A Few Good Men

Just wanted to tell all the family fathers Happy Father's Day! I hope that your day was relaxing and fulfilling - as in good food and lots of it. I just wanted to post some pictures of all of you good fathers. Thanks for being such good people. Alan and the family in Arizona 1993. He has such cute kids!

Alan and Zack Christmas 1990. Matching hair. I don't know if Zack will be quite as Armenian as his dad, but he is getting hairy.
Alan and Morgan May 1988. Morgan was such a daddy's girl and she still is. she was used to hanging out with him all day long.

Andrew and Leah swimmin in the pool. What a good dad! He's a keeper.

Josh and his family taking a trip to Texas. Only missing Kelsie and Esme. A good father for taking his family on vacations.

A good dad for making his home comfortable and attractive. Also a good gardener.

Jim and two attractive blondes. What a cool father.
Maury, June 1992- usually a serious father, but the bow in his hair proves he does have a softer side.

Dennis in at Yellowstone - July 1989. A great father - who loves the kids and fishies too. Notice in this picture how Ben is holding his hands. You can tell he was feeling that fish too.

Dad and his brothers - all good fathers. Reunion time in Nuckwoodward. Summer 1989 (I think).

Russell - a good father-in-law .

We loved this rig he put together for our family winter trip into Old Faithful in 1992.

Dad - in October 1990. Is there any doubt that he was one of the best grandpas ever? We were blessed to have him for as long as we did.

My Favorite Recipes from Mom and LaDawn

I read Morgan's post today and thought I don't have any meal recipes to share because I mostly bake potatoes, chicken and make a salad and heat up green beans. Just ask Alan or Zack and they will tell you this is our standard meal 3 or 4 nights a week. I might sub rice for the potatoes once in awhile, but usually its a variation on an old and tired theme - meat and potatoes. Then I read Lizzy's post and I started thinking of mom and how she wasn't a very inventive cook either. But she did have a few recipes, which she didn't make too often, which I loved and wrote down from her recipe collection. Here is my favorite of mom's meal recipes. Sorry I don't have a picture to go with it. for those of you who have never had it, when it is done, it looks like a pie of hamburger crust with melted cheese topping. Yum, I love it!

Country Beef Pie - Yvonne Jorgensen Read this well before you start, i tried to make it not confusing.
Set oven for 350 degrees

Ingredients:
Two 8 oz cans of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
1/4 cup onion (diced)
1 lb lean ground beef (don't get extra lean, cause it makes the shell tough)
1/4 cup green pepper (diced)
1/8 tsp oregano
salt
pinch of pepper
1 and 1/3 cup of minute rice (uncooked)
1 cup water
1 cup grated med. cheddar cheese

Meat shell: (I use my kitchen aid mixer) Combine in large bowl 1/2 can of tomato sauce, bread crumbs, ground beef, onion, green pepper, 1 tsp salt and pepper. Mix well and press onto bottom and sides of a pie plate. (9 in.)
In the same bowl, mix the remaining 1 and 1/2 cans of tomato sauce, rice, water, and only 1/4 cup of cheese and 1/2 tsp salt. Pour into the raw meat shell
and cover with foil. Bake for 25 min. Take out of oven and sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake an additional 10-15 minutes without foil.

Note: it is important to use minute rice. I have substituted reg rice but it messed up the time and water measurements.

So, if you like, hamburger, tomato sauce and cheesy dishes, this one is a good choice. I hope you will try it.

Here is another recipe from one of my favorite people here in Ashton, LaDawn Baum. It serves 20 -25 people, so cut it in half for your families. It is good for when you have a big family gathering in the winter or fall and want to serve something hot and tasty. She got this one from her grandmother.

Chicken and Rice Casserole for a crowd - LaDawn Baum

Ingredients:
1 lb sausage
1 large green pepper diced
2 pkg Lipton dried noodle soup mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 bunch celery chopped
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
2 small onions or 1 large onion chopped
2 cups uncooked rice (use the converted Uncle Ben's or other) not sticky
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds
8 - 10 chicken thighs cooked, skinned and boned or 1 chicken cokked and boned
salt and pepper to taste.
4 -5 cups grated cheddar cheese
Set oven to 350 degrees

In large frying pan on med-low heat brown sausage and drain - add onions, celery, peppers, and steam with lid on for 5 minutes. At the same time bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add lipton soup mixes to water and bring back to a boil. Add rice and canned soup. Combine rice/soup mixture with ingredients in frying pan. Pour into large casserole dish or cake pans and cover. Bake for 60 minutes. Halfway through baking time, stir ingredients very well. Last 5 -10 minutes uncover and top with cheese.

I used this last recipe for a visiting teaching conference in March and had a lot of good comments and praise for it. Cut the recipe in half or even more and try it at home.

Wow!, That Week Went Fast

We have hit planting season big time. Alan, Zack and Bracken were up at Highland all day today planting grain. I think they will get done tonight. As I was out working in my flower garden, I thought I would take some dinner to them, so I cooked spaghetti, made a salad, and toasted some garlic bread. I got it all ready and sped up to the very back field. It was not as successful as I thought it would be. The sauce had been sucked up into the noodles, and so the spaghetti was very sticky and not very flavorful. The salad was good, until the wind blew it all over the pick-up and away into the field. And the napkins blew away too. The garlic bread was good, but was getting cold so they had to eat fast. Actually, its always nice when dinner gets brought out to the field, even if it isn't perfect.



Today I planted the rest of my vegetable garden. I only had to do the potatoes, lettuce, spinach, and peas. When I went downstairs to get the potatoes, I found that my potatoes had transformed into a huge hairy monster. Yikes!! Creepy!!
I had to use some other potatoes, and I will still have to find some red potatoes.


Here is the garden, newly planted. At the back I have corn and potatoes, then onions, carrots, zuchini and crook neck squash. On the right under the milk jugs are the tomatoes and pepper plants. Then in the middle are blue lake beans and then cabbages, peas, lettuce and spinach. I hope everything comes up.

A view from the north. I know you want to see all sides of my beautiful soil, aka dirt.
After I planted the garden, I started in on clearing out space in front of my fence for flowers. First I had to get rid of a rosebush gone wild. It had started to grow from the root stalk and had no good blooms. So I dug it up (it took me like an hour), and tossed it in the garbage. Then I had to start getting the weeds and grass out of where my new flower garden will be. The bush on the left is a hardy white rose called snow owl. Then I have a flowering plum, and on the far right is a hardy pink rose called Roselina? I think.

I took these pictures at 9:00 p.m. so they do appear a little dark. You can see some of my tulips blooming in this picture.

In front, where the famous peonies are. They are getting tall, but right now the tulips get all the attention.

Another shot of the front from the east.

My old flower bed - This one is going to be phased out. I cant keep up with it anymore, mostly because I don't see it and so I forget that it needs to be weeded. I will transplant many of the flowers from this bed to the new one.

I thought this was cute. A little Johnny jump-up had come up in my old waterting can. I will leave it there. It is charming.

Gorgeous tulips!

The color on these isn't quite right. The front tulips are really almost black. I love the dark, then pink against the lacy white candytuft.

Some more pink and purple tulips in the old flower bed.

Here you can see that the lilacs are just beginning to bloom. We usually have them for memorial day or earlier, but not this year. I'm afraid they will bloom when it is hot and then fade fast. I can't wait for the their heady perfume to fill the air.

Some beautiful primroses that will get transplanted.

Some more Johnny jump-ups. I love these little fellows. They love to grow under the Norwegian Spruce. I pulled them all out last year, but here they are again. While I was out taking pictures of all my flowers, I bumped right into a beautiful sunset.

This is how far along my pie cherries are. Aren't they gorgeous, and the scent is sweet and light. Very yummy.

Changing the subject completely. Here are pictures of the amazing Zack Baum most recently graduated from that famous high school NORTH FREMONT! Yay! Let's all give three cheers for Zack.

Coming down the aisle. They actually make them do a step together, step together march. And what is most amazing, is that they all do it. They concentrated so hard to get their steps right, that some of them couldn't look up at their parents who were taking pictures. Obviously Zack is a good multi-tasker and can smile and step together at the same time.

The whole class. All forty-four of them. Zack is on the back row between the "F" and the "2".

Announcing the"Top Ten" and the Honor Society members. Not all the top ten were in the honor society. Honor Society wore the white collars, and the top ten got the cords.

Zack getting his name announced by Mr. Risenmay, the principle.

He has his diploma and is on his way to bigger and better things. The celebrations begin. Zack and T Jay.

Zack with Grandma and Grandpa Baum.

Zack with Alan and me. What happy parents. No more public school!!!

Well that was a great thing. I have to stop bloggin, because I have to go get Alan and Zack at the Orme place, go back to Highland, and then shuttling tractors and other stuff somehwere. It is 10:55 p.m. I'm tired. I hope I don't drive off the road.

Memorial Day Weekend

It was sure wonderful to have Morgan and Leah come to visit us for the weekend. Leah was especially glad to get out of the car seat after 4+ hours of riding.

Leah is having a great time with the yellow pages.

Tilling the garden last week when it was warm and dry. I didn't get it planted because it started to rain. Darn it.
That soil is so fluffy, but right now you could sink up to your shins in it.

Remember Hansel and Gretel? It was funny, because we had used the stock pot to heat the crab legs we had for dinner on Sunday, and then we found another use for it. It was a great place to kee Leah.

She was very content to sit in it and gum around the edge. It got very slobbery.

Then Alan thought it would be funny to put her on the stove. We should have had a picture of someone (me) slicing carrots into it. (Wicked Old Witch).

Here's our little sweetie pie all tuckered out. I love that she sleeps on her back.

This is a picture of some of the delicious things we had for dinner on Sunday: Crab legs, made by Morgan, Rice pilaf made by Zack, asparagus, made by Morgan, and lemonade, made by Zack. We also had a green salad and strawberry shortcake, assembled by Zack. They did a great job for my birthday dinner which we were celebrating a day ahead. Yum!

Leah met her great grandma and grandpa Baum for the first time this weekend. And of course they think she is the best.

Leah and Great grandpa Baum.

Leah and Great grandma Baum. Look at those faces. I love this picture. TThis is a good one of Leah looking at Grandma Baum. How cute.

We went to the cemetary on sunday evening to put flowers on the graves. Here are the flags waving at the side of the road on the cemetary grounds.

Morgan and Leah at Oliver and Luella's headstone.

Leah at the cemetary. It got a little windy and you could see her little fluffy hair blowing in the wind. How cute.

Standing at the headstone of Uncle George and aunt Dorothy. Dorothy just passed away in March. she had lived a good long life and will be missed.

Alan, Zack and I went to Ironman movie tonight. I liked it. It was different than I thought it would be. Alan did not fall asleep. We had a great weekend and this next week will be busy too. It was fun to hear from you about your weekends too. Glad you all called. It made my birthday lots of fun.