Saturday, December 10, 2011

Painted Gourds


Part of the beauty of being part of a community like Palm Creek is the plethora of activities and new endeavors that one can experience.  Today I took the gourd painting class and below you will see the results.  I was quite pleased with how they turned out since there was a point during the class when I thought about "chucking" that orange and heading home.  Glad I stayed with it and I will certainly take more gourd classes in the future.

Yep - just another day at the retirement farm.  ; )

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Black Pepper Dungeness Crab

Living in the Pacific Northwest gave us a true appreciation for the absolute freshest seafood and one of our favorites is Dungeness crab.  We would either trap the crabs ourselves or go to Pike Place market or Uwajimaya's, buy the crabs live, clean, and then cook them in a salt solution (equivalent salinity to ocean water) with added spices and herbs.  Dipped in melted, clarified butter, there is not much better feasting.  Fulltime RVing rather limits our ability to get fresh Dungeness, but we recently found some frozen in a local market and couldn't resist trying them.  
We decided to try to duplicate a recipe that we used to enjoy at Christine Keff's restaurant, Flying Fish. While not quite the same flavor, this sweeter version of Black Pepper Dungeness Crab is very good and since it did not involve all that butter dipping it is probably healthier!!  


Saturday, July 16, 2011

Blueberry Muffin Heaven


CD's friend June (I miss your blog, June) brought some wonderful blueberry muffins to work recently and CD just couldn't stop talking about how good they were.  Blueberry muffins are one of JC's favorite breakfast food so he decided to make them . . . there are not enough superlatives to describe these beauties.  They are light, full of gooey blueberries and have a crunchy streusel topping.
Here's the link:  To Die For Blueberry Muffins.
Make these.  You won't regret it!!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Oark General Store and Cafe


 Today, JC and I decided to take a road trip to the oldest general store in Arkansas.  This little piece of history is located in the Ozark National Forest high on a mountain ridge north of Clarksville, AR.

 The store is fully functional and tries to meet the needs of the locals.  It is also a cafe and is known for serving delicious pies.


 It is eclectic and quaint with numerous tables in the midst of canned goods and the dairy case.




 We both ordered the burgers and found them well crafted and tasty.
 We had to try the pies and were told the most popular are the coconut cream and the buttermilk custard. We tried them both and they were delicious.

Today is Sunday and there were a lot of people out exploring.  We were amazed at the number of folks who made the Oark General store a destination today.  It's a beautiful drive and well worth the time.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Grandparenthood

JC and I are now grandparents and we are absolutely thrilled.  Because this is a public blog and I am overly cautious (not that many read it), there won't be much personal about the little darling.  We are absolutely giddy with delight.  We are half a world away from him and that is hard but we have had many updates, including videos, which makes the distance easier to handle.  Just can't decide what he should call us!!  : ))

We call them little B#%$&@*'s

If you recall, the last blog dealt with the thrill of discovering cardinals at our windows on our first morning at Cloud Nine RV Park in Hot Springs.  We rushed around at the crack of dawn, looking for the video camera, convinced that we would miss filming them if we didn't hurry. 

We certainly could have saved ourselves the trouble because multiple cardinals, including at least one female, have taken up the fight to rid their territory of the cardinals that they see reflected in our coach windows.  We are in the process of taking measures to discourage the birds.  JC likens it to the antics of the poor coyote in the old Road Runner cartoons.  We haven't ordered the TNT or anvils yet, but we are close.

Here's the result so far:







Saturday, May 7, 2011

Friday, May 6, 2011

On The Road Again!!

Just a quick note and a promise to do better with this blog thing.  We have said good by to our friends (the ones who hadn't left yet) at Palm Creek and are now in NW Arkansas visiting my mother who had heart surgery recently.  Moving on to Hot Springs for several months to check out the Village and base ourselves while we make several trips, including one to Denmark go visit our new grandchild.

Just before leaving PC, I got together with a group of ladies who are big beaders.  We call ourselves the "Bodacious Beaders" and I'm looking forward to next year and learning more about beading.  In the meantime, I've made trips to Michaels and Jo Anns and have several projects planned.


I leave you with this picture of a cactus flower that I took before we left AZ.  Love it when the desert blooms!!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Cheesy Garlic Biscuits

Recently JC got a hankering (southern speak = desire) for those cheesy, garlicky biscuits served in a certain seafood chain restaurant.  He researched the numerous recipes for these lovely bundles and this is the result.  YUM-O!!!




Cheesy Garlic Biscuits

2 C. buttermilk baking mix (Bisquick or Jiffy)
2/3 C. milk
1/2 C. shredded sharp or extra sharp cheese
1/4 C. butter, melted
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. garlic powder or salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Combine mix, milk, and cheese with a wooden spoon until soft dough forms
Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet
Bake 8 - 10 minutes until golden brown
Combine butter and garlic powder and brush over warm biscuits before removing from cookie sheet
Serve warm
Makes 10 large biscuits

Birthday Cards

Here are a couple of birthday cards that I made recently using the Cricut cartridge "A Child's Year" (currently my favorite).


The colors and paisley pattern help to make this card fairly masculine!




And pink is always right for the more feminine card.
I also layered a couple of pieces of coordinating card stock inside the card and placed a strip of patterned paper off to the the side to "dress it up".

Monday, February 7, 2011

A Card and an Album


A card that I made for some friends who watered our plants while we were out of town.




And the front cover of a mini album that I made for my mother.


Saturday, January 8, 2011

New Obsession

Part of the fun of being retired is trying new activities and hobbies.  Today I took a beading class here in Palm Creek RV Resort.  What fun!!
We chose our primary beads, the focal bead, and the accent/spacer beads.  In my case, the majority of the beads were fresh water pearls with some amber colored square beads and round antiqued looking metal beads.  The focal bead is a stone with some swirly stuff and a little color in it.
I really loved seeing how it all came together and I can't wait to research more and maybe go to Tucson to the annual gem show.
Uh oh - going to have to add beading to my list of hobbies!!

Sunday, January 2, 2011