SISTER VISIT!

My orchid blooms again

On Thursday morning I had a call from Sandra saying she had a chance for a ride to Torquay!  They left after school so it was after eleven when I saw lights down the road and the Ross' pickup drove in the yard.  Tina and Michael's daughter, Jessica Young and family, live in Torquay.  This weekend was a birthday celebration for their two granddaughters so it was an important visit.

This is how we spent our first afternoon together - making Hardanger lefse.  The recipe and instructions came from Magna Norheim of Frontier and were from the recipe book, What's 
Cookin'? in Claydon, SK.  Thanks for sharing your expertise and love of Norwegian foods, Magna!

Mixing a double batch of lefse dough

Rolling and baking the lefse

Lefse ready for filling

Beating the warm milk into the soft butter for the filling

Filling ready to spread on half the lefse

Sprinkling with cinnamon

Cutting the lefse into diamond shapes

Sandra with the finished product!

And what did I contribute to this process?  I supplied the ingredients, did the clean up and took the pictures!  It's my turn to supply goodies for coffee fellowship at Trinity on Sunday so thanks Sandra for your contribution!

I was glad to get a phone call from Alan on Friday evening saying that he was safely back in Bon Accord after a cold wintry day of driving from his cousin's home in Frontier.  When I tried to call him back later that evening, his phone always rang busy.  It was still busy on Sat. morning as his phone was out of order!  It was fixed on Sunday afternoon so now we are in contact again.

On Saturday we dug out the boxes of Christmas ornaments.  Sandra has a flair for decorating so she was the perfect helper.  We found new places for some items, moved a few things around and had fun bringing a new look for the Advent and Christmas season.

I decided to make a big pot of potato cheese soup (Gen Kvammen's recipe in Celebrations) for Saturday supper.  It was simmering on the stove when Clare called on Saturday afternoon.  I expected them to be on their way back to Weyburn as the website showed they had lost their morning game. But, no, they won it and had a long break before their next game at 9:30 pm.  One member of the team wanted to get a deer before the season closed and he did, just a few miles east of here. They were all game for soup and buns when they arrived at the farm. (and Ryan was happy to have canned peaches for dessert!)  So instead of two of us for supper, there were seven around the table with enough soup for all.  We also let them sample some Hardanger lefse and flatbread. They relaxed for a bit in the newly decorated living-room before heading back to Estevan for their game.

 The guys did well considering the stiff competition in this Weatherford Curling Classic, part of the World Curling Tour.  The team consisted of Ryan Skjerdal, Clare, Schenley Borys and Tanner Wallin.  They won two of their five games and were rated 15th out of 24 rinks this evening.  The last draw is Monday at 1:30 so ratings might change a bit.  Well done, guys!

Today is Grey Cup Sunday but I can't get excited about this year's game with no Riders in it.  I'm not a football fan to start with but like to keep up with sports so I can carry on a conversation with the sport fans in the family.  

I don't have any appointments this week!  It will be a good chance to make some Christmas preparations - like working on my annual letter,  decorating, clearing out some clutter and doing some baking.  I have orders for flatbread so should get started on those.

So I am going to leave this blog post and go back to the beginning of this year and review the events of 2014.  Then I can work on my Christmas letter.  Have a good first week of December.