2. Take a box of Ritz crackers. Crush those crackers while in their bag. Crush until you cannot see any large bits.
3. Put those Ritz into the large bowl.
4. Add a bag of Skor bits (the ones we got look like a bag of chocolate chip cookies but says Skor on them).
5. Add a can of condensed milk.
6. Mix.
7. Pour into a Pyrex dish to put in the oven.
8. Set oven at 350F for 20 minutes.
9. Let sit for 30 minutes then cut to whatever size you want. If you cut before 30 minutes, it’s too sticky. If you wait longer, then they get really stiff.
1 yellow or white onion chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced (if I have them on hand that is)
3 plump garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 cups carrots, sliced
1 tablespoon oil
Add the oil, onions, carrots, celery, and garlic to the Instant Pot on saute mode. Saute for 5 minutes.
Turn off saute mode.
1/2 teaspoon each- onion powder & garlic powder
1 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoon beef base. I bought “Better than bouillon” beef base.
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Add the onion powder, garlic powder, Worcestershire, salt, pepper, and beef base, stir to combine with the veggies.
1 1/2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch chunks (can be anywhere from 1-1 1/2 lbs). I have used a package of stew meat that I get from the grocery story. I’m assuming it’s around 1 1/2 lbs.
1 cup pearl barley
32 oz beef broth or stock
2 cups water if using the beef stew meat. I used one cup as the recipe states and it wasn’t enough for me. ALSO, when I left out the beef stew meat and added a can of chickpeas instead, there was DEFINITELY NOT ENOUGH WATER. I think it’s because water comes from the beef as well? I think 3 cups of water is needed if adding chickpeas instead of beef stew meat. As I type this I haven’t tried that variation yet.
Add the stew meat, pearl barley, beef stock, and water.
Close the Instant Pot and set to meat/stew mode (or manual/pressure mode), high pressure, for 25 minutes.
Do a quick release.
variation (October 2024): instead of beef I used a can of lentils and instead of carrots I used potatoes. I liked both additions. Vero and Ezra preferred the carrots. I also added three cups of water and that was great.
No particular order. Too bad I didn’t record it! I would have but we weren’t planning to play with full gear until last minute so I forgot to bring along the recording unit.
It was a pretty fantastic set considering we had only played together for the first time two days before. It’s fabulous to play with great musicians.
Small pack of sausages (5 or 6 in a pack I think? I removed the meat from the casings)
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 carton (32 ounces) chicken broth
1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can lentils, rinsed
1 cup dry red wine or additional broth
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Directions
Select saute or browning setting on a 6-qt. electric pressure cooker. Adjust for medium heat; add oil. When oil is hot, add sausage, onion, and carrot. Cook until sausage is no longer pink and vegetables are tender, 6-8 minutes, breaking meat into crumbles; drain. Press cancel. Return all to pressure cooker.
Add broth, tomatoes, lentils, garlic, salt and pepper. Lock lid; close pressure-release valve. Adjust to pressure-cook on high for 15 minutes. Let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes; quick-release any remaining pressure.
Original recipe asked for celery, beef broth and spinach. I did not have any on hand. Perhaps try next time? Recipe also called for a cup of red wine. I’m not convinced that the alcohol would burn off so I put an additional cup of broth in. I’m not sure if that was needed either. There was a already a lot of liquid.
Grandma took a photo of this Steller’s sea eagle. Supposedly bird watchers from as far as Toronto drove down to Gaspe to see this!
Working on his baseball skills
Sierra marvelling at how high Maman can get!
It’s not often that a copy of Giant Sized X-Men #1 comes close to being mine, but on my birthday I took part in an auction to get a copy. I went as high as $1,950 and finally had to bow out. I heard that it went for $2,400 at final bid. I did my research and decided the condition it was in was not worth more than $1,950. One day it will be mine!
We really enjoy the Rockland park because of its proximity to water and this great merry-go round! Here I am spinning these kids until they vomitted.
On my birthday we headed out to the Ottawa River and checked out these neat rock sculptures we had never seen before. We even got to stop by a cantina and had a couple of hot dogs!
Let’s not forget the great orange cake!
Sierra got to hang out with some friends at the park one hot morning.
Enjoying an apple
Cooling down on a hot day
Always nice when Andreane can come for a visit
Yeehaw!
A father’s day gift arrived late but it was much appreciated!
Teaching Sierra how to ride a bicycle. She wasn’t too bad at at it but I think next year might the year she nails it.
Pretty nice setup at night
Practicing to go to school and teaching Ezra how to do the thumbs up
For Ezra’s birthday we decided to go over to Prehistoric World. It’s not too far away and the kids (and adults!) enjoy it!
We also had water balloons on hand! Ezra REALLY enjoyed playing with those!
Ezra had a firefighter theme for his party and we made a truck cake for him
A photo before the cake was eaten
I hope this happens when the day comes for my visit to the Star Wars hotel!
Hitching a ride
I’ve been dropping off my empty beer cans in Chesterville and we toured around the park and found it was right next to the river!
About to head out and fight some crime
Got to see some fine friends from college on a very very hot day. That pool was calling my name!
If there are strawberries, there are my kids
I always laugh at how Ezra can’t wait to eat his corn so he just hucks it and eats it!
Vero bought an inflatable kayak which worked quite well from what I’m told. I think this photo was taken from her first voyage. I think her second one resulted in her thinking a mouse was trapped INSIDE the kayak trying to claw its way out so she had to hurry home! I’m not sure what she heard but we never found a mouse.
The kids love going down the hill in the wagon!
Mmm mmm good
Streaker!
Enjoying an hour at the beach. While this section of Petrie Island has more rocks, there were less people.
Dropping by to show of their new wheels
Preparing the cucumbers for pickling
The theatre gang hung out in Rockland one morning while I decided to give the kids a ride on this blanket
Good to see these folks alive and well!
I was pretty impressed Sierra made it to the top!
Prepping the jars for pickling. I always laugh at how much dill we get at the farmers market but that’s how they sell it!
This year’s batch was smaller than last years because we still hadn’t gone through last year’s batch. I wish I wrote down how many pickles we bought.
The carrots were getting pretty big near the end of August!
With a little thought put into it, we decided to be godparents to this baby. She promised lifetime nachos so that sealed the deal.
Near the end of the summer I started panicking in thinking we never got around to doing all the things I wanted to do. Of course, part of this was due to the pandemic, but I decided to take the kids to a splash pad in Orleans one morning. It was a fun time!
Hanging out at the park. Ezra looks like he has some rosy cheeks from trying to keep up with the other two!
One last trip to Petrie Island before the end of summer
Where are they heading?
Sometimes we all just want to dance
Vero decided to go visit her grandmother at the end of the summer. They enjoyed an afternoon outside together.
Meanwhile back home, we lived off of freezies and chicken wings
Supposedly these are the best curds in the region so Vero always picks some up while visiting
Haha! Truth.
On August 30th, it marked the first of many lunches that we will make in our lifetimes.
Every year I scramble to find the dill pickle recipe from Mom and then I realize it’s out of date as she has taken away many of the items from the original recipe.
Here is the recipe for reference and some quantities to determine what to buy next year.
At the Navan Market we bought two small baskets ($6) of cucumbers. They were small which was great as we didn’t slice them. We also picked up three garlic…rods? What are they called? I guess we bought three garlic bulbs. Two would have been enough. Note: They are huge! We also picked up a bundle of dill and that’s MORE than enough. I am not sure if we can ask for half a bundle next time?
Two small baskets filled eight large jars.
Steps for my house. If you’re reading this from some random internet search…good luck!
1. Scrub the cucumbers and leave them in the bucket of cold water. I did this for the entire day before. 4 hours before actually putting them in jars, I add some ice to the bucket.
2. Sanitize the jars in the dishwasher. Mom talked about how she doesn’t do much more than wash her jars for dill pickles. It’s different when it comes to jams and you want to put those jars in the oven for 15 minutes at 200 degrees. Update Summer 2024: Mom called me today to confirm I can’t put these jars in the oven beforehand because I can’t put my pecker in the hot jar! Haha. Clearly she got her words mixed up between peckers and pickles!
3. Put two cloves of garlic and 1 head of dill. We had a lot more so we added 3 cloves sometimes and a bunch of extra dill.
4. Add as many cucumbers as you can. You can also add some hot peppers if you want. Note: If you are the only person eating the spicy dill pickles, don’t make as many jars. This year I went with one spicy jar and seven non-spicy.
We also had some pickling spice left over from a previous year so we decided to put it in. The verdict is still out if it is really needed. I don’t notice a difference so I don’t think I’ll buy any in the future.
5. Bring a small pot to boil and put your lids in there. Turn the burner off. They just need to be warm to soften.
6. Bring two pots to boil so you can speed up the process. In these pots you want: 2 cups of white vinegar, 4 cups of water and 1/2 cup of coarse salt. This filled approximately 2 large jars. I had very little left after filling these jars. Adjust if need be…if you just need to fill one last jar like I did, boil 1 cup of vinegar, 2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of coarse salt.
7. After coming to a boil, pour it in (I didn’t need the funnel if I poured it fast enough) until there’s about a 1/2 inch from the top. I made sure the brine covered the cucumbers.
8. Take the lid out of the hot water and place onto the jar. Take a ring and tighten. I didn’t tighten a lot but enough that it kept the lid in place. As I type this I’m going to wait 24 hours to hear a pop. If I hear a pop, I’ll tighten the lid.
That’s that! I will be interesting to see if our family eats more than 8 jars in a year.
