Quinoa

I have heard so many good things about Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) that I decided I had to try it out. Quinoa is an ancient grain from South America that is considered a complete protein.  It can be used in any recipe in which you would use rice and can be served hot or cold and apparently it is easy to cook too.  So I set out searching some recipes and this is one that I found and I must say it sounds really tasty.  This is on my menu for next week.  

This light and wholesome grain may be prepared quickly and easily with this basic method.             

2 cups water & 1 cup quinoa  

Place quinoa and water in a 1-½ quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until all the water is absorbed (about 15 minutes). 

You will know that the quinoa is done when all the grains have turned from white to transparent, and the spiral-like germ has separated. Makes 3 cups.   

For additional flavor, substitute chicken broth or vegetable stock for the water.

Crispy Quinoa Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
 1 large egg (or 1 T ground flax seed mixed with 3 T water)
2 tablespoons white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 T tahini
1 1/2 T white wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
1/2 cup sweet potato, grated
5 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/4 cup chopped almonds
2 ounces crumbled feta (optional)
1/4 cup diced onions
1 tablespoon cilantro
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
 2 tablespoons coconut oil or oil of choice

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
1 large roasted red pepper
1/2 cup almonds
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp balsamic or red wine vinegar

In a large bowl combine egg (or egg replacement), flour, tahini and vinegar. Add in Quinoa, sweet potatoes, spinach, almonds, feta, onions, cilantro, garlic and salt. Stir until well combined and form into patties.

Heat coconut oil over medium low heat. Cook patties for five minutes to eight minutes or until the edges start to brown and a crispy crust has formed. Flip and cook five more minutes.

Meanwhile, combine roasted red pepper, almonds, garlic and vinegar in a food processor. Process until smooth.

Corinne~

1st Wedding Shoot

Tomorrow I embark on my first wedding shoot, can you hear my knees knocking together.  Yes you could say I am a bit nervous about it.  A wedding is a big event in ones life and the photos are another big part of it and I don't want to disappoint the bride and groom.   The one thing I love about digital photography is I can preview the shot before everyone moves and if I need to re-take it...I can....a bit of a savior if you ask me and you can take hundreds of photos and not have to pay an arm and leg to develop them.

A friend of ours is getting hitched as he would put it and they have asked me to take their wedding photos.  I am so glad that this is an informal affair, less pressure for my first time shooting a wedding.  They are getting married in their back yard....the theme of the wedding is Wild West/Pioneer Days with a little bit of Red Neck Down Home Hillbilly thrown in.

I have done 2 photos sessions with my daughter and was very happy with the out come of the pictures.  She loves helping me hone my photography skills....to see pictures from those shoots click HERE for the summer shoot and HERE for the fall shoot.  Her friends have all complemented on how nice her pictures turn out and are interested in having me take photos for them...maybe one day.

Now photographing weddings isn't something that I want to be doing on a regular basis.  Nature photography is my style of choice when it comes to photography....

So cross your fingers and toes that all turns out well.   I will let you know how it goes and post a few pictures from the day.  Should be a good time....good thing my duties as photographer are over before the Social starts.....hehehe

I am looking forward to the challenge of taking their wedding photos, a little bit nervous too.




Corinne~

Quading - Big River Area

 Over the August long weekend my husband and I along with our nephew, his wife and their two girls set out to discover some more of the trails in the Big River Area.   We had a fabulous day to ride...the sun was shining and the temperature was nice...maybe a bit on the hot side but in the forest you didn't feel the effects of the sun due to the canopy cover.  Here are a few pictures from our ride.

 This is the first major mud hole we up to....Jeff led the way and just made it through with a bit of work...We ended up getting hung up when we slipped off the ledge.

The mud is flying!!!

 Tammy's turn to get stuck....she was the only one that attempted this mud hole.  In her defense she thought Jeff and gone through it ahead of her, what she didn't notice was the trail that went around this one.

 After getting the winch hooked up to Tammy's Quad, Jeff ended up in the mud hole!

She's out and we're back on the trail!

 

Jeff climbing up the hill....he went down to see if we could get onto the lake shore

 We had a great day of riding with our family.  The girls had an absolute blast as did the rest of us.  We are looking forward to hitting the trails again with our nephew and his family. I am also looking forward to getting my own Quad next year (crossing my fingers that it works out for next spring). Al and I do take turns driving...and I wasn't the one that got stuck! hehehe

Corinne~

Dragon Flies

I am always looking for unique photo opportunities.  The more photos I take the more I sharpen my skills.  I am somewhat like a detective, when I look at a flower, a cloud, wildlife or anything for that fact I am looking for a photo opportunity.  You could say I am looking beyond what I am looking at.  So as Al and I were sitting in the shade enjoying a wobbly pop or two I noticed a huge Dragon Fly sitting on a branch of a might Spruce tree...pure beauty.  Dragon Flies are one of my favorite flying insects.  So I sat there watching him, not moving at all...was he even alive I thought.  So I got up, grabbed my camera and commenced to taking some photos.  I didn't want to disturb this guy and the sun wasn't being a friend to the camera but I did manage to get a few good shots of this magnificent blue Dragon Fly.

Shortly after I got these shots he fluttered off. 


Corinne~

Humming Bird

 My camera is always close at hand.  This year I set out a couple of goals for my self, photography wise that is.  One was to catch the frequent visitor to my humming bird feeder.  This little guy has gotten so close to my head that I can hear his wings fluttering.  It is like he buzzes our heads as to say Thank You for the sweet nectar.

Approaching the feeder!

Coming in for the landing!

Sipping the Sweet Nectar!

I hope to be able to catch a few more photos of this little guy before he heads south for the winter. 

Corinne~

Along The Trail

 When ever Al and I go out on the quad always take my camera along.  You never know what you might see...a deer, a bear, some beautiful flowers, a meadow, birds or any other creature large or small that calls the wilderness home.  Here are a few pictures of some of the things we seen along the trails we rode on in Big River/Cowan Lake area.

First things first, the trails up in the Big River area are wonderful to ride on and very well marked too. 

This is just one of the many signs we seen on our rides.

We found a wonderful patch of Blueberries where we stopped for a few minutes and picked a couple of handfuls to keep us sustained for the duration of our ride.

These Orange Butterflies were abundant this day.  Most flowers we seen had them on feasting on the nectar of the flowers.

 I did see a couple of deer but they darted off to the safety of the forest too quickly for me to catch them on the camera.  I did manage a track or two to photograph.

 Somebody forgot their pants in the forest!!

  We crossed a few bridges with some nice scenery too.

 On our way back to the cabin we stopped at this river and went for a quick swim.  The water was very refreshing after our long ride.

Corinne~

Friday Night Lights

Friday evening after the lawn was cut, the clippings raked in piles and loaded on the trailer we decide to sit on the deck, have a drink before we hauled the dead grass to the pile in the pasture.  Needless to say we never made it off the deck until much later.  We sat and talked....about all sorts of things, Al told me about his week at work and all the bears he seen 2 or 3 each day.

As were sitting there, Al had bought this beer called Melon Head brewed by Paddock Wood Brewing in Saskatoon.  Instructions on the box say to take the beer out reseal the lid and tear on the lines and you will have a watermelon hat....anyways instead of doing that we just tore up the box...so as I was sitting there I decide to light a strip on fire (to see if it burnt in many colors) cut some kindling and we built a table top fire much like the propane fire bowls you can buy.  The fire crackled and snapped like a large roaring fire.  It was nice to sit by the fire and enjoy the clear night and full moon.  The coating on the box burned in different colors...so pretty....very much like a "Magic Campfire"

Our daughter Meagan came out to send the evening with us.  We sat waiting for the " Perseid
Meteor Shower" to start, the only down fall was the full moon was so bright.  I did get to see 4 of Perseid's Meteors and then I waited and waited and nothing the moon was at the top of the sky and hindered the viewing of the Perseid Meteors, as the last two were very faint to see.  I had the best laid plans to get up before dawn to see the shower but needless to say I slept through it.  Oh well maybe next August will be better for the viewing of Perseid's Meteor Shower.

What are meteor showers?

An increase in the number of meteors at a particular time of year is called a meteor shower.

Comets shed the debris that becomes most meteor showers. As comets orbit the Sun, they shed an icy, dusty debris stream along the comet's orbit. If Earth travels through this stream, we will see a meteor shower. Depending on where Earth and the stream meet, meteors appear to fall from a particular place in the sky, maybe within the neighborhood of a constellation.

Meteor showers are named by the constellation from which meteors appear to fall, a spot in the sky astronomers call the radiant. For instance, the radiant for the Leonid meteor shower is located in the constellation Leo. The Perseid meteor shower is so named because meteors appear to fall from a point in the constellation Perseus.

quoted from 2011 Meteor Showers StarDate Online website

The next Meteor Shower is Draconids Meteor Shower on the night of Saturday October 8th...the moon may somewhat hinder the viewing of this shower as well as will be nearly full.
It was enjoyable time sitting out and watching the "Friday Night Lights" - table top campfire and the Perseid Meteor Shower (what we seen of it) on our deck.



Corinne~

Meagan - Autumn 2010

 In the fall of 2010 when Meagan was home from University for a weekend, she wanted me to take some photos.  I love the colors of fall so I was all for the challenge.  This would be the first time I ever did a photo shoot of any type. Here are a few photos from that shoot.

These were taken in the field in front of our house.

Meagan and Rocco!!

Once were finished taking pictures around the yard we headed into town.  Our first location in town was under the Central Avenue Bridge.  This is becoming a very popular spot to have pictures taken. 

The graffiti added a nice back drop to some of the photos!

We then headed to the river bank with lots of trees to use as props.  With lots of fallen leaves the options were endless.  The colors of autumn are so beautiful.

Well that is a peak at that photo session.  For a first time focusing on portraits I think I did fairly good.  Might have to do another session with Meagan again this fall.  I would like to try some winter photos with her too.

Corinne~

Mushrooms

On our first quad ride on the trails around Big River/Cowan Lake I was amazed at all the mushrooms around.  The forest floor was covered in mosses, mushrooms, fallen tree branches, flowers and berries.

These next three reminded me of a Hibiscus bloom.  So elegant looking.

I liked how these three brown mushrooms looked clustered in amongst the dead Jack Pine branches.

Love the contrast of the greens, browns and orange colors.

A couple of my favorite pictures!

 

 Orange Fungi growing on a dead tree branch. I couldn't believe how bright and beautiful these were.  I have only ever seen the dried fungi that grows on trees and dead branches that looks all grey and dull and dried up.  So is this what that fungi looks like before it turns grey and dull and dries up.

 This red mushroom was huge.....I am thinking about 6 inches in diameter.

 I was amazed at the variety of mushrooms/fungi that we seen that day on our quad ride.  I moss that laid on the forest floor was so soft and cushiony.  It was a beautiful day to go riding and we thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of nature that Mother Nature shared with us that day.

In everything that the Lord touches there is beauty, sometimes we just have to look a little deeper to find it.

Corinne~

Out of Touch

I feel like I have been so out of touch lately....just not enough hours in a day to get everything completed.  I have been wanting to make up some cards; work on the quilts I started for my kids 3 years ago using up their grandpa's clothes - Grandpa Memory Quilts and get some of my frames filled up and back on the wall in the living room.  Summer is flying by...hard to believe we are nearly at the middle of August.  Didn't summer just start???  Once fall is here I plan to dig out my quilting and work on the quilts.  I figure if I spend a weekend on each one I should be able to get the tops finished and then another weekend and I should be able to get the backs on them. Will pick up my stamping and card making again come September.  Still have a few more Christmas cards to make.  I did manage to make a couple more Christmas cards on a rainy weekend...just haven't had chance to get them photographed to show you all.  Card photos coming soon.

We haven't had much time for summer holidays this year.  My husband is supervising a new crew and there is no one that can fill in for him when he is gone at this time so we'll wait till layoff season and maybe take some more time.  I am really glad that we had a few days out in Kamloops in April, was nice to get away from home and spend time with family.  We did manage to get away over the August long weekend with our floating stat holiday at work and the stat we were away for 5 days.  Will post some photos from our quad trips soon.

This week I have my daughter's two dogs staying with us.  At the last minute she decided not to take them camping with them.  Charlie is a sweet heart but Abby on the other hand can be a handful...she is a sweet little dog....just really hyper.  If my yard was fenced I wouldn't worry about leaving her outside all day but I just can't risk her getting run over.  Don't know if she would chase vehicles but after having one dog run over don't want to go through again. 

Until next time have a wonderful day......
                   Live each day with out regret, Love deeply and forgive quickly!

Corinne~