Grandma & Grandpa do Sunday Dinner

This past Sunday, we were tickled pink (a lovely expression...) to host a SUNDAY DINNER for our family at our house! Oh...what to cook, what to cook??? With our family focus on local food and cooking green, and eating more veggies, less protein, we delved into our freezers and found:

turnips (from our last year's garden), broccoli (ditto), carrots (ditto), boneless skinless chicken breast and strawberry frozen yogurt. In the fridge we found: farm eggs, fresh greens, mushrooms, sweet peppers, scallions, and one avocado. On the counter we found: organic sweet potatoes, fresh garlic, lemons and a butternut squash. In the pantry: a large can of garbanzos, tahini paste, and brown sugar. We bought some fresh strawberries (okay...broke the locavore rule, but...hey!). The menu fell together:

Appetizer: homemade garlic hummus. Served with pretzel crisps and bagel crisps.

Salad: Baby spinach salad with balsamic dressing.

Crunchy bread with garlic olive oil.

Sides: FRESH AIOLI served over broccoli. Sliced, baked sweet potato...seasoned with salt, pepper and red pepper. Balsamic glazed butternut squash cubes (super YUM!). Mashed turnip and carrot, seasoned with salt, pepper, butter and herbs. Grilled mushrooms drizzled with fresh aioli.

Protein: chicken breasts marinated in kefir (overnight); grilled. rubbed with crushed pecans and spices.

Dessert: Strawberry frozen yogurt with fresh strawberries and ... Cool Whip.

We are so happy that everything was fresh and good, and that we all had such a wonderful afternoon together!

SPRING!

I know, you thought this would be about our vacation. Well, that's going to come a bit later. I just had to post these flower pictures...the gardens are coming alive!

Vacation: Day Three

A perfect weather day! We left Macon, GA after breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express and headed off East to Savannah to see this famous Eastern Georgia city that Sherman did not burn.

Savannah is all you have heard. We want to go back and spend some time here among buildings that date back to the early 1700s, and to walk the stone streets and be part of history.

After a GREAT bus tour of Savannah, we took off Southwest to the Okeefenokee Swamp...an area we always wanted to see, but never got to before.

At the Okeefenokee Wildlife area, we were lucky to get the last train ride tour around part of the vast swamp area that was populated by Cherokee and other tribes. The train driver, Bill, is 80 years young, and a wizard at the flora and fauna of Okeefenokee.

The train ride took us past many of the beauties of the area. We saw soapweed, blue flag, blueberry, and many medicinal plants that flourish here.

We heard what we thought was a Great Horned Owl, but Bill assured us, when we aked what species it was, that it was a 'Hootie Owl'. Okay.

And there were gators: We saw a 'mamma gater' who had just hatched 30 little babies. We saw adult gators and younger gators. They are relaxed and in control here.

We also saw the homesteads of the original white settlers. Why anyone would want to settle in a swamp, with the insect life, the gators, the bears and the snakes is a mystery, but settle they did.

Huge dough trenchers, iron pots and pans, primitive bedding and hand-hewn furniture were proudly displayed in the reconstructed cabins, worksheds, and outbuildings.

DAY TWO OF THE SENIORS TRIP TO FLORIDA

Our cheerful couple popped (well...you should have HEARD the sounds!) out of bed this morning, and tripped down to the Breakfast Room at their Holiday Inn Express. A wonderful breakfast awaited. And coffee. Coffee!!!
We met the Holiday Inn Express Breakfast Greeter/Concierge and learned all about her goat that produces wonderful goat milk. It was an educational morning.

On the road again, we passed through Kentucky to Tennessee, all the while trying to recall our History and incidents from a recently read life of Daniel Boone. Who hunted. A lot. Wherever he could. We approached Chattanooga, after a GREAT drive through the mountains. Beautiful, and we had perfect weather.
As lunch approached, we decided to stop at the first local park we saw a sign for.
That's how we found: Old Stone Fort State Park!
A lovely site at the confluence of the Duck and Little Duck rivers, the Old Stone Fort was actually an Indian Mound that surrounded the confluence of the rivers for safety. We had our 'from Illinois' food: chicken breast, salad, and fixings. A picnic in 65 degree weather was so very, very welcome! Now, before we settled in for lunch, we had an 'incident': our 10 year old road refrigerator tanked. This 18 volt plug in the car fridge is a lifesaver and a BIG money saver.We bring all our own bottled water, juice, bread, cheese, sandwich meat, salads. It saves a bundle on the road! We had to stop at a truckstop to get a new one. Sigh. And, while we were there, we were hit on by a very plausible panhandler to whom we gave $5.00 for a hamburger.

They ALL talk to us!

After lunch, there was a PUSH to get down to Macon, GA for the night, since we were losing an hour.

Atlanta has the very worst traffic in the US that we have discovered yet. We say this EVERY time we go through Atlanta!

We settled in to our Holiday Inn Express in Macon by about 6 pm. After the most amazingly good sushi dinner at a restaurant called Shogun, here I am blogging and getting ready to get a decent night's sleep before hitting the road again.

More tomorrow.

Florida Vacation: Day One

Up at the crack of dawn (okay, 7 am) our sleepy seniors packed their trusty new van with: POTTERY! Before the vacation could begin, we had to run off to Ottawa, IL to put our newest pots in the Ottawa Art League Gallery, and to pick up last months unsold selections.

On the way to Ottawa, we stopped at the local Subway/BP Amoco to treat ourselves to Flatbread omelettes and a BIG Ronocco coffee! Woo Hoo! (Hey, this is exciting stuff to us!)

After doing the pottery exchange, we were finally able to leave Seneca and head off to Florida.

Except, we had a slight deviation in plans on the way.

Our first stop was in the Rend Lake Area, to visit the Illinois Artisan Gallery. Did you know that the Illinois Museum (Springfield, IL) sponsors several galleries in Illinois for artists? They can exhibit and sell their works from these locations. We knew that our friend Juanda Sims had some of her wonderful pottery at the Rend Lake location, and we had to stop and view. It was a worthwhile visit. There were many artists of all disciplines exhibiting: potters, painters, stained glass artists, fabric artists, wood carvers, glass blowers and more. Check out Illinois Artisans on the web.

A short and scenic ride down 57 brought us to Paducah, KY where we chose to spend the night.

The local Holiday Inn Express became our home for the night, and Applebee's our dinner restaurant. I recommend the Weight Watchers Lime Tilapia!

Tomorrow, we head to: Savannah, GA! Why not! We will get to Florida eventually.

See you all tomorrow!