Good-bye, Vicki

It has been a tough couple of months for me. In July, I flew to Arkansas on last minute notice because my sister Vicki was ill and in the ICU. I didn't know if I would make it to see her. I did, and she pulled through several surgeries. She knew we were there, but was just barely awake/lucid at all. I stayed for a bit more than a week and then had to come back home.

Then on August 17, my sister died. She had gone into a rehab hospital to recover and have physical therapy and was doing well. She caught pneumonia and a systemic staph infection. Her poor body just couldn't fight these infections and she passed away that evening.

I made another trip, this time to Colorado for her memorial service and a family gathering (party, according to Vicki's daughter, Sheri - that's what Vicki wanted.)

This experience has been one of the most difficult I've been through, but also good in many ways. I spent a lot of time with my sisters Connie and Rhonda, as well as my nieces Amanda and Sheri. I got to know Amanda's kids - Kenadie and Cooper (5 and 3 mos.) while in Arkansas.

I spent a lot more time with my sisters in Colorado and we started building good relationships - something we've never had. The time in CO was extremely stressful, emotional, and exhausting, but I am trying to hold on to the good things that happened. We said good-bye to Vicki. In that process, my entire family came together - for the first time in many years. All of the rest of my siblings and my parents were there.

At the memorial service for Vicki. (L to R: Rhonda, Connie, Tom, Me,
Sheri [holding Vicki's urn], Joe, John, Mom, Daddy)

At the family gathering - all siblings together with Mom and Daddy. (Back l to r, Yancy [Rhonda's fiance], Rhonda, Me, Connie, Ed [Connie's husband], Ramona [John's wife]. Seated l to r, Jacqueline [Tom's wife], Tom, Mom, John [behind mom], Mary, Daddy)

I'm doing better now that the time in Colorado has passed. It was a tough time with a lot of tears. I will always miss my sister, Vicki. She was a big presence in my life. She helped me find a lot of the creativity that I have.

Love you, Vicki!

Happy Friday!

I don't know how months can go by without posting anything, but that's what has happened!

Lots has happened, but suffice it to say, things are good here in Oregon! We are LOVING summer here - the temperatures remain quite cool (only gotten above 70 a few times!) The farmer's markets are just now finally starting to get yummy veggies in since it has been so cool. But, oh the berries!! We are loving the fresh berries. We've moved from strawberries (my last post) to fresh blueberries now. I'm turning into quite the baker with this fresh fruit around! (A blueberry galette below)

We've had a few visitors and enjoyed the time with them. We have another friend arriving this coming Monday! We love being able to show off our new area. In just one week, we will have been here one full year! Amazing!

I also wanted to share with you a friend's success and new venture! My blogging friend Tanaya has opened a new etsy store! You can go take a look here, and also see her blogging or on Facebook! It's amazingly creative, and I love seeing a friend take off on a creative venture! Good luck!

Hope you're all doing well and enjoying life!

Strawberry shortcake

No, not the cartoon. The real deal!

Oregon strawberries are in season, and we are enjoying them immensely! They are super sweet and tasty! I made homemade strawberry shortcake the other night. YUMMY! Best dessert I've personally ever made I think.

I used a recipe that I found online at Patent and the Pantry (via Tastespotting). The recipe is adapted from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a domestic goddess". I really love the biscuits. They are super creamy tasting and just a hint sweet. I also LOVED the trick in the recipe of grating the butter. I've never been successful at cutting butter into bits, and this was a great (pun intended) way to do it!

Strawberry Shortcakes

Adapted slightly from chef Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess.

For the shortcakes:

• 1½ cups (325 ml) flour
• ½ tsp (2 ml) salt
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) baking powder
• 5 tbsp (75 ml) sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) unsalted butter, frozen
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup (125 ml) half-and-half cream
• 2 tbsp (25 ml) whipping cream
• 2 tbsp (15 ml) sugar, divided
• 1 cup (250 ml) whipping cream

for the filling:

• 1 pound (500 g) strawberries, hulled and sliced
• mix the sliced strawberries with 1 tbsp (15 ml) sugar and set aside in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 425°f (220°c).

Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and 3 tbsp (50 ml) of the sugar in a bowl. Grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients and use your fingertips to lightly toss all together. Whisk the egg into the half-and-half cream and pour into the flour mixture a little at a time, using a fork to mix.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, then roll gently to about ¾-inch (2 centimetres) thick. Dip a cutter in flour and cut out as many shortcakes as possible. Work the scraps back together, re-roll and cut more. Place on a baking sheet, brush the tops with the 2 tbsp (25 ml)whipping cream and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. (I forgot to do this last step! Will try it next time, for sure!)

Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden. Remove to wire rack to cool.

The recipe also included whipping cream, but we opted for a small scoop of vanilla ice cream! What a treat this was! I bought more berries and put them in the freezer. I thought about making some jam, but that's a process I've never taken on by myself. (I always assisted my friend Nancy in jelly-making!) I may still decide to give it a try - we'll see. These berries are very tempting!

The local Farmer's Market opens tomorrow. I am way more excited about fresh veggies than I probably should be! I have no idea what the growing season is like here in Oregon, so I don't even know what to expect veggie-wise. Should be fun though!!

Happy long weekend! :)

Circe's Circle

It's been a while since I posted! I forgot. That's all.

This week - making me happy is Jamie's Circe's Circle being opened up for new participants. I took part in last years circle, and it was a truly amazing experience. I learned a ton about myself, got some ideas lined out for my own business, and made amazing friends.

My project for Circe's Circle was thinking about my own business doing web design. During the class, I had a lot of stress and personal things going on (You'll remember - Mike's stressful job, my health, our decision to move to Oregon... all during Circe's Circle!) I put my business ideas on the back burner during the circle, and focused on myself. But those ideas were there, and now they have actually started happening! Amazing!

I am an independent web designer now. I have a business called Off-Center Studio (taken directly from the circle and ideas we floated then!) I am in process of designing my own business website. www.off-centerstudio.com. And hoping to take on new design clients soon!

That is a lot of success in one year's time. And I can really attribute much of it to the time I spent on the calls and "homework" in Circe's Circle. Thanks Jamie!!! You rock.

If you're interested, take a look at Jamie's website. She is offering a preview call and I will be part of that. yay! It is a life changing experience.

Happy Friday (times two)

Well, I forgot to post for Friday happy last week! I had happiness to share, but just forgot about writing it out! (see more happiness here).

So - today, I'll share two happy things!

First off, I'm so excited to have a new printer/scanner combo! I have many old photos that I have wanted to get onto my computer, and now I can do that!! YAY! The scanner is also a color photo printer, so I can make prints of photos as I go along! I had initially ordered just a scanner, but it didn't work. I was so frustrated, but in the end, it worked out better. For just a few dollars more, I got this combo, and it is working just great!! (It is an HP Photosmart, All-in-one C4780 for anyone who wants to know!)

I am working on a fun project (which I'll keep secret for now) and this new equipment is going to help that along! I've had fun this week scanning in old photos! I'll share some of them later.

For my second bit of happiness, my husband showed up at home yesterday after running some errands with flowers for me!! I love flowers! He doesn't bring them home often, but when he does, I love it!! yay! The bouquet was big, and I didn't have a vase big enough for it, so I split the flowers into two batches! So pretty!


What made you happy this week?

Brunswick Stew

For this week's happy, I'm posting a recipe that I made the other night for dinner. I love to cook, and having a recipe turn out well is a very good happy! (See more happy here.)

When we were visiting North Carolina a couple years ago, we had a fabulous dinner at a BBQ place called Smithfields. YUMMY! One of the sides they offer is Brunswick Stew. I had never heard of it, but it was fantastic. Turns out, it is a very common side in the south. Every place has a different version of the recipe!

I went looking for a recipe recently, and kept finding recipes for HUGE amounts of this stew (think three whole chickens, a pound of potatoes, etc.) I decided to just take bits and pieces from these recipes and make up my own in order to make a more reasonable amount of stew.

About two weeks ago, my husband made pulled pork. He got this recipe from someone in the south also, and he has perfected it. It is super tasty! We saved out a portion and froze it to put into our stew. (We will be doing this from now on!)

OK - on to the recipe.

Brunswick Stew (My way)

1 yellow onion, diced

3 potatoes, diced (I used yukon gold)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can whole tomatoes (28 oz)

1 can cream corn

1 bag frozen lima beans

1 bag frozen corn

3 chicken breasts (cooked, diced)

1/2-1 pound cooked, pulled pork

s&p to taste

Herbs - rosemary, oregano... I used dried - big pinches of each and a couple bay leaves

Dash of worcestershire sauce

4 cups chicken broth, 4 cups water

First - saute the onion and garlic in a little oil. I did this right in my big stock pot. Add in the diced potatoes. I added a bit of salt and pepper at this point. Dump in the juice from the canned tomatoes, and break apart the whole tomatoes - add. Stir in your broth and water at this point and get the soup simmering. Add in your herbs and worcestershire sauce. Taste for saltiness. I didn't need to add much more because of the broth.

Add in the pork, chicken, and all veggies, except the cream corn. Let everything simmer for about 45 minutes-1 hour, until the potatoes are done. Add in the cream corn and let it all get heated up again. Serve.

You can also add some heat with a few red chile flakes. Many recipes I saw also called for added sugar. I skipped that. The cream corn is pretty sweet and added enough sweet for me. You can really vary this how you like it. I wanted to add okra also, but couldn't find frozen in our little local grocery. If you don't like lima beans, use something else. You could also do this with just chicken if you don't have leftover pulled pork. I think you would want to add in some spice though. (The pork has cumin, chipotle, brown sugar, etc. on it.)

This was an amazingly yummy stew! We ate it for dinner last night, and have a huge amount leftover. Yay! We have a frozen pork shoulder and Mike will be making pulled pork again soon. There will be a portion placed in the freezer for another round of Brunswick stew! :)

Taxes

It's Friday and that means time for my happy for the week. (See the Happy Book here.)

Yep. This week taxes actually made me happy.

I have been fretting about our taxes this year. Normally, they have been quite easy and uncomplicated. Enough so, that I've been able to do them on my own. Even the year we got married, I did them with no trouble.

This year, however, we moved to Oregon. I became self-employed, and Mike became unemployed. It got complicated! I hired an accountant, and boy am I glad I did! Living part year in one state, part in another is hard enough, but throw the self-employed bit in there too. Pshew! Too much for me.

I got word earlier in the week that our paperwork was ready for filing. We are getting a refund from Colorado, and we owe Oregon - that pretty much washes each other out. We will also get a decent sized federal refund! YAY! And my estimated returns for the rest of the year are ready too! Pshew!

Talk about a load of worry off of my mind!

Now, we can have a free and clear weekend. Tomorrow, we are heading for Multnomah Falls. It is about three hours away from us. And there is an amazing Mexican restaurant that we know near there, so we're looking forward to that as well!

What are your weekend plans? What made you happy this week?