Old Friends

Yes, I am standing by a police car...no, I'm not in trouble. This is my good friend from Benson (high school days), kinda like a little brother to Misty and I. He is in the valley for training this week and found the time to come over and visit with us a bit. I have to admit, I felt very safe having him here. It was nice to catch up and hang out...and of course play a little Beatles Rock Band!

It just so happened that our old next door neighbor from Benson was up visiting her kids and was staying the night at my mom's house in Mesa so we had them over for dinner. Life is filled with moments of thankful friendships and good times.

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Last Saturday Mark and I were invited by our friends Marla and John to try out some recipes for making hamburger patties out of wheat. Sounds yummy doesn't it? Well, it was! We tried two different recipes and take a look at all the ingredients we put into one of them. Everyone pitched in, even Mark was cutting cucumber.

Once everything was mixed together we smashed the substance into patty like shapes and cooked them on the bbq.

Mark and I split one of each kind and we enjoyed them both! The one on the right had a simple set of ingredients and was a lot less work AND it was the one we all thought tasted the best. So I decided to put the recipe below so you all could try it. Also, we cooked up a little mushroom to top off the burger which was tasty.

Thanks Marla and John for having us over!

Ingredients: 1 C. Bulgar Wheat 1 1/4 C. Water
1/2 C. Walnuts, ground 1 tbsp Dried Onion Flakes
1 Clove Garlic 1 tbsp Yeast or Quinoa Flakes 1/2 tsp. Salt 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Beef Seasoning 8 oz can Tomato Sauce

Mix all ingredients together into saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until thick. Remove from heat and let sit covered for 10 minutes. Form into patties and brown on both sides or use as is.

Beatles Rock Band, Whoohoo!

So we had our friends come over for our first Beatles Rock Band jam and it was a blast! An extra microphone and guitar was brought and we had five people going at the same time. The game can actually do up to seven! This was the first of many little jam sessions we have had that past couple weeks and every one of them have been a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of hours of enjoyment for us!

Canning, Canning, Canning!

Last Christmas I got a dehydrator from my adopted grandpa and then for my birthday he gave me a pressure canner. As of a couple weeks ago I hadn't tried them out so i asked my mom to come over and we spent the whole day dehydrating and canning. It was a lot of fun. We dehydrated peach slices, pineapple slices and banana chips. They turned out great.

In the pressure canner we bottled ground beef. Yum!

We bought a ton of apples and after peeling and slicing for hours (because we didn't have the right tools), we decided to make apple pie filler, apple sauce and apple butter.

A week later my mom and I were invited to a friend's house to can peach pie filler and salsa. We are on a roll! Thanks John for the equipment!