He Finally Got His Own Quilt

I've loved making quilts for my daughters, my grandchildren, and others. When I finished the one for CD in January, K asked me "When do I get one?" So I've been working on this one for a while and finally finished it yesterday! I even got to quilt it myself on a friend's long-arm machine. I washed and dried it this morning which, to me, turns it into a quilt by shrinking it up just a bit which causes it to pucker and shows off the quilting. Plus—washing the sizing out of the fabric not only softens the quilt but shows off the quilting as well.

It's a pretty good size so he can wrap up all cozy-like.

If you look carefully you can see "I love you!" quilted into the tan bar.

And this message is taken off my high school senior picture which I signed when I gave it to him . . . "Forever yours" (Awe, how sweet is that?!)

And the name of this block is "English Wedding Ring"

He loves it!

Life is good!

Crab Enchiladas in Healdsburg

This is our last night for our spring visit to Healdsburg. Jackie and I cooked up some delicious enchiladas. I love cooking with Jackie, we have such fun working together in the kitchen coming up with great meals.

We had brought some frozen crab from our catch in Winchester Bay last summer. I had promised I'd make Crab Enchiladas Verdes. The sauce being a "verde" translated "green" sauce is made with yummy ingredients: stewed tomatillos, diced green chiles, sautéed onions and garlic all mixed together, and when cooled it is made into a chunky sauce using a blender. Then that mixture is tossed together with cojita cheese, chopped scallions, cilantro, and crab. This is the filling for the enchiladas, is rolled up in the softened corn tortillas—more sauce is spread on top and the whole thing gets baked covered in the oven for 12 minutes. Sour cream is dolloped on top and baked uncovered a bit more, garnish with scallions and . . . ta-daaaaaa, yummo crab enchiladas. They're pretty easy to make and were enjoyed by all . . . even Cokie had a bit of crab in celebration of her 19th birthday coming up next week.

Sauté some onion, then add a couple cloves of garlic.

Stewed fresh tomatillos. I like using fresh, but the recipe says you can use canned.

Dungeness Crab from Winchester Bay, the key ingredient!

The chefs are enjoying a mean Cosmo while the enchiladas are baking.

Hot out of the oven!

The men are ready to enjoy a sumptuous dinner.

After her share of crab, Cokie was set for the night. Here she is purring on K's lap settling in for a nice long snooze.

Birthday Celebration in Healdsburg

Our annual birthday celebration with Rick and Jackie is always something to look forward to. And this year was no exception. We had a couple of business calls in Roseville, so we didn't get here until late afternoon. Dinner was already in the works . . . homemade Posole with all the fixings, a special bottle of Dry Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, with to-die-for Orange Scented Flan for dessert. That being said, enjoy these pictures!

Posole is made from hominy and pork with lots of spicy seasoning and is delicious.

The you top it with avocado, sliced radish, and cilantro.

The host and hostess with the mostest!

Here we are — another year older and loving life!

Here's to more years of the good life!

Then Jackie gets up and goes into the kitchen . . . for homemade flan!

She inverts it onto the serving plate.

Ta-daaaaaaah!

Garnished with fresh fruit . . . sliced mango, kiwi from their garden, and a twirl of oh-so-fancy orange peel.

Delightful and delicious.

And Cokie slept through the party!

Life is good!

An Irish Birthday Celebration

Tonight, in traditional Burns fashion, our daughter JJ cooked an absolutely delicious St. Patrick's Day dinner. It reminded me of the many, many, dinners my Mom prepared on March 17, a celebration my family enjoyed very much, being that there are many Irish genes in us. My great grandparents on my dad's side were born in Ireland.

She cooked two corned beef roasts, one in the traditional boiled-in-a-pot method, and the other in the crock pot with brown sugar and Guinness Irish Stout Beer. They were both scrumptious and couldn't have been more tender. Of course they were accompanied by red potatoes, cabbage, and Irish Soda Bread.



As done in years past it was also a birthday celebration since K's birthday is the 18th and mine is the 19th . . . hence a three-day celebration . . . and JJ invited our good friends Gary and Cecile to join the party.

Here is JJ helping the boys make up a "Talking Card" . . . another Burns tradition.

What an enjoyable time we had. We enjoyed the delectable meal, and had a blast playing several games of Pegs and Jokers. It was definitely the men's turn to shine tonight, I believe they won each and every game we played!

And then there were gifts and a delightful dessert of Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae . . . to die for! KL made the delicious warm and chewy brownies, and she assured us that there were no calories, of course!

Thank you, sweet V-Party-of-Five family, for an incredible birthday celebration. We all had such a great time!

Life is good!

Hats Off to Volunteers

Our "home base" in this fulltime RV lifestyle we've chosen to live, is a co-op in that each member at Park Sierra, as part of their membership, agree to do their share in keeping Park Sierra the beautiful place it is. Tonight our PIP group (PIP stands for Partners in Participation) hosted a "Hats Off to Volunteers" dinner and we cooked for 150 members and guests. The menu consisted of build-your-own shredded beef tostadas followed by the yummy bread pudding with whiskey sauce, I told you about earlier, for dessert. The meat (over 30 pounds of chuck roast) was started yesterday and stewed in electric roasters for over four hours before it was shredded.Today it was mixed together and warmed up with lots of bell peppers and onions and picante sauce. Yesterday, while the meat was cooking we made five huge pans (multiplying the original by 12 1/2) of the bread pudding.

It was a successful event and we feel proud of being a part of such a great group of people. Here are some pictures of some of us with our silly hats . . . everyone was asked to wear a hat or come down to the clubhouse and make one, for this Hats Off to Volunteers party.

You've seen my hat before . . . I just added a couple of buttons.

The hat K wore didn't meet the Hat-Decorating Committee's satisfaction so they wanted to make him one themselves, and this is what they came up with.

And if you didn't recognize the style, maybe this will help you out. He posed so you'd notice . . . don't you love the "Ham" I married!

And here are the contest winners. From left: "Best of Show" . . . "Funniest" . . . "Prettiest" . . . "Biggest" . . . and "Smallest"

This is the PIP committee, and what a team they were tonight!

Weekend Camera Dilemma

We've just experienced a wonderful weekend and either I forgot to bring my camera, or when I did remember it, the battery was dead! So I'm just gonna have to tell you what we've done the past couple of days.

Our son-in-law was informed of a local annual event that shouldn't be missed while he was helping with chaperoning a field trip with JD's class. It is called the Hornitos Enchilada Dinner, held annually in the town of Hornitos which is about 50 miles from us, near the town of Mariposa. We were asked if we wanted to come along and we, of course, said "sure!" We all piled into their Jeep and drove for over an hour. We didn't have real clear directions on how to get there. However we finally found the place. Now mind you, there were hardly any cars any where to be seen as we drove on the beautiful country road, but as we pulled into the street where the event was being held it was obvious we were at the right place because there were hundreds of cars, and a line of a couple hundred people a couple blocks long . . . waiting to get into the dining hall where the famous enchiladas were being served. We probably waited in line an hour . . . but there was a park nearby where CD had a blast playing on the playground equipment, and there was a bar nearby where everybody was going in and coming out with Bloody Marys and beers . . . and there was a singer with his guitar entertaining the crowd and P got him to sing some Willie Nelson songs (with a monetary donation), and then six caballeros came up on their horses and the horses were actually "dancing" to the singing cowboy/mariachis . . . they were amazing a beautiful horses . . . KL was in heaven. Once we got into the dining hall we realized the wait was well worth it. The enchiladas were outstanding.

This little town raises money through this annual dinner to restore old historical local buildings. In its heyday, Hornitos had a population of over 15,000 . . . now about 800 live here. Now when you "Google" Hornitos you'll discover that it's known as a ghost town! Here is a picture I borrowed and it looks very much like it did the other night as we waited in that long line. However, the people in Hornitos make fabulous enchiladas. What a fun trip.


Today, after church, we went to the boys final basket ball game of the season and then to their house for dinner, which had become our new Sunday tradition—one that we absolutely love. Both JD and CD played so well, each scoring lots of points for their teams. We enjoyed barbecued chicken and tri-tip for dinner with PD manning the barbecue.

For dessert I wanted to make a Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce following Pioneer Woman's recipe. I needed to test the recipe because I want to make it for 100 people at a dinner next week at Park Sierra. Well—the recipe passed and was a hit with all of us. Absolutely delicious! (Because my camera had no battery I borrowed the picture from PW's site . . . try it, you'll like it!)

Then three games of Pegs and Jokers with the women winning two of them. How can it get any better?

Life is good!