Since we last met......................

Since I last blogged many things have happened.

My cousin Glenn and his lovely wife Rosalyn visited here in Eureka.  Glenn's mom, Hazel was my mom's sister.  We were raised in So. CA and most of our Christmas, New Year's and Easters were spent together.

 Glenn, Rosalyn, me, Mr. Scottie Dog and Liz (guess what?  8 year old Sydney took this photo!).

 Liz celebrated her birthday...don't ask me how old she is...I keep goofing and she delights in it!  On her birthday I took her 3 GIANT donuts from a local bakery.  Can't begin to tell you how many people they fed!

A day later we took the trailer up to Gold Beach, OR for a few days.  Liz and Steve stayed in the hotel and we parked in the adjacent RV Park....great view of the ocean.  We had bonfires on the beach, marshmallows and a huge sandcastle building event.

This lighthouse was right at the trail to the beach.  You could climb the circular stairs to the viewing porch on top.  Bill took a bit of the romance out when he informed me that this was the sewage lift station for the RV Park....the pump to move the sewage up to the street and sewer system is housed in the lower part of the lighthouse.  I'm just happy it doesn't look like a huge pump!

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

For breakfast one morning Liz made us bacon pancakes.  They were good, but personally I think I like my bacon and pancakes separate.



I've been in a canning mode for the past couple of weekends.  Mr. Scottie Dog has been bringing me 5 gallon buckets full of pears...not one, not two, but four buckets one weekend and two the next.  I've made pear jam, spiced pear jam, pear tarts, pear butter and more.  This weekend I needed something different.  I saw a recipe for Pear Chutney.  I don't think I've ever had chutney but you certainly hear about it often.  I knew I liked everything in the Pear Chutney.  One blogger said she liked to put it on cream cheese spread on crackers.  That sounded pretty good!  Emeril said it was good on chicken or pork.  So I decided to can up a batch of Pear Chutney.  I gathered up my ingredients: apple cider vinegar, mustard seed, pears, onions, crystallized ginger, the zest of two oranges and one lemon, golden raisins, crazins, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, apples....oh so much goodness.  I made so much I had to process the canner twice.

Sunday night I opened a jar and had it with a perfectly grilled pork chop (Mr. Scottie Dog is a master griller!).  YUM, double yum!  I ate a couple of spoon fulls right out of the jar!  I'm going to a fun sewing day on Friday and I'm taking a jar of Pear Chutney, cream cheese and crackers.  I might share.