Pie Crazy

Susan gave me a easy crust recipe on Sunday. It isn't made with lard or butter (sorry Jesse), but I made a crust that turned out! Today I made a blueberry pie for my dad, another cherry pie for my husband and Pastor B. for Brewers/ Cubs game tomorrow (Go Brewers!), and a Potato-Spinach Tart with Three Pepper Crust for dinner. I am on a roll...pun intended.

Potato-Spinach Tart with Three Pepper Crust

1 c flour
1/4 t ground black pepper
1/4 t ground red pepper
1/4 t ground white pepper
1/2 t salt
1/4 c oil
2-3 T cold water

2 baking potatoes, boiled until tender, cut into slices
3-4 c fresh spinach,chopped
1/2 c chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
4 eggs
dash hot pepper sauce
cheese to cover top, optional

To prepare crust: Mix dry ingredients. Mix in wet ingredients, stir with fork until ball forms. Roll out crust in between sheets of wax paper. Blind bake crust in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Saute onion and garlic in oil for 5 minutes. Beat eggs and pepper sauce. Layer potatoes, spinach and onions. Pour eggs over top and cover with cheese. Bake in oven for 20 minutes, or until golden.

Rummaging

A fact that you may or may not know about me: I love going to rummage sales. I love finding a bargain--or at least outfitting my girls in cute 50 cent dresses.

I found these crucifixes at a rummage sale today. Who sells Jesus in their rummage? Who sells Jesus 4 for $1? I snatched them all up--nice wood and brass crucifixes like these are expensive at Stempers. The woman who sold them to me only said "Good for you." What was that supposed to mean?

Early Summer Harvest

Our neighbors have beautiful cherry trees that they never pick. So we asked if we could pick them. We picked 3 or 4 gallons of sour cherries on Sunday afternoon. This is the last piece of pie. BTW, I need pie pastry lessons. Anyone willing to teach a hopeless pastry student? It looked pretty, but tasted like yuck.

I braved the blood-sucking of the winged beasts that live in our backyard to pick these berries tonight. Thanks to the parsonage's previous inhabitants we have beautiful raspberries to eat on our cereal tomorrow morning (thank you M & J!).

Don't Glitter

Lily: "Mom! Claire glittered outside!"

Me: "What?"

Lily: "Claire glittered!"

Me: "Did she glitter or litter?"

Lily: "Oh. Yeah. Littered."

Me: "Then tell her to pick it up and throw her garbage in trash."

Lily: "Okay."

Gorg

Kristen posted a bunch of pictures from our visit last week on her blog. Her made up word/ slogan for the week? Gorg (think french pronunciation), as in "that's gorgeous, but I am too lazy to say the rest of the word."

My girls have assimilated gorg into their vocabulary. I don't mind too much, as the word manifests itself into conversation via compliments for moi: "Mom you look gorg!"

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

My husband was telling me a story he heard about Mr. Rogers the other day. Apparently, Fred in his pre-children's programming days was a Navy Seal, covered in tattoos, and had accrued an unreal amount of kills during the Vietnam War.

According to this website the story is just an urban legend. I am kinda bummed that it turned out to be false. I enjoyed watching the one or two episodes with my girls imagining a huge tattoo on his bicep. It made me laugh.

I Heart HyVee

Susan goes on and on about how much she loves and misses Woodmans, her favorite grocery store. I don't think that many people really understand woman/ grocery store relationship. I do. I miss my old grocery store in Minnesota immensely--HyVee.

My mom and I (and all my little girls) drove to Des Moines to visit my sister Kristen this past week. We went shopping at Kristen's HyVee within 12 hours of our arrival. I was again reminded of just how great HyVee is, and more concretely how much I hate my grocery options here in Wisconsin, where (dare I admit it?) Walmart is my best option.

HyVee has fabulous produce and meat departments. They have a store brand generic label which is amazing in quality. I don't think that they are quite as cheap as Susan's Woodmans, but their prices are often competitive with Walmart. And to top it off, their staff is almost always energetic and friendly!

When I moved to Wisconsin 2 years ago, I wrote a letter to my old HyVee store telling them how much I missed shopping at their store every week. Who does that? I am such a nerd.

Mosquito Bites

It wasn't caused by a sibling fistfight, just a little bug. She is awfully sensitive.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I bought myself flowers for my 27th birthday. Aren't they pretty?

Happy Birthday Lily!

Lily turned 4 on July 3rd. It is pretty hard to believe that she is 4 already (I feel like my dad saying that statment). We made the usual birthday shrine, opened presents, decorated cake, and went to the parade and fireworks. It was a great day!