The Bradshaw Family Blog
This was back in February for my sisters birthday. The whole family got together at Red Robin for dinner and presents.
Mom & Chloe & 1/2 of Dad
Mom with her shades on, she’s got inflammation in her eyes which is very painful so she had to wear shades most of the time. She is still having issues with this, please pray for her.
Bo & I
Dad & Mom (notice the painful eyes)
The Birthday Girl!! With hiding Chloe & Joe
Happy Birthday Trina! (in February)
I’d call myself an OK cook. I never took classes in school or cooked too much with my mom when I was little but I can sure follow directions (for the most part) and can make a mean Hamburger Helper. It wasn’t until a few years ago I learned that spinach was not just dark green snot out of a can but an actual lettuce type leaf that I really like! I had no idea that what slid out of that can and into the bowl to be microwaved was actually nothing like how the vegetable started. So I’ve been trying to cook more, be domestic and use more natural foods and less boxed things. So my mother in law made this dish quite a while ago that I loved and got the recipe. I’ve purchased the ingredients 4 times now, the first 3 times I let them rot in the fridge without preparing the meal. (bad girl!) But tonight, I finally decided to make it figuring it would be a great dinner with leftovers for lunches this week. Of course there has to be a point to this story or I wouldn’t be writing about my experience cooking this meal. Below is the recipe as written in my cookbook and below that is where it gets interesting. What I actually did. Apparently I’m a bit sidetracked, absent minded, not focusing, whatever but wow, I surprise myself! Here’s the recipe:
Piraschki
1/2 head cabbage chopped
1/2 onion chopped
several carrots chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
2 1/2 cups rice (cooked)
2 lbs hamburger
pie crusts
Cook rice. Sautee veggies & set aside. Fry hamburger w/ lid on to retain moisture, remove meat from pan. Add flour to meat drippings until absorbed. Season with garlic powder, salt & pepper. Slowly add milk maintaining simmer making gravy. Mix everything together & put in 9×13 pan. Prepare rice and layer on top. Prepare pie crust and place on top. Bake 350 for 1 hour.
And here’s what I did:
Forgot about the rice. Cooked 1 lb hamburger with no lid, check the recipe and see that was supposed to be 2 lbs WITH a lid, oops. Remembered that I forgot the rice and got it out of the cupboard. Fried my chopped onion, carrots & cabbage (thought I had celery but I didn’t so that was entirely omitted from the recipe) because I was using my simmer pan that has a lid for the meat and my large fry pan does not have a lid and 1 only have 1 simmer pan. Had to add water because they were turning brown and shriveled. Meat, done – Check! Veggies, done – Check. Rice? Still in the bag on the counter. Check the recipe, remember rice but instead of starting that, spoon out a large pile of veggies on top that hadn’t been mixed in/cooked yet to put in my salad later this week since I don’t need that many now that I’m apparently 1/2’ing my recipe because of the error with the meat. Remember again that I forgot the rice. Check recipe, go to add flour to the meat drippings …. but there are none, I didn’t put the lid on the pan when i cooked the meat. oops. So decide to throw some butter in the pan (same as meat drippings right!!?!) and go from there. melt some butter, grab the milk, open it up and stuff comes SCREAMING out at me… it’s pretty bad, who knows when it expired but it was screaming when i opened the lid. Poured the gelatinous ooze down the drain and ran the disposal for a while. Butter has now evaporated or cooked out so I need to add more butter to the dry pan cooking on the stove. Find a can of evaporated milk in the cupboard – Perfect! use the whole can, some flour & butter, add a bunch of seasonings and call it gravy! Check the recipe again and remember again that I still have forgot to cook the rice. Get the baking dish out, mix all ingredients (except uncooked rice I still haven’t started yet) in the big simmer pan and turn it off while I decide to start the rice. Cook rice, layer it on the bottom of the pan, cover the rice with the meat/veggie mixture, check the recipe, notice that it was backwards,the rice was supposed to be on top. “prepare” the pie crust by pulling it out of the freezer and unrolling it, hopefully that was all I was supposed to do, throw it on top and shove it in the oven. We’ll see how it turns out in about 50 minutes!
It smelled and tasted pretty good when i tried a bite though we’re missing celery, the rice was a bit mushy and all the other errors I made.
Now it’s officially NAP TIME!!!!!!!
It reads “A special Daughter – So many of the good times we remember from the past happened because of you. You’ve brought laughter and joy to our lives and so much love to our hearts. The most precious things we can wish for you are the things you’ve given us… Happiness and Love”
Beautiful plaque, meaningful saying, my closet treasures it’s presence. It’s never been displayed in any of the homes I’ve lived in (I’ve had it for a long time.) Yet I know it’s there, wrapped in it’s bubble wrap in the white box it came in, in my closet. I think my sister has actually displayed the one she received in her home (who’s the better kid?) I love the sentiment behind this, I love the feeling from the words, and to see the heart that came behind the plaque. Yet I’ve never displayed it. (sorry mom and dad). I’ve also never got rid of it. I know it’s still there.
But some of my most treasured gifts, weren’t “gifts” at all. Like this mug, this used to be my dads mug. This is my favorite mug and while I’m not a collector, I’ve received quite a few mugs in my time as well. This one still is and probably always will be my favorite. It’s DADS mug and because of that alone, I love it.
This is a bowl. That’s all, just a bowl. Another non “gift” but a hand me down from my mom that I love. This is MOMS bowl. If I had recollection at all, I’d probably remember making cookies with my mom using this bowl when I was little, maybe not, I don’t remember. But I love this bowl, the icky green colored paint has worn off to a dull pale color and still, it’s my favorite bowl. 
And my bear… pretty pathetic looking huh? Bo gave this to me before I went on The World Race to keep with me and I kept it all year and slept with it every night. He even sent me off with a TINY little bottle of his cologne that I sprayed on it from time to time. It’s raggedy, been stepped on, slept on, drooled on, sat on, smashed and squished in my backpack and dropped all over the place but I still held onto it every night. I even made it a scarf when I learned how to knit on a train in China so it wouldn’t get cold. It’s a pretty hideous looking thing now but it still gets tucked under my pillow between the mattress and headboard in the bed I sleep in now. Not an extravagant gift but one that means a lot to me. 
I have lots of other things that mean a lot to me, these were just a few of my favorites off the top of my head that I thought I’d share. Of course the people behind these items and the relationships I treasure far more, but these things are little pieces of the people that gave them to me in my heart. What items do you have that you treasure?
I built a garden last year so I can grow our own vegetables and am finally getting to put it to use! My mother in law bought me a pack of peas a couple weeks ago and I finally planted them tonight! Here’s what I’ve got so far!
Hard, dry peas out of the package
I soaked them in a wet paper towel in a ziplock baggie on the counter for about a week and this is what I got! 14 sprouted peas and 2 duds!
And here are my first ever vegetables now planted in my garden! I’m so excited!!! I wonder if prayer is enough to sprout good hearty, healthy peas cuz that’s about all I’ve got now! ha
Chloe helped Poppi open presents
Dads cake (Transformers with a semi truck transformer)
Chloe helped blow out the candles too
And helped Poppi read his cards
Apparently Poppi and Chloe were the only important ones at dads party because I completly forgot to take pictures of the rest of us! OOPS!!
And onto the miscellaneous… I was bored so I took a picture of a dinner I made one night. Roasted veggies & grilled chicken. YUM!
And of course I couldn’t blog without including Bowser.
Happy Valentines Day!!!!
I took my list, the store ad & my pre sorted coupons and headed out to Safeway today for a few items we needed. The ONLY thing I purchased that did not have a coupon for was beer. Everything I purchased was on the shopping list so I didn’t grab anything impulsively just because it was a great deal or anything even if I could double a coupon on it. I keep a running list of items we need and just check them off as I am able to find good deals on them. There’s still quite a list left of things that we need/want that were not on sale with a coupon so I won’t buy those until I can get them on sale WITH a coupon as well. I do shop more frequently this way (weekly rather than bi weekly) but I save an average of 50% per trip so it’s well worth the extra hour trip to the store twice per month. Here’s what I got today. (The cat was ours already) :)
I always let the checker scan all the items before I whip out my coupons or enter my club card # so I can see the retail total at the end before discounts plus I’ve heard you can’t double E coupons on top of printed coupons but you can double printed over E coupons so I make sure everything gets deducted from my card before I hand the printed coupons.
This totaled $157.03 when she rang it up. I entered my club card # (with E coupons pre-loaded onto my card as well as the store club card sales) and handed her my coupons.
I paid $74.22
I saved 54% ($82.81)
Here’s a free giveaway from
We had our 3rd Christmas celebration at my parents (kari) house. My camera wasn’t working so I was just making faces as Bo tried to get a decent picture. Oops… 
Bows didn’t go to my parents with us but somehow this picture of her was imported with the pics so here’s another insideout picture of her. She didn’t get anything for Christmas. :(
mom opening presents
Dad going to bed because he was sick. I got a smile out of him on his way out though.
Trina, Joe & Chloe. I swear I’ve never taken a picture of them that wasn’t gorgeous, it’s ridiculous how cute they ALWAYS look in pictures.
And an actual smile when the camera was working again.
We hope you had as Merry a Christmas as we had all 3 times!
