Foodie Friday! California Wedge Salad

Another Foodie Friday is upon us and I'm so happy to share this simple but amazing
summer time salad...

Especially now that its so hot outdoors.
If you added a protein such as crab, shrimp or grilled chicken it would be a meal!
Its a simple salad that you can mix with any ingredients YOU like!

This one was a side salad for my amazing Peach Glazed Pork Roast.
The crowning glory was the homemade Blue Cheese dressing
I linked this post to:
This Weeks Cravings over at Mom's Crazy Kitchen
(Thank you for inviting me!)

This was simply a 1/4 wedge of cold and crispy iceberg lettuce.
1/2 avocado
A handful of croutons
A handful of yellow pear tomatoes (From my garden)
A few slices of red onion
extra blue cheese crumbles
Homemade Blue cheese dressing



Dressing recipe...
1 cup regular mayo
1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled (reserve some for topping salad)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
fresh ground pepper

Combine and mix... serve chilled

Enjoy!

*Announcement*
On my other blog... My weight loss blog,
I lost 28 pounds in April/May
"My Weight Loss Journey. Oh the Places we'll go!"
I am doing a Summer time challenge.
Lose 10 to 20 pounds in 23 days!
If you are interested in losing 10 to 20 pounds in 23 days,
click here for the information.
Its not a competition its a challenge!
Join our team!
Here on Blogger or on Facebook
~Really Rainey~

Out Door Wednesday ~Lake Powell~

Lake Powell Arizona/Utah
186 miles long... with 960 miles of shoreline to explore.
Lake Powell is 800 miles longer than the California shoreline.
Here is a view from the Space Shuttle
(and this is why we use our hand held GPS)



This past week hubby, Gadget and I took our ski boat to Lake Powell for a week of camping in our own private cove on a sandy beach on Lake Powell.
Here is our photo journal:

Leaving the house with everything packed up in the boat and in the back of our truck.



Hubby's Co-Pilot, Gadget (I'm the navigator)



Of course we hit rain and hail in Flagstaff Arizona~



But then it clears up and its a beautiful drive... It takes us about 6 hours to drive to Page...
Then we reach what I call the gateway to Page Arizona...
When you go through this rock wall road, you are only minutes from Page Arizona.
and Lake Powell.



We spend the first night in a hotel so we can get on the lake early in the morning to drive up lake to rendezvous with our friends from Colorado.
We always spend the first night at this pet friendly hotel.



They always put us in a room downstairs so we can keep an eye on our boat (Out the window) and take Gadget potty easily... That's the pet lawn.



Can you find "Gadget"?



Up early and to Antelope Point Marina to use their Valet boat launch service...
We just get in our boat and they do the rest!
Our Valet:



She hops in our truck, and we hop in our boat once we are loaded up and takes us to the ramp... backs us down the long narrow ramp and effortlessly launches our boat in minutes.



On the lake in under a half l hour from leaving our hotel!

We meet up with out friends from Colorado in a previously agreed upon cove (we have GPS).

And its off to find a camp site for the week!

We find a sweet little cove with a sandy beach to park the boats



and set up camp...



Mike and Rainey's Villa junto al lago ("Villa by the lake...")



Our friends Tienda de campaña en la colina ("Tent on the hill")



Its HOT... 105 at least... the best we can do to cool off is get in the water and float...

Or go play on the lake...

The color of the lake water changes with the time of day, depth of the water and sunshine.



One day we were out exploring and we saw a cave in the distance...



Lets go explore it!



Its hard to judge just how big it is till you get there cause the lake us so huge!



Yeah we will fit... Our friends go in first so I can photograph them.



Boat spelunking!
(spelunking= to explore a cave)



Turn on your lights!



Now its our turn to go in...



Inside the cave...
Water carved out this cave... it was awesome in there.... cool and our voices echoed and our boat stereo sounded awesome in there!



Looking out, it was a pretty big cave once we were in there...



Looking at our friends boat...



Off to explore some canyons...





Our Dogs got along great...
In fact I think Hunter had a little crush on the little Gadget and her fluffy tail!



We came around a bend to find this!
(This scene will ruin your vacation!)



A perfect example of people not paying attention or boating at night.
But in their defense the warning buoy wasn't clearly marking this hazard...
But ahhhh people...you can clearly see it! (unless its night!)



This HAD to have hurt when they hit it!



Mark and I kept seeing a pig, a mouse and a whale...
(No it wasn't the tequila)



Clearly it was a pig, a duck on a rock and a whale!
(Hey it was hot...)



Well its goodbye till next year...
Early morning departure...



A very fun and relaxing trip...

I'm linking up with
Susan's @ A Southern Day Dreamer Outdoor Wednesday!

Foodie Friday! ~Checkerboard cake~

This week my niece Brianna came to visit and we made a fun cake...

I used my daughter's checkerboard cake pans and it was easy and fun!
(Click on the photos to enlarge)

My Niece Brianna:



Pouring cake batter using the guide that cake with the cake pans:



Taking the guide out and washing it before I move to the opposite color.



Three layers of red and white:



Baked to perfection:



Carefully stacked and frosted:



Beautifully frosted:



Our cake, a little lopsided, but not bad for our first attempt.



Try a piece?
Vanilla and Red Velvet Checkerboard Cake



I'm linking up to
Miss "G's"Foodie Friday