Summer Heat: Crock Pot Cool

May is the official Beef Month for Kansas. But it's beef month every month of the year at our house. I'm getting low on a lot of meat cuts as we wait for beef to be ready for harvest and processing.  But I've still got a few roasts at the bottom of the chest freezer.

Beef is Kansas’ top contributor in output to the state’s economy at $11.7 billion, according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Additionally, the sector supports the most jobs—direct, indirect and induced—in the state at more than 38,600. 

         

Kansas ranks third in the nation in three commodity groupings: all cattle and calves, cattle on feed and commercial red meat production. Kansas produces more than 5.8 billion pounds of commercial red meat production, or 10.7% of the U.S. total.

 

Even though we've retired from active farming, we still own our cow herd, managed by the Millers. 

As we approach the hot days of summer, the slow cooker is my friend.

Actually, I love using my slow cooker all year. Like the old cookbook says, "Fix It and Forget It." When I saw a recipe for Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos on one of the blogs I read, Six Sisters' Stuff, I printed it off. And this time, I actually tried it ... rather than it just getting added to the pile of "to-try recipes" that seems to find its way onto my kitchen counter.

I served the meat as the protein for soft tacos with all the usual Mexican-meal suspects - Mexican rice, beans, queso and chips. I stuffed the tacos with meat, lots of shredded lettuce, tomatoes, grated cheese, salsa and a little sour cream. 

We had enough meat for several meals. The meat can also be used in enchiladas, in protein bowls or on top of tostados. Since it wasn't too spicy hot, I also made some into BBQ beef for supper sandwiches.  For people who like things spicier than we do, you could add additional peppers or a favorite hot sauce. 

I just love planned overs that end up looking brand new. Don't you?

If you're looking to add some of that good Kansas beef to your table, give this versatile recipe a try!

  

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos

From Six Sisters Stuff Blog

2 1/2 pounds beef chuck roast

1 oz. taco seasoning

1 cup salsa verde

15 ounces corn, drained

1/2 cup beef broth

Soft taco shells

Taco toppings (shredded cheese, sour cream, tomato, shredded cheese, salsa, chopped onions, etc.)

 

Place roast in the slow cooker and cover with taco seasoning. Pour salsa verde over top. Add one can of drained corn and 1/2 cup beef broth. (You can make broth using water and bouillon, if desired.) 

 

Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 8. When it is finished cooking, pull from the slow cooker and shred, removing excess fat and bone. Place it back in the slow cooker when finished. Mix the shredded beef with the corn and liquid. Serve with your favorite taco toppings. 

Note: I like to use the Crock Pot liners to make clean up easier.

Hope and Irises

 

I'm always running across quotes in books that I like. I may jot them down. Or I take a photo of them. Most of the time, I don't find a way to use them. It's kind of like those recipes I see on Facebook or in blogs that I print ... then promptly bury in a "might make someday pile" on my kitchen counter.

But this one from Charles Martin's book, The Last Exchange, recently rose to the surface again:

I've been some places where there is no hope, and yet somehow, it swims through the cracks. Rises to the surface. I've found hope staring me in the face when reason screamed I had none.. ... Not in all of human history has hope ever been laid to rest. When we breathe in, it's the stuff that expands our lungs. It's the reason we're not just dust. ... If you press me, love is what makes us who we are. Hope is how we express us. Hope is love with legs. 

from The Last Exchange by Charles Martin

 

 

Maybe blooming iris are like hope, too. Earlier this month, the bulbs were tightly closed. There was little hint of the blossom that would later unfurl from the tight, cocoon-shaped bulbs. 

 

 

But, like a butterfly breaking through a chrysalis and unfurling its wings, the iris' colorful petals also broke forth into a riot of purple framing our front doorstep and the mailbox. It's kind of like hope in the book quote, isn't it? The bloom breaks through the cracks and arrives at the surface - just like hope.

 

This year has seemed a particularly good year for iris. As I've mentioned before, they always remind me of my Grandma Neelly. She had purple iris outside her kitchen windows.  

 

She had a much better green thumb than I do. In fact, Randy is the reason we have anything growing in our yard and garden. But even if I don't carry her strong gardening gene, I still imagine her standing at the kitchen window, washing dishes and seeing the purple iris through the panes. They must have given her joy and hope...

just like seeing the iris surrounding our country road mailbox brings a smile as I arrive home.

And I feel the span across time connecting me to their old farm house and sweet memories of homemade noodles, green apple pie, a plastic candy dish, a manual typewriter, sugar-and-milk-laden coffee at breakfast time, Lassie and The Wonderful World of Disney with Grandpa Neelly, gathering eggs from the chicken house and so much more.

It's like a mental bouquet of love and hope. And even though the iris will soon be gone for the year, there remains the hope for next year ... and an invitation to say thank you.

It doesn’t have to be the blue iris

it could be weeds in a vacant lot,

 or a few small stones;

 just pay attention, 

then patch a few words together

 and don’t try to make them elaborate,

 this isn’t a contest

 but the doorway into thanks, 

and a silence in which another voice may speak.

Praying, by Mary Oliver

On the Run

 

Nobody ever looked at me and thought, "Oh, she'd make a great hurdler!" Let's be honest: No one ever thought I'd be a runner either. And they were right. 

When Kinley decided to go out for her middle school track team for the first time, I don't think any of us thought that hurdles would be Kinley's gift either. But we were wrong. At the first practice, the coach manning the hurdle rotation told her she was one of the better ones to try it. He encouraged her to come back the next day. She did, and she ended up having a great first season. 

Kinley inherited her dad's long legs. She has her mother's determination and drive. And it seemed to be the right combination for hurdles. When the season started, we assumed she'd make the junior varsity team. But her hurdling earned her a spot on the varsity team. She placed 10th in seventh grade girls at the league meet to end her season. She says she's going to work on her form over the summer. (Remember that determination I told you about earlier.)

 She got to high jump at a couple of meets and improved each time she did it.

 

Her success at track had her juggling that with a brief spring tennis session. At her middle school, the girls do their regular season in the fall. The coach chose eight of the best players to participate in a couple of spring tennis meets. 

 

At the first one in Junction City, she competed in mixed doubles with Manny. They go to a large middle school, and she'd never met him before the first practice. 

 

 

But it didn't take long to develop teamwork on the court. They earned a gold medal in their pool play. (All of the Washburn Rural teams earned gold that day.)

 

For the league meet, she was paired with Carmen, who was also her doubles partner last fall. After competing in five matches, she and Carmen earned the gold medal as league doubles champs. 

 

They weren't the only pair to have success that day.

Washburn Rural earned the team league title for both girls and boys middle school tennis.

Next year, Washburn Rural will be split into two middle school buildings. Unfortunately, the coach will be leading the team at Washburn Rural North.

It will be interesting to see how things go next year since the combined school dominated in tennis this year. 

Our week in Topeka also gave us a chance to see two of Brooke's softball games. 

It's different this year, since this is the Dirt Eaters' first year at kid pitch, rather than machine pitch.

It wasn't all sports. We also got to see Brooke's 4th grade music concert. The music teacher encouraged the kids to dress in '90s clothes for a rock and roll theme.

 This year, the 4th graders learned how to play the ukelele. They did a great job.

I can't leave out the other "girl" in the household. While we were there, Summer celebrated her 3rd birthday.

Note: I put several of these photos on my Facebook page earlier this week, but I decided I wanted a record in my blog, too.

Bends and Folds

Sunset, looking south

A week ago at Sunday School, our facilitator handed each of us a white square of paper. Kristen said that the small group lessons we'd been using every week had taken an unexpected departure. While she read the Scripture for the week, along with some supporting materials, we were supposed to follow the instructions she'd copied for each of us and create an origami sea turtle. It was a pattern provided by the World Wildlife Federation.

Origami is a 6th century Japanese art form that transforms paper into shapes. The photo above shows what it was supposed to look like when we got done. Then there were three pages of detailed instructions. The first two pages are shown below:

 

There also was a third page of instructions. I didn't take the time to scan it and include it here because not a single one of us got past Step 5. 

It led to a lot of laughter and camaraderie. But it didn't lead to any marine sea turtles. It also led to me volunteering to find non-origami Sunday School lessons for as long as this particular series lasts. May 4, we were supposed to make a fish. May 11 is supposed to be origami sheep and May 18 is supposed to be an origami dolphin. You get the idea. I'm guessing our success on these creations would have been about the same as the sea turtle.

I've done some thinking about origami (and why we were all so bad at it) since the laughter died and we turned off the light in the Sunday School room for another week. I don't think I have any answers. Some in the class were convinced the instructions weren't definitive enough. Some suggested that a YouTube video with visuals to follow might have helped. Others of us were reminded of our less-than-stellar stint in high school geometry class. Those diagrams were looking just a little too much like geometry, so that self-preservation gene kicks in and you figure you might as well give up now. 

No matter the reason, there were a lot of crumpled pieces of paper on the table by the time we were done. The trash can in the Sunday School room will likely need dumped more quickly than normal after all our "sea turtles" and instructions were deposited there after class.

Springtime blooms and weather prompted more musing. One night not long ago, I went out to look at the sunset sky. While the western sky is usually the main attraction during sunset, that night, it was the south, east and north that provided more drama - more bends and folds (if we're thinking origami). 

Sunset colors looking northeast

From my vantage point, the thunderheads just made for a dramatic sky. I might have been a little envious of the rain that was likely falling under those far-away clouds. But I wasn't sorry to miss the hail that also was part of the evening drama. 

So what does this have to do with origami? I did some Googling and found a devotional by Megan Simons called "The Origami of Life." It said, in part:

Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, can be incorporated into devotional practices in several ways. One common approach is to associate origami with the concept of transformation, as a simple piece of paper is folded into a more complex and meaningful shape, mirroring the way God shapes and transforms individuals. 

The origins of origami exist within creation itself, where God has planned careful fold patterns for leaves and petals inside of buds. He has created insects whose wings precisely fold and tuck beneath their protective shells. Recently, as I have wrestled through some difficult questions, I have found great comfort in God’s precise planning and careful attention to every aspect of his creation—to the origami of each life. 

Megan Simons

Looking east

When I'm in nature, I'm often struck by how perspective skews our view. That evening of sunset, I had a different perspective than the people who were getting pummeled by hail stones ... or those being blessed with rain. 

It was all in where we were standing. Some of us were in the midst of beauty on the horizon. Others were in the midst of a storm.

We got a little of that beneficial rain last Wednesday. We weren't expecting it, but it left behind about an inch of much-needed moisture.

It will be great for this year's wheat crop and for newly-planted spring crops. 

 

There was even a glimpse of some rainbow colors peaking through the clouds.  

 

Maybe we all gave up a little soon on the origami. (Maybe not. But it's possible.) One of my friends said she was going to take it home and ponder it more to see if she could figure it out. Her husband came back with Sunday with an origami shirt fashioned from a dollar bill. (He watched a YouTube video to do it.)

Another devotional by Rich Forbes shared this prayer at the end:

Father, I am but a crumpled piece of paper in your hand, and at times the suffering I experience is almost too great to bear. Lift me Lord and, with a simple fold, move me past this tribulation; bring me closer to the shape of Christ and reveal more of Him in me each day. Lord God, let your hand hold me until at long last you can place me before you and see me as beautiful and good... made in your image. Holy Father, I realize that I will suffer and face many trials in this life, and I ask that you give me the strength to endure them, and the faith to understand that you will not abandon me to them, or ask me to endure more than I am capable of. Shape me to your liking and take pleasure in your work, and I will seek you always.

 Maybe those crumpled papers weren't so hopeless after all.