Thanksgiving Continued

 Just before Richard's parents came for Thanksgiving we found out that Kimberly (Richard's sister)  had her twin boys who were 8 weeks early.  It brought back memories of when Sariah was born 6 weeks early.  I quickly threw these NICU gowns together to send to her so she would know we were thinking of her, Jon, Arthor and Weston.  I found the pattern here.  It is a gown that is designed for babies 3-8 pounds.

 Meagan always want to be in the pictures.  In this case you can see how tiny these are.  They wouldn't even go around her 3 year old thigh.   You can also see that even in November we have swimsuit weather.  Sort of.  Meagan was sure it was warm enough to wear this swimsuit outside, and she was right as long as she stayed dry.  Unfortunately that was the case a few days later when Deanna and George arrived.  By then it was definitely jacket/coat weather.

 While Richard's parent were here we went to Christmas at Beauvoir and had a nice time.  I didn't understand the settings on our camera so the pictures are few and not very good, but the lights were pretty and the house was beautiful.

 They had a live band that played big band music along with old-time radio type narration and props.  It was very fun, and Deanna and George graced us with their dancing. 

 Saint Nick was their as well and gave a jumbo jingle bell on a beautiful printed ribbon to everyone who sat on his lap.  Chris even whispered what he want for Christmas in his ear.

 Deanna really wanted a bell too so she  sat on his knee and whispered something shocking into his ear.  I still don't know what she could have possibly whispered.

 We all took a picture at the end.  That is Chris's friend Isaac with us.

 Afterwards we dropped off Chris and Isaac and went to eat at Mary Mahoney's Old French house.  It's not a french restaurant, but a house/boarding house that dates back to about 1737.  The portraits behind us are of Mary and Bob Mahoney, not Napoleon and Josephine.
 

 We left on Monday to head to Louisville and made it a two day trip. Meagan and Kiersten rode the luggage cart up along with all our suitcases.

 The next day we went Corinth Mississippi civil war museum.  Here are Trevor, Sariah, Kiersten and Kate following the soldiers in the door.

 Meagan and Kate with a canon.  If you zoom in on this photo you can see one of Meagan's million facial expressions.

 For a short while Richard had the camera and so you get to see me in the background with Kate and Meagan.  We are working on getting the Junior Range Badge.  All the blocks in the water feature represent a different battle in the civil war and the size represents the fatalities of that battle.  Kiersten is the the foreground as cute as ever.  In case you are wondering the kids all earned their junior ranger badges.

 Next we went to Shiloh where Trevor is making sure his uniform is up to snuff.

 I think maybe he should have checked the lower half of it.  Other than that he looks pretty sharp.

 At Shiloh they also earned their Junior ranger Badges. The day was beautiful.  The entire site was breathtaking both in the natural beauty and the scope and documentation of the awful battles that took place there.

 For thanksgiving Kate and Emily made this relish tray with me acting as soux chef (ie vegetable cutter/carver.)  It turned out beautifully.

 

Not as beautiful as these two girls. Their only disappointment was that it wasn't gobbled up.   I think it was because it was too pretty and not right next to the turkey

or turducken as the case may be.  Here is a picture of our cooked turducken.  For Christmas we are having a smoked one.  I'll try to get some pictures of it sliced then.

 And here is the derby pie.  It turned out so pretty in Elizabeth's pretty pie plate.

 Hey! What do you think you're doing?

 Here is a picture of the mustard ring that is a recipe from Richard's Grandma.  For Christmas I'll actually make it a ring. It is one of my favorite holiday recipes.  Another dish I love is stuffing, but I learned this year I don't like stove-top or any other stuffing mix stuffing.  I thought it would do in a pinch, but it didn't.  I even bought one that was more expensive and looked higher quality and it just didn't cut it.  Homemade or nothing for me from now on.

 Here is the crew eating dinner

The next day we made gingerbread houses.  Here are the Beaches working on theirs/

 And the Bucks.  I tried getting pictures of the Sanders working on theirs, but they didn't turn out.  At all.  I think it was the windows that messed me up and my usual adjustment didn't work.  And I didn't check that I had a good picture before I stopped.

 Here are the finished houses.  Sanders, Beach, Buck.

 Playing games with Meg and Kiersten.  Aunt Elisabeth is so much fun.

 The birthday boys.  Trevor blows out his candles

 and then  waits patiently for Kade.  Who wasn't slow.  Trevor is just fast at getting relaxed.

These glasses from Christmas at Beauvoir are a hit around our house.  When it's dark and you look at lights you can see stars, reindeer, snowmen or something else depending on which pair you wear.  And if you tilt you head from side to side with the snowman glasses it looks like the snowmen are dancing and is entertaing to those watching you .

Thanksgiving Preview

It has been while.  But here are some pictures of what, so  far, has been a marvelous Thanksgiving. And a couple of recipes.  More to come, hopefully soon.

Top to bottom.  Christmas at Beauvoir.  Mary Mahoney's Old French House Restaurant,  Civil War sites at Corinth MS, and Shiloh TN.

And now onto the recipes.  Above is a traditional Draper (Richard's maternal grandfamily) family recipe that I love.  This is a scan directly from the cookbook.  You may want to 1/2 or 1/4 the recipe.  This makes a lot. It also leaves out one of the instructions.  You should soak the gelatin in the water and then add it to the hot egg and mustard when indicated.  This is marvelous on ham, if you like honey mustard type stuff.  It melts right into the hot meat yum.  I have plans for this recipe.

Lastly I will share a favorite Kentucky pie recipe.  My friend Melissa requested this, so you have her to thank for this post.  I am in Kentucky and don't have her email so I thought I would just post this.  That way hopefully I will never lose it. This recipe was taught to me by a ward member who used to work at a bakery that made these pies (not the original derby pie but a knock-off) and is the closest I have found to the real deal in spite of being a simple recipe.  And contrary to popular belief the real derby pie does NOT have bourbon in it, one of the few facts about the pie confirmed from the derby pie family itself.  This is the halved version of the recipe.  You may want to double it and have two on hand.

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecan halves


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter & sugar, add eggs, salt & vanilla. Gradually mix in flour. Stir in pecans.  Sprinkle chocolate chips on unbaked pie shell.  Spoon filling (it will be kind of thick) over chocolate chips.
Bake for 30-45 minutes top is puffy and a deep golden brown. Remove from oven .  Let set about 2 hours before serving.  The pie is so sweet and rich I like to serve it with a lightly sweetened whipped cream.  Others like it with ice cream.  It'll be good no matter what you serve it with.  Yum.

Perilous Prayers

Meagan loves to pray. So does her sister.  Solution 3 year old Meagan helps 2 year old Kiersten say our lunch prayer every day.  Last week I had some concerns after the prayer.

It started out normally, thanks for the day, for our food etc.  Then in a sweet little three year old voice I hear something like...

Please bless daddy that when he gets hit by a car and flies through the air he doesn't die.  And that a doctor will come and save him.  And that they will take him to a hospital.  And the doctors will work really fast and they will fix him.  And that they will let me visit him.  And that mommy will take me to visit him.  And that he will get all better.

There were more details than this.  It was all repeated by the sweetest little two year old voice you have ever heard.  The two girls didn't seem the least bit traumatized.   A tiny bit of me silently hoped she wasn't clairvoyant.  I went back and forth between being horrified and on the verge of laughter.   All of which made me doubt my sanity. Still doubting a little bit.  At her first pause I prompted the end of the prayer and we ate lunch as if nothing at all had happened.

I think I will talk to Trev about watching action shows with his little sisters.   Maybe daddy too.  That is, however, only a theory of how such things entered my three year old's brain.

I was relieved when Richard came home safe and sound.  Maybe I am the whom I should be worrying about. 

Another sad note.  Yesterday we played a family game of big boggle.  One of my words was 'stealer.' It was challenged and I won.  A stealer is a baseball player who steals bases.  They argued that I didn't know it was an official word.  My rebuttal was that I know more about sports than any of the rest of them.  They conceded the point.  Considering the family I grew up in, I am somewhat horrified that my limited knowledge of sports reigns supreme in my house.

Pioneer Day, Lumpy Dick and some Meandering Thoughts

Today, inspired by my mother-in-law, I decided we could celebrate pioneer day by having some Lumpy Dick.

Lumpy Dick is a pioneer recipe, apparently only seen commonly in Utah,  for hot cereal.  I have never had it.  I don't think I had even heard of it until after I married.  I had heard of Spotted Dick

And Bubble and Squeak




And Toad in the Hole

But I didn't even know exactly what they were until this morning (thanks Jen and google.)

I don't recall having heard of Lumpy Dick until I married my husband and pioneer day rolled around.  Then I heard something similar to what she posted on facebook this morning "I offered to make Lumpy Dick for breakfast and for the 43rd time in 43 three years, no one wanted me to make it. (lumpy cereal made out of whole wheat flour and milk)."  As far as I can tell she is not fond of hot cereal.  When she was a child her father would make a big pot of oatmeal when he woke up in the morning and by the time the rest of the family was out of bed it was colder lumpy oatmeal.  Not her favorite.  I think there might be some lingering feelings there.  But there might not.  She once told me she craved cream of wheat when expecting.  And I don't know what she usually eats for breakfast. And I would guess that she know how to make a mean bowl of oatmeal now that she would thoroughly* enjoy.  If I am wrong on any of these points feel free to correct me.  And I am not speaking ill of her, only of her father's lumpy oatmeal.  And I am not speaking ill of him.  There is something admirable when a man gets up early and makes breakfast for his entire family.  Way to go Grandpa Rulon.

Back to lumpy dick.  After seeing the post this morning I got to thinking that I didn't really know what lumpy dick was.  So I googled it.  I know Google is not an official verb, and my spell-checker doesn't like it.  But there is no more succinct way to describe what I did so there it is.  (I am aware that my description of my succinctness was far too verbose.  Forgive me.)

I learned a few things about lumpy dick from here and here and decided to write my own description; "A lightly sweetened, creamy hot cereal with a smattering of delightful miniature dumpling like bits scattered throughout. Often served with brown sugar, cinnamon and cold cream or milk. A true Mormon pioneer classic."  This was all done without ever have tasted or smelled or seen lumpy dick.  Hum.  I might be falling into some shady territory here.  Like Arthur Conan Doyle did. So I figured I ought to make some. 

I used a combination of the two recipes found above and halved it.

Lumpy Dick
The sugar is in red because I didn't add it this time but would probably try adding it next time.  I find that when I add the sugar while cooking the kids use far less than when we add it later.

• 2 cups of milk (I halved the recipe in case my family did not like it)
• 1/2 t salt
• pinch of ground nutmeg (freshly ground makes me fell like a gourmet cook even when making lumpy dick.  I love Penzeys)
• tablespoon of sugar
• Pat of butter (nice as an indicator to whether or not the milk is hot enough)

Heat the above ingredients  over the lowest temp on your stove until butter melts.  Meanwhile in a food processor or with a fork or pastry blender mix until small pieces (about the size of a grain of rice) form.  Add more flour if dough is gooey, not dry.

• 2/3 cup flour (use 1/2 cup if using white flour)
• 1/2 egg (beat and add about half to the flour)
• 1 teaspoon sugar (or not.  These might be more texture than flavor)

 If the butter is now melted turn the heat on the milk up and start sprinkling and stirring the flour bits into the milk, breaking up any larger chunks with your fingers.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and stir until thickened.  If you halved the recipe like me you can add a little of the hot thickened sauce to the egg and stir and then stir it into the lumpy dick so there is no waste.  The texture will be like tapioca pudding or cracked wheat cereal.

• brown sugar
• cinnamon

Mix to your liking.  Or don't mix and just sprinkle some of both on top of the cereal.

 This is my brown sugar and cinnamon mix.  I stirred it and a beautiful little swirl showed up.  So I tried to make the swirl better.  The curse of one who thinks any accident can be done better on purpose.  I think the first swirl was the best.  Oh well.  I sprinkled some white sugar in the canyons of the swirl and added the cinnamon sticks.  I like pretty things.

Behind the brown sugar is the milk we poured over it.  I was going to serve this with some cream I bought yesterday to make some strawberry cream frosting for Kiersten's birthday cake (shhhh.   don't tell her her birthday was last week), but the cream was sour.  It doesn't expire for a long time either.  So we went with evaporated milk.  I grew up with evaporated milk on my oatmeal.  I think it is a treat.  And that beautiful glass bottle the milk is in.  It's just like the one my mom served vinegar in while I was growing up.  I found it yesterday at Goodwill and couldn't resist it.  I probably broke some rule putting milk in it, but it is pretty.  I like pretty things.

In the foreground are my cheat sheets for pioneer stories over breakfast.  In the background are my kids smiles as they eagerly await their pioneer breakfast.  I like pretty things.

 Place the lumpy dick in a shallow bowl, pour cold milk, cream, half and half or evaporated milk over it.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Everyone liked it.  As in when I asked if they would like me to make it for breakfast again they all said yes.  I don't think it would win over crepes, but I do think it would all be eaten if I made the full (4 cups of milk) recipe.  As for me I thought it was good, better than oatmeal,about the same as cream of wheat or cream of rice cereal and not as good as cracked wheat cereal(my favorite hot cereal.)  It was more work and dirtied more dishes than the other hot cereals I make so I will probable save it for next pioneer day, unless it is specially requested. 

Todays lunch is leftover chicken salad in lettuce cups with peanut sauce.  Dinner is spinach steak salad with warm pan dressing.  Not very pioneery.  I know it's not a word.  Neither is pioneerish.  But you get the idea.


Thanks Grandma Deanna.  We would never have had such a fun and pretty pioneer morning without you.


 *  I always wondered about the difference between throughly and thoroughly.  Apparently the only difference is that throughly is archaic and no longer in common use.

What to do with Blueberries

After two trips to pick blueberries we ended up with about 5 gallons.  As much as we like blueberries we wouldn't be able to eat them all before they went bad.  With the first batch I froze about a gallon and a half then I made this for our Memorial day celebration.  The picture is from the recipe linked in the previous sentence.




With these changes

1 .Mad it in a glass 9 x 13 pan

2. Still used just a single crust pie crust and pressed it into the bottom of a 9x13 pan

3. Doubled the filling

4. Used a scant 3/4 cup of sugar per recipe, a total of about a cup and a quarter

5. Put some oatmeal and ground flax in the topping

It went over very well.  We had about 24 people over and by making it in a cake pan we were able to serve everyone.  It helped that we had plenty of other delicious (and healthier) food before we pulled out dessert.  The best compliment came from Sariah's friend who does NOT like blueberries. Sariah forgot and gave her a piece.  She ate it a declared that it was delicious and wants the recipe.  This is for you Thisby.

Our freezer space is limited so I decided to bottle the rest of the raspberries.  Bottled blueberries, with all their dark goodness, do not photograph great.  Especially by one such as I who has limited photography skills, but take it from me, they are beautiful.  I figured out after the fact that I should have just taken the pictures from the other side, but it is almost time for the babies to wake up, so we'll go with what we have.

The first thing I mixed was, but the last thing I bottled, was blueberry butter. (The last sentence sounds like it should be a clue to a logic puzzle.)  I love these squat little bottles.   I used this recipe.  My kids love apple butter, so we tried this our.  It is delicious.  The only change I would make is to add less sugar.  I just need to figure out if it is safe to can with less sugar.

Next I made some blueberry syrup and I can't seem to find the exact recipe I used, but I knew I didn't want to throw away all the pulp and there is marvelous vitamix recipe for uncooked blueberry syrup.  I decided to puree the blueberries in my vitamix with the same quantities as found here  and here of lemon zest and lemon juice and sugar.  The amounts were similar to that found in jam so I figure it will be safe.   The syrup, though not as pretty and jewel-like as strained syrup, tastes marvelous and has a super smooth silky texture that I love.  So much more flavor than anything at the supermarket or pancake house.  Yummy.  Next time I want to use fruit juice as a sweetener and skip the sugar altogether.  I am thinking pear juice, or apple, or white grape.

I think the next recipe is my favorite.  Blueberry lime jam.  I used the recipe from the Ball's Blue Book of Preserving.  If you want the recipe and to seem some beautiful pictures to boot you can look here.  I wish I took nice pictures while I cook, but for now it is all I can do to get the cooking done. I'll settle for getting to eat this jam.  I used the vitamix on slow to crush my berries.  It worked great, and the jam tastes oh so good.  Love it!

 Lastly I made two batches of pie filling.  The first was just blueberry pie filling.  Can you see all those blueberries.  The filling is chock full of them and oh so tasty.  I don't know if I can ever eat the store bought stuff again.  If you look less closely you can see me. Oops.

When I went to make the second batch I was short two cups of blueberries so I added in some frozen peaches and raspberries I had in the fridge.  I think that was the most beautiful thing I made all day.  Can you see that crimson peach.  I can't wait to have this pie. Once I had it in the canner I found the missing blueberries. Now I get to eat them and have my pie filling too.  Yum.

So far I have made:

1 Blueberry Sour Cream Pie
4 half pints of Blueberry Butter
6 half pints of Blueberry Syrup
4 1/2 pints of Blueberry Lime Jam
2 quarts of Blueberry Pie Filling
1 Quart Blueberry/Raspberry Peach Pie Filling
2 Pints of Blueberry/Raspberry Peach Pie Filling

and I have 4 or 5 gallon freezer bags of blueberries too.  I think we are set.

I can't wait for Muscadine/Scuppernong season.  The first time I tasted them I tasted Mississippi Happiness.

Mississippi Mondays: Joe's Blueberries

Every time we move one of the first things I do is look up you-pick farms.  Here the primary you-pick crop is blueberries.  Yum.  We got here too late last year, but I got on the e-mail list and as soon as they ripened we headed out.  There is nothing like fresh produce to help me hop right out of bed and give me the energy to drag my kids out of bed as well.  I wanted to get there right when they opened to beat the heat of the day.  Even though we took a beautiful detour (i.e. missed our turn) on a country road, when we got there, there was still dew on the berries.

At first I wasn't sure I made the right choice in where to go to pick blueberries.  We went a little further than last time, but to a place that doesn't use pesticides on the berries.  There were about 28 bushes (as compared to almost 500 at the last place we went) but it proved to be plenty and only $6 a gallon.

 

And they are off.  Here are our pickers, from youngest to oldest.

Little Miss Blue.  

She picked the whole way through.  

Though some were red or even green.  

She carefully picked those bushes clean.

She enjoyed picking berries

And was really quite merry

Though when the camera she saw

She gave a guffaw

So you'll not see her merry with berry.

 This little sweet girl's like a fairy

Getting berry after berry after berry

She is so sweet having her around is a treat

A treat that even blueberries can't beat

This is a team we can't separate

Nor can we recover the berries that they ate

They also filled up their pail

And did it so well

We couldn't hep but say "You did Grrreat"

Christopher would only pick the perfect berry

Which made his bucket very easy to carry

The berries were beatiful

His bucket was not at all full

But still he found berry picking quite merry

As a picker he was far from the worst

He just had to get exercise first

He though he was fast

But the dog wasn't last

Then he picked berries as one who was cursed

These two are two of a kind

And picking they were hard to find

They were still very slim

Bucket filled to the brim

And never once had they whined.

There had been a thunderstorm the night before and lots of beautiful ripe berries were on the ground.  I think that is why it took us longer than last time to fill our buckets. When we were done we had 3 gallons of beautiful blueberries.  While we were paying Magnus and Kate made some blueberry treats.  I think Chris invented the kabab.

A blue berry taco

Blueberry  kabab

Blueberry Ice Cream Cone

 Then Magnus and Kate did their favorite thing.

They climbed a tree.  I think they could spend half their lives in a tree.

Joe (of Joe's blueberries) was above and beyond nice. He brought the kids drinks from his house, and even gave us some berries he had picked.  We had to take a picture with him.  And that was our day of blueberry picking. In the end we went home with 5 gallons of blueberries.  Tomorrow I'll show you what I did with them. But I do have to post this picture before I go.  Isn't she sweet.