where the magic happens

Thursday, March 3, 2011

A Squirrelly Day

This was the day of the squirrels.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The First Two Lambs Have Arrived

I received this first picture on my phone last night! I know the quality isn't very good, but I couldn't resist posting it. I was so excited to hear that lambing season has finally started. I will head out to the farm and get more pictures to share very soon!

Ewes and Lambs

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A Paulsen Family Reunion

This past weekend, we attended a reunion with two of my dear hubby's cousins. My 89-year old mom-in-law is the only living child of Henry and Othilda Paulsen from North Dakota and the only living Aunt to all of her nieces and nephews that live around the country. She was the baby of her family and is still living a healthy and strong life.

One of her nieces, Marsha, accompanied her husband, who came to Oregon to speak at Reed College last week, and used the weekend to meet with family. My dear hubby's sister, Deanna, worked out the details to make it happen. Marsha's sister, Sandra, decided to come when she heard about the plans, so it became a real reunion. My dear hubby had not seen his cousin Marsh for 20 years and hadn't seen Sandra in over 50 years! They all had a great time catching up with each other.

Cousins and families

Busy catching up

Grand nieces and nephews

More grand nieces and nephews

Ivan spotted the geese flying by

A little lap time with Great Grandma Dorothy


Wiley taking it all in - a little too much, actually. There was quite a bit of talk about family members that had "died." Wiley said to me, "Gramma, make them stop talking about dying! I don't like that kind of talking! I took the boys into the next room and we played with Thomas the Train for the remainder of the visit!

Singing "In the Garden"

Cousins and "Aunt Dorothy"

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Blog Surfing

Recipes from other blogs that caught my eye this week:

From For the Love of Cooking: Parmesan Roasted Garlic and Basil Breadsticks

From The Sisters Cafe: Root Beer Float Cookies

From Tried and True Cooking with Heidi: Island Chicken, Chocolate Brownie for One

From Tasty Kitchen: Homemade Cake Mix, 3-Ingredient Fudge Bliss Sauce, Roasted Beet Salad, Lemon Bars for Two, Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

From Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Chicken Stew, Shepherds Pie

From Recipe Shoebox: Thai Chicken Pizza

From Farmer Jo: Browned Butter and Brown Sugar Brownies

From My Kitchen Cafe: Mexican Lasagna, Chicken Pot Pie Crumble

From Real Mom Kitchen: Cream of Tomato Soup

From Cookin' Canuck: Spinach Salad with Chicken, Orange and Avocado, Baked Ginger Oatmeal with Apricot, Cherry and Almond

From One Perfect Bite: Fast and Easy Filipino Style Chicken

From Taste of Home: Raisin Oatmeal Mix

From Une-deux sense: Magic Coffee

From Baking and Boys: Peanut Butter Banana Cinnamon Rolls

Friday, February 25, 2011

Orange Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake

Over the holidays, I was hoping to bake something, anything really, with cardamom as the main spice. It is a fairly subtle flavor, but it is a really great flavor. I searched on and off for a couple days, looking for just the right recipe with cardamom that used the ingredients that I had on hand. I didn't end up baking this at the holidays but I did bake this during the first week that we moved into our new house.

I ended up using a basic recipe as my base, and added a few extra touches. It had the great cardamom flavor that I was looking for and I thought it turned out very good. The addition of the grated orange peel seemed to enhance the cardamom flavor. Everyone that tried it really liked it too! I had forgotten about it until I was going through my pictures from this new year. It is worth passing on.