Life at Willis Creek Ranch: March 2021

Monday, March 22, 2021

Ciabatta Italian open-faced sandwiches

package of mushrooms, washed and sliced

onion (however much you want to use)

1 pkg Italian Sausage

1 pkg Ciabatta buns

olive oil

basil and/or Italian seasoning

pizza sauce

shredded Italian cheese

Brown the mushrooms and onion together. Set aside. Brown Italian Sausage. Split Ciabatta buns and lay on baking sheet. Brush bun tops with a little olive oil the sprinkle with seasonings. Spread pizza sauce on top. Add the Italian Sausage and Mushrooms/onions as desired. Top with shredded Italian cheese. Bake at 425 for about 10-12 minutes or until cheese is melted and browned. (I used convect bake)

Poblano Chicken & Spinach Enchiladas

Years ago I ate spinach/mushroom enchiladas at the Heard Museum in Mesa, Arizona. They were about the best enchiladas I have ever had! I have spent years searching for recipes that might come close and have never found one. Aldi had this refrigerated creamy poblano simmer sauce recently and I decided to give it a try. Oh my word... this is IT! This is the key to what I remember! Sadly, this was a seasonal buy and it doesn't appear to be available anymore... I REALLY wish I had bought a bunch and put them in the freezer. This sauce is truly delicious!

I decided to use the sauce to make chicken and spinach enchiladas. (I was pretty certain my guys wouldn't take kindly to spinach/mushroom enchiladas... although if I ever find this sauce again, THAT is exactly what I am making!) I'll write out what I did below, but this was a super simple thing to throw together, especially since I already had some shredded cooked chicken in my freezer.

Poblano Chicken & Spinach Enchiladas
shredded cooked chicken

1 container Aldi Poblano Simmer Sauce (no longer available... sad face)

corn tortillas

corn (I used half a bag of frozen corn)

spinach (I used half a bag of frozen spinach, thawed and drained/patted dry)

shredded cheese (I used queso quesadilla cheese from Walmart)

Pour most of the sauce on the bottom of the pan. (I wish I'd had two containers of this sauce - I would have used them both - one on the bottom and one on the top.) Mix the chicken, corn and spinach together. Fill the corn tortillas with the shredded chicken/corn/spinach mixture and fold. Lay seam side down in the sauce. I had a little bit of the sauce left and poured it over, but it could have used more. Top with the shredded cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

This was SO GOOD!

before it went in the oven - showing the simmer sauce container from Aldi

out of the oven...

served with mexican rice & refried beans, and an Aldi corn/black bean/quinoa freezer mix (also apparently a seasonal item only...)

Yum!

Maverick

This little guy is ready to walk! He is taking steps now and so close to just taking off across a whole room! On this particular day he was 'helping' GranGran with the trash and I got one good step on photo/video. He is curious about everything and pays close attention to the jobs that people are doing around him. Observant guy.

This is hilarious. Maverick isn't really interested in *playing* with blocks. He will ignore them if they are just sitting there loose on the floor. BUT, if you stack them up and draw his attention to them, he will crawl at a mad pace, sometimes from way across the whole room, to knock them down. It is like an obsession. And so funny to watch. :)

Jackson is going to get a stack of blocks 'ready' for Maverick...

waiting for Maverick to spot them...

...and here he comes!!

focused!

determined!

and they are down! :)

We so enjoy family lunches with Great-Grandma Sue and Great-Grandpa Jack

What a Sunday!

What joy! After many, many months of not being able to be together, we enjoyed a big family dinner at Mama and Daddy's house. Vaccinations have been a source of hope and joy and we are grateful for the science and inspiration behind them.

It was SO good to see Matthew and Anna!

Maverick's got his shirt off... ready to eat! :D

I didn't get a picture of it but one thing was super funny... As you can imagine this was a table brimming with excitement and lots of talking! At one point we looked over and Maverick was holding both hands over his ears. ha! I guess we were a little too loud and boisterous for him! We can be a bit much... and this was the largest group of us that he has been around in his lifetime! Just wait until ALL are here in the future! I think we will have him eased in and ready for us by then... :)

Maverick and Jonathan

James and Rojina Facetimed in - we passed them around the table. :)

Everyone saying hi to James and Rojina! :)

We had Candace and Kerry on speakerphone as we were taking the group photos. When Jackson was taking the photo, Candace told everyone instead of saying 'cheese' to just admire Jackson's hair. :) So we took the opportunity after the photo to do just that. :)

Daddy's plaque for the Carnahan Public Service Award had arrived in the mail.

Anna, Hannah and Maverick

Hannah, Brianna and Maverick

Matthew, Maverick and Brianna

we were all feeling pretty 'huggy' :)

Hannah and Jonathan

I love this photo! Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jack with several grandkids...
Hannah, Matthew, Anna, Jonathan, Jackson, Maverick, Brianna

All pictured (except Maverick) have been vaccinated. Most because their age or profession placed them in an eligible tier. The rest have received 'wasted dose' vaccines from local pharmacies. Basically, when vaccines are given out, because they cannot be kept for long after opening, there are often leftover doses that have to be either given or tossed. We are thankful that our local pharmacies are providing the service of offering them to people who sign up on their 'wasted dose' lists. It has been a true blessing for our family and many others we know.

Painting with friends

I have a friend who loves to paint. I remember when she first mentioned that to me and I was so intrigued! I wondered if she liked to paint landscapes or portraits or still life... so many possibilities. Then she told me that no, she really loved to paint houses. Like walls inside of houses. Doing so provided her joy and relaxation. I laughed that I could sure provide her with lots of opportunity for joy! Sure enough, dear Deb was an invaluable friend when we were getting the Airbnb ready. Such great memories.

Well, recently she suggested a paint activity that was more like my original notion... and waaaayyyyy out of my comfort zone. :D But she gathered the supplies and distributed them, then gathered some ladies together on zoom and we had a paint activity. It turned out to be so much fun! Deb asked Betsy to guide us through the painting and she was such a marvelous teacher. She made us all feel more confident and like we could really *do* this.

Thanks so much to Deb and Betsy for a truly enjoyable afternoon!

Betsy taking us step by step - showing us how to blend colors and put them on the canvas...

Sunday, March 21, 2021

More Maverick

March 10 & 11, 2021

Maverick doesn't miss much... he spots exciting things happening outside all the time. This time it was his Daddy pouring diesel fuel in the tractor. :)

The next day he got to watch as Joey brought two loads of gravel in his dump truck!

bibs make good teethers, or so I've been told...

only thing that could replace it is...

Grandma's glasses!

This was so cute! I wish I had videoed it! But I wasn't expecting it! Maverick was sitting there when Marvin came out of the bedroom Marvin dropped down on his knees and was playing with him when all of a sudden Maverick pivoted and took off crawling like a rocket! He was moving SO fast!! It was hilarious! And GranGran was huffing and puffing after trying to keep up with him! ha!