Our family has an amazing number of birthdays spread out over September and October!

Dear Husband and I were invited to celebrate our birthdays with My-Sister-The-Nurse and her children and grandchildren.  It was wonderful to be wrapped up in that big group of people, from newborn to almost eighty years old.  We had a lovely meal, and watched the most brazen squirrel steal the ornamental corn on the table just outside the sliding glass doors.  I love being with my extended family.

This weekend, just two weeks later, My-Sister-The-Nurse, and DH and I drove down to visit with Frankie, and her husband and daughters.  It was My-Niece-The-Artist’s birthday on Saturday, and DH’s birthday is this coming Saturday, so we were celebrating, once more.

We drove down  on Friday,  getting in around 2:00 EST.  We sat quietly for a bit, not quite snoozing, until Frankie arrived and we had the chance to chat. Dinner at home, and we all called it a day early to be ready for a full Saturday.

We had a lovely breakfast that was sorta like a  “You Pick Two…..or Three or Five” before heading off for a tour at the Kokomo Opalescent Glass factory.  This factory is the oldest art glass factory in the United States.  They supply Tiffany with glass, and their glass is in the Smithsonian and the White House.   The tour was fabulous.  We saw molten glass moved by men from the furnace to a roller, where sheets of glass were created.  A glass artist was working on blowing a small bowl, and we saw most of that process.  We walked through a HUGE room of stored sheets of glass in every color, and of course, it reminded me of a quilter’s stash.  The end of the tour brought us to the area where artists were making items for sale in the gift shop.  One of the women gave a demonstration of bead making, and we each carried away a piece of the glass we saw being made at the start of the tour.  It was just fascinating!  I brought home two hand-blown teardrop-shaped ornaments for our Christmas tree.

We went to dinner at an Irish pub to celebrate birthdays, and visited with friends who came to see our artist.  We got to spend some time with our artist’s sister, too, which was very nice.  I spent a lot of time holding Mickey, their very old grey and white tiger cat, who needed to be kept warm.   I really appreciated getting my cat fix, since we have been pet-less for some years now.

Sunday morning we were treated to a fabulous breakfast before it was time for us to head home.  Frankie makes the best egg casseroles.  Her hubby put together Michigan peaches and blueberries, and strawberries for us, and there was an amazing variety of bread: rye, wheat, cinnamon, cobblestones, apple cider donuts, and on, and on.  We could have rolled home! lol

I’m not getting across to you that it was really the time with family that was so wonderful.  Yes, the tour was interesting, and yes the meals are always fabulous, but the time spent with our family was just the best!  It was really difficult to say goodbye.

Thank you, dear sister, for a wonderful visit!  Your home is lovely, and you are an amazing hostess. Big Hugsssssssssss to you.  Take good care of yourself, hmm?

I hate to say it, but we’re not kids any more. <sigh>  At least that’s true of our innards.  We’ve known for years that there is a growing list of things we can no longer eat in terms of fast food.  I love K-F-C Extra Krispy chicken!  Every two years or so I hunt down one of their shops and get several chicken breasts and bring them home with coleslaw and a biscuit.  Once I’ve eaten them, I know why I don’t do it regularly.  My body just thinks it’s a bad idea nevermind what my tongue is saying.  Gyros are on that list, too, and a lot of other things.

We are also at the point where we COULD order one meal and share it.  We both like the same things, and frequently when we have gone out to eat, I have thought, “I wish I’d ordered that…” when I hear what  DH chooses.  We could just as easily order two meals with the intent of taking half of each home with us, so we didn’t have to cook the next day either.

I’m aware that we need to be eating “dinner” earlier in the day, and need to change my cooking habits.  We also need more protein earlier in the day, which seems more difficult to accomplish.  I’ve suggested to DH that we consider making our evening meal either vegetarian or soup.   We might want to swap the wok with the crockpot.

Lots of choices to consider, decisions to make.  Whatever we do we need to have more vegetables, and fewer carbs in our diet.

I saw a recipe for butternut squash-apple-bacon soup in one of the magazines I’ve read in the past three or four weeks.  I really want to try that soup, but can’t find the recipe I planned to use.  So, today I spent some time searching for an acceptable alternative.

I had no idea how popular this soup must be!  I found one that had been designed to start a Thanksgiving celebration, filled with seasonings, lots of carrots and onion, apple, curry, and apple cider.  I had everything but the cider, or I might have tried it today.  This chef had roasted cubes of squash to give the soup a deeper flavor.

Since I couldn’t do that soup, I looked at another, and it had fresh sage (I still have some until the freeze), but the squash was cooked in the broth, rather than being roasted.  This soup was simpler to prepare.

When I don’t have apple cider, I think I’ll make Emeril Lagasse’s Butternut Squash soup.  It has the apple and bacon and butternut squash, plus  half an onion and some leek.   The only ingredient I might not have on hand every day was the leek, and I could always adjust to a little more onion.

THIS will be the fall we’ll try Butternut Squash-Apple-Bacon soup!  And I think it just might be this week.

We have a week of temperatures in the 50s, and our first frost warning.  We’re supposed to have SNOW on Wednesday, and the forecaster seemed to think the highest accumulation would be over the town where we live!  It’s only supposed to be an inch and a half, but still, it’s SNOW!  (I can hear the people in Denver, and through out Kansas, laughing, given the snow they had last week.

I saw an egret and a heron this morning as we came home from exercise.  They’ll be gone soon.  I wonder if they fly in flocks as the geese do.  Dear Husband reminded me that the sand hill cranes fly in flocks, so he suspects the herons and egrets do, too.I brought in four pots of plants that I want to winter over.  I suspect they may be shocked to go from the upper 40s to the upper sixties, but I wasn’t up to carrying them to the garage, and then carrying them in.  Three of the pots hold geraniums, and the fourth is a pot of spearmint.  I’m not sure how the spearmint will do inside, but it seems worth the try.

There are three pots of iris, and one of thyme that I’ll winter over in the garage.  They did well last year.  I think I’ll let the chrysanthemums in the pots go.

It’s time for some Fall cleaning, inside and out.  Our favorite landscaper will come to put the gardens to bed.  I can’t do the time on my knees any more,and he has wonderful tools to make the job go faster.  I need to take down curtains in the garage to be washed and ironed.  I can clean the inside windows once I start that, and I’ll arrange for outside windows to be done, too.

I’m FINALLY going to use EZ-off on the tops of the gas burners on the stovetop.  It’s a job that I have intended to get to for ages, and now it the time to get it done.

And I hope to pull some grapevine down to top off Cousin It, a wonderful grapevine Christmas tree that my sister, Frankie (and her husband) made for me.  We wrapped it a couple of years ago, and it’s settled.  I’d like to fluff it up a bit, and get the lights wrapped around it again. (Thank you, Frankie!)

And so its goes….we get ready for colder weather.

We had another of those amazing days today.  Tuesday, when we were bumming around, we saw a sign for “Windy City Soaring.”  Dear Husband was immediately interested, and we looked them up on-line.  This is an association which gives rides in gliders, the planes that have no propellers or motors.

We headed out to the farmland west of Chicago for the headquarters of the group, and asked if it would be possible for the two of us to have a ride.  Gliders come in one seat or two seat versions.  Since neither of us is a pilot, we would need to go up with an experienced flier.  Both the front and back seat are equipped with the controls needed to fly the plane.  The pilot explained what we were seeing and then told us not to worry, we wouldn’t do any of the flying.

Dear Husband went up first, not because I was afraid, but because I wanted to see how it was done before I tried it.  It was about 10:00 in the morning.  The tow-plane started up, and moved into position so that the tow line was straight and taut between the planes and then they were off.  Toward the edge of the field there was a  fountain of leaves in the air as the tow-plane lifted into the air, and then it was just a matter of watching as they circled up into the sky.

It was cloudy this morning, and I lost the glider in the clouds for a few minutes, but could watch for the rest of the flight.  They were up for about 25 – 30 minutes, longer than I expected.  When they came down, DH was smiling, and had obviously enjoyed the flight.  Unfortunately, I had to wait for a bit.  Someone had booked the 10:30 appointment.  I got to watch them go through the same pre-flight experience and take off.

When the glider came down, it was my turn.  I got into the plane, (like stepping into a bathtub) and was secured in the seat with straps much like a baby in a car seat.  Once they were satisfied that I was secure and the equipment was working, we took off.  It was a little bumpy over the field, but we were up in the air right away.

Dear Husband had been towed to almost 3000 feet in the air.  We were towed to roughly 2500 feet. Those clouds that I mentioned had continued to move in, and the pilot was concerned about  the lack of visibility,  so I had a shorter ride.  It was fabulous!  There were no thermals to provide lift, so we circled around as we lost height.  I enjoyed flying over harvested and un-harvested fields, over farm houses, creeks, roads and train tracks,  farmland churches and cemeteries.  I’m eager to go again, but it will probably have to wait until next summer.  We’ll choose a clear day, so that we can stay up longer.

Our pilot timed it just right.  Ten minutes after I landed, and paid our bill, the first rain drops came down, and DH saw lightening to the west.    Scot can be my pilot any day!

I was talking with My-Sister-The-Nurse on Saturday and told her that I had cooked a brisket last week.  Of course, she wanted to know what Dear Husband and I were going to do with all that beef.

We’ve cut back on our beef consumption, but every now and then one of us just gets a taste for comfort food that features beef and I head for the kitchen.

I’m not sure how big the brisket was.  I’d frozen it in two pieces but I cooked all of it.  My guess is that it was two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half pounds.  I really wanted to use it up before it developed freezer burn.

I sliced a mammoth onion pole to pole and set the wedges of onion in the crock pot.  I set the beef, now cut into four chunks, on top of the onion, added beef broth, at least two bay leaves and seasoned with salt and pepper.  You could add fresh thyme sprigs, tied together with kitchen string, if you like the taste of thyme.  I cooked the meat all day long on low, until it could be shredded with a fork.

That evening we had brisket with gravy, mashed potatoes, cauliflower with sauteed bread crumbs, and green beans.  I know…heavy on starch and fat, but every now and then your mouth says it’s the right thing.

A couple of nights later we used the next third of the beef in a barbecue with my Mother’s barbecue sauce.  It’s made with ketchup, green pepper, onion, celery, brown sugar, vinegar,  and Dijon (I think).  I put pickling spice in a tea ball and submerge it in the sauce, which cooks on low for thirty minutes.  We normally put a diffuser under the pan to keep from decorating the kitchen.  I realize that this the perfect season for it to look like there is blood everywhere, but prospective buyers of the house might be turned off.  If you don’t have a diffuser, or if yours is packed away as mine is, partially cover the pan with a lid, and stir the sauce occasionally.

Today I’m using the last of the beef and broth to make a beef barley soup.  I have never cooked barley!  You need to cook barley for an hour, so while it was busy absorbing all that water, I chopped celery, onion and carrots and sweated them in oil with a little minced garlic.  I put a large sieve in the top of the stockpot and drained all the broth into the pan, straining out the onion and beef and most of the cooled fat.  I discarded the onion and most of the fat, shredded the beef into small pieces and added it to the broth.  Dear Husband likes a lot of broth, so I added a bit more to the pot along with the veggies, two bay leaves and a twist of black pepper.  When the veggies are fork tender, I’ll add the barley and let it simmer a bit longer.

We really like soup, so if this turns out well, I’d be likely to try it again.  What could be easier!?

And that’s my story of the week in brisket.

This past month while I’ve been away from the blog, I’ve done a lot of little things.

Scraps on a Mission is winding down.  The quilts will be given away early in November.  As of today, we have 57 quilts, ranging in size from 40 x 40 to 80 x 70.  That’s more than we made last year, with fewer quilters!  I’m very proud of these ladies for all they have accomplished.

I made a baby quilt for a lady who lost her home to fire.  She was expecting her first baby in September, and had nothing.  Then I made a quilt for my newest great great nephew.  This little boy will be having heart surgery in December, and I wanted him to be wrapped in my love.  I’m working on some quilted gifts, and a quilt for my newest great great niece!

Our house has not sold.  We may take it off the market for a bit.  I’m not eager to have people coming through during the holidays, even if we aren’t doing major celebrations.  It will go back up for sale next spring.

Dear Husband  had to take his boat out of the water, three weeks before the sailing season ended.  The diesel motor was slipping into gear, and it’s not safe for him to be out in such a busy boating area and not be able to fall back on the motor if needed.  So, it’s on dry land, and they will look into the repairs once all the boats have been lifted out.  Happily, I get the benefit of DH’s company, so I’m a happy camper! 🙂

I had my annual physical last Thursday.  While there are things I need to work on, the physical itself was a good one.  I have a series of tests lined up during the month, but I’m confident that I will have a reasonably good bill of health.

I’ve crocheted squares for the Charity Crochet Exchange, and will continue to make basic squares for them for a while.  I’m not the speediest crocheter, but I can crank out a 6″ square in less than an hour.  It’s pleasant to sit with DH and watch TV and make these squares.

We’ve had a beautiful fall. Trees are just beginning to change here.  We’ve seen the golds, and now a little of the dark reds are showing up.  DH cries every time the trees drop more leaves.  I think I may help him rake this year.

Happy Fall to all of you!

I’ve been away from my blog for about a month and a half, but I’m back to tell you that I’ve had a FABULOUS DAY!  First, It’s  my birthday.  I’ve heard from friends and family, and that always makes the day special, but Dear Husband and I spent the day out bumming around and I had a wonderful time.

We headed west out of the Chicago suburbs on Route 30, stopping for lunch in Sugar Grove at the Fireside Grille.  Actually it was more like stopping for “dinner.”  DH had their famous BBQ ribs, and I had beef Stroganoff.  I don’t have to cook dinner tonight! lol

We continued west to the tiny town of Waterman, looking for Waterman Road.  NONE of the streets are named “Waterman Road.”  I was surprised when after two quick trips through town DH stopped at a Casey’s to ask for directions.  IN town, that road is called “Elm Street.”  We found our way north to Honey Hill, an apple picking farm.

We didn’t actually pick apples today, although the weather was perfect for it.  We stopped at the farm store, and I went wild!  SO many fun things to buy.  I came home with seedless Red Raspberry Jam, Apple CInnamon Jelly, Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, and Apricot Jam.  I have enough jam to last me to next season, but one flavor sounded better than the next!

I have a tiny cook book specifically for squash and pumpkins.  I want to add more squash into our diet, and there were some pretty good recipes to be had.  I have a set of four coasters with wonderful Christmas scenes, and a BLT dip I need to take to my sister’s house!

Of course, there are apple donuts, and a Dutch apple pie.  I know….more sugar than we need, but it’s my birthday!!!  OH…..and we brought home about a peck of Cortland apples.  I’ll be baking during the next couple of weeks.  How about cinnamon apple slices to go with roast pork, too?

On our way back east, we stopped at a shop that had so much scent in the air you could have cut it into slices and sold it.  Candles, scenters, things to hold scenters, pierced tin, country decorations, bee skeps, signs…just anything you might want to give a country look to your holiday decorations, or your home.  I want to return with my sisters.  I know they’d enjoy this shop.  1803 Candles, in Hinkley, Illinois.

A little further on we passed Windy City Soaring, and stopped to get some information.  Of course, today is Tuesday, and they pretty much confine their operations to weekends.  Luckily, they posted a website and phone number, so DH looked them up on line.  I think we will be making arrangements for him to soar later this month for his birthday. 🙂

As we traveled through the farm land we could see the corn and soybean harvest underway.  The beans must have gone in very early because they are really dry, and the majority of corn has very little green left.  We were VERY close to a big John Deere harvester as they made a turn back into a soybean field, and they are just amazing.  We think that the cutting reel must be easily 16 feet across.  There are trucks positioned around the field to pick up the harvest and take it to the grainery, so that the harvester never needs to leave the field.  I may need to add to my Bucket List:  Watch the harvest at the family farm in Iowa.

Of course, you know that the best part of the day was just bumming around with Dear Husband.  I love the time we spend together, even when it isn’t anything of note.  It’s been a lovely day!