New Year @ Val & Lance's place

Went to Val and Lance's 10 acre place in Boulevard, CA for New Years. They have a couple of horses, a lot of dogs, and birds. Most of us were wiped out before the new year. One of the dogs ate our dinner that night, a big porkloin that Joy smoked. But, Larry and Michelle saved the day by bring steaks for dinner and carmelized chicken wings for lunch on new year's day. I just love country living and it was great staying their just to relax. We need to visit them more often.

Giant Squids 10 miles out from San Diego

My brother-in-laws Larry and Andy caught about 25 of these giant squids last week. They gave us three of them, because we though they were only less than 2 feet long total like the ones you get from the store. I measured one of them, the body was 28 inches long and the head to the tip of the tentacles was 38 inches, that's 5.5 feet total. The tentacles have some kind of teeth in the suckers. I think it would be safe swimming with these squid around - NOT! Joy was trying different ways to cooked them, so she barbecued, smoked, fried, and ceviche style but cooked, all in one day. They all tasted great!



I liked them fried the best in a tempura and beer batter with Joy s tartar sauce (we ran out of Bob s tartar sauce).

Visit Lisa & David at Alameda

Went to Alameda, Ca right after Joy's art class Thursday, before Christmas weekend to see Lisa & David, stayed for three days. Lisa & David treated us and David's parents to a Japanese restaurant 'Yoshi' they have great sushi and sake. The last day they took us to Berkeley for a street fair event, bought more Christmas gift. Went to at another Sushi restaurant for lunch, we just love sushi.





















Street fair

The Artists

The girls art class Christmas party. Joy, Nancy, Dianne, and art teacher Saedeh are tossing!

Nancy's grandsons Frankie
and Eddie Ariana

Lisa

Lyle the balloon artist is for hire for parties cell 858-254-2778. the Hulk!

Gordons Well last weekend

The weather was very cold, very windy and the fine sand was blowing in the air (my lens now have a grinding sound - not good, I might have to invest on a L-series lens) - I only took a few pictures. Did you know you can boil water in those plastic water bottle? The plastic just got deformed, but the water was boiling.
Steve's friend, Larry nickname him winkie.
Ariana teaching Joy how to ride the ATC.
Larry in his sport bike, looking for Steve's friend the surfer dude, first time in the desert, first time riding a quad and went riding by himself - found later out of gas.
Eddie going for a ride with Ariana.
Steve in his new 450 bike.

Thanksgiving food

Joy cooked these food after thanksgiving, because we went to Larry & Michelle's house for thanksgiving. The rib roast was dry age for five days this will add more favor to the meat. Dry age is just removing the meat out of the package and wrapping it with paper towel to remove moisture. Replace the paper towel every day and keep it in the fridge. Before cooking it, leave it out for 2 to 4 hrs to get it at room temperature - this will cook it evenly. We rub it with smoke salt or just pepper & salt. The meat is cooked in a smoker or oven at 325deg. Joy likes it rare at 135deg on the meat thermometer, don't over cook it. I like mine medium, so I sear it on both side in a fry pan with a little olive oil. Dry age is also great for steaks.









These are turkey wings were deep fried and seasoned with lemon salt, its very crispy.

Desert camping on veterans day at Gordons Well

The last time we went to the desert was a couple years ago and I thought we were done. We all forgot its was Veteran weekend and was it very crowned. We parked deep into the desert and the sand was pretty soft at some places. Well, I got stuck on one of those soft sand pit for the first time and it took about five tries to get out. On the forth and fifth try I was towed by a 4WD truck. People at the desert are pretty helpful.

Steve teaching Ariana how to use a clutch. She got it in her second try.









This little guy was camping next to our rv.









Larry used gas to start the fire and this was left of the fire trail. The sand monster.









Fire in the sky.









Brian's dust trail.









Alone!









Tracking a quad.

Butterflies in the making

Last Saturday, I went to Kevin’s house to take some nature pictures. Kevin and Stacey were releasing Monach butterflies they raised. It all started when Kevin planted milkweed seeds in his back yard and grew into a big bush. The butterflies came; deposited eggs … turn into butterflies. Kevin is also raising turtles, frogs, bees, growing a bunch of fruit trees, etc…