German-Style Beef Roast

It seems I have found the kind of book I will someday publish--one filled with roast beef recipes!  I've already posted one on Dilly Roast Beef and my accidental discovery of Taco Roast Beef a few months ago.  Here is another recipe I found in Simple & Delicious.  You may use non-alcoholic beer if you wish, but I'm pretty sure all of the alcohol cooks out after 3-4 hours in the oven anyway.  Enjoy!

1 beef roast
1 tsp. pepper
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 bottle beer
1 cup tomato sauce (or substitute ketchup and reduce brown sugar to 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Mix ingredients together and pour over roast.  Bake at 325 for 3-4 hours or put in the crock pot on low for 8-10 hours. 

Great Ships on the Great Lakes

Our Landen has an amazing memory.  Allow me to start from the beginning.  We went to Duluth, MN for our family vacation two years ago.  Remember the infamous "no AC in 95 degree heat" vacation?  Yep.  That's the one.  Still, it is the vacation the boys talk about all of the time and they always ask to return to Lake Superior. 

While we were in Duluth two years ago, we went to an IMAX theatre movie and toured the William A. Irvin ship museum.  At some point, Landen remembered hearing about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald ship. 

He brought it up and asked what I remembered about it on our recent vacation.  I only remembered the ship's name as I was not yet familiar with the Gordon Lightfoot song.  (There are still a few things left that are before my time even if my kids say I lived "way back when"!)  Yesterday I let Landen Google the Edmund Fitzgerald and he has been studying the history of the ship and its demise ever since.  He can rattle off dates, names, and measurements like nobody's business. 

This morning he started his research again and found a website called www.boatnerd.com.  It shows a map of all the ships currently moving on the Great Lakes and updates every 10 minutes to show their progress.  He didn't check it that often (only because I didn't let him), but close to it!  The Arthur M. Anderson was the last ship to contact the Fitzgerald on November 10, 1975 when the Fitzgerald sank during an especially bad storm on Lake Superior.  (I'm not for sure the Anderson on the Lakes today is the same ship, but Landen insists that it is and he has been doing all of the research, so we will just take his word for it!)  He was especially interested in that ship's whereabouts today and by bedtime it had moved a considerable distance in Lake Huron on the map. 

When Landen gets interested in something, he completely immerses himself in it.  He is a mixture of his dad and me--the complete submersion/preoccupation with a subject (dad) and the interest in historical events and research (me). 

Who knows what else we'll learn--or what subject Landen will be interested in--tomorrow!

Love This.

A Little Minnesota Getaway

We spent last Wednesday-Friday on a little vacation near Brainerd, MN at Gull Lake.  We stopped at Little Falls to watch the Mississippi River on our way there.

 The kids loved the pool.  Their new friend Steve shared some great goggles with them, too!

 They also made a friend named Ben and gave a family of ducks some bread to eat.

 How is this for Super Dad?  He gave both of his girls a ride on a short hike. 

 Even though we spent most of our water time at the pool, we had to check out the beach for awhile, too. 

This girl is going to give the sunscreen companies some serious business.  She has lots of nice red hair coming in now, and a couple of new teeth, too!

We stopped at Alexandria, MN for a picnic in the park on our way home.  I told them the biggest smile would get a prize.  Who would you choose as the winner?

Where Farm Kids Learn to Golf

 Our stack yard has been turned into a driving range.

 Dad's giving free lessons while we tease him about his farmer tan. :o)

Do you prefer white or colored golf balls?  We have whatever you need!