My son, Seth, started his own blog this weekend. Check it out. I know you will. Because he is a great guy. And cute, too!
Family
A Little Advice About Cooking
Many years ago FabGrandpa and I used to hang out with a bunch of people who got together two or three times a week for pot luck suppers. It was at a different person’s home each time. Every family that came brought a dish to share, and whose ever house it was at cooked the meat, whether it was weiners on the grill, a pot roast, fried chicken, or whatever.
It was in the days before I found out I had to eat gluten free, so the things I made and took to share were always full of gluten. I made this one squash casserole that I had been making for years, the one that I had adjusted the original recipe to make it MINE. The one I used to make and tell my children it was pie, and they could have some if they ate their dinner. The one that I took to family reunions and other family get togethers, and people would sidle up to me and say, “Karen, that squash casserole is better than the ones your mother makes. How do you make them?” And I would always tell them the ingredients that I use to make it. And the next time I saw them, they would say “Karen, I made my husband a squash casserole using your recipe and he didn’t like it. What am I doing wrong?”
The conversation would continue, with me asking questions like “did you cook the squash with butter?” And they would say, “Yes, I did.” And I would ask “What brand of butter did you use?” and they would say “Country Crock” or “Parkay” or whatever else brand of margarine that they had used. And then I would ask “Did you use club crackers?” and they would say “Yes, I did” and I would ask “What brand of club crackers did you use?” and they would say, “Well, I used saltines.”
And then I would tell them, if you didn’t use real butter, and you didn’t use real club crackers, then your finished casserole will not ever taste like mine and your husband will never like it. And they don’t get it.
So, what I am trying to say here, is that if you ask ME for MY recipe, and you don’t follow it to the letter, then what YOU end up with will never be the same as what I made. Get it?
And so now that I have got that out of my system, I have to say that whenever a recipe is given out, here or anywhere else, you can certainly make substitutions for any and all of the indgredients. Just don’t expect what you make to be the same as what the original person made.
What made me think of this today is that FabGrandpa and I have been talking about changing to a mostly vegetarian diet. This discussion has come about because we watched a documentary on TV last night about healing your body through changing your diet.
As we discuss this between us, we have talked about whether or not we want to continue to eat chicken, fish and seafood, cheese, and eggs as a part of our new eating plan. And this is important to talk about. Because tonight for dinner we had Black Bean Nachos. We really enjoy this particular combination of foods. But, if we decide to cut the cheese (hahahaha, I said cut the cheese!) out of our diet, we could no longer have Black Bean Nachos. We would have to substitute something for the cheese. And we probably wouldn’t like it as well as we like cheese.
So, if you have changed your diet as part of a new eating plan, to improve your health, what substitutions have you made? What things did you cut out? Do you like your new way of eating? Do you feel better now that you have made the changes?
I’ll go first: I cut gluten out of my diet in April of 2007. I have substituted rice flour, tapioca flour, corn starch, buckwheat flour, and sorghum flour for the wheat products I used to use. I cut out everything that is made with wheat, rye, and barley. I do like my new way of eating. It took a while to get used to it, but since I feel so much better than I used to, it is easier to eat the things I need to eat instead of the old things I used to eat.
So, there it is. An informal survey of the peeps who read my blog. Feel free to email me at fabgrandma@gmail.com with any suggestions you may have as we work out this new eating plan.
Mail Lost And Found
For eight years, our daughter, Becky, who lives in Atlanta, has handled our mail for us. She has collected it from the post office box and sent it to us about every two weeks or so. She has done this for us because she loves us, and has done a very good job of it.
Over the last year or so, the mail has been sent with more and more time in between, an indication to us that she is busy. We understand that–she owns her own business, has lots of friends, a new boyfriend, and now a new puppy. (well, her room mate has a new puppy) So, we decided to permanently change our address to a PO box here in Salome. We decided to come back here to this same RV park next winter anyway, and the post office will forward our mail for free to our job in the summer for 6 months, which is all we would need, anyway.
So, we called Becky and had her send our mail one last time, which she did, 10 days ago. When we still had not received our mail package yesterday, I emailed Becky and asked if she had really sent the mail on the day she said she was going to. Yes, she did. So, today, still no mail.
I got to thinking about it, and although she has never done it before, I wondered if she had sent the mail to the last place we were, in Phoenix. Called them, and sure enough, they had my package. But, they wouldn’t forward it to me. They could return it to Becky, but could not forward it to me. Even if I paid them to.
So, now I am waiting for my mail to take a ride from North Phoenix RV Park in Phoenix, back to Becky, then back to me here in Salome. That package will have traveled over 6,000 miles before I get it. Imagine that!
And I just want to say here, that I have worked at RV parks for years, and at every place I have ever worked, we would forward the mail. This is not normal.
Workampers Meet-up
We were invited to a meet-up today with some members of an online forum from Workamper News Magazine. The place we were to meet was a gold claim on BLM land east of Quartzsite, about 30 or so miles from where we are parked.
This is the road to the claim. It is the good part of the road. We went about four miles out then turned off on a side road that looked more like a pig trail. Very rough, very remote.
I think they said this is a contraption used for dry panning for gold. They put the dirt in there, then sift it. Or something like that. Shit, I really don’t know HOW it is used, just that they were using it to look for gold. It was really very interesting. Really.
FabGrandpa and I walked up that hill. I got some cactus stickers in my leg. That part was not fun. It was another beautiful blue sky day. I think I got sunburned on my face. That part was not fun, either, but I really did have fun today.
Some more scenery. I love this place.
Here, FabGrandpa is standing next to this big red cactus to demonstrate just how big it is. It had really big stickers on it, too. You don’t want to be falling on one of those babies!
See, I told you it had big stickers on it. Those things bite.
This one is tiny. I had to sit on the ground to get close enough to get this picture. It was about four inches across and about 5 inches tall. It had the remains of red flowers on it. I think this is where I got the cactus stickers in my leg.
The real name of this cactus is Cholla, but some people call it “jumping cactus” because if you brush up too close to it, the little arms will “jump” off onto your clothes. And that is not fun. No, it didn’t happen to me. And I hope it never does.
More scenery. Jaimie, the girl who owns the claim, told us she has seen bighorn sheep up there before. We didn’t see any today. Probably because there were too many people around.
Here we are, proof we were there, looking for gold! George, Jaimie, Lynda, and me.
This was a bunch of people camping on the BLM land on the way out to the claim. This was a couple of miles off the main road. I bet it is real quiet out there.
That is a tiny little house out there in the desert. I probably have more room in my RV than there is in that house. It is hard to believe someone actually lives out here.
A gravel pit mine on the way out to George and Jaimie’s claim. There were several claims being worked out there. Jaimie said they do find gold, but it is a LOT of work to find just a little bit.
Of course, Workampers can’t get together without eating! We all met up back in town at Palo Verde Restaurant. The food there was good. I had liver and onions, FabGrandpa had a rib eye steak. MMMM.
left to right: FabGrandpa, me, Jim and Bev (ymeIsay on the Workamper forums), Charlie and Lynda (G’Ma on the Workamper forums), George and Jaimie (Calamity Jaimie on the Workamper forums), and Bob and Ann (TwoRootless on the Workamper forums) 
Oh, and when we got home and were getting out of the truck, when Charlie opened his door, rocks fell out! Pretty rocks.
The Gem And Mineral Show In Quartzsite
If you ever get a chance to go to a gem and mineral show, you need to go. I have heard about them from my in-laws, because they are both jewelry crafters. My father-in-love even went to a school to learn silver smithing. They both make some really nice jewelry, and they are the ones who inspired me to give it a try. They used to go to Quartzsite in the winter and go to the gem shows to buy supplies for their craft.
Last week I got my chance to go to my first gem show. There was everything imaginable: rocks, gems, pearls, wire, jewelry findings. There were also other crafts such as quilters, metal work, leather handbags, and stuff like that, but we were there for the jewelry stuff.
On Thursday, my friend Gaelyn from Geogypsy called to ask if I was planning to go to the show. I said I was, so she came and spent the night on my sofa so we could head out early and get a good parking spot. We met Gaelyn at the North Rim this summer, where she worked as an Interpretive Ranger and lived across the road from us in the employee campground. Our paths didn’t cross much because she had a weird schedule and our days off weren’t the same. But about a week or so before we left, she came over for dinner one night and we really enjoyed her company. We were delighted to have her as a guest.
On Friday morning, Gaelyn, Lynda, Charlie, and I got up before dawn, and took off for “Q”. We got a primo parking spot and started looking at all the stuff. This show is huge. As in blocks and blocks of vendors, on both sides of the road.
One vendor had these awesome fossils.
Another had gigantic crystals. These are quartz. I love these but really have no where to put them so I only took pictures.
This is called desert rose. It is gorgeous!
The show was out in the desert at Tyson Wells. Look at that big ol saguaro cactus:
Oh My God! Look at all those beads! How do you chose just a few????
Then of course you have to have wire to make things with. We got silver and copper.
Another bead store. I got some nice Swarovsky crystals here, and some copper beads.
We walked around that show in the desert for 6 hours! We were all tired and dusty, and hungry. Here we are at lunch: Me in the pink sweatshirt, Lynda next to me, Charlie across the table, and Gaelyn beside Charlie. FabGrandpa had a cold and didn’t feel good, so he stayed at home. (better for me, to be able to buy what I wanted, hahahaha.)
And I was so excited when I got home that I made this necklace first. Yes, I got the idea from a magazine, but I did intrepret in a different way.
It was a great day. I had a lot of fun with my friends, and bought a lot of supplies to be able to make some pretty things. And we are going to another one next week. I can hardly wait!
I’m Getting Ahead Of Myself But I Gotta Show You This!
I want to tell you about my visit from Gaelyn from Geogypsy, and how we went to the gem and mineral show in Quartzsite, but I am just too excited about the stuff we Lynda and I have been making that I am jumping ahead to show you:
I love pink things, and this here necklace is pink. It is made with rose quartz and glass and crystal beads. It turned out really good, better than I thought it would.
(click on the pictures to see them better)
This one is made with Chinese turquoise nuggets. I like to take old things apart and use the parts in new pieces, so the chain used in this necklace came from a junkstore find. It looks really good, too.
A few years ago, my mother-in-love, Nana, gave me some lessons in wire wrapping, (Thank you, Nana!) but I have not done much of it until now. I made the bracelet below with the green beads, then Lynda made the one with the purple beads. Mine turned out pretty good, except that the beads I used were too big so it made the overall bracelet too big. We are going to a wire wrapping class next week to learn how to do some other things, and we can hardly wait to go!
I bought these 18mm turquoise beads at the show, because I had an idea for a necklace in my head (yeah, that happens too much). I spent today making all those little curly links for a chain, then Lynda showed me how to make jump links, which is a pretty handy thing to know. I have been making each one separate, which is a major pain in the arse! But look how easy it is here:
And here you can see a little bit of the chain and how the beads look with it. And I put that tape measure in there so you see how big the beads are. It is going to be awesome!
The Fab Spencer Is A Superboy!
My FabGrandson, Spencer, asked for “a new real dog, not a toy” for Christmas. His Mommy, my daughter, Emily, told him that Santa sent her a note and told her where to go to find a good dog, because he couldn’t put a puppy in his sleigh. So, they went to the animal shelter in their town, and found a golden lab mixed puppy. They named her Sophie.
Sophie had contracted the parvo virus somewhere along the line, and was very sick the week after Christmas, and spent several days in a doggie hospital, but she survived, and is now back home. Sophie, the Superdog and her boy, Spencer. Aren’t they both just the cutest?
Lake Havasu City
We left Parker and Parker Dam, and drove on up to Lake Havasu City. Our first stop in Lake Havasu City was at Basha, a grocery store, to pick up a few supplies to take home, and get some lunch. We all got some Chinese take out and ate it right there in the cafe. On the way out, we saw this:
That’s not something you see every day! They also had covered parking in the parking lot there, which is something I have never seen before. Of course, it does get really hot there in the summer, so I am sure that is why they have it.
I did not realize that Lake Havasu City is where they moved London Bridge! We drove over the bridge, then turned around and drove back over.
We were waiting for our friends, Terri and Rob, to call us and tell us where to meet them, so we went to Hastings, a book store, and hung around for a while. When they called us, the place where they wanted us to meet them was just on the other side of London Bridge. So, we drove over again.
Barley Brothers Brewery was the place. They make a coffee beer that FabGrandpa loves! He says it is just the right combination of caffeine and alcohol. See how dark that beer is? We ordered lunch and drinks, and had a wonderful time visiting with our friends.
I ordered the Grilled Salmon Cobb Salad. It was delish!
Lynda and Charlie ordered the nachos. They said it was very good, too.
We had such a good time with our friends. Here we all are, FabGrandpa, Rob, and Terri on the left; Charlie, Lynda, and me on the right. And you can see London Bridge right out the window. 
