Iowa Summer Days - PERFECTION!

Summer has finally arrived here in Northeast Iowa! The flood waters have receded, the weeds are in their full dance of growth, our black lab is lounging in the shade under our mini-van in the driveway, baseball season is nearly over, the air conditioners are humming away, we're all out of sparklers, the river is ripe for kayaking, canoeing, or tubing, and the deep freeze is full of ice cream treats of one kind or another. WE LOVE SUMMER! This photo was taken last February of our very white, sun-seeking feet on the white sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast in Florida. I hope we can get down there again this winter, it REALLY helps to get a dose of summer in the middle of Iowa winters. If only we could bottle up these wonderful Iowa summer days we're having right now and pull them down off the shelf like a well worn board game every once in a while in winter. Well, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. So for now, we enjoy and breathe deeply each and every glorious Iowa summer day - fresh green, clean clear blue, perfection.

Fairy Houses!

I had so much fun today! There's a great group of parents and kids in our little corner of paradise that put together a 'summer camp' each year. For four days, over 40 kids ages 6 - 13 spend their summer days out at a local campsite doing various fun projects each day. This year's activities included; 'fun with liquid, solid, and gas', baking cookies with a solar oven, making organic chocolate truffles and a chocolate house, cray-pas mandala creations, designing and building a huge temporary (over 20 feet!) play structure out of cedar trees complete with a see-saw and swing, making molds of wild animal tracks in the woods, tye-dye techniques, acrylic painting of self-portraits and a large group mural, fairy house construction, three-legged stool construction, and dance/movement. (I want to attend an adult version of this!)
Clipping the willow branches until they're just right.
This fairy house is made entirely of animal bones he found in the woods! (Except the small human skull, I hope!)

This little girl wanted the wind to blow the bottle caps on this fairy house to make them jingle.

I created this fairy house to use as an example for the kids. It's not yet complete, but stay tuned there will be many more photos coming in August after the "Fairy Chairity" event! You'll be treated to some pretty elaborate creations at that time, by artists throughout the area!
My friend Gail, the fairy house guru, created this one, complete with little eggshells at the entryway.
Notice the raindrops on this house. He covered it later with more of them made out of hot glue.
Is there some mystical symbolism here with the rib bone topper?


Close-up of the entryway of this fairy house. Love the black fur door mat, every house should have one!

We had a great time! The houses will all be placed in the kids' gardens at their homes and wait for a fairy to move into them. I'll let you know if there are any fairy sightings soon!

OLD FRIENDSHIPS - revisited!

I just spent the most wonderful weekend in Galena, IL with seven classmates from high school! Yep, that's me second from the left! We rented a condo together in the Eagle Ridge Resort neighborhood (great for families if you're looking for a fun getaway!!) We all brought coolers full of indulgences, ie; beer, wine, cheesecake, seven-layer bars, chocolate orgasm-like bars, frozen daiquiri makings, and lots of other munchies that are really bad for us and we ate them all up with passion! HUGE passion.

My girlfriends from high school are the coolest bunch of women on the planet! Can't share what all we did during the weekend, let's just say it was a BLAST and that what happens in Galena, stays in Galena!

I came home with a new appreciation for long-term friendships. These gals have known me since I was about 4 yrs old in some cases, and others for at least 35-40 years now! There are very few secrets among us all and we shared sooooo many good times as we grew up, experienced the teen years together, and became mothers. I cherish these friendships more than ever before. I LOVE YOU SOWODS!!!!!

When I returned home I was exhausted and tried to take a nap on my daughter's bed. Here are just a few of the lines she shared with me as I lay resting and trying to catch a quick nap, "I can pull the skin down over my knee with my toes, mom, look" and "decorating with duct tape is fun, have you ever tried it? you should mom!" and "my legs are longer than your legs, hey let's measure them together and check it out again" and "smell this, it smells like a hamster cage mom" (a cedar storage trinket box), and "I wonder if hamsters think about who their siblings are?" and "have you always had these?" (pointing to the freckles on my arm). Suffice it to say, I did not get a catnap taken, bless her heart. I pulled my lazy self back up out of the bed and headed to the kitchen to re-live the weekend and made myself a cold strawberry daiquiri.

Headed out to the patio to find hubby and son making dinner!! Wonderful end to a super weekend! They made grilled Iowa ribeye steaks and grilled zucchini/vegetable fritters with salsa - they are great guys!

June in Jars!

My friend Nancy and I spent several hours yesterday making Strawberry Freezer Jam . . . 35 batches of it! We ended up with over 75 pints! This is going to taste sooooooo good next winter on toasted English muffins. A fresh taste of June strawberries from north of town preserved for months in my freezer will really hit the spot come January. We've got a couple in the fridge now, too, to top an angel food cake, or ice cream, or to be blended into frozen daiquiris or to top a summer cheesecake! Great year for strawberries! YMMMM YMMMM GOOD!

High Tide Heels!

New shoes for Iowa women! The new look for fashion-conscious women in the Midwest flood zones. I'm waiting for them to come out in chartreuse!

We Love You Grandma Gie!

Please visit Happy to be from Iowa's blog for a wonderful tribute to our Grandma Gie who passed away Sunday at 2:30 a.m. I was fortunate to spend several hours with her on Saturday, with the last couple of hours from 8-10 p.m. holding her hand, she holding mine and my arm. My husband and I sang song after song to her as she rested peacefully. As we were singing some of her favorites, (Edelweiss, Let there be Peace on Earth, You are my Sunshine, Lorena, etc) we heard a third voice joining in . . . it was Annabelle, the woman in the bed on the other side of the curtain in Grandma's room! She and Grandma had known each other for about 75-80 years, they lived on the same gravel road in a small town in Iowa and raised their kids together. It was a beautiful evening and one that I will never forget. Bon Voyage Grandma Gie - you'll be greatly missed! (NOBODY, I mean NOBODY, can make potato salad like you did!)

I'm Voting Republican - WATCH THIS VIDEO!
Just kidding, but seriously, it you watch the video it pretty much puts into very clear reality what the Republican platform stands for in November - anti-gay, anti-women, pro-war, bad for education, horrible for environmental issues, and on and on. I truly do not understand a Republican vote this December, it will take America back many steps.

If you haven't already, GO REGISTER TO VOTE TODAY!

GOT IT!

I finally have my very own bike! The first new bike I've had since middle school! No more adjusting the kids' seats whenever I want to go ride! This baby was paid for with those scrumptious cheesecakes - keep the orders coming in, I need to cover family vacation next!

My oldest son called it an "old woman's bike". My second son felt sorry for me after the oldest son's opinion and said, "it's cool mom, I like it". My daughter says, "can I have the new one and you can have mine?" Spousal unit says ... he said nothing. He just smiled when he heard the oldest son's remark and then went out to grill dinner. Good man. Good, good man.

Okay, yes. The very nice bike store guy (hey Deek!) saw me comin' a mile away. The 4-F's customer again, I'm sure there are many of us. (Forty, Fat, Flatulent, and Fertile for those of you that have never heard of the 4-F's before, it's a slang term used by the meaner people in the medical profession.) He knew I was after comfortable with a big seat, more upright handle bars, and a basket for errands. I'm not a road racer. I'm not a steep rocky mountain trail rider. This bike is perfect for running around town for small errands and for the 15-35 mile rides around the trails of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

See you on the bike trails!

It's Morel Season!

It's that time of year again, Morel Mushroom Hunting season! These little delectable morsels of wonderful can be found all over the Northeast Iowa woodlands, mainly under dead elm trees. They are a treat to find, but an even bigger treat to EAT! A little mouthful of heaven right off the grill. We fried up a whole pan full of these babies the other night and enjoyed every bite. (Thanks to good friend Jim U. for sharing his find! I got skunked when I went out the other day, I'll try again today.) Where can you find your own, you may ask. Well, every serious morel hunter will tell you quite simply, "oh, out in the woods." You'll never get an exact location, you'll have to find your own secret spots. Happy Hunting!

Fried Morel Mushrooms
Slice the mushrooms lengthwise into two equal halves vertically. Soak in salt water to get the bugs out of them, about 4 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse and drain again.

Combine in a large Ziploc bag or plastic bag: 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste.

Add the drained, NOT WET, morels to the bag. Close and shake to coat all mushrooms.

Melt 1/2 stick good butter in a cast iron skillet on your grill over medium high heat. Saute mushrooms until just a little bit of brown crispy forms on the outside.

Now eat and enjoy!

Crazy May, and I've Got a Sore Bum to Prove It!

If you have kids in school, at any grade or age, you are experiencing the hectic month of May with the rest of us. We are running, literally, from track meets to concerts to awards banquets almost nightly during this entire month. Add to that schedule the 'end-of-the-year' school projects some teachers assign to drive the parents just a bit crazy - I kid you not - my 5th grade daughter had to create a 'book of my life' in photos a couple of days ago. This means that mom or dad must first find the family photos in the back of the closet, then scan them into the computer because we did not have digital cameras back in those earlier years, then help our daughter print them off. What was learned here? This is just simply that end of the year 'busy work' they assign to fill those last long days of school. Drives me nuts.

Well, the other night I was again running from soccer practice to cello lessons and trying to catch my nephew's kindergarten vocal concert (he had a solo and I really wanted to be there for him.) So, having just run the other errands and having just consumed a quick Diet Pepsi to keep me going for a few more hours, I burst into the women's restrooms outside the auditorium in a panic to hurry and go before I lost it. (I don't know who designed these women's stalls, but I'd like to get my hands on whomever did. I am a 5' 2" woman of very average weight and it is nearly impossible to actually fit into the stalls. Not only are they built about 10 inches too narrow, they are also very short in depth, so much so that you have to step back around the toilet to open or shut the doors. Now, imagine a very narrow stall that gets narrower as you sit down. There is a 12x12x5 inch feminine products waste box on your left touching your left elbow, and a huge multi-roll toilet paper dispenser at the same height touching your right elbow. I'm not kidding, it is that small.) So, in my haste to relieve myself and to make it into the concert on time, I whipped down my pants and sat down as quickly as possible - and caught my left butt cheek with a direct hit on the sharp corner of the feminine products stainless steel waste basket. My first primitive reaction was to yell very loudly, "F***!" and then I cried and sat for a while until that initial deep pain subsided, then I got my sorry a** out of the stall and as I made my way slowly to the sinks, I caught a glimpse of a little girl's right eye peering at me between the stall doors of the stall a few down, probably wondering who that mean, swearing lady was in the bathroom with her and probably very scared and wanting her mommy! I gingerly walked into the concert thinking I was just in time. Well, instead of the usual 7:30 start that all the other hundred concerts this month had, it started 30 minutes earlier and I totally missed my nephew's little solo. It took about a week before I could sit fully on my bum, the bruise deep and the scratch sore. So girls, when in a hurry learn from me - always use the huge stall at the end, if you do catch your bum on the feminine products box, you'll at least have a large steel bar to help get you back up or a very large floor space to pass out on!

Bicycle Blues

I want a new bike. One that won't make me sick. One that won't make me talk too much, or make me feel three feet thick.

No, really, I want a new bike. Or just a bike, it doesn't really have to be new. Currently, if I want to go ride I must first get out the wrench and lower the seat on one of the boys' bikes, then beg them to let mom ride it, then promise them I'll put the seat back EXACTLY where it was, and to not let any of their friends see me riding their bike, and also plan to use it when they are not using it which means this summer - THE BIKES ARE NEVER AVAILABLE. They LIVE on their bikes all summer!

So, I throw this out to all of you - give me some ideas of the best light-weight bikes out there for casual biking around on gravel and asphalt trails in the area for a 44 yr old female with a big butt. (And don't say a Harley!)

Dutchman's Breeches and SNOW!?

It is April 28th, and on my walk today I was enjoying the new batch of forest wildflowers (Dutchman's Breeches, Rue-Anemone, Bloodroot, Wild Ginger, Snow Trillium, the starts of Showy Orchids), and walking through snow showers! This is a first in my life anyway. I was walking with my friend Nancy and as usual we ended up talking about food again! As soon as we ended the walk, I headed for the store for the goods needed for a batch of soup. Here is what I made up on the spot, ENJOY! I'll call it Shirley's Soup for Late April Snow!

Brown 1 whole chicken breat, 1/2 lb spicy Italian Sausage, and 4-5 links spicy chicken sausage. Set aside when browned.
In the same pan, saute 1 chopped onion, 4-5 chopped carrots, 4 stalks celery, and one clove garlic, minced. Cook until slightly tender.
Chop two zucchini and add to veggies. Then add 1 - 28 oz. can fire-roasted tomatoes and 2 bay leaves. Also add the chopped fresh basil. Then add 10-12 cups chicken stock.
Add the 1/2 box medium shell pasta or any other kind of pasta you like. Cook until pasta is cooked through, DO NOT OVER COOK! Add black pepper and 1 spoonful tomato paste.
Hope you like it! Below is the complete recipe.

Shirley's Soup for Late April Snow!

1 whole boneless chicken breast
½ lb spicy Italian sausage – rolled into small meatballs
1 package spicy chicken sausage links
1 onion - chopped
2 cloves garlic - minced
5 carrots - chopped
4 stalks celery - chopped
2 zucchini - chopped
1 – 28 oz. Fire roasted tomatoes – chopped
8 leaves fresh basil – chopped

Medium shell pasta – ½ box
Chicken broth – 10-12 cups
Black pepper to taste
2 Bay leaves
Large spoonful tomato paste

Brown the meats together. Set aside. Cook the onions until tender, then add the garlic and cook for one minute more. Add the carrots and celery. Cook 5 minutes. Put the meats back into the veggies and cook 5 minutes. Add 10-12 cups chicken broth. Add basil, zucchini, and chopped tomatoes. Cook until zucchini is cooked through and other veggies are slightly tender. Add pasta and cook until pasta is done. Serve with a hard crust bread.

April Showers Bring Crammed Family Schedules!

It's April. April showers bring May flowers and also a very hectic, crammed family schedule of soccer, baseball, track, folk & jazz dance practices, vocal concerts, band concerts, and orchestra concerts, yard work, and on and on and on. Sound familiar? Now, add to that about a gazillion cheesecake orders for weddings and graduations (a good thing though!)

Why am I not blogging?? Read the above again. In the meantime, here are a few teaser photos of the cheesecakes flying out of my house lately! As MG once stated, with his mouth full of a Double-Dipped in Chocolate Frozen Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake On-a-Stick, "these cheesecakes are sinfully tasty!!"

Until next time - GO RAIDERS!

It's a Soup-Making Kind of Day!

Today is filled with rain, wind, cold, more rain, a LOT MORE wind, and more cold, it has hovered around 35-38 all day here and has not stopped raining and spitting. That, to me, is soup-making weather! We needed something for dinner tonight that would warm us down to our toes. I'm trying a new soup today, Upstate Minestrone Soup! I had this at a local restaurant the other day and loved it, so I'm going to try it out on my family. The house smells great, hope the soup is as good! Here is the recipe as best I could duplicate it:

1 lb Italian SWEET sausage (I used Johnsonville brand, took the casing off and rolled it into little meatballs for the soup.)
1 T olive oil
1 c chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 c chopped carrots
1 tsp crumbled basil
2 small zucchini, cubed
1 lb or 1 can diced tomatoes (try to find Italian pear tomatoes in a can)
3 cups water with 3 tsp beef soup base (I use the organic Better Than Bouillon brand)
2 c green cabbage, shredded
1 tsp salt
1/4 t black pepper
1 can Great Northern beans with liquid
1/4 c parsley, chopped
(I might add just a pinch of sugar to the soup, to help tame the tomatoes a bit. It just seems like the right thing to do.)

With the sausage, create little meatballs about the diameter of a quarter by removing the casings and cutting them into small parts. Brown the meatballs in olive oil in a deep saucepan or Dutch oven. Add onion, garlic, carrots, and basil and cook for 5 minutes with the meat. Add zucchini, tomatoes with liquid, bouillon and water, cabbage, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about one hour. Add beans with liquid, cook another 20 minutes. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley. Great served with a hearty multi-grain bread or a good hard-crusted sourdough!

p.s. just finished dinner . . . it was great soup (two of the kids did not like the tomatoes, but one loved them, go figure!) (It just needed more black pepper. Will be good warmed up this weekend, too!)

Hundreds of Excited 12 yr old Dancers!

Yes, we've earned another STAR IN OUR CROWN! We spent all afternoon Saturday at a "Just for Kix" competition with our daughter (and about 400 other 12-year-old girls decked out in their leotards, jazz pants, thousands of hairpins, and enough hairspray to shellac every mini van in the stadium parking lot!) The photo above shows just one section of dozens of sections during that day.

This was a completely new experience for my husband and I; we felt like fish out of water. We can handle soccer games, baseball games, art shows, band concerts, orchestra concerts, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, archery, watching movies . . even watching the corn grow! But, DANCE GROUP COMPETITION?! Yep, a new experience for us!

Imagine a very large arena, thousands of parents, grandparents, siblings, popcorn, nachos, sodas, water bottles, and hundreds and hundreds of very excited, very loud, very energized pre-teen girls. Some, very few, but some of the moms in attendance went overboard in enthusiasm for their little darlings. They had on the team shirts (color coordinated with their daughter's leotards), the same glitter mascara and eye shadow, hand-held cheer signs that they held up and waved when their group was performing, and lots of high-pitched screaming while their girls performed. It was embarrassing, thankfully they were NOT the norm. Most of the others in attendance probably felt the same way we did - "how did we end up here? I could be doing yard work. Changing the oil in the car. Brushing the dog's teeth. Anything but watch hours and hours of a dance competition!"

One group after another danced to one of six songs, each doing the same six routines to those songs, "Rock Your Body", "Work This", "Wild Child", "Twister", "My Sharona", and "Ultimate" to name a few. But after just a few routines, I soon found myself feeling differently about the whole thing, like the Grinch when he hears the Whos in Whoville singing, my own heart grew three sizes that day!

Our daughter and her team danced their hearts out and had a blast doing it. We learned a lot that day, most importantly that 12-year-old girls have a level of energy like nothing else; an energy that should be captured and used to solve our energy crisis! They were all so positive and happy and proud and having fun! Most of the girls on my daughter's dance team also play soccer, basketball, softball, and/or volleyball, HARD. They are smart, funny, and multi-talented. They are not yet at the age where they give in to society's pressures about how their bodies should look, they simply performed with all their might in all their awkward glory!

Hats off! - to the energy, enthusiasm, and hard work of pre-teen girls everywhere! They will soon rule the world!