Missing the boys

I did my darndest to stay busy this week while the boys were at camp.  

This is how Sunday at 4:45 a.m. looked - Philmonters bright and bushy-tailed on our way to the drop site. After dropping these two off on the other side of Austin, it was time to head home to get Bubbie up and at the park by 8 a.m. for his drop-off.  Here he is with his orange backpack looking ready to roll.  And then I headed in to work til 7:30 p.m.  Very anti-climatic.

So far, I've had no news since Monday from the the Philmont crew, but understand from a friend at Bear Creek that Bubbie is having a great time.  The biggest complaint?  The food.  Nothing like camp food to make you appreciate mom's cooking, right?

See you this afternoon, Bubbie.

Gina

Missing the boys

I did my darndest to stay busy this week while the boys were at camp.  Still, it's hard to fill the hours without running out of steam and I do miss them.  Hubby and Scout have been prepping for summer camp for months.  Hubby lost weight, has been working out, and both of them have been to multiple "shakedowns" to make sure  they were outfitted correctly.

This is how Sunday at 4:45 a.m. looked - Philmonters bright and bushy-tailed on our way to the drop site.  It will be fun to see what they look like in two weeks...After dropping these two off on the other side of Austin, it was time to head home to get Bubbie up and at the park by 8 a.m. for his drop-off.  Here he is with his orange backpack looking ready to roll.  And then I headed in to work til 7:30 p.m.  Very anti-climatic.

So far, I've had no news since Monday from the the Philmont crew, but understand from a friend at Bear Creek that Bubbie is having a great time.  The biggest complaint?  The food.  Nothing like camp food to make you appreciate mom's cooking, right?

See you this afternoon, Bubbie.

Patio maintenance

I've always been the type to turn an simple project into an all-day doing.  I can' help it - one task leads to another.  eventually I wind up exhausted and sometimes, but not always, I did a great job and am happy with the result.  No matter the twists and turns I took to get there.

 Today I tackled this hideousness.  A dirty, mildewy patio.  Full of dust, spider webs, leftover leaves and pollen...No wonder we don't hang out here more.

 And this train wreak of a firewood harp.  Still full of an unopened bag of pinon pine and kindling and leaves and oak pollen.  Making a rusty mess of the slab.  That I will spray paint, then store the kindling elsewhere.

 Oh, look...spray paint evidence...well I will do the best I can with that, but it really needs a good power washing.

And a dirty deck that needs some TLC  and repairs.  Some day it WILL get repaired.  Today is not that day.

 I started by moving as much stuff as I could from the patio and deck.  See that storage thingy in the background?  It's all of Hubby's assorted BBQ stuff.  Behind it lives several folding tables.  All of it got washed and jet-sprayed.

 Why not wash all the chairs and tables and loungers you say?  OK!  See what I mean about a project morphing?  I picked up twigs, blew and raked leaves, scrubbed furniture and the underside of the patio roof,  scrubbed and bleached the deck and slab.  It was getting to be mid-90's outside.  So every now and again I chugged water and sprayed myself with the hose.  I also added some brick to a little space to store the hose reel thingy, and jet sprayed the landscape lights.

 When it was dry, I added a pretty new rug, watered my poor sad plants and moved this lavendar out of the direct sun.  I even got a little of the rust stains up.  

 Put all of the furniture back and cranked up the umbrella to dry - 

heck yes, I spray washed that, too!

 Admired my 'clean enough for now' deck, with it's newly cleaned chairs and cushions.

Along the way I noted several other things I need to do out here, but for now, it's too hot to do much more.  The slab was dry in record time!  It will be nice with the breezes blowing through, so maybe we'll actually come out here more often.

Shared with:

Banana Jam

 We ran out of jam yesterday morning while eating the scones from a mix that Scout made me for Mother's Day, so jam-making got moved up on my list.  We made some berry jam straight from the Sure-Gel recipe booklet.  But I also wanted to make something a little different - something we've never tried before.  So, I dug out my favorite cookbook and found this gem:

Aunt Henry's Easy Banana Jam 
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
juice of 6 lemons
1 c. sugar per cup of banana and lemon mixture

Mix in 2 qt. saucepan and cook on low heat for one hour.  After an hour, I raised the heat and brought it to a boil for one minute, then poured into a sterilized canning jar and set it out to cool.  You can refrigerate or seal with parafin.

 Ummmm...chunks of sweet banana in banana jam!  

I have to say, its pretty good!

Gina

Banana Jam

 We ran out of jam yesterday morning while eating the scones from a mix that Scout made me for Mother's Day, so jam-making got moved up on My List.  We made some berry jam straight from the Sure-Gel recipe booklet.  But I also wanted to make something a little different - something we've never tried before.  So, I dug out my favorite cookbook and found this gem:

Aunt Henry's Easy Banana Jam 
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
juice of 6 lemons
1 c. sugar per cup of banana and lemon mixture

Mix in 2 qt. saucepan and cook on low heat for one hour.  After an hour, I raised the heat and brought it to a boil for one minute, then poured into a sterilized canning jar and set it out to cool.  You can refrigerate or seal with parafin.

 Ummmm...chunks of sweet banana in banana jam!  

I taste-tested it after it cooled - very good!

Can't wait to try this on a PBJ or waffles...or even more scones.

Lemon Cake

I had the best of intentions for making this cake for Father's Day, but intentions only get you so far when you've worked all day and can barely eat your dinner at 8 p.m. then fall into bed.  Such is the weekend life for me.

 This is another oldie and goodie from my MIL, Marie.  Years ago, she let me rifle through her recipe cards and pick the ones I wanted.  Can you imagine?  Like going through a treasure chest!

Lemon Cake
1 package yellow cake mix
1 c. apricot nectar
4 egg yolks, whites reserved
3/4 c. oil
2 T lemon extract

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a Bundt pan.
Beat ingredients for about 5 minutes.  Stiffly beat the 4 egg whites and fold gently into batter.

 

Bake for 50 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes, invert onto plate and poke a few small holes in the top.  Mix 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar with the juice and grated rind of one lemon.  Pour over warm cake.  Cool and slice.

It was worth waiting until Monday night to bake - and even better to eat some with Tuesday breakfast!

Gina

Lemon Cake

I had the best of intentions for making this cake for Father's Day, but intentions only get you so far when you've worked all day and can barely eat your dinner at 8 p.m. then fall into bed.  Such is the weekend life for me.

 This is another oldie and goodie from my MIL, Marie.  Years ago, she let me rifle through her recipe cards and pick the ones I wanted.  Can you imagine?  Like going through a treasure chest!

Lemon Cake
1 package yellow cake mix
1 c. apricot nectar
4 egg yolks, whites reserved
3/4 c. oil
2 T lemon extract

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a Bundt pan.
Beat ingredients for about 5 minutes.  Stiffly beat the 4 egg whites and fold gently into batter.

 

Bake for 50 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes, invert onto plate and poke a few small holes in the top.  Mix 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar with the juice and grated rind of one lemon.  Pour over warm cake.  Cool and slice.

It was worth waiting until Monday night to bake - and even better to eat some with Tuesday breakfast!

Gina

Mealplan Monday #65 and Happy Campers

 

 Bubbie, ca. 2005

It's the second full week of summer vacay and GO week for my campers.  

Monday - Chicken Fajita Salad, chips and That Green Sauce
Tuesday - Creamy Italian Sausage with chard and pasta, garlic toast
Wednesday - Shrimp in garlic and lemon butter, coleslaw, corn, rolls
Thursday - Chili Nachos, avocado, tomato, green onion
Friday - Crock Pot Honey Garlic Chicken, mashed reds, green beans
Saturday - Grilled sausage wraps and the fixin's
Sunday - Fully Cooked Burgers, chips

 T minus 6 days until they leave for camp.

 It looks like this every year, so I'm used to it.

Gina

Mealplan Monday #65 and Happy Campers

 

 Bubbie, ca. 2005

It's the second full week of summer vacay and GO week for my campers.  I am also working a little extra, so I wanted cooking to be easy.  Most of these menu items are "Combo Locos" at HEB - buy one thing get another free.  Free is good. Plus, I am using up some stuff in the freezer so I can clean it out while the boys are gone.  While they are gone I am not cooking - so I'll  probably post restaurant reviews instead of menus! And I will put together some freezer meals to help tide us through "mom working Friday through Monday until July 22"...

****** 

Monday - Chicken Fajita Salad, chips and That Green Sauce
Tuesday - Creamy Italian Sausage with chard and pasta, garlic toast
Wednesday - Shrimp in garlic and lemon butter, coleslaw, corn, rolls
Thursday - Chili Nachos, avocado, tomato, green onion
Friday - Crock Pot Honey Garlic Chicken, mashed reds, green beans
Saturday - Grilled sausage wraps and the fixin's
Sunday - Fully Cooked Burgers, chips

*****

 My front room is a mess.  For real.  It's T minus 6 days until they leave and the piles aren't moving too much.

 It looks like this every year, so I'm used to it.

Goulash

 My mother is a great cook - and one who could make the most of leftover anything.

I want to share her "method" here for a meal using leftover roast or other meat - she always called it Goulash when I was growing up.

Start with the leftover meat (here I have Italian Drip Beef ), a potato per person, an onion, a bell pepper, about 1/2 c. ketchup, some steak sauce - your choice - and some seasoning. 

 Heat some olive oil to medium heat in a large pot - whatever you make stew in.

 Chunk up the potatoes and add them in, but don't stir them.  The potatoes will loosen from the pan in a few minutes and in the meantime, they will develop a browned, carmel-y crust.

 After the potatoes are browned a bit, add in the chunked up onion and bell pepper. 1 inch chunks are ok.  Add some garlic, too, if you like.

 Add the ketchup to the steak sauce then add enough water to make about 2 cups.  Season it up.  I used my seasoning blend. Season it up however you like - I recall hers being a little different each time.

You don't have to stir this a lot.  

You want the browned edges.

Add in the meat,

 pour in the sauce, lower the heat, and simmer, uncovered, while you make rolls.

 

Stir and serve, with a smile and a glass of sweet tea.

Gina