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Summer Fruit, yeah for fruit! Honestly I don’t eat much fruit, mostly because I a fruit snob. I am seriously picky about eating fruit. It must be fresh and taste intensely of whatever type of fruit it is. When I first heard of fruit based salsas, I was skeptical for sure. I am a sucker for sweet and savory, so I gave it a go. Unfortunately it was a jarred sauce and I didn’t like it one bit. It was quite awhile before I decided to try it again. I decided to make it fresh, oh what an epiphany it was for me. Fruit salsa, manly peach and/or mango salsa is my favorite. It is the perfect topping for fish, chicken, pork or with the standard chips. If you haven’t ever tried it, you must do it right away, only make it fresh and don’t ever, ever try any that come out of a jar!
This started off as Mango Peach Salsa, but I had to change it to Peach Mango Salsa because peaches ended up being my star. Soon you’ll see why.
Ingredients
2 1 Mango
2 peaches
1/2 c diced red onion
1 lime zest and juice
1 jalapeno
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt to taste
Directions
Peel and cube the mangos….
Here is where things wer just wrong!
I ever so carefully picked out my mangos, waited a couple of days to ripen them, just waiting for Mango Peach Salsa. I was cheated I tell ya!
Can you see how brown my mango is? It looked perfect on the outside. It was slightly firm yet gave slightly to pressure. It should have been perfect. I didn’t have it too long, nope, not a bit too long. There was no indication from the outside that something terribly had gone wrong inside.
It’s just brown I told myself, not that brown actually. Maybe it won’t look so bad mixed in with the other ingredients? I desperately wanted to use my mango! I cut the peel off the other mango that was purchased at the same time with just as much care. I couldn’t really convince myself the other mango could be disguised. See the contrast? One is a beautiful bright yellow and the other, bad, bad, bad! Just to be sure I tasted it, yuk! No way was I going to serve that! I also wasn’t about to run out to the store and see if there was a perfectly ripe mango ready for me to purchase, plus I was feeling a little mango purchase shy at the moment.
Time to pull on my big girl panties and get over it and move on, can’t always judge a book by it’s cover….
Dice up your mango, 1 or 2 of them. Put them in medium bowl.
Peel your peaches. You can drop them in boiling water for a minute to loosen the skin, or if you are a lazy cheater like me, you just cut it off with a paring knife.
Slice and dice your peaches, add to the mangos.
Finely dice a half cup of red onion and add to the fruit mixture.
Zest your lime.
Then squeeze every last bit of juice out of it that you can. Add the lime and zest.
Chop up your cilantro, throw that into the bowl also.
Mince up your jalapeno. Leave the seeds in if you like it spiiiiiicy! Add it to the rest of the stuff.
Add some Kosher salt, about 1/2 tsp was good for me.
Drizzle with a little EVOO.
Mix it together, put in the refrigerator at least an hour before serving.
Then enjoy your Mango Peach Mango Salsa on top of whatever your little heart desires!
The humble saltine, also known as a soda cracker, isn’t considered a fancy food. It’s used mostly crumbled up in soup, chili, topped on casseroles and once in awhile it gets slathered with peanut butter or topped with a slice of cheese. If your tummy is upset the doctor recommends some soda crackers to fend off nausea. Other then that there just doesn’t seem to be many other uses for the basic saltine.
It was invented in 1876 in St. Joseph, Missouri. I’ve stayed there and never knew it was the birthplace of the soda cracker, guess it just doesn’t seem like something to advertise in the tourist guides. The saltines position is so low in the cracker department that it finds it’s home on the bottom shelf of every grocery store I’ve been in. They are also cheap! I mean they really are a deal, I got a box of 4 sleeves (store brand) for 98¢.
When my Lulu at work threw a sandwich baggie full of these on my desk and said you gotta try these, I was really excited. I was also starving at the moment so they seemed like a God send. I tasted one; crispy, salty (a familiar taste for a saltine) but moister, and more flavorful and spicy. They were so good that my hand kept finding it’s way into the bag and one by one they were starting to disappear. Fortunately Lulu came in and snatched her bag back, she evidently wanted me to try them, not devour them all….
Lulu got this reciped from her Aunt Pam. They are fabulous alone or with a dip.
They are incredibly inexpensive (I dare not say cheap, since we are taking the saltine to a new level)
Spicy Crackers
Ingredients
1 1/3 cup canola oil (do not substitute according to Aunt Pam)
3 sleeves saltine crackers
1 pkg Ranch mix
3 tsp crushed red pepper (0h yeah!)
3 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp dried thyme
Directions
Stack the crackers upright in a plastic container that tightly seals.
Lulu provided a drawing so that I would understand, the hash marks represents crackers standing up right.
Cause sometimes I need pictures, words just aren’t enough.
See Lulu, I can follow instructions (just don’t tell anyone at work)
Take all of your seasonings and oil and mix together.
 
Pour evenly over the crackers.
 
Then you wait, you wait so long. 24 hours to be exact. Flip halfway through.
Lulu told me that her Aunt Pam would dip into them as soon as three hours, so if you can’t wait….
Lulu likes to serve her crackers with crab dip.
Hmmmm, crab dip, mmmmm seafood.
I served mine with Grandpa HoHo’s Shrimp dip (which will be posted once I get the measurements down).
So Saltine, time to come up from the bottom shelf, stop hiding behind peanut butter and being crumbled into soups.
Now is your time to shine!
Two years ago we moved to Great Falls. Even before we bought our adorable little house we purchased 40 acres of land in the mountains. We wanted a cabin real bad. If you want something real bad, you do whatever it takes to get it, and we did. We have spent the last two years making it a reality. We cashed in on some investments, spent our savings and finally went into to debt to finish funding it. Conversation have been consumed with talk of the cabin. Countless hours have been spent on the internet doing research and ordering unique items like a composting toilet and an on demand propane water heater. Millions of errands have been run, all around town, and sometimes in other towns to find just what we need/want. Hours have been spent making the 3 hour trip to the cabin and then the other 3 hours back. And now that it is so close to being completely done (on the inside), we spend every weekend up there. We love it!
But like children and pets, if you don’t give a home attention, it will do anything, even misbehave to get your attention. After all bad attention is better than no attention? When we first moved into our little home, we painted, cleaned, arranged and decorated. It looked pretty nice. What we didn’t want to deal with, we stuck in the garage and put it on our list of someday we’ll get to it. You know, someday when we aren’t doing anything with the cabin. Sure we did a little bit of home improvement. We replaced the sidewalk out front (before the city fined us for having one in such poor condition), and we replaced the sidewalk from the house to the garage so that it is actually functional. We even did a little bit of gardening…just a little.
That was just surface stuff, we knew the house needed some maintenance. It’s an older house, of course it needs maintenance. But we put it off, and put it off. Procrastinated, delayed, postponed, deferred, drug our feet, dawdled, poked about, we pretty much just lolly gagged about anything except immediate things in our home. What happens when you procratinate? It comes to nip you in the rear, nip is too gentle of word, it really tears you a new one. The reality is what might have been minor now becomes major.
What all home owners (who have a basement) dread….is water. Standing water in the basement. Mcgyver woke up last Thursday morning to a flood (I was already at work). He called me in panic mode, unfortunately I was the only manager at work so I couldn’t leave till later to help out. He and the Baby boy had to move things to the “dry” side of the basement. I showed up and helped, we filled the halls.
We stacked and shoved things to the other side to prevent water damage.
We sucked up water, turned on fans, turned OFF the air conditioning and opened windows (while it was 90 degrees out).
We sucked up gallons and gallons of water (thank heavens for our wet/dry shop vac).
We mopped, McGyver used towels and even the dirty laundry to suck up the water.
And then we surveyed.
Ewww, this can’t be good.
And this can’t be good either.
Bad news folks, bad news. But on the bright side, my laundry room floor is the cleanest it’s ever been!
We had plumbers come in and try to figure out what was going on, they decided that it was a negative drainage issue. That our gutters need to be replaced. It did rain heavy the night before. As a matter of fact, it’s rained so much this summer that the ground is so saturated that it can’t absorb any more of the water, so into the house it goes.
Then that evening the Baby boy took a shower. That evening we ended up sucking up another 50 gallons of water. Negative drainage? I’m not convinced, neither is McGyver.
So he took some precautions to prevent more flooding.
I keep hoping that they’ll say “Sanitized for you use”. Like I’m in some hotel and my basement doesn’t exist.
Guess what we did that weekend?
Yup, we went to the cabin, guess what we are doing this weekend and next weekend? Yup, going to the cabin. Don’t judge, it’s an obession, we can’t help ourselves.
Do they have counseling groups for that?
Now that our cabin is starting to feel like a second home, we can’t stay away! McGyver and I both had a three day weekend and the baby boy is on school break still, so we headed on up the top of the mountain again. We had some more furniture pieces to bring with us and a whole list of this and that’s to also bring. First order of business was to unload as soon as we got there and then McGyver set off to Bozeman (6 hour round trip) to bring back a surprise.
That left the Baby boy and I to unpack what we could. I got started on some small stuff and he got started on the cheapy futon I purchased at Wal-Mart to replace the daybed idea that didn’t work out. The Baby boy really enjoys assembling things so there weren’t any complaints from him. I helped hold a piece occasionally when needed. After the base was assembled he checked out the length to see if it would be a good fit. A little short, but with the futon unfolded he thought it would be fine.
He perseravered for as long as he could, then a small snafu. When it came to put the metal screws into the wire mattress frame, they wouldn’t go. I tried, he tried, I tried, I cussed, he tried, he didn’t dare cuss. But my poor Baby boy stabbed himself three times with the screw driver (accidentally of course).
That was that, he gave it up and decided to let McGyver handle the rest. For tonight, a mattress on the floor would suit him fine!
One of the nice things about being up at the cabin is the absence of life detractors. Take away errands, functions, work and hobbies and you suddenly feel like you have some time on your hands. So Baby boy and I played a game while we waited for McGyver to return.
The game is called MindTrap II, it consists of brain teasers, word/picture problems and puzzles.
It was fun but we never finished, we had Cow Chips on our minds, they were distracting, very distracting.
Cow Chips
I realize that some people might just call them fried potatoes, some may even call them kettle chips. Here in Montana they are Cow Chips.
The ingredients are simple.
Potatoes
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper or seasoning salt of your choice.
Directions:
Slice the potatoes as thin as possible.
If I were at home I’d use my mandolin.
But I wasn’t at home.
If I were at home I might have used my Furi knife.
But I wasn’t at home.
So I used a Chicago Cutlery ”ever sharp” knife that we received as part of a knife block gift set.
My slices were uneven.
If I had limitless water I’d put my potatoes in the water so they wouldn’t turn brown in the air.
But I didn’t have limitless water, oh well, they were going to turn brown when I fried them anyways.
Heat up your oil, hot enough for frying. I’m guessing I was on a med-hi flame.
I only had about 1/4 ” of oil because disposing of excess oil is an issue.
I fried a few taters at a time, flipping them over when they turned a nice golden brown.
Drain them on a paper towel and season.
Seasoning salt is especially good. You can add some cayenne pepper to make them spicy, or use Cajun seasoning.
I think I’ll even try some pickle salt one day.
I warn you, they are addictive.
No matter how many I cooked our stack never got bigger then this.
After not successfully completing MindTrap II, we decided to kill the rest of the evening by watching Gladiator.
Kind of lame to have a TV, but when it’s dark and cold (it was that day), it’s still nice to watch movie.
The next day McGyver couldn’t wait to play with the “Surprise”.
Summer puppy says “they’re coming, they’re coming!”
Look what McGyver has gone and done! He purchased a 4 wheeler. A Yamaha Rhino, complete with mini-pick up bed, snow plow and winch.
They brought me firewood to use to cook dinner.
I love this, our neighbor Jeff heard the Rhino and drove down on his, and they all had to do their man thing.
What kind of wench is that?
Are you gonna use the snow plow?
How many miles?
Tire’s look like new.
What kind of top does it have?
etc., etc., etc.
That stuff didn’t really matter much to me, but the fact that it can haul firewood so I could cook. Now that mattered to me.
Here I have a 15 bean soup starting and some brats for lunch going.
We worked and worked then we were nagged to death by the Baby boy to play Settler’s of Catan.
The beans had a long way to go, so why not?
Baby boy played, while McGyver and I tried to figure out how to play. Baby boy was killing us, so we took a break to check on the beans.
By now it was 8:00 pm and the beans still weren’t done. So McGyver stoked up the fire and lowered the pot to help things along.
By now we were starvin marvins so I made us all grilled cheese sandwiches.
Yeah for grilled cheese sammies!
If the beans ever do cook, they’ll just have to wait for another day.
After our sammies, McGyver and I gained up on the Baby boy, he still won but we gave him a run for his money.
He was sweatin it and we were enjoying it…no competition in this family.
On our last day we decided to stock up on more water before we left.
In other words, McGyver was happy to have another excuse to drive the new toy.
We rode around to our neighbors spring house (he has graciously allowed us to use his water until we get our own).
This is how it’s done.
After the container is full, McGyver (certainly not me) has to climb out of the ditch.
And then carry them back to the vehicle.
The most important thing about a spring in the mountains?
Keeping the free range cattle out of the water source.
Can we say e. coli? No thank you.
Jeff simply built a lodge pole fence around the natural spring area.
The water runs into the spring house which houses a tank and pump.
The overflow trickles down like a little itty bitty stream.
Then drains into a pond, which the dogs looooove.
From the pond, it drains on down the mountain.
It’s simple, it’s beautiful.
It’s a constant 30° F and crystal clear.
This is the way to drink water!
Guess what? I got to drive the Rhino back, woo hoo, fun for me.
I don’t understand why McGyver used his seat belt for the first time?
This is where the water story ends.
Actually it doesn’t end, it gets a whole new beginning.
Washing hands and dishes.
Making coffee/tea and cooking.
Best of all a nice cold glass of spring water to quench our thirst!
After the water run, McGyver and I decided to do some target shooting.
I recently got McGyver’s which is now my 30/30 pump action rifle back from our gun smithy.
He had to do what he called a “boob job” on it. In other words he shortened the stock for me because of my short human arms and he cut the stock to fit my, ummm, curves.
Next to McGyver’s 30/30 mine looks like a mini rifle, something for a child, sheesh.
At first it felt strange, and I kept adjusting it after each shot (FYI 5 in the magazine).
I was convinced that I had missed the target every time, after all the target didn’t move one bit.
Upon closer examination I’d say I killed the paint can!
Mcgyver was not about to stop having fun now, after all this is why we have a place in the mountains.
He took me four wheeling, snow blade and all.
It was all great until we ran into this ↓
That was our cue to head back to the cabin and pack up and go home, to our real home.
Here’s a few pics of our progress from what we had completed since last weekend.
We brought up my chest I bought in England, it just seemed right at the end of the bed.
And this cheap armoir, that I bought used for $20 in Germany. It was unfinished so I stained it years ago to give it an old world effect.
It’s flimsy and the bottom drawer is a bugger to open, but it looks good and it’s functional.
After McGyver rescued the futon assembly, it worked really well.
Matter of fact, I love it.
I will be making pillow covers for our euro pillows, Baby boy has already picked the fabric.
This is his “bedroom” so he wanted a say.
Notice the book shelf in the back ground? A great place for books, cook books and our games. Some of our ducks migrated up also.
I picked up the paintings (pictured on the right) at Bed, Bath and Beyond (one of my most favorite stores). The color match is perfection!
Our coffee table was won at a Safari Club International banquet. It’s carved with a hunting motif and topped with glass (obviously I didn’t have any glass cleaner….)
I’ll have to share better pics another time.
Summer dog enjoys our new carpet (purchased at a killer sale price at Shopko).
Cabin and Cow Chips, Cow Chips and Cabin.
A good weekend, a very good weekend indeed.
By the way, if you were wondering about the means, they finally cooked.
They came home with us and turned into a very nice soup (that we’ve had for two nights now).
Moving on up! Moving up 6,000 feet to be exact. Finally our cabin is done enough to move stuff in. Two years in the making and a lot of debt. But the time is finally here. A little background: Over three years ago, we found out we were moving to Great Falls, MT. We were excited because it was bringing closer to our roots. McGyver was originally from Idaho and I was from Washington State, Northwest folks to be exact. Because of the military we have lived all around the globe, and where we haven’t lived, we’ve traveled. After extensive traveling, sometimes you realize there is no place like home, and sometimes you find out there’s no place like the place your living at now. McGyver’s family had left Idaho, and believe it or not, decided to relocate to Washington State. The natural thought would be for us to settle in Washington State to be closer to both of our families, however, we both knew that Washington had become quite crowded and honestly the constant “grey” of Washington was unappealing to both of us.
We were super excited about the opportunity to move to Montana. It would bring us closer to family, but it was not a heavily populated state. I’m not a total country girl, I knew that I wanted certain amenities in life like a well stocked grocery store and Internet. Great Falls seemed like the perfect place. When we moved to Great Falls we decided to down size from a 3,000 square foot home to an 1,800 square foot home. That meant that we had an excess of furniture. About the time that we were moving here the American economy was doing poorly. We (mostly McGyver) were losing money on investments. McGyver had decided to pull one of his money market accounts and invest in land…..after all no one is making land. Because the economy was not doing great, realty was also in somewhat of a slump. We were able to buy 40 acres with most of McGyver had pulled out of his account. We knew that we wanted a cabin so we stored some extra furniture in the dreams of a cabin someday.
The property we bought has a small creek running through it and had a cabin started. Really the only nice building on it was the outhouse at the bottom meadow. So last year we had a contractor finish framing the cabin and do the outside. This year the concentration was on finishing the inside. Lucky for us our year ’round neighbor is a drywaller and construction guy. So we hired him to finish the inside. In an ideal world we would have built and finished the cabin ourselves, there is certainly a sense of pride that goes along with that. Problem is, we didn’t have the time, both of us working full time and having a family, and the real truth…..we just didn’t have the knowledge and skill.
Sure we could have figured it out and got it done, McGyver has the aptitude, but…..we wanted use it. If we did it, maybe in 20 years it would have been done. So much for making the most of our investment. Our rational was that the quicker we could get into it the quicker we would stop paying rent for space for the furniture in storage and vacations would be spent there versus elsewhere. Oh, McGyver and the boys would lap in luxury during hunting season.
The time has finally come, the cabin was finished enough to move some stuff in. The dogs were excited as usual to go. Okay, they are excited anytime they get to go for a ride, but they especially like going to the cabin!
First look through the door.
The mortaring for the wall isn’t quite finished but it looks great already.
The bathroom is the least finished…I didn’t care….the toilet was ready to use.
We had a composting toilet installed, which is very “green”, the compost will be used for a garden that I will have someday.
My mom and my sister had bought me this copper and brass light, probably six years ago. Finally it has a home. The cabinets I finished myself, they are supposed to look old and distressed. It was certainly a fun project. I’d like to commend by neighbor Jeff for the trim work. I just told him I wanted wood trim and I wanted it to match the cabinets. He did a perfect job and added the nice touch on the top of the windows and sliding glass door instead of just doing a plain square.
We have a small closet that holds the breaker box, water heater and will hold the batteries to power the house when the generator isn’t running.
He even stained our “stairs and the frame around it to match.
This is our bedroom, the walls are actually brown and dark beige….lighting is not ideal in our room but it will make for a cozy night sleep.
Please admire the hardwood flooring which we got for a steal. I love how it looks “old”.
The door that we bought at the “Restore” store here in Great Falls. It obviously came from an apartment. Jeff also set up the rails so no one would fall down the hole in the middle of the night.
He also installed some hand rails that are so helpful when coming up the stairs.
As you can tell Mcgyver is happy to have something to hold onto as he climbed up the stairs.
The view from upstairs.
This is our bedroom. A bedroom, wow, how great is that?
The cubby that we had niched out….because you always need more space, especially if you only have 600 square feet.
This is the “living” area. Again, we had a nook…I have a vision for that.
See the water container…I have a vision to cover that…..
Jeff came down while we were moving things in.
I can’t believe it…put water in the above tank….and you have running water!
This is our “instant” hot water heater in the only closet we have. It runs on propane and gives you hot water within a minute!
While we were moving stuff in and Jeff was going over all the logistics of the cabin, Becca dog was doing some discovering herself. Specifically she found a fresh cow pie from the free range cattle and rolled around in it.
Needless to she was tied up until McGyver could take her down to the creek and wash her up. The way she is licking her chops you’d think she was enjoying it. Ooooh gross, what is wrong with you dog?????
In order to get larger items up to the top floor we had to use a little McGyver ingenuity. A pully and a pick-up truck did the trick.
Unfortunately it was just McGyver and I which made the task a little more difficult.
Our dinner that night was a cold dinner of crackers, cheese and red wine. I knew we would be busy all day “nesting” so a cold dinner and a little cheap wine to celebrate would just fill the bill.
The next morning I utilized my kitchen for real! I cooked up some bacon and made coffee.
I baked some canned biscuits in my cast iron pan in the counter top propane oven.
Some how breakfast seems to tast better so much better in the cabin…see those lovely fried eggs, the pile of bacon and baked biscuits even if they are homemade!
The cabin is not fully decorated but I am working on it.
This is the front room with Dennis the Pheasant that McGyver shot, the old lantern, duck decoys and rocker from Grandpa and Grandma HoHo.
The dining room table was a freebie with the above hall table. I was in Tongeren, Blegium, doing my usual bi-annual visit when I ran across this fabulous hall table/sofa table from Sweden. I wanted it and the seller offered to through in the table with 4 chairs for free. I paid $100 for the lot. I used all pieces for years. The chairs were horrible so we got rid of them before we moved here. I am so pleased the other pieces are working out.
The china hut was purchased at a “bazaar” on base in Lakenheath, UK. The dishes are my absolute favorite; Henry Watson “for use at home or safari” from England. The blue plates made by Spode and a bunch of knick-knacks from Germany and copper pieces that I have collected over the years.
Another cold meal for lunch. Salami and cheese sandwich with some chips and a little coffee.
Please note the gorgeous Chicken Picture from Italy, a gift my daughter Leah.
Mcgyver had his Cuckoo clock from Germany and a special picture he bought that we hung up in the “high” traffic area.
I added some of my copper collection to the wood stove area. Plus an old wooden sleigh…..just because I like it.
At the top of the stairs we mounted “Hamlet”.
Folks, this is why I really needed a cabin…seriously where else was I going to hang McGyver’s trophy?
Sometimes what you think, is not what you are going to get. We thought we would do a Daybed upstairs. So we bought a set of antique twin beds for $90. My idea was to put the two foot boards together to make the day bed. We did and we found out that there would be no room for a coffee table.
I am sad to say that the daybed idea is kaput and we will be purchasing a futon instead.
I know this post is lengthy but please bear with me because I am so proud of the chairs we have. As I stated earlier, we got ridh of the horrible chairs that came with my free table; last year on our 4th of July visit to Westport, Wa. Grandpa and Grandma HoHo gave us chairs. Chairs with a history. Grandpa HoHo had bought some chairs at a yard sale, the seller had told him that the chairs were from the original Yellowstone Lodge. We didn’t know if it was true or not, but we knew that they were beautiful chairs that needed some work. We took them to a local guy for restoration….well, he found a stamp on those chairs. They were made my a company that supplied all the original chairs at….you guessed it….Yellowstone Lodge! McGyver and I went on line and did some research, sure enough it was true these were original chairs from Yellowstone Lodge. Not only that but some reproduction chairs were going for $500 each!
Look we have a bed! The brass bed came from McGyver’s grandfather. McGyver had the quilt made in Germany. The throw pillows are Irish linen that I picked up. The mirror was thrown in free when we bought our daybed set up. The night stand was also bought in Tongeren.
Right now, this is how we get water up to our tank. Poor McGyver has to haul it up. Fortunately our neighbor Jeff has an established spring that we can get water from. We have 3 springs but we haven’t developed any of them yet…next year?????
Every move has it’s mess, this is just a small haul we were taking out with us.
This was a very long blog….but so exciting. I’d like to leave you with a picture of Summer who thinks that Becca is her personal fur covered couch….
Can that be really comfortable? Probably if you are a dog.
Hey, on the way home we stopped in Lincoln, MT at Lamkins Supper Club.
A couple of employees were looking up in a tree. We couldn’t resist and we had to look up also.
Poor little black bear. I hope he finds his way down soon, I mean after I’m not around cause I’m sure he’ll be hungry. I would be if I were stuck in a tree all day….
Next weekend more moving in and I can’t wait!
Summer = Watermelon
Watermelon = Juicy
Mint = Refreshing
Watermelon Salad = Simple
Cut up a ripe watermelon.
Chop some fresh mint.
Add a little salt.
Simple, juicy, refreshing.
Summer.
Silly Summer Dog!
Relocating can be exciting and stressful. Depending on the reason for your relocation it can be more exciting or more stressful. For my boss the excitement of moving turned into stress and then back to excitement. Approximately 1 1/2 years ago my boss, who was an Assistant Manager at a sister center, accepted a position as Center Manager here in Great Falls. It was a short move from Missoula to Great Falls. Except she really couldn’t move. Her house was on the market, and well the market sucked and the house didn’t sell for a year. The poor lady lived here during the week and went home every weekend.
Then finally the day came, the day hoped and prayed for, the house sold. A year of traveling and dreaming of the next house was about to take a turn for the positive. She had already had plenty of time to research and decide what she was going to do when her Missoula house sold. She was going to build new on a 2 1/2 acre lot in the Big Bend Ranch subdivision. She and her hubby packed up their home and put it into storage, rented a modest little place and got to work on having their home built. How much fun, how exciting to pick the floor plan, the exterior and choose every iota of detail for the house that was to be theirs. Exciting and stressful….and as always over budget. Finally a 1 1/2 after accepting her new position, she was able to move into what is now her “her home sweet home”.
The management staff at worked discussed a house warming gift, however, me as a very experienced mover (22 years of the military will do that and the 21 years proceeding that living with parent who moved frequently) knew that one of the most appreciated gifts would be having a meal made and brought to you. As excited as my boss was to use her new Electrolux appliances, I knew that it wouldn’t happen until things were unpacked. I signed up for day one, ready to provide a welcome relief to the stressful part of moving.
In addition to finally moving into their home, my boss had her grandchildren visiting during the same time. That meant my menu had to be kid friendly. I wanted to bring them something besides a casseroles or crockpot meal. It was summertime, they had grandkids with them so I thought BBQ, especially since her grand kids are visiting from Kentucky….a place that knows a good BBQ!
I cooked double of everything so I took care of my family too. I made some Cowboy Beans. I put them in a foil pan for transport and easy reheating in an oven.
Corn on the cob, buttered and seasoned and loaded into a reheatable foil pan.
Some Mesquite smoked, BBQ baby back ribs. Again foil packed for easy reheating.
A special treat for the grand kids: Oreo Cookie Brownies.
Also packaged up in a foil pan, are picking up on a theme?
 
I packed up some paper plates for dinner along with napkins, and plastic-ware. I even added some small plates for dessert.
I had a file storage box on hand, so I packed up the hot food and disposable dishes/flatware/napkins in it.
All ready to go. Box of food, check. Dessert, check. Drinks (lemonade and my bosses favorite Diet coke), check.
Ready for delivery. The idea was to provide them a full meal and make sure they had everything they needed to be able to eat it and not have to worry about dishes or returning anything!
We got a tour of the house.
I loved this niche. My bosses oldest son is an electrician….all of those years of raising him paid off!
Her hubby was trying to set up the TV and X-Box in the living area. The TV will be mounted above the fireplace.
Meanwhile my bosses hubby (who’s retired), says “Great, we just moved into a house with no yard, no TV, no food in the fridge or cupboards, I have the grand kids and you are going to work the next day”
I hoped that I helped a little with that situation.
Excitement, stress, it’s all worth it.
Just step out on the back deck you built and see the view.
 
And know, it’s home sweet home!
At last I have had a perfect morning this week. By prepping everything the night before I was able to get ready for work with leisure, I even watered my plants before work (which gave me time to mow the lawn after work). It also gave me time to make a childhood favorite breakfast. Although not complicated, it does take more then a minute in the microwave. As you can see, I even had a little time to read the paper.
My favorite way to have eggs is over easy. I love a runny yoke, and I love to dip my toast, bacon, hash browns, or whatever in that beautifully runny yoke. So an “Egg in a Nest” is the perfect fusion for having your runny egg yolk and toast wrapped cooked into one. I’ve heard this called by other names, but growing up it was always “Eggs in a Nest”, so it will always be that for me.
As you can see, this was a much greater success than my soft boiled egg from the other day.
Definitely slim pickins by now, but I managed a ‘mater sandwich, leftover carrot and celery sticks with the ranch dip, and a yogurt.
After mowing the lawn, taking out the garbage and doing some laundry (I had to prove to the men that I can take care of myself), I really wasn’t in the mood to be overly creative.
I fell back on an earlier dish, a steak quesadilla and a simple green salad on the side.
| Proteins |
Starch |
Fruit & Vegetables |
Other |
| 2 1 Lemon Rosemary Pork chop |
1 1/2 c leftover mashers |
½ 1/4 cantaloupe |
3 1.5 oz Antipasti mix (mozzarella, olives, tomatoes, etc) |
| 12 10 6 3 oz grilled T-bone steak |
2 lbs russet potatoes |
1 3/4 lime |
1 ½ Tbs roasted garlic paste |
| 5 4 2 1 eggs |
4 3 2 1 large flour tortillas |
6 3 oz pkg baby spinach |
½ c plain Greek yogurt |
| ½ c egg beaters |
|
½ 1/4 1/8 head leaf lettuce |
32 4oz serv. Lime yogurt |
| 1 3/4 1/2 7 oz sharp cheddar |
|
½ 1/4 head radicchio |
8 7 5 3 oz sour cream |
| ¾ lb pepper jack cheese |
|
1 1/2 jalapeno |
2 c Fat Free ½ & ½ |
| 3 2 oz feta cheese |
|
6 oz mushrooms |
2 1 Tbs cilantro compound butter |
| 21 oz Pecorino Romano |
|
½ grilled artichoke |
½ c lemon juice |
| |
|
3 2 1 ½ 1 tomatoes |
Single serving packaged guacamole |
| |
|
2 carrots |
|
| |
|
7 4 celery stalks |
|
| |
|
2 1 1/2 1 sweet onions |
|
| |
|
121195 radishes (apprx.) |
|
| |
|
4 3 2 1/2 2 1 lg green onions |
|
| |
|
2 cobs grilled corn Corn Relish |
|
At last the steak is gone, seriously, I don’t want any steak for awhile!
At last I have polished off much of my perishables, at least as much as one person could.
Unfortunately, it left me with this…..
Seems like a good time to clean my refrigerator, but not tonight.
I think I better do some grocery shopping before my men get home tomorrow….
This is my last daily post (at least for awhile), I will be working at the Montana State Fair tomorrow.
Just a side note, I have a lot of respect for my daughter who has been blogging daily for 3 years now.
Her commitment, well, lets just say she’s a lot better at commitment then her mama.
At last I am done….for now.
Yesterday I woke up late, but I had prepared my breakfast and lunch, laid out my clothes and accessories. I was prepped, so when I woke up late, I was able to get ready in 8 minutes and still make it to work on time. This morning was different. I woke up with an hour to get ready. But last night I was lazy, I didn’t prep anything for the next day. Results: Showered, dressed, make-up, took care of dogs and played with them, and then time started to close in on me. Holy Toledo, where did it go? I quickly prepped my lunch but had to grab something from the freezer to take for breakfast. Fortunately I had prepped sometime before.
For breakfast, a couple of sausage biscuits.
For lunch I polished off the rest of the cantaloupe.
And had a greekish salad for lunch.
Made with lettuce, tomato, green onion, radishes, kalamata olives, feta cheese and a peperoncini.
Helpful hint if you pack a salad for lunch, pack the wet ingredients in a separate container. Your salad will stay crisp and fresh.
Dinner wasn’t exactly creative, but I polished off the mashed potatoes by making a potato pancake. Steak again, with a little bit of my leftover mushroom and onion mix. To give the steak a different flavor, I made a sauce of horseradish cream and A1 sauce, very delish.
I cut up the remaining carrots and celery and made a ranch dip with some of my sour cream.
I didn’t eat all the veg, so expect to see this with lunch tomorrow.
Here’s the latest on what I have left to consume:
| Proteins |
Starch |
Fruit & Vegetables |
Other |
| 2 1 Lemon Rosemary Pork chop |
1 1/2 c leftover mashers |
½ 1/4 cantaloupe |
3 1.5 oz Antipasti mix (mozzarella, olives, tomatoes, etc) |
| 12 10 6 3 oz grilled T-bone steak |
2 lbs russet potatoes |
1 3/4 lime |
1 ½ Tbs roasted garlic paste |
| 5 4 2 eggs |
4 3 2 large flour tortillas |
6 3 oz pkg baby spinach |
½ c plain Greek yogurt |
| ½ c egg beaters |
|
½ 1/4 1/8 head leaf lettuce |
3 4oz serv. Lime yogurt |
| 1 3/4 1/2 lb sharp cheddar |
|
½ 1/4 head radicchio |
8 7 5 oz sour cream |
| ¾ lb pepper jack cheese |
|
1 1/2 jalapeno |
2 c Fat Free ½ & ½ |
| 3 2 oz feta cheese |
|
6 oz mushrooms |
2 1 Tbs cilantro compound butter |
| 21 oz Pecorino Romano |
|
½ grilled artichoke |
½ c lemon juice |
| |
|
3 2 1 ½ 1 tomatoes |
Single serving packaged guacamole |
| |
|
2 carrots |
|
| |
|
7 4 celery stalks |
|
| |
|
2 1 1/2 1 sweet onions |
|
| |
|
12119 radishes (apprx.) |
|
| |
|
4 3 2 1/2 2 lg green onions |
|
| |
|
2 cobs grilled corn Corn Relish |
|
In case your wondering, I’m already prepped for tomorrow.
4:10 am the alarm goes off. I hit snooze, 5 minutes later the alarm goes off again. I snooze, just 5 more minutes and I’ll be good. 5:10 am I wake up look at the clock. PANIC! I have to be to work by 5:30 am.
Being prepared pays off big time. I had laid out my clothes the night before. Made my breakfast/lunch and had it packed. I even had all my jewelry ready to go.
I didn’t shower, I didn’t brush my teeth, I didn’t put on any make-up. I got dressed, let the dogs out, fed them, grabbed my stuff and left. I arrived at 5:28 am. We won’t discuss my speed getting to work, but I made.
After 22 years in the military I know how to be prepared. I keep in my drawer at work, toothpaste, toothbrush, hair brush and make-up. After taking care of my opening management duties, 10 more minutes and I looked polished.
That was it, that was the worst of my day. I was off by 2:00 pm. I actually left work on time. I came home and did a little yard work, worked on my jewelry making, played with the dogs and made myself dinner.
The great thing about starting your day so rough, it can only get better!
I was busy at work, a nice busy, a just right busy. The kind that makes time fly and before you know it….I forgot to get my breakfast, so I had it for lunch, brunch or whatever you want to call it.
A breakfast burrito stuffed with eggs, a little fat free half and half, onion, mushroom, tomato and a little jalapeno pepper. Can’t forget the cheese and topped with some taco sauce. On the side, leftover corn salad. I couldn’t get all the corn salad, fortunately I found a hungry co-worker willing to help me out.
Want to make a lot of spinach into a little bit of spinach? Cook it! For dinner I made some creamed spinach cooked in some of the leftover cilantro compound butter.
I cooked a piece of steak and topped it with mushrooms and onion.
The steak was glazed with a special ingredient.
Over the 4th of July weekend in Westport, WA, my favorite Jam lady had her booth set up.
Her jams are amazing! I mean seriously good! She works full time and does this on the side.
I found myself seriously drawn not to the sweet jams but to the savory jams.
Especially the garlic based jams.
 
On my steak a used a rosemay garlic jelly.
 
Heaven, I tell you, pure heaven!
The creamed spinach? The cilantro butter sounded like it would work well, but in actuality, not the best thing I’ve ever made.
Good news, it was only for me, and I was using up what I had, so NO guilt!
| Proteins |
Starch |
Fruit & Vegetables |
Other |
| 2 1 Lemon Rosemary Pork chop |
1 1/2 c leftover mashers |
½ 1/4 cantaloupe |
3 1.5 oz Antipasti mix (mozzarella, olives, tomatoes, etc) |
| 12 10 6 oz grilled T-bone steak |
2 lbs russet potatoes |
1 3/4 lime |
1 ½ Tbs roasted garlic paste |
| 5 4 2 eggs |
4 3 2 large flour tortillas |
6 3 oz pkg baby spinach |
½ c plain Greek yogurt |
| ½ c egg beaters |
|
½ 1/4 head leaf lettuce |
3 4oz serv. Lime yogurt |
| 1 3/4 1/2 lb sharp cheddar |
|
½ head radicchio |
8 7 oz sour cream |
| ¾ lb pepper jack cheese |
|
1 1/2 jalapeno |
2 c Fat Free ½ & ½ |
| 3 oz feta cheese |
|
6 oz mushrooms |
2 1 Tbs cilantro compound butter |
| 21 oz Pecorino Romano |
|
½ grilled artichoke |
½ c lemon juice |
| |
|
3 2 1 ½ tomatoes |
Single serving packaged guacamole |
| |
|
2 carrots |
|
| |
|
7 4 celery stalks |
|
| |
|
2 1 1/2 sweet onions |
|
| |
|
12119 radishes (apprx.) |
|
| |
|
4 3 2 1/2 lg green onions |
|
| |
|
2 cobs grilled corn Corn Relish |
|
|
|
