Black Raspberry Cobbler

    In recent years, it has become more important to me to begin learning about some of my family’s traditions. I enjoy cooking, so I have been spending more time in the kitchen with my grandmas and moms. This past weekend I finally mastered the Lashbrook Family Cobbler.

    My Mammaw Lashbrook has always had a black raspberry patch next to their home in Indiana. Every summer she picks and freezes quarts of black raspberries. These raspberries are not something you can find in the store or at the farmer’s market. Last year I discovered that I have a patch of wild black raspberries behind my house. This summer I actually planted more black raspberries on the side of my house.

    Besides having the right berries, I also had to master the pie crust. After a few attempts, we can now help my grandma out and and make her famous Black Raspberry Cobbler. Yum!

    Making the pie crust
    Rolling out the crust
    Placing the crust in the cast iron skillet
    Mixing the berry filling
    Pinching the cobbler together
    A black raspberry cobbler just like mammaw's

      Family

      The month of July was full of travel around the United States. In two weeks time, Jesse and I had the opportunity to see all four sides of our extended family.

      It began with a trip to Indiana. My parents were high school sweethearts. Both of their parents still live in the same town where they grew up. Eric, Alaina, dad, mom, Jesse, and I descended on Marion, IN for one week. We began with a barbecue with my mom’s family. The next day we met my cousin from South Carolina and my aunt and uncle at BK (not Burger King). Friday we met for lunch with my mom’s family and spent the evening eating Pizza King with dad’s.

      When Jesse and I started dating, we had a small world moment. His uncle, aunt, cousins, and grandparents on his dad’s side now live in Upland, IN (only 20 minutes from Marion)!  We spent Saturday at Jesse’s cousin Megan’s wedding spending time with Jesse’s dad’s extended family. On Sunday we made the long trek back to Minneapolis.

      Four days later we headed up to northern Wisconsin for the Jones family reunion, and the chance to see Jesse’s mom’s extended family. We spent a long weekend swimming in the lake, boating, and sharing meals with 26 people! We all stayed in four different houses!

      Jesse and I continue to be thankful for the seven remaining grandparents that we have…and the chance to see all of our families!

        When a Mom Comes to Visit…

        Last week we had the joy of having both of our mothers visit. When I learned that Jesse’s mom was in town, I immediately began cleaning my house. She did not say she was coming over. In fact, we spent the entire time at Jesse’s brother’s house, but just in case, I knew my house needed to be cleaned.

        Three days later, my mom came to town to join me at the Glee concert and help me clean up my classroom for the end of the year.

        Glee Cast

        We always love when our moms come to visit…and our house is always clean!

          Young Love

          A few weekends ago, Jesse and I had the privilege of driving to Chicago to meet Tim. Tim is Jesse’s Grandma Sutherland’s “special friend”. It was fun (and a little funny) to be considered the old, married couple around such young love.

          The trip was also an excuse for the whole Sutherland family to get together. First, to meet Tim, and then to shower Katie (Jesse’s cousin) with gifts for her upcoming wedding in June.

          We look forward to seeing more of the Sutherland family in July for Justin and Megan’s wedding (another of Jesse’s cousins).

          Tim, Grandma, Cyndee and Larry

           

            A New Friend…

            We have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of a few of our friends’ babies. We have been joking that we have entered “Babyland“. While we were gone on our spring break trip to North Carolina, Tyler Daniel Hagen was born. We flew into the Twin Cities around 4 pm and drove to meet him after dinner.

            Tyler is now a part of Carl and Kristi’s family. Carl, Kristi, and Jesse were all freshmen at UW-Eau Claire in 2001. Jesse and Carl became close friends. In fact, they were roommates when Jesse and I started dating. Jesse was in Carl and Kristi’s wedding, and I was Kristi’s personal attendant. Carl was in our wedding, and Kristi was my personal attendant (see Kristi, I remember).

            We now extend our friendship to their son who we were so excited to meet!

              This Time We Flew…

              Last spring break we spent in South Carolina visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousin. We drove all the way there with my parents. This year we headed to North Carolina to visit our friends Ross and Megan. To save time and allow us to use spring break to also remodel our guest room, this time we flew.

              Thankfully, with a little driving, we were still able to see my aunt, uncle, and cousin as well as my cousin’s daughter, Karina.

              We loved meeting you!

              The rest of our time in North Carolina was spent hanging out with our friends. They moved to North Carolina last summer in order for Ross to attend Duke University. Read about them moving here. We toured the Duke campus as well as the Duke Gardens. We also tried a few unique restaurants. Mostly we just talked and laughed and enjoyed being with great friends. Thanks, Ross and Megan! We miss you…

              Megan and I
              Ross and Jesse

                Date Night

                As summer draws nearer, I am slowly regaining my life. At the start of the New Year I resolved to do less, and I am slowly working toward that goal. This past month I ended a research study I had been a part of for the past six months. I also finished doing four-six hours a week of homebound teaching for one of my students. I have finished all of the requirements for my Library Media license, and at the end of this month, I will be finished with all extra after school commitments.

                Part of my resolve to do less is the ability to be a better wife for Jesse. In the past year I have relied on him heavily to help in the running of our household. I have also had far less energy to invest in our relationship. Friday night a coupon compelled me to plan a date night.

                Jesse and I dated in college. During that time, we often set aside at least one evening of each week as a date night. As often happens in life, we had not been out on a date in a long time. When you are married without children, in some ways everything you do together feels like a date. In truth, our time together is always more meaningful if we set aside planned time as a date.

                As a teacher, I received a coupon for free admission to the Omnitheater and Science Museum special exhibit for King Tut. It expired on Friday. On Thursday I called ahead for a reservation. Since we were headed to St. Paul, we decided to plan dinner at Cosetta’s. I love their pizza! After enjoying a quick dinner, we saw Mummies at the Omnitheater. We then spent the next couple of hours enjoying the artifacts from King Tut’s tomb and the rest of the science museum. At museum closing time, we decided to head to Cafe Latte in St. Paul for coffee and dessert.

                It was a fabulous evening explore St. Paul and a wonderful time together.

                  New Year’s in Arizona

                  To complete our tri-state trip, we flew to Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday, December 28th. Many people asked, “Why Phoenix?” My aunt Brook (my dad’s sister) and her husband Chris live in Arizona, and my grandparents (my dad’s parents) are living in Phoenix for the winter. Sadly, we were unable to get the whole Lashbrook family together (we missed you GE and Janet, Travis and Shannon, Michael, Kristi, and Karina)!

                  The first morning it was cool and cloudy, but we decided to go for a hike in the North mountain range. The North mountains are within walking distance of my aunt’s house. We started out with 3 dogs, my aunt, uncle, mom, dad, Jesse and I. When it started to sprinkle, my dad, Jesse, and I remained on the hike with one of the dogs.

                  It felt amazing to be outside without a coat. I also loved the smell of grass and earth. It is amazing the smells that get covered by snow. My dad “thought” he knew the hike he went on with my aunt the day before. It turns out he was a little uncertain. We should have been circling back around one of the mountains, but we weren’t. Jesse had the bright idea to head up, so we could see our surroundings. He continued to go up and up until we determined we were on a trail to the top of the peak. A few times, the dog looked at us like we were crazy when we asked him to go through rocks and over the landscape. We called my aunt for guidance. She didn’t know where we were.

                  Determined not to go back the way we came, we charted a course between two mountains. We eventually found the trail again and made it home. Using Google Map we were able to determine we were trying to go “around” the wrong mountain.

                  "Let's go up...it's an adventure, Andrea, right?"

                  Our first evening we celebrated Christmas.

                  The Boys (Jesse, Chris, Eric, Grandpa, Glen, and Barossa)
                  The Girls (Alaina, Brook, me, Grandma, and Janet)
                  Eric doing his job as Santa

                  One thing the Lashbrooks always like to do when we are together is eat. During this trip, I set out to learn two of our famous family recipes. Brook and I made her homemade crescent rolls, and I finally wrote down the recipe for my grandma’s chicken and dumplings.

                  Rolling out the dough (her's were prettier than mine...I guess what I tell my students is true about practice)
                  Christmas Dinner (yes, this is #3 if you are counting)
                  I recorded the recipe but it is really about the taste and feel...will I ever be able to replicate this?
                  Making Mashed Potatoes (We don't look alike, do we?)

                  The rest of the week was chilly for Phoenix, so we played lots of games and talked with our other family members over Skype.

                  Favorite games: Monopoly Deal, Loaded Questions, Bananagrams, Aquire, and Ticket to Ride
                  Hello, France! I have become a huge fan of Skype.

                  My sister-in-law, Alaina, was in the middle of the Hunger Games book series. We didn’t see much of her!

                  Every year over New Year’s, my aunt and uncle’s neighborhood throws a potluck block party. This year there was a live DJ. We danced, ate, remembered the old year and celebrated the New Year.

                  Still in Love (5 years this summer!)

                  Thanks Lashbrook family for a great New Year’s!

                    Christmas Up North

                    On Saturday, December 25th we awoke in Chicago to find that Santa had arrived!

                    Cyndee has a new bike! Way to go Santa!

                    Jesse was also excited by what Santa left for him.

                    A Blu-ray player!

                    In typical Sutherland style, we jumped in the car and headed Up North. We met Josh, Katie, Cody, and Aubrie for a delicious Christmas dinner. Then we opened more gifts. It is always more fun to share Christmas with children!

                    Aubrie's new books
                    Cody's digital camera taking a picture of his new African knife (Katie is cringing in the background)
                    Big hugs for the GREAT gifts!

                    We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, resting, and…

                    ...playing ANGRY BIRDS!

                    Not to mention hitting the trails for some great snowmobile rides (we missed you Larry).

                    Sutherland Team #1
                    Cody is ready-great snowsuit Katie!

                    Do you notice a lack of pictures of any adults Up North??? Our nephew and niece are SO cute! Thank you Sutherland family for a great Christmas!

                      Christmas Eve

                      I thought I could fit all of our Christmas adventure into one post. After all, it was one trip. As I looked through all of the pictures and fun memories, though, I realized that for your sake I will split our crazy travels into a few posts. It will encourage you to stay tuned!

                      We began our adventure Thursday, December 23rd. We loaded up the Camry (and I mean LOADED) and drove to Chicago with Christmas tunes playing in the background.

                      Friday, December 24th we followed the Smith family traditions. We began the day on Skype with the missing Smith family (Rick, Ann, Katie, Rachel, Julia, and Caleb are in Kenya).

                      Merry Christmas in Africa!

                      We then admired Bev’s beautiful table (Ann this picture is just for you!).

                      Followed by eating beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, the Smith salad, broccoli and cheese, corn, and resurrection rolls (these deserve their own blog post at another time…maybe Easter). The Smith Christmas Eve dinner is a tradition-it is the SAME every year…we love it!

                      Dinner is always followed by the Christmas play. With four missing actors and actresses, this year’s play was a bit unorthodox, but still meaningful in its basic story. I must say it included the most graphic birth of Christ I have ever seen (way to go Hannah).

                      Michele and I watched in warmth!

                      We ended the evening opening gifts from one to another. The highlight this year was a foosball table for Matthew, Mitch, and Mason. Thankfully, our choice of sweatshirts for our nieces were a hit.

                      Thank you to the Smiths for a family fun Christmas Eve!