Warning !!! Not too much interesting going on with self-isolation so I am now taking pictures of me using my Traeger Smoker instead. lol
April 1st
April 1st
Another rainy day but the extended forecast is looking better with some sunshine. We have been home for three weeks but it sure seems much longer with all the changes in everyone's lives with the Covid 19 crisis. Being in the sunshine in Arizona and California seems like a lifetime ago, especially with all the rain we have had in the past two weeks.
Over at Pat's house she snapped a picture of the beautiful rainbow. She had a better vantage point than I did. lol I stole it from her facebook.
My picture:
Called our friends on the phone in Alberta, Dave and Cheryl to check out how they are doing with the very chilly weather they are having. Highs of -12C and lows of -25C ... Burrr. They are managing to stay warm and the furnace never stops. Click on their name and you can see "what's up". lol It's great hearing their voices.
As most people who know me, know that I love to entertain and cook for friends and family every once and awhile. This won't be happening any time soon so I have come up with a plan. I am going to make a lovely dinner and deliver some of it to my neighbours Pat and Darryl on their doorstep. Then we will have a "virtual dinner" by having our computers hooked up to Zoom and have a live dinner party. lol We shall see how this goes.
Picked up a small order at Walmart this morning, went very slick. Love that I don't have to go into the stores myself. Back home by 9:30 am. The best news was that today my Traeger Smoker Grill arrived. Will leave it until tomorrow and then "Glove Up" to unpack it. The inside of the box will be okay from the virus. Will try it out Saturday as the pork roast I have thawed needs to marinate overnight.
The instructions for the Traeger indicate it is a 6-pack beer job to put it together. lol With tunes on. Very funny. I will help Ray put it together tomorrow. I have the pork roast marinating so this has to be put together. :)
Ray took a picture of our "Kyle's Kastle" sign that he sanded and made a new backing for it as it was starting to crack. Now it is all glued and screwed. The main reason for the picture is to show me "yes I'm using all the stuff I bought"! and "still not enough clamps"! lol. I will have to repaint it though after being sanded down.
Saturday morning, Ray put together my new Traeger Smoker Grill so I could use it for dinner tonight. Took a bit but he did not follow all the instructions ... the 6-pack of beer for assembly wasn't consumed as it was 10 AM when done. lol
Kristi stopped by briefly this afternoon to drop off some stuff, regular surgical masks and hand sanitizer for us. She was also able to pick up her things we had brought back for them for looking after our house for nearly 6 months. She also left me some scrap fabric and elastic to make her some masks for her patients when she has to see them in her office after their C-Sections for delivery. Staying 10 feet apart we had a short conversation and she was back on her way to Nanaimo. I sure miss spending time with her and Jason as well as Garrett and Kat. As my Aunt Norma always says ... this too shall pass.
For dinner, pork roast and roasted cauliflower smoked with apple pellets.
Dinner turned out great, very tasty. It was cool that the grill was hooked to my phone and let me know temps so I did not have to keep going outside and checking it. When roast is up to temp and done, your phone beeps to tell you that too. Pretty cool little computer.
Sunday the sun finally came out. Yeah. Certainly more activity outside at neighbours alike as everyone was soaking up the sunshine after 2 weeks of rain. We had a fire and roasted wieners for our hotdogs. A great afternoon. Managed to stay outside for over 3 hours before the clouds took over the sun. Lucky for me dinner was leftovers so piece of cake literally as I had made cornbread earlier in the morning to go with said leftovers.
Monday morning another fabulous start to the day although a chilly -1C. Today I prepared our ribs for smoking later this afternoon for dinner. To go with a batch of baked beans with a smoked pork hock in the InstantPot. Yesterday's smoked cauliflower made itself into a bacon and cauliflower salad.
Today is Freya's 10th Birthday. She is quite "limpy gimpy" but remains a very happy dog, especially when you throw her stick, her most favourite thing. She loves that we are back home and spends most of her day on the back lawn waiting for Ray to come out of his shop and throw her stick. lol
While I was busy with getting dinner stuff together and cooking the beans, Ray spent the morning working on my vertical herb garden and planter with a bench for the front of the house. It's going to look fabulous.
Just before lunch Ray took the car to fill up a tire with air as the tire monitor came on the last trip I made to Duncan that I had low pressure in the rear driver side tire. While out he noticed this Elk eating away on the corner of our road. Glad we have a gate as they will eat up all your shrubs.
Around 11:30 the high clouds came in with a breeze so probably no sitting outside today unless we go to the front of the house. I am having my housekeeper come this afternoon and clean the inside of the motorhome. All the woodwork etc needs to be cleaned from all the Arizona dust. I had planned to do it myself but as she is not allowed to come and clean our house with the pandemic I don't want her to be out of pocket too much so offered up the Motorhome. Took her 4 hours to get rid of all that Arizona dust! I will not go in and look at the Motorhome for 3 days ... to see how "pretty" it is again.
The house is not too bad to clean as we are not having any company so that cuts down 3 bathrooms, the upstairs and most of the downstairs, I don't have to clean anyways.
Ribs on the new smoker.
4 1/2 hours later the ribs were done. Dinner with the ribs and baked beans delicious. Another successful "cook". One thing about this cooking method you need to prepare whatever you are cooking in advance, often at least 24 hours earlier and the cooking process takes quite a few hours. With it hooked up to my cell phone I can adjust cooking temps from a distance and as there is no direct flame you never have to worry about flare-ups or burning your food. lol It's keeping me busy.
Tuesday looks to be another sunny day. Not as cold out today. This morning I will drive into Duncan and pick up a small grocery order at Thrifty Foods. They have fresh fish so I have ordered some to freeze.
Found out that at Thrifty Foods you actually have to go into the store to pick up your online grocery order ... not what I expected so I will not shop there again while we are all in this Covid Crisis!
Back home after sanitizing everything, Ray and I spent the afternoon outside with a campfire in the woodstove enjoying the sunny weather. A beautiful day. Ray and I took Freya for a walk to the park. As usual she was in the water. lol
Ray also finished one of my vertical herb planters. Beautiful.
That was our week!
The instructions for the Traeger indicate it is a 6-pack beer job to put it together. lol With tunes on. Very funny. I will help Ray put it together tomorrow. I have the pork roast marinating so this has to be put together. :)
Ray took a picture of our "Kyle's Kastle" sign that he sanded and made a new backing for it as it was starting to crack. Now it is all glued and screwed. The main reason for the picture is to show me "yes I'm using all the stuff I bought"! and "still not enough clamps"! lol. I will have to repaint it though after being sanded down.
Saturday morning, Ray put together my new Traeger Smoker Grill so I could use it for dinner tonight. Took a bit but he did not follow all the instructions ... the 6-pack of beer for assembly wasn't consumed as it was 10 AM when done. lol
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| One happy girl! |
For dinner, pork roast and roasted cauliflower smoked with apple pellets.
Dinner turned out great, very tasty. It was cool that the grill was hooked to my phone and let me know temps so I did not have to keep going outside and checking it. When roast is up to temp and done, your phone beeps to tell you that too. Pretty cool little computer.
Sunday the sun finally came out. Yeah. Certainly more activity outside at neighbours alike as everyone was soaking up the sunshine after 2 weeks of rain. We had a fire and roasted wieners for our hotdogs. A great afternoon. Managed to stay outside for over 3 hours before the clouds took over the sun. Lucky for me dinner was leftovers so piece of cake literally as I had made cornbread earlier in the morning to go with said leftovers.
Monday morning another fabulous start to the day although a chilly -1C. Today I prepared our ribs for smoking later this afternoon for dinner. To go with a batch of baked beans with a smoked pork hock in the InstantPot. Yesterday's smoked cauliflower made itself into a bacon and cauliflower salad.
Today is Freya's 10th Birthday. She is quite "limpy gimpy" but remains a very happy dog, especially when you throw her stick, her most favourite thing. She loves that we are back home and spends most of her day on the back lawn waiting for Ray to come out of his shop and throw her stick. lol
While I was busy with getting dinner stuff together and cooking the beans, Ray spent the morning working on my vertical herb garden and planter with a bench for the front of the house. It's going to look fabulous.
Just before lunch Ray took the car to fill up a tire with air as the tire monitor came on the last trip I made to Duncan that I had low pressure in the rear driver side tire. While out he noticed this Elk eating away on the corner of our road. Glad we have a gate as they will eat up all your shrubs.
Around 11:30 the high clouds came in with a breeze so probably no sitting outside today unless we go to the front of the house. I am having my housekeeper come this afternoon and clean the inside of the motorhome. All the woodwork etc needs to be cleaned from all the Arizona dust. I had planned to do it myself but as she is not allowed to come and clean our house with the pandemic I don't want her to be out of pocket too much so offered up the Motorhome. Took her 4 hours to get rid of all that Arizona dust! I will not go in and look at the Motorhome for 3 days ... to see how "pretty" it is again.
The house is not too bad to clean as we are not having any company so that cuts down 3 bathrooms, the upstairs and most of the downstairs, I don't have to clean anyways.
Ribs on the new smoker.
4 1/2 hours later the ribs were done. Dinner with the ribs and baked beans delicious. Another successful "cook". One thing about this cooking method you need to prepare whatever you are cooking in advance, often at least 24 hours earlier and the cooking process takes quite a few hours. With it hooked up to my cell phone I can adjust cooking temps from a distance and as there is no direct flame you never have to worry about flare-ups or burning your food. lol It's keeping me busy.
Tuesday looks to be another sunny day. Not as cold out today. This morning I will drive into Duncan and pick up a small grocery order at Thrifty Foods. They have fresh fish so I have ordered some to freeze.
Found out that at Thrifty Foods you actually have to go into the store to pick up your online grocery order ... not what I expected so I will not shop there again while we are all in this Covid Crisis!
Back home after sanitizing everything, Ray and I spent the afternoon outside with a campfire in the woodstove enjoying the sunny weather. A beautiful day. Ray and I took Freya for a walk to the park. As usual she was in the water. lol
Ray also finished one of my vertical herb planters. Beautiful.
That was our week!
I'm sure your new toy will get lots of use...the Traeger Smoker Grill is off to a good start! Very cool seeing the elk. Nice to have lots of sunshine, even if it's a little cool. The planter looks great, good job Ray!
ReplyDeleteRay says thanks. lol Yes I will be using the Traeger a lot I suspect. Cooking Easter Turkey on it on Sunday. :)
DeleteTotally jealous off your 'resort' AND now your herb planter....
ReplyDeleteHe's also almost finished a bench with a large 24" planter on one end for the entranceway. He is definitely having fun.
ReplyDeleteThat will be a nice addition...
DeleteLove the new grill! It is nice to have a few projects to keep you busy, wish we were a little closer to help you eat all that food!
ReplyDeleteYes it would be nice to have friends over to eat. Unfortunately I can only "fill up" Ray's belly. lol
DeleteI'll second Jim's comment, we are closer, not too close but I would be happy to help with all the smoker offerings. Damn you Ray ;) Crazy times right now but you're eating well! Stay safe and healthy.
ReplyDelete