My favorite recipes

Meet Anna Boyd, Pullman

Chad and Anna Boyd’s grandchildren.

Anna Boyd was born in Moscow, raised in Pullman.

After graduating from Pullman High School, Anna married and had two children. She did home childcare while her children were small, along with driving truck and raising all kinds of critters, such as a pygmy goat that had quadruplets. Later Anna met and married Chad Boyd who accepted her and her two children into his life.

Anna worked for Head Start for 12 years before landing her job at Kirkpatrick, Utgaard & Perry, where she has been “forever” or 18 years. It is a wonderful place to work and she likes all the other employees and feels like it is her second family. She likes working at the front desk and not in a cubicle. She does reception work at the front desk and filing, including client contacts, running returns, handling banking, mailing and tracking deadlines, all valuable services for KUP clients.

The Boyds have five amazing little grandkids and a couple of “adopted” ones. Their daughter Robin and her two children, Peyton and Brody, live literally in their back yard. Their son Daniel and his wife Morgan live just four-and-a-half miles away with their three little boys, Gavin, Adam and Elliott, in Chad’s grandpa’s house. Life is all about family and they enjoy having them all so close. In the winter they keep some of the horses and mules over at Daniel’s, and the boys help do the feeding.

Chad and Anna own a construction business, digging house foundations, digging ditches for water, sewer and power lines. They have been blessed with a lot of work and Chad enjoys what he is doing. Chad runs the daily business, operates equipment and keeps it running, along with managing two employees.

Chad enjoys the creativity of the many different jobs he sees every day. As for Anna, she does the bookkeeping and claims it to be her second job. She credits her co-workers with helping her get started in Quickbooks and setting up her records. Anna helps as needed beyond bookkeeping, running for parts and help in moving equipment.

Their life is very full of chaos and family time. They have four dogs with a fifth as a frequent visitor. All are small and have a special place in their hearts. They have a toy Australian shepherd, a corgi and two dachshunds. Their daughter’s beagle spends a lot of time at their house as well.

Out in the pasture they have two half-draft horses (which are 1/2 draft horse, 1/2 saddle horse), two saddle horses, two mules and two ponies for the grandkids. If you attend either the plowing bee or the threshing bee you will find the mules working. The Boyds have tried many things with the mules, running the manure spreader, seeding alfalfa and participating in parades, community events and weddings, but most of all they enjoy using them for wagon rides.

Since Anna relaxes by riding her horse, she has a standing date riding with a friend every Tuesday night, and finds time on Wednesday to have dinner with the kids and grandkids and do some outdoor family games.

Raising animals does not stop there: they also have four low line Angus pairs, three yearlings and two bulls. The low line Angus are small Black Angus that will mature at about 600 to 700 pounds.

The Boyds raise butcher pigs in the winter and have numerous barn cats oversee the larger animals. They spend a lot of time with the grandkids and enjoy having them close by. No matter what they are doing, they have room for the grandkids to be involved.

Recently Anna, her daughter Robin and one of Anna’s friends took seven little children, ages two to seven, to Laird Park on a camping trip. They had a blast playing in the water, riding bikes, playing T-ball and most of all going on a night treasure hunt. They all had lights that attach to baseball caps for the treasure hunt. Peyton was the only girl, and she is as tough as all those boys. They played so hard and were kept so busy that afternoon naps were taken by all. They also try to get up to a cousin’s property on the St. Joe River and camp at least a couple times a year. This summer they camped up at Clarkia, and it was in the middle of Huckleberry Heaven.

Anna and Chad have a little house, fifteen acres and a small garden, but it is large enough for potatoes, carrots, green beans and pumpkins for the grandkids, always thinking of the grandkids. They have a wonderful neighbor Ralph, also known as Jennings Mini Mart, who keeps them in zucchini, cucumbers, yellow crookneck squash, eggs, beets, which he even pickles for them along with keeping them stocked in zucchini bread.

All of the animals and outdoor activities add up to one big outdoorsy family.

“If you need free entertainment, just come to our house, because there’s always something going on!”

Anna loves quick and easy recipes so that she has more time for grandchildren and her animals!

Recipes:

Summer Potatoes

yellow neck squash

zucchini squash

potatoes

onions

beans

Johnny’s seasoning salt

4 Tablespoons butter

Chop vegetables into bite-size pieces, using as much as you would like of each vegetable. You can also add peppers, carrots, etc.

Coat vegetables with olive oil, add Johnny’s seasoning salt, pepper, bacon bits and shredded cheese. Put foil in a wire basket, add veggie mixture and add 4 Tablespoons of butter on top. Barbecue on four burners on medium heat for 15 minutes, then turn off middle burners and keep the outer two on and continue to cook for about an hour longer. (I flip the basket about every 15 minutes or so.

Remove from grill, fold back foil and check tenderness of potatoes. Return to grill if not done to your liking.

Bread and Butter Pickles

15 cups cucumbers

3 onions

1/4 cup coarse salt

4 cups cracked ice

2 1/2 cups cider vinegar

2 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon celery salad

1 Tablespoon mustard seed

Combine cucumbers, onions, salt and ice; mix well. Put some type of weight on cucumber mixture and let stand for three hours.

Drain cucumbers and onions thoroughly.

Combine vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed and mustard seed in a large pot. Add drained cucumbers. Place pot on range on medium heat, bring almost to a boil, but do NOT allow boiling and remove from heat.

Place in hot sterilized jars and complete with a hot water bath to seal.

Cabbage Salad

Cut up green cabbage and purple cabbage, slicing thinly. Add a can or two of shrimp, ranch salad dressing, salt and pepper. Great easy salad for the on-the-go family.