Weekend

This weekend was family time. Aaron and Jaime came down to see us, bringing their two children, and Derek's girlfriend Amy also came over with Derek's daughters Haley and Hannah. Derek is away at training in Missouri so he missed the fun (and I'm wondering if he was where they had a foot of snow).

It wasn't all fun--we had work to do. Project #1 getting the cabbages, broccoli and early tomatoes transplanted and into the greenhouse. With Jaime's help, we got that done on Saturday before we got into the big cabinet moving adventure. The little plants look great.

Project#2 was something that had been holding since August. I'd bought this big pantry cupboard at a junk store then, but we had to move the antique oak buffet to Derek's house before we could move the cabinet in. It also required moving the sifter cabinet to a new location. I'd promised Derek years ago that he would get the buffet in my will. Recently it occurred to me that I'm almost 60 and not planning to leave any time soon, and he might be an old man before he got that buffet, so we gave it to him now. And I'm looking around to see what else needs some "advance disposal."

All that heavy furniture moving needed more muscle than we had--but with Aaron on the job it was easy.

Jaime helped level it up, because is anything in my house level? If it is I haven't found it yet.

The cabinet in place. Originally we planned to refinish it, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of using it as it is. I'll replace the knobs and maybe the hinges sometime and do a little cleaning on the outside, but otherwise I kinda like the way it looks.

We started putting stuff in it, just to get it out of the way, but later last night I took it all out again and redid. I decided I wanted this to be a pantry cupboard, with all my food stuff, mixing bowls and implements, and big canning pots in the bottom. I'm almost finished with getting it all rearranged--that project required emptying two other cupboards, cleaning shelves, etc.

The back of this cabinet was some kind of cardboard that was in terrible shape. Larry took it off and used a piece of plywood from our old porch floor to back it and I like the look very well--we just washed it down and didn't even repaint it. the worn paint matches the look of the cabinet, I think.

We took a photo break on Sunday morning. We have become aware these last few weeks of just have valuable our pictures are, as we've been remembering Jon through all the old photos we have of him. So we are trying to remember to take more, although I've found my interest in photography is intermittent at best these days. Many of these pics are from Amy and Jaime's cameras (shamelessly borrowed from their Facebook pages!)

Jaime and Amy--two great helpers who didn't run screaming at the dirt we found under those heavy cabinets!

Sunday we got into a few other things--like taking this renegade beagle back to its house. No stray dogs are welcome at my house since those ones that killed all my chickens a few years ago.

While we worked outside, the kids got out the craft supplies and got to it. This must have been early in the process because eventually they covered the floor with their projects.

Sunday morning after breakfast, Jaime had a little quiet time. We'd made bacon, fried eggs, grits and biscuits. I found out last week that to make the lightest biscuits that flake when you break them, use shortening instead of butter. yeah, I know. Yucky old white shortening. But boy are the biscuits wonderful. I also add a little more baking powder with the self-rising flour. I used big and small biscuit cutters, and the kids really liked the little biscuits.

I forgot to mention Saturday night's dinner. Here's a photo of the group-effort quiche:

I made the crusts and advised on ingredients, Amy cut up onions and sauteed them with mushrooms, Jaime grated cheese, chopped spinach, mixed it all up and got it in the oven. How was it? Delicious! We used Gruyere cheese along with a little cheddar.

While Jaime worked on that, Amy was busy making a salad and this:

Bread pudding! She used a lot of butter and eggs, and served it with fresh whipped cream, raspberries and almonds.

I'd found a recipe for Dilly Bacon Cornbread, so Jaime mixed that up while I ransacked the cabinets for dillweed. Guess I used it all, but I did have dillseed so I ground it coarsely in the mortar and pestle and we used that instead.

It was a delicious dinner, can you tell? We still have two of the quiches left, lucky me.

Oh yeah...the daffodils are finally blooming! Jaime dug up some white ones, and I dug up a couple forsythia starts and some peonies and daylilies for her too.

It was a good weekend, very busy but with plenty of time for just talking, relaxing by the firepit and having a good time together.

Next weekend--FFA Auction! Aaron and Jaime will be back to check that out with us. Expect some interesting (I hope) photos next week.