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Monday, January 24, 2011

They came bearing gifts

Firstly, let me just say that for dinner I made some Sauteed Kale with Shrimp and Wheatberries.

It was quite good!  It was the first time that I've had wheatberries and I think the first time that I've had kale.  Sadly, it was the first time the wife has eaten a meal with that many veggies.  She liked it and I'm very proud of her!






Back to the topic at hand though.  My parents visited this weekend, and they came bearing gifts!  I optimistically asked for a small deep freezer for Christmas, and they got it for us!  When I asked for it, I never actually thought I would get it, but alas, my parents always have a way of surprising me.  It wouldn't fit in our car to bring back right away, so it also came with free delivery, namely they were going to bring it down.  It finally gave me a reason to re-clean the basement and make a spot for it.  It's not necessarily the ideal spot, but we're just renting and aren't here forever.


We've already cleared out some of our freezer upstairs and put in in here.  Stuff like applesauce, a few pans of sticky rolls that my wife refuses to give away because they didn't turn out perfect, and my ice cream freezer bowl.  I'm really excited to have this extra storage because I can get a second freezer bowl so it'll be easier to make a couple batches of ice cream in one day.  Also, it'll give us an opportunity to buy some meat in bulk.  We've already mentioned it to a couple of friends about splitting a good, grass-fed cow and everyone seems interested.  In general, it will be nice just to have some extra freezer space since our upstairs one always seems to be packed.

Come to find out, my mom also had a bunch of canning jars that have been unused and sitting in the basement for quite some time.  Some of these I'm sure are older than I am and I can only imagine how much stuff has been stored in them over the years.  She brought two boxes of varying sizes, and we'll be excited to start doing some canning this year.



She also brought some top secret family canning/other recipes!  Yea, you heard right, Top Secret!  Well, maybe not, but some great ones including peaches, green beans, pickled eggs and beats (My brother and I always hated these.  The smell, the look, and most definitely the taste!  I remember these being in the fridge many times growing up.  I might man up and give them another try next time I'm home and they are in the fridge.), strawberry/rhubarb jam (I'm so excited to try this!), and spaghetti sauce (which I'm also really excited to try).  She also brought, what I believe she said was my great Grandma's baking powder recipe.  I'm sure it's probably the same that can be found online, but nonetheless, I'm excited because it's not just something I found online.  It's from the family.

It was a pretty good weekend.  It was nice having them in town to visit.  As always, Gracie and Webster also enjoyed their visit.  I think Webster enjoyed it the most though.



Sorry Dad, this was too cute not to post.

We tried going to Schmidt's for dinner on Saturday night, but when we got there it was a 2 hour wait for the four of us.  We ended up back in Grandview at an ole' standby, Red Door Tavern.  It was of course delicious.  We made some buttermilk pancakes and bacon for breakfast on Sunday, and they headed out early afternoon.  It was a good, relaxing weekend, which of course went way too fast!

2 comments:

Erica W said...

If you are looking for someone to take those not so perfect sticky rolls off your hands, I can do that for you.

Sarah Dill said...

I LOVE pickled beets!!