Friday, July 29, 2011

Road Trip Part III: Getting our Bearings - and FOOD!

Is it still called a "road trip" if you're staying in one place for a few days?

Today we could have driven another 4 hours out and 4 back to go to the International Garlic Festival in Gilroy, CA.  But we decided to stay put in Paradise to see what we could see here.

It seems like such a long day, we did so much.  Or, at least it seems like we did so much.  We actually just got an early start - with breakfast at the diner across the street that was out of baked potatoes last night.

No cross walks.  No corners.  Speed limit is supposed to be 35 mph, but everyone around here drives much faster.  We stood in the middle of the road while we waited for some cars to go by, as they weren't stopping at all for us.  The more I thought about it today, though, the more I believe that the policeman who finally stopped to let us cross the street and then sped off - actually, he gunned it after we got across - was not chasing other cars down because they didn't stop for us.  I think he was irritated that because he was a public safety person he had to stop to let us cross, but he wasn't happy about it.

At any rate, we finally got breakfast.  Phil got the sampler special for under $4!


I got some kind of omelette thing and, by the time I made substitutions, it wasn't what was on the menu.  But I do that a lot.  I see things that I like on the menu that aren't already put together as a "unit," and I ask what comes close to what I want that is on the menu.  Then they adjust it for me.  So, this is what I got - but you can tell I didn't think about taking a photo before I started eating.  I think I was kind of hungry.


As we were leaving the restaurant - where we'd been sitting outdoors in the lovely mild weather (at the time), we happened upon this crazy sight in the parking (barking?) lot:
You know, this just isn't something you see every day.  And if you DO see it, what are the odds that you're going to have your camera with you????  It was just too cute for words.  If these are the guys speeding around town, I need to find out how they're even reaching the pedals!  Probably explains why no one stopped for us to get across the street except for the policeman!

The rest of the day was pretty much a blur after breakfast.  We did a lot of walking - in the heat.  We found out where we need to be tomorrow, and we found a few thrift shops that I got to look in, but they were small and it didn't take too long to look.  There are a lot of antique shops around here, too.  I suspect that the antique shops sell things that I'd be looking for in thrift shops.  But, we have a full schedule here for the next two days, so I'm sure I won't be getting to look in any more stores because everything closes down at 5 p.m. and we won't be done until it's too late.

This was kind of unique:  


A vacuum cleaner carved out of a tree trunk... at Ron's Vac and Sew.

And here's something else for Roadside America:


A muffler car!  No wheels?  Interesting...

A nap after our walk.  Lunch at The Black Bear Diner.  A nap after lunch.  It was so hot outside.  Upper 90's.  Too hot to go to the pool.  Played with Junior over in the hotel lobby.  Forgot to take my camera to get his photo.  Went to dinner so that Phil could get all-you-can-eat prime rib... and now he has food coma.

What a difference a day makes.

c@


Road Trip Part II: The Non-Adventure, Non-Food Day

Not a lot of photos today until we got close to our destination.  But, I know you're wondering about the $2.99 Ham and Eggs.

We walked from our hotel a short distance to get to the casino cafe next door.  The smell of cigarette smoke saturated the carpet and air from years of being trapped in a huge room without windows.  It wasn't fresh cigarette smoke, not that it'd smell any better.  If Buffalo Bill Cody had been there, I'm sure his cigarette smoke was in the casino.  Maybe even George Washington's.  Actually, it smelled like a buffalo had been in there smoking.  It was bad.

It was about 8:30 a.m., and while the casino wasn't bustling with people playing the machines, there were several people sitting at machines, pulling handles in hopes of winning the jackpot... drinking beer for breakfast and just getting "a pot."  It looked like they needed more exercise than just sitting in front of a slot machine.  I guess they still call them "slots" because credit cards to go in slots now instead of coins. 

We found the cafe tucked into a back corner of the casino and waited in line to be seated.  We were first in line and the line wasn't even very long; but as we were waiting there, we realized that even though about half the tables were filled with people, no one was eating.  Most were looking at menus; others were looking at each other with sleepy, blank faces just waiting.  It appeared that only two "wait" people were moving around in the cafe, and they weren't moving very quickly at that.  We didn't see any food coming from the kitchen.  We decided we should probably consider finding something else for breakfast or we wouldn't get to our destination until midnight.  So we left and gave others our first-place-in-line position.  So we have no idea whether the $2.99 ham and eggs even really exists.

We walked over to McDonald's in hopes of finding something reasonably healthy.  What was I thinking???  Phil had a sausage burrito and a mango pineapple smoothie. Actually, I couldn't even see the menu board with my distance glasses until I got up to the counter, so didn't want to hold up the rest of the line, either, while trying to figure out what I would eat there.  So I ended up filling my water bottle with ice water and just sat with Phil while he seemed to enjoy the smoothie more than the burrito.

While we were sitting there, Phil noticed a grocery store at the far end of town (it was a small town), which is where we headed after walking back to the hotel.  We stocked up on small quantities of fresh fruit to fill our cooler, and one little container of Greek yogurt and a banana for my breakfast.  Then hit the road so that we wouldn't get to our destination at midnight.

Not much adventure for the day driving through the Nevada desert.  Not many stops, as I kept hearing we didn't want to get to our destination at midnight.  I was searching for thrift stores on the GPS and my phone browser in hopes of finding a treasure somewhere.  We looked for one of the thrift shops.  The goal was supposed to be for me to not spend more than 15 minutes inside, not spend more than $5, and the store had to be near a gas station so Phil could put gas in the car while I was in the store.  But the address turned out to be a clothing store for teens/young adults... dark inside (or maybe I still had my sunglasses on) with loud music and flashing lights.  So, we hit the road again.  So we wouldn't get to our destination at midnight.

We stopped for lunch at a great place - I think it was called The Pig BBQ.  Very tasty pulled pork - on a salad. I think it was in Winnemucca.  There was a billboard on the way into that town advertising a "huge" thrift shop, but it was only open 3 days a week - none of which were that day we were on the road.  However, once we found it, we stopped quickly at another one adjacent to it so Phil could take a quick nap, but no treasures to be found there, quick or not.  So, back on the road so we wouldn't get to our destination at midnight.

Traffic was moving along nicely... we actually had a lot of "turns" required by our GPS route to get to our destination, and plenty of road construction that slowed us down to 55 mph, so it was a long ride.

The worst part of the trip was a rest stop in the middle of nowhere on the way to Reno.  Besides the awful smell from non-flush toilets, signs were posted everywhere about an 86-year-old man and his dog, Lucky, who have been missing since April. They found his car on the road near the UT-NV border, but not the man and his dog.  That is just very upsetting.

The ride into the Tahoe area was a nice climb through a lot of pine trees.  We zipped through pretty fast.  I begged for a rest room stop, but it seemed that because we didn't want to get to our destination at midnight, I had to wait for a more convenient stop.  I also was hoping we'd eat dinner, as it was about 6:30 California time - and 7:30 Mountain time; but we didn't want to get to our destination at midnight, so we didn't stop for dinner.

The descent into the California central valley was odd.  I hadn't realized how long it has been since I've seen oak trees. 

 
By the time we got to the change in trees - from pines to oaks - I remembered I hadn't taken any photos.

We passed some grazing cows when we got to where there was more grass than oaks.  And then eventually we were in agricultural areas with all kinds of fruit and nut trees, and grape vines.


There were a lot of little fruit stands, but being after 7pm they were closing up.  The current plan is to stop at one of them on our way home to buy some fruit.  If we really do, I will be surprised.  :-)

A lot of the fruit farm houses had cypress trees standing around them.  It looked like images of Italy I've seen.  But, then we started climbing again into the pine trees, almost to our destination, at just about 8 p.m.  Not midnight.
After checking in at the hotel - and meeting Junior, the English Bull Dog who lives there, we tried to find dinner without much success.  We had no idea the whole town closed down at 5 p.m. - except for the restaurants.  By 8 p.m. they started running out of menu items.  So, we actually ended up not getting dinner except for a little bit of fruit that we weren't even asked about at the agricultural inspection station when we entered California.  Oh, and some wasabi peas that I found at a gas station en route for a mere $1.99 for a pretty large bag (deal of the day!).  And a couple of snack bars that we had floating around in the cooler so they wouldn't melt.

The outside weather was hot.  Fortunately the AC in the car kept it cool inside.

So, here we are... in Paradise, California.  It just doesn't seem right to have tropical plants right outside our door.

This is the view of the ponderosa pines from our front door:


And this is a view from our back door:


The pool is inside the fenced area.  I hope we didn't lug our bathing suits all the way here to end up not being able to go into the pool.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

ROAD TRIP! Part 1

We're on a road trip and I'm not going to tell you where we're going yet - until we get there.  Then you will be very SURPRISED when I show you photos of what we're doing!  :-)

We were supposed to start early this morning, but got started later then we planned.  However we are still about half way to where we're going to go ... and should be there tomorrow.

It was actually a pretty nice day.  It was warm, but AC in the car was kind of chilly (for me, at least).  The sky was filled with tons of "fluffy" clouds, to not get technical with their official names which I can't even remember right now at the motel.


Originally, I halfway expected that I'd be documenting our rest area and rest rooms stops, we figured we'd be stopping a lot between the two of us.  I am drinking a lot of water because a supplement I'm taking requires a lot of water.  And Phil has OMB (old man bladder), which he'd readily admit.  But you and I should both be relieved that we actually found some pretty cool things to take pictures of on this first leg of our trip so I don't have to bore you with bathroom photos.


This is the first rest area we visited.  Wyoming.  They all pretty much look alike, so here ya go.  A token photo of a rest area.  It was pretty "breezy" ... but that's typical for Wyoming.





Unlike the first moon landing, these flags were actually flapping in the "breeze".  No wires.  No mirrors.  This is for real.


And this is the last rest area we visited.  This one in Utah - between the Great Salt Lake and on the way to the Salt Flats.  Note the warning sign on the left:  "Watch for Snakes and Scorpions."  Okay!!!!!  We didn't stay long at this rest area!

The afternoon was wearing on, anyway, and we wanted to get into Nevada before night fall... the sun would begin to set soon.

The drive was interesting, but could have easily become monotonous.  Warning signs on the side of the road for drowsy drivers to pull over.  You know... I've been south on I-15 through Utah and it's pretty much monotonous that way, as well as going east-west.  You'd think that as long as they know they have a problem with drowsy drivers because of the long monotonous driving conditions, they'd build a few shopping malls here and there somewhere or something!  Build 'em and "they" will come!  And a couple of car lots or something to break up the monotony!


So, the GPS pretty much tells it all.  White everywhere on both sides of the road.  Here's a shot of the left side of the road.


And here's a shot of the right side of the road.  Pretty, though, because the sun was beginning to set behind the mountains.  That definitely made it less monotonous for me.




So, here's another shot of the sun setting... but it took me a number of shots before I realized (remembered) that the colors I was actually shooting were not the colors I was seeing through my sunglasses.  So, I decided to see if I could get a shot through my lenses so you could see what I was seeing.





More impressive, huh?  :-)  Don't see as many of the window spots, either!

Things I didn't get photos of:  (1)  the couple who either were getting married on the salt flats, or were just out there all dressed up to have their pictures taken; and (2) the turnoff to the Bonneville Speedway.  But by then it was getting pretty dark.
We pulled into Nevada and got a motel, then took a walk up the street.  I don't remember when it was that I realized that I could take a video of my feet when we were walking.  So.... Why not?


And a few lights on the motel that we walked by that had a LOT of colors on the signs... 


So, are you sick from the movement of the camera yet?  You can always watch it again, you know!  :-)


And I thought this was interesting... You can actually win a PETERBILT at a casino?????  Now that just doesn't even seem right.  I'm thinking that the odds of doing that is probably pretty similar to playing the lottery.

Well... As long as this is a gambling town, let's see how it goes tomorrow when we try out the $2.99 Ham and Eggs breakfast.  I'll let you know!

c@

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Cat-Version Tiramisu Cake

You know those people who always say, "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels?"  Well, they are absolutely WRONG and I made the cake yesterday to prove that!

 This all started because I made coffee (decaf, cuz that was what I wanted) for our after church lunch thing that we do every week, but one of the guys really wanted caffeine.  So, I made another pot.  Consequently, I ended up with quite a bit of leftover coffee.  So, I searched for recipes that called for coffee as an ingredient.  I ended up making some BBQ sauce - and this cake, which I took to the church BBQ Monday night.

This is my take on a tiramisu cake - having never really eaten it before in my life, which is actually kind of a long time.  Instead of using coffee liqueur, I made my own coffee syrup which - if you add vodka, I learned, becomes a homemade Kahlua-type mixture.  However, I didn't poke holes in the cake to pour the coffee syrup into them.  

My other experiment was a substitution suggested on a cake mix box - using 4 egg whites in the cake instead of 3 whole eggs.  I also added a tablespoon of meringue powder, just to see what would happen.  I can tell you this, I will ALWAYS add the meringue powder and substitute all egg whites in a cake mix!  It came out so light and fluffy, and held together so well that it wasn't difficult at all to torte the layers!

This is what it looked like inside the cake...


To half of the batter, I added a combination of 1 tsp. instant coffee, which I smashed into a fine texture with the back of a spoon, and 1 tsp. cinnamon.

I filled the cake with a combination of mascarpone and softened cream cheese, mixed with some sour cream (didn't want to go buy heavy whipping cream) and some of my coffee syrup and powdered sugar.  This also came out very light and fluffy.

The frosting was the Wilton buttercream icing recipe to which I added coffee syrup instead of water until the icing was a good consistency for making a dam to hold in the filling (about a medium thick consistency).  I was able to use the same icing to pipe borders at the top and bottom of the cake.  I sprinkled cocoa powder on top of the cake and shaved some white chocolate curls on top.

Adam, who was one of the Sunday guys who came to the BBQ, not only enjoyed the coffee BBQ sauce on the steak we had, but also enjoyed the Cat-Version Tiramisu Cake.  But I saw a LOT of people taking slices of the cake and they all seemed to enjoy it.  :-)


It was very, very good... and WORTH it to just taste it, even if I did only take a tiny, tiny sliver of it!


c@

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Big Cheese Takes the Heat

Guido and Vinny would have been proud.

It was a dark and stormy night.... Oh wait.  No, it wasn't really, but it  did rain a little bit that afternoon.

The mob arrived one guy at a time.  Oh wait.  I take that back... It's all coming back to me now... [Insert Flashback Music Here]

Jacob and Adam arrived first - in fact they were waiting here for us as we pulled up the driveway into the garage. Then the rest of the gang arrived.  One guy at a time until the whole mob was here.

Today was the day for The Big One.  Again.  This time they meant it.  Six feet.  Six feet and they'd finally put that thing to rest!  Or would they?

Jacob went to work cuttin' up The Spuds.  Then he dropped them into hot oil.  Adam began to shred The Big Cheese with the Cuisinart.  I know... It's a cruel way to go.


They took out The Tortillas - and laid 'em flat!  In fact, they were one on top of the other.  Pasted together with refried beans.

Bacon.  Sausage.  Chorizo.  Into the hot oil with The Spuds!  It was a mess.  A greasy mess.  And to add insult to injury, they beat up about a dozen of The Eggs and threw them into the pot to stew with all the slaughtered animals.


When they had enough of the heat, it was spread on top of the whole Tortilla gang.  Then Jacob and Adam tried to cover it all up.
Then they tried covering that all up with more of the Shredded Big Cheese.  
So much for Adam's motto:  "Don't Worry.  We can make it fit."  Adam and Jacob forgot that they would never get this mess into the oven.  But... Phil was packin' heat...


He had a heat gun.  Eight hundred degrees of pure heat.  Problem solved. That would make anyone melt, but certainly it would do in the Big Cheese.
Jacob got the gun and finished the job.  New motto:  "Don't Worry Ma'am.  It's all in a day's work."


When Jacob got all The Big Cheese melted, he severed the whole thing into sections and divided it up among the mob.  At about 12" wide and 30" long, it was more than most of the gang could handle. 
It was an oozy, lumpy mess...


Yet everyone sat down at the dining room table to share the bounty and imbibe "The Usual."  Punch, that is... Mango Citrus and Passion Fruit Citrus this time, mixed with Lemon-Lime soda and Pina Colada mixer.

Adam reminisced about his childhood when he drank nothing but Lime Jarristos, he said.  He and Phil left the scene to go buy a few bottles.


Skippy  couldn't take it anymore.  He just couldn't handle all the smells.
Meanwhile the gang took turns torturing Rocky by scratching his licking spot until Rocky couldn't take it anymore and he puked on the floor.  Good thing!  Rocky had been trying to hide the fact that he'd eaten some kind of plant.  We're going to have to get some TSA equipment here to scan him from now on.

Eric did what others only wished they could have done.  Fighting the effects of the onset of food coma, he hit the floor.
It wasn't until the mob left that we discovered it.  Someone in the gang left his mark on the kitchen floor - dripping chorizo sauce in the shape of a happy face.  Were they having fun or just being nasty?


Stay tuned.  Maybe next week we'll find out.