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!

Icicle Rhythm

Here we are almost through another month and most of winter! It would seem we are picking up the Rhythm of the "Up North" winter lifestyle.

We measure time by the length of our icicles

Victor gets up before me, by 2 hours most days. He has his coffee, watches the weather and news, works out the day's menus and whatever esle guys do in the morning. When he can't stand it any more, he wakes me up. I laze awake in bed for another 10 minutes, mostly talking to the dog, Goose. We have more coffee and start our day. It is now a perhaps a little after 9.

If it has snowed the night before, Victor will need to plow. This usually takes about an hour to do a good job on the whole property. If it hasn't snowed, Victor usually has a cabin related project, fix or improvement to work on or heads up to the front garages to work on whatever our current workshop project we are in the middle of.

I get on the computer and check to see what our stock prices would be if we owned any. I like to check the price of stuff we talked about buying but never did: gold, google, facebook and whatever else strikes my fancy. Then I check facebook to see what posts of great importance have passed my way since the prior evening. Then it is on to email, the blog and a number of other daily check websites like the Cedaroma analytics, TripAdvisor and Flipkey. If nothing pressing needs to be done with whatever  I have discovered in the opening series of clicks, I might run down and pick up the mail from the post office and work on that.

Before you know it, it's lunch time! That's when things get really crazy around here! Our whole day seems to be focused around the meals. Victor is trying out so many new things, each day is an adventure. Some of my favorite recipes are posted here and I have more to enter.

After lunch Victor goes back to his projects and I pick up something hoping to get it done from updating the website to categorizing the 2000+ photos we have, perhaps today is the day I will figure our medical insurance out, follow up on the credits due us by AT&T or maybe learn a new skill in  responsive webdesign. Did I hear there was a new tax tip to reveiw for innkeepers?

Come around 4 and we start wrapping up for the day and head out to the Bear's Den to see other people. Unless we take this daily trip for a beer and orange juice, we might forget there are other people on the planet with us!

Variations are Tuesdays and Fridays. These are the days the paper is published so we always go to the post office together and on Fridays we always stop in the thrift store to see what is new. Sometimes we have a list of things we would like to find, sometimes we just find neat stuff.

On very specials days (once a week certainly!) we head to Rhinelander and Menards for whatever pressing construction/project items we need. This week the list includes a threshold, 3 double plug plates, an electric box and stain.

And my favorite of all, usually on a Saturday afternoon, we go to the Casino. I play my $10 slowly and we are in and out in about half an hour.

It is a very simple life, almost like hibernating! The summer we anticipate great changes to include a lot more outdoor activity and people. I am looking forward to having more people in our life!

Sidebar: There are not enough vowels in that word "Rhythm"

Eggplant Parmagiana

So many ways to spell this one! I went with Victor's spelling which is the traditional Italian version.

Preheat oven to 425


Almost looks like Chicken!

4 Slices of eggplant, 1/2 inch thick, peeled or not
Pat both sides in flower
Dip & flip in soy, almond or rice milk
Cover with bread crumbs

Spray with nonstick veggie spray
Set eggplant on tray
Spray tops

Bake 6 minutes
Flip
Bake 6 more minutes

Sauce serving plates
Layer eggplant
Sauce, Layer, Sauce

Top with Vegan Cheese (optional)
Bake 5 more minutes

Victor's easy marinara recipe is here: www.cedaroma.blogspot.com/2013/02/victors-easy-marinara.html. We had ours with a side of green beans.

Note to a Friend

Dear Friend

I can't believe that Wisconsin is still on the list for vacation destinations this year. I am inspired by that news. Thank you. Sort of makes my day. You have so many questions, let me approach them one at a time....

Lake: Cedaroma Lodge, with 7 of the 8 rental cabins is located right on Little St. Germain Lake. We have 300 feet of wonderful sandy bottom beach with level access to the water. No big hill here! We have 4 straight boat docks and one big pier that is u-shaped with bench seating. Very nice for sunset watching and watching the kids swim.

Amenities at Cedaroma: Row boats, kayaks, canoe, pedal & paddle boat. Bicycles, 1/2 court basketball, badmitton, horseshoes, foosball, darts, more... We also have a 21 ft. pontoon boat and a 20 ft. deck boat for rent along with 8hp motors for the row boats. We bought all new motors this year so the boating experience should be really reliable.

 

The famed Vilas County bicycle trails have an access point just across the street from us and we have bikes to use! We have a campfire ring where folks can meet up for song singing and marsh mellow toasting in the evenings. If you ask very nicely, I think we could even get Victor to let you drive his tractor! LOL, You could mow the grass or level the drive.

1/2-1 mile: horseback riding, go karts, a 32 flavor ice-cream parlor, paintball, archery

2 Miles: the Town of St. Germain with a thrift shop, grocery store, several coffee shops, a handful of restaurants. Every Monday in the town park is what we have been told is the worlds largest ongoing flea market. It really is HUGE!

10 Miles: Eagle River

17 Miles: Minocqua
Both of these are little Meccas for shopping and such.

Events your dates: http://www.vilaswi.com/events/ (scroll down to July) Lots of great festivals and such. This website can give you a good overview of all the highlights in the little towns in the area. Water ski shows, nature walks & talks, Logger show and such are regular weekly events and happen throughout the area.

Rates: www.Cedaroma.com/reserve.html will give you the rates by date for each of the cabins. 1, 2, 3 & 4 are right ON the lake, like 30 feet from shore. #5 & 7 are set back somewhat, though both have great views. #6 is too small for three adults, unless you like it cozy with one on the pull out couch. Number 8, while likely available, it almost a 1/4 mile from the lake with no lake views. Eight is the lowest price because of it's distance to the lake and feels like a house, not a cabin. If you are looking for that classic family vacation, get any of the other cabinesque units.

Restaurants: There are far more dining options Up North than it seems there should be. Some of them are even great. The cabins all have kitchens too. This summer we will be doing a welcome BBQ during high season on Monday evenings and as a personal friend we might even cook a dinner at your place! LOL, our summer digs are very small. In the winter we stay in what I think is the best cabin, #7 and will then move to a small studio space for the summer.

Berries: Yes, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries are all picked wild here. A July trip should catch at least one of these in a ripe stage! My Mom knows where all the good pickings are I will get the map from her and tell her to leave some berries for us.

Look towards the first three weeks of July. We are sold out starting on July 21st and going through August 10th. If you are considering June, that is also fairly well reserved with the exception of the first week.

 

We are thrilled that you are heading our way. Looking forward to catching up.

Lynn & Victor
Cedaroma Lodge

650-400-6923
www.Facebook.com/cedaroma
www.Cedaroma.com

 

 

lynnie -

The "kid" wants to do a family trip this summer (our graduation gift to her) and we're thinking about wisconsin. rumor has it that there are some nice cabins up north. what's around your area? she wants nature (after years in NY) but we are old and feeble. i'm thinking about slow hikes on flat terrain. maybe renting bikes? renting some sort of boat that is back friendly, etc.

it would be cool if we had some surprises up our sleeves too - like a venue nearby with a show or concert? or some random bizarre museum type thing.

is eagle river the closest town?  are the skeeters still a problem or does repellent manage it? is the lodge on a lake? swimming?

anyway, any info would be helpful. also prices. does the lodge do chow? ling chow? HA HA HA. i'm assuming there are some places with signs that say EAT.

ps she picked this over ENGLAND! i can't believe that. 

we're thinking mid july. i remember picking blueberries up there. is that the right time of year for picking?

sorry this note is scraggily. i'm kinda typing faster than i'm thinking (which doesn't say much)

 

Victor's Easy Marinara

A nearly daily staple!

1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup minced carrots
1 28oz can of chopped tomatoes
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 cube veggie bullion base
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Sautee the garlic & olive oil to light brown

Add carrots and continue the sautee for 2-3 more minutes

Add the remainder of the ingredients

Bring to a boil, then simmer 30-40 minutes

Taste, add salt if needed.

Vic's Pita Dipping Sauce

This recipe is by request of a Cafe Charlotte regular, from when we were in Groveland. Not hard to  make at all!

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp fresh chopped garlic

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp honey

1 and 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil

Put all ingredients into food processor except oil. On low speed slowly add oil until all is emulsified.

Salt & pepper to taste

Angel Hair Pasta with Green Beans

Bring 8 cups of water to boil in a 4 quart pot with 1/4 tsp of salt

Add:
1 cup cut fresh green beans

Boil for 3 minutes

Add:
8 oz of Angel Hair pasta (half of a 1lb box)

Cook for 5 minutes, al dente, strain into collander, set aside
--------------------------------------

In the same, now emply pot:

Add:
1 tbsp olive oil
1tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp chopped red onion
2 pinches red pepper flakes

Sautee on high heat until the garlic starts to brown

Add the cooked pasta & beans mixture

Add a couple twists of fresh ground pepper (to taste)
1/4 cup of water

Simmer for 2 minutes

toss & serve

This is a low sodium dish.