What's Up Wednesday

This week I'm trying out "What's Up Wednesday," a linky party that one of my favorite bloggers participates in.

1.  What we're eating this week...

This is my last week in South Dakota for the summer, so I'm trying to make sure I eat all my favorite Midwestern things before I go.  

My favorite breakfast treat of all time comes from the Royal Bake Shop in Centerville, SD.  They are most well known for their "zebras" - a thick glazed donut with a layer of chocolate donut in the middle.  Zebras are great.  However, not my all-time favorite.  That title goes to their filled maple sticks.  Yummm!

This little treat is a long-john filled with a maple cream and topped with mapley, crumbley goodness.

Next on the list...

On Monday I finally got my Taco John's fix.  Every time I come back to visit I crave some potato ole's!

There's also the good old-fashioned Midwestern comfort foods - basically anything Grandma makes!

2.  What I'm reminiscing about...

While I've been back at the farm this summer, I have been going through the house and purging all the crap that has accumulated over the last 130+ years.  I have found a lot of junk, taken a lot of things to Goodwill, and found a few treasures along the way.  Just yesterday I found some school writings and art projects of my grandpa's from 1937 and 1938.  Reading his papers, and just seeing the way he signed his name again has brought back so many memories of my first best friend.

3.  What I'm loving...

Bachelor in Paradise!  It's my favorite trashy TV show and guilty pleasure.  And right along with it come Sheaffer's weekly recaps!

I laugh so hard during the show, then on Wednesdays I get to laugh at it all over again when I read her take on the week's events.  

Normally I watch every episode of Bachelor/Bachelorette/Bachelor in Paradise with my friend Heather, then we read the recaps together after.  We love the nicknames and comment on so many of the same things that show up in the recaps.  Having been out of town for nearly two months, she and I have had to settle for texting each other after we've confirmed we've both watched the show (different time zones are a pain), and for reading the recaps together.

We'll be back together for it next week though!

4.  What we've been up to...

We just finished our county fair, where my family was named the 4-H Family of the Year!

It was so much fun to be back at the Turner County Fair for The Four Best Days of Summer!  I grew up going to the fair every year and spending all week there.  We showed sheep and always tried to outdo our total number of head from the year before.  It was fun - but a little strange - to be there for the sheep show without having any sheep of our own to show!

I've gotten to spend so much nice time with my family this summer, but the fair last week also gave me a chance to spend time with my "fair family" - those people that become like parents and siblings because of the amount of time you spend with them in the barn.  Papa Flint is one of those people that I've known for so many years and he has always been like another father to me.  I know that he and his family will always be there for me in any situation.

We can goof around and have fun just like I do with the rest of my family.  Papa Flint still likes to give me a hard time about having a bony butt when I was growing up, so I had to sit down on his lap and see if anything has changed.  This picture was snapped right as he was tickling me!

5.  What I'm dreading...

Packing!  I've been in SD for 6 1/2 weeks now and I'm finally going home on Saturday!  I'm happy to be going home, but I'm dreading having to get everything packed back up into my suitcase!

6.  What I'm working on...

Since everyone in my family teaches, this is a busy time of year for us.  I helped Baby Sister set up her classroom for the first time, and then yesterday morning I helped my mom get hers ready for the start of the new school year too.

While going through her things, we came across this gem:

Wasn't I a cutie? :)

7.  What I'm excited about...

This week marks my dad's third round of chemo for his neuroendocrine cancer.

When we finally figured out what type of cancer it was, the prognosis wasn't good.  He decided to try chemotherapy anyway, in the hopes that it will do a little bit of good.

After two rounds, the oncologist ordered a PET scan, which happened last week.

We got the results on Monday morning and they were much better than we ever could have expected!

He's still going to complete his planned four rounds of chemo, then they will scan again.  The chemo probably won't be able to kill everything, and he probably won't be "cured," but it's working and we'll take that!

8.  What I'm watching/reading...

I just finished reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.

I'll be honest, it wasn't my favorite.  It took me a long time to read it.  But it did have really great parts, as well as the beautiful language I've come to expect from Rowling.  The character development was also incredibly well done.  However, it was a bit of a slow read for me, partly because the narrator changes with each chapter, requiring me to mentally change gears more than I otherwise would have.

I've been working my way through Gilmore Girls on Netflix and am obsessed.  I would watch it all day if I could.  I watched the show growing up, but had never gotten even close to watching every episode, so it has been fun to go through them in order!

I'm also finally finishing Sherlock, the BBC miniseries.  I watched the first two seasons right after they aired, and simply forgot to watch the third, so I'm finishing it tonight!

9.  What I'm listening to...

Since I'm driving my grandma's '94 Ford Escort while I'm here this summer, and I'm spending so much time in the car with my dad, I've been pretty much restricted to whatever is playing on the two country radio stations we have!

10.  What I'm wearing...

The weather has cooled off a little bit here, so I've actually been able to wear jeans and boots for the first time all summer!  The problem with this weather is that I didn't bring home any jeans to wear with my boots, so I had to dig out some jeans that were still hanging around from my sophomore year of high school!  To my surprise (and enjoyment), they fit!

11.  What I'm doing this weekend...

I'm hoping to spend time with one of my SD best friends Friday night for a night out dancing before heading home.

Saturday will be spent flying!

And then, if plans don't change, Tall Dark and Nerdy and I will head up to Tahoe for Saturday evening through Monday!

12.  What I'm looking forward to next month...

My birthday!

13.  What else is new...

Counting down the days until I am back with my wonderful partner and my dog!

Ag Family

Teaching is the family business.  Especially teaching agriculture.  Both of my parents, as well as my older sister, are full-time agriculture teachers.  My younger sister will also be co-teaching with my dad during the coming school year.  I guess I'm the odd one out!

Last week was the annual conference for South Dakota Ag Teachers.  We had the rare opportunity to have all five of us (plus my new baby nephew!) together for the banquet and auction on the last night, as some of the proceeds of the auction were to go towards my dad's medical expenses.

It was so nice to all be together for an evening with not only my "Ag Family," but also the "SD Ag Family."

Tal E. Whacker

I'll be the first to admit that rodents totally freak me out. Yet, I think hedgehogs are super cute.

For a short period of time during college I had decided I wanted a pet hedgehog because I found them so adorable. My wonderful roommate of all four years of college, knowing my fear of rodents, set out to change my mind and save me discomfort when I realized they are rodents on my own. She sat me down and made me watch hedgehog videos with her on Youtube until I realized their rodent-ness and decided a hedgehog wasn't the right pet for me.

Fast forward most of a year. Tall Dark and Nerdy and I somehow get on the subject of hedgehogs and how absolutely awesome we both find them. We both talk a little bit about how they could be a really fun pet.

The next day, I get a text from my mom with a picture of her classroom's new pet, Tal E. Whacker (the name is a play on the word "tallywacker," which FFA members use to refer to the zipper pull on official dress jackets).

I had to wait several months to meet this little guy, until I went back to SD to visit my family. He was pretty cute. Although, when he curls up on his side and I can see his little belly and feet, he's a little too rodent-y for my taste. Just keep him on his feet, though, and he's the best!



Mom's biscuits and gravy

Whenever Mom asks for breakfast requests, my top choice can be predicted by nearly everyone in the family.  Biscuits and gravy.  They're my favorite.  Especially when Mom makes them.

 

Since having my own kitchen, this has been on my list of meals to cook.  Sadly, however, TDN has a funny allergy to pork, meaning that I didn't want to make sausage gravy while he was around and unable to eat it.  Yet, the first time I made them on my own, I wanted to use pork sausage - rather than turkey sausage or chicken sausage.  While he was on his long business trip, I finally made it happen:  homemade biscuits and sausage gravy, just like Mom makes them.

 

Ingredients:

Biscuits

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 2-3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups (less 3 Tablespoons) milk

Gravy

• 1 tube pork sausage
• 2 packets country gravy mix
• milk
• flour
• butter

Instructions:

Biscuits

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.  Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or two butter knives (pull through in opposite directions) until mixture looks like fine crumbs. 

In a measuring cup, add milk to lemon juice to make 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk.  Mix. 

Add buttermilk to flour mixture until dough leaves side of bowl and is soft and sticky.

Knead dough lightly 10 times on lightly floured surface.  Roll 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into biscuits with a glass (or a biscuit cutter if you want to be boring).

Place on ungreased cookie sheet with sides touching.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from cookie sheet and serve warm.

Gravy

Brown sausage in a frying pan. 

Begin by melting a little butter - or fat of choice - in a saucepan.  Add in salt, pepper, and a couple Tablespoons of flour.  Slowly stir in some milk until mixture thickens.

Add gravy packets and milk or water per instructions on the packet.  Follow instructions on packet, stirring constantly until gravy reaches a boil.  Reduce to simmer.  Stir in sausage, simmer five minutes.

 

Biscuit recipe adapted from Betty Crocker Cookboox

#tbt - Toothless

I'm joining the Instagrammers and their #tbt craze.  #tbt stands for "throwback Thursday" and has been a fun trend to watch.  Friends post pictures of themselves or their friends in the past, whether it was 6 months ago or when they were 6 months old.

While visiting my Grams at home last month, I enjoyed looking at old pictures of my cousins and I growing up displayed proudly on her piano.

This gem, my first tbt post, can be found affixed to my mom's file cabinet in her classroom at school.  Apparently, I had just lost some teeth and wanted to show off the gap!

MB learns life lessons - Part 1

I have a great roommate.  We have a lot of fun together.  I also get a lot of laughs at her expense sometimes.

This winter, I took her on her first real grocery shopping outing.  She had never bought groceries for herself before.  The girl was 22 at the time.  I just couldn't believe it.  Everyone in the grocery store got an absolute kick out of her telling them it was her first time grocery shopping!

The shopping wasn't the only funny experience we've had.  The next time I laughed so hard I cried came in our kitchen.  MB wanted to make herself some rice to go with her lunch. 
She asked me how to make rice, so I took out my box of rice with really good directions on it and showed it to her.  I told her to decide how many servings she wanted to make, look at the chart to see how much rice and how much water to use, and follow the directions on the box.
After about 10-15 minutes, while I was on the phone with my mom, she calls me into the kitchen asking "Do you think this is done?"
Here's what I saw:

I managed to ask her if she followed the directions before doubling over with laughter.  She assured me that she had measured out the amount of rice she wanted...and then added water.  My mom is also laughing her head off on the phone while I'm explaining to her that rice doesn't work the same as pasta where you just strain off the excess water.
Luckily, she was just going to make her rice into chicken and rice soup, so we assured her that adding it to her soup would be just fine.

It's been a couple months since this incident, and I'm not sure if she has made rice without immediately making it into soup since then. 

MB has now learned to grocery shop, make rice, and [hopefully] read directions.

Love and Hedgehugs

I saw the cutest window display at a stationery store.

My mom's class has recently gotten a hedgehog, which has prompted me to remember the time about a year ago when I really wanted a hedgehog, as well as many conversations with Tall, Dark, and Nerdy about how cute we both think they are.  Then, of course, my mom tells me she thinks they're illegal in the state of CA, so all we can do is dream, which is probably a good thing!

When I saw this window display, I was excited to see that apparently everyone else is feeling the hedgehog love these days, too!