OPEN FIRE COOKING ON PAPER TOWEL!!

How many of you have heard of cooking a beef roast over a wood campfire using wet paper towel and a bed of rock salt to cook on?

Our friends Bob and Sue Underwood from Ohio/Florida have been up visiting us for a few days. We have both been fixing roasts this way for several years now and decided last night would be a good time to fix one for our supper.

A couple of hours prior to cooking you need to get a good hard wood campfire going and let it burn down to a good hot bed of coals with just a few flickering flames of fire showing.

I am including a few photos of Bob preparing the roast and doing the cooking. You take 8 or 10 layers of soaking wet paper towel ... place them on the cold grill. On top of the towel pat on a solid covering of rock salt about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle the roast with granulated garlic and a little black pepper. You then lay the roast on the bed of rock salt. Place another bed of the salt on top of the roast and 8 to 10 layers of soaking wet paper towel on it. Tuck the paper in around the sides so none of the meat is showing.

I might note the roast we did was a chuck roast, cut 3 inches thick and weighed a little over 3-1/3 pounds. Anyway, you swing the roast out over the bed of coals. This size of roast, we cook on the first side for about one hour. Then, swing it off the fire and flip it over... cooking another 15 to 20 minutes. This will produce some of the finest eating roast beef you have ever tasted!

I should note, it will not be salty like you think it would. The salt makes a solid crust and does not stick to the meat. The cooking times we used, produced well done meat on the outside and pink medium rare on the inside. Once you have done one or two roast you will get a feel for the cooking time in relation to the size of the roast. It is also important to note a cheap cut of meat, such as the chuck will produce better results than the more expensive cuts.

Good Luck and enjoy!!!

SUCH A SAD FATHER'S DAY FOR ME...

This day (Father's Day) the day that is a happy day for most men, is a very sad and trying day for me. I am sure by now you are wondering why I would make a statement such as this.

The day started off just wonderful... emails, cards, chats and phone calls from my two wonderful daughters. Ginnie gave me a card with two candy bars.. told me how much she loved me and asked which of my favorite dishes she could fix for me. Sounds like a perfect day doesn't it... It was, until Ginnie got the camera out and took my picture.. with my trusty dog Sparky in one hand and my remote control in the other. Then, as I was looking at the picture I suddenly realized this would be my last Father's Day in my trusty old chair after decades of being together.

Both Ginnie and the kids have been trying to talk me into a new chair and getting rid of the old one for several weeks now. I started having back problems and when I when to my Chiropractor Doctor Cherie I had a suspicion there was a conspiracy going on between her and Ginnie. Out of no where, she asked... are you setting in and old chair that is broken down and worn out??? How would she have known about my chair, had Ginnie not blabbed to her???

Well anyway, against my better judgment I got dragged two different days to three different furniture stores to pick out a new chair. When I signed the order for the new chair I felt like I just sentenced and old friend to certain death! You see, in about three or for weeks that new chair will be delivered and the old one has to go.

Yes... I am sad... that old chair... my Throne and I will never spend another Father's Day together......

ONE PROUD DAY FOR GRANDMA AND ME!!

MICHAEL, EMILY AND ELLIE
Today is a very proud day for Ginnie and I. After all these years of study and hard work.. today our granddaughter is, Doctor Emily Ann D.O.

We are very proud of her.. to say the very least!!

LASTING FRIENDSHIPS

Friendships come in many variations... some take years to develop... some are instantaneous... some are over with almost as fast as they are formed and some last a life time.

Today I am writing about a friendship Ginnie and I have with a wonderful couple from Bracebridge, Canada.... Jack and Audrey McFadden. This is a friendship that was formed over 10 years ago. It was both instantaneous and will most likely last a life time.

Ginnie, Mandy (our little Yorkie) and I were staying at the State Park and Campground in Gulf Shores, Alabama for the winter. At the time we had not gotten into 5th Wheeler RV's, but had a Jayco travel trailer. Ginnie and Mandy met a lady (Audrey) walking her dog. They started a conversation about the dogs... it lead to what each had for an RV. We found Jack and Audrey had a Jayco too, but it was a 5th Wheeler.

Audrey brought Jack to our RV to meet me and it all kind of started out from there. I asked if they were into computers and if so, could we have their email address. When we both got home we started occasionally sending each other an email.

While we did email, we had not seen each other for almost 8 years. One day Audrey emailed us saying a trip they were taking in their RV would bring them to Michigan. We asked them to stop and visit and told them we had a place for them to park their RV. We had electric, water etc. for them to hook up to, just like in a campground. They came by in July of 2007 and stayed a few days. I should mention, we had not seen each other for so long, we email pictures, so we would recognize each other!

We kept busy while they were here, making the most of their stay. Sweet Corn was in season, so one afternoon we did a BBQ with grilled, in the husk corn being one of the main courses. As you can see.. it went over pretty darn good!!

Well, this is June 2009 and we have not seen each other since their visit in July 2007... almost 2 years ago. We stay in touch with email letters and pictures almost weekly and now with Facebook, sometimes daily. Yes... this is a friendship that will last our lifetimes. We were so Blessed back in 1998 to have made their acquaintance.

YOURS TRULY.. HARD AT WORK

Here I set.. in front of our computer at our Cabin In The Woods of Northern Michigan. The PC is setting on a walnut computer desk I built from lumber logged out of my Grandpa Burt's woods down in Ohio. Grandpa pass away March 22, 1970... he was 86 years old. The logs were cut, rough sawn and the lumber dried several years prior to 1970, while he was still in good health and able to work in the woods.

You will notice on my right is a photo of two favorite people of mine.. President George Bush and his lovely wife Laura. I look at their photo several times a day and mentally give "Thanks" to them both for their good morals and to President Bush for keeping us safe here at home, following the disaster of 9-11. The Liberal Media never liked him.. but, he was and still is a Great President!!

Ginnie and I both love our computers... the desktop here at home and the laptop we carry with us in our RV. Our life, our family and our friends revolve around them. Family and friends scatted all over the world are seconds away. I have to chuckle to myself how our oldest daughter Laurie talked us into getting our first computer back in 1996 when I retired. We were so green to computers, we had to ask how to turn our first one on! Now here I set.. composing my blog!

We are both approaching 75 years of age and have to marvel at the changes we have seen so far in our lifetimes. What more can possibly be invented??? I guess time will tell and we will be standing in line waiting to try it out.

Yes... we have been BLESSED!

OUR LOG CABIN IN THE WOODS OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN

After being on the road for seven months in our RV, it is good to be back at our little corner of the world... Our Cabin In The Woods of Northern Michigan.

We love the laid back atmosphere the north woods has to offer. Along with the beauty of the woods, the beautiful sky and the cool clean air, we are surround with natures creatures... everything from the smallest up to the larger ones, such as black bear, deer elk etc.

Ginnie was born and raised in Michigan. I was first introduced to the north woods, when asked by her dad to go deer hunting in the area we now live in. That was back in 1953.. the year we got married. I knew back then I would one day want to live here. In 1963 we bought property and built a shell of a cabin to vacation in.

In 1993 we sold our home Ohio and move north. After three years of adding on to the cabin.. remodeling it and building a barn/shop, garage. wood shed etc. we now have a modern place to live, but still in the wild. Ginnie loves her flower gardens and I think she does a marvelous job keeping them in top shape.

If you ever get up our way stop by... this is about as close as you will get to Heaven, with out actually being there!

VISITING GINNIE'S FAMILY

On our way home from New London, Ohio we decided to stop for a few days in the Milford/Clyde, MI area to visit Ginnie's family.

This is the area where Ginnie was born and spent the first 17 years of her life. In 1951 she moved to New London, Ohio and finished her eleventh and twelfth grades of high school. (That is how we met.)

I am terrible at remembering to take pictures.. although I carry the camera with us... I then forget it is in the truck. Therefore, I did not get pictures of all her relatives we got to visit. I have included photos of those whose pictures I did remember to take. We both had a wonderful time visiting the family.

The first photo is Ginnie with two of her nieces.. Chris and Dana. We were at Chris and Marty's for coffee that morning and Dana dropped by.

The second photo is with Ginnie's nephew John and his wife Debbie. (They picked us up and took us to breakfast on Mother's Day morning.

The balance of the photos were take at Ginnie's great niece Erin's house. Her and her husband Dave put on a wonder Mother's Day BBQ for the Gardner family. We were blessed to have been invited and had a wonderful time.

The third photo is Erin's dad Terry... her brother Lee and her husband Dave.

The fourth photo is Lee's wife Leslie and Erin.

The last photo is Erin's mother (Ginnie's niece) Dana and Erin's husband Dave's mother.

Like I said, I missed taking pictures of several others... maybe I will do better next time!

We are leaving Ginnie's old home town area this morning and heading up to Otter Lake for a couple of days to visit our old neighbors, Bernie and Bonnie Thomas. We will be staying at Otter Lake RV Park. Thursday AM we will be on our way home to our Log Cabin In The Woods. We left there last Oct. 15th. and it will be good to get home once again after being gone for seven months.