"Jonathon Seagull spent the rest of his days alone, but he flew way out beyond the Far Cliffs. His one sorrow was not solitude, it was that other gulls refused to believe the glory of flight that awaited them; they refused to open their eyes and see. He learned more each day... What he had once hoped for the Flock, he now gained for himself alone; he learned to fly, and was not sorry for the price that he had paid." (Richard Bach)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie
2 yolks
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
5 TBS melted butter
1/4 cup Jack Daniels
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1 1/4 cups pecans
Pie crust
Whisk eggs, yolks, sugar until combined. Whisk in corn syrup, melted butter, Jack Daniels. Sprinkle 1/3 cup of chocolate chips over bottom of crust. Pour in filling. Sprinkle 1/2 cup pecans over filling. Sprinkle remaining chips over filling. Top with 3/4 cup pecans.
Bake 50-55 minutes at 350 until set in center. Turn off oven, leave pie in oven with door closed for 15 minutes to crisp top.
The Entertainment
Umm, Umm, Good!
Friday, June 26, 2009
"Here's Your Sign"...
And just across the street, all booked up, was this beauty.
What? What are those words in RED?
Oh, sweet internet, how I missed you for my 2 nights and 2 days!
On another, silly note about signs... when we were driving through Gallop on the return trip, I told my mom I thought I read on a hotel sign that said, "Fresh BO". I couldn't even say it without giggling because is BO ever really fresh?! After we stopped laughing I admitted that it probably said, "Free HBO".
Let the Road Trip Begin...
We signed the guest book (a regular, spiral bound college notebook) and I glanced at some of the other names in there. Many people wrote about how they heard of this place from one magazine or another. The fun part was that 2 of them read it in a cycling magazine. April, I expect to see Ryan's name in there the next time I go through! There was one man from Idaho that stopped in on his bike ride, and another from Berlin. Yep, Berlin, as in Germany!
We were hungry this trip, so we had a lunch of spinach quesadillas and a grilled sandwich that is slipping my mind right now. We took our pie to go and had it that night when we arrived at our destination. At $4.95/slice it isn't cheap, but you're on vacation, right?!
As we left, my mom gave Kathy (a practical stranger!) a big hug and I realized why I'm such a huggy kind of person. It's all my mom's fault! Dang that Freud for always being right. Oh well, we are who we are.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Are They Just Snobs?
But I'm wondering who these people are that comment on the site. Are they food critics? Are they chef's in training? Do they work for Rachel Ray or Emeril? OR, are they just snobs? Women (I've never read a man's comment) who have too much time on their hands to experiment with recipes and criticize others. Geez. Very few comments don't include a suggestion on how to make the dish better, and I don't feel like it is said to be helpful, mostly critical. Sure you added onion, but maybe the author has picky eaters that don't like that texture. I'd imagine that, if I were making a dish that typically has onion in it, I would add it if my family liked it.
Where does this rant come from you ask? Beef Stroganoff. It's Bill's favorite and I wanted to make it for Father's Day. The traditional version that we both grew up on was called "S.O.S" by my father and uncle. They both served in the military and this dish was served often. As a child, I thought SOS stood for "Save Our Ship" but didn't really question why you would name a food that. Yes, I'm a little naive since neither of them were in the navy. Later, I found out it really meant, "SH-- on a Shingle." Yikes! Ground beef with cream of mushroom soup, served on a piece of (inevitably) burnt toast. Not so yum. I thought I could do better so the search began.
I stopped my search at the second recipe I found on allrecipes.com. It fit the bill because it used real beef and could be done in the slow cooker, which I love. The ingredients were in my house, and it had a 4 1/2 star rating. Then I checked out some of the comments. The first 3 people gave it a 5 star rating, but all had 9 changes to the recipe which just about doubled the ingredient list. One of them even said that original recipe would have been 1 star worthy, but with the changes it was fabulous. What the heck? Who are these people? Snobs I tell ya, cooking snobs.
NTS: Don't Skimp on the Chocolate Chips
Who's Mark you ask?! Wouldn't you like to know! Let's just say the man knows his way around a kitchen and doesn't mind taking care of this prego lady. (His wife's a gem too!) Sweet!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Father's Day Trivia & Fun Facts
The idea of Father's Day was conceived in Spokane, Washington by Sonora Dodd while she listened to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Dodd (now known as "the mother of Father's Day") wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm. The following year, June 19, 1910 was chosen for the first Father's Day celebration, proclaimed by Spokane's mayor because it was the month of William Smart's birth. Decades later, the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Father's Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent.
Father's Day by the Numbers
This is a big day for the 66.3 million fathers in America.
Nearly 95 million Father’s Day cards were given last year in the United States, making Father’s Day the fourth-largest card-sending occasion.
Sons and daughters send 50 percent of the Father's Day card to their dads. Nearly 20 percent of Father’s Day cards are purchased by wives for their husbands. That leaves 30 percent of the cards which go to grandfathers, sons, brothers, uncles and “someone special.”
While not everyone in America is a fan of Father's Day, 72 percent of Americans plan to celebrate or acknowledge Father’s Day.
(While we will be part of the 72% acknowldeging Father's Day, our family did not account for either the 50% of daughters, nor the 20% of wives purchasing cards for the man in our life. See, I couldn't do it! I couldn't just paste without commenting! Geez.)
Gifts for Father's Day
Neckties are an old standby and lead the list of Father’s Day gifts. A good place to buy dad a tie or a shirt might be one of 9,189 men’s clothing stores around the country.
Other items high on the list of Father’s Day gifts include those items you may find in dad’s toolbox such as hammers, wrenches and screwdrivers. You could buy some of these items for dad at one of the nation’s 14,864 hardware stores or 5,795 home centers.Other traditional gifts for dad such as fishing rods and golf clubs make for a happy Father's Day for the 22,410 sporting goods stores in America.
More than 68 million Americans participated at a barbecue in the last year — it’s probably safe to assume many of these barbecues took place on Father’s Day.
(Tell me what YOU got your man this year!)
Mr. Mom
Mr. Mom is becoming a more common sight at parks across America with 147,000 estimated “stay-at-home” dads. These married fathers with children under 15 years old have remained out of the labor force for more than one year primarily so they can care for the family while their wives work outside the home. These fathers cared for 268,000 children under 15.
The dads seem to stay home more with younger children. Preschoolers claim 20 percent of fathers with employed wives who were the primary caregiver for their preschooler. In contrast, only 6 percent of fathers provided the most hours of care for their grade-school-aged child.
Many families split the responsibility of child care. Many Dad's (32%) with full time jobs regularly worked evening or night shifts and were the primary source of care for their preschoolers during their children’s mother’s working hours.
Happy Father's Day!!!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (maybe less)
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
Bake 'em for 10-15 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Either use a baking stone or lightly greased cookie sheet.
Monday, June 8, 2009
What Would it Take?
What would it take?
How terrible would my life have to be?
How desperate would I have to be?
How great would I have to think America is?
What would I be willing to risk?
This article popped up on the Cox homepage this morning as I logged in. It's very brief, reports only the facts, and avoids any mention of what I consider the real issue of immigration: the human factor. Many people will read the article and wonder how long they will have to pay to support and treat the illegal immigrants that were hurt in the roll over accident. Some will pray for those who died. Some will volunteer for Sheriff Joe's posse and go patrol the border, thinking that the solution is to stop the vehicle from entering our country in the first place. This country, my country, the land of the free.
I know that there are many things to be considered when looking at immigration. I know that people have been entering our country, legally, for decades. I know there is a right and a wrong way to do something; a legal and an illegal way to make things happen. I'm just wondering: what would it take to make me risk my life to leave the place I grew up in for a land that is completely foreign to me, that I may or may not make it to?
Saturday, June 6, 2009
NTS: The 3pm Temple Session is FULL
Me: "Babe, I haven't made it to the temple yet this week."
Babe: "Go."
Me: "OK."
Then, like 30 minutes to an hour later (because I've finished doing something or checked my email), I finally leave. I arrive just in time for the 3pm session. This has happened twice now.
Note to self (and anyone else that cares): The 3:00pm Saturday session at the Mesa Temple is for people going through for the first time. When people go through for the first time, other people that they know tend to go with them. Because of this, the session tends to be quite full. Not just full, but overflowing. They always ask you to stay behind if you aren't with the newbies. And let's face it, who's gonna sneak into a temple session on false pretenses? Nope, not me. So you wait until the 3:30 session and it takes FOREVER because you are still waiting for that session before you to finish up because it was so stinking full.
I usually don't mind waiting around at the temple because it is so peaceful and calm. I have time to contemplate, read scriptures, pray, etc. BUT, when I tell Bill that I should be home by 5 or 5:30 and I don't even get out until after 6pm, I start to feel guilty. Not guilty enough to not stop at the bookstore to call him (because I forgot my phone), and not guilty enough to not do a little shopping while I was in said bookstore, but a little guilty none the less. He did get a nice new tie tack out of the ordeal though. Be sure to ooh and aah on Sunday. CTR baby!
Selling Crap and Washing Cars
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Youth ROCK!!!
We had a combined activity with the boys, "Idaho Style". One of the leaders was from Idaho and she set us up to do a video scavenger hunt. We split into 2 teams and set off to record several silly tasks. Our group passed off 12/12 main tasks (only 10 were required) and a couple bonus tasks. It's not like I'm competitive or anything, but team me up with McKinnon and the other team doesn't have a chance! Here's a list of what we got on tape (all kids were required to do each task as a group):
- Introduce the group members and group name ("Holy Rollers")
- Sing the Oscar Meyer wiener song while holding a package of hot dogs
- Share an ice cream
- Buy exactly $.10 of gas
- Film a commercial outside of Blockbuster
- Help a stranger unload their groceries
- Make a train down a slide
- Roll down a hill
- Form a letter or symbol with your body, using all members of the group
- Get 2 strangers to sing YMCA with the group (this actually took quite a bit of convincing, we asked probably 5-6 people before we had any takers)
- Recite the Pledge of Allegiance while hanging from a tree
- Christmas Carol to someone in the ward
- Have an old couple kiss
- Hug a gas station attendant
It was HILARIOUS!!! We had a great group of kids with us, including one investigator who had never met any of us before. A little shy at times, they all got behind the fun of it and were game for it all. I wish I had been the gas station attendant, I would have felt the love.
I've got video proof if anyone want to see the footage.