Lefse 2010

Last weekend was our annual lefse-making get-together at my grandma's house on Moses Lake.  This is our fourth year of the tradition, and we made more than we ever have before; 214!!!  Wow!

The day begins early for lefse-making.

Mom and Grandma Ora peeled the potatoes the day before then early Saturday morning Josi and I boiled, drained and mashed them. Then we put them on the table outside so they could cool.

We had a new trainee this year.  This is my niece.  She was in charge of quality control. She did a fabulous job! Every lefse she tried passed the rigorous taste test.

Grandma Ora was a flipper, as was Grandma Nona.

Normally Grandma Nona is a mixer/roller, but she spent Friday night in the hospital getting antibiotics so she wasn't allowed to do any of the harder stuff.  It killed her having to sit and watch us do it, but I think we did her proud.

The Grandmas did a great job flipping.

After our lunch break my sister took a little cat nap.  Totally understandable since she was up late in the hospital with Grandma and got up early to go stay with her as well.

Once again, CJ took on the roll of a flipper.  He would flip 10 lefses then take a short break. Way to pace yourself kid!

Lefse is a very serious business!

Everyone did their part to get the job done.  Well, almost everyone.  =o)

Lefse is also a messy business!  This was my work station.  I was the mixer and one of the rollers this year. My shoulders are still sore.

Here are a few of the bowls that held mashed potatoes and lefse dough. Every bowl that was big enough to hold a good amount of potatoes was used.

This was one of the flipping workstations. Flour covers every surface in the kitchen by the time we are done. Clean-up is so much fun!  Or not.

I didn't get a shot of all the lefse this year, but if you want to see one check out last year's post here.

Now I'm off to enjoy a piece of lefse wrapped around a yummy layer of raspberry jam.  Mmmmmmm mmm!  Or should I say uff-da!

Pears Galore!

I've been overrun by pears. My mom has a pear tree in front of her house and we went to town Sunday and ended up picking over 10 overflowing bags of the little juicy fruits.  It was so fun!  However, picking that many pears at one time poses a problem.  I really have to figure out something to do with them all.

This is just a small few of the pears that have invaded my kitchen.

I started with some pear butter. This pot of cut up pears fills the house with the most wonderful aroma!

You'd think that a stock pot full of cubed pears would make quite a dent in my first basket of pears. Not so much. 

The pear butter turned out soooo yummy!

I also made country pear cobbler. I doubled the recipe and, as you can see, just baked it in the cast iron pan I cooked the pears in.

Isn't the bubbling beautiful?!

Sweet sweet cobbler. Perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup of joe.

And just like that, it was gone. YUM!

Remember your blessings!

Amber

Fall Time Family Favorites

I thought it was time to share a couple more recipes. This time of year makes me want to spend time in the kitchen.  It's probably because all summer I try to avoid spending time in the kitchen so it's like a long-lost friend by the time the leaves start changing.  I start craving warm foods and Thanksgiving goodies.  Click on the recipe images to see them bigger.

Here are my Grandma Nona's calico beans. Yum!

Here's a recipe for potato dumplilngs. My great grandma used to make these for her family during the depression.

 Date bars! Yummy!

These cookies are soooo good! If you like date cookies, you MUST make these. My grandma makes them for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year.

And because I'm in the mood to make pumpkin soup I went and found a recipe to try. This one sounds delicious, don't you think! Velvet Pumpkin Soup

Remember your blessings!
Amber

Casey's Birthday Hike

In our family we let the birthday boy or girl pick what they want to do on their special day.  This year Levi wanted bowling, CJ wanted Silverwood, I wanted sprint boat races.  Casey, being that elk hunting starts only a week after his birthday, wanted to go scout his elk hunting spot.  So, we loaded up the boys and the dogs into the truck and headed up to the mountain.

This is the kind of thing we were hoping to find! Fresh elk rubs!

Casey got to tell the boys all about some of the elk he's harvested in the past.

The dogs went along. Winchester was in heaven!

What a goofball!

Since we can't trust Moose not to run off he had to stay on a leash.  Poor Moose. It didn't help that Winchester would come back to taunt him occasionally, but even with his leash limitations, Moose still had a great time.

Time for a little drinky drink.

Now THIS is a happy pooch!

CJ had to carry his .22 in case he saw a grouse.  He also forgot his jacket so he wore my sweatshirt. Just a little big on him.

Remember your blessings!
Amber

3rd Grade Tackle Football

My older boy's first football game was on Saturday.  It's so fun watching those little 3rd and 4th graders out there in their football uniforms playing the game.

My little #2 before the game.

The team doing their warm-up drills. #2 is last in line in the far left line.

#36 scored the first touchdown of the game. Go Thrashers!!! Coach Tom is quite excited back there, as he should be!

What play will it be coach? Oh wait, this is the defense.  Nevermind. Just stop the other team!

My boy waiting for his turn and watching from the sideline.

This one's probably my favorite picture. Gotta love those team sports!

Go get him #2!

I think the coach told him to do a twist here. I have no idea what that means.

He looks so grown up, doesn't he?

He looks so little, doesn't he?

That's my boy pushing back! Grrrrrrr!!!

That's one handsome boy right there!

Time for the end-of-game high fives witt the other team.

Silver Thrashers win 19-0!
Way to go boys!

That's all folks!

Remember your blessings!
Amber