last night to say my Aunt from California is coming to visit next weekend, too. She's from California, a retired school teacher. she purchased a HUGE motor home, she and her husband travel around the U.S. It is great to see her, she is such a pleasant person. I can't wait, it has been a couple years since she has been here.

Fundraiser is over

We did really well selling the breads, fudge, cream puffs and homemade noodles. It will be fun to do it again next year, we learned a little bit about how to organize it a little better. The homemade beef and chicken and noodles went over really well in the park. The wind blew, it was pretty chilly, people were really buying it that day. I was surprised.

The most popular items were the beer bread, banana bread, pumpkin bread, butterscotch bread and tropical bread. Cream puffs were popular after people ate the noodles.

The fudge went over really well, we expect it to do extremely well during the Holiday Bake Shoppe. My plan is to make up sample platters to send to work with Michelle so she can let all of her co-workers taste it prior to ordering. The platter will have peanut brittle added, it is my favorite thing at Christmastime. I don't need it, and manage to get rid of it each year after tasting a piece or two.

Today it was official, they posted the winners of the school supply drive, they put the photo of Kim and I in the hospital newspaper. I hate photos of ME!

Pics of Baking

Here are some photos of the bake-a-thon.
Deanne has no children, her and Mike have a home with a huge kitchen, long counters and a couple small ones that have plug ins to put all the kitchen aid mixers and allow us space to spread out and make a big mess. We use 8 foot tables, 2-3, one houses all the ingredients, the other two have the cooling racks for the breads, cookies, or whatever we need to put on them. They also have 2 chest freezers, one upright freezer, and 3 refrigerators. It makes it nice to have all that space available.

Here is Michelle at her finest. She is just a goof, we love her, the happiest one of all, joking and pretty laid back. She was born when I was 15 years old, her and her twin brother Michael. I bonded to them, carried them everywhere I went, they slept in my room with me, I really doted on them. No wonder they turned out so strange, I may have been a bad influence............NAHHHHHHHHHHH!:


THis is a fair shot of one of the counters, Brandy, my brother Mike's wife sticking another batch of mini loaves into the oven:


The last one is a partial photo of the table with the ingredients, I am at the sink in the black top, Deanne is to the left of me, and the one walking away on my right is my baby sister Wendy. The kitchen aid is on the counter, it's black, a huge industrial sized one. When we all bring ours, they are lined up everywhere in the kitchen. There is 30# of flour left, and we had been baking for 6 hours by this time. Not to exclude the 7 gallon bags or so of noodles I made while everyone else slaved over making bread. It was a ton of fun!


Tonight we are making cream puffs from scratch to serve at the park tomorrow. We'll be set up next to the group selling the beef and noodles and chicken and noodles we made a week or so ago for that event. I guess there is a car show, we will be in that area. It should be fun, and make enough for us to finish with the items we need for the Halloween party. This has been a great time for us to all bond together. When you get 6 strong minded, opinionated women together, it can sometimes be a treacherous gathering, but eveybody managed to behave and get along. That has not always been something that we have done well, I am impressed. After 3 weeks of non-stop 'togetherness', none of us are dead, not one bandaid, or scars! We are good!

Halloween Spooktacular

Since I last posted, we planned on baking mini loaves of quick breads, large loaves, and gallon bags of homemade noodles to sell to fund the Spooktacular.

We baked all day on Saturday, making noodles and freezing them. So far, Michelle has sold 30 bags of nooodles as well as 50 or more loaves of bread. I have spend 2 nights this week at Deanne's making noodles while the other sisters make quick breads to fill the orders. It is quite an assembly line.

After it was all said and done, Michelle's work asked us to do a bake shoppe during the holidays so they can order candy, bread and fudge. It is something we are considering. The experimentation will begin tomorrow night while we all gather once again to make Cream Puffs to serve at the park on Saturday. We plan on having 12 dozen cream puffs to serve. One batch of 8 takes one hour to bake, it will be a long evening.

I purchased all the ingredients today to make peanut butter fudge and chocolate fudge. We'll do the math to see how much it costs vs. the formula to sell it, and see if it will be worthwhile. We'll also weigh it to see what the yield is for each type. The peanut butter recipe makes about 3#. I have to tell you, both fudges are something that I make each year during the holiday. Last year I made 6 batches of peanut butter because it was requested. I also make killer peanut brittle, but I don't know if it will be worthwhile. My recipe calls for 1.5 pounds of nuts. We will see.

Last post wouldn't work

I was busy putting up a post about the pumpkins one of my co-workers and his children enter in the state fair, with photos and everything, but Blogger won't let me post them in the format in which he sent them to me.

My sisters and I got together to make mini loaves of quick bread, regular sized loaves of quick bread, homemade dinner rolls, homemade noodles, and homemade wheat and white bread to sell this weekend at the local Whistle Stop days. We are doing this to fund the annual Spooktacular at Michelle's house next month.

We cooked all day on Saturday. I was there from 9am-11pm. I didn't get home until late! Since my sister has a moonlight job in a bar, Steve thought we all went there after we got done making noodles and things. I couldn't believe he thought I would do that......just goes to show ya, sometimes we don't know our spouses as good as we think.

This Friday we'll all be at Deanne's again making cream puffs to sell right next to the place that is doing lunch in the park. We plan to have at least 12 dozen puffs. It is going to be quite an adventure getting all these tables coordinated and set up on Saturday morning. We have a ton of stuff to transport. I am providing the little refrigerator for the cream puff filling, we have to put all the noodles in a freezer, if we have any left, my little sister is selling the noodles at work as we speak. We may get them all sold before we even get to the park on Saturday. Wouldn't that be grand?

The Halloween Party Planning has begun!

We had the first planning party for the annual Spooktacular at Jason and Michelle's house. We planned the games, the treats, the food and the other activities. I am going to be in charge of the food table, this is right up my alley. I like to tend to the details.

We discussed the cost of putting this whole thing on, there is a local celebration call Whistle Stop days, we made homemade noodles a couple weekends ago for my sister to serve in their local park. It will raise money for the car club in PJ. So, it was decided that maybe we should make homemade noodles to freeze and sell at the car show. Then we talked about breads, making cream puffs and selling them. All proceeds will help fund the Halloween party. I'm making beer bread with onion in it and the best apple bread you have ever tasted. The beer bread tastes awesome with chili on a cold night, especially if there is rain, a heavy wind and you are inside all cozy and warm.

So, this Saturday we will spend another day at Deanne's baking breads and making homemade noodles. It will be a ton of fun. The event is Sept. 15th if you are in the area.

Whistle Stop Day!
September 14th-16th, 2007 Pacific Junction, Iowa
FRIDAY at 7pm
Crowning Whistle Stop King & Queen (at the Community Center)

SATURDAY
-Breakfast Starts at 630am-At the Community Center
Flea Market/Craft Sale
PARADE: 11am
(Line up for parade at 10am)
Kids Games- After parade
Chain Saw Art, Wild West Creations and Arm Wrestling at 2pm
Raffles and Cloggers at 230pm
Shine & Show Car Show/Antique Tractors, Pitzer Tractor and Ice Cream.
LUNCH at Noon (At the Big Park) (this is the noodle deal)
Hog Raffle, Poker Run, Karaoke (outside of Bar) Spaghetti Supper with Live Music at 430pm
Goose Man, Turkey Legs (smoked) Fire Works

SUNDAY
Mud Volleyball, Horse Shoe Pitch at the PJ at 930am
Kids Relays at 930am
Texas Hold 'em at 1pm
Community Center, NOON lunch



Questions, please call Earl Schroeder at 712.527.5311, John Pitzer at 712.527.3194 or Theresa at 712.622.8226.