Unexpected apples

The apple tree wasn't here 32 years ago when we built our house. Somewhere in the intervening years between then and now, it sprang up. I've made many an apple pie and plenty of applesauce in those years, and often dump the apple cores and peelings "over the bank" to enrich the soil. We can only assume that our spindly apple tree got its start from one of those seeds. One early summer, we noticed a sprig of apple blossoms on the tree. An apple tree! We were excited to see it, but knew better than to expect much of it.

The next spring, there were more blossoms. And the next year, more. 2005 and 2006 were banner years for our apple blossoms -- and yes, we had apples. We tasted them and, even though they aren't much to look at on the outside, they taste pretty good!

Last week I went out and picked up a few and made applesauce for my parents. It tasted so good that the next day I picked up a large bowlful of apples. Mr. T discovered that our apple peeling/coring machine works fine on these windfall apples, and I've made 2 more batches of applesauce since. What a sweet, unexpected bonus!

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 3

Our Amtrak Adventure,
Part 3: Union Station,Chicago, IL Chicago, not far from Union Station

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 3

Union Station

We were scheduled for a four-hour layover in Chicago, and looked forward to exploring the station and maybe going up the Sears Tower. (I will admit that my husband was much more gung-ho about this possible adventure than I was.) The weather was ruling out the Sears Tower as we approached Chicago, being gray and drizzly. Time was also ruling it out... as mentioned, our train was over an hour late at this point. Time became even more of an issue at the baggage claim.

Since the station we would be getting off at in Nevada was an unmanned one, we had to claim our baggage at Chicago and bring it to the next train with us. It would ride on the sleeping car with us from here on out. We had only checked 3 bags, and 2 of them came through quickly. We had quite a wait for the third bag, however, and time was rapidly ticking by. But once we had all our bags, help was in sight!

One of the wonderful perks of riding first class is access to Amtrak's Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago. (I believe the stations in Boston and New York also have them, and maybe other stations as well.) We were so thankful we had this nice place to wait, and a place within the lounge to store our bags. You check in when you first arrive, and the nice people at the desk write you up a pass which you will use to get in and out of the lounge. They also write on this pass what time your train will be boarding, and it serves as your boarding pass as well.

The Metropolitan Lounge is a very large waiting area just filled with comfortable couches, chairs, loveseats, and coffee tables, end tables, even tables with chairs to work or eat at. There's even a fireplace. There's a large TV screen and also monitors to check arrivals and departures of trains. There's plenty of free soft drinks, coffee, tea, water, and snacks. We quickly found a nice loveseat with its own coffee table and settled in. Then, since we knew we wouldn't be getting lunch on the California Zephyr, Mr.T went out of the station to Potbelly, a sub shop previously recommended by a friend. He brought back some yummy subs and we enjoyed them with the complimentary Pepsi provided there in the lounge. While he was gone, I people-watched and got lots of cross-stitch done. The lounge really filled up during the time we were there. It was encouraging to see men giving up their seats for ladies and younger people offering their seats to older folks.

Another really neat thing about being in the Metropolitan Lounge is that when your train is ready to board, you can get redcap service right there from the lounge. So when the California Zephyr was ready to board, we found a redcap right at the door of the lounge waiting for us. A speedy little baggage vehicle whisked us right to the train!

Next installment: First Class on the California Zephyr

Menu Plan Monday

It's good to be back in the groove of menu planning after 2 weeks of vacation. I did do some cooking at my daughter's house and helped with meal prep at her in-laws' home, where we were staying, but on the train we just sat back and enjoyed our meals. That was fun, but I'm glad to be back to my regular routine.

Here's my plan for the week:

MONDAY: Crabmeat Breakfast Pie, Potato Wedges, Asparagus Stir-fry Veggies

TUESDAY: Hearty Pasta Tomato Soup, Seven-Grain Bread

WEDNESDAY: Crockpot Ribs, Mashed Potatoes, Winter Squash

THURSDAY: Creamy Country Chicken & Vegetables, Biscuits or Cornbread

FRIDAY: Italian Baked Pasta, Winter Blend Vegetables, Ciabatta Bread

SATURDAY: Bruschetta Chicken Bake, Italian Mixed Vegetables, Salad

SUNDAY: (our monthly potluck at church) Nevada Chili-Albondigas Soup, Herbed Dinner Rolls, Crumb-Topped Apple Pie

Looking forward to seeing others' menus!

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 2

Part 2 -- Traveling First Class on the LAKE SHORE LIMITED

This leg of our trip took us from Albany, NY to Chicago, IL. This Lake Shore Limited was train 49, and it was also “Late-for-Sure” -- about 40 minutes late. But, as we were to learn, 25 minutes and 40 minutes were not long delays at all. Trains can (and often do) run several hours late.



We enjoyed seeing the train station at Albany during our layover there. It is new and absolutely beautiful. It has a food court and even its own branch post office.








And it’s good we got to see it on the way out, because we didn’t see it on the return trip -- just stepped from one train to the next outside. During our wait we snacked on granola bars and speculated as to whether we would be too late to get supper on the train. (We weren’t.)

Even roomettes -- the cheapest, smallest rooms in sleeping cars -- are considered First Class on Amtrak, so meals are complimentary, along with other treats like in-room morning newspapers, coffee, juice, and bottled water. We had heard good things about the food in the dining car, and we weren’t disappointed. I wrote in my journal:

“Supper was good, although we were eating very late. Mr. T had Beef Ragout, and I had the roast chicken. We even had dessert -- he had cheesecake, and I had Mississippi Mud Cake. Very good!”

Here’s another excerpt from my journal: “10:15 p.m. -- We’re cozily ensconced in our little roomette. It IS small, but very comfy indeed. We think we’ll sleep very well. They fit an amazing amount in such a small space. There’s a toilet in here, two bunks, a fold-down sink, a fold-down table, quite a bit of storage space -- it’s great!”

Here's a photo which shows part of our roomette. You can see the window, the fold-down table (in the closed position), a corner of one seat, and our water bottles.

I should add that the Lake Shore Limited sleeper cars are what’s called a Viewliner. When the upper bunk is brought down into position, the person who has that space gets his very own picture window. The roomettes on the Viewliners do seem much more spacious. The Superliners (which we’ll get to later) have an upper level, with bedrooms on both levels, so understandably the rooms need to be smaller.

We didn’t sleep as well as we’d hoped, but I think that’s understandable -- getting used to the motion of the train, hearing the track sounds and the whistle (which blows almost constantly at times) and -- something we hadn’t anticipated -- the roar of passing freight trains.

There was a shower just down the hall -- rather cramped quarters, but not bad. The hardest thing to deal with was getting bounced around as the train sped along the tracks. On this train, I had a rather scary experience -- after showering and dressing, I found that I couldn’t open the door into the hallway! Somehow, probably from all the movement of the train, it had gotten stuck in the locked position! I had visions of myself having to ring for the car attendant to let me out. Fortunately, I was able to use a comb to push up on the bolt and open the door.

Breakfast was wonderful. Mr. T chose the Bob Evans Scramble, a mixture of eggs, sausage and cheese, which comes with hash browns and a bowl of fruit on the side. I ordered the three-cheese quiche, which was excellent, with sausage patties on the side. Juice and coffee were also included for both of us. We had already found, by this point, that one of the highlights of this trip was going to be sitting with all sorts of different people at meals and getting to know them just a bit. I imagine some people hate this part, but we really enjoyed all of the different folks we were able to meet and chat with.

The Lake Shore Limited pulled into Union Station in Chicago about an hour and 10 minutes behind schedule. Late-for-Sure again!

Next Installment: Union Station

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 1

Parts 1 (and 7) -- Coach Class on the LAKE SHORE LIMITED

We began our journey traveling in coach class on the Lake Shore Limited from Massachusetts to Albany, New York, and ended it by traveling, again in coach, from Albany to Massachusetts. This leg of our trip was only 3 or 4 hours long, so that is why we traveled in coach. We were on train 449 -- due to arrive at 2:20 that first day, but which actually arrived closer to 2:45.

I had done a lot of research into Amtrak travel, and was expecting a lot of friendliness from the Amtrak folks. We didn’t see that in Massachusetts, either coming or going. That could well be just Massachusetts itself! In other places, we found the Amtrak folks in the stations, and especially on the trains, to be very friendly and helpful.

We were pleasantly surprised by the comfort of the seating in the coach cars. The seats are roomy, comfortable and will recline. There are foot rests and pull-down tables in front of you, and much more legroom than in airplane seats. Each coach car has two restrooms, and there is a cafe´car where one can purchase snacks, sandwiches, etc. We had eaten lunch before we got on the train, so were not hungry. Toward the end of the trip, we snacked on some grapes we’d brought along.

The views of the fall foliage from our windows were very nice -- unfortunately, many of the photos we took also feature the knees of the young men in the seats across from us. This part of the trip was just a bit nerve-racking because we were seated in the midst of a group of foreign-exchange students -- high-school age, I would say -- who spent most of the trip roaming the aisles and chatting with one another in German (or a similar language) quite loudly. At first it didn’t bother us, but I had quite a headache by the time we got to Albany.

Here’s an excerpt from my journal concerning Part 1 of the trip:

“2:55 p.m. -- “Well. we are aboard the Lake Shore Limited and moving toward Albany. The conductor has just come through and punched our tickets. The train was a good 25 minutes late. I read on the Internet that this train is nicknamed the “Late-for-Sure Limited”, and so far it is proving true!“

On this leg of the journey on our return trip, we saw some lovely views from the windows, but we reclined our seats and slept most of the way.
All in all, our experience in coach class was a good one, and we decided we could do an entire short trip in coach easily -- as long as it didn’t involve more than one overnight.

Next installment -- First Class on the LAKE SHORE LIMITED.

Fall cleaning challenge update

Before leaving on vacation, I actually did get quite a bit done on the fall cleaning challenge set forth by Carrie. Here's what I accomplished:

* Shop-vacced (is that a word?) the front porch.

* Washed down the porch furniture.

* Put a fall tablecloth on the porch table.

* Thoroughly cleaned both the inner and outer front doors.

* Got Mr. T to put away his tools which were spread all over the porch.

* Washed the floor and vacuumed walls in the front hallway.

* Did a little bit more fall decorating.


And here's what I still have to do:

* Wash glass in both doors.

* Do some decluttering in the corner cupboard in the dining room.

* Declutter my "incoming mail" area and figure out a better system for it.

It was lovely to come home to a decluttered, clean, inviting porch. In fact, my whole house was neat, pretty, and welcoming. Unfortunately, it didn't take us long to trash it with suitcases, laundry, stacks of newspapers dropped off by the paper guy, and a tub of mail the post office had held for us. I have my work cut out for me in the coming week! And who knows, Carrie may come up with another challenge any day now...

A couple of photos

Here is just a tiny example of what we saw from the windows of the California Zephyr as it made its way through the Rockies in Colorado and Utah. It was simply incredible. The pictures in no way do it justice! I don't know how anyone could look at such incredible beauty and not see the hand of the Creator. Hopefully in a few days I can share some more photos and more of a "travelogue" of our trip.