Stroll On The Beach----brrrrrr!!

I love the beach although the beach we have in our town is a bit of a disappointment, it is still a place to go to be near some water without having to venture too far away.   I took these pictures before the snow hit our little town.  Chris immediately headed for the drift wood...:-). It's amazing how much of that stuff comes in with the tide.  I have often wondered how much drifted in from China...??

who knows what he is up to now...haha.  Perhaps he is contemplating another "grand construction"?
 

Seems that this particular day, others were trying to take advantage of the fact that it was not raining cats and dogs for a change.

 There is something about water that has a peaceful feel to it.....

 Then there is the "side affects" that may come with all of that serenity...

 ....ahhhhhhh....

 and that was our little outing into the cold.  Time to head back to the warm comforts of home

We made it home before the snow. I tried to capture this picture twice and kept getting the reflection of the camera....:-(....sorry.

Anyway, we made it home and decided to enjoy some pigs in the blanket; or at least that's what my Mom used to call them...:-).  Comfort food! ha

 Hope you are enjoying the snow that has fallen since these were taken...:-)
See you next time!

Hot, Hot Stuff!

 Well, it's been a while since we got together and chatted about my latest "goings on".  So, I thought I would let you know what I had been up to in the last few days.  I have a post that was done some time ago that showed where I made a hot pepper sauce from scratch in my own kitchen.  I have learned from my last few experiences to approach the situation armed and dangerous!

 yep..  that's me..haha

And for pete's sake don't forget these.....

Now, proceed with caution! ha.  I started the process of cutting all of the peppers.  I used a combination of the following:

1.  Jalapenos-5
2.  Pablano- 1 large
3.  Thai Chillies-5
4.  Serranos- 5
5.  Fresno- 4
6.  Habanero-2

You might notice that I didn't use ALL of the seeds.
 

Next, I put about 5 cloves of fresh garlic through a press and set it aside....

Now, it was time to put the peppers (without the garlic) in a large skillet with about a cup of Virgin olive oil. I don't usually cook by "measuring", but my smell and taste.  But for those who need measuring, I estimate that it was probably about a cup or slightly better.  Keep in mind that different olive oils are for different purposes.  So, you want to make sure you choose one that is for "cooking" and not "dipping".

Time to chop the peppers.....

 Add to hot oil and cook for about ten minutes on medium heat.  You will be very happy to have covered your eyes and nose! Even with the vent on, the steam was still escaping into the air.  I had a fan on sitting in front of the kitchen window up on the table to pull the "aroma" out of the house.

 
After cooking for about ten minutes, turn the heat off and let the oil cool down for about 1-2 minutes.  Now, add the garlic, salt and stir.  If you add it before this, it will "toast" or burn.  Of course, if you want your garlic toasted in the mix that is fine too, but it can burn quite quickly.  So, be sure to remove it from the heat "just before" it has reached the desired color you want it to be because it will continue to cook in the hot oil for a few more minutes.  Let it cool in the pan completely WITHOUT a lid.  If you put a lid on it, it will make condensation and you will end up with water in your pepper oil.

I had enough to put some in a jar in the fridge and the rest went into this little jar that I bought a while ago for this very reason. Here is the finished product...:-).  This picture shows the jar nearly empty because we had already eaten some when this picture was taken.

It sits on the table with my "special" salt and pepper shakers that Chris purchased several months back....:-).

TADA!  Hope you all try this one day.  I know you can do the same thing with peppers that have no heat if this is too spicy for some of you.  Some times we use just the oil off the top and other times we use a spoonful on eggs or other dishes we enjoy.

See ya next time!

Caviar Anyone?

I'm exhausted!  haha.  It has been quite a busy and intense time of family, friends, reorganization and upcoming meetings.  The thought of some of this makes me tired.  But I am grateful to have made it through another year with strength to make it through this one too.

Now, having said that...a girl has to pamper herself for a job well done over the past 12 months.  Or just do it for any old reason at all...ha.  I decided that I was going to make one, huge extravagant dish.  But being as tired as I have been from travel and feeling off and on as if I were fighting the flu, I broke it into two "events".
My first "event" was a roasted, crispy skin duck.  I had never done a duck quite like this before.  And Lord knows I had never heard of a "utility duck" until I last week.  I kept thinking what could they possibly have the ducks doing before they met their end???  "Utility Ducks".....really??.  Well, they were going for about 2.00 a pound and was about half the size of  a regular duck.  Then I found out that they are usually missing some "part" and are sold for much less than the other ducks that made the cut  (no pun intended).

Anyway, it took about 2 hours to cook it along with some parsnips ( I hope I spelled that right), which I had never cooked before, dressing, gravy and broccoli. Fortunately, my little duck had all of its wings and things.  It was missing some of the giblets, but that was no big deal.  The bird was small enough for us to just cut the thing in half and share it.  It was very juicy (surprisingly so) seeing as it was on low broil the entire time it cooked.

Presto!

Well, as you can see... I forgot to change my table cloth.  Oh well....:-).  Maybe tomorrow.  Anywho,  today's adventure was black caviar; which I knew had to be kept on ice even while being served and only served with plastic, glass or Mother of Pearl utensil.  Otherwise, the metal of stainless steel or aluminium will ruin the taste.  I had a plastic knife handy.......:-)  

Smoked trout........Also to be eaten cold.

stuffed eggs......I made the mixture with cream cheese and spices and put a dollop of caviar on each egg.  Chris had some sourdough bread that he made into "toast points".  The idea was to put the smoked trout on a slice of toast and top it with some basil pesto....

        
And that was our first "exotic" dinners of 2014.

 Thanks for burping with us!  haha  Happy New Year!!

Christmas In Penticton, BC 2013

When you have a mom that is 90 years of age, you want to try to put in as much time with them as possible before they leave you forever.  We decided on our way back from the United States that we would spend this Christmas with Chris's Mom since she would not be traveling out of town for Christmas this year.

We decided to leave our gifts for each other behind until we returned home.  But we would at least have them wrapped and ready for our return....:-).

Not wanting to set out on the road Christmas Eve, we got a head start and left our home on the 23rd of December.  The sky was magnificent. The road was not overly crowded since we started out a couple days earlier than some others.

I love the scenery along the Sea To Sky Highway.  It doesn't seem to matter what time of year it is.  It is always beautiful.

We traveled along and was enjoying the ride with music, singing and talking when we came to an area just near Princeton, BC.  To our amazement, we came upon the largest herd of Elk I had ever seen.  It was so large that we did a U-turn in the highway to go back and see about snapping this picture.  There was another vehicle behind us that had the same idea.

Having made it through Manning Park without using chains on the tires, we traveled on and saw the beautiful snow capped mountains that lay between Hedley and Keremeos.  The big white "band" in the back ground is actually fog!  I was getting a bit nervous, but I didn't say anything....

Whew!!  We made it...haha.  After 6 hours of travel, son was finally reunited with mother.....:-)

Chris and his brother decided that they wanted to cook.........hummmm.....

Mean while, I was checking out the Christmas tree in the corner.  When a person turns 90, you have no idea what they might need at that age that they don't already have.  So, we came up with the idea of giving her recent pictures of the grand children to replace much older ones.  Unfortunately, we did not have all of the pictures with us and had to mail some out after Christmas for her to enjoy.

Christmas day came and we had to make calls to all of the family members that would be expecting to hear from us in some form or another.  Here is Chris on the phone with our family in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

I was snacking on some kind of Norwegian desert with almond paste in the center.  Not too bad.  No, I didn't eat the whole plate!  But I did have one piece....:-).

And decided to see what the view was like from the deck window....

This is looking to the left of the deck....

Laura who is known for her fierce independence was busy setting the table for dinner....

I starting missing seeing my own table decorated back in Oklahoma and in Germany where I purchased all of my silver and crystal just for special occasions as this.

Chris put a snack tray together so large that I wasn't sure there would be room for dinner, but it was still early.  So, I guess this was lunch.

 The snack trays started coming fast and furiously!  Oh dear......

It was getting serious in there!

The boys decided that they would do the whole meal.  Now, I tried to assure them that I was quite capable of handling at least the veggies....but they insisted! Chris decided that he wanted me to relax for a change.   Works for me!......:-)  Big brother took on the turkey and mom was fussing over the sink.

Next thing you know, the turkey was being carved and we were ready to dig in.........

Seeing as I had been given all that time to "rest", I was ready to eat!

I helped to bring the food to the table grateful for yet another year that we had some how made it through inspite of a broken water main, nearly frozen pipes, family illness and other challenges.  We were ready to step into another year very soon.  This would be the largest meal before we found ourselves in 2014.

Somebody was quite pleased at the way things had turned out with the meal. The master of the meal, well...and his brother of course....:-).

Even the sky was showing gratitude with a wonderful display of color.....

orange and blue........

and sometimes giving the appearance of a picture that had been done with a broad stroke brush..

 And then it started to shift into a pink color....very slowly...

And then it was pink!

 Another year, another Christmas.  We woke up the day we were to leave to more snow.  But all was well.  If you look closely, you can see the snow specks in the dark evergreen trees falling.

With the mission accomplished, there was nothing left to do but snap one more picture before hitting the road.

We hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a wonderful New Year!