All Is Well

Despite the fact that I was awake most of the night with a raw sore throat, and am probably fighting off some sort of virus, and despite the fact that the world seems to be in a heightened state of angst, I'm going to just tell myself that all is well.

It's easy to get caught up in all the bad news. Every day it seems there is some horrible new event being talked about. People are divided, and writhing about how to interpret what they hear. And sometimes, it's just too much to listen to. I get that it's hard to know what to do to make things better. After all, if the powers that be can't seem to fix things, how much can one individual person really do to cure the world of angst?

I once saw something on Facebook that was helpful in putting things into perspective, though. It had to do with getting up and sweeping your floor, and making a big pot of soup. Even though the world was spinning out of control. I don't think Mother Teresa was the source of this particular piece of advice, although it does kind of sound like something she'd say. I have respect for Mother Teresa.

So this week, I made some bread. I was thrilled that Katie gifted me eggs from her chickens. I've been cooking casseroles for supper as we're in the dead of winter here, and casseroles are good comfort food. I brought in the wreath from Mom that was hanging outside, and noticed that the wind had blown off all the years of dust that had been accumulating on it! I've been loving on the grand babies. 💕 And, my little free library? Well, somebody loved on that too, and filled it up with more children's books. So, yes, all is well!

scalloped potatoes and ham

see the feather?

  

Stellan Turns Two

 

The Photographer 😘

44 Years Ago

 

It was 44 years ago today that we met at Bullwinkle's Saloon in Minneapolis. I was 21, Bruce was 25, we were really just babies. And for the longest time, we would only tell people that we met after college while we were both out with friends, which was true, but we didn't mention that we had also met at a bar. I'm not sure why we chose to leave out that detail, because that's where people would often meet back in the day. And of course, there was no such thing as online dating back then. The internet didn't even exist. 

Bullwinkle's was probably considered a dive bar even in those days, but reading up on its history now, the neighborhood became more dangerous, with a couple of deadly shootings there in 2018 and 2023, and then the place was condemmed. That just makes me sad.  

leftovers to bring home, yum yum yum!

Today, though, we celebrated 44 years with a lunch special at Kai's Little Sushi. Plus a workout at Planet Fitness, our new place to go a few times a week. 44 years! Doesn't that seem like a crazy amount of time ago? 

Turkey In January

This past week has been one of those weeks when I've had more energy, I think maybe because of all the bright sunshine we've been having. Wednesday morning, I woke up early at 5:00 AM and thought, that sure was a short night! My next thought then shifted to what I felt like cooking for our weekly Wednesday Supper. We've been having Wednesday Supper gatherings pretty much every week for the last several years.

I remembered that I had a large turkey in the basement freezer, just waiting to be cooked up and eaten, and decided that I was going to roast that 18.5 pound turkey from its frozen state. It can be done. I've done it before. I've even heard that a turkey cooked this way can taste better!

There's often drama when you try to get the giblets out halfway through cooking a frozen turkey, though, and this time, I never really found anything to pull out besides the neck. However, Bruce did find the giblets later on as he was carving ... 

green bean casserole in the crockpot

Our Wednesday Supper turned out to be a Thanksgiving dinner in January, and there ended up being nine people here eating! It was a party, and the little boys were so excited, running round and round through the kitchen, living room, and hallway, squealing and laughing. It was wild, and fun, and it felt so familiar to me from past years when our own three kids were little. 

Of course, then, we had lots of turkey to eat on for the rest of the week. Turkey sandwiches, turkey cranberry omelettes, turkey vegetable soup, turkey hash and eggs, and even several mason jars full of turkey bone broth that I put in the freezer for later. 

Katie gifted us banana bread with chocolate chips

super yummy sandwich

Tonight, I wanted to make something different besides turkey. I had picked up a couple of bacon wrapped chuck tender filets from my most recent trip to Aldi. And, they cost only $6.29 for the pair of them! I'm not the least bit embarrassed to say that I love shopping at Aldi. I feel like I can save 40-50 percent of what I might pay at other grocery stores in our area. Food is expensive these days! But since I do most of our cooking at home from scratch, I find the basic foods they have there work just fine for us. I broiled those bacon wrapped beef filets, and they were delicious!

I will be making these again ...