I'm Addicted

Now that I have your attention and you are wondering what I'm addicted to, I'll tell you............crossword puzzles!  It all started about 3 years ago when Harold was first diagnosed with cancer and we had to spend many, many hours in the hospital.  He would be in a room for several hours with an IV drip, or we would be waiting for tests and doctors and procedures.  The hospital tries hard to please patients with a TV in every room and plenty of snacks and magazines and friendly nurses to talk with.   There's even a great cafeteria, a chapel, and a piano in the lobby you can play.  But I still found myself with a lot of time to fill, and Harold spent most of the time sleeping during chemo.   So I went to the hospital gift shop to look for a book to read and found a display of puzzle books.  Remembering that I used to work crosswords as a kid - the Five and Dime store around the corner sold easy puzzle books for kids - I bought a couple of those books.   And that's when I got hooked.
     At age 65 I have accumulated a head full of useless information and trivia facts.  Working crossword puzzles brings to mind all that stuff that I forgot I knew!   Now I can use all that stuff I learned in college, all that Latin I took in high school, all the years of history and pop culture I have read about.  It really is amazing all the facts I can bring up in my head from the puzzle clues!  They say that "old people" should do things to keep the brain active (in a few months I'll be 66 and I think that qualifies me as an old person).   I work puzzles while soaking in the tub, or in waiting rooms at the hospital, or with my morning coffee (of course AFTER I do my daily devotions and Bible readings, the Lord comes first!), or sometimes in the evening before bed.   Harold always laughs at me for working at least 3 or 4 puzzles a day, and if there's a puzzle in a newspaper I'll work it.  
     I have to say I've gotten better at these puzzles.   The 'easy' ones I can do in about 2 minutes.  The medium ones take about 1/2 hour, and the hard ones are very challenging for me at this point.   Last spring I took an Amtrak train out to Massachusetts to visit my son and his family.  It was a 37 hour trip.  Yep, I took along 5 or 6 puzzle books, and about 2 dozen sharpened pencils with erasers in a nice plastic flip box.  What a nerd, huh?  Everyone on the train was playing with electronic gadgets or watching movies on an iPad or texting.  Here I was, an old school geek, playing with paper and pencil.  Oh well.   If a person is going to be addicted to something, I guess crossword puzzles are fairly harmless.    So, a word to my family:  if you ever wonder what kind of gift to get for Mom, how about crossword puzzle books?   hee hee..........

Good For Another Three Months

Today Harold and I went to Fargo to his oncologist.  Some of you may know that Harold has been fighting multiple myeloma for the past 3 years.  He has had radiation for tumors, almost 3 years of chemo, and lots of at home drugs.  He's been in remission for a few months now, and the good news is that he still is!  From now on he only has to go to Fargo to the Roger Maris Cancer Center every three months for an IV drip of a bone strengthener and a check up with the oncologist.  And instead of weekly blood tests, he only needs monthly blood tests.  Unless something changes this will be the new routine.  He is also taking a new anti-cancer drug called Pomalyst for multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer), and that seems to be working well for him.    This is a good deal, because driving to Fargo is not only boring, but it can be dangerous in the winter.  The land is extremely flat (Harold says you can watch your dog run away from home for 3 days), and when it is snowing and windy, the driving is always white out conditions.   Today I took a photo of the typical landscape we drive through for 2 hours to get to Fargo:

Flat, boring driving out on the prairies in North Dakota and Minnesota

Here are a couple photos of this same stretch of land in the winter.  As you can see, driving is difficult and any kind of wind at all blows the snow into near zero visibility.

North Dakota prairie on a clear winter day.

North Dakota when the wind is blowing on the prairie. (And wind chill is about 50 below zero)

So, as you can tell from the pictures, if we don't have to drive much to Fargo this winter that is wonderful news!   We don't have to drive to Fargo until February 5, 2014!  And any trips we MIGHT make to Fargo (for fun or shopping) we can do on a nice clear, calm day when it isn't snowing and the roads are not icy!
We really do love the prairie lands when crops are growing and the prairie grasses and wildflowers are blooming.  But winter on the prairie is something else.............well, us northern Minnesotans and North Dakotans are a truly hardy bunch of people, don'cha know!

A New Way to Cook Wild Rice

I usually don't write articles about cooking very often,  because there are guys who read my blog, too, and I can just hear them right now groaning that 'this will be a boring one'.  So maybe this will appeal more to the ladies - but if any of you guys out there do cooking, listen up, because this method works! 
     I was reading a Thanksgiving cookbook and the lady mentioned that wild rice could be cooked in a crock pot.  Since I know that it takes wild rice a long time to cook, I had my doubts that putting raw wild rice in a slow cooker would work out ok.  So being the ever-skeptic, I had to try it.   The recipe said to use a 3 to 1 ratio of water to wild rice.  This is what I did:

1 c. wild rice
3 c. vegetable broth (bouillon cube)
1 onion, chopped
about 1/2 c. chopped red pepper
1 carrot, chopped
1 can mushrooms, juice and all
1 stick of celery, chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper

I put everything in the crock pot and put it on HI for 1 hour and low for 3 hrs. (The recipe said you could do 5 hours on low - I might try that next time).  And hey - it works!   The wild rice is cooked nicely!  And you don't get that 'wild rice smell' while it is cooking.  If you have ever boiled wild rice you know what smell I am talking about - kind of a "weedy" smell.
     I think this will work out great for holidays.  Wild rice makes a nice side dish for holiday menus, but oven space is at a premium for baking a casserole of it, and stove top space is usually also at a premium with so many things going.  Putting the wild rice in a crock pot works out great, keeps things warm, and you already have a nice serving dish!  So, I learned something new, and I am sharing this with you all..............

A perfectly cooked side dish

The Yearly Bittersweet Quest

Every year about this time I enjoy scavenging for bittersweet to make wreaths and swags for decoration.  I just love the colorful bittersweet vines at this time of the year.   Unfortunately, it is getting harder and harder to find bittersweet around here because our dear Minnesota DNR has decided that this plant is a 'noxious weed' and they have tried to eradicate it with lots of sprays - and they have just about done it, too!   About the only place to find this colorful vine is on someone's private land or at the edges of woods. Wreaths made with this plant can last a couple years if you carefully pack them in a box and don't disturb it much.  Last year I made a very small swag because I couldn't find much, but this year I found enough to make a nice wreath!   What do you think?  I have this hanging on my back porch. To me, this says "Fall" like nothing else, and the price is right, too - free!

My Latest Quilt

For the past week and a half I have been sewing a fall themed quilt.  I enjoy quilting and have done many quilts over the years.  Some I keep for myself, some I give away.   All my quilts are usually of the "scrappy" variety, simple, and tied or hand quilted with simple designs.  Machine quilting is not for me, nor do I ever send a quilt to a longarmer.   Sometimes I think contemporary quilts have so much quilting and stippling that they are stiff and thin and not very warm.   I like a quilt that has some air space in it, is warm, and uses a variety of fabrics.   Quilting was originally a way to use up old clothing and fabric scraps and be thrifty.   But modern quilters will often go out and purchase all new fabric (yes, I have done that for a few of my quilts), and then spend upwards of $150 to send a quilt out to be machine quilted elsewhere at a longarmer.   They may be beautiful quilts, but just not for me.   To each his own, you know?  I'm sort of a fabric junkie anyway, and hate to throw out even small pieces of fabric.  So my quilts usually have a folksy feel and look to them.  I also like to use old blankets as batting.   It is so much warmer than a typical quilt batting, and much cheaper.   You can usually get old blankets for a dollar or less at garage sales, whereas a typical quilt batting can cost from $10 to $50 depending on the type and size.  So, here is a photo of the latest creation and a couple close ups of some of the details of fabric.  

This quilt is 56 x 72

Another view

Some of the fall fabrics

Here are just a few of the quilts I have made in the past.   Each quilt is sort of like a blank canvas, I think - a way to express (what little?) artistic ability I have!

Here's one I made for my niece

A Christmas quilt I made for my son and his wife

A 'train quilt' I made for my great nephew

A summer quilt I made for my sister

Here's one I made in plaid flannel for my husband

It Has Started........

This morning we woke up to this:

We got not quite an inch of snow, the trees are completely bare of leaves.  Winter is here.  Ugh.
In this next photo, the horses seem to be wondering where the good grass is to eat.   This will be their 24th winter - they KNOW what winter is.  Poor things. Now they will be eating dry hay until next May.

      I couldn't get a photo of the cats, but the new kittens have never seen snow.   They walked around all hunkered down, afraid of what they were stepping in.
     Yep - I guess 'winter is here'.

I Have a Request

The process of cleaning up the garden and the yard for winter has begun.  Gradually we are ripping out old plants, taking down wires, and putting garden tools away.   I gathered up all the cd's I could find that I hang from wires around the garden to keep the deer away (See blog post from June called Deer Be Gone).   Many were cracked, worn, or lost.  Those brittle plastic cd's don't weather well at all.  The constant sun and wind wears off the shiny part that scares away the deer.  I could only recover 32 of them, and that will barely go around the garden next year.   If any of you who read my blog come across old cd's of any kind, could you save them for me?  I don't care what's on them - I won't read them or listen to them or watch them - I just want some  to hang around the garden and scare deer with!  So if you are cleaning out boxes or you get some in the mail that you don't want or you have some old software cd's you don't use for your computer, could you save them for me?  Next time you see me I could get them, or you could give them to one of my family members.  If you send them to me I will reimburse you for postage costs.  I would certainly appreciate it!  And they really work to keep the deer away!!
     It's a little sad to tear apart the garden, but I had a really successful year.  The garden produced plenty to sell, can up, eat, give away (and feed to animals!) I always learn something new with each garden, and every year I make a note of what worked and what didn't.   When things dry up, Harold and I will till everything up and gather and burn off brush.
     Last weekend I took Mom back home.  She enjoyed her time up here and was a great help to me.  As usual, the trip through Wisconsin was especially enjoyable.  What a beautiful state!  I always like to take those back roads that have letters instead of highway numbers (like highway K or HH or P).  Those roads are paved, scenic, go through cute little towns, and are always interesting.   It is my annual "mini vacation" to drive around Wisconsin.
     Snow flurries are predicted for the weekend, so 'winter is coming' up here in the north country!  Our colorful leaves are already gone and we are looking at sticks again until next May.   Sigh.

You grow WHAT???????

This year I decided to try growing rutabagas.  This is a vegetable that I only recently began to enjoy.  Several years ago I tried a vegetable pie recipe that used rutabagas and it was so delicious that I always make this pie at Thanksgiving time.  Since I am a vegetarian, folks always ask me "What do you eat at Thanksgiving?"  I always answer "Good seasonal food, well prepared", but that never satisfies as an answer.   When I tell them I prepare an elegant vegetable pie with 6 kinds of shredded veggies, and rice, and cheese, in a sour cream lattice crust, I get an equally blank stare!  (If you decide you would like the recipe for this, email me)
     So today I harvested the rest of the rutabagas because the weatherman is predicting another hard freeze.  Plus I see that the deer are beginning to eat my rutabagas!  They have already eaten the green tops, and now they are working on the tender flesh.  I will put some rutabagas diced up, in the freezer today, some I will send home with my Mom, and some I will give away and some I will keep for Thanksgiving pie!  I sold many at market this fall.   They are very popular with the Norwegians around here.  A favorite dish they enjoy is called "Mashed Swedes", which is mashed potatoes and rutabagas mashed together and seasoned well with salt and pepper and plenty of cream and butter.
Rutabagas are also great in vegetable soup and stews.

A wagon load of rutabagas, and curious cats

Check out these giants!  A green pepper is added for a size reference!

The deer have started to eat them straight out of the garden

The garden looks pretty sad now after several freezes

My garden buddy Rosemary is wondering what happened to her world

One of several piles of winter squash waiting for a home

The only thing left to harvest is about 30 pumpkins.