A to Z CHALLENGE ~ I is for INERTIA

A to Z challenge 

Another good term to learn is INERTIA.

INERTIA is the force that holds the universe together. Literally. Without it, things would fall apart.

This is one of those terms that a TRUE definition can be clear as mud so I’ll offer you up a couple choices 😀

A) “The property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force.”

B) “Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its velocity. This includes changes to the object’s speed, or direction of motion. An aspect of this property is the tendency of objects to keep moving in a straight line at a constant speed, when no forces act upon them.”

C) “Inertia is a passive property and does not enable a body to do anything except oppose such active agents as forces and torques.“

But Newton’s First law, the Law of Inertia really says it best for the layman “if a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force.”

All that said, there are no #RailArt pictures for Inertia itself so I’ll offer up these random images 😀

BLTS ROLL UPS

These are great in the spring and summer, especially for picnic baskets or outside around the yard.

BLTS (BACON LETTUCE TURKEY STRAWBERRY) ROLL UPS
PER PERSON
1 LARGE spinach tortilla
2 slices deli turkey
2-3 pieces crisp bacon
2-3 LARGE strawberries
shredded lettuce mayonnaise

  • Lay spinach tortillas out on a flat work surface.
  • Spread with mayonnaise.
  • Starting at one edge top with turkey slices followed by bacon pieces, sliced strawberries and lettuce not quite going all the way to the other edge.
  • Roll the tortillas TIGHTLY!
  • Cut each roll in half and serve.

A to Z CHALLENGE ~ H is for HELL ON WHEELS

HELL ON WHEELS was a GREAT show that we loved! After all, who doesn’t love Anson Mount? :SIGH: 😀 And even though it was fictional, it WAS based on real life!

HELL ON WHEELS – A traveling assembly of business establishments for railroad workers of the Union Pacific during the construction of the transcontinental railroad. Businesses typically included purveyors of equipment and supplies, as well as gambling houses, saloons, dance halls, and brothels.

Now I obviously wasn’t around when HELL ON WHEELS happened and #RailArt wasn’t even invented yet so we’ll have to settle for these images 😀

A to Z CHALLENGE – G is for GOLDEN SPIKE & GREENWICH MEAN TIME

A to Z challenge 

GOLDEN SPIKE – The ceremonial spike driven that joined the rails of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.

GREENWICH MEAN TIME – The time as measured on the prime meridian running through Greenwich, England, and used internationally as a standard calculation.

While I don’t have pictures of either, they are crucial railway terms.  I do have these pictures though 😀

A TO Z CHALLENGE ~ F is for FREIGHT TRAIN

A to Z challenge 

The first term I want to share with you is FIREBOX – The fire-chamber of a locomotive-boiler. It is jacketed with a water-chamber to prevent radiation of heat. The fire-box door may also be double and have a circulation of water through the hinges. A partition in the box sometimes divides the fire-space into two parts, and, being full of water, increases the fire surface. But, of course I don’t have a picture of this 🙂

It is near impossible to find #RailArt on a lumber FREIGHT CAR, but it’s almost a given that it will also have cargo cars that do 😀 FREIGHT TRAIN – A FREIGHT train is constructed and used for the carriage of merchandise.

A to Z CHALLENGE ~ E is for ENGINE

A to Z challenge 

I bet you didn’t see this coming, but “E” is for engine 😀

ENGINE ~ A machine which acts both to power and operate.

There is a town north of us called Junction City where I took this picture. Yep, you guessed it, there are A LOT of trains with a junction. The trains run right through the center of town. You literally have to pull over to let trains pass.

There is also a #RailArt term called #EndToEnd that is pretty simple to understand. The graffiti is LITERALLY painted from END TO END.

And while these last two aren’t END TO END they do fit our letter E.

HAPPY HOMEMAKER & MENU PLAN MONDAY week 15 of 2021

Be sure to join us for Happy Homemaker Monday and link up
with our host, Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

I hope spring is treating you well and that you had a beautiful Easter holiday. Spring has FINALLY come to our area and we had a very quiet Easter here. I made an abbreviated menu and had a quiet and simple day 😀

While our lows are still in the high 30’s, we are reaching the high 50’s and low 60’s during the day. It’s now time for light layers as you never wear the same thing all day 😀

Hot water, cottage cheese and pineapple

THIS WEEK’S TO DO LIST, PROJECTS & APPOINTMENTS
  • LAUNDRY & CLEANING – a couple loads of laundry, pack away Easter decorations, garden clean up, attach garden hoses…
  • GROCERIES & ERRANDS pedicure and a BUNCH of little stops today to complete my to do list for the day
  • PAPERWORK & PHONE CALLS I’ve been trying to get a hold of the same medical office to change an appointment time for a week without a call back and I’m getting VERY frustrated so will stop by there tomorrow while I’m in town.
  • RECIPE RESEARCH & MENU PLANNING I spent a good deal of the weekend working on the April menu so I can use up the pantry and freezer items before we travel in May.

WHAT’S ON THE DVR/TV
  • NETFLIX We’re still watching Stargate SG!, but we’re up to season 7
  • REDBOX We saw WW84 – not my favorite Wonder Woman movie
  • DISNEY+ Watched an episode of the Mighty Ducks which was pretty cute
  • CABLE – Great American Food Truck Race, Easter Baking Challenge, GGG, DDD, Beat Bobby Flay, Spring Baking Challenge, Tournament of Champions, Clarice, Ellen’s Game of Games, Bull, New Amsterdam, The Good Doctor, 911, 911 Lone Star, FBI, FBI Most Wanted, Young Sheldon, The Unicorn, Last Man Standing, MOM, Call Your Mother, NCIS, NCIS New Orleans, NCIS LA, Magnum PI, MacGyver, Blue Bloods, The Resident, Chicago series, Law & Order SVU – I was waiting for the new Law & Order with Elliott’s return last week, but was a bit disappointed 🙁

I just downloaded a bunch of fun summer reads and hope to start one this week.

We did make it to the Tulip Festival last week. The day was beautiful, a bit chilly, but nice none the less. I got a few pictures, but the fields weren’t in as much bloom as we had hoped because of the late winter. 🙁

We bought this one for my mom for mother’s day.

I’ve been doing this for years and it works wonderfully!
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
DINNER
PAD THAI
GARLIC LEMON CACIO E PEPE with ROASTED ARTICHOKES
PISTACHIO CRUSTED CHICKEN with TOMATO RICOTTA SALAD
CHICKEN BACON RANCH PULL APARTS and COLE SLAW
ENCHILADAS
BUFFALO CHICKEN PULL APARTS and OVEN BAKED FRENCH FRIES
BLT SPINACH ROLL-UPS and PASTA SALAD
DESSERT
CINNAMON PEAR PLATZ

A to Z CHALLENGE ~ D is for Departure

DEPARTURE YARD: Like a staging track to ready locomotives, departure yards assemble cuts of cars to ready them for an outbound train. I have a great picture of a departure yard :somewhere: :sigh: I looked for hours and could not find it, so I was just going to go with the one below where the #RailArt begins with a “D” even though I don’t know what it stands for AND then I looked one more time and found it! 😀

The day I took this picture the dispatch yard was almost empty, but it’s normally FULL of lumber cars, both full and empty as well as a bunch of box cars full of #RailArt.

Another “D” would be for DEPOT. This is a preserved depot in the same small Montana forest town lumber yard that yesterday’s caboose is in.

ORANGE CHILE CHICKEN

ORANGE CHILE CHICKEN

SAUCE
1/2 cup oyster sauce
1/2 cup sugar
3 ounces orange juice
3 ounces rice wine vinegar (unseasoned)
1 tablespoon cornstarch, mixed into the rice wine vinegar as a slurry
2 tablespoons BRAGG’S liquid aminos
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 drop red food coloring, optional 

  • Add the oyster sauce, sugar, orange juice, vinegar-cornstarch slurry, liquid aminos, hoisin sauce, paprika and food coloring into a 1-quart saucepan, bring the heat up to medium.
  • Whisk gently as it comes to a simmer.
  • Allow to simmer, keep whisking for about 5 minutes until the sauce thickens.
  • Remove from heat and reserve.

CHICKEN
1 1/2 quarts neutral oil, for deep frying
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
2 1/2 cups tempura flour  

  • Heat the oil in a 4-quart Dutch oven to 375°.
  • Rinse the chicken in cold water and pat dry.
  • Sprinkle 1 cup tempura flour over the chicken cubes and toss to lightly dredge, shaking off the excess.
  • Mix the remaining 1 1/2 cups of tempura flour with 1 cup cold water to make a thin batter, it should look like pancake batter.
  • Coat dredged chicken pieces in batter.
  • Fry in batches until golden brown and crispy, 6 to 8 minutes.
  • Drain on paper towels. 

ASSEMBLY
2 tablespoons neutral oil, I use avocado
3-4 cloves minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons minced, peeled fresh ginger
Fried chicken pieces, from above
2 to 3 scallions, cut on the bias into 2-inch lengths
1/2 yellow onion, cut into large dice
Orange Chicken Sauce, from above
Fried Rice, recipe follows, or steamed rice, for serving

  • Heat a large skillet to high and add the oil.
  • When you see the first wisps of white smoke, stir in the garlic, ginger and chicken pieces, cooking and stirring for about 30 seconds.
  • Add the scallions, onion and reserved sauce turning to coat and simmer to heat through, about 2 minutes.
  • Serve over chow mien or fried rice or steamed rice. 

A TO Z CHALLENGE ~ C is for CABOOSE or CANADIAN

A to Z challenge 

CABOOSE A car which is attached to the rear of a freight train and serves as office and headquarters for the conductor and trainmen while they are in transit. Sometimes called cabin car, way car, hack, shanty, or crummy.

Major railroads have discontinued the use of cabooses, except on some short-run freight and maintenance trains. It has been replaced by the end-of-train device, a portable steel box about the size of a suitcase that’s attached to the back of the train’s last car.

While this first picture doesn’t have any actual #RailArt on it, it is a rare sighting as cabooses are far and few between these days. It has been repainted from its traditional red to this bright white and repurposed as a Library in the Timber Country of Montana.

Once again in the picture below the #RailArt is colorful and I’m really not sure what it spells, but it is a car from the CANADIAN Pacific Railway.

ASIAN CHICKEN CHOPPED SALAD

ASIAN CHICKEN CHOPPED SALAD

2 chicken breasts

MARINADE
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon ginger, chopped

  • In a large bowl, combine marinade ingredients.
  • Add chicken into the bowl, coat the chicken, and marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge.
  • Fully cook chicken and cut into cubes.

VINAIGRETTE
¼ cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon grated ginger

  • In a mason jar, combine ingredients for the dressing.
  • Shake and set aside.

SALAD
2 romaine lettuce, chopped
1 cup red cabbage
½ cup carrots, grated
¼ cup green onions, chopped
¼ cup cilantro, chopped
¼ cup almond slices
¼ cup fried wonton chips

  • Add all of the salad ingredients into a large bowl and add the cubed chicken and dressing.
  • Toss and enjoy!

NOTES: Get creative and add in ANYTHING you’d like; tomatoes,diced celery, red onions, hard boiled eggs, mandarin oranges…

April A to Z CHALLENGE ~ B is for BALLAST

I’m trying to incorporate some railway terms into my A to Z challenge posts. It won’t always be easy to coordinate pictures to the terms, but at least the terms will help with the alphabetical theme.

BALLAST – Coarse gravel or similar material laid to form a bed for roads or railroads.

I really like #RailArt that I can actually read or understand. The #BlackBird or  #Magpie really speaks to me. This was taken in front of a local lumber mill and the color contrast was pretty nice.

The picture below was at a dirt road crossing and even though I can’t actually read it, it reminded me of a “BUBBLE BATH” 😀 The other 2 are just alphabetically pertinant even if I don’t actually know what they mean 😀