Cape Cod Trip - Day Two

Janie and I pose in front of a statue of a soldier.

This is a Matisse. I took the picture for my grandson, Jaron, who told me he was working on his "Matisse" in art class last year.

This is a Van Gogh. You have to see it in person to appreciate the thick brush marks in the oil paint that give it texture.

Wow! Today we were in five states: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Here are my notes – Indiana = big farms and irrigation systems, Ohio = big barns, Cleveland Indians Stadium. We stopped for a short walk through the Toledo Museum of Art. We had to walk fast to try to see what we could. My art teacher daughter would have been proud of my ability to spot a Van Gogh painting. We also saw a Renoir and a Matisse.  Janie and I posed in front of statue, but I can’t remember if it was Greek or Roman.  There was so much to see in a short amount of time, but we had to get back on the bus and carry on to Cape Cod! We made it to New York at about 10 p.m. We stayed at the Sleep Inn in Cheektowaga, NY. It was very nice and comfortable.

Cape Cod Trip - Day One

“And we’re off…like a herd of turtles!” I exclaimed to my sister, Janie, at 9:35 a.m. on June 16th, as we pulled out of the Macon Comfort Inn parking lot in our touring coach with about 50 other people. We had spent months planning our trip to Cape Cod. There were numerous phone calls and visits planning our wardrobes for the nine days. We could not believe the moment had finally arrived. We put on our wristbands to prevent motion sickness, and waved goodbye to our husbands out the window and sat back for the ride.

Our first stop was in Hannibal at Fiddlesticks. It was barely 11 a.m., so we were not too hungry. We decided to have baked potato soup, which was very tasty. At 12:05 we were in another state – Illinois. We drove all day with a rest stop every 2-3 hours. After checking into our hotel, the Sleep Inn in Lansing, IL, just south of Chicago, we piled back in the bus to eat supper at Chili’s. Surrounded by good food and good company, we began to become better acquainted with some of our fellow travelers.

Spaghetti Sauce

Tomatoes growing in the greenhouse.

                Since it is a cold, windy day and my brother-in-law gave me some Italian sausage (Thanks, Bill), I decided it would be a great day to make spaghetti. I searched the trusty Internet, and found a tried and true Olive Garden recipe posted by “mojolah” at http://www.food.com/recipe/the-actual-olive-garden-bolognese-sauce-recipe-spaghetti-sauce-354164  who states that it is the actual Olive Garden recipe, not a replica.  I used Apothic Red wine, a gift from friends (Thanks, Larry and Ellen), a jar of heirloom tomatoes Blaine grew from seed and harvested from the summer of 2011, from seed harvested in 2010, from seed harvested the year in 2009, from seed…you get the idea.  The recipe calls for fresh rosemary and sage, which I happen to have growing in a tub out my back door. Due to the mild weather, the plants were still alive, so I brought some leaves in and chopped them into little pieces. The red sauce simmered for over an hour and filled the house with its rich garlicky aroma. Sourdough bread baked today and a side salad went well with it. I lit a candle and we ate at the dining table. (You may notice I did not iron the tablecloth.)  I could say romantic music was playing in the background, but actually it was Sports Center. Because I love my husband, I had strategically placed his plate and chair so he could watch for updates from the Mizzou game while we ate. Maybe that was more romantic after all.

 

Here is the recipe:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion , finely chopped
• 1 carrot , finely chopped
• 1 celery , finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped
• ½ lb ground beef
• 6 ounces Italian sausage , skinned
• 1 cup red wine
• 28 ounces crushed tomatoes , chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary , chopped (or 1/4 tsp dry)
• 1 teaspoon fresh sage , chopped (or 1/4 tsp dry)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pan. Add celery, carrot, onion, and garlic and cook about 5 minutes.
2. Add meat and cook 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Deglaze pan with wine, let it reduce.
4. Add tomatoes and remaining ingredients and stir, simmer for about 1 hour.
5. Serve over fresh, hot pasta.

Sweet Potato Rolls

I made Sweet Potato Pull-Apart Rolls yesterday from my Better Homes and Gardens: The Complete Guide to Bread Machine Baking cookbook. They are so good and easy! Adding to the flavor is the knowledge that Blaine grew the sweet potato in our garden last summer from plants purchased from a barefoot woman in a long, dark blue dress who runs the Amish store by LaPlata.  I also remember helping him dig up the orange beauties and marveling at the huge orange treasures hidden under the dried vines last fall.  We ate these rolls with a bowl of beef stew.  Here is the recipe:

Sweet Potato Pull-Apart Rolls

¾ cup sweet potato, mashed

½ cup milk

1 egg

2 tablespoons margarine or butter, cut up

2 ½ cups bread flour

½ cup wheat flour

1 tablespoon brown sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon active dry yeast or bread machine yeast

Put the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Select the dough cycle. When the cycle is complete, remove dough and shape into rolls. Let rise another 30 minutes or until nearly double in size. If you like, beat egg white and a tablespoon of water together to brush over the rolls before baking. This makes them shiny. Bake at 375 degrees for about 18 minutes or until lightly browned.  

Enjoy!

Arrowhead Hunting and Bean Picking

     You will remember I wrote recently about my unsuccessful arrowhead hunting trip. Also, I shared my green bean canning experiences. Would you believe both of these could come together in a happy coincidence? Sunday evening, Vanita and I decided to tough out the heat and finish picking the green beans. (Actually, she decided she was going to, and I could not let her think she was tougher than me, so I trudged out there with her.)  Stanley and Lance stopped by after a day of putting up hay, and I gave them a tour of Blaine’s garden. I heard Vanita ask, “Who put this here?” I went over to see what she was talking about and found she was holding up an arrowhead that she had found in…my…garden! She thought maybe someone put it there to play a prank on her, but Blaine had obviously tilled it to the surface.

    

    I admit I did some whooping and hollering!  I have been tramping around in poison ivy and briars and through creeks searching for arrowheads, and here was this gift, in plain sight by the bean plant in my own backyard. It is an almost-perfect, beautiful little pink and cream colored arrow, just about an inch and a half long.  Native Americans (probably members of the Missouri or Illini tribe, according to my research) actually roamed the hills of our farm. 

      Clutching the tiny piece of history in my palm, I graciously told Vanita she could have the arrowhead…after I die, that is. 

Bountiful Beans

Last night I dreamed I was snapping and canning green beans. That is probably because in the past two weeks, I have processed over 150 jars of beans. All of my children and most of the grandchildren helped in the picking and snapping of these beans.  My husband deserves the credit, though, because he planted, tilled, and fertilized the beans to create this bountiful harvest. 

Our favorite variety is called Jade, because they do not get tough like some varieties.  Here is how they looked in the garden:

In the picture below, my canner has almost reached the correct setting of 10 pounds of pressure to begin processing for 25 minutes. More jars are being prepared to go in next:

We also like to make a few dill beans. They are a family favorite, and go over well at carry-in dinners. We use Mrs. Wage's Dill Pickle mix and add a sprig of fresh dill from my herb garden.

Canning green beans is hot work during the picking, time consuming during the snapping (although I admit I was able to watch House Hunters International and the Anne of Green Gables mini-series guilt-free while working), and it takes nerves of steel to operate the pressure canner. 

The result is a product that I know is high quality. I know these beans were grown in dirt that we own. I know whose hands planted, snapped, and washed the beans and packed them into the jars. I enjoyed the comradeship and sharing with my family that went on during the process.  It was a bountiful harvest in more ways than one.

Arrowhead Hunting

"You are the only adult I know who likes to go exploring," my grandson Logan once told me. I took it as high praise. One of our favorite activities was going on exploring adventures on our farm.  Today I decided to go exploring by myself along our creek to see if I could find arrow heads. While I have never found an arrowhead, nor do I know the first thing about finding one, I would like to, so I trekked through what I am sure was poison ivy to the creek. Round, little coon tracks and sharp, pointy deer tracks lingered there in the soft mud. A green glass bottle and a complete red truck light sparkled in the sand by the creek.  I wondered if someone hundreds of years in the future would be excited to find something like that. I imagined this futuristic person telling a friend, "You'll never believe what I found. It was a light that was made for one of those huge gas guzzling trucks from back when people actually used fossil fuels to operate vehicles!"  I carried the light home and proudly showed it to my husband. "Yeah...I'm guessing it probably doesn't work," he said.  He has no imagination. I think I will set it on a shelf until I find that arrowhead to replace it.

Walking East

My last blog was about taking a walk west of my house; in this blog I will walk east. It is a more scenic route, but much harder on the legs, because there are steeper hills to hike. Since I am always thinking of songs that fit the situation, and because my Bane relatives came from Scotland, I kept singing (in my head, of course), "Oh, ye'll take the high road and I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland afore ye...."  This is the low road, because it leads to our low water crossing.  Today I took my camera and looked around to see what I could share with my friends.

The first beauty I noticed was this pink old-fashioned rose blooming on a road bank.

Below is the Middle Fork of Salt River. I always pause here to soak in the sound of the flowing water, and cool off a little.

 A tiny orange butterfly feeds on nectar from the middle of this white morning glory.

Is that a rabbit over there?

 

I hope you enjoyed our walk in the country this fine Missouri morning!

You Come, Too

As I was walking on our country road yesterday, I kept thinking of the Robert Frost poem, "The Pasture" and particularly the line, "You come, too." I wanted to share some of the sights I saw with you, so today I brought my camera to illustrate the poem. Here are Frost's words with my pictures of our pasture. Come along with me!     The Pasture          by   Robert Frost (1874–1963) I’m going out to clean the pasture spring; I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I shan’t be gone long.—You come, too.  I’m going out to fetch the little calf That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young It totters when she licks it with her tongue. I shan’t be gone long.—You come, too. *  I hope you enjoyed the poem and our walk in the pasture. If you did, I may take you on more walks with me this summer.

Mushroom Hunting in Missouri

Can you spot the mushrooms in this picture?

“Grandpa, do we have to keep quiet when we are mushroom hunting, too?” our grandson asked when he was about five years old, having already been well-coached on the need for silence when hunting and fishing. Fortunately, silence is not required when hunting for those jewels of the forest - morel mushrooms. Getting outside and tromping through the woods in the spring air is just part of the fun of mushroom hunting.

This morel was easier to see.

A grove of maple trees

Yesterday, I went mushroom hunting with my husband. Morels are not easy to see, camouflaged in the leaves, sticks, and spring greenery, so it is always a thrill to claim the first spongy prize poking out of the dirt. Every time I spotted one, Blaine would insist I leave it until he could see where it was growing, adding it to his mental file to look there next year. Here are the secrets of finding mushrooms from my husband, some handed down to him from his father, who was also a master mushroom spotter. One tip is to look for a grove of maples. For some reason they often pop up there. Pay special attention to rotting logs, which sometimes provide shelter for the mushroom spores to take root. Also check under elm trees, as mushrooms may also be found there. We also search under some favorite old, big trees every year. Basically, just look all over in the woods or small groves of trees, and if you find some mushrooms, remember the spot and look there again next year.
Many people worry about the safety of eating mushrooms, and it is certainly important to know which mushrooms are safe to eat and which are not. Some varieties of the fungi are poisonous. According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, edible morel caps are attached directly to the stem, while poisonous mushrooms are not attached at the stem. If you are not familiar with the different varieties, look at pictures online, or take them to your local Conservation Department to help you identify them to be safe.

To prepare the mushrooms, we cut them in half and soak them in salt water to kill the little bugs that live inside. You can soak and rinse them all you want, but you might as well accept the fact that you are going to eat some hidden bugs. One time a tiny snail was hidden in the folds of a large mushroom, and my son bit into it. He did not eat mushrooms again for several years, even though we tried to convince him he had eaten the French delicacy called escargot. We then dip the halves in a beaten egg and roll them in cracker crumbs. I fry them in a skillet in equal parts of butter and olive oil. (The olive oil just makes me feel a little better about the calories in the butter.) The results are a plate piled high with crispy bites of goldenness that are best eaten warm. Morels are a tasty treat that are as much fun to find as they are to eat! What is your favorite way to cook and/or eat mushrooms?

Kite Flying

April is National Kite Month. Last week Blaine pulled out our red and yellow airplane kite on a windy day for our grandson to fly.
“This is the first time I ever flew a kite!” 6-year-old Jaron exclaimed in delight, as he mastered the art of letting out the string and watching the kite soar into the blue spring sky.
Flying a kite is somewhat like raising children – a combination of letting them go, but still holding tight to the family bond between parent and child. While you proudly watch them soar high, part of you is aware of the chance they may dip down once in a while, and possibly even crash to the ground.
If that happens, do what you would do with a kite, pick them up, hold on for a little while as you move ahead together to gain momentum, then lift them up and let go, to watch them soar again.