Anniversary Road Trip & Thrifted Finds, Classic Chicken Cacciatore

Anniversary Road Trip & Thrifted Finds-
We finally had some rain today!!! SO exciting after poor air quality for weeks. Dave and I are celebrating our 26th wedding anniversary tomorrow. I'm so grateful I married such a wonderful, devoted person. My best friend, great Dad and Granddad! Three years ago, to do something really different, we went up to the mountain town of McCall to spend the night. The hotel rates are off season and no tourists. Cold, nice and quiet! We had a gorgeous drive up Saturday and spent the night, coming back Sunday. Saturday afternoon, after lunch, we drove around Payette lake-

Ice on the N side of the lake

 Sunday, gray skies and a little rain-

My fave fish sculpture

smooth as glass

Our comfy hotel roomed with soaker tub and salt water pool, Dave enjoyed the swims! 

We found a new thrift store there! I got these three winter cuties for a whopping $3.00 total!

Tabletop snowman, hand made in the USA 

Small quilt (crib blanket/tablecloth?), 2 sided, winter motif-

Details- 

Backside-

Back side

Snowman spoon rest-

Classic Chicken Cacciatore-
Perfect dish for a cold night! I served with ww pasta and Italian bread. I made this with lots of out own homegrown, frozen tomatoes. So juicy I had to add tomato paste! Lots of mushroom in my crock pot with all of it.  Recipe here Classic Chicken Cacciatore, and for the 2nd round I added Kalamata olives and capers for something different! Topped with some Feta cheese, yummy! Sadly the crock pot handle broke off, so I finally (after 15-20 years) bought a new, smaller one. With two of us I just didn't need the huge one. I'll keep it until after the holidays and will repurpose it. My new baby, 4.5 Qt., $20.00 at Target, hopefully will last me til I'm too old and decrepit to cook! I'll make some chili this weekend before turkey day!

First Real Snow! Oliver's First Birthday

First Real Snow!

We had our first real sticking snow Friday night, about 1"! Pretty-

After a few weeks in an inversion, with gray skies, and dirty air, waking up to blue skies and sun Saturday was wonderful!!! 

Chickens having a treat with some greens in the coop

It's the SUN!!!

Tough little Rosemary plant :)

Oliver's First Birthday-

When Angela went into labor last year snow was in the forecast, and then it started snowing. We call Oliver the "winter wizard". It snowed the night before his birthday this year so he has kept the title! Here's Oliver last year- 

Sleeping on Grandma

Oliver last week, he's growing into his head :)

A Trip Down Memory Lane

A Trip Down Memory Lane-
My Mom was a HUGE William Holden fan. Brilliant actor as I discovered much later, and gorgeous :)   I saw this movie on TV as a kid (made before I was born) and I've had this film score section stuck in my head my whole life. Beautiful cinematography. Turn up the speaker, enlarge and see what romance used to look like. When Holden's and Kim Novak's faces come close together, oh boy. Almost made me swoon... Part of this scene's score is the famous song Moonglow And if you haven't seen it rent The Bridge on the River Kwai, a great film for him. Thanks Bill...

These Things I Like....

Dogwood blossoms

These Things I Like....

* I'm off work for the summer, thank the gods and goddesses!

* I'm having foot surgery in a week and a 1/2, after limping around in severe pain for several months. I just couldn't do the surgery and work. BIG bone spur wrapping around heel. Really wreaked havoc with my back. While not one to post medical issues here, I'm looking forward to being pain-free.

*New couch to lay on with foot propped up post-surgery, much more firm and comfy

*Got most of the veggie garden planted, on a nice cool/cloudy day, will fill the rest in soon-

3 kinds of peppers 

  10 tomatoes

           raspberries getting blossoms

cheap, easy plant tag- on top of conduit tomato stake, with duct tape (of course!) 

                                a little chicken protection- chicken wire, nice and pretty invisible

*Found a good spot to plant more raspberries!

*The apple tree is LOADED, finally!

*The Service berry bush is loaded!

*Baby basil finally sprouted after our cold, wet weather 

*The Choke Cherry bush is loaded times 5! It made amazing jelly last year, really tasty

*Our new pear tree has 1 little pear. I'll save it for Dave

*We've been getting rain! It's so green!!!

*First rose

*We got the pond up and running, with our 2 new $10.00 Lilly pads with new pumps, still in the boxes. What a deal! From the Habitat for Humanity store. Got them off-season in the winter and stashed.

*I love Anya, she's so funny and sweet