Quarantine Adventures: Morning Nature Walk

 I'm sick of being stuck inside. Yes, I go for daily walks but I need a little more nature in my system. I decided to head out to Heckrodt for a morning walk. Danielle and Gavin met me there. I decided it was best if we went early to avoid people. So we were there before 10.

It was a lovely morning for a walk. Everything was greening up and it felt good to be back in nature even for an hour.

We saw deer

and turtles

and cranes

and a fairy house or two.

I definitely need to make time to get back to Heckredt on a Sunday morning. It's definitely the best time to go.

Quarantine Adventures: Other May Author Talks

I've been to several author event this month.. so many that I can barely keep them straight. I talked about some already: Kristy Woodson Harvey and Jennifer Weiner.

Here are a couple other events I tuned into in May.

May 1st -- Janelle Brown
LaGuna Beach Books hosted a Zoom Meeting with Janelle Brown to talk about her new book Pretty Things. Again this was an author I was not familiar with but I was free so why not attend. I enjoyed hearing Janelle talk that Pretty Things has been added to the never ending to read list.

May 21st -- Elin Hildenbrand, Susan Mallory, and Mary Kay Andrews.
Three of my favorite authors together in one spot. Sign me up. This event was sponsored by Cuyahoga County Public Library as part of their Beyond the Book Jacket Series. I was a little shocked when the moderator (and librarian) was an older gentleman. I guess I'm not used to men hosting three women's fiction writers but more power to him. He was a great moderator (and truly enjoyed all the books). Even with a few technological difficulties, it was a great hour. The three women took turns talking about their new books that just came out or is coming out later this summer. This was probably one of my favorite author talks this month.

May 28th -- Alisha Rai
One of the Facebook groups I joined during the Pandemic, Book Club Girls has a monthly book club event where the author of that month's book joins and talks about their book. A winery also is featured and the wine maker talks about the wine at the beginning. You could pre-order the wine ahead of time so you could do the wine tasting as part of the event. This month was Alisha Rai who wrote Girl Gone Viral and The Right Swipe. They were going to discuss Girl Gone Viral along with tasting wine from Malene Wines. I listened to the book on audio book and loved it. It was actually nice being able to discuss a book I actually read. It was a great hour. This one is on the same night usually as my Brenda Novak book group so unless I want back to back author events it is hard for me to join this one all the time.

We will see what authors I find in June and the rest of the summer. I know Cuyahoga County Public Library will probably be one of my new favorite spots to check out authors.

Quarantine Adventures -- Homemade Garlic Knots

As I was reading the recipe for cinnamon rolls, I noticed that I could use the same recipe to make garlic knots. I figured why not.

Like with the cinnamon rolls, you mix yogurt and self rising flour together.

Then you roll out the dough.

Cut them into strips.

Tie into a knot.

Bake. Then brush with garlic butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Initially I did without the garlic and Parmesan cheese. They weren't bad but I definitely used too much flour. I used the whole 1 1/2 cups it called for. It was too much. I probably could have used only about a cup.

We decided to try them again with the garlic butter and less flour. I only used about 1 1/4 cups, just enough for the dough not to be sticky. They tasted much better. They just didn't look like garlic knots but more like pretzels.

We will definitely make them again using the garlic butter.

I really like this dough. It's easy and very versatile. Maybe I will I will use to make pizza rolls or something in the future. Stay tuned.

6475. Make a smoothie

One of the things that was on my 20 in 20 list was to make a smoothie. I'm not a huge fan of smoothies especially if they have bananas in them. The hubby, on the other hand, really likes mango smoothies from DQ, Culvers, and McDonald's. I figured there has to be a smoothie out there that I would like.

Walking through Walmart the other day, I noticed mangoes were on sale and joked maybe we should get mangoes to make smoothies. The hubby was like I will just pick up the pre-cut stuff at work. Much less work. Okay. Since we had to run to Pick n Save for milk for Grandma, I decided to check out yogurt prices since we didn't have enough Greek Yogurt in the house to make smoothies. After a quick recipe check, pick up some yogurt. Then we wandered down the frozen aisle and grabbed some frozen mango and frozen peaches. Guess this smoothie thing was becoming a reality.

I won a Ninja a few years ago that included smoothie making attachments. I decided to put those attachments to good use in making our smoothies.

I added the yogurt, some mango, some peaches, and a bit of honey. Then I let the Ninja do it's job. It was quite a site to see how the Ninja managed to blend all the ingredients together. It was quite noisy though.

After they were blended, I poured them into some glasses and grabbed the nifty straws that Alpha Xi sent me the other year.

Verdict

• The hubby said it needed more mango. It was too yogurt-y for him.
• Me -- I had more peach than mango but it definitely still had a yogurt flavor..

More fruit, less yogurt next time. He wants to try it with custard or ice cream in the future. Maybe I will make him a mango one and I'll try raspberry. I'm still not a huge fan but they are growing on me.

883. Win a radio contest

Since being quarantined, we've been listening to the Grand Ole Opry. We initially started watching it on live stream but after a few weeks switched to the radio broadcast because we liked the announcer better. During commercial breaks, WSM announces their sponsors for the week. The first sponsor is Durango boots and they give a pair away every week. All you had to do was go to WSM online and register. So I did.

I didn't expect to win. However a week later, I got an email from WSM about 5-10 minutes before the show saying I won and my name would be announced on the show. Garth and Trisha were playing the Opry that night. Of Course, I was tuning in. The hubby was a bit skeptical until they announced my name as the winner.

A few days later my certificate was e-mailed to me and I could go online to pick out my boots. I was figuring they was a limit but no -- any pair of boots I wanted, they just had to be in stock.

After browsing for a bit, I found a pair I liked, put them in my cart, and added the promo code. Viola I ordered my first pair of cowboy boots courtesy of Durango boots and the Grand Ole Opry.

They took about a week to get here but they showed up. I probably should have gone with a 9 instead of a 9.5 but it so hard to guess you boot size with a ruler. Now I can't wait for the world to return to normal so I can wear them.

Quarantine Adventures: Happy Hour with the Brewers

Andrea: Are you gonna do the virtual happy hour with the Brewers

Me: Not this week. I should but gotta make dinner. What time is it?

Andrea: 5:15.. there's a link on the page

Me: I might be able to multi-task

Andrea: Charlie Berens is on this week

Me (thinking): who... oh yeah the guy from the Manitowoc Minute

Me: Then I better.

That is how I ended up joining a Zoom Virtual Happy Hour with BA, Counsel, Trevor Hoffman, and Corey Knebel. 

I really wasn't planning on it but I figured I could multitask. I was one of the lucky 1000 fans that joined them for a Virtual happy hour.

It was an hour of shooting the breeze, talking about their careers, Bull Dunham, and life in general. The hubby even listened in. It was pretty hilarious hour. You got to see their basements and man caves.

At one point in time, Craig Counsel changed his Zoom background to a picture of him on a riding lawn mower. Trevor won that lawn mower and gave it to Counsel. The hubby was in stitches.

The last portion of the happy hour call featured Charlie Berens who chatted with the guys about baseball and life. It was hilarious.

I am glad Andrea made me join. I am glad that the Brewers had an event where they could connect with fans. I miss baseball. Hopefully we will be able to see the Brewers play again this year. Until that happens I guess this is the best I can hope for. 

Quarantine Adventures: Bingo Night

Authors have found ways to continue to connect with their readers whether it's a Facebook group, Zoom Sessions, or Q&A answer sessions. I discovered Brenda Novak a few weeks ago and joined her Facebook group. Every month she has a book club event on Facebook and everyone asks questions to the author whose book we read for that month. Well since the pandemic started, she decided to involve her husband and have a monthly bingo night. Yup Virtual Bingo. Sign me up.

Now I'm not a big bingo player mainly because I don't like losing money. I did play a few times at the Legion Post in Grafton with some of the old K-Mart gang when I still lived at home. However Bingo with Brenda was FREE. I like Free.  You could buy a Bingo kit with a cool laminated card, bingo markers, her latest book, and cool storage bag for $35 or you could sign up to play for Free and have your numbers sent to you via email. Obviously you know which option I picked.

I printed off my BINGO card, stuck it in a page protector, and was all set. I even grabbed the dish of M&Ms for markers. Tasty and useful. I told the hubby I needed to be home from seeing the fighter jets by 7 PM to play bingo. I was.

Bingo was great. We played 3 rounds. I didn't even come close to winning. It was a bit difficult to keep track of the numbers if you weren't paying attention because while Ted called the numbers, Brenda wrote them on a white board but could only write 5 at a time.

Yes there were actual prizes from Brenda.. books, book journals, and a surprise box. The first one to call Bingo in the Facebook Live chat (and was seen) was the winner. With the number of people playing it was difficult and additional comments in the chat, it was difficult for them to see the winner at times. Everyone did help everyone out. It is truly a fabulous bunch of women.

So now on top of my usual book club and my new Brenda Novak book club, I have added Bingo with Brenda and Ted to my monthly calendar at least through the summer. Luckily they are all on different nights. Maybe one of these times I will actually get Bingo.. doubtful but one can always dream.

Quarantine Adventures: F-16 Flyover

When I heard that the F-16s were going to be flying over Theda-Clark in Neenah, I wanted to see them. The hubby wanted to see the as well.

The F-16s from the Wisconsin National Guard was doing a training mission where they would flyover various hospitals in the state to salute Healthcare Workers and first responders. They jets would take off from Madison and fly up the lake shore, down to the valley, up to northern part of the state, out to the western part of the state, and back to Madison, flying over many of the major areas' hospitals.

We were lucky. We could see them in Appleton (St. Elizabeth's) or Neenah (Theda Clark). We chose to drive to Neenah. The hubby parked in the lot near the hospital. There were other people waiting for the planes as well. Everyone was following social distancing rules.

You had about 5-10 seconds to see the planes before they were gone. Then you were them. They came from the northeast towards the southwest. 

It was very cool to see even if I didn't get any good pictures and my video, I forgot to hit record. 

I am glad they did this for all the healthcare workers and first responders. They are the ones on the front lines of this pandemic. Hopefully we wouldn't need to do another flyover but I really wouldn't mind seeing the fighters again.

Quarantine Adventures: An Author and Narrator Chat

These author talks keep popping up in my Facebook feed. I really should start to resist them. Really I should... but I don't.

Jennifer's novel Big Summer debuted May 5th. She and her narrator Danielle Macdonald was doing on a Facebook live gig hosted by Simon & Schuster Audio. I have attended several book talks and launches in the last two months but none of the featured the audio book narrator. I was kind of excited to hear about that side of things.

The hour long session was quite delightful. Danielle talked about the trials and tribulations of recording the book just as the pandemic hit. She would normally read ahead a chapter because that is what they were recording. All of a sudden the pandemic hit and now they recording scheduled got moved up and she is finishing the book as she is recording it.

I love Danielle.. she sounds like me. No Lie. I guess I'm really Australian.. With that being said I'm not sure I want to listen to the audio book because she sounds like me and it would get annoying fast.

I can't wait to read Jennifer's book. It sounds amazing.

The nice thing about these author talks is that most of them are Facebook live so they can't see you which means you can cook dinner while listening and no one would know.

The other problem with all these book talks and Facebook book groups I'm part of my to read list keeps growing. It's a tough problem to have.

Quarantine Adventures: Bread in a Bag

Back when this pandemic and quarantine started in March, my friend Kris posted a picture of the bread she and her kids made. It was actually made in a bag and looked delicious. She sent me the recipe. Due to the yeast shortage, yeah kind of odd thing to be out of at the grocery store.., it took me a few weeks to actually get around to make the bread.

The recipe was pretty simple and barely took any time at all.

Basically mix flour, sugar, and yeast in a bag and add warm water. Squish together and let sit for 10 minutes,

After 10 minutes add more flour, some olive oil and salt. Squish again. Then add the rest of the flour and mix.

Remove from bag and knead for about 5 minutes. It's a bit messy getting out of the bag.

Separate the dough into two halves and put each half in a mini loaf pan. Cover with a towel and let raise for 30 minutes. Yes it really does rise.

Then bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy

This is a heartier bread perfect for stews, soups, and chilis on a cold winter night. We actually had it with out chili and it was perfect. Since it made 2 loaves, we had enough bread for both nights of chili.

I am not a fan of making bread because I don't like using yeast or waiting for things to rise. This recipe is painless and create for kids too. Who does like squishing things.

Try it out. You wouldn't be disappointed.

4733. Walk the Loop The Lake Path

One of the things on my 20 in 2020 list was to walk loop the lake path. I've been waiting to do this since it was completed a few years ago. I've walked the trestle trail bridge but never the whole loop.

I figured in the middle of a pandemic would be a good time to go for a 3.5 mile walk around Menasha, Fox Crossing, and Neenah. I also decided that mid-morning was the time to go to avoid people. I don't like people most days so in the middle of pandemic I really want to avoid them.

I started off from Danielle's house, walked the part of the trestle bridge with her and the dogs, and then continued the rest of the way myself. I stopped at Fritse Park to put in my earbuds and listen to the audio book I downloaded earlier.

Like I said, I've never done this whole loop the lake thing before and was slightly worried I'd get lost and have to walk a whole lot more just to get back to my car. Danielle assured me I couldn't get lost. She was right. You literally follow the signs. They point you in the direction you need to go and tell you how far it is to the next landmark. There was only one time I wasn't sure which way to go because there was no sign but logically it made sense to go left and I was right.

It was actually a nice morning for a walk. I explored parts of Neenah, Menasha, and Fox Crossing I've never seen before or just by car. I enjoyed some before scenery along the river.

I will definitely do the loop again. Next time maybe I will try working on my running while completely the loop.