Thank A Farmer

I have been spending some time looking up recipes for Holiday parties and dinners. It struck me today that so many people, myself included, take for granted the important role that farmers have in the holidays! Every meal, appetizer dish, and yummy treats are possible because of our farmers! So, thank you to my husband, who works his butt off so we can eat great food, thank you to my ancestors who worked hard to feed their families, and thank you to all the farmers out there making our lives possible!

I'm Back....

Whheewww! It has been a very busy couple of months. We have been busy out and about! We have taken on some house projects, that I will post, but the one thing I have pictures of is my melted crayon art project I took on over Thanksgiving break. I have lost a lot of time on pintrest. I love seeing all of the craft ideas and recipes. I finally took one on and am very excited about it! I hope you enjoy...once I get these babies on a wall the project will be complete!

I started by grabbing canves that was on sale at Ross for $6 for a pack of three! I am always so amazed at what I can find there. I printed out the barn and the tractor and traced them onto the canvas. I then took a sharpie marker and filled them in.
Whheewww! It has been a very busy couple of months. We have been busy out and about! We have taken on some house projects, that I will post, but the one thing I have pictures of is my melted crayon art project I took on over Thanksgiving break. I have lost a lot of time on pintrest. I love seeing all of the craft ideas and recipes. I finally took one on and am very excited about it! I hope you enjoy...once I get these babies on a wall the project will be complete!

Once the canveses were ready I pulled out the crayons from colors that I wanted to use--Crayola Crayons worked awesome--I had a friend who tried a project with crayons and bought cheaper ones and hers didn't turn out. I super glued the crayons onto the canvas borrowed Shane's heat gun from the shop and my friend and I went to town melting crayons. Don't forget wax paper underneath the canvas to catch the melted crayon! If you don't have access to a heat gun, then a hair dryer would work well too. I was surprised at how quickly the wax started dripping down. Each canvas only took a couple minutes to be finished. We are really excited about these and are happy with the way they turned out.

Freezing Corn...

This picture was taken after I had shucked the corn, boiled the corn, and blanched the corn into freezing cold water with ice cubes. Then I took my angel food pan that works nicely to catch the corn, and my handy tool from Pampered Chef and started cutting the corn off of the cob.

This corn is from Shanes dad, and was YUMMY (don't tell him that I finally admitted this--I try to act like South Idaho corn is the best). This is a look of the corn when I was almost all finished. From here I scooped the corn into a measuring cup and froze it in ziplock bags.

I love that we'll have tasty corn year round and I froze them in one cup and two cup bags so we can decide how much we want to eat.

Is that Suzy? No...it's Marie!

Last summer, my father in-law said to me many times, "Marie, are you becoming Suzy-homemaker?" I would laugh and say, "No way!" I am a strong, independent woman...I wasn't insulted, but I told myself, I will never be Suzy-homemaker. I am proud of that I have never baked a pie from scratch (even though my husband has and can) I have never canned anything or froze vegetables. I was content, I was happy with my crazy busy life.

I don't know if any of you have noticed as the price of fresh food has gone higher and higher. The price tag on my groceries has continued to go up and, I know I am not alone here, but I have other (maybe not necessities) items I would like to spend money on! So, I have taken a big step toward becoming a "Suzy-homemaker" and dang it--I'm proud of it!

I started by freezing raspberries. We were over taken by raspberry bushes this year and Shane and I spent a lot of time picking in the evenings. I then froze what we didn't snack on. Next were green beans. Fresh green beans are delicious--green beans from the farm and so much better than canned, so I blanched green beans and froze them for use throughout the winter.

I don't know if anyone is quite as addicted to peppers as I am--but they are ridiculously expensive up here in Moscow. At one point I saw a green pepper for $3. I almost cried. I cannot afford green peppers at this prize. Luckily, Purdum's Produce, in Fruitland had green peppers, 3/$1. I stocked up and took them home and sliced them and then froze them in bags.

I have now moved on to corn on the cob! I always thought the corn that my Grandmother froze every summer took so much time--I have now learned that it is worth the time to have delicious corn year round! There also happens to be some great tools out there to make life a lot easier! Pictures will be posted tomorrow of some of my experiences!
If you have canned or frozen foods and have some tips--I'd love to hear them!!

NYC: Day Two

Day two in NYC was fantastic. We slept in, ate a crappy breakfast from our hotel breakfast bar and took to the streets. We traveled throughout Central Park that late morning. We were amazed at first how beautiful the park is in the middle of the big city.

After the trip through Central Park we went back to the hotel and got ready for our dinner cruise that we did with my family that was in town. En route to meeting up with the Fabricius crew we did some sightseeing. Checking out the NBC headquarters, Rockefeller Plaza, the Empire State Building and more! We also grabbed some frozen yogurt and sat back and enjoyed some people watching--there are so many to watch!!

We headed to meet the family and it started raining! My Grandma, Mom, Uncle John and myself snagged a taxi to get to the dock. The boys...I mean men, decided to hoof it. What started as a sprinkle turned into a full out down pour. So much rain that they shut down the train to get in and out of the city! The men showed up completely drenched from head to toe. But they didn't let that ruin the booze cruise as we called it :)

NYC: Day One

Someone once said, getting there was half the battle. I would agree. But, getting there is much more fun when you're with a great guy and you run into the Vandal Plane! That is my silhouette while Shane tries to figure out the flash. There are no good ways to get a picture like this.

When we finally landed in Newark we jumped on a train and headed to a Brazilian BBQ place we found online. One of the things Shane wanted to do while in New York was go to an all you can eay meat joint like we did in D.C. with the Pea and Lentil Board a couple years ago. It did not disappoint! We didn't eat all day in preparation for the meal and we ate until we were stuffed!

After the meal we headed out to find our hotel in Long Island. We decided to take the train to Madison Gardens and then take a taxi from there--what an experience. Shane gets motion sickness when I drive. It was nuts trying to watch him trying to not lose his cookies! We arrived fairly late and after a full day of only sitting and eating we were exhausted and hit the hay!!

More on day two soon....

June 19, 2011

Well, we made it! It was a shaky, stormy, rough road. There were moments I was thankful that my mom is a counselor. We had great moments as well. Moments when we laughed so hard together that we had tears running down our face.

We made it through our first year of marriage. We celebrated by taking a week long anniversary/honeymoon trip to New York City. It was fantastic to get out of Idaho for a week long vacation.

We were true tourists in NY. Getting lost together, riding the Metro the wrong direction, and asking random people in suits on crorners for directions--ALOT! You would think that after four trips to NY I would be a master. We also did a lot of fun things together. We walked a lot, toured Centeral Park, went on a dinner cruise that went right by the Statue of Liberty, attended my younger brothers college graduation, ate amazing cuisine, and danced and sang our hearts out at dueling pianos...ok, maybe I was the one dancing and singing while Shane just herded me out of there!

More Details to come in the following posts....

Sure Happy the Sun is Out!

Those of you who kept tabs on me this winter know it was rough for me and my poor car. I lost track of how many times Shane had to come pull me out! Lucky for us my parents got us AAA for Christmas--and there was one really bad morning that we both had to use it.

I have been told that this past winter was particularly bad and that it probably wont be that bad for awhile. I am hoping they are correct! But, with twisters touching down in Massachusets, I am starting to think that "normal" weather just doesn't apply today. Thank goodness we live in a area where people ask if you are ok, let you borrow their land lines when you run off the road in a "dead zone" and where employers aren't mad when you roll in an hour late and believe you when you say you're snowed in.

My car has really enjoyed the sun the last couple days and I have enjoyed racing to and from home with no worries! I am knocking on wood right now, because snow in June can always happen!!

"He couldn't catch a cold buck naked in Alaska"

I don't know who "he" is--but I have definitely caught a cold, and it didn't even take me getting buck naked in Alaska to do it!! It is flat out cold here!! I spoke to a recruiter a couple of weeks ago who had been up in AK and she hadn't explored much. I told myself, "that wont be me--I will be out and about every chance I get" little did I know that it would be too cold to bare outside! Part of it coule be that I am a huge wimp, part of the reason I have stayed inside as much as I can is because I have a cold, most of it could be that the warmest the weather has been since I have gotten here is -2. This morning when I left my first high school at around 10 am the sun was finally out, but it had disappeared by 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The sun never rises it seems, it just hovers, as does the moon.

The picture above is a shot of what it looks like flying into Alaska. I couldn't get to my camera on the plane but I was amazed at how beautiful the ocean was frozen over. It looked like trees from above--this photo is courtesy of NASA--they have a better camera than I do anyways!

Tomorrow night I am planning to drive up a little north out of Anchorage and hopefully see the Northern lights. It has been so cloudy here that the hotel front desk folks were skeptical that I'd see them, but tomorrow is supposed to be clearer. I am going to go get a hot chocolate and wait it out--wish me luck!!

I got here Monday afternoon, I started my high school visits today and had three successful visits! The counselors here are great and I have had quite a bit of interest in University of Idaho. I will do three visits a day and am hosting a Informational night on Thursday for students and their families. I am pretty excited for it and am hoping for a good turnout!

I miss home already though and feel bad for poor Shane, he is working hard and here I am having a work/vacation!

Catch Up

Wow--It has been awhile! December flew by and Christmas was done before we knew it! We spent Christmas in Tekoa with Shane's family! It was very busy--which was good! It kept me from thinking too much about missing my family. Christmas Eve Shane's family (Terry, Denny, Jenn & Grace) came to our place for brunch and to open presents! It was a lot of fun!
Shane and I got each other couches for Christmas (finally!!) and they came the day before so we were able to enjoy them with the family together!
After brunch we relaxed for a bit, went to Mass at Tekoa together and headed Shane's Grandparents house for a Brouse family dinner! This was probably the highlight of Christmas for me! Delicious food, very fun people, my first time playing Pictionary, and a White Elephant gift exchange made the evening fly by!
I missed going to midnight mass with my family, singing in the choir, and everything though. The following day (Christmas Day) we slept in and went to Denny and Jenn's for dinner and a game night with some members of her family.
Overall Christmas was pretty good! It was my first Christmas away from my family! It seems like every time to Fruitland gets shorter and farther apart with the obligations of work and farm that we have--but I wouldn't change it and I'm just happy that both Shane and I are able to do what we love and be together :)