The New Chef of the Household

June has been great. There have been times when I've had a planned item for John to grill, but otherwise he's been in charge of the kitchen (even if the grill hasn't been used). This has been great for two reasons:

1) I haven't had to think about food as soon as we get home from work.
2) John is very good at making due with what we have, so we've been using things up.

Grilled corn on the cob was beat out for best grilled food when John made this:

A Frisco Burger.

Remember how I said John was good at making due with what we have? Well, one night I was like, "I guess we could have hamburgers," and the next thing I knew John was researching how to make Frisco burgers. The sourdough bread sitting on the counter had given him the idea, and was it ever an amazingly wonderful idea. What were the called-for ingredients?

Sourdough Bread
Hamburger
Swiss Cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Sauteed Onions
Mayo (I had ketchup and mustard instead)

I sure hope Frisco burgers become a regular at our house!

Guest Blogger - Katie

I think you have been misinformed about your writers. You may have been led to believe that they are nice, normal Americans currently biding time in Canada, but, as you can see from the attached photo, nice and normal is only a cover for odd and overtly curious.

Work = Ropes Course?

This summer I'm teaching three classes which combine Canadian culture, computers, and academic learning. (I think it's hilarious that an American is teaching Canadian culture - especially since Canadians think Americans know nothing about Canada.) One of the perks of teaching this class is getting to do all kinds of fun activities besides in-the-classroom lessons. Later we'll be going blueberry picking, but yesterday we were out on a ropes course.


The students were great. Some of them were SOOO nervous but they conquered their fears and made it across the broken bridge. A team of two always went across together and it was interesting to see how the first person always took control to help the second person (me above) get across.


Trust me, being first (above) was more difficult.


It was a great day with my students.
I'm going to miss them when we leave.

Grilled Pizza

Start with this:


Brush one side with olive oil and grill that side for about three minutes.
It'll probably puff up like this:


Brush the other side with olive oil, flip it over, and put the toppings of your choice on.
The key is to remember to not make the toppings too thick.


Then back on the grill.


Grilled pizza. SO GOOD.


My sis-in-law says you can make a frozen pizza on the grill too! Baking stone in the grill, turn it on, heat it up, and add your frozen pizza on top. Yum!

My Sis's Visit Part Two: Awesome Lower Mainland Parks

Since we're leaving British Columbia soon, I need to take every opportunity to teach you about this area! The Lower Mainland refers to Vancouver and the many surrounding cities. It has a population of about 2.2 million people out of the 4 million in the province. For you Minnesotans, think of the Lower Mainland as the Twin Cities area and British Columbia as Minnesota.

The Lower Mainland has some pretty amazing parks. We experienced two of them with Katie. The first being Campbell Valley Park. It is beautiful, but the best part is you can feed the birds from your hand!


The number of birds looking for food is definitely higher when it's winter, but the three of us were able to find one chickadee that was willing to be brave!


The second park we enjoyed - Stanley Park - is one we've enjoyed multiple times with many visitors, but this time we enjoyed it on bikes! Below you can see Katie and John with the Lions Gate Bridge ahead.


It's such a beautiful ride, as the gorgeous forest is on your left and the ocean is on your right!

My Sis's Visit Part One: Squamish

My sister Katie came and spent five days with us last week. It was a wonderful time with her - wish you hadn't had to leave, Katie.

The weekend was spent up in Squamish, a town located at the end of the famous Sea to Sky Highway. Hanging above the city is this monolith:


The Stewamus Chief. We've hiked it previously, but as it's our favorite hike in the area, we were glad Katie wanted to head to the top! Of course, to get to the top, we had to start at the bottom:


The first 15 feet, what you see above, look really intimidating, but it's not like that the entire way. The first half involves steep hiking, and then you get to more variety:


Check out the view from the top, though. The 2 1/2 hour climb is completely worth it!


Of course after enjoying the view, there's nothing like enjoying a nap!


The next day we kept waiting to see if it was going to rain, a common occurrence over the last three weeks, except for Saturday. We waited, we debated, we ate fish and chips, and finally decided to go for it - rent a boat in Howe Sound and enjoy the islands! Of course as we were climbing in the boat it started to sprinkle. Yet, it stopped and we had a great time.


Our fearless captain and our great visitor


One interesting thing we saw was this:


a retired Canadian navy vessel, measuring over 300 feet long, that is going to be sunk right there in Howe Sound! The hope is it will help marine life and, of course, provide more interesting scuba diving in the area.

The next thirty days will be spent...

Outside grillside! That's right, the next month is John Grills June. And I know we're not the only ones looking forward to it, as my father and brother said this past month was full of "non-food meals."