Nicole Maneri is a fellow co-worker and our manager has set up a GoFundMe to help Nicole out.. She had an unexpected medical emergency and has been hospitalized. She was admitted with Mxydema Crises along with a kidney and liver infection. She has been at the hospital for a week and will continue to be there next week. She has 2 young boys that she has to provide for and will not have income coming in for 2-3 weeks. Please help me raise money so she can feed her children and pay her bill-even $5 would help!
A lovely and delightful way to enjoy Spring time in Upstate South Carolina–Clemson hosts a lovely waterfront park, just off of Tiger Boulevard (parking is easily done at the local Wendy’s and the trail head is just a 1/2 block away!)
The trails are all marked and either paved or done with a board walk style, offering many picnic tables and benches and hanging swings over beautiful docks and more! I witnessed many couples and groups of friends using the lovely accomodations along the trail!
I walked a total of 40+ minutes, taking a little break in the sunshine to get some sunshine on my very winter white legs, while I enjoyed a picnic that I purchased at Wendy’s-I chose the $5 grab bag (with a slight upcharge for a larger drink!)
The breeze was blowing lightly off of the Lake while I enjoyed watching the fishermen ply there talents and skills from their boats, thoroughly enjoying the light refreshing days of Clemson, S.C.
A super easy meal to make–with very common, often in household ingredients (and if you purchase ingredients, the items not used can be used in other stuff easily!)
1 large yam, washed and coarsely chopped
2 big carrots, peeled and shredded/chopped
1 medium purple onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (creamy or chunky, doesn’t matter)
1 tablespoon Curry Powder
1 tsp each, dried ginger, black pepper, Garam Masala, sea salt
1 tablespoon coconut oil
3 Tilapia Filets (I like the frozen ones from AlDI)
4 cups of cold water
Put everything in a large, deep skillet or medium sized pan, except fish
Simmer and stir for 10 minutues, put the fish on top, cover and let simmer for 40-45 on medium heat until fish is done and veggies are soft/cooked through. Mix well to break up fish and incorporate everything together.
Can be eaten as is or served over cooked rice. If eaten as it, serves 2-4, if served over rice, served 6-8.
+Can be altered to be vegetarian or vegan by eliminating the fish!
The days are growing longer and springing forward with the time change today extends the sunshine, albeit cutting an hour of sleep off. What’s a person to do but to catch the rays on the riverbanks and perhaps rock out to the humms of the rapids.
While seeking a different venue (my digital map wasn’t working properly) I came upon the river and it’s idealic location, simply because Lay Bridge Road is closed/blocked off, allowing a pseudo parking area to be created and locals/adventureres to enjoy the serenic setting. Catechese Dam on lay bridge road is also a minor historical site as well.
I stopped by the local store and chose a few items for a picnic, sticking my purchase in a re-usable small shopping bag as I don’t currently own an actual picnic basket and the durable bag makes it easy to carry my food items to and from the site (plus, the handles don’t dig into my fingers, especially important when carrying items on an adventure!)
While I am a fairly skilled person I realized that hunting and gathering for my food isn’t really conducive for feeding myself, packing a picnic is a very affordable way to eat well without breaking the bank or spending a small fortune on take-out (my entire picnic would have easily fed 2-3 people for less than $8 total.) I usually pack a bit extra–in case I stay out a bit longer than expected, meet a new friend, etc-one may never know what excitement adventures lead too and who doens’t like good snacks and food to eat and share?
The weather has been dreary, grey rainy skies lately and with a clear, sunshine filled cool day, it was a lovely adventure to enjoy the river and lay on the banks and soak in the sun, eat my picnic and enjoy the sounds of nature serenade me with their melody. A special treat? A group of 4 kayakers paddled by with their colorful paddles and head gear on!
A little video I snapped of the river, about 1/4 mile from the historical damn sign
Hot homemade soup is great for any occasion and why not make it easy on yourself and your wallet?
2 cups of leftover chicken, diced (or 1 large can of chicken breast)
2 chicken boulion cubes
1/2 cup of dry white rice
2 carrots, peeled, and diced
lemon zest (dried or fresh)
sea salt and pepper
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp minced garlic (I like the jar stuff)
1 small green bell pepper, cored, and diced
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 small onion pealed and diced or 4 green onions, snipped, and diced
a few white mushrooms, washed, diced (optional)
Large Pot, filled with 2-3 quarts of good, clean cold water
Dump all ingredients in the pot and let simmer for roughly 45 minutes. Enjoy!
*on a side note, instead of using canned chicken and boullion, my sister boils the whole leftover rotissiere/baked chicken, saving the broth for the base of chicken soup and cleans the leftover meat off the bones once removed from the pot after boiling. Either method is easily used!
1 medium bell pepper (I used a green one), seeded and chunked
2 green scallion, cleaned up and chunked
1 tsp of flax seed
1 tsp of Tony Satchere’s seasons (or any season of your choice)
1 large can of yellow kernal corn, drained
Put everything in a medium sized pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes on a low-medium heat and enjoy! Serves 3-4 people. It’s less than $6 for the whole pot, pretty darn affordable to feed people!
Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Christoper McCann!
The wedding was officiated by Pastor Stephen Oelhafen (also the bride’s brother-in-law) at St. John’s Lutheran Church, with a lovely, heart felt-Ceremony!
The couple met in college and found love, may they enjoy many many decades of bliss together!
My dear and beloved Bestest Friend, hailing from Northeast Colorado, is quite talented in the kitchen, with his trusty, cheese-tax collecting dog, Kota.
The dough recipe he used can be seen here, it’s so easy!
Kevin described the pizza making process as super easy, using the following ingredients:
Mozzerrella Cheese
The pizza dough (made from the recipe)
Marinara sauce, homemade or jarred he says is fine
Pepperoni sliced, prepackaged
Spread out the dough to the desired pizze size, lay it on the pizza stone or tray
smear the marinara sauce as the base
Sprinkle lightly or heavily the mozzarella cheese, to preference, give a sprinkle of the cheese as tax to the dog.
” Blue Lightening states: Our annual Food Drive is back this year for the full month of November! All donations benefit the Wiggins Community Church. This year, especially, they are in need of food, cleaning products and personal hygiene products. Get up to a $25 Bill Credit with your donation”
Click here for the Amazon Wish-List fore ease of donating, shop, click, pay and it it’s shipped on it’s way to the donation box! There are many items to choose from that are under $1- $2-$3, and $4–including many “bulk” package items for helping to stretch the donation.
Blue Lightening is located in Wiggins, Colorado–and to help support their food and hygiene donation drive, I have created an Amazon “wish list” that, if one doesn’t live in the area or can’t stop buy during business hours to drop off a donation, they may purchase and have the items directly shipped (often, free with Prime!) directly to the donation box at Blue Ligthning! (see link below)
My Travels 