Monday, May 30, 2011

I love everything about my dog except for his ability to kill the plants in our yard. Despite our best efforts of trying to retrain him to go potty elsewhere; Remy insisted on going one place only: the boxwood hedges lining the front walk.

This past weekend, we ripped out the hedges (a LOT of hard work!) and replanted new.



The old hedges: waiting for our friend to come by & haul them away for us.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Thursday Smile

This photo makes me smile!
Matty - dancin' it up in Lewiston, Idaho
April 2004

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Buy This!!

 
 I am so happy I found a cleaning product that actually does what it says it's going to! 

After using The Kitchen Stone, my kitchen sink (though I clean it with bleach or Comet every day) looks brand new! There was an entire layer of soap scum build up that was removed. The sink took me one hour to get clean. These products require lots of elbow grease BUT the results are worth it. I used an entire stone just on the kitchen sink.
My toilets - (again: clean!) - had orange rings around them. NOTHING could remove the rings. I tried CLR, bleach, denture tablets & even Coca Cola. A few minutes with The Bathroom Stone and the rings came right off!! The toilets also looked brand new. I bought one Bathroom Stone for the toilets & a separate one for the bathroom sinks. The sinks look great too!

Buy these! The price is right & the results will make you smile. I found these stones at Fred Meyer & paid $3.39 for each.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

How to Clean a Razor Clam

Music: Animal by Neon Trees
You've got your razor clam limit. Now what? You can either stop by a roadside stand in Long Beach & pay $6 a limit or you can clean them yourself!

If you do it yourself, first you must sanitize the sink with Clorox Clean Up, bleach or Comet before you place the clams in your sink. You want your kitchen sink as clean as possible. Rinse the sink several times before you place the clams inside. The same goes for when you are finished! Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize!

A Day at the Coast!

It's no secret we love razor clams (& we try to go to every open dig we can). The last dig of the season closes on Tuesday and we felt the need to fill our freezer with these delicious clams. Saturday's low tide was perfect so we left our home at 5:00 a.m. & headed for Long Beach. Nas decided to sit this one out. It's too bad. Not only did we need her for our limit (she is good for 15 clams!), but she is usually the photographer too. I was only able to shoot a few pics as I had to hunt & dig for clams.

 Hittin' the road. Remy wasn't so happy that he had to sit in the back. Poor doggy.

We got our limits and when we were packing up to go, we spotted this bald eagle.


He was magnificent! On our way home, we saw 4 more in a tree. What a treat!

Leaving Long Beach, Omid drove by the Nahcotta Tidelands. We stopped to harvest some oysters. This was a first for us. Something new to cross of our list.

Here are the rules. Shellfish license - a must. DF&W is right next to the entrance. The DF&W officers were there and they were checking licenses. We saw three people get their oysters confiscated & were receiving hefty tickets. The license is only $7.  You can take 18 oysters per person, oysters must be shucked on the beach, shells stay there. 


The rules.


 I made sure Omid checked each oyster he shucked for pearls, but he didn't fine any. Too bad.

 Oyster beds
 See how far we had to walk? Our car was all the way over there. Poor Remy had to stay in the car. The oyster shells would have sliced his foot pads open. He was not happy.


 The biggest oyster we found. Can't wait to eat it!

 Matty helped harvest & shuck the oysters. He kept saying he wouldn't eat them. He changed his mind last night and ate his first oyster shooter. What did he think? Not so bad!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Capitol City Half Marathon

On Sunday, I 'wogged' (walked/jogged) my 3rd half marathon. The weather was absolutely awful. It poured the entire time & the temperature hovered at 49*. I have never been that wet/cold in my life. After the first mile, I was able to wring a bunch of water out my hair and clothes (& I still had 12.1 more miles to go). BUT, I powered through and tried to beat my last time. Unfortunately, I missed it by one minute 30 seconds. So close! I finished in 2:54:14. I blame the rain!!


So glad to be done!

Waiting at the finish line: my family (poor Nas was sick & came anyway), a dry towel & a cream cheese Danish from Wagners. YUM! Thanks B!  My sister Cynthia & her husband Mike RAN the entire half marathon and finished at 2:12 & 2:22. Good job guys!
Next year I will bring my camera (if it's dry!). I'm already looking forward to it!

I wish KEEN & Nike would get together & figure out a way to insert the Nike+ sensor into KEEN Whisper sandals. I LOVE my KEEN's and would have loved to have run the marathon in them. But...I needed to track my mileage and had to wear my Nike's. Maybe someday!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Make This!!


Rosemary Cream Cheese Biscuits! My friend Julie passed on this recipe to me at a track meet last week. Only 4 ingredients! These were really delicious. The biscuits are best right out of the oven, with a generous pat of butter. I used the only leftover biscuit as sandwich bread and it was excellent!
**Note: I used regular Bisquick, full fat cream cheese and whole milk instead of the slimmed down version in All Recipes. I also made them earlier in the day & kept the dough in the fridge for several hours before baking. They turned out just fine.


Monday, May 9, 2011

Make This (or not)!!

Remember that potato roast I was so excited to make? Well, I made it. It looked impressive but tasted just "okay." I added a bunch of bacon to give it that extra 'oomph' too.   If you really want a tasty potato dish, please make Lin's cheesy potato bake. THAT is delicious!
Before....

After....

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to our moms!!
We love you!!

 Grammy with her Vizsla grandbaby ☺

Farijoon

Mother's day menu: Omid plans to smoke a chicken and I want to make the potato roast Smitten Kitchen posted on her site recently. It looks delicious (like a Pringles casserole). I also want to make these Rosemary-Cream Cheese Biscuits my friend Julie told me about. Super easy (only 4 ingredients!) and who doesn't like biscuits?! I plan to use full fat cream cheese, whole milk & regular Bisquick (because that's what I have on hand!).

Happy Mother's Day!!