Unplanned Weekend (no pictures :( ...)

Bruce and I had an "open" weekend this week. He saw a write up in the paper advertising a cithy wide garage sale in Port Aransas. Off we went after breakfast on Saturday. It was really a great set up. There were printed maps with all of the participating homes laid out. The good thing was that there were over 40 participants. The bad thing was that there were over 40 cars at every house we visited! We found few treasures.

We couldn't go to Port A without going to see the boat. Bruce puttered a bit while I read on the deck until it began to cloud up and grow cooler. We decided to go back home and clean house. I went back to the boat for my forgotten glasses and that was the moment that changed our path.

Sea Flight was coming into the marina. We would have missed them had I not gone back for the glasses. We went over to help them land and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with them in their luxurious enclosed cockpit. It rained and was cold but we, along with... at times, a dozen boaters, were snuggled up in a cozy little pocket of laughter and flowing drinks.

BYC had planned a flotilla and a dinner. We have been trying to get over there and join the club so we were invited to have dinner with them. It was catered fajitas. The folks at BYC are all so welcoming and friendly. We had a great time meeting new couples with common interests. It was a hoot!

You might remember that we had not planned to stay the night... After dinner when we began to grow sleepy, we left the crowd and went back to the boat. I had brought some shorts and a change of underwear. I found a clean shirt hanging in the closet on the boat for Sunday. So... I slept in my shirt all covered up in our cozy v-berth. What a great impromptu event!

Sunday morning we met up with the BYC bunch again for breakfast. Ken and Carrie, our slip mates on Free Bird, brought the bloody marys and Harry and Linda on the trawler across the way, Caberet, brought a wonderful french toast casserole thing. It was so good!

We saw Free Flight off and took off on a short sail aboard Elan. Bruce needed his fix. We were double reefed and it was still very gusty in the channel. We followed the BYC boaters heading for home in CC for a while. We hit over 8 knots in speed... lapping a barge that began ahead of us. Bruce was lit up! We turned around and headed for the slip at a much better point of sail. It was a nice sunny afternoon... nothing like the weather man said it would be. Oh well... the housework can wait.

Salmon Pockets

Ingredients: 2/3 bag of baby spinach, 2 roma tomatos cut into half inch chunks or equivalent halved grape tomatos, feta cheese crumbles to taste, Kraft sun dried tomato dressing, 4 pieces of salmon filet about 1 1/2 inch in width, 1 sheet of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry (thawed), and 1 beaten egg for brushing. All measurements are totally approximate! This is a throw together...

First, prepare your spinach filling. Place spinach in a bowl and add tomatos, feta and then toss with dressing. Set aside.

Next, roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut it into 4 rectangles and work one at a time. Roll the quarter piece until it's thin. You'll have to eye it for size depending upon the size of your salmon.

Place about 3 heaping tablespoons in the center of the pastry lengthwise. You can use more if it will fit, leaving about 2 inches of pastry to bring up over the top. Place one salmon piece on top of the spinach mixture. Begin folding the ends and sides up over the filling...gently stretch the pastry tucking any stray spinach stems so as not to puncture the crust. Use water dampened fingers to make a sticky paste along the touching pastry edges to form a seal. Flip the pocket over and place seam side down on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with all four portions. Line the pockets up about 2 inches apart on the sheet and puncture the top side with a knife in several places to vent. Brush the tops of the pockets with beaten egg and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown all over. Serves 4

House Hunting

Bruce and I went to San Antonio a couple of Saturdays ago to look at the places Melissa was considering buying. We went into two and I was getting pretty disheartened when we walked into the third and I thought "this is the one!" It was so cute! All updated with premium ceiling fans and lighting, new cabinets and countertops, imaculately clean and painted in trendy designer colors. It was small and sandwiched between two other townhomes with a courtyard in front and a tiny private yard in back. No garage but hey, we can't have everything (can we?)... Her energy bills would be small and it would be manageable. Just two bedrooms/two baths. Perfect for a starter...

We went back to the Realtor's office and looked it up on the MLS site. It had been on the market before and was taken off. A good sign. We checked out the other townhomes sold recently in this edition and made a lowball offer. Here is Melissa giddily (trying to) signing her life away!

Long story short... a week later, it just didn't happen. The seller owed too much money on the place to be able to stomach our offer. I guess she would rather continue making those mortgage payments and see if the market improves... (whatEVER!). Maybe if Melissa doesn't find something else she likes as well, she can try this one again in a few months. We're bumbed because it was really a cute little place, but such is the game... back to house hunting!