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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Wonderful Weather, Wonderful Weekend, and Penny is ONE! :)

Today is Penny's first birthday! YAY! :)
This weekend was a wonderful weekend. I'll start before the beginning of the weekend, Friday morning. Allen took his test for General Mills. It ended up being a very simple gen-ed test, which Allen feels very confident he aced it. Mom is fairly certain Allen's going to get the job, and now we just have to wait and jump through the last few hiring process hoops. It's important to note that we also haven't heard anything back yet from the Hannibal Police Dept, but since they were still doing background checks last week, anything is still possible.
Allen's mom and dad made it here on Friday around 4:00 p.m., I didn't get off until 5 p.m. We went out to eat at the Mayan Mexican Restaurant. Then Saturday we went to the farmer's market. It was a family event. Even Penny got to go! There were a few more vendors this week than there were last weekend. So much good fresh produce, it was hard to just pick a few things. I came home with another eggplant, a few yellow and red onions, some poblano peppers, and these really awesome heirloom cucumbers. Here is a description: They are called Poona Kheera , grows in 60 days. Cream/light green fruits, very delicious flesh, crisp, juicy, sweet and mild, one of my favorite varieties. Fruit shaped like a potato, with skin turning brown as they ripen. One of our best varieties for disease resistance and very hardy. Vines produce early and with very heavy yields. A wonderful heirloom from India that has become our most "asked for" cucumber. The guy at the farmers market was selling them at a very reasonable price also. I only paid 75 cents for two of em! :) They are delicious. We made some cucumbers and onions out of them. Mmm mmm good! After the farmer's market, we headed to Hannibal with the intent to eat at Sawyer's Creek Restaurant, then go to the Christmas Shop and then to go through Cameron Cave. Turns out Sawyer's Creek has been shut down all summer long. I guess the person who owned it went bankrupt and there hasn't been a buyer yet. This made me very sad because I have fond memories of going to Sawyer's Creek as a child and wanted to share this with Allen and his family, but no such luck. So, we ended up eating lunch at the Mark Twain Cafe. Everyone ordered the home made root beer, of course, and it was GOOD! :) We went to the cave but the next tour wasn't leaving for over an hour, so we decided against waiting, instead we walked through the rock shop and then the candle shop. It was really neat because we got to watch the girl make a few candles while we were there. Here is an example of what the candles she was making looked like. Truly pieces of art. Phil bought Brenda a beautiful one!


After the candle shop we stopped by at Lovers' Leap to take a few pictures. The day was BEAUTIFUL, the weather was amazing!
We grilled pork chops, had sweet corn on the cob (from the farmers' market of course), cucumbers and onions, greens beans (sadly, not from the farmers' market...) and these cheddar zucchini muffins I tried for the first time for dinner Saturday night. We decided against German Fest. We were having too much a good time just hanging out , the four of us together, we didn't figure we needed to go anywhere else.
Then they had to go home. :( But we will be making it down to Sturgeon in two weeks for a three day weekend! WE CAN'T WAIT!

Today, Allen had to work, and then we went to eat dinner at Mom and Dad's. We had grilled steak, sweet potatoes, homemade mac n' cheese and I brought a tomato and corn salad I whipped up today. Mom's grape tomato plant is producing TONS of tomatoes and we still had some in the fridge leftover from last week. I knew we would be getting more tonight, so I figured I better use up what we had, plus we had three ears of corn leftover. I made up my own recipe for the salad using ideas from other recipes I found online, but I ended up really liking it and my mom loved it. It's a good way to use the large amount of grape tomatoes up! I'm calling it Tomato and Corn Salad with a bacon basil dressing. If you want the recipe let me know! It was easy and yummy!

Tomorrow it's back to work for me and a day off for Allen, but not really a day off because I have a flat tire and he's gonna take it to be fixed and then he's probably gonna take my car to the mechanic to have then take a look at the wheel bearings...Phil said that we definately need to get them checked out. Niether one of knows anything about cars, so we're gonna take his advice of course! :)






Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

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