I’m going to stay away from holiday meals. Because Christmas and Thanksgiving to me are easy answers.
#1 I think one of my favorite meals is a big juicy steak. With some side of potatoes, corn, salad. But most importantly, we need the horseradish sauce. I like to make the sauce extra spicy. Where when you eat it, it clears your sinuses. But this meal is an easy one for me. I marinate the steak the night before. Then I make the side dishes, and the husband cooks the meat. I can make most things. But he does those dishes,I have trouble with, and they come out amazing. Steak, burgers, chocolate chip cookies, and biscuits.
#2 It’s a recent meal. I made beef enchiladas a couple weeks ago. And they were amazing!! I wish I had taken pictures and used it for a blog post. Maybe next time I will. But I also made the enchilada sauce from scratch too. And I think that made a huge difference. Another part that amazed me was, that my daughter ate it. She didn’t particularly like it, but she ate it. But that my son ate 1 and half enchiladas. I had 3…I’m a grown adult. He is not even 1 1/2 years old and he devoured them. The husband also took the leftovers for work. I was a little annoyed he took them; I wanted to eat them…
🤤
#3 Probably Orange Chicken. What’s funny about this meal is, it’s a staple in my entire family. At my mom’s house they also have this often. I just take it a step farther and I make everything from scratch. Not the sauce. I use the panda orange chicken sauce. It’s just so delicious. And less work for me. I always strive for that. Haha! But this is a meal that has transcended generations.
Like all the posts I could probably list more favorites, but I think I will leave these answers as the only answers. Because they are true.
Well I should get back in the kitchen. The husband worked yesterday so today is our Thanksgiving dinner day.
Have an amazing weekend!!
.-.-.-.
Five colors.
Four painted hands.
Three crisp papers.
Two excited kiddos.
One wet brush.
That’s right! Thanksgiving Hand turkeys. I hope to do it every year. To see how their little hands grow every year! ❤️
Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?
I think I would choose age 15-17. When I was a competitive swimmer.
I stayed on my swim team because I didn’t want to lose my friends, start from scratch, and I didn’t want to let my coach down.
But if I had switched teams I would have probably gone farther in the sport. Not gotten hurt. And probably would have made it to the Olympics.
But instead I choose my friends. I thought they would be my friends always. But the older friends tolerated me because I was fast. The younger friends respected me because I was fair. But in the end I only have one good friend from my 17 years of swimming; living in a different state, and I only text her. It’s been almost 5 years now since I last saw her.
Another reason for not leaving, was I didn’t want to have to figure out my place on a new team. I knew there were faster swimmers than me. Surprisingly enough, more dedicated swimmers than me. But on my old swim team I was respected.
You can’t really leave one team, try out another, and then return. It would have not gone well.
The biggest reason of all: I didn’t want to disappoint my coach. My coach was my coach for 8 years, I think. She was the one that kickstarted my desire to become great. I always did anything she said. She was the one that was going to take me to the next level.
But like most things, many different events happened that began to unravel my hoped future.
She always wanted me to be the best, but I’ve come to realize it that she just expected the best without her 100% effort to help me there. She had a favorite on the team; and to her, that swimmer could do no wrong.
Another event was that when I was 16, I had finished 3 exhausting swim meets in a row. I had been invited to an invitation only swim meet, that I had to go to as well. But into the first day of the meet I had an excruciating pain in my stomach that I couldn’t even sleep through the night. My mom came to get me and we went to the hospital. Turned out I had a cyst the size of a large grapefruit in my lower abdomen. The doctors were amazed that I had continued through the pain, for this long, while being an athlete. I had to have surgery. So it was quite serious. The doctors said that if the cyst had ruptured I would have died.
But what do you think my Coach’s response to all this was… disappointment. She made me feels so awful for leaving that swim meet. She made me feel like I embarrassed her; and that I should have just sucked it up, and finished the meet.
After that day my Coach gave up on me. The swimmer that could do no wrong was now more than ever her favorite. And I continued to try and prove myself to my coach. I did more in my 16-17 years than I had already done for her from the age of 10 to this point.
And you might be wondering how it ended…
Without any help from my coach. I bettered myself all the way up to the nationals level. That’s one step lower than the Olympics trials. Two steps away from the Olympics. I thought, I would have at least one more year of her help. But instead she took her favorite to the Olympic trials. The swimmer chocked and didn’t perform well, and then my coach retired.
She gave up. She gave up on me. If she had given me some direction the year before she retired she might have taken two swimmers to the Olympic trials. I think I lost my spark after that.
She then sold the team to my teammate. He then made a rule that after the age of 18, if you are not swimming in college you couldn’t continue to swim on the team. So I lost my coach. I lost my drive. And I lost my team. All after I turned 18.
I swam at my community college. I did amazing. But it wasn’t the same. My spark was gone. I broke almost all the records. But then I got hurt. I think it was an old injury from when I tried to earn my coach’s respect back.
Now as I look back over those years I can see that I should have left. I wasted 8 years trying to swim for someone who never seemed to care. But I wasted the best years especially; where if I had just switched I probably would have made it. I know I would have!
But with all things you must go on. I coached. Which I loved!! I will definitely do it in the future if I get the chance. Without the public speaking part. I’m terrified and terrible at that part. Another, I still like to do hard work. Any projects we have on the property I’m rearing to help complete them. My body feels sore and tired afterwards. Most importantly, I found someone who cares for me, who wants me to do my best, but will also accept me as I am.
So yes, I want to change those years. Because I wish I could give my 17 year old self a chance to succeed on the level she desired. But like all things. You learn. You move past it. And you then live your new life.
Digital Art By: emily2jane 11-04-2023 “Stilled Moments”
It’s strengthens everything; arms, legs, back, core. Lungs, flexibility, balance. When you swim it’s an everything body workout.
But in all honesty where we live, our city pool is only open 3 months of the year…they should really enclosed it.
So my year round exercise is… stress, panic, and ”running” chasing after my son…😑 He is not even a year and half and he is getting into everything. Like our bed. We finally got ourselves a nice bed frame. And it’s maybe 3.5 ft tall. He proceeds to climb it…then he stands on the edge of the bed to claim his victory.
So my days are spent in fear and panic of what he is getting into. Like last night he wouldn’t go to sleep so we played in the living room a bit longer. And the moment I wasn’t watching, he had moved the packed up air mattress, stood upon it to grab something off a surface above him, a….battery powered drill. The husband didn’t put it away…and obviously what daddy uses must be the coolest things ever…so naturally my son needs to play with it too.
But I got up from the floor at lightning speed and cleaned up the disaster and future disasters in a record time.
So that’s what I feel like my exercise is currently. Flash style reflexes done at lightning speed. Mix in some fear and panic, and you can loose some weight this way. Believe me I have.
We’ve been also doing various lifestyle changes but I’ve lost 6lbs in 2 weeks. 😳 not a good thing when still feeding a baby, but I think it’s just my son’s doing.
Our harvest festival is coming up. And I saw this shirt yesterday and I approve of this shirt. Haha 😂
So true.
I’m working a booth again this year, so I’ll have my own bowl to steal candy from. But all moms out there…while they are little and not eating candy…this is your right.
The latter is worse. But we’ve been so busy lately. My daughter is only four years old so I technically don’t have to be consistent until next September, but I’ve been trying to do some things before then. But “some” being the key word. It’s only occasionally and not at all consistent.
It’s difficult with my husband’s schedule being so funky. On his days off we do projects; so no school. On his night shifts I let my daughter spend the morning time with her daddy. And then the rest of the day is filled with our normal chores.
So I’m hoping to spend these next 11 months figuring things out.
But for me personally, it’s exercise. I want to get back into exercising, but again I never seem to have the time. And o know, most people say you always have a small window of time. True. But sleep is important.
Wake up. Wake daughter up. Make breakfast. Feed children. Eat my breakfast while cleaning up kitchen. 10-1pm on most days filled with playing with dad or a longer day until 3pm on projects. Also add in the middle my sons long nap time. 4pm let chickens out, and do outdoor chores or projects. Head back inside around 5:30pm. Start dinner. Finish dinner, eat. Watch a short educational show with kids. Start bedtime 7:30pm. In bed 9:30pm. Asleep by 10:30pm. Repeat. My days are the same all the time. So yes, maybe I could fit some exercise in there. And once it’s winter I will have more free time.
But for now my exercise is the projects I do. I’m constantly moving. Maybe even lifting things. So I think I’m good. I need to be able to stay fit for my kiddos. I don’t want to be a lump.
So yes, I’ve been putting these things off, but I’ve been trying to find different solutions that fit in my current schedule.
When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?
I know they mean grown up as an adult but also remember the day I felt grown up as a kid.
I’ve already mentioned the day in detail on a previous blog post. But it was the day I stood between my dad and siblings. That day flared up my protective instincts. But felt like I grew up that day.
The day I felt like a grown up….not a very deep emotion day. But the day we bought our first couch. I don’t know why but that seemed to make me believe I had grown up.
But it’s strange. It wasn’t when we got married. It wasn’t when we bought our first house. Or moved away to a different state. Or had my daughter. But the couch came before our son. But I didn’t really feel like anything changed until the couch.
Normally when your young you buy fun things. I spoiled my husband….a lot. But I never had the desire to buy the grown up things.
But when the couch arrived I felt, “wow I’m old.” Haha! Blinds. Blinds are also something I feel like you have grown up if you want to change your blinds.
But I wonder when I’ll feel I’ve grown up to older adult life…
If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?
My mom.
She deserves it!!
I always have this dream. That if I win the lottery, what would I do.
First, I would buy my mom’s house; she could live there forever. I’d pay off debt. I would buy her a car just like mine. I would pay for all remodeling she wants to do to the house. And I would set aside money for her to get allowance for the rest of her life. She deserves this and more. So much more. ❤️
But also most importantly, my husband could choose to work or not. His choice. I know he has many dreams and ideas that he cannot do because he provides for the family. And he would invest some of it; into various things. He would want the money to continue to earn.
Next, I would pay of our debts. And also add square footage to our house and shop. We would still do the work ourselves. Just because we would be made out of money doesn’t mean we would be wasteful.
I might splurge and get myself one of those awesome craft stations….I’ve always eyeballed one.
🤤
But maybe the husband could build one for cheaper….
But other than that I don’t really have anything that screams out to me like I need.
But I would want to keep living the same. No one would know that we won the lottery. I would want to still be me. And our kids would still grow up the same.
I know. I’m pretty boring when it comes to what you want when you win.
But for me, if my husband is happy, I’m good. If my mom has no more worries I’m good. And if my family can live comfortably, I’m good.
All of our holidays have something in common. Can you guess it?!
#1
New Year’s Day:
Growing up we would stay up until midnight the. Rush outside with our pots and pans, clanging them! Celebrating the new year.
However now, I can’t seem to stay up that late. Especially my kiddos. Maybe when they get older we will have a late night game night. Or watch a traditional movie. But for right now, I sleep early. Haha 😂
Valentine’s Day:
Before marriage I would buy my mom and siblings flowers. Every year. Even my brothers. Also make my extended family valentines.
Now that I’m married and I live so far away, I prepare my husband’s favorite food. Chicken Parmesan, rolls, salad, and then a wonderfully delicious chocolate lava cake. But I also try to send valentines to my family. My daughter loves to help with those.
Easter:
(If a child is reading this, you may want them to skip this passage. Due to childhood believing.)
Younger years: I believed in the Easter bunny for a long time. I don’t know if I believed there was one or if I liked the fantasy of it all. But church was always first, then a huge egg hunt!
Now as a mama, I try to dye the eggs the Saturday before. Those ones are only for food purposes. Since where we live we have wild animals I don’t want to miss an egg and have a bear or snake visit us. We use plastic eggs outside. We go to church then come home to an egg hunt. That’s the same. The only difference is if snow is still on the ground by Easter; then obviously we have an indoor Easter. But the Easter feasts are the main purpose! I try to replicate my childhood meals to my grownup years.
Birthdays:
We don’t just celebrate our own birthdays. We also celebrate my siblings and mom’s birthdays. So most of the year is filled with cake. January, March, May, June, July, August, October, November, December. Lots of cake!!
Fourth of July:
Childhood years were pretty consistent. City parade. Delicious foods for lunch, which the leftovers would also be dinner. Fireworks in the park; until they were illegal. Staying up and having lots of family fun!
Now as a mama, parade in a city park. It is a huge parade that lasts almost 1hr. Or more. Go home and eat delicious bbq ribs that the husband makes!! I can’t eat ribs anywhere else. My mom can attest to the deliciousness of them. Hanging at the house for most of the afternoon. Then heading back to the park for an 1hr firework show. We also set off fireworks on our property the night before.
October 31st:
My childhood was for the most part church functions. Every church I went to would have a event on October 31st but it was never scary or disturbing. If church is part of your life, I think it’s best to have your kids participate in church activities on October 31st. Because once your kiddos grow up they tend to go trick or treating with friends. And I personally think it help me discern what was not okay. But anyways back to childhood memories. As a family we would all dress up and have a fun evening eating candy.
Grown up now…I still like church functions. Ours is called the harvest festival. I do the face painting. My kiddos go off with their dad and get candy. No fish! But it’s always lots of fun. We only do that; we don’t go additional trick or treating. We just have lots of wonderful family time.
Thanksgiving:
My childhood years we always had delicious foods. My mom was amazing at having a spread of cheeses and fruit before the dinner meal. All is kids would be playing or watching a movie while my mom and older sisters slaved away. But the meats and gravy. And mashed potatoes. Stuffing….my mouth is drooling 🤤
But now as the mama I too keep up the tradition and I cook all the foods. Everything is from scratch. Minus the pumpkin pies. I don’t make them from pumpkins…haha 😂 But I try and have everything timed to be done at the same time. I make enough food for maybe 15 people and it’s just us four. We eat thanksgiving foods for several weeks after thanksgiving.
Christmas:
(If a child is reading this, you may want them to skip this passage. Due to childhood believing.)
Childhood memories. I also believed in Santa for a long time. I think I was 12 or so when I finally decided that I was old enough to stop believing. But I wanted to keep the gifts magical. Also helped when my nephews were born. But we would wake up and open gifts. We wouldn’t rush through them. We would each take turns and watch as each other got their gifts. We would devour candy all throughout the morning into lunchtime. And we would wait for the delicious dinner that was being prepared. Slowly dinner was changed to delicious Chinese food in downtown. Less dishes.
Now as the mama I love to watch my kiddos open their presents. I like getting presents from people but I love giving presents more. The sparkle in my daughter’s eye as she sees all the gifts from Santa makes me so happy. I want that imagination to keep stirring. We don’t eat lots of candy. My daughter turns crazy with any amount of sugar. But I do devour a bag of Hershey kisses all by myself. I eat about 7 to a mouthful. 😊 Then we eat a small lunch. Then dinner. I have kept the tradition of Chinese food alive. But I make it all from scratch. Christmas dinner is the hardest for me. My husband knows to leave me alone while making the meal. I run around like a chicken with no head. But it is always delicious.
Well there you go. Can you guess what is the common ground? Food! Delicious food! Probably why I can’t seem to lose weight. I’m always eating food through the year.
Well I hope this answers the prompt. Have a delicious Wednesday. We are getting firewood again. It’s going to be another long tough day.
We left the house around noon today in search of standing dead trees…for yes, firewood.
I will suggest, if you are on a hunt for firewood leave first thing. Because if you have an almost 1 1/2 year old, the little guys don’t last long. But the husband had to finish fixing the brakes on the trailer. (The reason for leaving so late.)
But here I sit in the truck, after 6 hours of getting some firewood. Not a lot, but at least we got some.
The husband and I have it down! He cuts down the tree, then he carries the log a short distance away, then I pick them up and take them the rest of the way to the truck. The logs are roughly 6ft long and maybe 6” in diameter. So a decent log; and I can move them. 😎 I feel so awesome when I help the husband.
But yes, our evening was attempting to fill a trailer with wood. Our 21ft trailer looks giant now with the maybe 6 trees worth of firewood. But it’s something.
We are having Subway for the drive home. Our go to…”oh, we won’t be home until after 7pm!!” dinner decision.
But maybe once in bed the husband and I will watch a movie together. If I’m still awake.
Not a normal evening for the normal person. But luckily, I’m not normal. 😊
Have a wonderful Wednesday evening.
Photography By: emily2jane “The Tree” 9-13-23
The picture is of a tree we really wanted to get, but it was too big. And the brush around it was about 7ft deep. But oh…it was a glorious looking tree. A tree that many people have probably driven by saying, “I want that tree!!”
What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?
That’s right!! Tea!!
Around 3pm I start to get drowsy and grumpy. So then I have my peppy tea. I don’t know why it affects me so much, but if I forget to have the tea; all my motivation goes out the window.
I’ve even mentioned this to many people and they all are surprised that it makes me peppy to have a daily dose of Vitamin C.
My days have been so crazy these last 2 days and I’ve not had the peppy tea….and I have a sore throat and runny nose. I always seem to get sick when I miss a couple days.
So if you seem to lose steam towards the end of the day, try out some peppy tea. Wow that sounded like a commercial. Haha 😂 But seriously try it. It might change your life for the better.
Originally it was my great grandma’s recipe. Then I added some from a pioneer recipe. Then I added a Pinterest recipe. Betty Crocker recipe. And just some personal thoughts. And now I have an awesome pie that anyone likes.
But it has a lot of sugar. So the anti sugar people out there, maybe you can alter the recipe and make it with honey and maple syrup. I don’t know.
I’m not a big fan of apple pie. But I can eat Costco’s apple pie and mine. That’s it.
I know this recipe by heart. I made it enough. My husband loves the pie. It’s the food that has made him fat and happy. His words.
To start: 2days. This makes 2 pies. 6-8 green apples, peeled and sliced. In a large bowl. Add apples, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 4 shakes of cinnamon. I don’t measure the cinnamon….maybe 2-3 tsp. Depends on if you like cinnamon. Mix and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 24hrs. This was my grandma’s secret. It helps the apples soften.
Next day. Make 2×9” Betty Crocker pie crust recipe. Plus 2 batches Betty Crocker biscuit dough made into cinnamon rolls. Let pie crust chill 30min in fridge.
Slice cinnamon rolls and place in pie pan. Push down and around to form a bottom crust. This is the Pinterest idea. (I think is was for mini pies with cinnamon roll cup. I just enlarged it.) It should fill the pie pan.
Scoop out apples and place in pie pans. Do not put the liquid in apples in pie pans; save juices. This next part is from a pioneer cookbook I got in Boston. Pour sugar juices into small sauce pot. Mix 1 TBsp flour with 2TBsp water. Whisk into sugar juice mixture. Turn heat to medium high. I personally add the butter now instead of putting butter with the apples. Let simmer until thickened. About 5min. I sometimes forget about it and then it’s always magically done. It should still run off the spoon. You don’t want it clumpy, but also not runny.
Pour new thickened juice mixture into apples. I usually use maybe 3/4 of it.
Next the pie crusts. Roll out dough. I usually do lattice crusts. it’s pretty. I add leaves or something pretty to top made from dough. That’s just personal touches.
1/4 cup of milk. Brush tops of pies. Also sprinkle white sugar on top of milk. This helps the crust have a nice crunch and color.
Cook @375 for 38min. This step depends on where you live. You will have to learn what amount of time works for you. But if you make the apples 1 day ahead you don’t have to cook the pie forever. I usually cook until I can really smell the apple pie then I check. I like the lattice to be golden. And to see the juices bubbling.
And you are done. Enjoy!! It is delicious. I love vanilla ice cream on it, but it’s delicious enough to just have it plain. My daughter who is picky likes it. My son already eats anything.
Well I hope you like this recipe. And I did just write it from heart. I didn’t get up from the couch. Haha 😂 It is a great pie for holidays. The cinnamon roll crust helps it be something new. And I’ve never had someone says they don’t like it. And if you are someone who can’t have dairy use non dairy milk and butter or just leave those steps out.
But this recipe I know I can’t take all the credit. I have morphed recipes together to create this one. But it is awesome!!
emily2jane 