Fulltime Adventure: Eater of Stones, Slayer of Dragons

I dreamed this phrase this week. I don’t know why but I woke up with that phrase repeating over and over in my mind. It must mean something.

This week it snowed again.

Debra and I both had cabin fever so we went out for lunch and then drove around a little. I stopped every so often and took pictures.

The town of Cavalier is all decorated for Fall

A one room school house, between Cavalier and Walhalla

The town of Mountain

We saw this hawk on the telephone lines. Isn’t he gorgeous?

Friday, Debra and I were invited up to Neche to meet Kim’s mom and dad. They live in a charming 100 year old house that they bought in the seventies.

Here is Kim isn’t she beautiful and she has the sweetest spirit and she’s funny too!

Her mom and dad were so enjoyable to visit with. We had a great time!

The beet harvest has been in full swing. The roads are full of beet trucks, hauling the beets from the farms to the beet collection stations. They are then loaded onto other trucks and transported to the processing plants. Several areas have these beet mountains!

Debra and I just had to stop and get a picture, to us it looks like a mountain of rocks but they are sugar beets.

Phil had an interesting week at work. He watched padding and backfill, unloading and installation of pipeline weights, and bending. He got a lot of experience this week in different areas of inspecting.

Lowering pipes in wetlands

Weight bag installation. These keep the pipe from floating.

Bending

See this guy?

He’s from Mission, also. Several of the workers on this job, including almost the entire Lowering-In crew, from the Foreman on down, are from Mission. Small world, huh?

I baked a lot this week. I made an apple crisp that tasted all right, but didn’t really turn out right because my apple crisp pan is at home. Yes, I have a special pan I bought just to bake my apple crisp in.

The recipe comes from Barefoot Contessa, and it is so delicious.

I also made a banana pudding that everyone seemed to enjoy.

I found a recipe for double stuffed chicken breasts from Rachel Ray that I just had to try.

Double-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup small shell pasta
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup breadcrumbs
Four 8- to 10-ounce chicken breasts
3 cups store-bought marinara sauce

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta for 4 minutes; drain and rinse with cold water. Transfer to a bowl and add the mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan and 1/4 cup parsley; season with salt.
In a shallow bowl, beat the eggs. Place the breadcrumbs in another shallow bowl.
Stuff the pasta-cheese mixture under the skin of each chicken breast. Dip the stuffed chicken breasts in the eggs, roll in the breadcrumbs, then place skin side up on the prepared pan. Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the breast registers 165°, about 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat the marinara sauce. Serve each breast on a bed of sauce, topped with 1 tablespoon parsley.

These turned out so moist and tasty. I would season the breasts with salt and pepper and maybe a little garlic, and I think I’ll try alfredo sauce next time.

Today, Phil and I went and did a little sightseeing and enjoyed having the day to spend together.

We rode up to Walhalla, which is the second oldest town in North Dakota.