More dinner pictures...

OK, so Bakke wants the challenge. Therefore, I'm going to post a couple more pictures. However, he has the AeroGarden (http://www.aerogrow.com/), which is a cool indoor, herb-growing machine. I'll be honest: I can't compete with that kind of aromatic firepower. I'll try, though. Last night, we made this soup that we used to love getting at the Upstream Brewing Company in Omaha: Smoked Gouda and Blonde Ale Soup. Delicious. We had a little French Bread with Smoked Artichoke Bruschetta or Olive-Garlic Tapenade.

Tonight, I tried out the classic Coq au Vin (French for "Rooster in Wine"--ours was a chicken, not a rooster) with Rosemary Bacon Potatoes. I thought this tasted great, even though it turned out more purple than Barney, due to the wine I chose.

Dinner pictures...

In response to Andy "Emeril" Bakke's request, here is the recipe for the Mexican Corn Salad with Grilled Scallops:

Ingredients:

1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon minced red onion
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
8 small ears of corn, husked
Vegetable oil, for brushing
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon pure ancho chile powder
4 ounces cotija or ricotta salata cheese, crumbled (1 1/4 cups)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Hot sauce
12 large sea scallops
Lime wedges, for serving

Directions:

Light a grill. In a large bowl, toss the garlic and onion with the lime juice and let stand for 10 minutes.

Brush the corn with oil and grill over moderate heat until charred and just tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a work surface and cut the kernels off the cobs.

Whisk the mayonnaise and chile powder into the garlic, onion and lime juice. Add the cheese and corn to the bowl and toss. Season with salt, pepper and hot sauce.

Brush the scallops with vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill over high heat until nicely browned and barely cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Spoon the corn salad onto 4 plates and top with the scallops. Serve with lime wedges.

I do it pretty much just like the recipe. However, I have no idea what kind of cheese that is, nor could I ever find it. So, I just buy one of the small ball-shaped packages of soft mozzarella and crumble about 3/4 of the package up over the hot corn. I think that works OK.

Elephant Seals

Pretty cool--elephant seals sunning themselves along the coast.

Herefords along the Pacific

I took these (I will only post one) for my dad, since we raise Hereford cattle back in Powers Lake. It was pretty cool, though, that there were these secluded pastures bordering the Pacific.

Pacific Coast Highway Photo

A beautiful, high overlook along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Yosemite Trip

We headed up to Yosemite this last weekend. Very beautiful, just like everything you hear about it. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures for several reasons: very crowded, pesky wiener dogs, didn't have a ton of time, and needed to get going since it started snowing. I had heard about the monstrous rocks El Capitan and Half Dome, but I didn't realize how big they were until I saw them up close. Since I didn't do the loyal Tinj blog subscribers any justice by whiffing on the pictures, here's the National Park link with pictures: http://www.nps.gov/yose/.

We were going to traverse Yosemite to the east side and stay in Mammoth Lakes, CA, which is supposed to be a really cool town with a great ski area (http://www.visitmammoth.com/). However, both reasonable routes were closed due to snow in the Sierra Nevada range. Expedia nicely agreed to cancel our room in Mammoth Lakes. Since we had already driven quite a long way, we decided we might as well go somewhere else cool. That magical place, it was decided, turned out to be the Monterey Peninsula, specifically Carmel, which is where we stayed. We got in late, and had to get going on Sunday because we had a long drive back, so once again, I was not coordinated enough to get pictures. Henceforthtowith, I will again link to a website: http://www.carmelcalifornia.com/. This is one of the neatest places I have ever been to. I ran down to the beach on Sunday morning (that's why there are no pictures of this--I didn't want to carry the camera while I was running, and honestly, I didn't realize what I would be missing). Very cool--big waves crashing on the rocky beach, beautiful houses, and, by the way, Pebble Beach Golf Course. From the public beach, look off to the North and you can see the course about 3/4-1 mile away. That's probably the closest I will ever get to that landmark.

We started our drive back by going on the Pacific Coast Highway, which was beautiful. I highly recommend this drive to anyone who ever has the chance to make it. I will post a couple of pictures from this drive. These include one of Tally, the dogs, and me; one of some Hereford cattle (that's what we have back in Powers Lake) in a pasture near the Ocean; and one of Elephant Seals sunning themselves.

We wound our way back partially through some of the vast California wine country. We didn't stop, but will be going back sometime, so stay tuned for that. Also, we did drive by a very cool place called "Hearst Castle". We didn't stop, but I looked it up when we got home (http://www.hearstcastle.org/), and I kind of wished we would have. Oh well, maybe another time.

Dinner tonight...

Just for Andy Bakke, who is always publishing pictures of his gourmet meals: here's what Tally and I had for dinner tonight. It was Mexican Corn Salad with Grilled Scallops. And, yes, Andy, I want a "Throwdown".

One more San Jacinto Peak picture...

Looking West along I-10 towards the San Bernadino Valley. The San Bernardino National Forest can be seen in the background. Just over the smaller peak in the middle of the photo, the Cabazon casino and the outlet mall (and probably Tally shopping there) can be seen along I-10.

Looking North (and slightly East)

Looking North (and slightly East) from San Jacinto Peak down on the large windfarm below. I-10 can be seen at the bottom of the photo. Highway 62 can be seen heading north to Morongo Valley (upper left part of photo). Yucca Valley can barely be seen in the upper right part of the photo, just over a mountain.

View from the Tramway Station looking east down on Palm Springs

Amber (Tally's cousin) visited and a little hiking

It was nice that Tally's cousin, Amber, could swing through the neighborhood to pay us a visit last weekend. Actually, she was in LA for a conference, then came up to visit us and another friend of hers who lives in the area. I have no pictures because Amber insists I get them through her publicist only, and I have not completed the necessary paperwork yet.

Because I (and the rest of the Marine/Navy people in our battalion) were stuck in the field (read: desert) two weekends ago, we got yesterday and Tuesday off. Since Tally was working, I decided to take the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway (http://www.pstramway.com/things.asp) up to Mount San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness. The Tramway is a rotating (360 degrees) car that can hold 80 people and takes you from an elevation of ~2600 feet up to ~8500 feet. It's pretty cool. Then, I decided to hike the 5.5 miles up to the top of San Jacinto Peak. With an elevation of 10, 804 feet, it's the second-highest peak in Southern California. Now, I may not be an expert hiker, and I haven't scaled the tallest peaks on all 7 continents like D. Little, but it was fun nonetheless.