Saturday morning, about 20 people met at Baskin Robbins.
Thank you Jibe for buying everyone an ice cream afterwards.
Jibe family ride
Author Archives: arletelouise
Arlete’s BIG – Year 4
Year 4 ended on November 15, followed by data processing, chart making, Christmas decorating and food prep – all to be ready for the first Friday of December party.
After-party:
Food prep
My focus for at least the past two weeks has been getting ready for two big food events. Thanksgiving: mashed potato casserole and 3 dozen from-scratch rustic dinner rolls. One week later: the 4th annual Bicycle Interest Group party. I enjoy making all the food and choose things that can be made ahead.
The savories: pineapple cheese ball, toasted walnut hummus, curried white bean dip,
ham and green chile mini-quiches and artichoke nibbles.
The sweets. Candied walnuts: Mexican mocha and orange brandy. Cookies: German walnut shortbread, maple walnut, espresso walnut shortbread.
On the day of the party, I only reheated two items. And .. “thank you” to all the people who have told me they like seeing food pictures.
Christmas lights
Thank you Justin for hanging my Christmas lights (every year) and for restringing my tree – it looks better than when I bought it.
Walnuts stored
I went out to Justin’s to sort through the last two 55-gallon barrels of walnuts that Justin picked up before the recent rainstorms. I ended up with 16 bags in my car ..
which were added to the rest already stored.
Lots of cracking and shelling ahead.
Thanksgiving
at Thais and Lenin’s.
I laughed when I heard several of the boys say the mashed potatoes (my contribution) was a favorite. Amazing what butter, cream cheese, and sour cream can do to a simple potato. And Thais make the best BLT salad – everything from scratch.
Cracking and shelling
I am lucky! I have friends who ask if they can help me crack and shell walnuts. BYOHammer. Becky came over last Thursday morning and brought Starbucks. I made blueberry scones.
Monday afternoon, Elaine and Terri came over. I made pretzels with beer cheese sauce. And Merrilyn is lined up for next weekend. Thank you everyone.
Active Transportation Commission
The final meeting of the year. This month at Historic City Hall.
Piano Man
I picked up Carson and Avery after school and later took Avery to his piano lesson.
Supermarket Sweep
SABA organized the second-annual Supermarket Sweep and Jibe joined in to support two teams of three bike-riders by donating $250. Lorge, Stacey, Brenda, Sheila, Lori and I met on the patio at Bella Bru at 10:15. We opened the envelope with instructions, planned our strategy, and left at 10:50.
The first four stores we shopped at were smaller mom-and-pop types – three Indian and one Carribbean Jamaican. Nice for our local merchants but expensive.
Sheila:
Our final stop was at a lower-priced large grocery in S Natomas.
I was happy to stay with the bikes while everyone else did the shopping. All our bikes were about to be loaded to the max with Lorge carrying the most – he bicycle tours and has large panniers on the rear and smaller panniers on the front plus his handlebar bag.
Then we rode about 12 miles to the meeting point at Two Rivers Cider Co.
We checked in and had our donation weighed: 101 pounds.
Time to use our drink tickets.
3:00 – the last team arrived.
Cheers!
3:30 – time for us to ride back to N Natomas. This event collected 700+ pounds to donate to River City Food Bank. The N Natomas team rode a total of 35 miles. A long fun day.
arletelouise 