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fun Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Carolyn CAREs

Tag: fun

Patiently Waiting

Over the last 72 hours, we have received between 15 to 18 inches of snow. We’ve had snow in 6 of the last 12 months here. Sigh. Typically we are getting the spring farm equipment out of the machine shed, and making sure everything is ready to go once the fields are dry.

Not this year! Instead of spending time in the tractor we use for preparing the seed bed, Jonathan spent time in the tractor used for clearing snow.

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While he was busy clearing snow, I was getting ready to make some of these delicious little treats. Jonathan brought back this box of Beignet Mix from New Orleans when he was there with our youth group last summer.

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I made a few, and decided I needed to practice my food photography a little bit. You know, things that help you stay sane on yet another snow day.

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The good thing about spring snow storms is the fact that the snow will melt into the thawed ground instead of just running over the top. We can really use the moisture here, so we’re trying to be thankful. To be perfectly honest, though, I can’t wait until I see this out my window:

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Every Camera Has a Story

I’ve been learning new camera techniques during our extended winter. I am loving Digital Photography School right now. The bonus – it’s free! Anyway, I was looking for something inside to try out a few new settings on, since the weather is rainy and cold. Not to mention the blah brown landscape we still have.

I have a camera collection that I display above my built in buffet. There are some really special ones in my collection that I love looking at. They are not special because of their monetary value, but for their stories.

This camera came from my father-in-law. He was drafted into the United States Army during peacetime in the 1950’s for two years. One year was spent in Germany. He had many entertaining stories about his time there, and about the ship ride home. It was on the ship that he came into possession of this camera. According to FIL, there were a few guys gambling to pass the time. One of the guys offered to sell his camera for $30 so he could pay his debt. My FIL agreed, and bought the camera. He used it for a while before updating to a newer Argus camera. He was a pretty good hobby photographer, but mostly used his cameras to take photos at family gatherings.

In this photo, I used natural light from our large east facing windows, and had black velvet behind and under the AGFA.  Other settings: Canon 60D, Av mode, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/125, 34mm focal length. The technique I was playing with was using Av mode to achieve a shallow DOF. I also used the manual focal point setting aimed at the lettering on the top ring of the lens.

 

AGFA Camerawerk Munchen
AGFA Camerawerk Munchen

 

 

Throwback Thursday

Can you guess the era?

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Avocado green kitchen with dark woodwork (and a dishwasher that melted all Tupperware so we still had to hand wash a lot of dishes), an awesome mullet, cropped shirt (that I sewed in home-ec), high waist jeans… I loved those Levi’s!

If you guessed the 1980’s, you would be correct! This would have been around 1985 or 1986.

Wordless Wednesday – Cool find!

Some of the cool things I was able to get my hands on yesterday while researching our farm’s history…abstracts that were over 125 years old. Land sold for $5.50/acre

First owner (non-relative) of our land. Paid $1100 for 200 acres.
First owner (non-relative) of our land. Paid $1100 for 200 acres.

Merry Christmas From our Farm to You!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year from the Olson family!

The Christmas season is typically filled with the hustle and bustle of baking, shopping, and decorating. This year, we added a trip to the Mayo Clinic for Anna’s yearly checkup, and grain hauling into the mix. Some decorating didn’t happen, but Christmas isn’t dependent on how festive the house looks.  After all, Jesus was born in a stable, surrounded by farm animals.

I am so thankful for Anna’s positive check up. Her MRI showed no new Multiple Sclerosis activity, and her physical tests showed no major declines in strength or other issues. That was our first Christmas gift this year.  Anna and I left for Rochester a day early, due to a blizzard warning in that area. We wanted to get ahead of the storm, and avoid driving in the wide open spaces in wind driven snow. This was the third year in a row that we have spent extra time in Rochester due to winter storms. Our hotel was great when Anna’s first appointment went long, and we were late for checkout on Friday morning. They didn’t charge us a late checkout fee, even though they could have. That was our second Christmas gift this year.

On Christmas Eve Day, we started out with fresh caramel rolls for breakfast.  We all went in to our church’s candle light Christmas Eve service that evening, where we served as the greeters. I love seeing all of the families who have come home for Christmas. Having our girls home for Christmas was our third gift this year.

Our family opens gifts on Christmas Eve, following the candlelight service. I love the laughter, the delight, the joy at gifts given and gifts received. Two of the girls did the majority of the gift buying this year.  It was a fun night.

Christmas day dawned bright and cold.  It was a day of playing games with Jonathan’s cousins from town, and eating delicious appetizers and cookies.

In the midst of all the merriment, Jonathan has been out working in the single digit temperatures to load out semi loads of grain, as well as the usual pig chores. The cold temperatures always bring equipment issues, but typically things get fixed in short order. We are thankful for our dairy friends who are out in the barns every day – holiday or not. I haven’t heard any complaints about working holidays, or working in the extreme cold. This is the life we have chosen, and we are thankful for it.

So, from our farm to you, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

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Love this Crazy Life

Time flies when you are having fun, right? I can’t believe how fast the last month has gone!

Jonathan and Laura returned from Tanzania full of stories, videos, and photos.  I’ll let Jonathan tell you about his experiences in another blog.

After the travelers returned home, we jumped right into a full schedule. Laura wanted to head back to college right away to try and catch up on more assignments, so I took her back to USF just a day after they returned home. A day later, Jonathan and I had an organic farming seminar to attend a few hours from home, so he basically hit the ground running as well.

The following week was Thanksgiving. We were hosting this year, so I was able to plan the event how I wanted it. My rule this year – nobody brings anything, and everyone stays out of the kitchen until time for dishes. The exceptions were Christina, who made the dinner rolls, and Laura, who was my sous chef.  The day was awesome. It was the most stress-free Thanksgiving I have ever hosted!

Our menu was partly traditional, and partly not. As in, we didn’t have any cranberry anything, and no marshmallows made an appearance on sweet potatoes.

We started the meal with a Squash Soup appetizer. While our guests were eating their soup, Laura and I set the rest of the meal on the table.

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The rest of our menu looked like this:

Apple Cider Brined Turkey

Mashed potatoes

A Simple Gravy made with chicken stock (no drippings)

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

Dinner Rolls (recipe follows)

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For dessert, I made a pecan pie, double layer pumpkin pie, and chocoflan

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After our meal, everyone pitched in on dishes, and then we relaxed. We took our Olson family photo (minus one nephew who is currently studying in India) so Grandpa could send out his Christmas letter.  It was nice to celebrate with Anita and Charles, who will be heading back to Canada in a couple of days to celebrate Christmas with Charles’ family. They will be heading back to the mission field after the New Year.

I am so thankful for my family, my in-laws, the outlaws, my friends. The list could go on forever. I have been so blessed this past year! Thank you, my dear readers, for being a part of my life for the last two years. I look forward to sharing more stories about my family, my farm, and successful ventures in the kitchen.

Fly Off the Plate Dinner Rolls

1 egg

1 1/2 cups warm water

4 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons instant dry milk

3 Tablespoons oil

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

Mix egg with fork. Add ingredients in order recommended by your bread machine manufacturer. Put pan in bread machine. Select dough cycle, push start. After about 10 minutes, push finger into dough. If it is sticky, add more flour. When bread machine is done, shape into buns. Allow to rise about 20 minutes. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake 10-15 minutes

 

Fun Food Friday

I was craving some ice cream today, but ice cream doesn’t really like me. I figured out I was lactose intolerant while eating ice cream at my niece’s graduation reception. Not a fun day. I have tried taking Lactaid with the ice cream, but it still doesn’t like me. So, when a craving hits, I like to see what kind of substitutes I can find.

A few posts back, I shared a photo of my new favorite State Fair treat – a frozen banana on a stick, covered in chocolate and rolled in peanuts. It made a good ice cream substitute at the fair, so why not make them at home?

I started by cutting up a couple of bananas into more manageable sizes than the one offered at the fair. This way, if I only wanted half a banana, I wouldn’t have to try cutting it in two after it was on the stick.

We had some some bamboo skewers left over from Laura’s graduation reception, so I used those as my stick. You could probably get by just fine with bigger round toothpicks, depending on the size of banana slices.

I dipped the cut banana pieces in a bath of water and FruitFresh. You could also use lemon or lime juice in water. I dabbed them dry with a paper towel, and placed them back on the plate. I covered the plate with plastic wrap, and placed it in the freezer.

When the bananas were frozen, I assembled the rest of the ingredients.

I coarsely chopped some salted peanuts in my food processor, and put them in a shallow bowl. I had some Magic Shell ice cream topping in the pantry, so I used that for the hardening chocolate. I have a narrow measuring cup that holds about 1/2 cup of liquid. You could use a small juice glass as well.

I poured a little bit of the Magic Shell into the bottom of the measuring glass, since I was planning on having three chunks of banana. Once it is poured into the glass, you cannot put it back into the bottle.


Tipping the glass slightly, I rolled the banana in the chocolate, making sure it was coated well.

I held it above the glass until the chocolate began to harden.  Then, I rolled the banana in the coarsely chopped peanuts.

I repeat the process for the other banana pieces that I wanted to prepare. Then placed the rest of the bananas back into the freezer for the next time I had an ice cream craving.

The bananas satisfied the craving. They tasted just like a banana split…okay, almost like a banana split!

My next challenge is to try different combinations – splitting the bananas down the center, and spreading creamy peanut butter on one half making a pb banana sandwich to freeze. After they are frozen, dipping them in a homemade chocolate shell mixture, and letting them freeze again.  Mmmm. I think I need to go buy more bananas!

Have fun with your food today!

The Power of Bundt Cake – New York City (part 3)

We decided to stay in Parsippany, NJ and take the train into the City for the two days we had to sightsee.  The first day was all on our own. The second day, we would be meeting at Chatham Imports before going to lunch with Joe and Connie.

The train ride into the City reminded us of the Polar Express, when the conductor came down the aisle to punch our tickets.  We looked to see if he punched any words in them, but he didn’t.  Our train destination was Penn Station, which is under ground.  When we rode the escalator up to street level the first time, we were all breathless.  The view was absolutely incredible.  We were in New York City.  On Fashion Avenue. Blocks from Broadway and Times Square.  Un-be-liev-able!

We pretty much walked everywhere the first day. We ate at a McDonald’s that has appeared on Travel Channel shows, walked past the theater where we would be seeing Mary Poppins the following night, and walked into Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum to purchase tickets for our sightseeing bus tour.   We figured the bus tour would be a good bet, since we could get a feel for the city without wearing Anna out.  Unfortunately, their dry spell ended that day.  We were given rain ponchos to wear while we were on the top level of the bus, but it was raining much too hard for them to keep us dry.  Jon and I ended up sitting below, where the windows were fogged over, and there was little ventilation.  Me, being claustrophobic, thought I was going to die.  Every time the bus slowed down for a stop, water cascaded down the steps from the upper deck into the lower level.  We eventually got off at a stop without knowing exactly where we were.  We were just about to call a cab, when another bus pulled up that had a plastic cover over the front of the upper seats.  It was the Brooklyn tour.  The rain showers had let up by this point, so we jumped on and had a great tour of Brooklyn.  When the tour was finished, we walked back to Penn Station to catch the train to our hotel.  We would have to be on the ball the next morning so we wouldn’t be late for our meeting.

The weather was definitely better the following day, although trains were running late through the tunnel between New Jersey and New York due to flooding from the deluge the day before.  We had to hurry from Penn Station to Chatham’s in order to get there in time. Thanks to the GPS on my Smartphone, we made it.

The office itself was pretty small, but everyone was very friendly.  The secretary is originally from Iowa, and made us feel very welcome the way Midwesterners do.  Connie brought us into the conference room, where Joe joined us a short time later.  They asked the girls a ton of questions, just getting to know them, and making sure they were experiencing the City the way they were hoping to.

After hearing more about their company, Jonathan and I were invited to have a sampling of the vodka made from our corn.  Chatham’s markets three flavors of organic vodka under the Crop label – plain, tomato, and cucumber.  We learned the proper way to taste test without getting intoxicated before lunch. 🙂   It amazed me how the tomato and cucumber vodkas tasted just like fresh from the vine produce.  We next tasted their organic gin, which is marketed under the Farmers Gin label.  I had never tasted gin before, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  The taste of juniper was very pronounced, but when we did the “spit” part of the taste test, the flavor of lemon filled my mouth.  For fun, we were given tastes of Joe’s favorite Biscotti liqueur, which tasted just like the cookie.  We chatted for a few more minutes, then we were off to lunch.

Next… lunch!

The girls in their rain ponchos before hopping on the bus