Roadtrip - Jamestown Wyoming

Jon and I recently took a roadtrip into Wyoming to look at a truck Jon was interested in buying. Before taking a roadtrip I like to look up the route on google maps and then check a few different websites. I like to see if any of the towns we might pass by are ghost towns or have cool points of interest. One of the towns we passed through on our adventure was Jamestown. There wasn't a lot of buildings of interest; but this one really stuck out, so we spend some time taking pictures. Jon with his professional DSLR and me with my point and shoot. yay.

The following are *my* pictures.

Continuation of July 14th post

On July 14, 2008 I posted a pic of canning jars and said to stay tuned. As usual with my life I made a slight change of plans. My original plan of attempting to make homemade raspberry jam (first atttempt) stayed the same, but I found new jars I thought were cuter.

Here is the final product -

The jam turned out great, in my opinion. I do have a few extra jars I would love to share with anyone who might be interested. Just let me know!

Quirks

As was pointed out by my cousin Kim I really haven't blogged in a long time. Not for lack of anything going on, but rather there has been so much going on I just haven't had a moment to.

Since I was tagged by Kim for this.. Here are the rules:

-Link the Person who Tagged you
-Mention rules on your blog
-Tell about 6 quirks of yours
-Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same
-Leave a comment to let them know


I am sure I have more than 6 quirks - it's just a matter of if I want to talk about them in public or not. :)

1 - I have a very unhealthy fascination with ric rac. If you don't know what I am talking about it's the zig zag trim that is sewn onto clothing and other things. I *LOVE* this stuff!! I want to put it on everything. I have several colors of the stuff and probably a total of more than 300 yards. I would have more but I have controlled myself.

2 - When I am driving in my car and stop at a light I don't like to keep my foot on the clutch so I put my car in neutral. Even though I do this 99% of the time, I sometimes still forget it's in neutral and try to take off - revving my engine.

3 - I like to name cars. I haven't ever owned a car that I haven't named. The 2003 Mazda P5 is Ghertrude. I call her Gherti for short. The 1962 Mercury Comet is Lucy.

4 - If I get hot when I am under the covers I stick my foot outside the blankets to regulate my temperature. When my foot gets cold, I have usually cooled down enough and so I pull my foot back in.

5 - I don't like paperback books, only hardbound. If I try to read a paperback book I usually end up breaking the spine and then the pages fall out.

6 - Just as with ric rac I love stationary and pens. Whenever I go to a store that sells either of these items I have to personally restrain myself from purchasing one or both. I don't know what it is about those two things, but they get me every time.

Now to tag 6 people who must say their quirks.. I pick - Jon, Megan, Niki, Jennifer R., Tyson and Stacy.

Recipe: A la Bekah Pasta

While reading through one of my favorite blogs the other day I got the idea to make a pasta dish from scratch, minus the actual pasta of course. For lack of a better name I am calling it A la Bekah Pasta. For this recipe you will need the following

• Olive oil
• Butter
• Garlic
• White Onion
  
• Mushrooms (fresh not canned)
• Zucchini
• Chicken Broth
  
• Heavy Cream
• Plain Tomato Sauce
• 1 lb pasta of your choice
• Fresh Parsley
• Salt
• Pepper

To start you are going to need a large saucepan/skillet. Chop a small to medium white onion. Pick your size depending on your desire of onion in your dish. Now mince two cloves of garlic. Place your saucepan on medium heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter. Once the butter has melted a little, add the onions and garlic, letting them cook and stirring occasionally.

While that is cooking rinse off your fresh mushrooms. I used about 2 cups when I made my dish. Now put the mushrooms aside for a minute. We'll come back to them. Since we are near the sink, fill your pot for the pasta and put it on the stove to boil.

Taking a small to medium zucchini begin to slice it into pieces. I cut my pieces a little thicker because I then cut them into quarters. Once you have finishing cutting, gather your mushrooms and put it all into the saucepan. You are going to let these cook for a few minutes to soften them up. However, keep in mind that there are several other steps in this process, so if you like your veggies more firm than tender you aren't going to want to let them cook for long.

Add 1/2 cup of Chicken Broth. I used the vegetarian variety. Your creation should look something like this:

Find your trusty can opener and open an 8 oz can of plain tomato sauce, then add that to the saucepan. I hope you read my ingredient list at the top and noticed the heavy cream. It really makes a difference. Add 1 cup of heavy cream.

Stir.

Still with me?

By now your pasta water should be boiling or close to. Add your pasta to the water. While your pasta is cooking you are going to let the saucepan simmer, without a lid. You are also going to want to add any of your seasonings at this point. I threw some fresh parsley, pinch of salt, and fresh ground pepper into mine. The following day I thought some red pepper flakes might be nice for some heat. I'll have to try it nice time.

Funny thing... While I was making this dish I realized I didn't have any pasta when it came to the point of adding it to the water. Yeah, silly me. I had to leave everything on the stove and run to the store for pasta. I know, I know.. don't worry I made sure Jon was around to monitor the stove so I didn't burn down the house.

Ok, back to the recipe. Once your pasta is done cooking, drain it. I then just put the pasta into a serving dish and added the sauce over the top. After some quick stirring, ensuring not to break the pasta, it looked like this:

We added some grated parmesan cheese to the top of our servings and enjoyed. voila!

Stay Tuned...

to see what happens.

Bad Luck

I've had a little streak of bad luck lately. Slicing my finger open and having to get stitches and then on Saturday, Lucy (the car) broke down while we were on our way to a car show in Price. We can be lucky it broke down before we made it far considering Price is a couple hour drive from here, but she happened to break down on the freeway. Of course I am know you are thinking, that's not too bad of luck Bekah. Well.. where we broke down on the freeway they were doing construction and there happened to be no emergency lane!

I am going to spare the details because I don't really want to talk about it since it's now over and done with. But I am just going to say it really sucked.

We did have to leave Lucy behind on Saturday and go the rest of the way to Price without her. We had a good time at the car show and Lucy got towed home on Sunday.

I hear that bad luck comes in groups of three. I am just nervous for what's coming up next.

PS. Thanks Dad for the ride. You're a life saver.

Memory Lane

I've noticed that this is all the rage on other's blogs. Since I haven't pulled recent pictures off my camera to blog about, I thought I would post this. If you aren't a regular commenter on my blog and just a browser, I encourage you to post a memory.

1. Add a comment on my blog. Leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.