In His Grip

Blueberry Crisp for Dad

I needed an easy, quick dessert that said "Summer" but didn't require a huge amount of effort after all I am on vacation and I wanted it to be one of my Dad's favorites so the obvious choice is Blueberry Crisp.  Besides, I had to use the blueberries that I sacrificed my finger for earlier this week. 

Filling

8 cups of blueberries

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Crust

1 1/4 cup flour

1 cup instant oats

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

Filling -- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2-quart shallow baking dish; set aside. In a medium bowl, toss blueberries with 1/2 cup flour, the granulated sugar, and lemon juice. Spread evenly in prepared baking dish, pressing down lightly.

Crust -- combine sugars with softened butter and mix until well blended.  Stir in the flour.  Add oats and mix until crust resembles coarse crumbs.  Crumble evenly on top of fruit.  Cook at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 325 and bake for 45 - 50 more minutes. I usually make 1 and a half times the recipe of the crust so that we have a lot of crispies on our fruit. 

The result is an excellent and very crispy, sugary topping over sweet, tart, gooey blueberry guts. With a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, it is an effortless way to end any dinner and one last hurray before Dad goes on a strict diet following his surgery tomorrow.

Bite Me!

The adventure of my spider bite all started on Thursday when my friends Sheri, Erin and I went blueberry picking.  I was reaching in for a very large bunch of blueberries and felt a "zing" to my finger and look down to find a spider in my blueberry bucket.  Figuring the spider was the culprit to my pain I got it out of my bucket and took care of the little sucker the only way a tennis shoe can.  It really did not hurt more than a really bad misquote bite and as the day progress you could not even see where the little guy had bitten me.  We left for the lake early the next morning and I noticed that my finger was a little swollen and as the day went on the swelling just kept getting worse.  We stopped in at a Wal-Mart and the pharmacist said to take some Benadryle and that should take care of it.  I woke up in the night with numbness in my finger and now into my hand by morning my hand and other fingers were swollen too.  We made a trip to the ER into the hospital of Cook, Minnesota (population 600).  They diagnosed that I did in fact have a spider bite and it was infected.  They gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way.  What a way to start my vacation.

Camping Weekend

Jeff and I headed out on Friday morning on our inaugural camping weekend with our new vacation home in tow.  Towing our vacation home was not our trouble, it was the canoe on top of Jeff's vehicle that kept giving us problems.  We had to stop a couple of times to make sure all was up on top safe and sound and then we would be on our way again.  We arrive at Pamona by noon and in no time had our camp set up.  Our plan was to call the kids and tell them where we were in the campground, as they were coming after they got off work, but we had no cell phone service.  I had to drive back in about 5 miles until I found service and gave them a call with our campsite location.  We had great weekend even with the pouring down rain on part of Saturday.  With our tent trailer, we were all dry inside with electricity even.  This was my first time camping with electricity, what a concept, we even had air conditioning at night.  Can this really be called camping?

Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain has got to be one of the most interesting works of art you will ever see.  You can find it out in the middle of nowhere near the Salton Sea.  Leonard Knight, the artist of this masterpiece, created this as a tribute to God.  He originally was going to stay in this spot for one week and that was 26 years ago.  During this time his creation has grown, to include the sinner's prayer and lots of scripture and is all made of adobe clay and donated paint.  He seems so genuine and his entire existence is from donations and his love for God.  This is the kind of thing you will only see if you are willing to go on a road trip. 

Our Vacation Home

We can now say we own a vacation home!  Although you might call it a redneck version of a vacation home, afterall it is on wheels,  we are looking forward to our first big adventure.   My Hubby and two other guys that he works with have gone in together to purchase this great pop up tent trailer.  They have been talking about this for years.  Each guy realizing that they would not get enough use out of it to justify purchasing one on their own so they came up with the "Pop-up Co-op".  Saturday was the inaugural raising of the pop up, which actually went pretty well.  When you get three engineer types together they think they can figure anything out. Who needs the owner's manual? 

Creative Design

How could anyone deny that there is a God?  When you are out in nature and see all that there is out there, how could any of this happen by an accident 1,000,000's of years ago?  As I look at all there is to see in nature, I know that there is a creative designer behind it all.  Ryan has been taking pictures almost every morning and it is so fun to see how creatively different each day might start. 

We were lying on the dock last night looking at the stars and vastness of our sky.  Are we the only ones that God created all of this for?  Would He create all of this beauty just for us, just for you, just for me?  I believe the answer is YES!

"I just had surgery"

Okay, the "I just had surgery" is not working for me anymore.  It has been only a week and two days since she had surgery.  This is NOT what the doctor order I am pretty sure.  She found this size 3 youth wet suit in the life jacket box, she tried it on, (What 20 year old tries on a size 3 wet suit to begin with?) and decided that it was tight enough across her stomach that she could try wake boarding.  So being the "adult" that she is, she made the decision to wake board.  She actually did pretty good, but did not want to fall, but stop on her own terms.  We will see how she is feeling tomorrow.  The day after is always the true teller of how hard you played.

"Real" Fish Story

Sometimes there are "fish stories" and sometimes there are "real" fish to go along with the story.  Ryan and Jeff went out early this morning and caught this big one.  We will have a fish fry tonight.

Comet Theater

When you vacation in the same place for over 22 years, you have your favorite places to go.  One of our "have to" go places in Cook, MN is the Comet Theater.  Not only does it actually seat about 100 people to see a movie, it is the best gift/antique/coffee shop around.  Okay, there ain't much around here, but it is definitely a place we never want to miss.  Today after church, we stopped by to pick up a treat for our loved one left behind.  You know who you are.  We miss you and wish you were here.  Brining a special treat home just for you.