Birthdays in Disneyland, Part 2

We had all-you-can-eat chicken and ribs at the All American Roundup BBQ Pit in Frontier Land. Abi and Kierra were... rambunctious!

The rest of us were just HUNGRY!

After lunch, the park started to get busy. We headed for Autopia and the Matterhorn by way of the Mad Hatter for our traditional silly hat pics.

Abi was a little disappointed in the Matterhorn - she said the they slowed it down. At least it was open this time! After this, we jogged across to Tomorrow Land to see if Space Mountain was still open. To our great delight, it was!

The girls wanted to do Splash Mountain one last time, but Eli wanted the Submarine ride so we split up.

Eli's quote for the afternoon: "Mi-Mine! Mine! Mi-Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Before leaving the park, we joined up for a final splash through Pirates and a train ride back to the front gate. It took longer to get back to the car and get out of the parking garage than it had in any of the lines, however! By the time we were on the road for 20 minutes, the kids were asleep. It was a great double-birthday at Disneyland!

Birthdays in Disneyland, Part 1

Abi worked hard this summer to save money for a trip to Disneyland along with a couple friends. Kierra and Cora stayed the night and we set out (relatively) early in the morning. It was nice to get to the park before 9am - there were hardly any lines to speak of, and it was nice and cool. First stop, Adventure Land: Indiana Jones and the Jungle Book Cruise.

Next stop: Pirates of the Caribbean, of course!

Then Eli wanted to try Splash Mountain with the girls. We even went on Pooh's Adventure.

And then we ran into some fun characters on the way to our next Roller Troller...

OK, time for more fun!

A quick stop at the Big Thunder Petting Zoo (I mean, Ranch) for some more cute and cuddly before we go look for lunch.

Scotch Eggs Experiment

I am playing with recipes for Scotch Eggs for a proposed breakfast served at Winter Weekend. I made up mixtures of traditional pork sausage or beef or beef/turkey with a mix of herbs from my bed and either bread or cracker coating.My guinea pigs were the good people attending Angel's Tuesday Night Fighter Practice in Monrovia. None of the versions were bad, according to them. The beef/turkey seemed to have the best consistency and maintain shape during cooking. Also, cracker coating was much more uniform than bread crumbs and crisped very nicely when fried. Scotch eggs took for-ev-er though. Maybe I will look at some other main meal options, too!

 

Here's the best recipe from my first experiment:

12 semi-hard boiled eggs (peeled)

1 lb ground beef +1 lb ground turkey

1 tsp each, minced fresh parsley, thyme, oregano

1/2 tsp each, minced fresh rosemary and sage

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

 3 green onions minced finely

1 egg beaten for coating

1/2 cup flour for coating

1/2-2/3 cup pulverized oyster crackers

safflower or canola oil for frying (1/4"-1/2" deep in the pan)

Mix meat with herbs and seasonings, take a ball about the size of the egg (or divide the meat into 12 parts) and smoosh it flat then wrap it around an egg. Repeat for all the eggs. Let them sit for 10 minutes. Heat the oil till a piece of crumb sizzles and bubbles as soon as it's dropped in. Dust flour over the balls, then roll in beaten egg, then roll in the cracker crumbs. Arrange in the oil so that there is turning room. I found that turning it 6 times (so that it had 5 'sides' and a top and bottom) yielded a nice round egg at the end. It took up to 2 minutes cook time per turn to get them golden and done, but not too dark. 

 If I were going to make these ahead and chill them for later reheating in the oven, I would only cook them 1 min per side, then cook them 20 minutes at 350F en masse on a cookie sheet.

Home Brew in the Lager

This batch tastes quite a bit like English or Belgian ale, which is a good thing! I detect only the slightest hint of sage (which would taste like fruity hops if I didn't know better), so hopefully the honey that it was bottled with will round it out nicely.

Now comes the hardest part of the whole process... Forgetting about it for 3 weeks or so to let it carbonate.

Sushi Birthday

Abi chose to go to Tori Yen for her birthday dinner. Our favorite waitress surprised her with a Geisha wig and mouse nose while we all sang her happy birthday. Abi was a sport and even let us get a few funny pics of her before she gave them back.

Jami and Abi, Back in Cali!

Abi had a wonderful 6 weeks with Jami - she grew and learned and experienced all kinds of fun things. It's nice to have the little duck back though! Jami and Abi flew into LAX Thursday night. Friday Jami got her first real vacation all summer - she slept all day!

We drove out to Long Beach to stay the night at a hotel that night, because the boat chartered for the RMC annual fishing trip would be leaving by 6am!

The visit was too short. On Sunday, we took Jami down to the LA Farmer's Market for lunch at the Brazilian BBQ, where you get plates of meat by the pound! Oh, and some veggies and other yummy sides, too.

The freeways were packed as usual around LAX, so we got Jami there just in the nick of time to run for her plane. Almost managed to help her miss it and extend her vacation. Maybe next time!

Garden Produce

Now that August is in full swing, the big bushy plants that got a jump start in the cool early summer are putting out their fruits. I am getting tons of eggplant, cucumber, and peppers. Even the strawberries are still giving us a handful of tiny juicy fruits every other day. The tomatoes burned up slightly in the record heat we've had in the last couple weeks, unfortunately, but they are hanging in there giving just a few at a time.

But the biggest surprise of all was the zuccini. Instead of lamenting having planted two vines and not have enough neighbors to bum off extra squash, I have only gotten 3 decent zuccinis all summer!! The little squash get about 4 inches long, turn yellow then black, then fall off. Aparently, this is due to calcium deficiency. I guess sheep poop isn't the only thing we need to supplement our poor soil.

The few heirloom tomatoes I have gotten make amazing Caprise with basil from the bush and fresh mozzarella sliced up and drizzled with the local rosemary olive oil!