The Flower Farm, Loomis, CA

The first time I drove out to The Flower Farm to meet Gerry, I didn't have my camera with me. Gerry wanted to do a 70 mile bicycle ride on Saturday, 7/25, to celebrate his birthday. He stopped here at The Flower Farm for a break. I drove out to meet him and remembered to take my camera this time. The Flower Farm is a nursery. There is also a coffee shop, flower shop, gift shop and also a B&B and a large barn that is rented out for large events. The first time I was out there, things weren't really in bloom yet. It is so pretty out there, quiet and peaceful even though Auburn-Folsom Road, a busy thoroughfare, is right there. This view is from the patio on the back of the coffee shop looking out to Auburn-Folsom Rd. Fresh, cut flowers sold here.

A friendly cow checking out the surroundings.

There are numerous metal animal sculptures scattered around the nursery. Here's a huge frog sitting on a lily pad.

They have a small produce stand on the property. All locally grown produce.

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes at $3/lb

Entrance to the Coffee Shop.

Getting ready to finish the ride.

See how I managed to get our van in the background.Some of the plants either just growing there or for purchase.

Entrance to the Nursery and Gift Shop.

Birthday Celebration - Saturday 7/25/09

Elizabeth makes the birthday cakes for the family birthdays. This is the cake she made for Gerry. The kids had been in Old Sacramento earlier in the day and Jason found these candles. They all thought these were appropriate for their father's cake.This is the cake she made for me. After Gerry blew out his candles, I took the candles out and put them on my cake. It was a celebration for his 70th birthday; Elizabeth makes a cake for me too since my birthday is 3 days later. The cakes are always chocolate. If the birthday person wants something else, they have to request it.

Our youngest granddaughter, Emma Louise Yniguez, age 20 months. She is sitting on her momma's lap, daughter Joyce. Emma is an absolute delight.

I made two pans of Pineapple Chicken, we also had rice, salad and corn. We used the clubhouse at our mobile home park for the party.

Gerry, after blowing out the candles on his cake.

Blowing the candles out on my cake.

Fresh Peach Pretzel Dessert

Here is the recipe for the dessert I made Thursday night when the kids came over for dinner:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2 cups crushed pretzels (place in Ziploc bag and coarsely crush with rolling pin)
1/2 cup melted butter
3 T sugar
Mix together pretzels, melted butter and sugar. Spread evenly into a 9x13 baking pan. Bake for 8 minutes and then cool completely.

1 - 8oz package cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
8 ozs Cool Whip, thawed
1 - 6 oz package Peach Jell-o
2 cups boiling water
4 cups sliced fresh peaches (6 peaches)

Beat together cream cheese, sugar and then fold in Cool Whip. Spread over cooled pretzel crust. Dissolve Jell-o in boiling water and allow cooling to room temperature. Stir sliced peaches into cooled Jell-o. Place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes and then spoon over cream cheese mixture. Chill until firm.

This dessert is rich yet very good. I would like to try it with a different kind of crust.

Recipe courtesy of http://thehappycooker.com

www.wandascountryhome.com

I get a weekly email from this web site with a weekly recipe. She also does monthly recipes which is usually a main dish, side dish and dessert. The recipes are not archived on her web site so if there is something you want, you need to print it right away.

Enjoy!!

Update on Dinner Tonight

Dinner was a huge success. The pot roast was "melt in your mouth" good. I fixed a big salad, fresh steamed carrots and rice with gravy. Our son-in-law, George, loves to cook. He came into the kitchen just as I was getting ready to make the gravy so he watched me do it. He said he has not made gravy before. Everyone including the two little granddaughters, Katie and Emma, ate to their hearts content.

Then we had dessert, Fresh Peach Pretzel Dessert. It was awesome! I forgot to take pictures, however there is some dessert left so I will try to get a picture of that and post the recipe.

The kitchen is partially cleaned up. The dishwasher is stacked full. I just need to do the pots and pans, they are going to have to wait until later. My back is hurting so need to sit and rest for a while. :))

I thought George was going to Fairytale Town. He ended up going with Jason, Elizabeth and her girls to do the bumper cars and miniature golf. Jason came over for dinner too. He is our youngest son and lives in Roseville.

We'll do dinner together again on Saturday. Elizabeth and her girls and Jenni and her kids will join us. It should be fun.

Well, I'm going to try and finish cleaning up the kitchen and then going to bed.

Family In Town

Hi there!! This is a quick post. I am so bad about updating my blog. There aren't enough hours in the day. :))

Anyway, it will be a hectic few days around here. George, Joyce, Katie, Emma and Wendi drove up from LaPuente yesterday to spend a few days here in Sacramento. They are staying with Elizabeth. This morning they along with Melody, Andy, their mom Jenni and Granddad went to Fairytale Town. Elizabeth and her girls along with Jason were going to some place in Citrus Heights to ride bumper cars and play miniature golf.

Activities are planned for every day that the Southern California family is in town. We will participate in a few of them. Most of them will be with their mother included. Tonight they are coming over for dinner. I have a pot roast in the crockpot happily cooking away. I need to get to the kitchen and make a dessert, Fresh Peach Pretzel Dessert. It is much like the Strawberry Pretzel Dessert or Salad, just with peaches. I also need to dust the living furniture. So I really need to get away from my computer.

Saturday evening the whole crowd will be over here for dinner to celebrate Gerry's 70th birthday (down at the clubhouse). I'm cooking for that too - Pineapple Chicken. Elizabeth is making the birthday cake, she is the official family birthday cake maker and has been doing it for several years now.

We've had beautiful weather the last few days, in the 90's. The AC only goes on for a little bit in the afternoon. Then there's a nice breeze in the evening, the much loved Delta breeze.

I'm off to make that dessert! Hope you are having a fantastic day!!

Graeff Albert Galebach, Dixon, CA 7/17/09

Gerry forwarded this email to me a few minutes ago. This is our dear friend who passed away 3 days after we got back from our vacation. Gerry heard yesterday from another friend that Graeff was going to be buried at the Veterans Cemetery in Dixon. He asked me to call Nancy and see if she would be interested in having the PGR present at the service. Nancy said yes and Gerry emailed Bill Hawkins who is the Capitol Region Asst California State Captain to get some information for Nancy. This morning he found a business card for Bill Hawkins, called Nancy and gave her a phone number to call. She did get in touch with Bill Hawkins and the information was sent out to the PGR members.

We will be attending the service and Gerry will be part of the flag line formed by the PGR.

*************************************************************************************

From: Doc Hawkins
Subject: [PGR-NorCal-Members] Graeff Albert Galebach, Dixon CA 7/17/09To: PGR-NorCal-Members@yahoogroups.comDate: Thursday, July 16, 2009, 5:12 PM

The family of Graeff Albert Galebach, have invited the Patriot Guard Riders to be present when his remains will be buried at the National Cemetery in Dixon Friday 7/17/09

PGR to stage at 2:00PM Chevron Station I-80 and Dixon Rd.
Briefing at: 2:15PM KSU 2:30PM to National Cemetery
Military Honor Services at: 3:00PM National Cemetery Dixon CA.

Graeff was 83 when he went to be with Jesus on June 16, 2009. He was born August 4, 1925 in Elizabethtown, PA. He served in the Army from 18 OCT 1943 to 21 OCT 1945. He was in the 1857th Service Command Unit, served in New Guinea on the island of Biak and received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal with 1 bronze star. He was Honorably Discharged to re-enlist in the Regular Army and was recommended for further military training. He served in Weisbaden, Germany and received the Army of Occupation Medal. World War II Victory Medal. Graeff A. Galebach, RA 33802486, Private First Class, 89th Station Complement Squadron was discharged 20 NOV 1946 at Fort Dix, New Jersey Separation Center. Graeff A. Galebach, AF 33 802 486, USAFR, ENL: 21 November 1946 received an honorable discharge from the Air Force 20 NOV 1949. Additional info: Graeff and I (Nancy) were married 56 years on June 13, 2009. We have 2 children: son, Allen, and daughter, Ann Marie (wife of Eric Vance), 5 grandchildren and one great granddaughter. He had worked as an airplane instruments technician in Civil Service, was transferred from Olmstead Air Force Base in PA to Hill AFB in Utah and from there to McClellan AFB, CA.


RC will be John Steiner john_steiner@ pacbell.net
CMSgt. US Air Force ret.


Bill "Doc Hawk" Hawkins,
Capitol Region Asst California State Captain

A Response From Denise About The Story I Shared On Monday

On Monday I shared about a young mom and daughter at a restaurant we went to in Winters, CA.

The next morning Denise had a comment on her Facebook about my sharing that story. She also shared a remembrance she still has of our time alone when someone helped make a Christmas a little brighter. In part she said: "I still remember that Christmas you came home with a Christmas tree".

It was a struggle most of the time, making sure I was able to provide for Denise. She and I were living in Fresno and I had gotten a job through SETA with Fresno County. I had a temp job first in Vital Statistics, then was able to get a permanent position with the County at the Main Branch of the Library. I was one of 5 people in the Acquisitions Department, 3 clerks, 1 accounts clerk and our supervisor. One of the clerks was a woman in her 50's who had worked for the county for a lot of years. She also had been transferred to several departments and Acquisitions was kind of the last resort. She was a good worker, however she kind of made her own rules and so consequently there was always a lot of friction between she and her supervisors.


She was always at least 20 minutes late every day, took long breaks and lunches. Very few people got along with her, I was the only one in our department that she was actually friendly to and I didn't have any problems with her. She knew I was a single mom and because she had once been one too, she could relate.


It was Christmas 1978. It would be another bleak one for Denise and I. A few days before Christmas, she was late again and when she walked into the department, she told me to come with her to her car. I said I probably should say something to our supervisor first and she told me to just come. She also asked the account clerk to come with us (he was a guy and they clashed all the time). So we followed her to her car. She opened up the trunk of her car and there was a Christmas tree in there which she asked the account clerk to put in my car. She was parked right next to me. She also took out a couple of bags filled with decorations for the tree, and a bag of gifts for Denise to put under the tree. I was absolutely flabbergasted and could not imagine why she would do that for anyone much less me. We walked back to the building and when we got to our department, our supervisor called me into her office. She wanted to know where we had all gone. When I told her what had happened, she couldn't believe it either. I told her I would consider the time away from my desk as my morning break; my supervisor told me not to worry about it.

As I walked back to my desk, this co-worker called me over to my desk and handed me some money. I did not want to take it, she had already done so much for Denise and I. She told me it was for our Christmas dinner and whatever else we may need or want.

Needless to say, Denise was excited to see what I had brought home. She and I set up our tree and decorated it with all the trimmings the co-worker had given me. She even included a tree stand. And there were presents to put under the tree.

This co-worker would do other things for us during the time I worked in the main branch. We all found out that underneath all the ugliness and being so uncooperative, was a person who did not hesitate to show kindness to someone who needed an extra helping hand. I hadn't thought about this co-worker in 30 plus years; I will always be thankful for the kindness she showed Denise and I.

I'm amazed that Denise remembers that particular event in our lives. I realized later on in my life that a God whom I had turned my back on during that particular time in my life, was keeping watch over Denise and I. He always brought a helping hand into our lives just when we needed it.

A Note About the Heat

I was out earlier today doing a couple errands and when I got back in the van to come home, the temperature reading in the van said the outside temperature was 104 degrees!!! It will be in the 100's until the weekend according to the weather service. Yuck!!!

HOT Again - Escape to the Coast

It has warmed up again to high temps. There for a few days it was in the 80's, felt so good. Of course, being July one knew it would be short lived and sure enough.

We don't sleep with the a/c on so when I turned it off about 10 pm last night, it was still over 80 degrees outside. Consequently we slept with a fan blowing on us. It was still warm and difficult to sleep and then I wake up in the morning and I'm congested and coughing. I hate the summers in Sacramento. Of course, I guess I shouldn't complain too much. It has been horrible in Enterprise, AL.

We are planning to go to the coast this weekend and maybe it will be cooler there. Gerry made an overnight reservation for us at Mount Herman Christian Conference Campgrounds. We will have a room, a buffet dinner Saturday night, a concert by Steve Green. Then a buffet breakfast Sunday morning then church. Mount Herman is in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Felton. Lots of big trees so hopefully it will be cooler.

I've never been there, however, Gerry and his family use to spend summers there when he was growing up. It will be an early birthday get-a-way for both of us. Yup, we have birthdays coming up, Gerry's the 25th and mine the 28th of this month.

Well, try to stay cool wherever you are!!

Today

This morning Gerry had another PGR mission to go on, again at the Veterans Cemetary in Dixon. The service was for a Army Sgt E-5 who died on June 24th from cancer. His wife asked the PGR to participate in the service. A film crew had been filming his life story and exposure to Agent Orange when he died. He did two tours of service in Viet Nam and survived Tet in 1968. He was diagnosed in 2008 with tumors and was given 2 months to live. He lived a year with the diagnosis. The film crew was there to film the conclusion of his life story.

The PGR formed a flag line around the gazebo where the services are held at the cemetary. There were 32 flags, 44 motorcycles and 2 cages. Cages are vehicles (cars, trucks etc.).

Usually I stand off to the side, observe and take pictures. Today I decided to join Gerry in the line and didn't take any pictures. The sergeant was given a full military send-off and I must say, it is very impressive. I didn't even try to contain my tears rolling down my cheeks. At the conclusion of the service, the widow and a gentleman, perhaps a son, walked around the circle of PGR flag bearors, thanking them for coming. A few of the guys hugged her and the son shook some hands.

As Gerry and I walked away, the guy filming the event filmed us walking towards him and said to us "God Bless You" as we walked past. Gerry replied "God Bless You too".

There was a second mission going on at the Yolo County Airport. A soldier from Dunningan, CA who died on July 4th in Afghanistan was being brought home. We drove out there to try to be a part of that mission. Gerry took a wrong turn and we missed it. Gerry got another email saying that there were 30 motorcycles and 5 cages at that mission. The PGR formed a flag line as the coffin was brought off the plane and then escorted the family to the mortuary in Woodland where the services will be held on Thursday. They also were escorted by the VFW from Woodland, fire department vehicles from Woodland and Dunnigan, Woodland Police, and the CHP. Gerry will probably be participating in the Thursday mission at the mortuary.

Since we missed the turn for the airport, we drove over to Winters to have a late breakfast at the Putah Creek Cafe. This is one of our favorite places to go. We had finished our meal and while we waited for the waitress to bring our check, I went to the ladies room. When I got back, and we had boxed our leftovers to bring home, Gerry stood up and walked over to me. He had a different look on his face; he says to me "remember when you were a single mom and didn't have a lot of money. Well, this young mom sitting at the table next to us is counting her money to see if she has enough to pay for her meal. Here go give her this while I go to the mens room." And he handed me a $20 bill. I had seen the young lady walk in and sit down, she had a little girl with her. The waitress brought them some water and the mom ordered, I thought. Well, I folded the bill in my hand, got up and went over to her. I gently touched her arm and slid my arm down so it was between the table and her and indicated to her to take what I had in my hand. She was startled at first and then looked down and saw I had some money in my hand. She took it and thanked me. I went back to our table to gather my purse and our to go boxes and looked over at her. The waitress was bringing a meal I guess she ordered for her daughter and asked if she knew what she wanted for herself. She opened up the menu and ordered a hamburger for herself. As I walked by again, I bent down and whispered to her that I had been a single mom at one time and didn't have any money, and someone helped me. She thanked me again and had a smile of relief on her face. There was an older couple sitting at a table behind her and they heard what I said to the young lady. When I walked around them, they looked at me and smiled.

That gesture of kindness brought back so many memories of when I was divorced and struggling to raise Denise. There were a couple of people that crossed my mind today that helped me in much the same way. I was not in a position to see all that was transpiring at that particular table, however Gerry was and God whispered in his ear to extend that kindness to that young mom and her daughter. We will never know that mom's circumstances or what she was thinking at that moment and time, however hopefully it helped to brighten her day just a little bit.

We see people all over Sacramento standing on street corners and freeway offramps with their signs asking for money or something to eat. We tend to ignore them because more than likely they will use whatever money they get to buy drugs or more liquor and we won't support that sort of thing. Then God puts a situation like this young mom and her daughter in your path and it is just the right time to help.

Beef with Fresh Green Beans

There's a lady at church that has a huge garden each year. She brings her produce to church each week to sell and she does quite well with selling her produce. She has every kind of vegetable available and she also cans, makes jams and jelly, pickles, okra. I wanted some fresh green beans to fix with a piece of top sirloin that I had in the freezer and was going to get some at Bel Air when I was there on Saturday. I decided to wait to see if Agnes had some on Sunday. Sure enough she did. I asked her for a pound and she actually gave me a pound and a half all for the grand sum of $1.

So I fixed them last night with the piece of meat I had.
I should do like my friend Jalna does and take pictures with each step because I don't use a recipe for this particular dish. However, I never think about doing that. So let me see if I can tell you how I do this.

First I snip the ends off the beans, if some are too big, I cut them in half. Then I put them in a bowl with some water and set them aside. Next I slice the meat using a VERY sharp knife and cut the meat on a slant across the grain. This is hard to describe, I have the side of the knife laying on the top of the meat as I slice the meat getting thin slices. I cut up half of an onion in thin wedge like pieces and set that aside. If I'm using fresh garlic and ginger (I didn't have any last night) I get that peeled and cut up.

Next I heat up a pan on high, put a little bit of olive oil in and when the pan is hot, I put the garlic and ginger in and stir it around. You'll know the pan and oil is hot when the oil starts popping. Then I add the meat in and stir fry that quickly, stirring the garlic and ginger into the meat. When the meat is almost cooked through (there'll be a little bit of pink left), I add the onion and stir that around, then add salt, pepper, shoyu (soy sauce - in Hawaii we call it shoyu) and some sugar. I can't give a measurement because I don't know. I just add it in. Mix this all together and then add the vegetables. Then I add more salt, pepper, shoyu and sugar. I just did green beans last night, sometimes I add fresh mushrooms. You can add other kinds of vegetables. I stir everything together, turn the fire down and put a lid on the pan and let it simmer until the beans are fork tender but still crunchy. Some of the thinner beans got cooked a little too much. Then serve it over rice.

A couple of weeks ago Denise had a post on her Facebook that she had fixed this for dinner and her family said it was yummy. This was a meal she liked when she was still home. I use to make it often, however, beans have been expensive in the grocery store and not very good looking. Agnes' beans were fantastic. She said she had picked them Thursday evening. She does all the gardening by herself. She is in her 70's. She has quite a bit of property and has a fully equipped kitchen in a separate building on her property that is solely for doing her canning, baking and tending to her vegetables.

Mexican Cheesecake

This is one of the desserts that we had when we were in Enterprise. Denise's friend, Selena made it. I thought it looked kind of familiar and that I had a recipe for it, however it was called something else. Selena made it again before we left.

I asked Denise to ask Selena for the recipe and she said she would. I asked Denise about it after we got home and she told me it was the same as the recipe I had, Selena increased the amounts of some of the ingredients. So I went searching for my recipe and sure enough found it. My recipe is called Cinnamon Cream Cheese Squares. I am not sure where I found the recipe, I've had it for a few years. I made it for an Easter brunch at church.

I got the ingredients to make it when I was at Bel Air last week and made it earlier today before it got too warm outside. So here it is:

It is very rich, however so absolutely fantastic!!

I'll put Selena's variations in brackets. I made it like she does. I think the next time I will cut down on the sugar and cinnamon topping a little.

Mexican Cheesecake (Cinnamon Cream Cheese Squares)

2 - 8 ounce tubes refrigerated crescent rolls (I used Pillsbury)

2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened (I used Philadelphia)

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 tsp. (1 T) vanilla extract

1/4 ( 1/2 ) cup butter or margarine, melted

1 tsp. (1 T) ground cinnamon

Unroll one tube of crescent roll dough and place in a lightly greased 13x9 baking dish. Seal seams & perforations and stretch to fit pan; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread over dough.

Unroll second tube of dough and place over cream cheese mixture, seal seams & perforations and stretch to fit.

Brush butter evenly over top; sprinkle with cinnamon and remaining sugar. (I mixed the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl first)

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until done. Cool; cut into squares.

Note: I didn't use all of the melted butter. Selena increases the amount of vanilla, cinnamon and butter. The next time I won't use as much sugar and cinnamon on the top. My recipe says it makes about 3 dozen squares. That would depend on how big the pieces are cut.

So give it a try. I am sure you will enjoy it too!! :))

Gerry sent this cartoon to me earlier this week. I don't believe we thought to do this while we were on our vacation. Oh, darn!! LOL!! This is too funny!!

The Oldest Still Performing Showgirl

I got this email from Rod Inefuku, a former classmate at Kailua High School. This woman is pretty amazing!!

Enjoy!!

- - - " The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies holds the Guinness record for being the oldest professional chorus line in the world, and one of its performers, Dorothy Dale Kloss, holds the record—at age 85—for being the oldest still-performing showgirl " - - - No wings, great figure still, young looking legs, moves like a young girl, talks like a youngster...gives me some inspiration until I look in the mirror. http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/articles/Dorothy_Dale_Kloss_Oldest_Showgirl_in_the_World.html