Category Archives: visitors

Making Corn Tortillas

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It probably wasn’t a good idea to make corn tortillas the night before Thanksgiving but we wanted to share it with our kids. I made the ropa vieja (shredded beef), salsa and refried beans ahead of time so that was good. We made the carnitas and rice and, of course, the tortillas that evening. Everyone helped in some way.
Luca and Dave share a dad joke.
When I bought this mixer I never thought I’d use it to grind corn we grew ourselves.
Using a tortilla press to flatten the ball of corn into a tortilla.
We had to nixtamalize the dried corn (bloody butcher, an heirloom variety) first. That involved heating and then soaking it in calcium hydroxide overnight.
Yum. They are very different from store bought tortillas. Heartier and more flavorful.
Dave ground some of the dry corn into cornmeal and I used it for the cornbread and sausage dressing to go with our Thanksgiving turkey.
Colleen and Sam
Frida and Darcy are checking each other out.
Here is a photo of the whole gang. We went to Gloria’s Pupuseria before going to Redbeards on Friday evening.
My sister and her two daughters visited us Saturday through Sunday AND NONE OF US TOOK A PHOTO!!! This is not the first time they’ve visited and I kicked myself afterward for not taking a photo. Ughhhh!!!
Catching up with some other November happenings – we finally planted the garlic. You plant a clove and get a head of garlic from each one. You have to keep the bed covered with some sort of mulch. Here we used leaves gathered along the sidewalk of Trinity Episcopal Church in town. Those leaves were destined for a plastic bag and I hate to collect leaves from our own property. Want to leave those for the bugs.
We also used those church leaves for the one crescent shaped bed in the front yard we cleared earlier this fall. This bed was so full of weeds that we decided to clear it of everything and start over. Not sure what we will plant here next spring. It may be all annuals so we can make sure we removed all the weeds – especially the tenacious wire grass.
This is the other crescent shaped bed. We didn’t get to this one. Maybe next year. So happy to have three volunteer trees in this bed – two oaks and I think the other is a crabapple.
I just had to take this photo of a pumpkin patch on route 340 in Stuarts Draft.

Holiday Visitors

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We started a 1000 piece puzzle the day after Christmas and completed it the following day. We were on a mission! It was fun! All of our children were with us for Christmas including Sam’s boyfriend, Luca. Other than the puzzle – we ate!

My sister, Melissa, and her two daughters, Emily (behind the camera) and Mary visited us last weekend. We met up in Charlottesville to see Samantha’s Dear Lilith exhibit. We had lunch at Bizou in C’ville and came home for dinner and made Jambalaya.

We got up on the late side Sunday morning and took a walk at Thornrose Cemetery.

Family

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These photos are from mid October.

My daughter Samantha and her boyfriend Luca and I hiked a small portion of the Elliott Knob Trail. They are both fun to be around. My camera says the trail is in Swoope but I think an online trail guide I saw said it was in Craigsville – maybe it is both.

A family photo – Damian (who had just had surgery to repair a knee ligament), Sam and Luca in front. Me, Dave and Colin in back. Not sure what Dave is doing…

I realized most of my photos don’t include people so I’m trying to take more with people especially when we have visitors.

My cousin Gib and his wife Diane came for a short (and I mean short – a little over an hour) visit. It was good to see them – it had been about 20 years. We showed them around our place and had a simple lunch. They are from Gold Beach Oregon.