Winter Field Trip

Our family took a winter jaunt north to Nebraska for our son's high school basketball tournament. We stopped halfway at a park to have a picnic in the snow (because it was a beautiful bright day) and watch a little plane taxi and take off above us.

The official Kansas day stop was at Pawnee Indian Village Museum, a building encircling a large excavated Indian winter home.

Before entering we had to play in the snow some more, shoving each other into the large drift. There was no snow in our part of Kansas, so we were indulging in it here!

The museum guide was very helpful and interesting showing us a painting of what the Pawnee village would have looked like in its day, overlooking a river, positioned on a bluff above. It was a neat vantage point! Apparently over 2,000 natives lived here, but in 20 years were gone, with 20,000 white settlers replacing them in Republic County. The current population in this county is only about 4,500 now.

We giggled at the buffalo chart that showed how all its parts were used by the Pawnee, some as strange as water bags, paint pencils, and baby rattles. They used up blood in soup. ick.

Our next historical visit was to Homestead National Monument of America near Beatrice, Nebraska.

The entrance to one main building has states hanging along the wall showing how large of areas were homesteaded by the part that is missing. 

The girls worked on their Junior Ranger badge booklets, filling in information from the various displays. We watched a short film and peeked inside a replica cabin of those determined homesteaders of long ago.

 

They did it! Even Meg received a pack of trader cards telling the story of different families starting out on a land claim, a bracelet, and a badge. This is the National Park's 100th year, so the Jr. Rangers got an extra centennial badge!

As for the basketball games...we have an entire post dedicated to the basketball season coming up here in a couple weeks, as the season concludes...

Hunting

If you don't like looking at dead animals, this is not the post for you!

A few snapshots of this year's hunting days...

Riley sighting in his gun.

The field-dressed doe hanging until we're ready to butcher. 

We put 16 pounds of meat in the freezer from this yearling.

Bucket of parts saved for luring traps.

Jerky in the making. Thinly sliced meat in a pan ready to be coated with marinade in the bowl.

Deer Jerky

3 lb deer roast or loin, sliced 1/4"

1/2 c soy sauce

2 Tbsp liquid smoke

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

several dashes of hot pepper sauce

Mix marinade ingredients and pour over meat. Soak at least 8 hours. (I have left it in the fridge, covered, up to 48 hours.) Lay meat pieces on cooling racks placed in jellyroll pans. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Bake 10 hours at 180*. Jerky should bend, not snap apart. I have also put the strips in a dehydrator, but the jerky had a slightly different flavor our family didn't like as well.

Little sister gets to take a turn sitting, waiting, watching, reading, and possibly videoing.

Two turkeys, just in time for Christmas dinner.

The second doe, shot in January, was the last chance for meat this season. We kept 30 pounds from this one, mostly canned chunks for soups and casseroles.  

Casseroles and Breads (New Recipes of the week~13)

 Crock Barbacoa Beef 

Very simple (if you plan several hours ahead to slow-cook the roast) and very good flavor! I used venison and it was juicy and mildly spicy. 

Click on the title to take you to the recipe.

Baking Day

French bread Loaves, sour dough rounds, and pie crust in the bowl.

Loaded Spaghetti Squash Casserole

With butter, sour cream, and cheese, this dish was satisfyingly warm & gooey. However, my kiddos can pick out even the tiniest hint of squash, no matter how dressed up it is, and turn up their noses. Too bad!

Venison Garlic Stir fry

I could eat stir fried veggies with or without meat, with or without sauce, (but always with rice), three times a week. My people just are not that fond of it, even with sweet chili sauce, so I try to limit this to a couple times a month.

Cranberry Apple Muffins

2 cups shredded apples

1 cup sugar

1 cup cranberries

1 cup shredded carrots

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

2 1/2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Combine apples and sugar; let stand for 10 minutes. Add cranberries, carrots, eggs, and oil. Mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, and salt; stir into apple mixture just until moistened. Fill muffin cups or tins 2/3 full. Bake at 375* for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes before removing from pans. Yield: 11/2 dozen.

My daughter mixed these up with red Kansas wheat flour and left out the nuts. They were quickly gobbled up!

Mystery Chicken Dish

This is a type of chicken casserole with Mexican flair...peppers, onions, olives, cheese, and salsa. I must have already tossed the recipe, because though it was good, it was not spectacular.

Those are some of the new foods we've been eating lately...

Christmas Happenings

The girls wanted to cut out and decorate sugar cookies to eat for our family Christmas supper. Annie mixed up the dough before she left to spend two weeks in Virginia with her daddy's family. The other three gals spent one afternoon cutting and baking, and another afternoon glazing the holiday shapes. 

A double recipe made plenty for our family and plenty to put on ten cookie plates for our neighbors and teachers. The rest of the cookies we used from an exchange we went to one afternoon. 

We all brought frozen cookie dough balls to bake at our leisure as the need arises. I used over half for our deliveries, but we still have a few dozen waiting in the freezer. It was such a nice assortment: Peppermint, Peanut butter, Monster, Oatmeal, Chocolate, Butterscotch, Sugar Cookie, Red Velvet, Lemon, and more. We played games and ate yummy hors d'oeuvres too.

Caroline performed in a violin concert with the other students of her teacher. She played some carols with her age group, accompanied the older symphony, and sang a song too, in concert attire, naturally.

On Christmas Day (well really, the day after Christmas) we ate our special meals and had a simple family day. Different activities were unveiled. The games and craft was the biggest hit. We had to forfeit the walk because it was so cold outside, but we did the circular back rub.

biscuits & gravy breakfast

wild turkey, smashed potatoes & gravy lunch

snack supper of each child's choosing

To Be Six Like Cora

If you were turning six years old, like Cora, you would be very excited to be having a birthday.

You would want to decorate the supper table all by yourself. And even tape a pretty party flair to the ceiling. Of course you would want the party hats from the "birthday tin" too!

If you were six, like Cora, you would pick your special supper to be hot dogs, macaroni & cheese, Ranch chips, and pop. Then you would be too full to eat your birthday cake, so you would beg to open your presents before dessert. (Even though you had asked to open a present at breakfast and lunch already.)

You would be tickled pink to have gifts from both out-of-state grandparents and even your big sisters, besides Mama & Daddy. You would promptly put on any new clothing, even if it didn't match.

If you were Cora's mama, you would take a picture of the magazine recipe cake icing because it was so creamy and made so much and wasn't grainy!

But, If you were Cora, you would eat more candy than was put on the snowman cake to decorate it. You might choose a cake because of all the candy on it, or you might choose it because your birthday is in the winter.

You would momentarily pose with your siblings and cake before returning to your presents and declaring that you are still too full for dessert.

So we will all eat chocolate cake and ice cream for breakfast the next day 

and you will smile with your bedhead and say, 

"I can't wait until I am seven!"