The Amana Vacation

Zuber's Hotel

Ox Yoke Inn

Preggers Belly Sez

Eating lunch at the Ox Yoke.

Amish

Drinking cream soda and beer from Millstreet Brewery

Our shot up getaway car.

Our favorite antique store in a greenhouse.

Fountain and Antiques

Just beautiful!

Funniest shot ever.

Anyone need a sink?

Picture on the bridge.

Woolen Mills

Cheese Palace

Guy making cheese.

JP and her squeaky cheese.

Real cheese curds.

Strawberries

I think I may have talked about this before, but one of my fondest childhood memories is weekend mornings with my grandmother and mother picking strawberries and eating strawberry shortcake for lunch. Besides cherry pie, strawberry shortcake is my favorite summer treat. Our CSA Harmony Valley Farms has been sending us cartons of berries each week and I keep meaning to make dessert with them, but instead I kept cutting them up and freezing them so they don't spoil. Wednesday night a long time friend came over for dinner and I found this great recipe for homemade biscuits, so I thought the timing was perfect. I cut up some berries and let them sit with sugar and mint from my garden. Tim made the biscuits and I added some whipped cream. YUM!!!! A perfect summer treat.

Biscuits
3 cups all purpose flour

3 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

12 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 1/2 cups heavy cream1

1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Toss with a fork to combine. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or a fork until the largest pieces of butter are the size of peas. (Or pulse several times in a food processor.) Combine the cream and vanilla in a liquid measure. Make a well in the center of the flour and and pour the cream mixture into the well. Mix with a fork until the dough is evenly moistened and just combined; it should look shaggy and still feel a little dry. Gently knead by hand five or six times to create a loose ball.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat it into an 8-inch square, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment or silpat, cover with plastic and chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Heat the oven to 425ºF. Remove the dough from refrigerator. Cut the dough into 9 even squares and spread them about 2 inches apart from each other on the baking sheet. Bake until the biscuits are medium golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.Makes 9 biscuits. (Adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine, July 2003

Back and Blogging Again

So it's been 3 months and 1 day since my last blog in March. A lot has happened since then. The biggest reason that I haven't had time to post is that on April 1st T and I found out that we would be expecting a new "backyardigin" at the beginning of December. Other than that thrilling news we've managed to expoxy our basement floor, wish some friends good luck at their new homestead, add a new high efficiency washer and dryer, go on a fishing trip, move work locations, camp with some great new friends, travel to Grand Marais, build a new garden box, hold a benefit for a dear friend, greet a new member of our extended family (we love you Georgie) and as of today build a new fence!

I'm 17 weeks along as of today and feeling great. The second trimester has brought a breath of fresh air to both our lives. I no longer fall into a deep sleep at 8:00 every night and I actually have enough energy to cook again. AND cut my hair off, which was a great and much needed event. The rest of the summer is going to be pretty busy for us as I take a 4th of July trip with my dear friend J9, my sister and niece come for a long awaited visit, we fly to CA for my niece's wedding and we take numerous trips to the Lake Elora cabin with T's family.

I'm hoping to catch up today with a couple of new posts. I haven't tried many new recipes, but I'll be getting to it as the garden grows a bit. Below is a pic from my 11 week visit to the doctor. I just started to feel the faint kicks, bumps, prods from "the bud" as we like to call it.

My Birthday Camping Trip

For my birthday a few bowling league friends invited us along on a camping trip to Lake Maria near Monticello, MN. The weekend was great even though we had a Friday night thunderstorm and Saturday tornado warning. We went hiking, fishing and did a lot of great cooking. We met some wonderful new friends and just had a nice weekend out of the city.

The camp site.

B and Radar play fetch.

Radar running in the woods.

Tim the serious fisher.

Radar sniffing the fish.

Filleting the fish.

One side done.

The final product.

S and Radar.

T&S relaxing.

April Events

A lookin pretty.

T and E

A&E hanging out with Sez.

Happy Birthday A&E

The 24th Street Gang

The Basement Project

Thanks to the help of Ryan, Tim completed our first big house project on March 21st. We had decided on three larger projects at the beginning of the year: expoxy the basement floor along with a basement makeover including new storage containers and painting the cider block walls, put in a new 6 foot cedar fence, and install a ventilation fan in the bathroom. We decided to complete the basement project first since it necessitate warm weather. Tim first moved all the boxes and storage containers to the spare bedroom and then he washed the floor. The washer, dryer and shelves all had to be moved to one side of the basement before Ryan and Tim could start. Then the painting began. As you can see they started on one end on Saturday and finished Sunday with the other end. Ryan found some new old paintings under the the painted cinder blocks. After the project was finished Mason, Ryan and Tim moved in our new washer and dryer. The basement now looks clean and organized. We still have a bit of painting to do, but it looks amazing.

Tim starts his corner.

Ryan working hard.

A close up of the color.

The paintings found underneath the old paint.

Ryan working to uncover the old paintings.

Tim supervising Ryan.

The finished storage corner.

Tim's completed tool area.

Pasta Night

Parmesan Pasta with Chicken and Rosemary--Adapted from Real Simple

12 ounces (3 cups) orecchiette pasta, I couldn't find orecchiette so i used large shells

3 1/2- to 4-pound rotisserie chicken

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

I added broccoli

3/4 cup grated Parmesan

I added garlic

Kosher salt and pepper

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Shred the chicken, using a fork or your fingers, while the pasta cooks. Discard the skin and bones. With about 2 minutes left throw your broccoli into the pasta water with the pasta. Drain the pasta and broccoli, reserving 1 1/4 cups of the water. Return the pasta to the pot. Add the reserved pasta water, chicken, broccoli, rosemary, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to the pot. Stir over medium-low heat until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 2 minutes. Divide among individual bowls and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan.