25th Birthday Celebration

Last night we met Amber and Eddie at the restaurant of her choice, Don Joses to celebrate her 25th birthday.  It seems amazing she's already 25 years old!!  After enjoying a nice, and FILLING meal there, we came back to our house for some cake and presents.  Hmm, ice cream cake  : )

It was then time to open the presents.  The girls had each made Amber a birthday card and of course Cameron had to buy a funny one to match his sense of humor.  Amber enjoys scrapbooking and in fact got me started.  So the least we could do was add to her supply of scrapbooking materials and give a subscription to a magazine that inspires creative ideas.  She seemed quite happy with our choices. 

Enjoyed our time together.  Happy birhday Amber, we love you.

The Weekend in Review

It was a busy and fun weekend.  We started VERY early Saturday morning over at Amber and Eddies home to try our hand at selling off the smaller items that didn't really sell at our yard sale a few weeks ago.  They are in a track home that gets alot of drive by traffic and it worked,we successfully sold off a good portion of what we had left.  Amber and Eddie put out a few of their items that sold too as they will be preparing for another move at the end of the month.  Then aftewards we just dropped the remaining items off at Goodwill and cleared out a whole lot more in our clean up clear out process.

All set up, 6:45 AM, let the sale begin!

 Got to spend some time talking with Amber and Eddie, then with his mom and sister who showed up later in the day to visit.  Cameron stayed at home with the girls as it was way too early a start in the day for them to join us and there wouldn't have been much for them to do as we held the garage sale.

Got home and completed a few projects, then found a little bird that needed rescuing and put it in an old lizard cage with some shredded paper to try to keep it warm and safe.  By morning the little guy was doing much better and we were worried might further injure itself flapping at the side of the cage. So Cameron and I released it in a protected area of bushes out front.  It hopped around, but think it's wings still weren't working right.  Sadly I found it dead farther out in the yard late in the afternoon : (

Cute little thing, wanted out of the cage

Just after release in the yard

Off exploring

Enjoyed another beautiful sunset that these cooler changes in the weather have been producing.

Finally, on Sunday the couple who own the property next to ours came out to visit, They live in LA and will spend time at their property as a get away.  When we made plans they wanted to bring lunch and treat us to something that's hard for us to buy here.  Fresh made Peking duck!!!  We enjoyed this with spiced rice noodles, dumplings and shrimp tempura sticks.  Everything was amazing.  Then we spent several hours visiting and hearing about their latest trips where they stayed several months with extended family in various places in China.

The Hsu'- an older picture. I forgot to take some yesterday during their visit.

Peking duck ready to go in the over for extra crispy texture

  This was their first meeting with Lauren.  It was interesting that though I know she understood them speaking Chinese, she's very hesitant in answering.  We've experienced this before with her.  We think there is a fear for her that if she participates she might be going back.  There is also the confusion of total immersion in English and the sudden introduction of an old yet familiar language.  I have CD's in Mandarin that we failed miserably before going to China at learning, that I will begin to play in the background as she plays in her room.  This will help keep her ear tuned and not have her completely lose this 2cd language skill set.  We're set to go at the end of this month to visit the Hsu's at their home.  Looking forward to it.

Welcome Change

These past few months I have posted many a complaint about this long bout of extreme heat we've had.  The day time temperatures well into the hundreds have on many occasions not cooled off even at night.  I love to be able to sit out in the evening and enjoy the coolness, or open the windows at night to let the cooler fresh air in. For some time we hadn't really enjoyed this so as the break in the extreme temperatures was ushered in this past week it has been a wonderful, welcome change.

Our days have "cooled down" to the upper 80' or mid 90's.  The nights have seen a tremendous drop and for me as an early riser I love sitting with my cup of coffee and feeling a chill in the morning air.
This morning I actully slept in until 6:30 am!!  That is late for me.  As  I was making coffee in the kitchen I looked out the window to a blanket of fog covering everything.  So I grabbed my camera and ran out to take these.

The Lake doesn't even show up or the neighbors across the street

Front of property again lake and mountains are hidden

Looking Eastward at the hill behind our house

Sun just beginning to show behind the house

Just a half hour later the blue sky shows up

Fence near gazebo, hills or neighbors can't be seen

Half hour later with sun coming up foreground becomes shadow and hills start to show

Trees and light by gazebo with fog blanketing background

Then in that short time these changes, amazing to me.

The air felt so nice and cool and because of all the moisture from the fog and it smelled like it does after a light rain shower.  I returned inside for my coffee then just before posting this decided to wander back out and snap a few more pictures as the sun came up and the fog cleared a bit on the Eastern side of the house.  It's interesting to watch as what was hidden now shows up and what was in the foreground becomes shadow as the light changes.  It just felt magic, and is a great start to what I am anticipating to be a wonderful, busy day !!

Coffee Chicken

I know it does sound strange for anyone who hasn't tried something similar, but this is delicious!!

I've tried several recipes and each has it's positives.  This is the simple one I follow and have had
great results.  You can use a whole chicken or chicken parts.  I have found that this works great with the "brick of chicken " I buy frozen at Smart N Final.  Kevin calls it that, because it's leg and thigh pieces that have been frozen in a large bag and looks and feels like a huge brick of frozen chicken when you pick it out of the freezer section.  It's a wonderful way to use pieces that have a lower price  point and still have a generous amount of meat on them.

Once thawed I cut off excess fat, but we like the crispy cooked skin so I leave that on.

COFFEE CHICKEN RECIPE

2 onions diced
1/8 cup olive oil
2 Heaping Tbls. dijon mustard
2 overflowing Tbls. worcestershire sauce
2 level Tbls. instant coffee or strong coffee grounds
1 Tbls. course salt
3/4 Cups brown sugar
1 whole chicken or chicken parts of equal size ( 7 to 8 leg/thigh parts )

Chop and saute onions in oil until brown.  Mix mustard, worcestershire sauce
and coffee together.
With a whole chicken stuff onions inside, with parts hold to sprinkle on top once
sauce is on.
Slather chicken with sauce and place in baking dish.
Sprinkle course salt and brown sugar on top, if using parts use onion now as well.

Bake covered at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour, then uncovered for 20 minutes more
so skin is brown and crisp.  Serve.

We had this last night with sides of steamed brocolli and mashed potatoes I add two teaspoons
of horseradish in the potatoes for an extra zip of flavor.  All this equals a happy family, enjoying a
delicious meal together.

Hope you'll try this and let me know what you think or how you tweak the recipe yourself : )

Craiglist Update

I posted a little while back after our yard sale that we were going to venture into the world of Craigslist and post items of furniture and some tools for sale there. To prepare we did a lot of reading of other peoples experiences since we really weren't familiar with using it and only knew what's been on the news or others talking about this service.

We had A LOT of interest from potential buyers as we'd post the items with pictures for sale. Questions about the items, would we be flexible with the price and then several who took it further because they wanted to come over and see to purchase said items.  We were excited thinking, "wow this is a great resource!".  Only problem, not a single one showed up!!!!!

I had read lots of complaints by others that said this was the most frustrating part of the Craigslist process.  People who went to all the trouble to look up listings, email for info, phone or text for further info and then go to the effort to get directions and schedule a meeting only to not show up and have absolutely no consideration in contacting you to say they'd changed their minds, bought something else, or maybe had something come up that prevented them from coming over.  Did any of them make the effort to call or text they weren't coming?   No, nothing, nada, zippo!!!

We were left wasting time waiting around for these people whose mamas clearly did not teach them any manners.  We learned quickly to limit the time window for seeing the item.  This let us know that much sooner they weren't coming.  Then to our amazement some of these "no shows" would rudely contact you again demanding an email response after we decided to delete the items on Craigslist wanting to know "was the item available and let them know ASAP !!!".    I DON'T THINK SO.

So what to do?  Well on to plan B.  We had said we would give this a shot and any items that didn't sell we would do what we've always done in the past.  Have some great organizations take the items to sell in their warehouses for fundraising to support the great work they do.

 

                       
Salvation Army is coming today to get several items of furniture, then on thursday Habitat for Humanity will pick up the jointer, table saw and other tools.  This is a win, win situation, they get good products ( I won't donate junk)  and we get a tax write off.   That works !!

As for Craigslist, well we have a few other furniture items we haven't moved out of rooms yet and might give a try now that we have some experience.  If this doesn't work we'll call again these
organizations to make pickups in the future, and we'll just call our Craigslist time a "learning experience".

Fall ?

I am so ready for Fall!! Though the calendar says that this is now officially the season our weather and temperatures do not reflect this in any way, shape or form.  We do have a very slim chance of sprinkles this weekend so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I keep seeing all these blogs in areas where the weather is changing and they are busy decorating and baking to reflect.  Don't know that I've ever had fall envy before, but this year I really do!  Maybe it's these never ending days of 90's and 100's that I am just tired of.  I looked for signs of fall around our property and really found none.

October 2011

So I've pulled out some more of the frozen pumpkin puree I made from all the pumpkins we got at Bates Nut Farm last year.  Plan to make some of the incredible bread that comes from this recipe.
(Click on "recipe" for Maine Pumpkin Bread recipe, it's delicious!!)
Tried it for the first time last year and the family absolutely LOVES it!!  Since we like things with LOTS of flavor I double the amount of spices and as this cooks the house smells incredible.

Ok, I'm done whining, I should enjoy the beautiful weather while we have it right?  I will say the other evening an unusual glow was coming through the kitchen shade.  I grabbed my camera and walked out front to see this:

The sunset is in the Fall colors mode at least!

Fire Near Amber and Eddie

Amber texted us last night to ask if we knew exactly where the fire near them was.  They were getting a lot of smoke and then had helicopters pulling water to drop from the warm springs pond next to the home they are living in.

Information of the exact location of the fire was initially scarce, but we learned more today from a local source and even national news that the fire was in a rural area very near where they live.  The brush is dense so it puts up some pretty intense smoke and flames.  So far just over 150 acres has burned and the fire is currently about 40% contained.  Barring the winds really picking up we are hopeful they should get this completely contained fairly quickly today.  The intense heat and lack of rain has made everything tender dry and plants that are native to this area tend to have naturally occurring oils they produce to survive the elements of Southern California, which is a desert environment.  So when these plants burn it's intense, they can explode and send the sparks in all directions sparking new fires, plus even when out they will smoulder for weeks leaving the threat of future fires that crews will have to watch for until we finally get rainy weather.

I've accessed some photos from the local source where various residents have contributed their pictures from their vantage points, including Amber's photos of the water dropping helicopter that refilled by them and had lots of neighbors standing in their yard to watch the process. 

Fire getting close to a home

Water dropping helicopter to the rescue

Successful drop

More homes threatened on another front of this large fire

Phoscheck being dropped by plane suppresses fires advancement

Amber took these photos of helicopter refilling at the pond next to their home

The helicopter and planes that offer air support for water and chemical phoschek drops are a true blessing for putting out fires in rural areas or fast moving large fires.  Have personally been on the recieving end on several occassions during my many years in California when our various homes have been spared as a result of these efforts from fire fighting agencies.  The sense of relief when your home is immently threatened and a helicopter or plane drops and suppresses or puts the threat out is wonderful!!

(photo credits by others found at Murrieta patch site)