Brent's Roasted Summer Squash Soup

Ok, this is one of my creations.  For those of you who do not know, I have a cooking interest despite not doing it very often.  This recipe is one I created after some research into how I can better use my squash besides the usual sautee with butter.  The squash, chives, and jalapenos are from the garden.  It was actually very tasty!

4 lbs yellow squash
3 lbs tomatoes
2 tbs minced garlic
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 stalks celery
1 medium onion
3 chive stalks
1 sprig oregano
2 jalapenos
4 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
2 tbs vinegar
1 tbs sugar
2 teaspoons salt
Ground black pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper or more as desired

Cover cookie sheet with foil and spread extra virgin olive oil on foil.  Slice squash and tomatoes and place on cooking sheet.  Sprinkle garlic over these and begin roasting.

Chop celery, jalapenos, and onions and add to a pan with olive oil and oregano.  Saute until onions are translucent.

Once roasted squash begins to brown and tomatoes slump, remove and add to saute mixture.  Reduce until squash is tender.  Remove 1/4 of the cooked mixture and save.  Add chicken broth, sugar, vinegar, pepper, salt, and red pepper (desired heat) to remaining 3/4 and simmer for 20 minutes. 

Puree 3/4 cooked mixture in a blender. Return the soup to the pot and reheat over medium heat.  Pulse blend the removed 1/4 mixture and leave chunky.  Add to pot along with 3 cups water.  Simmer 10 minutes, top with chives, and serve.

Enjoy!!

This Year's Garden 2

Ok, as promised here are some pics of the garden and progress as of today.  In the pics, you'll see tomatoes in cages along the long portion of the fence.  Obviously, there is squash in the middle.  Got first mess of squash today which is what prompted this post.  Growing up the fence on each end are pole green beans.  Spreading on the ground are the cantaloupe vines.  For me, not much beats growing your own garden.  It's almost magical and you get to eat your efforts--a healthier and fresher version than you can get in the stores.  And since I'm the lazy gardener, plastic is awesome.  My weeding so far consists of 30 minutes of work about two weeks ago.  Now, veggie plants are blocking most places where grass could grow.  What may be hard to spot are the herbs (chives, oregano, sage, and rosemary), strawberries, and peppers.  Have a look.

Alex's High School Graduation

My niece, Alex, has officially graduated High School.  Phew, am I getting old or what?  Took a solo trip to Crandall, Tx to support this momentous event.  It was rather awesome and also good to see the family again.  I usually don't publish pictures without permission of the individual, but I think I'll take the chance on behalf of Alex to better document the occasion.  Let me introduce you all to Alex:

Proud parents and brother:

Graduation time.  Notice the yellow cord!  Honors student here.

Hats fly ~

Dinner at Outback Steakhouse.  Quite the bill.  Thanks dad for paying.  Ah, and no, the guy in the back of the first pic is not "special".  He's my brother and was simply having fun.  I'll let you decide if he's effectively funny.  Here's both ends of the table and the conclusion of this post.

Congratulations Alex.  May you make your way successfully and happily in this strange world.

Greer's Ferry

Our first trip is over.  We decided to go to Old Highway 25, a Corps of Engineers campground on Greer's Ferry Lake.  Greer's Ferry is named after a man who opened a ferry across the Red River.  His name?  You guessed it, Greer.  He was a pioneer using the river to his benefit even though the river was known to swell and flood often.  After a case of severe flooding of a large portion of Arkansas in 1927, people came out in force for measures to control the flooding--a dam.   Well, the cry was answered by the Little Rock Corps of Engineers and in 1963, president JFK announced it's completion.  It was the last public project JFK ever spoke to.  The dam didn't take that long.  Rather, it was delayed by a couple wars.  In order to complete the project, 5 towns, 40 miles of road, and 100's of miles of utilities had to be abandoned or moved.  With the dam built, Greer's Ferry came into existence.  It, if I remember correctly, became a 40,000 acre man-made lake we know today.  Many corps of engineer campgrounds surround the lake--dam site, JFK, Old Hwy 25, Devils Fork, Sugar Loaf, The Narrows, and a few others I can't remember.

Ok, history lesson over.  The campground itself only provided 30A electric.  Voyager is equipped with 50A electric.  We did not have an issue with the electricity and even ran both A/C units.  No water was a little rougher than we'd like.  At one point, I had to refill the fresh and didn't want to move the trailer so I came up with getting more by using a boating bilge pump, some 12v wire, a switch, garden hose, and a large plastic trash container from Wal-Mart.  It worked perfectly and now I have this capability in the future.  No sewer wasn't an issue even with company.  We dumped at the end.  It was a really hot weekend so most were staying inside most of the time including us.

Herc's check engine light came on Sunday.  On Monday, I went to the Ford dealership in Heber Springs, a nearby town, and had it looked at.  Turns out that the "regen" on the diesel had an issue and they told me that often updating the truck to the latest program fixed that issue.  So, they hooked up the computer and downloaded the latest software to the Herc.  Seems that has fixed the problem.  By-the-way, "regen" is a term used when a diesel truck super-heats the diesel ash within a steel exhaust container to burn the ash to a fine powder.  All this powder eventually requires the replacement of this "filter."  It's an emission thing.  Without this filter, black smoke (unburned waste) would blow into the air from the exhaust.  Without "regen", the truck's filter would fill very quickly and you'd be at the dealership replacing it often and they are very expensive.

Pulling the rig around was eye-opening.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it wasn't great either.  Herc did fine except going up steep, twisting hills.  The turbos kicked in pretty good.  Hooking and unhooking went pretty good I thought for being my first time.  Took a few times to align it properly especially with the type of hitch I have.  Can only be 16 degrees off center at the most.  Shocks and airbags worked perfectly.  Everything was level and rode really well.  On the way home, we even experienced high winds, hail, and a blown down tree limb across the road.  That was fun. 

On to the good stuff.  We grilled every day.  Steaks, BBQ chicken, hamburgers, and asparagus on the grill.  Supplemented meals with gas oven cooked dishes.  Cooked breakfast inside too.  We discovered on hot days such as we experienced, more than one stove burner going at a time killed the effectiveness of the A/C.  Two friends of ours, Alise and James came up with their boat and we went out on the lake for a couple hours.  Later, Saturday, Jessie and Brad came up and stayed the night with us.  Found out through Jessie that the Queen hide-a-bed sofa was not comfortable.  I knew with that mattress, it wouldn't be.  We went hiking to a small waterfall near the dam site, visited the local trout hatchery, and drove around the small town of Heber Springs, population 6,400 and something or another.

On this trip, Gina and I learned how to use Herc and Voyager as they were meant for us.  We learned that "camping" was ok and would probably be better in 70 to 80 degree weather vs. 90 plus.  We learned as I suspected that the rig would be used for traveling and sight-seeing vs. visiting local camping spots.  We had fun and it was good to get away however.  Now that we're home, I'm already dreaming of our first real adventure.

Our First Trip

The rig is now ready for this weekend--it's maiden voyage with C3.  We'll be taking her to Greer's Ferry Lake, north of us by about an hour and a half.  Will give more details about the trip upon our return.  We're excited!

Voyager is Feeling Gray Today

As you may have read in an earlier post, "Monitoring The Poop", Voyager has a 45-gallon gray tank.  In our situation, gray water storage is the most useful in many types of campgrounds were we will stay, so any increase in gray obviously means more freedom.  This modification is completely dreamed up by me.  Most of the time with a modification, I get an idea from someone else.  With this one, I've not read of anyone doing anything close.  In the pics below, you'll see where I installed two shut-of valves which control which way the water flows--either directly into the under-the-trailer 45-gallon tank or to the 65-gallon additional in-bay tank I installed.  If you look closely, you'll see from the pics that once the new 65-gallon tank is full, it begins to drain out.  What you can't see behind the wall is that the pipe routes through a p-trap and back into the under-the-trailer 45-gallon tank.  Combined, I now have roughly 110 gallons of gray water storage if needed.  Or, if chosen, the tank and pipes are designed to pull out and have full use of the storage bay.  Google p-trap if you want a pic of it.  Basically, it is designed to contain a small amount of water which prevents gas from coming back up and stinking up the place.  All home plumbing have p-traps.  The front of the new tank has a faucet on it where I can attach it to a hose and using my macerator pump (black plastic box next to faucet), drain it.  The tank is held into place with two ratchet straps.  Here's what it looks like:

An In-Bed Extension Cord

The electrical cord on Voyager comes out of the back of the pin (metal part that connects to truck hitch).  Although it has a good length to it, stretching it to the bumper can cause issues while turning.  To prevent this, it is common to mount a plug receiver inside the truck bed.  I created a semi-permanent connection that I call an "extension cord".  Basically, it connects to the bumper plug, routes inside fender, through left turn lamp, and through a hole I drilled where it is mounted to the bed/liner.  Here's the pictorial evidence:

Cleaning the Garage, a "Honey-Do" Day

Gina has been frustrated with a cluttered garage for quite a while.  Probably a couple years.  Anyway, it didn't bother me to much, but I promised her this weekend I would take care of it.  Donovan helped me out and earned $20 for it.  Got most things put in the shed, a few on some new shelving Gina bought, and the rest thrown away.  Looks good and have a happy HB (wife).  Now, I can pull my Tacoma in with the Camry.