Prep time

Maybe it is us, but when we are making a recipe, especially a new one, our prep time is never what the recipe says it will be.  In fact, it is usually at least double the prep time if not sometimes three times the prep time.

For example, a few weeks ago we made this new to us recipe, Zucchini Tomato Casserole.  As you can see in the picture below the prep time says 10 minutes.  

Here are the directions (which you can also get from the link above as well as the ingredients).  

• Preheat oven to 375˚F.
• Grease a 9-inch baking dish with a little butter. Set aside.
• Prepare the cream cheese mixture by combining cream cheese, milk, basil, and ground nutmeg in a bowl. Set aside.
• Layer half of the zucchini slices on the bottom of the baking dish.
• Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.
• Add a layer of sliced tomatoes over the zucchini slices.
• Sprinkle with half of the garlic and half of the fresh basil.
• Add a layer of HALF of the cream cheese blend over the tomatoes; sprinkle with half of the shredded Italian cheese.
• Repeat one more layer of zucchini slices; add a bit of salt and pepper.
• Repeat one more layer of tomato slices; add the rest of the garlic and fresh basil.
• Spread a layer of the remaining cream cheese mixture and sprinkle the rest of the shredded Italian cheese.
• Dot with slices of butter.
• Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until mixture is bubbly, browned, and veggies are tender.
• Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes.
• Garnish with fresh basil; cut and serve.

The zucchini was cut into round slices and the recipe called for 2 zucchinis to yield the needed 6-7 cups needed.  We got 4 pretty good size zucchinis and it took 3 of them to get the 7 cups.  The tomatoes were cut into slices.   The recipe called for heirloom tomatoes.  We couldn't find them at the store so we got beefsteak ones and they worked fine.

So hubby and me were making the recipe together.  I cut the zucchini and tomatoes and at the same time he was doing step #3 on the directions above, preparing the cream cheese mixture.  Before we had started, we got out all the ingredients we would need.

Then after the cream cheese mixture was made and the zucchini/tomatoes cut, we started assembling the casserole, steps 4 through 12.  He primarily assembled while I handed him things he needed.  

All in all, it took us 40 minutes to get it ready to go into the oven.

Not the 10 minute prep time listed.

Here's the finished product out of the oven.  

The recipe said it was for six servings but we cut it into four servings and had some sausage with it.  We had leftovers the next day.  

It was good and tasty and we'll make it again.  Next time we'll serve it with chicken I think for variety.  

As I always do when we make a new recipe, I write down notes on it for the next time we make something.  Notes like "needs a bit more spicing" or "consider using frozen veggies instead of fresh".  Things like that.  This one I wrote "40 minutes to prep".  

And this happens constantly and continually with us.  I wonder who comes up with these prep times?? Or are we slow preppers?  

polar opposites

 

Being a musician is so exhausting!! 

Winslow likes to be very near to hubby so when hubby was practicing guitar, Winslow had to get in on the act too.  Almost looks like he is playing with the pedals! 

Hubby said it was very challenging playing but he worked around Winslow.

Yes, Winslow is very spoiled.  Perhaps more than our previous corgi, Koda, and that was one spoiled dog :) 

Koda was such a mellow dog except if he was around motorcycles, buses, trash trucks, and other dogs then he would wildly bark.  We used to call him Cujo during those times.  At home he basically slept a lot of the day away.  He didn't really initiate much play or really wanted to play.  I would walk him 45 minutes to an hour in the morning and in the evening hubby and me would take him for another long walk too so he got plenty of exercise.  He had an amazing sense of time (probably because I was bad and gave him food from the table) so he would nudge me around noontime when I was working at home because he knew that was my break time and he would come around us at about 7:45 p.m. to let us know it was his dinnertime at 8 p.m.  He also knew when hubby was due home from work and would lie at the door waiting for him.  Of course he sometimes did it at 10 o'clock in the morning when hubby wouldn't be home until 5 p.m.  He also laid by the door waiting for son to come home at curfew.  Curfew was 10 p.m. on school nights and he was at the door waiting at about 9:45 p.m.  He was the "perfect" dog.  He was calm enough to sleep on the bed with us at the foot, but would wander up to my pillow after I got out of bed (I was usually the first one up).  Sometimes he would wander up earlier to my pillow when I was still in bed but a gentle "its not time yet" would get him to move back to the foot of the bed. 

So after we lost him and we started at times talking about getting another dog after our year of grieving was over, I was hesitant because I kept saying we would get the dog from hell, like totally opposite.  Kind of like parents have the first "perfect" baby then their second child is the exact opposite.  That was my concern.  

I was right.  Winslow is the exact opposite of Koda.  He is hyper and very energetic.  He wants and initiates play constantly (watch for a post down the line about tennis balls and fetching them).  He is most active between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and its like trying to run down energy on a hyperactive child.  We don't walk him at night because of safety issues so we'll take him to the dog park to release some energy.  He, unlike Koda, likes dogs.  Koda didn't like to be around any other dogs.  Winslow is friendly and likes to play with other furry friends.  We tried to get him to walk on the treadmill and had a trainer come out and help us, but he didn't take to it too well and now he avoids the treadmill room, fearing he'll end up on the treadmill again.  For those who wonder if it is safe on a treadmill, it is for dogs if done the right way and there is even a mobile service here in the Phoenix area that will come to your house, get your dog, and run it on their treadmills in their van.  

I can never imagine him sleeping on the bed with us.  Koda started to at about a year old.  Winslow is 15 months old.  He sleeps in a nice size crate in our room with plenty of room to spread out and I think he sleeps quite contently.  

Koda loved car rides and would sit in my lap faced out towards my window.  Of course if a bus, motorcycle, trash truck or loud vehicle came up by us then he would bark and go crazy, but otherwise he was perfectly content to look out the window for literally hours.  Winslow is getting more used to car rides but he likes to perch on hubby's right arm and look out the front window.  We haven't done many long rides with him yet but plan to slowly build up to them down the road (no pun intended :) 

So, yep, polar opposites.  Both loved, both spoiled (though like I said above I think Winslow is a bit more spoiled).  

Both Koda and Winslow favored hubby over me, but I think Winslow does it more since hubby is home with Winslow now that he is retired and before I was home with Koda and now I'm out working.

One thing I know for sure.  I won't have energy to get another puppy and more than likely Winslow will be our last dog.  

We are getting good at this

BC (before Covid) and BW (before Winslow) we had a nice routine of family get togethers with son/family.  Saturdays we would pick up the wee one (grandson) at around 3 p.m. and have time alone with him at our place until about 6 p.m. when his mom and sister would come over for dinner.  They would leave between 9 and 10 p.m.  Mondays (or whatever son's day off was at the time) the family would come over for dinner and when it was swimming season would swim in the pool.  

Then Covid hit and of course in the beginning we didn't get together but six weeks into it, I had enough of not seeing family so we started getting together and continued the dinners with pretty much the same schedule as before though we missed a few here and there with different things happening.  

In October I realized the wee one was afraid of Winslow.  Now Winslow has incredibly high energy and a very excited bark and he jumped a lot as a puppy (we have worked on that so he doesn't now) but it frightened the wee one.  Took me a few months to arrive to that conclusion that he was afraid of Winslow and after doing some reading, I found it wasn't that uncommon so we started crating Winslow while we were eating and then afterward I would go and play with the wee one in another room, Winslow came out for a bit and then went back into the crate when it was time to go home.  Things worked out good and the wee one relaxed being here.  I figured down the road we would work on getting him to be less afraid of Winslow and we worked on controlling Winslow's behavior like his barking and his jumping up on people.

Then in November the family was over for dinner and my DIL was sneezing and coughing through the whole dinner.  I finally asked her if she was okay (I'm thinking Covid) but she said "I think I'm allergic to Winslow."  Apparently she had symptoms before when she was over but they weren't bad and during summer/swimming season we would eat inside, swim outside, sometimes Winslow being outside, sometimes not.  So her symptoms were easier to control then.  

Of course I felt bad for her misery with her allergies so we devised to still get together but at their house on the same routine of Saturdays and Monday nights.  Saturdays we pick up fast food and bring it to their place and spend some time with them.  

Mondays we decided to cook and bring a meal over.  We've gotten pretty good at planning things that will travel well and how to pack them up to transport them. It can be challenging to come up with things that all can eat (kids are a bit picky here and there and son has some dietary issues where he can't eat red meat).  If I plan an "adult meal" that I know the kids won't enjoy then we stop and get 2 medium pizzas from Domino's.  Here you can get a medium 1 topping pizza for 5.99.  Grandson likes cheese, step granddaughter likes pepperoni.  So one for each of them.

This past Monday on the menu was:

Avocado Ranch salad kit (it was good)

Two bags of it fit into the lid of a disposable aluminum pan that we didn't need the lid for whatever we were transporting before.

Barbeque chicken made in the crockpot.  Super simple recipe.  Basically barbecue sauce poured over the chicken and cooked for 4-6 hours on low.

Chicken rice.  Two packages of the Knorr chicken rice.  

Stove Top stuffing.  Made in the microwave (comes out really good).  

We bring along paper plates and plastic utensils and we are good to go.  We only live 10 minutes apart so the food stays warm while driving over there.  

Its not the perfect system but presently it is working.  We high five each other and say "we could be caterers" (not really).  

Swimming season is just around the corner so not sure how we will work it out this year with DIL coming over.  Grandson had been coming over a few times to spend time here with  us (Winslow in crate at times) and it had gone well.  

DIL is thinking of taking a Benadryl before they come over.  She was allergic to a cat they had but their Jack Russell mix she is not allergic to (perhaps because it doesn't shed).  

In the meantime, despite the efforts, we always agree it is good to get together and spend time with each other!

(Side note.  I was informed from FeedBurner who manages the follow the blogs by email feature, that they are phasing this out by July.  So I added the followers blog button to my blog so you can follow it if you so desire and thereby get notices when I do a post.  Sorry for all the confusion).  

The Thumb

A few months ago son was potentially looking for another job.

I won't bore you with the details.

But something I enjoy doing is research and researching jobs seemed like a good thing to do.

So on Craigslist I started reading what was available.

And found a listing for a cook at The Thumb.

Now names intrigue me.

Names of blogs.

Names of restaurants.

Just names in general.

So when I saw The Thumb listed of course I had to check it out further.

It really is interesting.

A gas station but so much more, kind of in the middle of nowhere here.

You can get an oil change and other work on your car while you wait.

A meal, a store, and so much more. 

Lots of coolers here made out of interesting things.  Like this.

You could do your Christmas shopping here. You would find something for everyone on your list.

Not sure what this was but it did get my attention.

Another cooler.

An aquarium.

And food! With breakfast served all day!

Wine -- a favorite of mine!!

Cards galore!

Toys!!

Play some chess while waiting for your car

Lots of services available.

 Very interesting place.  A little drive for us but we enjoy our drives.  We'll eat there sometime soon and discover it a bit more :)

It all started with a dog and now continues with a different dog

 My first blog back in 2005 was called "Of Mini Paws and Menopause."  At the time we had a corgi named Koda.  You can figure out who was the mini paws and who was going through menopause at the time.

Over the years I deleted blogs and started a few new blogs.  Most were centered around Koda with names like "A Corgi's Tale" and my second to last one "A Corgi in Southern California."  I shared a lot of pictures of him.  My main theme was to write about him because he was so cute and also write about my faith in Jesus.  I had a nice following mainly because I followed a lot of blogs and left meaningful comments on them, not "fly by" comments as I call them when someone just says "have a nice day" and you have no idea really if they even read what you wrote.  I figured if someone was taking the time to write about what they wanted to share, I should take the time to read it and write a comment relative to their content of what they wrote.

In 2012 I retired "A Corgi in Southern California" and started a new one.  "A Bench with a View."  I was "inspired" to do that by seeing a bench overlooking the ocean when we were living in the San Diego area.  My "mission" was to find benches by scenic views.  

We lost Koda to cancer in December 2014 and decided to remain without a pet for at least a year to grieve him.  We ended up waiting 5 years to get another corgi as so much was happening in those 5 years.  Several moves, son getting married, a grandson born, a long commute for hubby, etc.  Hubby retired December 2019 and in February 2020 out of the blue I said "we should get a puppy."  Winslow came to live with us March 7, 2020.  The day literally everything started going crazy with the pandemic and the run on toilet paper and the like.  

I continued blogging but blogged less in 2020 than previous years and eventually stopped blogging on "A Bench with a View" in November 2020.  I was burnt out.  I was tired of politics and pandemics and the like people were writing about so I just stopped.  I commented on some blogs but the majority I unfollowed.  I think over time you can out grow interest in someone's blog and there were blogs I followed almost from day one of blogging that I didn't enjoy any more.  I'm sure people feel (felt) the same way about my blogs and I hope anyone reading this won't take offense to it.  

So now I'm starting this new blog.  Winslow's Corner of Arizona is Winslow's official AKC name.  Our plan was for us to travel with him to various scenic places in Arizona and have pictures taken of him there and then learn how to put hubby's fantastic guitar playing along with the pictures and have a YouTube channel.  Funny thing was Winslow was not fond of car rides (much better these days) and a lot of places were closed for so long because of the pandemic.

This blog is going to be "fluff."  Literally posts about places in Arizona in our area where we live.  Winslow's Corner of the state.  I do not intend to publicize it but only to tell a few people about it.  

It will be fun to see where it goes or where I go with it.  

Be prepared for lots of corgi pictures and corgi stories.  He really has an interesting personality but that's another post for another day.