Fresh Picks of the Day - September 30, 2013

Today, we, well mainly my Mom, got a lot out of the garden.  She pretty much picked all of the pumpkins, the rest of the rest of the onions, and the potatoes.

I LOVE digging up potatoes!  It's like a treasure hut.  Since, I am in a cast, I can't really use a shovel.  So, my Mom dug with the shovel, and then I was on my hands and knees collecting the potatoes.  We actually had more potatoes that we thought we would.

The potatoes before "harvesting".

 Digging them up!

The treasures!

We got this red basket and about a half of a paper bag full of POTATOES!

We still have lots of peppers and tomatoes coming!

From our Garden - September 28, 3013

My Mom was able to pick another bouquet of flowers from our yard.

A couple days ago, I picked the rest of the carrots from our garden.

I made a carrot cake with carrots from our garden today.  I love carrot cake!

The cake was delicious and I ate a really lot!

YUM!

Our pumpkin patch.

This is a funny pumpkin... no, wait, it's a cucumber!

 

The apples on our trees are about ready to be picked!

 

 The pear.

On our pear trees this year, we only got to pears.  One of the pears mysteriously disappeared.  Then the second pear fell to the ground.  Luckily, my Mom and I were walking past the trees and spotted it.  It wasn't rotten or anything, so, we rescued the pear.  It needs to ripen a little, and then we will slice it up one night, so that everyone in the family can have some.

My Mom picked a ton more tomatoes.  So, today I made and canned more salsa and canned some tomatoes.  This time I added in some tomato paste with them, to thicken them up a little, and they look really nice now.

For supper tonight we had chili with tomatoes from our garden.  It turned out excellent!  Super delicious!  I would have never know that the tomatoes in the chili were from our garden... if I didn't know.

Dad's Birthday

Today is my Dad's birthday.  We didn't do as much celebrating as we would do for us kids, but this day was still made special for him.

For supper we had grilled steaks, twice baked potatoes, roasted asparagus, dinner rolls, and carrots for the people who don't like asparagus.

Since we didn't have too much for my Dad's birthday, I decided to put everything on nice platters, and make the table look nice.

Right after supper my Dad opened his presents.  Usually we do present opening a little later, but there weren't many presents and my sister wanted him to open them.  My sister, with her own money, bought him a music card and an almond joy candy bar.  He also got some roasting sticks for the campfire and a box of cereal... plus a card in the mail.

My Dad always requests a German Chocolate Cake.

There was a little arguing about who would light the candles.  My youngest brother first said he wanted to.  But my sister then said she wanted to light some too.  But, my brother said that since we were only doing 3 candles, that he was going to light them all.  Well, what ended up happening is that my brother lit them all, and then my sister blew one out and re-lit it.  

We ended up singing happy birthday twice to him because the first time only a couple people were singing.

Chocolate Oatmeal Scotchies

Yesterday, my Mom picked what she thinks will be the last of the flowers from our yard... sad.  I have come to love having flowers around our house.  They just freshen and lighten up the house... especially in the winter.
  

So, I just had to take some pictures of them to blog about.  I couldn't decide which were the best pictures... so why not post them all, or the few best ones?

Luckily, pumpkins are starting to be ready to be picked!  My Mom's favorite things from the garden are the flowers and pumpkins.  Yesterday, she also picked the first couple pumpkins.  They are little ones, but fun.

Yesterday, my Mom also picked some more tomatoes (I think we are going to need to can more... or give them away).  She also picked another cantaloupe.

Today, my Mom said that she was thinking about making these chocolate bars.  I said, oh those chocolate oatmeal scotchies.  My Mom said yes, and asked if I wanted some.  I said yeah, I have been kind of hungry for them... or at least I have been thinking about them lately... so that must mean I am hungry for them.  But, I wanted to make them my way (with honey instead of corn syrup and with the peanut butter I like).  So, that's what we did.

These bars are SOOOO DELIGHTFUL!  They have chocolate and peanut butter... and who couldn't go for that?  It was a cloudy, windy, chillier, more fall like day.  And, these bars were very comforting for a day like this... and for when you aren't feeling the best and aren't in the best mood.

Chocolate Oatmeal Scotchies

 2/3 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. corn syrup or honey (I do honey)
1/4 c. + 2/3 c. peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
4 c. oats (I do part quick and part old-fashion)
1 pkg. milk chocolate chips
1/2 pkg. butterscotch chips
1 c. salted peanuts (sometimes I do unsalted)

Variation:  Sometimes I will do all milk chocolate chips in the frosting and/or chunky peanut butter in the frosting and omit the peanuts.

Melt butter in a saucepan.  Stir in brown sugar and corn syrup or honey until sugar is dissolved.  Stir in 1/4 cup peanut butter and vanilla.  Add oats and mix well.  We measure the oats out into a large mixing bowl and then add the butter mixture to the oats.

Press into a greased (or lined with parchment paper) 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15.  We always bake them for only 12 minuets.  They are better if they are not over baked... so don't over bake them.

Meanwhile, melt the chips and remaining 2/3 cup peanut butter.  Stir in peanuts.  Spread over crust.  Refrigerate until cool.

                                                                                                                                                             Usually my Mom and I can't wait to dig in, so they end up being a little

soft still.  But, maybe they are better

that way.

ENJOY!!

                                                                                            

 

                                                                                                     

Where Did Summer Go?

Now, we have been in school for a couple weeks.  It is starting to feel a bit more like fall.

Summer just flew by.  I feel that I didn't do that much... but maybe I did.  When I went back to school this "fall", I didn't even feel like we even had summer.  All of a sudden we were in a routine.  The school days have felt just like last year.  It doesn't really feel like I am a grade older... it is kind of a weird feeling.

But, we must of had summer.  Here are SOME of the highlights from my summer.

My summer, or summer break, started with the section track meet.  There I got 2nd place in the 3200 meter run.

 One other girl and I advanced to the state meet, which was held a week later.

One of the two summer road races I did.  This was held in the little town near us, and there was a kid's run, so we all did it (it is also a cheap race and to distance isn't too far).

Planting potatoes to to grow for the food-shelf as a community service project.  I planted them, weeded the garden once... and then hurt my ankle.  So, I haven't really done anything with it.  I really need to go out there and see how they are.

 Picking strawberries.  I picked a bunch for our own garden.  Then one of my brothers, sister, and I went with our Mom to pick MORE.  We picked 20 lbs. of strawberries just at the strawberry batch!

For my Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary, they took us 6 grandkids and our moms (their daughters) on a tour of North Dakota.  Both my grandparents grew up in North Dakota, so we got to see the places where they grew up.

This is the building where my Grandma's parents owned a grocery store.

We stopped in Milnor, and stayed Gwinner and Carrington for the first part of the trip.  There we got to see where my Grandma grew up.  We were going to get tour of the Bobcat Factory, but it flooded out the night before we were going to go on a tour.  We walked around the towns and saw some cute houses.

We stopped in Minot to see the Scandinavian Heritage Association.

My Grandma and Grandpa don't live in North Dakota, but they own land up in the very northwestern corner of the state.  It is land that my Grandpa's parents homesteaded.  So, it was divided up and pasted down to their children (my Grandpa and Great Aunt).

Oil wells have been put up on some of their land, so we got to see some oil wells.

This is the house that my Grandpa grew up in for a while.  It was first in Alkabo (where my Grandpa actually lived growing up).  Then it was moved into a the "bigger" town nearby, Crosby, when my Grandpa's mom need to move into town.  Isn't it a CUTE house?

This is just one piece of the playground.

On one of the days on our trip, we went out to the town where my Grandpa grew up.  It is pretty much a ghost town now, but the old school house has been kept up.  Outside the schoolhouse, they had the most fun, old-fashion playground.  It was the original playground that my Grandpa grew up playing on.

My Grandpa in one of the classrooms that he went to school in.

It was a three classroom schoolhouse.  One of the classrooms had a sliding down chalkboard, that if it was lift up, there was a window that food was served from, and the kitchen was behind there.  Then you could go downstairs, and in the basement was a gym.  There were bleachers, and a stage.  It was REALLY neat!

The schoolhouse was SUPER CUTE!

It

Walking through long grass.  We did a lot of this on the day that we went to see Alkabo.  There were ticks so we spend some time checking ourselves over for them.

Behind the place where my Grandpa grew up in town (he grew up outside of Alkabo and then they moved into Alkabo), which the house was moved to Crosby, there was some old farming equipment that my Grandpa's dad used.  So, we had to check it out.

This is one of the two houses that my great great uncles in lived in.  He actually had two houses, one in town (this one) and one in the country.  That sounds pretty amazing!

My Grandpa wanted us to walk out (about 3/4 of a mile from the road) to see if there was any water in the slew on his land.  Sometimes there is water in it and sometimes there isn't... it depends on how much rain there has been that year.

We ended our "tour" with a couple days in Medora.  There we went to a Pitch Fork Steak Fondue Dinner... and it was delicious.  After that we saw the Medora Musical.  It was actually really fun to see.  It was better than I thought it would be.  I would definitely recommend going if you are in the area.  We also went horseback riding, walked around town, looked in the shops, and did a driving tour through Theodore Roosevelt National Park, looking for animals and admiring the scenery.

Another highlight of my summer was helping with Operation Kaleidoscope Kids.  We sold cookies and lemon-aid and baseball games to raise money for children in hospitals.

We also put on a race to help raise money.  Once we did some fundraisers and had some money (over a $1,000), we went shopping for toys and then brought them to the Children's Hospital.

On the Fourth of July, us and another family, meet at a park not too far from us, and had a picnic. We brought lots of food and had a fun time.

Going to Valley Fair.

A Twins' game with a couple friends.  The Target Field has the BEST hamburgers ever!

My 4-H projects.  This year I did making & canning strawberry jam, and knitting dish rags.  I actually had fun doing them.

This hasn't really been a highlight, more of a low-light, because it took away from a lot of the things I wanted to do this summer, like running and running road races, but my ankle.  It has been a nonstop problem.

But, if I never had an ankle problem, I probably wouldn't have ever make rag quilts.  These are just some of the ones I have made.  I really enjoyed making them. 

 

Going on our little "family vacation" to the Mississippi River for a Sunday brunch cruise.

BAKING!!  I did LOTS and LOTS of baking and cooking.

Cross Country Camp.  Cross country camp happened during the time when I had a little break from being on crutches.  But, soon afterwards I was back on them.
 

I had 2 girls cross county parties.  I had a brunch at the beginning of the summer and then a bbq at the beginning of the season.

Going to Iowa for my aunt and uncle's wedding anniverary.

Sarah's 10th Birthday.

It was fun summer, but it went by way too fast.