Category Archives: Recipe

Christmas Treats

Christmas has come and gone here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort, just like it has everywhere else. Most of the residents here spread the Christmas spirit by decorating their homes. Some of the streets go as far as adopting a theme which everyone more or less follows. The management provides a tram – a small train with open cars pulled by a small tractor. People get on the train at the lot in front of the office and it takes them on a tour of the facility to look at all of the lights and decorations in the evening.

Christmas decorations viewed from our front steps

We had a fairly quiet Christmas Day. Our Christmas dinner included a honey-glazed spiral-cut ham. I sliced russet potatoes which Donna made into a very tasty side of au gratin potatoes and I cubed a butternut squash that she sauteed with fresh ginger and spices. Cubing a butternut squash was harder than I expected! She also made green beans tossed with shallots cooked in butter. And for dessert, she made Nanaimo Bars, a Canadian Christmas treat (recipe here). Donna fixed three plates that she delivered to three different homes where she assists the elderly residents. They live alone and were very appreciative to have a home-cooked Christmas dinner. She also delivered Nanaimo Bars to some of our neighbors.

Christmas Eve was about as wintery as it gets around here. The temperature only reached 59 degrees and an inch and a half of rain fell! We exchanged gifts on Christmas morning – I gave Donna a pair of diamond stud earrings that I bought online from Blue Nile. She gifted me with a nice set of Sony noise-cancelling headphones. I spend a fair amount of time on YouTube lately and these headphones are a treat.

We’ve had several wet days with heavy overcast since Christmas and I’ve only been out once for pickleball. Donna managed to get out for tennis a couple of times and also played a round of golf on the nine-hole Executive course. My days have revolved around reading and practicing guitar – I’m working on learning some new material. I ordered a Christmas gift for myself – a set of custom hand-wound pickups for my Strat-type guitar. They’re being made by Adam Asmus (dba Tone Hatch Pickups) in Norfolk, Nebraska and I’m looking forward to getting them in a week or so.

Last week, we watched the Beatles documentary, Get Back, on Disney Plus. It a three -part film with about 6 hours of running time culled from over 150 hours of film recorded in 1969. It was interesting to watch their creative process as well as the tensions that developed in the group at that time. It was well worth paying for a month of streaming Disney Plus.

Before Christmas, I made a batch of my signature Japanese fried rice. Donna grilled shrimp for a simple, delicious and savory dinner.

On Christmas Eve she kept it simple – we were gifted a delicious clam chowder from Hancock’s in Maine. And the day after Christmas, she made green chile pollo street tacos. She tried something new with the chicken filling, it was a different seasoning on the chicken and it was topped with a green chile sauce she made. They were outstanding.

After Christmas, we had our fill of leftover ham including ham sandwiches and slow cooker beans with the ham shank. Donna gave us a break from the ham with another new chicken recipe. She split chicken breasts into thin fillets, pan fried them and made a sun-dried tomato and cream sauce topping. It was very good!

Chicken with sun-dried tomato and cream sauce, zucchini spirals on the side

It’s hard to believe today is the last day of 2021. Tomorrow a new calendar year begins. It looks like we’ll be off to a relatively cold start – the forecast calls for clear skies with temperatures in the mid to upper 50s over the weekend before we begin warming up next week. After taking a holiday break, I’ll resume the Tuesday afternoon pickleball coaching clinics next week.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Farm to Table

Last Thursday was Donna’s birthday. It was my youngest daughter, Shauna’s, birthday as well. We celebrated Donna’s birthday by going out to dinner at Olio Restaurant in Mancos, about 17 miles east of Cortez. This restaurant is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday and tables must be reserved in advance. It’s an intimate setting with only seven tables – only four tables were occupied while we were there.

They have a menu that frequently changes, depending on fresh ingredients in season and they have a large wine selection. We started with a three-cheese board with rosemary-fig jam, grill toasted bread and an assortment of nuts and dried fruits. We chose Delice de Bourgogne (creamy French cheese made from cow’s milk), Caciotta Dei Boschi Al Tartufo (firm Italian cheese made from sheep’s milk) and Bucheron (soft French cheese made from goat’s milk) for our three cheeses. I ordered a bottle of 2014 Pugnitello by Corte alla Flora – a bold Tuscan red wine to go with the meal.

The cheese board and wine were extraodinary. For entrees, Donna hard a hard time deciding between the Tomato Braised Heluka Pork Cheeks on ‘Cacio e Pepe’ Bucatini Pie  or the Confit of Poussin on Mushroom Farro with Marsala Sauce, Shaved Leek & Fennel Slaw. She went for the poussin which is a small chicken – about the size of a cornish hen – that’s been partially deboned before roasting. Only the leg and wing bones remain while the bird still appears to be intact.

I was excited by the Grilled Nebraska Wagyu New York Strip with Olio Signature Steak Sauce on the menu. I’ve never had wagyu beef before, but I knew about it – at least that’s what I thought. True wagyu beef only comes from Japanese cattle – it can be one of four breeds. The most well-known is probably Kobe beef. All Kobe beef is wagyu, but not all wagyu is Kobe. There are four breeds of wagyu in Japan. Wagyu (Wah-gyoo) can be translated as wa (Japanese) gyu (cow). Wagyu cattle are genetically disposed to having a high percentage of intramuscular fat – meaing a well-marbled meat that makes the tastiest and juiciest steaks.

Fifty years ago, some Japanese wagyu cattle were exported to America for breeding, but Japan soon outlawed any export of live wagyu or any genetic material capable of reproducing wagyu cattle – they declared it a National Treasure. But the cat was out of the bag and some ranchers bred the few available cows. But the gene pool was diluted and cross-breeding occurred. Nowadays, most American wagyu is a far cry from Japanese wagyu – it’s mostly angus DNA with a small amount of wagyu genetics. Some people look down on it and call it wagus.

Back to my dish. The Nebraska Wagyu is not the Japanese wagyu I was expecting. It was definitely more of a wagus beef, a lean one as well. I was sorely disappointed and in the future, I will choose USDA Prime over American Wagyu. The real deal Japanese wagyu goes for more than $100/pound and I’ve seen cuts as high as $300/pound. Although export of live cattle and genetic material is banned, you can still get butchered Japanese wagyu beef.

I should mention that Donna volunteered to help Carolyn Ower in her garden a few days a week while we’re here. She spent Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning last week weeding alongside Carolyn who is very happy for the help. Between gardening and caring for her chickens, Carolyn has been very busy getting ready for the farmers’ market here in Cortez that will open next weekend.

In my last post, I called the Ower’s place a ranch and linked to last year’s post where I called it a farm. So, which is it? Here’s the thing: I’ve found several definitions describing a ranch versus a farm. Most agree that a farm generally focuses on raising crops while a ranch will be mainly utilizing the land to raise large animals – cattle, sheep, horses, etc. A ranch will also be a farm when you consider that they usually grow feed crops and may have vegetable gardens. So a ranch can be a farm, but a farm isn’t a ranch. Does that make sense? By the way, the Owers call their place Ower’s Farm. Dairy farms seem to contradict the convention – they have cattle and usually grow feed but they aren’t called ranches.

On Saturday, we played in a pickleball shootout at the Centennial Park in town. The local pickleball club organized the event and we signed up online through Track It Hub. It was a round-robin type affair and in the first round, everyone played three games with different partners and opposition. Then we had a break that stretched to over 45 minutes as one court got a late start due to a no-show and they had to wait for a replacement player. The long break had an adverse effect on my game. I started by scoring 31 out of a possible 33 points in the first round and moved up a bracket. When we resumed, I felt stiff and lethargic and didn’t play well in the second round. Donna felt like she played okay. She had stiff competition in the first round, but had the second highest score. And in the second round, she scored 30 out of 33. We’ll probably sign up to play again in the next shootout tentatively scheduled for June 12.

Last week, Donna made a Dijon sauce to serve over sweet-spicy grilled chicken breast. It was tasty, but I was surprised to see the brand of Dijon she found.

Friday she grilled chicken and also a medley of peppers, fresh zuchini, onions and really young bok choy. The zucchini and bok choy were gifts from Carolyn Ower’s garden.

Yesterday, Donna tried a new-to-us salmon recipe. She grilled a wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon with a glaze of honey, olive oil, lemon juice, soy sauce, Worchestershire sauce, finely diced ginger and shallots. It was winner and we’ll definitely go with this again, especially since cooking it in foil made for super-easy cleanup.

She plated it with buttered basmati brown rice and Tuscan spiced broccoli. Excellent!

Salmon, basmati brown rice and Tuscan spiced broccoli

The weather has been very agreeable with a few clouds and daily highs reaching about 80 degrees. I’ve been alternating the afternoon hours between playing around with ham radio or practicing guitar. After not playing much over the last couple of years, I’m finding my guitar playing is going well – I feel like I’m playing better than ever, but there are some songs I used to play that I don’t remember.

The weather forecast calls for a cooler day tomorrow with a 40% chance of afternoon thunderstorms – of course I just washed the truck. It’s supposed to heat up after that with daily highs in the upper 80s. We’ll be here for two more weeks.

German or Japanese?

I closed my last post on Sunday saying I had a few days left to shop for Donna’s Christmas present. This was a bit of mis-direction – I didn’t want Donna to know I’d already selected and ordered a gift for her. She always comes up with something thoughtful and useful for me. More about Christmas later.

On Monday morning, I played in the 3.5+ pickleball round-robin. I played fairly well and had a good time. Donna and I returned to the pickleball courts on Wednesday morning for open play. We played several games, then it happened again. We were teamed up versus our friends, Ginny and Joe. Joe hit a low, short shot in front of me. I lunged forward and bent down to return the ball. Something in my lower back disagreed with the move. I could barely move without triggering jolts of pain. I was done with pickleball for the day.

A couple of people offered to give me a ride home in their golf carts. I thanked them and declined. I thought sitting in the golf cart might be too painful if we hit any bumps. I figured walking slowly might loosen up my lower back. It was a slow trip home. I took some naproxen and put a heating pad in my chair and have done that every day since then. Next week I’ll start working on some stretching exercises.

In the evening we got into the Christmas spirit by watching a movie on NetFlix called Christmas Chronicles. It was a comedy geared more for children but Kurt Russell gave an outstanding performance as St. Nick. We enjoyed it.

About 18 years ago, I bought a set of kitchen cutlery made by J. A. Henckels of Solingen, Germany. I thought they were pretty nice knives and they are decent quality. They’re in a butcher block knife holder along with a mish-mash of other kitchen knives. A couple of years ago, I bought Donna a Japanese Santoku knife. It’s just over six inches in blade length and only 1.8mm thick. It’s extremely sharp. Donna uses it for special cuts – like fileting chicken breasts into thin slices.

About 10 days ago, while Donna was prepping vegetables for dinner, I had a thought. I should get Donna a new set of knives. I did some homework and decided to get a set of Japanese kitchen cutlery. Most professional kitchens are equipped with either German cutlery or Japanese. Many avid home cooks choose one or the other, but honestly I think the average household is satisfied with whatever Chinese-made knives they found at Walmart or maybe a QVC-special Ginsu set.

German knife makers and Japanese knife makers take a different approach in the their knife design and manufacturing. The biggest difference is found in the most important part – the blade. German knife designs tend to be very robust and heavy with thick blade stock. Japanese kitchen knives are thinner, lighter, more elegant and specialized. German knife blades are usually sharpened with a double bevel and the edge angle is 20 degrees per side or more. Japanese knives have various edge grinds but they’re usually a straight grind with an acute angle of 12 to 16 degrees per side. For example, the Henckels eight-inch chef’s knife blade is 3.7mm thick at the thickest part of the spine by the handle. The Japanese chef’s knife – called a gyuto – is typically 2mm or less at the thickest part of the spine.

The Japanese knife makers get away with the thin blades and sharp grinds by using steels that are considerably harder than the typical German knife. A German knife steel is usually heat treated to a hardness of 52-54 on the Rockwell C hardness scale – the abbreviation is HRC, not RCH as you might think. Japanese knife steel is heat treated to hardness ranging from around 58 HRC up to the mid 60s. This is a big difference.

Japanese knives can be made sharper and hold the edge better due to the hardness, but there’s a trade-off. Japanese cutlery tends to be more delicate and prone to chipping or even breakage if abused while German knives are more forgiving and robust. That’s one of the reasons Japanese cutlery is so specialized – they have a different criteria for knife specifications for almost anything you might want to cut in the kitchen.

After researching and shopping around, I thought I found a great fit for Donna. Donna’s hands are on the smaller size, so I looked for lightweight Japanese knives with handles made for smaller hands. I decided on Global brand knives made in Niigata, Japan by Yoshikin. These are unique knives that were considered to be very futuristic when they first hit the market in 1985. They caught on quickly with professional chefs and were also popular in homes with lots of stainless steel appliances.

This was due to the design which uses stainless steel (Cromova steel) exclusively. The knives are made from three pieces of stainless steel – the blade and two sides of the handle. The handle has a hollow portion that’s filled with a precise amount of sand to balance the various blades used – you can’t tell there’s sand inside. The three pieces are welded together, then ground and polished, making the finished product look like it was sculpted from a single chunk of steel. The handles have dimples filled with black paint to make them grippy.

Photos lifted from Cutlery and More webpage

The set L to R – 8.5″ bread knife (pankiri), 8″ chef’s knife (gyuto), 6″ scalloped utility knife,5.5″ vegetable knife (nakiri), 3.5″paring knife (petty)

By the way – stainless steel is a misnomer. There’s no such thing as stainless – it would be better to call it stain-less. It’s less prone to corrosion than low-alloy carbon steel, but any steel can and will corrode.

Donna has used the knives – mostly the nakiri vegetable knife – a couple of times and she reports favorably. She says vegetable prep is much easier and faster with these knives. I watched her mince fresh rosemary, garlic and basil into nearly a powder in a few seconds. These knives are extremely sharp right out of the box. I demonstrated this to Donna by taking a sheet of thin tissue paper the knives were wrapped with and holding it up in my left hand. I sliced through the free hanging paper cleanly without catching or tearing.

Donna bought a goody for dinner on Christmas Eve. She came home from Albertson’s grocery with four lobster tails. She cooked them and served them with Australian style potatoes called crash hot potatoes. She made them by boiling small potatoes, then she placed them on an oiled cookie sheet and pressed them with a potato masher. Then she drizzled with a little olive oil, sprinkled with fresh chopped rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. She baked them at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. I love ’em. We had a dim sum appetizer and ginger carrot soup before the main entree.

Lobster tail, crash hot potatoes and fresh green beans.

Our Christmas dinner was covid compliant – we didn’t go out or join anyone, it was just us. Donna made a shepherd’s pie. The filling included a pound of brisket that I had chopped into small cubes and froze last week. The brisket I made last weekend ended up in several meals. We had the dinner when I first took the brisket out of the Traeger – that’s two servings. Then I had brisket sandwiches twice last week and Donna had two salads with brisket strips – that’s four more meals. The shepherd’s pie is enough for four servings for a total of 10 meals. The $48 I paid for the Prime brisket doesn’t seem like so much now.

I’ve only had shepherd’s pie once before that I can recall. It’s a great dish!

The weather has been great other than some gusty, high winds on Wednesday afternoon and night. It’s 55 degrees outside as I type this morning and we should have a high of around 70 degrees. The skies are blue and cloudless. Tomorrow we’ll drive out west to Wickenburg where we’ll meet up with my daughter, Jamie and Francisco at LuAnn and Jerry’s new house. LuAnn is my ex-wife and Jerry is her husband – Jamie’s step-dad. Google maps says it’s a 100-mile drive each way. We’ll stay overnight at the Best Western in Wickenburg and return on Monday morning.

Minor Maintenance Tasks

We enjoyed another week as temporary residents of Mesa, Arizona. We’ve been coming here every year for the winter months since we hit the road – this is our fourth year here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. From 2006 to 2009, we lived here in Mesa full-time in a sticks-and-bricks home about 3 miles away from Viewpoint.

I had a couple of minor projects to attend to last week. When I dumped our gray water tank, I noticed a slow drip coming out of the bottom of the plastic pan in the wet bay. Later, I went to see about taking the cover plate off the wet bay to inspect the water lines, but the drip had stopped and all was dry. The next day, I saw the drip again. Taking the cover plate off the wet bay involved removing 14 screws. Once I did that, I saw that I really only needed to remove 11 of the 14 screws. Three screws were attached to a stiffener board that came off with the plate. Next time I’ll know.

I found the source of the water drip. There’s a plastic fitting in the PEX fresh water line with a small valve and connector to supply the ice maker in our freezer. This fitting had a hairline crack and was leaking. I made a trip to Ace hardware and bought a new fitting. I had to replace a short section of PEX tubing and it was job done. I neglected to take any photos while I worked.

The other minor project was routine maintenance on Midget-San. Modern cars make it easy to forget how much maintenance we once had to perform on automobiles. Unlike modern cars with sealed bearings and lifetime lubricated ball joints, our 1972 MG Midget requires chassis lube on the front suspension components. There are zerk fittings on the ball joints and king pin links and trunnions. These need to be greased with NLGI #2 bearing grease.

To do this, I needed to raise the Midget – it sits only a few inches above ground level making it impossible for me to get underneath the car. I jacked the car up and supported the four corners with jack stands. I used a grease gun and a cartridge of grease to inject grease into the zerk fittings.

I also had ordered a new distributor cap and rotor along with an ignition wire set from RockAuto. Nowadays, cars have separate coils mounted directly on the spark plug, eliminating the distributor and ignition wires. Modern platinum or iridium spark plugs can last 50,000 miles or more. Not so on the 1982 Nissan A15 engine in Midget-San. It is equipped with an electronic ignition module, so there isn’t a set of breaker points to replace. This is the only electronically controlled item on the car. The distributor is otherwise an old-fashioned device with a vacuum advance mechanism to control ignition timing. The single ignition coil is a Bosch blue coil feeding high voltage to the center terminal of the distributor cap where the current then travels through the rotor to each ignition wire and on to the appropriate spark plug.

These parts can wear and need periodic replacement. The high voltage arcs from the rotor to the distributor cap terminals resulting in wear on both components. The ignition wires delivering high voltage to the spark plugs can break down, allowing the current to arc to ground rather than firing the spark plugs. As part of my preventive maintenance schedule, I replaced the cap, rotor and ignition wires. It’s a fairly easy and straightforward job.

New distributor cap, rotor and NGK ignition wire set

Overall, the maintenance work was easy and didn’t take a lot of time or effort. These are the things you need to do to keep a 48-year-old car with a 38-year-old engine running smooth.

In my last post, I mentioned a new recipe I wanted to try. It was Smoked Paprika Chicken Legs with Chimichurri. I made a rub with paprika, coriander seeds, lime zest, salt and pepper and two tablespoons of olive oil. This created a paste-like rub that I massaged into the chicken leg quarters.

I set the Traeger wood-pellet fired smoker-grill to high (450 degrees). The chicken leg quarters cooked on the smoker for 45 minutes.

While the chicken leg quarters were cooking i made the chimichurri by putting a cup of parsley and a cup of cilantro along with jalapeno, onion, garlic cloves, fresh squeezed lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper in a food processor and pulsed it until it was creamy. This was served directly on the chicken.

Thigh portion of chicken leg quarter with chimichurri, mashed potato, corn and asparagus

The result was tasty and it’s a recipe worth repeating. Next time, I think I’ll use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. The high setting on the Traeger made a pleasantly crispy and tasty skin on the chicken.

Our Superbowl Sunday plan had a bit of a hectic schedule. Donna had tennis in the morning and a clarinet lesson in the afternoon before we drove to Mike and Jodi Hall’s for food, drink and the game – and cigars for Mike and me. The day before, we went shopping at Winco foods. I looked at the babyback ribs there, but wasn’t impressed. The only babybacks they had were Hormel brand, frozen rock hard and they didn’t look very meaty. We tried Fry’s grocery and they didn’t have any at all! We then went to Basha’s where I found nice looking fresh (not frozen) babybacks.

I did my usual thing with two racks of ribs on the Traeger Sunday afternoon. We took them to Mike and Jodi’s place around 3:30pm. Jeff and Chrissy Van Deren were there along with Mike’s sister, Connie, and Jodi’s sister Jackie. Donna made stuffed mushrooms and a vegetable tray. Mike had a whole chicken on his smoker grill. We had plenty of food for all. It was a good time and we enjoyed the game.

The weather had been great all week with daily highs in the low 70s. The weekend was warmer and we hit 78 degrees on Sunday! But on Monday, a cold front moved over the area and we had a partly cloudy day with the high only reaching the low 60s. I think the warmest part of the day was late morning, then it got colder as the day wore on. Last night, the temperature dropped to 34 degrees and we have a freeze warning tonight. Cold temperatures with the highs only in the 50s are forecast for the next few days. As I type this, it’s clear and sunny outside but the temperature is only 50 degrees. This cold spell should break by Friday and we’ll be back in the 70s.

Whiskey or Whisky

Donna had an appointment at the hair salon in Tempe on Tuesday. We rode the Spyder there – about a 20-minute ride from ViewPoint RV Resort. I dropped her off at 11am and continued on to the Total Wine store at Tempe Marketplace. Total Wine is a big box discount liquor store. They have a huge selection and good prices.

I was looking for a bottle of Scotch whisky. I like to sip single malt Scotch occasionally. There’s a difference between American whiskey and Scotch whisky – beyond the spelling and geographic origin – they are made from different ingredients. Scotch is malted barley that’s been distilled twice and aged in oak barrels. American whiskey is distilled primarily from corn.

The aging process for Scotch whisky takes place in oak barrels – usually in barrels obtained from American distilleries after they’ve been used to age whiskey. Some Scotch distillers will then transfer the whisky to used European wine casks – like sherry casks. The aging process takes place while it’s in the barrels or casks. Once it’s bottled, the aging process stops. So, if you have a bottle of 10-year-old Scotch and put it on the shelf for five years, you still have a bottle of 10-year-old Scotch.

Scotch whisky also has distinct flavors depending the region it’s distilled in. The largest region is Highland which is known for a warm, smooth product. A sub-region is called Speyside and it’s similar to Highland Scotch but also produces fruitier flavors. Scotch produced off the coast in the islands (Islay) is often peaty and/or smokey.

My preference is Speyside or Highland Scotch that’s been aged a minimum of 12 years. Scotch that’s aged 18 or more years is usually far superior but the price jumps exponentially. A lot of people will say not to waste your money or taste buds on inexpensive Scotch. I disagree – to a point. I look at it like shopping for red wine. Anyone can spend $30 or more and come home with a decent bottle of red wine. To me, the trick is finding a decent, affordable daily glass of wine for about a third of that cost. I shop for Scotch in this manner also.

My fallback position on single malt Scotch is Glenfiddich or The Glenlivet 12-year-old Scotch. These are very popular and affordable. I like to try out different offerings from time to time. When we’re in California, Trader Joe’s carries their house brand of Scotch which they obtain from a brokerage called Alexander Murray. Alexander Murray buys from various distilleries and bottles under private labels. They carry 750ml bottles ranging from cheap 8-year-old Scotch to very expensive 25-year-old Scotch. I’ve had their 13-year-old and 15-year-old and it’s quite good.

At Total Wine, I found a bottle called Glen Ness 12-year-old Highland Scotch. It’s their house brand and I thought I’d give it a try. It was a couple of dollars less than Glenfiddich and I found it to be fairly comparable – although I think Glenfiddich has a little more complexity. That was probably more than you ever wanted to read about Scotch.

After we returned home, I took it easy for the rest of the day. The temperature reached the upper 70s and things are blooming all over the desert. Tree and grass pollen counts are high and I’m suffering from pollen allergies. Donna rode her bicycle to her physical therapy session and afterward continued on to complete a 16-mile loop.

Donna prepared one of our favorite fish recipes for dinner. She wrapped individual servings of cod with asparagus, orange juice, butter and fresh tarragon in parchment paper. She put the parchment wraps on a baking sheet and cooked it in the convection oven. It’s very easy. She makes four servings and we enjoy the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Parchment wrapped cod filet

Perfectly cooked

Here’s Donna’s recipe…

Fish in Parchment with Asparagus

4 15×15-inch squares parchment paper
4 5-to 6-ounce fish fillets (such as halibut or cod; each about 1 inch thick)
12 fresh tarragon leaves
2 tablespoons butter, cut into 4 pieces plus extra for buttering parchment paper
1 pound slender asparagus spears, trimmed (and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces if desired)
4 tablespoons orange juice

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place parchment squares on work surface. Generously butter half of each parchment square (I rub the parchment with one end of a stick of butter). Top buttered half of each with 1 fish fillet. Dry fish with a paper towel and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top each fillet with 3 tarragon leaves, then 1 piece of butter. Arrange asparagus around each fish fillet; pour 1 tablespoon orange juice over each. Fold parchment over fish and asparagus, folding and crimping edges tightly to seal and enclose filling completely. Place on 2 rimmed baking sheets, spacing apart. Bake fish packets 17 minutes. Slide packets onto plates and serve. NOTE: Can be made 4 hours ahead and chilled, making it a great dinner for company.

On Wednesday morning, I played in the round robin pickleball matches. In the cool morning hours, my allergies seem to be a little more subdued. By the afternoon, I was going for eye drops every four hours or so. I took it easy for the rest of the day. Yesterday the temperature reached 86 degrees and we should see upper 80s through the weekend.

Carting the Kayak

We had a quiet afternoon on Wednesday indoors to beat the heat. On Wednesday evening, Donna made a new-to-us dish for dinner. She pounded boneless, skinless chicken breasts, then topped them with a mixture of spinach, garlic, onion, feta and spices, rolled up the meat around stuffing and browned it. It was excellent served with a side of orzo topped with fresh tomato and kalamata olives cooked in the pan with the chicken.

Chicken stuffed with spinach and feta

Thursday morning I inflated the Sea Eagle kayak with the foot pump. We strapped the kayak onto the cart and pulled it down to the river. The kayak was easy to pull with the new cart.

Kayak strapped to cart

We pulled the kayak out of the Crescent Bar RV Resort through the emergency exit and walked down the road to a trail that led to a small beach on the Columbia River.

Trail to beach

It was about half a mile from our site to the beach. The cart worked well and even rolled through the sand without a problem.

Donna with the kayak where we launched

After removing the kayak from the cart, I pulled the pins and took off the wheels. The cart folded and easily fit in the rear space of the kayak. We don’t have to worry about leaving the cart on the beach when we go out on the water.

Although we didn’t have the wind gusts we’ve been experiencing over the past few days, there was a fair breeze blowing across the river from the west. The river flows slowly south through Crescent Bar – right to left in the photo. The wind created a chop coming across the river.

Wind chop on the water

We paddled upstream to get a feel for how hard it would be to go against the current. The wind was more of an issue than the current was. It’s a fairly big body of water here. I was surprised at how shallow it was for the first 20 feet or so from the shore. I’ve seen power boats here so maybe it’s not quite as shallow as it looks through the clear water.

There weren’t any boats or jet skis out this early. We hit the water around 10:30am and the day was already heating up. We paddled upstream and found a boat anchored in a small cove. There was a big house on shore with a beautifully landscaped property. We assumed the boat belonged to the homeowner. No one was aboard and I wondered how they got from shore to the anchorage or anchorage to shore.

When we turned around to head back to the beach where we launched, we found that coming down river was harder than we expected. The wind-driven chop pushed the rear of our kayak, turning us to starboard. We kept heading out into the channel instead of hugging the shoreline. It took a lot of corrections to keep us on track.

While we were out on the river, a couple of F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets passed overhead. They were practicing low-level flight maneuvers and banked 90 degrees as they roared past us. This area is a designated as a low-altitude military training corridor. In certain areas of the country, the military can conduct low-altitude flight (below 10,000 feet above ground level) without regard to the 250-knot speed limit imposed on regular air traffic below 10,000 feet AGL.

We headed back to the RV park around 11:45am. On the way back, we met a couple that saw us go out. They were kayakers too and wanted see where we launched from. We gave them directions to the beach.

In the afternoon, we made a run to Quincy on the Spyder. I dropped Donna off at the Akins grocery store and rode over to the post office. I had a package there from the RV Water Filter Store. This was the first time I had something delivered to the Post Office addressed to General Delivery. I’ve heard that general delivery works well if you are in an area with a smaller post office. The Quincy Post Office qualifies as small. The clerk was friendly and she retrieved my package right away. Big city post offices seem to have issues with keeping track of general delivery mail. I was hoping that our regular mail from our service in South Dakota would be there, but it hadn’t arrived. I’ll have to go back there this morning to get it.

Yesterday the temperature reached the upper 90s. Today the forecast calls for a high of 102 degrees. I’ll make the run to town before noon to avoid the worst of the heat. It looks like this afternoon will be a good day to read another book and maybe take a dip in the swimming pool.

Tomorrow I’ll take Donna to Pangborn airport in East Wenatchee to pick up a rental car. She’ll drive the rental car over Cascade Mountains to meet her sister Sheila in Issaquah where she is running a marathon on Sunday. Donna will spend the night with Sheila at her hotel, then she and her nephew Connor will meet up with Sheila at the finish line.

Donna will come back Sunday evening. We plan to head out of Crescent Bar on Monday and go to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.

Synchronizing Cylinder

On Sunday evening, Donna prepared a new recipe called sweet and spicy salmon. My oldest daughter Alana shared the recipe on Facebook and Donna wanted to try it. She bought frozen wild Alaskan sockeye salmon steaks from Costco. She placed each piece of fish on a square of foil and poured coconut oil over the salmon. Then she drizzled the fillets with honey and dusted them with a mixture of cumin, paprika, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Then she sealed the foil over the salmon and I cooked it on the Weber Q grill.

Sockeye salmon fillets wrapped in foil

I slightly overcooked the salmon – I wish I would have taken it off the grill sooner. The thing is, the salmon keeps cooking in the foil – it has to be opened up quickly once the fish is off the grill. Steam rose from the foil packets when I opened them.

Sweet and spicy salmon hot off the grill

The fish was tasty though. We’ll make it again – next time Donna says she would add just a little more honey and maybe put veggies in the packet with the salmon. I’ll take it off the grill sooner and open the packets quickly.

Sweet and spicy salmon served with roasted brussel sprouts

All day I’d been checking in the forward basement compartment for a hydraulic oil leak. The paper towels I had spread in there remained dry. On Monday afternoon, I fiddled with the hydraulic jacks. A few hours later, we had a small drop of oil spreading on the paper towel. It was dark by the time I checked it out so I couldn’t determine the source of the leak.

After playing pickleball this morning, I cleared the forward basement compartment and crawled inside. I used a flashlight and clean paper towels to see if I could figure out where the oil was coming from. There’s a 1-1/2″ diameter hydraulic cylinder about a foot long in the compartment. Each end of the cylinder is held to a steel tab with U-bolts. I could see hydraulic oil on the threads of the U-bolt on the rear of the cylinder.

HWH synchronizing cylinder

I loosened the U-bolts and tried to trace the oil. There’s a 90-degree elbow fitting and a hydraulic hose near the U-bolt, but it was dry around the fitting and hose. There’s also a rod that protrudes from the end of the cylinder. I read through a HWH hydraulic system service manual and learned a few things.

The cylinder is a synchronizing cylinder – commonly called a synch cylinder. It’s used when two or more hydraulic rams are operated simultaneously – such as the hydraulic generator slide or the living room slide-out. It’s not part of the leveling jack system. This had me puzzled because the intermittent leak happened after we set up here at Tower Point RV Resort. I haven’t operated the generator slide or the living room slide since we set up two months ago.

I found out that the rod protruding from the end of the cylinder will move when the system the synch cylinder is plumbed into is activated. So I tried running the generator slide open and checked the rod. No movement, so it’s not part of the generator hydraulic system. Then I pulled the living room slide partway in. The rod extended from the cylinder. So it’s plumbed into the living room slide hydraulic rams.

I put the living room slide out again and checked the synch cylinder for leaks. No sign of any fluid leak. I cut an empty one-gallon plastic water jug and made a catch basin. I wired it in place under the end of the synch cylinder where the oil dripped from the U-bolt. I’ll keep checking for a leak and try to trace it again. In the mean time, the catch basin will keep oil off the basement carpet and anything else in there.

Catch basin wired in place

I’m hoping the leak isn’t an internal problem with the synch cylinder, but I’m beginning to think it may be. I looked it up and that part costs $474!

Yesterday I stopped in at the Towerpoint office to pay the electric bill and extend our stay to Wednesday, April 20th. The lady in the office was going to give me five extra days at the monthly rate instead of reverting to the daily rate. Then we talked about the daily rate with Passport America. We’re Passport America members and it gives us 50% off of the normal daily rate. She did the calculation and the Passport America rate worked out to be about $10 higher for the five days – but it included electricity. The monthly rate doesn’t include electricity.

We’re expecting temperatures in the 90s before we leave. That means running both roof air conditioners – and using a lot of electricity. I opted for the Passport America rate so I’ll have no worries about running the air conditioners as needed. She told me not to pay my current electric bill – they will read the meter again on Friday (our original end date here). I’ll settle the electric bill and pay for the extra five nights then.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Directing the Dolphin

I finally got started on a couple of easy projects yesterday after a couple of hours on the pickleball court in the morning. We had much cooler weather – the high temperature for the day was 67 degrees. That’s a drop of more than 20 degrees from the weekend. It stayed overcast and windy all afternoon and a few raindrops fell – not enough to wet the pavement though.

I went to Ace Hardware to pick up some 3/16″ rivets with long 1/2″ shanks. I wrote about my rivet repair in this post. The rivets I used for that repair were a little short and didn’t hold well enough. I needed to replace them again. The longer shanks on the rivets I used this time should hold up fine.

I planned on buying some carabiner clips to secure the doors on the cabinets I installed in the trailer. The doors are set up for padlocks but I didn’t want to hassle with locks every time I wanted something in the cabinet. I thought a carabiner would work if I could find the right size. Donna had a different idea. She’s been working with Procter & Gamble’s PR firm. They sent her a package that included Tide PODS and a few gifts. One of the gifts is from a company called Munchkin – they make baby products. The product Donna received is a latch to secure cabinets, drawers and anything you wouldn’t want a toddler getting into. They’re called Munchkin Xtra Guard multi-use latches.

Munchkin Xtra Guard latch

Donna received four latches – I used two on the cabinet doors and it looks like they’ll work perfectly. They’re easy to install – they have an adhesive backing that sticks to the door surface.

Xtra Guard latch on the trailer cabinet

There’s a button on the top and bottom of the pads – holding these buttons in releases the latch. They should keep the doors closed while we roll down the road but it will still be easy to access the cabinets.

Latch released

I decided to order two more of the Suncast cabinets to install in the trailer. I like the way they’re built and it will make it easier to store and access stuff.

I took a few measurements and installed D-rings to secure the Traeger wood pellet grill/smoker in the trailer. That was the extent of my projects for the day. Today I’ll add a few more D-rings to secure the ladders and a few other things.

Last week, I stopped at Seńor Taco and had the daily special – fish taco with rice, beans and soft drink for $5. Donna and I like fish tacos – we always have them when we’re in San Diego. Good fish tacos obviously need to be made with a good fish filet. Then it’s the sauce that makes them special. The Seńor Taco fish tacos are good.

Fish taco plate at Seńor Taco

On Monday afternoon, I rode the Spyder to the Sprouts store at Higley and Southern. Donna sent me there with a small shopping list. I bought two fresh tilapia filets, a lime, a jalapeńo pepper and an avocado. Donna already had the corn tortillas, cabbage and cilantro. She made blackened Baja fish tacos.

Donna’s homemade fish taco plate

She seasoned and pan fried the fish filets in a cast iron skillet. Her sauce was made from yogurt, jalapeńo pepper, lime juice and cilantro. Very tasty and we each had two big tacos for a total cost of about seven bucks!

Last night, Donna made a spring minestrone soup with chicken meatballs. The meatballs were made with ground chicken, panko bread crumbs, minced scallions and garlic, egg, salt and pepper. Another tasty treat. We had leftovers for lunch and it was even better the second time around.

Spring minestrone with chicken meatballs

This morning when I rode my bicycle home from pickleball, I found a motorhome blocking our street. It was a 34-foot National Dolphin. I carefully went around the front of it where there was about three feet of clearance. Once I went around it, I saw a woman sitting on the steps in the doorway of the coach smoking a cigarette. I stopped and she said, “I’m wedged in here.”

I looked back and saw what she meant. Apparently she was pulling out of her site and turning left. She didn’t account for the swingout of the rear and the last basement door on the right rear was hard against a palm tree.

After looking at it, I told her she needed to crank the steering wheel full left and slowly back up. She was afraid of causing more damage. I told her it will scrape at first, then swing away from the tree. She did as I said and was able to reverse back into her site. Then I had her go forward and angle to the right to pull into an empty site across the street from her. Once she pulled halfway into the site, I had her reverse again and crank the wheel to the left. I guided her back then told her to stop, crank the wheel right and come forward. She was in the street now heading in the opposite direction of the way she first tried to go. It didn’t matter – it’s a short street and either direction will take you to the park exit. With a wave and a thanks, she was on her way.

She was alone and driving a motorhome into or out of a tight space without guidance isn’t easy. Although her coach was only 34 feet long, the National Dolphin is gas powered and the chassis has a lot of rear overhang. The longer the distance from the rear axle to the rear of the coach, the greater the amount of swingout.

We should see a high temperature of about 70 degrees today with partly cloudy skies and a gentle breeze. Very comfortable. This evening we plan to meet up with my friend from high school, Andy King, and his wife Donna for sushi.

Still Loving Leesa

Shortly after we arrived here at Towerpoint RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona Donna decided to use her account credit to order a couple more meals from Hello Fresh. Hello Fresh is an easy way to have all of the ingredients on hand for a tasty, balanced meal. They pack fresh ingredients into a box with an insulated liner and ice packs, then ship it to you. On Wednesday night, Donna made a Mahi Mahi piccata with capers, Israeli couscous pilaf and sauteed spinach. The only things she needed from our pantry were butter, olive oil, salt and pepper – everything else was in the package including the fresh lemon.

Mahi Mahi piccata

This tasty dish took about 30 minutes to prepare.

The pickleball courts are closed on Thursday and Friday this week due to a horseshoe tournament at the sports complex. So I caught up on a couple of projects on Thursday. First up, I installed the rubber bumpers on the cargo trailer ramp door. These pads will keep the metal rim of the door off the ground and prevent scraping.

Rubber bumper

I didn’t want to rely on the flanged screw head to hold the rubber bumper – I thought it would most likely tear through the rubber in short order. So I was off to Ace hardware where I found one-inch diameter fender washers.

Rubber bumper with fender washer

When I returned and started the installation, I found the #10 one-inch self-drilling screws I had were too short. So I was back on the Spyder for another trip to the hardware store for 1 1/2-inch self-drilling screws. After taking a few measurements, the installation was easy.

Rubber bumpers installed on rear ramp door

My next chore was to break down all the cardboard boxes we’ve accumulated since we’ve been here. We had boxes from the trash receptacle Donna ordered, the Hello Fresh box, the Leesa mattress box and a few other things that were delivered. I completely filled a recycle barrel with cardboard. Lucky for us, Towerpoint provides two recycle barrels per site.

Speaking of the Leesa mattress, we’re loving it. It’s hard to say if it’s better now than it was on the first night. We both think there may have been some improvement – we like it so much it’s hard to quantify any improvement. We are both side sleepers and the Leesa mattress is so much better on my hips. I used to feel pressure points on my hips, but not with this mattress.

Although I started honey pollen allergy therapy a couple of months ago, my pollen allergies have kicked into high gear. The unseasonably warm weather we’ve been experiencing has everything blooming around here. After I completed my tasks yesterday, I went to CVS for allergy medication. I prefer not to take daily doses of medication for allergies, but at this point I have no choice. I bought Zyrtec and hope for some relief without too many side effects.

The weather almanac shows an average high temperature for March 4th in Mesa, Arizona at 73 degrees. Today’s high is expected to be 91 degrees. We’ll have slightly cooler temperatures over the weekend and be back in the 70s by Monday. I shouldn’t complain about the heat – I’ll take it over cold weather any day.

Like Christmas Again

Saturday went as planned – after I posted to the blog, Donna went for a bike ride and I took my quadcopter over to De Anza Cove Park across from the RV Resort entrance (map). I practiced hovering, flying away from me and back and also flying from side to side. It takes a fair amount of concentration to keep it under control. Hovering requires constant throttle adjustment as the ‘copter will climb or drop with any change in wind or if I make a right-left or forward-back correction. The four rotors that create lift for the ‘copter also control the heading by making small speed adjustments thus tilting the platform. A half hour was enough so I walked back to the coach.

The day before, UPS had dropped off three boxes for Donna. When she returned from her 20-mile bicycle ride up Rose Canyon Trail to University Town Center and back through Clairemont, she wanted to open the boxes. They were sent from an editor at Family Circle magazine who is looking for product reviews from cleaning experts for the April 2016 issue.

I opened the smaller box first and we found it packed with household cleaning and laundry products. The next box had a lightweight Oxo broom and dustpan set with an extendable handle. That box also contained more cleaning products including a soon-to-be released shower and tub scrubber from Oxo that Donna said is a cleaning dream come true. The last box held a Shark Rocket AH452 lightweight vacuum cleaner with powerful suction. It’s a new product and I didn’t find this exact model online, but it’s similar to this one on Amazon. It was like Christmas all over again – opening boxes and finding surprise items inside.

Donna still had Sheila’s car, so she took a trip to Vons and Trader Joe’s to get groceries. We expected the weather to deteriorate by the end of the weekend, so she wanted to stock up for the week. She bought a nice five-pound whole chicken at Trader Joe’s. I prepped the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill and we teamed up to season the chicken. It’s much easier if one person lightly rubs the chicken with olive oil, then holds and rotates it while the second person applies the seasoning inside and out. Donna did the first part and I shook the seasoning. I used the last of the Traeger chicken rub on the inside and back of the bird then applied Sweet Rub O’Mine.

I roasted the whole chicken on the high setting on the Traeger. The Sweet Rub O’Mine has a lot of sugar in it which caramelizes and helps attain a nice crispy skin. In the photo it looks like the skin is burnt. It isn’t, it’s just the caramelized rub. The chicken was flavorful with no burnt taste at all.

Traeger roasted chicken

Dinner plate with a wild rice blend with dried cranbeeries, pecans and scallions.

Chicken breast and wing with a side of yummy rice and steamed green beans

Donna whipped up an absolutely delicious side dish. She added dried cranberries, pecans and scallions along with some orange zest and orange juice and honey to a wild rice blend after cooking. The chicken was moist and tender. I paired the meal with a bottle of Voo Doo American stout brewed by Left Coast Brewing in San Clemente.

Voo Doo American stout

This is a dark, full-bodied, malty stout with flavors of chocolate and coffee. It’s strong at 8.0% and balanced at 39 IBUs.

Sunday was a lazy day for me. I put away a few things we had out in preparation of rain in the forecast. Donna went out for a four-mile run. Then she took down the Christmas decorations and stored everything away in a basement compartment. I spent the rest of the day watching the last week of regular season NFL football.

We made stacked enchiladas for dinner. I cut about a pound of leftover brisket across the grain then diced it. Donna put enchilada sauce in the bottom of a pyrex casserole dish then added a layer of corn tortillas. Then she poured more enchilada sauce over the tortillas and added the brisket meat and cotija cheese. This was followed by another layer of tortillas, sauce, meat and cheese. Then the top layer of tortillas was put on and covered with sauce, cotija cheese and white cheddar cheese. Foil was placed over the casserole dish and it was baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. It made a great meal and I’m looking forward to reheating the leftovers.

After the last game of the day with the Minnesota Vikings prevailing over the Green Bay Packers – thus winning the NFC north division – we watched a couple of episodes of Mr. Robot. It’s a USA Network series that we’ve enjoyed watching. We have one more episode left in season one.

The rain predicted came overnight. It’s cloudy but fairly warm at 60 degrees this morning. Our friends Hans and Lisa (Metamorphosis Road) arrived here at the RV park yesterday. Tonight we plan to join them for dinner and sample a few beers. I have another bottle of Voo Doo and some IPAs. The rest of our week will probably be low-key. There are a series of storms lined up in the Pacific that will bring periods of rain each day in the coming week.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Recipe

Christmas Treats

Farm to Table

German or Japanese?

Minor Maintenance Tasks

Whiskey or Whisky

Carting the Kayak

Synchronizing Cylinder

Directing the Dolphin

Still Loving Leesa

Like Christmas Again

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: