Sibling Reunion

 The last time all my brothers and sisters were together was August 2018 when we gathered to celebrate what would have been the 100th year of my parents birth.

Saturday March 19th we gathered at my youngest sister's home in Northern Virginia.  It was a marvelous reunion. 

From left to right: Suzie, Marie, Steve, Phil, Bonnie and me.

My oldest brother turned 80 in January and we had planned to meet that month but Omicron canceled those plans. My other brother who lives the farthest was able to change his plane reservations from Arizona to come in March.

Dan and I drove 12.5 hours the Friday before and made it just in time for dinner. All of us but one sister arrived Friday and spent two nights there. The sister and her husband living near Charlottesville, Virginia arrived early Saturday morning and left that evening.

We would have been 12 gathering but my sister in law in Arizona chose not to travel.

We plan to do it again and my youngest sister is willing to host it.

On our trip home, which we did over two days, Dan and I stopped in Strasburg, PA to visit my parents gravesite.  Their presence in spirit was strong at our gathering.

Sent to me by my oldest brother who I got to see last weekend for the first time since Nov. 2019. 

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I've been MIA in commenting on your blogs.  We were gone for 5 days visiting family in Virginia and now are just getting back to normal life though tending to needs of granddaughters as daughter recovers from surgery on her collar bone and son in law tries to work and manage the household.

Successes with Instant Pot

 For those of you wondering what I've been making in the Instant Pot I got recently here goes.

One day I used the slow cook to make Hoisin Boneless Pork Ribs. This was an adapted recipe from my cookbook.  Nice feature of the Instant Pot is you can saute ingredients like onions and garlic then switch over to slow cook feature.

I started with one onion

Added garlic and ginger.

Recipe I was adapting called for Five Spice powder and hoisin sauce.

I used one pound of country style boneless pork ribs.

Dipped the pork into the sauce that was created from saute setting and then set the pot to slow cook for 5 hours.

Here are my notes on what I did so I'll remember next time.

Forgot to take a plated photo but here are the leftovers which I froze for another meal.

When I was in Buffalo I used my daughter's pot to make a variation of this dish.

And made this dish too.

Since coming home I've made this:

I used the pressure cooking setting and it was fast.

And this though since I had no green beans I used canned black beans.  This also was using pressure cooking setting.  It called for tumeric which I didn't have so I sent Dan to Emily's to borrow some.

I like to make notes in my cookbooks to help me remember if we liked the dish or not.  As you can see Dan did like this one.  It did make a lot! And even after having it for lunch one day I froze the rest.

I heartedly recommend getting the cookbook I'm using. For those who commented that they knew family members who had one but hadn't used it, get the cookbook for them.

Puzzle Done

 Completed on Wednesday of this week. This one took 2 1/2 weeks to complete with no help from anyone.  It's one a granddaughter picked out for me.  And it does glow in the dark sort of.

I have an assortment to choose from for the next one. Can't be out gardening yet so if I'm not reading I'm doing a puzzle for relaxation.