Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

After leaving Shoshone Falls Our Epic Northwestern Journey – Part 4 – Next Stop, Idaho – Shoshone Falls we headed straight north up to Caldwell for a couple days of visiting with our friends Scott and Traci, at their “Idahome”. It was yet another beautiful and scenic drive along the way.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say this bottle of wine and wine glass were put there just for me. But alas, I know differently. We were paralleling the Snake River, which is home to about 60 wineries in Idaho. Hitting the Caldwell Wine Trail

After driving for about 2 1/2 hours, we made it to Scott and Traci’s and were greeted with open arms and lots of hugs. Then they introduced us to their furry and feathered family. They live on about 2 1/2 acres of land, and are branching out. They now have chickens, and are thinking about getting some cows and goats as well.

This is Tigger, one of the newest family members. Tigger and I made fast friends with each other. He even slept with us. He wanted to make sure we felt welcomed.

Scott and Traci have about 11 chickens who lay about 56 eggs a week for them.

Traci holding one of her girls. Traci loves her girls, and they love their momma.

The Henseik Idahome is filled with lots of birds of all kinds. Here are some of their resident quails

Scott, like me, LOVES to cook. He and Traci cooked us a delicious dinner, using one of Scott’s new favorite “toys”.

After dinner, we all enjoyed lots of laughs and fun stories. Scott and Dennis hit it off immediately. There were lots of fun times, with lots more to come. 🙂

Life is ALWAYS better when shared with good friends, family and good food. 🙂 Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

We were only in Utah for one day before heading up to Idaho. Idaho is another beautiful state with a lot to see and do.

The main reason for an Idaho stop was to visit with our friends Scott and Traci. You’ve “met” Scott and Traci a few times. Scott has been featured as a guest chef a few times, Cooking With Scott – Videos #26 and #27 and Traci had her her own short video too, Traci’s New Vintage. Scott and I go way, way back, and have known each other since junior high school. We still had about a five hour drive from Layton, Utah before arriving at Scott and Traci’s though. Of course we took a few stops along the way to take in the sights.

Scott and Traci recommended we stop at Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls. GREAT suggestion. Shoshone Falls was about 2 1/2 hours from Scott and Traci’s house in Caldwell. It was magnificent, albeit a little chilly!!!! Only one side of the falls was flowing, but it was still a sight to behold. Shoshone Falls is a natural beauty on the Snake River. At 212 feet, the falls are higher than Niagara Falls. Shoshone Falls are known as the Niagara Falls of the west.

I got lucky and was able to capture the rainbow too. I wasn’t sure if it would come out in the picture, but as you can see, it did.

We were freezing here. We brought mostly shorts. We were told it was warm and sunny. WRONG! 🙂 We had cool, chilly weather, and a lot of snow, from here through most of our Canadian portion of the trip as well. We weren’t prepared for so much cool weather or snow. But we’re tough, and we made it just fine. 🙂

When in the Southern Idaho region, this is a definite must-see. Shoshone falls is truly breathtaking.

You may have noticed I am NOT writing about a lot of food or restaurants this trip, which is really unusual for me, I know. Lee has severe food allergies, so we just kept to food basics for the most part. I will feature some restaurants and food, but not many for this trip. I’ll save those for another trip. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Life has so many beautiful things to offer. We just need to open our eyes and hearts to see them. The more we see, the more open we will be to seeing others. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Yesterday I shared our prehistoric adventures in Utah. Our Epic Northwestern Journey – Part 2 – Utah, The Prehistoric Version Today, I am going to share our wild Utah adventures.

Upon leaving Price and the Prehistoric museum, we continued north up past Salt Lake City to Layton. After getting settled in to our hotel for the night, we went out to explore. I really wanted to see the famous Salt Lake. I had no idea what was in store for us, and was very pleasantly surprised once we got there. I was expecting Salt Lake to be more like the salt mines we have visited in Bonaire. Instead, we discovered there is a huge wildlife preserve, called Antelope Island State Park.

This is the road that leads you through the lake.

Antelope Island State Park is HUGE! The only inhabitants of the island are wild animals, though people can get camping permits. We saw so many bison/buffalo, pronghorn/antelopes, coyotes, deer, and so much more. It was beautiful. We all thoroughly enjoyed our wild find. We had no idea this place existed, but were so happy to find that it did. We drove around a lot and we got out and walked and explored quite a bit as well.

When touring around through places like this, we always like to go into the visitors’ centers as well. You can learn so much. And often times you can see much more than you can see in the parks themselves.

There were plenty of birds all around too. I saw the same birds I see at home, and even though I see them at home all the time at home, I never tire of seeing them wherever I go. I saw Mourning Doves, Barn Swallows and Crows. This is by far the most impressive birdhouse I have ever seen.

At first we thought this was a momma with her babies, but after getting a closer look, no. She was just singing away, having a good time.

We spent quite a while in the park, enjoying everything we saw. By the time we were leaving, the sun was starting to go down too, which gave a completely different look to the park.

Pictures don’t really do Antelope Island justice, but at least they give you a good idea of what to see. I highly recommend visiting the island when in the Salt Lake City or Layton areas of Utah.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Walk on the wild side and take it all in. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

You all know I rarely reblog other posts. When I do, you know I think think they are really good tips and ideas for everyone. This blog post about reducing food costs from Chef Daniel Pliska is a great blog, https://chefpliska.com/. Times are tough economically right now. They are certainly the toughest I have ever seen, so learning ways to save as much money as you can, and still trying to eat healthy meals, are always welcomed. I already do all the things Chef Pliska recommends to do. I have cooked this way my whole life, even when cooking professionally. I remember my sous chef and I planning our menus that incorporated our leftovers every week. No one every knew but us. 🙂 Enjoy.

After leaving Grand Junction and Colorado Monument Park, our next stop and state was Utah.

On average, we drove between 5-6 hours per day, stopping along the way for whatever came up that sparked our interests, as well as for personal reasons.

Southern Utah and Western Colorado are geographically very similar. Both are beautiful in their own right, only I think Colorado is more colorful, making it prettier to me. A good number of my geographical photos were taken from the car as were were driving, so I apologize if they are grainy and/or slightly out of focus. There is only so much you can do from a car traveling roughly 80 mph. 🙂

We stopped at a lot of museums and historical interpretative centers, where we learned a lot about things we had only heard of before. Layton, Utah was going to be our final stop for the day. Before arriving in Layton, however, we stopped at the Prehistoric Museum in Price, not long after entering Utah. It was filled with dinosaur remains and displays, and was very interesting. I am only going to present a small sampling of the photos I took, to give you a brief overview, (and not to bore you completely) and hopefully spark your interests to go there when doing your own traveling.

There were also a lot of Native American exhibits and displays as well. Before learning from the displays, I always thought the Wooly Mammoth was extinct long before the arrival of man. But I was wrong. I learn new things everyday. 🙂 Wooly Mammoths and Native Americans lived side by side. The Wooly Mammoths were vital to the survival of many Native American tribes.

Alien influences perhaps? Ancient Native drawings.

Outside the museum was a beautiful tribute to the different branches of the military, as well to the coal miners lost to the mines. There were also so many gorgeous irises. In fact, we saw so many gorgeous irises, of all colors, and sizes everywhere we went. Needless to say, I took a lot of photos of irises. My mother would have loved all the beautiful irises.

I hope you are enjoying this so far. I have oh so much more fun adventures and photos to share. We are just getting started. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe, stay well, and always keep alive the thirst for knowledge and for growth. ‘Til next time.

As you know, we are back from our epic Northwestern journey. We covered seven states and all of the Southern Rockies of Canada. For the most part, our journey took us all through the Rocky Mountains, starting in Colorado. We visited Western Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Canada, Alberta, Canada, Montana, Wyoming, all before coming back home to the North Denver Metro area. Larry and I love just getting in the car to go. We like road trips a lot, though granted, they are NOT for everyone. This recent trip is by far the longest road trip in a car, we have ever done. We traveled with my Australian “brother” Dennis, and my “sister-in-law” Lee. Dennis and Lee came all the way from Australia to join us on this epic Northwestern journey. We saw a lot, did a lot and visited three sets of friends along the way, staying with each set of friends for a couple of days before starting our travels once again to parts unknown.

We headed westward, for the first leg of our journey ending, up in Grand Junction for the first night. Once again we visited Colorado Monument Park, which was also the first leg of our road trip last year as well. Our Trip To The West – Day #2 – Colorado National Monument. Even though our trip began in the middle of May, we still had a lot of snow all along the way. Here we are in our own Rocky Mountains, at Loveland Pass, headed up towards Grand Junction, Colorado.

Once we crossed the Continental Divide, then we lost the snow and had warm weather for a couple of days.

Colorado Monument Park is absolutely stunning. I could go again, and again, and again, and never get sick of all its natural beauty. This was our third time to visit, Dennis and Lee’s first. We have seen something different every time we have visited.

I missed everyone, and I have been so looking forward to start sharing with all of you once again. I have edited ALL 1250 pictures I took, and am beginning to whittle away at all the emails I accrued in my absence. Trust me, I WILL NOT bore you with all of my pictures, just the highlights. 🙂 Only geeks like me get excited about seeing EVERYTHING and EVERY picture. 🙂

This is day one of our seventeen day-long journey through The North American Rockies, both in the United States and Canada. Buckle up and bring snacks. I have tons of fun things to share. I hope you enjoy our adventures as much as I enjoy sharing them. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

I am home again. We had a great trip. We saw so much and did so much and covered A LOT of territory, but it is good to be home again. I missed the “kids” way too much and I think they missed us just as much. I just got back from taking my Australian brother and sister-in-law to the airport. It has been an even longer trip for them, since they arrived in the United States a month before we all went on our long, epic journey together. They are flying back to Melbourne tonight. Now, I have to get caught with everything once again.

I am still editing my bazillion pictures, and getting through all of my 15,000 emails. So I am not quite ready to start my blog again on a regular basis just yet, but soon. I have lots of good things to share. 🙂

Since I am leaving and will be gone for about three weeks, I will share some more of the duck-a-lings with you. They will be mostly grown up by the time I return home, so I just have to share them with you once again. Besides, they are so darn cute right now.

This is another batch of tiny babies. They just look like they are a couple of days old.

Have a fabulous, ducky day. ‘Til next time.

We are getting ready to hit the road again, for our big road trip to Canada. It will be quite an adventure. We will be gone for almost three weeks, seeing all kinds of natural beauty all along the way. We will also be stopping and staying with friends in Idaho, and two different parts of Canada. By the time we return home, we will have driven about 3500 miles or more. Even though we will be stopping quite often, we will still be in the car for long periods of time too. And that means we will need nibblies to help sustain us through our travels. 🙂

This is for the four of us. I don’t think we are going to starve. I think we will make it. Just barely. 🙂 We have fruit, dried fruit, granola bars, chips and crackers, sweets, a variety of nuts and a jar of Marmite (GAG) for the Aussies. I didn’t get a chance to look for Vegemite, so they will have to settle for Marmite instead. I can’t stand either one of them, but from what I understand they are pretty similar.

I also made some Snickerdoodle cookies for us to munch on as well.

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Snickerdoodles are some of Larry’s favorite cookies, but then being German, he loves anything with cinnamon. He is going to love these. They are very easy to make, with only a few simple, basic ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 400* F or 205*C.

2 3/4 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar +4 TBSP

1 cup or 2 sticks softened butter

2 eggs

4 tsp cinnamon

Mix the flour, salt and and baking powder together and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs. Add half of the flour and mix, then add the remaining flour and mix.

Mix the 4 TBSP sugar and the cinnamon together in a separate bowl.

Once everything is combined well, take about 1 TBSP of dough and roll into in a ball, then roll the ball into the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Lightly press onto the cookie sheet with the bottom of a glass to flatten out the cookies.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the centers are set and the cookies are lightly golden. Allow to cool on the sheet pan for a few minutes, then remove and place on a cookie rack and allow to cool completely.

I will be packing these up to add to the rest of our travel snacks. As you can see, I have enough for a small army. I feed people. That’s just what I do. In fact, Dennis, my “Australian brother” who is traveling with us as well as his wife Lee, calls me “a feeder”. 🙂

Dennis and I are not actually blood related, but we are definitely family. His stepdad and my dad were best friends in Australia from the age of about five until they both passed away. They were both named John, and both were called Johnny, so we lovingly refer to them as our two Johnnies. Even with my “John” moving half a world away after WWII, the two were still bonded together forever. The two Johnnies would both have been 99 this year. Dennis and his family and my family have been apart of each other’s lives for almost 100 years now and counting. 🙂

I will be gone and out of touch for about three weeks. Stay safe and stay well, and try your best to stay out of trouble, oh wait, that’s me. 🙂 I will miss you all, but I will be back before you know it, with lots of tales from our road trip and adventures. ‘Til next time.

Every day I see more and more flowers blossoming and proudly showing their off bright colors. Spring keeps getting prettier and prettier and more an more colorful everyday. I just love all of our spring colors.

Color your world beautiful today, tomorrow and everyday. 🙂