Selling Curriculum

It’s that time of year – when we begin switching out old grade levels for new.  As our youngest completes a subject I need to clear it out – number one to make room and number two to make a little cash to help buy what is needed for the new school year. 

I have listed several 4th grade things and a couple of 9th grade things on Ebay.  If you check out this listing you can get to my other items for sale too.  Maybe you don’t need these but know someone who could use them.  Please share and pass along – it will also be a big help to me.

Tasty Tuesday

Baked Potato Soup has become one of our favorites.  We had tried some in a tub one day at Sam’s Club, but that one little tub had a small amount of servings for the price.  I can make a batch of soup with twice as much for about half the price. 

Ingredients:

5 medium red skinned potatoes; scrubbed & diced into 1” cubes

5-6 slices of bacon, chopped/crumbled

1 onion

5 T butter

¼ c. flour

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 -2 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional – to your taste buds)

1 ½ c. reserved potato water

1 c. Whipping Cream (for a healthier version, substitute this with 1 - 12 oz. can of evaporated milk)

3 c. milk or 1 c. half n half & 2 c. milk

1 10 oz. can Cheddar cheese soup (can substitute can of cream of chicken but add one additional cup of cheddar cheese)

1 c. shredded cheddar

DIRECTIONS:

Put potatoes in stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, 6-10 min. (will depend on the size/thickness of potatoes) – do not over cook. Drain BUT reserve 1 ½ c. of the water and set the potatoes to the side. In the same pot, cook the 5-6 slices of bacon until crisp (TIP: I cut my bacon up into the pan with kitchen shears and then fry); remove and place bacon on a paper towel to soak up some of the fat/grease and drain (you could leave some drippings in the pot for added flavor). Now add the butter and melt, once it is melted, add the onions and cook until tender. Add flour, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper and cook for 3-4 min. to infuse the flavors. Add the 1 ½ c. reserved potato water whisking in slowly to prevent lumps; cook and let bubble for 3 min. Then add milk, can of soup, and shredded cheese until melted and blended. Then add the potatoes and use a hand masher to give texture (we don’t want mashed potatoes) to the soup. Now add the chopped/crumbled bacon and cook/simmer 15-20 minutes.

 

Now, this last time I combined the bacon and onion and cooked off together.  Then I added the butter, flour, crushed pepper, etc. and cooked for a few minutes.

This is what it looks like after adding the reserved potato starch water and before adding the milk (I had already dropped the soup into the top of the pot).

Not a very good picture of the soup because of the light.  But it still is very tasty!

As close as she can get . . .

This is as close as Cassie can get since she is in Ohio and the horses are in North Dakota.

Every time we talk or Skype with Cassie she asks about the horses or asks to see them.  Well, tonight they were in the low line of the pasture so Mackenzie took my laptop out so Cassie could see them up close.  I love the picture above because it looks like they are checking her out.

Unfortunately, each time we’d get set up shortly after Kenzie would get Cassie down to the horses the signal would drop.  I’m not too sure if she got to see much of them.

A new visitor

This birdie has been visiting our feeder and we couldn’t figure out what it was.  We even got out the field guide for the Dakotas and couldn’t find it in there.  Earlier in the week we thought we saw a Baltimore Oriole, but after some googling and checking out our bird songs book we have determined they are black-headed grosbeaks.  This is the female.

We don’t know how long they’ll be around because according to the map below, we are just on the edge of the breeding area.  They are pretty to look at. 

Mornings . . .

Once they crawl out of bed – literally, they are still sleeping on the floor in their clubhouse in Mackenzie’s room – they find a comfy spot on the couch.  Chloe even likes to snuggle up as close as she can to them.

UP up UP up . . .

Last night while we were skyping with Cassie – she was watching the horses in our field (finally we have something here that she wants to come back to) – we noticed this little dot in the sky.  As it got closer, we could hear its engine, and the horses could hear it too.  I was surprised at their reaction.  They were grazing down on the low line of the pasture and once they heard it they galloped up to the hilltop and watched as this thing maneuvered in the sky.  They seemed fascinated by it too. 

He was still pretty far off.  This was the best picture I could get with my zoom.  But after I took a few shots, I was able to trim them by zooming in some more and cropping them.

I don’t know.  That looks like a contraption that belongs on the ground more so than in the air.  Definitely pretty neat though. 

In our back pasture . . .

This is Angel (black bridle) and Missy (red bridle).  No, they are not our horses – I know three kids that wish they were – they are a neighbor’s horses. 

When we arrived in ND, almost a year ago, the first night in our home, which we rent, a neighbor came around and asked if he could use the fields to pasture some of his horses.  Of course, Jay checked with our landlord and there wasn’t a problem.

We hadn’t heard anything else until about two weeks ago when the neighbor stopped by to make sure it was still okay.  Then last week he came over and fixed the fence line and got the top line wired – yeah, an electric fence for the goof balls in my house. LOL. 

Today we got some new tenants . . .

They were a little spunky at first.  Apparently, they’ll zap themselves a time or two on the fence.  They would run from one side of the field to the other and then back again. 

They are both four year old females.  Missy is already broke, so she is ride able and apparently for sale – don’t get any ideas, Bubba.  The owner is going to hay our other field and then bring over a training ring where he will work with Angel. 

They checked out all their new area to roam.  This picture is up on the other side of the field.  They were loving the green grasses to eat.  Their owner said they will probably groan some tonight because of upset stomachs from all the green lush grasses.

Horses are a great bonding tool – Jay and the kids, along with the horses’ owners went over to meet our other neighbors whose property is along the pasture too.  (I had been lounging all morning and I was finishing up getting ready.)  I did get to talk a little with Mrs.. B when we introduced them to our ‘horse’ – Chloe. LOL.

I have to say, after standing within an arms reach of these magnificent animals, my puppy is NOT the size of a horse – maybe a miniature pony.

Mackenzie really enjoyed go out and watching them and they seemed to like her.  They would come up to her.

Mackenzie guided them over to the water tank and after checking it out they decided to drink.  I guess they won’t need much water since the field is green.

 

They are beautiful animals.  We are always amazed and love seeing them when we drive down the road – they are everywhere around here.  But now we can just sit on our back deck and enjoy them.  They will hang out in our field until November.

New Blog

Okay, I have added another blog to this account.  No, I don’t have that much to say that I need another place to ramble.  I actually would like to share with you some of my edible creations.

Roadside view

We love seeing all the horses along our way back to our house.  It’s amazing how many horses are around here.

A neighbor of ours has fixed the fence line in one of the fields in our yard because he is going to bring up three horses to roam.  That will be really neat to have horses that close.

Water Day

Mackenzie had her last day of tennis practice a week ago.  She really likes playing tennis and I have to say – don’t mean to be a bragging parent – but she is pretty good at it.

The last day of the session they do spend time doing some drills, but the main thing is getting WET!!  So they don’t always use balls, they use water balloons.

After they would finish a drill with the water balloons, they spent time picking them up – save the environment and the wildlife.

Those coolers were full of water balloons.

Mackenzie had a great time playing tennis.  I think she may want to continue with this activity.