apples today, sauce tomorrow

My mom and Jenny had the day off, so the 4 of us went to pick apples.  My parents have some friends with a farm WAY out of town.  They have big, beautiful apple trees and said that we could have as many as we wanted!  It took a little while to get there.  I just started this new diet, and like most, it tells you to drink large amounts of water.  Speaking of diets, I laughed SO hard at Modern Family the other night when they were talking about Cam's "stages" of dieting.  Anyone else see that?  Anyway, so I had drank all this water for my diet, we drove a long ways to the apples, and as a result I had to pee in the woods. 

There were a few cows, but there were a lot of apples!  I brought my camera, so it turned into a bit of a photo shoot : )



We picked lots of apples, ate a few, and took a few more pictures on our way home.



special moments

I haven't written anything in a few days because so many fun things have been going on.  On Thursday and Friday K and I went to watch champ show.  Here are a few pictures of Rachel and Callie.  They did so well and it was so fun to watch!

This last picture is my favorite.  It's one of those "all is right with the world" pictures.  I've kept Callie all of these years, and it all makes sense.  Rachel is amazing with her, and I have a daughter who will start riding in the next few years the horse that I love and spent so much time with.  So fun.

Friday night and Saturday we visited my parents, got some extra sleep while my mama was taking care of K, and I got to take some pictures of people I love!  I took a few of my friend Amy's baby.  It's kind of interesting when close friends have babies, I feel like they're part of my family!  Look at how absolutely beautiful both mom and baby are!

And I LOVE this picture... look at the LIP!!

On Saturday evening I met up with Rachel and her family to do some fun, outdoor, sunset pictures!  Rachel is the principal at the school I taught at in Hokah.  I absoluetly love her.  She was such an wonderful leader, but was understanding, and such a good friend... and I should mention she is GORGEOUS!

She also has a pretty funny husband...



And two beautiful girls, on the inside and out.

Tonight we had 4 other couples over for a fun little dinner party.  I was so excited to take all these pictures and write a super fun blog about the food I made.   I used beautiful dishes, fun red spoons for the appetizers, and worked really hard cooking the food!

 I took two pictures, and neither one really turned out.  I had so much fun cooking, and being with friends, that I chose to enjoy the special moments as they were happening. : )  Here's what I made, just try to picture it in your head, since there aren't any pictures!

Appetizer:  Crispy Buffalo Chicken Bites with Blue Cheese Sauce

Brasied Short Ribs

Garlic Parmesan Mashed Red Potatoes

Sweet corn (not on the cob style)

A Gravy that looked gross but tasted delicious!

And warm apple crisp with extra crumble topping and caramel sauce.  mmmmmmmmmmm

It was a wonderful weekend. 

excitement

So a few of you have asked about the outcome of my hair!!  It's hard to see in this picture:

but I ended up getting highlights and lowlights, and then she put on a toner that was darker.  It kind of gave it a darker overall appearance, but I'm still a blond!  : )  I also got about 2 inches cut off, as well as some longer sideswept bangs. 

So my mom is coming up tonight and tomorrow we are going to Champ Show at the MN state fairgrounds.  I'm so excited I probably won't be able to sleep tonight, which is bizarre since I'm not even showing!!  I shared this picture a few  months ago, and it's still one of my favorites of Rachel riding Callie.

I don't even know Rachel all that well, but she does an AMAZING job with my horse, so I'm going to take pictures of her riding as if she were my sister.  I'm super excited that she'll be riding Callie again next year.  I just know they're going to do SO well at champ show!! 

I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I'm surprised Callie is still such a great horse.  Don't get me wrong, Rachel has done so much work and is such a talented rider, but Cal is no spring chicken!  Here are pictures of us ten years ago.  Ten?  No, that can't be right!!  The first pic is from 4-H state fair, not champ show, but they were just a weekend apart so i thought I'd put it in here!

I got second in showmanship that year, which I was super happy with... but I'm secretly hoping Rachel does better than I did ten years ago  : )

So I'm going to spend the rest of this cloudy day making white turkey chili, chocolate chip cookies to take to champ show, playing with my baby and doing laundry.... all while reminiscing about past horse shows, and thinking about the future  : )

*it's not that I haven't shown in the past ten years, I'm just celebrating what happened ten years ago with Callie!  Good luck tomorrow and Friday Rachel!!  You're going to do great!!

turkey!

So last week I ran to walmart for like, 3 things, and 45 minutes later, I came home with food, a dog bone, a My First Halloween onesie for K,  and a 15 pound turkey.  It was 67 cents a pound, they practically gave it to me!   So, I cooked it.

And then I had all this turkey meat.   I am aiming to get 5 meals out of this bird, so here are the first 4 I've made.  Tonight I'm making white turkey chili. 

I LOVE Thai peanut noodles, and Brent loves home made pizza, so I put them together!  Have you ever seen those packages of little red, orange and yellow sweet peppers in the produce section?  Well, I started by slicing them up-

I also diced up about 1 1/2 or so cups of turkey.



See that tube of garlic?  AMAZING product.  Tastes fresh, no mess, and is easy to measure.  I love it.

So into a pan on the stove over medium low heat, I sauteed the peppers with about a tablespoon of olive oil.  When the peppers were soft, I added about 2 tablespoons of garlic.  I let that cook out for a few minutes, and then added the turkey and 1/2 cup of the peanut sauce.  I also added a few tablespoons of honey because this particular brand of sauce was a tiny bit bitter for my taste!  Here are the products I used.

I spread the turkey peppers sauce mixture onto a pizza crust, top with cheese and bake!



Recipe number two!  I usually use chicken to make a potpie, but when you have an abundance of turkey, you use it!

In a mixing bowl, combine 1 small-ish bag mixed veggies, a cup or so (I added a little more) and 1 can of cream of chicken soup.  I use the fat free version, it tastes the same as regular to me!

Then grease (I use pam, but it sounds weird to type Pam a pan) a cake pan.  They're a big deeper than a pie plate so you can get more int there.  I use premade pie crusts, they come 2 in a package, and press one into the bottom, fill with filling, and top with the other pie crust.  Pinch the edges together, and make a few slits so the steam can come out!

As you can see, I'm a total perfectionist and can crimp edges of pie crust perfectly  : )

The other two turkey things I made were Scalloped Potatoes with turkey-

and turkey wild rice soup.

Those last 2 are not my best photos, but I felt the need to prove I made 12,000 things with one turkey!

Applefest

The best place on earth is La Crescent, Minnesota during Applefest.  It's small town, but it's great!  Brent, K, and I drove down Friday night, and bright and early Saturday morning things started up!  Brent pushed K in the Run to the Edge 5k.  This was the first year in about 5 years I haven't done it, and I wasn't too sad to not be in it.  It's HARD.  All up hill!

After the race, we went down to the craft fair and flea market.  Then I got my hair done.  We all got Chicken Q for dinner- and I've found  that not everyone knows what chicken Q is.  Here's a pic-

Grilled chicken, baked beans, potato salad, and a roll.  The best part is smelling it cooking on the huge grill things... mmmmmmm.

Every year my mom, sister and I go to the Miss La Crescent coronation.  We try to pick the girls we think will win, and we're usually close.  I love the coronation!  Man and woman of the year, being back in the high school, and of course, the Apple Annies singing.



They all wear red and they all sing at the top of their lungs.  There is no way to listen to them without smiling.  It's just impossible.
Then they crown the new queen, first princess and second princess.

It's hard to believe that 10 years ago I was one of the girls waiting to find out who won.  10 years.  Wow.  Am I really that old??  I was runner up-  First Princess.  The girl that won also beat me in volleyball, horses, and I'm pretty sure my high school boyfriend was secretly in love with her.  Good thing I'm not bitter  : )
The year I ran there were 25 girls, and the whole experience was SO much fun.  I hope K does this kind of thing someday!
Side note-  the same weekend I was crowed a princess I won my western pleasure class at the state 4h show.  It was like, the best weekend ever.


Today was the parade.  I love the parade too.  Seeing people I know and the business of our usually quiet town.  A few pictures from the parade:

I love Applefest.  I love my family and friends.  I love memories, and memories that haven't happened yet.



i need some advice!

So, this may seem trivial, but I need some advice.... about my hair.  I've been blond literally forever.  Like, light light blond.  Until I was about 24, it was natural, and just with getting older it's gotten a bit darker.  I was talking to Brent about how I hadn't gotten my hair cut or colored since K was like a month old... she's almost 8 months old so it's been awhile.  So Brent surprised me and set up an apt. this Saturday!  Now, what should I do?  I kind of want to go darker, but get a little panicked about that because I've ALWAYS been blond.  I feel like it's almost a little bit of who I am.  So, is it time to make a change?  I am going to put some pictures on here of colors and cuts I've been thinking about.  Let me know what you think!!  Sometimes people have a hard time being able to comment, so if you have a thought on this subject but can't comment, just email or facebook!

(No, I do not look like any of these people, so  take that into account too on style:  )  )

more into the color for the one above...

I like the cut of this one, middle part thing, probably won't go this light blond.

sideswept bangs?  color?

greys anatomy comes back on sept. 22nd.  I love Meredith Grey.

And I am aware most of these are blond hair, but coloring it like Meredith's or Jenn Aniston's would be a huge change.  

Thanks!!