The Nehring Christmas Card 2012

All year long I have great intentions to post things on our blog, but I never seem to have the time.  So, here, condensed, is our year -- in the form of our yearly Christmas letter/card.

Merry Christmas!

Locks of Love

The end of the school year has been crazy with so much going on.  The girls got out of school on June 7th, and two days later we were off for a week to Nevada.  In and amongst all the chaos, Rebecca did something really special.

A little over two years ago, Rebecca's best friend, Sadie Fox, got her hair cut and donated it to Locks of Love, an organization which takes donated hair and makes it into wigs for children who have lost their hair due to cancer or disease.  Lora had suggested this idea to Amanda several times, but Rebecca's hair was short.  Rebecca decided that she wanted to donate her hair, so she let everyone know that she was going to grow it out.  The hair needs to be at least 10 inches long, and within a year, Rebecca's was getting close.  It went past the summer however, so Rebecca decided that she wanted to wait for her birthday this year to get it cut.  By this summer, it was more than halfway down her back!!

As it happens, we were going to be in Nevada on her birthday, so she decided instead to do it on the last day of school.  Sadie had been growing her hair out as well, so they decided to get their hair cut on the same day.

We went to a friend of ours who cuts hair, and off it came!

The first cut! Eeeeek!

Rebecca watched nervously as all her hair was being cut and put into ponytails.  Even though she has usually had short hair, it is a bit unnerving to have it cut off when you have had it long for so long.

Piles of Rebecca's hair!

Sadie came to see how Rebecca's hair looked before going to her appointment to get her hair cut.

Now Rebecca gets her hair styled.

Short hair!!  And all of Rebecca's long hair, ready to donate!



About 14" of hair!!



Sadie and Rebecca with their short hair!  Such cute girls!

And the last step, Rebecca at the Post Office, mailing her hair to Locks of Love.

We are so proud of Rebecca that she cared to deeply about this idea that she spent two years growing out her hair to help someone who needs it!  Rebecca has such a wonderful, giving nature!

BBQ Baby Burgers

I have a few blogs that I follow that post very yummy recipes, my favorites being The Pioneer Woman Cooks and Kayotic Kitchen.  I love the way that they display their recipes step by step, with great color photos and descriptions.  I tried a recipe from The Pioneer Woman that we all LOVED and I tweaked it a little, and wanted to share my version of the recipe here.  (If you want to see the original recipe, click here.)

BBQ Baby Burgers

First of all, I prefer the term baby burgers, as the term "slider" always meant to me that the burgers are so greasy they slide right out of the buns.  So, that is not what I wanted to call these delicious, succulent burgers!!  So, baby burgers they are!!

We begin with the ingredients:

Ground meat, yellow onion, butter, Jack Daniel's Original No. 7 Recipe BBQ sauce, Tabasco Jalapeño sauce, rolls and salt and pepper.

Start with ground beef (or any other kind of ground meat, like turkey).  I use the ground beef chubs from Costco (only 9% fat) and cut them into slices while they are still frozen.  Then I let them thaw in perfectly shaped patties.

Dice the yellow onion into small pieces.

I like the Colombo Potato Rolls, as they are the perfectly round size for the burgers, but you could use Hawaiian rolls, dinner rolls, etc.  Cut them in half.

Spread butter each of the roll halves and set them aside for later.

Season the meat well on both sides with salt and pepper.

Place butter in a large skillet and let it melt.

Add the patties and cook them until they are done in the middle, about 3 or 4 minutes per side.  I had never cooked meat in butter before this, but it is absolutely delicious!!

Remove the patties from the skillet and set aside.  If there is more than 2 tablespoons of grease in the skillet, drain off all but those 2 tablespoons.  With the 9% beef I use, there is barely any grease at all.  Put the diced onions in the skillet and saute them until they are soft and golden and lovely.  I love onions sauteed in butter.  Such a wonderful smell!!  Breathe it in!!

Now add in the BBQ sauce to the skillet and stir it up with the sauteed onion.  I use the Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce because the original recipe calls for whiskey and BBQ sauce (if at this point you are more interested in the original recipe, click here.  Haha!!).  With the BBQ sauce you get the flavor, but not the alcohol.

Add in some of the Tabasco Jalapeño sauce (the original recipe calls for actual jalapeños, but that is too much for my kids.  Kevin would love it though!) to give it a little kick.  Or a lot of sauce if you want a big kick!

Reduce the heat to low and then add the burgers back into the BBQ mixture and coat them on both sides.  Let the patties simmer until everything is hot and beautifully bubbly.  Isn't that gorgeous?!!

Place the buttered rolls in a skillet and grill them until they are slightly browned and crispy.

Now take one of the deliciously yummy burgers out of the sauce and place it on the bottom bun.  Goop a little bit of extra BBQ mixture onto the patty and finish with the top bun.  Enjoy!!  These burgers are a little piece of heaven!  So very good!!!!

Ingredients:
2 pounds of ground meat
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter
1 whole large onion, diced
1 bottle of Jack Daniel's Original No. 7 Recipe BBQ sauce
Tabasco Jalapeño sauce 
12 whole dinner rolls, split