Kern River Valley Nature Preserve

John and I went on an outing this weekend. He wanted to see some Fall leaves so we headed over to Weldon on the recommendation from someone at work. We visited the Kern River Valley Nature Preserve and went for a short hike. For those of you who know me know I don't love to hike. So to clarify it was more of a walk. Here are some pictures of the day.

The colors are starting to turn a bit. Pretty sky huh?

Here is a shot of what the trail looks like.

Not as pretty as Tahoe, but "Fally" non-the-less.

Driving out through the cow pasture.

The cows are home.

Matzo Ball Soup

It's a special occasion. John and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary today. Last week we were in Los Angeles. We stopped for lunch at Whole Foods Market (we really like the hot food there). Anyway, I got Matzo Ball Soup. I've never had Matzo Ball Soup before that day. It was delicious. So, I found a decent recipe online and recreated it for tonight's dinner. I simmered the chicken practically all day and made my first Matzo Balls from a box. I was surprised they plumped up so much. I'll have to work on that and find a way to make them a little denser. Overall, the dinner was a success. I served the soup with a green salad with a lemon vinaigrette sprinkled with Herbs De Provence. We shared a store bought cupcake for dessert (it was the most weddingy cake we could find). And that's it. Oh, and Ginger was there. He likes Matzo Ball soup too.

Blueberry Ice Cream

I've been getting these really good frozen blueberries at Trader Joe's for my morning smoothie and decided they would make really good ice cream too and they did!

Here are the ingredients to making blueberry ice cream minus the sugar, vanilla and salt. I actually used heavy whipping cream and milk, but this is all I had left in the refrigerator for the picture. I think, though, that next time I might just use half and half because the ice cream using heavy whipping cream and milk was kind of heavy.

Cooking the blueberries and sugar.

Blending the cooled cooked blueberries and cream mixture.

John cooling the blended mixture so we could freeze it faster than waiting for it to cool in the refrigerator.

The freezing step. There is Kevin's hand on the stove top and reflection on the stainless steel bowl. He's anticipating the blueberry goodness. After the freezing step we put it in the freezer to freeze the rest of the way while we all went rock climbing. Upon our return we ate some and then we ate some more.

Ta-da! The final result. Pretty lavender colored ice cream that tastes like blueberry.

My First Blue Box

I'm not much of a jewelry wearer. So when I saw a gift had been sent to me from Tiffany's I was a little perplexed. It all became clear however when I read the letter sent along with the gift; it's a three year commitment appreciation pen from L-3! It took me a while to find it, but there is the logo at the top. Very subtle. I wonder what they'll send for my five year commitment . . .


BTW ~ it was three years in May . . . does that make me a bad blogger?

It's Vegan

I was listening to a radio podcast the other day. It was a food show. The host was interviewing someone who went on a cupcake expedition. It was her goal to find and eat artisan cupcakes on a trip across the country to see where the best one is located. Her favorite was a vegan chocolate cupcake from where I don't remember. Click here if you want to listen or read about Violet Whipps (the girl with the cupcake fetish) and to find out where in the world that coveted vegan cupcake lives. That bit of information about the really great vegan cupcake peaked my interest enough to make my own vegan cupcake right here in my Ridgecrest home kitchen. I found a recipe online and viola! Here it is . . .


The cupcake is delicious. It's not too sweet, but the frosting is GROSS! All I had to use in place of non-hydrogenated shorting was coconut oil which should have worked because it's a solid at room temperature or so I thought . . . It's actually really oily and the taste is too sweet. I think I might add cocoa powder to it to see if that will help. I doubt it.

It's cute though right?

Me and Huell

Here we are at Maddie's Cafe together. I was there for a working dinner with visitors from Virginia and Huell Hauser! walked in shortly after. He was kind of working the room so I obliged by getting up and having my picture taken with him. Jerry Bradley had his iphone so we actually had a camera to follow through with plan. He wouldn't say why he was in town. I'll have to wait and either read it in the paper or watch the show.

Seattle 2008

The weekend after my birthday John took me to Seattle. Our first stop was dinner with Uncle Ron, Aunt Joanie and First Cousin Once Removed Jazzmarilla. We took a land taxi to the restaurant. We had just gotten off the plane and checked into our hotel when it was time to leave. We ate at Salty's across the bay from Downtown. It was a good choice because we had the Downtown Seattle Skyline as a backdrop view instead of sitting in a downtown restaurant looking out.

Here we all are at Salty's.

Downtown Seattle Skyline.


Here is a picture of water taxi we took back to Seattle then walked back to our room. John and I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the restaurant, a water taxi back to downtown, the monorail for fun, and a shuttle from the hotel back to the airport and that's it. The rest of the weekend we were able to walk everywhere. Seattle is awesome that way. We even walked to the flagship REI store from our hotel not at all far away.


Infamous Pike's Place Market.

Produce displayed inside the market.

Fresh fish for sale.

Fresh dried pasta. Is that an oxymoron?

Everyone in the market had a bouquet of these fresh flowers. Gorgeous!

The flagship Seattle Starbucks Coffee Shop featuring the original logo which they are migrating back to mainstream.

The main reason John and I were in Seattle that weekend was to see Cake play music at Paramount Theatre. Here is a picure of that theatre.

Here we are after the concert.

John flaunting his concert t-shirt.

We also saw fine art while we were there. We visited SAM (Seattle Art Museum). This tree is part of it's public art installation. Can you tell it's made of metal?

Prom Night

I know . . . these are out of order. What can I say?

Here are Brent and Albert before the prom looking handsome as usual.

Here is a picture of Brent with his date, Albert's sister (can you see the resemblence?) at the prom.

Graduation Season

Heather graduated from Cerro Coso with her Associate of Arts. She will transfer to UCLA in the fall.
Kevin promoted from eighth grade at James Monroe Middle School to being a freshman at the High School.

And precious Brent graduated from Sherman E. Burroughs High School. He will begin classes at Cerro Coso Community College in the fall.

Brent Turns Blue

The weekend after prom Brent decided for fun to dye his hair blue. So, being the good mom that I am I helped him.

We first bleached it so the blue would be ultra bright.

It worked.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Thanks to Erin I have a recipe for Coconut Cloud Cake (my favorite). So, for my birthday, I made one. It took about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish. It's got a meringue frosting and lemon curd in between the layers. Thanks again Erin. I know this cake is going to be so good. I'm looking forward to sharing it with the family tomorrow. Wish you all were here!

Canoeing on the Owens River

Saturday John and I spent the day canoeing with friends. We started with breakfast at the Ranch House Cafe in Olancha then made a pit stop/bread run (we also sampled the gelato) at Schat's in Bishop before we got on the water.


That's the Owens River with the Sierra Mountains in the background. We paddled about 3 miles in about 2 hours. Very fun. I'm already looking forward to doing it again.

It's Called Desert Calico

John and I went back to that canyon to rock climb some more. This time I took a picture of that flower I mentioned that looks like a miniature orchid. I found out at the fair's wildflower exhibit on Thursday night it's called Desert Calico (Loeseliastrum mattewsii).

Isn't it sooo cute?!

California Poppy Reserve

We took a trip on Saturday to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. The Poppy Festival in Lancaster was this weekend so I thought it a good idea to go see the poppies. We did not go to the festival. After visiting the Reserve we instead went to see the new Jackie Chan movie, Forbidden Kingdom, starring Jackie Chan AND Jet Li. It's the first movie ever featuring both martial artists and yes they do combat each other. It was a fun movie. I love Jackie Chan.

Thousands and thousands of poppies.

Can you tell it's windy and cold? Brent and Kevin went too, but they took a separate car with some friends so most of the time we spent with them was after to movie at Trader Joe's.

Speaking of Orchids

Mom gave me this orchid a couple of years ago during one of her visits. It was blooming when she gave it to me and look, it's blooming again. I didn't think it would bloom again, but I got a surprise. Thanks Mom.

It's Springtime in the High Desert

I love the desert. It's so pretty this time of year with the wildflowers blooming all over place. The diversity of the plants is imense. The plants range from crazy big sunflower type plants with matching yellow blooms to scraggly shrubs with deep indigo blooms to little itty-bitty barely there plants with pink spotted blooms that look like mini miniature orchids. It seems every color in the rainbow is represented in wildflowers; yellow, orange, blue, purple, pink, hot pink, white, red . . . I love the desert.


John and I revisited Indian Wells Canyon. The last time we were here it was snowing, I said I was going to climb those rocks. Remember? Well we've started rock climbing. Last weekend we went to Bishop, got some climbing shoes and started climbing rocks over there. And then on Monday we visited Wagon Wheel and climbed some rocks there. This morning we just climbed some easy stuff here in Indian Wells Canyon, nothing major. We're still breaking in our shoes and developing climbing feet. We want to climb the more difficult rocks, but we really should have ropes to do that. We don't have ropes yet.


I get so excited when I see this cactus flower bloom; it smells just like watermelon and the color is so vibrant.


Hi!

Calvary Chapel Ridgecrest Biker Blessing 2008

This little Honda Rebel belongs to a friend of John. He borrowed it so we could participate in the 3rd Annual Calvary Chapel Ridgecrest Biker Blessing. Each year we invite bikers from all over to participate in a short ride, BBQ, fellowship and concert. This year Darrell Mansfield was the entertainment. Nearly 300 bikes and their riders showed up for the event of which John and I were two. The volunteer police department stopped all the traffic as we breezed through Ridgecrest, down Highway 178 to Inyokern and back via Brown Road and Highway 395. Riding with that many bikes was like being in a parade; one long continuous stream of bikes for as far as the eye could see. I understand now why bikers like to ride together. People were spotted on the streets to behold the curious site cheering and waving. It was a beautiful day.

Just Like Mom Used to Make ~ Surprise!

Muffins that is. Remember when Mom used to make surprise muffins? I don't know why I haven't made these before until now. Yummy! There weren't any leftover.

Spaghetti Squash Bake

In the fall I bought a spaghetti squash because I never had had one before and it was inexpensive. It sat around the kitchen for awhile until I decided to cook it and store it in the freezer. I just wasn't feeling inspired. Earlier this week I decided I was going to make something of it; I was tired of it taking up room in my freezer. So,this is what that squash became ~ Spaghetti Squash Bake. I shopped around online for a recipe and found this one. Put the cooked squash in the bottom of a baking dish, cover it with a jar of spaghetti sauce and cheese (in this case I used fontina because I had some left over from the butternut squash lasagne and Parmesan; same thing) then bake it at 350 for about thirty minutes (covered then uncovered) until it is bubbly and the cheese is melted and a little browned on the top if you like that sort of thing. Oh, and I sprinkled the top with fresh parsley to make it look nice and because I had some left over from the salad. I wasn't expecting much, but WOW it was really surprisingly good. Kevin even ate some and Mom had seconds. It tastes like lasagne and so easy.

It Must Be Poetry Season

Natalie brought this poem home from school today. I thought it was appropriate to post because of my last entry and because Robin just posted some of her son's poetry. I especially like the cat with the bunny tail. It even has Ginger's nose. So cute!