A Birthday Get-away

… to the cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) with Eric … and no kids.  My mom arrived on Wednesday night to stay with the kids.  Actually, she met us in Valley City to attend a debate featuring the five GOP candidates for North Dakota’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Eric and I have a special interest in this race as a good friend, Shane Goettle, is running.  More on that topic later…

My mother is wonderful!  While I’ve scaled back coursework for the kids, she’s not afraid to tackle teaching. 

We left mid-morning on Thursday, the day of my birthday – December 15.  We stopped at The Wilkin in Breckenridge for lunch, then headed out again with plans to stop at the outlet malls before checking in at the hotel.  My brother, Pat, and his wife, Anna picked us up shortly after 6pm for supper at The Bachelor Farmer Restaurant.   Excellent food and we had such a great time visiting.  

Pat and Anna, above, and Eric and I, below.

We started out with and appetizer and a toast.  The appetizer was Seared Sea Scallops on a bed of potato pancakes with saffron mayonnaise.  The toast was Beef tartare with traditional accompaniments (toasted bread triangles).  I suggested we try the tartare and it was very good. 

Anna and I chose the same entrée:  Duck leg and breast, wild rice, walnuts, and cranberries.  Delicious!!  Eric chose the Meatballs, lingonberries, mashed potatoes, and pickled cucumber. 

My brother, Pat, ordered the House-cured pork loin and belly, braised cabbage, and Thursday Night Pea Soup.

The desserts came and we dug in, then I remembered pics!  So, the first is my dessert – Flourless chocolate cake, salted caramel semifreddo and lingonberry pate de fruit. 

Eric chose the Oatmeal shortcake with spiced fruit compote and sweet crème fraiche.  Pat and Anna shared the Pear Tarte Tatin with whipped crème fraiche and pear caramel.  I didn’t get a picture because it was so good it didn’t last long!  Below is a pic of the kitchen which wasn’t far from our table.

After supper, we stopped the Marvel Bar for an after dinner drink.  This bar takes ‘normal’ drinks and makes them unique.  My fall back drink is the Tom Collins and so I tried the Tomas Collins, which was a mixture of pickle brine, lime, AALBORG, and seltzer.  I liked it and would drink it again if Eric could figure out how to make it!!

Thanks for a great evening Pat & Anna!

Friday, we ate breakfast at the hotel, then headed out for a stop at Trader Joe’s.  I’ve always wanted to shop at this store, and am glad we had the opportunity.  Then it was on to the Mall of America.  We shopped at the American Girl and Lego stores before stopping at Bubba Gump’s – YUM!! - for lunch.   Afterwards there was time for Barnes & Noble and a few odd stores to fill in Christmas gifts.  My hubby was the best… he carried bags and even made a trip out to the vehicle to drop a few off so we wouldn’t have to carry them.

That evening, we ate at Sea Change and attended ‘The Christmas Carol’ at the Guthrie Theater.  It has been a special wish to see that particular show ever since my parents brought back a t-shirt for me after their visit to see the same musical (I pretty sure I was under 10yo).  If I could have found a similar t-shirt for my daughter I would have bought it!

Our weekend get-away will ended with a BISON game and HUGE WIN in Fargo on Saturday.  I hadn’t been to a playoff game, yet, and the atmosphere at this game was totally awesome.  Very loud and great school spirit.  My hubby may go to Frisco, TX, but it depends on if he can acquire a ticket!

NDSU Homecoming

Dash was thankful it was a warmer, rather than cooler day, cuz he forgot to pack jeans!  Silly teenagers.

Gold Star Marching Band and Thundar are always a hit.

Zeke, Louis and Angelina

 

A shopping cart go-cart – I thought it was clever.

My is a FarmHouse Alum.

Sometimes they’re looking, most times they aren’t!  Oh well.  A fun day was had by all.  The Bison won their game.

BISON!!

It’s NDSU Bison Football time!  The opening game of the season is Saturday; we plan to attend.

This pic is from 2004.  We’ve been in the same seats for years and have made friends of the couple who sit behind us.  Good thing, too, because we keep getting larger and noisier with the passing years!  It’s a good section because it’s been very family friendly.  NO obnoxious people around us … only one year we were a little worried, but the young man either learned to tone it down or moved his ‘party’ mouth and behavior to another section.

As we’ve been in the same seats for so long, we’ve also added family to the section.  Three of my brothers and my parents have season tickets, too.  Makes for a very fun time when we are all able to make the games (for sure at Homecoming).  This is our family time in the Fall months.

Go Bison!!

Homecoming 2010

We enjoyed ourselves at NDSU Homecoming on October 2, 2010.  Even though the FB team lost their game, seeing family and friends makes it all better!

The kids lined up and waiting for parade candy…

 

Louis, cute as a button, at the parade.

 

The guy in the middle is my cousin … it’s hard to get pics of him while he’s marching & doing a jig!

 

Homecoming Queen was from my college women’s fraternity.  She’s a real neat gal, so I was glad to see her honored.

 

 

Mr. Goettle – he, his wife and their oldest two children walked the parade route – it’s campaign season.

 

 

 

Homecoming is a busy time.  Too busy, apparently to take better – or more -- pictures!  I’d rather be visiting, I guess.

One of those weeks

Yep, it's finally the end of the week.  But, we have a scheduled weekend, so there's no rest for the weary, nor those without ankle bones (I have ankle bones, but do you think they could show themselves???). 

Here's a little plug for my college alma mater (North Dakota State University) ...  Go Bison! ... first homegame on Saturday.  Normally we'd be in attendance, but I'm attending an ENDOW training workshop on Saturday morning.  Then, hubby and I plan to attend the Annual NFP meeting and banquet sponsored by our diocese.  The kids will be at the game, sporting green & gold, to cheer on the Bison.  They'll be supervised by Grandma Golden Acres, who is one brave grandma.

Accomplishments this week:
1. Thanks to the help of my sister, the whole lot of corn (it filled our second frig to the brim) has been frozen.  I have pics of the process and will post on my cooking blog later.
2. Schoolwork is corrected and we are officially ready for next week.
3. Dash's square foot garden is done growing/producing and is cleared for the year.
4. My to-do list and shopping list are much shorter after a couple days in Fargo.  Thankfully all the food and goods have been stored already, too.

Have a great weekend friends.  It's supposed to be another warm weekend - misearble for me! - but I know many of you are going to enjoy the warmth.