Travel on the Horizon

We sure aren't "between seasons" yet. We have nearly 18 inches of snow on the ground still! But that is no reason not to get the "between season" plans started. We have a big list of people to see and things to do to get on our calendar and without some pretty good planning, these aren't all going to come together.

We start with an Easter trip to see Victor's mom and sisters and their families in St. Louis leaving Thursday before Easter.

On our way back to Cedaroma we will stop in Chicago for a night to see another of Victor's sisters.

We spend another week at Cedaroma with a trip for Lynn to Madison on Saturday the 6th of April.

Fly to SF on the 9th

Drive to Groveland on....?

See Linda F on Saturday morning for long overdue beauty services! And that evening we serve dinner to the Yosemite Chamber of Commerce live auction winners of a dinner for 6 from Victor.

Sunday's dinner will be mixed vegan/not vegan pizza with Cherylann and Peter

Monday we return to the Bay area for a few days, then back to Groveland.

We will attend the Chinese Auction on Sunday the 21st and are serving the Residents Club dinner on Wednesday the 24th. We have a baby shower on the 23rd and plan to head back to Wisconsin on the 25th. Victor will drive his van, so those looking for it to move out of our condo parking, there you go, it's gone! I will be dropped off at either Sacramento, Reno or Las Vegas Airport to fly back. That ticket isn't yet purchased.

 

When we leave, we will have two condos on Dyer Court available for vacation rental this summer. We work with the team at the Charlotte to manage these for us. You can check out the condo Wisteria now, I need photos still of Sunflower. www.YosemiteWisteria.com
Meanwhile, we "take over" the resort on May 1 so I am getting all those details in order, credit card machine, tax id, staffing????

And then we move to our summer lodging.

I feel nearly as rushed as Carolyn.

Everything happens at once or not at all.

Winner Carmen visits!

You can see Carmen's Cedaroma visit report on her blog at http://carmenscreativechatter.blogspot.com/2013/03/cedaroma-lodge.html

Last fall when I took over the Cedaroma website and facebook page with 58 fans, I wondered how ever in the world are we going to get folks to know about Cedaroma. I started looking at marketing options and keyed in on Discover Wisconsin, the popular Wisconsin travel TV show, www.Facebook.com/DiscoverWisconsin. When I asked about their options for partnering with lodging properties, I was told all the spaces for our region were taken. Then I asked about their internet promotions and was sent to an outside the box thinker, Chad.

I knew I wanted whatever we came up with to be Facebook centric and we quickly came up with an outline we both liked. After sending in a few photos, the Discover Wisconsin team was able to pull together a marketing prized drawing that ran for a month. Our goal was to get as many people as possible familiar with Cedaroma Lodge. We encouraged folks to sign up for a drawing by liking our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/Cedaroma. Besides the grand prize of a complimentary week's stay, we also offered every signup a third night free, late check out and a complimentary bottle of wine. There was really no reason not to sign up and follow us on Facebook. Hopefully the posts and photos we have publshed over the recent months have kept people's interest in the lodge and inspired a curiousity strong enough to make reservations and see for themselves all the things we are writing about.

Discover Wisconsin administered the program and picked the winning entry on December 20th, just in time for the Holidays. Since then we have met a handful of folks who have stayed with us for their third night free and our Discover Wisconsin Grand Prize Winner, Carmen, came and stayed with us this last weekend. Carmen is a crafter/scrap booker and had a wild weekend with the tools of her hobby spread out in cabin 5.

Carmen's report has some good pictures too: http://carmenscreativechatter.blogspot.com/2013/03/cedaroma-lodge.html

If you have stayed with us and posted Cedaroma Lodge photos online or have a blog yourself with a post discussing a visit to Cedaroma , let me know I would love to check it out and could do a linkback to your post/pictures.

If you vacationed with us and would like to tell the world about your visit, we sure would appreciate it, there are rare things more valuable than customer reviews. If you have a travel or review site that you favor, post there. If you don't have one yet, www.TripAdvisor.com is a good place to post. You can find the Cedaroma Leave a Review link here:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/UserReviewEdit-g60253-d1403524-a_placetype.10023-e__2F__Hotel__5F__Review__2D__g60253__2D__d1403524__2D__Reviews__2D__Cedaroma__5F__Lodge__2D__Saint__5F__Germain__5F__Wisconsin__2E__html-Cedaroma_Lodge-Saint_Germain_Wisconsin.html

Thanks bunches for following our transition at Cedaroma and Wisconsin in general! We hope to welcome you some day to this great place!
Lynn & Victor

Marge's Rhubarb Crisp

Photo provided by www.food.com as I didn't have my camera handy,
but the recipe is so similar that the photo is true to the intended result.

When Victor and I were last in Racine, Mom made us a delicious many-coursed vegan dinner. The highlight, as is often the case was the finish, a wonderful vegan rhubarb crisp. Marge sent me the recipe in the mail the other day. I can only guess that she wanted me to share it with everyone.

Preheat oven to 350
4 and a 1/2 cups rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp flour

Mix and put into an 8" pan

1 and a 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1&1/2 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup canola oil

Mix and add to top of the rhubarb mixture

bake 45 minutes

Serve warm

There was plenty left over for breakfast too!

Vegan Styled Sushi

It is a pleasure living with a chef. Especially one that is full of curiousity. Recently moved to a vegan diet, he can't get enough recipe research and I luck out in that we get to try all his new finds. He says there aren't enough days left in our life to try all the recipes he wants to give a shot at, not to mention all the ones we are going to like and want to eat several times.
 
This week's winner was home rolled sushi.
 

He starts with making a a cup of jasmine rice. This is the Asian sticky rice. Spread flat as shown, add vegetables. This is the perfect opportunity to show off your julienne skills on veggies. These eggrolls have cucumber, carots, jalopeno, cilantro and white onion.

 

Roll tightly. There is a product you can buy to help get the rolls rolled tightly. Do a google search for sushi mat. there are dozens of options under $8

 
 
 

Cut into 3/4' think spirals, Victor gets 8 to a roll. A roll is 6 inches. Serve with condiments  of low sodium soy sauce, pickled ginger and wasabi paste.

 

When we do these again we will do them with different ingredients for each of the rolls adding a little more variety to the meal.

 

Addition veggies you can use in the rolls:

• Avocado slices
• Shiitake Mushroom
• Bell Pepper
• Asparagus (lightly steamed)
• Daikon Radish
• Pickled Plums (seeds removed)
• Lettuce leaves
• Red onion
• Tomato meat, leave the juice and seeds out of this one
• Bell peppers, orange, red, yellow, green all add flavor and color!

This is a great starter list, but really, any vegetables you have should work. Everything inside the roll needs to be cut long and very thin, julienne. Some crisper veggies can be lightly steamed before adding to the roll.

Enjoy!