Trip Downstate

Dale and I headed downstate yesterday to visit some family members. We had a real nice time. First we went to Golden Corral for lunch to celebrate (belatedly) my dad's 77th birthday. Our group consisted of my folks, our daughter Betsy and her two children, and Dale and me. After we ate, Betsy took the kids home for a nap, and the rest of us went to some thrift shops where we found some 'treasures'. Then we went to my parents' home to visit a while. My dad had an accordion there that belongs to a friend, so he played it a bit for us. It was good to hear. Sure brought back the memories. He used to play a lot when I was a child. Here's a link to YouTube of him playing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkapBxgudtM

After a while, Dale and I headed to Betsy and Anthony's for supper and a nice visit. Betsy is a great cook! It was fun spending time with a couple of our grandchildren. After the kids went to bed, we watched a video, "Facing the Giants", and believe it or not, I managed to stay awake through the whole thing! We hit the sack shortly after midnight, then headed home in the morning. Yep, we did take lots of pictures, but I will not be posting pictures of the young ones because my blog is not private. (Besides, Dale has not brought me a disk with the pictures yet.)

We had a good time; really needed to relax this week.

Couscous

Well, the other day I tried fixing couscous differently than my usual Tomato-Pea-Couscous Salad. Thought I'd go with the fruit approach, so I chopped a couple apples and got out some raisins and cinnamon. Hmmm, what to use for the liquid? Decided on apple cinnamon herbal tea. The stuff turned out okay, but lacked oomph. I think it would have been great if made with cider instead. And I think it would have been better if I'd added the apples the same time I added the couscous, instead of cooking them a bit.