It Was a Busy Week!

Last weekend was...busy. To put it mildly. And things still haven't let up.

Wynter always enjoyed her treats!

But it's all good!

Let's see...it began with negotiating a deal to buy our place in the Hills...

And then Wynter...

And then WINTER!

But I still found time to try a new (delicious) recipe!

After months of looking, we have finally found our place in the Hills. We spent last weekend going back and forth in negotiations...and we came to an agreement! We'll be moving sometime this summer, if everything falls into place. I hope to have pictures to share soon, but until then I'll leave you with this tantalizing view.

Yes, we'll be able to see Mt. Rushmore from our new place! (Not this close, of course...)

And then Wynter.

She was such a good dog, even though she really didn't like strangers! She started her life in Kentucky, moved to Kansas with us, and then to South Dakota.

And she loved hiking in the Hills...until her arthritis got too severe.

A good dog. But at 14 years old, she was tired and sore, and the dementia was beginning to bother her. Her anxiety was heartbreaking in her last few days, so we made the hardest and most loving decision a pet owner ever has to make.

We'll miss her. Thatcher is still grieving, and so are we.

But the next day, WINTER came back! Not the fuzzy one - the snowy one!

With this spring storm, we experienced the difference between snowfall and snow accumulation!

Of course, it was a blizzard (lots of wind and blowing snow,) so we can only estimate. But based on measurements in the areas around our house, I think we got about 24 inches of snowfall, and about 12 inches of accumulation.

Part of my estimate comes from pictures like the one of our grill. On the deck, the grill got cold faster than the ground, so more snow piled up. We had a couple days of 70° weather before the storm, so a lot of the snow fall melted rather than accumulated. But that's at least 20 inches of snow on the grill!

And with a blizzard, you get drifts! This one outside the front window was about 24 to 30 inches high.

This was a two-and-a-half-day storm. We didn't go anywhere. The interstate was closed from Rapid City to the Minnesota state line - that's 350 miles - and there was "no travel advised" warnings everywhere else. Everything was closed - schools, stores, the post office... This was a serious storm.

But we did what South Dakotans do. No frenzied rush to the grocery store. No panicked drivers clogging up the streets.

We settled in and enjoyed the time to read and catch up on the indoor chores. :-)

By Friday, the sun was out. Yesterday the temperatures reached 50°. The April storm is over!

During the storm, I tried a new recipe. We need to clean out our freezer and pantry with our pending move, and I found a great dish that used what I had on hand.

Easy Beef and Broccoli

ingredients:

2 pounds beef (chuck roast, steak, flank steak, or whatever you have) cut into thin strips

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons sesame oil (if you don't have sesame oil, increase the olive oil)

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup beef broth

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1/2 cup soy sauce (I used low-sodium)

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 Tablespoon cornstarch

1 package (10 - 12 ounce size) frozen broccoli florets

Serve with rice (I used Jasmine rice)

Do all of your slicing and dicing first. The meat should be cut against the grain in thin slices, and the onion should be chopped. I use my cereal bowls for prep bowls, just like on the TV cooking shows, but put your meat in a larger bowl - you'll see why in the next paragraph.

Then, in another bowl, combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and beef broth with a whisk. Pour the mixture over the meat (this is why you need the larger bowl!) and set aside. Let it marinate for five to ten minutes.

(This is a good time to start cooking your rice.)

By the way, you can cook this in your Instant Pot, or on the stove.

Put the oils in your pot and heat for a minute or so. Add the onions and saute until they are translucent, then add the meat and marinade.

On the stove, let the meat mixture cook for about an hour, simmering until the meat is tender.

In the Instant Pot, cook at high pressure for 10 minutes, then quick release the pressure.

Carefully remove about 1/3 cup of the juices and add the cornstarch. Mix with a whisk until combined, then add it back to the meat mixture. Stir occasionally (low heat on your stove, the "keep warm" setting on your IP) as it thickens.

Meanwhile, cook the broccoli according to the package directions, then add it to the meat mixture.

Serve the Beef and Broccoli over rice.

It was delicious!

I hope your week wasn't as crazy as mine, but I'm expecting this week to be worse. We need to put our house on the market before the end of the month, so we're cleaning, painting, and staging the house to make it look its best. New carpeting will be installed in a couple weeks, and then let the buyers come! I hope they enjoy this house as much as we have!

Jan Drexler spent her childhood dreaming of living in the Wild West and is now thrilled to call the Black Hills of South Dakota her home. When she isn’t writing she spends much of her time satisfying her cross-stitch addiction or hiking and enjoying the Black Hills with her husband of more than thirty-six years. Her writing partner is her corgi, Thatcher, who makes life…interesting.