Immersion Cooking

This is not a new thing but certainly not in everyone's cooking repertoire. Leave it to our son Matt to come up with a way to do it.
Using an instrument used in the scientific field that heats with a coil in water and concocting a heavy plastic container to hold the water
and coil by cutting an opening in the top, he pulled it off. We recently used this to make carnitas (pork) tacos for our reunion dinner and I am once again making them for a neighborhood gathering tomorrow. Using pork shoulder with spices, peppers and onions all together
in a ziploc bag to seal it, you slip it into the "bath" and cook at 60c for 2 days. The finished product falls easily apart and has retained
its moisture and is so tender and tasty it's amazing. I can hardly wait to have it again!

At the end of the day

Six nites on Lake Michigan and at the end of each day the beauty of a sunset.  A wonderful way to end the day!

The Getaway Car

At our nephew Jim's wedding yesterday this 1935 Ram was the car they used to go from the church to the reception. We all
thought it looked like a "gangster" getaway car!

The Saffron Kitchen

An interesting read.  Set in between the now and then time scenerio but not difficult to navigate between.  It's a story about a woman born and raised in Iran and how the times dictated choices we'd find hard to imagine and how the consequences affected her life.  The remarkable part of this book, for me anyway, was the ability of the author to make you feel like you could breathe the air and feel the essence of the time and place she ably describes.  Some authors have the ability to truly transport you.  This was one of them.

Jesus

While I don't as a rule seek out books on spirituality, this one intrigued me as the premise was the "lost" years of 12 to 30 in the life of Jesus.  We heard nothing about that period from the time he was left at the temple by Mary and Joseph til his baptism by John as adult.  Of course it is fiction but nonetheless interesting.  And as usual, I did learn a few things along the way.  Especially in the readers guide at the end.  And it reinforced beliefs I've held as mine for a lot of my life.  Now I think I must expand on them.

Summer fare

Love trying out new receipes and this one was a winner.  Sweet potato salad with celery, onion, fresh pineapple, pecans and red pepper.  Turkey burgers with diced peaches on a garlic cibatta roll and topped with grilled peaches and blueberries and fresh mint.  Definately goes into the "tried and true" folder!

Slice of heaven

Sunset and sunrise are both beautiful on Lake Huron!

Still Alice

I've decided to write once in awhile about the books I read in case any of you are big readers.  Everyone likes different types of books so surely not everyone will like what I do.  Nonetheless, reading is something I've always enjoyed and consider a vital part of my life. 
"Still Alice" was an enlightening book for me about a woman who experiences early onset Alzheimer's.  While it was in a way depressing it was just as much uplifting in realizing the strength she drew on from herself, her family, and her life's experience.  It gave insight to what it might be like to experience this type of
dementia.....the disconnection, the letting go of what were her realities and to accept the limitations as they began to accumulate.  Told in the voice of the one going through it.  I enjoyed and learned from it.  That's a good read for me.

Summertime

Today could just be about the most perfect summertime day.  It was in the high 70's and sunny.  We went down to Matt's in the Easthills area and while he and Mark worked on a project at his house, I walked to look at the "19 Windows" display nearby.  It was fun to see how different each was and how much foot traffic it generated for the unique and fun area it was in.  The shops are fun to wander and the displays were fun to see.  Here are a few of them and I'll be interested to see which were voted the best.

Hereafter

I've often thought about the hereafter I've grown up hearing about.  Unfortunately no one has come back from there to really tell me what its like.  I just finished a book in which the main character was killed and she continues to narrate from the beyond.  Sure, its just fiction but I sure like her version of it.  Two things stuck with me particularly...."the dead truly talk to us, that in the air between the living, spirits bob and weave and laugh with us.  They are the oxygen we breathe."  What a thought!  I'd like to believe that.
In this wide, wide heaven you get your simplest desires but also the most humble and grand.  Kind of whatever would be "heaven" to you.  I'm thinking all of this seems a bit better than harps and clouds and fields of flowers which for me would get old quickly.  I always like to learn something from the books I read.
From this one I've learned that there are OTHER possibilities.