Progress...28º

Yesterday was productive...Early morning I prepped everything for the lasagna and browned the ground bison and Italian sausage in the oven..While it cooked, I mixed a batch of chex mix so it could go in the oven as soon at the ground meat came out...With the oven turned down to 200º, the chex mix roasted itself and I turned my attention to the lasagna...My recipe calls for a 9x12 pan but I can never get enough layers in, or if I do it bubbles over and makes a mess in the oven...So I made two small lasagnas using my largest loaf pans, and set them on a cookie sheet in the oven to bake...It worked well, except my marinara sauce (made from roasted and frozen tomatoes) needed to be a bit thicker, as it was a little soupy...Of course I never let it stand for the required time because by the time it comes out of the oven, the smell is awesome and we are ready to eat...Herb said it was good, as he cleaned up the juice with a spoon...Most people would sop it up with garlic bread but we try to eat only "1 carb" per meal.

Herb had acupuncture in the morning, he really looks forward to that and the sun shone most of the day, a real a mood lifter, I took a short walk before dinner...Late afternoon the fog rolled in and spent the night, Oma's view is very limited this morning...Hugs To All...OWAV:

Lasagna before it went in the oven,

the little marshmallows looking things

are pieces of cheese sticks.

Roasted Chex Mix.

Dark Nights..33º

"Dark Nights," sounds like the name of a gothic novel, but in reality it is life for the next month...I usually don't do doom and gloom but late afternoons are so dark, that 4pm feels like 8pm and bedtime...I'm wondering if it will help if I put up Christmas decorations, lots of lights, then maybe the evenings won't seem so long....I'm looking for a good book to read but haven't come acrossed anything that is a mood lifter.

In LaGrande last Friday, we had Thai food, Panang Beef Curry, was my choice and it tasted very good...Yesterday I made my version and it was somewhat similar, but definitely needs more practice...I was hungry, it tasted okay...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Looks more like "Chop Suey," or worse.

Soups On...32º

I had simmered the chicken carcass overnight in the crock pot, and put the broth in the fridge for another day...Finally, yesterday, I would make chicken soup.

Early yesterday morning, I helped Herb install screening over the rain gutter on the south side of our house...Now we hope that, that will keep the leaves out and the gutter won't have to be cleaned every fall, enough climbing on ladders!

After that I was ready to start on other projects on my list...I opened the boxes of Chex cereal and packages of nuts, ready to do the annual Chex Mix, but as I looked down the list of ingredients, pretzels jumped out at me...Darn, I had forgotten the pretzels, so I shelved that for another day.

Nothing to do now but chopped celery, onions and carrots and make noodles for the chicken soup...I love making noodles and soon had two eggs mixed into flour, making the dough, that needed to rest...Perfect timing for me to go to the food alliance, I left the broth simmering to cook the veggies before adding noodles...I joined the end of the line, looking ahead to see what the day had to offer...Lucky for me, most people don't want chicken wings, so with a choice of "4 meats" I put two packages of wings in my bag, then added a pkg of wieners and a pkg of ground bison...I will use the wings on New Years Eve, wieners in wraps, later this week, when I make bread, and I think the bison will go into a company sized lasagna.

Back home I rolled out the noodle dough and used a pizza cutter to make bite sized noodles...Soon Herb and I enjoyed our "creamy chicken noodle soup."...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Noodle Soup

Between Seasons...22º

I've really come to depend on photos to add variety to my blogs...But for some reason I forget to take photos...It was a perfect "photo op," when my plate of curry appeared on our table for lunch in LaGrande, but I had it half eaten before I remembered...It was a fun trip to LG, after haircut and lunch we browsed downtown shops, then on to BiMart where it is less crowded than other stores, opted out of Grocery outlet because of that reason...Got Pam home in time for her evening at the Brady Goss concert and me home to bed at a decent time.

Looking outside today, I think this time of year is my least favorite, in between fall colors and snow...All I see is drab and dreary and cold...Guess I better get headed to the shower, have breakfast and change my mood...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Road Trip...33º

About 2 months ago, Pam said, "Sure I can schedule a haircut for November 23rd."...Neither of us thinking about "Black Friday!"...Actually we have never shopped Black Friday...Our shopping day, if we did it at all, was the day after Christmas...We were younger then, didn't think about road or weather reports, just got in my little Honda Accord and headed for Lewiston, where we braved the crowds looking for the 50% to 75% off signs.

Who knows what today will bring, bargains, crowds, food?...It will be a good day...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Photos from previous road trips ...

Thanksgiving Turkey...22º

Our family has never been really fond of turkey...Even when I was a child my Mom quite often roasted a chicken or two depending on the size of the crowd...Along side that was her dressing/stuffing (cooked in its' own pan, never stuffed), covered with gravy, along with mashed potatoes, green beans, and her special dinner rolls, we didn't need huge servings of meat...The meal always ended with pumpkin pie, made with extra cream & eggs, (we lived on a farm).

I broke from these traditions when I got married...My new cookbook gave all the directions to prep and stuff a turkey, I thought that was the way a real Thanksgiving Dinner should be...I made two kinds of pie, green bean casserole and struggled to make dinner rolls...The turkey was dry, the dressing soggy...Now 57 years later, I resort to the roasted chicken, sausage dressing made with rustic bread, and a green salad...Pumpkin pie is still a staple.

One of our best turkeys, when we celebrated "Thanksmas" with our kids was this chocolate turkey, he was the centerpiece for our dinner...As the sun set that afternoon, we noticed that the turkey had softened in the sunshine, so we dipped fruit, marshmallows, pretzels, cookies in the melted chocolate and had turkey dessert!..Traditional Thanksgiving dinners are a thing of the past...Our kids are celebrating Thanksgiving at their respective homes, making memories of their own, as we send Holiday greetings from afar...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Thanksgiving Turkey, pure Chocolate, from a few years ago.

Sunday Games...22º

Last year we started a Sunday game day to ward off the "Winter Blahs."...Nothing fancy; simple snacks, soup, bread, quiche, chocolate, cookies, cards, games, libations, friends...All of these things bring out laughter, camaraderie, conversation and craziness...Once a month finds us looking forward to that next Sunday, when we gather around a table, just being ourselves, we rejuvenate our spirits, minds and bodies...Doesn't take much to entertain us, but it is so worthwhile.

Yesterday was one of those days, after a fun afternoon, bedtime came early and this morning I feel rested and "maybe" ready to tackle some canning jobs I've been putting off, such as making applesauce, or huckleberry jam...But first I have to work at cleaning off counters as clutter seems to be my middle name and I can never find enough space to keep everything behind doors or in drawers...Enough of my blathering, first thing on my list is to change from jammies to clothes!...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Chocolate

Bread

Soup