Remembering The Day

 I typically leave today as it is. 9-11. It, for me is a day to quietly reflect on and remember. But today in 2013 I feel the need to get my thoughts down on "paper". Being a child during the end of the Vietnam Conflict, as it was so carefully referred to then. I remember the sites of soldiers, tanks and fighting on the evening news. I remember mostly how ravaged and torn our soldiers looked and there was always a palpable heavy-ness in the air. I was pretty little then but still hold memories.                                                            Start 9-11-2001. Any normal day. I was preparing to head off to work. Having my cup of tea-as I was 7 months pregnant with our now almost 12 year old son, and couldn't drink coffee, living in our little mountain cabin waiting for a morning call from my Husband who was at his new job in another town that we were preparing to move to. Our little cabin had been on the market for just 4 days. My eagerly awaited phone call came in .... first words from my Husbands mouth were "Did you hear about the plane that hit the Twin Towers?" I had to assimilate what he said. "What are you talking about?" I questioned, not believing what he had said. He told me to turn on the news. I did. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. I sat down with my Husband still on the line and watched in stunned silence......and then dumbfounded and not believing what I was seeing, blinking and realizing that I was in fact seeing yet another plane headed for the other Tower. I blurted into the phone - "There's another plane!!" It was my husbands turn to not believe his ears. In seeing the second plane, it was obvious this was no accident. That was really all we said. We hung up with each other. Not long afterwords my Sister called, stunned, scared, holding onto amazed disbelief at the events of the morning. How could this be happening?? Was the resounding question that remained answer-less. What do we do now? Was the next question that hung in the air. Watch and wait seemed to be the answer. We were so stunned at the events that I don't remember either of us saying much but knowing each other was on the other end of the line helped and maybe gave us some of the solid ground we were seeking. I did end up making 2 more calls before leaving for work that day. One to my Mother-in-law, who had no idea of the recent events of the morning. The other to my Mom. Did Daddy have to go? Because we knew there would be a call out for all Military personnel. My Dad had retired from his service in the Air Force just a few short weeks before this horrific chain of events. The answer was, that there had been no immediate call but that they didn't know for sure what was going to happen. So we watched and waited. The TV remained on 24-7 at home and at work. The days were surreal and dream-like. The day to day activities seemed unreal and mechanical and all of us hung onto any and every bit information we could gain from the news and otherwise. My Sister and I as well as my Mom waited anxiously for any news that the retirement papers for my Dad would be retracted-they weren't but we didn't have an answer in concrete for quite some time. I left my position in our little mountain town and went to live in our new town with my Husband about a month later. Our cabin still hadn't sold as the bottom to the real estate market and every other market had fallen

out. The anticipation and wonderment of the new life growing in my belly held my attentions constantly. I was excited and eager to meet my son but scared to bring him into a world that before 9-11 seemed almost predictable but now after that fateful day I could hold no promises for this little boy. As time does -it marched on and we were soon welcoming our son into this world. A most wonderful day. All of this in the midst of talk of military action in the middle east. Now my son can't get enough of the special documentary's that revolve around 9-11 and its events. That was my 9-11 day. (And a little after)

Cream Cheese Berry Bar

For the crust:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar...
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup soft butter

For the filling:
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons flour
1 egg
2 cups washed and dried blackberries

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper and grease the parchment paper. Mix together all the crust ingredients until crumbly and press firmly into the bottom of the pan. Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, 2 tablespoons of flour, and egg and mix until smooth. Pour over the crust. Sprinkle with the berries. Bake for about 35 minutes. Store in the refrigerator.This is a recipe I found on a facebook page that does not link back to its origin. But had to try cause it was so simple and looked so yummy. Which, by the way it is. A must try!!! The crust is very similar to a crust recipe I already have from my Mom's stash of recipe's that we use for making fruit crisps and cobblers.

Fresh Basic Italian Dressing

This has got to be some of the best dressing ever.  After looking for different ways at making this I decided to take the ingredients that in my opinion make up the essential Italian ingredients. This is hard for me to put into measurements because it all depends on how much of each of these ingredients you like the flavor of, being it more or less and then how big of a batch you will be making.

Here is a list of the ingredients and how I made our dressing:

I made a small batch.

 

3 cloves of minced garlic

Maybe 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar.

About 3 Tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar.

Approximately  1/2 to 3/4 cup of olive oil.

Black pepper, sweet basil and oregano added to the mix so that looks like the amount you would like to have.

 

 

*I made ours, as you can see in a small mason jar. I put all of ingredients in the jar and put the lid on and shook it up. Ready to pour on top of your salad.

I know this may not be the best list of measured ingredients but honestly I added ingredients on how every thing looked to me in the jar and by what we like. I suppose a good note would be that you would want half of your liquid to be olive oil to the other half being the rice wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar combined. The rest is dried seasoning and all depends on your taste preference.

Marinara Sauce

2 or 3 Fresh Medium Tomatoes chopped and put in blender.

4 cloves of garlic

1/4 of an onion

*Mince garlic and chop onion into smaller pieces then put into deep dish frying pan in 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Sautee the garlic and onion making sure not to burn it.

2 cups of chicken stock from bullion. Place 1 cup in pan with garlic and onion put the other cup in the blender with the chopped tomato.

1  6oz can of tomato paste. Add to blender.

1  14 oz can of diced tomatoes drain juice from can into pan and add 1/2 to 3/4 of diced tomatoes to blender. Put remaining diced tomatoes in pan.

*Puree the fresh chopped tomatoes, 1 cup of chicken stock from bullion and diced tomatoes then pour into pan.

Add 1 teaspoon each of sugar, salt, pepper and dried sweet basil.

Stir all ingredients together bringing to a low simmer. Simmer for 1/2 hour or until sauce thickens.

 

 

You can choose to add mushrooms for a mushroom marinara sauce.

 

We added meat balls to this sauce at a low simmer for 1 & 1/2 hours.

*Depending on the size of meat balls the simmer time may need to be increased. Our meat balls were about the size of a golf ball.

Meat balls in marinara sauce.

Dinner served with a fresh green salad.

Homemade Tomato Soup

Here is a soup that has bold thick flavor and is good for a light summer dinner or that warm-me-up from the cool crisp fall afternoon. Perfect with a grilled cheese sandwich or slices of avocado and cottage cheese on the side. Simply put, this soup says "Yum."

3 Large Cloves of Garlic sauteed in 3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil. 

*We love garlic so even more garlic would be fine or less if you're not a garlic lover. The olive oil I pour out an amount that looks good to me so 3 Tablespoons is approximate. Less or more is fine too.*

2 to 3 medium size fresh tomatoes finely diced

1 14oz can of diced tomatoes 

1 14 oz or larger can of whole or halved tomatoes *squish these in your hand as you add them to your pan.

2 cups of chicken stock

1 teaspoon of sugar

Salt and pepper to taste. Keeping in mind that if you are using bullion for your stock it will have salt in it.  Taste before you salt. If you like pepper add some pepper too. 

After finishing up the garlic add all ingredients to pan and bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for about 5 minutes then take 1/2 to 3/4 of soup in pan and place in blender and puree. Add this back to your pan and stir together. Place back on the heat and bring back up to a low simmer. At this point add 1/4 cup of cream or 2 large table spoons of sour cream. Stir in the cream or sour cream. Add a few dashes of sweet basil and stir in. 

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and your choice of freshly graded cheese. 

Time

     It has been awhile since I have been able to be here on our blog. I hate to bump and go, which it seems is the only kind of time that I have had over the past year. I like to have time to spend while I am here on the blog so the opportunities for posting are not as often. So today I begin my post with catching up from  summer. We had visitors on and off most of the summer and did a small bit of traveling for family events. Kind of a strange eventful but uneventful summer. Bringing us to this week-the last week before school goes in session for us. Trying to get as much out of these last days as we can. Most importantly the easy quiet time spent enjoying each others company, being unhurried and able to keep our focus on what we are doing instead of having outside distractions keeping us from being fully attentive to each other. No work for my Husband, no school or sports for my son and no work for me in the afternoon. These times are few but needed and enjoyed so much. Quality time.                                                            

Neighbors

 Neighbors. Some neighbors really get your hackles up and there are some you wonder about.  They do odd things and conduct themselves in a manner that makes you want to duck out of site if you happen to be in your yard at the same time they happen to be in theirs. My Husband and I have had our fair share of neighbors over the years. Many of them, even though we lived right next door or across the street, we never spoke to. Some of the places we lived we didn't have neighbors close by. These were some of our most favorite places, the ones with some acreage between them but these were also some of the places we had good neighbors. We currently live on about a half acre lot with the other homes in the neighborhood on a half acre lot as well. So we have close neighbors but not neighbors right on top of us. We are so lucky where we are right now to have the best neighbors we have ever had and if we ever moved we would be hard pressed to find neighbors such as these again. A once in a life time, if your lucky kind of thing. These people are the best. We share a common fence between our back yards and have a gate in that fence that leads into our perspective yards. If we get the burn pit going it isn't long before they come over and join us and there is always a good conversation over the fence We take care of each others chickens and dogs when one of us travels out of town. We share our raspberries with them and tell them to come pick anytime. My son really likes both of them and enjoys wandering through to visit with them. Once in a while we will even wake up together over coffee shared on one of our patios or at one of our coops.  We are so blessed with this couple that are our neighbors.