A picture of our family and a picture of Vollrath Bowl, at graduation.  From left, Gary, Emily, Sarah, and Dawn, taken in our backyard.  At Vollrath, you can see Lake Michigan in the background.  South sits to the south, in red.  North sits on the other side, in blue. It’s so pretty.  The band (not visible) dresses in khaki and white, so they don’t detract from the grads.

June and July dishcloths: All fun to work on.  The contrasting yarn in the Peacock cloth made it more fun.  The Father’s Day cloth was knit sideways, so it was hard to tell what the picture would be!  The Flamingo was hard to see at first, because we started with the legs.  Eventually, you could tell it was a bird. I love doing cloths that you don’t know what they will be, before you start.

Wow, I have been such a horrible blogger and then as it went on and on and on, I knew it would be a big job, so I put it off even longer!  We are going from meals in the crockpot to meals on the grill.  Also, from winter jackets to shorts!  In June, my younger daughter Emily graduated from high school.  We had a fun family party and a beautiful day, for the most part.  Weather is a factor, since Sheboygan tries to hold their graduation outside!  We did get sprinkled on a little bit, but never for longer than 5-10 minutes at a time!  I’m so happy that both of my daughters got to graduate in the “bowl” by Lake Michigan!

I’ve been busy knitting, though, in the past 6 months!  All the pictures are in the gallery above.  Will still post pics of Emily’s graduation, too. Weather has been hot and rainy most of the summer.  It’s mid-July and the grass is still green and soft enough for barefeet!

3 cups water
1-1/2 pounds stewing meat, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 medium onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
14-1/2 oz can tomatoes
2 tsp salt
10-oz package frozen mixed vegetables OR your choice of frozen vegetables
1 Tbsp dried basil
1/2 cup dried vermicelli (We couldn’t find vermicelli, so we used orzo instead.)
1 tsp dried oregano
Added 1 15-oz can cannellini beans, because minestrone should have beans in it
grated Parmesan cheese

1. Combine all ingredients in slow-cooker. Stir well.

2. Cover. Cook on Low 10-12 hours or on High 4-5 hours

3. Top individual servings with Parmesan cheese

Also, we don’t add that much salt to our food.  We have sea salt in a grinder and I probably just added a couple turns of that.  I’m sure it wasn’t 2 teaspoons.

The 3 of us (Gary, Emily, and me) all loved it!  It was gone in a matter of days.

California Chicken

3-lb chicken, quartered
1 cup orange juice
1/3 cup chili sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp garlic salt
2 Tbsp chopped green peppers
3 medium oragnes, peeled and separated into sections  OR
1 13-1/2 oz can mandarin oranges

1. Arrange chicken in slow cooker.

2. In separate bowl, combine juice, chili sauce, soy sauce, molasses, dry mustard and garlic salt.  Pour over chicken.

3. Cover; cook on Low 8-9 hours

4. Stir in green peppers and oranges. Heat 30 minutes longer.

Variation:

Stir 1 tsp curry powder in with sauces and seasonings.

Stir 1 small can pineapple chunks and juice in with green peppers and oranges.

Plus, I made Chunky Cinnamon Applesauce in the crockpot, from Two Peas and Their Pod.

I love using my crockpot, because you can set it up with a minimum of work, then go about your day, and supper’s made when you come home at 5 or 6pm. I made the applesauce during the night, then transfered the applesauce to a container to go in the fridge, washed the crock, and got the California Chicken all set to go.  I’ve used it 3 times in the past two weeks.

Today, it’s been snowing all day!  There are probably 7-9 inches on the driveway and it was very much NOT done snowing yet.  The snow is almost up to Jasmine’s belly.  I need to measure from belly to end of legs, to find out how many inches that is.  Emily did not get a snow day and my clinic hours went on, as scheduled, so no slacking for us! I’m glad I had nowhere to go tonight!

So, here are some pictures from a short while ago.

Jasmine in the snow

Looking down my street

The backyard

Bush next to the house

Across the street

Neighbor's trees

I finally found my Lands End sweatpants.  I haven’t known where they were, for months and with the cold weather upon us, I wanted an extra option to wear to my school job, to keep me warm, since we are outside with first graders, for 20-25 minutes.  I’m so happy!

I need to get caught up on my dishcloth pictures.  Some on my camera need to be downloaded.  I”m so behind.

July 2009 – Beach Umbrella – Andi Worthy
Mid-July 2009 – Fishy Tawashi – Rhonda White
August 2009 – Thank You – DigKnitty Designs
Mid-August 2009 – Little Lattice Cloth – Debbie C. Tilley
September 2009 – ABC – Andi Worthy
Mid-September 2009 – Rhomboid – Annika Lindqvist (Anklicka on Ravelry)
October 2009 – A Dish Monkey – The Cotton Crafter
Mid-October 2009  – House
Mid-April 2006 (but knit in May 2009) – Smocked Cloth – Judith
Darrell Waltrip (DW) – Rhonda White
Little Lace Kitchen Cloth – Carol Bristol

I loved making all of these.  Every 2 weeks, we do a new mystery cloth.  It’s so much fun!

Participating in Wordless Wednesday