We are back in South Carolina for a short visit to attend the Celebration of Life for John’s cousin who died in December. Her family is here and it has been fun to catch up with them. The next generations are here with Joanne’s children, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. There is nothing more fun than seeing the generations mix together to celebrate someone that we all loved. John and I drove down, with the dogs, mid-week. We drove through every kind of weather you could imagine including an awful snowstorm that started somewhere past Hartford and didn’t end until we got to Carlisle, PA. We had wind, sunshine, rain, snow and all of it mixed together. Luckily we outran the snow and the rain and our third day of travel was rather pleasant.

Update on Jenny Lane

While we have been gone things have not stopped at Jenny Lane. We actually didn’t think that much was planned for this week but it turned out that was not the case. The boys arrived and set about putting in the window in the laundry area. It was a window we saved from the former bathroom which I felt was too small for that room but would be perfect to bring a little light into the laundry. Our guys said it was a good call because it made the laundry room look bigger and definitely brighter. It is kind of a fun window with a very deep sill which I am sure will hold a plant at some point. It’s view peaks out from under the porch, across the patio and out into the woods. There is a bird feeder right there so we might see an occasional bird or squirrel. The other project that was completed was the leveling of the bathroom floor in preparation for the tile. I never knew there were so many steps to making this happen but then I didn’t know a lot of things when we started this project and if I had we might not have started it at all.

Maybe, just maybe, we will see a little more progress before we get home. The sheetrock needs to be taped and mudded which will happen just before we get home and my understanding is that the tile cannot go in until that is done but one never knows what might happen or who might change their mind.

Our European Traveler Returns

After eight weeks in France, our intrepid traveler has returned to New Hampshire. It was a very long flight but she made it safely. We had only a very brief visit with her before we departed for South Carolina but I am sure we will hear many more stories of her time over there as the weeks go by. It was quite an experience for her as she lived with eight of her fellow artists and two faculty members. The program is full on art immersion program based in Aix-en-Provence. From there they travel to some of the best and most famous museums in a number of different cities. It also includes some training in the art of French cooking and they took turns creating meals for each other. The students write a blog post every week with each of them taking a week. It really was wonderful to follow them around Europe to places which included Paris, Barcelona and Florence. Welcome home Libby, even though I know you want to go back as soon as you can!

A Challenge that Exploded

I started doing these virtual challenges last year as a way to make up for not participating in actual walking road races anymore. I joined the Facebook community as a way to stay up on what was happening out there. This past week the Conqueror Community announced a fund-raiser called Stand With Ukraine. It made sense to me so I signed up and am dedicating a portion of my miles to just this challenge. I watched as members of the community (there are over 150K members) began to sign up. I was among the first as you can see my number is 1627 and I signed up on March 7th. The last bib I saw posted was 15,259 for someone who signed up March 13th. That’s what I meant by exploded. The number of people who purchased additional codes and then gave them to others in the group who were not able to join on their own was astounding. All the money raised is going to support NGO’s. So far they have raised $377,632 US by selling these challenges at $20 a pop. Pretty incredible if you ask me. If you click on the words Stand With Ukraine it will take you to the sign up page if you are interested in learning more or if you would like to sign-up. The opportunity ends at midnight on the 13th of March, PST.

Pizza Sundays

For the past two and half years we have had homemade pizza for our Sunday dinner. We started out with frozen dough from the store but quickly graduated to homemade dough using a recipe from King Arthur Flour. The difference is quite substantial. I do not claim to be the chef on this one but rather our daughter Katie and her daughter Libby are the experts. They don’t throw the dough in the air but they don’t need to. It is so delicious. About two weeks ago Katie made a pizza from Half-Baked Harvest that is without a doubt the best one yet – and we have enjoyed some really delicious ones. I shared the picture last week without the recipe but then I received some requests for the recipe so thought I would share it this week. I did not find it on-line but it is in her cookbook. I just learned how to extract text from a photo from Google so I didn’t have to retype the whole thing. Isn’t technology great?

Spicy Italian Sausage and Arugula Pizza

Ingredients:

Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 pound spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
All-purpose flour, for dusting
½ pound pizza dough, store-bought or homemade (recipe follows), at room temperature
½ cup marinara sauce
1 cup coarsely torn fresh basil, plus more for serving
1 roasted red pepper, sliced
½ cup oil-packed sun dried tomatoes,
drained and chopped 1 pound buffalo mozzarella
or smoked mozzarella, torn into pieces
2 handfuls of fresh arugula cup cheese shaved Parmesan
Truffle oil, for drizzling (optional)
Crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil.
2. In a large skillet, cook the sausage over medium heat, until browned, about 8 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it reaches 4-inch thickness. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Spread the marinara sauce over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border, then sprinkle with the basil. Add the sausage, roasted red pepper, and sun-dried tomatoes. Layer the mozzarella on top. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and gooey.
4. Sprinkle the pizza with more basil, the arugula, and the Parmesan. Drizzle lightly with truffle oil, if desired, then add a pinch or two of red pepper flakes. Slice and serve.