Potatoes on the Grill

I am really becoming a fan of potatoes on the grill. The one recipe I made a while back was definitely good but high calorie to say the least. It was the 3-cheese grilled potatoes that included tons of cheese and bacon. It got a little brown on the bottom which made it all the more delectable but the hubby doesn't like all that cheese and I couldn't eat all of it. When my son gave me some of his home-grown Yukon Golds, I thought it was a good time to try them on the grill. They cook up so quick that I thought grilling them was the perfect choice. They turned out great but I don't have anymore. So when I saw baby red potatoes at Erie Co. Farms, I decided to try those. Voila, they cooked up just as quick. Now I've moved on to sweet potatoes and I'm equally impressed. What I do it cut them into chunks (sweets a little bigger, baby reds in half) , drizzle with a little oil and season with some GrillMates seasoning. Believe it or not for the baby reds I use the Montreal Steak and sometimes put onions and peppers in with them. For the sweets I use the Smokehouse Maple that has some brown sugar in it. I coat a double thickness of foil with cooking spray, seal it up and cook over med heat for about 20 minutes, flipping half-way through. I like to get them before they've gotten burned on the bottom but still cooked. This is perfect for us because 1 sweet potato is plenty for us, as is a handful of the baby reds. I enjoy trying the different spice mixes and have a few more up my sleeve.

Stitch in the Ditch

I'm currently working on a project (can't say what) that I need to sew in the ditch and this makes me think of my mom. One thing about my mother is that she was game for just about any craft or new activity coming down the pike. She used to sew alot, in fact, I remember times when she would fix a project I was making while I was sleeping. It was a black velvet a-line dress which had lace inserts going down. It seemed like every time I tried sewing them in, they would pucker and make the dress look awful. She figured it out for me. She was into the Stretch and Sew movement that took over during the 70's with double knit. I think she even took a class on it and one of the techniques they did was stitch in the ditch. Boy could I use her talent now! I guess I'll eventually master it with some practice but she could save me some time. I do have her Touch and Sew machine but I haven't been using it lately. I thought I didn't have the manual for it and looked online to buy it. They were going to charge close to 20 bucks for it. But I found it! When our family room at the cabin is completed, I have plans to put one of my machines there to use. I'm really tickled that a craft room will still be an option for me.

Redemption

Well, I think I redeemed myself last night with my Beef and Barley Skillet meal. I went through some cookbook magazines and tore out the ones I thought I might try. This one seemed easy, I had the ingredients and was healthy to boot. By the way I just had enough barley in the box. Although it's high in carbs, it also has more fiber and protein which is good. Anyway I used ground beef, onions, garlic, tomato sauce, beef broth and a whole bunch of vegetables such as carrots, tomatoes, and green peppers along with the barley. It cooked up quick in the skillet and reheating should be easy enough. Now I'm looking forward to trying some of the other recipes I cut out.

Bad Day for Cooking

Since it was Father's Day yesterday I decided to put a little more effort into cooking. I hadn't made cookies in quite a while so I thought that would be a nice treat for him. For supper we were going to have spaghetti, definitely a favorite, and with some leftover pizza dough and a ton of pepperoni, I decided to make pepperoni bread. It didn't seem all that out of the ordinary and all things I've made before. In the morning I went through a bunch of my recipes to organize them a little, get rid of some and make sure I had the ones I want to make when the grandkids come to visit. We were still staining the deck so when I came in for a late lunch I started on the cookies. I used the recipe on the package of chips which had half butter, half shortening. I've done that before with good results. The cookies took forever to bake, were still unbrowned and very flat. They tasted OK but not my usual success. It also could have been the brown sugar that was a little hard but I was still able to scoop it out and pack it into the measuring cup. Then I started to get the pepperoni bread ready - what a disaster. I knew the dough was soft for the pizza but that was how it was supposed to be. Unfortunately, it did not work for bread. I made it anyway but it spread out on the pan too much and was doughier inside than I wanted it. At that point I'm thinking this is a bad day for cooking and hopefully I can redeem myself with the spaghetti. I wasn't even making anything from scratch so what could go wrong. When I got the water ready for the pasta, I decided to use some sea salt we had bought at Sharp Shopper and I couldn't use it in the shaker because it was coarse. I always add salt liberally in my pasta water, just like all the food network stars do. They always say it's the only chance you get to salt your pasta. Well, when I tried the pasta, it was very salty. I was shocked that it would have absorbed so much of it. I made sure I told my husband to taste it first before he adds more. What a day of disasters in the kitchen! At least I pretty much knew what my mistakes were and the next time they should turn out better.

Noise Pollution

I've written recently about what I'll miss when we move to the cabin but yesterday I started to think about what I won't miss about living here. Don't get me wrong - some of these things are not all that bad and when my kids were growing up, I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of this area, I even block most of it out. But the cabin is such a different lifestyle that you can't help but compare.

1. Now that the kids are out of school there's not much sound over there but in the fall when I would sit on the deck and eat my lunch, all I could hear were the screams of a certain little girl. It sounded like she was being abducted or worse. I eventually went inside.


2. There seems to be a constant stream of cars, trucks or motorcycles driving past out house. The cars are the least of my worries but the trucks literally shake the house and the motorcycles are so loud you can't hear the TV.


3. Living so close to 79, we seem to get alot of sirens and ambulances heading that way. Of course there's always someone being chased on 99 and an occasional nabbing of someone right in front of the school.


4. Then there's the normal neighborhood sounds that I don't really mind and can be comforting to know someone else is around such as the 2 boys having fun in their new pool (their voices really carry), the girls next door, and the sound of lawn mowers all around.


5. The one sound I will never get used to and I wish they would outlaw them or the people that use them are the loud car stereos that blast. Usually it's in a car at the school or stopped at the stop sign out front. Last night it was the kid up the street working on his car with the music playing. The whole house inside was throbbing worse that my pulse at times and I looked around for where it was coming from. When I couldn't see anyone at the usual places I honestly thought it might be my husband in the sitting room begging for help. When I walked outside and saw and hear him, I was appalled. There was absolutely no reason for that.

Now when we go to the cabin I will appreciate the solitude and enjoy the birds, chippies and an occasional woodpecker. When we moved in they all probably said "There goes the neighborhood".

Free Concerts

My husband and I have had some good luck lately finding free concerts to listen to. This is something we both enjoy - going out to listen to live entertainment. The last couple of years, Erie has been known for all the concerts, free no less, at different places around the area. We've gone downtown for the Eight Great Tuesdays before and what makes it nice is the shuttle service being offered. Anyway, things started off really well on Friday when we went to DuBois Community Days and stayed for the concert with Neal McCoy. Neither of us had ever heard of him but that didn't stop us. I think my husband assumed since he was a country singer that it was something I would want to do. It turned out to be one of the best concerts I'd been to in a long time. We would have stayed til the end but the sky opened up and dumped a bushel of rain on us so it was time to leave. Oh, did I fail to mention that along with the free comes open-air, bring your own chair, rain or shine? I guess that's part of the appeal of it all for us. Then Saturday we went to one of our favorite dives in the area for a Make-a-Wish fundraiser at Over the Mountain. There was a $5 cover charge for this one but it went to the charity. They also had a Chinese Auction set up and since there weren't many there, we thought we might have a good chance of winning something. Chances were right - we won a nice camp chair and DuBois hat! We listened to the groups play until the rain came there also and headed for home. We're looking forward to a pig roast there with groups playing all afternoon and evening. Then Sunday night we went to Liberty Park here in Erie for the free REO Speedwagon concert. They initially were selling tickets for it but with some added sponsors, decided to make it a freebie. Well, 8,998 other people had the same idea as we did but it was a good concert, beautiful sunset on the lake, good food and no rain. I have to admit I didn't really know what they sang until I heard them and then it rang a bell. Needless to say, we were quite proud of ourselves for our weekend and free ventures.

Patriotism Can Be Contagious

About a month ago when the weather started to get nicer, I noticed as we drove down the road to our cabin that one of the neighbors had put up a flag outside their front door. It waved so nice that day and gave me a good feeling as we passed. It was not a holiday that day which struck me odd because that's when we've always put our flag out. The next trip we made to the cabin I noticed the guy across the street had a flag waving on his garage. At that point I thought we should have one too. A couple weeks after that as we got to our cabin I noticed that the house across the street from us had a flag waving which told us they were back home. That was it - this past weekend we bought another flag and put it on the front porch, if nothing else but to let others know we were there. It got me thinking about how I felt seeing a flag and thought it just might be contagious. So that's what I did first thing this morning - put our flag outside. Tomorrow is Flag Day which is a holiday in PA and this I remember from summer school because we got the day off. Flags tell us many things about what's going on such as if the post office is open and if someone in public office has died. Being a Girl Scout leader, I volunteered my troop to do flag ceremonies more times than I can remember and I thought it was a good lesson for the girls to learn. We learned respect for the flag, the correct procedures to follow, team work and of course, it also fulfilled a requirement for numerous badges. So, my challenge to all of you reading is to test my theory and fly your flag - every day you're home this summer and see who else follows along.

Tragic Accident

Once again there was an accident involving a couple kids who just graduated from high school and one lost his life. It was all over the news yesterday and today and the driver is being charged. Most of the focus has been on the fatality who they say is someone who is well liked, good athlete, a bright future ahead of him and who always had a smile on his face. While I sympathize with all who knew him, especially his family, I can't seem to keep from asking exactly who is to blame. They are offering counseling services at the school for those affected which is great but will they miss the opportunity to be honest with the kids and give them a life lesson? I think both of these boys were drinking, in fact after the accident the driver was spotted running off with a cooler of beer to dump. The victim was not wearing a seat belt either. My take on it is that both boys had been drinking and maybe the driver was more sober than the victim. It very well could have been the other way around and our good kid might be the one being charged. Too bad that graduation speech hadn't contained anything about the dangers of drinking and driving and maybe these types of accidents right after graduation could be avoided.

What We'll Miss

I was thinking yesterday about what we'll miss when we move to our cabin - not sure when but it will come eventually. Here's what I came up with.

1. The pool. It's not something I use alot especially not having a heater but on these warm days, I really look forward to it. I spend most of my time in there cleaning it out but it does such a good job of lowering my body temperature. I mentioned before about looking out the kitchen window and seeing the sparkling water. That I'll really miss, even when I can't go in.


2. The garden. Yes, it's a chore, for my husband anyway, to till it and get it all ready to plant but now that it's in, I find myself thinking of recipes to use the bounty in. In fact, yesterday I found canning lids for .99 each so I bought a bunch. I know I can buy produce at a market but it's been so nice picking it in the backyard for free, whenever I want.


3. The fruit trees. Once again my husband does all the work until it comes time to pick, can, cook or otherwise do something with all the fruit, and then my job starts. In the past we've made cider with the apples which we love. My husband has a couple trees planted at the cabin but the decision is still out as to whether they will last with the deer and bears around.

So those are the things I think I will miss the most when we leave. They are also the things that take the most time and energy for my husband. I think he will probably miss them more than me except for the pool which I use instead of him. I'm sure there are ways of getting around the garden at the cabin but he says "NO" because it would involve fences, etc. I'm good with that as long as he can find something else to occupy his time. I certainly have my list of things.

New JoAnn's

While we were in DuBois this past weekend we popped into JoAnn's to check out their newly renovated store. I figured they would have some specials going on for their open house. I was a little disappointed especially at their prices. Maybe I'm being spoiled by Wal-Mart and the great deals on fabric but I didn't like seeing prices like $8.99 a yard. I ended up getting a half yard of one and quarter yard of another but having my husband use a coupon to get half off one of the fabrics. It just made me think about how many times a store is renovated and then the prices go up or they take stuff out that we're used to buying there. Anyway to give them the benefit of the doubt, I looked into quilting classes being offered there. In the first place there were very few quilt classes and I understand them wanting to provide classes for all crafts but once again the issue was their prices. To make a set of coasters they were charging $40 but if you signed up now it was half off or $20. Excuse me but that's a very pricey set of coasters! To make a quilt it was $120 and then half off but you had to buy your own materials, I'm sure from there. It got me thinking about the quilt shop I've been going to here - Millcreek Sewing and Fabric. Someone in JoAnn's that day was even talking about that store and how much she liked it. The real deal there is making a rail fence quilt top in 5 hrs. for $55 and they provide the material. Wow! You sign up for another class to put it all together for another $22. I think my best bet is to get into this quilt shop here and learn as much as I can while we're still here, especially at those prices.

Pool Felt Wonderful

Yesterday was a great day for jumping in the pool. We didn't even have the ladder or thermometer in it yet but I knew from the forecast that I would be going in. The temp at first was mid-70's but it quickly shot up to 80. There was still alot of cleaning that needed to be done and was best done while inside. It was refreshing to say the least and a bit of exercise, too. I was not as diligent as I thought I was with the sunscreen though and now have a bit of sunburn. I'm sure it had to do with the yard work I did in between dips in the pool but that's how I like to do it. Then by the time I came inside to the AC I was ready for a nap. I didn't even hear the neighbor family come over and use the pool but I'm glad they had fun. Who knows how long it'll be before we get another day like yesterday!