It’s been awhile, friends. And I’ve started a vegetable garden. This is something I’ve always dreamed of doing; so I’m extra excited to show you what I’m doing and how the garden is coming along. Questions and comments are welcome as I’m learning and eager to see what others are creating in their green spaces.
This is my garden yesterday. My next posts will be about what I’ve planted and how I did it. 🌱🌱🌱
Sundried tomatoes are one of my all time favorite foods. I’ve put them in all sorts of dishes and I will often be caught eating them strait from the jar. But they’re so expensive…even at costco a jar costs upwards of $9.
Anyway as a few of you know I’ve been searching for a new hobby. I knew I love food and cooking and the other day I had some salmon jerky…and ka-ching! I want to try making dehydrated foods.
I opted to buy a new machine since I got paid and it’s 2016 so why not treat myself right? I spent $64 at Canadian Tire for a Salton Food Dehydrator.
Firstly I knew I wanted to experiment since this is a new hobby and I want to have fun. Therefore I tried the tomatoes three different ways: 1) I cut them lengthwise in half 2) I cut them in half, not lengthwise and 3) I quartered them. With this I’ve created my own (very basic) recipe. Here it is:
Ingredients:
Tomatoes: I used cherry tomatoes because I love them
Optional: salt, pepper, basil, olive oil
Instructions:
Cut tomatoes, put in a bowl, toss in a small amount of olive oil, a pinch or two of salt, pepper, basil as desired. Next lay them in your dehydrator with the skin of the tomato down so the wet seedy part is facing upwards.
Very simple, I know.
They turned out wonderfully. However I did learn that the best cut of tomato is horizontally…quarters were much too small. Good luck!
Have you ever dehydrated food? Looking forward to hearing from you all.
I know many people who have done the Oregon Coast, or who see photos are immediately wanting to travel. My boyfriend and I recently did a 5 day road trip. We tented for 4 days, and stayed at a beautiful resort 1 night which was a real treat as you can imagine. Here I’m going to tell you where we camped, what we did and recommend places to check out. Warning: we aren’t really the type of people to lay on the beach, follow the crowds or go shopping so if that’s what you’re expecting…no.
The border of course! Since we were camping we thought it would be a clever idea to pack all our food in coolers so we didn’t need to make too many stops on the way down the coast. Let’s just say this: don’t bring unmarked eggs across the border. And if you ever do get pulled into secondary where they rip apart your nicely packed car…TELL THEM about the banana you have in your purse. They will find it. And they will take it away if it’s stickerless. Oh! And if you fail to tell them about that single banana, it can turn into a $300 fine. Ouch. Just buy your food in the states, it’s so much cheaper anyway!
Once we were successfully across te border we hit the I5, the fastest freeway, through Seattle, Portland and surrounding areas.
We drove and drove. Eventually we cut towards the coast and hit Hwy101, the coastal highway. The first town we got to was Coos Bay, Oregon. Boy, we were hungry. We found this restaraunt/store combination called Shark Bites Cafe where we ordered  burgers and this beautiful milkshake
  If in Coos Bay, I would most defintely reccomend checking this place out. They had great service and yummy food. The relaxed atmosphere was nice and the walls were covered with coffee sacks which in my opinion are real cool.
As we continued down the coast we began to notice these signs…
 Isn’t the little man cute? A serious note but portrayed in an amusing way.
Our first night was spent at Harris Beach State Park, near the city of Brookings, OR. We set up out tent, cooked dinner.
 Yes, this ex vegetarian cooked her first steak…amazing I know! This campsite is pretty civilized, much different than our usual bush whacking, washing our dishes in the river, cleaning my ass with a leaf sort of deal. I most certainly was not complaining about the hot showers and other people around.
After dinner we walked down to the beach for our first ‘Oregon sunset’ Â 
 Pretty breathtaking.
Day 2: we drove 30 minutes into California to the Redwood Forest. Boy was that  stunning. Imagine how old those trees are, how much weather they’ve endured, how many generations they’ve been standing. I couldn’t get photos of the largest ones…so you’ll have to go see for yourself 🙂
 The Redwoods are inland, but this is what the coast looked like every morning until it began to clear up in the afternoon. This photo was taken at Samuel H Boardman park which was one I was very excited to see. Too bad about the fog.
Night 2: Coos Bay, more specially Sunset Bay is where we camped. Clearly it’s a pretty amazing place to see the sunset. The state campground here was filled with children, obxious ones who were jumping on their parents cars. Literally. I had a drink and prayed if I ever have kids, they’ll behave better than that.
 Ahhhh yes much more relaxing than the sounds of demon children.
Day 3: our plan to see the Sea Lion Caves failed since the signs were very misleading. Instead we saw a ranch advertising horse rides on the beach! Wow let me tell you…horse riding hurts your knees and lady parts and it is totally worth it. I can honestly say that was one of the best experiences of my life. Tip: choose a ranch as close to the ocean as you can so you don’t have to cross the highway on horse back. Your horse will get spooked. There are many ranches offering similar trips so take a chance and do it! It was surprisingly cheap($90 for 2 hours).
Night 3: our night of civilization! We spent it in Yachats, OR. Dinner at Ona Seafood restaraunt was spectacular; fresh seafood and great service. We stayed at The Adobe Resort. Our beach front room was more than we expected. Jacuzzi, bed, ocean view. Oh the fun we had…
Day 4: Back up North to Washington State. We stayed at Cougar Campground, advertised as on “the base of Mount St Helens”. As we drove in I kept joking that the volcano must’ve exploded since we sure didn’t see it! Turns out their full of sh*t and it’s actually 50km away. No sights of the volcano, but no lava either! Pretty beautiful camping spot, don’t you think? 
That’s all for now! Thank you for reading, please like and comment if you have any questions. I’d love to hear from you and am happy to suggest more places worth your while. Back to nannying I go…
nannygrannie 