Everyone Gets Homesick...

A funny thing happened. I was editing photos for this week's recipes in iPhoto. I had just finished up the work I wanted to do that day, when an older photo album caught my eye. Actually, it was the first photo album the hubby and I have on iPhoto. I'm not sure why, but I felt compelled to browse through the photos. That album happened to be the first trip the hubby and I ever took to Hawaii. Looking at that album inevitably led me to looking at quite a few other albums. Which led me to feeling a touch homesick. I've been here for 3 1/2 years, but I still get pangs of homesickness that are as strong as they ever were. It's hard living so far away from everything you grew up around. Don't get me wrong, I love living in Kentucky. I love the weather, the wide open spaces, the old-fashioned politeness people still have around here. But, I love everyone and everything I left behind too. Well, maybe not the weather, but you know what I mean! I'll be back with recipes tomorrow, but here's what's on my mind today:

Well,  duh. The main reason I always get homesick. My parents and little brother. Yes, I said little brother :)

Boating with friends at Fall Creek Reservoir.

Grilling out at my parents house.

Autzen Stadium!!!

Oregon football. It's tough watching games out here on the East Coast. First of all, you're lucky if the game is on a channel you have. Second, you're lucky if the game starts before 11 pm. Damn prime time!

Multnomah Falls.

Haloti loves the falls :)

Going to the coast whenever you feel like it. Heck, having fresh seafood whenever you feel like it!

Being so close to California. I was only a {long} day's drive away from San Francisco.

Camping at Detroit Lake.

Fresh crawfish from Detroit Lake. I didn't eat them, but the boys sure gobbled them off. Could be all the cocktails they downed with them... :)

I miss all the evergreens! Taken from a bridge that my brother jumped off. Yep, the hubby and I watched the little brother bungee jump from here. I stayed up high with my feet safely on the bridge.

Dog parks. Actually, I think both Haloti and I miss the dog parks.

Uh, my friends. Another duh :)

So many gorgeous parks. This park was near the hubby and I's last house in Beaverton. 

One of the last sight's the hubby and I saw as we were leaving Oregon in December 2010. 

Annnnnnnd, I think it's time to book my trip home this year!  

Happy Monday everyone!

Cincinnati Beer Run 2014

Well, it's Tuesday.

The weekend has come, and sadly, gone. I never got a chance to post my Monday post. Yesterday was crazy! One of those days you have after you've gone away for a long weekend, only to come home late Sunday night and realize the housework didn't go away while you were gone. In fact, it seems to have inexplicably multiplied. There's laundry to do, the grocery shopping must be done, the grass must be mowed, dinner must be prepared, dogs must be walked and fed, bird feeders to be filled, compost to be tumbled, etc. Not a lot of time for blogging when you've got a full day. I should have been up at 6 working on the blog yesterday morning, but instead I slept in till 8. I never sleep that late. I'm blaming the tequila-hangover-hideousness that was Sunday!

We had a great time in Cincinnati! We drove up Friday afternoon, which just so happened to be one of the hubby's cousin's wife's (that's a mouthful!) birthday. After meeting at one of the cousin's houses, we schlepped out for Mexican food. Delicious, delicious Mexican food. And no Mexican food outing is complete without a margarita.

The girls. I'm in the middle in the polka dot shirt. Coincidentally, both of the hubby's cousin's wives are named Kim, so we'll just go with Brunette Kim and Blonde Kim. It was Brunette Kim's birthday. The lucky girl is still in her twenties :)

The hubby is the only one missing from this picture, but someone had to be the photographer.

We were leaving for the race on Saturday morning at 8 am, so needless to say no one stayed up real late on Friday night. Come morning, we were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

For the most part. Not everyone's a morning person!

Ready to run!

The hubby and I decided to represent U of O on our run. Crazy enough, the hubby and I met another Duck fan! We met a guy who had just moved from Eugene to Cincinnati a year ago. He said he still works for the same company, which is based out of Eugene, so he makes a lot of trips back to Oregon. He asked us how we liked it here, and we chatted for awhile. He seemed pretty homesick to me, I felt bad for him. I definitely know how that goes!

The hubby and his cousins. They're Toys-R-Us kids. They're never gonna grow up :)

The race ended up being a ton of fun. Hard, I must admit, but fun. I've never been inspired to drink, and then exercise, and now I know why. It's not easy. The race was set up to start in Florence, KY, which sounds crazy, but it's actually just right across the river from Cincinnati. The race had us crossing the bridge from Kentucky into Ohio and back into Kentucky. That part was pretty cool, I thought. Every half mile there was a beer stand that was serving locally crafted microbrews. You could stop at all the stands, or you could stop at none of them. I opted to stop at all of them. I must say, running after guzzling a beer is like shaking beer up in its bottle, only it's getting shaken in your stomach. Not something anyone is going to want to do on a regular basis, but as a novelty? We all enjoyed ourselves.

And after we were done running, it was time for margaritas. Giant, fish-bowl sized margaritas.

And... this is what we looked like after the margaritas. I'm not sure who joined us in the picture :)

Brunette Kim hitching a ride with Blonde Kim.

Boys will be boys.

We headed back home early on Sunday morning, seeing as it was Mother's Day. We proceeded to spend the afternoon eating Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars with my mother-in-law. So yummy. So obviously I've been back to the grindstone for a day now. I've got another crazy day on deck. Grrr. The only thing that must happen today is the harvesting of the fresh cilantro. It's gotten out of control! I don't know what happened, but we came home from Cincinnati and it looked like we had a little forrest of cilantro. Good thing I need to make some salsa :)

Happy Tuesday!

Traditional Greek Salad

I'm going to share one of my favorite recipes today. In fact, as I was looking through recipes I've already covered, I couldn't believe I hadn't shared this recipe before. It's one I've been making since I first started cooking, and one I've continued to make. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Greek Salad was one of my first introductions into Greek food, and it helped me realize how much I love the Mediterranean diet. Lots of tomatoes-check. Olive oil- check. Cheese- check. Marinated meats- check. Olives- check please! Greek food (at least what I make at the house!) is always fresh, bright, and freakin' delicious. Sometimes I make Greek Salad to serve alongside Chicken Soulvaki, sometimes (such as this) I serve it with hummus and naan. It's an amazingly versatile salad.

It's also an incredibly healthy salad. Honestly, it's mostly vegetables with some cheese and olives to complete the dish. The dressing is olive oil emulsified with lemon juice. There's nothing to not like about this salad. It keeps in the fridge for a good 4 days, however it rarely lasts that long at my house. I've usually scarfed it down by then. It's convenient to have in the fridge, and be able to grab a portion here or there. I've also been known to eat this as an after-dinner snack. One that never makes me feel guilty :)

Well, it's Friday friends. Does anyone have any exciting plans for the weekend? I woke up to a monsoon this morning! I'm enjoying my coffee, and thanking my lucky stars I went for a long run outside yesterday. You won't see me out there today! I take it back, I do have to go to the grocery store. I might get a little bit rained on yet. The only thing I ask for is that the rain is gone tomorrow! The hubby, I, and a couple of friends are doing a 5K for a local animal shelter tomorrow, and it would be swell if it wasn't raining... well, cats and dogs. Haha, I just couldn't resist that one! I hear my friends in Oregon have been dealing with a typical Willamette Valley spring aka. rain all day, everyday, for weeks. I guess I'm thankful we only get one of those days every once in awhile. Sorry Oregonians, you know what they say. April showers bring... June/July flowers :)

Ok, I changed that phrase to represent how I feel about spring in Oregon :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ingredients (serves 6):

4 large tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
1 large cucumber, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, grated (you could chop here, however the hubby hates raw onion texture, so I grate to change the onion texture)
1/4 cup kalamata olives, halved
1/4 cup parsley, minced
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. In a large salad bowl, combine tomatoes through feta cheese.
2. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, and oregano. Whisk thoroughly to emulsify the dressing.
3. Drizzle dressing over salad. Toss to combine. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. Stores in fridge up to 4 days.

Recipe adapted from Sunset.

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday

Random Thoughts: 3/3/14

1. Weekend in Cincinnati

Warped Wing Brewery, Dayton, OH

Hola! It's a very snowy Monday morning here in Kentucky. The hubby and I made it back from Cincinnati just in the nick of time yesterday! We had a fantastic weekend. Friday night, the hubby's cousin and wife took us to my favorite Mexican restaurant near their house. The gods of fate must have been smiling on me, because we only ended up at the Mexican restaurant because there was a 2-hour wait at the restaurant we'd originally planned on going to. Mwhahahaha. Did I send the population of Cincinnati to the original restaurant so I could have Mexican? The world will never know :)

Saturday night, they took us to fabulous little steakhouse near Dayton, OH called The Oakwood Club. The food was fantastic! I ordered the lamb chops, and I'm so glad I did. They were perfect. I compare all lamb to the best lamb I've ever eaten, which was at Texas de Brazil in Las Vegas 6 years ago. This lamb was so close to what I had in Las Vegas, I was just in heaven. Perfectly medium rare, pink, tender, the crust crisp with salt... Uh oh, I'm drooling again. After dinner, the hubby's cousin had picked a couple of brewery's for us to try in the Oregon District (I just love that) of Dayton. Needless to say, after a couple of drinks, the cameras whipped out-

Drinks at Newcom's in the Oregon District.

Cousin's wife and I.

Hubby's cousin, wife, me, and hubby :)

I had to include this pic because I love my face. I have no idea why I'm making it.

We woke on Sunday morning to about a quarter inch of ice on the ground. We were surprised as hell, the storm was supposed to hit late that afternoon. We grabbed our stuff as fast as could, thanked the hubby's cousin and wife, and hastily ran for the car. What an awful drive! The cousin's house is NW of us, so we had to travel about 40 miles east through the ice storm. Among the calamity we saw were a couple of cars sliding off the road and a flipped semi. Not fun.

Sheet of ice covering the road and the front of our car.

Once we got started heading south, we started to outrun it. By the time we were an hour from our house, we were driving in rain. Still, we came home and did not leave! We'd had enough, thank you very much. Until the snow came, which leads me to my next random thought...

2. More birds!

We got another 4 inches of snow last night, which means Casa de Jarrell is the most hopping' bird bar in NE Kentucky!

Seriously. When I opened the blinds this morning, there were flocks of birds in the backyard. Granted, we have 5 feeders, but wowsers! It was, by far, the most birds we've had yet. 

I love this sassy cardinal :)

I might be obsessed with cardinals...

Our latest feeder, a suet basket. Shockingly, the hubby only put it up at 7:30 am. For the 1st time, and they've already found it. I think that's a new record.

It's going to be a great day for birdwatching here on the homestead!

3. The Oscars

Image Source: The Oscars

The hubby and I managed to finish all the movies up for Best Picture. We put "Philomena" on at 4:30 pm yesterday, and powered through. We finished all the movies for the acting awards as well, however we were only able to catch an hour of "Blue Jasmine" before the show started. I felt we got a good idea of Cate Blanchett's performance, though. How'd we do? Awful. Jerame picked 4 out of 24 right, and I got 5 right. I really thought "American Hustle" should have won best picture (I thought it was the most interesting, seamless, well-acted movie we watched), but "12 Years A Slave" is also good choice. It was a very important, well-done movie. I think the only thing I'm flabbergasted by is that Meryl Streep didn't win Best Actress. This is an absolute robbery in my opinion. Her performance in "August: Osage County" is brilliant and awe-inspiring. Yes, Cate Blanchett did a fine job, but her performance didn't hold a candle to Streep's. Of course, this is only my opinion. I also thought Ellen did a great job. I love how her humor is not mean-spirited. And how much does everyone adore Jennifer Lawrence after last night? I can't believe that poor girl fell again. She handled it with such grace and good-humor though, I think I fell in love with her a little bit more. Which I didn't think was possible :)

That's it for today folks. I'm not sure what to do with myself right now, as I'm housebound. Monday's are usually my shopping day. However, the roads are really bad today, so I've relegated myself to being a hermit. I'm trying to summon the energy for a workout, but I've been fighting a losing battle with that all morning. I think the snow is lulling me into a nap. I'm so ready for spring!

Happy Monday everyone!

For The Birds

Female cardinal at the feeder.

Nerdy confession time-

I really like bird-watching.

I mean,  I really, really like bird watching. They fascinate me. I could spend an afternoon in a chair by my French doors leading to the backyard, camera in hand, endlessly watching them fly from one tree to another. The hubby and I have acquired 2 bird feeders (and 1 one squirrel feeder that's now a woodpecker feeder) thus far, and I think it's just the beginning. I'm so excited to get some birdhouses in the spring to try and attract some nesting families. 

Are you snickering at me yet? Probably, but that's ok. I'm ok with my avian love. On that note, yes, I've taken lots of pictures of those flying, feathered creatures in my backyard. In the snow no less!

This is my squirrel feeder that now appears to be a woodpecker feeder. This is the female woodpecker at her claimed meal spot. She loves banging away on it.

This is Woody, the male woodpecker.. He's never far from the house, you can always here him when you go outside. He's the loudest woodpecker I've ever known.

A fat little bluejay.

The female woodpecker likes the other feeders as well.

The female cardinal guarding the feeder from what appears to be a finch (or chickadee? Don't know on that one).

Male cardinal by the re-claimed squirrel feeder.

I just love male cardinals.

Nuthatch at the feeder.

I found the female woodpecker's hiding spot!

She's a crafty one :)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! We've still got inches of snow on the ground (although not nearly as much my loved ones in Oregon who have received 13 inches of snow in the last couple of days!), which I'm not loving. Our private lane is packed hard with ice, making it hard to get out of the house. The roads are clear if we can get off our private lane, which takes some effort. There's also a chance of more snow in the forecast. I bet you can guess what we're doing today... That's right! Hunkering down and watching movies!

Are we the most exciting couple ever or what?

Happy Sunday friends!