Chicken Enchiladas

So, Sparky gave all of us (Nic, Kym & I) the new 2012 Americas Test Kitchen cookbook for Christmas. I like watching this show on PBS because they test recipes with different ingredients, times, processes, etc. to come up the best way to make a dish.Kym first made a Kale and Potatoe soup, which I also did, and didn't turn out bad. Next, Nic made rice using a recipe in the book and she reports that it was very easy and good rice that wasn't the usual sticky type. Kym also made an Indian dish, which she and hubby loved.

Tonight, I made chicken enchiladas and they were delicious . . . although it took me longer than expect. (Someday I'll learn to read the whole recipe before beginning.) It has japenos chiles that gave it a little pep, which Sparky loved.

Earlier today, and after church, I also made an easy bean dip following the recipe on the back of the Mission Tortilla Strips package. It also is pretty good. Here's the recipe:

Black Bean & Roasted Red Pepper Dip

1 package (1 oz.) taco spices and seasonings

1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 package (12 oz.) light cream cheese

1 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

1 to 2 tsp. lime juice

Garnishes: chopped tomato and fresh cilantro

In food processor combine all ingredients except garnishes; mix thoroughly. Serve with chips or raw vegies.

Chicken Dijon

Many decades ago (yes, a long time ago; can I be that old?) my sister-in-law gave me the Colorado Cache Cookbook by the Junior League of Denver. We had been over to see my brother's family in Boulder and she had made a great little recipe. When I exclaimed about it, she later sent me the cookbook. Being a Junior League cookbook, it's recipes are generally simple and made with common ingredients. (Our copy has been put to great use of the years, and it's showing.)

Well, one of our family's favorite entree recipes from the book has always been Chicken Dijon. So last week I decide to take a break from the soup thing and make it. Unfortunately, the weekend got away from me, and so I held the ingredients (except chicken) until today.In the past we never had enough sauce for the family, but with just Sparky and I we had extra tonight.

Since I am developing an eye issue Sparky and I are trying to eat more green things, in the hopes of delaying the future. So we also had fresh steamed spinach. I'm always surprised how a big bunch of spinach cooks down into a little serving. Some fresh-out-of-the-oven Rhodes rolls topped off a great, little dinner.

To meet blogging protocol, here's the recipe:

Chicken Dijon

3 Tbs butter
4 chicken breasts, split, skinned and boned (I only cooked 1 breast split)
2 Tbs flour
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup light cream (1/2 & 1/2)
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
2 tomatoes, cut in wedges
2 Tbs minced fresh parsley

Melt butter in large skillet. Add chicken breasts and cook until done and lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken to warm serving platter. Stir flour into drippings in the skillet and cook 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and light cream. Stir and cook until the sauce thickens and bubbles. Stir in the mustard. Return the chicken to the skillet, cover and heat for 10 minutes. Garnish with tomatoes and sprinkle with parsley.

Makes 4 servings

Pasta e Fagioli

Way back then Wart gave me a cookbook from Cook's Illustrated titled "The Best 30-Minute Recipe." I haven't done a lot with it other than make a great Italian soup called Pasta e Fagioli.

Although the book touts making the recipes in 30 minutes, it usually takes me an hour. (I'm not that good of a cook.)

As you see below, the recipe is pretty basic in the ingredients it calls for. The only thing I had to buy at the store was the bacon. (I've now divided up the package and froze the remaining bacon in 3 zip-locks for future needs.)

An inside joke: I was throwing everything together and read "add carrots." What carrots!? A quick review of the ingredients called for two carrots, luckily I had a couple left over from last week's broccoli soup recipe from Lion House. Silly me. Someday I'll read the entire recipe before I begin.

It was pretty cold tonight coming home from work after running a few errands and this soup, like all soups in winter, hit the spot in my little belly.

Not to be too healthy, afterwards I brought out the vanilla bean ice cream. But with a guilty conscience I added blueberries for the anti-oxidants.

Pasta e Fagioli

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 (19-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

2 bay leaves

2 tsp. minced fresh oregano, or ½ tsp. dried

Salt and ground black pepper

4 slices, bacon, chopped fine

1 onion, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 carrots, chopped fine

½ cup small pasta (ditalini, orzo, or stellini, etc.

1 cup frozen cut green beans

Grated Parmesan cheese

Making the Minutes Count:

Mince the onion while the bacon cooks. Chop the carrot while the onion cooks

1. Heat broth mixture: Bring broth, beans, tomatoes, bay leaves, oregano, and ½ tsp. salt to boil, covered, in large saucepan and set aside

2. Cook bacon and onion: Meanwhile, cook bacon in large saucepan over medium-high heat until fat is partially rendered, about 2 minutes. Stir in onion and ¼ tsp. salt and cook until softened and slightly browned, about 8 minutes.

3. Add garlic, broth mixture, carrots, and pasta: Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in broth mixture, carrots, and pasta. Bring to simmer and cook until carrots and pasta are tender, 9 to 11 minutes.

4. Add green beans and season: Stir in green beans and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Off heat, remove bay leaves and season with salt and pepper to taste. Served, passing grated Parmesan separately.

Soup, Again??

Last week Wart emailed belatedly asking for my Lion House recipe for Hearty Beef Stew; she and Ben wanted to have it Sunday for a friend coming from Utah. Unfortunately, I didn't get the email until early Sunday morning; too late to type the recipe and get it to them for that afternoon. (That'll teach her for emailing and not calling.)

Then, last week, much to my surprise, Macy's had chuck roast on sale. So what the heck, we'll have stew for the coming cold on Monday.
With daylight savings time ending "it is the longest day of the year," said Sparky. So I got up, cut up the roast into small bite sizes, and started the stew cooking. (It was also Fast Sunday, which added 45 minutes to the morning . . . no breakfast.)

Sunday morning was beautiful. The sky was blue; the fall leaves are red and yellow, timp was shining bright with its new layer of fresh snow, and Sparky said, "I'm going for a walk, wanna come?" Heck Yes! My momma didn't raise no dummy.

So, in between the walk, church and meetings I made stew. The recipe (per blogging protocol) is below, but I also added lentils and frozen peas. Plus I added extra potatoes and water. Surprising I was also able to retrieve the garlic on toothpicks, and with the spirit of "waste not, want not" I smashed them with a knife on the cutting board and threw them back into the pot.

I think every time I make this stew it seems like the type of soup pioneers would have made and kept warm on the back burner ready for Pa when he came in from the fields. :) As I did, you can just about throw in anything you have on hand.

One thing I don't know is what pot Wart was going to use to cook the stew, since she has my old set of aluminum cookware and I kept the 5 quart dutch oven. Oh well, that's her problem.

Hearty Beef Stew
2 pounds beef chuck, cut in cubes
2 Tbl shortening
4 cups water
1 onion, sliced
1 clove garlic (I used 2)
1 Tbl salt
1 Tbl lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (extra doesn't hurt)
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp paprika
2 bay leaves
Dash of allspice
6 carrots, cut in quarters
½ pound small white onions
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed (I did 5)
¼ cup flour

In heavy Dutch oven, slowly brown beef cubes in shortening. Turn often to brown meat on all sides. This should take about 15 minutes. Then add water, onion, garlic (on toothpick so you can retrieve it), salt, lemon juice, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, paprika, bay leaves and allspice. Cover with lid and simmer on low heat (do not boil) for 2 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

When meat is almost done, add carrots, onions, and potatoes, and simmer for 30 minutes more. Discard bay leaf and garlic. Pour ½ cup water in shaker and add ¼ cup flour; shake to blend. Either remove meat and vegetables from stock or move to one side in pan; stir in flour mixture. Cook and stir till gravy thickens and boils. Makes 8 servings.

Broccoli Soup

We're on a roll; the fag's in the kitchen again. And my fourth posting in less than two weeks? I'm a posting addict!

With Sparky on high-marathon days at work, I have taken some extra time in the kitchen. So last night it was Broccoli-cheese soup.

I've been holding some ingredients in the fridge for a while hoping that they didn't go bad before I took the time to make this soup. I've had the recipe for about a year; I don't remember where I got it from. It was alright; probably not my favorite. A little more work with less quantity of food. I'm also not a fan of Sharp cheddar cheese called for in the recipe. It's also cream based so Sparky will probably not be eating it. :(

One of my favorite things about cooking is using my stove. (Yes, it's mine! When we remodeled a few years ago, Sparky got the oven and fridge, and I got my gas stove.) It has so much heat control. When this recipe called for simmering the roux for 20 minutes I turned the stove to simmer and there it held the temperature just below a boil. (It's also handy keeping dishes hot but not burning waiting for Sparky.)

I guess I'm supposed to post the recipe here, but I can't find it on my hard drive, and I don't feel like re-typing it. So, too bad, so sad.

Herbs

For years I've tried to grow herbs in the yard with minimal success. I always thought they should be planted on the south side of the house so that I could possibly enjoy a longer season with them. I would carefully till the soil, adding peat moss and manure in an attempt to get a decent crop. I remember last year going to the Farmers Market in Provo and seeing Ziploc bags of herbs ready for purchase in early June and then think, "Crap I don't even have my herbs planted, and these guys are selling it." But after going to the nursery and buying stock, planting them, my luck was not that good. As this picture shows, my success, especially this year, was poor.

As you can see the Basil (front) and parsley (back) didn't do so well in between the chives (right) and spearmint (left) two herbs that can't be killed with gasoline.

But early this spring I pulled some Lavender plants from the east side of the house making room for my herb garden. I went to the nursery and purchased Rosemary, Lemon Balm, Chives and Basil starts. As you can see here the results were significantly better.

The plants did very well. My next issue was that we don't do a lot of cooking in the summer with yard work, biking, blading and other activities. So what to do with herbs when Mother Nature does her thing and freezes the hell out of everything; especially on the northeast side of the house were my new herb spread was set.

I decided I would try and dry the Basil and keep it through the winter to be used in Italian dishes we sometime make when the weather is cold. So here is my attempt to dry it on a cookie sheet.
Next I crushed it (by hand, can I sell it for more money? It's also organic. Where's the money?)

Lastly, I bagged it. Tada! (Maybe I should pay a marketing firm to create a packaging label for me.)As cold weather has now set in, I've been looking at soup recipes and noticed that most of them call for "fresh" Bail. So I naturally thought my packaging efforts had all been in vain until last night I noticed in the cupboard on the herb rack a brand new bottle of McCormick Crushed Basil. DAMN!

So is life, but I figure I have grown a little with my efforts. Besides if the end of the world comes next year and society as we know it slows; at least I will have the comfort of knowing I can do this. (RIGHT; and pope is really Mormon!)

Victorian Salmon Chowder

Fall is coming, life is slow; so the fag was back in the kitchen tonight.

I've been looking at a lot of soup recipes lately in anticipation of the cooler weather. Last week I cooked up a simple Roasted Chicken Noodle soup that turned out pretty good. (Thank you Costco for providing the chicken.)

Tonight I made Victorian Salmon Chowder. It turned out "better than last time" said Sparky, a good sign. And the ultimate compliment is when she went for a second helping. YES!!

On Saturday, I sent Sparky to the store for some Salmon while I was at work, and she came home with a little too much for Sunday dinner. So I saved a portion and got out this recipe; we had most of the ingredients on hand, so we were good-to-go. I'm including the recipe here since last time I was reprimanded for not including it with another food item last spring. Apparently it's an "unwritten rule of bloggers" to include the recipe.

It's not a hard recipe, but you use a few pots.

Have I mentioned how much I love my gas stove. I love how hot it is and more importantly I really enjoy the temperature control: fast to boil and fast to cool. Lot's of control when making roux.

Ingredients:

Lemon Slice
8 oz salmon fillet
4 diced little red new potatoes, unpeeled
¾ cup diced onion
1 ½ cups chopped celery
1 stick butter
½ cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups half & half
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
¾ cup frozen peas
2 Tbl fresh dill weed
2 tsp (or more) Old Bay seasoning
2 tsp vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

In a saucepan of water and 1 lemon slice, poach salmon fillet for 10 minutes; set salmon aside.

In a large pan, combine potatoes, onion and celery. Barely cover with water and simmer until tender.

Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan, melt butter. Stir in flour. Then add milk, half & half, salt and sugar. Cook until thickened and add to cooked vegetables and liquid in pan.

Flake salmon and add to pan, along with peas, dill weed, Old Bay seasoning, and vinegar.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Borrowed Time; Where's the Rain

We're living on borrowed time.

It's mid-October and still the weather is warm. (Last night, again, we had the house windows open and it didn't get unbearably cold in the house.) The high today was about 70 degrees, and walking home from church was very pleasant even as threatening clouds were warning of a change later.

I suggested to Sparky that we go for a small bike ride around about, but she wisely said, "it's going to get cold here soon." So I went out in the backyard, threw some bird seed down and shot this picture.

Unfortunately the sky is lighter than it really was and you can't see the clouds coming. the trees are turning color as mother nature struts her stuff.

I wiped off a couple of chairs and talked her into coming outside and enjoy the silence. She brought out some crackers, and we just sat soaking what warmth there was before the clouds arrived. Later it would sprinkle.

It was deathly quiet; no car noise, not even traffic on Center street; lawnmowers were silent; no kids were playing outside; nor birds chirping. It was very, very quiet. Peace in a hectic world And even though we sat directly under the wind chimes, they didn't strike once during the 20 minutes we sat there -- very pleasant!

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, which, unfortunately, is as it should. We need the moisture -- if nothing else, to fill the hot tub -- my major weakness as I grow older. (I literally have to force myself out of it. I fear I could soak for hours if possible.)

Tomorrow also starts a new week, bringing with it life's experiences, opportunities and challenges.

A Mussel Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving gathering has now "grown" to just the 3 of us: Sparky, Wart and me. Nic and company went to her in laws. Sparky's brother and sisters all went other directions -- so it was just the 3 of us this year.

While planning the meal last week, Wart suggested "mussels, or something." And since it was just the 3 of us, cooking a whole turkey seemed like a lot of effort, especially when the girls aren't that big on meat. So we passed on the turkey we had received to the bishop to use, and proceeded with a different Thanksgiving dinner.


I shopped around earlier in the week and saw that Costco had mussels and so I said, "OK." Sparky, always the trooper, said "whatever", and we were on.
Mussels are alive when you buy them, kind of like lobster, you actually kill them during the cooking process. (The young oriental woman at the Costco counter didn't believe me as we viewed them, which I found surprising.)
In preparing them you need to wash them with a stiff brush to remove any grit or sand stuck to them.


Next you have to "debeard" them, by pulling or cutting off and moss-like matter that is sometimes hanging out of them. I was surprised at how tough this process was. Fortunately, these were farm raised and hence only a relatively few of them actually had beards.

In cooking them you first make a broth. We used a mixture of wine, butter, shallots, garlic, bay leave and pepper. After cooking the broth down a little and burning off the alcohol, you pour the mussels in the pan and cover them for 5 minutes to steam them.

Our meal was supplemented with sweet potato fries, green salad, a traditional fruit salad, and crusty bread, which we dipped in little bowls of broth.


In December 2001, Sparky and I were in Paris eating dinner at a sidewalk cafe; we observed a nicely-dressed business woman in a suit eating mussels and french fries. We were fascinated as we watched her pick up the fries with an empty mussel, tweezers style. It apparently was a regular meal for her.


Our plates were simple; not the bounteous spread of a traditional Thanksgiving fare. But the food was good and our stomachs were filled. And we are thankful of the many blessing that we do enjoy during these times.

I wonder what Thanksgiving dinner will be next year, since Dr. Z (Wart) has accepted a position out of state at NIH beginning in March. Life moves on whether you're prepared or not; so we just move with it, hoping and praying that what preparations and plans we do make will prove adequate. Hopefully we will continue to have peace and love in our home and family.

Quiche

The Fag's in the Kitchen!

Here's another post, and it just occurred to me that I have posted 3 now this week -- all having to do with cooking. The Fag's in the kitchen!

This afternoon I went to 3 stores grocery shopping for our Thanksgiving Feast? Then I came home and put up additional heat tape in the raingutters preparing for ol' Man Winter.

Next, it was into the kitchen and make a favorite quiche of mine. YES, REAL MEN EAT QUICHE! Although I have an entire book on quiches, I like a recipe we got one time from Questar Gas many years ago.

I rushed to get it in the oven while I went HT. They take 45 - 50 minutes to cook and so I figured that was just about enough time. Well, we were a little long so the pie is a tiny bit over cooked, but still good.

Quiche reminds me of the first time Sparky and I went to France. We had driven into the country from Netherlands and drove about two hours until finally reaching our destination of Rouan. (This is the town made famous by Monét for his dozens of paintings of the cathedral during different times of the day.) After doing some sightseeing we were getting hungry; we spied a little pastry shop and went in. There we saw these cute little quiches sitting in the pastry case. I said that would be good I wonder if the girl can warm it up for us. Sparky said, "ask." Remember this is the first day of the first time in France. Our language skills were/are not the best.

I said to the counter girl, "Can you make this hot?" She looked at me curiously, so I said again "hot?" and waved my hand in front of my mouth as if something were hot inside. She still gave us a curious look and then said, "sho?" It was then our turn to look curious. A little frustrated she grabbed a paper pad and wrote h-o-t. We smiled and nodded yes. We learned a new French word that day -- sho, or hot. She warmed it up in a microwave and we left with our first "hot meal" in France.

As we sat on a park bench eating along came a couple of missionaries. We yelled to them and they stopped and talked for a few minutes. They had an appointment and had to leave. (I guess we weren't golden enough.) But I remember one was from Idaho, and I think we called his parents and reported on him when we got home.

Fun experiences!

Triangle Faces for Priesthood

I was asked to give the lesson in Priesthood last Sunday. We did the talk by E. Steven Snow on Get On with Our Lifes. For a take-away, Sparky helped me make these cookies.

The four points of the talk were:
1. Listen to the Prophets.
2. Remember the Eternal Perspective.
3. Have Faith
4. Be of Good Cheer.

So to relate it, I drew a triangle on the chaulk board and wrote the first 3 points on the sides and helped the class discuss them. With the fourth point "Be of Good Cheer" I drew a face in the middle, hence the cookies.

It was fun, and a rarety for the High Priests to have treats. I was also surprised at how quickly the young kids found out about the treats. Julie G. was in the classroom begging within 1 minute of dismissal. Wow!

I also gave some to Brenda and company as we were leaving. It was fun!

German Pancakes

When I was a young boy and every other blue moon my family would go down to the local Pancake House for breakfast. I always ordered German pancakes. The waitress would bring out this pancake that was shaped like a thin bowl and place it before me; then she would take two forks and fold in the sides making it flat for me to eat. It was fun and tasted great. I was always amazed at how they made the shape.

So the other morning we had one at home. The batter was a little too much for the skillet, but as I pulled it out of the oven the sides had curled up, reminding me of my childhood experience. Served with powdered sugar and syrup it was great.

She's Runnin' Fine Now

We've been having some plumbing problems this fall. About three months ago I was downstairs in the basement and in the back of the house when I noticed a little water puddle near the back door. It appeared that water was running down the 3-inch drain pipe from upstairs. Unfortunately, the pipe comes out of the exterior stud wall right at the floor joists and I couldn't tell for sure where the water was coming from.

One day, while Sparky was in the shower I went down stairs and could see that indeed the water was running down the pipe from somewhere in the wall and wetting the little pieces of carpet we have at the basement back door to wipe our feet.

So I called in the expert, my neighbor Bruce, who also happens to be brick mason and general contractor. After some discussion and review of the house plumbing we agreed that his men would come and remove a section of brick to try and find the leak source.

So a couple weeks ago they showed up and gently knocked a hole in the brick work to try and find the source of the leak. My fear was that it was coming from the bathrooms on the second floor. We made a hole mid-way up the wall, but no leak. A good sign.

So then they knocked out brick towards the bottom, again I went upstairs and flushed the toilet and ran water. Sure enough there was a small leak in the drain pipe just as it entered the basement.

Somehow the joint of the 45-degree elbow (red arrow) had sprung a leak and every time we would use a sink, shower, tub or toilet a little bit of water would come out of this joint. A little gross!

With the problem exposed, I went to Home Depot and bought just about every pipe, glue and fitting that could possibly be needed to fix the situation. Then with the help of our neighbor Terry and later Bruce, we replaced the leaking elbow.

Then a few days later Bruce's men returned and put the brick back in.

Now the miracle of the whole thing is that I knew the approximate location of where there were some excess brick buried in the yard. Years ago when we were putting in the white vinyl fence, I had dug a hole for fence post. Enlarging the hole to dig out some concrete from the earlier fence post I accidentally ran into several rolls of brick that had been neatly stacked in the ground; kind of like the Terra Cotta solders of Xian, China.

Since taking brick out of a wall is almost impossible to do without destroying some of them, I was lucky to remember the approximate location of these "hidden" brick. Now 10 years later I had to dig a couple exploratory holes before I found the stack brick, which we used to replace the brick damaged during their removal.

So now it's all back together. Let winter begin; "She's Runnin' Fine Now."

The Bells of Europe

Flying by the seat of our pants Sparky and I returned from 9 days of traveling in Europe in September. Not long enough; too long!


We flew into Geneva Wednesday morning, where Sparky's girl friend, Gishlaine picked us up and took us to her home 10 minutes away and across the border into France. After a quick (not long enough nap) Gishlaine and her husband Jim drove us 45 minutes down to Annecy, a quiet little city with an old-town section that could give Venice, Italy a run for its money with all the canals and waterways.

The next morning Gishlaine drove us back to the Geneva airport where we picked up a VW Fox, setup the TomTom GPS on the windshield, said goodbye and headed off to see my ancestor's homeland.

We drove around lake Geneva and up the Autobahn, turned off and drove the back roads of Switzerland. Up and over Juanpasse we drove, exclaiming how beautiful the sights were. I think almost every other sentence out of our mouths was, "Oh, Wow!"

As we reached the high mountain pass, suddenly there in front of us were cows with bells around their necks, a tradition of Switzerland and a highlight for Sparky. We stopped the car and made this video.

We drove on to Zweissimen where my paternal grandmother was born, found the local church cemetary and were pleasantly surprized at how many Zumbrunnen headstones we found. Every grouping had one. (Zumbrunnen is our original family name, prior to Uncle Rudy changing it to Zumbrennen during WWII.)

Next we drove 4 miles to Reidenbach where my paternal grandfather was born. Again, another cemetary and more Zumbrunnen headstones. Someday we will have to come back and try to located some relatives. What beautiful country!

As the day wained, it was time to find a room to sleep. We found a "Zimmer" (B&B) just outside Interlacken in Niederried and on the shore of Lake Brienzer. The proprietor was an old woman who gave us the room up the steap wooden stairs on the second floor. We had two bedrooms, kitchen/dining, living room and bathroom all to our selves. That night we could hear cow bells ringing from the mountainside behind us. Sparky's eyes twinkled everytime she heard them.

In the morning we were, again, astounded by the beauty of this country. Lake Brienzer in front of us and the Swiss alps on the other side shooting straight up out of the water. Cow bells ringing in the back of us, what more could you want.

We drove on to Luzern, saw the sights, and then to Zurich where I had pre-arranged one of the few hotels for the trip. It was a Marriott Courtyard and the king bed was a far cry from the twin beds we had slept in the night before. That evening we took the tram downtown, saw the sights, had dinner and returned to the hotel and died.

In the morning I got up, dressed and walked across the street to the COOP market and found some fruit and pastries for breakfast.

(Why is it that Sparky and I can't get up and out of a room before 10 a.m.? We would never make it on a AARP tour, having to have your luggage outside the room by 6:30 a.m.)

Then it was in the car and driving northeast to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. We walked around the town center, paid €3 to have our passports stamped with the official Liechtenstein stamp as proof we were there, bought an ice cream cone and drove on up the road and into Germany.

Passing through Austria, we arrived in Fussen midafternoon just in time to retreive our reserved tickets, and the small bus up the mountain for our 3 p.m. tour of Neuschwanstein castle, another long-time goal of Sparky. (She was disappointed when Greg and I went there 4 years ago.)

That night we found Suzzane's Zimmer in Fussen to spend the night. We got the last of 6 rooms she had available, which was in the attic. The ceiling at the peak was probably six-feet high. I had to duck to pass through the bedroom door, and we had to lower the floor over the stairway so we could walk from the bathroom into the bedroom. The shower area is encircled with a shower curtain. The whole floor is tiled. It's definitely not the Marriott, but a room to remember.

The next day brought Sunday and we drove along the "Romantic Highway" to Oberammergau, site of the Passion Play put on every 10 years. We stumbled onto a local dairy fair around noon and I got my Bratwurst. Sparky had an authentic German noodle dish with carmelized onions, noodles and Gruyere cheese. It was great! Two bottles of "apple juice with water" to wash it down and we were set. Townspeople in traditional costumes walking by, while the Oompa band played. Everyone was having fun.

On up the romantic highway we drove stopping to see churches, towns and the countryside. The weather is beautiful. A couple days with a little bit of rain in the early morning, some mist for scenic shots but today is wonderful; blue sky is abondant.

I'm surprised at the number of farm houses and barns here in the countryside covered with solar panels. They say Germany's power is from 30% renewable resources and I can understand that.

The next major goal of the trip is Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Rothenburg on the Tauber River). This mideaval, walled town hasn't been counquered since the mid 1600's, and then it was the powder keg room keepers fault.

We had called a Zimmer while driving on the road, and the housekeeper said she had rooms available.

We took the large room in the back overlooking the garden and gold-fish pond. With our luggage stowed again, we headed out walking the town seeing the sights as outlined by our third traveling companion, Rick Steves. St. Jakob's church, covenant garden, castle gardens were just some of the many sight we did. That night we did the "Night Watchman" tour and followed him around the town hearing some of the colorful stories about this picturesque place. Although no visitor cars are allowed within the walls, I was greatful having our room in the back of the Zimmer since once in a while you could hear a car rumbling down the cobblestone street out front. Another curious thing was that the innkeeper didn't want to be paid the €72 until the next day. We did, after breakfast.

We are almost at the end of the trip, but still more places to see and things to do. Once again we packed and rattled our luggage along the cobblestone roads to our car parked outside the city walls in Lot #4. But before we could escape Rothenburg, a kindly old man stopped me taking photos and pointed out a better shot to take. It took a minute to understand his broken English with our limited German, but it was a good shot. One of dozens in the this town.
Next stop was the Rhine River Valley. We found another Zimmer in Bacharach and borrowed the Innkeepers two bikes and rode down along the Rhine 8 miles to St. Goar. Lots of people riding bikes; mostly our age. All most all the roads we have driven on in Germany have an accompaning bike path, country roads or autobahn, you name it. It would be fun to have them in the States. It would also probably encourage people to exercise more.

In St. Goar we rode around town on our bikes. We rode along the back streets checking out the way people live; ate more pastries and waited for the ferry to take us back up river to our home for the night in Bacharach.

In the morning, Wednesday, we drove down the river again past St. Goar to K0blenz, turned left and drove up the Mosel River valley. In Moselkern, the lack of sleep over took me. So we parked the car in the town park and I layed down under an apple tree and took a 45 minute nap while Sparky explored the town and riverfront, complete with its bike path and barges on the way to ports within Germany. I was lucky to not be Galieao; apples were dropping off the park's trees as I slept.

(You can take a boat, and they have them commercially available, from Amsterdam, to Frankfut, and on to Basel, Switzerland. All on the same boat; just cruising the river.)

With a little shut eye behind me, we drove through Moselkern, up the canyon, parked the car and hike 45 minutes to Burg Eltz, one of the premier castles of Europe. Now owned by four families, it has never sacked in its 600 year history. The owners now live in Frankfurt and also have large land holdings in Alaska, the tour guide said.

That night we slept in Beutig, a town on the Mosel and in the Weingut Zimmer. We ate dinner with two other couples at the same table and under the grape vines. Since we weren't in a touristy town, hardly anyone spoke English. One woman at our table and the young waiter a little. It was an experience ordering dinner, and they all laughed when we said, "No alcohol." They didn't have Sprite or Fanta, so we ended up with warm grape juice from a wine bottle, the house specialty, but with "no alcohol."

That night we again were in the attic room, up two flights of stairs. Our bathroom was up an additional 6 steps within the room and the window/skylight revealed the church steeple one half block away. Unfortunately, and contrary to most places, the bells tolled all night on the hour and half hour, and our beds were lumpy. Probably the worst night of all, but we were greatful to have the room as it was probably one of the last in town.

The next morning we again loaded our bags and rolled them down the cobblesone street to our car parked in the town square next to the river.

With the Mosel River on our right we drove 2 miles up the Beilstein, a town recommended by Rick Steves. It was now becoming common-place to have beautiful, idealic towns with photo ops everywhere. I've never seen so much beautiful country as we have seen on this trip.

After shooting a bunch of pictures of this little riverside town, a bus load of tourists arrived and suddenly the streets were filled with them. (Damn Tourists!) The oppurtunity was gone. We had had about 45 minutes relatively alone and then they were here.

We loaded the car on a small ferry; paid €3 and took it 136 meters across the Mosel and drove back down the river and on to Cologne, where we saw the Cologne Cathedral. This cathedral's claim to fame is having the skulls of the 3 magi with crowns of gold. We saw the miniture gold cathedral that supposedly holds the skulls, but who knows . . . We came out of the cathedral and were deciding what to do next when the bells started ringing. Oh, my gosh! They rang and rang and rang in the middle of the afternoon. Here's how they sounded.

Next we walked down a pedistrian-only street, stopping to get some more pastries (the food of the traveler in Europe) and hot chocolate, since it was a little nippy. I asked a young business man if he spoke English and then how to say "hot chocolate" in German. I find most people are generally helpful if you ask.

We had parked the car under the cathedral, literally, and after retrieving it, we drove to Dussledorf for our last night in Europe. With our trusty TomTom GPS leading the way, we drove right to the Hilton. They surprised us with an upgrade to the Executive level. That was very surprising since I had booked the room using my Hilton Honors points. That night dinner was in the Executive Lounge.

Early the next morning, we took a taxi to the airport. (I had turned in the car the day before.) Traveling light with only two carry-on bags each, we passed through Security, bought some chocolates for the kids with our left over coinage of €12.40, boarded the plane and flew home -- the worst part of the trip.

We decided this was my tenth time to Europe and Sparky's seventh. In all, we drove 1600 Kilometers this trip, traveled through 5 countries and slept in a different room each night, only 3 of which we had pre-arranged prior to our departure. Quite an adventure, and it was fun all the way! I never get enough of Europe.

Ireland's looking interesting! Never been there!

Park City Arts Festival

It was a perfect Utah weather day as all members of the Z family made it to Park City for the annual Arts Festival. (I don't think we have missed many times in the past 30+ years of going.) Bright and sunny, the temperature was just right for the first day of August -- hot in the sun and cool in the shade. During our decent down Main Street, we past by an open alley way and Wart suddenly had goose pimple and mention it was kind of cold.

But Sparky was in Seventh heaven to have all her posterity there, including grand kids. Tyler was a constant shadow as he explained everything to grandma. (He's definitely going to be an engineer of sorts when he grows up.) Frank was back and forth between grandma and his stroller. (Main Street is a pretty good climb for a 2-year-old.) Not a shopper, Kate was a little bored but Lou is starting appreciate the jewelry being offered by the craftsmen.

Slowly but surely we made our way past the booths and people. The people were as interesting as booths with vendors from all across the country, plus at least one vendor from Canada that I noticed. It's a different crowd from what we normally see in Happy Valley.

Half way up the long drag, Frank was hungry, so dad sat him down in the shade and bought him a hot dog. Mom had brought her usual half gallon of iced water in the bottom of the stroller so dad and son were set for lunch.

I was surprised at the number of photographers displaying their wares this year. Probably 10 were there, all with a different twist to the art. Some were colored, some black & white, while another one was sepia toned. One photographer had printed the pictures on canvas and then put a glaze other the image, making it appear to be a painting. Interesting.

Wart's favorite jewelry store is in Park City. They have a unique style in their work, and I admit I liked a lot of the merchandise. Sparky, naturally, picked out a ring that cost almost as much as our first house. The attendant was very surprised that her counterpart had allowed Sparky to wander the store with it on, as she came to show it to me. I guess it was a no-no!

We were (at least I was) disappointed when we made it to the top and the food court had only lite sandwich's to eat. It's been a little of a tradition to have a bratwurst with sauerkraut on a bun each year. But no luck this one. So we turned around and headed back down the street, stopping at the Red Banjo pizzeria for lunch. It was a long wait since we were part of the noon rush, but the pizza came piping hot, which made up for the wait. As my father used to say, "Hunger is the best cook." I think he had a good point.

After lunch we stopped at an ice cream stand and bought various sundry items. (Nothing like ice cream after a hot spicy pizza.) Then we spied the full-size cow standing out front of the creamery. We mounted the kids and got this shot just before Kate about wrestle the cow to the ground as she swung off of it via its horns.

After the festival we were off to the factory outlets for more fun as we spent money we don't have. Thank goodness for MasterCard.

Don't tell the Bishop, but we may head back up tomorrow since the pass is good for both days and we didn't finish seeing the lower half of the festival. Shhhhhh.

Summer Grilled Pizza

So, today's Food Section of the Deseret News reminded me to do this post.

On Sunday we had pizza cooked on the grill.

Last year I attended a local Williams-Sonoma, Saturday-morning cooking class and they gave us (as typical) instructions on how to make the food item of the class and here an easy pizza dough in the food processor and then build several pizza variations. We made a couple of these last summer when it was hot and again last Sunday we had another. In addition to making this outside on the grill, another fun thing was using the basil and cherry tomatoes from our own garden. (I've realized that most of my recipes using basil are for heavy, Italian foods; and hence more applicable for cold weather when my garden basil will be frozen. So it was good to use the basil now.)


I had bought this pizza stone last year, which came with a paddle to hold the pizza while making it and also a rack to hold the stone, but it occurred to me that when the pizza was finished cooking and leaving it on the stone would cause it to over cook; doesn't make sense. But maybe I'm just dense . . .

I thought about going out and milk a buffalo and make my own "buffalo's-milk mozzarella" cheese also, but couldn't find a buffalo nearby. I didn't want to drive to Antelope Island and wrestle a beast. I don't think I could even milk a cow as my mother used to do when she was growing up.

This is a woman's pizza since it doesn't have any meat on it but only veggies. (I think every man loves an all meat pizza, why is that.) Still it was fun for a hot, Sunday afternoon. Plus Sparky liked it! That's always a bonus. I discovered later that we have some pepperoni, so I could have added that to one half, but . . .

This is called a Margarita pizza in Italy. Sparky and I actually had the same thing there one time in Florence except that it also had an egg cooked in the middle, Fun!

But, back to the Deseret News. The food section had a number of articles on building your own pizza, either from scratch or preferably by just enhancing a store-bought one.

A fun, cooking idea that the kids could get into and make their own.

Shrimp Boil

I've stumbled upon a simple yet good, little dinner that Sparky enjoys--Southern Shrimp Boil.

A couple weeks ago I got out a bag of shrimp to boil and I read the "serving suggestion" on the back, southern shrimp boil. And as luck would have it, we had all the ingredients needed: cajun spice, new potatoes, corn on the cob and raw shrimp.

Per the package instructions:

Bring 3 qts. water to boil and add 4 Tbs. of Cajun spices (such as Old Bay seasoning).
- Place 1# of quartered new potatoes in the water and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add mini ears of corn to the boiling water (I add 2 ears cut in half) and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add raw shrimp (I do about 1/2#) and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Serve (I've been adding 1/2 cube of butter)

Very simple and yet good. Another great benefit is that we've been able to cook it outside on the side burner of our barbecue grill, saving the need to cook inside. We haven't, but you could easy add a small salad to round out the dinner.

Simple.

Summer Party

We had some friends and neighbors over last night for a summer backyard party. We were pretty laid back on the arrangements.

I told each couple to B.Y.O.M and a side dish. (We provided two grills.) Although we wouldn't make specific food assignments. It was interesting to see what we ended up having.

People brought two baked beans, two green salads with spinach, 3 pasta salads, rolls and chips & dip, and some cookies. Fortunately, Sparky had prepared a bowl of M &M's which rounded out the food, except for the Canuck, who doesn't like chocolate so I brought out some old Halloween candy just for him. He was happy!

Later Sparky commented how nice it was to have the guys to the cooking on the grills, which also proved a variety, from: beef filet, t-bones, to chicken to shrimp kabobs.

It was a easy party to through together: bring your meat and a side dish. Hopefully we'll do another later this summer.

But my most favorite part of the evening was stringing Christmas lights around the yard and turning them on as dusk hit. I was really surprised at how quickly they went up in less than an hour, the festive atmosphere they created, and how quickly they came down -- less than 30 minutes.