New Year’s Resolutions

[I’m not really sure why I am publishing this for all to see. I suppose it is to insure that I will be accountable for my goals, because, like my grandpa once said, “It sure is easy to cheat while playing solitaire.”]

I have learned that goals are supposed to be challenging and realistic and specific and have definite time frames in which you want to accomplish them. I also know that I am not perfect and I will mess up, but the best I can do is try.

-Lose weight. Really original, right? ;) I have a plan of action, so check back with me in a month if you care to know how I did. At that time, we’ll be in sunny-swimsuit-season California celebrating J’s sister’s wedding.

-Drink more water. It sounds so easy, but it’s one of those things that I know I should have been doing all along and have failed miserably. So far this year, I am off to a good start on this one.

-Think before I speak. So much is said about a person by their actions and words. I want my words to help portray the type of person that I want to be and strive to be.

-Keep my house clean. It’s so much easier to stay on top of things when I don’t let them go completely awry.  It’s all about upkeep…..and a baby that puts anything he finds on the floor in his mouth :)

-Forget about controlling people or situations, and instead, influence people and situations with my example.

-Grow my business closer to home so I have more time to spend with my family.  Stay tuned for more information on this one...  Yay!

Like I said in my disclaimer above, I can only try to do my best and be accountable for myself.  And you have my permission to laugh at with me if I do not succeed.

Make 2011 a good one!

Happy New Year!

With the start of this fresh new year, a fresh blanket of snow covers the entire region.  And when I say "blanket," I mean more like a mattress, or a 3-foot high stack of king-sized down comforters.   The blizzard left our family of three snowed-in for days.  It was wonderful.  Just us spending time together, with nothing that we had to do because it was a holiday and nothing that we could do because we were trapped in the house. 

To make our New Year's Eve a little more special, I wanted to make this creation found on the back of a Wheat Thins box:

Here is what mine looked like:



Not quite as pretty as the original, is it?  So, after getting discouraged and over-analyzing the recipe's picture (Either those are really big almonds or they did not use the entire cheese-spinach-ball mixture in their photo, and if the latter is true, then they should have spelled that out in the recipe!) I ended up covering the entire ball with what was left of my almonds and decided it was just as nice and delicious. 

Happy New Year!  I hope your celebration was just as fun as ours.  2010 was a great year for our household, so I'm sure 2011 will be even better!

By the way, is it "New Year's Eve" with an apostrophe or "New Years Eve?"  I would consider myself fairly good at spelling and punctuation, but when I googled this (or "IHOP-ed it" like my uncle says, which I imagine is a combination of the names of technological advances such as IPod, laptop and YouTube) I found both ways listed.  So, I apologize if I am wrong with my use -or lack of- apostrophes.

Christmas Around the World

This Christmas Eve, we decided to celebrate a little differently by each of us drawing the name of a country and bringing a dish to share from that selected nation.  Some made an adventure out of purchasing ingredients for their dish, and it was fun to make recipes that we’ve never prepared before.  We all wondered what each other would bring, and when everyone arrived we ended up with an entire spread of colorful, delicious courses and an array of crockpots.

Our meal consisted of:

A German sauerkraut-like dish dubbed “Rice Rolls”

Lutefisk with mashed potatoes, white gravy and melted butter from Norway

Corn salad with cilantro, guacamole with festive chips, and daiquiris from Mexico

Different types of sushi with wasabi and ginger and shrimp-flavored crackers that looked like a combination of French fries and Cheetos from Japan

French onion soup and wine from France

P. F. Chang’s lettuce wraps to represent China

Italian Bruschetta, ravioli, and Olive Garden salad

Venison cleverly disguised in Swedish meatballs to represent both Native America and Sweden

And Thai chicken and vegetables in peanut sauce from Thailand.

We were all impressed with and overstuffed from our delicious smorgasbord. There is even talk of making it an annual tradition… but you never know what we might come up with next year!

Housekeeping is like stringing beads on a string with no knot.

Amen to that.

Thanks

This season, I am thankful for (in no particular order):
-This is the obvious one: I am most thankful for a cute, developing, healthy son who entered this world eight months ago today. Right now snow is falling outside, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is playing in the background, and he is trying peaches for the first time. (Gagging on them, to be exact.) I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather spend today with! Baby, THANK YOU for staying in bed for 12 hours last night while I fight this cold!

-My handsome husband who is smart, handy, hard-working, good-looking, a top notch daddy and an excellent provider for his family. Now, there is a REAL MAN!

-A new bridge over the Red River near my home. Gone are the days when I have to drive 30 extra miles to get into North Dakota while the river floods the old bridge each spring. I am also thankful that the construction of this new bridge is DONE!

-Norwex. I have never seen magic before using this miraculous “rag” to clean windows. No chemicals or cleaning products needed. All you need is a little water and you get a streak-free shine!

-All-wheel drive. My trusty vehicle delivered me and my precious cargo (along with all of my flooring samples, baby gear, and cartful of groceries) safely to and from the Big City during the two winter storms this week.

-Sister-friends. Although my group of friends from college and I don’t get together as often as we’d like, we try to stay in touch as much as possible. Thank you for helping with harvest, meeting for lunch, chatting on the phone, or just writing on my wall! Congratulations to those who recently had healthy, beautiful babies, and may those who are expecting continue to be blessed with easy pregnancies. I pray that those who want to start a family will be able to do just that with the grace of God and according to his plan.

-Family weddings. What an awesome excuse to get together with some of my favorite people for bridal showers, bachelorette parties and vacations!

-Our new Bunn coffee maker. It really does make coffee in 3 minutes or less! I’m enjoying a cup right now. My little slice of heaven here on the farm where there is no Caribou Coffee nearby.

-A job that I love and employers who have been more than accommodating and helpful in my venture “up North.”

-Bible study. Every week, I get together with some of my mother-in-law’s best friends to drink coffee, have fellowship, and immerse ourselves in learning the Greatest Book of All. These ladies have been inspirations, mentors and prayer-warriors when I have needed it the most.

-An unusually warm fall. Thank you (You know who You are!) for 70 degrees in November, unbelievable weather for an outdoor wedding in the fall, and the warmth of Phoenix during our trip in October.

-Christmas decorations. If I could keep my house decorated for the holidays all year without looking like I belong in the trailorhood, I would! I can’t wait to add L’s first Christmas ornaments to the tree this year!

-Family visits. I love house guests. Do not let the fact that we only have one bathroom scare you; come visit us! Thank you for crossing things off my “honey-do” list whenever you come visit, Mom and Dad!

-Scrap iron. One day, a nice man arrived at our door step asking if we had any scrap iron. He worked day and night for weeks loading up forgotten equipment that has accumulated through the years on the farm and selling it for scrap iron. What an ingenious way to make money; he does all the work, sells our junk, cleans up the yard and cuts us a check! It’s like a less-interesting episode of American Pickers!

-Deer hunting. As much as I used to despise this season as a newlywed, I have come to enjoy the camaraderie with friends at deer camp, having the men cook, girls weekends, slimming out the deer population (which means I won’t hit them with my car), and the sense of relaxation that comes over my husband immediately following harvest.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Peep this!

(As my young, cool in-laws from California say, meaning "Check this out!")

He crawls faster than I can catch him, and he gets into everything that he shouldn’t- wires, remote controls, cell phones, paper, stairs… anything he can reach. Everything he finds goes into his mouth… including dirt. He pushes the wheeled high chair around on the floor, because it helps him go faster! While trying to buckle him into his car seat, he arches his back with a look of disgust, as if to say “You cannot contain ME!” Now that he has learned how to pull himself up to stand, he climbs on everything. While trying to feed him, he quickly grabs the spoon right out of our hands, and ends up being covered in pureed green beans. I have found that it is way easier to strip him down to his diaper and throw him in the tub after dinner. During bath time, he scoots and splashes all around like a fish. He doesn’t lay still long enough to put a diaper on, so getting dressed is usually a fight until he is released to go and play some more. When he’s happy, he smiles the biggest, widest, open-mouth grin, showing off his two bottom teeth. He has a newfound fascination with his tongue, so he sticks it out and blows bubbles because it makes a funny sound. He waves his arms around, mimicking pat-a-cake, waving bye-bye, and “Soooo big!” He screams with delight after playing peek-a-boo and blabs “Bob-bob-bob-bob,” much to his Uncle Bob’s delight. If he’s awake, he’s moving. Just like a boy, right?

This boy is WILD and I love it!

I am a farm wife; I am required to make homemade bread, right?

Whether you agree or disagree, I, myself, want to make bread. I want to make really, really good bread. I want to make really, really good bread from scratch. And buns, too. I just need a lot more practice. I remember eating sloppy joe’s (or “slushburgers” if you’re from western ND) on my grandma’s homemade buns, and J’s grandma makes homemade buns and bread, too. J’s mom made really good buns. Like, Texas Roadhouse good… only better. She would make dozens of “harvest buns,” then freeze them so they could be enjoyed all throughout the fall.

J’s family’s bun recipe comes with a story. The recipe is meant to be used with a Bosch mixer, which J’s mother distributed. The last time I talked to her, she called to tell me that I, too, would be receiving a Bosch and was wondering if I would prefer the traditional one or the limited-edition red color. She was excited about the flashy red, so she ordered enough to give to her daughters and me. Although she wasn’t there, I still received the Bosch at my bridal shower as she intended. Soon, all of her daughters will be married and have their own Bosch mixers.

The bun recipe in their family cookbook clearly states directions, like “mix on speed 1 for 5 minutes” and “let the Bosch knead the dough for 10 minutes.” Seems pretty basic and fool-proof, right? At first glance, it seems like a recipe that you can pick up and try on your own for the first time.

But, it doesn’t say anything about how you’ll need to add more flour or water depending on the humidity that day, or how to carefully shape the dough into buns, or how you can fill the sink with hot water and put the covered pan of buns on top of it to let them rise, or how to brush the buns with a sugar mixture when they’re fresh out of the oven to give them a sweet glaze, or how it is the most fun when you have all day to enjoy the task at hand with family while chatting and drinking coffee and letting the kids form their own little snowmen-shaped buns so they can help, too.

It is a process that can only be learned by partaking in the experience with the experts themselves. I am hoping it is a process of trial and error that I will perfect after years of experience.

Usually, when I try baking buns on my own, I end up having an overgrown yeast disaster, because I walk away and forget about it until I see the dough crawling out of the Bosch mixer and spreading across the countertop. Then I have a terrible time forming them into buns, and finally, when they’re done baking, they end up being little bricks that could give a black-eye better than any hockey puck.

One day my husband told me, “[sigh] Jill, I wish you could make buns as good as-“ then he caught himself because he knew what he was saying wasn’t going to make me feel any better!  So, I’ve given up on buns for now (except for that perfect little bun I baked, named “Lucas”) and focused my expertise on bread-making instead.

For our wedding favors, we decided to bake mini loaves of bread using J’s family’s recipe. We originally intended to grind flour from the wheat grown by my husband, but that was early in the wedding-planning stages and you know how time slips away. We baked hundreds of buns and tied them with a verse from a song played at our wedding:

As grains of wheat are gathered in, we’ve come together.
From lives apart, we bring our hearts to make one whole.

How appropriate for a post-harvest wedding of a wheat farmer, don’t you think?

At another one of my bridal showers, I received two identically embroidered towel sets from each of my grandmothers, which come in handy for covering the rising dough. It was funny that they each chose the same exact gift and the same exact pattern on the towels. That, too, must be a western ND thing! Now, the towels aid in my bun-baking “practices” to be perfected hopefully SOON!