25 years at Safeway

I'm not sure how I can be celebrating 25 years at Safeway. Wow how time flies. My 2 bosses took me to lunch to celebrate! I have been blessed to have some fabulous bosses over the course of my Safeway career. My current bosses, Brian and Craig, are absolutely awesome! Below is Al (the boss for Craig & Brian) on the left and Brian on the right. The next picture shows Craig. They volunteered at a soup kitchen in Seattle around the holidays.



My previous boss, Jeff, sent me this note via email. He has been promoted a bunch of times since he left Spokane and is now in Chicago.

Sam, A little birdie told me you are celebrating your 25th year anniversary with Safeway. When I heard that I said to myself, “no way”, you aren’t old enough for this to be true!!! ( -:

Congratulations on your 25th. There is no doubt you were the finest assistant I ever had and I know both Brian & Craig would concur. You are not only awesome at what you do at work, you are an awesome person. It is an understatement to say I was blessed to have had you on my team and a super understatement to say I have missed you ever since I left Spokane. That was still the best job I ever had and you were a big part of why! I hope all is well with you, John & Audrey. Stay safe, be happy and get as much joy out of life you can. You deserve it! Jeff

Happy BDay John

The many faces of John! He cracks us up when we are trying to take photos. Below shows just a small sampling. For his birthday he received his annual Star Trek Ornament, a tool set and a Star Trek themed shirt from Audrey - "Boldly Been There - Boldly Did That". Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

B-Day Movie & Lunch

To celebrate John's birthday, we headed downtown to see Tower Heist at AMC Theatres. Then we went over to Chili's for lunch. Later that afternoon, John went up to work on the flooring in my mom's kitchen - he is allowed to do what he wants for his birthday and always enjoys home remodeling projects. Audrey and I picked up a birthday pumpkin pie and put 49 candles on it - in the shape of "4 9". About burnt our fingers off trying to get them all lit before they melted! Here is the birthday boy blowing out his candles!! (His birthday is actually Sunday, but we're all about celebrating over multiple days around here...)

23rd Wedding Anniversary

Happy Anniversary! We celebrated 23 years of marriage by going to Churchill's Steakhouse downtown. The picture below shows a bit of the ambiance and atmosphere. It was especially beautiful with the white lights on the Christmas tree near our table. We started off with the bread basket and a wedge salad (iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, green onions and house dressing). John ordered the chicken stuffed with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes served over spinach. I ordered the sliced sirloin steak with Peppercorn cream sauce. It was very delicious! And just because we were celebrating, we ordered the Chocolate Sack for dessert. It was literally a sack made out of chocolate. They filled it with cubes of pound cake, fresh strawberries, chocolate mousse, whipped cream, and then one of those straw-type cookies on top. We had a wonderful time!

Ornament Shopping

We met up with Grandma & the Gramlow's for our annual ornament shopping excursion. Audrey found a brown bear, wolf and hawk. She also liked the movie themed ornament to go with her favorite past-time. I thought the turkey was fun just because it was near Thanksgiving. But picked out the black piano as it reminded me of the upright pianos we saw in downtown Denver this summer. The Route 66 ornament reminded me of our trip to Oklahoma in January and driving along Route 66. Afterwards we went to Jack in the Box where Grandma treated us to holiday milkshakes - pumpkin pie and eggnog. Thanks for a fun day Grandma!

Thanksgiving at the Lake

We were invited to the Hartman's lake place for Thanksgiving. Since Mom and Shaune's family were also invited, this worked out great to spend time with both family and friends. We were asked to bring a green salad, but then John thought we should bring something more and made his famous Apple Raisin Cream Pie.

We headed out to the lake and ended up parking at the top of the hill since there were lots of people there! Below is a picture of Audrey relaxing at the lake waiting for dinner to be served.

There was NOT enough room on my plate! Pam's homemade rolls, turkey, potatoes, gravy, yams and my green/fruit salad. Had to go back another time for the rest of the food.

GROUP PHOTO:

• Front - Christopher & Richard Hartman; Connor, Jessie, Emma & Dale McLaughlin; Cheyenne Gramlow on Emma's lap; Zach & Tyler Wagner.
• Middle - Mary Hartman; Vern & Carol Lansford; Mary's mom Bonnie; my Mom Jacquie; Opal Adams (Sherry's mom)
• Back - "Kirby" James Curb; Marv & Pam Wagner; Sam, John, Audrey Carter; Shaune & Dakota Gramlow; Gloria & Jay Turkovsky; Sherry & Larry Lansford (Richard's brother)

Recipes below:

FRUIT AND SPINACH SALAD
1 head leaf lettuce (red or green or romaine)
1 bunch spinach
2 Johnny smith apples, chopped
2 cans mandarin oranges (drained)
1/4 red onion, minced
1/2 c sugared almonds (see recipe below)
Feta Cheese to taste
Orange Poppy Seed dressing (bottled or homemade)

Sugared Almonds - 1 c raw sliced almonds & 3 T sugar. Place the nuts in a small skillet and sprinkle with sugar. As the sugar melts, stir the contents of the pan and let the sugar turn brown, being careful to not let it burn. When the sugar has reached the color of a paper sack, place the nuts on a cookie sheet to cool.

Toss all the ingredients together and add the dressing right before serving. I used a bottled Orange Poppy Seed dressing and added a little fresh orange juice before adding it to the salad.

HOLIDAY DINNER ROLLS
2 cups warm water

2 cups flour

1 TB salt

1 TB yeast

1/2 cup sugar

Combine and let sit for 1 hour. Then add:

2 cups warm water

1 TB salt

1 cup oil

1 cup sugar

3-10 cups flour (to make soft, but slightly sticky dough)

Place in oiled bowl. Cover with cloth and let rise 12 hours. Punch as needed (depending on temp, maybe every 2-4 hours0. Make dough into lemon sized rolls, place on greased baking sheet 2" apart. Cover with cloth and let rise 12 hours. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.

APPLE RAISIN CREAM PIE

Pastry for a double crust pie

7-8 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples

1 cup sugar

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 cup raisins

Dash salt (optional)

1-2 tsp grated lemon peel

1 TB butter

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Make favorite pastry; line bottom of pie tin with one crust and set aside. Combine apple slices, sugar, flour, spices, raisins, dash salt and lemon peel; mix together well. Spoon filling into pastry-line pan; dot with butter. Cover with top crust decorated with steam vents; seal edges. Cut a 1-inch circle in dough in center of top crust.

Bake at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Remove pie from oven; slowly pour cream into center hole of top crust. Return to oven; bake 5-10 minutes longer. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 8 servings....maybe!

Grandma's Floor

John and Shaune worked on mom's kitchen floor installing bamboo in the kitchen and entryway stairs. Above is a during photo and below is a finished photo. Doesn't it look nice? Shaune then did the same flooring in his house.

Snoballs

Probably was not what you were expecting with SnoBalls in the title?

I usually don't care for the snack cake type products like Twinkies, but have always liked Sno Balls. Usually they are pink coconut over a white marshmallow layer over a chocolate cake with a cream filling. I've seen them all white coconut or green before (near St Patrick's Day) but was pleasantly shocked when I spotted these at the grocery store!


SNOBALLIMUS OPTIMUS PRIME - check out the red center!!


And a little history of Sno Balls from Hostess website:

First introduced in 1947. Today over 25 million Sno Balls are sold each year. The original Sno Balls were white marshmallow and shredded coconut covered chocolate cakes. In 1950, the cream filling was added, and not long after, they tinted the shredded coconut pink. Each Sno Ball package included one white and one pink Sno Ball.

Today, Hostess mostly produces the original white-colored Sno Balls around the winter holidays, with other colors appearing for different seasons. You’ll find Scary Cakes and Glo Balls (orange and glow-in-the-dark Sno Balls) during Halloween, Lucky Puffs (green Sno Balls) for St. Patrick’s Day and Hoppers (lavender colored Sno Balls) in the Spring.

WSU Game

This was a first. John and Audrey went to the CougarMania game without me this year. I had tickets for the symphony with my mom, so made plans for them to attend without me. Then I got very, very sick and ended up staying home from that too. However, I was able to secure a ticket for Mariska, so the three of them headed down on the CougarMania bus. Check out the SNOW in the pictures!


It was VERY exciting I hear! It was an evening kick-off (which was unusual) so John and Audrey ended up getting home after midnight. Check out the score at the 4th quarter with a little over 5 minutes left to play.... and the Cougs won 37 to 27!!

Below is a write up from the newspaper:
PULLMAN - Welcome to the Pac-12, Connor Halliday. QB has biggest day for Coug freshman. As conference debuts go, there can't have been many better than the one Washington State's redshirt freshman quarterback put up Saturday night before a wet Dad's Weekend crowd of 27,213, leading the Cougars to a 37-27 upset of Arizona State

Bunco!

We were invited to the Jill & Drew Nelson's to play Bunco. Everyone was to bring snacks or appetizers to share. Going along with our regular tradition, we tried something totally new - Caramelized Onion, Gruyere and Bacon Spread. To say it was a hit was an understatement. Some of the guys just hung out in front of the dip while others did not even get a chance to try.

At the party were Robert & Angela Heerdink, Darin & Jen Christensen, Jodi & Scott Riggin, Bob & Kathy Thompson, Doug & Mickey Vermillion, Dean & Natalie Conrad, Tiffani & Dave Adamson, Sam & Angie Abrams, Kara & Travis Bates, Arielle & Nat Murray, Brandon & Kami Berezay and probably the life of the party,Danny & Cristal Gonzalez. Danny has SUCH a fun personality and sometimes it was more fun to watch or listen to him than to play the game. John and I really enjoyed ourselves and the time we had to get to know everyone better. It was nice to have an evening to relax and socialize. At the end of the evening they tallied the scores for top points and bottom points. Such a fun night!


CARAMELIZED ONION, GRUYERE AND BACON SPREAD
1 Tbs Butter
3 & 1/2 cups chopped onion

4 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded and divided

2 TBS chopped fresh chives, divided

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper
4 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

Preheat oven to 425°. Heat a large cast-iron skillet (or heavy duty pan) over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Add onion to pan; saute 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low; cook 20 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly.

Reserve 2 tablespoons cheese. Combine remaining cheese, caramelized onion, 1 tablespoon chives, and the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Transfer the mixture to a 1-quart glass or ceramic baking dish coated lightly with cooking spray. Sprinkle with reserved 2 tablespoons cheese. Bake at 425° for 20 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon chives. Serve with baguette slices (toasted or not) and/or crackers.

Audrey Haircut

Kind of short, kind of spunky! We like it!!

Fall Leaves

Leaf raking took place on 11/4, 11/5, 11/8 and beyond this year. The leaves took awhile to "drop" this year and then the winds would bring us presents from neighboring yards. I'm sure our leaves went to visit elsewhere too!

Movie, Lunch and Baptism

We went downtown to see the Puss in Boots movie. Cute! Afterwards we celebrated John's new job by having lunch at the Olive Garden. And finally we ended the day attending a baptism of our friends' son. Great family day!

Job Update

An update on the job hunting. John gave his notice at the bank and finished out his 2 weeks, with his last day on September 30th. He then spent time in Denver helping with the McMackin's basement. When he returned to Spokane, he went to an LDS Job Fair, heard about an opening from them (that he would not have known about), sent in his resume and then got an interview on October 27th. They wanted to do a lunch interview with John and I - - before they made the final job offer. Thought that was an interesting twist. Our lunch interview as on October 31st. We ate at DeLeon's, a Mexican deli & grocery, and tried a drink called Horchata. It is described as Cinnamon Rice Milk. It was in a big jar on the counter and they scooped it into a glass for you. Delicious!


Back to the job! It is a small company (8 people total including the owner). The owner and the supervisor are both return missionaries & love Dave Ramsey ideas. Nicest people! They offered him the job and he started on November 1st. The company does IT work for small businesses and school districts that are too small for their own IT department. Places like Kettle Falls, Tekoa and this week Orchard Prairie. John came home and told Audrey about her teachers that said Hi (since she had gone there in Kindergarten through 4th grade). I think he will like it.

Found a recipe that we will have to try:
HORCHATA (CINNAMON RICE MILK)
1 cup long grain rice, rinsed
2 quarts water
1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1/2 cup white sugar

In a large saucepan, combine rice, water and cinnamon stick. Set aside for 3 hours.
After 3 hours, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Allow to cool. Puree rice mixture in a blender until smooth. Strain through cheesecloth or a fine sieve. Flavor with vanilla and sugar to taste. Chill, and serve over ice.