Battle of Kirksville

Jonathan and I had to slip away early from our second visit with Carrie to head over to the Battle of Kirksville.  We had been anticipating this event for an entire year and we were not disappointed.  The weather was just perfect that day and there was quite a crowd.  Rotary Park was the location chosen to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Kirksville. (The actual battle took place in the downtown area.)  We enjoyed wandering through the sutlers tents (merchants) before taking our seats on the grassy hill to watch the battle re-enactment.  Jonathan was especially excited to see the artillery.  :)  I appreciated the historical narrative that was given throughout the re-enactment - it made it all quite interesting.  All in all a great event.  Glad we went!

 

Our dear Carrie

I am digging way back to the beginning of August for this post.  Life seems to have sped by the last several weeks and I am way behind.  But, back at the beginning of August we enjoyed not one, but two special visits with Carrie and Kiersten.  It was just wonderful!

Our dear Carrie spent many, many hours with us all those years ago... back when she was a fixture in our household and our family.  You see, Carrie's Grandpa and my Daddy were the best of friends for years and years - and our families were just always connected.  When Marvin and I moved back here, Carrie became our first babysitter for Jackson.  She was an absolute marvel!  We ALL fell in complete love with her.  She even agreed to accompany our extended family on a trip to Virginia back in 1998 to help with ALL the kids across the family.  Did I mention this girl is family to us?

She attended Truman and graduated with her nursing degree, but not before she was able to arrange her schedule to be IN the surgical room when I had my C-section delivery of Jonathan!  She was even able to be my recovery nurse and I can tell you that was such an incredible blessing and gift to have her with me at that time.  She has gone on to be a magnificent nurse serving everywhere from Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, to Hospice, to traveling nurse programs like she is doing now.  I am confident that wherever she goes, she is leaving a trail of blessings a mile wide.  As Kiersten said, 'Carrie is called to be a nurse.'  So, so true.  Did I mention we love this girl?   :)

Carrie and Kiersten had a month between traveling nursing stints and so returned home to visit family and friends.  We were thrilled to be on their list.  Sadly, they were arriving about the time that we were leaving for the fair, but we managed to get together for dinner one evening and had such a marvelous time that we snuck in a second visit the following morning.  How good it was to be with them and enjoy lots of laughter and memories and smiles.  It had been far too long between visits and we hope that it won't be that long again.  Good, good times.

Daddy, Carrie, Mama, Kiersten

:)

Marvin, Laura, Kiersten, Carrie (hiding!!) Arayna, Anna, Jonathan, Julie

Marvin, Jackson, Kiersten, Carrie (there she is!), Arayna, Anna, Jonathan, Julie

you can tell things are gonna fall apart....

Yup!  I think picture taking time is over!  :)

I love Carrie's face in this one...

:)

Laura and Carrie at the pond

Jonathan, Marvin, Jackson, Carrie and Kiersten

Carrie knows just how to aggravate Jackson; like a true big sister....  :)

Jonathan, Marvin, Jackson, Carrie and Kiersten

:)

Did I mention how much we enjoyed spending time with those two?

Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes

LOVE this!  But, I love sweet potatoes and yams pretty much any way I can come up to make them.  This was a nice, yet slightly different way to prepare them that we all enjoyed.  

Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes

2 pounds sweet potatoes

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. honey

1 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl combine the olive oil, honey and lemon juice.  Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into chunks.  (I just cleaned them and cut out the eyes and 'rough' parts but left most of the skin on.)   Add the potatoes to the bowl and toss to coat.  Pour into 9 x 13 baking dish and sprinkle with the salt.  Bake, stirring occasionally, for about an hour or until potatoes are to desired doneness.  

Bacon, bacon, bacon!!!

Okay, this is a fantastic way to cook bacon.  You can do it all in your oven with no smoky, 'bacon air' filling up your house, and minimal clean up.  I am hooked!!  In fact, I made several batches this way to take to the state fair for easy BLT's in the camper.  To do that I simply pulled it out a tiny bit before it was done then dried it on paper towels and put it in freezer bags lined with waxed paper.  To use in the camper we zapped in the microwave for about 20 seconds and had tasty, crisp bacon slices ready to use!

Line a baking sheet with foil.  (this step helps with the cleanup later)  Place bacon slices on the foil.  I used 2 baking sheets for a pound of bacon.  Place the baking sheets in the center rack of a COLD oven.    (Do NOT preheat the oven.  Although, I will admit that when I made multiple pounds I just put the next batches in the already hot oven and then kept a closer eye on the timing, adjusting according to preferred doneness.)  Close oven door, turn on oven temperature to 400 degrees and walk away.  :)

Come back in about 17 to 20 minutes and check progress.  If you like the bacon burnt (like my fellas around here like it) it might take a bit longer than that - more like 23 to 25 minutes.  Just adjust the total cooking time to your personal preference.  Remove pans from oven, transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate or platter to dry/drain.  Either eat immediately or freeze as mentioned above.  Let the pans cool, then fold up the bacon grease in the foil and throw away!  

Tina's Squash Casserole

This recipe is an old favorite around here - another great one from dear Tina who also gave me the Southwest Salad recipe.  This summer there has been an abundance of yellow squash and zucchini allowing for lots of yummy recipes.  This was posted on my old blog but the post has since gotten lost (long story) so I am posting it here again.

Tina's Squash Casserole
2 pounds yellow summer squash  (I split this between yellow squash and zucchini)
1 cup* onion, chopped  (or can use a couple of green onions)  (*Note, we like a lot of onion; you might want to decrease this amount.)
1 green pepper, chopped
3/4 cup light sour cream
1 can reduced sodium condensed Cream of Chicken soup
1 pkg. Corn Bread Stuffing Mix
2 grated carrots

Fix the stuffing mix as directed on package.  Spray skillet with nonstick spray and lightly saute the yellow squash and zucchini.  In a separate bowl, mix together the onion, green pepper, sour cream, chicken soup and carrots.  Save back about 1 cup of prepared stuffing mix then add the rest to the mixing bowl with other ingredients.  Add in the sauted squash and mix well.  Pour mixture into baking pan and sprinkle the rest of the stuffing mix on top of casserole.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes.

I'm going to try to catch up...

No, we haven't totally disappeared off the face of the earth... The month of August has just flown by and I can't believe I haven't had a chance to post anything since July 29!  Now that we are home from traveling and have begun our new school year, perhaps I can get caught up on posting here.  But I have a feeling I'd better hurry...  :)