Thanksgiving Trip to Greenville

We had a nice drive down to Greenville to Sharon's house for the McCraw Thanksgiving meal. All the kids were there - but no grand-kids - scheduling conflicts of the young....

A great meal was had - and way too much, as is customary on Thanksgiving!!

I kindof forgot to snap many photos - Carolyn preparing something yummy...(it was all yummy)



and this is the only other photo - before dinner, Sharon was doing some quilt pattern fabric cutting. We all got to try our hand at arranging a multi-color quilt square. Beautiful colors - amazing how many combinations you can come up with! Fun day - back to work tomorrow!!

Thanksgiving Trip Home

After much waiting for a early morning fog to clear at our house, we flew up to Asheville for Thanksgiving dinner at Eddie and Trudi's house. Richard would not cooperate with me getting a good photo in the plane.....this is the best one.....


Although we were late for dinner, there was plenty left - I was roaming with the camera. Mom and Frank chatting with Robert.


Robert wishing I'd leave him alone....


I think this shot on the left was the only snippet of Duane I got on film!! He's good at avoiding me with my camera....


Miranda and Frank chatting.

Eddie and Trudi on cleanup patrol. As usual, I got Trudi with her eyes closed. She's got this massively good reflex when it comes to protecting her eyes from a flash because about 75% of the photos I have of her are of her eyes closed!


The weather wasn't too great, so we hurried back home...taking off from Asheville airport.


We flew through quite a bit of snow - I tried to capture the snowflakes zooming by - but my camera just isn't that good. At one point we started accumulating a bit of ice on the plane and had to ask the controller to let us descend to a warmer altitude.


The trip home was a bit sleepy after that nice dinner.....


Almost dark, we landed at Siler City because our home runway is fairly wet. A nice visit!

Early Thanksgiving Cooking and "Emmie" the food processor

I know, I'm a bit attached to my little "Emmie" food processor. Teresa and I both got one for Christmas many, many, many years ago. I mean, like 25 yrs ago and they're both still going strong. It's not a large or complicated machine - it's just right for most recipes.

I was getting ready to make the fresh cranberry/jello salad for tomorrow when I realized one of the parts to Emmie was missing. Teresa will know exactly what part I'm talking about. It's the post that actually holds the blade. It's small and I've caught myself several times over the years scooping it up with a bunch of potato peelings (or what ever scraps or "cooking trash" is in the sink). So, it's almost ended up in the trash a few times. Unfortunately, I think sometime recently, that's just what happened.


Fortunately, we had the solution! There is a component for "Emmie" that I don't use very much and could be sacrificed. Duane took it and used the bandsaw to remove the disc......


And this is what it looks like all trimmed....exactly like the part I threw away.


OK, on to the pie now that Emmie is functional. Remember Lindy gave me a bunch of pumpkin? I roasted it in the oven a few months ago. A good portion of it got frozen for just this occasion. I thawed it - but it was still in chunks. Emmie to the rescue.....a few minutes later and the chunks were a velvety smooth puree.


So silky and fresh tasting!! And sooooo much better than the canned pumpkin the recipes call out.


I used the Paula Dean Pumpkin Pie Recipe.....wow is all I can say. Cream cheese and butter as ingredients - very rich!



Viola! Finished pie - hope it's good! We're flying up to Asheville tomorrow morning for dinner at my brother's. Then it's down to Greenville for Duane's family get-together on Saturday. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

NC State Jazz, Fall Performance

Miranda and I went to see the NC State Fall Jazz performance last night. She is still working on reports for her UNC jazz class. I, of course, just wanted to go see Robert. They did a really nice show.

Obligatory "mom" photo.



Short video of Robert doing a brief solo with a high-pitched mute.

Boy Scout Aviation Merit Badge Completion

A few weeks ago, I did the "book-work" part of the Aviation Merit Badge with our local troop. This Saturday was supposed to be a good weather-day, so I invited them to the house to do the final steps toward earning their merit badge. They had to "do a pre-flight inspection of a light airplane" and "take a flight, record your impressions". Check and Check - I can provide both of those!

Seven of the boys ended up being able to come. I'll help some of them individually that couldn't make it on Saturday.

I'd forgotten what 13-15 yr olds in "quantity" can be like! A little loud would be a good description! But in a nice, respectful, fun kind-of way, luckily!

Here they are getting their seatbelts and headsets on.




This is in-flight. Note that in this photo, they knew that I was going to snap the picture, so they had to be silly. Note the difference in the next photo.


I snapped this one without their knowing it - and they're all intently looking down at something on the ground!



Oh, to be that young again.....



More silly-ness. Good fun though - I think they all enjoyed it. And maybe it will inspire one of them some day to fly!

Repairperson

HA! Bet you weren't expecting a toilet photo, were you???

The potty in the ladies room at the airport had been leaking (fresh water, thank goodness!) So, rather than call the plumber, I decided that I could probably fix it myself. One trip to the hardware store for the repair kit and a little bit of contorted wrench work fixed it right up. Now were all high and dry in the restroom - but it's raining cats and dogs outside!

Swiss Chard recipe

My dear friend and neighbor Lindy gave me the last of their Swiss Chard about a week ago. She also gave me a wonderful recipe and the fresh dill also!

Swiss Chard w/ Chickpeas and Feta

1/4 c. olive oil
3 lbs. Swiss chard
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 c. chopped dill
2 garlic cloves, minced
19 oz. can chickpeas, drained
salt and pepper to taste
3 oz. feta cheese, crumbled


Wilt chard in large pot about 4 minutes. Drain, squeeze dry and chop.
Toss with other ingredients except cheese (I omitted most of the olive oil and it was great anyway!)
Spoon into greased baking dish. Sprinkle feta on top. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Serve immediately.


Here's the chopped veggies. The chard is steaming in the pot....



Dump it all together, top with cheese, bake - and you have a really neat dish with an "interesting blend of flavors" as Lindy wrote in her cookbook!


I served with a nice veggie burger for a hearty meal.

Spider in my coffee

I know this is really strange...but I had to share. You've probably seen the sophomoric comedy where someone spouts milk thru their nose in surprise or laughter....well, I had just such a moment. It came when I spied this little critter in my morning coffee. He was a little wet when I rescued him from the cup!

Quick trip to Myrtle Beach

We were so lazy Saturday - so Sunday, we decided to hop in the airplane and make a quick little outing to Myrtle Beach. Takes about an hour to get there and the North Myrtle Beach Airport has rental cars "by the hour". A really sweet deal!

I needed new tennis shoes - I always get my shoes there, just an excuse to go, I believe.... So we headed to Broadway on the Beach. I was going to say "mall", but it's really more of an "entertainment area". They've added some new "stuff" since we were there last. A neat Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville. We didn't go in - last one we went to in Las Vegas was so noisy we literally couldn't talk to the person beside us. (This one did seem quieter though. Might do it some other time for fun if we had a group with us.)







They have an IMAX theater - I love the big screen and wonderful sound! We saw "Polar Express"....I needed that because I'm a bit of a Scrooge.

And a real Dork!!! (the glasses are for the 3-D effects, aren't they precious??)



Had a nice quiet ride home.




Pretty sunset!!!

NC State BB game

Had a great time at the RBC last night watching the Wolfpack play basketball...we had great seats thanks to our friends John and Candler Cox. They joined us for the first half, but had to cut out early.

Robert looked like he had a good time with the Pep Band - they're a lively crew compared to the marching band.


Our team, unfortunately, needs a little help. We did win the game, but I hope it wasn't our best effort.....if it was, we're in for a rough season!! Good luck, Wolfpack! Sidney Lowe looked sharp, though! Makes me remember the early 1980's when he was a player on the team instead of the coach!



Took Robert to dinner at Tripps on Wade Ave. for some more nostalgia....(It was T.K. Tripps back then - don't know where the "T.K." went), but not much had changed there. A good evening!

Rain, Boy Scout Aviation Merit Badge and NC State BBall

So, what do those items have in common? Not much, except it's the list of photos from yesterday!

Our drainage ditch is about to capacity from all the rain. That area is actually part of the lawn and not normally underwater! Windy, cold and rainy still.


Last night, I taught the Aviation Merit Badge to our local Troop 93 Boy Scouts. It's the first meeting I've been to since Robert made Eagle Scout. Lots of new faces - but some of the same leaders. A few of the Eagle Scouts from our "era" are now part of the leadership of the Troop. A nice time - the boys were well behaved and will earn their Aviation Merit Badge if they do a few more items - Like take a free flight with your's truly!


And last - our friend and Pecan Grove Marina owner John Cox gave us some great NC State Basketball tickets for tonight. They have season tickets and we're going to use them. Robert is going to play in the Pep Band - should be a great time!! GO WOLFPACK!!

Link to a sailing post

Nothing much going on but RAIN!!!

Here's a link to a video from our trip this weekend....(it may take a while to load if you're on dialup).

http://svglorydays.blogspot.com/2009/11/sailboat-racing-motor-yacht-near.html

Veggies - probably the last time this year :-(

Yesterday Lindy called and asked if I wanted some produce before Dick plowed his "summer" garden under.....of course I did!!

Aren't these lovely?


Fresh cilantro and dill - I froze the cilantro and I've got the dill wrapped up for a recipe Lindy gave me - I'll post about it when I make it.


These little babies are wonderful!! White radishes - sweet and not hot at all.


Beautiful! I'm going to have to chop some of these and freeze them for later (that's OK with me!!)



And some greens too - this is Swiss Chard that I'll be using in the recipe with dill....pretty nice pickin's!!

Just a long sailing day, beautiful fall weather

Threw off the docklines at about 8AM bound for Vandemere. Beautiful fall day - just a tad chilly.


Absolutely calm winds....the only ripple on the water was made by our engine.


Nice to have Pat on board....we kicked back and enjoyed the ride!


About 4 hrs later - we made it to Vandemere. It's just a little fishing village. Nothing much there - we had hoped a restaurant was open at a new marina/development - but it was not.


Headed back south towards Oriental. Almost lunchtime - I served some veggies and hummus while the chili was cooking below...Pat took this photo - notice his bare feet! It had turned very warm and the winds finally found us.


I don't know why I thought this was so cute, but it was a family out on a little boat fishing with this rainbow colored beach umbrella rigged for shade.


Pat, enjoying himself as usual.....


The chili turned out great - Pat didn't mind at all that it was made with T.V.P. instead of meat.

We decided to take a look at River Dunes from the boat. It's a new, fancy development with a very nice marina. We had driven there a couple of years ago, but had never seen it from the boat.

The afternoon winds had died down - I spied this pretty boat in front of us. Thought the reflection was a neat effect.


The channel into River Dunes is cool - trimmed in pretty architectural block and very protected from winds.


A nice marina - they also have a couple of restaurants - but were closed when we got there. We'll have to make a day trip some other time for a meal here.


Long day - approaching Oriental, the sun was low on the horizon.....


Going, going, gone!