Wrapping Up October: 2016

Ok, I just really wanted to start the post off with a cute puppy picture. Mission accomplished 😁🐶❤️

Can you believe it's November already? In 6 short weeks, the hubby and I will be leaving for Oregon! I'm in shock. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was telling the hubby it was time for a Christmas in Oregon. And now it's almost here! Unbelievable. 

But for now, now it's time to wrap up October! In October...

Kung Pao Chicken Zoodles

I'm joining the zoodle craze.

Sure, February doesn't seem like the right time of year to start, um, zoodling, but it cannot be helped. I was catching up on reading the blogs I follow last month, in the evening and after a couple of glasses of wine. One of my favorite bloggers, Lindsay from Pinch of Yum, featured a recipe using spiralized veggies and that was all she wrote. I've had a spiralizer on my Amazon wishlist for months, but something clicked.  I had to have it. I wanted spiralized bell peppers, and cabbage, and most importantly, zoodles. The wine clearly muddled my thinking, and before I knew it, I'd already clicked "purchase" on Amazon.

Does this happen to anyone else late in the evening when they have a nice wine haze going on? I swear. Luckily, the contraption was only $30. It could have been worse :-)

Plus, the zoodles! Ohhhhhh, the zoodles...

Autumn in Kentucky: October 2015

Hola! I'm here with a Saturday post to show you some beautiful October leaves here in Kentucky.

This (above) was the view of the road right after leaving my house. That is, until the leftovers of Hurricane Patricia went through the area, viciously taking down those oh-so-gorgeous October leaves we had going on. Well, boo to you Hurricane Patricia. We were having the most beautiful fall that I can remember around here. 

That could be because 2 years ago, we spent October in Oregon and last year we spent the last 2 weeks of October in Mexico... Hmmm...

At any rate, the hillsides have been awash of gold and red, with the occasional evergreen poking out here and there. If I were to go back and take pictures today (these were taken last weekend), everything would look vastly different. Plus, they would all be gloomy and gray and who wants to look at those right??

Lately: Fall 2015

Oh my gosh y'all. It's been forever, 2 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days since I did a Sunday post. In fact, my last "Lately" post was February 1st. Holy Superbowl Sunday Batman! I've got lots of pictures to share, you know, cause I haven't in a million years. Let's dive right in-

Oh, and if you don't like pictures of things like puppies and Chihuahuas, you may want to skip this post :)

Strawberry Chocolate Popsicles

Ok, foodbloggers. Has this situation ever happened to anyone else?

You think of a quick little project that might make a good post. Say something simple, like popsicles. After you've dreamed up the concept, you then guesstimate that the project will take 10 minutes to complete. Then, smack in the middle of said "quick" project, everything goes south. Instead of taking 10 minutes, it's taking 40 minutes and you're late for another event because the darn project was not supposed to take that long?

Yeah. That was these popsicles. 

Introducing Mariota!

Hello friends! Happy Sunday!

Well, I had quite the unexpected blogging break here. I normally aim to post 3 recipes a week, and this week I only got one in. And it wasn't even a recipe. It was a round-up. Needless to say, little Mariota is keeping me quite busy. And I'm not complaining :)

Snowpocalypse 2015

I'm sure (if you follow the national news) you are aware of the winter weather activity in the Kentucky area. Earlier in the week, the governor declared a state of emergency. In our little northeast nook of the state, we received 16 inches Wednesday and Thursday. 

Chicken Soup with Homemade Egg Noodles

Cabin fever has set in.

This snow is driving the dogs and me batty. My normally calm, 8-year old Haloti has taken to running through the house, scooping up any old toy, and running through the house growling and snorting at it like a puppy.

Blueberry Breakfast Bars

Happy Wednesday!

I'm going on my 3rd day of not leaving the house. We are currently buried under 6-7 inches of snow. The roads are snow-covered and icy, and the hubby hasn't even been driving his car. His car has been parked at his office all week, because thankfully, his boss gave him a huge 4-wheel drive truck to tackle the weather with.

Lately: January 2015

Happy Superbowl Sunday everyone!

Oh, how I love Superbowl Sunday. It truly is a holiday for me and the hubby. We make hot wings, drink beer, snack on chips and salsa, and oh yeah, watch some football. Our holiday is going to be cut short this year, as the hubby has to work, but we are still making wings. I can't wait.

Lately: November 2014

Happy Sunday from two warm and cuddly Chihuahuas! This is truly how these guys like to enjoy the weekends. Curled up in their favorite spots. Happy as little furry clams :)

I thought I would squeeze in a little weekend post here. I've been overflowing with food ideas lately, and haven't been thinking much about the in-between. But I do have a life outside that wonderful kitchen of mine. I read books in between batches of cookies. Scatter bird seed while concoctions are chilling. Or roasting. Or cooling. I run to get my creative juices flowing. I kind of wish there was an invention to dictate what goes on in my brain while I'm running, because I write some of my best stuff as my feet pound the pavement. A new techie idea perhaps? C'mon, doesn't anyone from Apple read my blog? Hehe. 

Anyhoo, it's been a great weekend thus far. The hubby actually had a 3 day weekend of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We don't get these traditional weekends very often! We took full advantage last night by getting together with one of our couple friends. We watched the first half of the Oregon game (Go Ducks!) and sipped margaritas before heading out for Mexican food. There may have been a tad too much tequila last night, but eh, life is short. I'm currently hard at work on pie crust, my first batch yesterday having been a dud. Rest assured, by the time this pie is completed, I'll have lots of "don't's"! I made a new batch of dough that chilled overnight, so I'm soldiering forward today. Fingers crossed. 

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend so far. I've got a few pictures to share of what we've been up to lately-

Haloti curled up in the hubby's sweatshirt. If you leave clothing on the furniture, the Chihuahuas will find it. 

The affair continues. It's been going on for almost 4 years now. We are venturing into common-law marriage territory at this point. 

My beautiful new FoodSaver! It arrived last week and I am so thankful! I literally squealed with joy when the UPS guy left it at my house. Thank you Mom and Dad! There was no hesitation- Out went the old FoodSaver, and in its place went the new. Immediately after getting the new machine set up, I sat down to write my totally overdue big-box store grocery list. 

Ah, the fruits of my labor. I picked up loads of chicken, ciabatta rolls, and bacon in bulk to freeze at aforementioned big-box store. And what did I do as soon as I got home? Vacuumed-sealed it into 2-person portions. I cannot say it enough, I LOVE that machine. I cannot live without it. Love it. 

So, I've been using FoodSavers for 8 years now. I do have a common-law marriage with my FoodSaver! :)

I think this poor little dude flew into either the side of the house, or the living room window. I heard a soft thud, but not the hard thud that usually kills these kids. I went outside and looked on the ground, and didn't find anything. However, when I went to empty my compost buckets, I found him sitting on our large composters. And he didn't move. He did let me pick him up, though. I was having the hubby set up a nesting box on the front porch for him to recover in when he decided he'd rested enough, and he took off. 

I'm just glad he ended up being ok :)

The snow everyone was so worried about getting around our parts. Can you even see this dusting? Not especially. 

Contrary to popular belief, not everything I cook winds up on the blog. Sometimes the recipes are too awful. Sometimes, the recipes are too good, like this Garlic, Lemon, and Fresh Herb Stuffed Chicken.  This bird never made it onto the blog because the hubby and I devoured it. I mean, we really scarfed this one down. All before I took an after photograph. Oh well. A similar recipe may make it onto the blog someday. That is, if I can keep my hands off of it long enough. 

Cheese enchiladas that never made it on the blog. I'm still playing with my chile gravy recipe, and I don't get to play very often. The gravy on these ended up being too heavy, too thick, and too salty. The hubby is not the biggest enchilada lover, so I only get a shot at this one every couple of months. I hope I perfect this recipe in 2015, though. That will be one of my New Year's resolutions.

Asian Roasted Asparagus. What can I say? Also scarfed down without many pictures.

Broccoli and Chard Garlic Spaghetti. This recipe may still make it onto the blog, however I wasn't 100% satisfied with the pictures. It was delicious, don't get me wrong. It might take a repeat making with new pictures for me to publish it, though.

The hubby and I's favorite tequila we brought back from Mexico. I love this stuff! We broke it open last night for Oregon's last home game of the season. It must have been a good luck charm, because the Duck's pulled out the win! The hubby and I were happy campers. We were told by an employee at duty-free in the Cancun Airport that they only sell this tequila in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. He tried to talk us into buying a more expensive tequila that they only sell in Mexico, but we quickly informed him we didn't live anywhere near any big city and this was the bottle we wanted. I highly recommend trying this tequila if you ever see it anywhere. It makes the BEST margaritas.

Cue to the internet razing. Nickelback snuck a brand-new album out on Monday with absolutely no publicity. I had no idea they were even working on a new album. Some fan I am, right? Anyway, once I discovered their new album, I snapped it up. I've been listening to it on repeat. For days. Multiple times a day. I love running to this album. Most of the album has a really funky beat running though it and combined with Chad's voice, well, I've been tearing down miles. Well maybe not tearing them down, I did take a month off running. And lost a ton during that month. I really don't care that everyone hates Nickelback, I'm definitely not a person who follows the crowd anymore. That's one thing I love about getting older- the sheer inability to really care what other people think of your Nickelback addiction :) #iamunashamed

Here's my lazy morning. Finishing off one of my library books while loving my morning coffee. And pretty soon, I'll be rolling out my 2nd batch of pie crust dough. Oh man, oh man, I hope it's not crumbly!

I hope you all are having a lovely weekend! Ciao!

Frozen Peach Smoothies

Smoothie Week forges on!

Mmmm, peaches. I just love peaches. Peaches and summer go hand in hand for me. I look forward to peach season every year, they're one of my favorite summer fruits. You know, along with raspberries. In fact, peach and raspberry will forever be one of my favorite combinations. A perfect marriage, in my opinion. There are a zillion things I like to do with peaches. One of my favorite peach recipes is this quesadilla recipe. You haven't lived till you've had peach in a quesadilla. So. Good. I also like to put peaches in cobblers, muffins, salads, sandwiches, and of course, on their own. 

I'll admit, fresh peaches are definitely preferred the majority of the time. However, I used frozen peaches for this smoothie because I didn't want to use ice. For a smoothie, frozen peaches are really the way to go. Their frozen texture provides the perfect velvety consistency for a smoothie. I'm in love with this incredibly simple frozen concoction. There are only 3 ingredients, it doesn't get any easier. Or more delicious.

When I was in college, I had several experiences making smoothies. My first job in college was at the sandwich shop, Blimpies. Does Blimpies even exist anymore? I'm not sure. Anyways... Blimpies made smoothies. Or rather, I made the smoothies. They weren't healthy, and they actually contained shockingly little fruit. It was mostly frozen yogurt, heavy syrup, ice, and a smattering of fruit. I wasn't fond of those smoothies. They had a peach smoothie that tasted more like artificial peach than real peach. That's one of my biggest pet peeves. I'm not fond of the artificial flavors of most fruits, peach being near the top (although, strawberry takes the cake on that one!). I later worked at Baskin Robbins, which of course serves smoothies. Again, these smoothies were unpleasantly similar to Blimpies smoothies. Hardly any fruit, and mostly the unhealthy stuff. Ugh. Give me the real thing!

I must add (for humor's sake) that I, more than once, brought home smoothies to the sorority house with the intention of adding alcohol. Now that was a smoothie! :) The best combination? Mixed berry made with raspberry sherbet and tequila. Holy yum.

Kids, if you work at Baskin Robbins, do not do that :)

I'm a little distracted today. The driveway is getting poured today, so we've got workers outside the house. Gizmo is feeling positively nutty. He's roving from room to room, alternatively growling and barking. Haloti has been sitting in the window watching them, but hasn't made a sound. Gizmo, this dog that the hubby was convinced would be a mute, will not be silenced. The goofiest dog ever. I'm so excited to be getting the driveway! I definitely plan on taking lots of pictures when the project is done later today, which I'll probably get around to showing next week. Or maybe Saturday. I've got one more smoothie this week (tomorrow, obviously), and then Smoothie Week is over! This week has flown by, it's been absolutely crazy.

Speaking of which, today is going to be crazy.

I should probably get going.

Sigh.

One more day till the weekend friends! Happy Thursday!

Ingredients (makes 2 smoothies):

3 cups frozen peaches

1 (8 oz) cup Greek yogurt, peach flavored (I used Chobani)

1 cup orange juice

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add more orange juice to achieve a thinner consistency, blend until combined. Distribute between 2 glasses, serve immediately.

Long Time, No See!

I'm back!

Sorry it's been so long my friends, however I've been keeping busy. As you may know, my brother and my sister-in-law came to visit. They arrived early (according to MY calendar, haha), we showed them everything there is to show around here, we watched plenty of March Madness, and then of course, they had to go home. Booooo. Time always flies when you are having fun.

We spent a lot of their trip relaxing. My brother and his wife are both teachers, and my brother is a varsity boys basketball coach at the high school he teaches at. It sounds like they'd had an insanely busy last couple of months, so lucky for us, relaxing is what they wanted to do :) While the boys laid around watching basketball and playing video games, my sister-in-law and I were able to squeeze in going to the gym and on a couple of runs. We even ran a 5k! We both got PR's, and my sister-in-law came in 2nd in her age division, and 18th overall! I finally got my time under 30 minutes, arriving at 28:51. It was a feat for me! I was really excited and proud, and now I'm ready for my next goal- placing in my age division and getting one of those medals. I know I can do it. 

It seems the kids flew into Kentucky on the last heels of winter. The day they flew in is the last day we got a coating of snow. It was a little rainy and overcast for most of their trip, but we did get a couple of days of "shorts" weather. We definitely took advantage of this, getting outside for walks, hiking to the back of the hubby's grandfather's property, and sitting outside splitting a bottle of wine. 

All in all, their trip went so fast! We blinked, they were here, we blinked, and they were gone. So much fun though! I definitely had a couple of melancholy days after they left :)

So I will be moving back to my food blogging. I'm slowly getting things back to normal around the house, and that means planning recipes to blog about. The weather has not been conducive the last couple of days for photography. I had dark thunderstorms moving in at my peak photography times on both Thursday and Friday, for which my workaround is not taking pictures at all. Today is shaping up to be lovely though, so I expect to take lots of pictures when I get back from a long run.

In other happenings, I've got some new visitors in the yard-

This brown squirrel shows up every day around 4 pm.

The chipmunks have settled in. I've seen at least 5. They are so dang cute. I just love them.

The American Goldfinches didn't move in until we put up a black oil sunflower seed feeder.

Unfortunately, these Brown-Headed Cowbirds have started showing up. I'm letting them be for now, but I'm not fond of these "arseholes of the bird world".

A Big, fat, clumsy Turtledove. They crack me up with their seemingly clumsy movements.

Gizmo would get them all. If I would let him :)

I'm going to rap up this ramble-y post by talking about the latest book I'm reading. I picked up a non-fiction to read. I do that occasionally. 

Image source: Amazon

I'm just fascinated by ghost stories. I have been since I was a kid. I'm not really a believer in anything supernatural, but that doesn't mean I don't like to read about it and imagine things. I love that this book contains "true" stories. True in the sense that strange things happened to random people, not true in the sense that I believe ghosts exist. I get a kick out of the reading the stories, because a lot of them probably do have just weird explanations behind them. A weird explanation that may not have been plausible at the time of the happening (most of the stories are from the 1800's). Overall, I'd say it's a very dry book. It reads like a book that a professor would have you read for a class- if that class were "Haunted History" or something of that sort. I'll probably read an easy fiction after this book (in fact, Divergent is sitting next to me right now!) since it is so matter-of-factly written. If you are a ghost story lover, you will enjoy this book!

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend. I'll be back tomorrow with new recipes, yippee!

And I just have to say, GO CATS!

Kentucky will be playing in the national championship tomorrow!

We have a happy hubby in this home :)

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!