Bread

Sunset in Cortona

Dale loves bread, so when he left the loaf of bread he picked out lying on the wall at Church on Sunday I offered to make some this week. Since we are here in CA our baking hardware is limited. We did bring a bread recipe book with us, but for the most part all the recipes take two days to complete, which this week's work schedule made it difficult to complete. So after some discussion it was decided to make the bread using a recipe I used all the time when our kids were little. Once upon a time made all our own bread - until we decided it tasted too good and we were eating more than we should, so it became a treat once in awhile and we started making more whole wheat bread. The original recipe is a simple one from a Betty Crocker cookbook given to me by my mom when Dale and I were first married, I don't even have that particular cookbook any longer, think we gave it to Jodi when she went away to college. So the recipe had to be from memory, not hard since most bread is flour, water and yeast with a few additions for flavor and texture. Today's recipe might not have been exactly the same, but I still think we got it correct or close to the original. The next problem (or change from the original) was we had no bread pans, which led us to make free form loaves, and one final change all the new books I have tell you to use only the minimum of flour to make a lighter loaf, which I did. So they may not be exactly the loaves of our earlier years, but they sure taste good and brought back many memories, which makes for a great day! ps I may add the extra flour the next time.

Greensburg, KS

Going back to March 2009. On our way to CA we stopped at Lynn and Helen's (Leavenworth) for the night. Then we took a different route than usual and went through Greensburg, KS. This town suffered a devastating tornado that wiped out the everything. The Green channel did a reality show about how the town pulled together and it was all rebuilt. It was just amazing how much destruction tornadoes produce.

Computer Issues

We've had some problems with Internet Explorer and have been using Firefox. Now we cannot figure how to upload pictures from Firefox to the blog. We are going home for a month (with a small trip to Italy in that time) and will send the computer to Aaron to solve our problems....so check back in 4 or 5 weeks and see if I've gotten around to adding to this blog again. We have lots of pictures and stories to tell.
Dale and Beth

What does Dale do in California?

The question I hear often is what does Dale do while you're working in California? (usually right after they assume he is also a nurse). Well he keeps busy - reading, walking, packing groceries with the Rotary, walking, picking up trash, walking. When there's a Habitat for Humanity in progress he also volunteers with them. I think Dale walks between 8 and 10 miles a day. Tomorrow - he'll pick up trash on Linden street, pack groceries, walk about 3 miles with a group from church, and be home by 930 AM, then he and I will take our "big walk" which is about 5 miles. Later I'll go to work and he'll pickup trash from the beach. During the fall and winter months he sings in the choir at church (almost forgot that one). When I'm not working I join him on the beach for the evening trash pick up.

oops this is mostly a repeat sorry - I'll post a really new one soon.

Last weekend Dale and I became tourists for a day. Even though neither of us were fans of Michael Jackson, and at times really disliked his behavior - we are staying so close to Neverland. So off we went first a trip to the Santa Barbara Saturday market (the biggest farmer's market in the county), then up the mountain to see what we could see. We have been past Neverland before, but did not know it - so have you Aaron and James, its on the way up the mountain to look at the flowers. Took some pictures, bought a t-shirt for a friend and then went on to better things. Had a good tri tip sandwich at the Los Olivos market, then down the mountain for a beer at the Firestone brewery and some fries for our second course. Went home and made cupcakes and cookies for the church snack the next morning. All in all a very good day!

Long time no write

Yesterday Dale and I pretended to be tourists and went to Neverland - can only see the front gate but as I understand the rest is not as nice as it once was. We didn't even like MJ but decided that since we were so close and we were curious we had to go look. Same thing happened with the memorial - curious to see what they had planned and ended up watching the whole program and actually thought the show was very tastefully done - and very touching. After satisfying our curiosity we went to the Los Olivios market and had a grilled tri tip sandwich, then on to Firestone Brewery for a beer and some fries.

The second picture is the Carpinteria City beach on the 4th of July. It is interesting to be here for the summer. The food in the Farmer's market has changed - I've never bought red seedless grapes outside of the grocery store! The number of people out and about has more than doubled - there is always one or more groups of sunbathers walking down the street with the beach as their goal. Bicycle riders are everywhere - most seem to want to follow pedistrian rules when it suits them and car rules when they are more convienent - means you never know when a bicyclist will pull out in front of your car or run you over while out for a walk. But the weather is beautiful - 70's during the day and 50's at night. Time to close and join the crowd on the beach.