I know you all might not be interested in these particular goings-on (is that a southern phrase {goings-on?}) but you did sign up for this so I hope you are ready for my “sort of” personal and almost-but-not-quite daily diary. You might just decide you want to unsubscribe.

After all, this is why I started this blog in the first place, to record my daily life for myself and those closest to me. Somehow it expanded to a slightly larger audience than that, but still small enough to feel comfortable (knowing the whole web is not open to reading my personal life just in case they cared) to just be me. Not that I haven’t ever been me, but I think you know what I mean. Most of you who are now members have been reading me long enough to know me even if you’ve never met me. I like that. Knowing that, I feel free. Able to say what I want. Well, within reason that is.

Tonight we sat down with a glass of wine (maybe two) on the deck before dinner and went through our recipes that we had selected as candidates for meals at the cabin.

For those of you that remember, our cabin is situated about a 45 minute drive away from the nearest town, which happens to be Laramie, Wyoming. The roads leading to our cabin our not paved, but dirt. Red dirt. Red dirt roads that can become washboarded and rough to travel over. Roads that have free-range cattle and antelope roaming freely over them. Once we are at the cabin it’s hard to pry us away for any reason. We can go a week (if we plan meals accordingly) not leaving the cabin environs except to go on nightly drives to see elk, etc.

For most people, this isolation would drive them crazy. Not us. We relish the opportunity to “tune out” from the stress of daily life. We take long walks with the dogs. We do jigsaw puzzles. We nap when we want to. We read when we want to. Heck, we do most things when we want to. The fewer the trips in to Laramie, the better.

All the more reason to plan out our eating strategy wisely. It’s not easy, but we seem to manage on the “less is more” strategy just fine. If you forget an ingredient there is no ringing up the neighbors to borrow something. No convenience store conveniently close.

I think we came up with some pretty tasty meals. We’ll get groceries on our way in to the cabin to last us up to four days and after that we’ll go in to town to do a bigger shop. Somewhere in Nebraska on the last day of travel I will unravel Rick’s list and organize it.

Bella, our ever present companion, helped us make the list. The devilish glint in her eye and big grin on her face says mom, when we leaving? can we go now? my beaver pond awaits!

You can see our online recipe book (from which we select our meals) at:

http://www.rickandlynne.com/recipes

If you “register”, then you will get an email any time we add a new recipe. This program is a continuous work of mine and if you have ideas or suggestions for improvement, let me know!

The planning of a holiday is almost as much fun as the holiday. Bella is obviously planning the walks she is intending going on and the fun time she has ahead of her.  There used to be a western on TV called Laramie - it sounds a great place to chill out.

Joyce, no doubt Bella is plotting something nefarious. She usually does. Laramie is still part of the great American Wild Wild West. The only thing different about the western on TV is that there are no more “shoot-outs” allowed in this day and age.   Our cabin is way more serene.

Don’t forget to put wine on the list!  Or is that a given??