Cute Egg Recipes

Here are some great ideas for what to do with all those hard-boiled eggs...Check out these cute projects at http://www.makehealthyfun.blogspot.com/

http://makehealthyfun.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-to-make-yummy-monster-egg-alien.html

Dinner Party

Good Eats


Smores Cupcakes were featured at my dinner party!!!

Friday night was my turn to cook dinner for seven very diverse people from my Newcomers Club Just Good Eats group. Every month, we meet at a different person's home and they fix us the entire dinner while the 'others' chat, eat appetizers and relax.

I LOVE anything BBQ'd, so I started with a recipe I've had for years for bbq ribs and it went into a kind of Texas BBQ dinner.

The appetizers were Texas Caviar (quite the hit and healthy too!), veggies, salsa and chips.

Then came the main dinner - the ribs were slow-cooked in the oven for hours and basted every half hour with a honey Dijon mustard glaze then finally bbq sauce for the last half hour. The rest of the meal was rounded out with Sweet Potato Hash that was a new recipe for me and quite good, cornbread with honey butter and Pinquito Beans. Then came dessert...Smores Cupcakes and they were YUMMY!!!

I made up favors for everyone - they were little smores kits including the skewer to roast the marshmallow...
Start with the basics...chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows.

Place the ingredients in a zip-top plastic bag.

Put the skewer through the top of the plastic bag.

Tie on a raffia bow and they're ready to hand out.

I went simple this year...bandannas over a red tablecloth and then some very pretty red and white petunias as a centerpiece.

Harmony, California

Harmony is a cute little 'town' right off of Highway 1 between Cayucos and Cambria and our photography group decided it would be the perfect place for a field trip. So many diverse things to shoot...one person asked if there was a restaurant in town. That was a big 'nope'.

The population of Harmony Valley - 18 per one of the residents.

Rusty things...it's somehow in my blood.

Harmony Glasswork - beautiful works of glass art!

Hmmm...I wonder what this will be?

A garbage bin beside a workbench.

Door handle on the old truck in the Harmony sign photo.

There's also a winery (with signature cobalt blue bottles) and a pottery shop in Harmony, just be sure to gas-up and eat before you get here (FYI - porta-potties only).

Fess Parker

Fess Parker

I am so sad to hear of the passing of Fess Parker. Not only was I a faithful Daniel Boone watchers, but a few years ago, I was at Fess Parker's Red Lion Inn in Santa Barbara having brunch. I remember him coming to the table next to us and apologizing to the children there that he had taken their father away from them that day. Such a classy person. He will be missed!

My friend, Pattiewack, passed this article on to me: www.independent.com/news/2010/mar/18/fess-parker-dies/

The San Joaquin Valley

Fruit Basket to the World

I spent Saturday evening, night and next morning with my If Not Now, When? Girlfriend, Frances. On my way back to my parent's home, the views were incredible, so I drug my mom out to see the snow, blooming fruit trees and clear skies.

The San Joaquin Valley, where these pictures are taken, is /was called the fruit basket when I was a kid - The Valley supplies many, many fruits, vegetables, cotton, dairy, etc., etc., products all over the world.

It was definitely a pink day!

This picture was taken in the parking lot of a fruit processing / packing plant near Kingsburg - come summer, it will be a VERY bustling place taking yummy fruit to your table.

Trip to Lemoore, Again...

Invitation Time!!!

It was another trip to my hometown of Lemoore this weekend, but this time it was a friend weekend!!! I got together with Doug, Julie, Marie, Mike, Diane and Debbie and we folded, stuffed, licked and applied address labels to the over 200 invitations for our class reunion. Thanks for everyone's help!!! They are going in the mail tomorrow, so all my fellow classmates, be on the lookout for the invitations and get ready for THE BEST TIME EVER!!!

I scanned the front of our high school yearbook for the invitation.

They're ready for dropping off at the post office!!!

A creek in nearby Atascadero, on my way to Lemoore.

It's the Weekend! Roadtrip, Again!

Class reunion invitations - check. Class reunion planning notes - check. Party clothes to go out tonight with my BFF - check. OK, I think I'm ready to head to my hometown and have a little fun, some family time (again, after celebrating three birthdays last weekend), time with a dear friend and then licking those 250 envelopes tomorrow night with a few of my high school classmates. And, the weather is good - I'm thinking there'll be more photos of green hills and flowers comes Monday.

Enjoy your day!
Joan

Morro Bay, Los Osos and Baywood

It was field trip time again for our photography group and we chose Los Osos and Baywood or the back side of Morro Bay. Spectacular!!! Once again, I have to choose only three of my favorite photos.

Morro Rock framed with bark from a eucalyptus tree.

Eucalyptus flowers

Wildflowers

Cactus...beautiful!

We're off to the tiny town of Harmony on our next field trip...old buildings, peeling paint and maybe even a few shots of blown glass at the Harmony Glassworks.

My Nutty Nephews

Last Saturday was the big event - my two nephews birthday party. Their birthdays are a couple of weeks apart so, it was a combo party. When I called my sister-in-law last week to see what they wanted for their birthdays, I heard Brandon, the 8-year-old say, "A bag of salad." Nutty, yes, but that's my B-Man! I took the suggestion a bit further and got him everything to plant his own salad garden in a pot - I HAD to include a little metal red ant I saw at the garden shop.

Then there's the 14-year-old with a box over his head. Bad hair day, reverting back to his younger days??? With a 14-year-old who knows!!! Oh, the gift I got him was a car bank - he has his eye on a vintage Mustang or Camaro...Start saving, Justin! Can you say 'job'?

Trip Home

Spring in Full Bloom!


Wild turkeys out by Santa Margarita.