Conversations With Ashley

I'm not a trouble-maker on purpose. When I talk to my granddaughter Ashley, it's just really easy to forget that she isn't even three yet, although she's closing in on it now. Her conversational skills are just so sharp that you never know what's coming up next with her.

About a month ago we were talking on the phone. Since they live in The Netherlands, that's the only way to stay close. Grandma gets lonesome. Grandma picks up the phone. I did remember to say hello to Ruth, my daughter-in-law, first. Grandpa doesn't always remember to do that. Then I asked if Ashley was available to talk. That's when I sometimes get in a bit of trouble—or cause it.

While we were talking, I casually mentioned that "when we go on the big cruise ship together, we should send your Mama and Daddy off on a date together, so you and Kate and Grandpa and I can play together on the ship by ourselves for awhile. Would you like that?" I had it in mind to give Ben and Ruth the opportunity to go on one of the more difficult off-ship excursions, like the Frasissi Caves off the port of Ancona, Italy.

Ashley thought it was such a fine idea that a couple of weeks later Ruth told me that she had to explain daily to Ashley that, no, they hadn't forgotten to get on the cruise ship with Grandma and Grandpa yet. That wouldn't be happening until May 1st. "Every day!" she said to me. "Buy her a calendar," I told her.

I think I did it again today. We were talking, Ashley and I, and she was very excited about having made a sleeping bag out of a blanket. I let her know that Grandma also has a sleeping bag.

"You do, Grandma?"

"I sure do. It's blue and green."

"It is?"

"Yes, and it's very silky soft."

"Where is it?"

"It's rolled up in it's own little bag in the garage."

"You keep it in the garage?"

"Yes, on a shelf."

"Okay. Tomorrow I'll come see your sleeping bag."

"Oh, Ashley. I wish you could, but I live very very far away. It would take a really long time on the airplane to get here."

"That's okay, Grandma. I like long days on the airplane. I'll come tomorrow."

I don't think Ruth hates me. She never acts like she does, but I know she's a very patient woman, raised to act with Christian forbearance. She probably knows that I don't (usually) mean to cause trouble. I'm just a fun kind of person. She could always call my bluff. Stick Ashley on the plane... I'd meet her in Denver. Well, maybe we should wait until she gets Ashley potty trained, now that I think of it.

I can hardly wait until Kate's old enough to have a turn on the phone with Grandma...

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Addressing envelopes to send out our Christmas Cards is my least favorite part of getting ready for Christmas, but hearing the music, eating (and even baking) the cookies, and seeing the decorations is always a treat. (I'll have the cards out this week, with photos, my friends...)

This year we won't even be home for Christmas. We'll be leaving a couple of days early to go to my brother Pat's house. He and Betty are having us there so we can all go together to see our middle son Jeremy get married two days later to Elisha. We'll take the stockings off of the elf holders and bring them along with our wedding clothes and gifts.

So wherever you are, and whatever you're doing, I hope you can enjoy each and every blessing this season brings your way.

When Christmas comes already yet

With presents warm and sweet,

The things I like in my stockings best,

By Jiminy are my feet!

- Anonymous

Bison Chili - A Perfect Winter Meal

One of our favorite Winter meals is Bison Chili. We always make it for guests because we know that other locales have a more difficult time finding bison to purchase. Although it can be made with ground beef as a substitute, it's not quite as good, and it's definitely not as good for you. I've recently found out that you can always find it at Whole Foods Markets in 38 states, and I'm pretty sure there are other places that sell Ground Bison as well. Here's my recipe.

Bison Chili

Ingredients:

2 Lbs. Ground Bison

2 15 1/2 oz can Italian Stewed Tomatoes, with juices

1 15 1/2 oz. can Chili Beans

1 15 1/2 oz. can Kidney Beans

1 1.48 oz. pkg. Chili Seasoning Mix

1/2 Cup Chopped Onion (or 1 large onion, chopped)

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar, Packed

1 Cup Spicy V-8 Juice

Instructions:

Sauté onion and ground bison in heavy skillet over medium high heat, breaking up clumps until browned.

Dump in large crock pot for the easy method or put on the stove where you'll have to watch it.

Add remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly.

On stove: Bring just to boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook until thickened to desired consistency, stirring occasionally, at least 40 minutes. Serve when ready.

In crock pot: Cook on low or medium 4 hours or all day, whatever you want, or on high for about two hours. If you don't have a crock pot, may I recommend mine? It's cheap, works great, and the side hinges keep the lid in place, and the lid holds the ladle. Here's one place where you can buy it.

String Crochet—The Agony and The Results

In a recent email with my friend Schmath I was commending her on her recently taken up knitting and crochet skills, and how quickly she's come along. We sent about 15 emails or more back and forth. I think it started with me sending her a link to one of my favorite places that sends me a monthly newsletter with free patterns. Obviously they'd love for me to buy their yarn, as well, and I do that on occasion, too.

On one of the messages I mentioned that I had finally kept one of the doilies I made for myself, and that someday when she was ready to try string crochet with the little bitty hook, she should let me know because I have so many gorgeous patterns. The one I kept is a type of 3-D crochet, and it's only about twelve inches, but has a raised pattern on one side. I said it wasn't nearly as difficult as the "circle of doves" I made for a few special people, and she sent me back this small photo.

You can't tell, but it's big. I'll have to ask Schmath to comment on point to point inches, but I'd guess 30?

I had to laugh. How could I forget that I had made one for her when she got married? I will admit that a lot of memories got blown away when I had a couple of very long seizures a couple of years ago. It's just strange that I have absolutely no memory of it at all, even though I can remember buying her an Intellitouch guitar tuner for her wedding shower. She said I also made her a music book to go with it, but that's gone from the memory banks as well. Weird.

So, Schmath, thanks for helping replace some of the empty spaces in my head. It keeps what's left from rattling around. And I hope people will visit your new knitting blog to see how quickly you've learned two of my favorite hobbies and what great things you're already making. I'm impressed. I do wish we lived close enough to distract each other with our music, though. I feel some country gospel coming on.

Baby Blanket and Hat for Max

I don't always get to see the new little lives that my friends and their offspring bring into the world. I've tried throughout the years to at least make something before the baby arrives. This year one of my dearest friends, Jeanne (I was going to say oldest, but...) was expecting a new grandchild. We each had three kids, and raised them pretty much side-by-side.

Jeanne's middle kid, Kelley, has moved to Massachusetts, and we were lucky enough to get out there for the wedding a few years ago. She and Marty were expecting a little boy, and I had the blanket and hat all planned out. Then we got back from our trip to Europe and I had the worst arthritis attack on my hands ever. The work slowed down unbelievably. Poor Max is a couple of months old now, and hopefully received his blanket today, so I can finally post the photos of what I put in the mail last week.

I made these extra warm for a Winter baby in one of the snowiest parts of the country. I'm just so sorry it took so long to complete... By the way, when I need to make it extra warm, I use two strands of yarn at a time, which gives me three colors, one of each, plus one of the two together for a tweed effect, which is great for little boys.

This is one of my favorite patterns. I call it the star blanket, but I've also heard it called a snowflake blanket. I like it because of the way you can put the baby's head on one of the blanket points and fold the kid up inside it for extra snuggly comfort.

The hat is something new I kind of "ball-parked," and I'm not sure how thrilled I am with it. I mailed it, but I'm still deciding if it meets my standards. (Yes, I do have some standards.) You may recognize the doll at the top as my little model, who is nice enough to sit uncomplaining on my shelf until I need to make sure things are big enough for a newborn. She appears in other blog entries wearing some of the things I've made.

Our Week in the Snow

I love it here. There's so much variety, so much to see and do, even if you're not overly physical—I'm going to admit that I consider walking my biggest physical endeavor. I'm not doing a slide show this time, but showing big photos of this last week, three outings including my early morning walk today out in the snow with the camera.

I want to say up front that I thank God every day that I live in these beautiful surroundings with my good husband in my comfortable home. I am blessed.

The first day's snow was a surprise. It hadn't been on the forecast, and trust me, I look online daily, and John checks the paper. I'm one of those people who lived without four seasons for so long that I celebrate each one (except Summer—I had enough of that one). I look for the signs and watch for snow. Also, since we do live a way from the stores, we only shop about once a week, and keep a list of what we're out of the rest of the time. If we see that snow is expected, we'll go ahead and shop early for things like eggs, milk, and bread.

I took a few photos from the decks, first the back deck, which is by the front door (above)...

Then by the front decks by the slide doors (below)...

I started some laundry, and then we headed out with the grocery store list to make sure we weren't going to run out of anything. It's silly, since we don't get all that much snow, but we like to be cautious. We also like to take the camera along. We ran into a small herd of elk right down the road, so I was glad we'd headed out with the camera in tow.

The next morning we were a little more prepared to see that it had snowed again, but I was a little amazed to see that it was still snowing. It snowed all day, in fact, and although our little community has its own road plows, the highways leading up to us didn't get cleared until very late in the day, so we were technically snowed in for part of the morning. (Did I care?) The overnight difference in our patio furniture's coverage was comical, but we won't be using it for months.

I enjoyed watching the snow come down all day. The great thing about living where we do is that through all the big windows we have an incredible view, and it never stops changing.

We had visitors, as always, and they never seem to mind if I take a photo or two (or ten).

They sure have grown this year. These are two of those that were born this Spring, believe it or not.

You can hardly see the fire pit, and I think it'll be awhile before we have any s'mores out here with our friends.

I went around and turned on the inside lights so the house would glow in the pre-dawn light. I love the camera I use because it's so good with low-level light. (It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18.) These next photos were all taken just as dawn was breaking this morning, after another night of snow.

John was really pleased with me because when I was done tromping around with my camera I brought in his newspaper. I guess we each have our own priorities.

This is the deck on the other side of the house, and we're not likely to use it until Spring, either.

Nobody uses the swing, but I'm not climbing up there to take it down. Besides, it could be considered "atmosphere." I'm willing to share my atmosphere... It's supposed to keep snowing through tomorrow. I love this. I'm not saying I'd love it so much if I were raising little kids who had to be carted to school, or if were heading to work in it. I'm not dumb. I'm retired. I can sit back and enjoy it.

Pecan Pie Crust

This is one of the recipes I took to our early Thanksgiving dinner with Matt & Heather that wonderful Sunday. She asked for a couple of the recipes. Since I had more than one person ask for this pie crust recipe, I figured this was a good place to put it. It makes one 9-inch pie crust.

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Pecan Pie Crust

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups unsifted all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp confectioners sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 Cup well-chilled unsalted butter, diced

4 Tbsp frozen butter-flavored Crisco shortening, diced

1/2 Cup chopped pecans

3 to 4 Tbsp ice water

Instructions:

1. Mix together flour, confections sugar and salt in large bowl.
2. Add butter and shortening.
3. Using pastry cutter (1st choice) or fingers (in latex gloves in you're me) cut the fats into the dry ingredients until the mixture is the consistency of coarse meal.
4. Add pecans and toss with forks to mix.
5. Add ice water, one Tbsp. at a time, around the edge of the bowl, stirring with a fork until moist clumps form.
6. With lightly floured hands, shape dough into one disk, breaking gluten by creasing it with the side of your hand.
7. Cover dough with plastic wrap, refrigerating for at least an hour.
8. Roll into one 9-inch pie crust

Bake as with any other pie crust. At this point, it will depend on whether you're making a pre-baked crust or filling it first. Go with the instructions for the pie you're baking.

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I take the scraps from the edges of the pie, place them on a cookie sheet and sprinkle them with sugar. Bake in a 350° oven for about 12-15 minutes. Keep an eye on it, as every oven is different, and I live at 6,000 feet, so I've adjusted for that. You'll get a wonderful treat from your "scraps." When I do this with plain (not pecan) pie crust, I add cinnamon and sugar to the scraps before baking. Part of the fun is the different sizes and shapes of the scraps. Don't try to make them look pretty. Just put them in the cookie sheet the way the come off the edges of the pie.