May 26, 2011, Chelsea Porter, Ericson, Nebraska

About 6:30 on May 26 I was driving home from work and got a text message that said "dinner will be ready when you get home." My first thougth was "Rick?" and then my second thought was, "No, probably not!" - and then I saw it was from Chelsea Porter. She and her mother Shari Dubry came to spend the night before visiting the doctors at UNMC. Chelsea made a DiGiorno pizza, bread sticks and chocolate chip cookies for us. I had no idea you could get all of that in one box! The cookies went fast as did the pizza and bread sticks. It really hit the spot! Thanks, Chelsea, for supper!

August 2, 2010 Shari Dubry, Valentine, Nebraska

Shari Dubry and daughter Chelsea Porter are regular guests in our home when they come all the way from Valentine, Nebraska to visit Chelsea's doctors at UNMC. Tonight Shari treated us to a lasagne, Texas toast, salad, and dessert for supper. We all enjoyed the feast! Thanks!

Shari works as a substitute teacher for the schools around Valentine. She lives on a ranch with her husband and helps in the hay field which is why she has such a great tan. She is also an excellent seamstress and quilter. She made a quilt for her husband's birthday with pictures of him through the years. She also is currently making some really cute denim bags and was working on crocheting a baby quilt....a project to help keep her busy while she is waiting for Chelsea and her procedures! We always enjoy their visits and wish sometime they could come just to have some fun!

August 1, 2010 - Cousin Judy Kay Eacker, Broken Bow, Nebraska

Judy and husband Tom came down for a State Community Theatre Board meeting at Manley, Nebraska. Rick and I met them there to see "Guys and Dolls" at the Loft Theatre, and then to a great house in Louisville for the cast party. The next morning Judy made "Berry Breakfast Pizzas" for us. Here she puts two biscuits together and rolls them into 6 inch rounds. She baked at 400 for about 6-8 minutes.



She then mixed up cream cheese with a bit of honey, and the rind of an orange and spread onto the cooled pizzas. The next step (we skipped) was to put these into the oven at 425 to toast until the cream cheese turned slightly brown at the edges. Or, you can do as we did, and skip that step and go right to piling on the fruit - a variety, cut (we used grapes, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, mango, cherries, bananas) that was in the squeezed orange juice with a bit of honey.

We then put the fruit onto the pizzas and served. Yummmm!

July 30, 2010 Peggy "Mom" Ferguson, Burwell, Nebraska

I am a baker because of Mom. Growing up at the Never Sweat Ranch we were always preparing for a meal or cleaning up from one. We girls helped with meals a lot in the summer when we had a hired man to help hay. One of my contributions was as the baker of cakes and cookies and Mom was my tutor. My first cookbook from Mom was "Betty Crocker's Cooky Book"copyright 1963, spiral bound, with both covers long off which I got when I was probably 10 years old and still have.

Dad said "Pegg, I don't know where you learned to cook, but you sure are a good one." She learned from her mother, Pansy Hale Williams Nicolarsen, our "Grandma Nick." Being 42 miles from a grocery store Mom always had extra cooking ingredients on hand in the basement pantry. One of the hired help, Larry Winberg, who married our cousin June said if he was ever stuck in a snow storm he wanted to be at our house because he knew he would eat well! Here Mom sits at our kitchen table with two of my three sisters, Linda Kyle (a great cook that I call all the time for cooking advice) and my sister Liz Ferguson, who is also a great cook and baker, owned "Kat's Korner" in Taylor where she sold hormone free beef, and still cooks for Uncle Buck's Lodge in Brewster. They brought Mom to Omaha to a medical appointment and spent a couple of nights. I made some Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies and Mom helped put them on the cookie sheets. Mom looks great for being less than three weeks shy of 90 years old, doesn't she?

Thanks, Mom, for teaching me how to bake!

July 3, 2010 Jonny and Kristina Bath Saganger, Stockholm, Sweden

Jonny and Kristina, along with their three children, Gustav, Agnes and Hanna, were our Servas guests on July 2nd and 3rd. They came from Stockholm, Sweden, and were on their way to Santa Rosa, California, where they were going to a home they had swapped for their home in Sweden. They made a delicious fruit salad to take to the Zimmerman's Hawaiian Village potluck and fireworks party on July 3rd. They left on the fourth after breakfast heading for another Servas stay near Cheyenne, Wyoming on a ranch. To follow their journey you can go to their blog.