A visit from forum friends, plus ethnic foods (kind of)
I had company this weekend, and it was such fun! Peppi came from Chicago with her Dad and Sherry (sheshebop) visited from Indiana. They both arrived on Friday, and in honor of Peppi's Dad and their German heritage I made sauerbraten. At least it was the Michigan girl's version, LOL. I didn't have the final item I needed to finish off the "gravy", so Peppi brought it along:
Yeah, I'd never heard of Apfelkraut either, but it's kind of like a very dark and very thick apple butter, Peppi says it's fermented. She also brought some potato dumplings to go with dinner and a jar of spiced red cabbage. I made homemade dark rye bread and a "German" apple cake. I doubt that it was anything close to German, but that was what the recipe said, and it was frosted with cream cheese frosting. Yeah....German. Ahem.
We were up until far past midnight, gossiping and solving all the ills of the world. Peppi's dog, Emma, was loving my stubby tailed cat, Sparky, they both weigh about 15 pounds and they played together very well while the big dogs tried to ignore them.
Saturday morning we had homemade corned beef hash, eggs, toast from the rye bread, and pumpkin muffins. Unfortunately the only thing I remembered to take a picture of was the muffins!
Unfortunately Peppi's Dad was in a hurry to go home, so they left after breakfast. I offered to take Sherry anywhere she wanted to go, but she expressed a preference for just sitting around the living room and catching up, so we talked the afternoon away, munching on a tray of cheese, olives, crackers and sopressata in lieu of lunch.
the small appetizer plates on the right were a gift from another Cooking Forum member, Doucanoe/Linda. She made them herself and I miss her, you betcha...
For supper I hauled out the Atlas and made fresh pasta:
Half were this size and the other half were long strips for a batch of lasagna later.
I made a sauce with the last of the garden eggplant, ricotta cheese, the end of the garden tomatoes, and some cream. We also had the last of the golden beets from the garden, a Caesar salad and some of the blue Hokkaido squash, along with a Pane Bianco that sounded good with the pasta. (Yes, LindaC, I removed the ricotta carton from the table, LOL)
To be continued, because I'm out of room for pictures.....
Comments (19)
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Summerfield...are you still visiting the forum?
Comments (5)Mydreamhome- You make an excellent point about the island, which is why I decided to make it a work table. I'm hoping to find an old library/trestle table, about 3' x 5' and put a marble top on it. If that doesn't work out, I'll look for a nice table with a butcherblock top. The dining room table will have leaves, so it can get bigger and I can turn the island/work table, so there's more room for the table to expand. I'm hoping to use chairs, from the sunroom, because ideally, I would have the work table a little taller than average (slightly lower than counter height) for baking, etc. I'm tall (5'10") so I don't want too short a surface :) The master bedroom is rather small, but the closets have a built-in armoire between them, for the TV and extra storage. We have a smaller room now and it's worked okay, so this will seem big, in comparison. We're trying not to add too much to the original farmhouse, so the only additions are the mudroom and sunroom/porch, with a few feet added to the hall bath, but that needs to be redone, anyway...and a few feet on the vestibule. As for the laundry room, it's a farmhouse and it's not fancy, but comfortable, so it doesn't bother me that people will walk through the laundry/utility room, to get to the sunroom/porch or the powder room. There's also the hall bath, which would probably be used more, by company...unless they're in the sunroom. It will also give me a good reason to keep things organized and looking nice in the laundry area (LOL) I'm excited about the sunroom, because not only will it give me a great place for plants (without kitties chewing on them) but it will also provide a cheerful, sunny space to watch the snow fall in the winter and see the horses run around in their pasture! The mudroom is a favorite of mine, too...it just gives so much more storage and a place for all those winter coats and boots. The hot tub is for my husband (it's all he really wants, besides the basement rec room) and having the deck screened will keep out the mosquitos, barn kitties, and the occasional racoon or porcupine! Life on the farm :) I want the house to be easily accessible for all family/friends to feel comfortable, but it is a farm, so if we can't get around anymore, we'll probably find a cute little manufactured home, put it up nearby and the house will end up with one of the nieces or nephews. That being said, my grandmother was in a walker and later wheelchair and we're planning to have 3' main doors (including the one to the sunroom) and large enough doors to the bathrooms (30"?) to make sure someone with a walker or smaller/travel wheelchair, can easily access them. The front door is almost ground level, so hopefully, that should make it easier for wheelchair or walker access, too. Plus, I think it just makes sense to use rocker light switches, wider doorways and have at least one bathroom accessible, without going up or down stairs...for any home....See MoreA visit with a forum friend
Comments (15)Lpink, that is a very nice picture of you. Nice picture of your french toast, too! Glad to hear that you two had a chance to catch up and that Lpink could vent a bit. I've had the "estate plan" conversation with my mom. Thank heavens she is realistic about it all and it wasn't hard. I hope you weren't driving through those horrible storms we had on Sunday. What a mess....See MoreThe Forum Friends Support Sherry
Comments (43)Ellen, welcome to my world, where EVERYONE is taller than me. Even you. (grin) Karen, we all missed you, I would love to see you again, and Pam, one of these days we'll meet up, I'm sure. And you'll be taller than me too... CC, that would have been great fun to meet you too. Maybe on my next trip out to visit the California boys, we'll be driving that one, I'm betting. No way would Elery leave his "favorite girl", Molly! Annie...See MoreWhy we visit the Smaller Homes forum...
Comments (83)Autum it can be staggering on the cost of lots in some areas. We are really low end here from about 12K for a city lot which are 50 by 150 ish. They vary. We bought half an acre for 19K. Wish it was smaller but to get what we wanted on the lot we needed this much because it is a triangle. So we ended up with more dreaded lawn than I wanted. My friend has two houses one huge at 6 bedrooms two story.Daylight basement being one of the stories. Barns out buildings and a second smaller two bedroom house all on almost 10 acres for 160K. So on the other end of the scale there are places going pretty darn cheep. Certainly more than we want to deal with no matter how inexpensive. As far as DIY it is so much harder as you say the older you get. Some thing that I could easily do in an hour and not even batting an eye takes me so much longer now and I some times have to think if it is even worth it. And with my DH 10 years older then I am I can not always ask for his help now as I need to consider if it will cause him as much pain if not more than me. I was just thinking today to get it all done as fast as I can now or seriously consider hiring some one to help me. I just hired a guy the other day to lay some pavers in the dogs yard to lower the mud level in the house this winter. There was just one little corner needing to be finished filled in.He lifted and carried four pavers at a time when I would struggle with carrying ONE. And my knee does not work=bend like it should any more. Needs surgery I have to wait on. My ankle is still healing from a fall a year ago.I struggled to carry an end table this morning to move it from one room to another. A few years ago it was not hard to move.And I still have not finished painting the inside of our house and usually I have a house painted inside and out in the first year. This was a new house but builders paint is crappy. NOW the outside needs painting too. Next year and we all will get to decide what colors. So glad this is a small house. The cost of paint is staggering now and where I buy it in Oregon they added two dollars a gallon fee for?? some thing about the environment.GGGRRRRRRRR...See More- 8 years ago
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annie1992Original Author