Saturday Exploring

Yesterday felt like spring again!

It was a gorgeous sunny day yesterday, and as such, we decided to take full advantage and go exploring. As some of you may know, the hubby and I live on 2 acres that has been previously parceled off of his grandfather's 100-acre estate. Meaning, we still live on the edge of this mammoth piece of property. The gentleman that bought the hubby's grandfather's estate after he passed away allows the hubby's family to continue to visit the property and walk it, through old tobacco fields and wooded areas. Since I'd lived on the property for almost a year and a half and never walked it, the hubby figured it was time for me to see his childhood stomping grounds-

Pond on the estate. Serene and quiet, the only beings around- besides us- were cows.

Flip side of the pond.

Can you find the 2 Chihuahuas in this leaf pile? We took the dogs with us, they loved every second of exploring.

Haloti's tongue, caught on camera.

Gizzie doesn't really contain the heart of an explorer, and therefore, was carried by the hubby for most of the trip.

Headed down an old tractor road.

I'd say the plants are ready for spring.

Haloti is never happier than when exploring new things.

Love this face :)

Looking out over Tygart Creek.

My little explorer jumped on every single log he could find.

Tree stump overlooking the creek.

More logs to jump on.

I love how this tree looks like it's touching the sky.

Out of the woods! You can see our house in the distance.

Haloti was rewarded with bath time after the walk. He rolled in cow poop, and on a dead deer leg. Needless to say, he smelled pretty rank and earned himself soap and water. He may not enjoy bath time, but he smells so fresh and so clean now!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

Nutella-Swirled Banana Bread

We're finally getting a break from the polar vortex!

Oh my goodness, it was 46º yesterday. It felt like a veritable heat wave. The boys (who have a touch of cabin fever) got to be outside for about an hour yesterday. This may not seem like a long time, but I say their total daily outdoor time has been 10 minutes or less for the past week. For Chihuahuas, an hour is a long time. I love it too though. How wonderful to not have to strap on 5 layers to walk out the door! The high for today is supposed to be 55º, which naturally has me chomping at the bit to run outdoors. I haven't ran outdoors since my last 5k, which was December 19th. I think it's time. I'm really going to start February on the right note :)

And then... I can come home and gobble up this quick bread, which (let's be honest here) is basically glorified cake. I guess if you did qualify banana bread as cake, it would be one of my favorites. I'm one of those people who's pretty much anti-frosting. It's all about the cake for me. If it's moist and flavorful, I scrap the frosting right  off the cake. Which makes banana bread perfect for me. While frosting may be the enemy,  I am not, however, opposed to Nutella swirled throughout the cake. I love finding the little pockets of Nutella nestled inside the bread. I strongly suspect kids would especially love the Nutella addition.

Short entry today- I've got a full to-do list today. Doggie time, running, doing a photo shoot for my Loaded Baked Potato Soup, making Homemade Egg McMuffins for the hubby, making Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce for the Superbowl tomorrow (Yippee for the Superbowl!!!), shower, studying "The Science of Good Cooking", and making dinner. Whew.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, room temp
2 tsp vanilla
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup Nutella

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a loaf-pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk to combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar with a hand mixer until there are no more lumps. Mix in eggs. Mix in vanilla. Mix in bananas. Using a spatula, add dry ingredients. Fold together until batter is just barely moistened. You don't want to over mix and end up with a tough bread.
4. Spread half the batter into the loaf pan. Drop 1/4 cup Nutella in spoonfuls on top of batter. Using a knife, swirl the batter. Spread the remaining batter on top of the swirled batter. Drop the remaining Nutella in spoonfuls on top. Using the knife, swirl the top of the batter.
5. Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes. Check bread to make sure top is not browning too much. Cover the bread with aluminum foil if it looks too brown on top at any point. Bake bread a total of 45-65 minutes. Bread is done when a clean knife inserted comes out clean, or the internal temperature is 190º.
6. Remove from oven. Cool in loaf pan 30 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. Allow bread to cool another 60 minutes before slicing to ensure bread cohesion. Cool completely before storage.

You also might like my Simple Banana Bread!

A Snowy Saturday in Kentucky

We've gotten so much snow! We already had about 2 inches on the ground, and we got another 4 last night and over the course of today. I've never seen this much snow, except at Mt. Hood. The most we ever got when I was growing up was a couple of inches. And it inevitably melted the next day. The good news was school was always cancelled when I was growing up if there was what even appeared to be a centimeter of snow. So we at least had lots of snow days off from school. But there's a huge difference between being off from school with no snow, and being off from school with inches of snow to play with. The hubby and I had our own snow day today, and veritably acted like kids :)

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes...

This is what adults do on a snow day :)

#SnowmanSelfie

Our finished snowman.

And we ended up getting about another 2 inches after this!

Got snow?

I love a snowy landscape.

That's a lot of snow!

Haloti enjoys it, while...

This is as far as Gizmo wants to go!

My favorite evergreen in the backyard.

Hanging out on a snowy log... Doesn't everyone do that?

Spicy Turkey Spaghetti

Ugh, I feel yucky. I've still in the throes of a nasty, winter head cold. It's not my normal cold, as I'm not coughing and my nose is not congested. However, my throat is hoarse, my lymph nodes are swollen, and my head feels as if it might explode. Bleh. I'm not sure what to do with my day now. The original plan was to go to the gym but between my illness and a solid two new inches of snow on the ground, I don't think that's going to happen. While the Net' does say you can workout if you are sick (as long as you don't have a fever---->no fever here!), I am not feeling it. Staying home and baking cookies is sounding better every second.

I made this spicy, comforting spaghetti sauce over the weekend. This is one of those recipes that's pretty hands off, it just simmers away on the stove for the afternoon. The hubby's usually not home for these all day simmering events, and this one got him all worked up. I caught him in the kitchen taste testing the sauce more than a couple of times. And by early evening, he was clamoring for dinner. Pretty amazing considering the man is constantly telling me how much he dislikes spaghetti. Apparently that dislike took a backseat as he devoured a huge plate of pasta.

In my opinion, what really makes this dish is the parmesan cheese rind I simmered in the sauce. I'm not sure what it is about these cheese rinds, but man do they ever impart some delicious flavor! This is my 3rd batch of tomato sauce with a cheese rind simmered in it. I totally advise not skipping this step. Where do I get my rinds? I frequently purchase parmesan cheese wedges at the store for grating over my dishes- pastas, salads, soups, etc. When I finish the cheese, I wrap the rind in aluminum foil, label it, and throw it in the freezer for occasions such as this. Voila- flavor town! Another key point- you could make this sauce with any meat you wanted. Ground hamburger, ground pork, lots of sausage, ground chicken, really whatever you can think of. I just happened to have turkey on hand, although I do like the health benefits of turkey vs. hamburger.

Uh oh. Gizmo is sitting by the door. This means I have to drag my sorry sick butt off the couch, dress in my winter's finest, go forth into the snow, and shovel a spot in the yard for him to do his business. Sigh. Chihuahuas.

Happy Tuesday!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, minced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 link spicy Italian sausage
2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz) can garlic diced tomatoes
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp dried basil
1/2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (optional depending on heat preference)
1 rind from a wedge of fresh parmesan cheese (optional)
1 (8 oz) package fresh mushrooms, sliced

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. When warm, add onions and garlic. Sauté 5 minutes, or until onions are tender. Add turkey and sausage to pot, stir to crumble. Cook until browned, another 5 minutes or so.
2. Add tomatoes through cheese rind to the pot. Bring sauce to a boil, lower to a simmer. Simmer, uncovered, for 3 hours. If your sauce is too thick for your preference at this point, you can add up to 2 cups of water. I chose not to.
3. Using tongs or a spatula, remove cheese rind from the pot and discard. Add mushrooms to the pot. Prepare desired pasta. When mushrooms are tender (about 20 minutes), spoon sauce over desired pasta. Serve immediately.

Oregon Trip 2013 Conclusion

Welp, I think I've taken a long enough vacation from the blog. The hubby and I flew home from Oregon on Monday, and I'm just now having the time to sit down and write. It's been a crazy week. We got home around 1:30 am on Monday night/Tuesday morning. Needless to say, we slept for most of Tuesday. The hubby returned to work on Wednesday, while I was forced, forced I tell you, to run to the grocery store. *Groan* While grocery shopping the day before Thanksgiving may sound slightly less pleasurable then enjoying a colonoscopy, I was happily surprised to find a nearly empty store. Upon checkout, standing in front of the cashier, I inquired about the scarcity of crazed Thanksgiving shoppers. I was informed that Tuesday and Tuesday night at the store had been absolute nightmares, because people were afraid of getting snowed in. Worked out well for me!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving (obviously), which was spent with the hubby's family. All of this rambling brings me to my point- today is the first day I've had to sit down and play catch-up with social media. Along the lines of catch-up, here are a few pictures to sum up the monthlong vacation extravaganza-

My mom and I have started a tradition since I've moved away. We always go out for drinks at The Vault at least once while I'm in town. This year, I had a Raspberry Lemon Drop made with fresh raspberry puree. It was all kinds of delicious. 

We let Dad and the hubby come with us :)

Shrimp and Lobster Bruschetta. Yum!

I'm not sure how Haloti finds this comfortable, but apparently, he does.

Forever hoping someone will drop something.

Rhoadesgiving! Since the hubby and I flew out a few days before Thanksgiving, my family celebrated Thanksgiving last Saturday. Lots of wine, lots of food, and lots of football! It would have been a perfect day, if only the Duck's could have won!

Beautiful, beautiful turkey.

The dogs enjoying a little howling on their last night of the trip.

A shot of Vegas (our layover city) as we flew out.

Foodie items purchased in Oregon!

I'm really excited about this jarred adobo sauce. Sometimes recipes only call for a little bit of adobo sauce, which makes it a pain to open an entire can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for just a teaspoon of the adobo sauce. 

I would never be able to buy this -ground shrimp- in Kentucky. I smell a latin-inspired soup on the horizon.

Risotto is also looming on the menu!

So, we are home now. The blog should be returning to normal. I have to admit, I'm excited to get back to cooking and baking. It's nice to have a break once in a while, but when it comes down to it, I just love being in the kitchen.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving, and that you were not harmed by Black Friday violence :)

Oregon 2013- so far!

Happy Monday friends!

So, I've recently come to terms with the fact that #1- I'm having too much fun to be at my computer and #2- November is going to be a less than proliferous month when it comes to the blog. I constantly have that constant, nagging self-reminder that I should take to the computer and blog. I just don't have the time (or desire) right now. And that's ok. It's going to be an all-out blogging blitz when I get home though- holiday cooking! I'm super-excited. In the meantime, some pictures from the first half of our trip to entertain you and get you through this inconsistent blogging month-

The hubby and I in our Halloween finest. Hubby won Scariest Costume at the party we went to!

The hubby's friends' highly creative, homemade, paper-mache mask. I'm still not sure what he was supposed to be, but it was pretty cool :)

My parent's house has a daylight basement which is where our guest bedroom is at. I love looking at the squirrels and birds at eye level.

The parent's took us out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings in Corvallis. My mom's favorite radio guys (Steve Tannen and Justin Myers from Crunch Time with Steve and Justin) were doing a show from that location, and my mom was beside herself to get to meet them.

I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies for the fam.

A "Kentucky Jenny" from Bar 101 in Corvallis. I wish I remembered exactly what was in it, but I think it was bourbon, ginger beer, and bitters over shaved ice. Like a snow cone. I just had to try it :) It was pretty good!

It's a rough life for Mr. Gizmo.

Loved this double rainbow over Corvallis.

Cheering on the Ducks for the ill-fated Stanford game. Boo.

The hubby and I went down to Southern Oregon (about 3 hours from my parents) where my brother lives. The little bro and his wife took us to an amazing Italian restaurant in Ashland, OR, Pasta Piatta. We all split a bottle of Chianti Classico. So lip-smackin' good!

Their calamari was amazing, with fresh marinara.

After lunch in Ashland, we walked through the town to see Lithia Park and The Oregon Shakespeare Theater.

My brother's wife and the hubby goofing off at the theater.

Bro's wife, Bro, and me in Lithia Park.

I just seem to find duckies where ever I go!

My dad taught me how to make his homemade noodles. A priority when I get home is replicating his German potato and homemade noodle soup. First, I'll have to figure out a name for the soup though, because he calls it "Leichtyswitch". This ends up sounding like "lick-it-ee-switch". I've been unsuccessful finding a German soup of this name, but my dad swears that's what his Grandma used to call this soup. I will continue to search for a name for the soup, or at the very least, a correct German spelling :)

Gizmo's favorite resting spot at my parent's house.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!