Birthday Celebration, Kayaking, Pizza and puzzle

 Not a whole heck of a lot to report on here, but we are definitely having a fine time. We celebrated Ed's birthday the other day, and between racing sports cars (SCCA) and riding motocross bikes competitively out in Texas, he was pretty sure that he would never make it to 30, much less 40. It got me to thinking about birthdays in general and how we feel about them.  

I'm sure we've all heard the anecdotes about how when you're a little kid every birthday is a huge, big deal, then, not so much in the middle years, then again, back to being a bigger deal once you've passed a certain age; my neighbor says (quite proudly) "I'll be 92 next month!"

We typically don't do much celebrating of birthdays around here beyond having a wonderful meal, (here or out), and receiving a suitable card. This year we did have a wonderful, full-blown steak dinner with all the trimmings, and we did have a lovely card, but we also gave a gift! (book), and a birthday balloon! and a lava cake with candle! Wow! who knew - it was fun to make a bigger deal about it. He also received some thoughtful, catch-up phone calls from good friends and family. He's certainly special to me so I'm glad I could help him have a memorable (or at least fun) day.

Happy Birthday, Honey!

Well, what else has been going on? Pizza night came around, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  I cheat and use a ready-made crust from the Publix bakery. I've found I can let it get really warmed up and loose and stretch it to a 10x15" baking sheet pan size. That ensures we'll get a pizza breakfast and a lunch too. 

Everything except the cheese.

Plus, some Italian cheese blend and Parmesan 

We had some beautiful weather the other day which Ed took advantage of by loading up the kayak and hitting Black Creek. What a beautiful area! Here are a few shots he took while out.

Where's the fishing pole?

Must be Turtle Rock

Serenity alert!

Relaxing in a secluded spot sipping a Dale's.

I have a closet shelf half full of puzzles, so I don't mind re-working them from time to time. I'm in the middle of a new one now, which I'll post a pic of later, but I also reworked the cat/bookshelf puzzle in between some jewelry making.

Really easy and so relaxing - zone out time, lol.

Well, I hope you're doing well and weren't too bored with, (to coin a phrase from the Old Fat Man), my efforts at trying to have too much fun. Thanks for taking the time.

 

Rainy weather, assorted breakfasts and jewelry making

 We've been having a spate of rainy/stormy weather lately which makes me glad I shopped-up well on Wednesday. Earlier today, a warm front  passed through with strong winds, rain and a tornado warning for parts of the area. Behind it we're having strong, fresh westerlies which are  bringing in some delightfully cool, dry air, allowing me to open the windows and air out the house.

During these past few days we've been occupying ourselves with a nice mixture of chores, mild exercise (tai chi and light stretch bands for me, weights and strong stretch bands for him), cooking activities, youtube videos, reading and jewelry making. It always amazes us how fast the week fly's by.

6am this morning, gloomy and wet out front.
At least the bottlebrushes and azaleas are enjoying it.

12noon and all is well - sunny and breezy.

Since there's nothing new to talk about that doesn't include the Ukraine, politics, inflation or covid 😟, I'll talk about my passion for breakfast in all it's forms, but mostly involving eggs, lol. I'm a proud egg eater, have been all my life, and to me, nothing keeps me going throughout the day better than a nice, big breakfast.  Some people say "I could never find the energy at that time of morning to make a full breakfast!", or "toast or granola is fine", and hey, no judgement here. 

I do take steps to make it easier and less work to gen-up a nice meal, like making/freezing french toast in advance or using frozen, store-bought Potatoes O'brien, and making it my mission to always having a big bowl of fresh fruits cut up and handy. Here are a few examples.

Here's a favorite; egg on leftover pizza, fresh fruit & coffee,
it doesn't get much easier - nuke the pizza and fry an egg.

Here's a good one; scrambled eggs, sausage and french toast
plus fresh fruit and coffee.

Potatoes O'brien with diced ham, fried egg, and toast
plus fresh fruit and coffee.

And the last thing on my show 'n tell list today is a shot of the jewelry dabbling since my last posting. Some more fun, adjustable cuff bracelets and a couple of pendants that turned out pretty well. I'd be remiss if I didn't give some well-deserved credit to 2 of the wire-weaving mavens on youtube that I personally enjoy (there are so many!); OxanaCrafts, and Imbali Crafts. Wonderful, clear tutorials and great looking projects.

I'm pretty pleased!

 Well, thanks for checking in and I hope it entertained you for a few minutes! Have a great day.

1/2 way to summer and fresh food fun

 I always figure that by the first of March we are halfway to summer, although the weather temps are soaring like it's summer already some days. My sister, who lives in south central Florida, was saying how refreshing to have a 61° morning - a cold snap as it were, as she has been having mid to high 80's already. I think "robbed of springtime" is how she put it. Up here it's been about the same - 80's much of the time.  It does give the boss a chance to get out on the lake to row and enjoy the day.

We have a pair of swans on our lake that stay busy with patrolling the lake to chase off the geese and Muscovy ducks that try to hang-out. I'm all in favor as the geese/ducks can be messy.

Swans making a sweep.

The other afternoon our neighbor had a gorgeous heron on his deck railing. Nice to observe one in fairly close proximity. 

He's got his head tucked in as a
chilly north breeze was blowing.

After cooking that ham a couple of weeks ago I got to craving collards and cornbread, so nothing would do but to get a big bunch from Winn-Dixie. They tend to have a sale on them fairly often and the bunches are very generous. I get at least 6 supper time servings for the 2 of us out of a bunch, so I put them up in freezer bags and stash the extras in the freezer.

A fair amount of work getting them well-washed up before
chopping them up for my biggest kettle pot.

Also, I'm finally motivated to losing some the extra pounds I've put on during the pandemic, so in addition to cutting out snacking in between meals I've been eating my usual breakfast and having just homemade vegetable soup for lunch. 2 batches so far, and very enjoyable. The batch we're eating now has a small amount of ham for flavor, and uses homemade chicken & ham stock plus tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, celery, zucchini, onion, hominy, peas and corn. Much better than coldcuts, cheese and crackers.

I do doll it up with a bit of fresh parsley and some grated
extra sharp cheddar and serve with a few crackers.

Let's all b*tch and moan about food prices, specifically meat. I'm always trying to buy on sale or as a "bogo" (buy one, get one). This week W/D had thick cut center loin pork chops as a bogo, and these are delicious treated like a steak and cooked on the Ninja Foodie. Ed and I split one and usually end up with a nice bone portion to nibble on the next day. Lucky for us we don't eat a large portion of meat at dinner.

1 chop = 1 meal for the 2 of us. I use Montreal Steak
seasoning plus onion powder and marinate in a bit of soy sauce.

Last weekend after reading a few blogs that exhibited their delicious looking burgers, we decided to have a burger and fries for a late lunch.  So good and so filling. We enjoyed them out on the deck as the weather was perfect for it.

I prefer mine with sharp cheddar while Ed likes his bare.

Finally, I finished up the puzzle I had been slowly working on. It had some tough sections and so it took me a while. Plus I was distracted with jewelry making.

Last shot, some of the jewelry I've been practicing on lately.

Well, that's it for this post. Thanks for dropping by. 

Great "mini" Cruiser's Reunion and a sidetrip down memory lane.

On Wednesday the plan was to travel about 45 miles south to Palatka to meet up with former cruising friends from 3 other boats; Nancy formerly on Silver Seas, Marlene & Benno formerly on Diesel Duck, and Allayne & Dennis formerly on Audrey Paige.  

Nancy was also heading south, Marlene and Benno coming up from Ocala, and Allayne and Dennis coming inland from St. Augustine, one of the places here in Florida they have been visiting this winter.

We met each other while cruising in the Caribbean around 2006 or so and have stayed in touch over the years via email and social media.

The weather was pretty favorable although a small sprinkle passed by rather quickly. The park, Ravine Gardens State Park, is situated within a ravine, carved out over time by a spring-fed river. The park is well known for it's springtime azalea bloom and it's small formal garden and hiking/biking paths.  This is an akward time of year horticulturely, the trees are mostly bare with a few blooms here and there. Lots of spanish moss and leaf litter around too. Personally, I don't find that too terribly appealing, which is probably why I didn't take many photos, but here are a few.

The group: L to R - Marlene, Me, Nancy, Allayne, Dennis
Back row - Benno, Ed 
Harley the dog

 

Summer view of the Formal Garden
(Photo courtesy of floridastateparks.org)

I would definitely like to head back there in May after things have leafed out somemore. However, it was a really nice spot for a picnic, and we had a ton of food - it was a potluck after all. It was also a gabfest! So fun catching up with everyone.

All that made me feel a little nostalgic for the Caribbean and Venezuela so I thought I'd put a link in for one of my slideshow videos I made up quite a while ago. The length is about 3:30 so it's not a snoozer (I don't think, lol). The music is nice too.

Here is the link to the youtube video on our channel of s/v Dreamtime and s/v Paradise sailing into Laguna Grande, Venezuela and on up the Rio Carioca where the Scarlet Ibis nest. https://youtu.be/BICkg9FOV6g 

Laguna Grande in the Golfo de Carioca, Venezuela

Thanks for the visit!

February fun, food and jewelry making.

 It is nearly mid-February and it seems like Spring is about ready to be sprung. We had a dandy start to the blooming season of the azaleas around here, however a cold snap to just below freezing put the kibosh on that. There are more blooms in the offing so we'll just have to be patient.  In the meantime, during these chilly and rainy days it's all about passing the time with chores, cooking pleasures, books and other generalized amusements.

Over the past few year's I've enjoyed making up a big batch of enchilada wraps and freezing them individually. That way I can pull them out one at a time and have a ready-made easy dinner, just add salsa, raw onions and cheese to the frying pan with the wrap and cover. Voila, in 30 minutes you have the tastiest treat. 

What is my dilemma you ask? All the leftover flour tortillas sitting in my pantry until they get so old/dried out that I toss them. Enter the tortilla wrap sandwich, which I understand had a huge showing on the internet a while back. You've probably seen the videos of people making them. Well, I'm here to say that they've become quite popular in our house for a lunchtime treat. Usually, we each do our own thing for lunch but occasionally I'll make up a "specialty wrap" which we will share. 

So, the other day I had some leftover caramelized onions and cooked bacon which together with smoked turkey coldcut meat, sliced tomatoes and pepperjack cheese made for the perfect wrap sandwich. Very easy to make once you see how to fold them. Basically, you cut from the center out to the edge (radius line) and think of the tortilla in quarters. Dress each quarter as you wish then fold one quarter onto the next. I generally fold in a counter-clockwise direction. Then I give it a bit of a spritz of olive oil, and pop it into the air fryer for about 5 minutes, flip and let go for another 3 mins and you've got it.

Just serve with some chips and you've got it. This is 1/2 of 1/4
of the sandwich - uh, 1/8th I guess, lol.

Moving on, I read blogs where "certain people" do a lot of home improvement or difficult home repair projects. While I applaud their diligent efforts, I'm afraid I'm not up to those tasks (anymore). Once, I was able to shimmy and squeeze myself down into our lazarette bins on Dreamtime in order to TSP clean and paint them (and a hundred other difficult and tedious jobs). Now I'm lucky if I can find the wherewithal to finish sand, and stain an oak banister. It was fun though.

I have managed to find time, in between my cooking exploits, to practice making copper wire-wrapped jewelry, It is time consuming but pleasurable. Herre's a couple of examples.

A little blurry in this shot. I like how it came out.

This is my first attempt at "hammering",
I love the texture it gives the piece.

And lastly, I did find time to make more cookies, pecan, butterscotch, & coconut with a few dark chocolate chips thrown in for good luck. Hot tea and a cookie is a great way to wind up the day.

A sweet treat for sure.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and as always, I'd love it if you wanted to comment! Have a great day.

Daily doings, cool Wolf Moon and Chicken Pot Pie - finally!

 All summer long, while out in Colorado, I was dreaming of the Chicken Pot Pie I would make when we got back home, so as soon as we got home in October, I bought my Pillsbury pie crusts. But did I make the pie right away? Nope, I didn't get it done until yesterday - wha? 😮 Yep, somehow, I just didn't get around to it. Of course, it does involve a fair amount of time and effort, especially if you make your own chicken stock out of the dismembered chicken parts from the rotisserie chicken that you pulled apart.  In addition to all that, there was the washing and chopping of all the veggies plus sauteing them in butter and spices prior to making the gravy - whew! Took a bunch of time, but it was worth the efforts. Kind of amazed at how well the pie crusts held up in the fridge for 2+ months.

Filling all set and pie crust ready to fill

Top crust on and ready for the oven, and here it is baked!
We get 4 dinners out of 1 pie. Freeze, then reheat in 200° oven.

We've had some great looking full moon nights, and mornings. My neighbor, Debby, took this shot the other night during the Wolf Moon; the moon came up looking orange! Pretty unusual, I've seen yellow but never orange. I saw another shot like this from someone up in New Jersey and it looked identical, so unexpected. In doing some online investigation I saw several shots from around the world that had that bright orange coloration. I know oftentimes the sun/moon color is affected by volcanic ash, dust particles and even ice crystals in the atmosphere.

Moonrise the other evening. Nice shot Debby!

 Here's a shot of the sun at mid-day we took while anchored out at the Dakity anchorage on Culebra, Puerto Rico back in 2015. It was directly over the boat and was so huge it took up the entire viewfinder. Ice crystals I believe. Really wild looking! Apocalypse anyone?!?

You can barely see the tip of the masthead.

This week's weather has been dreary, somewhat rainy, and temps in the 50's for highs and mid+30's at night. Reminds me of growing up in Rochester, NY minus the snow of course.  This too shall pass.

To keep busy and to while away the time, I baked a new to us breakfast casserole. Usually we have Cornbread Strata every so often, (scrumptious!) but sadly, the freezer was bare. I decided to make my own Tater Tot version after watching Ree Drummond make hers. However, while at my Publix, much to my surprise, but not my husband's, the frozen potatoes section was nearly bare!? (Ed had warned me of an upcoming potato shortage). At Aldi I was able to snag a package of the rectangular hash browns and decided to use those instead.  

So, on the bottom went the hash browns, then cooked breakfast sausage, a layer of shredded cheddar, next my veggies; lots of sauteed onions, mushrooms and fresh tomatoes (sans seeds and liquid), then the egg, hatch chilies, sour cream and cheese mixture, plus some more shredded cheese (lol). Refrigerated overnight and baked for breakfast the next morning - so good!

I keep complaining to Ed about how stuffed the freezer is, (first world problem fer sure!), but somehow it doesn't stop me from making/baking these big casseroles - Doh. Last week, I got a little desperate. I had a 5lb bag of yukon gold potatoes, bought while on sale, that had been around for a couple weeks already and I was worried about them getting soft on me. The answer, give some away - whew, and make a batch of scalloped potatoes. Hello freezer overload! 😊 (where is the "sheepish" emoji?)

Doesn't look very toothsome in this shot, but the
delicate herb flavor (tarragon & Herbs du Provence),
along with the garlic, butter and half & half, made these a
rich treat and got great reviews from the boss.

On a "same but different" topic, I just LOVE a good mango! Lately the variety that is coming from Peru has been wonderful; sweet, delicious and most definitely not stringy.

How sexy is that!

Finally, I finished my latest puzzle and started a new one. Have to keep my puzzle pattern-finding muscles sharp, haha.

I cut off the bottom inch of the picture, whoops.

Well, thanks for stopping by for a visit. Not a terribly exciting lifestyle but I'm definitely not complaining. Luckily there are plenty of other blogs out there where people are traveling to satisfy your wanderlust. Until next time, bye for now.

Sunrises, our Anniversary, and fun food stuff

 The days roll along and weather teeters between warm & sunny and chilly, damp and breezy, but all in all we'll take it! I still haven't managed to take down our Christmas doodads yet, but so what. It feels too early to put out the spring flower arrangements and door wreaths, so I'll let it ride a bit longer. About a week ago we celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary - whoa! Are we really that old? Oh well, time truly does fly by.  

I received a beautiful flower arrangement and card, and in addition to his card, he also received a wonderful Steak dinner with all the trimmings. We split a huge T-bone and had baked potatoes, sauteed mushrooms & onions and fresh spinach. 

Flowers and cards.

Hastily taken picture before heading to the table
and a bit of a messy plating, whoops.

Several mornings have offered some wonderful sunrises, and we are usually up and out enjoying the spectacle.

Since the first of the year, we have enjoyed a second, very satisfying dinner re-do of the Christmas dinner (turkey, dressing, rice, gravy and roasted veg), and the New Year's Day dinner (ham, black-eyed peas, rice, collards and cornbread), and we are in "hog heaven" over it. Eating well is one of our greatest enjoyments! (look at our waistlines, duh).

I've been indulging my passion for the arts by trying my hand at jewelry making, wire wrapping to be more precise.  Oh, and making "fun" rings too.  As someone said, "I went to the University of Youtube" to learn how to do it, haha. I have several styles to try out: ornate spiral weavings like the one below, or spare, sleek designs. It's fun so far. Purely recreational.

The paperclip and bead bookmarks are fun
to make as well - usually while watching 
auto racing or football.

This morning I tackled making a nice, big batch of sourdough french toast for the freezer. When I want a lazy breakfast, it's scrambled eggs, fruit and french toast. Easy and delicious.

All these go in the freezer, the other 4 pieces
will go on our plates in the morning.

And finally, I just wanted to say how blessed we are to be healthy, happy and well-fed. Thank God the supply chain hasn't gone in the ditch (yet) and we can still have a wonderful selection of fresh fruits and veggies.

I love it when my countertop looks like this!

Thanks for stopping by for a quick peruse at the blog. Enjoy your day!

Things are chugging along and a new toy

 Well here we are well into 2022 and things are just chugging along as per usual - thank goodness. We're all healthy, we've got good food to eat and the weather is just about perfect. So far we haven't done much in the way of dismantling Christmas. We're still enjoying the cheerful twinkle lights of our trees, but yesterday our outside lights came down until next year.

On New Year's Day we had a traditional dinner of baked ham, black-eyed peas, collards, rice and cornbread and boy, was it great. A large meal like this is best served mid-day (2pm-ish) we think and gives us plenty of time to digest while putting away leftovers, cleaning up the kitchen and dishes. I tried to do a bit of decorating to make the table more New Year's and less Christmas. 

New Year's Meal and spruced-up table.

7.5# shank potion ham waiting to be turned into leftovers -YAY.

The ham came out great and it's such a treat to cook one and have several packages of ham in the freezer for good meals in the future.

Ok, what is this new toy you were talking about?  A Colorado brand 9' Pontoon boat for rowing around on our lake. Wow! It went together quite easily and we'll all look forward to getting a little fresh air and exercise on our 9 acre lake. It's amazing how different it looks from water level as opposed to our deck level.

He's trying it out first.
Heading toward the islands at the south end .

At rest at the dock. Should be fun!

Still baking cookies, the lemon/ginger/almond ones were very popular around here, so I made another batch of them. So good with a cup of hot tea after dinner. You use a lemon cake mix as the base and go from there. Tasty to say the least.

It doesn't make a lot, but they did fill up 2 cookie tins. 😁

Another funny thing from my kitchen - I've always loved the longevity of Roma tomatoes, it almost seems like they can hang-out on the counter just pleasantly ripening up, but then you glance at it and see this - LOL!

Yikes! - Alien alert!