A Weekend With The Parents

It was fun to get to have Jan & Alan (a.k.a. my new mom and dad:) up for a visit the other weekend. Lucy quickly fit right in with her new family.We were blessed with great weather. It was so beautiful Jan was able to give Andrew a haircut outside! We went over to New London, about 6 minutes away from Spicer, and browsed the quilt shop and other local shops. Alan and Andrew were mostly patient the whole time. There was the occasional mumble from Andrew :) We also stopped by the Mill Pond (connected to the Crow River) and Andrew and Alan had a little fun.

When we weren't out and about, they helped us put our puzzle back together. Lucy managed to get a hold of the part we had finished and danced it back to unfinished. With Jan & Alan's help it is now back to its former position.

On Sunday, we all headed to the Mall of America and Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis. We did not have much time to actually look in shops but I had never been to the mall and wanted to see Lego Land. Notice Alan's animated face in picture # 2 :)

While at the mall we ran in to some recent media celebs. We thought it was interesting that Obama is so happy and McCain is kinda stern and bent.

Well the visit was great. If any one else wants to come stay at our place and hang out, let us know!!!

My own canning experiments

As you probably know, I have been up to canning apples in many forms. To this date, I have made apple jelly, apple pie filling, apple pie jam, applesauce, apple butter, apple catsup, and my current successful project is apple spaghetti sauce! I thought I would share some pictures of the process and maybe even share my secret apple spaghetti sauce recipe made by your truly :) I canned using the hot-water method in the biggest pot I have, which isn't really big enough...

These are my jars of apple jelly. The natural color turned out really beautifully.


This is my apple catsup on the stove. I was adding a little red food coloring because it was a little more of a pumpkin color.

Here is the recipe for my own apple spaghetti sauce:
4 lbs. apples (peeled, sectioned and cored)
2 packages "Italian style spaghetti sauce mix" (found at Wal-mart in the dry sauces aisle)
and yes, there is no tomato in this mix.
2 onions (chopped)
1 3/4 cup water

Directions: Place all ingredients in a crock pot. Leave lid off for an hour on high. Then place the lid on and cook on high for 4 hours. Then pour all of the mixture in to a blender or food processor until smooth. Taste it and if its too sweet, you can add more onion powder, oregano, some salt, and some powdered Parmesan cheese to the mix. It is now ready to can or freeze!

This turns out sweeter than a tomato recipe, but for someone who can't eat tomato, it's yummy.

Interesting and Sad

I turned on my TV this morning to check on how the Minnesota Senatorial vote turned out and discovered something that disturbed me. Every station was celebrating the election of Obama. Interestingly enough all were just saying what a victory it is for our country to have elected a black president. Voters did not pick him for his outstanding morals or good judgements or experience. We should not pick a president (especially in this time of hardship) just to "make history".

I have also found it interesting and disturbing that Obama has been inconsistent in describing his policy proposals. He said the tax breaks are for those with an income of less than 150,000; then, during a different debate, he said the tax breaks were for those making less than 200,000. And last night his top campaign personnel said the breaks were for people making less than 250,000. Which is it? This guy seems really shifty to me. Has the election come down to Color and not Character? And unfortunately America has so many more problems than just the economy. (A salient point we seem to have forgotten.) Mr. Obama, I hope you are ready.

Interesting but not disturbing is that Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman does lead the first count for his Senate seat by a few hundred votes. Minnesota is pretty solidly DFL. Though the narrow margin is somewhat troubling in itself, seeing that Coleman was opposed by the morally outlandish Al Franken!