It has been an eventful week. Sunday started it off - I got off early so I could watch the Seahawks and Niners play. Mother Nature had another idea - how about a serious thunderstorm with sudden winds at 55mph, hail, rain, blowing dirt, blowing gravel, and lightening. It took 3 of us to hold the RV awning down so it wouldn't blow away - in the meantime the TV we were sitting outside watching the game on got soaked.
Bob, our friend Jeff, and I got soaked to the skin trying to get everything taken care of outside. After we all got dry clothes we decided to get dinner ready and watch the game inside. Of course our fun wasn't over the power went out and when it came back on we remembered . . . you can't run the oven and the front AC unit at the same time. Whoops. Breaker flipped and the back AC on, oven back on, and sub sandwiches in the oven. Game time.
Of course you had to know that food would be involved! Jeff brought dinner - Italian sub sandwiches from a local store. I opened them up and tossed the soggy lettuce and tomato, then spread them with this wonderful spread.
To make the "Jeffwiches" I opened a 1/2 pint jar of the peppers I pickled last month (oh these babies aren't going to last long!) drained them, and added them to the food processor along with 1/2 cup of Gertie's artichoke pesto. Simple way to really make a store bought sandwich shine. If I'd been thinking I would have added some feta cheese to the spread.
I wrapped the sandwiches in foil and put them in a 350 oven for about 25 minutes. They were so good! I was too tired to take a picture of them . . . sigh.
This week I'll start canning tomatoes and pickling some habanero peppers from our little bush. I know it seems crazy to "can" all this stuff in heavy glass jars when we are planning on hitting the road - but having a supply of wonderful goodies is going to be worth the weight. We have pickled beets, raspberry jam, pepper jam, pickled peppers & pickled jalapenos so far. It'll be nice this winter to open a jar of summer.
We've also got several pounds of home made bacon in the freezer. It'll go fast, but we're taking the smoker on the road with us so we'll be able to make more. There's also the chance that we'll make new friends to share some of our treasures with.
Habaneros - fresh from the garden just waiting for the pickling solution. Bob will enjoy these over the winter. |
It looks like we got really busy with the canning, packing, and getting things ready to go while working . . . It was hard work, sorting what would stay at the Golf Course to wait for our return and what we'd take on this new adventure with us. We knew that we were coming to California, we wanted to be close to my oldest daughter so that we could give her a hand when she needs it. We wanted to be closer to my youngest daughter, our Grand Children, and old friends.
More to come on our new adventure in CA.