Sticky Buns, Meet Ham & Cheese

I am a bit surprised I haven't shared this recipe with you yet. I'm guessing it's because it's one I don't make too often. Not because it isn't delicious, but precisely because it is. Two sticks of butter delicious to be exact. The kind of thing that sticks to your buns. (Pun completely intended.)

Ham & Cheese Sticky Buns

1 package Martin's party rolls
1 pound sliced ham
3/4 pound sliced American or Swiss cheese
1 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp. mustard (I use spicy brown mustard)

Leaving the rolls attached to one another, slice them in half so you have tops and bottoms. Lay the bottoms in a 9x13" baking dish. Then lay the ham on top, followed by the cheese.

Put the roll tops on top of the cheese.

Bring the butter, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and mustard to a boil and boil for two minutes. Stay next to your pot and keep stirring because that is one sticky mess you don't want boiling over! Not that I speak from experience or anything...

Pour mixture over rolls in baking dish and bake for 20 to 30 minutes at 350˚.

Devour.

I typically make these for supper, but Keith has been known to eat the leftovers for breakfast. I'm thinking it would be amazing to slip a fried egg in for the morning...

Back to the Lake

You probably guessed by the last week and half of silence here that we were away. Once again, we spent a week in Maine. The weather was not nearly as pleasant as other years, much more hot and humid than we would have liked, but it still beat the weather here at home.

Keith took off starting on Friday, and we used the day to mow the yard, finish packing, and make sure everything at home was in order before heading up to my parents'. My dad, brother, and niece hit the road around seven Friday evening, while Keith, Bert, my mom, and I waited until Saturday morning. We were up by three and wheels were rolling by quarter of four. The drive took us about 12 hours, including stops, of which there were plenty with a pregnant lady and potty-training two-year-old.

Sunday was reserved for flea marketing, but I don't have any great finds to report. When Bert started looking tired, Memere and I headed back with him. We did a quick grocery stop before he fell asleep and then, after he had napped awhile in the car, had lunch at a new cafe and then took a little trip down to a pretty incredible general store, which boasts everything from guns to groceries, and whiskey to wedding dresses. No lie, there is really a bridal department on the top floor, on the other side of the stairs from hunting and camping supplies.

When the guys final arrived back at the lake after a few more flea market stops, Popper revealed his big find of the day:

A pedal tractor for Bert (if only he could reach the pedals!) at about one-tenth the price of what they are going for on ebay. It was big entertainment for the whole week.

On Monday, the men put a new roof on the garage.

Bert was excited to discover that a digger had been dropped off to work on a building site just down the road, and took many walks to see it. Even after it was picked up mid-week, he wanted to go point out where it had been and tell us it "went to another work."

Tuesday we went to a nearby town on the coast to have breakfast and check out all the neat little shops.

Wednesday was a new adventure for us, but why we haven't been going for years has us stumped. Our place is on a small lake, which is connected to a much larger lake. On the other side of the large lake, there is a rocky shore with huge rocks going out into the water. It was a perfect place for Bert to wade in, and though it gets busy on evenings and weekends, a mid-week morning was a great time to go.

Zoë and Keith spent a long time trying to catch fish in their hands, and there was also a lot of time spent throwing a football around in the water.

On Wednesday afternoon, Keith and I left Bert back at the lake with the rest of the crew while we headed down to Camden to enjoy an afternoon exploring the shops and some downtime together. And thankfully Bert napped for a couple hours so I don't feel guilty about leaving him!

Thursday the ladies and Bert hung around the lake while the guys did some more poking around flea markets and tool stores. Then we all met for a lobster supper (twin lobsters, two sides, $15.95! Eat local right?) in the late afternoon.

On Friday, everybody but Popper loaded in the truck to go to the Maine State Aquarium near Boothbay Harbor. It was small, but there were several exhibits where you could reach in and feel the sea creatures. Unfortunately, by the end of the week Bert was not in the greatest of moods and refused to touch anything. He was happiest playing with the latches on this outdoor display.

By the time we got back and had lunch it was mid-afternoon, so nobody really wanted much for supper. While in Maine we go for ice cream every night and make one night at the end of the week a big night and get sundaes, so we all agreed Friday night to have sundaes for supper. Banana splits for Popper and Uncle Travis, brownie sundaes for Zoë, Keith and I, while my mom and Bert sampled a bit from everyone.

On Saturday, Popper and Travis went to a truck and tractor show while the rest of us headed back to the rocky shore for awhile in the morning and hung around the lake and started gathering things for departure. The first truckload left after supper, and then we left in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday. A wicked (to use a Maine phrase) storm blew through Saturday evening, but then it was clear and cool and felt the most Maine-like of the whole week. And, around nine that night, those of us who were left got to enjoy a surprise fireworks show across the lake. It was about 15 minutes long, and rivaled some others I've seen. The neatest part was that afterwards, we could hear whistling, clapping, and cheering around the whole lake. It was a perfect end to the week.

Now we are home and just catching up on wash and the garden, settling back into our routines, and realizing that it won't be long now until this new baby arrives!

Ready to Roll

One of Bert's birthday gifts from my aunts was a pair of roller skates. I remember having a pair of these as a kid, and they haven't changed except for the color. The same ratcheting, clicking noise that I remember clearly is still there and Bert is having a blast scooting around the house on them. Here's a little video my aunt sent of his first couple of minutes on skates (or his "trucks" as he called them).

So far we've just been using them in the house as he get the feel of them, but he'll be ready for the sidewalk soon. And my clever aunts included a box of band-aids with his gift, so we're covered!


Random note: roller skates for his second birthday makes me think of this Old 97s song, Rollerskate Skinny...

Rollerskate skinny and the terrible twos

How can you have everything and nothing to lose?

Go here and click on "Listen While You Read" to hear it... http://www.songlyrics.com/old-97-s/rollerskate-skinny-lyrics/ 

Two, Too Fast

The weekend of Bert's second birthday was a busy one. My cousin got married on Saturday (congratulations Joe and Megan!) and, because Saturday was my dad's birthday and Bert shares his birthday with his great-grandpop, my mom hosted a slew of family for all the birthday boys.

She graciously prepped all the food, though Bert helped ice and sprinkle the cake.

"The icing goes right there, Memere!"

Bert has been a bit obsessed with blue-sprinkled donuts from the farmers' market, so Memere really came through on making his cake special.

Then it was time for a little present opening.

Keith and I got him a play kitchen, and some things to go with it.

He was very excited to wash his hands in the little sink.

He loves to help put away groceries, so he was thrilled to have his own little boxes of real crackers to stash in his cabinet.

A ride on the hobby horse from Uncle Travis and Carmela was up next.

Later on, after lunch, it was time for cake and ice cream, with a little help from Zoë to blow out the candle.

Bert had no problem digging into his chocolate cake and homemade black raspberry ice cream on his own.

And apparently I forgot to take any pictures of Bert opening the rest of his presents. He got a bunch of really great things and has been enjoying playing with all of them in the couple days since his birthday.

Thanks to everyone for coming and sharing Bert's big day! It was lovely to see everybody.

The Orange, White, and Blue

With nothing else on our plates for the Fourth, we decided to jump on some garden work. Namely, canning carrots. The pulling, scrubbing, peeling, rinsing, chopping, canning process took most of the day, and netted us 15 pint jars of carrots. And we also did 6 pints of green beans. Keith had never been in the house last year when I used the pressure canner, and was a little concerned about all the hissing and noise it made. But we got through the day with no kitchen explosions (or marital ones, which is always a good thing when both of us try to work on our limited counter space).

The nicest part of the day was spending part of the morning pulling the carrots and scrubbing them outside, while Bert ran around.

And how about that volunteer sunflower? We have to remember to cut the flowers off before it goes to seed and we have a hundred of them next year!

"Hmm...let's try a carrot!"

"I think this one needs to be scrubbed a little more."

"Never mind, I'll just suck the dirt off of it."

Along with the peas, spinach, and green beans he has been eating out of the garden, our little herbivore has also started sampling basil, parsley, and sage. He goes back for more on the basil and parsley, but he was clawing the sage off his tongue. And the nets over the blueberries keep the birds out but don't work so well for a toddler with pretty good fine motor skills.

Toddler Translation

This barely qualifies as a post, but I'm sure it will give plenty of you a good laugh.

Bert says: You peed on your job.

(Mind you, he hasn't sorted out "you" and "I" yet.)

What Bert means: While you were outside hanging the wash up, I climbed over the gate into your office, got up on your chair, and peed in it.

I suppose he was trying to give me a warning, but I didn't discover it until I sat down.

Get your chuckles out, everybody.

Really, Get on Those Greens

These days are filled with garden chores, toddler chasing, and – do not be surprised – sneaking in an afternoon nap most days. I do my best to make the morning productive for me and fun for the little man, because once the afternoon rolls around, it is often uncomfortably hot to play or work in our unshaded yard.

The other morning, we picked a bunch of basil for a big batch of pesto, and green beans for the freezer.

But not before Bert sampled his share of them, straight out of the garden. Eating fresh green beans in just your skivvies. Ah, to be (almost) two!

Then, as dinner time came along, it was apparent our cabbage needed to be dealt with. I said before that  with baby #2 on the way, I wanted to start making meals for the freezer, and the cabbage has prompted me to do just that, utilizing a couple recipes from my mom.

The first was stuffed cabbage, which got too messy to take pictures of while making so I'll just share the recipe.

Stuffed Cabbage

Inside: 1 lb ground beef 1 lb ground pork (I used ground turkey) 1 egg beaten 1/4 c milk 1/4 c chopped onion 1 c cooked rice 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper Outside: Steam the cabbage just enough so that you can pull off the leaves easily (you can cut out some of the core before you start). I steamed for about 5 minutes, pulled off everything that seemed tender, then put the remainder of the head back in the pot while I stuffed the leaves I had. Also, you can cut out the biggest of the veins to make it easier to wrap the stuffing. Put the stuffing on the cabbage leaf (I would estimate about 1/4-1/3 cup in each) and fold/roll sort of like a burrito. Lay in crock pot. Sauce: 8 oz. tomato juice 1 Tb lemon juice 1 Tb brown sugar 1 tsp worchestershire Mix sauce and pour over pigs in crockpot. Lay 2 slices of bacon over top. (The recipe comes out fine if you don't use the bacon.) Cook on high 4-5 hours; low 7-9 hours. I was a little apprehensive about this recipe because it seemed like a lot of steps, but really turned out to be not much more work than making a big batch of meatballs. Bert liked them, and we had plenty left for the freezer, so it was definitely worth the time. The next recipe is sort of like a cabbage stromboli. And if that sounds odd, I understand. But these are really good, so give them a chance. Beef and Cabbage Runzas (I went ahead and doubled the recipe to have some to freeze. Ingredient list below is for a single batch.) 2 Tb butter or marg. 2 c thinly sliced cabbage 1 small onion diced 1/2 lb ground beef 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 1 Tbs flour 1 egg beaten 1 loaf bread dough (I made a batch of regular white bread dough but you can use a frozen loaf.) Melt butter in skillet. Stir cabbage and onion until coated. Cover skillet and cook 10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add ground beef and cook over high heat until beef loses pink color. Reduce heat to medium-stir in salt and pepper, then sprinkle flour evenly over meat mixture. Cook 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Heat oven to 350. On lightly floured surface, cut dough into 4 pieces (8 if recipe is doubled).  Roll and stretch into oval about 6x4.  Spoon 1/4 of mixture onto half of dough. fold over and pinch edge to seal. Place on cookie sheet. Brush with egg and sprinkle with caraway seeds if desired. Bake 25 minutes until golden brown.

So that's how we are using up cabbage around here, and prepping a bit for the chaos that ensues after bringing a newborn home. Because that event is only three short months away!