Our Week: February 3-9, 2014

We started this week off with Kaylee returning to being cared for at our home. She seemed kind of confused, at first. After all, she had spent the last three weeks with Grandma Liz and Grandpa Wally, so this was quite new. Great Granny Dorrie came to visit, and by the afternoon, Kaylee was busy toddling over the whole house and yard, feeding the "chick-chicks" the snow peas that were too old for Chinese (our chickens love the peas inside when they get large), and even helping Aunt Kayty blow out the candles. Yes, we got Kayty a full-of-gluten 7 pound chocolate layer cake, and she celebrated with us before hauling the rest to her friends watching "The Bachelor".

Kaylee thought the cake was yummy! Truly a girl!

Tuesday was determined to be the day of the HUGE tomato harvest. That is, Dee picked his huge tomato!

Almost 2 pounds! This dude has produced not one but two Caprise salads, made by me, a regular garden salad garnish, two ham sandwiches, and some is still remaining. It is a Green Tiger heirloom tomato, so it is rather tart and more acidic, not my favorite. He is glad, though, cuz it's all his!

Dee had Webelos Scouts on Wednesday, where they began working on their fitness activity pin.

Thursday, I began watching news coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia. They officially begin on Friday, but I watched some skiing events and early team figure skating.

Friday was fun. Kaylee and I strolled and fed our neighborhood goat friend part of a granola bar. We played in the sandbox. We fed the chickens. Kaylee showed off her great walking skills when Jessica came over to drive with Kayty to 'get' her birthday gift: A tandem skydive. I joked with Kayty that Jessica would be there to scrape her up and bring her home in the trunk of her car...but I really wasn't joking. I carried that child for 9 months. I helped make that body. I didn't want it to be splatted on the ground! She lived...and had an absolute blast! She is so crazy!!! I get nauseous on the second floor of the mall!

Saturday was PACKED with things to do. We went to a few yard sales...our weekly date. This week ended up being for our yard...and Dad. We bought another outdoor slide for the playground. The one we currently have is a green tube slide, which is kind of scary for little guys. This one is yellow and just goes straight, with a few bumps. Dad has to design what to attach this one to. The possibilities are endless! He purchased tubs for his manure and minerals for the garden, a nice garden cover cloth (the shaded kind) and a few small miscellaneous items. I began to receive wonderful texts...from Las Vegas...and it was not Adam, but Grace! So grown up! Loved talking to her!!! We then went to Market On The Move, a private offering of surplus produce - 10 bucks for 60 pounds. We ended up with tons of tomatoes, some yellow, grey, and zucchini squash, tomatillos, and bell peppers. As soon as we arrived, I washed and began cooking the tomatoes, and ended up canning 17 quarts of tomatoes (number 18 jar broke in the canner...blech) I also made two kinds of tomatillo salsa: a raw one and a cooked one that I saw on a public television cooking show.

Raw Tomatillo Salsa
6 tomatillos, finely diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 tsp. pink Himalayan salt (we only use this one, but any salt should work.

Combine all ingredients and let sit for an hour or so. It begins very dry, but the salt brings out the tomatillo liquid and makes it taste great. Serve with tortilla chips. 

Cooked Tomatillo Salsa
6-8 whole tomatillos
1 whole jalapeno, top removed.
Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes, till tomatillos become soft. 
2 cloves peeled garlic (we LOVE garlic, so I think I used 6)
1 bunch cilantro, stems and all
1 tsp. Pink Himalayan Salt
Place all ingredients (cooked tomatoes and jalapeno, but not the cooking liquid) in a blender and blend to desired consistency, about 30 seconds. Serve warm. (Amber and Doran, Kelsie and Kooper, stopped by and she made herself some nachos with this sauce and she said it was awesome! I liked it because I got to feed Kooper his bottle while she ate!) The television show had you pour this mixture into an enamel covered cast iron dutch oven with some hot oil and to cook it a bit, then add a pound of washed red potatoes and cook for a bit. Then add some pre-cooked shredded beef and add. It became a stew that looked great!

Dee was outside, laboring on Nate's truck. He changed the distrubutor, the spark plug wires, and seemed to ease up the missing. Now, we work on the alignment. It seems it hasn't been aligned since, perhaps...1960! Some gunk was sprayed on, and we will try on Monday to see if the rod thing I helped unscrew will move.

I cleaned up, Doran and family scurried home, and Dad and I proceeded to get in our Sunday best and head over to Ethan and Cam's. Amber kindly and wisely got tickets for us to attend the open house at new Gilbert Arizona Temple. Ethan drove over 53 miles to get us safely there, and we met up with Doran and Amber and family in the parking lot at a nearby park, where Dee had arranged to meet his friends from work, Klemens Raab and his wife, Gloria.

Loved this picture when these two little cousins started holding hands while Daddy and Papa had them on their shoulders!

 There were soooo many people at the tour...kind of felt like being herded...but the inside was breathtaking...especially that chandelier in the Celestial Room! It was LOTS of walking and we were exhausted...especially poor, sweet Amber, who just gave birth less than four weeks ago! So glad we went. Love being there with family. Sure missed Kayty, who was working, and our out of town family. However, I have an idea we will all be back there soon...Jessica LOVES this temple and thought maybe she would be there with her sweetheart in Korea in a few months!

A lot of walking and a lot of stair climbing made me feel not so bad to eat those sweet dark chocolate chips I enjoyed once we got home, even if it was at 10 pm.