To celebrate our daughter's birthday, we had a birthday brunch, which was actually more like a lunch, with breakfast food.Our menu included a make-ahead breakfast casserole, a hash brown casserole, fresh fruit platters, orange juice and sticky rolls.
Family
Mommy getting a birthday kiss
Ivan Sandwich
Breakfast Casserole
Fruit Plate
Hash Brown Casserole
Sticky Rolls
Moving in for a kiss
Ivan loves Buddy
I was given the following recipe over 25 years ago. I have made this dish with many different variations through the years, using the egg, milk and bread ratio as my base. The sky is the limit. It also doubles very easily.
Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole
Hash Brown Casserole
I found the following recipe a few years back. I have made this dish with the hash browns defrosted, but this time I used them frozen. In my opinion, it takes longer to cook the potatoes thoroughly when they are used frozen. If you do use them frozen, I would suggest using a small thermometer to make sure they are up to temperature before serving, just to make sure they are heated throughout.
I don't have a recipe to share for the sticky rolls today. I was trying to re-create a "cinnamon" type roll that we enjoyed at Merchant's Delicatessen and French Bakery in Walla Walla, Washington when we lived there. They have been out of business for several years and we have not found anything quite like it since. These were very close, but need a few tweaks.
Yes, I realize that Christmas was almost a month ago, but as I was looking through the last pictures I was able to retrieve from my old camera, I noticed that I hadn't posted any pictures from our family gathering on Christmas Eve. I really wanted to post a few pictures of our evening and the delicious dinner our daughter prepared for our family.
For many years, part of our immediate family's tradition on Christmas Eve has included dear hubby and me preparing a prime rib dinner with all the extras, often including fresh king crab legs! While it is a great meal to enjoy on that night, the problem with this meal is that there is a lot that needs to be done at the last minute, and grammas and papas get tired after spending hours and hours in the kitchen.
After our Christmas of "09," this gramma announced that she wanted to do things different the following year. I told everyone that I want my grandsons to remember Christmas as time spent with family, with their gramma and papa available to give lots of hugs and kisses, play with their toys, read books or anything else that is needed at the moment. When I am trying to get a meal on the table at just the right moment, that makes me too busy to take care of the small requests, like "Hold me Gramma," and too tired to have much fun after the meal is over. So, I determined then that we needed a new plan.
We tossed different ideas around during the year and our daughter and son-in-law decided that they wanted to have us all over for a Mediterranean Feast. It was an amazingly good meal! All the tastes and flavors are still a memory that I would like to have again before next Christmas Eve. The whole evening was so much fun, with lots of opportunities to give hugs and kisses, play with the boys, read books and play with their new toys.
Here are a few pictures of our family Christmas.
Ivan ready to start the evening
Wiley bringing out the "old" toys
Dear hubby and amazing son-in-law
Time for Dinner
Feta cheese, tabbouleh and tzatziki
Juicy California oranges
Yummy Salad
Rice and Bulgar wheatberry salad
Amazing marinaded chicken, pork and lamb
Time for a few presents
A pensive Wiley was asking me how Santa was going to know that he needed to come in the front door because there was a fire in the fireplace and he would get burned!
I have a couple of posts that I was planning on publishing this week, but have been notified by Google that I have run out of my allotted "free" virtual storage space. It was news to me that there was money involved regarding the amount of pictures a blogger posts. I am waiting for Google to process my request for more space. Until my order goes through, I can't post any more pictures. Having just moved further complicates things due to address and phone number changes. So, I'm not sure how long this is going to take, but I'm waiting for notification from Google that my virtual storage space has been expanded.
The moral of this story is: Beware of "free" offers from Google. My next question is: Are they going to start charging me for the amount of key strokes I use in every post?
I guess if you see my posts getting shorter and shorter, you will know the answer to that question!
P.S. $5.00 a year for 20 GB's isn't going to break the bank!
Hello! Yes, it has taken me longer than I planned to get back here, but, oh yeah, I'm back!
A lot has happened since I posted last year. We moved into our new home and we are very comfy, cozy and happy! We have felt at home since our very first day. We had planned on getting the majority of the moving done before we spent the night, but the first day of the move, our son put our bed together, I had all the bedding ready, it felt like home, so we spent the night! I am in love with everything here; especially all the windows that bring in lots of light, even on the darkest and rainiest days! I really love my warm and bright kitchen and am enjoying the time I spend there. The rest of my days are spent running up and down the stairs and sorting through the remaining boxes!
If you remember from one of my last posts, my old camera gave out on Christmas day before the festivities even started! I was very disappointed, to say the least! We started our move the Monday after Christmas, so there wasn't any time for camera shopping, which means I don't have any pictures of the move. But, I am happy to say that I am now enjoying a new camera! My dear hubby wanted me to have a new "great" camera, so we went shopping! I now have a Nikon Digital SLR D5000, with an extra telephoto lens. That is a mouthful and it has been a little overwhelming. There is so much more to this camera than my little Sony Cyber-shot! I still have a lot to learn about it but I am enjoying the process. I'm working on the "Nikon School of SLR Photography" which will take me some time to get through, but I'm loving the process.
One of our favorite things about our new house is that our back yard is woods; no houses or people, just woods! The first few days we were here, I didn't see or hear even one bird. Nothing, just total silence. How is that possible with all those trees. So, I bought bird feeders and sent out the invitation and believe me, they came! Now, every time I look out the window or open the slider, there is constant motion and noise in our yard and in the woods with birds, squirrels and croaking toads! We haven't seen a toad yet, but they let us know they are out there. They are all very entertaining, so I have taken a few "practice" pictures.
The following pictures are not good, they are quite bad actually, and I have taken better pictures since then. I saw an opportunity for pictures, my settings were wrong, and in my haste I didn't realize this. I'm showing you these pictures anyway because this grey squirrel is risking it's life, hanging in thin air to get to this bird feeder.
We hung this feeder on this branch so that the squirrels couldn't get to the food. Right!!
The grey squirrels really blend into these trees
They empty the feeder in less than 24 hours, while balancing on air
We aren't sure what was keeping him up there!
A grey squirrel nest is on the upper left side of this picture. We can see at least five nests in trees, deeper in the woods.
Lots of seeds for the birds. Can you see the squirrel on his way down the tree, ready for more? He's right above the bird feeders.
Today I noticed the larger bird seed container shaking back and forth. I looked closer and the squirrel was at the base of the metal rod, shaking it back and forth! That didn't work, so he shinnied up the rod, about even with the feeders and leaned out and had his front feet on the long narrow feeder and his feet on the rod, swaying back and forth! He stayed that way for about 10 seconds and then scurried back down. I though those feeders were squirrel proof, but I'm not sure now. It all happened so fast, I didn't think to grab my camera.
I hope you had the very Merriest Christmas with those that you love and hold dear!
We had several special gatherings with family that filled our hearts with comfort and joy! It appears that I have lost one of my almost constant companions; my camera! It gave up on Christmas evening, just as we were ready to start serving dinner! Alas, no pictures of yet another wonderful evening filled with family and friends.
I'm not planning to be back until sometime the first week in 2011, but you never know, I could show up with a picture (?) or two. I will miss you, but I am happy to say that today we start our permanent move. We are moving away from "the farm" (sniff, sniff, tears in eyes) which we will miss very much, but we are moving into our new home on the "mountain," as in Sexton Mountain. I'm sure to most of you, moving sounds like the worst possible way to spend the week between Christmas and New Years. I understand that, and hope you have a good time relaxing and resting up. As for us, we are rested and ready, and, the movers are doing the actual work!
After having most of our possessions stored in PODS since August, we are very excited and looking forward to moving into our new house and making it our home with our "stuff." We plan to take the week to get settled in, with some good quality time snuggling by the fire in the evenings!
We will miss the farm very much and plan to visit very often, especially when the baby lambs start arriving. I think there might be a bottle with my name on it, waiting to feed the double and triple birth lambs. I can hardly wait!
