How I Know My Sister-in-Law Loves Me

When she starts her mass-sibling-update-email with this paragraph:

It's been a wild several weeks. It seems like it's been about a month since I've had a weekend to myself. I know some of the more outgoing of you wouldn't understand (Krista! ), but I seriously needed a weekend to just BE and not have anything going on or anybody wanting to do anything with me.

Aaaah. Being singled out is awesome! Even more awesome is knowing that all the siblings will read that interjection and laugh.

Ham Loaf

I'm inspired to write about my evening's cooking...at least the Ham Loaf part of my cooking.
Here's a photo of the recipe.* Actually, it's a photo of an email of the recipe. If you care, you can read some of my commentary when I emailed the recipe to my mom.



Start with 1-3/4 cups of milk. Notice the measuring cup. My sister gave it to me for Christmas a while ago. See how the cup looks like it's got stairsteps? Those are the 1/2 and 1/4 measurements...I love those measuring cups!

Next, add two eggs and 2 tablespoons brown sugar:

After the eggs and brown sugar, it's time for the dry mustard. 1 tablespoon. Isn't that a cute mustard tin?

Be sure to add the salt.

Next, I mixed what was in my bowl. That giant fork? We called it a granny fork at Mia Cucina, one of my previous employers. I use it a lot for whipping and mixing things like this.

Then, add 6 slices soft bread, cubed.

Since I used up all my bread, I had to put another loaf in to bake.

Add 1-1/2 pound ground pre-cooked ham. This is my food processor, grinding my ham. Janis and Christine gave us that food processor for a wedding gift. Thanks, Janis and Christine! I like it a lot!

You should also add 1 pound ground beef. I didn't take a picture because my hands were all beefy and gross, so feast your eyes on this instead:

Put it in a casserole to bake. Doesn't that look like Alice's meatloaf in The Brady Bunch Movie? Hah! It looks a little gross, I admit. But believe me, it tastes great when it comes out.


Just for kicks, here is a photo of the unbaked ham loaf looking mighty pink, like it's out of a 1960s cookbook with full-color photos!

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Ham Loaf
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine in large mixing bowl:
1 3/4 c milk
2 large eggs
2 T brown sugar
1 T dry mustard
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
6 slices soft bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1-1/2 lbs ground ham (pre-cooked)
1 lb. ground beef

Shape into a loaf in an oven-proof dish.

Bake until firm and lightly browned, about 90 minutes. Meat should reach an internal temperature of 175-180 degrees on a meat thermometer.

Christmas Travels Part 3: Colorado

After our Husband's-Family Christmas-day festivities, we spent a few more days with my In-Laws. And, because Colorado is so close to Western Kansas, we popped over to my parents' house for my Family Christmas Festivities.

My parents' tree. Isn't it nice? I love to see the ornaments I recognize from years and years past.


I remember this votive-holder from years and years past, too. It looks much nicer with a candle burning inside it, but we decided to blow it out once we got to the opening-presents part of the evening. Good thing, too...in the flurry of tearing paper, there was at least one instance where I set the paper on top.

My sister and her husband live in Colorado, too, but they spent the night at my parents'. They had just flown in from Atlanta that afternoon and were tired! Plus, if they spent the night, we could have more togetherness time the next day!


My parents and I played gin rummy every Saturday morning for about two years when I lived with them. Now it is a tradition, and so we played. That's my dad's coffee cup over there. Notice that the first card is an ace.

Aaaand of course, we had a fire in the fireplace. Doesn't it look cozy? It sure was! Aaaaah, good times.