5C's Que Pasa

Late yesterday ( Sunday ) afternoon Ken and Margot called us.  They had enjoyed the wedding in Edmonton on Saturday and had driven back here to Kelowna on Sunday,  ( 10 hours ) to visit with other friends.  Sadly those friends were only able to spend a few hours with Ken & Margot  and so they called us.  Yes of course we were free for an unscheduled dinner.  So off we went to the local Greek House Restaurant, very well known in this area.

Not a great photo via our server Bobbie. we had already finished dinner before I remembered to take a photo.

I did get a photo of our meal before we dug in. Colin and I each had the spanakopita dinner.  It also came with pita bread and  tzatziki.  Our friends had the Arni Psito, shoulder of lamb.

Thank you both for the invitation and the wonderful dinner.  We miss you already.  We sure did have some wonderful times in the few hours we were able to spend together.

Nos vemos otro dias…..

My goodness it is HOT here today. Somehow I was not monitoring the temps  ( busy doing other stuff ) and suddenly it was 90.6F inside.  So we turned on the A/C and went outside to sit in the shade with a wee breeze to cool off.  Now at 7PM as I post it is 84.5F outside and 81.3 inside.

Dinner is served.  Hope you all had a great day.

Here at Holiday Park Resort where we reside there are garden plots that you can rent for $10.00 per year. Many do and it is so wonderful to walk past and see what everyone is growing.  Everything from beets to corn, beans to tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and more.  I really want to have a veggie garden but obviously over the last 5 years it have been impossible. Maybe next year. The trick to a full garden is in keeping the various critters out of your plot.

Last year a volunteer with lots of spare time created several small public gardens throughout the park growing a variety of squashes, beans, strawberries and tomatoes and many different herbs.  These public gardens are open to everyone to pick from.

These are yellow spaghetti squash flowers and one young growing wanna be squash.

You are allowed to pick one spaghetti squash per family. The only rule is that is must be at least 7 – 8 inches long.  This one was too small to pick but it was gone the next morning.

Yes, this was our squash. Personally I would have let it grow for several more days but I knew it would be gone by the next day so we claimed it. Hard to see but right at the top in the middle with a tiny beam of sunlight on it, is another squash wanna be, as well as one on the middle left.

Thanks to George at Our Awesome Travels, I knew how to cook this squash.  Some methods require over an hour in the oven or two in a crock pot.  I wanted fast.  I remember reading how he cooked their squashes so I checked his recipe link on his blog site and found this.  He even has a tasty recipe for spaghetti squash lasagne.  Be sure to check out all his recipes.  I however had a question about his recipe.  What did he use to cover the squash with?  I just knew he would reply to my email instantly and he did.  I was eager to get this thing cooked.  I mean, how often do you get produce out of the garden and onto your plate within mere hours.  Well you do if you have a garden, which we don’t, so this was a treat.

First step after washing the squash,  is to cut it in half, lengthwise. Then scoop out the seeds.

Now this is the secret to getting your squash cooked in record time. Place it face down on a microwaveable dish along with 1 -2 tablespoons of water. Loosely cover the squash and with George’s okay I used saran wrap. Cook in the microwave for 10 minutes or until you can poke it right through with a fork.

Now this is where I erred.  I just put the dish into the microwave for 10 minutes and never checked it.  I suggest that you do check it.  First off I had a small squash and secondly it was very very young and extremely fresh 😳   I overcooked it.

When you take it out of the microwave you then use a fork to gently separate the strands. In a matter of moments you will have spaghetti like strands but all lovely no fat squash that almost tastes like real pasta.

You then plate your strands of squash. I used large soup bowls. I had already heated up some jarred pasta sauce with a few extras like mushrooms, with which I topped the squash. Of course I added parmesan.

We ate this along with a large serving of caesar salad.  Colin was concerned that this would not appease his appetite.  He was pleasantly surprised to feel satisfied with the meal and not overstuffed as one does when eating a real pasta dish.  I was a tad unhappy at overcooking the squash as it was a bit liquidy.  Likely this particular squash was young and needed less cooking.  Overall a wonderful meal that we will be sure to repeat.

As I am posting this I am finally hearing some guitar music.  I really can’t recall the last time Colin has played.  Off hand I would say 4 -5 weeks.  He has been so busy.  By the way he did get up again at 5AM, third morning in a row, but it was too cloudy to go take those very special photos.  That was a huge disappointment as our forecast is taking a sudden turn. Instead of going back to bed he proceeded to work on photos he had taken earlier in the week.  Such dedication.

Hmm, now what.  Good for the fires at least but not us.

I just take each day as it comes and try and make the best of it.

Actually they were passing through, on their way to a wedding in Edmonton from Victoria.  They could have flown but instead chose to drive two 10 hour days with an overnight stop here to visit.  The beauty of where we live is that there are condos for rent and as an owner here, friends and family get a discounted price.

We met Ken and Margot when we first bought a lot here about 2001 ( maybe 2002 ).  They were full timing in their 5th wheel at the time and summered here.  They had a dachshund named Hilde.  Our dogs were the basis of our friendship.  Right now they are on their 4th doxie and they have all been called Hilde 😀   Hilde 4 did not come on this road trip so we haven’t seen her since she was a young pup.  Ken and Margot moved to Victoria in the fall of 2012  after they sold their lakefront lot and this is the first time we have seen them since they left.

Over the years Ken and Margot have been entwined in our lives.  We even traveled with them in Mexico one winter.  They have have been a major support to us and even walked our girls along with Hilde the 3d while I was recovering from my first hip replacement the summer of 2011.  They are the only people our girls would walk with or I should say will walk with ( other then Debra on the Isla ).  Over the years Margot has made us many gourmet meals and we have had many wonderful discussions.

Our time was limited. So after a detailed tour of our ‘mansion’ as Ken calls it we sat down for appies.  They had not eaten since breakfast on the ferry to Vancouver.  I believe I got my passion for white wine from them.

My photos of the visit are not up to my usual.  We had two sets of unexpected visitors just prior to their arriving as I was prepping our dinner.  The first was from our builder who had sent someone out to complete our long awaited repairs.  We have been waiting for over a year for this visit.. There was no way I was going to have someone start sanding & repairing drywall cracks when I had company arriving within two hours.  He is supposed to return on Monday which is a holiday here in Canada.  So we shall see.

The second visitor was a craftsman who we reached out to in early May to do some renovations on the RV.  Colin had photographed him and some of his creations for a magazine a few years ago.  It seems that no one wants to work these days.  They all want us to leave our RV with them over the winter.  I don’t think so 🙁   So we were happy to have Peter drop in to see what we needed done both in the RV as well as our home.  He is so very talented but our guests were arriving within 15 minutes.  He gave us a rough price for the RV work which is more than reasonable and will quote on the woodwork we need done in the house.  So that is my excuse for not being in top form Thursday afternoon.

Ken loves to share his food and of course Caeli soon became his very best friend.

While I was getting dinner underway Colin was sharing photos and conversation.

The girls are always a part of everything.  It was a very warm 36C/97F so we were confined to being inside.  The main reason that Margot and Ken moved to Victoria was to get away from the heat.  Plus the fact that Ken is British making Victoria a logical choice.

Everyone always loves to be a part of what is happening in the kitchen.

We did dine at our formal table. This is only the 3rd time we have used our dining room table since we moved here in October 2012. Chris and Juan were our second visitors early last summer.  I do entertain more on the Isla.

The rose centre piece comes from my old yard right across the road.  The owners have been gone since June and I ‘borrowed’ some of my favorite blooms.  I really do miss my special rose bushes but I am allowed picking privileges on occasion.  Sorry I blew a photo of cedar plank wild sockeye salmon, baked potatoes with butter and sour creme, grilled asparagus and a beet salad as well as a caesar salad.  We stayed with Painted Turtle Pinot Grigio throughout including the key lime pie.  Ken passed on the Drambuie even though he is a Scotch aficionado.  It was time to leave.  They had had a long day and the next was more of the same.

It was only as they were leaving ( 45 minutes behind Ken’s schedule ) that we realized we never got a group photo. I did not envy them their 10 hour drive to Edmonton yesterday morning.

Interestingly Colin was also up at 5AM yesterday for a 6AM photo shot.  It was based on lighting hence the early hour.  Sadly the keys to the display suite could not be found ( even though he had carefully arranged for them to be in a certain spot), so finally he came back home at 8AM.  A waste of a morning 😐   Now he has to do it again tomorrow morning.  He was also up at 5AM today for a different job so that makes for three 5AM mornings in a row.  No he does not take a nap later but keeps on going till close to midnight.

I think that Colin looks way younger than 65! I love those new frames I picked out for him, my birthday gift to him.

Where did half the summer go?  It is passing so very swiftly.

Sorry for no post last evening nor tonight.  I am just very tired.  It has been a busy week for us.  More trades people came through re various repairs and some changes.  I always find having strangers in very tiring.  We also had friends who were passing through town in for dinner last night.  More in the next post.

Tonight is for me and my book.  Likely I will fall asleep midway.  Colin is out doing a fabulous sunset shot for a client.

I can’t believe that we will be on the Isla in three months.

Just the other night the moon was playing in the clouds.

I’ll talk to you in August 😎

Several weeks ago we had an electrician come in to hook up an outside plug.  We had it more or less wired when the house was built but decided we didn’t need it.  Well now we do, mostly for the ease of charging the golf cart.  When Crack Electric was here at that time he had to go into our electrical box to make the proper connection.

This is what he saw.

Whoever had wired our home a few years back must have been obsessed with wires.  Crack Electric, yes that really is the company name, informed us that it was not to code.  It likely was not dangerous but best to clean it up and do it right, just in case.

So the other day he brought in one of  his guys to do the job.

This is how much extra copper and other wire he took out.

Looks much better now and safe.

The bill is in the mail but I think the approximate $100.00 was worth it.