As a part of our 2016 mission to explore Arizona more fully than on previous trips there, we visited Bisbee – once a thriving mining town, and now a tourist destination with a fascinating history.
Category: Photography
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2016 – Cactus and Copper
Info at the entrance to the mine The Lavender Pit Mine In the museum The old equipment was intriguing An excellent tour Interesting rule for the restrooms Our car with a stunning backdrop Before I lost 40 lbs Hubs shows the size of the chain Downtown Bisbee. Two of these buildings were lost in a fire in early 2024 -
Reveal and Review
Here they are!!
About three weeks ago, I found a recipe for these cottage cheese/egg muffins and adapted it to my own preferences.
When I made these in my regular metal muffin pan, they were delicious, but sadly, collapsed as they cooled. In addition, despite the metal pan being well oiled, the eggs stuck terribly.
Enter the silicone muffin pan I mentioned in my Friday post about self gifting.
I used the same recipe but because the muffin cups in the silicone pan were so much deeper than in my metal pan, I added 4 eggs to the 6 the recipe called for.
In addition, because I set the silicone pan inside a metal cake pan (for stability), I had to add 12 minutes to the recipe bake time in order to be satisfied that the eggs had set.
The end result told the tale! Despite the lower fill level, the contents rose beautifully and maintained their shape throughout cooling!
They released easily from the silicone pan and clean up was a breeze!
Now, I can’t wait to try regular muffins in my new self gift!
**For those looking for a recipe, this is loosely what I’ve been doing:
Cottage Cheese and Egg Muffins (makes 1 dozen)
Preheat oven to 375°F
Whisk together 6 – 10 eggs, 1/2 cup cottage cheese and whatever spices you prefer. I used salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Stir in whatever cheese, meat, and vegetables you prefer @ 1/2 cup each ingredient (I used spinach, green onion, red bell peppers, real bacon bits, and shredded old cheddar)
Pour into muffin pan and bake for 18 – 30 minutes (until eggs are set)
Let cool in muffin pan for about 15 minutes and then remove to a plate to continue cooling.
Store in a sealed container in fridge or freezer.
Reheat in microwave for 30 seconds to one minute if out of fridge … 2 minutes if out of freezer
**High protein, keto-friendly, and gluten free**
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“Thank You, Self!”
Self gifting is how I describe purchasing unnecessary items, just because you’re interested in them and you want to give them a try. The likelihood of anyone else gifting them, to you is, at best, slim, so you treat yourself.
Silicone bakeware has always intrigued me.
Last week, I finally caved in to my curiosity, and bought this muffin pan.
Can you guess what I’m baking that might work better in this than in a regular muffin tin?
*Big reveal and review coming on Monday.*
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2016 – Casa Grande and the Duke
Shortly after mid January 2016, we stopped in for a visit with friends from here at home in Canada, who own a winter home on an acreage in Maricopa County, AZ.
Our friends treated us to a day trip with them to the 26 Bar Ranch at Casa Grande. This was, at one time, 14,000 acres of John Wayne’s total 50,000 acre cattle ranching operation in Arizona. The Casa Grande location was the headquarters for 26 Bar, and was where the Duke operated his feedlot. His feedlot was, at one time (at 85,000 head), the largest privately owned feedlot in the USA.
When we visited, it was still an operational commercial feed lot with thousands of head of cattle, so between the sights, the sounds, and the smells, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine what it was like when the Duke owned it.
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Don’t Let Them Fool You
To the naked eye, the tops of most mushrooms look smooth.
A macro lens says otherwise.
As with many things (and people) … we need to look closely and beyond the surface if we want to see what’s really there, don’t we?
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A Necessary Detour
Recently, I’ve been hearing and reading about an exercise trend, called the Japanese Walking Method.
I decided that it’s more appropriate for me (while I continue with recovery from the accident injuries) vs returning to my previous power walking too soon.
So, for now anyways, it’s a bit of a detour, but a worthwhile one, according to my research.
You can read more about this walking method here .
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2016 – Vegas x 2
In early 2016, we were in Las Vegas twice within a few weeks – once in mid January on our way to Arizona, and again in mid February (on our way home from Arizona) to pick my cousin up at the airport and tour her around on her first visit there.
Hubs and I had visited “Sin City” several times before, so we enjoyed showing my cousin what we considered to be some of the highlights.
So much to see and do besides gambling! -
Trouble in the Sky
Late yesterday afternoon, a call was interrupted by the loud honking on my cell phone of an Environment Canada tornado warning for our area.
Within an hour, the eerie calm set in and the sky darkened.
My feature photo is looking east from our balcony. Soon, the wind picked up, and the nimbus clouds moving in from the west started attacking the fluffy white cumulus clouds, threatening the formation of the dreaded combination: cumulonimbus. The cloud formations I learned in science class so many years ago have stuck with me. That’s a testament to a good teacher.
Thankfully, our only outcome from the ominous warning, was a ten minute episode of heavy rain, wind, thunder, and lightning; then it just carried on moving east.
I’ll admit I was more than a bit anxious for a while.
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Seas of Gold
Canada is the top canola producer in the world, and of the Canadian provinces, my province of Saskatchewan is the top canola producer in Canada.
This is the time of year that canola comes into full bloom and my feature photo (taken “on the way by”) is typical of what we see no matter which direction we drive.
Click here if you’d like to learn about the many uses for canola besides canola oil for salad dressings or cooking.
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2016 – A Crazy Travel Year
While searching my Amazon photos app (by year) to find when we visited Old Tucson, AZ … I arrived at 2016 and said “Wow!” right out loud.
That year was an absolutely crazy travel year for us!
It may have had a wee bit to do with the fact that this was our first full year of retirement together, so we were in “yahoooo” mode.
For the next unknown number of Wednesdays I’ll recap some of the many hilights of that year, through a feature photo and a brief description.
This feature photo was taken in Old Tucson, AZ … in … you guessed it … 2016!
Radically Retired 