Tis the season for soup and stew...

Jason made a reallly interesting stoup - as Rachel Ray calls this sort of thing - it had potatoes, a poblano, jalepeno AND red bell pepper, onion, celery, roasted tomatoes and corn with a mostly stock base and a bit of cream added.  Woooo, real good.

This is the extent of my contribution - the sous chef

Last night he made the Costco ravioli with grated carrots and julienned yellow and green zucchini with a seemingly secret sauce - unbelievably great.

We're going to Madison this weekend for an annual trip to Ski-Hi orchard near Baraboo with my parents.  Robin stopped at Ski-Hi to get some apple cider and other goodies the Sunday after Thanksgiving 1999 on her way back to school at Winona State University. 

Mr. Shumacher was there and their store wasn't really open but he invited her in and recounts with us the special encounter he had with Robin; what happened to be moments before the car accident that took her to heaven.  We cry together and he says with such conviction what a delightful person he could tell Robin was and what a memorable and warm conversation they had. 

Mr. Schumacher has since suffered a stroke a number of years ago and we hope that he is comfortable and happy wherever he is...we hope to see him on Sunday.  And hope to see Robin's picture that he added under the glass with the family and staff of Ski-Hi. 

We miss you Robin - this is such a touching, heart wrenching, beautiful, sacred time of year for us my sweet little sister - you are heavy on our hearts, thoughts and in our prayers this season and always.  I love you.

Below are some pictures from Ski Hi 2007

Halloween'd out

A little butterfly and the Incredible Hulk!

Last Saturday Boo Bash at St. Robert, this past Friday TrickorTreat at Bayshore with the gang, Saturday sweet, spooky party at Laurette's and Sunday Sunday Sunday Graham and I handing out candy 1-4p and then Graham and Jason TorT'ing while I hand out candy again to the neighborhood 6-7:30p!  Woooooo!  Real fun but real done! 

This pic sums it up...we've played 'find the candy', 'candy basketball' and Graham set out a Dots box to look at b/c 'he likes the colors'.  Kids and candy.

Graham had his last little soccer game Saturday and they actually scored a few times and might have won!  Nice game, Stegosauruseseseses!  Basketball next up.

Mmmmmmm: last night we had a phenom chicken sandwich; gruyere cheese, avocado, roasted peppers on grilled sourdough peasant bread, uh!  So good!  Saturday was a fantastic gourmet, healthy feast at the Blanchards and tonight we had a regular; enchiladas [ground turkey, mexi cheese, sauteed onions and red pepps wrapped in corn tortillas with a mild red enchilada sauce, organic blue corn chips with salsa and guac] Muchas gracias Jason.

A new diner

Estelle's Mmmmmmmm: Earth's Best organic whole grain rice cereal!!!  Stelly likes it!  She's started to get up in the night - a bit of regression - and I feed her then, which hasn't happened since her first month.  So, we thought she might need more fuel

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The dining room is open

Jason's back; hence healthy, gourmet dinners are back...

Mmmmmmm: we've had: fajitas - chicken, sweet onion and red peppers from the grill - whole wheat tortillas from Whole Foods (we usually use El Rey's though) - sliced, ripe avocado - organic blue corn chips and Mrs. Renfro's salsa...after Graham's Boo Bash (he had a hot dog there) we had a late dinner (if it were me, I would've ordered a pizza) Jason made chicken sandwiches but of course, not just any chicken sandwiches...topped with sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese and organic spinach with a side of Trader Joe's Chimichurri Rice...bravo!  For dessert, a slice of Jason's winnings at the cake walk - he totally beat Graham and 8 other 5-12 year-olds.  Tonight's labor was a roast (from the pig Aunt Dar buys and shares) that Jason preconceived last night to make pulled pork sandwiches and hand cut roasted sweet potato fries.  The forethought and planning boggles my little mind.


Graham's school had 'Boo Bash' on Saturday...we had a ball making his 'American Hulk' costume...a fun time at the party in the gym...even though the fog machine set off the fire alarm and we had to evacuate...the kids got a kick out of seeing some real costumed fire fighters.

Oh and one more thing - we carved our pumpkins and made roasted pumpkin seeds!  Four kinds: salt & pepper, Lawrys, cinnamon/sugar and curry.  Makes me think of Jason's/our cousins, Jay and Ken and their pumpkin farm...and then how gourmet they are with their breathtaking gardens and the goods they trade with neighbor farmers...they should start a blog with their cooking...they do have a website with fascinating and inspiring things already: www.hayriver.net

The camera work here is kind of shoddy but for a four-year-old is kind of great!  This is Estelle's heartiest laugh yet... love that four-year-old's laugh, too ( : Graham films the pumpkin facial features quite thoroughly...
Happy, happy (early) Halloween!
...shoot, that video was too large of a file...here's another with her laughing pretty good!

A week off

Jason's at a trade show this week so there will be no dining of great note...

Here's a video of Estelle and her Dad having a chat.

I've been posting everyday and now I think I'll cut back to only the stellar creations de Jason - which actually periodically just might be a number of consecutive nights anyway!

Pizza Party

Another incredible WI fall day...spectacular. Great day for Graham's soccer game (he almost scored twice and more importantly has a smile the whole game)- to top it off Coach Dan gave us some farm-fresh carrots and beets still attached to their leaves and soil! Some dishes to come with those ingredients hopefully...anyone have a good beet recipe? Dwight Schrutte does no doubt. The farmer told Dan to dice, season and grill the beets...Mmmmmmmmmmmm

Jason's cousin Vicky was in town with her twins for a hockey tourney at MSOE and we took in some of the action then we all came back and picked up two pizzas from Whole Foods...one pepp and one chix and spinach. It was a nice visit and pizza was probably the best choice for Josh and Jake post game...we always love a Whole Foods pizza...