Threshing Bee

Saturday morning Grandpa and Grandma helped us cut apples for awhile. Glad for Dad and Josh's help too before they did their regular Saturday CIT work.

Not sure how much help this little guy was, but he sure upped the cuteness factor of the day.

Then, on to the Threshing Bee & Old-Time Engine Show.

Highly recommended and well worth the heat. If you've never gone, you're missing out. This is living rural history at its best, local and free!

Miles was all eyes - - -

*next few photo creds to Sarah*

This must have been after his nap. 

Precious💙

These two and their baby bro got to stay here while Levi took Echo out for her birthday.

Happy Birthday Echo!

Digger Rides!

Can't tell, but they're on the hover board. I think this was Kiowa's first time.

 

💖💖💖

Apples and Onions and Kids, Oh My

Not sure where last Monday went, but last Tuesday was an Auggie day. He was so pleased with his "phone." 

We'd also been picking up dropped apples (aka drops) from A. Sarah's neighbor's tree; so Tuesday we sauced them up.

Also some Rocke Sauders came by for awhile.

Wednesday brought us Kinsey and Joelle. I can't remember if we went to the lake last week or not. Probably not. If there's no pictures, I guess we didn't do it 😉

Pretty sure Wednesday was a backyard pool day.

Thursday morning we picked apples from A. Sarah's neighbor's tree. 

And picked.

And picked. 

And picked!

See truck in A. Sarah's driveway. 

Here we took a break. I'm not very good at guessing how many apples are on trees; I guessed 6 or 7 bushels.

Wrong.

13!

So thankful that Doug shared them with us! We left some for Doug and his family, delivered some, and took the rest home to sauce and for others to pick up. 

Left bucket and crate - drops.

Right buckets and crates - picked from tree.

*not sure why this picture is so crooked. Owell*

And then we headed to the lake for awhile.

Rayna kept talking about snakes; Josh and Jewel zipped home so they could introduce Rayna to a real snake. I don't think she was impressed.

Smart girl.

Cutest

 😍

That night a crew walked beans for Marv; so Dad, Jacob, and I pulled the onions.

They look fine.

Meanwhile - a few px from the girls - - -

And that's a wrap for last week. I have no px of Friday so Idk what went on. Crazy how that is, you know? I know I did groceries and stopped by to see Grandma Steiner; kids did Friday jobs and garden work. No lake. Maybe we're getting a little laked out? Pretty sure it was really really hot. But our AC is working just fine 😄.

Thankfully!

Tater Tot Casserole

This recipe has long been a family favorite, but I've never posted the recipe because - - -

well, because it's kind of basic, I guess, and I figured everyone knows how to make tater tot casserole. But as Jewel made it last week, I realized our version is unlike any you'll find online because it's really not tater tot casserole. See, we've always planted lots of potatoes which means we've had to dig lots of potatoes which means we've had a lot of Stuck Potatoes.

What?

You don't know what a Stuck Potato is?

Well. 

A Stuck Potato is a potato which has been stuck by a pitchfork by an amateur potato digger. You won't find Stuck Potatoes in any stores or farmer's markets. You might not find Stuck Potatoes anywhere else on the planet except at our place. I'm guessing most people throw out their Stuck Potatoes, but we don't. Oh no. We save these babies and use them up. No wastage here, oh no.

After the dirt and grime has been cleaned or cut off, these rare and delicious Stuck Potatoes are boiled, peeled, and chilled as soon as possible; when they're frig cool, they are shredded into hash browns. They are then frozen in thin layers on waxed paper and moved to gallon freezer bags for long-term  freezer storage. 

And now you know all about Stuck Potatoes. Stay tuned, because in a few short weeks we'll be digging our potatoes; and if I remember, I'll take a few px of our Stuck Potato production.

But.

For last week's recipe we didn't have any Stuck Potatoes in the freezer, because they haven't been dug yet this year; so we used frozen hash browns from Aldi instead. Why not use tater tots? Well, we do that sometimes, but some of us prefer real potatoes. Actually, most of us do.

Anyway.

Here's the recipe.

Grease pan(s).

Layer #1: ground beef. This is 1 quart for each 10x15" pan (cooked in bulk in advance and frozen).

 

Layer #2: frozen peas (Aldi, of course).

Layer #3: five cups per pan of Laurie's cream soup (see here for recipe). Also can use canned cream soup (probably Aldi but I don't use this so can't really say).

Layer #4: About four cups of shredded cheese per pan. Either cheddar or mozzarella works fine. Here, we used both. 

Layer #5: shredded potatoes. Idk how much. Just a nice thick layer.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Refrigerate until you're ready to bake it. Or bake immediately. 350d for an hour. This is best served with applesauce and zucchini bread.

And, while it doesn't look like much - it kind of looks like casseroles look - a big pile of mixed up mashed up food - it's a favorite here. Leftovers don't last long.

Enjoy!

UPDATE 3-22-21

I just learned that kids prefer tater tots over real potatoes. Who knew?!

So here it is - - -

Hello Friends

No px this time. Just a few things to share. Rambly style, you know?

 

First of all. Y'all may or may not know that I am severely technologically challenged. So when Blogger notified me that it was going to a new interface (whatever that means) in early June, I procrastinated as long as I could because the old interface (whatever that means) is doing just fine, thank you. A dozen or more times I chose "remind me later" which only worked so long until this morning when the new interface (etc.) showed up. Come to find out, it's ok. I like it. I like it a lot. So far, it's pretty easy to adapt to, AND - - -  I can add special characters, like this:😅💙😂😜😖💖💜😬💪 which is actually kind of cool. You might be seeing a few of them going forward.

Second of all. As I was exploring this new interface (whatever...) I found a section called "comments" which revealed a dozen or so comments awaiting my moderation, some waiting since 2018! Oh, silly me, I don't have any idea why comments stopped being sent to my email address as per my settings; but I assumed for the last couple years there were just no comments being made. Which is fine; but goodness, if you folks are commenting I'd sure like to know it! So I enjoyed reading them after the fact and posted them all. Now to figure out how to get them sent to my email again because it's quite likely I'll forget to check my "comments" section regularly!

So, to answer a few questions found in your comments - - 

to Anonymous who asked about the French Silk Pie recipe - -

Yes! Raw eggs are indeed used for French Silk Pie. This summer Josh has asked me to make this pie without the crust 😅which I was glad to do a few times. We don't call it crustless French Silk Pie, however; we simply call it Chocolate Mousse. Served in a glass parfait cup, it makes for a pretty dessert. A delicious way to eat raw eggs! 

to A Faithful Reader From Ohio who commented on Roasted Chicken - -

Yes! I will be glad to share a little about my meal planning and how I keep this crew fed. That's a post for another day though, so stay tuned!

to others, named and unnamed - -

Thanks for commenting! The comments were fun to read, even if I read them months after they were written. Keep them coming; I love hearing from y'all....especially if you leave your name, but I'll take comments either way!

That's it.

Thanks for reading!

God bless.

Happy Birthday Flint

Friday was another Auggie Day.

We have one little tabby kitten who loves to be close to Brandi and the horses. They don't seem to mind her either. Pretty cute.

Alayna and Bethany stopped by to see Kate.

Same kitten😀

For the first time in a few years, we have a nice collection of healthy kittens; most of them are friendly also. Win win!

Saturday these beautiful girls headed west for the week.

My two favorites💖

Peach #1 out of a couple dozen.

After a visit to Bass Pro, we wandered around the riverfront for a little while.

Sunday found a few special visitors here.

And someone had a birthday last week. Happy Birthday Flint Courage!

If I've counted correctly, Jason is Grandpa and Grandma's 26th great-grandchild. Jasper is the 27th.

After everyone left, these three took off on a wander. After a warm day, the evening cool was pleasant.

And that's it for now.