Aunts ... a valuable treasure

I was blessed with 4 amazing Aunts as my mom had 2 sisters (Aunt S and Aunt B) and my dad had 2 sisters (Aunt T and Aunt D) and as the only niece or nephew on both sides of the family for 4 years I had a great time with those Aunts that only got better as I gained siblings (2 sisters and a brother to be exact).

I have fond memories with each Aunt as a child and continue to build new ones to this day.

I was the flower girl in both Aunt T and Aunt D's weddings.  The Farmer and I carried on this tradition as both of their daughters were the flower girls in our wedding.

Aunt D and I on her wedding day

I remember when Aunt D would take me to the farm after church to visit Uncle N in the milking parlor.  I can distinctly remember him putting down paper towels so I could sit on the steps to watch the cows.  (I couldn't have much more than 3 or 4.)  I also remember when Aunt D shrunk her most favorite wool Ralph Lauren sweater with a mallard duck on it.  It no longer fit her, but it amazingly fit me.  I remember when Aunt D bought back my first 4-H lamb from the auction.  (My dad wasn't too happy.)

I remember after Uncle C and Aunt T got back from their honeymoon.  They loaded up their tiny car in our front yard and drove off for Tucson, Arizona and have lived their ever since.  I remember riding the water slides at Indiana Beach with Aunt T when she came back to visit one summer.  When I started at Purdue University, I couldn't wait to buy Uncle C and Aunt T sweatshirts that said alumni and aunt/uncle and hand deliver them on my first visit to Tucson over Spring Break my freshman year.

Aunt T and I on her visit to Purdue

I remember when Aunt B bought me my first camera at age 5.  It was a Kodak disk camera, but I couldn't have been happier.  She taught me to love photography.  (This may be why I couldn't find any pictures of her and I for this post.  I know they exist, but they aren't in my possession.)  I remember when Aunt B used to take us shopping one-on-one for our birthdays and let us pick where we would eat in addition to shopping to our heart's content.  Aunt B inspired me to be a Martha Stewart.  Aunt B also taught me the importance of saving money and being wise with my money.  She used to love to play the stock market.  Aunt B left us almost 9 years ago.  Two weeks before my sister got married and a month before Big Sissy was born.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her.

I do remember Aunt B taking this picture.

I attended preschool across the street from the elementary school where Aunt S taught.  On spaghetti days, I got to go across the street at eat lunch with Aunt S in the cafeteria at the big school.  Aunt S taught me how to play the flute.  She made me practice with coke bottles filled with water first and finally one day I actually got to play her flute and have played it ever since.  Aunt S taught me to love M&Ms and Fannie May chocolate.

Aunt S and I with the Bishop at my Confirmation in the fall of 1991.

I learned a lot from my Aunts and am still learning from all of them which I guess is what makes it even harder to know that Aunt S was diagnosed with leukemia last week.  She will visit with her doctor in Chicago tomorrow to develop her treatment plan, but it sounds like it will be intense.  She is a survivor as she has already beat breast cancer, but I would ask for extra prayers as we'll take all that we can get.  

Farmer Fridays - What a difference

What a difference just a few weeks have made on our family farm.  As you know from past Farmer Fridays' posts, planting season of 2011 has been proceeding at a less than desirable rate due to the extremely wet weather Mother Nature has sent our way for most of April and May.

Well that changed a lot over the last two weeks and we have been able to spend the majority of the 14 days in the field.  In fact last Saturday, we finished planting corn including areas that had to be re-planted due to being drowned out by too much rain after being planted.  On Sunday, we started planting soybeans and finished yesterday morning. 

Needless to say The Farmer and his dad have been working almost 'round the clock; however, it is always worth it when we can say we are done planting.  So I'm quite positive everyone released a huge sigh of relief yesterday at this family farm.

Now just because the planting is done, doesn't mean the work is done.  We are now working diligently to get all of our corn sprayed.  If you remember from last year, we have to spray our corn to kill the weeds that compete for essential nutrients with the corn.  And then after all of the spraying is done, it is time to apply anhydrous ammonia (nitrogen) to the corn to essentially help it grow or "get bigger" as Big Sissy used to say. 

So although there is still plenty of field work to be done in a timely manner, it sure is excited to know all of our corn and soybeans are planting.  Now if we can just get Mother Nature to bring back some rain periodically and gently over the course of the summer so our crops will grow, everything would be perfect... or close to it.

 

Wordless Wednesday - My little swim bugs

Swimming lessons started on Monday for Big Sissy, Bubby, and Little Sissy. 

This is Little Sissy's first year of lessons so I didn't know what to expect. 

But within a matter of minutes she took to the water just like her older siblings.

Linked to the following Wednesday parties:

Project Alicia

Pinke Post

Dagmar*s Momsense

live and love...outloud

Pork Chop Delight: Recipe #9 Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

This recipe intrigued me from the minute I received my free copy of Sunday Dinner at Grandma's thanks to Gooseberry Patch and their "In the Kitchen" series with The Real Farmwives of America and Friends.  It sounded super easy and used the same ingredients I use to make my sloppy joes:  chili sauce and brown sugar.

So after I found a package of pork chops, possibly from our pigs, on sale at the grocery, I thought it was a sign that we should try these chops and I'm sure glad we did as we'll be making them again at this pigpen.

Pork Chop Delight
Ingredients
8 boneless thin-sliced pork chops
1/3c. water
1/2c. chili sauce, divided
1 1/2c. brown sugar, packed

Place pork chops in an ungreased 13x9 baking pan.  Add water to bottom of pan to prevent sticking.  (I added the water before I put the pork chops in my baking pan.)

Top each pork chop with a tablespoon of chili sauce.

Sprinkle brown sugar over all.

Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees for one hour; do not turn pork chops over.

Enjoy!!

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com .

What a weekend with a recipe or two for you

What a weekend it has been...

The three kids and I packed up on Friday afternoon and headed to my mom's (3 hours away) and went pretty much non-stop until just now.  In a 48 hour time span, we all four got our haircut, attended a baptism and a baptism brunch for a special little girl (my cousin and godchild), hit the swimming pool at my Aunt's, went to my cousin's high school graduation party, went to church, out to breakfast, and attended a 4-H meeting this afternoon.

Needless to say everyone is a bit more tired than usual and we didn't get any baking done at the pigpen this weekend.  So I thought I'd share the recipes for the 2 loaves of bread that Bubby made last weekend.  They also just happen to be recipe #7 and #8 from Sunday Dinner at Grandma's which means I only have 2 more recipes to go until it is time to giveaway a copy of the cookbook to one of you thanks to Gooseberry Patch.  And I'e actually already made recipe #9 which means I really only have one more to go.  Woo hoo!!!




Banana-Nut Bread

Ingredients
2c. all-purpose flour
1c. sugar
1t. baking soda
1/4t. salt
1/2c. canola or safflower oil (we used canola)
2 eggs, beaten
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1c. chopped walnuts or pecans (at this pigpen this ingredient is optional especially when the kids and I are baking.)

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; mix well and set aside.

In a separate large bowl, mix oil and eggs; add bananas.

Add flour mixture and mix well; stir in nuts.

Pour batter into greased 9x5 loaf pan or two, 7x3 loaf pans.  (We used a 9x5.)

Bake at 350 degrees, 45 minutes for a regular loaf pan or 25-30 minutes for 2 smaller pans.

It got a bit more brown than I would have preferred on the outside, but it still tasted good!

Cinnamon Bread

Ingredients
1/2 c. shortening
1c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2c. all-purpose flour
1t. baking powder
1/2t. baking soda
1/4t. salt
1c. sour milk or buttermilk
3T. sugar
1t. cinnamon

In a large bowl, blend shortening and sugar.

Stir in eggs and set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add to shortening mixture alternately with milk.

Mix sugar and cinnamon in a cup; set aside. (Big Sissy helped with this step.)

In a greased 9x5 loaf pan, alternate 4 layers of batter and sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Cool on a wire rack.

Both of the breads were a big hit here.  For being a quick bread, the cinnamon bread was very light and yummy.

And thanks to my Gooseberry Patch cookbook, I gained a new tip for the kitchen: "Quick breads will have a better flavor if you store them overnight before slicing and serving them."

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com .

Our Bucket List for the Summer

Even though I'm a full-time, off-farm working momma that still has to go to work 5 days a week despite the fact that the kids are on summer break , I've tried to craft a pretty good bucket list for our summer.  This will be our last summer for many years that no one at this pigpen is in 4-H.  Big Sissy will be a first year 4-H member next year and in Indiana you can be a 4-H member for 10 years.  So needless to say our summers are going to get real busy after this year.

So that being said, I'm trying to squeeze in as much as my work schedule will allow as summer is about spending time with the family and letting the kids truly be kids.

Swimming lessons, vacation bible school, 4th of July with my family, the county fair, the State Fair, and soccer camp have been on our list the last couple years; although, this will be the first year Bubby can attend soccer camp.  (It is just a one week program for 1 1/2 hours each night about 5 minutes from our house.)

This year we also have a pretty exciting family vacation planned; however, The Farmer and I have only told the kids that we are going on vacation.  They don't know where or when, but let me just say we may or may not be visiting a mouse and his friends.

So, I'm pretty pumped about this year's bucket list which is why I was excited we started working on one of our items today.  Another one of our annual summer bucket list items is our county library's summer reading program.  Growing up I loved the summer reading program and I have tried to instill this love of the library and in particular the summer reading program with Big Sissy, Bubby, and Little Sissy.

Today we made the first of many trips this summer, I hope, to the library to officially sign up for the summer reading program and enjoy the library.

Big Sissy hit the computers.

Bubby loves looking for books and movies about farming, building, and trains.

Little Sissy lined up the dinosaurs.

So here's to reading this summer and enjoying our summer bucket list.

What's on your summer bucket list?

Sour Cream Drop Cookies: Recipe #6 from Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

Big Sissy, Bubby, and I went on a cooking binge on Sunday afternoon making recipes #6, #7, and #8 from Gooseberry Patch's Sunday Dinner at Grandma's as part of Gooseberry Patch and The Real Farmwives of America and Friends "In the Kitchen" series.  This means I only have 2 more recipes to go until it it time to give-a-way a copy of Sunday Dinner at Grandma's to one of my lucky readers thanks to Gooseberry Patch.




So with the Sour Cream Drop Cookies recipe in hand, Big Sissy got busy.

Sour Cream Drop Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. lemon or orange extract
8 oz. sour cream
3c. all purpose flour
1t. baking powder
1t. baking soda

After figuring out the mixer was not plugged in, Big Sissy got started on blending together her butter and sugar.

Fold in sour cream; set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets (we linked our baking sheets with parchment paper instead of greasing them).

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Enjoy!!


 Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com .