These two made a trip to the Colfax Dollar General this evening and are having "real" Kraft Mac'n'Cheese at 8:30 pm.  It's the little things siblings can do to support each other through life's trying times. Seriously. 

AIR CONDITIONING!!!

Ohhhhhh we are enjoying our central air conditioning!!! 

I do not at all take for granted the fact that it was very hot and humid outside today...

...but I cooked dinner ON THE STOVE and IN THE OVEN!!!

I’m pretty sure this is the first time in 19 years that I’ve made meatloaf and mashed potatoes in JULY!!!!!

And while I was at it making meatloaf and mashed potatoes, I steamed some carrots and some broccoli, and browned 4 extra pounds of ground beef and turkey with onions and garlic to freeze in 1-pound packages (added taco seasoning to 2 of them) for quick meals later on.  

I'm not trying to brag about getting central air, but I really am SO GRATEFUL for the ways it makes things so much nicer and more bearable.  I love to cook, but in the summer I have hated it for years.  I am so excited to cook in the summer now!

I am also sleeping better because we didn't have to move all our things downstairs and use the guest room for months to have some cooler air.

I am also cleaning (better, anyway) and doing more projects because I feel I can move around freely in our house and not get all sweaty and gross and grouchy about it!  It is just SO nice to have central air and I'm so thankful!

Cobbler Explosion

One of the things that is different in our home during the COVID19 pandemic is that Jeremy has done all of the grocery shopping for the past 7 weeks! I started using a new grocery app called Our Groceries. Within the app I can create and organize categories based on stores we shop at, so I've been using a list with our local Meijer store aisles in mind and the way we usually walk through the store. Jeremy and I like the feature that lets me text him the entire grocery list, still sorted in order by aisle.

Since Jeremy is doing the grocery shopping, and he also keeps our little freezer on the back porch organized and inventoried, he knows what we have that we need to use up.  He mentioned to me that we had several bags of berries my parents have given us.  We talked about Sylvia baking a pie or two, but today I decided to make a cobbler.  I defrosted 3 bags of red, gold, and black raspberries my parents had painstakingly picked, cleaned, vacuum packed, frozen, and delivered to us.  I carefully drained the juice into a measuring cup separate from the defrosted berries to use instead of water in the recipe I was using.  I greased up one of my beloved glass 9x13 pans, and mixed up a beautiful double-batch triple berry cobbler and put it in the oven. Jeremy was grilling burgers and waited until things would time out to be ready about the same time for a very late lunch.

A few minutes into baking, I was sitting at the kitchen table for a moment when I heard something hit the bottom of the oven.  I opened it to see THIS!!!

The glass pan exploded and shattered all over the oven, and the cobbler hadn't even begun to set up yet so it was all over the place too! So surprising and sad!

I really don't know why this happened, as everything was at room temperature when it went into the oven.  I've used the pan for years, so maybe it was just worn out?  I don't know, but we were all pretty bummed because that cobbler had looked really gooooood going into the oven!  I am just thankful that no one was hurt, and that the mess was really not as hard to clean up as I thought it would be. Wow!

Ryan came to join us for church this morning.  While I made lunch, there was a game of Skip-Bo over my puzzle.

I made soft pretzels this evening, thanks to my friend Tracie finding flour and yeast for us!  They were supposed to be a 30-minute recipe, but took about 3 times that long since they get boiled in baking soda water, egg-washed, and then get broiled after being baked.  They were so good though!  Next time I would double the recipe if I'm already going to do that many steps.

Silliness...

Soup!

It's soup season!  Man, I love to make soups!  However, Jeremy says soup is not a meal.  And Caeden is cutting weight so I have to be careful about what kind of soups I make.  Tonight I made Greek Lemon Chicken Orzo Spinach soup.  So yummy.

Spinach Orzo Soup for Mono

I took Annah to the doctor yesterday, and got the results this morning: She officially has mono.  It is really hitting her hard--everything is swollen and achy, and she just feels so exhausted.  She will be taking some half days off school to try to get extra rest.  Today she came home at noon, and I made her some healthy soup.  I just made it up as I went, so there's no recipe.  But, Annah really liked it and told me to write it down.  I don't measure anything when I'm cooking; I just dump stuff in until it looks like how much I want in there!

Spinach Orzo Soup

yellow onion
celery
carrot
minced garlic
*spiced ground meat
broth/buoillion
orzo
fresh baby spinach
anise, crushed red pepper flakes, black pepper, paprika, Italian herbs, Mrs. Dash

Make a mirepoix with your favorite cooking oil/fat. This time I used yellow onion, carrot, celery, and garlic in butter.  (Most times I use olive oil or coconut oil.)
Add spiced ground meat. Cook until vegetables are almost tender.
Add broth and orzo and simmer until orzo and vegetables are cooked to desired consistency.
Add several bunches of fresh baby spinach, and continue simmering until it's just wilted. Slurp it up!

*I often buy several pounds of ground beef and several pounds of ground turkey and cook it all up together with chopped onions and minced garlic and freeze in 1-pound bags so I have it ready for quick cooking.  That's what I used for this, only I wanted it to taste spicy like sausage, so I added a bunch of anise, crushed red pepper flakes, black pepper, paprika, Italian herbs, and Mrs. Dash to give it some kick!

This afternoon, Sylvia and Caeden went to the pool with Tracie and her kids, so Annah and I went to town.  We got some things she needed for camp later this week, then went to Barnes and Noble.  She needs to choose a monologue to prepare for her time at Blue Lake.  We found one book she may be able to pick one out of.  I found some books of plays.  I skimmed one play that may be a potential for this fall!  And I got lots of ideas to reserve books of plays from the library.

 When we got home, Jeremy took the kids up to school for weight lifting.  They are all doing well with it and enjoying the time together.

I grilled some chicken and used the gas burner on the stove to cook rice at the same time.  It was the first time I'd tried it, but it was nice not to have something cooking in the kitchen to go back and forth to while grilling!