Recipes

 

Last weekend when we were visiting Baudette for Darby and Deanna's wedding, I was going through my Grandma's recipe box. I was pulling out ones that I wanted to copy down and Eric had the bright idea to take pictures of the recipes I wanted instead.

If you look in the top right hand of the recipe card you can see written "Roxy Wedding Punch". I thought that was pretty fun to find.

I like all the notes she wrote about who the recipes were from, how good they were, and the fact that it is "OK" if the dough is stiff and dry.

My Grandma said this is the best muffin recipe she has ever made.

She was ahead of her time with this recipe. My Mom said that  Grandma would always have missionary ladies over when they came to visit the chapel and have them teach her new recipes, so they grew up eating all sorts of ethnic foods before it was a popular thing to do.

I remember having this dish every once in a while when we were kids and just not being able to get enough of it. Then I found me my own Indian, he doesn't appreciate it when I tell him I married him for the food...

Growin' My Grub

 

 

This year I decided to take the plunge and grow a garden.

Some baby cukes, to try my hand at pickle-making again, since my last batch was so wildly successful.

The only draw back? WEEDS!

I make myself go out at least once a week and fill up a full bucket with weeds and ooh boy does that bucket look big when I first start out.. I have been known to toss in clods of dirt and small dogs on occasion to get the job over with...

Some yellow pear tomatoes.

I'm like a kid in a very healthy candy shop, I have to check every thing three times a day to see if anything more is popping up!

 

I have yellow zucchini squash coming out of my ears already, which I am thrilled about.. Eric?? Not so much.

Red peppers.

Banana peppers.

And waay more. I have a little tiny garden patch with A LOT of vegetables.. especially zuchinni!

Eric is such a lucky guy...

The Royal Throne Room

I painted my bathroom in the basement last year.. or rather I started to and then my darling mother finished it before I woke up the next morning.. those Block women!

It turned out to be this very strange yellowish color which Eric described as a typical Indian bathroom in America.. he told me I just needed fake flowers and some carefully placed carved elephants to finish it off.

Soo.. I did the only reasonable thing and bought some sparkly metallic glaze to see if I could tweak it a little.

I was attempting to give it a textured look and started to develop a minor brain aneurysm trying to make it look just right until my in-house interior decorators came to the rescue.

Yep,this is them folks, a couple of winners, taking new customers in need of any type of advice daily!

Anyways, my in-house decorators came to the rescue and assured me that they approved of the look and then proceeded to give me a few little pearls.

Eric: "Uuuhh... Steph? Are you aware what people are going to DO in this fancy golden room??"

David: "Oooh, I am soo excited to spend some time on my fancy throne in my fancy new golden bathroom!!"

And then "Oohh great! Now you're going to blog about this aren't you!!"

I've said this before, but life is so good at the Varghese house!

2 Years Ago Today..

So I'll try not to get all sappy.. but, I'm a big fan of this guy.

Right now he is out buying chicken wire to build a fence around my garden.

Does it get any better than this?

Maybe life seems so good because I had to spend my previous years with these two goons on either side of Eric and I.

Oh wait, I still have one of those goons living in my basement..

Who knows, but here are a few of the things I have loved about the last two years:

Sitting on our lawn drinking coffee while Eric reads his bible and I... watch birds with the binoculars he gave me for our last anniversary.

Eric rating my cooking on a scale of "eeww" "eehh" or "WOW, this is AMAZING"

This.

Watching Eric figure out how to fix or do anything via Youtube including, how to paint a wall.

Forcing Eric to take walks with Scoot and I so we can "bond".

Finding Eric every evening by 8 p.m. fast asleep, littered with dog toys that Scoot left in an attempt to coax Eric to play with him.

And the little tid bits of wisdom from Eric including:

"Steph, things from the thrift store cost money too."

"You know, when you cook, you can put things away as you go, then there is a smaller mess to clean up in the end!"

and

"Yea, those guys in black, they are called umpires..."

Yep. Life is good at the Varghese's.

I never knew life could be this good.

Spring

 

"Thy mercies are new every morning, great is Thy faithfulness."

Lamentations 3:23

California and the Triestmans

 

Eric and I flew out to California to visit Dan and Priscilla and company. We had such a nice time. One of the best vacations I have ever taken. At the time they were in Riverside, California, which was soo beautiful with flowers everywhere and 85 degrees the whole weekend.

There was also a two hour time change which made waking up awesome. The first morning we were there.. we took the kids and walked down to the donut shop and two equally awesome things happened;

First the lady behind the donut counter was just as bad at counting as I am and accidentally gave us 14 donuts instead of 12... why we were getting 12 donuts for 4 adults and 3 itty bitty children in the first place??

Second, as I was eyeing up the donuts, suddenly I heard Bobby behind me sneeze and then start crying hysterically, I turned around and he was standing there looking as devastated as 3 year old can muster, covered in snot, and for some odd reason his pants were no longer buttoned and threatening to fall down. Apparently it was an epic sneeze.

What an awesome kid.

Later we went to a beautiful beach where I decided to go boogie boarding with Dan. The waves were big and crazy and I amazingly managed to collect around 20 lbs of sand in a swimsuit that is much smaller than anything my mother would approve of while the waves kicked my butt every time I made any attempt to do any boogie boarding. Some cool surfer dude walked up to me and was like "first time?" and I was like "Nah.. I'm pretty used to kickin' it on Cedar Island Lake..."

The kids had a great time tiptoeing towards the water and then as soon as the waves got within 10 feet, they would run away with bloodcurdling screams and collapse safely on the sand by their Uncle Eric.. I guess they're more used to kickin' it on Cedar Island too..

 

Starfish as big as my head.

D and P.... feel free to bring this kid back to me anytime!

Teamwork.

My beautiful big sister.

Later we went out for fish tacos.. and then grabbed some gelato.. can a day get any better?

 

Too tired after a long day at the beach to walk.

We went to an citrus national park the next day.

My favorite little orange thief.. eating the fruit was strictly prohibited, Hadassah had a new half-way peeled orange every time I turned around. I may or may not have eaten 25 to 30 kumquats, heaven in a fruit.

 

We went to the famous Casey's Cupcakes and met the Easter bunny..

  and ate the best cupcakes ever.

 

We visited Southern California wine country the next day, and spent some time playing in a park.

Apparently this is what the cool kids were doing....

And just to make his Auntie's day Rocky took his first steps walking from me to Priscilla! What a sweetie!

Pretty proud after his first steps!!

And our last view as we left...

When I was hugging Hadassah good bye before we left and tears were streaming down my face Hadassah said " Don't cry Stephie! Sometimes I miss Grandma and then I cry too!!"

Anyone have an extra pair of tickets to California lying around???

Dark and Murderous Secrets

 

There is nothing I love more than a good murder mystery. Nothing is more wonderful to me than a hint of arsenic in the afternoon tea. I first discovered Agatha Christie in 7th grade and I read every single Christie book in the library. My mom banned me from reading them for a couple months, fearing her friends and family would mysteriously start popping off with no explanation. I was like "really mom?? You are going to keep me from reading??"

Eric graciously let's me pick up a few Agatha Christie novels each time we happen upon a used book store. I have started to notice a theme.. it seems that each time there is an especially exciting game on TV,  suddenly we have to make a stop at the bookstore. I guess the three to four hours of dead silence seems like a pretty tempting payout! Eric is a very clever man.