Overhead Fred

Happy Halloween! @kazu - Jacqui, you are way overdue for Treats! There have been far too many "tricks" for you lately....

A few of pictures of Puerto Quetzal and Antigua (April, 2017) -

My left arm was a bit sore from the Flu and Covid shots we got on Thursday (had them do both in the same arm), but no worse than the usual flu shot. I did feel a bit blah yesterday afternoon and worried that it might carry over to tennis today. Luckily, I felt fine this morning. Looks like we will have sunny weather and temps close to 70 for the rest of the week. It should be nice for the Trick or Treaters!

Mitzi and I get our flu shots and 3rd Covid boosters at noon today. Hopefully, any soreness will wear off before my Saturday morning tennis! @grapau27 Happy Birthday!

Today is my birthday. I am 35 (again!)😁 We celebrated with Niall and Emilee (DS & SO) yesterday with Indian take out and a lovely chocolate cake -

We made it back to Saint Paul safe and sound. Other than driving through near blizzard conditions around Bracebridge Ontario, the drive was fairly uneventful. The snow took us (and probably everyone else) by surprise. Power was out in several spots, likely because of the very heavy, wet snow bring down tree limbs and power lines. There were cars being towed with mashed up front and rear ends and cars in the ditches. Thankfully, by the time we got to Port Carling and Parry Sound we were out of the snow and driving conditions were back to normal. I played tennis this morning with my regular group. I hadn't played all summer cuz we were at the cottage most of the time. I was a bit rusty to say the least!

We are doing our final packing and last steps for closing up the cottage. We head back to Minnesota this morning. We'll stay overnight in Sault Ste Marie and be back in St. Paul Friday for dinner!

We are working on closing up the cottage for the season and the weather has turned a bit blustery. Our son texted that it snowed a bit in Saint Paul yesterday so I shouldn't complain too much! I took the boat out yesterday and will haul it to the shop for winterization this morning -

It is the seafood market in the Marina area next to the cruise ship pier. The guide for our walking tour explained the origins of the name to us, but I cannot recall the story now! Here is the other end of the market -

Ensenada, December 2017, on the way back from Hawaii -

We enjoyed the stop in Malaga during our 2018 TA -

Here are some views of HMC from a slightly different perspective. I wandered down to the far end of the beach on our last visit -

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! We will be putting a smallish turkey in the oven today to celebrate at the cottage. Butter tarts for dessert! Kind of a practice run for when we are back in the States for the US Thanksgiving...

We have been to St. Kitts twice and quite liked it. These are from the latest stop in March 2022 (Nieuw Statendam). The port entry- Brimstone Hill Fortress

Another lovely Canadian sunrise today -

We have been enjoying the slow progression of Fall colors here in the Kawarthas -

Nattering Nabobs of Negativism?

Here is this morning's sunrise -

There was a little frost on the boathouse roof this morning!

Last night, we made one of the skillet chicken recipes that @dfish posted last Tuesday. The "Easy Creamy Chicken Skillet" was very good. I had to make a few modifications to fit the ingredients on hand, but nothing too major. I think it could be a good recipe for entertaining. You could sauté a bunch of chicken breasts and make the sauce ahead of time. Instead of putting the chicken back into the sauce-filled skillet to finish cooking, you could put them in a casserole and cover with the sauce and refrigerate. Then pop them in the oven to heat everything through and serve for a "crowd".

@dfish - Hooray! Maybe you should splurge for fancy-pants wine in a bottle! I will be honoring National Drink Beer Day with 2 growlers of IPA from the Muskoka Brewery - Hopefully there will be some left over for tomorrow...

We are back in Canada to enjoy a few weeks of Fall in the Kawarthas and close things up. We took some extra time (3 days instead of 2) on the drive over. We stayed overnight in Sault Ste Marie as usual but finally had time to wander around by the Soo locks before dinner. While it is not quite as impressive as the Panama Canal, it is still fun to watch the ships lock through -

Shiver me timbers! Yesterday's diner was a hit. The Mexican street corn salad was delicious and I highly recommend trying it. I used a chimichurri-style wet rub on the grilled sirloin and served it with freshly made chimichurri sauce - another winner that will be repeated! It works well for a larger group since it doesn't take too long on the grill. Mitzi's potato salad was up to her usual high standards. I also tried Ree Drummond's green beans and tomatoes. Since they have bacon in them it was bound to be good and it did not disappoint. Ree has a few versions of this recipe but I used the one from Parade Magazine ( https://parade.com/224585/reedrummond/green-beans-and-tomatoes/). It is a very forgiving recipe since it can cook for a long time and can be held at serving temperature for fairly long. It might take the place of the ubiquitous mushroom soup-based green bean casserole this Thanksgiving. We made a rustic blueberry tart topped with vanilla crème fraiche and lemon zest for dessert. So, we tried three new-to-us recipes and they all were good and we will make them all again. The only down-side was that everyone dug into the food before I could get pictures to share here!

We had cheeseburgers last night! Our neighbors are coming over tonight for Argentinean style grilled sirloin with chimichurri sauce. I am also going to try the Mexican street corn salad recipe that @dfish posted a few weeks ago. Stopped in Livorno once but did not spend any time there (we went to Lucca instead). The port seemed pretty "industrial" -