Carrot and Raisin Salad with Pineapple

Had lots of carrots in the garden and had not made a carrot salad in a long time. I used golden raisins which looked ok the first day. The second day after they had absorbed some moisture, it was a little sick looking, so I would suggest regular raisins just for asthetics : )

CARROT AND RAISIN SALAD WITH PINEAPPLE
2/3 cup raisins
2 cups grated carrots
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/3 cup Miracle Whip
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Toss raisins, carrots and pineapple together - set aside. Stir together Miracle Whip, lemon juice, salt and suagar. Add to raisin mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Rockin B Ranch

We met up with the McLaughlin's at the Rockin B Ranch. It is a dinner/show located near the state line. They start off with a pre-dinner skit outdoors, which reminded me of a Carol Burnett skit (where the actors are trying hard not to laugh). Afterwards we headed into the barn and got ready for dinner. They serve your dinner on a pie tin and your drink in a mason jar - ribs, chicken, beef, baked potato, corn bread, applesauce (to keep your tin cool), beans, sheet cake and lemonade. Dinner was yummy and you could go back for as much as you wanted. After dinner they started the show - country western songs with fiddle, bass and vocals. Part way through the show they had a Patrick McManus performance by Tim Behrens. This was probably the funniest part of the evening. The one actor plays multiple parts simultaneously, going back and forth between characters by changing facial cues, voice inflections and putting on a hat. I had to wipe away the tears I was laughing so hard! Thanks McLaughlin's for going with us - we had a wonderful time!!

Killer Bees!

I put "hedge needs a haircut" on the honey-do list today before I went to work. John went out later that morning with the hedge trimmers and trimmed our side of the hedge. Unfortunately, you can only reach over to a certain point so there were stragglers on the other side. Being a good neighbor, he went around to the neighbors yard and started trimming up the rest of the hedge. About 1/2 way thru a swarm of bees started to attack him. He was stung multiple times, dropped the hedge trimmer and made a race away from them. He hurdled the picket fence, ripping his pants and breaking off one of the picket tops on his way out of there! He called me at work after he had gone to the hardware store and armed himself with $15 worth of spray and wasp traps - this was war!! When I got home he showed me the offending hedge and the trimmer (still leaning where it had been dropped) with bees swarming all over it. Later that evening the neighbor retreived the trimmer for us (using a long pole so as not to get too close to the nest) and John fixed the fence.

Frank's Chopped Salsa

We wanted to use our fresh, vine ripened tomatoes (that taste like candy, by the way). There is just such a difference with the taste of tomatoes grown in your garden vs anything you can purchase. I found this recipe that looked great. Tasted great too. I think next time I might add a little salsa to make it more sloppy & give it a little more depth, but that's just me.

FRANK'S CHOPPED SALSA
7 Roma tomatoes, diced
6 Garlic cloves, minced
6 jalapeno peppers (used Anaheim), seeds and ribs removed, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped cabbage
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Season to taste with salt. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Blackberry Jam

Needed to make something with all those beautiful berries!!

BLACKBERRY FREEZER JAM
3 c blackberries
5 c sugar
1 box Sure Jell
6-8 half pint freezer safe containers

Crush berries coarsely. Add sugar to berries. Stir well and set aside. Put 1 cup cold water in a small saucepan. Dissolve Sure Jell in it and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Add this to the berry mixture. Stir vigorously for 2 minutes. Pour into containers leaving a little space at top. Put lids on immediately and let sit for a few hours or overnight. Place in freezer. Remove an hour before you want to serve it.

Our Garden

Look what came out of our garden!!

Silverwood

We met up with Kathy, Brianna, James & Cameron at Silverwood today - another fun way to spend a week-day off from work!! While Kathy & Cameron did the low intensity rides, the rest of us did the main roller coasters: Timber Terror, Tremors and Corkscrew. Then John, Brianna and Audrey did the newer roller coaster, Aftershock. They loved it! I was not sure I was ready for this. (Here is the website description: Once you board, the cars will slowly move backwards up the starting tower until you’re staring straight at the ground at nearly 190 feet in the air. Then gravity will take over and pull you 177 feet straight down as you reach speeds of 65 miles per hour! You’ll twist and turn though mind-blowing loops and rolls until you reach the second tower. This time, you’ll be looking at the sky as the coaster pulls you upward at a 90 degree angle, only to release and send you barreling through the whole thing backwards!) While I was waiting as they stood in line, the ride operators had to clean up something on the coaster. Then I saw it happen again. Note, that when they clean they had the ride shut down for 15 minutes or so (to make sure they got everything). Not sure what bodily fluid was being cleaned up - someone said nose bleed, but I was thinking loosing-carnival-food-type-issue. I just couldn't get myself into trying that after watching the clean up twice - figured I would be next! We met up with Kathy & Cameron to rest and watch the Magic Show. Afterwards we headed to Thunder Canyon and got nice and wet. Then we did the Round Up to dry off, not sure that worked really well, though I did get some great grate marks on the backs of my legs. Audrey thought it looked funny. We went on a few more rides before stopping at Lindy's to eat. After dinner Brianna went on Timber Terror - this time with Cameron. He got off and you could just tell he LOVED it! Brianna was spending the night at our house so we split off at that time to head home, but the line in front of Roaring Creek log flume was short so we went on that ride. John and I pretended it was the tunnel of love - the girls did not appreciate that too much. We had a great time today and could not believe we did not have time to venture over to Boulder Beach at all - another visit! On our way home on I-95 (right where all the businesses are) I stopped (from 45mph) because I saw something on the highway - it was a mama deer, 2 babies and then the dad following shortly behind. Stopped 4 lanes of traffic for a few minutes while they crossed, almost literally in the cross walk. Cute.