Odds 'n Ends

Well things are definitely cooling down her in Boise. The leaves are falling, the furnace is on, and the blankets are out. When the cold weather hits, where do our thoughts turn?....CHILI!!!! Teresa and I are both big fans of Wendy's chili, so I found an knock-off recipe on the internet and it turned out fantastic. Nothing better than some chopped romaine and shredded cheese, topped with some chili and sour cream. Best dinner ever. So we must have been bored today because we went and bought a cup of Wendy's and decided to do a blind taste test. Teresa was the victim. First she compared the two with her eyes open to see if she could identify the right one... that was easy.

Then I put a blindfold on her and that was not so easy. She guessed that mine was the Wendy's chili. So for all you chili fans, I've included the recipe, that's out on Recipezaar.

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (29 ounce) can kidney beans (with liquid)
1 (29 ounce) can pinto beans (with liquid)
1 cup diced onion (, 1 medium onion)
1/2 cup diced green chili pepper (, 2 chilies or a small can of green chilies)
1/4 cup diced celery (, 1 stalk)

1 can diced tomatoes
2-3 teaspoons cumin powder
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups water
Directions
- Brown the ground beef in a skillet over medium heat.
- Drain off the fat.
- In a large pot, combine the beef plus all the remaining ingredients, and bring to a simmer over low heat.
- Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2 to 3 hours.

So enough with the chili. Another one of our favorite things to do is to go out to the Parade of Homes and check them out. Seems like whenever we do we want to come back and do something to the house. This time we decided to paint the shelf over the fireplace. After much deliberation we finally decided on a certain shade of red.

I think it turned out just right. Mom thinks that it has a little too much rust in it. Cast your votes!

We're Goin' to the Dunes, Dunes, Dunes

Teresa had a couple of days off this week, so we decided to head down to Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park for a quick overnight trip. We wanted to try out some new gear so we left Thursday afternoon in spite of some not so rosey weather forecasts. Turned out to be not so bad after all... a little windy at times, but that's to be expected along with a little bit of rain.

First thing we did when we got there was set up the tent. Got a new one this summer for backpacking that is a little larger than most. Turned out to be really comfortable... nice and dry and roomy.Next on the agenda was dinner. Here's a picture of me boiling water with my "pocket rocket". Only takes a couple of minutes to boil water and does in fact sound a bit like a rocket engine. We decided to do "freezer bag" cooking this trip (see my favorite web sites below). We had spaghetti, along with chicken & rice for dinner and breakfast rice w/dried apricots for breakfast. Even the boss thought it was all good as is evidenced by the picture below.We brought some wood from home so that night was spent around the campfire. No marshmallows like we did with Hannah when she was here visiting, but still nice to just sit around and stare at the flames. I guess we're all just pyromaniacs at heart.

The next morning we took a hike up the dunes which was very pleasant because the sand was a little firmer than ususal due to the rain.

All in all was a fun time. Since we missed the VP debate Thursday night, we caught the unbiased debrief (not!) on the Dennis Miller and Sean Hannity shows on the ride home.

Hannah in the Kitchen

Yesterday Grandpa made Hannah a play oven out of a cardboard box. Maybe Zach would like one too!

Then later Hannah helped Grandma make some pumpkin spice mini-muffins for Nursery.

She did a very good job measuring and smelling all of the ingredients.

Grizzley Adams???

So I let my beard grow a little longer after High Adventure. Here I am about a week ago...

Since Teresa really didn't like it too much we settled on something a little less scraggley. We'll see how long it lasts!

Big Daddy Still Has The Juice!

Well, I just got back from High Adventure yesterday having spent a week in the White Cloud Mountains with nine boys and 3 other adults. We had a great time doing lots of hiking (exhausting), fishing (not me), swimming (it was FREEZING), and eating (best part of the trip.) We left Monday morning at 4AM, driving four hours to a spot 30 miles east and 20 miles south of Stanley, Idaho. There we met up with an outfitter who packed in on horseback our food, tents, stoves, and laterns. We all packed in our personal gear of about 30 pounds each. We got on the trail at 9:00, finally arriving at Hatchet Lake at 5:00 after 8 hours of solid uphill hiking. We started at 6000 ft and ended at around 8600 ft. The camp spot was beautiful which you can see in the picture below. Our tents are over on the left hand side of the picture.

Tuesday was spent on a couple of mile side trip to Frog Lake (yes, there are frogs everywhere.) Wednesday was another long day, hiking through the Boulder Chain Lakes up to the top of Windy Devil Pass. That's the picture of me at 10,000 ft at the top of the blog. To get to it you hike past a chain of seven lakes (hence the name) each slighly higher than the last, all being connected by a stream, which we had to cross several times. On the way back to camp in the afternoon the boys took a swim in each of the lakes to prove how tough they were . You cannot imagine how cold they were, with several still having snow along the edge. Thursday was another fishing, and swimming day. I brought along my washers game and the boys liked it a lot. Needless to say I was the tournament champion. The last picture was on the hike out, which only took 5 hours instead of the 8 going in. All in all we had a great time. I didn't kill anyone, which is always a good thing.

Going to Boulder Lake

Here's our latest adventure at Boulder Lake, just outside of McCall. It was about a 2 mile uphill climb in... we only got lost once! After we were done hiking we went over to McCall to jetski for the afternoon. Teresa was a wimp at first, but then she really revved it up, maxxing out the speed on the machine. It was a great birthday for John!