Sunday, June 29, 2008

Backyard Grilling


So at 103 degrees, I just had to fire up the grill this Sunday. Great to have fresh grilled vegetables, again. Potatoes, summer squash and zucchini. And then there was Lamb Steaks marinated in olive oil, fresh herbs - Greek oregano, rosemary and garlic. Great to have these herbs in the backyard, too. Plus a fresh green salad - lettuce and onions from the garden - and tomatoes (not from the garden - yet) with an olive oil and basil dressing. Just a great dinner.

Four days left for Robin to work, then her "Independance Day"! She bought an adult tricycle. A really nice one. She said I would now have to get a bike. I did order one just like her's, but blue. Her's is red. I will post photos of her bike when it gets a little cooler. That's our weekend. Hope you enjoyed yours.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Robin's Retirement Photos

OK, so Robin doesn't really retire until July 4th - her "Independence Day"! And after 46 years as an RN, she deserves it. St Luke's wanted some photos to include in her Retirement Announcement. Here are four of them and, personally, I like #3 and #4 best. She is really in her medium - in the wine cellar and holding two wonderful wines. The Swan is from 1972 and the Rockin' R's is from 2006. I guess a sub-comment would be, "Empty the wine cellar"! That'll happen!


OK. I have added some photos to this slide show. Her last day leaving the house and her office building. Nice Idaho blue skies and 103 degrees!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Wilson Update

I received this from Marge about 10 minutes ago.

"Hi Bob…
Actually, we got some good news this morning…Wilson was discharged from the hospital! He had gone in on Thursday. They took a chest x-ray this morning and it was clear. However, he needs to go back to the lung doctor in 2 days and as all the doctors said they will be “watching him like a hawk”! So that is good news. He will take some time to recover…not a speedy thing. He will also have to decide when to resume the chemo…he goes to that doctor on Thursday.
Thanks for you new email address…the one I had bounced back, but at least the one went through to Robin.
Take care and we will keep you updated,"

Our garden

I know, some of you are gone. But here are some photos of our garden. I just picked lettuce and onions. We had fresh steamed with garlic spinach over the weekend. I finally found some Silver Queen corn seed and there is a row and a half of it. 180 day growing time - I hope it makes it. The other corn is Jubilee and Bodacious, a yellow corn and very popular around here. Artichokes - I have never grown them. We'll see how they do. I will probably vacuum freeze some beans. And of course, there are always herbs - Rosemary, basil (several types), thyme (several types), cilantro, parsley, French tarragon and Greek oregano. Pick the basil just before the first frost and vacuum freeze it. The tarragon, parsley, rosemary and oregano will be back next year.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

KBSU (NPR) Radio Fundraiser

On Friday night, June 20, we had the pleasure of attending a fund raiser for our local NPR radio station, KBSU. What a delightful event! Great food provided by Life's Kitchen. Smoked Trout, Sauteed Morel Mushrooms, Kobe Beef, Roasted Tomatoes and Cheese, grilled Lamb Sausages and Chocolates. And then some really good wines. 2006 Viognier from Cinder Winery, 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon from Fraser Vineyards, 2005 Cabernet and Shirah blend (just released) from Bitner Vineyards and a 2005 Chardonnay Reserve from Sawtooth Winery.

The highlight of the evening was meeting Lynne Rossetto Kasper of The Splendid Table and having her sign her book, How To Eat Supper. She is a delightful person and extremely interesting to talk with. She was amazed at Idaho wines and foods. A great salute to KBSU for this event, an enjoyable evening.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Pulled Pork!


So friends of ours, who own the Idaho Hotel in Silver City, asked me to do some Pulled Pork and enough to serve 40 people - 40 hungry people! So I accepted. The two Boston Butt roasts started out at 21.5 pounds. 12 hours later, the above photos were taken. And I must say, this is not the first pulled meat I have done in the Bradley Smoker, but it is probably the best so far! Tender, juicy, smoky and with the marinade I use - Meg has the recipe - awesome! Now you know, one can not prepare something like this for so many people, so Robin and I had to sample. I served a Pulled Pork sandwich with a slice of fresh pineapple and a Roasted Vegetable and Grain dish, eaten cold. It was awesome and if Jerri doesn't arrive soon to pick it up, well ..................

Louis Grad

Louis Graduation

Does this work - I don't know how I posted the crabs!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Father's Day Outing

What a great day! Warm southern breezes, full sun and great company, great wine (2006 Petite Verdot is awesome!) and great food - Mui did it again with her Thai food! It is always a treat for us to go to Indian Creek Winery for their Father's Day picnic and Open House.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Boise Valley



OK. So Buddy and I drove up to Bogus Basin - 15 minutes from home and 5000 foot climb. No snow! Tried out my new telephoto lens. You get to see the Boise Valley, or known around here as the Treasure Valley. Probably need to get a haze filter.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Future blogs

I hope to "blog" some more next week. Too busy working lately. I'll have graduation pics from Louis' graduation. We headed to West Virginia University on Tues/Wed for his orientation. What a pretty part of the country. Wanted to say thanks to our Chief Blogger and Bloggerette for posting the information on the Wilson/West/Young/Gabriel information. Good to know if I ever get out of this country. Also like the rose picture. Maggie is currently on the West Coast enjoying her last week of non-adulthood. As of 2 days ago she was already at 80 pictures from her visit to the Cascades. Last day of school for John and Emily is today. Let the fun begin! Have a great weekend everyone

It's all about Emily and her Monday Report



sorry i didn't send last weeks newsletter but i'll make up for it this time
last my sister had her graduation party with my family and my little cousin flipped me off that morningi played ashley major's soccer team and lost but i scored our ony two goals oh yeah i'm that awesome (sorry if i'm intimidating) the next day i went to my step brother's friend's graduation party and went swimming but brooklyn lyman was there and she couldn't go swimmingit was sad so now onto this weekend on friday i went to the dance to the wich was awesome but som people were grinding that weren't supposed to cough*steohen*cough jk after that i went to my bro's graduation then on saturday i took care of my grandma dog who saturated my hands in licks then my step bro moved down from delaware shout out to him then i went to my other bro's soccer game (btw all the bros i mentioned are all different ones) in the hundred degree weather and it was hott like me sizzle! on sunday i was running around because i had to go to two soccer games and a practice then i had to go to a picnic my soccer practice was fun cuz i didn't even know i had practice but i was at the fields for a game so i went over there in my bare feet and told them that i was gonna school them all in bare feet so i wanted to see how far i could kick it and i kicked it far and then i raced my friend to it and beat her but i tripped over the ball i guess nikki is rubbing off on me then i stole it from and tripped again as i sat up i got hit in the face with the ball thanks sarah then i bombed apiano performance at the picnic in front of my family and also my grand ma found out that i have a boyfriend thanks to my brothers so there's my last to weekends summed up in a really long email hope you enjoyed it

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Life's Kitchen Grilling - Flash

Maybe now this will be in FlashPlayer mode.



OK, so yes, it is a FlashPlayer video. Flash is similar to Adobe PDF, in that it is cross-platform. Let me know if you think the quality is better than the video below - they're the same, just different formats. If your computer asks to load FlashPlayer, do so. Its free and easy.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Another Short Adventure

OK, here's another adventure that a friend of ours and I took. (Boy's night out!) Not far from home this time, only about 8 blocks, due north. Lots of fun, but rainny and cold. (Snow in the mountains, and this is mid-June! Where's summer?) And all to benefit one of Boise's great places - Life's Kitchen, where they train kids to enter the food preparation sector. They become Chefs! One such individual is in this video. Really a great cause and worth supporting. Try cutting a baguette into slices and lightly toasting, spreading the slices with cream cheese and topping with caramelized onions. But wait! Watch the video!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Our Traveling Weekend!

Great weekend! Much travel. Great food! Great wine! Watch the movie.



That was our weekend. What did you do?

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Backyard Adventure

The backyard adventure of Buddy. Here is his domain which he "guards" quite well against "invaders". Not a large domain, as in Kingdom, but enough for him.

The biggest threat to his area - the Squirrel! Buddy sits and looks up and talks to the invader. The invader sits and looks down and talks to the guard. Much like a political debate - A lot of noise and not a whole lot of positive accomplishment. But then too, there could be a language barrier. What we need is Dr Doolittle to be present and interpret

What's Happening In Your Neighborhood?

OK, so here is What's Happening in ours! Finalized the plans for this just today with the Idaho Hotel owners. This is always a great weekend! Here's What We're Doing. (Click on the link) The hotel is usually packed! High in the Owyhee Mountains where the summers are cool and the winters are snow bound!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Bluecrabs!

OK, Meg, now you're making us hungry! The only Blue crab that we get out here is canned. Usually from India or Japan. Not too bad, but not the same. Makes good crab cakes, though. You know, you can change the display modes at slide.com. Play with some of them - some are really fun. A good start, though, on sharing the photos. We do like to see the photos.

Check out my Slide Show!

I think I'm posting a comment: This is from last summer and we hope to repeat this September. A bushel is now $220.00. Bobby, John picks/cleans them before we cook. Though you'd enjoy

Spring Rainbow

Last night we had a pretty good Mountain Rain storm. There was even a funnel cloud spotted north of Boise. It was rainning at a rate of 0.12 inches per hour. Anyway, we also had a rainbow. But it was a double one. Hard to photograph and get the second rainbow, but here is an attempt.

Look closely and you can just see the second one. (Left click and get a larger view)
This is the other half of the rainbow. Extremely hard to see the second one in this photo, but it really is there.

Wine Tour

Hi Peggy and Jim,
If you look at Wine Cellar Construction you will see the entire construction process. Yes, I built the whole thing. It took two winters to do it, about 4 months. There are about 1600 bottles down there and all are inventoried on the computer so we can find what we want. We just last week checked with our insurance agent to make sure the wine cellar is covered. It is. It's a large investment. Even some wines from Delaware!
Bob

Wine Tour

Bob
Jim and I enjoyed your video of your wine cellar.  Very impressive collection.  Did you build all of the shelves?
Peggy

Monday, June 2, 2008

Backyard visitor!

After I located the recipe for Broccoli Rabe for dinner - along with fresh spinach from the garden with macaroni salad - I went out back to tie up the grape vines. And then this Western Taniger appeared. He was eating in the Russian Olive tree we have out back. Grab the camera! And be quiet! He was still there when I got back. We don't see these birds too much in the backyards. They are usually in the high hills along creeks and in the Russian Olive trees! He was awesome!

Emily's Monday report

From Emily Maitland email (one week ago)

i'm starting a new weekly email
every monday i'm going to send an email to everyone that tells you interesting things i did over the weekend
so here we go

on friday i roasted a weenie (which you all already know) and had s'mores they were deliciouso
on saturday i went on a hike with my mom and had another fire and had more s'mores they were yummy too
on sunday i went kayaking and then went to a barbeque andn went swimming then went home and then went bback to the bbq and had s'mores again and then
i watched the simpon's movie wich by the way is hilarious if you haven't seen it andmy friend made chocolate smoothies wich i didn't even know existed


so that was my weekend o and one last thing Kasey Kahne won the race woohoo!
hope you enjoyed reading this
see ya tomorrow
--

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Tour Our Wine Cellar


This is my first attempt to upload a video to any blog. The video is 4:35 long and takes about 3 minutes to upload and the about 6 minutes to process, what ever that is. It was uploaded as a WMV file and should be OK with Windows users. I don't know about MAC users. Please let me know. It was made February 2007, so it is an older one, but a good test.