Glorious Fun

Oh, it has been a glorious week so far, and it is only Wednesday!

I’d love to just blurt out all the goodness that God has been bestowing on us as of late, but I will take my time and parse it out properly over the next few posts.

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day. I spent it with my daughter, doing not much of anything, just mom and daughter stuff. We made gluten free peanut butter cookies (recipe to follow) and she highlighted my hair . . . wait for it . . . wait . . .

PURPLE! And so now with my natural silver/gray, I’m sporting the Sacramento King’s colors! Too funny. That one’s just for you, Dale! (Okay, so it doesn’t show up all that well in this picture, but my hair is tinted purple on the ends.)

Those of you who know me personally might notice something else about the pictures. I’m losing weight, although I am not sure how much because I have not stepped on a scale since Portland. Needless to say, I am down a few sizes. Yea! And it is simply melting away without all the usual starvation and torture. What’s my secret, you may ask? Well, when we started our journey, we basically changed our entire lifestyle. That, and I give thanks to God for this, another blessing in my life.

Okay, so I am blurting out an awful lot of the goodness all at once.

On to the cookie recipe. It is the simplest and most delicious cookie recipe ever. Even if you are not gluten intolerant, you may want to try these. They are amazing.

GLUTEN FREE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla

That’s it, unless you are hankering for chocolate with your peanut butter, then add some chocolate chips and you are good to go.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in a 350 degree oven, and I promise they will disappear right before your eyes, even before they have had a chance to cool. Better double the recipe, folks, it is that good.

Love and blessings to you all,

Jenni and Ken

Costume Ball

If we had known that staying at RV resorts could be so much fun . . .

. . . We might have pushed a little harder to get on the road sooner!

Cherry Valley Lakes RV Resort is one of the best resorts we have found to date. Though we hear there are even better ones out there, I cannot see how!

Every weekend, Cherry Valley serves awesome meals, at prices seniors can afford, though not all who live this lifestyle are seniors, I’m finding. I am talking steak dinners for seven bucks or BBQ chicken for six! And that’s complete with salad, sides, and dessert. Breakfast is comparably satisfying and economical.

Plus, several weekends a month, Cherry Valley hires a band, and the party really gets going. It is an awesome social atmosphere, without all the creepy strangers, drunken brawls, and smoke-filled rooms. We know most everyone whom we are partying with, and it is like a big, happy family fun night. It’s great!

This past Saturday night was the Halloween costume party, and Suzy and the Cruisers was the band. Lots of great oldies songs.

Ken dressed up as a headhunter. I simply went all in orange, “The Great Pumpkin,” I proclaimed myself.  My daughter and her beau joined us for the evening, too. It was great fun.

A typical family photo, I caught my daughter, Nina, with her mouth full! Patrick doesn’t look pleased I’m snapping pics while he’s trying to eat, either. Oh, but that’s what moms do best. Smile, baby, love you bunches.

 

These “shrunken heads” are actually dried apples.

Blessings to you and yours,

Jenni and Ken

Techno-Savvy? Not Me

I thought it might be useful to others who may be on a similar journey (or are contemplating such) to go over some of the things we have found most helpful.

First, when it comes to blogging, I cheat. Gasp! Yes, it is true. I use a Windows program called Windows Live Writer. It allows me to write, edit, and publish a bunch of blog articles all at once, and then they get neatly doled out per my scheduling. So, it may look like I am writing daily or almost daily (I know, ha ha, right), but I can get three or four posts done in one afternoon, and then spend the next three or four days thinking about what to write about next. So, it really isn’t cheating. It is time management.

One major problem we had to overcome was the availability of reliable internet. At first, I tried to just use what was provided by the resorts, but the deeper into California we got, the more expensive it became to “rent” the internet, even for one afternoon. Besides, then we ran into another problem due to the nature of public internet sources. One resort had their router set so that no downloading could be done. I can understand this. They don’t want people tying up the limited internet for everyone by watching You Tube videos or Netflix all day long. But they also stopped me from uploading to the blog server.

So we gulped hard and called AT&T to turn my i-phone into a hotspot. So far, so good on that front.

A guy at Canyon Creek tried to sell us a cell booster of some sort (it is what he does for a living). He proved it worked for his Verizon phone, but he could not guarantee results with AT&T. We did not succumb, but maybe if we found one that did work with our service, then maybe.

For photo editing, I use Photoshop Elements 9. Though some things in life need no help at all in the cuteness department. Photoshop seems to do what I need without too many headaches. Then again, nothing is as user friendly as I used to believe everything was. You know, back when my brain was young and elastic, and not full of disease.

The one thing I have not been able to replace since leaving Portland is the fount of technical knowledge I had at my beck and call—my son.

I miss you, Trevor. Don’t laugh next time I call you because I cannot turn my hotspot on. Unless I am already laughing, of course.

Love and best wishes,

Jenni and Ken

Fisherman’s Retreat

Fisherman’s Retreat gets a two-thumbs-up from us. The weather may be quite warm still during the days, but the nights cool off quite nicely. The lakes appear to be full of fish, at least willing to be caught on camera if not the hook.

We have a space most conveniently located near the bathrooms, the pool, and it is not too far from the lakes. Plus it is shady to boot.

I haven’t gotten out to meet many people yet, since I am still recuperating. (The traveling has been far more difficult than I had imagined.) But Ken brings me stories from people he meets out on his walks. For today, I live vicariously through my beloved husband.

We did, however, go visit my daughter shortly after arriving, and she and her beau will be spending the entire day with us tomorrow. These are the times I long for. Oh, how I have missed my children.

I’d love for you to meet my daughter. She is one of my great delights in life. I’ll tell you all about our visit soon.

Love and blessings,

Jenni and Ken

More Wildfires

Last week we finished our rounds, visiting the rest of the friends and family who live in the greater Sacramento area, before heading for Southern California. In the end, we did miss a few dear people whose schedules just could not be helped. When we were available, they were not, and vise versa. It is an unfortunate fact of life, that everyone’s lives are so very busy nowadays that time with loved ones falls by the wayside.

Our lives, like the dry California climate, become prone to wildfires, figuratively, of one sort or another.

As we were visiting with Ken’s cousins, in Walnut Creek, a fire broke out on Mount Diablo. Here’s some pictures we took on our way home that evening.

Even destruction can be beautiful, when viewed from afar. The sun was an intense ball of fire, and these pictures do not do it justice.

Love,

Jenni

You are Nuts

Before we left Snowflower, I forgot to share a most humorous story.

Our family from Sacramento visited us the weekend we stayed in that gloriously beautiful forested preserve. Being in a forested area, it was rather natural that the wildlife was quite abundant.

We saw animal tracks and scat everywhere (not literally, yuck), including raccoon, deer, coyote, and maybe even bear. Ooooh, scary. They are known to be in the area, you know. Don’t leave your ice chest unattended overnight or you may find your hotdogs and Hersey’s bars munched and your root beer guzzled. They like root beer. Just ask the A&W bear.

As we relaxed, only 20 yards from the lake, all of a sudden we heard a loud bang. It sounded like some prankster had thrown a rock at our roof. Then a few minutes later, boom! again. And again and again and again every few minutes. There really wasn’t much we could do, once we spotted the culprit.

It was a squirrel, and the “rocks” were pinecones. He was busily chewing at the base of each pinecone, releasing it from the tree and dropping it, quite literally in one case, on our heads.

He was relentless in his pursuit to destroy our vehicle rooftops. And his shenanigans cut our evening short, after one of his missiles landed directly on our son-in-law’s new car.

Oh my, if Dale and Ken could have gotten ahold of that squirrel, Tinker might have gotten a real squirrel to add to her squirrel obsession, er, collection of toys, I mean.

Not to be beat by a mere rodent, as the pinecones hit the ground, Ken scurried to collect each one he saw drop—six in all. Needless to say, the squirrel saw his hard work being stolen, and he gave Ken the worst scolding I have ever heard from such a little creature.

Over the past few weeks, those heavy, metal denting, sap-laden pinecones have been drying out, under Ken’s careful watch. They are now giving up their prize—gloriously tasty pine nuts.

Oh, the pesto we can make. Dale, I’ll have to save you some, for the trouble you have endured because of one pesky little squirrel and trying to get that dent fully out of your roof. We love you, and honest, we aren’t laughing at you. We are laughing with you. If it helps, you can show these pictures to the insurance company!

Love and hugs,

Jenni

Baking Day

There’s nothing like fresh, homemade cookies . . . and a kitchen large enough to bake them in.

We spent all day Tuesday at Ken’s daughter’s home, taking care of business. Our “business” included laundry (Yes, we delinquents drag our laundry bag to a family home whenever we can.), baking cookies and gluten free bread, and some computer work (though little got done on the computer because I wore myself out in the kitchen).

We ended the day with a wonderful kettle of homemade abondegas. Since I was more or less out of it after dinner that night, I could not share the recipe with our family. So here it is, for all to enjoy.

Every time I make abondegas, it is a little different. Every accomplished cook knows that recipes are not meant to be strictly followed, when it comes to soups and such, anyway. Baking is another matter, but in my opinion, dinners are meant to be nuanced according to the availability of ingredients. I also don’t measure when I cook, so please forgive the absence of measurements. It is all according to your taste.

Abondegas (Or Mexican Meatball Soup)

For the caldo (soup):

• two quarts chicken broth
• about 32 ounces canned diced tomatoes (use fresh if you have them!)
• one small can El Pato sauce (to taste; reserve one-third of the can for the meatballs)
• diced carrots, celery, and onions
• cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste
• one lime, halved. Remove before serving.
• beef bouillon, if a richer flavor is desired.
• cilantro, optional

For the meatballs:

• one and a half pounds ground beef. Can also use a mixture of ground meats including turkey or pork.
• two eggs
• one cup bread crumbs (I use gluten free and it works great)
• cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste
• one-third can of El Pato, saved from the caldo
• one-half finely diced onion

If you have a meatloaf or meatball recipe you prefer, you can certainly use your own recipe. Mine is always changing, but the above is the basic recipe.

Allow the meatball mixture to sit in the refrigerator while the caldo simmers on the stove. About an hour before serving, form the meat into balls and drop carefully into the simmering pot. Replace the lid and allow it to cook without too much stirring, as stirring can break up the meatballs before their time.

Enjoy with family and friends.

Peace,

Jenni

Here’s a few pics of Ken, Charlie, and Tinker Belle “getting busy” too.

Ken playing rummy with the help of Jack.