Back In The Saddle Again
Here I am, sitting down to write a few thoughts, realizing that a lot of time has gone by since I've last shared here.
The past couple of weeks have contained some pretty memorable events for us. The biggest event, without a doubt, was last Wednesday night where we and 64,996 of our closest friends sat down to listen to a little entertainment by a band named U2. It was spectacular, to say the least. So amazing on so many levels. I've had a hard time lassoing just one favorite moment, but perhaps it was when the entire stadium was belting out the lyrics to "Magnificent". Oh, we sang, we danced, we batted balloons around, we did about 7-8 rounds of "the wave", we waved our cell phones in the air during a tribute to the residents of Slave Lake, and we sang some more. We battled the several-thousand-people line up for the LTR and survived! An amazing time. So thankful we had the chance to go.
In just over 3 weeks, we'll be flying to the Maritimes for our first-ever major holiday.
Dean and the boys just picked up tickets to the WWE event in Saskatoon in August. A whole group of guys are going from here. Should be fun.
One of our favorite Christian bands is coming through Saskatoon in Oct. We'll have to go to that, too.
Ben asked me the other day if we are "richer" now than we used to be, because, after all, we're doing all this cool stuff, trips, concerts, etc.
Nope. Not at all. Snort. Richer? HA!
But I think we've turned a corner, at least for the moment. I think we have finally decided to live a little and to take those opportunities when they come our way, instead of living in the world of "aw, we should have gone...". We did that for a long time. Felt like we just couldn't possibly do "fill-in-the-blank" - too much money, too much time, too difficult. And, granted, our kids are big enough now that we have a lot more freedom to go. But we've also decided that we need to just GO. And we're taking the kids with us.
I sat in the West Edmonton Mall wave pool on Thursday afternoon, part of Ben's 10th birthday celebration, and was amazed at the joyful peace that was dwelling in my spirit. We Did It! We have learned how to have fun! Congratulations to us!
It's kind of a big deal.
Sometimes you have to give a little ($$, energy, effort) to get a little (joy, peace, memories).
We're finding the pay-off to be rather profound.
Hmm. I hardly want to give you a recipe. This blogging thing does something for me, too. Sigh.
However, I called this post "Back In The Saddle" because, in spite of all of the crazy things we've been able to do, there is nothing like coming home and getting back to normal. I'm itching to clean the house and get some yard work done this week. It's beckoning me. And, today, I was itching to do a little baking.
I always enjoy using the rhubarb when it's fresh in the spring. My family grew up with a marvelous tradition of rhubarb fritters - deep fried fritters dunked in icing sugar - sugary sweet and rhubarb-y tart. MMM. We have friends that we share these with every year now, and we'll be having these together on Wed. Dean must have wondered what kind of family he got himself into upon realizing that one of our piece de resistance of the culinary sort was a deep fried fritter!! No fancy cakes for the Letkeman clan! But he loves them now too!
(and ding went my oven timer...)
Today, though, I decided to try making rhubarb scones. They have literally just come out of the oven and look wonderful! I whipped up some cinnamon butter to go with them and I think a cup of tea would be fitting as well.
Here's the recipe!
Rhubarb Scones
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk (being adventurous, I used 1/3 cup yogurt, 1/3 cup coffee cream and 1/3 cup milk)
1 cup rhubarb, diced small, tossed with 2 Tbsp sugar
Mix the first 3 dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the butter and cut together until mixture resembles a crumbly mix. Add in the 1 cup of liquid and work quickly to combine. Add rhubarb/sugar mixture and stir to mix.
Drop by tablespoon onto greased cookie sheet. I shook a small amount of white sugar on each scone to crisp up a bit.
Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes.
Cinnamon butter - I took a couple of tablespoons of soft margarine and mixed in about 1 tsp or so of cinnamon.
If this recipe happens to be a flop, which I doubt, I shall forever be in your debt for posting a recipe AS it was baking in the oven.
And, by the way, it smells wonderful in here. It's good to be home.
The past couple of weeks have contained some pretty memorable events for us. The biggest event, without a doubt, was last Wednesday night where we and 64,996 of our closest friends sat down to listen to a little entertainment by a band named U2. It was spectacular, to say the least. So amazing on so many levels. I've had a hard time lassoing just one favorite moment, but perhaps it was when the entire stadium was belting out the lyrics to "Magnificent". Oh, we sang, we danced, we batted balloons around, we did about 7-8 rounds of "the wave", we waved our cell phones in the air during a tribute to the residents of Slave Lake, and we sang some more. We battled the several-thousand-people line up for the LTR and survived! An amazing time. So thankful we had the chance to go.
In just over 3 weeks, we'll be flying to the Maritimes for our first-ever major holiday.
Dean and the boys just picked up tickets to the WWE event in Saskatoon in August. A whole group of guys are going from here. Should be fun.
One of our favorite Christian bands is coming through Saskatoon in Oct. We'll have to go to that, too.
Ben asked me the other day if we are "richer" now than we used to be, because, after all, we're doing all this cool stuff, trips, concerts, etc.
Nope. Not at all. Snort. Richer? HA!
But I think we've turned a corner, at least for the moment. I think we have finally decided to live a little and to take those opportunities when they come our way, instead of living in the world of "aw, we should have gone...". We did that for a long time. Felt like we just couldn't possibly do "fill-in-the-blank" - too much money, too much time, too difficult. And, granted, our kids are big enough now that we have a lot more freedom to go. But we've also decided that we need to just GO. And we're taking the kids with us.
I sat in the West Edmonton Mall wave pool on Thursday afternoon, part of Ben's 10th birthday celebration, and was amazed at the joyful peace that was dwelling in my spirit. We Did It! We have learned how to have fun! Congratulations to us!
It's kind of a big deal.
Sometimes you have to give a little ($$, energy, effort) to get a little (joy, peace, memories).
We're finding the pay-off to be rather profound.
Hmm. I hardly want to give you a recipe. This blogging thing does something for me, too. Sigh.
However, I called this post "Back In The Saddle" because, in spite of all of the crazy things we've been able to do, there is nothing like coming home and getting back to normal. I'm itching to clean the house and get some yard work done this week. It's beckoning me. And, today, I was itching to do a little baking.
I always enjoy using the rhubarb when it's fresh in the spring. My family grew up with a marvelous tradition of rhubarb fritters - deep fried fritters dunked in icing sugar - sugary sweet and rhubarb-y tart. MMM. We have friends that we share these with every year now, and we'll be having these together on Wed. Dean must have wondered what kind of family he got himself into upon realizing that one of our piece de resistance of the culinary sort was a deep fried fritter!! No fancy cakes for the Letkeman clan! But he loves them now too!
(and ding went my oven timer...)
Today, though, I decided to try making rhubarb scones. They have literally just come out of the oven and look wonderful! I whipped up some cinnamon butter to go with them and I think a cup of tea would be fitting as well.
Here's the recipe!
Rhubarb Scones
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk (being adventurous, I used 1/3 cup yogurt, 1/3 cup coffee cream and 1/3 cup milk)
1 cup rhubarb, diced small, tossed with 2 Tbsp sugar
Mix the first 3 dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the butter and cut together until mixture resembles a crumbly mix. Add in the 1 cup of liquid and work quickly to combine. Add rhubarb/sugar mixture and stir to mix.
Drop by tablespoon onto greased cookie sheet. I shook a small amount of white sugar on each scone to crisp up a bit.
Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes.
Cinnamon butter - I took a couple of tablespoons of soft margarine and mixed in about 1 tsp or so of cinnamon.
If this recipe happens to be a flop, which I doubt, I shall forever be in your debt for posting a recipe AS it was baking in the oven.
And, by the way, it smells wonderful in here. It's good to be home.
See, blogging is great, isn't it??!! I still enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you guys are having good times together. Trips do get easier when the kids get older, right? :)
I'm gonna try your recipe. Do you think pretty much anything could replace the rhubarb? Like raspberries, or raisins, or...???
PJ
Yes, PJ, you could replace the rhubarb with other fruit. You may be able to cut down on the extra sugar if you are using raisins, etc. Raspberries are pretty tart, would advise the sugar as listed.
ReplyDeleteTrips DO get easier! Hang in there!