Fishing for Answers Hodgepodge

Another week and another Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce!

1. When someone finds out what you do or where you’re from, what’s a question they always ask? 

When I say Colville (pronounced Call-ville) people get a puzzled look on their face.

It seems most always I need to add…”It’s a small town in the Northeast corner of Washington State about 70 miles north of Spokane and about 35 miles from the Canadian border.

2. Did you participate in ‘Greek Life’ when you were in college, or have children who did? If so what was your experience like? Taking another tack…have you ever been to Greece? If not, is that a destination on your bucket list? 

My answer is no to all the above. Growing up with immigrant parents who escaped communism made my parents and us in turn skeptical of many organizations and we saw them as unnecessary in our lives.

Greece would be a very interesting place to visit, especially for the Biblical history there, but it is not on my bucket list.

3. Do you like Greek food? If so what’s your favorite dish? 
Photo above from a great Greek restaurant in Walla Walla that our family enjoyed a while back.
Yes, I do enjoy Greek food. We just enjoyed home made Gyros at Dan and Jamie’s to celebrate Josh and Laura’s 24th Anniversary. Home made gyro meat, home made pita bread, home made tzatziki. It was all delicious.
4. What incredibly common thing have you never done? 
I don’t believe that I’ve ever fished or if I have I’ve totally forgotten it.
I’ve been to ‘Fishing’ parties and played fishing games.

5. What is a telltale sign that you’re upset? 

My hands will start shaking more than usual or my voice will be shaky.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Here’s another great Summer salad.

Greek Salad
Ingredients:

  • 1 cup cucumber chopped
  • 1 cup tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/2 cup canned chickpeas (garbanzo), drained, rinsed.
  • 1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted, sliced
  • 1/4 cup scallions, sliced (you can substitute red onion here)
  • 1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2-3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 Tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

Method:

  1. Combine the cucumbers, tomatoes, chickpeas, olives, scallions, and parsley in a large bowl.
  2. Whisk together lemon juice, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper for the vinaigrette in a bowl.
  3. Drizzle olive oil into lemon juice mixture in a steady stream while whisking, after it emulsifies stir in mint and adjust seasonings to taste.
  4. Pour over the combined ingredients and mix well.

Double the recipe if you are serving this as a main dish. This recipe would serve 2 as a main dish.
As a side it serves 4-6 people.
I used the whole English Cucumber for the salad pictured above which was probably 2 cups or more of the cucumber.

July Wrap-Up #1

Looking back…

This will be the first of three July Wrap-ups. The first one will be close to home and the second and third will be at a distance. We started the month in Walla Walla celebrating with our family and those posts have been shared.

Travels interrupted the documentation of the end of the school year but finally it happened in July!

Looks like they both decided Top Ramen was their favorite food. Hilarious, as their mom feeds them 3 well balanced meals a day!!

While watching them in early July they decided to give me a makeover.

It was hot but they managed to go cherry picking at a nearby orchard.

Dinner on the Columbia with fishing was refreshing on a hot night.

JJ caught his first stick!

Addy caught her very first fish!

Addy wasn’t interested in holding the fish so JJ took over the job for the fish photo!

Our hot water tank needed to be replaced and while the guys worked on hooking up the new tank we set up this water splash pool for the grands to keep cool while waiting.

Hooray the new hot tank is working and the guys are pleased with themselves! I’m pleased, too.

When the job was completed, we enjoyed a Creamy chicken noodle dish for dinner with a fresh produce salad from the kids garden to go along with it.

The kids brought over raspberries from their garden which inspired the baking of this Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake.

I’ve already shared the other July happenings close to home like soccer camp, walks on the trail, summer blooms, summer critter visitors, Canadian visitors. I’ll save more blooming plants from our back acres for another day.

Happy August everyone!

Summertime

Summer has been full of sunshine and some usual events and unusual events, too.

Fishing on the shore and throwing rocks is always fun.

Soccer camp is over but soccer teams have now formed and continue through August.

Our son Josh signed up for his first ever triathlon and his goal was to ‘not drown and to finish’. He achieved both and finished well. Laura was there to see it in person and document this epic achievement.

He was being cheered on from near and far!

We were all so impressed and happy that he could accomplish this goal. I was particularly happy he didn’t drown!

After all that excitement we were ready for a week of Vacation Bible School and that will be a separate post.

We are already at the middle of August and so many have started back to school already. It’s always hard for me to get my mind wrapped around that since I’m such a traditional school year kind of gal. Start up after Labor Day and end by or shortly after Father’s day! Happy days of summer to all of you.

 

Casting Techniques

Continuing with JJ’s Fishing party and the fun we had watching JJ and Addy casting their fishing line to catch some treats.

Enjoying his ‘catch’.

This girl has form!

There was some fishing out of doors, too.

Fishing was fun and we still have more to share from this special day.

This week we have a forecast of temps that rise each day reaching a forecast of 77 degrees this Thursday! What’s happening in your corner of the world?