Omelets and Other Breakfasts

It's been a while since I've last posted an omelet picture, and what better time than when I've got a rip-roaring headache? 

This omelet was an experiment requested by my husband. He wanted me to have chicken sausage in the body of the omelet as well as inside. I wasn't sure that it would work, but I gave it a try, slicing the sausage super fine so that it would blend well with the eggs. I like how it turned out. 

The sausage visible on top is incorporated with the eggs.

Of course, I presented it with a bit more style with smears of queso and decorative sausage slices. 

The other breakfast that I'll mention is one I did not get a picture of, though I really should have. Another special request, for cream cheese and thinly sliced pickled jalapeno to be covered by 2 eggs over easy and a blanket of grits. I constructed this one by layers which could have been neat to document. Alas, you'll have to settle for my description and trust my report of Ambrose's rave reviews. 

Ambrose Ran a 5K!

Over the summer, as Ambrose got into his running more consistently in his new, lighter body, I suggested that he run a 5K. He placed well in races when he was a young man, running in local races in California when he was stationed at Mare Island in the Navy. I knew that he enjoyed running, and he is getting into the age group where one can place well just by showing up and finishing. 

I sent him links to a bunch of different races coming up in September and October, and he chose the SueB 10K/5K, which supports the Women and Children's Alliance and aims to bring attention to domestic violence. This race took place on October 2nd, and started at noon. Since the pre-race packet pickup locations and times didn't work for us, we planned to be there by about 11 to pick up the packet. 

I drove us over to Boise State, because I can use my parking pass at almost any lot on the weekends. From there, it was a short walk over to Julia Davis park, where the race was to start and finish. We were definitely early, but we managed to make our way to the packet pick up and get what we needed. 

Then we walked off a bit to find a bench to sit at while we waited for the race to start. I pinned Ambrose's bib on. He wanted it to be crooked, and it did end up pretty crooked with the first three pins, but the fourth pin was broken. Somehow, when I repositioned one of the pins so that he'd have two on top and one on bottom, it ended up significantly less crooked. In my experience, the bib number is how you find pictures of yourself afterwards, so that's why I wanted it to be straight-ish.

There was a children's race around the rose garden at about 11:30. We watched that and cheered the kids on. I practiced my cowbell technique. Then we milled and listened as the urban route runners were sent off. We noticed that one runner went through the starting line with the urban runners, but then came back. Ambrose went up to him to tell him to get his time chip reset, and it's a good thing for that guy that Ambrose did. Otherwise, he would have had a personal worst time, most likely. 

And, finally, Ambrose lined up with the other 5 and 10 K runners. I took a few pictures of him waiting, and then they were off. I've never been the one waiting during a race before. I've only been a runner. And this is a pretty small race, so once the runners were all gone, it was very quiet. Very few people hanging around. 

I went to the bathroom, since I figured no one else would be using them at this particular moment (I was right). Then I found some tree roots to sit on near the start/finish line and did some writing on my phone while I waited. 

Once runners started to come in, I stood and put down the phone. I cheered along with several volunteers for every runner coming in. I got to see the first runners finish, and I waited for Ambrose to appear. 

He took a lot longer than I expected, and I figured he might have needed to find a place for a pit stop. His stomach had been giving him some indicators before the race, and he wasn't able to clear that up before the race began. I only started to worry a little bit before he did appear, around 55 minutes. Much slower than he'd wanted to run, but it was a finish. 

Ambrose took only a few moments to rest and recover after finishing. He wanted to get right home, and so we walked back across the park to Boise State and our vehicle. 

Now I'm trying to sell him on doing a Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving next. I figure we could both run in that one, just have fun with it. I believe, once Ambrose gets used to racing again, that he'll do quite well in his age group. And, heck, I'm moving up in age group this year. Now I just need to get a wee bit faster... 

The bib is pinned, and he's ready to go.

Gotta stretch.

Waiting is hard!

Time to line up.

Waiting for the start.

There he goes!

Information about Sue "SueB" Newby.

Here he comes!

Almost there!

Crossing the finish line!

Ambrose finished the race and the race finished him.

Big Creek and Werdenhoff Mine Photos

Over the 4th of July weekend, my husband and I spent time at Big Creek. Last week I provided a write up; this week is all about the pictures. 

The Big Creek Lodge is home to more than just guests.

This bird had at least three little ones to feed in there.

Some of the hummingbirds fought, but I didn't get a good shot of that.

There's some baby birds!

Old equipment up at Werdenhoff Mine.

We only looked at the building from the outside.

But a missing wall panel gave me a glimpse of the inside.

And here, from the rear.

The original rock-smashing machine!

View from the mine down to a cabin that seems to be getting some upkeep.

Ambrose making his way down from the mine.

Just one big log was blocking the Smith Creek Cutoff Trail, close to the mine. 

Lots of bear grass growing this year!

I'm not 100% sure what flower this is, but I like it.

Ambrose found some bear sign - the rock got flipped to see if there were tasty grubs to eat underneath.

Ambrose going down one of the cutoff trail's switchbacks.

This dilapidated cabin is next to the cutoff trail.

An animal on the road - we didn't run over it.

We also managed to miss this deer :) 

A Musical Interlude

I brought my niece to town for a visit to the woods and the mountains last week. I'll be writing more about that trip on the hiking blog. This one is about what happened on her last night in town. 

We got checked into a hotel for the night (my studio apartment being too small for guests), and had taken the elevator several times before reading the little events newsletter in it. Now, my niece had been schooling me in musicals on this trip. She shared Hamilton, 36 Questions and Heathers with me while I drove us to campsites and back. And she had also mentioned the musical Dear Evan Hansen a time or two (or ten). 

So when I saw that the Morrison Center's Broadway in Boise was performing Dear Evan Hansen, and that the last date was that very day, I pointed it out to her. 

Immediately she wanted to go, and I was a little less enthusiastic. I was hungry and a bit cranky, to be honest. But then she found a pair of tickets for $6 a piece online. So we walked down to Freak Alley, because she's into art and I wanted her to see it. Then, while we got dinner, I figured out how to get the $6 tickets. It was less than $20 after fees for both tickets, a great deal. 

What an incredible coincidence that this musical, which she hadn't had a chance to see when it was in Chicago, just happened to be playing on her last night in town. And we were able to get tickets to see it same day, at a rate that shocked her Chicago sensibilities. I might just be the best aunt ever. 

But she's also a candidate for best niece. I never would have gone to see that musical without her, and I ended up enjoying it very much. It was very emotionally moving, and I'm not ashamed to say I cried a lot. I'd read that the movie version wasn't very good, and, going in I let that color my perceptions. But once it started, I just let myself enjoy the production. The cast was excellent; almost as good as the company. 

A shot of the stage before the performance began.

Travel Craziness

Last week, I went on a business trip. It was my first business trip since the pandemic started, and I was a bit nervous at the start. I knew that I was going to wear my mask on the plane and in the airport and just as much as possible. Maybe the COVID risks aren't that high, but "conference crud" has been a thing since before the pandemic, and I had things to do this week that I wanted to be well for. 

The travel started off well enough. The flight from Boise to Salt Lake was short and uneventful. The next flight to the destination was delayed, but not too long. It actually made the layover better, because there was time to get food without worrying about missing the connection. Again, an uneventful flight, though quite a bit longer all the way through to Nashville. 

Easy enough to check in to the hotel, and I then walked over to a nearby Whole Foods to get some snacks and a dinner. I could have gone to a restaurant for dinner, but it's a lot harder to know exactly what ingredients are in foods at a restaurant. It's just easier to buy a frozen meal. Plus, I got a popsicle for the walk back to the hotel, which was a fabulous idea if I do say so myself. 

The conference itself was good, and I learned a bunch. Departure was early Saturday morning, and it taught me something else entirely. 

See, the flight left at 5:25 am Saturday morning. Two hours before that would be 3:25, but the security line in Nashville doesn't open until 4 am, so the planned departure from the hotel was set for 3:15 in the AM. I tried to go to bed a little after 9, hoping I would get some 4 to 5 hours of sleep. Instead, I woke up just before midnight and couldn't get back to sleep. 

I tried, I really did. But I ended up being wakeful until after 2 am. I did doze off enough to miss my 2:35 am alarm, but the 2:45 am alarm got me up. I ate some cut watermelon I'd gotten from Whole Foods and got dressed. I didn't bother with a shower, just double checked everything was packed and left a tip for housekeeping. 

I was done before 3:15, but I was still second to last to arrive of my group. We got in an Uber, made it to the airport where I then had to wait in line to check my bag. Then security - where I had to go through twice because I forgot to drink the last of the water in my bottle. I blame that on the Uber - it was a tight fit for 5 passengers plus luggage, and instead of drinking my water, I had to use my elbows to keep other people's luggage from braining me. 

But we made it through and got on the short flight to Atlanta. Yes, Atlanta. Because why not go south and east when your destination is north and west? That's where things started to fall apart. Our flight's departure was delayed 50 minutes, and then 10 more. Then we sat on the tarmac after boarding for another 10 to 20 minutes. Our layover at Salt Lake was already going to be tight, but the pilot assured us that they would make up time in the air. 

Ha!

They may have made up time in the air, but it wasn't enough for us. When we neared Salt Lake, one of the flight attendants tried to help folks with tight connections by announcing said connections and having people raise their hands, something they don't typically do. Several destinations were announced, but not Boise. No, we had already missed our flight. 

Two of my party got rebooked on a flight later that day to Boise. Two got booked over to San Francisco to spend the night and then get to Boise in the morning. I got rebooked to fly into Seattle the next day and then Boise that afternoon. This was not acceptable. 

After a very long wait in the customer service line, I got onto standby for the same day flight to Boise, as did my fellow travelers who had not been automatically rebooked for it. We ate lunch and then went to stand by and see if there would be any room on the flight for us. I saw my name up on the board as being on standby - a first for me. But my fellow travelers were not on the board and were starting to be resigned to a night in Salt Lake or a return trip to the customer service line. 

But in the end, there was room for all of us. I even got to sit next to one of my party in the row right behind first class with more leg room than I could possibly use. The seat felt like how I remember airplane seats being in my youth, much wider than the economy seats are nowadays. It was tolerable, and I even managed to doze on the flight. 

Even with my toes pointed, I couldn't touch the seat in front of me.

It was an absolutely draining, incredibly long day. It's one thing if you've got a flight and it just has a lot of layovers or will take a long time. It's a different thing if you're running on less than 3 hours sleep and don't know when or whether you'll get home. I'm really hoping my next flight has nowhere near this level of insanity - at the very least, I'll be protesting any attempt to book me on a flight before 6 in the morning... 

Variations on an Omelet

Every Sunday, I cook breakfast. Ambrose cooks pretty much every other meal that we share, so that's my one meal a week. I have two things that I cook: grits & eggs and omelets. This past Sunday was an omelet day, and, as we typically do, on Saturday night we discussed what I might put in his omelet. 

He brought up the idea of chopping up some apple and putting that in the omelet. I thought that a fresh apple would probably be too juicy for an omelet, so I countered with apple butter. And he agreed, as a kind of wild experiment. 

And so on Sunday, I made him an omelet with some chicken sausage, apple butter and queso cheese. 

You might be wondering, do those flavors even go together? Could they possibly work? In an omelet? 

In a word, yes. 

Absolutely. 

I forgot to take a picture before I gave it to him, and after I could only get one that was slightly blurred by the fact that he wanted to eat, thank you very much, not have a picture taken of his food. The apple butter in question was actually apple walnut butter, so I like to consider that it's the omelet version of a chicken apple salad. Fancy! 

Ambrose rated the omelet as "amazing." Next time, he'd like some pickled jalapeno added, and maybe some cream cheese as well. We'll see. 

Critter Christmas Continues

A few years back, we had upstairs neighbors who appreciated that we fed birds on our stoop. They actually showed us their appreciation in a unique way. One day, we found a gift of a block of birdseed at our doorstep. It was from the upstairs; they wanted us to put it out so they could contribute to the bird gathering that they so enjoyed from their balcony. 

It was that gift that inspired Ambrose to buy another of those blocks this year as a kind of Christmas gift for our little critter friends. He remembered that the squirrels had been the ones to really start getting at that original block, but once they dug it down enough, the ducks would start getting chunks off as well. All great fun to watch, and something that I'd missed out on, since I didn't work from home at that time. Heck, I wouldn't have imagined back then that working at home would be a regular thing. 

The critters are definitely loving their gift. 

First, the squirrels.

Ambrose flipped the block to expose the moist parts near the bottom.

And the ducks got into the action.

But it isn't always monopolized by ducks and squirrels.

The ducks know the bottom is softer.

But some of them like the view from up top.

Have Some Ducks

I've been under the weather for over a week now. I'm grinding away at the book production, but it's all fits and starts as this illness eases up and then gets worse again. So, here are some recent pictures of my porch ducks. I am enjoying the snow at least :) 

12/25/21

12/29/21

1/5/22

Best Use of Leftover Fries

When my husband and I were driving back from the Oregon coast, we needed to stop somewhere and get dinner. Usually, we manage to stop at this Thai place in Pendleton that's really good (Thai Crystal), but we ended up hungry before we passed that town this time. 

So we ended up going to a burger joint drive thru type of place instead. We both ordered fish n chips, but after we received the order, it was clear we should have ordered one to share. This was a big pile of food - not something either of us were prepared to fully consume. The fish portion was generous, but it was the fries that really overwhelmed me. 

They were shoestring fries, basically a big ol' ball of them, a huge tangled nest of fries. They weren't easy for Ambrose to eat while driving, because if you pull on one fry, you get 50 more clinging to it. I had to break them up so he could actually eat. 

We got close to finishing the first order of fries, but we didn't touch the second. However, I had an idea about what might be done with them, and I convinced Ambrose we shouldn't just throw them out as soon as we got home. 

Instead, I let them sit overnight and then I made an omelet with them. 

French fries, cheese and a little ketchup in the omelet. 

It was a little trickier to roll than my typical omelets. I had to be careful not to let the egg break as I folded those fries. But it turned out pretty nice on the plate, with a dusting of shredded Dubliner cheese.  

After I took the picture, Ambrose also requested some hot sauce on his omelet, which I was happy to accommodate. I had some on mine as well. 

I did not reheat the fries before putting them on the omelet; instead, I let the omelet warm them up as part of my process. I use an omelet process that I got from YouTube; basically, you treat the eggs like scrambled until they are almost done being liquid, then you turn off the burner, smoosh the eggs flat, and add any other ingredients that need warming. Then I cover it with a pan lid to help warm up the toppings (and melt the cheese!), which get less heat than the eggs since they are not touching the cast iron pan. 

So the fries were warmed by the residual heat from cooking the omelet, but not actually re-cooked themselves. While they didn't taste like fresh fries, they tasted really good in the omelet. I don't think this would have worked so well if the fries were thicker. If I had thicker cut fries, I'd probably go ahead and chop them into smaller, thinner pieces before putting it in the omelet. Otherwise, I'd end up with cold chunks, yuck. 

If I ever have leftover fries again, I know exactly what I'm doing with them. 

Best. Omelet. Yet.

Last Sunday I prepared an omelet for my husband that was so delicious the first thing he told me after taking a bite was: "I'd pay for this. I would pay money for this omelet." 

Now, I've been making omelets for my husband for a while now, and I haven't before received that level of praise for one. I'm going to bet here that a good part of it is that I catered to his tastes by using mushrooms. Although, I have cooked mushroom omelets before and not gotten that compliment - even with morels that we gathered ourselves!

This omelet may also have benefited from a change of eggs. We recently started buying local "backyard" eggs. They vary quite a bit in size, but seem more vibrant in color and flavor. I don't love them very much for my boiled eggs, because they don't peel very well, but in omelets, they do very well. 

In fact, the omelet I made had almost all the ingredients coming from the same place - Old Fashioned Fruit and Veg on Broadway. The eggs came from there, as well as the smoked mozzarella-style cheese, and, the star ingredient, marinated mushrooms. It was just the butter that did not come from there. 

And the omelet pan, of course. 

My idea was to make a mushroom pizza omelet, and I started by dicing up some marinated mushrooms - reserving a few slices for the garnish. I also shredded some of the cheese, because my style of omelet cooking requires everything is prepped beforehand. Ambrose suggested I let the mushrooms sit on paper towels so that they wouldn't be soggy and ruin the omelet. 

Mushrooms getting dry and cheese, ready to go.

I prep the eggs by giving them a whirl in the Ninja blender with a dash of salt and potassium salt. The omelet pan gets a pat of butter and medium heat until it melts. Then, and I only discovered this recently, when I'm ready to start cooking, raise the temp to high and wait about 20 seconds - then add the eggs. Allowing the pan more time to heat really impacts how much egg ends up sticking in the pan after. 

Once the eggs are cooked, time for the filling! 

Filling? Perhaps, in this case, I mean toppings. 

I cover the omelet pan with a pot top to allow the residual heat from the turned off burner to melt the cheese. 

Nice and melty!

Then it's time to roll the omelet up and slide it out of the pan and onto the plate. This one rolled really nicely. Then some more cheese, the garnish mushroom slices, and a hit with the torch to melt the cheese just right. 

The cheese looks like it should be on a pizza! 

So I've set a new bar for omelets. 

Challenge accepted!