Up North Mommy

They're almost ready

Michigan cherries are legendary. Northern Michigan, Traverse City in particular, is the ideal location to grow cherries. From what I understand, it's the climate that allows these fruit trees to really flourish, and we are lucky enough to have one really fertile Montmorency (tart) cherry tree, on our property. We have two trees actually, but only one produces a lot of cherries.

This past weekend my brother's girlfriend, Kathryn, enlisted my five year old's help, and the two of them picked and pitted enough cherries to bake a wonderful homemade cherry pie. I'd show you a picture, but it was gone before it had the chance to take one.

So for the next few days, I'm going to watch these cherries carefully, and as soon as they're at their ripest, my son and I are going to do some major cherry picking for cherry pies, cherry cobbler, and maybe even some cherry jelly if I can figure out how to make it.

It was some 4th of July party

To celebrate the 4th of July after a day of hard work, we hosted a cookout for our family and our employees.  I went down to the Valley Food Center in Pinconning, the only place to buy fresh, quality meat at a great price.  If you live in Northern Michigan and haven't tried Valley Food Center, you need to experience it.  It is well worth the drive.  This is the great deal I got:

1 slab of Select New York Strip loin cut (for free) into 18 individual 3/4 inch thick steaks for $48.50.

1/2 slab of Prime Rib cut (for free) into 6 individual 3/4 inch thick steaks for $23.50.

10 pounds of choice ground chuck for $19.10.

And the meat was fantastic.  We used the Montreal Steak marinade from my McCormick Grill Mates kit.  Dena, one of our employees whose grandfather used to own the livery, did all the grilling. Since she used to own her own restaurant, you can just imagine how tasty and perfectly cooked our NY Strips, prime rib, and burgers were. We had home made potato salad and taco salad.  And to top it all off we had a fantastic home made cherry pie made with the cherries from very our cherry trees.

Once everyone's stomachs were full, the guys lit up cigars.  Everyone had a great time talking, laughing, and just having a grand ol' time.

It was one heck of a party, let me tell you.

Fat Ticker Friday - Independence Day version

we It's Fat Ticker Friday once again, and I'm pleased to say that I lost another pound!  I still feel like I need to get on the stick because at this rate I'm not going to meet my 8 pound weight loss my July 25th, but I, again, will take a pound any day.

So here are my goals for the coming week:  Keep eating well as I have been but add exercise, and I'm doing that in a bit of a nontraditional way.  I normally work in the office of our canoe livery checking in customers, taking reservations, etc.  Three days this week I am going to go out with the guys and help put people into the water. That means I will help load and unload canoes, rafts, tubes, and kayaks.  That will be a nice workout that's both equivalent to weight lifting and aerobic exercise.

Another hit recipe

I made a new dinner tonight that was inspired by this recipe at allrecipes.com.  I say inspired because the original recipe was too much work for a quick meal, so I simplified it and used chicken instead of tuna steak.

1 16 package of angel hair pasta
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, mined
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed or soaked in oil
3/4 cup sliced marinated artichoke hearts
2 teaspoons Thyme leaves (honestly, I don't know how much I put on the chicken.I just sprinkled it until I liked the aroma.)

Boil water for pasta.   Cut up the chicken.  Add olive oil  to skillet on medium heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add chicken and cook until almost done.  When water is boiling, add pasta and cook for 8 - 10 minutes.  Add thyme and stir until the chicken is coated.  Add sun-dried tomatoes (Do not drain) and cook for several minutes. Add artichoke hearts (Do not drain).   Stir until the chicken is cooked completely through and the tomatoes and artichokes are hot.

Once the pasta is done, drain it and coat with olive oil to keep pasta from sticking together.  Toss pasta and chicken mix together and serve.  It's really delicious. My husband also packed up what was left for his lunch tomorrow.

I love my monthly trips to the salon

Today I went to my hair salon, The Cutting Castle, to get my hair highlighted, colored, and cut.  Not only are the stylists wonderful - Marry does the best job on my daughter's funky hair - but the salon has a wonderful small town atmosphere. It reminds me of Truvy's Salon in Steel Magnolias, where all the local ladies congregate to gossip and socialize.

Not only did Kris do a great job on my hair - again - but I also got virtually my whole face waxed. In May, as you may remember, I got my eyebrows waxed for the first time and loved it, so this time I went for the entire kit 'n caboodle and had almost my entire face waxed. Yes, I have some - only some; I'm not gorilla woman - extra hairs on my face, and for the first time, I got them all waxed off. Kris did my eyebrows, my upper lip, and my chin. I know that sounds gross, but I have these dozen or so annoying little hairs that like to grow out of my chin and taunt me. No matter how often I tweeze them, the come back and I swear faster than they did before.  And honestly, I don't remember having them until after I had kids.  Really.

But now they are gone. Ha!

So this is what my face and hair looked like when I returned from the salon. Don't I look so pretty with my red face?

The first thing I noticed was that my eyes look puffy.  First, I didn't sleep well last night. Second,  I, unfortunately, have my dad's eyes. By that, I mean the upper portion of his eyes are starting to hang over his eye lids. He looks like he in dire need of having eyes done, and I have a feeling that in another 10 years or so I'll need to get my eyes done.

I think I need to do the spoon in the refrigerator thing.

And we're back

We returned from our romantic night out at around 1:00 pm today and got back into the swing of things so seamlessly it was like we never left. 

But we had a tremendously fantastic time.  The Grand Traverse Resort is wonderful, modern, and very chic.  The restaurant where we had dinner, Aerie, was on the 16th floor and had glass walls and ceiling, so you had a beautiful view no matter where you sat. We were seated against the glass wall that had a gorgeous view of the Grand Travers Bay.  It was overcast and rainy, but the view was beautiful nonetheless.  And the food...the food was outstanding.  I ordered the tomato appetizer, the radicchio salad, and the arctic char entree. Steve ordered the scallops as an appetizer and trout for his entree and then we split the buddy's sundae for dessert. Afterward, he ordered a brandy and I finished my martini.

And I must say, I looked hot.  Sadly, I don't have any proof of my hotness because we didn't take a picture of me in my sexy and fun sleeveless black dress.  So what I may have to do is fake it and have a friend take a picture of me wearing it tomorrow.

After dinner we headed over the newly rebuilt Turtle Creek Casino but we didn't do very much gambling. The blackjack tables were filled all night, which is what we had our sights on. We played a little roulette and a few slots but returned to our hotel for drinks after a couple of hours.

The only complaint I have is that when I woke up this morning, I had an awful knot in my upper left quadrant of my back. When my husband got his fingers in there and rubbed deeply it to loosen it up, I could feel it all the way into my left elbow.  Even now when I turn my head to the left, I can still feel the knot pull.  Steve mentioned that he had a similar knot as well.  I think it was the pillows. They must have placed our heads at an odd angle compared to our bodies. 

For my birthday, Steve bought me a new Coach purse and matching wallet. For our anniversary, he got me a beautiful princess cut diamond pendant necklace. I love it. It's so simple and delicate. It's perfect.

Last night was so romantic. It was like our honeymoon, but for just one night. 

We're leaving in a red '99 TA convertible

As a surprise for my birthday, tomorrow, and our tenth anniversary, July 4th, my husband booked us a room at the Grand Traverse Resort just outside Traverse City.   I'm very excited about heading out there since it will be a chance for Steve and me to be together alone, something we haven't done in a long while. I'm looking forward to doing the things we did before we had kids: drink a vodka martini (just me - Steve prefers Manhattans), smoke a cigar, gamble in a casino, and have a quiet dinner.  Not in that order, though.

I am planning on taking a nap today, at least I hope I can take a nap, otherwise, tonight's plan of martinis, cigars, gambling and dinner will not come to fruition and our anniversary night will not be very anniversary-ish, if you get my meaning. I also want to get over to West Branch and see if I can find something sexy and fun to wear tonight. I have an image in my head of what I'm looking for, but I'm not sure I will be able to find it at the small, but nice, Tanger Outlet in West Branch.  If I were looking for a Coach purse, not  a problem. West Branch had the only Coach outlet in all of Michigan for a long time.  Then Birch Run put one in, but theirs isn't as nice.

As I said, I'm hoping to get to West Branch to find something sexy and fun. I'll let you know if I have any success.

Fishing buddies

Steve and Little Man went out fly fishing today after our busy day in the livery, which meant Little Man got to wear his new waders and try out an actual fly rod.  Up until this point, he's been using either his Batman or Spiderman fishing pole, but no more.  He's figured out that they are kid's fishing poles, and he wants nothing to do with them.  Instead, he wants to use a real fly rod so he can "be a real fly fisherman" as he put it. 

So off they went, two peas in a pod, to wade into the AuSable River to cast to their hearts' content.  Until it was time to come in for the night.

I love a good cup of coffee in the morning

Actually, who doesn't love a good cup of coffee in the morning? But I especially love mine when it's in one of my tin Up North coffee cups.  There's just something about sipping coffee from a tin coffee cup. It makes me feel like I'm on the river bank on a crisp, cool summer morning drinking campfire coffee as I watch the Au Sable river drift by. No matter what it is, I swear, my coffee just tastes better when I drink it from a tin coffee cup.

What a sad little flower

Little Man brought a planted flower home from school a while back. I did with it what I did with all the other plants he brought home from school:  I put it on the window sill above the kitchen sink. 

It appears to be a hardy flower, I have to say, because I have managed to bring it back from a couple of near death experiences.

Anyway, here's the flower as it currently sits on my window sill:

Unfortunately, I'm clueless when it comes to horticulture. I don't even know what kind of flower this is. I'd like to replant it, but I don't know if I should I replant it in a larger pot or in the ground. If I do plant it outside, I don't know where to plant it. Does it need all sun, a mix of sun and shade, or all shade? If anyone happens to know, I'd really appreciate any information.