June 2011 | Page 3 of 4 | Midwestern At Heart

Meet -n- Greet Blog Edition

I ran across this Blogger meet -n- Greet and hope it isn’t to late to enter. If it isn’t, maybe you’d be interested too and if so check out Michelle at A Little Bit of This & That

So let’s get started. If you are new here, you probably want to know a little about me and this little piece of the blog-o-sphere… Well Hello, my name is Nicole.

I originally started this blog out as That’s Life but on a whim changed it to a phrase my husband says all the time: Life’s A Beach (wish I was on one). I grew up on a farm in Southwest Missouri, but don’t let that fool you, I’m sometimes a walking contradiction. I love country life (Agriculture, farm animals, hauling hay, etc) but I would really love to live in Chicago or New York City for 1-2 years. I know it would be a culture shock to me and I’d stick out like a sore thumb, but I’ve been to both cities and absolutely LOVE them! I started blogging on a whim one day in October of 2009 and have been hooked ever since. And I absolutely love meeting new friends and seeing what the country and the world has to offer each and every one of us 🙂 Please stay a spell and hope you’ll come back!

My 5 posts I’ve written that I really like (although there are a bunch):

Timing is Everything (You truly don’t know when things will happen or why they do when they do)
Angel in Disguise (however I didn’t write this, the Mister did :))
And She Said Yes (The story of our engagement)
One Year Ago… (And last summer I wrote out our entire story)
101 in 1001 (and then i jumped on the band wagon and made a list)

5 very Well received Blog Posts

Why (Contradictions, Life is short but don’t rush things…. Ok now I’m confused)
Well Isn’t This a Surprise (Here a Chick, There a Chick, Everywhere a Chick Chick)
Do You Smell That (What can I say, horses are cute!)
A Missouri Style Blizzard (I’d say we got some snow… LOL)
He is… (He is my husband)

Who Am I?

I hit 100 (100 random things about yours truly, no I’m not self absorbed, it was hard!)
Me at His Age (some of the photos of things I’ve done with my life)
99 Things (No I didn’t do things about myself again, it was a list and I claimed what I had done)
Reason Number 744 (I swear we shouldn’t need to dress up for work 🙂
A bit o’ Me (I answered questions :))

Now Google Analytics say my top 5 posts are:

Help Find Will Norton (I live near Joplin, MO and the horrid tornado that went through)
Joplin MO Tornado – May 22, 2011 (yup my top 4 are all about the Tornado)
Tornado Warning
Tornado Path – May 22, 2011
Our Church, Our Decorations (It’s about my wedding… not the tornado :))

So I hope you learned some great things about me and I would love to learn more about you. Please by all means let me know you stopped by! Have a fabulous Day!

Tequila – Lime – Coconut – Macaroon Bars

Let me start by saying…

So over the weekend the hubby’s cousin had a joint bachelor/bachelorette party. It said to bring a side dish, possibly even something Hawaiian-y… I stumbled across this recipe on Friday and thought, heck… it’s close enough. So this is what we took. Now it says Lime… just pretend my lemon is a lime :). I forgot to pick up a Lime and had a lemon on hand. Ambyr told me she preferred the lemon anyway so score! 🙂

Tequila – Lime – Coconut – Macaroon Bars

from Southern Living Magazine

Ingredients:
2 cups flour, divided
2 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 tsp lime zest
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
3 tbsp tequila
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Garnishes, powdered sugar & lime rind curls

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9×13 inch pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil, allowing 2 inches to extend over sides; lightly grease foil.

2. Stir together 1 3/4 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Press mixture onto bottom of prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-23 minutes or until lightly browned.

4. Meanwhile, whisk eggs in a medium bowl until smooth; whisk in coconut, next 3 ingredients and remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar. Stir together baking powder, salt and remaining 1/4 cup flour; whisk into egg mixture. Pour over hot crust.

About this time my helper came in from swimming and wanted to help

so I put her to work 🙂

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until filling is set. Let cool 1 hour on a wire rack. Lift from pan, using foil sides as handles. Remove foil, and cut into bars. Garnish, if desired.

Tequila – Lime – Coconut – Macaroon Bars
From Southern Living Magazine
Ingredients:
2 cups flour, divided
2 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 tsp lime zest
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
3 tbsp tequila
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Garnishes, powdered sugar & lime rind curls

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9×13 inch pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil, allowing 2 inches to extend over sides; lightly grease foil.
2. Stir together 1 3/4 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Press mixture onto bottom of prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-23 minutes or until lightly browned.
4. Meanwhile, whisk eggs in a medium bowl until smooth; whisk in coconut, next 3 ingredients and remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar. Stir together baking powder, salt and remaining 1/4 cup flour; whisk into egg mixture. Pour over hot crust.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until filling is set. Let cool 1 hour on a wire rack. Lift from pan, using foil sides as handles. Remove foil, and cut into bars. Garnish, if desired.

Get Your Muscle On!

So my dad called me up last Wednesday and asked, “What are you doing tomorrow night?”
~”Um… I don’t know, why?”
~”What are you doing tomorrow night?”
~”Well nothing that I know of, why?”
~”I need someone to drive a truck for me. Peter called and hay is ready to go.”
~”Okee Dokee, I’ll be there.”

When I was a little kid, hauling hay meant going out to our pasture and loading it up or right across the road to the neighbor’s pasture that dad baled. But we sold that place and on my parents new place, we mainly just do round bales.

That doesn’t take much physical exertion… basically get a tractor with a front end loader, load it on the “round bale trailer” (such technical phrases right) and haul it. Now in our case, our round bale trailer, pull a pin, move the bar and the hay dumps off the other side. (Go here and scroll down, you’ll see my friend Janet and her husband have a trailer similar to ours.) Easy as that. But square bales…well they are a little more physically demanding.

Hauling Hay – Manual Labor Style 🙂

It always depends on how many my dad has helping him. If he has 3 helpers, I’m usually the “stacker”. My mom usually drives and PC & my dad throw the bales up to me. But I’ve been the driver more times than not, in fact I learned to drive at 4 years old sitting on my dad’s hard hat so I could see over the steering wheel. I’ve been the bale bucker (aka throwing up to the stacker).

You know, apparently you have to stick your tongue out to pick up the bale…

You always hate when a bale breaks open in the field like that too.

And look at all those bales to pick up. Luckily we didn’t have to pick them all up but we have before.

I’ll never forget the time my mom came home from work. She worked at a bank at the time so heels and dress was the dress code. It looked like it was going to pour and my mom was the first home so she fired up the tractor and was baling hay in her work clothes. Once my dad’s hay crew showed up Jay relieved my mom so she could go to the house and change clothes. That was the coolest day though b/c farmers from all around stopped and started loading hay onto their trucks and taking it to my dad’s barn. Not one bale got wet! We probably had 6-8 people stop and start helping load hay. It was awesome!

This time I was the driver. My mom was on her way to Chicago this time (for work). PC was the stacker and dad threw the bales up.

This is seriously all the faster you want to run. Since I’ve been driving a hay truck since I was 4, I’m the best.. haha. My mom sometimes gets a “lead foot” and has been known to throw me off the hay trailer before (when I start getting to the end) b/c she slams on the break. I learned you ease into your breaks so you don’t dump the hay load (driver knocks them off, driver re-stacks) or throw the hay crew around 🙂

I was a little bored and having fun with the camera 🙂

More boredom

Then the best thing is to tie the load off (so you don’t dump it going down the road. Trust me, that sucks!

Pulling the rope tight.

He gets down more gracefully than I do. I usually wind up with hay in my pants… don’t ask.

Then it’s time to make the trek home.

Once home, you put 2 bales on the ground.

bring the elevator out of the loft.

Neither end of bringing that thing down is fun… It’s heavy. If you are lowering it down, there is so much hay chafe on the floor your feet slide but on the receiving end, the motor side isn’t light.

Place it on the bales. Plug’er in and you’re ready to go.

Then you have a “feeder” and a “receiver”. If you are in the loft you are the receiver and truthfully have the hardest job… there is no breeze up there and it’s dusty.

So you grab a bale from the trailer.

Place it on the belt.

And away she goes.

The receiver receives and stacks the bales.

Uh oh… Gotta run… 🙂

I got stuck on the receiving end this time. Usually I’m the feeder. I like being the feeder!

Project 52: Heat

Pioneer Woman’s Marmalade Muffins

I made these way back in February and just haven’t had a chance to blog about it. Remember, one of my 101 in 1001 days is to make all the recipes in her cookbook. 🙂

Pioneer Woman’s Marmalade Muffins

{They were called one thing in her book and another on the website…}

Ingredients

2 sticks Salted Butter, Softened
1 cup White Sugar
2 cups Flour
2 whole Eggs
1 cup Buttermilk**
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 whole Oranges, Juiced And Zested
1 cup Brown Sugar (lightly Packed)

Preparation Instructions

Cream together butter and white sugar in a mixing bowl.

(more…)

June 10

Do you happen to remember this post, that included this photograph?

It was posted the day before this happened….

Then we did this…

Today I’d like to remember a Great man on what should be his anniversary with his beautiful wife.

Happy Anniversary Grandma & Grandpa, I miss you Grandpa!

Chicken Fairy & a Recipe

So we had a bad week at our house last week. We were up to somewhere between 17 and 23 chickens (I dunno, I don’t pay much attention) and 6 ducks, but Thursday night there was a massacre and we were down to 3 chicks and 2 ducks.

In fact the 3 chickens that made the first round of massacre are now gone. It hasn’t been good going for the chickens at our house. Anyway since the last 2 weeks have just been crappy and Saturday was our 9 month anniversary we got the heck out of town… ok so we took a day trip to the next big city over, but that’s getting out of town, right?

Anyway Sunday morning we got up and started working on the pool. As I went out to check on my garden, hubs asked if I’d go check on his chickens. I said sure but hadn’t made my way into the barn yet before he walked over to do it. I told him I planned on it, he said I know. He goes inside the barn and yells at me to get in there. I thought, Oh Crap now what? I’ve already gotten a Chicken hawk out of there, and the dogs have helped us out with them twice… what is there left? A snake? You know because they eat eggs and maybe even baby chicks… I don’t know.

So I went into the barn and there they were… roughly 10 new baby chicks and roughly 10 guineas.

baby chicks and guinea’s

I don’t know where they keep coming from….

Here is what I think is a Banty.

A chick with some of the guinea’s

What mom… I’m eating… LOL

The chicken fairy strikes again… I have no idea who the chicken fairy is, but this time hubs called my dad as before but this time he didn’t admit nor deny. The last time he flat out said it wasn’t him. So possibly this time was my paw, especially because the only person who knew we weren’t going to be home was my mom, therefore my dad would know. We didn’t tell anyone else though. And only a handful of people even knew we lost the other chicks.

So anyway if you know who our Chicken Fairy is, please tell them we said

And back on Memorial Day weekend we had a family reunion to attend. We took this recipe. And since I haven’t shared a recipe in a while, I thought you might want this one! I didn’t get any photos because the night we threw all the ingredients into the crock pot I was tired and the next day I forgot to get photos of the finished product. It was so good that by the time we got up to the line to eat, there almost wasn’t any left for us. Hopefully maybe someday I’ll remember to take photos when I make it again.

Slow Cooker Beef Tacos with Queso Fresco
Serves 8

2 pounds stewing beef, cut into 1 inch pieces
28 oz. can diced tomatoes in juice
4 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, seeded and sliced
1 tbsp. adobo sauce from can of chipotles
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dried oregano
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1.5 tsp salt
24 warm corn tortillas, store-bought or homemade
1 cup crumbled Mexican queso fresco or other cheese (feta, goat cheese, mozzarella, cheddar, etc.)
Fresh tomatoes, diced (optional)
Iceberg lettuce, shredded or thinly sliced (optional)
Sour cream (optional)

Add the beef to the bowl of a slow cooker. In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes (with their juices) with the chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, Worcestershire, oregano, garlic, onion and salt. Pour the tomato mixture evenly over the beef. Cover and slow-cook on high for 6 hours. It can rest on your slow cooker’s warm setting for up to 4 more hours.

When it’s time to eat, spoon off the fat that has accumulated on top of the beef mixture – or don’t, if you’re feeling lazy. Shred the beef using two regular forks – this should be easy. Taste the meat and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve with the warm tortillas, crumbled cheese and optional garnishes (tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream). Depending on who you ask, these garnishes aren’t authentic – but a lot of the authentic Mexican restaurants I’ve been to serve them, and the fresh, bright flavour they add is a great contrast to the slow-cooked beef.

It's Getting Hot Out Here

Last summer a glass candle got put out by our pool and by the end of summer it got bumped and busted in our pool. We got majority of the glass out of the bottom (it’s 12 feet at the deep end) but to be sure that we got all the glass out, we completely drained the pool and shop-vaced it out. Then we had to re-fill it. We aren’t done refilling it yet, even but we got a good start this weekend.

But while we were at it… it was hot (we broke record highs over the weekend), the water was inviting… so we played too :). Earl brought her kids over and we all had a hay day!

Just as Earl and the kid showed up I was standing on the slope, hit a wet slick spot and down I went. Now we have well water and our pool never gets warm anyway, but filling it with well water, it was chilly!

T is a fish 🙂

Since it slopes down to the deep end, we had the water hose put into the skimmer and the pump sucked it out the jets so it made the slope like a slip’n’slide.

Moo

Plus we were careful and made sure we wore our Sunscreen.

Hi Hubby!

We actually had so much fun we joked around about keeping it this way… LOL

I just wanted to be sure you knew I really was there.

Then we broke out some of the fun pool toys.

and PC blew up Tbug’s float for Moo to use.

And finally out came the water guns

When that happened we decided Earl needed a swimsuit. She teased me about not being able to fill out my top so I told her I’d loan her Tbug’s. We all got a good laugh at that slam.

That first “in” to the water is cold!

We had a fun couple hours!

Wear Sunscreen

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-old’s I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

**Disclaimer, I did not write this… I just added my photos to the words as I saw fitting**

Helping Rebuild Joplin

I love it… the other day one of my friends gave me this bracelet. Then she’s like now are you going to blog about it. ha!

Anyway There are a lot of people doing things to try and help raise money to rebuild Joplin. And the previous paragraph, here is one of them, the LiveStrong Bands.

When you purchase your band it comes with this:

The Joplin, Missouri Tribute Bracelet
Let this band represent the people and the city of Joplin, Missouri for what we went through, and most importantly the ones we lost. Let this band be our symbol of Hope, Faith, Strength, Resolve & Community.
Color:
The color was selected for its uniqueness to represent the residents of Joplin and though we have been through a devastating tragedy, no matter how long it takes, that together through Our Hope, Our Faith, Our Strength, Our Resolve and Our Unity we can look to brighter days ahead.
Designed and Donated by
Mason-Woodard Mortuary & Chapel.

Now if they just came in sizes, I would have to wear it halfway up to my elbow… LOL

One side says, “God is with us, we will rebuild”

The other side says, “In memory of Joplin Tornado Victims, May 22, 2011”

You can pick yours up at Mason-Woodard Mortuary & Chapel @ 3701 E 7th St in Joplin. The bracelets are $2, but if you want to donate more, that’s up to you :).

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Then on Saturday our Semi-Pro Team, The Joplin Crusaders played a benefit game against the Duncan Diamonds. All proceeds from the game went to Joplin Relief efforts.

the guy holding the American Flag, is one of our friends.

He’s still holding the flag, this time he was waving it at us.

At halftime the score was 19-0 Crusaders.
They won it with a score of 41-0.

Now I thought this was funny, this is at the local college stadium… um… look at the numbers… 16, 22, 17… something isn’t right there!

And it was that way on other sets of bleachers too… 15, 23, 17. I saw one that went 19, 20, 24.

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Then the Lovely Jacin from Lovely Little Details and Darling Little Details has a project she calls Jars of Love.

Check out her etsy site :).

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Then 🙂

The MU Tigers have designed a t-shirt in honor of the victims. All proceeds from this t-shirt go to Joplin Aid relief also. Check it out!

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Sorry not done yet.

Do you like this photo?

This was taken of the Kansas City, MO skyline on May 24, 2011 by Scott Cook.

He sent this to a local tv stations facebook site and the photo went wild. A lot of people wanted this photo so he decided to sell this photo for: 8×10 photos for $15.00 and 11×14 for $20.00 with all the money going to Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery.

Here’s how to order:

Scott is selling 8X10s for $15. All proceeds are going to the Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery.
Here’s how to order:
1. Go to PayPal.com
2. Click on “Send Money” then “Send Money Online”
3. Enter $15 for 8×10 or $20 for 11×14 (per picture) as the amount then click on “Buy Something”
4. Enter my email address (scottcookmail@gmail.com) as the “To” and yours as the “From”
5. Follow steps from there — if you don’t have a PayPal acct. it is very easy to set up — just like buying from Amazon.
6. Be sure to include your shipping address.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Scott

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And last but not least, the other one I have recently heard about (which there are so many out there!!!) is:

HOPE FOR JOPLIN TEES

Bigfish Screen-printing is doing their part for those in Joplin. HOPE FOR JOPLIN TEES are being printed for $10 with 100% of the proceeds going to Disaster Relief Efforts in Joplin! All 2X and 3X sizes are $11.50 each.

Reserve your shirt today by calling 417-869-1700 or email sales@bigfishtees.com ($3 ship out of state, any left over will be donated.)

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Just thought I would share in case anyone wanted to know a way they could help.

Hope you have a wonderful Monday!