Lila Perry Steinhoff Archives

September 23, 2018

Class of ’66’s 70th Birthday Party

© Ken Steinhoff – Class of 1966 70th Birthday Reunion

Wife Lila and some of her friends threw together an impromptu 50th class reunion in 2016. They realized that most of them are turning 70 years old in 2018, so it was a good time to have a 70th Birthday Party.

Marilyn Maevers Miller of Charleston and the Class of 66 Lunch Bunch handled the local logistics and provided excellent eats.

The classmates gathered at an outdoor pavilion in South County Park Friday night. The photo shows about 50 attendees, and even more might have missed being in the group shot. Click on the image to make it large enough to see faces. Anyone who appears in the group shot above has my express permission to reproduce it for personal use.

Singing broke out

Bill Jacqie Jackson brought his karaoke equipment from his South Florida post-retirement job, and attracted an active group of “singers” toward the end of the evening.

The good thing about attending a group 70s Birthday Party is that all of the people who would yell, “Turn that music down!” are AT the party.

A cold front moved through on Saturday, so Bob Ward offered up space in the Elk’s Club to get the group out of rain and cold winds.

Earlier posts about other CHS reunions

July 15, 2018

Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp

I saw a recipe for bacon-wrapped shrimp on the same day I spotted a Schnucks promotion for seafood. I love shrimp, and I love bacon, so this was a good reason for me to put on my pants and venture out into the 106-degree heat index.

The picture shows the result. You can click on it to make it larger and to whet your appetite.

I don’t follow directions well

You can read the website’s ingredients and directions here.

Like I said, I take liberties with what people tell me to do. Where the recipe called for maple syrup, I substituted honey. I don’t particularly like maple syrup, and I thought the honey might stick better when I basted it on the shrimp and bacon.

I usually buy a thick bacon at Sam’s, and I’ve learned that it works best when I leave it in my convection toaster oven for 14 minutes at 400 degrees. I poured off the excess grease at about the half-way mark, and I increased the broiler time by two minutes to make the bacon a little crispier.

Finally, I didn’t have any off-the-shelf chili powder, so I reached for Wife Lila’s favorite, Chimayo Chile Bros Hatch Medium. It added enough heat that it was interesting, but not so much it overpowered the main ingredients.

I ate half the 20 medium-sized shrimp for supper, and polished the rest off for brunch. It was good enough that I’m going to make some more in the next couple of days.

July 5, 2018

I Love Mangoes and Avocados

We’ve got two mango trees in our yard in West Palm Beach. Some years we have had so many that I had to dig holes to bury over-ripe ones that fall.

That makes it very painful to pay a buck or more for small ones in the Cape grocery stores. Fortunately, when I went on my Fourth of July strawberry soda quest, I found mangoes and avocados on sale for close to a reasonable price.

I didn’t realize I was going photograph this for a blog post, so I made the mistake of cutting the prettiest mango first.

How do I peel a mango?

Unfortunately, it has been do long since I’ve peeled a mango that I couldn’t quite remember the most efficient way of doing it.

Fortunately, Wife Lila is an expert, and she explained exactly how to get to the good part of the mango without cutting yourself or taking a bath in the juice.

Click on the photo to be taken to her blog where she’ll explain everything in simple enough terms that even I did a passable job on my first try.

June 24, 2018

Castor River Shut-Ins

Wife Lila and Grandson Malcolm came up for a visit. When Malcolm was here last year, we went to Johnson’s Shut-Ins and Elephant Rocks. He liked them well enough he told us he wanted to do the same when he came back in 2018.

“I LOVE this place,” he commented. It’s good to see him infected with the Midwest. There may be hope for him.

Anyway, just as we were getting ready to pull out of the driveway, I saw Neighbor Bill across the street and told him where we were going. He asked, “Have you ever been to Castor River Shut-Ins.

I allowed as how I hadn’t, but since it was about half the distance to our original destination, we decided to check it out. (You can click on the photos to make them larger, by the way.)

Their new favorite place

My visitors said they liked it better than Johnson’s Shut-Ins. It has all the rock climbing of Elephant Rocks, with the water fun. I agree that all the pink granite is pretty, but Johnson’s has more cool water flumes to shoot down.

Traded bold for old

My bold days have been traded for old days, so I was conservative about where I stepped and climbed. Wife Lila was a bit more aggressive because she wanted to keep an eye on Malcolm so she could write the “Dear Matt and Sarah, Guess what we did to your kid” letter.

A gasp and a splash

It wasn’t long before Malcolm was playing mountain goat and heading up a near vertical wall.

I heard Lila gasp, followed by a splash. Showing that she really is a photographer at heart, she complained that there was a branch in the way that kept her from getting a good shot when he slipped and bounced on his backside into the river.

He sat in the cool water for a few minutes regrouping before frolicking some more. About the only thing injured was his pride.

Beautiful scenery

The place is pretty, offers plenty of room to spread out, and wasn’t overrun by people, even though it was a hot day.

Google says that the Castor River Shut-Ins are 45.7 miles (1 hour, 9 minutes) from Cape via MO-72. Johnson’s Shut-Ins are 88.6 miles (1 hour, 53 minutes), also on MO-72.

Earlier visits to Johnson’s Shut-Ins and Elephant Rocks

Road Warriorette Shari and Curator Jessica also made it to the parks in 2017, but they didn’t do anything outrageous enough to publish.