Getting back into the swing of things

It's been a while since my last post... My computer crashed twice and in the one week in between the crashes we lost our camera. Thankfully my computer is repaired and we found our camera.

This was back in December. I thought it was too funny not to post. Not only are we all reading or writing something, we're playing a game of "hearts"...

...while Micaiah and Kathy slaved away making the most fabulous caramelized onion rolls ever! 

On the way to our friends house we saw an old roadside attraction. Pa found another historical sign

The other part of the roadside attraction. Not sure why the others wanted a picture in front of it, but here it is.

Marscel tackled this back hallway and now it looks like a totally different place. I'll try and get an after picture for the next post.

It's so nice to be done with mudding and painting and fun to "decorate" the house with our pictures and such.

In our "garden". 

I was trying to get a picture of my curls. I did a type of pin roll and loved how they turned out. Perhaps a bit vain, but there you have it :-)

Chilling and playing rummy. Such a fun game! Marscel didn't agree so much that night. Poor kid I creamed him every round except one. He's such a good sport and kept humoring me by playing another round. There are days it's reversed, just not this one :-)

They say the water here is really bad and as our water filter only fits on the bathroom sink we wash all our vegetable there. You may wonder why we are washing so much kale... we love kale chips! The perfect snack in the afternoon... one of my favorites! They remind me of a cheese cracker, but there is no cheese and it's raw which means all the nutrients are still there! Yeah, things like this excite me (only when they taste good :-) Here you are folks try it for yourself:

1 bunch Kale, washed and broken into desired size

In blender, blend:

1 cup raw cashew, soaked for 2 hours

1 red pepper

juice of lemon

2 teaspoons Fruit Sweet

1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

pinch of cayenne

Mix with kale. Layer on trays and dehydrate on 105° until crisp (you can put it at 140° for the first hour to bring it up to heat and then turn it down to 105° to speed up the process) *Note when things are "cooked" below 105° it still is considered raw and having all the nutrients of not being cooked*

One of our dishwashers. Instead of having one dishwasher we have four rotating ones. 

Though it's not my favorite job it's not so bad since it reminds me of fun nights with the Flynns talking and washing dishes after dinner.

I've been having fun experimenting with new recipes. I was a bit skeptical of this one as it's pretty much only three ingredients (minus the toppings). So fabulously easy and just as delicious: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/broccoli-leek-soup.html

Salad with Cesar Dressing and Butternut Squash Ravioli with butter and (real) maple syrup

This is the first time I've ever made ravioli and I must admit after the first batch I thought it might be my last. It was to time consuming and hard to work with... till I made a batch of the egg pasta with spelt flour instead of wheat. Much easier to work with! By the end of it I figured out how to do it faster and will probably make them again

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/egg-pasta.html

I love Williams Sonoma recipes! They even had helpful tips on making it. I love the fact that you can freeze them! And what could make it better then talking to one of my awesome brothers while I make it? ... ok, talking to any family member would be just as good... I love them all!

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/tip/making-ravioli.html

And the finished deal before cooking. With only four of us at home one 4lb squash made enough for more then four meals (to have with a salad, like above) I ended up making over 80 of them.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/pumpkin-ravioli-with-sage-butter.html

For those of you who aren't interested in my online picture cooking show I will now move on...

Monday reminded me of one of the reasons I like living here. Elizabeth and Katherine Hutchins were able to stop over on their trip. After a fun night of talking we realized we didn't take any pictures and had to remedy it, even if it was rather posed

A group shot before heading out. I hope we'll be able to do it again soon!

And guess what? It actually snowed here enough to make a snowman and go sledding... even if it didn't last a full day! Hopefully I'll get more pictures up soon of the "after" pictures of our place. Until then, 

Au Revoir!