Magic Bullet Fills the Breach

YIKES! Jane had every intention of making dinner tonight, but her part time job got in the way. I arrived home to a request to make Black Bean Soup. What would I do without the Magic Bullet to pave the way? Chopped onion, cumin, black beans, vegetable stock, chunky salsa, a zest of lime and cilantro. Bring it all to a boil and let it simmer and I'm still in time to see the Bears and Packers go at it at Soldier Field on the frozen shores of Lake Michigan. Where would the kitchen be without the fabulous Magic Bullet?

Enough of this VitaMix

Enough with this VitaMix braggadocio. We take the challenge to the ultimate level with the compact and mighty Magic Bullet. My Peppermint Mocha was sooo good and very relaxing on this sub-zero F morning. Coffee, milk, chocolate syrup, and peppermint candies made for a perfect breakfast beverage in less than a minute. I've started with something simple so as to not embarrass the VitaMix clique with the power and flexibility of the mighty Magic Bullet.

More Snow Part II

I sent Danny a video earlier of the snow we've been having here, but now that it's snowing (again) and harder than my earlier video to him I thought I'd shoot part two and share it with everyone. In case you haven't heard, we had more than a foot of snow between Thursday evening and Friday a.m. Jane got to start Christmas break a day early due to the weather conditions. There's been a lot of baking and present wrapping (most of them with Myles name on them) going on around here lately. We are very excited to celebrate this year and can't wait for it to start with Siri's arrival Monday evening. By the time the holidays are over, we will have celebrated with all of our kids (less Danny of course) either in Iowa or Colorado along with Jane's brother, sister, our nieces and G&G Haugen. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Asheville Thanksgiving

I can't let Christmas creep up on me before I get our Thanksgiving celebration posted.

As empty nesters we don't always have much exciting to post to the blog, but that can hardly be said for what is now becoming our annual Thanksgiving celebration with the Kallis family.

This year we rented a house in Weaverville (just north of Asheville), NC nestled in a beautiful setting in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Jane and I drove through the night to arrive just in time to have breakfast at the local Waffle House. We lounged around for the better part of that day before the festivities got kicked off with the arrival of the crew from Canada and later Ben and Chelsa. This year we had the pleasure of adding Chelsa's cousin Karyse and her husband Derrick to the mix. They were great draft choices as Taylor and Danny weren't available for this year's celebration, and we hope they are able to join us for future adventures.

The weatherman was very cooperative which meant we had plenty of favorable days for hiking, biking and hot tubbing (may I suggest either early morning or late night hot tubs for everyone), and of course the obligatory "Black Friday" shopping.

Being all together in the house really made it feel like being home for the holiday, and with everyone pitching in for kitchen duty (cooking and cleaning) we were able to dine like royalty (traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings; gourmet pizza courtesy of Ben and Derrick, great breakfast selections, and pasta by Lyle to name just a sample of the available fare). Oh, and thanks to Deb for bringing the Nespresso machine for 24/7 coffee, latte, and espresso choices.

As is usually the case, the week passed too quickly, but we had a wonderfully memorable time and can hardly wait until our next meeting. I only regret that we can't do this more regularly but such is life when we have other obligations and geography to overcome.

Twenty-eight hour round trip to Weaverville, $150 - Thanksgiving celebration with the Kallis clan, priceless.