Monday, September 27, 2010

Funny Phone Call

While walking home from the post office and bank this morning I received an funny phone call on Litengard's number.

ring, ring...

"Hello, Litengard"

"Hi, this is Andy from San Diago"

Our neighbor has a son who lives in San Diago and his name is Andrew. I was a bit confused at first because he has never been called anything but Andrew. Never Andy.

"Andrew, is this you?"

"It's Andy from San Diago"

He was definately not my neighbor!

"What's your last name?"

"Castleberg, I'm the answer to all your prayers"

"I have the answer to all my prayers, his name is Jesus"

"Well, I'm just what you want for your business. I specialize in business cards, brochures, etc....."

"Oh, I already have someone doing that for me that I'm very happy with. Thank you for calling"

"I'm a college football star."

"That's nice. I'm very proud of you!"

"Oh, I thought you might be a cougar"

"WHAT?!? No, I have a husband that I'm happy with and four great children. Not interested!"

"Oh, well could I just tell you about my products?"

"Andy, I don't want to waste my time or yours. I'm sure you have a great presentation and product but I have to go and clean three bathrooms"

You can't make this stuff up. On to my cleaning!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Gifts and Recipies


One of Rob's patients made this for Litengard. It is beautiful! It is modeled after an 18 century French physican's cabinet. And he wrote us and told us he made it exactly the way they would have made it, using the same techniques. Rob has very talented patients!
It is really gorgeous and sits proudly in the hall on the second floor.


We had really great guests last weekend. A family. They were in Canton to visit their son who is a football player at SLU. And all the inlaws came too. They all live in the same town and travel around together, all friends. It's what I dream about. They were so much fun.
They were so interested in the house and all the historic details. They loved the Swedish design and all the family history. In fact, they saw my grandmother's samplier, with her name (Astrid) on it and told me about a book that they had all read....Astrid and Veronika. It is a book by a Swedish author about a friendship between two very different people. I'm just getting into it now. Anyway, they had gone to the bookstore and purchased a copy, gone online and figured out how to write "thank you for a wonderful stay" in Norwegian. It was so very sweet and thoughtful of them.
They tell me they are coming back. Good!



A couple of recipies:

I made this for our brunch the other day. Everyone loved it.

Easy Breakfast Pizza
1 pound sausage, browned
1 package crescent rolls
5 eggs... I used 6
1/4 cup milk....I used 1/4 cup of milk and about 1/4 cup cream
15 ounces frosen hash browns, thawed
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded.... I probably used 1 1/2 cups of cheese

Unroll crescent rolls and press in 9X13 inch pan. I buttered it first although the recipe did not call for it. Spoon sausage over crust, sprinkle hash browns, sprinkle cheese over hash browns. Beat together eggs and milk, pour over top. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes until bottom crust is browned and center is set. Serve with salsa. Serves 8-10.

Baked Eggs (Rob's favorite so far)
3 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoons fresh chopped basil (I didn't use this)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 cup milk I used a bit of cream
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Melt butter in small saucepan. Stir in flour, pepper, salt and basil. Add milk and stir over medium heat until bubbly. Stir for 1 minute more. Butter two 8 ounce baking dishes. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of sauce into baking dishes. Break each egg over the suce into the two dishes and spoon remaining sauce over the eggs. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over hot sauce and let stand until it melts, Garnish with chopped basil and serve immediately with Canadian bacon or ham slices, fresh tomato slices. I acutally cooked it a couple minutes less and put it back into the over after I put the cheese on it. It got a bit crusty with I liked instead of just melted. And of course I did serve it with my heirloom tomatoes, three different kinds...pink, purple and yellow. It looks very pretty with ham slices, the tomatoes and a big sprig of parsley. I always make an extra one for Rob.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Birthday Brunch at Litengard



We had a birthday brunch at Litengard today.

Janice was one of my first friends when we moved to Canton 23 years ago. We're the same age.

I was wanting to try out a couple of new breakfast recipes, and our "birthday friends" all like to eat and try new things, so I thought they would be game. Since it was a brunch I also included some Scandinavian specialties.... and some of the friends actually tried them.

Much to Georgia's surprise she actually liked pickled herring in sour cream sauce. What respectable smorgasbord would not include herring. Many also tried my favorite gjost cheese. It's a dark goats cheese, quite sweet with a creamy texture. I grew up on herring and gjost. Everyone liked the Bergonnost cheese. It's mild white cheese, not so different. I made Limpa, which is a tradional Swedish rye bread. It's a moist dark crusty bread made with molasass and anise seed. Wonderful with butter.

I should have taken a picture of the food but didn't. I prepared spinach stuffed tomatoes which were really yummy. I have sooooo many tomatoes, everyone had to take a couple home. But these Camp of Joy tomatoes were just perfect. They are relatively small and have a lot less water. The spinach, garlic, onion, whole wheat bread crumbs and cheese were the perfect topping. Every thing tastes good with enough garlic and onions!

Everyone loved the Breakfast Pizza which was so easy to make. The potato, cheese and egg skillet casserole was wonderful too but a lot of preparation. Would be wonderful breakfast before going out hiking or skiing.

Rob wants me to write a book now and include vignettes about opening an inn, recipes, decorating tips, and fun stories about the experiences with the guests. We've already met some wonderful, interesting people. I tell him, let me get some more recipes under my belt and a few more guests in the inn. I tell him he should write a book on the many funny stories and experiences he has had during his practice. Like when a prison guard escorted a prisoner in his orange jumpsuit and chains into the extremely crowded waiting room and a octogenarian exclaimed in a very loud voice, which Rob heard all the way down the hall in an examining room, " There's a prisoner in the room, there's a prisoner in the room!!! Everyone guard your purse!"
Another funny one was when someone told Rob that they should be legally dead. I think they they were thinking of a different word.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun today. And yes, I am going to post recipes shortly.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

A Night at the Opera

After preparing and serving a hearty North Country breakfast, complete with heirloom tomatoes, to our wonderful and fun guests, giving the "tour" of Litengard and it's gardens to over a 100 people who came as part of the EJ Noble House Tour, Rob and I went out to "A Night at the Opera".

I'm not a big opera fan but it was so enjoyable. The music inspiring and beautiful. I loved Kenneth Andrews little note in the program: "For generations, in Europe, the main form of entertainment in even the smallest and most rural towns was Opera! Whole families would consider their outing for the week to be a chance to go to the theater to see an opera production that would take their imagination to a famous city, another country, or even magical and distant land. It might take them on an emotional journey that expressed love, sorrow, tragedy, remorse, elation and perhaps even great heroic deeds - all through the melding of the stage, the score and the orchestra."

The tenor, Lonel Woods, was so entertaining. He was my favorite. He seemed to be having so fun singing and performing. And he had a fantastic voice!

My folks, for years, had season tickets to the Metropolitian Opera at Lincoln Center. They would enjoy a nice dinner down in the city and then a memorable performance at the Met. They were blessed to have seen many great operas.

Rob and I both commented after the performance that a vocal gift is a wonderful gift from God. He is always amazed at these men who compose symphonies, concertos, operas and musicals. But I always remind him that Mozart probably could not have removed some one's gallbladder or appendix.

We each have our own gift!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Growing

I had to include this picture. I told Rob that I had gone around and cut down weeds for a fall decoration in front of Litengard.

"Weeds?"

Yes, and I think they look magnificient!



This is my harvest from yesterday! And there are hundreds of more tomatoes to ripen and be picked! My friend, Danica, put me onto roasting the tomatoes and I've done that a couple of times. Cut whatever type of tomatoes into sections, good olive oil, salt and pepper (I always use kosher) and lots of cut up garlic. Then roast them for an hour or so at a low temp until they are shriveled. I even like them a bit blackened. Just a bit. They are so yummy! Sweet but somewhat tangy. I love them cold, right from the frig. Kay told me her mom would just freeze the tomatoes whole. After frozen, put in a bag and save for stews or soup in the winter. That I am definately going to try.

I really had fun with my garden this year. It must have been a perfect year for everything. The beans never stopped producing, the brocolli was abundant, even the carrots, which I usually don't have much success with prospered. I even have jalepenos and red, green and black peppers!

Every night we have loads of veggies for dinner, straight from the garden. We're spoiled and going to miss the fresh produce in about another month. I do have loads of brussel sprouts, red cabbage (have an interesting soup with red cabbage and sausage I'm going to try), and eggplant that I think will last at least another month. We really could be self sufficient as far as food this summer, except we like meat and fish. Oh well, maybe they'll be chickens next year at 44.





This is another layer to my sustainability kick. I had planted two apples trees in the backyard garden before the wedding. And this year I had loads of apples. The only trick was to get to the apples before the squirrels! They made me mad. They would take an apple and eat just about 1/3 of it and then leave it lying on the ground. I wouldn't mind sharing if they would just finish the apple and not be wasteful. My mother taught me better than that! But I did end up with a couple dozen very nice apples.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Psalm 89

Psalm 89 is Ethan's psalm. Actually, it is the psalm of Ethan the Exrahite and it is to give instruction. The Biblical Ethan, was a musician.

I'm possessive. This is a psalm I became acutely aware of when my Ethan was first born and I read it this morning on my reading through the book of Psalms. It brought back memories and assurances of God's faithfulness.

Our family had moved to a very rural town in western Pennslvania in 1977. Rob was the only surgeon at the hospital where they had limited facilities. I had sort of a "Christy" outlook moving to the coal mining town. I envisioned myself going to the library reading to swarms of dirty, black footed children who didn't have running water in their homes and had only recently had electricity installed. I had read Christy recently and had seen myself doing the same things in my new home town.

It wasn't exactly as I had pictured. The Lord had a different plan. We immediately became involved in local church and as it was approaching summer, when we moved, the church was getting involved with their annual plans for Vacation Bible School. I immediately volunteered to head the program up. Why I don't know. My expertise is nursing but I guess I had some time and wanted to get involved with local church.

We prayed. And we prayed. And God showed up. After all the years of doing VBS they normally had about 20 kids that would come. Well, that year we had over 200 kids come. I didn't even know that there were that many children in the whole community. Anyway, Rob and I unexpectedly got involved in children's ministry which would expand and last the whole ten years we were in the area. Ninety children came to know the Lord that first summer. The next summer I started a program for the mom's while their kids were in VBS. It was fun.

My pregnancy for Ethan was without any issues and the labor and delivery was relatively easy and quick. However, he was born with a collapsed right lung which was rapidly expanding and compressing his heart. He didn't cry or move and when it was discovered what the problem was the obstetrician told Rob, "you have to do something or this child will die."

No pediatrician, no other surgeon, no equipment necessary to install a pediatric chest tube, he had to act. Thank goodness he is creative and can think outside the box and God is his Lord.

He called for a few things and after being plagued with thoughts that he would kill the child before he could save him, he inserted something that passed for a chest tube and got the lung inflated. The NICU, at a hospital an hour away, was called and sent a team over to get him. There he was, tubes coming from everywhere, IV's, chest tube, oxygen. And he was quiet. Saving his strength for breathing. Even Elizabeth took pity on him when she saw him. She desperately wanted a sister.

The nurses at the NICU kept asking us what we were going to name him. They wanted a name. They said it was important. We didn't know. We wanted a name that, when he was called, would reflect a characteristic that would be a Godly characteristic and some quality that he needed right then. That's when we came across the name Ethan. It means strong. And he was anything but that then. He couldn't even cry.

After we chose the name Ethan, Rob's dad, the Bible scholar that he was, told us about this Psalm. The Psalm of Ethan. It speaks about mercies and faithfulness and covenant. It speaks about that God rules the raging of the sea....which I have taken to mean the issues of our lives which sometimes seem to be out of control. "When they arise, you still them" It speaks about justice and judgment being the habitation of his throne and mercy and truth going before his face. Don't you just love the imagery that is evoked with these words. It's beautiful. The psalm speaks about his people walking in the light of his countenance. I always thought I like light, mirrors, candles because of my nordic heritage. Perhaps that is part of i,t but light is such a powerful influence in the Bible. "Your word is a light..... a lamp". And the Psalm reveals Jesus and God's plan for him and us.

It's a magnificient psalm and I'm glad it was part of my devotions today. A reminder of God's goodness and His faithfulness and His commitment to me.

And Ethan is strong and big and not quiet anymore. When he was little, I think around 3 or 4, my parents took care of him for a week or so and when they were driving him back to us he sat in his car seat and talked constantly for about 4 hours straight. My father, not a loquacious man but very tolerant, finally turned to him and asked very potitely if he would stop talking for a bit. He is the most people person that I know. And that's a good thing.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Labor Day

And labor we did.

We had guests for the weekend who were just wonderful. Two breakfasts which included new recipes, they were adventuresome. But both were really scrumptious!

Elegant Eggs which turned out to be really high fluffy eggs served piping hot with a dollop of sour cream and a drizzle of lingonberry sauce. We first experienced lingonberries in Norway and they were delicious. That was served with fresh local bacon, english muffins, orange juice, and locally grown peaches and pears. Today I served Baked Eggs and I believe that the company liked this recipe even better. These are made in individual 8 ounce baking dishes and so yummy. We had slices of my heirloom tomatoes and herbs from the garden, pumpkin apple muffins (apples picked yesterday from one of the apple trees I planted for the wedding 6 years ago), ham slices, fruit, cranberry apple juice and coffee.

Ethan came in at the tail end of breakfast and had his breakfast with the guests. He was made to be an innkeeper. He's a natural.



Dad and Ethan tore down old rotted boards from out back porch and temporarily "fixed" the part where the wall attaches to the roof and then Rob used some old flashing that he had from his grandfather and cemented and tarred parts of the porch roof that had disappeard. We're still wondering what to do with the back porch. I'd like a more permanent structure, one with heat that I could have my washer and dryer in but that probably will be sometime in the distant future.



Ethan then took over Jon's job of trimming the bushes and did a fantastic job! I had trimmed some of the front about 2 months ago but with the heat and the rain everything was very overgrown. He kept saying he knew nothing about trimming bushes but did an excellent job. That's good because I don't think Jon will be home anymore when it's appropriate to trim.



And we made up a big basket of 42 and 44's local produce for Ethan to take back to the city. Heirloom tomatoes all the way from northern New York. And I had to include several potatoes that he had harvested the day before. And then after a long nap, it was back in the car for the journey back to the Big Apple.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Blessings of a Simple Life

Sitting in the den listening to the slow steady clip clop of an Amish horse pulling it's buggy as it made it's way to the intersection of our small village, made me acutely aware of the blessings of a simple life.

I really like it here. It's a wonderful blessing to be able to call this place home.

No, there is no shopping. But that's why we have the internet isn't it?

We certainly have beauty here. Farms and mountains, streams and the raging St. Lawrence, historic homes but no skyscrappers. Wonderful music; music theater, opera, symphony, bands. We have four universities and we have churches. We still have neighborhoods and friends who look out for each other. People who we see almost everyday and new people we're meeting each week now at our B&B.

The Amish, who are quite industrious to say the least, bringing their quilts, aprons, homemade baskets into town almost everyday in the summer. If you want to purchase their picnic tables, chairs, adirondack chairs, gazebos or cabins, you must go out to one of their homes where all of the carpentry is done. Plus you can also purchase baked goods, produce and eggs while out and about.

In the summer here, between May and October, we have a wonderful farmers market down on the village square. This is the time of year when we have corn on the cob almost every night. There is now electricity in the square so that local meat producers can bring their home grown, non steroid injected cuts of meat. I've come upon a farm that has the most wonderful bacon. It's the only thing I serve at Litengard. And free range chicken and their eggs are so different from mass produced food we're so accustomed to getting in the grocery store.

I've been on this sustaining local farmers kick now for a couple of years. It's so beneficial in so many ways.





After a very busy four days of guests, I made my way, with the dogs, to see Elizabeth. They were happily reunited. This is a picture of her living room in the apartment. Very cute and very big. The bedroom is huge. The kitchen is small. Doesn't anyone cook anymore? We did a lot of organization, throwing away of boxes, bringing stuff back to the Suburban to cart back home. hanging of pictures and moving of furniture. We have to wait till Dad comes to hang some of the larger pictures and mirrors. No one can hang pictures better my hubby. Armed with all the right tools, including a level, pencil for mathematical figurings (no eyeballing for him mind you) and the correct weighted picture hangers, nothing comes off the wall when he's done hanging it.

Anyway, the apartment and the area are so cute. There is definately a revitalization of that area now. The Cheesecake Factory is just one block away from the apartment building and i think tapas are all the rage now. There is a really cute restaurant called the Double Wide which is an old Texaco gas station. Looks so cute and I understand they have great food there. When we go back, that's where we're headed. The other way, within walking distance, like a block, are blocks of fantastic stores. Hope that's not a problem. And there are plenty of dogs! The natives told us they are opening a dog park, right in that area, in November.



Look at these beauties!! Someone told me we couldn't grow eggplant up here. Hey, there are plenty more just like these two out in the garden at 44. These babies are going for eggplant parmasean tonight! Ethan's home and he loves it. Plus the pounds of beans that I keep harvesting everyday. I think this must have been the perfect year for green beans.




Ethan has never been one for the garden but when he got home today and saw all the tomatoes a collinder came out and he was out there gathering all sorts of tomatoes. I'm sending him back to the city with a big basket full for all his co workers. Rob had brought a big basket full to the hospital last week plus a steady stream going over to his mom and brother. The heirlooms have been a lot of fun. My personal favoites are the purplish Paul Robeson and the pink Mortgage Lifter. Camp of Joy are wonderfully sweet cherry tomatoes. Anyway, after his interest in the tomatoes, I thought perhaps he would like to harvest the potatoes. And he did! I may make a farmer out of him yet!!