Personal Trainer COOKING on my DS!

I just have to say every woman over 40 should have a DS, this device is good for the brain, soul and diet. There is other stuff that it is good for but I want to write about cooking.

I have learned how to make Chinese cabbage salad, California rolls, chicken teriyaki and Seafood in Lettuce Cups. The lettuce cups were fun to make pretty easy and the 3 of us ate them all in one sitting. For those of you that have this game you need to make the lettuce cups they are delish..

What's fun about it is you can list ingredients you have in your cupboards already and it will pull up recipes that call for them, or you can go my calories per serving, etc. You can then create a grocery list, and then follow the chef step by step.

The next recipes I am going to try are; Red Berry Coulis,Tomato Bruschetta and Kimchi Dumpling Soup. The red berry coulis is from Germany the soup is from South Korea and the bruschetta Italy. The soup recipe is challenging since you make the dumplings from scratch, good luck to me! I will let you know how they turn out.

Here are some photos that were taken while we were cooking up some good meals. When Glenn and Lisa cook together it is pretty fun to watch, they argue, agree and disagree and they make the best food together. Glenn would turn up the stove, Lisa would turn it down, Glenn would put the lid on, Lisa would take it off. You would think they were married...

But look what they can cook up together. Best dish of Paella I have had!

Here is what my counter looks like when I am making California Rolls, which have now become a repeat favorite. Happy Cooking!

Annual Coast Trip

We have decided that every January we will make a trip to the coast for a weekend. We just returned from Pacific City, what a great time we had. The weather was sunny and warm, no wind or rain to speak of, while here at home it was less then 20 degrees (I am told) and sky's were gray with snow falling to the ground. So we picked a great weekend to be somewhere else.

from top of the sand hill

We stayed right on the ocean with our room right next to the Pelican Brewery, we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner there, it almost got embarrassing how the waiters and hostesses got to know us. I guess this time of the year they don't have very many vacationers around.

On Saturday after breakfast we climbed up the great sand hill , well I almost made it, I wish I wasn't so scared of heights I sort of froze and sat down and that is where I stayed while Glenn continued up to the top to view the pacific ocean. The photos I took while waiting sort of shows you how high I got before the "freak out" set in and I sat down to wait.

Me during my "freak out" on the side of the sand hill, so I guess you could call this photo

"I am really scared right now"

My feet dug into the sand while sitting on the hill almost to the top, see the ripples in the sand they are about 100 yards down.

The next adventure we took was the 2.6 mile one way to Cape Lookout. I thought 2.6 miles piece of cake I walk 4 miles with a friend twice a week I can walk 5.2. Little did I realize we would be traveling on a trail on a side of a mountain getting to view the ocean like I have never seen before but you pay for the view, traveling up, up, up and knowing you are not alone on the mountain since they give you warnings of what you should do if you come upon a bear. The sign said this:

1. stay calm

2. look big :)

3. fight back if you need to!

OK, so #1 would probably be hard for me, #2 that one is easy, #3 I can fight when I need to but on a single person trail with the edge being the cliff to the ocean, are you crazy? So those where my thoughts or maybe I did voice the above to Glenn I don't know I was pretty nervous. But all I can say is WOW when you get to the top and you look out all you can see is; horizon to horizon and between that you see the curvature of the earth. The water is a color like nothing I have seen before on the Oregon Coast. Now that I told you all about it guess what, I forgot my camera so we took photos from Glenn's cell phone we also talked about a day pack is in order when we do stuff like this.

Sun Spots out in the ocean, taken on our hike down from Cape Lookout

I would highly recommend taking this hike even though you hike up the difficulty is slight to moderate, and if I can do it then anybody can. I hope next year the weather will cooperate and we can do it again. Oh and no bears, lucky for them... Thanks Glenn for a great weekend, I know it is one of many this year. Isn't life wonderful!

Low tide was at 6:10pm, so around 5pm we went by the rocks at the foot of the sand hill and came across the best tide pools, it is to bad that it got dark on us. This is something that needs to be checked out in the summer time when there is light longer into the evening.

look at all the sea life on this rock.

Enjoying the tide pools.




Until next time....

Winter Fun!

Hey you guys, wait for me!

Is this not the cutest face :)

Here's JUNIPER BERRY!

this dog is an inside dog, she doesn't like the cold thats why you can't see her ears, she isn't earless...

Juniper Berry's 2009 Blog

I have been beside myself about blogging, unfortunately I have read and also seen on TV how blogging is used for expressing a single purpose or writing and documenting on a topic that you feel passionate about. This made me wonder if I was really the blogging type since my entries are so random. Does any of this make sense to anybody, or just me?

So I finally made up my mind after long and careful debates going on in my head about what I should do. I really couldn't come up with just one topic that I would be able to stick with so I am still going to blog the same way I always have. Coming up with random topics and just documenting my daily life or events. If I ever have a passion about something that I feel I can blog about then believe me, you will be the first to know, Mr. or Ms. Blogger ;)

Boy do I feel better now that I got that off my chest. So now on to what I was thinking about today during this 60 degree day. Can you guess, GARDENING. I have a few ideas I would like to share and if anyone has something they want to add please feel free to do so.

We have an big sturdy old wooden desk that was Micahs study desk in high school we don't need it any more so it is sitting outside under the Juniper Tree until we decide what to do with it.

My thoughts: I want a potting garden table, but I want it to be unique with function for the purpose. I am not very creative or artisy but I want to try with this desk. I would like it to become a part of our backyard during the gardening months. If you have seen website or have any ideas in mind what I can do to turn this desk into an outdoor potting table please let me know. In a future post I will attach a photo of the desk so you can see what I have to work with but until then here is a great photo of our garden in 2008.

Out of control sunflowers, that are all volunteer from 2007, I can't wait to see what I get this year.

just starting to come up, don't mind the weeds..

Pine Cones for the Birds

On New Years Day, Glenn and I made food for the birds. We took pine cones, bird seed, peanut butter, bacon grease, Brer Rabbit Molasses and twine to hold the cones in the trees. I really haven't seen any birds yet but I know they will come... The cones look cute. hanging in the trees but I don't know if we picked up the right seed for the birds that are around here in the winter. I put my photos on this post backwards sorry, I have had a long day.

These deer are all I have seen in the back yard, I wonder if they like bird seeded pine cones, I bet they do. I will have to check on my next day off.

Betty's Califorina Rolls

The Ultimate Sushi Kit by TUSNAMI

I am very proud to say I have homemade Sushi, California Rolls. I found this kit at Newport Market and I followed the chef on my cooking game for my DS. I served them to a group of people consisting of family and friends and my sushi got great reviews. This was the appetizer for a great dinner cooked by my Husband and Lisa but sorry guys that is a later post this one is about the Sushi :)

I can't wait to make sushi for "the boys" when they come over, even though Micah has enjoyed the real thing in Japan and then Casey and Andrew enjoy the real weird stuff when they go out for Sushi in the Portland area. I am not good enough to make the raw fish pieces but I think they will appreciate that I made it myself. I guess I will have to wait and see. Right Guys?

So here is the photos of the steps I took to making this fun appetizer:

What Fun I Had....

2009

Happy New Year 2009 to our KIDS!

May 2009 be a Healthy, Prosperous, and Fun year for all of you!

We Love you so much, thank you for being OUR FAMILY...