Radically Retired

Blog

  • Friday Freestyling … One Dish Delish

    Friday Freestyling … One Dish Delish

    Over the past couple of years, I’ve become intrigued by the simplicity of sheet pan meals.

    These easy-to-prepare creations are limited only by what ingredients you have on hand, your imagination and the oven temperature.

    My most recent attempt used farmer sausage, potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, and onions. While the oven pre-heated to 425° F, I cleaned, chopped, and cut the veg and sliced the sausage. I then just tossed it all into a bag and coated everything with a mixture of olive oil, herbs, and spices. From there, the mixture got spread out on a parchment paper lined, rimmed, baking sheet and baked until veggies were fork tender. (Approximately 1 hour)

    Because carrots are more dense than potatoes, they take a bit longer to bake. Next time, I may cut them into thinner slices to compensate for this.

    All in all, the meal turned out tasty and hubs-approved.

    Because the pan was large and I couldn’t think of appropriate props, the dish was challenging to photograph. I decided that fill the frame was the best option.

  • Read My Sign

    Read My Sign

    According to The Beatles in 1967, it’s all you need.

  • Happiness Is … Walking

    Happiness Is … Walking

    My Monday posts will now focus on happiness. The goal is to start each week on a positive note.

    I ’ve recently been seeing lots of clever memes from a Facebook page called “Hippie World”.

    The memes are ai generated, so aren’t subject to copyright (I figured as much, but checked anyways to be sure).

    Because, when I was a teenager, I was a wannabe hippie, because I’ve been an avid walker for many years, and because many of the songs referenced are on my walking playlists, this one spoke to me:

    📸 Hippie World
  • Friday Freestyling

    Friday Freestyling

    It seems that when I theme the days of my posts, I have an easier time coming up with ideas.

    The Mon,Weds, Fri routine feels like a better fit than random posts as they pop into my head, because I can sometimes go a long time without a random idea (suitable for a post), and then other times, my brain is a randomness convention and I find I want to post too often.

    So far, I haven’t decided on a firm Monday theme, but I have a few ideas, and will post the final decision after this weekend.

    Wednesdays will be “Read My Sign” (my take on wordless Wednesday).

    “Freestyling Fridays” will be random, because I need a bit of the unplanned and unexpected and maybe you do too.

    My feature photo is our recent purchase.

    Her name is Lily. She’s the first white vehicle either of us has ever owned, thus the name.

    The truck was too difficult for me to handle because I couldn’t judge the length of it for parking and passing. In addition, it’s served its purpose, so we wanted something a bit more economical fuel-wise.

    Bye-bye old boy
    You served us well
  • Read My Sign

    Read My Sign

    After a review of my photo collection, I’ve decided to do my own twist on wordless Wednesday.

    I noticed in my thousands of photos, that I have an affinity for photographing signs. I have them from on the way by in the vehicle, from walkabouts, from vacation spots – you name it. If I see a sign that either amuses or interests me, I’m taking a photo of it.

    The sign in my feature photo stands in the yard of a ranching friend’s Arizona property.

    I hope you’ll enjoy these over the next many weeks.

  • Happiness Is … Spring at Last

    Happiness Is … Spring at Last

    Happiness landed firmly this past week, as more and more signs of spring appeared on my walking trails.

    The showy flowers on the Dwarf Russian Almond shrub in my feature photo made me smile.

    Caraganas are also finally kicking out their masses of yellow blossoms now. These blossoms always bring back happy memories of my childhood home.

    Caragana

    Everything is showing signs of life and rejuvenation after a cooler, dryer, and windier than usual May.

    Striped Squill

    The grass alongside our many trails is greening up, and the trees will soon be completely leafed out.

    Even the dandelions are a welcome sight!

  • Special Spuds

    Special Spuds

    There’s a Canadian organization known as Second Harvest. It’s been operating since 1985 and is Canada’s largest food charity.

    Their mission is to reduce food waste from restaurants and grocery stores by “rescuing surplus foods” and then offering unspoiled, yet unsold food at no cost to the hungry.

    Last week, the organization delivered a truck load of potatoes to our community.

    These were big bags of spuds and there were lots of them!

    📸 Family Place, Weyburn, SK
    📸 Family Place, Weyburn SK

    Many folks showed up to get their free spuds.

    Once those in need got theirs, a new poster was added to The Family Place FB page:

    📸 Family Place

    My sis and I decided to go get some to help with the mission of no good food to the landfill.

    The potatoes were lovely, firm, fresh, and clean (feature photo)

    There’s a similar organization in the USA, known as Feeding America.

  • Wordless Wednesday

    Wordless Wednesday

  • Four Wins for the Win

    Four Wins for the Win

    Since returning home from Texas and after listening to rave reviews from my sister on Instant Pot Yogurt, I decided to finally give it a try.

    My sister has been making her own IP Yogurt for some time and says she prefers the flavour and texture to store bought.

    I’ve now made my second batch and to say I’m impressed is an understatement.

    From one gallon of skim milk, I get 10 cups of Greek Yogurt (the container with the red lid contains 2 cups). It’s fat free and preservative free, and has the creamy consistency of Fage.

    In addition, I’m saving the whey (in the jar on the left) from straining, to add to smoothies, soups, and baking.

    Not only is the taste and texture better than store bought:

    >The gallon (4 litre) jug of milk I use costs on average $6.50 Cdn ($4.72 USD)

    >The 10 cups (2500 mls) of Greek Yogurt that the recipe makes would cost, on average around $21 CDN ($15 USD)

    So, considering the no preservatives, the usefulness of the whey, the price point, and the better texture and flavour, the lengthy process is a win, win, win,win.

  • May Long

    May Long

    Victoria Day in Canada is a federal holiday. It has existed since at least 1845, and was established in celebration of Queen Victoria’s (known as the mother of confederation) birthday on May 24.

    The actual holiday is observed on the last Monday in May preceding May 25, so the date changes from year to year.

    The weekend of the holiday is affectionately referred to as the “May long”.

    This is, in many areas, including ours, the weekend that campgrounds open, gardens are seeded, and grain farm seeding is at full speed ahead.

    Often, Lilacs, as in my feature photo (that I took in 2024) are starting to come into bloom by the May long. Not so this year, because the holiday is a little earlier and the weather has been cooler and drier than usual.

    Hopefully the rains yesterday and today will change that.