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Summer Lovin’ (An Ode to Potato Salad)

by TwigPusher on May 8, 2012

Summer is approaching, and I hate to sound cliche’ (sorry, it’s just too easy), but I am always reminded of my childhood when it starts getting super hot outside.

Sometimes, I wonder how I survived. Me and my friends were always barefoot. On the sidewalk. On the street pavement. On the grass of a foreign yard or park. On the dirt near the creek (where I always managed to fall in). Riding our bikes all over the neighborhood without a phone or any way for my mom to know where I was on the map. Ah, the good old days…

Now, it’s difficult to imagine walking on asphalt with bare feet. I can’t do it without hollering in agony when it’s hot outside. How did I manage it when I was a kid with fresh feet? Weird. Still, I think allowing children to feel the grass on their tootsies is kinda necessary for some reason, so I let my kids do that sometimes. I’m sure there’s got to be some research somewhere that says it’s important…

Another strong summer memory? Food.

Watermelon. Snow Cones. Homemade Ice Cream. Barbecue. Potato salad.

Okay, maybe you don’t think of the potato salad, but I do.

There is nothing that goes better with a summer barbecue than potato salad. I’m not talking about the mess that’s sold in the plastic tubs (although that will do in a pinch)…I’m talking real, live, made from scratch…potato salad.

This is my grandmother’s recipe box. It was handed down to me from my mother. It is full of wonderful, old-fashioned recipes. Pies, salads, pot roasts, jello molds. Good eatin’!

And then there was her potato salad. So good.

The recipe card is old and yellowed, and it’s had a few things spilled on it, but I could still make out the ingredients, so I decided to finally, finally make it myself. I could have eaten it all day. Oh yes, it’s that good. Probably because the nostalgia overtook me and that bowl of goodness was made with 100% love (and due to the kids, just a pinch of hysteria). So I’m sharing with you!

Grandmother’s Potato Salad

Ingredients:

  • 5 medium-sized red potatoes
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
  • 2/3 cup diced green bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup pimientos
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
  • 1/2 cup dill pickle relish
  • 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
  • Mayonnaise, enough to coat salad to your taste
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil the potatoes whole until just done (I poked mine with a sharp knife periodically – when I could get it to go all the way into the middle I knew they were done). Remove the skins and allow to cool. Chop into about 1/2-1″ pieces. Add all other ingredients. Fold in mayo and add salt and pepper. This recipe makes enough to serve about 8 people depending on the serving size. I could eat a whole bowl!

Coming soon…the Mister’s recipe for perfect smoked pork ribs…

 

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The Lovely Bone

by TwigPusher on April 24, 2012

Once upon a time, Easter was over and I had a bone to pick…er, use.

What to do with that leftover Easter ham bone?

It still had quite a bit of meat left on it, so I used some of that to make a crust-less ham, spinach and Swiss quiche.

See, I have four million kids now, so I didn’t really have time to make a pie crust, and I didn’t want to schlep them all to the grocery store for that one item, so I decided to make do without. It’s probably just a hair healthier without the added butter and flour anyway. Served with some roasted veggies (I chose fresh Brussels sprouts), this was awesomeness on a plate.

Then with the bone, I made this mixed-bean and kale soup in the crock pot with some other items I had on hand…

These meals were pretty economical to make, and easy as well. That’s my middle name these days. EASY. If it’s not easy, I’m not messing with it. It’s hard to cook with 6 gajillion kids screaming and yelling and jumping off of furniture.

Here are the recipes:

Crustless Quiche

Ingredients:

  • Butter or cooking spray
  • ~ 2 Tbsp. plain bread crumbs
  • 5 eggs
  • 2 cups half and half (we use this in our coffee so it’s always around)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Ground/grated nutmeg (optional)
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 cup of grated Swiss cheese
  • ~1/2 cup of chopped ham
  • ~1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, cooked and drained
  • 1 small can of mushrooms

Directions:

Heat oven to 425. In a pie plate, either butter or spray with cooking spray, then sprinkle in bread crumbs, evenly distributing them so the plate is covered (if you don’t have bread crumbs, you can skip this step – it won’t make a difference – but do use butter or cooking spray to keep quiche from sticking). Add your onion, ham, spinach, cheese, then mushrooms.

In a medium bowl, mix the eggs and half & half. Add a couple pinches of salt and pepper. You could add some ground nutmeg as well if you like. Pour the custard over the ingredients in the pie plate slowly.

Bake for about 30 minutes (depending on your oven, you might need to cook longer), or until center of quiche is set (stick a knife in and if it comes out clean, you’re all good). Let it sit for about 10 minutes before cutting.

You can use whatever you want in a quiche like this…you could use any type of meat you like (cooked bacon or breakfast sausage), or leave it out completely. Use whatever veggies you have on hand…asparagus works, as does broccoli. I always keep frozen chopped spinach in my freezer. This is a pretty cool recipe because you can change it up however you like as far as the filling.

Crock Pot Ham Bone Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1 ham bone with some meat left (alternatively, you could use about a pound of chopped ham or ham hocks from the grocery store – some butchers may even have meaty ham bones available)
  • 1 16oz. package of dry mixed beans/lentils* (I had a package from the store that came with “ham-flavored seasoning” in little packets [gag], but I threw those away). Rinse beans and pick over for bad beans/rocks.
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 14.5oz. can of diced tomatoes or Rotel for extra spice (I used Rotel)
  • 3-4 carrots, chopped in 1″ pieces
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • ~ 8 cups of water or enough to cover beans and bone
  • 1 bunch of kale (or spinach if you prefer), stems removed and chopped into ribbons

Directions:

Except for the kale, chuck it all in a 7 qt. crock pot and turn on low for about 8 hours or until beans are tender. At the end of cooking, remove the ham bones (there is usually a joint in there, so there may be two larger bones, and a couple of smaller ones) and shred any large chunks of meat that have fallen off into bite-sized pieces. Ten minutes before serving, add the kale on top and let it wilt into the soup. Serve with corn muffins or bread of your choice.

*Since this is a crock pot recipe that cooks over several hours, you do not need to soak the beans overnight. You can use whatever beans you like here as well. I chose the mixed beans/lentils because they were pretty.

This recipe makes a large amount so you can either freeze it or eat it for days like we did!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

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This Way to the NICU

by TwigPusher on April 23, 2012

IMPORTANT NOTE:

I wrote this post a couple of days before #4 got to come home about three weeks ago. Once she was with us, it seemed silly to post. I decided to go ahead now, because if there are any moms out there who have or are enduring a baby’s stay in the NICU, perhaps this will help them not feel so alone. Those three weeks that my sweet babe was a NICU patient were some of the hardest days of my life (and my family’s), but we survived. Today we are all together and undertaking a new adventure… acclimatizing ourselves from three kids to four. Yikes. I will write more about that when time permits…say, in about two years. Just kidding. Hopefully very soon! I have food to write about, too…

So, without further ado…This Way to the NICU…

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Apologies for not posting anything lately…things have been a little weird.

Having a background in nursing and working in a hospital for several years did absolutely nothing to prepare me for being on the other side of the stethoscope as a parent of a newborn in the NICU.

It’s a long walk from my car to the NICU, no matter where I park.

It’s a lonely walk. Lonely, lonely.

I go to the hospital five times a day (every three hours) so that my baby will know me and she can learn to nurse. How could I not? Thank goodness we live ten minutes away.

During those long, familiar walks to and from the parking garage, I noticed things that others might not notice or care about.

There is a lot of construction going on, because they’re building an entirely new patient tower which will include a brand-spankin’-new NICU. The construction dudes are there every.single.day. Even on weekends. The powers-that-be are really determined to get that thing built by next year.

It’s really amazing how quickly things change inside the hospital when there’s construction going on. One day, I’m walking through the front lobby to get where I need to be. That same day, only hours later, I’m walking through part of the ER and then through a newly built hallway that is behind the lobby because the lobby is now closed off for construction.

There’s a dime-sized blood drop on the floor near the Emergency Room waiting area. Is it his? Hers? That dude with the ice pack on his head? Did it belong to a child?

There are a lot of young children in the ER on any given day. When I hear a baby crying, I want to cry, too.

Several elderly folks are wheeled in each day. It’s always the same thing – someone drives up, gets a wheelchair, takes it back to their car and begins the loooooong process of trying to get that person out of the car and into the chair. The elderly person is slumped over. I feel for the person doing the hard labor of helping them out of the car, and I feel for that elderly man or woman who feels so bad that they can’t walk.

Walking through radiology, I hear the MRI machine…loud and creepy. There are folks lined up waiting in hospital gowns and wheelchairs or gurneys for their turn to get an X-ray, MRI, CT scan…”like planes on the tarmac” as my husband noted.

The new hallway is really long, and it seems to get longer as I’m walking through it, like someone extending a telescope.

Several times a day, there is a lady dust-mopping the new hallway, carrying a can of something (hope it’s not Pledge) and wearing a hardhat (because of the construction going on?). But not today…today it’s a young man. He’s wearing a hardhat, too, but no spray can.

I have decided that I really do not care for loud noises.

I notice the smell of urine near the surgery waiting area. What happened there?

Nursing students here and there, some in green, some in purple. They look scared to death. I remember that feeling. Nervous, nervous. They’re thinking “Do I really have to touch people I don’t know?” and “I pray I don’t kill someone today”.

I hope it wasn’t one of them who peed near the surgery waiting area…

The main hallway to the elevators is really cold, so I always wear a sweater.

People in the L&D waiting room…loud and rowdy. There are young kiddos spilling their juice boxes all over the floor. Everyone’s excited to welcome a new life. I envy them, because most of those Mommies will get to hold their babies as much as they want while they’re in the hospital and then get to take them home.

I want to reach out to the other NICU moms and talk to them, hear their stories, but I can’t. And I realize they can’t either…we are all sort of mentally isolated from one another…all of our focus is on our little ones. We smile politely to each other and maybe say “hello” or “I guess you’re on the same schedule” and try to laugh it off. All of us are going through our own experiences with a very different story to tell. I think the lady who’s babe is next to mine is depressed. I think the nurses sense it, too. Her voice sounds so sad and despondent. I hope she’ll be okay.

When the privacy screens are up around me while I’m nursing the babe, I can hear everything happening outside my little fortress even better. I hear about the recipes that one nurse tried. I hear two other nurses discussing a case. I hear the mommies next door on either side talking to their husbands or not talking at all. I hear a nurse gently encouraging one of the moms to keep trying to get her baby to wake up and eat. I look down and realize that my babe has nodded off and I need to wake her up so she’ll eat, too. This usually means I need to rub her back, tickle her feet, sit her up and talk to her, or strip her down so she’s not as toasty. I hate having to do that to her.

After a natural birth experience, I feel like I could do anything…take on any challenge, endure any type of pain. But being separated from my newborn is more painful than anything. The nights, at home without her, are absolute torture.

It’s hard choosing the best times to break down and decompress…it’s difficult. Wait until I get to the car, wait until I’m home and in the bedroom so the kids won’t see. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Can’t wait for her to be home with me and her Daddy and siblings.

Sitting in the NICU holding the babe and staring down that pulse oximetry monitor…willing her oxygen levels to stay up, up, up. So my daughter can come home.

The walk to the NICU is the same every day. The nurses there are like family to me now – they all know me and #4 quite well. They always know when to expect me and our nurse always has everything ready for us (privacy screens set up, warm bottle of Mommy’s milk as a supplement after nursing, bath supplies at the ready if it’s bath day, etc.)

Funny thing is, I will probably blubber a little bit when it’s time to leave, because the incredible nurses and doctors and nurse practitioners and respiratory therapists have all been so wonderful to us. They’ve really been rooting for us so we can go home and be a family.

And I know that time is coming soon…

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Yes, I did blubber when we left, but mostly I was excited and couldn’t wait to get her home. It was a happy, happy day that I’ll never forget, and I will NEVER forget the incredible people who helped get her there.

 

Home, Sweet Home!

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Pardon Me While I Reboot

March 13, 2012 Life

Nothing like getting a new perspective on life. It’s not like when your computer does a periodic upgrade…you sort of know when that’s going to happen…you get some warning. You can restart your computer later. You can postpone it if you want. But in life, changes can happen with very little notice. And I have [...]

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Fly Like an Eagle

March 11, 2012 Life

Isn’t it odd how things happen? A few days ago, I was just another uncomfortable pregnant 44-year-old.  Next thing I know, I’ve got a babe in the NICU trying to breathe on her own. She’s hooked up to every machine in the joint (it seems). She’s not super tiny, but she’s certainly smaller and more [...]

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Remembering Mom

March 2, 2012 Life

If I were to be allowed only one thing to remember my mother by, it wouldn’t be a picture or a knick-knack. It would be this: This is a (rather dusty) Nikon F – a 35mm camera introduced in 1963 and produced until 1973 when the F2 came out. The Nikon F was the company’s [...]

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They Say It’s Your Birthday…

February 23, 2012 Life

One of my daughters has a birthday party coming up, and to be quite honest, I always get nervous for a couple of reasons. Mostly, I feel the pressure to make it a special day for her, and I don’t want to scar her for life if things don’t turn out the way she’d like. But [...]

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The Eagle Has Landed

February 20, 2012 Homeschooling

  The Husband recently introduced me to the nesting eagles in Decorah, IA. Absolutely amazing stuff. A mother eagle sits on her nest warming an egg, and you can watch her live on Ustream at http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles. She laid one egg a few days ago, and another is expected at any time (Edited to add: Mom delivered [...]

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Drapes of Wrath

February 17, 2012 Room Makeovers

I know that’s a silly title for a blog post, but I couldn’t resist. In trying to figure out what kind of window treatment I could put in the soon-to-be schoolroom, I came up with a really imperfect solution. I didn’t sew a stitch. I didn’t iron at all. The project only cost me $2.80. [...]

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Finding My Happy Place

February 15, 2012 Room Makeovers

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today about places in the home people go to in order to relax and take a moment. Do you have a place that you escape to to get away from the noise of the day? I didn’t until recently. It’s not that far from the action, but [...]

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