What we had for dinner - April 18 & 19, 2012

Last Week I decided to use up an old package of Boston Butt chops I found in the freezer. There were two very large chops, and of course they have a lot of fat on them. I cut off the fat (shown in the corner of the plate, which I discarded) leaving two very nice chops and about 1/2 pound of little meat pieces.

My mother used to bread and fry Boston Butt and every now and then when I find it goes on sale, I have the butcher cut it into 1/2 inch slices and I follow her recipe. They are always delicious. They provided one meal, served with rice and stir-fry veggies.

Inspired by Kate's recipe for stuffed peppers, I decided to grind the little pieces of meat left after I cut off the fat, with my old hand-held meat grinder. Mother had a similar grinder and used to grind up left-over roast beef and make sandwiches. I didn't particularly like them, but I have used my grinder to grind up left-over hotdogs for sandwiches.

I assembled all the ingredients, including the left-over rice from the previous meal. (Notice my laptop to the right with the recipe I am following.)

First step was to fry the ground pork, onion, and garlic together.

Next, I made the tomato sauce. I didn't have heavy cream, so I substituted 1/2 almond milk and half sour cream.

I heated up the sauce...

I had a few marinated jalapeno peppers I had saved from a neat little Texas cafe we ate at, and I thought they would add a little zest to the meat mixture, which they did.

The peppers were stuffed, covered with fresh parmesan cheese, and placed in the oven.

The finished dinner was delicious!

Working on our Rental Yard, March/April 2012

Since we came back from Texas, we have had to attend to business, some of which is landscaping our latest rental.

Because of a sewer backup in December, the first thing we did was have a giant silver maple removed.

Then we hired someone to come and remove the roots and level out the ground.

We had some major leveling work in the backyard where there was a big dip in the yard where a hole had been dug for a trampoline many years ago and the dirt piled onto the garden area. (the fence blew down during our hurricane windstorm in December, so the backyard neighbors, who owned the fence, are putting in a new one.)

Besides the tree area in the backyard, there were other places that needed some backhoe work.

This Friday, a crew of 4 men will come and finish by hand, what the machinery could not do. The following week a new sprinkling system will be instll.

One year later...

Haven't posted in ages. My kid's blogs have inspired me to at least say something. During the past year, we bought two rentals and re-habbed them. A lot of work and time. We went to Texas for our grand-daughter's graduation and brought Brayden, 7, home for three weeks in Utah. We visited Amber in Portland, and our boys in Colorado on our way to Texas where we are spending the winter (or most of it.) We have loved it here and half of our heart will always be in Texas.

In two and half weeks we will go back to the cold Utah winter and many tasks that await us there.