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Category Archives: California
My First Calzone Attempt ~
So this was simple and good. You start with the frozen bread dough you find in the grocery store. I thawed one loaf. Then I floured my surface. I separated the loaf into 3 equal parts. Yikes but when I went to roll out my first circle I realized I do not have a rolling pin in my condo kitchen supplies! What to do? Well I’m not a HomeEc major for nothing people. I’ve learned to improvise. The closest thing I could find in my condo that resembled a rolling pin was this…
A muddler! Wasn’t the simplest tool to use to roll out the dough to a seven inch circle but it worked.
I sauteed most of the filling ingredients before adding them to the circle of dough. You can choose whatever filling floats your boat. I chose red onion, mushrooms, green bell-pepper, and chicken sausage. After sauteing these together and getting rid of some of the moisture I spread a little marinara on the dough placed some soft mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce and then added the sauteed ingredients. Egg wash the edges like shown above and then fold it over and seal it. Give the top another egg wash and prick it with a fork. Bake in a 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes. And drum roll please…here’s how it came out.
It was very yummy! Oh and I was so proud that I got it to fit on a smaller plate to fulfill my brown plate challenge…
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
Party!
We got together on Saturday night at Moreno’s in Orange to celebrate my sister Vera’s bigger than the last big birthday party!
Vera the Birthday Girl and Me, Leticia my SIL and Tim my brother, The Mariachis, and the table conversation with David, Debbee (Vera’s kids) Noah, Melissa and my sister Kathy at the end of the table.
The Matriarch and Patriarch of the family…
There were these great old trees in the patio. The original part of this restaurant was a Friends church (Quaker) and built in the late 1800’s! Click here to read the interesting history.
And this joker on the right confiscated my camera when I wasn’t looking to take a photo of himself with the Birthday Girl!
Gotcha Ryan!
If you like non-spicy Mexican food that any Gringo can eat and enjoy this is the place for you. For us spicy hot Mexican food lovers this was fun for the history, fun being with family, fun with the mariachis, but not memorable for the food. 🙂
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
Sycamore Canyon Hike ~ Walking Club Totals
So Dear and I decided we’d stray from our usual beach walk at Emma Wood and we headed to the Santa Monica Mountains. We decided on Big Sycamore Canyon starting at Point Mugu State Park. Here are some of our breathtaking views!
We picked the Scenic Trail to the Overlook Fire Road. Besides the gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Mountains we were very excited to spot one of these…
This is a Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria biflora Lindl.) Lily Family. LILIACEAE
Chocolate Lily is local on clay slopes, often under shrubs and blooms from February to April. This has been called the Cleopatra of the Fritillaries – darkest and the loveliest. It is our only species, although there are 16 California natives in this genus. We were first introduced to a Fritillaria in Oxford, England on Addison’s Walk. We were there in April and there was a field of blooming Fritillaries.
We did enjoy our hike and we will return again. I’ll show more photos of our hike later in the week and add another wildflower post for Wildflowers in Winter.
But now to my step totals for 6 days this week for Lovella’s Walking Club. My average was good again at 11,283.
We’re headed off to Orange County now for my older sister’s Leap Year Birthday Celebration with the family. Have a great weekend and keep on walking…
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
The Ultimate Blog Party ~ March 7th – 14th
Welcome to my Blog Party. You have arrived at The Happy Wonderer. I’m ellen b and I’m so happy to welcome you here. I’ve made a cake for the occassion and I’m sharing the recipe with you. My birthday is March 14th so this is a great week for a party around here. I would like to give you a taste of what my blog is like. I’m posting some regular kind of things you’ll see if you come back to visit. So relax and enjoy as you scroll on down…
Applesauce Spice Cake
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1 pkg. 4 serving size jello instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1 cup applesauce
1/2 C. water
1/4 C. oil
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. all-spice (optional)
1/2 raisins finely chopped (optional)
Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl of electric mixer and blend then beat at medium for 4 minutes. Pour into well greased and floured 10 inch tube or fluted tube pan. (I’ve used a bundt cake pan and angel food cake pan). Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. DO NOT UNDERBAKE. Cool in pan for 15 min. remove and cool on rack. When the cake has cooled and before I serve it I give it a dusting of powdered sugar.
This goes really well with whipped cream or a good vanilla ice cream, too. This has become a favorite in my house and is requested for birthday cakes very often.
I like to share my recipes and I really enjoy inviting table settings like these…
Special times with family and friends are shared on my blog as well.
I enjoy walking and I share photos from these walks and I’m part of a Bloggy Walking Club. The bloggers who participate keep track of their average steps for a 5-6 day period each week and share their totals. My husband who I call “Dear” on this blog and I walk most every Saturday at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California.
I’m also a Brown Plate Special participant which is a sensible challenge for some of us older bloggers to eat smaller quantities and add more activity in our lives and be accountable to each other.
I participate in a few weekly blog carnivals like ABC Wednesday, Word Filled Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, Sky Watch Fridays and Photo Hunters. I post a Hymn or Worship song on Sunday. Sometimes during the week I’ll share a devotional or a quote from a book I’m reading.
A fun experience I’ve had since I started blogging is meeting a fellow blogger who lives in the same city as me. After meeting we decided to walk together. We try to walk every weekday which has been great. Here’s a photo from the day we met at a local Coffee shop in town.
This is Willow from Willow’s Cottage. I’m the brunette (I think brunette sounds so much better than I’m the old lady on the right with brown hair)
I will also share photos from travels here in the states and abroad.
My sister Lana and I started blogging about the same time. We talk most everyday (mostly about our blogs). It’s fun to have a bosom bloggy buddy who doesn’t get tired of “blog talk”. We laugh all the time. Her blog is called Above the Clouds because she travels weekly by air.
I post a lot, at least one post a day sometimes 2 to 3 posts a day on bloggy carnival days.
I choose for my blog be an encouraging blog and to honor the Lord so you generally will not hear me ranting and you will not find bad language and things that I find objectionable to my heart and mind here.
Whew! My posts are not this long generally unless it’s all photos (Did I say I’m visual and love photos!?)
Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you come again. Blessings on you…
You can see more blogs that are participating in the party at 5 minutes for Mom. I’ll add the link when they have it up later tonight. Well as soon as 5MFM fixes their site you can click and get there we all crashed it I think. For now you can google Ultimate Blog Party and find some sites!
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
Photo Hunters ~ Different
I was wondering what I was going to post for the “different” theme when on our walk on Thursday we came upon these toilets sitting in this driveway. I said “that’s different”, then pulled my camera out of my pocket and took the photo! Happy hunting everyone.
Check out more “different” here.
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
Thankful Thursday ~ Hope
I am so thankful to God for this time of year. This time before Spring arrives. The anticipation for Easter and then the culmination with a great celebration of the Resurrection. I think this even trumps Christmas for me. I love Christmas, too, but the New life and new birth and flowers and strawberries that come with Spring just overwhelm me! Thank you God for these simple pleasures and your amazing sacrifice and miracle of your Resurrection that make this season so beautiful!
Hebrews 6: 19, 20 ~ “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us has entered on our behalf. ”
For more Thankful Thursday click here.
WFW ~ Mathew 6: 25-27
Mathew 6: 25-27 ~
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more imortant than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”
For more Word Filled Wednesday head over to The 160 Acre Woods
Wildflowers in Winter ~ Week 8
Week 8 – March 5 – 12. The First Wildflower of Spring photo challenge.
Be searching for wildflowers in your area. Try to find the first one blooming and post a photo of it on your blog.
On our walks along the coast the most abundant wildflower we see is the Sea Fig. They come from the Carpetweed family. The yellow one is a Hottentot Fig and I think the more purple colored one is just called Sea Fig.
I’m hoping to get the names correct for this collage of flowers. I searched my Coastal Flowering Plants book but some were hard to identify. Here’s what I came up with from left to right. Purple Nightshade, Sea Rocket, more Sea Rocket, California Encelia (Bush Sunflower), Not sure maybe Wild Morning Glory?, more Bush Sunflower, Again not sure but think it’s Wild Morning Glory, Our Lord’s Candle (Yucca whipplei) Agave Family, Turkey Mullein Dove Weed.
An extra note on Our Lord’s Candle, the flower stalk is 4 to 8 feet tall. There is a basal rosette of spine-tipped, sword-like leaves 1 to 3 feet long. The white flowers sometimes purple-tinged, appear in a terminal compound cluster up to 4 feet long. They are very fragrant and even have a pleasant taste when nibbed. The fruit is a capsule.
Now since I am in California I really need to include some photos of our state wildflower the California Poppy!
These are all blooming at the same time here along the coast in Southern California so I included them all.
For more First Spring blooms head over to Elizabeth Joy’s.
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
ABC Wednesday ~ G is for…
G is for Gulls that we see in abundance on our Saturday walks at the beach in Ventura, California.
G is also for Anne of Green Gables that I just read for the first time. What a delightful book. I had seen productions of the series on Television. Here is a quote from the book.
“Marilla felt more embarrassed than ever. She had intended to teach Anne the childish classic, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” But she had, as I have told you, the glimmerings of a sense of humor – which is simply another name for a sense of the fitness of things; and it suddenly occurred to her that that simple little prayer, sacred to white-robed childhood lisping at motherly knees, was entirely unsuited to this freckled witch of a girl who knew and cared nothing about God’s love, since she had never had it translated to her through the medium of human love.
“You’re old enough to pray for yourself, Anne,” she said finally. “Just thank God for your blessings and ask Him humbly for the things you want.”
“Well, I’ll do my best,” promised Anne, burying her face in Marilla’s lap. “Gracious heavenly Father – that’s the way the ministers say it in church, so I suppose it’s all right in a private prayer, isn’t it?” she interjected, lifting her head for a moment.
Gracious heavenly Father, I thank Thee for the White Way of Delight and the Lake of Shining Waters and Bonny and the Snow Queen. I’m really extremely grateful for them. And that’s all the blessings I can think of just now to thank Thee for. As for the things I want, they’re so numerous that it would take a great deal of time to name them all, so I will only mention the two most important. Please let me stay at Green Gables; and please let me be good-looking when I grow up. I remain,
Yours respectfully,
Anne Shirley.“There, did I do it all right?” she asked eagerly, getting up. “I could have made it much more flowery if I’d had a little more time to think it over.”
Now after all that you deserve one of these that begin with the letter G!
Make mine a Guinness Please…
For more ABC Wednesday click on over to Mrs. Nesbitt’s.
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 