Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Our local grocery store (Macey's) had fresh scallops this week, so I bought a pound and a half of them, and Debbie made her patented baked scallops (butter, lemon, dill, and garlic) on Friday and we had ourselves a feast.  These were gigantic scallops – that pound and a half was only five scallops apiece!  When I bought them, I had a nice conversation with the store's seafood guy.  He sends out a weekly email telling us what he'll have that week, which is how I knew to go up and get the scallops.  I found out that he can special order just about anything, including soft-shell blue crabs (in season, of course) and Maine lobster.  Not bad for a grocery store in the boonies of Utah!

Yesterday we had a feast of a different sort: burritos from a local Mexican food truck.  This truck has the best Mexican food we've found in Cache Valley, and we've been eating there once a week or so.  Their burritos are the best item on the menu.  I generally get a carnitas (pork) burrito, and I'm stuffed when finished.  Debbie gets a carne asada (beef) burrito, and sometimes can't finish it so I get some leftovers.  This excellent food is prepared by a friendly, happy crew in a pleasant outdoor setting with lots of chomping people (including a good percentage of the local Hispanics) – and our meal for two costs $10.  We combine it with a glass of Rosehill milk; a great combination.

Today we're having a feast of a different sort: I picked up two prime ribeye steaks at the same time I got the scallops.  Macey's generally has prime ribeyes or New York strip steaks on the shelf.  They're expensive, but they're also just as good as the best steaks I've ever had in a restaurant for far more money.  We don't do a darned thing to them other than broil or grill them.  In San Diego, in grocery stores frequented by people with plenty of money, finding a prime cut of beef was a rare thing.  It's interesting that here, in a far less wealthy community, the local grocery store routinely has them in stock (along with a wide selection of choice cuts).  It's true that even the good cuts are cheaper here than in San Diego, but still...

We have a morning ritual, the dogs (all four of them!) and I.  It involves bananas.  I take a peeled banana and a knife, and I cut off slices to drop into the drooling maws of a waiting dog.  All four of them love bananas.  The puppies are just learning to catch the falling slices, and they're not very good at it – they miss perhaps half of them.  The big dogs are expert banana slice catchers, and rarely miss one.  The big dogs now, however, are learning that a slice falling toward a puppy isn't necessarily lost to them. :)  So now they intently watch such a slice, and if the puppy misses it they pounce.  That leads to an outraged puppy.  The whole affair is just hysterically funny to watch.  When we're finished, and there's no more banana, the dogs are so disappointed...

Yesterday I got our laundry room put back together, ran to Lowe's to buy a bunch of window and door trim, then came home and got all the interior trim cut and installed for the our new door between the kitchen and the deck.  Next step on that project is a whole bunch of masking, caulking, sanding, and painting.  I won't be doing that today, though – today is paperwork day.  I've got a huge pile of receipts, letters, bills, etc. that I need to plow through.  Dang.  So I've got the stereo playing '60s music, and I'm going to work...