Knodel

 One summer few years ago both Jason & I had family reunions a few weeks apart. At both reunions they had a little genealogy display & we found out both our families had come to America from the Black Forest region of Germany. It was at that time we decided not to delve any farther in fear our family tree might be missing some branches. My mother in law Karen has a few German recipes that she’s passed down & one of our family’s favorites is Knodel (pronounced ka-noodle). It’s a lovely beef dish in a rich wine sauce with giant pillowy potato dumplings. 

You could make homemade dumplings, but I buy mine that are “instant” from Amazon or World Market”. You just follow the directions on the box & boil them for about 10 minutes. The real work is in the wine sauce. I started with cubing some sirloin & slicing an onion & a little red pepper. 

After the beef is brown & the onions & peppers are softened, I add some home canned tomato sauce. You could use crushed tomatoes. These tomatoes had actually been in my freezer from last summer because I was without a kitchen during our remodel. I finally got around to canning them last week. 

Then you start adding wine. This is where the magic happens. I like a strong wine flavor, so I’m pretty generous. Simmer & stir for at least 30 minutes. Longer if you can stand it. The longer it simmers, the better it tastes. I sometimes add cornstarch at the end to thicken, but this time my sauce was thick enough without. 

This is the finished sauce. I forgot to snap a pic with the dumplings. I’ll have to make it again & add to this post! 

Girls, Girls, Girls

Well, we got through the holidays and we are now in the lull of January. I'm feeling very fat and ready to pop. I don't know how I will ever last another two months, but we'll see. We weren't able to make it down to Kansas for Thanksgiving this year, because of Jason's horribly busy work schedule, but we did get to spend it with some family, which was wonderful. We went over to Iowa and spent the day at Brock and Jenny's (Jason's cousin). Aunt Lois and cousin's Marcie and Brad and there family, and Brittany, along with some of Jenny's family were there. The girls had fun playing in princess outfits and fighting over toys.

Next came the Christmas season and Addison really got into it this year. We talked about Santa Claus and Baby Jesus every day. I wasn't able to convince her to sit on Santa's lap this year, so I got to be in the picture, lucky me. Next year, I think I would rather force her to do it and have a classic picture of her looking horrified.


We put together Christmas tins for all of Jason's crew full of cookies and candy. Addison helped me make dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies. She was in charge of sprinkles. She loves to cook and help in the kitchen. I've got her setting the dinner table, loading the dishwasher, and rinsing dishes. My plan for her taking over most all of my housework is almost complete.



My little brother Curt and his wonderful wife Bobby had their first baby the beginning of December. Bobby had a ridiculously long and painful labor, but in the end, it all came out alright, literally. Reece Ann Johnson is a little angel. She's fat and sleeps all the time (she takes after her Aunt). Addison and I got to spend a few days with her the week after she was born. I wanted to pack her in my suitcase and take her home with me when I left. Her uncle Chad is quite taken with her. He better hope he never has a daughter. He is such a sucker for those little girls.

Fall Festivities

We've been busy with Fall Festivities lately. I even made a pumpkin pie Sunday because I thought it sounded good. I don't know whether it was Fall fever or pregnancy cravings, but either way, it was good. A couple weeks ago we went to a pumpkin patch just outside of Omaha with Jason's cousin, Broc's family. We had a really good time with the two little girls. Here's Addy in a pile of pumpkins and gourds.

Last week Jason had meetings in Austin, MI, Hormel's corporate office, so Addison and I tagged along. We went up a day early and went to Minneapolis to the Mall of America. We had a great time at the amusement park and afterward went to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe. We'd never been there, but we thought Addison would love it. We were wrong. It scared her to death. She didn't take her head out of my chest for the first twenty minutes. She slowly came around, but was never completely sold.

After Minneapolis, it was down to Austin. We went to the Spam Museum. Yes, there is a Spam Museum. And there's great news for our relatives at Christmas. We went nuts at the gift shop!

Once home, we decided it was time to decorate jack-o-lanterns. Jason and Addy did traditional, but I had Jason drill tons of holes in mine, for a Martha Stewarty look. It turned out pretty neat.

Last week there was a trick or treat event downtown, so I took Addy. After locking my keys in my car and calling a locksmith, we had a great time. She thought it was amazing that she could just walk around and people would give her candy. The little monkey was pretty cute. Here she is all hopped up on tootsie rolls.

Cool and Cloudy

Our air conditioner is off and the house is all closed up. It feels like Fall, rainy and chilly. I like it. I'm not excited about another Nebraska winter, but I am excited to see what Fall is like up here. Our backyard has gone crazy this summer. The grass, flowers, and the garden are all very full. Jason is excited because the grass mowing has slowed down a little.

Here's a shot of our new patio furniture.

We have decided to put our house on the market. The sign will go in the yard Monday. There have been several police incidents lately on our block and frankly we're tired of it. We need to be in a better neighborhood where we're not scared of the majority of the neighbors.

I joined MOPS and that starts in a couple weeks. Addison's gymnastics starts up again next week. I'm sure she'll be doing cartwheels soon.

I've been trying to get Addison's birthday party planned. We're having a barnyard theme. It'll be fitting since she's really into animals right now. I never appreciated all those cliches I heard before I was a parent, but now they make perfect sense. They change your life. Life is too short. They grow so fast. My little baby is going to be two. She's such a little person now, so full of personality. Speaking of being all grown up, she is officially swearing now. We've hit that milestone and we are so proud. It's too bad she doesn't go to daycare, or I could blame them. We have been working on it and she has cut down. She only says $hit now when she's really mad.

We bought the Nebraska game on pay-per-view today and watched it. Here she is in her jersey.

We're all a little homesick up here. We're ready to get home to see everyone.

Home Improvements and Red Nails

The weather has been gorgeous here in Nebraska. 80's in August is pretty rare. We took advantage yesterday and did some repairs around the house. We repaired the crumbling cement front steps and Jason put in a new light fixture in the family room. We're toying with the idea of putting our house on the market to buy something else with more room. Why didn't we think of that last winter, when we bought our house? Hmmm....yeah, that would have been a great idea, but we didn't. We also didn't anticipate a new baby Schubarth, so soon. But God blesses us unexpectedly so often, we just try to roll with the punches. Anyway, the housing market here is about the same as it is everywhere else, slow. So we're not too optimistic, but we'll see what happens.

Last week we got back into the gym routine, so we'll continue that this week. Except for tomorrow, because we have dentist appointments. Tuesday is probably out, because we're looking at some houses. Wednesday, I have a prenatal appointment. Thursday......yeah, we're definitely going Thursday. Yep, we're back in the groove.

This afternoon we went to the Hormel picnic. As you can imagine, they serve some pretty mean grub there. The menu was pulled BBQ pork, hot links, smoked mashed potatoes, BBQ beans, and pasta salad. They had inflatable bouncy toys for the kids, carnival games, cotton candy, face painting, and pony rides. Addison loved the pony's. Surprisingly, she wasn't scared in the least. She rode them twice, saying "Yah-hoo" the whole time. Tonight after bath time, we were watching Bernstein Bears. Sister Cub had her nails painted. Addison started looking at her fingers and frantically mumbling indecipherables. So we painted her nails. It's the first time I did it and it went well.

Anyway, remember all that wonderful food from the picnic I described.......unfortunately after coming home and smelling our trash, I lost all of it. That will teach me to take it out more often.

Here's An Update

Okay, okay, okay, so it's been like four months since I last posted. Big deal, get over it.

My sincerest apologies to all of those who obviously take this blogging thing a little more seriously than I did. Hopefully, the hate-mail will cease now.

Since it has been so long since I last blogged, I don't feel like I can really go back in any detail and describe everything we did this summer. I also don't feel comfortable just going on now, like nothing ever happened. So here's my solution. I'm going to do a brief overview of the happenings of the last few months. Then we'll resume like none of this ever happened. Okay? Good, here goes:

June: Went home for my sister-in-law, Melody's birthday party. Had a really great time. Drank too much.

July: My boobs started to get sore, took a pregnancy test.........positive........started throwing up, quit going to the gym.

August: Still throwing up, but not as much because I have some good pills. But the doctors office makes me feel like a crack head every time I call and tell them I need more. Started going to the gym again.

Okay, so that didn't even begin to tell the half of it. I'll be back with many more riveting tales.

Going Home

The weekend of Mother's Day, we came home. First we had a BBQ at Curt and Bobby's and found out some exciting news. They are expecting a baby this Christmas. I'm excited about being an aunt again, even if the poor child will go to school at Olpe...........no comment. Here's the whole crew...Jason stayed the weekend, then he had to go back to work. Addy and I stayed another whole week. We stayed with Grandma Logan, but we did quite a bit of visiting. Here's Addy and Great-Grandpa Frank on the porch swing having a good laugh.

One day Grandma and Grandpa Logan took us for a tour of the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve (http://www.nps.gov/tapr/) near Strong City. There's a large stone barn, house, and outbuildings that were build in the late 1800's. There are also trails and a bus tour that takes you out to the prairie. We were surprised to get so close to this little lizard and get a picture.

It was a very nice trip, but it was nice to get home as well. We couldn't believe how much everything had grown and filled out in the yard in ten days. Jason had Memorial Day weekend off. After I had a slight gallbladder attack on Friday, just to get the party started, we had a great time. I was a little down that I wouldn't be able to visit my dad's grave this year, but we decided to take a ride over to Columbus, NE. Jason's Grandfather and an uncle that died in infancy are buried there, at the old country church where his Grandfather was a Lutheran pastor. It was a nice drive and a nice day and I was glad we did it.

Today we went to the park and Addy and I raced on the slides. I won.

Fremont puts out hundreds of flags down the main street, Military Avenue. It's a really neat sight.

I hope you all had a safe Memorial Day!