A couple of recipes for Mariana

Here's our roast beef sandwich recipe. We call it the Peck Family Sandwich, since they are the ones who originally shared it with us when Rachel was born.

1 long loaf of French Bread, cut in half lengthwise
garlic butter (though we use just butter because of James' allergy to garlic!)
shredded roast beef, heated up and well drained
shredded cheddar cheese

Spread the garlic butter on both halves of the bread. Toast lightly in a 400 degree oven.
Remove from oven and spread the beef on the bottom half. Top with the shredded cheddar cheese.
Place the top half of the loaf over the cheese.
Put it back in the oven until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.

That's it! Super easy. We usually stick a roast in the crock-pot in the morning so that we can make this sandwich for dinner. We serve it with some kind of potato, (usually tater tots since my kids are usually the ones that cook it), and a fruit salad.


Here's another easy recipe using french bread that my family likes.

Feta Bruschetta, Dalley Style
1 loaf french bread, slice into one inch slices
garlic butter
feta cheese, crumbled and with basil and oregano mixed in.
tomato, finally chopped and seeded

Spread the butter on each slice of bread. Toast lightly in a 400 degree oven.
Remove from oven and top with cheese and tomato.
Return to oven for about 5 more minutes.

This is nice to have with spaghetti. Enjoy!!

Muskatatuck River Canoe Trip

Mariana, Isaac and I went for a canoe trip down the Muscatatuck river today. Carolyn dropped us off and picked us up. The Muscatatuck river is a small river about 30 miles north of Madison. We put in at an overpass in a farm field, and took out at another overpass 13-1/2 miles downstream. It took us about 6-1/2 hours to make the trip. In a normal year, we wouldn't have been able to do this so late in the summer, but this year has been pretty wet so the water was still high enough. We wound back and forth between farm fields for most of the trip, though you usually couldn't tell because there was a thin screen of trees along the river bank. The challenging portion of the trip was all of the logs and trees in the river. We had to be constantly on the lookout for submerged logs. In two places we had to drag the canoe across or through big log-jams. In one place we were able to squeeze through underneath a log by laying down in the canoe. We saw lots of wildlife-- great blue herons, geese and ducks, turtles and muskrats, and even one deer that swam across the river in front of us.

We had a great time, and Isaac is looking forward to the scout canoe trip August 7. Mariana is lobbying for another trip for her birthday.

Here's my recipe

Well, here's my goulash recipe:

However much hamburger you want
Tomato sauce to match (16 oz. per lb, more or less)
1 tsp. of garlic powder, basil, and oregano
Egg noodles
1/2 cup or so of water
However much frozen corn you want to add

Brown the hamburger. Once it's ready, add the tomato sauce, corn, and spices. Once it's warmed up again, add the egg noodles and water. Simmer covered until noodles are done. Serve.

Yes, I know the measurements are imprecise, but that's how I do it.

Recipe book project

I am going back to working on my recipe book project for Young Womens. I would like to ask for a few recipes in particular; Uncle Flint's Trout recipes, Aunt Ladawn's Open face sandwich on French bread (the one we had when we visted) and her Fondue recipe, Grandma Stephens' Lollipop and muffins with cereal and fruit recipes, and last but not least Aunt Denisa's soup she made when we visted. Any other favorite recipes you would like to send will be greatly apprecilated. I will send copies of the recipe books when they are finshed hopefully by the end of the month but no guarantees. Thank you all for the recipes you sent me in the past and thank you for all your help.

A few more

At Lake Lavon.
Can you see us?
Cute Girl at the Texas Capitol!

Trying to catch up

Remember the Alamo!
Future Governor of Texas?

Creed receives his mission call

Creed got his mission call today. He will be serving in the Dominican Republic Santa Domingo East Mission. He reports to the MTC on Nov. 4. He is very excited, but wishes he was going a little sooner. We are all happy for him.

Tooth Freedom Day

Mariana got her braces off yesterday! She had been looking forward to this almost as much as girl's camp. She came home and ate caramel popcorn and drank pop. Today we had corn on the cob, and she relished eating it without cutting it off the cob first.

Both Isaac and Mariana had a great time last week. Isaac went to EFY in Bloomington, and Mariana went to girl's camp. They took pictures with disposable cameras, so we won't be able to post them until they get developed in a few days.

Back into our routine

Anette and I are back home and recovered from our trip to Texas. We had a really wonderful time while we were there. Thanks so much Craig and LaDawn and John and Denisa. You can be very proud of what good families you have.

While we were gone Creed has his mission interview with the stake president, so we were hoping he might get his mission call today, but there was no phone call from the Post Office, so it will probably be next Wednesday.

We returned home to a tree loaded with ripe cherries. I have never seen so many on one tree. So far we have picked about 30 gallons and it there is probably at least that many more to go. We have been drying them and making cherry syrup. We are also giving them away as fast as we can.

Jake and Lindsay are still trying to get a closing date on their house in Wyoming. It is quite a process and I know they are getting tired of staying with us. But it has sure been nice to spend so much time with those cute grandchildren.