Small Town Grocery

I just ran to our little Rolfe grocery which reminded me to do this post. It's not open on Sun. and closes at 6:00 every night so you kind of have to plan ahead but it hasn't bothered me. I'm a "stock up" person. When I go to cook something, I don't want to have to run to the store. Plus here it might not be open!

Our grocery is on the verge of totally closing though. The town is very small anyway but not enough people shop here in town with the higher prices and it's not able to carry everything that the bigger stores do. About a year ago, some of us in town "invested" in the store to buy the owner out who had been ready to sell for a long time. Many improvements have been made and all looks good but still not enough customers. There is a town meeting next Wed. night to let everyone know how serious the situation is and that it will be closing very soon if people don't take an interest and shop there. Bill is on this Board too.

It's Friday

It is 10 degrees. Brrrr. But sunny!

Bill is at a morning meeting in Emmetsburg today - with Uncle Tim and a couple other local farmer friends. It includes lunch. An economist is the speaker. Bill says he always tells them what they don't want to know like they should've sold more (or all of their) grain at the higher prices!

Glenn and the boys are doing a quick trip to Indiana this weekend with friend Jeff to move his stuff out here. He bought a house here about a year ago. So I'm headed to Glenn's shop (Dunkerly Ag & Truck) this morning to drop off Mom's Christmas gift for them to take with them. His shop is in the town of Pocahontas.

The fire dept. Christmas party with meal is tonight which we'll go to. Bill is the Assistant Chief of the volunteer dept. I'm making Creme De Menthe and Caramel Brownies to take. Glenn, Rob, Ross, and Reed are also firemen for Rolfe.

Snow Fences

For those of you that don't know, I lived all of my life in Carmel, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis until Bill and I got married in June 2007.





When my mom grew up there, she had 22 or so in her senior class of 1955. When I graduated, I had about 600 and more like 1200 now I think. I used to ride my bike down the middle of the road we lived on. Now it's 4 lanes with thousands of cars traveling it every day. Quite a change for me moving from a city of about 60,000 to a small town of 600. So, lots of things I've been writing about on here are differences between here and there!

Something that wasn't needed in Carmel with all the buildings and trees there is snow fence. I noticed them being put up around here about 3 weeks ago. They are put in the fields so that the snow piles up behind them instead of on the roads or driveways. You can see in one picture here that with getting only about 2" of snow how much it blows and drifts. We have deep, wide ditches here that end up full of snow during the winter.

A Wedding Announcement!

Diane and Todd got married on Mon., November 17th! They got married in Pocahontas at the court house - while I was on the cruise! So no pictures . . . The 17th was the 7th anniversary of their first date. I guess Lacey was so excited, and we're happy for them. Todd is a mechanic at Ford in Pocahontas and loves to be outside and hunt anything so he fits right in with several in our family.

Misc.

We have a warmer, sunny day today so Bill is power washing the combine hoping to get it put away. We're supposed to get some snow and colder weather tomorrow.

I met with a friend and another lady this morning. I've been invited to join a group called P.E.O. Are any of you readers members? I had never heard of them before. They quietly do things for people in need in our community and take care of each other. It seems like a nice, close group and a good way for me to get to know more women here of all ages.

This is what the Rolfe Christmas street light decorations are. I really like them. They have little white lights on the wreath and the candles light up. So many towns have several different ones and they look like they've had a hard life. Ours are fairly new Bill says and look nice.

Updates & Recipe

A few updates: Bill finished applying anhydrous while I was gone on the cruise and before he left for Des Moines. Now he and Uncle Tim are finishing cleaning up all of the equipment and getting it put away. He has come home pretty dirty on the days they were power washing. Our new house has been almost at a standstill while our framer has been building a large machine shed. We hope he is back and putting up walls later this week. I have books I need to be looking at to decide on faucets, etc. The showers & tub have been decided on since they have to go in early. We met with the builder & window guy this morning to finalize the windows so they can be ordered.

In case you're wondering what Frog Eye Salad is, here is the recipe. I had it for the first time 2 years ago at Thanksgiving and it's good! It can be a salad or dessert. The tiny, round pasta in it is kind of like tapioca and where they got the frog eye part I guess. The first time I made this, I used a recipe that called for the whole box of pasta. DO NOT DO THIS!!! I did not have bowls (and I mean bowlS with an S) big enough for that quantity. It seemed like it was all over my kitchen and I never wanted to see it again! This recipe still makes plenty!

FROG EYE SALAD serves 8-10

1 c. Acini Di Pepe pasta
2 t. salt
Bring 6 c. of water to a rapid boil. Add salt. Add Acini Di Pepe slowly. Return to rapid boil, stir. Boil 2 min. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 6-8 min. Drain and rinse with cold water.

3/4 c. sugar
2 T. flour
1/2 t. salt
2/3 c. pineapple juice
2 eggs, beaten
1 t. lemon juice
In small saucepan, mix sugar, flour and salt. Stir in pineapple juice and eggs. Cook, stirring constantly until thickened. Add lemon juice. Cool. Combine cooled mixture with pasta. Cover and place in refrigerator until chilled.

Add the following, stirring lightly:
2 cans (11 oz. each) mandarin oranges, drained
1 can (20 oz.) pineapple tidbits, drain & reserve juice
1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
8 oz. Cool Whip
1 c. mini marshmallows

Chill at least 2 hours.