recipes

Kalua Pork

To cook a lot at the same time use a  roasting pan (with 2 big shoulder roasts) and cook it in the oven and turns out fine. I double the ingredients and cook it at about 270 for about 10-12 hours. If you are using the oven method instead of the crockpot, make sure you cover the pan with aluminum foil and then put on lid.

Kalua Pig

5-6 lb pork butt or pork shoulder roast (shoulder and butt are the same cut, btw)
Crushed garlic
Hawaiian sea salt (coarse) --you can buy hawaiian sea salt on Amazon.com
¼ cup water
1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp. liquid smoke (we like Wright’s)

Score the meat with a sharp knife. Rub the pork roast generously with crushed garlic, and then generously with sea salt. Add ¼ cup of water to the crock pot, then add the roast. Pour the liquid smoke on top of the roast, and sprinkle pork with more salt (about a teaspoon or so.) Cook on low for 10-15 hours in the crock pot. The pork should shred very easily when cooked. Serve with rice or on rolls. Makes 12 servings.

Coleslaw

Jamie’s Favorite Coleslaw
Original recipe from ‘Cooking with Jamie’ by Jamie Oliver
½ a white cabbage finely sliced (I just bought bagged cabbage)
1 small red onion, finely sliced
3 carrots, thinly sliced (again, i just buy matchstick carrots)
2 red apples, cored and thinly sliced
1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
A couple of dollops mayonnaise
1 heaped teaspoon English mustard (can buy online or in nicer grocery stores)

1 to 2 lemons--juiced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients in a salad bowl. Add mayo and lemon juice a little at a time.
2. Have a taste and add seasoning as needed.


Fruit Salad:

Peaches, strawberries, raspberries blueberries and a couple of limes. Zest lime and squeeze lime juice over fruit. Sprinkle with a little bit of sugar to sweeten just a bit. Make a few hours ahead so the flavors can combine.

Cucumber salad:

Cucumbers, tomatoes and thinly diced white onion. Add a few tsp of olive oil and a few of red wine or balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Auld Lang Syne...so to speak

For anyone who happens to check here at the now outdated Reunion 2012 blog site----

Everyone is safely home this Monday, July 9th.  Grandma and Grandpa, and the California Redheads were the last to get home (9:00 PM last night).  I have been having fun perusing the OBX photos on the various blogs and FB.  We had a great time as a family and as individuals.  Everyone put so much work and planning into the week long event and Grandpa and I are so grateful.  We will always remember our beautiful family, grand kids and adults, and will always be grateful for what we have shared.  We are all different and are all the same and thus it made for a very memorable family time.

A huge "thank you" goes out to Jason for sacrificing 90% of his vacation time to preserve this capsule in time about our family.  Times like these are very rare and very difficult to bring about and are very precious for the grandparents, and hopefully for the rest of you.  I am also very grateful that the Lord was brought into each of our daily "doings" and that our petitions for safety was answered.

If any of you have suggestions for making any future gatherings smoother and more enjoyable, let us know.  We always need and appreciate all the help we can get.

Sidenote:  I got 19 grandchildren autographs on my reunion T-shirt.  Only Chloe, Penny, and Xander are missing.  Now I am going to tenderly wash it and see how it survives.
Also, Cara is collecting a few of the recipes we enjoyed during our dinners and will be posting them on this blog soon.

Love all 32 of you beautiful people.
Grandma Nutt

4th of July Fireworks Show

We received an email from the Boxers today and I have copied it here for general info.  Thanks to Ben who can find the latest data on anything anywhere!

ROANOKE ISLAND FESTIVAL PARK

440TH ARMY BAND
FIREWORKS BY THE TOWN OF MANTEO
July 4 at 8 pm
Outdoor Pavilion
Pack up the lawn chairs, blankets and picnic and bring family and friends as the nation celebrates July 4th in the Outdoor Pavilion.  The 440th Army Band will begin their patriotic concert at 8 pm.  Fireworks will be provided by the Town of Manteo beginning at 9:30 pm.  Gates open at 6 pm.  Parking will be available at the Park until the lot is full and also in downtown Manteo.  Handicap parking will be available at the Park.  The celebration is free and open to the public.

Sounds like the perfect thing to do.  We can either eat dinner early or have our Wednesday hosting family do sandwiches, chips, etc. for all of us to take to the park.  Heather and Miles have that night and are ready to do whichever.  Any input?

Only two more days!!!!!!!!  Excitement mounts.  See all of you at the beach on Sunday afternoon.

The 'Big Picture'

Bing Maps Bird's Eye view site

To get an excellent view of our Reunion Home location and surrounding area, I suggest using Bing Maps: enter the home's address:   1001 N. Virginia Dare Trail, Kill Devil Hills, NC.
Or click HERE.

When you open the Bing page, make sure you are in the "Bird's Eye" view (at top) to get a great panorama. ZOOM-IN all the way to get a clear close-up view of the area.  You can rotate 360° (upper right corner).  While you're at this site, check out and "explore" Bodie Island (a.k.a. Outer Banks/OBX) to get an idea where the parks and sights are.  A great place with lots to see and do!     FUN...FUN...FUN

Took this photo from the Ballon-Ride Grandma and I flew on June 5, 2012.
NO,... not really...just kidding...we were Hang-Gliding when I took this!

Here's the beachfront of the house. As Grandma noted earlier, we will have a 10' x 15' cabana set up each morning and taken down in the evening, at the base of these stairs.

  

Grandma at the Bodie Island Light Station
June 5, 2012

Dinner Assignments

Since I know Danielle already has a fun game planned, we don't want to trump her activity with the talent show night.  So I moved Danielle to Thursday, and I'll take Friday with the talent show.  Since that means we don't have to plan an activity on our own, we can help with any of the other nights - so if Linnea, Devry, Heather, or Danielle need some extra manpower or ideas, please let me know!

Sunday - Grandma and Grandpa
Monday - Jason and Linnea
Tuesday - Quinn and Devry
Wednesday - Miles and Heather
Thursday - Kevin and Danielle
Friday - Ben and Cara
Saturday - "Get Your Own" - whether you want to go out to eat or not, we all can provide for our own and keep it casual on the last night.

Calendar Items

Now is the time to finalize calendar events, such as dinners, and evening activities.  Yesterday I noted some activities avvailable in the area which would be a lot of fun for the adults as well as the kiddos.  Any of these activities can be done in the evening as well as the day.  Families can take off and do things on their own or we can all decide to do particular things as a group.  Those things can be decided each day of the week and need not be carved in stone here.

Anyway,  the dinner nights do need to be agreed on.  Linnea has asked for Monday night and Grandpa and I will take the arrival night (Sunday).  I have a program in mind for that very first night.  The rest of the nights need to be claimed and I  know that some have been, I just don't remember.  So use the comment section to claim your night.  First come first served, so to speak.  The best way to do each night is to have one family responsible for the dinner, the clean-up, and the activity for that evening.

The activity for each night can be ANYTHING which involves the kids and teaches a lesson about moral courage in these latter days.  For instance, on Sunday Grandpa and I will do something about work and the joy of working and the challenge of working.  We will talk about keeping the beach house clean and being responsible for it.  We will also give out the handmade beach bags with towels to each of the oldest 19 grandchildren.  We will talk about rules around the pool and about rules pertaining to helping each other and loving each other and being kind to each other.  You get the idea.  If any of you have suggestions are want something discussed that first evening let us know.  We want the rest of the week to be a happy, safe, and bonding time for our family.

Another evening activity will be the popular talent show, which I am scheduling for Friday night.  So, whoever decides to take the Friday night dinner slot can work with us and the talent show and not worry about doing a separate activity.  If you already have something in mind that you would like to do for an evening activity, grab Tues, Wed. or Thurs. night.

About the Talent Show!!!!  Anything goes!  Individual performances or group performances, or family spoofs, etc., will be wonderful.  We will have fun and act silly and give the kids (and their folks if they want to) a moment in the spotlight to show off.  This is wonderful for the kids to see each other and team up with each other.  Last time was so much fun that Grandpa is already working on what he wants to do for the Talent Show.  Just don't let anyone stress out about it because it is all for fun.

I still haven't decided on what I want to serve for dinner and we still haven't decided whether or not to go out just the adults one night.  There are plenty of Food Lions in town and I think the more casual the meal the more in keeping with beach life.

Let me know what you all have in mind.  Love each of you.

OBX Scoping Results This past Monday morning Grandpa and I jumped in the car and drove to the Outer Banks to scope out the fun possibilities for our upcoming family reunion. We had a blast and have accumulated another load of in-jokes. Anyway, here are some findings for you all to consider. We are very happy with the house we rented via a catalogue, so we lucked out there. The beach which adjoins the house is fabulous. Grandpa has Already reserved a large, 10'X 15' canopy cabana which will be set up for us each morning by 8AM and will be taken down for us each evening by 6PM. All we need to do is schlep whatever beach chairs we need back and forth. Remember all of the oldest 19 grandchildren will be getting their own beach bags and beach towels from Grandpa and Grandma. The adults need to bring their own beach towel. The other recreational opportunities are a bunch of awesome miniature golf courses, several go-kart businesses, hang gliding, laser tag, jet skis can be rented for use on the sound side of the island. For the Fourth there will be limited fireworks along the beach front. They used to have larger fireworks display there but a couple of years ago an accident occurred which killed six people so they (the county) has minimized the professional fireworks. The drive in and out of the Norfolk/OBX area is beautiful. In Norfolk you will have a challenging drive but all the bridges, and a tunnel, and all the ships, etc, are fantastic. Use your GPS for sure. When you access the Chesapeake Expressway you will need $6 in cash for the toll. Along this area, after Norfolk, are a few fesh produce roadside markets. They are fun. Sights to enjoy while on the OBX are lots of black pelicans, lots of wind, and lots of sand. Grandpa and I went to scope out certain areas of interest. We went to the Bodie Island lighthouse but it is under renovation and won't be open to the public for another year...bummer! The Hatteras lighthouse is over an hour's drive south on Pea Island and the drive is fun with huge, huge sand dunes right up against the road. We also took Monday evening to check out Roanoke Island where the outdoor drama, "The Lost Colony", is performed (see earlier posting). There is also an aquarium there on that island. There is an outlet mall just before you cross over to Roanoke. There is plenty of commercial shopping and grocery shopping within walking distance from our house. Restaurants and even a Sonic are right there. Just down the street from us is the Wright Bros. Museum and another mile south of the museum is Jockey's Ridge National park which is all sand dunes and is a great place to turn the kids loose to see how much sand they can get in their eyes, hair, and mouth :). Also, it is a great place for kite flying because of the wind. There is no place suitable for launching rockets so that event will probably changed to kite flying. Back to the house, the linens and pillows for all the beds will be provided. I do ask that these four people bring their own pillows since they will be on air mattresses and I don't have enough pillows to provide them. Would Chloe, Asher, David, and Garrett bring each bring a pillow? Also, Moms, don't forget THE SUN BLOCK and THE BUG SPRAY! Also, re-read Devry blog about the color theme for our family portrait. Tomorrow I pick up the reunion T-shirts. I will post another entry about the daily calendar tomorrow. Love all of you!