Food, Food, Food and Eating

Chickens, chickens, chickens everywhere.  In Connecticut we stopped by my girlfriend’s relatives to see the production.  They were getting about 80 chickens ready for eating and freezing.  I think not everyone wants to see the pictures, but most of us like to eat free range home grown chicken.   It was quite amazing to see.

 

My friend has peacocks that roam the property and were fed leftover pancakes or bread.  The pancakes were fresh home made.  I don’t know how there were any leftovers but I think she made some especially for the peacocks.

Picking strawberries in the town I used to live in was fun!

I traveled to Pennsylvania next.  The trucks  through New Jersey were aggressive and the worst I had experienced in my cross country travels.  I was happy to arrive at my Aunt’s farm.

I was greeted by LuluBelle and Daisy.

We picked asparagus and lettuce from the garden.  My Aunt has about 25 chickens that wander the grounds.  One day they had to stay inside the barn because we went to the Reunion.  I told them about chickens that never got to go outside. They seemed indifferent.

My cousin made a delicious Shoo-fly Pie for me.  Yum!

My Aunt and I drove to Schafferstown to get 2 smoked tongues.

We went to the family reunion and see alpaca, deer and more food than you can imagine.  People related to me that I had never seen before were there.  First a lot of eating and then everyone introduced themselves.

Roots Farmer’s Market always has lots to see and good food to eat.

 

Bus tour of Kreider Farm in Manville, PA.

Visiting Lititz, PA

Lititz, PA

Garden in Lititz, PA

My cousin and I visited the quaint town of Lititz, PA.  We shopped, ate lunch, toured the Julius Sturgis pretzel factory, went to the Wilbur Buds Chocolate Store and had a great day.

The Pretzel Tour.

Postcards from Wrightwood

Monday morning and my  friends  and I are heading North on Route 15 for our girls getaway.   3 days at the mountain cabin to relax, sketch, walk, eat, talk and have fun.

We made postcards with 5 little sections for various people.  It’s a fun project.  I wish I would get one!  Colin had cooked steak for us before we left.  Diane heated it up and we had steak salad for dinner the first night and the last. We wanted to thank him with one of our postcards.

We enjoyed the Lake at Wrightwood.

Flossie at the lake and her sketch.

Watch out for BEARS!

Pauline’s sketch

Carol’s sketch

Maureen’s sketch

Sketching at the Lake.

We are excited to see a Christmas Summer tree on our walk! Decorated with flip flops, sand buckets,shovels and other summer fun.

We walk by the Mile High Pizza place.

Diane’s Sketch!

More Wrightwood Wildlife!

The Vacation ends at the Grizzley Cafe for breakfast.

RELAX YOUR AT THE CABIN.

WE DID!

San Clemente State Beach

I had lots of company, eating, walking and painting.

I was happy to have my great niece and her friend camping with me.  They put up their new tent!

• Diane and Colin come for dinner!

The Chief at work

Dinner party

 Painting Party the next day!

Annie’s Paintings

Chad’s Paintings.  They both did such a great job.  I couldn’t believe that hadn’t been painting forever.

Campfire and a book. 

My walk to the pier.

Monday and my friends came with their lunches and sketchbooks.  We had a great time sketching around the campsite, talking and walking to look at the ocean.

The next dayI spent working on watercolors of the ocean and trees.  I did the same scene 4 times going from realistic to more abstract.  I just found this slide show feature.  Perfect for this project. Can you figure out which is most abstract?

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The tree nearby painting from realistic to more abstract.

I had such a good time I was sad to leave.  Until my next trip close to home.

Path to the Beach

Connecticut Friends, lobster roll, spaghetti and Cats!

 

 

Dennis and Dudley welcome me to my friends house!

I took the train from Grand Central Station in New York and arrived in New Haven in the rain.

I rented a car and headed straight up route 95 to Lenny and Joe’s Fish Tales to eat a Lobster Roll.

This was definitely the BEST Lobster Roll I have had all year!  I later learned it’s a Connecticut Lobster Roll.  The Connecticut Lobster Roll is hot with hot butter over it in the roll.  The cold Lobster Roll with mayo is called a Maine Lobster Roll.

Look for the wild turkeys running into the woods.

 

My friend Gloria decides to cook Spaghetti Sauce.  This is one of her specialities.  She makes sauce for Spaghetti dinners at her church and at school fund raising dinners when we were teaching.  It’s delicious good and I was interested in the recipe.

Spaghetti Sauce

Pork sausage is cooked on the stove.

Of course their is no recipe.  It’s all in her head.  I also asked about the secret ingredient.  She said there isn’t one, it’s just one of the things she can cook.

One onion chopped

lots of garlic

chopped garlic

chopped onion

Saute onion and garlic in some of the pork sausage drippings.

I large can of tomatoes that are chopped

add about 1 cup of chicken broth

 

Sauce is simmering on the stove

1 package of mushrooms

chopped mushrooms

Sprinkle with Italian Seasoning

 

Add about 1/3 of jar of prepared spaghetti sauce

As I type this I can taste the delicious spaghetti sauce.  I think the secret ingredient is the pork sausage or the addition of prepared sauce?  It’s great tasting.

I think this is Dudley. Dennis has more white fur around his ears

The cosy quest room for me.