An Unexpected Trip

Our family.  Top left Marianne, Danny, Carla.  Front JJ, Me, Bob.  Thanks Rita for taking our family picture!

 Click on the picture to make bigger.  Hit the back button to come back to the page.


Today I am going to post some recipes but first have decided to talk about another trip I am about to take.  A few days ago I got a call from my friend Annie in Phoenix (the one who had 2 knee replacements last spring and summer.  Bob and I spent about 3 months with her).  She had torn up a tendon in one of her knees and is going to have surgery on it ASAP.  She will be laid up again for another 6 to 8 weeks!  I will be headed back down to help her out for awhile again. 

Remember the Lily Pad pond from yesterday?  We took group pictures in front of it.  I obviously had my camera with me taking pictures of everyone setting up their cameras for timed shots.  That's all I have--no group photo.

This time her niece will be able to stay with her for the week of surgery.  That is good because I have the local Craft Fair to do with Carla before I can get down there.  Bob has decided he can't stand that much heat and he is a little worried about being so far from his urologist.  It is almost time for his stent in the ureter to be changed and he doesn't want to be in any Phoenix hospitals again!  Last year was enough for him.  Anyway, he is going to stay up in Casper with Carla while I am gone.  I will only be able to stay for about 3 weeks and then we will see how well she is getting along.  I have to get back for all of Bob's Dr. appointments I actually have a check up too.

Darcy and Brendin on our hike.  Darcy is trying to avoid mosquitoes, I think.

 Maybe this time I can get to see some of my former students and friends on FB.  (Tonya and Theresa??  Who else is down there in summer?) Of course I may get to visit with Beth's sister Amy and her family too. Then again I was pretty busy last time just getting everyone taken care of.  At least I will be dealing only with one hospital and maybe not even that if all goes well. Annie and I will have some good times reminiscing about the good old days .

I was trying to bind the apron on a table with a just started puzzle and all my sewing paraphernalia.

I am trying to multi-task right now and things are kind of getting in a jumble.  I hope this doesn't sound as discombobulated as I feel!  I am embroidering some lace snowflakes for the craft fair, making a garden apron, eating a little lunch, hoping the lightning doesn't shut me down, and trying to write this blog.  Oh and I keep getting cell phone messages and FB messages as well!  I think it is time to post my recipes!

I'm trying to make a set of lace snowflake ornaments for the craft fair but the thread keeps breaking.

The first recipe is for ice cream  Jason was looking for one just before the Fourth of July so I dug out an old one I've had around for a long time.  Carla brought her electric ice cream freezer down for the 4th so we used it with some modifications to make the ice cream.  We had a major problem though.  The motor was seized up on the freezer!  We had already cooked and cooled the batter and we had a house full of young men who were looking forward to this dessert so they took turns spinning a pair of pliers holding on to the dasher! It took awhile but the result was delicious.  Here it is:

FROZEN CUSTARD ICE CREAM

1 ½ TO 2 QUARTS

6 Eggs

2  Cups milk

¾  Cup sugar

2 to 3 Tablespoons Honey

¼ teaspoon salt

2 Cups whipping cream

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

Crushed ice and Rock Salt

In a medium saucepan, beat together eggs, milk, sugar, honey, and salt.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and just coats a spoon.  Cool quickly by setting the pan in ice or cold water and stirring for a few minutes.  Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly cooled at least an hour.  When ready to freeze, pour chilled custard, whipping cream and vanilla into a 1 gallon ice cream freezer can.  Freeze according to manufacturer’s directions using 6 parts ice to 1 part rock salt.  Transfer to freezer containers and freeze until firm.

These are the American Egg Board Directions.  You can adjust according to size of freezer and if you didn’t start on time.  I used to put my custard in the freezer to speed it up and then put it in the ice cream freezer when it got lukewarm.  It just takes more ice and time to set up.  The proportions of ice to salt really are pretty important for a nice smooth ice cream.  Cooking the eggs in the custard prevents Salmonella so I definitely recommend it!

Variations

Carla’s version we called Drunken Strawberry Ice Cream:  Prepare as above, Partially freeze.  Add 2 cups sweetened crushed fresh strawberries and a couple shots of vodka to the mix and complete freezing it.

Banana Nut:  Reduce vanilla to 1 ½ tsp.  Prepare as above.  Stir 3 large ripe bananas, mashed, and ½ cup chopped toasted pecans to custard mixture and freeze.

Cherry:  Reduce vanilla to 1/2 tsp. add 2 Tbsp.  almond Extract.  Prepare as above.  Partially freeze.  Add 2 pounds pitted pureed dark sweet cherries or 1 can (16 to 17 oz. pitted dark sweet cherries, drained and chopped.  Complete freezing.

Chocolate:  Add 3 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate to egg mixture.  Prepare as above.

Mint:  Omit vanilla.  Add 1 ½ tsp. mint extract and 9 to 12 drops green food color, if desired.  Prepare as above.  I think you can figure out Chocolate Mint by yourself.

Plum (really???):  Reduce vanilla to 1 tsp.  Prepare as above.  Partially freeze.  Add 1 ½ lbs. pitted, pureed ripe fresh plums.  Complete freezing.

The paper said more at the bottom of the page but I must have lost the rest of the pages!

  I guess I'll save the other recipe for tomorrow......

Catching Up on a Rainy Day

Puddles of water on our chairs

It's one of those rare ( for here) rainy, cool July mornings.  I could go out and sit on the porch, but I finally got in the mood to write in my blog and don't want to lose the chance.  I usually get my coffee and sit in the sun and read or watch the wildlife in our little neighborhood or just contemplate the day until Bob gets up and needs his breakfast.  I always have loved this quiet time to myself each morning.  Even when I was teaching and we started school at 7:00 AM I would get up early so I would have quiet time to myself.  Some of my best ideas and  thinking happens at this time.

Base Camp at the cabin.  We had extra beds in the house so many slept outside!

After our big fourth of July week with over 20 people here, I think we have recuperated!  What a great time we had.  All four of my children were here with most of their families plus we had a few extra friends that we love to have come visit.  One person dubbed our front yard "Base Camp".  I prefer that to "Tent City", which reminds me of jail in Arizona.

Some of us played ladder ball after most of the people had gone home.

Carla even brought up a portable potty with privacy tent included!  A real necessity with our one ugly bathroom (Which, by the way, is still waiting for renovations to happen!  Our life just seems to keep spiraling out of control).

Carla's portable potty tent.  Very handy for a crowd!

Even with about $300 dollars worth of groceries (some due to a power outage of the refrigerator and Danny's method of cleaning it--toss absolutely everything out including brand new mustard, Tabasco sauce and other sauces which last forever--so Kathi can scrub it out real well) and all the great food everyone brought up, we were running low on really basic stuff like salt, butter,bread--you get the picture.  Our car had a recall so we had to take it to Ft. Collins for service on the Monday that our last guests left.  While we were there, we went to Sam's and got stocked up on all the basic stuff to the tune of 400 more dollars!  Did I mention we have no grocery store any more in Walden?  (well, it 's bankrupt for the time being anyway).  We were home for a couple days getting groceries put away and me trying to get some embroidery done for the craft fair at the end of the month and then it was time to make our third attempt at getting Bob's driver's license.

One of the favorite hikes is to the lily pad pond.  It is 4.5 miles round trip and not for the wimpy ones!  Steep hills and a roaring river to cross in bare feet over slippery, sharp rocks!  Quite a group made it, though.

 Before I go on I want to clear up the refrigerator incident.  While Bob and I were in Seattle at Brendin's graduation and commissioning ceremony, a transformer was struck by lightning and threw 2 breakers( refrigerator and hot tub--weird but true).  Danny and Kathi had come up to Walden for Rodeo weekend and found the refrigerator off and very stinky.  They called and asked if we really meant to turn off that breaker.  Anyway they got stuck with spending part of their visit  cleaning out the fridge instead of with high school friends.  We are very grateful that they got that opportunity instead of what would have greeted us a week later when we got home! 

Darcy and Chris are cleaning their fish after a successful afternoon at the pond.

Now back to the Driver's license problems!  Back in March while we were still in Texas, Bob discovered that he needed to renew his driver's license before his birthday in late April.  We were not planning on being back in Colorado until mid May, so we went online to see how you get the license renewed when you aren't in state.  I found all the info and we went through all the hoops for people over 65 years old including an eye exam.  We sent in all the the paper work along with a check for $21 and waited for the license to come.  It had said it could be up to 6 -8 weeks so no big deal.  Well at 2 months I thought we should call to see what the deal was but Bob thought he had waited longer than that a couple times so we did nothing but wait for another month.  Finally the day before we left for Seattle, Bob decided maybe we needed to check on it.  I called Steamboat and they cut me short and told me people over 65 could not get a driver's license online and we had been on a fraudulent web sight.  I tried to explain that we had a cancelled check from the Colorado Department of Revenue but she insisted we had been bilked of our $21.  She wouldn't even look at her computer but did give me a phone number for resolving issues.  By the time I got done talking to her the other office was closed so I left our number.  The next day on our way between Saratoga and Rawlins I got a call from the issues department.  Yes, Bob had a license and it had been mailed on March 27.  They were very nice but said it was a Post Office issue and to deal with them. Our feeling was if we hadn't gotten it by then it was time to just say it was lost and get a duplicate.

How can anyone resist taking pictures of the Columbines.  Here's this year's offering.

When we returned from Washington and while we were stocking up on groceries for the Fourth in Steamboat, we stopped  in at the driver's license office only to find out they were not open on Friday 's and Monday's!  OK so the next attempt was on the next Tuesday.  By then JJ and Ozzie were here and were up for a trip over to Steamboat and a nice lunch at Cantina after Bob got his license.  Some of you are already laughing at us, I bet!  We got there about 10:45 and drew number 66.  There were people out on the sidewalk waiting!  They were on 50 and in the next half hour they never called another number.  They closed at 12 for an hour for lunch and still no number called.  We decided the Cantina sounded good so we enjoyed our lunch and got what we needed in Steamboat and headed home.

My latest effort.  A blingy cap.  Carla and I noticed they were all the rage in the tourist shops up in Deadwood.

The next installment of the saga happened yesterday.  We called over to the Hot Sulfur Springs Office and got all the info on what was needed and she mentioned we better come this week because she was going to have to go help them over in Steamboat for the next 3 weeks because they were having issues over there!  DUH!  Well we went over and got in line (1 person ahead of us no need for a number).  We were out of there and on our way home in less than an hour!  My only advice to North Parkers who need a driver's license is to call Hot Sulfur before heading over there!

That's it for today maybe a recipe for tomorrow.

Note to family who were at the cabin:  The baby robins (all 4 of them) just left the nest!  Bob sat there and watched them and the mother who continued to feed them on the porch.  She kept encouraging them until they finally hopped off the porch and went around the corner.  He never called me to come get pictures!