Road Trip for Two! Week Two

After the first week we were back in Salt Lake City for a few days. On Monday Wally and I went downtown. First we toured The Cathedral of the Madeleine. When I was in college I attended LDS Business College which was located on South Temple. Whenever we walked downtown we always walked past this beautiful Cathedral. I had been in it before and I knew Wally would enjoy seeing it.

From there we went to City Creek for lunch and for some free passes to Red Butte Gardens. If you show your out of state drivers license at the customer service counter you get a booklet of discounts for the shopping center and you can ask for free admission tickets to some of the area attractions. That's a really good tip to know.

Then we went to Temple Square and Wally sat in the shade so I could take some photos of the beautiful flower beds. It was the perfect time of year to catch the tulips.

It was such beautiful weather and was great to be outdoors.

That evening Natalie and Scott took us to dinner at Chili Tepin. Wally ordered his own plate and the three of us split the molcajete dish which was quite amazing. Full of chicken, steak, shrimp, nopales, green sauce, onions and jalepeno's. We even had some leftover.

Seriously, as good as it looks!

We spent Sunday through Wednesday night at Natalie and Scott's house. On Tuesday morning Wally and I had breakfast at Blue Plate Diner. In the afternoon we drove to Loretta's house and then with her Mom went out to her daughter Jackie's home to visit and have a barbecue. It was fun to see everyone and meet the youngest little girl that we hadn't met before.

My notes for the trip ended with Tuesday! So now I'll be going on my memory. Wednesday afternoon Sue and Becky arrived in Salt Lake. We picked Natalie up at work and we all went to Red Butte Gardens and walked around. What a beautiful place. We parked Wally in a nice shaded area while we explored the various gardens. This is a place that would be fun to see in all seasons as the plants in bloom change.

Another beautiful sunny day in the city. After Red Butte we met picked up Scott and met Russell for dinner at Mimi's for dinner and a visit. Becky and Sue then drove to Springville.

Wally and I drove to Springville on Thursday morning. The next few days was our sister's weekend with my plus one of Wally. We cleaned, we ate, we watched movies, we went to a craft boutique, we had a super fun time together.

 Caramel covered marshmallows with chocolate and peppermint, why ask why? They were delicious.

Sunday we drove to Boise. Wally and I stopped in Heyburn, Idaho to visit my Dad's cousin, Frank and his family.

Sunday night was spent with Sue and Dennis and then we were home on Monday, May 8th.

We got home to nice mowed lawns thanks to great neighbors.
I have to say I love retirement. And I love my family and I'm happy we were able to go visit everyone.

Weekly Menus

Last week I returned to working at the office after working from home for three years. A return to putting on nice clothes, getting up early and commuting.

In order to keep things running smoothly at home I had to make dinner menus before grocery shopping on Saturday. That way I know exactly what is for dinner when I get home from work and I can look ahead to know when to take meat out of the freezer, or when I might need an quick trip to the grocery store.

This was last weeks menu:
Chicken noodle soup w/sandwiches (Cash n' Carry soup)
Chili and cornbread muffins
Leftover chili
Sausage, rice and veggies
Whole roasted chicken w/roasted red potatoes
Baked potatoes w/hamburger gravy

This is the plan for this upcoming week:
Pork stir-fry with noodles
Russian chicken with rice pilaf
Flank steak tacos w/all the fixings
White chicken chili w/tortillas, cheese and sour cream
Layered enchilada casserole
Pork chops

The Year is Winding Down

I have to say we had a great Christmas. Complete with lots of fun gifts, good food and hanging out with family. I'm on vacation until January 4th, so I'm planning on enjoying each day of it.

I got cook books for Christmas and I've been having fun reading through them. I received Pioneer Women's cookbook; http://thepioneerwoman.com/my_cookbook/

and the two Artisan Bread in Five Minutes cookbooks; http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

Today we had homemade bread for dinner and I was surprised how good it turned out. You make the yeast dough and let it rise then put it in the fridge (up to 14 days). When you want to cook bread you take out a chunk of dough, shape it, let it rest, then bake it. I'll put some pictures up later on my food blog.

Thanksgiving 2009

It will be a very quiet Thanksgiving Day at our house. Family is spread out this year so it will just be the three of us. However it still calls for the full turkey spread. Gotta have those leftovers. Since it's a four day weekend, I consider that I shouldn't have to do much more cooking after Thursday.

This Thanksgiving I am so thankful for my family. Thankful for my husband and between us our four children, two son-in-laws and one grand-daughter. And of course our siblings and their families. I frequently ponder the relationships I have with each of my siblings as we get older. Which ones do I have more in common with? How often do we see each other or talk on the phone? Luckily we have all this modern technology so the Internet keeps us somewhat connected. I don't say it often enough but I love each one of you.

It's also fun to stay in touch with extended family that I don't see too often. I like knowing what is going on in your lives. I cheer for you everyday.

I'm also grateful for my friends. That includes co-workers as well as my friends I have known for most of my life. There are those of you that have stayed in my life for so very many years, and for this I am grateful. There may have been times over the years when we weren't always involved in each other's life, but we have a history and because of that history you shall always be a part of my life.

I am grateful for my job and the fact that I have worked for the same company for almost 21 years.

I will remember Thanksgivings past when my Mom and Dad sat at our table with us, or my sister and her husband or most of our kids. There was even one year that my ex-husband's mother spent Thanksgiving with us.

Also at this time of year, my heart and prayers go out to my friends and family who are going through difficult times. My coworker who lost his grandmother, my Uncle who is spending his last days surrounded by his loving family and my little 8 year old nephew who is in the hospital.

To all of you I wish you health, happiness and peace. But wishing doesn't make it so, it's up to you.

Be grateful, be loving, be forgiving, be patient, be comfortable with who you are.

The Nielson family (circa. 1970s)

October Trip to Los Angeles

Last week I had the chance to travel for my job. I flew out Sunday morning to the Long Beach Airport and spent the next four days in Cypress, California. This was my first time flying Jet Blue and I really enjoyed it. They have TV sets on the back of all the seats. I especially enjoyed the flight home on Thursday evening. I had a window seat, the middle seat was empty and the lady in the aisle seat who was traveling with her husband turned out to be from the same town in California where my son-in-law's parents live, and they knew them!

I stayed at the Marriott Courtyard, it was very pleasant. Nice flat screen TVs that swiveled, so I could watch in the evening as I did work on my laptop at the desk.

Dinner in the evenings was a variety of food and people. One night was pastrami and corned beef sandwiches on rye at Katella's Deli and Restaurant (and Bakery) in the company of my two nieces and great niece. It was a fun visit.

Another night a couple of us walked to Chilis, another night (first game of world series) we walked next door and ate in the lounge of a Mexican restaurant. I had an amazing plate there. It was called sizzling enchiladas with a creamy tomatillo sauce. I had steak, but you could also have chicken. It also had grilled mushrooms, onions and peppers and the flavors were so very good.

Another evening, a group of us went to a small family owned Italian restaurant where we sat for hours visiting and eating. Good food and good company.

The off-site I attended during the day was very good and productive. Good team of people to be working with.

I put in a lot of extra work hours in the evening, but it was good so I didn't feel so behind on Friday after missing four regular working days.

The oddest thing I'd have to say about the week was 1.) not driving a car for four days (we were close enough to walk the two blocks to the office and the others had rental cars so I didn't need one) and 2.) not seeing what the back of my hair looked like for four days!

Breakfast

As I was laying in bed last night thinking in those last few moments of the day, I thought of all I had done that day. This might be strange to some, but it's perfectly normal to me, to do a mental list of everything I ate that day. I realized I had eaten breakfast for all three meals.

I ate a late breakfast of scrambled eggs, cheese and salsa in a flour tortilla. Work was super busy so by mid afternoon I just needed to quickly grab some food. I had a bowl of cereal.

At the end of they day I had no plans what to make for dinner. After coming home from working out at 6 pm, I had figured out that I could make pancakes with bacon and eggs. We don't normally have bacon but I had half a package left from a salad I made for Thanksgiving dinner.

I thoroughly enjoyed dinner and it was an easy clean up.

Two Days After Thanksgiving

Today I:

• Went on a two mile walk
• Ate breakfast at McDs with Wally (they have the best ever chocolate milk)
• Watched the end of "Becoming Jane Austen"
• Helped hang Christmas lights on the front of the house
• Went grocery shopping
• Read a lot of blogs, it was fun, you start with just one and then you keep linking through their friends and find people you know and just keep reading, Natalie calls it "blog stalking"
• Did not eat cheesecake
• Ate a lot of fruit (apple, orange and now a pomegranate)
• Did laundry
• Made beef stew for dinner (no turkey tonight, but the leftover fresh cut up veggies came in handy)
• Tonight we plan on watching "Get Smart"

What's for Dinner

I'm going to try and record one week of dinner's at our house just for fun.

Sunday, was flank steak with flour tortilla's and spanish rice.
Monday, we had angel hair pasta with ground beef in marinara, green salad, canned corn and the greatest bread. The bread is from Fred Meyer's and it's a long slender loaf of french bread which you bake at home and eat hot, dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.