Ponderings by Plowgirl

Wednesday was a busy day here. I was seriously in a cooking mood. From the time I got up, 'til the time I went to bed, I was cooking something! First were the cinnamon apples. Nothing reminds me of meals at Gma and Gpa Schreuder's like cinnamon apples. They are really simple to do. In a medium saucepan, add 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water and a small bag of cinnamon red hots. Simmer together until red hots are completely dissolved. Add peeled apple slices and simmer until they are tender. Remove and drain the slices. They are best cold. But some have been known not to make it to the fridge! The finished product Next was the homemade lemon meringue pie. Betty Crocker cookbook......the long recipe. Every time I make this I think I'm going to end up with carpal tunnel from the stirring! I know there are quicker and easier recipes out there, but in my opinion, nothing beats the one from Betty Crocker (and it's the one Mom always used). The meringue is a "never fa...

I'm not cookin' tonight! Baby Alex has made his appearance (see post below). Plowboy and I are headed to the hospital this evening to meet the newest employee. Ainz is going to her favorite place......Grandma's!!!! So that means that Plowboy and Plowgirl will get to have a "grown up" meal at the Steakhouse. Yipee!!!! Such simple things can please a simple girl. And yes, we did pour concrete today......it was just at the Farm for the new bins. I have pics to post tomorrow. Baby Alexzander. Photo take via cell phone thru the nursery window. Ain't he cute!

Tonight's "real food" was a mexican casserole. It's one Mom always fixed, and I'm not sure there is a real recipe to it. It's pretty much a dump and stir to taste kinda thing. Main ingredients are hamburger, mexi-corn, crushed tomatoes, chili beans and chili seasoning. Sometimes the meat mixture was put in the bottom of a baking dish and covered with cornbread batter then baked. Most often, the cornbread was baked separate and the meat mixture is served over it. That is how I serve it. (That way I can also slather the cornbread with butter and honey......just like my Dad does!) And don't forget the heaps of shredded cheese to the top of the meat mixture/cornbread mound! As Rachael Ray would say "YUM-O!" Of course, I'm the only one in the house who will eat this concoction. There are plenty of left-overs, and plenty to freeze too. Happy Trails, ~plowgirl

I really should be busy cleaning (finding!) the kitchen so I can make dinner. I spent a significant amount of time yesterday browsing cooking blogs. There are some great ones out there. Some I have posted on in the side bar. Cooking is my passion. Cooking is an inherited passion. I come from a long line of great cooks. Grammy (the "old school" Home Ec teacher) taught Mom, Aunt Jan and Aunt Connie, Grandma is also an awesome cook. I can't imagine NOT knowing how to cook. I can't imagine not being a great cook. Granted, there are some days I don't want to cook, but I do it anyway. I always thought I had a pretty decent palate. Well, maybe not since I don't eat anything green except peas and green beans, and HEAVEN FORBID I eat anything that was a previously used vital organ. BLECH! Check out the Omnivore's 100 in the sweetnicks blog in the blogsites. See how you rate. I rated a 14 out of 100. Not too whippy. Here are my answers: 13,15,18 (do...

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear (insert-your-name-here), Happy Birthday to you! There are so many birthdays in August it's hard to keep up. So all you August birthday people, here is your birthday greetings from me. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Aug. 1st...... Eli H. 4th.....Sherry P. 6th......Elda and Janet D. 8th.....Terry 9th......Dad 13th....Tim G. 15th....Grandma Schreuder 17th....Reata Jean 20th... Pete 27th... Becca 30th...Joni and Dillon Now for some miscellaneous and random thoughts: County Fair wrap up......all went well. I'm glad it's over! We had 36 cars sign in for the derby, and 34 ran. The MadDog Award that was added this year was a HUGE hit (yea, pun intended!), and I have sponsors for next year crawling out of the woodwork! Overall the Fair was a success. I enjoy being on the Board, and working the Fair. It is alot of work, and there is so much that the general public doesn't see, bu...

Meet Bootsie...or little boots.....or little cat.....this poor little girl is gonna have an identity crisis if we don't come up with a consistent name for her! Ainsley got to bring home her kitten from the neighbors house yesterday. Bootsie has the sweetest, most laid back personality for a kitten I've ever seen. She will let Ainz carry her around, make her pose for pics. I think she'd even let Ainz tie her in a knot and wouldn't complain. Of course, Mark isn't too keen on the idea of a cat. Especially since she is in the house quite a bit of the time now. Bootsie will be an outside cat when she gets a little older.

Over the weekend Jenny and I co-hosted a baby shower for Kayla. (Jenny's husband Wes, and Kayla's Tim both work for Viets Brothers.) Jenny and I had great fun planning it, and I think it turned out very well. Tim and Kayla are having a boy, so we went with a blue/green/white color scheme. The invitations featured a clothesline with baby clothes hanging from it, so that became our "theme". It turned out real cute. Jenny's friend Dawn did the cake to match the invitations. I found blue & green & white M&M's, and even found a blue punch recipe. We used lots of balloons for decorations, and covered Jenny's arbor to make Kayla a "throne" to sit in! The baby will make his debut on August 26th. The "Throne" The Blue ducky punch

The brick guys (I suppose I should call them masons) were here Monday to remove the brick from the sections of the house where the basement walls will be torn out. Brick......the all-weather, maintenance free exterior siding.....Bull-you-know-what! The brick that is original to the house (circa 1985) is no longer made. Great, what else is new in this saga!!?? We are having to save or match as close as we can get for the new brick that goes back up. We will be able to save some of the existing brick to go back up on the north and south walls, but the west wall will be the "new" brick. I found one that is a close (but not perfect) match. At least we won't have to match brick side-by-side, it will be an entire wall that is replaced. Refer to the previous post for what the house looked like before Steve and crew got here! The first section.....taken out by hand, 2 rows at a time They didn't have to work so hard on this section of the north wall. It literally fell o...

"Diggin' up bones, I'm diggin' up bones, exhumin' things that's better left alone........" That old Randy Travis song plays over and over in my head as Mark is excavating around the house. It's a good thing we (Viets Brothers and co.) own a number of earth moving machines. In the process, we have had a Cat Challenger, the dozer, the telehandler, and Cousin Larry's backhoe all in the yard at the same time. A virtual lot of yellow equipment. This is what the house and yard USED to look like. This is the first "cut" First day of excavation I went to town one afternoon, and when I came home, the large Elm tree outside Ainsley's bedroom window was now located out in the front yard. What you can't see in this picture is the Challenger that is hooked to to top of the tree, used to pull it out to it's present location. (Yeah, it's still there! and probably will be for a while) This is what it looks like after he got done with...