Vegetable Beef Soup

Vegetable Beef Soup
12 cups water
soup bones (I used one package from some beef we processed. About 3 lbs. I think)
1 pkg. corn

The soup was a little more soupy than this . . .
my husband tends to go for the chunky part of soups and this was his bowl.

1 pkg. green beans
1 pkg. peas
1 pkg. mixed veggies
4 beef bouillon cubes
5 tbsp flour
4 bay leaves
1 tsp thyme
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tbls salt
2 tsp marjoram (I didn't have any so I omitted this and it was still fine)

I boiled the water and soup bones for quite a while until the meat was easy to pull from the bones. After that it's basically dump and stir. Add the flour with care to avoid chunks - use water from the pot and stir in a small bowl before adding.

Another Shower

It's Baby Lincoln's 2nd shower today. I broke out the crochet needle this time. I just love Newsboy Hats!
I found this pattern on pinterest: http://smiley-netta.livejournal.com/30951.html I made hats like this before (pre-pinterest) and couldn't find it on my favorites. This one turned out fine too. I'm not super good at following patterns. I stopped at the brim directions and missed that there was supposed to be one final row.
I used a size I/5.50mm hook.
Lion Brand Wool- Ease in Chunky Willow.
The buttons are from JoAnn. Green Earth Brand in Brown Bruse

Catfish

Matt was in a catfishing tournament last summer. It was my first experience cooking and eating catfish. We covered the fish in a mixture of flour, paprika, seasoning salt, garlic powder, dried minced onion and a dash cayenne. It turned out pretty good! We still have to finish up some of the left-overs in our freezer.

Venison sandwiches

It's getting to be that time of year again - gun hunting is right around the corner. It's time to use up all our venison so we have room for the next deer. I have barely done any grocery shopping besides milk and spinach - it's a wonderful thing! I made this for the first time last spring and never did a post so here's to hunting season - Good luck to you all!

Shredded Venison Sandwiches

2-3 pound venison roast
1 can condensed tomato soup
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp thyme

Put the roast, soup, garlic and thyme in a crock pot for 6 hours on low or until tender. When I start to cut the venison into chunks the meat just falls apart. Mix it up well and serve on a bun.

Labor Day Pontoon Ride

We went on a nice pontoon ride on Labor Day with Matt's parents and our Pastor and his wife. Toward the end of our long ride I started thinking, 'hm . . . I wonder if they bought extra gas because we've been going for quite a while . . .' About 3 minutes after that the engine starting putting and quit. Matt and our Pastor started rowing but someone stopped shortly after and pulled us to shore. Matt's sister came to the rescue with more gas so we could get to the landing. Here's to making memories!

We enjoyed an afternoon on the water.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Here comes another pontoon to save the day!

Bible Study Wedding

A couple from our bible study got married over the summer.

It was such a fun time!

Dancing with Mom

The Roses Bud Again

Our roses decided to come back to life after a lot of fall rain a couple of weeks ago. Now that it has been getting cold they don't look this pretty but it was nice enjoying them while it lasted.

More Quilting

My little sister's quilt

 

The large squares were 8 1/2"
The rectangles 4 1/2" x 8 1/2"
The small squares 4 1/2"
I made this two summers ago for my sister's graduation gift but never took a picture of the finished product. Finally, here it is!

Baby Lincoln's Quilt

My sister-in-law is having a baby boy in January. This is the quilt I made for her baby shower.

This was my first time ever doing free motion quilting. For the most part it went very well. I got better at regulating the stitch length but there are definitely some interesting spots.

I made the pattern up myself but ended up being short a couple of each yellow strip. Instead of trying to find more matching fat quarters at JoAnn I just did the corner strips gray.

I bought the material first and then created the pattern so I wasn't very precise on the amounts I purchased:
The gray and animal squares were 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches. I bought a yard of each and had left over.
The checkered squares were 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches. That used a very small amount of fabric, less than the fat quarter I bought.
The rectangles were 2 1/2 by 8 1/2. I bought a fat quarter of both yellow colors. I was 2 strips short on each color. 1/3 of a yard would have been better.
I used warm and natural, 100% cotton, prepackaged crib size batting which was just about perfect with a little left on the side and a few inches on the bottom.
The binding I pieced together strips of 2 1/2"

Baby Shower

Yesterday we had my sister-in-law's baby shower! I was in charge of the cake, cupcakes, and punch.  Fall is a busy time of year for teaching, but it's also a busy time for my in-laws business. However, we did manage to get everything done in time. I even finished Baby Lincoln's crib quilt. I had a lot of problems with the cake but it worked out in the end.

You can hardly tell but I used a silver spray on the yellow frosting. It matched the theme and added character to the cupcakes

Blueberry cream cheese filled

I used Wilton's silver Color Mist spray

I used wilton tip 1 M for the cupcakes



I used a half-sheet cake pan and cut out the onesie shape. This cake ahd Heath toffee frosting

 Luckily the only part that people could notice was that the silver spray I used came out unevenly at the top of the cake. Thank goodness for frosting that hardens in the fridge because this cake was in about 7 pieces on Friday night. 

Happy Halloween!

It was a fun-filled but tiring week with Halloween. Our teachers and local Lion's Club put on a "Monster Mash" to raise money for the American Cancer Society on Tuesday. Then we had all our normal Halloween festivities on Thursday. One of the most unique costumes I had in my classroom was a homemade peacock. SO cute. Here are the cupcakes I make for my students each year.

We had many trick-or-treaters again this year because of where we live in town. We are partial to this one because he's the only one we knew . . . and of course because he's Yoda. How can that not be your favorite? Especially with my husband's love of Star Wars.





Heidi got him with the light saber and he "fell dead"