November 1st 2016

We had another full house at this meal!  Two babies, a toddler and a tween, and ten adults (two expecting mothers).  Dad was in the mood for a fall favorite, even though it was an unseasonably warm 70 degrees outside no one had a complaint about Swiss Steak being served for dinner!  Our version of Swiss Steak involves serving size pieces of round steak, lightly breaded, browned and then cooked until super tender along with onions to form a thick gravy.  Alongside this hearty main course were mashed potatoes, cheesy broccoli and cauliflower, there was also bread with a surprise twist and homemade butter (my parents broke their curse and were able to make butter)!!

I deposited my little ones off a little early, so I could get the farm chores done a little more completely than I can with the girls waiting for me in the house.  The weather was so nice, I really needed to take advantage of mucking out stalls (nothing says fun like that).

Shortly after re-arriving at my parent’s house my sister and brother in law also walked through the door.  The baby took one look at my brother in law and started bawling.  Apparently, they have tension due to a “boop” on the nose incident.

A few more start to trickle in including the other baby that joins us for dinner.  This time around he and my daughters were engaged in the mass destruction of the living room via toy scattering.  It is very cute to watch a group of little ones entertaining themselves, to say the least.

The expectant mothers were sharing complaints of aches and pains, and that they were both getting decent sleep at night.  The other mommy in the room and I found this to be totally unjust and are jealous.

My mom pops around the corner to confirm I am in fact still making the meatballs for the baby shower this weekend.  Yes.

There was a lot of conversation going on, and it was really hard to keep up with all of it at this meal.  In fact, there was so much, that I did not realize until I sat down to start writing this out, my daughter totally skipped out on saying grace!  No one caught her either!  Shame on all of us, still we are all very grateful for the food and family.

Why is the bread so yellow?

There must be a lot of eggs in it?

Where is your husband?

He should be here really soon.

He had to drive over, it is so far. (Ha ha ha)

I will sit over here so he can sit by you, never mind I am going to sit on that side.  The guys can sit together.

Hello!

I fixed your chap, it took me a while to find the right button, but you can’t even tell.

(I can only  hope that my daughter gave a proper thank you at this point, I couldn’t hear her response)

This smelled so good, I could smell it walking all the way up.  It just kept getting better.

So we need to have a stinky smell come out of the house to keep people way?

(chatter about different stinks that might be jokingly effective)

So what made the bread so yellow tonight?

You have to guess.

Isn’t it eggs?  Is it Brioche?

Nope.

I would say cheese from the way it looks, but it doesn’t taste like cheese.

It is butternut squash from last week.

No way! You can’t even tell!

Umm, the butter tastes weird on this… I don’t like it.

Ha ha! She doesn’t want to eat it because now it’s a vegetable, just like a kid.

The ‘creative butter’ does taste weird on the bread, don’t pick on her.

I guess it tastes OK on the potatoes, but that fine.

Is that extra cheese sauce? (dumping it on veggies and potatoes)

You know it’s funny, one of the first meals I made when we started dating was broccoli with cheese.

Are you still just dating?

Well, we still date, but I meant before we were married. He looked at the broccoli and said “You put cheese on your broccoli?” and I said “You don’t put cheese on your broccoli?” and he responded, ” You know if my mother had made vegetables like this I probably would have eaten them”.  Point duly noted for future reference.

I was listening to your husband giving the news on WSGW the other morning on my way to work.

He definitely has a voice for radio.

Well, that is good considering it’s his job.

Just like Paul Harvey.

He should start doing “The Rest of the Story”

I miss listening to that so much.  I would totally start listening to his station at any time of day if he could bring back “The Rest of the Story.”

(general mumbling of agreement)

Did you here Jared Padalecki started making his own wine?

Yeah, but you have to commit to like an entire case, and it could be terrible.

True, and it’s not like he is delivering it himself.

I think he would sell billions of bottles if he did that.

As it is I am OK committing to like one or two bad bottles, but not a whole case.

Who is making wine?

One of the actors from Supernatural.

Oh

(Now the Littles are stuffed full of steak and potatoes are running wild through the house as we start to clean up the dinner plates.)

I can’t have any pie, I have my glucose test tomorrow and they said no sugar the night before of day of.

WHAT!?!?! (This essentially came from every woman in the room that has ever taken that cursed glucose test)

That’s really strange, I had to fast 12 hours but didn’t have any meal restrictions the day before.

I was allowed to eat a small meal before mine.

I don’t know, they told me no sugar.

You know that glass of milk is full of sugars right?

I took it as added sugar…

You should have scheduled it for a different day!

I know, I didn’t even think about it when I set the appointment up.

Well, we wish you lots of luck.

Dad starts to dish out the apple pie, made with fresh Northern Spy apples.

Well, she doesn’t like fruit pie, so must not want a slice.

I am regretting ever making that comment!

(The toddler is very seriously standing on the chair next to me eating whipped cream off a very large spoon, making sure she gets all of it, and whatever I don’t quickly eat off my plate.)

Wait you missed her!

Did you want a piece?

She wasn’t at the table!

She was taking care of her baby!

Well, I did get the right number of plates out, here you go.

Well, we are going to get heading out.

Was Aunt Royleen coming tonight?

Yes about 7:30, but its only 7.

Really? It seems so much later.

Don’t forget to set your clocks back.  You lose an hour of sleep next week.

No, it’s fall, you fall back.

Right, so you lose an hour.

No, you gain an hour.

OH!! Yes!

Don’t worry  you will lose it at night.

Hello.

Here let me get you a plate.

Um, you helped put things away, were there any potatoes or broccoli left?

Not much, I only put the meat way.

I can do it, I don’t want to be waited on.

Here you go.  You aren’t being waited on.

Why are their spoons and forks all over the floor?

The baby apparently wanted apple pie and was highly offended when I pushed them away. So, I let her play with them and there they are.

I brought your gourds over, did you see them.

Yes, they look great.

And somewhere along the lines here we started talking about The Baby-boomers, Generation X, and the millennials, which of course leads to a conversation about politics.  I will honestly say it never got heated or rude.  The moral of our political story is to vote your conscious next week and make a decision you can live with.

There was also discussion  of a farm to table cookbook being put together, which is far more interesting and exciting than any political topic. 🙂

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