CHEERS!!!

December 5, 2008 is the 75 th anniversary of the end of Prohibition. We say cheers to that!!!

My Jewelry

So for all who are interested I have started a site for my "goods". The pictures are not very good right now do to camera funtion and location. Thought it might be interesting and let me know if anyone is interested in buying for the holidays :).

http://jillsjewelry.blogspot.com/

Thanksgiving Food !

COCONUT SHRIMP
3 sheets phyllo pastry, thawed and kept under moist towel
20 medium to large shrimp, peeled, devined, patted dry with tails left on
1 stick butter, melted
1.5 cups grated unsweetened coconut
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

DIPPING SAUCE

3/4 cup apricot jam
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons grated - not creamy - horseradish

Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange shrimp in single layer. Lightly salt and pepper shrimp. Carefully place a sheet of phyllo pastry on a pastry cloth or large curring board and brush with melted butter making sure to reach all edges.

Pick up a fistful of grated coconut and gently toss onto pastry creating a thin, but even, layer. Place second sheet of phyllo on top of first and repeat with butter and coconut -- then repeat with the third sheet of pastry.

Using a pizza cutter, gently slice pastry horizontally through the middle. Then slice vertically through the middle. Working from the center out, slice phyllo into twenty strips.

Gently pick up a phyllo strip and starting at the tail, wind the pastry around the shrimp so that it is covered completely. Place back on parchment, brush with more melted butter and sprinkle with a bit more coconut. (Pastry-wrapped shrimpcan be covered loosely with placstic wrap and kept in a regrigerator for up to four hours.)

For dipping sauce, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix together completely.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake wrapped shrimp for twenty minutes or until golden brown.

Serve coconut shrimp with dipping sauce.


ARTICHOKE CRAB DIP (we usually make a double and put it in a caserole dish we also did this with all nondairy and it worked great!)

1- 8oz cream cheese softened
1 cup mayo
1 garlic clove pressed (1/2 tsp minced)
1 can 14oz artichoke hearts in water (drained and chopped)
1 pkg 8oz immitation crab meat chopped
3/4cup grated parm
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion
1 lemon zested
1/3 chopped red bell pepper and green onion for garnish on top

OVEN 350
Combine cream cheese, mayo, garlic, artichoke, crab, grated cheese, green onion, and lemon zest.
Put into a 1.5 quart baking dish
Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown (check the middle sometimes it takes longer to get it hot all the way through)
Sprinkle with the pepper and green onion on top to serve... serve with crackers or pita chips... yummy....


SMOKED SALMON BALL

1 1lb can salmon
1 8oz pkg cream cheese (softened)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp prepared horseradish
2 tsp grated onion
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
snipped parsley
couple of drops of liquid smoke (if wanted)

Drain and flake salmon (remove bones and skin). Combine salmon, cream cheese, lemon juice, onion and horseradish.
Mix thoroughly, chill several hours.
Combine nuts and parsley. Shape salmon mixture into a ball. Roll in nuts and parsley mixture and chill well.
Server with crackers or chips.
* If you don't really care about it being a cute ball then just sprinkle the nuts and parsley on top of the dip in the bowl and serve :)


ENJOY!!! Jill and Paul :)

This is our first new computer; we have another desktop on the way. I used a coffee cup to show perspective. It is an awesome little portable laptop. I would recommend it to anyone.

Pikes Place Market

We saw fish being thrown, weird random stores below ground, a spice and tea store you could spend days in!, beautiful dried flowers, fresh produce that I would have wanted to gobble if I hadn't spent the past two days eating!, and very interesting people watching! It was a facinating place and definately worth a visit... I will be going back to explore more some time!

Seattle #2 Rogan the Adorable!

These pictures except for the ones that Rogan is in are from his perspective... how you ask? Well Jill had a camera and Rogan LOVES cameras and took MANY pictures with Jill's, because she couldn't resist him and say no :)! He is SOOO funny and cute and really online doesn't so him justice! However, if Grandpa is around you'd be lucky to get any time with him at all! Thanks for spending time with us Seattle Family!! It was a blast!

Donna's generousity!!! "Big Kid Crafts"

My BEAUTIFUL glazed pottery! Donna had some bisque ware that just needed some glazing so we sat down on Friday and glazed! It was soooo much fun and relaxing! Steve and Paul played more Wii than is healthy and we painted 3 layers of glaze on most items. I had a great time with Donna's texture paint and gave this pot, that we turned into a planter, a 3D quality with the vine design.

I glazed a few small bowls that have winter themes and just some decorative ones.

This sunflower bowl is my FAVORITE! and I did it!! There are glazes that are like paint and I was able to use them and the really neat black outlining pen to make my master piece! The black dots on the rim are raised and very cute! It was like Christmas morning opening the Kiln the next day!!!
THANK YOU DONNA!! We will set a date for clay creation again! :)

Seattle Space Needle

After taking a trip on the Monorail we were at the Space Needle. A place I had only seen in pictures growing up... it was huge! We took the elevator to the top in 43 seconds! and had an amazing view of the city! We asked a random stranger to take a picture :). The picture of the boat was for our Grey's Anatomy fan friends... can you guess?? Yes that's right it is the Seattle Ferry that McDreamy gets on to go to work! We were there late enough at night too to see that they do light it up with lights! It is beautiful going across the water. Paul and I got some face time with Santa to be able to tell him what we want for Christmas! (there were no lines, no kids, and it was at the top of the Space Needle I couldn't resist and to get to drag Paul along... priceless :)) Then I thought I was going to have to bring home the beautiful pink FiFi , Paul fell in love at FAO Schwartz. It was a great trip so far and we also went to Pikes Place... pictures to follow....

Christmas/ November Cactus

This was the first year that my Christmas Cactus bloomed! It is a cutting from my Memere Y's original plant. This is the only plant that I brought from back east and it loves it out here! There weren't many ends that didn't have a flower. The other cool thing was that Paul didn't even know it flowered! So he was very impressed with the color, lenght, and amount of flowers it produced. It was so gorgeous in full bloom that we had to share!

Buster Brown

The little one, Buster, is now adjusting nicely to our home. He loves us bundles and is a big snuggle dog! He and Dewey are getting along fabulously, both think they are top dog, but they cuddle together and lick each others faces so in dog terms it must be love :). He is taking off some weight, still has a bit more to go. Just thought these pictures of the babies were cute :)!

Sorry it has been so long since no new posts.... Paul and I are working on getting a new computer and that should make things quicker and easier! Right now our computer sounds like the gerbils inside are slowly dieing :(.. We will miss the gerbils but they will be in a better place :). There for updates will come in the next couple of days for both this blog and my jewelry blog.
Things to come: Thanksgiving in Seattle, Mick's wedding, Mom and Dad's trip to OR, Seattle!, My pretty pottery that i glazed, my christmas/nov cactus blooms, and much more :)... keep looking for updates :)... oh and send us messages :) I LOVE READING THEM!!

Pumpkin Patch 2008

This fall we went to the Pumpkin Patch out near Smith Rock with Christy and Allan. There is a HUGE corn maze that we all walked through together for a few hours!! We even had a map and Paul did a great job navigating. The stairs we are walking up are to one of the bridges this one was really cool because it had a huge, super fast slide on one end!! The whole maize was in the shape of a huge castle with mountains and everything. I got a Cinderella Pumpkin when I was there and was able to chop it all up and use it to make two batches of each: Pumpkin curry soup, pumkin bread, pumpkin rissoto, and pumpkin pie! The picture of Paul and I in the corn is one of my favorite of the two of us lately... and this is my BFF Christy who lives in Sisters but works with me at BMPRD and we hang out almost everyday :).

Halloween 08 #2

Eric and Marcia came over and helped out a ton with food. I got to become a Eric and Marcia sandwhich at the end of the night. They had killer costumes and they were total troupers and hung out until the end of the night :).

Halloween 2008

MY HOMEMADE WENCH OUTFIT AND PAUL AS A BOYSCOUT!
It was a really fun night with lots of fun people who were able to come! It was a blast. We had 248 trick'or'treaters come to the house. We were really lucky we did not run out of candy!! I don't know what happened to my camera most of the night or else i would have really great pictures of all my decorations and the awesome food that we had!! Also I didn't get pictures with a bunch of people who came, which I am really bummed about. I guess I was to involved in talking and socializing to take pictures (shocker huh??!!) Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween

Me looking all wench like in the living room





Mollie the cute construction worker and I at the beginning of the night :)







Ellie and Scott were able to come!!!

Hiking Misery Ridge! 08

I went hiking with a few of my friends Katie and Maddison at Smith Rock, which in itself is stunning. We went UP misery ridge trail! Which is exactly what it sounds like, up for a long time and very steep! The veiw from the top is worth it though! Dewey did the whole hike too, he's a trouper! It was a gorgeous day and then we went to watch the Pole, Pedal, Paddle which I hope to maybe participate in next year (don't hold me to that though). The rock that is really tall and looks like a face is called Monkey Face.

John Day Fossil Beds

The John Day Fossil Beds were a really cool road trip Paul and I took on our way back from camping at Delentment Lake! It is an area rich in rock and fossils ;). The pictures are gorgeous! I can only find one right now... I don't know where the other ones are on the computer I will have to have Paul find them.

Balloons over Bend '08

Balloons Over Bend

One of our favorite things about living in Bend is there is always some kind of festival or market going on. Every weekend in the summer there is a Sat market and every Wed and Friday there is a farmers market. In addition, there is always something going on at the old mill or downtown. This was the weekend before my parents came out and it was really cool to watch. At 7am all of the balloons were blown up on the feild of the elementary school that I work at and we can now walk to. We were able as you can see to get really close to all of the balloons. There were about 15-18 balloons that all went up at the same time! What a sight! Then we went to the top of Pilot Butte (small hill in the middle of town) and watched the balloons flying across town it was absolutely breath taking! Then along with the balloon flight there was a festival down town of artist and food and vendors. One of the art displays was local folks who were doing chalk are on the foot bridge at the old mill! Such vivid colors and really interesting techniques were being used, the end results were awesome. At night at the Leshwab Theater they lit up 5 of the balloons and they were supose to go up but because of the wind couldn't, so they were just glowing on the ground. Along with the glow a local performance group of fire spinners took the stage and were spectacular! All in all it was a very fun free day of amazing activity.