Capote is not Kaput

Hubby has been spending the past several months doing projects with his Scouts to prep them for their Mountain Man Rendezvous.

Doesn’t that sound like fun? A bunch of grown men with beards, and a bunch of teenage boys…with no beards? Running around in the forest pretending it’s the 1800s?

One project that took a few weeks to complete was helping the boys sew their own wool capote mountain man coats for the cold weekend in the hills. Hubby did everything from ordering the blankets to devising the best way for them to trace the pattern outline with chalk!

He even enlisted some local gals in our church to help each boy…kind of the buddy system. She didn’t sew it for the kid but instead taught him how and supervised his work to make sure that he didn’t get three arms and no hole for the head.

Hubby is always looking for ways to teach them to fish, and not just to hand them dinner. Know what I mean?

But he was so busy helping the boys get ready that he didn’t have time to sew his own capote. And a man without a capote at this shindig? Well, that certainly wouldn’t do!

My bestest friend, Ann, even volunteered to come supervise his evening of domestic labor!

Deep down, I think that Hubby was really hoping that Ann would just show up and do the hard work for him. But, just like he wouldn’t let her with the boys, she didn’t hand him anything!

She simply showed him how to do it and then watched to prevent any mistakes.

So far, so good! We need some arms, though!

Ann is a super-experienced sewing extraordinaire. I am…well, not. I can’t even hem pants. Sheesh, it’s pathetic. So I’m really glad that she offered to bring her sewing machine and expertise to help Hubby prepare for the camping trip.

We even set up a temporary sewing site for Hubby to work. After measurements for his arms were taken, the pins were added to hold things in place while the sewing happened.

I learned a thing or two tonight as well, just from watching!

While they worked, I made some dinner. This was Day Two of my healthy transformation, and actually the very day that I hired Lindsey to help me meet my weight-loss goals!

So salad for dinner it was!

I’m wondering if these pictures can be used for blackmailing purposes some day. It’s not very often that a wife gets to admire her husband hard at work on a sewing machine, huh?

But I was proud of him for sticking with it. Sometimes, when Ann and I got distracted with some nice visiting, Hubby patiently waited until we could give attention back to him when he was ready for the next step.

He is The World’s Most Patient Man, after all.

One arm done! Looking good!

It was time to decide where to hem the cuff to give him enough warmth without being in the way. Ann knew all of these measurements and even how to mark them! Fascinating! I don’t know nuthin’!

Did I mention that Hubby sewed this entire thing himself?! So impressive!

Lookin’ good, Babe! Isn’t he a handsome man? Even when wearing a homemade wool coat, he looks handsome.

That’s hard to pull off for most guys.

Meanwhile, the marinated chicken had been grilled and was ready for consumption atop some beautiful mixed greens!

Hubby is such a supportive champ. He will eat anything that I make. Isn’t that crazy how much power I have over our diet and what we eat?!

Eating healthy has been so nice. I found this saying that I totally agree with: Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels.

So true!

Nice capote, Hubby. You look all back-woodsy now!

Ohio to Arizona in High-Flying Style

After an unexpected stop in Columbus, and then finding out that we didn’t have to return to JFK to pick up some passengers, we leisurely grabbed some lunch before getting on our way.

El Capitan wanted to eat at some Indian restaurant, so I had him drop me off at one of my favorites on his way.

I love Panera Bread! Why aren’t they in Phoenix?!

Have you had their freshly-squeezed lemonade? It’s pretty good. I usually get it without ice since it is cold already. Who needs ice to water things down?

This was my last unhealthy trip for work. I don’t drink my calories now!

And I won’t even give this the credit of being mentioned, except by photo.

I used to really love cookies with M&Ms, though. If you must know.

I think my brain was leaning towards trying to be healthier, because I ordered a salad for lunch. It had grilled chicken and avocado, which we all know makes everything better.

Holy smokes, I love avocado.

My side dish was the complete opposite of healthy! But their mac and cheese is to die for.

It’s must be a white cheddar macaroni and cheese. judging from the flavor and color. This stuff is just pure heaven. I crave it when I can’t get it.

At least…I used to crave it! I’m sure it tastes nasty now!

I love how they include a piece of chewy-in-the-middle bread with a crunchy top.

My love for bread hasn’t changed. I still really enjoy the stuff. But I’m making better decisions in that arena, too.

The Panera Bread was located in an awesome outdoor shopping mall in a nice area of Columbus near the airport.

Why they decided to make an outdoor shopping mall in Columbus, Ohio is beyond me! It was late February and freezing cold!

But the Pottery Barn was fun. For some reason, they had a bunch of Spring stuff out. It felt a little early for that…especially when I stepped back outside into the cold wind.

We got a Brio gift card for Christmas, and someday, when I’m home from work, we’ll get to use it! Seeing this Brio reminded me that we need to go out.

You hear that, Ann? We need to go use that card that you and Ted gave us!

Can you believe that I didn’t eat at The Cheesecake Factory?

I wandered through that Crate and Barrel next door. It was one of the nicest (and biggest!) that I’ve ever visited. And I’ve seen my fair share, since it’s one of my favorite stores in the whole wide world!

The old-fashioned telephone booth is pretty cool, too.

But so is everything else about Columbus. If it wasn’t so dang north (and, consequently, cold), I would consider living in this town!

With a full and cheesy belly, it’s time to head back to the airport to head home!

It feels so weird just taking our own sweet time and leaving whenever we wanted. Is this what it feels like to own your own airplane?

Ooooooooo…Guy like. Who’s Guy? Click this link. You will like it.

This King Air had the number-one spot for departure today. We were placed next to him. I was glad, since it was rather chilly and I didn’t want to be any further from the door!

What a cry baby. But it is in the seventies at home, so twenty degrees just isn’t sitting well with me at all.

This sign cracked me up. This isn’t the first-class that I usually think of when flying! Don’t you love local advertising?

Speaking of local mega companies based here, Columbus is home to NetJets, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, and The Ohio State University.

They get really funny if you don’t emphasize the “The.” Believe me, I know from experience.

I came here for a few days back in college when I was president of the UND’s Mortar Board Honor Society. I came to Columbus for training, and the locals let me know pretty quickly the proper way to address them. In fact, they got pretty offended of my ignorance in such pronunciation matters.

Funny, huh?

Anyway, we were empty in back and ready to leave. Let’s get somewhere that has palm trees!

We passed lots of snowy fields on our way back to Arizona. After such a cold few days in JFK and Columbus, I was ready to thaw out for the weekend!

we crossed over these plains of the Midwest as we got closer to home. Soon, we started to see some giant mountains outside the windows.

We haven’t done this arrival in Phoenix for quite a while. With how our shortcuts worked out, we flew just south of Hubby’s hometown! So I waved at his folks and took a picture for him.

Just fifteen minutes later, we were landing in Mesa. It takes almost three hours to drive the same trip! Yuck!

We weren’t officially heading home today but to Mesa Gateway for some maintenance. We know that we will not be flying for a week, so it was perfect timing to take Gladys in for some fixes that had become available from the Embraer Service Center.

That’s something with such a new airplane…they are still designing ways to debug what we pilots find!

The city came into sight, and the beautiful Superstition Mountains were in the distance. Willy Gateway is on the far southeast side of the Valley. My car is still about an hour drive away after we land!

Willy Gateway used to be Williams Air Force Base. They did lots of bomber training here for World War II. The runways are huge as a result. The “short” one is 10,000 feet long!

Can you see the runways? There are three of them. We were cleared for the visual approach by Phoenix Approach Control to the right runway, but I asked Tower for clearance to land on the left side since it would reduce our taxi time quite a bit.

Normally, they can do it with no problems. Not today! We were swapped to land 30C and received long-rollout approval to exit the runway near our service center. Fine by me!

I was so excited to be here today, because they were prepping for a static air display of some neat WWII airplanes.

This is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bomber…the one with the giant “A” on the tail. This type of airplane is most famous for being the one that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. Of course, we all know that particular first airplane was named the Enola Gay after pilot Paul Tibbetts’ mother.

How do you think she felt about having an airplane named after her that would forever go down in history?

Anyway, this B-29 Bomber is the only one still flying. I heart it! And it’s huge!

After a long drive back to my home airport in rush hour traffic, I picked up Pearl and headed home. After three crazy busy weeks on the road, I’m looking forward to a few days at home with Hubby!

Hi, Pearl!

What a great overnight trip to JFK and Columbus. I love how exciting my job can be!

A Man and His Deep-Fried Turkey

So the best way to stick with some healthy new year choices is to give your husband a turkey fryer for Christmas. Or did you already know that?

It took us a few days to get mentally prepared for such edible joy. Hubby bought some peanut oil (highly recommended), and I defrosted a turkey breast (that I got on clearance after Thanksgiving) from the freezer. We were ready for this.

Luckily, we were both impressed and happy with the quality of the fryer. Certain pieces come off for easy cleaning and can even be placed in the dishwasher. We did everything by hand afterwards, because that’s how paranoid we are we roll.

The black liner on top is the vent, and the window below allows you to see inside during cooking. We couldn’t see much because of all the hard work that the grease was accomplishing inside.

   

We Hubby first washed the turkey breast and even removed some excess skin that was only going to hurt our cooking process. Then, Hubby patted the turkey dry, inside and out. This prevented the water from splattering as it hit the hot oil in the fryer.

The turkey breast next went into the fryer basket, where it would live for the next seven-minutes-per-pound, or about an hour. The breast needs a little longer to cook than just a plain ol’ turkey, which only needs four minutes per pound.

Yep. Turkey dinner in under an hour. Sign me up, please!

This little guy is ready to meet his maker the oil. Let’s get this into some grease, Hubby!

The instructions say to lower it very slowly…again, to prevent splattering. Hot oil, hanging out at a temperature of 375 degrees, wouldn’t be very fun all over us. He went nice and slow as he lowered this dry turkey into heaven below.

Then he removed the handles, closed the lid, and let this baby burn, burn, burn! You have no idea how delicious the house started to smell after a little while!

And lots of steam vented through the top so the temperature remained constant for the turkey. We are still impressed with this little machine! So far, so good!

We knew when to put the turkey inside the oil when this green light came on. After reading the instruction manual and knowing how to start, this fryer did all of the dirty work!

Soon, but not nearly soon enough, the timer went off. It was time to bring this deliciousness out for dinner!

Oh my oh my. I think that we have a successful first attempt at turkey frying! I’ve been told that once you go fried turkey, you never go back. And now I feel like I know what they’re talking about! (And agree).

We let it cool for about ten minutes inside the basket. This also allowed any residual grease to fall back into the oil below. We are healthy.

While we waited for the cooling, I prepared some salads to enjoy with dinner. You know, because a small dinner salad totally cancels out any deep-fried aspect to our meat portion tonight…

Once it was cool enough to work with, Hubby carved this sucker up. And we all tried a few small pieces as they came away from the knife. Because normal people can’t wait!

My goodness. Where do I even begin to describe this incredible treat. It was so juicy! And (for Charloe) so moist! This turkey was loaded with all sorts of flavor, without us even using any spices or rubs (you can do that, by the way). The outside had a nice, crispy texture while the inside just melted.

I approve. Whole-heartedly.

It only felt right to invite our best friends over to celebrate our first deep-frying turkey experience. Ted and Ann joined us for dinner and can vouch for how yummy this beast was!

Man, now I’m hungry!

How about you? Have you ever had deep-fried turkey? Do you ever fry in your house? Do tell! We are on the look-out for ideas of things that will be better after cooking in hot oil!