bummer

My new landlord has decided to rip out the cherry orchard in my back yard so that he can plant a new variety of cherries next spring.  My house is surrounded by a pock marked field where trees used to be.  The smell of an orchard being consumed by fire fills the air. 

I heard once that the more things change the more they remain insane. 

This is crazy sad.

Pirate Queen

I love it when I dream I'm a Pirate Queen and wake up in the morning with a British accent.

Holy Zucchini, Garden Girl, Now What?

The question becomes, what do I do with a zucchini that is large enough to have its own zip code?  No need to tell me I should have picked it months ago when it was "just the right size," okay?  It was sort of hiding in giant leaves, alright so I saw it, but I kept thinking, "what am I going to do with a giant zucchini?" and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.  Not only that but there are two more not quite so giant ones to deal with, as well.  It's a happy little vegetable, maybe I will let it sit in the chair and chat at it.  Rather than the crazy cat lady (cats make me itch, I like zucchini better), I will become known as the crazy zucchini lady. 

How many cups of grated zucchini do you think I can get out of my 3 zucchini harvest?

I'm trying to figure out what to make from my bounty, and this is what my research has yielded:

Zucchini bread (love it, but perhaps not 232 pounds worth of the stuff).

Zucchini coins where you peel it, cut it in rounds, mine would be zucchini $20 pieces, and fry it--can anyone say 'grease face break out?'

Stuffed zucchini, okay, I could invite everyone I know and have them invite everyone they know and maybe we could gag down all my zucchini stuffed with sausage, carrots, onions, and garlic in a cheese sauce (that's how I like my stuffed zucchini).

 Zucchini casserole, such as zucchini, chicken, and rice; lemon zucchini pound cake (this one doesn't sound too bad, but why is it listed under casseroles...and it makes 16 servings, and it's just me right now...how many pounds would I gain if I ate 1/4 of a cake every day for 4 days, do ya think...but wait, it's a vegetable cake, that makes all the difference, I'm just sure of it),  herbed grilled vegetables--if I had a grill, I might try this one, too, the picture is beautiful...I think I lost the zucchini casserole thread and went somewhere else.

For right now, my happy zucchini is sitting in Mom's rocking chair (it actually sits taller in the chair than Mom does).  It's looking out the window and enjoying the view while I figure out what to do.  If you come for a visit, you're not allowed to comment on the zucchini in the chair unless you bring a recipe.  For zucchini.

tired of popcorn

Since Mom has been gone, she, the woman who cooks traditional meals consisting of real food, well cooked and beautifully served...I have been subsisting generally on popcorn or cold cereal for dinner because we all know how bad tv dinners are for you.  Around here canned chili is considered a gourmet meal.  It isn't like I can't cook.  I'm an amazing cook.  Not your regular follow-a-recipe kind of cook, more of a what's-in-the-fridge-and-freezer kind of dump cook with a lot of faith and hope.  Anyway, I've been pouting for a few weeks since Mom flew the coop to be a snow bird.  But I decided it's time to put on my big girl apron and start cooking.  Course I really, really don't want to cook every night, so I decided to cook up a bunch of stuff, stick it in the freezer, and have my very own sort of healthy frozen dinners.

Chicken pot pies, some apple pielets with the left over crust, an apple crisp.  Basic food groups, right?  Already in the freezer are six plates of swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes,with a side vegetable--ok, I dumped a half cup of frozen corn each the plate.  That counts.

I have some hamburger in the fridge waiting to become something burger-fabulous. 

That's what I've been up to today.  My house smells wonderful.  The chicken pie is amazing--I ate one.  I need to go chop some onions because whatever I make with the burger, it will definitely need onions.  And garlic.  So many possibilities.

I  can hardly wait for Mom to come home.

On the road

Ladies vacation was fun this summer.  We saw this big boy and his friends.  In fact, we almost had a run-in with one of his friends, but that is another story all together.  Mom, Lan, and I jumped in the motor home and hit the road for a week in September to Montana and Wyoming.  We thought vacation time would be over and Yellowstone National Park would be fairly quiet.  Wrong.  The fishing was incredible (and me without my fishing gear...boo hiss).  But it was wonderful, no snow, warm days, cold nights, still lots of people, wild animals, and beautiful vistas.

We saw Old Faithful several times.  Never gets old. 

There were elk, deer, and buffalo.  We didn't see the man-eating bear.  He killed 2 people this summer before we got there.  Even in town, the place we camped had a bear proof trash bin. I hear you don't have to run that fast to avoid a bear, just faster than the people you are with.  I can.

There are signs everywhere in East Yellowstone where we stayed that say "snow mobile parking" and a lady we talked to said almost everyone drives a snowmobile in the winter because how else are you going to get around, right?  I've been watching the weather reports and it's been snowing off and on for two weeks there.  That's just the start.  It will snow all winter.

They had an I Max theater, so we saw the Yellowstone story, which was very cool, but after watching Mom watch the beginning of the show, I'm not so sure it was a good idea.  She has been suffering from vertigo and is taking medication for dizziness, and the opening scene was a helicopter swooping down a snow covered mountain into a valley.  Kind of like riding a roller coaster.  We told her she couldn't throw up and embarrass us or we would pretend we didn't know her and she'd be on her own.  She didn't so we were fine.  It was so fun we went back and saw the Lewis and Clark show. 

Our almost encounter with a huge buffalo happened as we were returning back to camp.  It was almost dark, and on the side of the the road there is this enormous buffalo ambling along, a big black shadow until you're right beside him, and then he thinks he needs to walk in the lane we're driving in which is a step short of exciting because it is a narrow 2-lane road to begin with, but we don't hit him which is good because it would probably make him really mad and the little dent caused by hitting him would be nothing compared to the stomping he could give the side of our motor home.  Other than severe heart palpitations all around (except for the buffalo, who I'm sure is wishing all these tourists would just go home), it worked out fine.

On the trip home, we got some bad gas in Missolua (in the tank, not in us), which gave us an adventure.  Going over Look Out Pass in Montana the motor home chugged, burped, sputtered and then died.  Right there in the road.  Unfortunately, there was major road construction and traffic was one lane each way.  Also unfortunately, the semi truck behind us was coming on pretty fast.  Fortunately he stopped.  Unfortunately, there was a string of cars behind him who didn't know we were the cause of the problem, didn't care, and didn't want to be stopped on the pass in the middle of the day.  There is a LOT of traffic on that road.  Amazing lot.

But a couple of angels in work boots and blue jeans pulled us out of traffic with their white half ton pick up.  One of them took Lan to where there was cell phone reception so she could call AAA.  The other puttered with the motor home and, after the engine rested for a bit, we got it started again.  Right when Lan showed up.  So we got over the top of the pass, stopped in Wheeler and got some magic "get rid of the nasty gas taste of Missolua gas" additive, grabbed some huckleberry ice cream cones, and made it home just fine. 

It was a grand trip.