"Again?" you say. "Hittin' the road another time this summer?" No, we aren't planning to as far as we know right now.
Ruth is in the midst of trying to sort and pack to go away to school for the next ten months. Lots of decisions; what to take? what to leave behind? what to give away because she'll never use it again? The order or disorder is in her room, the living room, hall way, basement, and kitchen. Where else can it be? she was in the attic this morning looking for some things and ran across some papers and cards written by herself and Andrew when they first learned to write - we had some neat laughs.
In 1991 Andrew wrote us a letter with a Valentine heart on it to inform us that his class was going on a field trip and he needed 1L bottle of Coke a Cola Classic and a bag of very good chips. Another of his writings in '91 was about the start of the Desart Storm war.
Ruth made us a card a way back there and signed it 'Rachel' as she wanted that to be her name.
Some day when the attic is cooler and I have time to spare I'll have to go up and see what other gems I can find.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Soft Bananas
Recently I was reading a favorite blog where the blogger was talking about soft bananas - this set me thinking about uses for soft bananas. The usual use for those soft mushy bananas is to bake banana bread or cake. Since I don't like to have the oven on in hot weather I was thinking about what other things you might do beside put them in the freezer (with all the others that you've chucked in the freezer and never gotten around to baking into bread or cake). Following is a recipe that is well received in this household - I read it on some product many years ago - since bananas don't usually come with recipes printed on their peels it was likely on the Nestle Quik powder. I also don't remember exact portions but my measurements usually turn out tasty anyway.
CALYPSO (the original recipe may have been spelled with a K instead of a C)
Place in a blender
1 soft banana
3 or 4 scoops of vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup more or less Nesquik powder
1/2 cup milk
Blend a few seconds until thick and smooth. If shake is too runny add more ice cream, if too thick more milk and just in case you think it is too sweet add more banana, milk and ice cream and serve to more people.
If I want to make a larger amount than the blender will hold or I don't want to use the blender just mix with the electric mixer: Place bananas in large bowl and mush up real well with the beaters, add Nesquik and mix, add ice cream and slowly mix then add milk at last or alternate with ice cream.
Place in glasses and use wide straws to drink with.
Not recommemnded for reduced calorie diets.
Alternative use of soft bananas - add to your compost pile.
CALYPSO (the original recipe may have been spelled with a K instead of a C)
Place in a blender
1 soft banana
3 or 4 scoops of vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup more or less Nesquik powder
1/2 cup milk
Blend a few seconds until thick and smooth. If shake is too runny add more ice cream, if too thick more milk and just in case you think it is too sweet add more banana, milk and ice cream and serve to more people.
If I want to make a larger amount than the blender will hold or I don't want to use the blender just mix with the electric mixer: Place bananas in large bowl and mush up real well with the beaters, add Nesquik and mix, add ice cream and slowly mix then add milk at last or alternate with ice cream.
Place in glasses and use wide straws to drink with.
Not recommemnded for reduced calorie diets.
Alternative use of soft bananas - add to your compost pile.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Return to Germany
There has been a long break in this travel log - the main reason was the dysfunction of the computer. Now it is in service but a number of our files have not been replaced from A.'s computer to ours. No pictures as yet - I'm not sure when we'll get them up and going again. You experts out there, is there another way to get the pictures on the blog except from the computer? Say from a CD or the memory card in or out of the camera?
Wed. May 16th.
Cousin Suzanne took us to Ludwigsburg (castle) in the area of Stuttgart. She took us by S bahn and it was much easier than the day before when we went the same route by ourselves and had so much trouble. Just goes to show if you know what you are doing it can be so smooth.
Ludwigsburg is a huge place on the same level as the rest of the city making access much easier. The Castle is over 300 years old - young compared to some of the other places we saw. It has extensive gardens but a separate fee is charged to visit them so we opted for an indoor tour at this place. the residence has 452 rooms our guided tour included about 60 of them.
The rooms were beautifully decorated and the original decorations are still there and very much intact. Naturally there is evidence of wear and tear in some areas. It also includes museums of period clothing, paintings & ceramics.
We had a delightful guide who according to Suzanne had a very strong accent of some sort. He told us many things about the rooms we visited and the history of the family interspersed with local 'jokes' all in German so I didn't get much of what was going on - Helmut translated some for me. (The usual way the translating goes is; something is said in German, H. gives the gist of the idea in English, many more things have been said in German in the meantime so we both have missed somethings. Eventually H. phases out as a translator on such tours and I do lots of looking around, a little understanding and a lot of guessing or just quit paying attention to the narrative.) After a few days you don't remember what has been told or you mix the various places up in your memory.
This outing took the whole morning but we were back at Suzanne & Achim's in time to have midday dinner prepared by Achim for several neighbors and ourselves.
Later that afternoon Achim took us to the local forest area so that we could do some walking in the woods. it was an enjoyable and relaxing time - cool and windy.
I wish that I could show you some of the pictures of Ludwigsburg and also of Hildrizhausen forest.
Wed. May 16th.
Cousin Suzanne took us to Ludwigsburg (castle) in the area of Stuttgart. She took us by S bahn and it was much easier than the day before when we went the same route by ourselves and had so much trouble. Just goes to show if you know what you are doing it can be so smooth.
Ludwigsburg is a huge place on the same level as the rest of the city making access much easier. The Castle is over 300 years old - young compared to some of the other places we saw. It has extensive gardens but a separate fee is charged to visit them so we opted for an indoor tour at this place. the residence has 452 rooms our guided tour included about 60 of them.
The rooms were beautifully decorated and the original decorations are still there and very much intact. Naturally there is evidence of wear and tear in some areas. It also includes museums of period clothing, paintings & ceramics.
We had a delightful guide who according to Suzanne had a very strong accent of some sort. He told us many things about the rooms we visited and the history of the family interspersed with local 'jokes' all in German so I didn't get much of what was going on - Helmut translated some for me. (The usual way the translating goes is; something is said in German, H. gives the gist of the idea in English, many more things have been said in German in the meantime so we both have missed somethings. Eventually H. phases out as a translator on such tours and I do lots of looking around, a little understanding and a lot of guessing or just quit paying attention to the narrative.) After a few days you don't remember what has been told or you mix the various places up in your memory.
This outing took the whole morning but we were back at Suzanne & Achim's in time to have midday dinner prepared by Achim for several neighbors and ourselves.
Later that afternoon Achim took us to the local forest area so that we could do some walking in the woods. it was an enjoyable and relaxing time - cool and windy.
I wish that I could show you some of the pictures of Ludwigsburg and also of Hildrizhausen forest.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Return to Normal
Thanks to the tecnical skills of our personal computer "engineer" (without a degree) we are up and running own our own machine again. It is rather late in the day to start a blog with pictures and reports from our travels so this little message will have to be all that goes out tonight. I didn't take any pictures of the work in progress on the "repairs".
Today was the first day of bean harvest - since it was a very humid day the picking part of the job was very tiring and sweaty. I have the "baby John Deere" it really isn't a JD but is painted the same color and has a full size metal tractor seat like in the old days. The Baby is good for sitting on and rolling along between the rows of beans while you pick - sure saves my back. I got 1 & 1/2 ice cream pails of beans that I cleaned, cut up and blanched for the freezer. ( We were invited out for supper so I didn't fix any fresh beans to eat this time.)
Today was the first day of bean harvest - since it was a very humid day the picking part of the job was very tiring and sweaty. I have the "baby John Deere" it really isn't a JD but is painted the same color and has a full size metal tractor seat like in the old days. The Baby is good for sitting on and rolling along between the rows of beans while you pick - sure saves my back. I got 1 & 1/2 ice cream pails of beans that I cleaned, cut up and blanched for the freezer. ( We were invited out for supper so I didn't fix any fresh beans to eat this time.)
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Harvest
The harvest is beginning in our garden. A little spinach is ready for eating ( lots of it went to blossom and seed whilwe we were away). The cucumbers are starting to produce some salad size fruits which taste quite nice. The raspberries are producing very nice fruits and we are enjoying them with ice cream nearly every evening. These are the most popular fruit for this family so I try to put some in the freezer to use next winter - haven't gotten very many pints in there yet as we eat so many of them up while they are fresh.
You will be expecting some special recipes for rasberry desserts - ha, I never make any fantastic concoctions. Just place a big scoop or more of vanilla ice cream in a bowl and cover with fresh raspberries or thawed frozen raspberries. I like it best without adding any sugar but some family members like to add sugar to the raspberries.
Freezing raspberries is simple - wash them off and drain them in a strainer; place them in a plastic container with a tight lid and freeze.
You will be expecting some special recipes for rasberry desserts - ha, I never make any fantastic concoctions. Just place a big scoop or more of vanilla ice cream in a bowl and cover with fresh raspberries or thawed frozen raspberries. I like it best without adding any sugar but some family members like to add sugar to the raspberries.
Freezing raspberries is simple - wash them off and drain them in a strainer; place them in a plastic container with a tight lid and freeze.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Tid Bits
I am up and blogging again. This time on R's laptop computer and it is a little difficult to get used to. There will not be any picutes as I don't know how to do it from here. I think that I'll leave to reports on our travels to Germany until I can use the picture feature again - sometime after we by a new computer and get set up.
The trip to New York state for a family celebration on Helmut's side was very enjoyable. It was really good to visit everyone and meet some new folks also. Uncle Horst & Aunt Magdalena celebrated their 50th. wedding anniversary. All their immediated family were able to be there to help them celebrate along with lots of extended family and friends.
Back at home we are trying to catch up with some work and get some other projects accomplished. Helmut is working on mattresses for the mission hospitals in Zambia. My project is much simpler - making Spanish scripture text callendars for missionariers in Mexico and Venzuela - I am about half done with my job.
The trip to New York state for a family celebration on Helmut's side was very enjoyable. It was really good to visit everyone and meet some new folks also. Uncle Horst & Aunt Magdalena celebrated their 50th. wedding anniversary. All their immediated family were able to be there to help them celebrate along with lots of extended family and friends.
Back at home we are trying to catch up with some work and get some other projects accomplished. Helmut is working on mattresses for the mission hospitals in Zambia. My project is much simpler - making Spanish scripture text callendars for missionariers in Mexico and Venzuela - I am about half done with my job.
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