Monday Recently

How quickly the Mondays fly by! I've had this little post in mind for weeks...

It was a Monday recently when the gloriously beautiful weather drove us outside. And while someone was doing this: 

And someone else was doing this:

I trimmed the wild-looking vine which grows against the fence and finally mustered up the courage to cut back our rose bush. It looks much healthier now!

Just for fun, I twisted up the long pieces of vine,

And hung them beside the front door.

And the sprigs of green I trimmed off the rise found their way to the kitchen windows. :)

That's almost it for the gardening this year! I have to keep things small--I am not a green thumb by nature. I must have missed that gene! But some friends have us their leftover tomato plants, so I put those in. And I actually did a bit of an experiment inspired by something I saw on Pinterest! Each plant has a whole raw egg under its roots. I cracked the egg under the first of the four, and it's presently thriving the most. Perhaps we'll have some tomatoes this year!

Easter at Uncle's

A couple of weekends ago, we traveled down to spend the weekend with Derek and Liz.  We had a really great time spending Saturday at a local park, Sunday at their church and just hanging out at their apartment with them!  Predictably, we didn't even think to bring the camera, but caught several memories on the iphone.  And, predictably, most of them are of our girlies!  But, here you go!

We did get one photo of Liz, demonstrating how their pup, Angus, hates to be held.  Angus is just a cute, happy, miniature version of my parents deceased dog, Harvey.  And he has a great "mommy and daddy," too.  

Derek and Liz have a beautiful, big swingset behind their apartment, which is almost more like a playground! This time, Gemma loved the tire swing.  The first time we took her out was on Friday night as dusk was falling, which is why this photo is so dark.  She attempted to go back more than once by herself--she and Angus are both little runaways!  (Thankfully, they were both pretty easy to fetch back home!)

After putting the babies to bed, Derek and John went out to watch the Duke game while Liz and I stayed in and watched Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightly version).  It was fun to have some girl time.  

After getting up bright and early with the babies, Liz made us a yummy breakfast of eggs, pancakes and fruit and we got ready to head over to a local park for some hotdog roasting and a wee bit of hiking.  Gemma got to try her first smore!

But the highlight of the weekend was really Sunday.  I had been looking forward to visiting their church for a while, because they're attending the the PCA church where Pastor Hughes, my shepherd throughout college, "retired" to as the assistant pastor.

We felt right at home among our presbyterian brethren, and appreciated how welcoming they are of children into the services.  Our girls both did remarkably well, though John took Gemma to the nursery for parts of the sermons.  Everyone was so kind to us, and we really liked their head pastor, as well.  We celebrated communion with them, had a meal together in the afternoon, and came away just being quite encouraged through the preaching by the love of Christ for us.

It was Easter, but Derek had alerted us that this church ignores the holiday more than most do, so I left Gemma's hat at home this year.  It was exciting that she still fits into the little sweater made by Mrs. Kirby, though!  In fact, I think she fit it better this year than last.

When I prepared the girls' dresses before leaving home, I couldn't help but reflect on how kindly and abundantly God has provided for us.  Gemma was in a little Therese jumper and blouse and Ruthie's dress is by Ralph Lauren . . . and both were given to us.  In fact, they were both in hand-made sweaters given to us as well.  And the thing is, we could afford to go out to Target and buy them each a new spring dress . . . but we didn't have to.  Even the tights, shoes, and hair accessories were given to us!

"I'm three months old!"

Family self-portrait . . . not so great . . . Gemma's braids were on top of her head when we left that morning, but they didn't last long that way.  ;)

There's Ruthie's sweater in the background . . . truly precious!  And that was our weekend with Derek and Liz.  Oh, there was also some candy in a basket involved.  ;)  We are conscious of how blessed we are to have them stationed near us, and have to try to soak them up for as long as they are so close!

Bird Berries

Gemma and I had a serious chat about how these berries in our back yard are not for eating.  They're only for the birdies!

Now she tries to feed them to the birds.  :)

Funny girl!

And let's not forget about little sister . . . 

 

 Somebody found her fist a week or two ago!  I remember when Gemma did the same thing . . .

Some Comfort Food at its Essence

edited to add:  I just realized that I posted about pot-pie on pi day!  Completely a fun accident, haha!

It's technically still winter, right?  :)  In spite of my focus on simpler cooking lately, I've taken a few diversions.  One Friday recently, we had chicken pot pie!  It doesn't get much simpler in concept or taste, but it is a bit time-consuming to make, at least in comparison with a lot of the other meals we've been having lately.

Chicken pot pie is one of those dishes I grew up on but don't remember my mother using a recipe for, so I consulted my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, tweaked it quite a bit, and think I can truly call the results my own.  And they were very, very yummy!

One thing I did differently was to use evaporated milk for the roux, instead of the cream or half-and-half (which I didn't have on hand) or just plain milk which the recipe presented as options.  I have grown to LOVE evaporated milk!  It's like poor man's cream!  It's only 65 cents a can at our Aldi, tastes marvelous in tea.  It may not be fresh or organic . . . but it's yummy.  :)

Another thing I've grown to love is freshly ground black pepper!  A friend gave me a can of Watkins black pepper for our wedding shower which lasted us until a few months ago, at which point I decided to buy one of those self-peppercorn grinders at Aldi.  Such flavor!  Let's put pepper in everything!

Enough rambling . . . here's the recipe!

Ingredients:
1 large boneless chicken breast, uncooked
1 1/2 stalks sliced celery
2 big fat carrots (or a few smaller ones)
4 small red potatoes (I prefer organic so you don't have to peel them!)
1 cup frozen peas
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup evaporated milk
pastry for top crust

1.  In a small/medium saucepan, cover chicken breast with water and simmer on medium-low heat until cooked through.  Remove meat, reserving broth.  Chop meat into bite-size chunks.
2.  Peel carrot.  Chop carrot and potatoes into fine, even slices.  Cook until tender in broth reserved from the chicken breast.  Reserve the broth again to add to the roux later!  (You might be able to save time by cooking the chicken and vegetables together?)
3.  Finely chop celery and cook in a large saucepan (or Dutch oven!) in hot butter over medium heat until tender, about 4-5 minutes.  Stir in the flour, poultry seasoning, salt and black pepper, and cook roux, stirring constantly for 2 minutes or until it's nice and fragrant.  Add 1 1/2 cups of reserved broth and evaporated milk all at once.  Stir and cook until thickened and bubbly.  Stir in meat and vegetables and pour into your favorite earthenware baking dish.  :)
4.  At some point, make your pastry . . . I decided on a very basic crust of 1 cup flour and half a stick of butter, cut in with a pastry cutter.  Stir quickly with a fork, adding ice water in small amounts until the dough forms into a ball around the fork.  Gently roll out on a floured surface, fold it in half, and use it to top the meat mixture.  Flute the edges if you like and cut a few slits into the top with a sharp knife.
5.  Bake, uncovered, at 375F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until filling starts bubbling out the slits.  Let stand for 20 minutes before serving.


Wouldn't it be marvelous with a few other root vegetables added to the mix, like some parsnips or turnips?  Perhaps you're still enjoying this cooler weather for baking, or perhaps you're looking for a traditional dish to make for St. Patrick's Day?  I don't know that it's particularly Irish, but savory pies are certainly an old, old concept!

My naughty little kitten

It's been since November that I've knitted anything!  Gemma needed mittens, so I quickly knitted some up with the rest of the purple wool I had dyed for her hat last year.  She loved them!  Warms my heart!  And thankfully they were done in time to travel to New York for Thanksgiving.

We didn't have any snow then, but they traveled north with us again in January.  Gemma finally got introduced to sledding and snowman-making.  It thrills me that she likes playing in the snow!

Then we came home, and as has been our practice on recent Saturdays, we bundled up and walked part of the way down the nearby bike trail instead of biking.  It's not quite warm enough for biking, and Ruthie is too small for the trailer, anyway.  Well.  Somebody took off her mittens to play with leaves and other findings, and soon they were gone.  My beloved jogged back a little way, looking for them, and we retraced our entire path on the return trip, but they truly were gone.

I hope somebody picked them up who can use them, because now Gemma is wearing heavy socks on her hands in the cold.  ;)

And she did not get any pie that evening!  (But neither did the rest of us . . . lately dessert has been ice cream!)