Out with the Tree - Seafood Lovers Pizza and Motorhome Exercise Day!

On Sunday, we ran up to dad's cabin and had a nice visit with him.  He was happy to see us and we brought him some holiday treats.  The dogs came along so they could give his cat Issiah a tough time.   The cat loves to tease them and makes sure they know he is the King of the House.

 It was a pleasant drive up to his place

 and we got back in time for the kickoff on the big Packer / Giants game (which they won!)

Our fresh cut Blue Spruce has not fared too well.  I watered it daily, but it just kept losing needles.  Normally I like to keep our tree up till after New Years.  This time we figured we better take it out before it becomes a fire hazard.....  we took it apart during the Packer game (during the commercials)     just LOOK at all the needles that fell just from taking off the ornaments and lights!

It took four times dumping the vac cleaner canister to get up all of these danged needles!

Once that was done, it was time for supper... .a while back I saw this great idea on the noon tv segment Mr. Food for a Seafood Lovers Pizza.   Here is the recipe from their website:

Homemade Seafood Lover's Pizza 

Homemade Seafood Lover's Pizza delivers a creamy cheese spread topped with fresh seafood that bakes up in no time to impress your guests as an appetizer or your family as a light dinner.

Ingredients
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons prepared pesto sauce
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 (12-inch round) prepared pizza shell
6 ounces flaked crabmeat
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (see Notes)
1/4 pound medium-sized cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450°F.

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream, pesto sauce, Parmesan cheese, and pepper; beat with an electric mixer until creamy and smooth.

Spread mixture evenly over pizza shell. Sprinkle with crabmeat and cheese then top with shrimp.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until crust is crisp and brown, and cheese is melted.

Makes 6 to 8 slices.






This was a good night to make it, so I snapped pics step by step.

I bought these thick crust Mama Mary's unbaked pizza crusts.  They come two to a pack, and if you only use one, they thoughtfully include an extra bag to store the other one till you need it for the next time.

Some bags of shredded parmesan, montery jack and mozzarella, a can of real crab meat, some cream cheese, sour cream, garlic, italian spices and 12 jumbo shrimp.

I didn't have any pesto sauce on hand, so I made my own from garlic and spices and mushed it up with the cream cheese and sour cream.  (next time I will use less and spread more thinly)

I drained the can of flaked crab meat in a strainer and carefully scattered it around on the pizza

Now I added a blend of all three shredded cheeses, the 12 shrimp and sprinkled with Italian Seasoning

Baked it up till golden.. yummmmmmmmmmm  what a mouthwatering treat! 

(next time we will use low fat cheeses and less sauce)

Soooo for Monday, dear Steveio was off work.  It's a *Furlough Day* for all the state workers.  Ya know, those days they make all of the state employees take off, with NO pay, to think that might just balance the State's horrendous budget.  Ya...  right.  He has to take 8 of them again this year.  Sigh.   And finds twice as much work when he gets back.  Did ya know some of the 24 hour jobs like prison guards and power plant guys all rake in double time and overtime pay for working to cover for the guys who had to take off.  Now THAT makes sense?  It really doesn't help the state's budget and really only hurts the worker's budgets!   Okay, off the soapbox.



But since the sun was shining and the roads were dry,  we decided to do our monthly exercise of our motorhome.  Yes, each month it should be started, and run for more than 20 miles to get the transmission up to a good temp.  Steve puts an additive in our diesel fuel to prevent gelling in the cold temps.   It fired right up in the driveway in 18 degree temps.  That Cat engine purred like a kitten!

We fired up the generator too, and plugged in two electric heaters to take out the chill, plus the dash heat and the LP furnace.  Then we added the dogs, and the baby seat.  Yes, we had Chelsea the granddaughter today and she needs to get a ride in our motorhome too.   Steveio is in his glory when he is behind the wheel.

We drove about 15 miles up the side of the Bay to North Bayshore County Park.  They plow out the parking lot all winter to allow the ice fishermen to come and go from the parking area out onto the frozen waters of Green Bay.   We saw two of them fishing right on the channel at the boat landing.

The sun was shining and we were comfy cozy in our rig.  We discussed our upcoming trip and made some lists of things to take or do or work on before we leave in February.   We kept the genny running while I cooked up some lunch in the microwave.  Then we shut that down and just used the battery power and inverter to watch some tv and settle in the baby for a nap.

 What a gorgeous parking spot in the sunshine on a frosty cold winter day!

(see me n Chelsea waving out the windshield as Steve took the pic?)

We all dozed off for a nap in the afternoon sunshine, and it was such a nice way to spend the afternoon.  About 2:30 we headed on home, with no mishaps.  The rig ran great and all was well. 

It sure was hard on us to back it into the yard.... we wanted to keep on going!~!