Author: jq

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South Ice Cave

It was chance that led us to South Ice Cave.

We were exploring unmarked forest service roads in the Cabin Lake area, when we came upon a controlled burn. Instead of driving through, we took a turn leading away from the fire and choking smoke.

That was when we saw the Ice Cave sign. Jack and I agree on a great number of things:

    • IPAs are highly overrated
    • Border collies are the smartest dogs in the world
    • and you never go into a cave.

Before I go any further … I want to make it really clear … neither Jack nor I are interested in going into the cave.

We pull into a small dirt parking area dotted with picnic tables. A path leads to a fenced area which surrounds a pit. This must be the place.

We peer down and see several dark, yawning openings in the side of the rock face. Sure enough its a cave.

During the course of our first and dare I say last cave adventure, we notice a  scurry of chipmunks leaping and perching just inside the entrance. Yellow-rumped Warblers buzz from trees to cave. Cool! I imagine the bat colony that makes this cave home is located somewhere further inside.

Glad we checked it out. Time for lunch and on to another adventure.

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Fire Season

Compared to the rest of Oregon, we live in an area that has higher than average wildfire danger. I’m talking, evacuate your neighborhood type of fire danger.

Just a few years ago, a 168-acre wildfire, ignited by a downed power line, threatened homes in our neighborhood. High wind helped spread it quickly. The fire forced an evacuation neighbors still talk about to this day. Evidence of charred ground and trees show how close the fire came to wiping out our area.

So … we take our wildfire abatement seriously in these parts.

Primarily in the spring and fall, prescribed fires are planned and implemented. These fires are supposed to reduce the severity and intensity of future wildfire. Targeted areas are usually forests surrounding communities and homes.

There is even a map illustrating planned fires. Just this spring a fire took off just miles from where we live. We assumed it was a controlled burn but found out later it wasn’t. Several homes were destroyed … so now we regularly check the controlled burn map.

Luckily for us our HOA (Home Owners Association) has scheduled a wildfire abatement crew to remove excess combustible materials in and around our neighborhood. And the local fire folks regularly send out information on how best to manage hazardous conditions on private property.

Recently we drove through a controlled burn south of Bend on Highway 97. As you can see there’s plenty of combustibles right next to the road. Kinda of scary.

Of course one of the effects of these controlled burns and wildfires is smoke. Depending on prevailing winds, the stuff moves into the area, sometimes lingering, other times moving on. We quickly realized we needed a plan to deal with the stuff.

Number one defense strategy is to control the air quality inside our home. We decided on the Molekule Air Purifier. It does a great job cleaning smoke, pollen and mold in our air.

We’ve made small adjustments to how we do things. If we can’t walk outside due to smoke, we drive someplace we can. We open windows by using the sniff test … we walk outside and test the air quality. For the most part this is a seasonal inconvenience we have learned to work around.

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Almond Cake with berries

Just in time for summer berry season, this recipe has everything I love about cake. It is light, fluffy and moist,  making it a wonderful canvas for fresh, seasonal fruit. Better yet, it is relatively guilt-free. Having only 140 calories and 15 grams of carbohydrates per slice.

I was excited to try out my new Charlotte baking pan, which features a ladyfinger-style rim. And sure enough, the center indentation holds the fruit beautifully.

The addition of a baked in dusting of sugar in the center, gives this cake a light, crispy topping that is delicious. Love it!

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Almond Cake with berries

Tender, fluffy cake topped with fresh fruit. Gluten free and low carbohydrates.
Servings: 12 servings

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 1/2 cup sugar, divided into 1/4 cups
  • 2 tbsps sugar, for dustiing bottom of baking pan
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups almond flour
  • 1 tbsp coconut flour You can replace coconut flour with 1/4 cup almond flour.
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2-2 cups berries, for topping

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 inch round pan with butter or coconut oil. Make sure to cover up the sides. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the sugar into the bottom of the pan.
  • Beat together eggs yolks, 1/4 cup sugar, and the vanilla, until smooth.
  • Using a stand mixer, whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Slowly beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Set aside.
  • Whisk together the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder and salt), and add to the egg yolks. Stir to form a thick dough.
  • Fold in the egg whites, 1/2 cup at a time, incorporating them fully between each addition. The final addition should result in a smooth, fluffy batter.
  • Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake on the center rack for 30 to 35 minutes, until it's golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  • Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn the cake out onto a serving plate.
  • Allow cake to cool before topping with sliced berries, or fruit of your choice.
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Tiny Macro World

You take a picture to capture the moment and share it. The images hold a story, or at least you hope they do. We’ve recently begun attaching lenses to our smart phones and have discovered a passion for the macro lens and the tiny world it reveals.

You start with broad strokes or in film parlance, establishing shots. These set the stage to which you add detail with close up shots.

Macro photos give the viewer a very different prospective on the subject matter and require a different approach to taking pictures.

This tiny macro world shifts attention to parts of a scene that were always there,  just tucked in small nooks and crannies. 

It starts with a shift in approach to a subject. When you twist on that macro lens you are now going to spend some time crawling around on your hands and knees.  We always shoot a variety of different images and then edit for the blog page.  The addition of these extreme close shots offer punctuation to the story our establishing shots are trying to tell.

A whole new world lies below our feet. There have been some surprises along the way, i.e. the ferocious, gruesome world of insects AND a desperate need to beef up our flexibility exercises.  But that said. we love the dynamic perspective this lens gives our photos.

Coming up in July a collection of macro photos will be featured in the photo essay.

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Banana Sushi

We’ve been working with almond flour in muffins and cookies as a means of reducing carbohydrates. JQ landed on this recipe … OK, this might not be the “healthiest” snack… but not the worst either.

You can use any nut butter. We chose peanut butter as the underlayer. We microwaved chocolate chips to make melting the chocolate easier. Slowly heating the chocolate while stirring puts it into temper, giving it a shiny appearance. We used milk chocolate, but I think that a quality semi-sweet would be really good.

Frozen bites of chocolate enrobed banana pieces are a treat on a summer day and hopefully, a bit of a healthy one at that.

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Banana Sushi

A fun, healthy snack which is quick and easy to make.
Course: Snack
Servings: 2

Ingredients

  • 2 bananas
  • 4 tbsp peanut butter or nut butter of your choice
  • 1/3 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 handful wooden skewers
  • 3 tbsp topping of your choice (chopped nuts, toasted coconut, crushed cereal, seeds)

Instructions

  • Peel bananas. For easier handling, cut bananas into smaller chunks and thread with wooden skewers.
  • Coat with nut butter and chill in freezer for a couple of minutes.
  • Heat chocolate chips in microwave at 50% for 2 1/2 minutes. Check and stir every :30 seconds until melted.
  • Spread melted chocolate over the top of nut butter coating.
  • Sprinkle or roll coated bananas on all sides with topping of choice (i.e. toasted coconut, seeds, crushed granola, nuts. In this case we used pistacios.
  • Slice and enjoy.
  • This snack can be stored in the refrigerator or we love it frozen. Freeze for a quick, frozen snack.