Artificial or Real?

This is the second year for my Christmas tree.  I guess now you know it's artificial.  When I grew up the tree was always real.  Sometime around 20 years ago we bought a big, small needled, artificial tree.  We don't have a basement, so we stored that monster under our steps.  It was quite a pain to set it up every year, but we felt justified in the fact that we were saving money.  I always missed a real tree though, so after  10 years we got rid of the sucker at a garage sale and started buying a fraser fir at the Home Depot.  We really are space challenged in our family room though, and when the tree was up you couldn't see the TV from the right end of the couch.  Last year I spied a $25 tall, skinny artificial tree at Target that seemed to say, "this is what you need".  And I bought it.  Here it is for the second year looking a little empty at the bottom, but a few gifts and dolls should fill it up nicely.

Fall Cooking

I have a renewed love for cooking every fall.  When the outdoors isn't as beckoning, it's easier to stay in and putz around in the kitchen.  Today was one of those days.  It was sunny, then cloudy, then sunny, then cloudy, and the wind blew with a definite feel of November.  I dug around in the fridge and found some brussel sprouts and leeks that I had bought a couple weeks ago at the farmer's market.  Here's the dish ready to stir fry on the grill.

I threw a few mushrooms in too.  I made another salad with 3 bulbs of fennel, radishes and mushrooms which was pretty tasty.  I must make a confession.  I am cooking more vegetables than I usually do because I am starting the South Beach diet tomorrow.  For 2 weeks I can eat all the vegetables I want, just not potatoes, carrots, corn and peas.  I can eat protein which would be lean cuts of meat and eggs.  No dairy, fruit or grains.  Some nuts, lemon and olive oil dressing, small piece of dark chocolate, reduced fat cheese and that's about it.

I had to take advantage of today also, and hang out a load of clothes.  Every time I have done this in the past week, I think it's probably the last time.  I just really have this thing for hanging out my clothes.  I love to do it, what can I say?

Here's a couple shots of the scenery just a couple blocks from the house where the kids live.  They are on the western edge of Las Vegas in Summerlin.  It's desert right next door.  The weather was fabulous, 85 degrees, no humidity, cool at night, I couldn't have asked for a more relaxing break.  The night I left, we were coming back from one of their friends house after watching a World Series game, and right in front of us as we approached a stop sign, we saw a mountain lion run in front of us.  That decided the conversation earlier about Betsy walking the dogs at night.  NO WAY!!

I love October

I read a book about calendars this week to first graders.  It was an old book I had rescued from someone's to get rid of pile at school a while back.  It's a bit dated, but has a sing song rhyme about days, months and seasons that kids always seem to like.  Anyways, one of the lines says that we always like the month our birthday is in best.  I don't know if that's always true, since the summer months are pretty dear, but I have always liked October too.  I saw this ad today that I thought was pretty cool, with colored leaves made out of M&M's.  I do love both of them.

Last weekend Jessica and I drove to BRF to go to the Varsity Football game Friday night.  However, Kjell wasn't able to play because of some MCL and ligament damage he received at a practice.  We still went to the game with Eric and Ramie and spent an hour downtown Saturday at Octoberfest listening to the band, which Kjell and Rikka played in, play some selections.  We toured the small quaint brewery next door and bought a pomegranite hard lemonade that was very tasty!  After I took this picture, I stood by my Dad and he showed me the text from Dan about Heidi recuperating from her ankle surgery.  I knew she had sprained it, but WOW, she really did it good!!  You could say that things come in 3's because our dog Ole had ACL surgery on his right back leg and it has been a miserable 2 weeks with a cone on his head and limited movement.  I'm thinking about my dear sister though because I'm sure she loves long walks in October, and she'll have to wait for 2012 to enjoy one!  Here's to healing!!

Weddings

We just had a wonderful weekend with all the kids home.  My niece in Eagan got married and not one Fredrickson cousin missed the wedding, (or aunts and uncles). 

We also got some good news that Nels and Tiffany are setting the date.  They were engaged a few weeks ago, and they are thinking about June 16 next summer somewhere in Mexico.  The number 16 has significance to them.  They met on the 16th, Tiff's dad died on a 16th, her parents were married on a 16th, Nels' football # was 16, and I don't remember what else.  So June 16 falls on a Saturday and there we go!

Here's another picture of all the Fredrickson cousins along with Grandma.

AND, here's Bob and his sisters and Mom.

Bittersweet

Bittersweet is one of my most favorite plants in the fall.  If I can get my hands on any, I like to have a few sprigs here and there.  I think I've read where it's pretty invasive once it gets established.

Bittersweet is also an adjective and that's how I often feel this time of year.  I've spent 4 days at school at workshops and planning and looking ahead can seem so overwhelming.  This year I am working with a new colleague whom I like very much, but I am missing my old colleague, Megan.  Thankfully she got a job in the district at another school.  I am now the K-1 ESL and Anne is 2-6.  Anne came from the junior high and I didn't think it was fair or nice to put her at the primary, so I switched up my job description too.



I will get in the swing of things within a few weeks, but it does take awhile.  It's also prime Farm Market time and these lovely bouquets are always reasonable and the lilies in it smell heavenly.

I've made a few pickles, but it's been years since I made these simple refrigerator pickles.  I'm hoping to find some more burpless cukes tomorrow to make a couple more jars.  We eat them FAST!

Of course the highlight of the end of the summer for me is our family get-together at Sugar Creek.  I love this place and it would not be summer if I didn't get to spend some time there.  This year instead of brownies, I made chocolate chip biscotti.  I also haven't made these in a long time, but here are the pics to prove I baked them!  (Because they didn't last long!)

Bob and I invited his mother to come this year, since none of our children were able to make it.  I think she had a good time.  The pool was a popular spot and the weather was perfect.  I included a picture of little Riley.  What a sweet little guy he is.  When HHG reads this post, I got a phone call from Arlene and she loved your granola and would like the recipe.  She shared it with a couple friends and they all agreed it was GOOD! 

August already?!?

I love my job and one reason is because of SUMMER.  And August is farm market time.  This basil plant is outside my own front door though and this year I tried making blender basil pesto.

My deluxe 33 year old blender did a fine job.  I know it is this old because it was a wedding gift we received 33 years ago!  Gold was obviously an 'in' color back in '78.

I poured it into this jar and then froze it.  Isn't it a beautiful green?  When it thaws I can add the parmesan and romano cheese and use it over pasta.  The basil plant has already grown almost as big in 2 weeks, so I'm going to make another batch tomorrow.

This is the biggest and greenest caterpillar I've ever seen.  It was crawling close to my basil plant.  No idea what it will be.

Last Thursday I walked the farm market and found what I thought were the best beans and the best price to make dilly beans.  This is my first batch of 7 jars.  I may have time to make another batch, but I also want to make regular pickles, pickled hot peppers and pepper jelly and August is already flying by.

Oh, here's a cute couple I saw when I was in Cambridge in July.  Don't they look happy and expectant?

In the pink

Well this title has nothing to do with the sex of a certain baby, who now I hear will be made known in a week or so.  Actually it is the realization that as far as flowers go, it is my preferred hue.  I used to labor over what flowers to buy for my yard and several years ago I figured out that pinks were what I liked.  So it has made flower buying much easier now.  Here's a shot of my whiskey barrel impatiens and my mother in law's old laundry tub that I plant in now.

I am officially on summer break now and today is Nels' 30th birthday.  I woke up that Sunday morning and told Bob that we would not be going to church as usual.  We sat on the living room floor, played cards, timed contractions and went in around 5:00 in the afternoon.  He was born at 10:56.  It was a wonderful day and I was able to stay then in the hospital until Wednesday.  I ordered my meals from the cafeteria, nursed the baby, took sitz baths and relaxed before the real world hit!!  And here it is, 30 years later...