Awesome Ozarks

I recently returned from a family trip to a part of the country we've never visited before: The Ozarks. What are the Ozarks, exactly? To me, they're something halfway between hills and mountains, woodsy, green and gorgeous. One of the coolest things about this area is the caves. It's like God's hand came down and just scooped out all these dark, damp, mysterious places full of amazing rock formations and little waterfalls. Many of them are open to the public, as long as you are willing to climb up and down hundreds of stairs. We visited Marvel Cave as part of our day at Silver Dollar City, a huge amusement park built above the cave. We were glad for the opportunity to spend time in the coolness of the cave, but those 750 stairs seemed to never end. Our home base for the week was a lodge on Table Rock Lake, just 10 miles south of Branson and a stone's throw from Arkansas. On the way there from Illinois, I saw the famous St. Louis Arch!

One of our favorite activites on the trip was zip lining. You climb up a tower that is higher than any human should be without an airpline, attach your harness to a hook contraption and zip across a cable to the next tower. Scary...but fun!

In Branson we went to a shopping area called Branson Landing. Lots of great specialty shops and restaurants, but the highlight was a fountain show during which flames shot out of wooden columns behind the dancing water. I had to come back another night to see it again!

I hope you enjoy this recipe from ruralmissouri.org:

PEACH AND PRALINE PIE

One 9-inch pie crust

1 teaspoon flour

1/3 cup flour, divided

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup light corn syrup

3 large eggs

3 cups fresh peach slices, chopped

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Sprinkle bottom of pie crust with 1 teaspoon of flour; set aside. Beat 3 tablespoons flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, corn syrup and eggs at medium speed with an electric mixer for one minute. Stir in peaches and 1/4 cup butter and pour intoprepared pie crust. Combine remaining flour and brown sugar in a small bowl. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter with pastry blender or two forks until mixture is crumbly. Stir in chopped pecans and sprinkle evenly over peach mixture in pie crust. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until center is set, shielding edge of crust withaluminum foil after 35 minutes to prevent excessive browning.

Backyard Beauties

Next week I'll go back to food and travel, but for now I'll leave you with a few more pics of the flora, fauna and fowl from the lake behind my house, all wonderful God-given gifts. At left you'll see my first non-blurry photo of the crane in flight. At right, my artsy version of fungus growing on a tree. Bottom left was my beautiful clematis before my husband decided to trim the bushes and zipped right through its skinny little stem. By the next day, all I had was dead flowers hanging pathetically on the fence.

Stop by in a few days for a new country and a recipe!

Hope and a Future

I'm taking a little break from virtual travel this week due to a full schedule, but I won't disappear from cyberspace completely. Enjoy a couple of pics from the creatures who frequent the lake behind my house.

More importanly, I offer you one of my favorite Bible verses as food for thought.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Raving About Russia

A couple of things I find fascinating about Russia: One, it’s immense size. Two, according to a map, you could almost get there from any point in the U.S. by driving to the western most tip of Alaska and swimming across the Bering Strait. Yes, I know this is not realistic – it just looks that way. But even if there were roads through all that Canadian and Alaskan wilderness, and the swimmer in question was Michael Phelps, my guess is the Bering Strait would be cold enough to instantly ice-cube someone within minutes. (It connects the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean.)

Russia has many interesting features and places to visit, but the one I’ve always wanted to see is Lake Baikal. Like Russia, it is huge. Located in Southern Siberia, Lake Baikal is the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world. It is also one of the most ancient lakes on our planet, estimated at 25-30 million years old. It lies in a gorge where the earth’s crust is pulling apart. What does that mean, exactly? I don’t know – sounds a little scary. It’s age, depth and other unique features mean that two-thirds of this lake’s 2,000 species of plants and animals don’t exist anywhere else in the world! Now that is amazing!

One of the lake’s popular critters is the Nerpa Seal, which is fat and earless. No one knows how these seals came to live there, since it is a great distance from any ocean. I love it that our world still has mysteries!

Completely surrounded by mountains, the sheer beauty of this lake draws people from all over the world. Coming soon…the food of Russia, along with a recipe!