For tonight's meal I made Chicken-Apricot Skewers... Well, the skewers were actually in the RV, smashed between the slides, so it was just grilled chicken and apricots. Sort of a Thai recipe with coconut milk, peanut butter, cilantro, jalapeno and a few other things in the marinade. Turned out deeelicious. Mike, oddly, doesn't like moist chicken so I tried to leave his on the grill longer... but with Greek yogurt in the marinade I figured I was fighting a losing battle. He snarfed it down anyway.
I am getting better at plating. Isn't my rice pretty?
Yesterday we had New Orleans BBQ Shrimp. I made the bread that I turned into toast, which was topped with goat's cheese that I mixed with mayo and homemade pesto.
Yesterday we made our first pickup from the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). For $25 we got 1 lb bacon, 1 lb sausage and a 3 lb pork roast, all hormone free and locally raised. Also got some raw goat's milk, the aforementioned goat cheese, some soup bones, and a bag of lettuce. Looking forward to fresher non-GMO food that is much, much better for us. So far, so good.
We've been having sandwiches and/or salads for lunch. I have finally found the ultimate salad that tops the one I've loved for years. It has a bunch of veggies in it, and the homemade ranch is far superior to that crap in a bottle. And the sandwich was amazing too... whipped feta for the condiment, topped with pesto (that I made), roasted peppers (that I roasted), some lettuce, and Cajun chicken (I bought that in the sandwich meat section). So... between the exercise we've been getting from the move and our walks to the creek, and eating better, I'm hoping we are losing weight.
Also made some strawberry sherbet. First time I've used the ice cream maker and I was pleasantly surprised. It's a simple recipe that starts with mixing strawberries with sugar and vanilla extract, then roasting them before pureeing with buttermilk and sour cream. Roasting strawberries makes them smell so good and they are so sweet, almost like jam. I liked it so much I decided to try a grapefruit version. It has an odd texture, like snow until it starts warming up, but it's good. Since I have apricots leftover I might try an apricot version as well. And we bought cherries that were on sale so... I have options.
Mike will be returning to AL to help Jason with concrete soon so I'll be here at the house by myself for the first time. Figure I'll get a lot of boxes emptied out, there is still a lot to do and we've been focusing on other things. Monday our tankless water heater will be hooked up so we will have actual hot water (right now we can just turn the hot water knob all the way up and it's about right... it's not heating up much). The washer and dryer are hooked up so I washed clothes last night. I have missed having a full sized washer and dryer... the one in the RV just doesn't clean the same and takes a loooooong time because you're washing and drying all at once. Well... not at once, but it's tied up for both cycles, holds a whole lost less clothes and doesn't do as good a job. Not nearly. And the mailbox is almost up. The concrete was curing this afernoon and the post just needs to be screwed in.
We've come up with some ideas that we think will help Jason with some of the difficulties he's been having lately, and if he's amenable, we've worked ourselves into his equation. Since it was his idea anyway I think it'll be fine, we just have to agree on the details. So that may end up being our jobs, which we would much prefer to having to work for someone else. We know we are all like-minded and get along, and this job would be something I can do from home. Hopefully he will be moving out here soon so Mike will also be closer to home when they're working. Nothing is for sure, but we can hope and try our best o get there.
Mike found a puppy he wants to go see. It's close to Jason's house, so if he likes her, he will bring her back with him when he comes home. She looks a lot like the other puppy we were supposed to get, and at $200 (she's also AKC certified), she is much less expensive as well. This morning we found three dogs we wanted to go see and all of them had been adopted, one was a Catahoula... gorgeous girl... and two were German Shorthaired Pointer pups. We'll see. I would love for him to finally have a dog, his eyes light up and you can see the weight of the world start to lift from his shoulders. Makes me a little jealous, hahaha... but seriously I have Gracie so I understand how it feels to have the right animal around and how they can brighten your day just by being there. She's been very lovey dovey with both of us today. Some day I would love to get a Great Dane. I never would have thought that, but there is one at the hardware store down the street that I'm in love with. His name is Ludiwig and I call him horse-puppy because he's so tall that I don't have to lean down to pet him. He's pretty calm, but if you want to play he's ready to do that too, and when I pet him he sort of leans into me. I don't seem to sneeze around him, so you never know. We do know that as soon as we can manage it we want goats, chickens, rabbits and then we'll go from there, but it's going to be a while before we can afford them, much less the fencing or feed to keep them.
In the meantime, this made me smile... the evil of baby goats:
Other than that it's same old, same old. We live, we go on living, and we're making the best of it.
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