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Posts Tagged ‘Captain Cavedweller’

Happy Birthday, Captain Cavedweller!

Posted in Captain Cavedweller, tagged , on September 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

grade schoolToday is Captain Cavedweller’s birthday.

Hooray!

There will be cake at our house later today (carrot, of course – his favorite) and maybe a present or two.

engagedBack when I first met this guy 21 years ago, I was so goofy in love with him, I didn’t give more than a random thought to the future. I just knew I wanted it to be with him.

Captain Cavedweller has put up with a lot from me over the years.

A lot.

Back in the days when I was a newspaper reporter, I used to drag him along to all sorts of events and interviews. Once, he ended up being the only male at a fashion show. (I still get reminded of that from time to time!) Thanks to me, he’s been nearly attacked by a cougar, gotten up close and personal with an ostrich, and lost in the hills in the middle of nowhere while attempting to locate a sheepherder. Those were fun times (not so much)!

wheat boy 1More frequently than you’d think, he gets coerced into being part of a prop in a photo. Like standing in a wheat field.

my valentineOr holding a heart (although I think he knows he’s always got mine in his hands).

I guess the point of my rambling is that CC has always been willing to help me, support me, encourage me and love me without hesitation or conditions. He’s got a huge, caring heart and is one of the most honest, upright, kindest people I know. (And I’m not biased in the least).

He’s the kind of person you can count on when the skies are blue, but also when life’s storms hit with full force. In the past year, I’ve been reminded time and again what a blessing he is to me and how blessed I am to have him in my life.

No matter what’s going on in my life, just being with him makes everything better, brighter, and definitely a lot more fun.

July PhotoHappy, Happy Birthday, Captain Cavedweller!

❤ Love you! ❤

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Flank Steak Salad

Posted in Quick and Easy, Recipes, Salads, tagged , , , , , on July 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

my-salad

The temps at our house this week have been over the 100 degree mark.

In light of that misery, nothing sounds good to eat except salads and ice cream. (Talk about  balanced diet!).

Here’s one of our favorite salad recipes. It just takes a few minutes to grill the meat so you aren’t left outside melting into a puddle for long.

Flank Steak – can get tough if you don’t cook it quickly.

Ingredients

Season the meat.

Grill over indirect heat.

It takes about two minutes for each side to be done.

Captain Cavedweller’s version of the salad removes any attempt at healthy eating. It isn’t for the faint of heart.

Flank Steak Salad

1-2 flank steaks per person

lettuce (whatever kind you like best is fine – yes I was lazy and used bagged lettuce)

tomatoes (sliced)

cucumber (sliced)

sliced black olives (again, lazy and used pre-sliced)

shredded colby-jack cheese (pre-shredded – lazy and yes, there is a trend developing here)

salt

pepper

Mrs. Dash (or whatever meat seasoning you like)

Flank steaks are thin cuts of meat that cook really fast. Season them with salt, pepper and whatever seasoning you like best. Get creative – CC usually does which is why I ask for half-seasoning on my meat!

Grill the flank steak for just a few minutes. CC put these on a hot grill with indirect heat. It took just shy of two minutes per side for them to be done to perfection.

Once the meat is done, let it rest a few minutes before slicing. I made long, thin strips of meat and CC whacked his into bite-sized submission.

Layer lettuce, tomato slices, olives and cucumbers in a dish or bowl. If you want the cucumbers to look fancy, peel and then run a fork’s tines down the outside of it all around. It creates a nice pattern when they are sliced.

Place the meat on top and then finish with a sprinkle of cheese. I added Feta cheese crumbles to my salad and it was tasty. CC added croutons, sunflower seeds and almost everything except the kitchen sink to his salad. My point would be, add whatever tastes good to you.

Stay Cool!

She Who Loves A Good Salad for Dinner

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The Gangsta

Posted in Captain Cavedweller, Family, Musings, tagged , , , , , , on March 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

kim in magazine

This is my brother.

(The mechanically inclined one, not the cowboy one.)

I was born his senior year of high school, so talk about crashing the party…

He has always had a love of cars and began restoring vintage cars way back  before I was old enough to beg him to let me drive his Mustang (which he still has not).

Anyway, he got into dressing the part to go along with the cars he was showing.

Last fall, he competed in a contest for best Era Image and took third place. I thought his costume looked pretty snazzy and we were all excited to see this picture in print.

Although he never let me drive any of his cars, he did let me go with him a time or two.

Kim and I with old carOf course, costumes were required.

The reason I look so particularly happy in this photo is because:

1. It was mid-July and boiling hot.

2. We skipped lunch.

3. I had a hot date that night with Captain Cavedweller and we were running late.

My brother completely restored the gorgeous Model A car behind us. I think the etched glass (and the color) are my two favorite things about it.

Big, hearty congratulations, Kim, for placing in the contest and thanks for all the times over the years you let me tag along.

She Who Still Wants to Drive the Mustang

 

 

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Fifty Dates with Captain Cavedweller

Posted in Books, Captain Cavedweller, Contests, tagged , , , , , , , on February 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

50 Dates cover

I have a new book out that I’m so excited to share with you!

Fifty Dates with Captain Cavedweller is the actual, honest-to-goodness details from the fifty dates I went on with my beloved in 2013.

If you’ve been married, or even in a relationship for a while, there comes a day when you wake up and realize somewhere along the way you’ve lost the zing.

I had one such moment at the end of December  2012.

Deciding it was not okay to continue the direction our relationship was headed, I made a plan of attack and informed Captain Cavedweller he was coming along for the ride.

We could count on one hand the number of times we’d gone out on a date in 2012 and that was just wrong.

I fell in love with Captain Cavedweller the first time we met. People used to refer to us as the perpetual honeymooners. Then we just settled into the monotony of everyday and the flames burned down to sparks and from there it was a short trip to old and boring.

What we needed was to carve out time each week to spend together doing something different or fun, something out of the ordinary.

Of course, I decided right away to take notes of each date for later use.

Those notes and photographs turned into Fifty Dates with Captain Cavedweller. The book offers my honest thoughts and feelings about each date. Some are humorous, some are frustrated, but it’s all there. And I will make note this book is squeaky clean so you could let your teen read it without any worries.

Just before Valentine’s Day seemed like a perfect time to share this little labor of love.

For now, the book is offered in e-book format on Kindle only, with paperbacks set to be available in a variety of outlets beginning next week. Oh, and the e-books are only 99 cents.

Check it out and let me know what you think of our Fifty Date project.

And, as promised, I’m doing a giveaway this week. So in the comments section below, share your favorite thing about Valentine’s Day (is it the candy? Flowers? Cupid? Exchanging Valentine greetings?) and you’ll be entered in the contest for an opportunity to win an autographed copy of the book! The contest is open now through Friday at noon (Pacific Time).

I’m also doing contests all this week on my writing blog at shannahatfield.com. Pop on over and check it out for the chance to win more prizes!

Without further ado…

Fifty Dates with Captain Cavedweller – Waking up one day to discover they’d gone from perpetual honeymooners to a boring, predictable couple, author Shanna Hatfield and her beloved husband, Captain Cavedweller, set out on a yearlong adventure to add a little zing to their relationship.

This G-rated journey through fifty of their dates provides an insightful, humorous look at the effort they made to infuse their marriage with laughter, love, and gratitude while reconnecting on a new, heartfelt level.

Here’s a little excerpt:

***

Date Eight

 Blown Away

There are a few things that Captain Cavedweller gets really, really excited about.

One of them is football.

From magazines talking about football to watching games on television to attending local high school games, he can’t get enough. He’s even been known to sit and watch reruns of football games if he happens to find one airing in the summer months.

Because of his football obsession, for his birthday I purchased season tickets to the arena football games that take place an hour away.

Today’s big date, hosted by CC, was to drive to the city to pick up the tickets, visit a couple of car dealerships since we are hunting for a new vehicle, and then take me out to eat.

Picking up the tickets was fun. The team members were so gracious and friendly and let those attending know they truly appreciate the support of the game.

Car shopping also went pretty well considering we never saw a single car salesman. Generally, we can barely get out of the car before one swoops in, trying to talk us into vehicles you would never see me ride in dead or alive.

Apparently, the forty-mile-an-hour winds coupled with frigid temperatures kept them inside the showroom where it was warm and toasty, and their hair wouldn’t turn into a wild snarled mess, resembling something created by Medusa’s own hairdresser.

Once I started crying and begging for mercy from the wind (okay, I wasn’t crying, but the wind did make my eyes water. A lot.), CC offered to take me to the mall. I was not in a shopping mood at this point, much more interested in sitting down somewhere warm.

Since it was late afternoon and we still hadn’t eaten lunch, we went to a barbecue restaurant. That would be my first pick once in a blue moon. However, the moon was not blue that day…

***

You can find the book on –

Kindle

Amazon

CreateSpace

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