"Explorer Spirit…Servant Heart…"
Nov 18th, 2009 by leigharev2
We took advantage of a perfect Autumn day and went on a hike to Hidden Falls. Hidden Falls Regional Park is between Lincoln and Auburn.
The pinecones are HUGE!
We enjoy seeing the nut trees. I think this is chestnut…
Acorns!
…and an acorn fight!
Dead Man’s Creek
Overlooking the overlook of Hidden Falls…
Nov 12th, 2009 by leigharev2
This recipe was requested by my friend, Jodi. This is in the crockpot cookbook, "Fix It and Forget It Lightly"
White Chicken Chili
Makes 6 servings
1T. olive oil
3/4lb. uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed"1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion, chopped
1c. fat free chicken broth
2 15.5oz. cans navy beans, rinsed and drained
1t. dry mustard
1t. ground cumin
1/2t. salt
1/4t. black pepper
1. Warm oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Add chicken and cook 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Stir frequently. Reove and set aside.
3. Add onion and garlic to skillet. Cook 5 minutes or until tender.
4. Spoon chicken, onion, and garlic into crockpot.
5. Add broth, beans, mustard powder, cumin, salt and pepper.
6. cover. Cook on low for 5-6 hours.
7.Serve with tortilla chips, cheese, and sour cream.
Toppings: tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream or plain yogurt, green onion
Nov 10th, 2009 by leigharev2
Monday: Tlalpeno Soup, Salad, Tortillas
Tuesday: French Dip, Fries, Grapes
Wednesday: Michelle’s last night with us: Dine out
Thursday: White Chicken Chili, Cornbread, Salad
Friday: Steak, potatoes, green beans
Saturday: Eat out
Sunday: Leftovers
Nov 8th, 2009 by leigharev2
As requested, here is the recipe for steak Skewers with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce. It comes from the cookbook, Fix, Freeze, and Feast. This cookbook focuses on making multiple entrees for freezing. This recipe makes three entrees, four servings each.
1 tray (about 6 pounds) boneless top sirloin steaks
1/2c. olive oil
1/4c. red wine vinegar
1 1/2t. black pepper
Sauce
1 (4-5oz.) container crumbled blue cheese (approx. 3/4c.)
3c. heavy cream
3/4t. black pepper
You need:
6 one gallon freezer bags, label 3
3 one quart freezer bags
Have on hand for cooking:
8 (9inch) wooden or metal skewers
To prep:
-Rinse steaks and trim fat. Cut into 1 inch cubes. Divide beef evenly among the unlabeled 1 gallon freezer bags.
-Whisk together oil and vinegar in a small bowl. divide the marinade evenly over the beef. Into each bag, measure 1/2t. pepper. Seal bags.
-Divide the blue cheese among the three 1 quart freezer bags. Imto each bag of cheese, measure 1 cup heavy cream and 1/4t. pepper. Seal bags.
-Into each labeled 1 gallon bag, place one bag of beef and one bag of sauce.
-Seal and freeze.
To cook:
Prepare on an outdoor grill or indoors under a broiler.
-completely thaw one entree in freezer.
For outdoor:
Prepare a medium fire in grill. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water while meat is thawing. Thread steak pieces onto skewers. Grill, turn occasionally, about 10 minutes or until done to your liking. discard remaining marinade.
meanwhile, heat the blue cheese mixture in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer gently, stirring frequently, until the cream reduces and thickens into a velvety sauce. Serve as a dipping sauce with the steak.
For indoor:
-Arrange skewers, prepared as above, on an ungreased broiler pan. Broil under high heat, 5 inches from heat source, turning frequently for about 10 minutes, or until done to your liking. Discard remaining marinade.
-Heat cheese as described above.
Nov 8th, 2009 by leigharev2
On the way home from Santa Cruz, I decided to surprise the boys with a trip to the Jelly Bell Factory Tour, in Fairfield.
Here, ‘R’ lets us know how he feels avout the cinnamon jelly belly that he is pointing to on the car…
This bear is made out of Jelly Bellys!
Waiting for the tour to begin…
This is a wall dedicated to Ronald Reagan…
The tour is about to begin. We were all give little paper hats to wear. No photos or videos are allowed in the actual factory, but there is a virtual tour you can look at that is better than any photo I could take:
Jelly Belly Factory Virtual Tour.
Nov 7th, 2009 by leigharev2
It all began with the simple thought, "why don’t I take the boys to Santa Cruz for the day. We can dip or toes in the ocean, and maybe I can meet up with a friend I have not seen since high school."
The day started off just fine. Traffic was OK, and we were delighted to discover a totally unexpected view. Coming over a hill, heading into Benicia, through a light mist, we see a bunch of unique looking boats. ‘A’ was convinced they wre battleships, but I could not be certain. I promised him we’d look it up online when we got home. Well, he was right! These ships are a part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet. They are "mothballed" ships that can be activated if necessary. I could not get any pictures, so here is one I found:
It takes three hours to drive to Santa Cruz. About 20 minutes outside of Santa Cruz, I began to not feel all that great. When I pulled into Santa Cruz, I had full on flu symptoms. I was so sick! I knew I would be incpacitated for a while, so I checked us into a motel, the Bella Notte, and spent the next five hours wishing I were dead. The boys were a little bummed that they could not play on the beach, but they got to watch alot of TV and eat delivery pizza, so it wasn’t all bad.
The next morning was overcast and cool, but I felt much better and wanted to explore with the boys a bit. My friend, Deana (lives in Santa Cruz), suggested a few places to check out. One was a surfer’s museum. We found out that there was going to be a surfing competition close to the museum, so that was where we headed first.
The Surfer’s Museum was closed on Wednesdays, but we took advantage of a photo op anyway…
While waiting, someone was blowing these giant bubbles. The kids enjoyed chasing them down. There was a slight breeze and the bubbles gave them a good run for their money…
Waiting for the competition to begin…
We soon learned that the competition had been moved to a different beach because there was not surf. It was too bad because there were all these vendors who had to break down their stands. People knew the name of the beach, but did not know where it was, so we went to plan ‘B’.
Deana had suggested we check out Wilder Ranch State Park. Unfortunately, they were closed as well. We then went to Natural Bridges State Park. They have a grove of eucalyptus trees where monarch butterflies spend the winter. We walked the trail and saw the butterflies. Could not really get a good shot, the butterflies were too high, except for this one…
Heading home, I decided to surprise the kids with one more stop, the Jelly Belly Factory!
Nov 6th, 2009 by leigharev2
For this lesson, the boys were to watch a short video about something that was interesting to them. They needed to pay attention to what they see, then draw a picture based on memory. They decided they wanted to watch a video on dingoes. You can see what we watched. It’s around 6 minutes: Dingoes
This the the drawing ‘A’ did. It is an overhead view of six dingoes eating. We learned that dingoes all form a circle, where their heads are all together eating. Then, they rotate clockwise (or counter clockwise) depending on what hemisphere they are on. It’s really interesting. He also shaded the ground, and drew the fence.
This is ‘R’s. It is of three dingoes on a log.
Nov 6th, 2009 by leigharev2
One of the satellite Bayside churches hosted a Trunk or Treat. They had about 20 cars all decorated, inflatable games, hot dogs, and cotton candy. It was the perfect Autumn evening in NorCal.
About five cars were decorated, representing the decades 50’s – 80’s…
This was incredible. They tooks two storage trailers of a sort and placed them together, creating an "Enchanted Forest". The entry was all decorated in candy!
One of the cars had a Harvest theme and these cute props…
After a brief respite at home, we all went out to hit some homes. The neighborhood next to our apartments did an incredible job decorating their homes and yards. They really got into it!
Nov 6th, 2009 by leigharev2
Our friend, Sean, is an on air personality for Air 1 Radio station. He hooked us up with concert tickets to see The Classic Crime (Seattle band, btw), playing at a nearby church. This was the boys first concert! They did pretty well, and I certainly had a good time, even though it was a challenge to head bang with a six year old on my shoulders!!
‘A’, modeling the stylin’ ear wax plugs…
Sean and the boys. We are going to miss you! Indy will be blessed!
Nov 6th, 2009 by leigharev2
I have mentioned before that after Bible Study, we stay at church and picnic, socialize, and play in the courtyard. We decided that the kids could dress in costume this week, and the boys really got into their roles as defenders of the universe! ("A" was Luke Skywalker and "R" was Obi Wan Kenobi)
Encountering Darth Vader…
A battle ensues…
Chasing down a storm trooper…
Photo op with a different Darth, (the boys friend, C)
