Summer Food Items of Note

 This is a rather dark photo, but it is a summer morning breakfast. Cornmeal griddle cakes batter, with fresh blueberries to add...along with coffee of course. Delightful!

  And then my mother-in-law came to visit, and we made raspberry freezer jam together. A tasty treat in the winter months. 

When we were over at her house visiting, she showed us she can still make a delicious potato salad at age 95. Wow!

And finally a summer dinner. It is a taco salad, made a little differently, with each fresh ingredient separated and then mixed all together at the end. It's pretty this way, don't you think? Adding a few fresh grapes for dessert, we had a wonderful meal. 
(Each of these photos shows up better if you click to enlarge them)

Long Time Coming

My, oh my, has it been a long time since I posted here. Life has been hard for me to catch a tail and hang on. But now, in mid-summer, I think I may have a bit more focus back to the important things of life. I have a a quote that I love, that I will share today.

"With pomp, power & glory 

the world beckons vainly.

In chase of such vanities

why should I roam?

While peace and content bless

my little thatched cottage,

and warm my own hearth 

with the treasures of home."

My feeling exactly said by Beatrix Potter.

I'll come back soon, and post a longer post about what's been going on.

Valentine Baking

 Happy Valentines to you and to the lucky insurance man!

Thanksgiving Greetings

"I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the peoples;

And I will sing praises to Thee, among the nations.

For Thy steadfast love is great, above the heavens;

and Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

and Thy glory above all the earth."

Psalm 108

Thanksgiving greetings and love to all our family and friends!

August Doings

 We have been spending time in Burns with my in-laws. Good summer times together. Here we are relaxing in the shade of their front porch and watching the world go by.

 We always enjoy good food together, and Mom baked an apricot pie...my first! Her pies are always great!

We had a visit from granddaughter Kory, always a fun time.

We wanted to cook together, so we tried out a ham and veggie Risotto. It took a lot of stirring, but between the two of us, it wasn't bad at all....and the results were tasty! With a bit of fresh dill on top.

We got creative with breakfast too, and made an Eggs Benedict, only used fresh spinach instead of an English Muffin (gluten free) and I tried a Hollandaise sauce made in the blender. Loved how easy it was. We took it outside to eat, and it sure was fun having Kory here. She has now officially begun her first year as a high school science teacher. Good luck Kory!

 Next came a week's visit from Joy and Macy. We were blessed to have Macy with us for two weeks this summer. 

One night I put on some Frank Sinatra, good dancing music of course. We listened to music and danced as the sun went down on another beautiful summer day.

 Joy is a walker these days, and an early  morning one at that. She got up the first morning and enjoyed a great walk at sunrise, with the beautiful Cascade mountains in view...

and along our canal. After she got back, she joined the sleepyheads, and we all went for a walk together.

 One night we had a bonfire in the back yard, complete with S'mores. 

 A really fun time together as a family,

and Aunt JoAnn joined us too. We really enjoyed their summer visit. More about that in the next post.

A Happy Vintage Thanksgiving

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU! (and you too)

Beauty is a whole lot of popcorn!

Ah...the benefits of having a daughter that is the manager of a movie theater. Left-over popcorn! And a big smile from the insurance man.

Gathering of Believers

We've been hosting again...another group from our church. As we sat around visiting after a wonderful spaghetti dinner last night, we realized how diverse our group was. Included in our group: one German, one Kenyan, one raised in Long Island, one raised in Mississippi, one a Navy child, growing up all over the world, two from northern Washington State and three from Oregon. We all had one thing in common: so great a salvation in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We got to wondering how so many from so many places could all end up in one room together on a fall evening in Bend, Oregon. Only by the grace and hand of God!

Evening Hot Dogs and S'mores

We inaugurated our new fire pit, and built a fire out of wood scraps for a dinner of roasted hot dogs and s'mores.

Since the weather was on the cool/cold side and rainy, that fire felt really good.

The insurance man roasted Milly's hot dog while she gave him a little loving.

We also plugged in our little fountain, and the girls thought that it was a great place to play!

We ate our dinner in the house before coming back out for s'mores. That's always a big hit of course. The kids loved burning up the marshmallows before putting them in the graham crackers.

Calvin, with a very happy s'more grin! Due to inclement weather, there was no bicycle trip to Sunriver, but we all had a great time at home.

Sugar Pears

The favorite white dish is back out. Has anyone ever heard of a sugar pear? My children saw them at Sam's Club and gave me such big puppy-dog eyes that I caved and purchased them. I didn't regret it. They made such a lovely centerpiece with their rosy cheeks. When they began to turn a little yellow, we tried out their taste and got a second delight. They're so good. Their small size made them perfect for children as well. An unexpected treat this fall. :)

Tea Party

After a very busy few weeks we are going to try and get back to blogging, and my trip to Julie's. My niece was married in Seattle on July 11th, and since I had a 40 year class reunion the following Saturday I decided to stay the week with my brother. I think I am home now for a long while, so I will later post about the Seattle trip. Now to the very fun tea party at Julie's....

Jennie: After talking about how fun it would be, one afternoon we planned a tea party for everyone. Now of course this is in addition to cooking 3 meals for 9 people that day, so we had to keep it rather simple (but elegant!)

Jennie: Julie and Kory made up a big batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and Kory cut up fresh strawberries while I 'played' with the other children.

Here is everyone, except the picture-taker, Peter, ready to enjoy the treats. Julie provided a really nice selection of teas to choose from, and she put hot water into the teapot. Even the boys like tea parties...partly for the good food of course.

Jennie: I think I am tasting someone else's tea, to make a decision on which one to choose. It helps to have these beautiful trays and cups of English china!

Jennie: Everyone wanted hot tea of course...no hot chocolate substitutes here!

Jennie: Julie and I just love this photo. If you look carefully you can see Millie imitating Kory exactly. She was watching Kory, and completely absorbed in the details of how a 'big' girl does things. I also really appreciated Peter joining in. I think he would rather have let the ladies do their thing, but by example is showing his boys that 'real men' do enjoy tea parties occasionally.

Jennie: Millie has her own cute tea set (metal) which she used when we were through. She was so exited about the whole thing. Even she had 'hot' tea.

Jennie: All little girls love to pretend...and so pretend met reality that afternoon. What a fun time.

Just For Fun

Do you ever wish you could enjoy your jam this much?

A good thing

This is kind of random, but one of the good things I discovered lately is a convenience food. Now, I'm a fan of Breyer's ice cream. I guess I'm an ice cream snob, because it's the only kind I buy. The classic all-natural vanilla is the best, but I occasionally get crazy and buy flavored ice cream. (Alright, maybe a little more than occasionally). So, the latest amazing flavor is: (drum roll please) CHERRY VANILLA. I adore cherries. This ice cream has pieces of fresh cherries in it and I think I might have found perfection! I know, it's not chocolate. I'm pretty dedicated to all types of chocolate anything. BUT, it's right up there with decadent chocolate confections. I'm truly that impressed with it. Yes, I did share some with my children.

Holiday Feasting

Since Mom posted about feasting and included our dinner plans, I thought I'd share some pictures of The Jones Family feast on Christmas Eve. It wasn't disappointing.Just kidding...

Along with the meat, there was sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and some yummy rolls that our previous night's guests had made and left.

I confess, I ate all that you see on this plate!

My son gives his approval.

We had these cute name cards in the Christmas box from a previous year and I had forgotten about them. They added something special to the table.

CHRISTMAS MORNING BREAKFAST

We simply had to have the casserole that my mom always made, Sausage Soufle. This year we only accompanied it with homemade applesauce, but it was still very good. I didn't manage to get the time to bake something sweet to go with it.

Some dear friends from Oregon sent us some wonderful hot chocolate from Williams-Sonoma and Peppermint sticks dipped in chocolate for stirring. That was extra fun for our Christmas breakfast.