HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA

Emma is 6 years old today.



We hope you had lots of fun at your birthday party.

We love you very much!!
Grandma and Grandpa

Boat, Rain, Wet Clothes, and a Big Ham

Just a few more pics from early last week on the canal.

10 Days on the river

We are currently in Toulouse, where we will spend a couple of days before heading home on Tuesday. We had a great time on the Canal du Midi. Yes we had rain for a couple of days. Yes certain things on the boat didn't work correctly, but.... we had a great time. Most evenings we simply tied up along shore. No fancy marinas. We generally ate out only once a day. Breakfast was usually fresh croissants from the village boulangerie, coffee, and fruit. Lunch was usually on the boat while waiting for a lock to open. Local cheese, local meat and local wine, and of course bread from the morning boulangerie. We would usually go out for dinner at the local tavern, pub or whatever. The only rule was no white table cloths. The only disappointments were with the fancier places. When we stayed local and simple it was all good. I'll write more when we get back but just wanted to post a few pictures to keep everyone up to date.

More Pictures

More from Barcelona and Girona

Trip Update

We had a great start to our trip in Barcelona. While our room was quite basic, it was ideally located on the Ramblas. We walked every where. We were blessed with sunny skies and mild temps. We would usually have a breakfast at the hotel which was buffet style with lots of mystery foods. Lunch was around 2, and dinner never before 9:00. For a big city Barcelona was very clean and very pedestrian friendly. Lots of walkers, scooters and small cars. Some tour buses, but very few large trucks.

We left Monday morning by train to Girona. About an 1.5 hour trip north of Barcelona. We rented a 2 bedroom apartment with Bob and Linda for 2 nights. The apartment was very modern but was in a 800 year old building. We had late lunches, and then went to market and bought bread, cheese, and meat. Then on to the wine store where we bought wine from the barrel. We bought 1.5 liters each of a red and a white, along with 500 ml. of port all for less than 7 euro. We got to see the locals practicing being roman soldiers at 10:00 at night by the cathedral. This was for the upcoming pageant for Easter. We walked the city walls, and visited their art museum on Tuesday.

This morning we hiked back to the train station to head north to Beziers France. After an 1.5 hour train ride we arrived at the Spanish,French border. We had to change trains, then 1 hour north to Narbonne. We then had a 45 minute wait, (time for coffee) and on a different train for a 15 minute ride to Beziers, where we currently are. We are across from the train station at the Hotel Terminus, for one night before catching a cab to the marina where we pick up our boat.

Judy, John, Barcelona

Friday morning, we dropped Mollie off at Camp Bow Wow, and then headed to the airport. We were plenty early. Our flight was to leave at 10:30 arriving in Newark at 12:15. We knew we would have a 7 hour layover since our flight to Barcelona wasn'scheduled to leave until 7:15 in the evening. Now the adventure begins.....

First our flight to Newark was delayed by an hour. No problem we've got all day. Then they asked for volunteers to give up their seats. 10 minutes later we were in a Limo going to Detroit. They gave us 2 three hundred dollar travel vouchers plus paid 270.00 to get us to Detroit to catch a 1:50 flight to Newark. We got to Detroit to find out that our flight has been delayed by 1 hour. Well we made it to Newark with almost 2 hours to spare, only to find our flight to Barcelona had been delayed. We finally left the ground at 9:00 and arrived in Barcelona this morning at 9:50 local time or 3:50 in the morning Grand Rapids time. We found our bus to head to our hotel area, dropped our bags off and went out for lunch. By the time we got back to the hotel, our room was ready so we took a 4 hour nap.

Dinner is a late night deal here, so we didn't even go out until 8:00. After a dinner of Tapas and some desert at the gelato stand we headed back in for the evening. Bob and Linda arrive on the train in the morning. We will meet them at the station and head out for a little sight seeing. All for now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONATHAN

Today is Jonathan's 25th birthday. He recently joined CorporateColor in commercial sales and is off to a great start.

Happy Birthday. We love you.

Countdown to Europe begins

Our "to-do" list is getting shorter and excitement is building as we continue to prepare for our trip overseas coming up in less than two weeks. Our taxes are done and e-filed thanks to turbo tax, the credit card companies have been notified of potential charges from Spain and France, necessary items of clothing and technology have been bought, and a reservation at Camp Bow Wow has been made for Molly.

Our bags aren't packed yet but we are making lists. As we have done on previous trips to Europe, we are packing light and are each taking one carry-on piece of luggage, plus a small shoulder bag. We just do a little hand laundry in the hotel sink every couple of days during our travels and we are good to go.

This afternoon was very pleasant so we both went for a walk over in the park with Molly. This was also a test to see how John's foot would do, as it's been bothering him lately with a bit of swelling and occasional pain. It doesn't seem to be any worse after our 40 minute walk so that's good.

He's taking an anti-inflammatory and hoping that will take care of it. If it isn't better in a couple of days he will have to see the doctor. This is the same foot he fractured a couple of years ago.

The weather has been mild the last couple of days and Spring is definitely in the air. We even saw a few golfers in the adjacent golf course while we were walking; a sure sign of Spring in Michigan.

Irish Soda Bread with Dried Cherries

Bread is fun to make and it's even more fun to eat. I don't eat bread all that often, but when I do I try to choose whole wheat or whole grain.

Last night I had Irish Soda Bread on my mind. Must be my (very small amount of ) Irish genes were coming to the surface on this St. Patricks Day. This recipe uses whole wheat flour that is soaked overnight and it is also sugar free. Although I did sprinkle a small amount of sugar on the top of each loaf before baking (but this step could be omitted).

As I sometimes do with recipes, I substituted a few of the ingredients and used dried cherries and nuts instead of raisins, and my version is not dairy free. This makes a very untraditional version of Irish Soda Bread but we like cherries and nuts. Any type of dried fruit or nut would work just as well.

Irish Soda Bread with Dried Cherries

4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup buttermilk (this was leftover from making butter)

2 Tbs apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped

3/4 cup nuts, coarsely chopped

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp caraway seeds, sprinkle on top (optional)

1-1 1/2 tsp organic cane sugar, sprinkle on top (optional)

The day before baking , add cider to the milks and let set for about 5 minutes. In large bowl, mix the flour, and oil together with a pastry cutter until flour is crumbly and pea size. Add the oats and milk/cider combination. Cover well and leave on the counter overnight.

The next day - preheat oven to 350 . In a small bowl combine the cherries, nuts, salt, and baking soda.

Place dough on board and press out fairly flat.

Pour cherry/nut mixture on top

Fold dough in half over top of cherry mixture. Press flat

Continue folding and pressing until fruits and nuts are mixed in.

Round the dough into a ball and cut ball in half

Form each ball into a 2 1/2 inch thick round.

Cut an X on top

Place rounds on parchment paper lined cookie sheet

Press caraway seeds on top and sprinkle with sugar, if using.

Bake for 45 - 50 minutes. Cool on cooling racks. Cut into wedges.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIA

Today is our granddaughter Mia's 3rd birthday.



Happy Birthday Mia! We hope you have a fun tea party, we love you !!

Mid Winter Thaw

What a difference a few degrees makes. With the temperature getting into the upper 50's the last few days, a lot of the snow has melted. This morning when Molly and I stepped outside to go for our walk in the park we couldn't believe how warm it was.
It smelled like spring!
We even had a fly buzzing around in the house. (Yuk)

Just a few days ago, this sidewalk was covered with hard packed snow.

Not today.

A couple of weeks ago Molly had to share 'her deck' with all this snow.

Not today.

Today, Molly was out on the deck doing what she loves to do.
Surveying the yard and keeping the squirrels away.

We know this mild weather won't last for long, and we sure have enjoyed it while it was here. Ah Spring, only 6 weeks away.

Easy & Homemade

A few weeks ago we bought a small share of two Jersey cows (Dolly and Harriet). They live on a small farm about 20 minutes from us and this is where we get our milk each week. The milk from a jersey cow has a high cream content which is perfect for making butter, yogurt and cheese.

A dairy workshop is held at the farm a couple of times during the year. On Saturday about a dozen of us met there to learn how to make butter, yogurt, simple cream cheese, creme fraiche, and ice cream.

Karen, one of the farm owners, showed us how to make butter the easy way, using a food processor. You simply pour the cream into the bowl of the processor, put the lid on and press the 'on' button. It only took about 10 minutes to go from cream to butter, and it was delicious!

Here is a small batch of butter that was made in our mini food processor.

The liquid that's leftover is buttermilk that can be used in baking.

She also explained how easy it is to make homemade yogurt.
We have had our Donvier electric yogurt maker for years and it works great.

But it turns out you don't need a fancy machine to make yogurt. Karen makes her yogurt by placing the cultured milk in a quart glass jar. The jar goes into a small cooler that she fills with hot tap water. The cooler is left undisturbed overnight and the next day it is delicious yogurt.

Yogurt cream cheese is made by simply draining some yogurt in a cheesecloth for a few hours (I have used a paper coffee filter instead of cheesecloth with good results). Creme Fraiche is similar to sour cream and is made by adding a culture to the cream and leaving it at room temperature for about 12 hours.

Making your own homemade ice cream allows you to have this wonderful sweet treat without the 'extra' ingredients. If you are curious what these extra ingredients are go here. Modern ice cream machines have containers that can be stored in the freezer and they don't use messy ice and salt. And, no hand cranking! We have had our Krups machine for a few years and although we only use it occasionally, it makes delicious ice cream in about 20 minutes.

Karen shared her favorite recipe for ice cream that only uses a small amount of maple syrup as the sweetener. She also shared with us her recipe for homemade vanilla.

Karens' Vanilla Ice Cream (from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon )

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1 Tb homemade vanilla
1 Tb arrowroot (can be omitted)
3 cup heavy cream

Beat egg yolks and mix with maple syrup, vanilla, arrowroot, and cream.
Put into ice cream maker and follow machine directions.
The addition of alcohol (vanilla) prevents hard freezing.
Other ingredients such as apple mint (from your garden), fruit in season, nuts, cocoa, etc. can also be added.


Karens' Homemade Vanilla Extract

Split 3 vanilla beans lengthwise. Put into a glass pint jar and fill 2/3 full with vodka ( Karen uses organic vodka ).


Let sit for at least 6 weeks before using.

A Walk To The Park

The sun was shining and temps were in the 30's this afternoon, so after Church and brunch, Molly and I took a walk over to the park.




Actually Molly doesn't care what the weather is like, she is always ready to go for a walk.

We don't live very far from the park and we walk over there almost every day. Molly knows the routine very well by now. The park pictures are from a few days ago.

The sidewalk we take to the park gets very snowy (and dirty) this time of year. Salty slush from the road gets thrown up on the sidewalk by the passing cars.

During the winter, cars aren't able to drive back into the park. The road is accessable to park employees only. Cars really aren't supposed to park in front of the gate either.

Snowy picnic tables.

Playground equipment sits idle this time of year.

This is one of the trails off of the main road.

A bridge over the creek.

Molly left her bag in the garbage can too.

After our walk we leave the park and head back up the sidewalk to go home.

Back at home, Molly is busy getting rid of those pesky snowballs that collect on her fur.

What a beautiful sunset we had tonight.