I'm Back & Will Be Catching Up for a LONG Time!

I didn't fall off the face of the Earth, really.  I am back and I want to thank everyone for all the notes in the meantime.  Life has gotten in the way - yet again!  It will take me a VERY long time to get back into the swing of things are caught up so for the foreseeable future I'm sure to have a lot of mishmashy type posts.  Hope you don't mind!

One of the main reasons I have been avoiding a blog post is because we lost our dear Paco to his immune issues back in Early May.  He was just shy of his 7th birthday.  It all happened so fast and I'm not sure if I can fully explain everything that happened within the 12 hours of it actually happening.  Plus it was very graphic when it did happen because he was dealing with clotting issues.  Not only was he dealing with his ITP but he also had IHMA.  Up to this point he had dealt with 1 immune disease but that dreadful night he developed a 2nd one.  In addition, he was developing Cushing's again.  Because he was on a high dosage of long-term steroids he was losing muscle mass, too.  Since he was diagnosed at about 2 and a half we knew something like clotting could be in his future but NOTHING prepared us for what actually took place.

Eventho, I haven't been able to take down his pen area YET I was able to 'keep busy' and that seemed to help a little bit.  I know it sounds weird but I have to keep busy to deal with certain things.  It's not that I'm running away from my problems - it just helps me to focus on multiple things to help me heal in the meantime.   

I'm not sure if I blogged about this before my hiatus or not but back in March, I traveled to the Capitol Building.  It was my first time there.  It was a rainy day but I'm glad that I was part of it.  It was a Rally for Fair Districts and to stop Gerrymandering which is a HUGE problem in our state.  Over the past several months it's been a whirlwind and eventho we didn't get the results we had hoped we are still fighting for VOTING RIGHTS!

The county I live in doesn't have a large Refugee population but we neighbor a city that does.  Back in January and February our League of Women Voters invited the director of the Multicultural Resources Center to do a Refugee 101.  We wanted to do this because there is a lot of misinformation and incorrect assumption about how Refugees come to America and integrate into life in a new country.  The feedback was positive and a group of citizens decided to start hikes for Refugees locally since we are smack dab in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest and have other natural beauties in our area.  So...the middle of May we hosted our first of 2 hikes.  The first one was for Refugee Kids.  Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, Eritrea (a country bordering Somalia), and Nepal were the countries they fleed from.

A little over a month later we hosted another hike.  This time for a group of Senior Citizen Refugees.  Some of the participants were part of a sign language group, too.  Within this group were mostly people from Bhutan and Pakistan.

In the beginning of the Summer another outing we had was to Erie, PA, where we went to a Food Truck Festival in hopes to have one locally some day.  I was thrilled that there were vegan options!

Another thing that has been on my mind is a local tragedy.  K9 Choper - our local K9 Officer - passed away from his injuries during a training day.

During the end of June I was a committee member for the annual car and craft show at our fairgrounds and I was pleased to see more vendors that offered vegan friendly products.  One of them being these Vegan Lip Balms.

Of course we have been busy with work, too, an have had many live remotes lately including a few at local businesses and during fair week.  More on fair week in a future post but here is a neat snapshot from Employee Appreciation Day at a local business.

Another thing that has been keeping us busy has been trading in our vehicles on new ones!  Here is the new Fiat I traded my old one in for.  I LOVE it!

A few months ago I became a Zonta Member, too!  It's been fun so far and I'm looking forward to getting involved with more of the service and advocacy end of things.  Each summer they have a Summer Surprise and members don't know what it is until they get there.  This year we went to the Lucy-Desi Museum.  We had dinner in The Tropicana that they set up to look like the real TV set.  There were also recreations of the sets from I LOVE LUCY, too!  Since I'm in radio I found this tidbit extra interesting!

In other news...our local mall is going thru a major redesign and revamp.  They are turning it from a shopping mall to a strip/plaza type thing.  A co-worker has gotten me into indoor plants more the last year or more and she was upset when I told her that the indoor plants at the mall were going to be trashed.  We asked the project manager if we could take some and he said YES so we are trying to save some of them.  More on that in upcoming posts, too!

And before blogger gives up on me I think I will end this post right here.  But I will be regularly blogging again so please check back.  I really didn't scratch the surface of the stuff I have to share with you and I know I will be adding more to the list very soon!  Thanks again for staying with me the last couple months!  I appreciate you all!

Laos Style (Cheater) Pumpkin Coconut Soup, Veggie Based Vegan Cheese Sauce, Cashew Sun Dried Tomato Topped Veggie Ravioli, & Tribute to Buffalo Broadcasting Legend!

It was 3 below zero when I left the house this morning on my last 'day off' of the year.  It's beyond cold - it's damn frigid!   I've said it before and I will say it again and again - I hate winter!  The only thing it's good for is SOUP!

This was inspired by Vegan Street Food by Jackie Kearney that I obtained a while back.  It's loosely based on her Laos-Style Roasted Pumpkin, Coconut, and Chili Soup.  But I changed it so much that I thought it would be ok to share my recipe and take on it with you!  I have 2 photos here - one in a bowl and one in a mug!  The one you see here has an added nutmeg sprinkle on top!

My take on the ingredients:

1 Can Pumpkin Puree
1 Can Lite Coconut Milk
1 T Vegan Broth/Powder
1/2 t Minced Garlic
1/2 t Minced Onion
1 T Grapeseed Oil
Sea Salt to taste*
Pinch Cayenne

As many of you know I don't add much sea salt to my foods and when I do it's not even a pinch.  But here I used about 1/2 t or so and it was tasty!

Yet another Vegan Cheese Sauce on this spiral!  Here's what I threw in my blender for this...
2 C Potatoes
1/2 C Water
1/4 C Grapeseed Oil
1 T Lemon Juice
2 Carrots
1 C Corn
1/4 C Nutritional Yeast
Handful of Cashews
1/4 t each of: Onion, Garlic, Turmeric, Paprika, Vegan Stock/Powder, Yellow Mustard, Apple Cider Vinegar, Sea Salt (or to taste)

Check out this super creamy Cashew & Sun Dried Tomato Sauce I made to top the Engine 2 Diet Roasted Veggie Ravioli I found at the Buffalo Whole Foods the last time I went!  I did a basic Cashew Sauce with Cashews, Water, and Lemon Juice.  I added in about 5 Sun Dried Tomatoes and blended.  On top of that you will see that I sprinkled Smoked Paprika and Parsley on it, too!  YUM!  A closer look - see below!

I know I'm jamming a lot in to one post here but I have a lot of catching up to do!  Sorry about that!

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Engine 2's Roasted Veggie Ravioli.  There was a slight kick to the veggie mixture inside the Rav's which was neat!  This creamy, smoky, tangy sauce accompanied it well, too!

I wasn't able to find a good pic of the packaging but here's a visual for you...

This is the first product I have been able to find other than a package of the wraps which I wasn't thrilled with.  This Roasted Vegetable Whole Wheat Ravioli - on the other hand - was pretty tasty!  Yes...it did have the stereotypical whole wheat ravioli pasta texture but the veggie mixture inside greatly made up for it.  And the sauce was a nice finishing touch - if I do say so myself!

Before I end this post I wanted to insert a video from the other day.  It's about 9 minutes but worth it especially if you are in radio, TV, or from the Buffalo area.  It's a tribute to Irv Weinstein - a Buffalo Broadcasting LEGEND would passed away the day after Christmas from complications of ALS (AKA Lou Gehrig's Disease).  I grew up with this guy!  He was a staple in the Western New York Community and a life-long radio and TV guy!  He had a heart of gold and touched the lives of many.  When he retired back in '98 he was hardly able to make it thru his final broadcast before retiring.  Have 9 minutes?  I would love you to check it out!

I Won "The Slowest Potato Peeler Award" - Vegan in a Fake Turtle Shell - Turtle Power!

How's THAT for a Blog Post Title?  Yup!  It's true!  A few Friday's ago I participated in a Potato Peeling Contest for Charity.  I was nervous that I was going to come in last but I ended up having a lot of fun and walked away with this groovy award!  I know the guy next to me was slower than I was but he won the Longest Peel Award so 'it's all good'.  Maybe the organizers knew that I would get a kick out of it!  I don't know!  It was all for a good cause!  It was the kick-off to our local Torchlight Campaign for United Fund.  There are several organizations locally that benefit from the funds raised each year.

There were about 9 of us that participated in the Potato Peeling Contest including someone from our local paper, our radio stations (that was me), one of our county commissioners, a few educators, and ag people, too!  Awards were given for fastest and most accurate, the longest potato peel, and the slowest and most taken off with the peel.  That is where I come in.  Perhaps I just took much off of the actual potato.  My original plan was to create a tool that basically peeled it for me.

I wanted to take a battery operated handheld drill and put the potato on the end of that and peel it while it was spinning.  It didn't work the way I hoped so I didn't do it and changed courses at the last minute.  These are the potatoes once I was done with them.  I also think there was some trickery that went along with it because I ended up with 2 extra potatoes in my bowl before they weighed them. It was all in good fun but it was a bit ironic that the vegan was the slowest peeler!

In other news - I FINALLY got my hair cut and colored!  Woot!  It's been about 10 months since my last visit and I was WAY past due!  If you look real close in the first pic you can see how long my hair was in ponytail.  It's hard to tell but I had it pulled in front of me quite a bit.  This photo is after I got it done and it's about shoulder length in front and just a bit shorter in the back.  End result - they took over 6 inches off me - I guess I didn't know how long my hair had gotten until they cropped it off.  It does feel better after getting the length off a bit.  I still have my hippie hair it's just a little more manageable.

I Acquired 25 Pounds of Mushrooms Over The Weekend...FREE...And Other Weekend Happenings

Over the weekend our region had one of the largest seasonal folk art craft fairs in our area and one of the vendors asked if any of the volunteers wanted free mushrooms so a friend of ours said that he knew someone who would want them.  They were already washed, sliced, etc and ready to go.  When he brought the box of mushrooms over I was SHOCKED!  There had to have been a good 25 pounds of mushrooms in there!  Here are some of them!

 After sharing with 4 other people who only grabbed about 5 pounds each I still had LOTS left.  So last night I made soup!  LOTS and LOTS of soup!  More on those soups in future posts but today I thought I would post some other random photos from the weekend.  After 4 large batches of soup - my mother and I did a few other things with them including a favorite from my childhood that we veganized.  POM (Peppers, Onions, Mushrooms).  We cooked them in Earth Balance Vegan Spread instead of the butter/margarine we used to when I was a kid!

At this same folk art fair was this lil guy...a Prairie Dog!  My father and I adore them!  There is a man who brings his fur friends each year - and we have seen him at other events - I believe he rescues a lot of the animals - you can tell he really LOVES them!  Each animal has a name and he remembers ALL of them!  He also currently has about 300 goats and mini goats, too!  He was telling a lady that he will NOT bring a goat who doesn't want to come that day.  They all want to go (he doesn't force them).  He says "ok - who wants to go" and a bunch of them will run over to the truck(s)!  He had some turtles, large rabbits, and a mini horse, too!

Oh yes!  And the goats!  They were adorable!  All so friendly and well behaved!  I really connected with a few of them!  I have wanted 2 goats for a while now but don't know the first thing about caring for them.  Regardless they are so cute!

I can't believe it's fall already!  Oye!  It bums me out because I know that snow is right around the corner!

I will cherish the non-snow weather for as long as I can, tho!

In other news...

The decorated rocks are popping up all over for various groups so we decided to do them for the radio station.  Here are a few that I started already!

I'm not the best drawer but I try and it's FUN - it gets me out walking a bit more and it helps relieve some stress!

Quick Fair Re-Cap

I know it's been a while.  A lot has been going on.  And I mean A LOT.  Pretty much every part of our lives have been going thru changes the last several months.  Personal, Family, Work, Volunteer, Community, Health, Relationships, etc.  Instead on rambling on and on about it I figured it was best just to jump in on current event rather to rehash things from the last weeks and months.

What I will re-cap QUICKLY for you in that we are past fair week...which ended up being more like fair month OR fair summer.  There was a LOT of preparation in this years county fair.  There ALWAYS is but this year seemed to be even more so.





Here are photos of 2 of the concerts from this years fair.  This first photo is from last year but this year it was more of the same from the Morning Show!

Tuesday Night - Neal McCoy was LIVE in concert at the Warren County Fair in Pittsfield, PA.  It's was a HECK of a show!  I've said it before and I'm sure I will say it again...I'm not the biggest country music fan...but I do know what I like and I've always liked Neal McCoy.  He was actually the first performer I saw LIVE when I was in High School...and here he is 22 or so years later back at our fairgrounds!  He's a wonderful individual and a HELL of a performer!

He performed to a jam-packed 'house' (building).  He spent most of the show IN the crowd!  I think it's fair to say that Warren County will ALWAYS love Neal McCoy!

Wednesday Night - The Pam Tillis Trio performed to another FULL HOUSE!  It was Pam Tillis with 2 other females on stage with their acoustic instruments and vocals.  This show was unique and more intimate than her full band.

I originally was going to do a longer post but we are under severe weather warning at the moment so I might do another post later today or tomorrow.

I have a lot to share but haven't had a lot of time to actually POST and for that I am truly sorry!  Don't give up on me!  I'm back but I'm still trying to get fully back in the saddle so to speak!

What have you been up to!?

Warren County Fair From Different Eyes

I have at least 4 posts I will be doing from the Warren County Fair Week but I thought I would ease into it with a few 'behind the scenes' type photos to start.

This was taken Sunday Evening as I was just getting back from WNY VegFest.  The sky was so beautiful!  I couldn't resist taking a photo of it.

I tried to get to sleep early that night because we had to get up around 3:30am to prepare for the Morning Show.  We did double air shifts Monday thru Friday that week!  Then all of the other festivities that went along with being a volunteer and board duties my hubby had that week, too!

We can't help but think of a friend of ours during fair time (and every day we are at work for that matter).
He's been gone for a few years now...I actually can't believe it's been that long!  He will always be missed!
 
This was his saying!  A friend of ours found this mug and gave it to Dale the first day of Fair.  He got pretty choked up about it.

We talked about our friend and co-worker often that week.  It would have also been his birthday, too!

Cancer is an awful thing.

This year we installed a park model that was found for a wonderful price.  It's in the backstage area for the entertainment who visit our fair.

This was a photo taken from the deck.  Many people worked on the space throughout the summer to make it look nice.

We had some wonderful feedback about it too!

I will probably have more photos of this space down the road.

This was my view from Monday after the Media Lunch was over.

Colt Ford Opens For Jake Owen

Last Saturday we made a last minute decision to go to the Crawford County Fair to meet up with a booking agent that hubby works with for entertainment for our fair.  When we got there we got a tour of their (newer) facilities and were backstage during load in for Jake Owen with opener Colt Ford.  Right away I noticed TWO of these semi-trucks with Jake's tour graphics on them!  Of course I had to snap a pic - moreso because of the 'Love Bus' you see behind me.

I know I keep saying I'm not much of a country fan.  Sometimes I like certain songs but I can't really say I'm a huge fan overall.  It's just that these opportunities keep popping up and with everything we do with work and volunteering for our fair I'm surrounded by country music.  (In case you didn't know I'm in radio and one of our stations is a country station).  I really like seeing the functionality of everything behind the scenes.  I like the stage area, the light, the sound...I guess that goes back to my theatre days in high school. Not only was I in theatre but I was with the stage crew, too!

So anyways...this concert was Jake Owen with opener Colt Ford.  It was entertaining.  Colt Ford does like rap-country mix.  More on that in a bit.

We had Jake at our fair about 4 years ago and he's a super nice guy and has only grown since then.

When Colt opened for Jake he really got the crowd going but there was over 40 minutes in between him and Jake which was excessive.

As you can see in these pics and videos the stage shows were very different...hence the 40 minute down time.



Colt Ford covered Eminem's Lose Yourself from 8-Mile.  That was pretty cool.
This short clip shows the Beach Ball Party going on!  From a sponsor standpoint this was a great way to get the sponsors name out there which was Toyota.
And JUST before my phone died...I got this short clip of Jake's stage and light show!

The Swon Brothers Concert

I have 4 concerts to talk about from The Warren County Fair from last week and I have had a lot of people ask me for other specific content on my blog here including more recipes and more product reviews and suggestions. I aim to please and will be intertwining them from here on out. AND I am waiting for some more photos to become available so that might work out for the better. Anyhow...The Swon Brothers Concert!

You may (or may not) know that The Swon Brothers were one of the finalists on The Voice not too long ago.  I have to admit I don't watch the show but I have heard a lot about it.

What I can tell you first hand is that these guys are TOP NOTCH!  They are incredible nice and sweet and polite but fun and extremely talented all at the same time.  After I met them and watched their live show I can now say I'm a fan of theirs.

They did all sorts of music!  They did some of their own music but also did some great covers including some from Tom Petty, The Eagles, Doobie Brothers, Kansas, and many more!  They were complete crowd pleasers, too!  They threw out freebies to the fans, ran all the way to the back bleachers to meet and greet those in the way back, and they were there until to the bitter end signing each persons item after the show!

I honestly can't say enough great things about these guys!  They are fabulous!  This is a photo of them with my father.  Both my father and sister helped out that day.  The Swon Brothers did a special Meet & Greet for a select few prior to their show and my Dad and Sister helped with organization and flow...along side one of the fair board directors, too!

Here's a photo of the brothers with the sisters!  Yup!  That's my sister Megan.  And me...with my old station shirt on...can you believe I've been wearing that shirt for 16 years now? LOL

Media Lunch & Media Happenings

This week you will see a lot of posts having to do with last weeks' county fair.  Yesterday I blogged about the food I consumed and a few furry friends I made.  Today I thought I would tell you a bit about the media side including the Media Lunch as well as some of our radio interviews during our live remote broadcasts.

First up - the Media Lunch.  There were over 50 people who attended and speakers included various fair board members and volunteers as well as a politician and a few people from our vacation bureau.

These beautiful arrangements were the table centerpieces!

Most of the attendees had chicken but there were two of us who didn't consume it.  The one was a girl I have known for years and she has Celiac and Wheat allergies and I don't consume animal products.  We were so blessed that the organizers made us a special mixed greens salad with veggies and cute strawberries topped with Balsamic.  It was wonderful!  And greatly appreciated!  The main organizer was the wife of one of the fair board directors and her former in laws were strict vegetarians so she understood where I was coming from!  A great time was had by all during the Media Lunch.

This year there was a new bench dedicated to our former morning show host, sales manager, and dear friend who passed away from cancer about a year and a half ago.

Here's a photo of the bench - it turned out wonderful!  One of the fair board directors made it!  We placed it in front of our radio booth and will also store it in there during the winter months, too, to protect it from the elements!

We were able to interview so many different people throughout the week!  It was fun!

One of the interviews we did was with The Swon Brothers on Tuesday afternoon.  They performed live on stage later that evening.  The brothers were super nice.  If you are fans of the TV Show "The Voice" they may ring a bell to you!  They did a great interview that afternoon and were a couple of fun guys!  You can see me here with my ponytail which I sported most of the week for a few different reasons.  One being I need to get my hair trimmed and colored and the other reason being it was just easier to deal with during the week with all of the running around we were doing.  We had a pretty neat set-up then again we have been doing this each year it seems to get better each time we do it.

When I do my post about the 4 concerts last week I will get into each performance a bit more.

But in the meantime here's a closer look at the interview we did.

For the most part the weather was pretty good.

It poured pretty hard core on Monday afternoon and evening and sprinkled a bit after that but mostly it was bearable weather-wise.

Another funny thing about being on the radio during fair week is everyone wants you to do things out of your comfort zone.  My husband has always wanted to operate a huge tractor and a few of the other track guys put me on one to tease my husband.  I got to operate one before he did.  He was so jealous.  But he was able to drive one around during the parade they did on the track later in the week.  Here's a snapshot of the two of us on a huge John Deere Tractor.  I was sitting funny so it's not all that flattering but my eyes look really blue - don't they?

Happy Mail & Crazy Color!

A bit more of back-log-blogging before I start posting about my WNY VegFest Adventures from the weekend.  I have some HAPPY MAIL and Crazy Color to share with you right now!

First up...Happy Mail from NuNaturals!  They repackaged the Oat Fiber and sent some more of the flavored stevia and syrups!  I will be doing more with these in the very near future that is for sure!

You may remember a few months ago that 52 Teas was doing a KickStarter Campaign to change hands from Frank to Anne.  Well, it happened and the new owners have taken over 52 Teas and sent the KickStarter perks to those you participated!  Here are the reblends I received and I am super excited about them!

PLUS the company will remain vegan and organic!  Woot!  Congrats and THANKS to Anne and her daughter for continuing this label or great teas!

I have already tried their Pancake Breakfast Black Tea and LOVE it!  I think it's more bakey-crusty tasting than before and I'm LOVING that!

This morning I received a surprise in the mail from OPAL!  She hand-made this amazingly beautiful knit hat and also send some embossing folders for my Cuttlebug Machine.

I really MUST get back into scrappin' and paper craftin'!

Maybe after fair is over :)

Again a HUGE Thank You to OPAL for these!

The hat will surely come in handy for the cold winters here.  She knows I LOVE LOVE LOVE hats!  And she's incredibly talented!  She is brilliant with fiber crafts!

In other news...

The rooftop garden is going very well!  We didn't do as much of a variety of things this year but what we are trying is doing well!

We started these peppers inside several months ago and actually these three peppers were indoor and window sill gardening attempts.  We didn't take these outside.

These are SUPER HOT!!!  I like spicy but I will be using these in moderation that is for sure!

They are about the length of my finger so they are pretty small but pack a powerful punch!

And I have been blogging about how we are gearing up for fair time and this is where this next photo comes into play!

This year we are going to have a Prize Wheel and here is what it looks like.  My father let us borrow it from his work and DH altered it.  Doesn't it look COOL!?  What CRAZY COLOR, eh?  Sure is colorful!  And we already have a LOT of prizes to giveaway!  That is above and beyond all of the travel mugs we are given to pass out from a local company and this year we also have about 300 bags of chips to pass out, too!  There will be 4 concerts in 5 days so that is where most of my time will be spent once radio life is wrapped up for the day!