So Vermonty

I said that many times on our recent trip to Vermont. It really was just so . . . Vermonty. 

I mean, look at this.

The house my parents rented.

It was past peak color, but there were still quite a few pretty leaves.

That's maple kettle corn, just to stay on brand.

The view from the porch on Friday morning.

The house was on over a hundred acres, so there was no shortage of paths in the woods to explore.

The wedding venue was a barn.

My view from my chair during the outdoor ceremony.

The Burlington airport wins for Most Fun Airport.

It was a good trip. And so Vermonty.

Snapshots: The Birthday Canyon

Poppy asked if we could go to the canyon again for her birthday this year, like we did last year. As it was a Sunday and the weather was good, there was no reason not to. So after her requested chocolate chip pancakes after church, we loaded up all children and dogs in the van and off we went.

Odin felt safer half under a seat, apparently.

The road down into the canyon is really bad, and it certainly hasn't gotten any better since we last drove it.

This isn't even one of the worst parts.

Adventure Van was undaunted, however, and we made it to the bottom without incident.

Patient Adventure Van in the distance, awaiting our return.

There was less water in the river crossing than last year and I did not fall in. Yay, me. 

After crossing the water, we set off on our short hike.

Poppy had gotten her feet wet when crossing, and asked if she could take her shoes and socks off to hike.

She did, briefly, before getting some burs in her feet and deciding wet socks and shoes were better than that.

The skies were blue when we started, but those clouds started gathering.

By the time we got to the cliff the kids like to climb, there was a pretty solid cloud cover, and a surprising number of mosquitos. Bummer.

This year's cliff climb was cut short by a considerate rattlesnake that rattled as the three younger children were climbing near it. They took the hint and scrambled back down without ever seeing it.

Good call, kids.

A. brought his fishing pole and some chicken livers to fish for catfish. He caught a small one, which he did not keep. He also found some giant clam shells.

We did keep these.

Given the clouds and the fact that we really couldn't risk getting caught in a rainstorm on the road out, we decided to leave after playing for about an hour.

The kids, of course, wanted to stop and play in the water on our way out, although it was cool enough they just went wading rather than getting soaking wet like last year.

Then back in the van for the slow and jolting ride up the road.

I am very happy to leave this sort of driving to A.

There were a few sprinkles on our way, but nothing of great concern. We made it out of the canyon without any trouble, with four tired but happy children. The birthday girl was especially happy.

Friday Food: Here, There, and Everywhere

Friday

Short version: Fish sticks, oven-fried potatoes, salad with vinaigrette

Long version: We just had fish sticks the previous Friday, but I was lazy and made them again. Also because my oven was fixed (hooray for A.!) so I had finally baked the peanut butter cookie dough balls I froze when it broke. That meant I had two not-really-dirty baking pans. Perfect for fish sticks and oven-fried potatoes.

Saturday

Short version: Cornbread, Snow's clam chowder

Long version: This was the day of the funcion, at which everyone ate a very large lunch. Only the perpetually hungry boys wanted any dinner. I had the oven on anyway to make Poppy's birthday cake, so I made a pan of cornbread, too, and then just served that with a can of Snow's condensed clam chowder.

Condensed soups are SO much better than ready-to-eat soups. They always water those down way too much.

Sunday

Short version: Salisbury steaks with gravy, mashed potatoes, carrot sticks with curry dip, corn, chocolate coconut cake

Long version: This wasn't what Poppy had requested for her birthday dinner, but her request (slow-cooked pork) did not mesh well with her desire to spend the day at the canyon we went to last year for her birthday. So I told her I would make the pork the next day, and this day I made Salisbury steaks when we got back from our adventure. She also loves Salisbury steaks, so that was fine with her.

The vegetables were her request, as was the cake. I didn't follow a recipe for the cake, instead just adding coconut extract and coconut milk to chocolate cake, and then making a white coconut frosting.

I was not too pleased with how the frosting came out--my butter was too cold and I didn't really beat it long enough, so it wasn't as smooth as it could have been, and also I added a bit too much coconut milk so it was kind of wet--but everyone loved the cake.

Ugly, as always. But also tasty, as always.

The chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting she requested that I make for her class on Monday looked prettier.

Sprinkles taste like garbage, but they are cheery.

Monday

Short version: Pork, butter-swim biscuits, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, leftover cake

Long version: Poppy's requested pork was pork shoulder cooked until tender, then pulled apart and broiled in its own rendered fat with spices and maple syrup. She also wanted these biscuits.

Tuesday

Short version: Fried pork and cornbread, green salad with tartar dressing, rice pudding

Long version: I changed my plan for dinner because I had a pretty big chunk of leftover cornbread that was getting too dry to eat plain. Frying it in a lot of butter certainly takes care of any dryness. Frying it with leftover pork and then adding a bit of maple syrup to the whole thing also helps.

The leftover tartar sauce makes a pretty good salad dressing. Pretty much like ranch, except with the addition of some finely diced pickles.

I had made the rice pudding the day before while I was cooking the pork in the oven. The children are happy that baked rice pudding time is here again. So am I, because if it's cool enough to run the oven for a few hours, it's cool enough for me.

Wednesday

Short version: Sandwiches on the road, burritos at home

Long version: I picked up the eldest boy and Poppy from school a bit early and we drove to Albuquerque to stay the night before an early flight o Vermont the next morning. It's wedding time, whee!

For the car travelers, I used the last of the leftover pork to make sandwiches. Before I left, I used the half pound or so of ground beef still in the refrigerator to make taco meat. A. used that to make burritos for him and the one boy remaining at home (he stayed home because his last football game is on Thursday). The middle boy is in Indianapolis, competing at the FFA national convention.

We really were all over the place this day.

Thursday

Short version: We shall see.

Long version: I'm writing this and scheduling it to post while I'm gone. This is the day I'm actually flying to Vermont. We arrive in Burlington right around dinner time, so I'm guessing we'll get something in that city before starting our drive to our rental house. I don't know what it will be, though.

I also don't know what A. will be making at home. Questions abound. I'll report back next week when I'm home.

No refrigerator check photo, either. It looks pretty much the same every week, anyway. Imagine a lot of milk and other dairy, plus random canning jars and containers of leftovers.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

A New Mexico Funcion

A couple of months ago, A. went down the hill to the ranch our older boys work at sometimes to help them repair an old adobe church there. They've been working on fixing it up for some time now and asked A. to fix the large holes and cracks in the inside walls.

They had also sent the stained glass windows to Santa Fe to be repaired. They fixed the rotting floors, did a lot of cleaning, and finally got it in good enough shape to celebrate Mass there.

This church is in the remains of Spanish settlement that predates the current ranch. There are several buildings still standing there, in this place that is about twelve miles of very rough road from the ranch headquarters. We have been there before, and have always enjoyed our visits there.

The settlement was on the land purchased by the family that still owns that ranch. They are not Catholic, but they do have Catholic family members, and all the Spanish occupants of that remote settlement were Catholic.

And so, when the church was fixed, they held a funcion to celebrate.

We were invited to the funcion, but I had no idea what a funcion is. It sounded like a party, basically, but I wasn't sure if it was like a potluck or what. I tried looking it up online and had no luck figuring it out that way. So I called the owner of the ranch and asked her if we should be bring anything, admitting to her that I didn't know what a funcion was or how it worked.

"Funcion" literally means "function," and has a general meaning in Spanish much like it does in English. This particular funcion, however, was a continuation of a tradition at this church of having Mass on their patron saint's feast day, with a procession to pray for rain*. Then followed by lunch.

The patron saint in this case was San Isidro--Saint Isidore, who is the patron saint of farmers and laborers--whose feast day is actually in May. They decided not wait for his actual feast day, however, in favor of just having the funcion when the church was ready for it.

They invited anyone and everyone who wanted to come, putting the details in the church bulletins and on Facebook. There are still some people living who lived in this remote settlement as children, although they are very old. It was mostly their children and grandchildren who came to the funcion, as well as the ranch family. 

And us. 

We showed up early to help set up the tables and everything for the lunch afterwards. We also brought the priest with us, so he wouldn't have to drive the extremely rough 12-mile road himself. The Mass was an important part of the funcion, and A. wanted to make sure the priest made it.

It's beautiful down there.

The church looked lovely.

Those circular windows on the sides of the altar looked like ship's windows. From the outside, the windows made it obvious how thick the walls are.

Confessional.

This is the window over the front door, which had to be sent for repair. A. also repaired the plaster and adobe around it, which had big holes in it.

The younger boys got to serve on the altar, although they said it was kind of nerve-wracking because it was so small they were constantly on guard so as not to knock over the candles. Also, the bench they had to sit on was very tippy and they had to brace their feet to keep it steady when they were sitting.

There were no major incidents at Mass, however, and the statue of San Isidro was successfully carried around the church for the procession without any mishaps, either.

He was up there somewhere. We were kind of at the back.

And then we all went outside to sit under the trees to eat enchiladas and beans and posole and sopapillas while the wind tried to blow our plates away.

It was really fun, and I'm very glad we got to be a part of it.

* The ranch owner told me that in the past, there was almost always rain the weekend after the San Isidro procession, the explicit purpose of which is to pray for rain. I just looked at the ten-day weather forecast and told A. it's supposed to rain all weekend. "Of course, " he said, "It always rains the weekend after the San Isidro procession." Indeed. Thanks, Saint Isidore.

Snapshots: A Birthday Postscript

I subbed at school this week. That meant I had to wear a walkie talkie the whole day.

I never used it, but I had it.

The room I was in had like two dozen of these odd "paintings" in it.

Animals wearing glasses? Okay.

On Thursday, I went to the very far away football game. It was howling wind when I got to the field and I really did not want to get out of the car.

I could actually see the field from my car, but watching from here would have lacked spirit.

So I put on my coat, grabbed my blanket, and sat on the cold bleachers for two hours. It was about 58 degrees with at least a 20-mile-an-hour wind.

The sun was directly in my eyes for the first fifteen minutes, too, which was extra fun.

Good thing there was a hood on my coat. Brrr.

The apricot tree is showing more yellow, which is our only "fall color."

The last brave show of the cosmos, which mostly froze on Friday night.

The last table flowers.

And the last bookcase flowers.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

P.S. Today is, unbelievably, Poppy's 9th birthday.

And there she is, with her extremely long braids, painting a card for her cousin. It's fun having a girl.

Friday Food: Delayed

Friday 

Short version: Fish sticks with tartar sauce, broccoli/rice casserole, frozen corn

Long version: I planned this meal around the broccoli that needed to be used. One child had agreed with me that broccoli with rice and cheese was awfully good, so I made a casserole with those things. I didn't use a recipe.

Since the casserole needed to be in the oven, I also put some of the fish sticks from commodities in there. Which is why I needed to make tartar sauce.

And since the oven was on anyway, I put some corn in there, too.

Homestyle cafeteria food. Very yellow and brown, but surprisingly good.

Saturday

Short version: Italian sausage, pasta with pesto, creamy leeks, pickled radishes

Long version: Good thing I got all those oven-baked things done the previous day, because this happened this day:

No bueno.

I turned the oven on to preheat for peanut butter cookies in the morning, and it didn't heat. Sigh. My appliance repair guy--A.--diagnosed a failing igniter. Again. This range is only two years old, but that is apparently the lifespan of an igniter in a "heavily used" oven. I think mine falls into that category.

Anyway. A. ordered the part and I was without an oven for the rest of the week.

Thankfully, my plan for dinner did not include the oven.

I needed to harvest basil, so I did that and made pesto. Which is why I made pasta. And that's why I made Italian sausage links. Leeks go well with those, and we still have lots of those in the garden. I cook sliced leeks slowly in butter and chicken stock until they're very soft, and then add a little cream.

Very pink pickled radishes added to plates after this photo was taken.

Sunday

Short version: Beef and bean tacos in homemade corn tortillas, Mexican slaw, pots de creme

Long version: I had lots of beans I had made earlier in the week--a mix of pinto and black--that I hadn't used. So for dinner this night, I used one pound of ground beef and the beans to make a filling for the corn tortillas I made.

I need to start making more tortillas because I have like fifteen pounds of cornmeal masa on hand thanks to commodities. Tortillas use a lot of masa. And now it will be cool enough that I can make tortillas without wanting to crawl into the freezer.

The Mexican slaw was just thinly sliced cabbage, spices, and vinegar. This is better than lettuce on tacos, in my opinion. More flavor and texture.

I needed a non-baked dessert for our Sunday dessert. And I was low on milk. Pots de creme it is!

Monday

Short version: Chicken and rice, green salad with ranch/tartar dressing

Long version: I used one of the butchered roosters to make more or less this, which also uses some of the caramelized onions from the freezer. Having the onions already made makes this a very easy meal to make. I'm getting low on the onions, though, alas.

This is a good dish to make with the roosters because A) I never remember to take them out of the freezer the night before, and I can just put the entire frozen rooster in the pot to simmer until I can get the meat off, and B) There isn't a ton of meat on the roosters, but it's enough when cooked with the rice.

Also, cooking the roosters makes stock to use to cook the rice. Very handy.

For the salad dressing, I just combined the last of some ranch dressing with the last of the tartar sauce. They're close enough in flavor that this works well.

Tuesday

Short version: Hamburger steaks with gravy, mashed potatoes, pickles

Long version: A straightforward cafeteria-style meal. 

Except maybe the pickles. A cafeteria would have served canned green beans, I bet.

Wednesday

Short version: Stove-top pasta, carrot sticks

Long version: I subbed at school this day. I knew I would be, so I prepped the pasta sauce the night before. I used the skillet I had used to make the hamburger steaks to make it, with the half pound of ground beef left from making taco meat, one link of leftover Italian sausage diced up, the leftover creamy leeks, and a jar of the pasta sauce that came with commodies. Plus extra spices and things.

I had some leftover pasta, but not enough, so I cooked some more when I got home and then dumped the sauce in the pot with the cooked pasta and the leftover pasta to heat up everything before adding some of the shredded asadero cheese from the freezer. Plus a little heavy cream and some garlic powder for extra flavor.

This would have been better baked, but as that wasn't an option, stove-top worked.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers at home, Sonic on the road

Long version: I drove 175 miles in the afternoon for a 6 p.m. junior high football game. After the game, I got the football player Sonic at his request before driving 175 miles home. Thankfully, this is the last away game of the season.

The four at home had leftover pasta or chicken and rice. Looks like they also had canned peaches.

I had gone to Walmart before the football game*, as the town the game was in was only about twenty miles from a Walmart. We got home at 11 p.m. and the only thing I unloaded right away were the bags with the dairy stuff in them. It was in the forties overnight, so I figured everything else would be okay.

Refrigerator check:

Featuring my Walmart dairy.

The house was 55 degrees when I got up at 6:30 this morning--the latest I will ever sleep in--so I started a fire while my coffee was steeping. And that is why it is now 7 a.m. and I am just now posting this.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

* I always bring coolers and a gallon ice cream tub with frozen water** when I go to the grocery store. Given that it was in the fifties and the sun had set by the time I was at the game, everything was just fine in the coolers for the four hours it was in there.

**Way better than loose ice because it doesn't melt all over everything.

Let There Be Light

One of the consistent home improvement things we've done since moving into this house eight years ago is adding light. We've put lights up everywhere. In the kitchen, in the dining room, in the bedrooms, in the living room . . . We just keep adding light to every room.

For the first several years, those lights were all of the plug-in variety, because A. really didn't want to have to do any wiring. However, after the incident when half his office lost power and he was forced to work on the wiring there, he has added electrician to his resume. This has opened up great new opportunities for lighting in our house. And I have taken advantage of it.

Every room in our house except the bathrooms had an ceiling fan/light fixture in it when we moved in. These have become something of a hazard in recent years as our sons have grown. And grown. And grown. 

Two out of the three boys are now six feet tall or taller. The third will probably be the tallest of all of them. A. is over six feet tall. This meant that all of them heartily dislike any fixture that hangs low enough for them to whack their heads on. Which the middle boy kept doing on the overhead fixtures in his bedroom and the living room.

 This is not a problem that is going to get any better as the boys keep growing, so I started looking for different light fixtures.

Neither of those rooms needed overhead fans, so I just looked for lights. I wanted flat lights, for maximum head clearance. And they had to cover the bulbs, because I hate exposed light bulbs. In fact, the living room light fixture was almost never on because it had exposed bulbs and I refused to be in the room when they were glaring in my eyes.

After much searching online, I found a fairly cheap and plain fixture for the younger boys' bedroom, which A. duly put in. The middle boy was delighted to not have to worry about bumping his head anymore. As did A., who passes through that room to get to his office.

Next up was the living room light. I bought a larger and nicer fixture for that room, since it's a public room and also bigger space. It has a glass shade over the bulbs, and was much more difficult to install. The size and weight of it, plus some less-than-clear instructions, caused some cussing on A.'s part, but he triumphed in the end.

I made sure to take a before photo of the ugly fan light fixture in the living room.

It was always so dusty too. Yuck.

And now for the after:

Ta da!

And a bonus shot from directly underneath.

Everyone is very pleased with this new light. There's a good six inches of clearance for even the tallest in the family, and the light is muted enough that I will allow it to be on when I'm in the room.

What lights will I replace next? I am limited only by Amazon's selection. And A.'s patience.