Our New Toy…

12. August 2012 · Comments Off on Our New Toy… · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,

This was with the 200mm telephoto lens from about 15′ away. Love it!

This past week was Dave’s and my 17th anniversary. Because Dave’s birthday is the same week as our anniversary, he took the day off between the two special events and we had a nice day together. We took the kids on one more trip to the Pensacola MESS Hall, and then after lunch at Cajun Specialty Meats, we visited the NAS Pensacola Naval Exchange (NEX) to browse the DSLR cameras.

We had been wanting a new camera for a very long time. We’d been accustomed to much-smaller point-and-shoot cameras, such as the Canon SD1200 Digital ELPH and the Nikon Coolpix S210. Between the higher-quality photography I require for my GeekMom blog posts, and Dave’s invitation to be part of Kalmbach Publishing’s Great Model Railroads special issue of Model Railroader magazine, we need something better.

We did our research — Dave asked advice of his fellow model railroad hobby friends, I asked my fellow GeekMom writers and consulted with my favorite photographer hobbyist: Maryann of the FotoMom blog. We weighed cost, weight, warranty, and capabilities for super-up-close photography and sports/action photography in our decision. We reviewed well-regarded DSLR review columns such as at Digital Photography Review.

We played for over an hour with two cameras at the NAS Pensacola NEX: the Canon EOS Rebel T3i and the Nikon D5100.  Kissing cousins in capability, we decided on the Nikon in part due to a discounted extra lens promotion they were having.  We got the camera body with the “kit” lens – 18-55mm – as well as an additional 55-200mm telephoto lens.  We also bought a nice carrying bag that came with a free DSLR photography DVD.  Dave and I would need it!

The following day I took the kids to the splash park at Navarre Park to play, and I had a chance to take some great photos.  Enjoy!

I love photographing water features. And kids playing in the water.

This is a single color selection feature. You use an eyedropper type of thing to pick up a single color to turn on…and all other colors on the palette are turned into greytones.

This is with only the green turned on.

The rest of the photos are of the same thing, but with the assorted settings on the camera. It was fun playing with the settings.

This is “Landscape” setting. Not noticeably different.

Black and White.

Silhouette, pulling out the colors in the background more.

Hi-saturation.

Low-saturation.

Color sketch. So it looks like a drawing, I guess.

I don’t remember the settings of these last two…I *think* this is the “Miniature” setting, but I do notice the blurriness on the edges…sharpness in the center.

Definitely don’t remember this setting…

 

Florida Discoveries 32: Cajun Specialty Meats, Pensacola

11. August 2012 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 32: Cajun Specialty Meats, Pensacola · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

A “turducken”, which is a chicken in a duck in a turkey. Cajun Specialty Meats always has them on hand, and they also ship these throughout the Eastern Seaboard, from here to New York.

The family spent Wednesday in Pensacola, enjoying one last trip to the Pensacola MESS Hall before they close for the school year. After our time at the MESS Hall, we looked for an inexpensive — but not fast-food — lunch option.  There are typically numerous restaurants along Gregory St. near the Civic Center and we wandered up and down the main drag for something appealing. Nothing jumped out at us.

When I took a side street to make a U-turn, down an industrial-looking street, we discovered a place called Cajun Specialty Meats. It appeared to be a warehouse, but we noticed a small restaurant in front. It was still open for our late lunch so we decided to check it out.

You can read here the story of how a Cajun meat packing facility ended up in Pensacola.

The lunch menu was great (and inexpensive), and you could shop in the store while you waited for your red beans and rice, po-boys, muffulettas or etouffee.

Here’s what goodies we found at Cajun Specialty Meats!

  • One of the original national retailers of “Turduckens“.
  • Many of their traditional Cajun lunch fares are available in vacuum-sealed bags: red beans and rice, gumbo, and etouffees, for about $5-8 per 24 oz.
  • Savoie’s pre-made roux from Opelousas, LA.
  • Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup from Abbeville, LA — an alternative to corn syrup when making pecan pie.
  • Meat, meat and more meat!  Seasoned steaks, chickens and sausages galore!
  • Crawfish and seafood pies
  • Natchitoches-style meat pies!  This one really caught Dave’s and my attention, since we loved going to Lasyone’s in Natchitoches when were stationed in Louisiana in the mid-1990s.

If you’re looking for something completely different the next time you’re looking for a restaurant in Pensacola, just head one block directly BEHIND McGuire’s.

Florida Discoveries 31: Steve’s Farm in Walnut Hill

06. August 2012 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 31: Steve’s Farm in Walnut Hill · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Steve’s Farm is in Walnut Hill, Florida, just below Atmore, Alabama (home of Wind Creek Casino).

This past Saturday the family headed to the northwest corner of Florida for some catfish fishing.  I know that sounds strange, hauling so far up north when we have amazing fishing all around us, right?

We’re first heard about Steve’s Farm through our Cub Scout pack, they had an outing up to the farm earlier this spring.  We had other plans on that day, but we had promised the kids a trip up to the farm.  Especially since Timmy had won a brand new Shakespeare fishing rod and reel as a door prize from the May Cub Scout meeting.

The farm is about an 90 minute drive from our house in Navarre.  It’s run by a Mennonite family and everyone who helped us out was so incredibly nice.

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Shameless Pitch: Immaculate Baking Co.

05. August 2012 · 5 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

A favorite family breakfast!

I’d like to share a new favorite product in our house: Immaculate Baking Co.

No, this isn’t a “Back to Basics” type of thing, but I started by trying out the cinnamon rolls, like the ones pictured above.  I’ve been trying to migrate my kids away from the super-processed Pillsbury refrigerated dough products, and was just going to try to make cinnamon rolls with my bread machine.  But that still takes a while — I’d make up the dough the night before, assemble the rolls before bedtime and let them rise in the fridge.

But I had two problems with this: (a) I’m so tired at night I rarely do much food prep the night before and (b) such recipes tend to make too many cinnamon rolls.  And if I bake them, they will all be eaten.  We don’t need that.

At my local Wal-mart, I spied these Immaculate Baking cinnamon rolls positioned high above the Pillsbury products that are at eye level.  (Tangent: Check out this blog post about the psychology of product placement in grocery stores, at every store I’ve seen these cinnamon rolls, they’re on the top shelf).

I liked the non-GMO corn products and unprocessed ingredients.  I thought I’ve give them a shot.  The flour is unbleached and unbromated, the salt is sea salt and the baking powder is aluminum-free.

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Summer Crafting

02. August 2012 · Comments Off on Summer Crafting · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Getting the family ready for Dragon*Con, Halloween and the Disney Princess running weekend all at once! I found the iron-on for stretchy-fabric paper at our local A.C. Moore.

The weather continues to get the best of us this week.  We were still able to hit the Pensacola MESS Hall again on Wednesday, and today I had some meetings on base while the kids stayed home and our neighbor’s son watched them.  With thunderstorms all around us this afternoon squelching our pool plans, I was able to catch up on some craft stuff.

Such as putting finishing touches on our Incredibles costumes.

“What in the world do you need Incredibles costumes for?”

Over Labor Day weekend, the family is heading up to Atlanta.  We got some Braves-Phillies tickets on August 31st, and then on Sept. 1-2, we are planning to visit Dragon*Con for the first time.

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Florida Discoveries 29: Morrison Springs Park

30. July 2012 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 29: Morrison Springs Park · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Tucked away in the middle of nowhere, Morrison Springs Park is a jewel of a spot near Defuniak Springs. It’s a very popular freshwater snorkeling and scuba-diving location.

After nearly two weeks straight of having steamy-hot mornings and thunderstormy afternoons, it was time to simply take a gamble and head outside on a day trip.

This is the time of year in northwest Florida when the Gulf of Mexico water temperatures get so warm, trips to the beach become somewhat unpleasant.  Even swimming pools aren’t cutting it.  Many folks will head north towards places like the Blackwater River to legitimately cool off.

A fellow AF spouse shared a recent trip she took to Morrison Springs, a county park about 75 miles east-north-east of Navarre, and about 10 miles east of Defuniak Springs, not far off I-10.  It looked very interesting.  The cold water certainly caught my attention.  Today I decided to pack a lunch, our swim tubes and swim noodles and headed out with the kids.  None of us knew what to expect.  I warned them that if the place was icky enough, we’d turn right around and I’d take them to a cool lunch spot for their trouble…but it was quite nice.

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Florida Discoveries 28: Pensacola MESS Hall

22. July 2012 · 5 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I could have sworn I had heard about the Pensacola MESS Hall from the Pensacola With Kids blog, but I can’t find the reference article.  Oh well.

Trust me when I say that I had first heard about it through Pensacola With Kids, but I can’t find the original review now.  But what I did find was this story in the Pensacola Digest that came out not long after the facility opened in June.

This facility currently is only scheduled to be open through the 3rd week of August (August 18th according to their Facebook page).

So what is the MESS Hall?  Well, for starters, MESS = Math, Engineering, Science and Stuff.  It’s a science center unlike anything I had ever seen.  And trust me, I have been to many many science museums and explorer-type centers in my days.

The MESS Hall is in downtown Pensacola just a block off Palafox Street near the center square.  After spending time here, the family can adjourn to a nice dinner nearby.

The MESS Hall has attempted to capture the feeling of a traditional mess hall, which is a military term for where servicemembers eat on the base or on their ships.  The kids will walk in (after paying the $5 per person admission), and are greeted with a open space with tables and assorted areas for free play with wind tunnels, marble run parts and pendulums.  The walls are covered in posters featuring optical illusions.

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Major Mom’s “Back to Basics” Campaign: Homemade Blueberry Syrup

21. July 2012 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Today I made blueberry syrup.  This was a request from Jacob, who loves the taste of blueberries but doesn’t care for the texture of the skins or the seeds.

It looks strange in a jar, I know, but I can keep it in the pantry this way. I have a Good Seasons dressing cruet that can hold the current syrup in the fridge for day-to-day use.

The recipe I used was mainly from the Ball Blue Book canning guide and I chose it because it called for two quarts of blueberries, which was exactly how much I had in the freezer. Just ignore the part of boiling the sugar water to 260 degrees, that doesn’t seem right to me…that’s “hard ball” candy stage so I only boiled to 225F, which is syrup stage.

In terms of the technique, this blog post from Simple Bites fits the bill for describing the steps.

While canning foods is old hat for me — I’d been doing it since canning homemade pasta sauce from homegrown Ohio tomatoes in 2001 —  boiling sugar and double-straining berry juice, such as what you might do for making jelly, were new techniques for me.  I didn’t realize how SLOW straining berry juice would be, nor did I realize how long it would take to boil down the sugar water to syrup stage.  Allow 2 hours for straining the berries and about 30 minutes for boiling down the sugar enough to make the syrup.

Now that I know this, I can be sure to multi-task during those stages 🙂

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Major Mom’s “Back to Basics” Campaign: 30 Days (Almost) Dryer-Free!

19. July 2012 · Comments Off on Major Mom’s “Back to Basics” Campaign: 30 Days (Almost) Dryer-Free! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Scenes like this grace the countryside throughout Lancaster County, and it got me thinking about line-drying our own clothes.

Just before I left for vacation in June, we got a power bill and it was a doozie! The weather had been warm so the air conditioner had been running at full-tilt, but as I always do after a higher-than-normal electric bill, I start to look for where to trim the excess power consumption:

  • Close my garage door: I have a habit of leaving our garage door open.  The morning sun comes screaming in heating up the space.  This makes our garage fridge work harder.
  • Turn off extra lights.  MOST of our house uses CFL lightbulbs, but not all of them.  The bathrooms have many incandescent bulbs and we need to be better about turning them off.
  • Don’t use my big oven when I can use my toaster oven to do the same job.  If I’m just baking chicken breasts, I can pop them in our smaller toaster oven, which does the same job in a smaller space.

But the biggest — or at least a top 3 — culprit is probably our clothes dryer.  I saw a couple friends take part in a 30-Day Dryer Challenge earlier this year and at the time I thought to myself “No!  Never!”, but after (a) this past power bill and (b) driving through the back roads of Lancaster County on a laundry day, I began to mellow to the thought.

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Florida Discoveries 27: Destin Parasailing with the Kids

18. July 2012 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries 27: Destin Parasailing with the Kids · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , ,

Coming in to land after their ten-minute trip.

Last weekend we took advantage of another Groupon: $35 parasailing with Destin Parasailing. By buying two for “myself” and gifting two more to Dave (per the terms of the Groupon), we were able to swing $35 parasailing for the whole family!

We were scheduled for last Saturday, but due to poor weather, we rescheduled to this past Sunday and the weather was fantastic!

You can read more details about a parasailing experience here from our trip last year, but with the kids we were really happy they enjoyed it. There was another 7-year-old on our boat and she was much more high-strung. She went up before our boys did, and she shrieked and hollered most of the time. We didn’t know if she was happy or sad about the experience. When she came back, she seemed to be giggling, but then said “It was scary!”. So I was nervous that the kids might get nervous themselves.

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