Cookies

I love to make cookies and today is my son's Halloween party at school. He has known his classmates since preschool and I have every year had the wonderful privilege (really) to make cookies for them, at some point during the year. So, this year I was asked to make cookies for their Halloween party.

I made black cats with glowing eyes, bats with glowing eyes, ghosts with red eyes coffins with spider webs, spiders with googly eyes, spiderwebs with a spider and of course pumpkins (some witha little spider on them :-) )

I wanted to make more but that will have to wait a few weeks to when I have a little more time.

Welcome to Winnipeg!! We are out of french fries.

My husband and I have been married for 20 years! Since we spent our 10th anniversary in the ICU with David, we figured we were allowed to try something a little more uplifting for our 20th. So, we planned an overnight get-away to Winnipeg, Canada.

As it turns out, Winnipeg is only 6 hours from where we live. Once we got through the great nothings of nothern South Dakota and North Dakota, we reached the Canadian border and were met by a serious but friendly border patrol. From there on it is only one more hour and you find yourself in a really friendly and wonderfully diverse city. And they speak French too! :-)

We had booked our room at the Best Western on Pembina Rd (or Rue Pembina) and were greeted by a no-frills, but really friendly lady at the front desk. I started getting the impression that Canadians are very friendly, just much more down to earth than their southern friends. Since I was "starving" we asked the lady for a good place to eat and she recommended this restaurant which was nearly right next to the hotel. Great! We went up to freshen up and then walked by the swollen Red River to a wonderful little oasis in the northern plains.

Walking behind the hotel towards the restaurant.

The restaurant has an outdoor deck and the most perfect view of the Red River. The deck is decorated as a tropical beach get-away and we just soaked up the warm, but not sweltering, evening with a beautiful view. However, my food experience in Winnipeg was about to reveal itself.





I had ordered a filet of sole and a salad with French dressing. Unfortunately for me, they had mixed up the French dressing for Tabasco sauce. The first bite into my salad was rather startling and I was wondering if "French dressing" in Winnipeg was a different concept than in the US. My second bite set my taste buds on fire and by the third they were fried. By then the kitchen confirmed they had made a mistake.


Thanks to Daren who gave me his tomato/noodle soup to "cool" my mouth I was ready to continue with the fish. I was however not ready for what was on my plate. It looked like fish, but the consistency was mushy and slimy! On top of that, I had ordered oven fried potatoes and vegetables with it. I got some vegetables and two slices of potato but the worst part was that they heavily breaded, soggy, fish was lying on a bed of rice with mushrooms!! I am alergic to mushrooms. So, I turned my attention to the two over-well toasted slices of bread on my plate.

Despite the disappointing food experience, I loved every minute of that evening and would even go back. Just order something simple. :-)

Back at the hotel, we were super good.: we hit the work out room. Yes, really! We have been on a diet for the past few weeks and have been walking a substantial distance nearly each day. Considering the heavily greased toasts and the noodle soup, we worked out for an hour before heading to bed.

Next morning we headed out to St. Boniface. Since we only had 1 day (actually, more like half a day) in Winnipeg, we had carefully selected what we wanted to do. Our first stop was at the old cathedral that burned in 1968. Only the facade remained and they decided to keep the facade and build the new church inside the ruins of the old cathedral.

A view from inside.

Looking up in what probably was a tower.

The back of the facade. On top, the bells are still in tact.

Around the cathedral is a beautiful old cemetery with gorgeous headstones.

At this cemetery is also the final resting place of Louis Riel.

We then headed to the St. Boniface museum which turned out to be such a worthwhile stop. They have managed to give a fairly detailed account of the history of Manitoba without overwhelming you with repetition and "boring" facts. The museum also gives you a good impression of daily life during those days. Really worth visiting!!

I will not post the pictures of the items I saw in the museum because you really need to go and see it for yourself! It is a great collection, but this one "piece" is unique and I will let it speak for itself :-)!!

From there we walked across the bridge and decided to eat at the restaurant right on the bridge. The view was wonderful!! But at this point I started really worrying about the culinary expertise in Winnipeg. We waiting a good amount of time to be seated. There were open tables but not enough staff to clear the tables and figure out that people are waiting to be seated. There seemed to be a lot of "nothing" going on.

Once we were seated, we had a fantastic view of the river and the city and, even though we are on a diet, we decided to try a portion of Poutine, a Canadian/French specialty. Basically, it is french fries with cheese and brown gravy.

Now, keep in mind that this restaurant was a burger/fries place with the exception that you could also order a hot dog or club sandwich. After waiting another good while, I ordered a club sandwich on whole wheat and then we ordered one portion Poutine to share. And then we waited some more. Suddenly the waitress comes out and informs us they are out of french fries. What??? You are a burger/fries diner and you are at lunch time "out of french fries"??? I nearly burst out laughing but managed to let Daren answer that we would then just forgo the experience of the Poutine.

And then we waited. Got our drinks. And waited. Then came the food and "voila!" suddenly they had found some more fries!!!..... I don't want to think where they suddenly "found" them. Anyway, I sunk my teeth into my really hard, over toasted club sandwich on white bread (!!!) and immediately hurt the roof of my mouth on the hard bread. Now, I normally like not mushy bread and toast is supposed to be toast, not warmed up mush. But this??? If it hadn't been because we had already waited so long and were running out of time on our only day up there, I would have ordered a new one. Instead, I pulled out some of the bread and tried to soften the rest with ketchup. I gave up. The Poutine however was surprisingly good (as long as I didn't cater to my evil thoughts where they had suddenly retrieved the fries from) and at this point didn't really care about the calories I was loading up on.

After another interesting culinary experience we decided to walk to the Forks and were treated to a wonderful area in the middle of Winnipeg. If you ever visit Winnipeg, go to the Forks!! It is an area created to celebrate all cultures and races. It features parks, exhibits, culture, the cutest indoor shopping area, outdoor "restaurants", skate board park, etc etc. In other words: everybody is welcome! And that is what makes that area so wonderful. It is peaceful, interesting, calm, fun. Anything you are looking for.

A unique walkway to celebrate the culture.

Skate park.

No wonder that there is this beautiful statue of Ghandi. He promoted living in harmony with each other while still keeping your identity.

This is a pillar at a stage for concerts etc. Each pillar had really neat engravings, again telling a story of the history and culture.











A covered area in the middle of the shopping center. I guess it could be used for bands or anything.

Inside the indoor shopping area. Looked like they had converted an old train building and each area had a name. Was really neat!!

Indoor shopping area. Fresh fruits, cheese, etc. Anything you wanted.

Indoor shopping area. Taken from a central square and you can see the tunnel leading to another area. Each tunnel had a name.

Outside the indoor shopping area.








A little outdoor restaurant.

Another outdoor area where you can sit and enjoy the view of the river or watch people perform.

View of the river and a little beer place.

I have SOOO many more pictures of the parks and Winnipeg, but I recommend you go and take your own and experience this great little get-away!

The day after

I woke up this morning to an eerie silence broken only by the sound of chain saws. Like I normally do every morning, I went outside and was greeted by an unfamiliar landscape. The is one, giant "hole" in the sky line of our town where there just a few hours ago were trees. I see uprooted trees, trees snapped as toothpicks, trees on houses, damaged houses, debris and destruction.




Friday afternoon (July 1), around 4, we were hit by a severe thunderstorm. We get those regularly during the summers, but this one was bad. Everything went pitch black and then all hell broke loose.



Afterwards, I saw heavy metal dumpster scattered in the fields, powerlines down all over, silos went flying like kites. All the streets were blocked by down trees and powerlines. A tree had hit our front window and other debris blocked our front entrance.

(In front of our house)

My "front yard" is filled with trees, limbs and debris. We have boarded up the window in the living room where a tree hit the window. We have no power and it sounds like it will be at least two more days before they can get it restored. Another tree had landed on our cars. Just before the power went out, our local weather station (which happens to be in our town, right down the street from us) measured over 100 mph sustained winds!! No wonder our town looks like the set for a disaster movie. Except, this is reality.

(A tree a fell on our purple car. Yes, there is a purple car next to the white one)

(At the tail end of the storm. This is a shot of my neighbor's house.)

As soon as he could, my husband grabbed the chain saw and got the tree out of the window so he could board it up and keep the rain out. Then he went to our elderly neighbor's house. Her front entrance was completely blocked by a tree that had fallen between our houses. I started cleaning water and glass in the house. Our (new) couch was drenged and I found leaves under the cushions that are attached with velcro! Within a few hours, firefighters had reached our street and started clearing the trees and other debris off the streets so emergency crews could get through.

My husband and kids kept working through the evening and he even cleared the worst of my vegetable garden. It is not important at all considering the damage all over, but he knew how sad I was to see it so damaged. By the time evening fell, our backyard looked nearly..."normal". We headed back to the house when we noticed an odd debris pattern by our garage. Heavy timbers had been scattered to the left while other heavy stuff had been thrown to the right. My rhubarb was broken by a swirly pattern. Daren (my husband) looked at the garage and noticed it had been moved several inches! The winds had hit the side so hard and straight on, that it pushed it. That explains why the powerlines running from the house to the garage are no longer sagging so badly.

(This is a firefighter clearing the debris in front of our house so emergency crews can get through).

(A shot of my neighbor's house the day after. It looks so empty)

What's left of our street)

(Our purple car took a hit by the tree across the street :-( )

(The back of our house. A tree fell between our neighbor and us and only took the gutter out.)

I am not sure what today will bring. I know we will be cleaning up, but for now I am just so thankful we are all ok.

Outdoor waterfountain

A few years ago, before I started school ( :-) ), I got really ambitious and made several changes to some of the "icky" corners in our yard. In the back we had a muddy, partly shade area that we changed into a wonderful patio.

In the front NW corner we had another boring corner. There is too much shade to grow much of any flowers. Yet, it is the front of the house and kind of an eye sore so it was a perfect spot for a rock water fountain.

I had made some concrete leaves from rhubarb and lily leaves and got a half-barrel size tub from a friend whose husband farms and had no need for it anymore. Then I dug a large hole and put the tub in. I picked up a pump at Lowes (check how high you want the water to go!), built a little housing around it to protect it from rocks or other things and then placed the whole thing in the bottom of the tub. In order to keep "junk" out of the water, I tied an old sheer curtain over it. Then I build a grate of old metal pipes and double layered chicken wire to place rocks on and keep animals/children from falling in. I then planted some hostas around it because they do really well in shade areas and kind of look like a "water fall plant" (yeah, bottany is not my strongest side). The whole project cost me merely $17, the cost of the pump.

It was wonderful, but that was 4 years ago. In the meanwhile we have had strong winters, losts of stormy weather and I had not run the fountain at all last summer. The concrete leaves had fallen down and I figured it must be broken by now.

I had decided it was the summer to repair it and get it working again. Yesterday was apparently the day for it because I decided to plug it in and see what would happen. It worked!!! Perfectly!

My husband helped me take all the rocks of it and rinsed them all off with the hose. We took the grate off and cleaned all the "gunk" of the sheer curtain and placed the "leaves" back in such a way that the water cascades nicely again. Now I just need to get a plant to place on the cinder block in the back and it will look so nice again.