What's cookin?

Monday: Turkey casserole (use up the rest of the leftovers)
Tuesday: Orange Glazed chicken (Everybody Cooks, Sept 2010)
Wednesday: Shrimp Vindaloo (Everybody Cooks, Sept 2010)
Thursday: Hamburger Helper
Friday: Pork chops w. Bacon Broccoli Sauté (Everybody Cooks. Sept 2010)
Saturday: Fiesta stack-up (Everybody Cooks, Sept 2010)
Sunday: Leftovers at Bills

As usual if you want a recipe – just let me know.

Grapes served in a champaign gobblet are very elegant!

One of the things we did do at the auction on Saturday was bid on some glassware and stone ware.  We ended up getting a full set of 8 wine glasses and 2 champaign gobblets as well as various tea pots, honey pots, pitchers etc all for $1!  Yes, you read that right the entire mess for a dollar!
Last night I was wanting some grapes so Erik said he would go get them for me.  He ended up putting them in one of the champaign gobblets - wow!  What an elegant way to serve grapes!  I felt all special as I ate my grapes and watched Sex in the City!  :)

Thanksgiving weekend

I had all my guys home for Thanksgiving! Erik arrived Tuesday late afternoon. He was dissapointed that he waited until after classes on Tuesday to come home since they had 20 minutes of class on Tuesday... he could have come home on the Thursday before!

Bill came in on Wednesday. He brought the turkey frier for the thanksgiving turkey.

Tom got in on Thursday at 11:30am. His friend Kasey picked him up at the airport and they stopped at Aunt Becky's before coming home. I didn't get any pictures on Thanksgiving day - was so busy cooking and enjoying all their company! But I did get this pic of Tom on Black Friday morning:



And then he decided to join the world of the living:



His kitty has very happy to see him.

Bill and I drove up to my sister's house on Friday night so we could be there for the Auction of mom's house on Saturday morning. We stopped at the outlet mall in Tuscola and I got a pair of jeans for Tom ($8.00) and an outfit for me to wear to Yule parties in the coming weeks.

We had a really nice day for the Auction even though it was a bit overcast and rain was threatening. Unfortunately, we had a lot of lookers and no buyers. No one even bid on the house! I was shocked! I don't know what we are going to do with it now. We really need to get rid of it - know anyone in East Central Illinois that wants a beautiful old victorian home on a corner lot in Fairmount?

We came home after the Auction and brought home Monicals Pizza since Tom had not gotten any in over a year. The boys started their exodus on Sunday morning - Tom left at 4:00am and got into Destin at 7:00pm. Bill left sunday evening and Erik left this morning at 4:45am.

The house is quiet again as Aubri is back at school and Austen is asleep. Just me and the cats for 3 more weeks till they all come back for Yule!

My sister is driving me CRAZY!

I wish my mother had just appointed one of us to be executer of her estate but instead she appointed both of us as co-executers.  I will NEVER do this – I’m having more stress and headaches dealing with my sister’s arrogance and annoying behavior than I should have to.  She is refusing to cooperate with anything the auctioneer says.  He needs a key so that he can stop by mom’s house and start working on getting everything set up for the auction next Saturday (after Thanksgiving), but Cheri is insisting that she is not available until the weekend and the auctioneer is trying to find a way to get in sooner.  I don’t understand why she can’t have him stop by her house one evening and pick it up.  I would mail him mine if I thought it would get there soon enough!  He is trying his best to work with her but I know I’m annoyed with her – I can’t imagine that he will want to EVER work with her again!

She has been dragging her feet for almost 2 years now.  First she didn’t want to sell the place.  I told her I couldn’t afford to keep paying the insurance and utilities indefinitely.  Then she refused to help with any of the clean up.  She lives 10 minutes away from mom’s house – I live 4 HOURS away!  I finally got her convinced that we needed to move this thing and she has found every excuse to not cooperate with it.  First she didn’t want to auction it but really, this house is in no condition to sell it on the market.  Then she found all sorts of excuses about the auctioneer that SHE picked out.  Now she’s trying to keep him out of the house so he can’t do his job.  I’m just afraid that come next week she won’t want to accept the bid that we get on it. 

She is expecting to get 50 – 60 K for a house that is barely worth 25!  I could use all the energy, prayers, good wished, whatever you have to help get this house and its contents sold and be done with all of this.  I’m to the point that I don’t even want to go to her house for Christmas – I’m just fed up with her.

Erik's next deer

Yes, the boy got another deer this year. Doesn't quite seem fair that he was only in the stand about 20 minutes and here she came! Meghan went with him, they got up at 4:00am! Ate breakfast and were in the stand by 6:00. Just about 6:30 (daylight) he heard a noise off to his left. He told Meghan to be still and she tracked the deer till he had a good kill shot. She jumped and ran a few feet then doubled back to die right in front of the tree stand!

He spent the rest of the weekend processing her. She looks to have been a doe about 3 years old. We ate venison steaks on Saturday night and venison chili yesterday. The rest is in the freezer. Woo Hoo!

This and That

It’s been several weeks since I posted a real update – I have to think back on all that has been going on.

A few weeks ago some friends of ours called to see if we would like a loom.  It’s a huge thing – will probably be over 10 feet long all set up.  I couldn’t see it going into the dump so I took it.  It’s going to live in the shed until we have a place to set it up.  Bill says I need to get a spindle so I can spin the dog’s hair into thread to weave!  By the looks of what we get from the dogs several times a year we could probably made several rugs or even clothes with it!

Production on the house has pretty much come to a standstill.  Lack of funds is our major problem.  We need to get the floor upstairs finished and the furnace in downstairs before any more major projects can be started.  I’m hoping for a nice tax refund to help with both of those things.  Until then, the ‘barn’ has been used for storing the loom temporarily and we’ve ‘camped’ in it a couple of times.  Bill is slowly getting his tools moved down there so that the ‘shop’ part of it can be operational soon.

We’ve both been cleaning and clearing at home.  I have 13 years of stuff to go through and decide to keep, pitch or give away.  I’ve started in the computer room.  The old computer finally gave out – I need to get the hard drive in to have it moved to an external drive so I can still get to the documents.  I have moved bookcases in and all my books are now living in one place.  We need to start calling it the library now instead of the computer room!  I still have some clearing to do in there but it’s a major improvement.

There is finally some movement on my mother’s house.  My sister agreed to auction it off.  The auction is set for the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I had been making trips up there to try to clear it out and it just seemed to not be getting anywhere.  This auctioneer will go through and stage everything and set it all up for us!  I’m hoping we get enough from the sale to pay him and both of us.  Hopefully, that will be enough to finish the ‘barn’!

Well, that’s all I can think of for now.  Tomorrow I’ll be taking Austen to the oral surgeon to get his wisdom teeth out.  I hope he has a better time of it than I did.  He’s young so maybe that will be to his advantage.  J

I have such cool kids!

Aubri has a coffee date this afternoon at Star Bucks with a junior (17 year old that drives - *sigh*) so he just came by to pick her up and I had told Austen that he should take off his shirt and go out to meet the guy when he arrived. So when the date got here, Austen stripped off his shirt (he has several tattoos and piercings and that flaming red hair!)



and he followed her to the door. He was acting quite crazy doing his best ‘Sand People’ imitation. The guy saw him and started doing it back! LOL Poor Aubri is so embarrassed.

What's Cookin?

As usual real life got in the way of my best laid plans. Erik came home this past weekend so Friday night’s dinner was changed to Spiced Flank Steak with Porter Sauce (a rerun from last weekend at Bill’s.) Then the leftovers were made into a wonderful Beef and barley vegetable soup that we had yesterday and I’m eating leftovers today. This will make a great lunch next week as well. So some of these are reruns from last week that didn’t happen.

Tuesday: Steaks, Mac and Cheese, and Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes with cinnamon and brown sugar!
Wednesday: Chicken thighs with Potatoes I can make this up ahead of time and Aubri can pop it in the oven when she gets home from school since I have plans for later Wednesday night.
Thursday: Pork steaks w/Cheese and chive smashed potatoes (Everybody Cooks Fall 2011) I’m going to put the Pork Steaks in the crock pot and then all I have to do is cook the potatoes when I get home – Java class later.
Friday: Eat on the road to Bills (Erik and Meghan are going with)
Saturday: Steak or Venison, mashed potatoes, winter veggie Gratin (Everybody Cooks Fall 2011)
Sunday: 3 bean chili and cast iron corn bread (love corn bread!)
Monday: Masala Kabobs with Tomato Ginger Raita (Everybody Cooks Fall 2010) This is going to be my second attempt at Indian food – the first turned out pretty good.

As usual if you want a recipe – just let me know.

What's Cookin?

Just a bit behind this week in the menu planning.

Tuesday: Racanellis Pizza and salad
Wednesday: Blackened Salmon w/ Long grain and wild rice. Veggies
Thursday: Chicken thighs w/Potatoes
Friday: Venison Steaks in the crock pot w/mashed potatoes
Saturday: we are helping a friend move – so don’t know
Sunday: Pork Steaks w cheese and chive smashed red potatoes and green beans
Monday: Spaghetti w/smoked Gouda cheese straws

As usual if you want a recipe – just let me know.