Mom's Lasagna

Warning: Slight family bias coming.

I'm fully convinced this is the best lasagna recipe ever. Granted, I've never prepared a lasagna from a different recipe, but I've certainly eaten lasagnas made from other recipes, and this one takes the cake. Plus I have a had time believing that there could be an easier lasagna recipe to put together; I did this one in about 20 minutes, and it would have gone faster if I hadn't been trying to keep a one-year-old from destroying our house at the time. And would you be surprised if I mentioned that this recipe is also great for leftovers? We usually make it on a Sunday or Monday and have lunches for the whole week; and it's just as good on Friday as it was on Monday. The next thing I want to try with this recipe is freezing it and reheating in the oven. I think this would be a great dish to take to a family with a newborn, and I love the idea of taking it over pre-cooked and frozen so all they would have to do is heat it up in the oven and enjoy. I know that this isn't a new concept, but I bet this would be tastier (and healthier) than those Stouffer's varieties!

Mom's No-Boil Lasagna
(from Mama Shirley)

1 15 or 16oz container Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 (26oz) jars pasta sauce, combined with 1/2 cup water
1 lb lean ground beef, cooked and drained
4 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
1 package uncooked lasagna noodles
Chopped parsley

In a bowl, combine Ricotta, Parmesan, and eggs; mix well. On the bottom of a 15x9-inch greased baking dish (or 9x13 if you break the noodles to fit) spread 1 cup of the pasta sauce. Top with half each of the uncooked lasagna noodles, Ricotta cheese mixture, beef, remaining pasta sauce, and mozzarella. Repeat layering. Top with parsley. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake 1 hour at 350* or until hot and bubbly. Let stand covered 15 minutes before serving.

A few tricks of the trade that I've learned after making this a few times:

--I don't like to dirty a lot of dishes when I cook. So instead of pouring the pasta sauce into a bowl and mixing it with the water, when I pour the pasta sauce into the bottom of the pan I pour about half a cup from each jar and then add a quarter up water back into the jar and mix those up. Then it's just one jar per layer and no extra dishes!
--We've always used a 9x13 pan. And I don't know if we just by super big boxes of noodles or if the smaller pan really cuts out that many noodles, but we only ever use half the box. We tried using the whole box one time, but our noodle layers ended up being double-thick, and it just didn't cook as well. So we just spread the noodles out to fill the layer as evenly as we can and keep the rest for next time.

If you've never made lasagna before because you've been too intimidated by it, then this is definitely the recipe for you! And even if you've tried making it but been frustrated by the amount of work (I've seen some of the recipes out there--I stay the heck away from those!), then you should really give this one a shot. Trust me, you'll be disappointed if you don't!

Castano Monastrell

The only thing I really feel like doing today is wining and having a pity party for myself. But you guys don't really care about hearing about how I feel over-worked and under-valued at my job, so I'll talk about real wine instead. Although maybe I should still complain about my job--wine and pity parties do go so well together.

This was a wine I picked up on my Chicago trip, and it's a Spanish import, so I'm really not sure how readily available this is at normal liquor stores. But if you can find it, it's definitely worth the money (which, for the record, isn't much--I think it only cost $9!). For its rich color, it actually drank like a fairly light wine. Darrell and I were trying to compare it to a more common grape and wine type, but we really couldn't think of anything (as Darrell said "It tastes very decidedly Spanish". Like we drink enough Spanish wine to know the difference). It's certainly lighter than a Cabernet Sauvignon and not dry like some Merlots, but without being an overly sweet wine. I certainly wouldn't pair this wine with a hearty steak or a saucy pasta dish, but it would probably go well with light, summer dishes (I'm picturing an apricot chicken or pasta tossed with fresh tomatoes and basil). Or, of course, it would be great on it's own!

Birthday Party!

Sunday afternoon Darrell and I headed a few hours west to celebrate the birthday of our favorite one year old. We were extra excited to celebrate because not only are the parents good friends of ours, but we've actually been babysitting their little girl on some Monday evenings, so it was fun to have her recognize us instead of just being another face in the crowd. Hopefully by the time we see her next Monday the sugar high and excitement of the party will have worn off.

And, since it was the party of a one year old, there really isn't a whole lot to say (because, let's face it, the kid didn't know what was going on half the time anyway), so I'll just let some pictures do the recapping.

Cutest. Elmo. Cake. Ever

Cutest. Birthday Girl. Ever. Her outfit was seriously to die for, especially because she's sort of getting the hang of walking so she would toddle for a few steps then fall forward, which caused her tutu to kick up and leave a cute little baby bum sticking up in the air. If only adults could get away with behavior like that

She wasn't quite sure what to do with the cupcake at first, but once she got the hang of it she devoured the thing. And fussed when they tried to clean the crumbs off her hand. By the way--notice her headband? Her mom made that! So adorable

What little girl doesn't need a life-size Elmo doll? Darrell and I may or may not be responsible for giving this to her....

Finished!

Do I have the most awesome husband ever or what? How sweet is our patio? I told Darrell I loved it so much that I wanted him to make it bigger, but he didn't really like that idea. Apparently it was a lot of work or something; I really wouldn't know because I had to work all morning and early afternoon. Bummer :)

For those of you who are interested, here's a short run-down of the steps:

Determine the plot of land to be used and kill the grass using an herbicide. Let sit for a few days to really kill the roots (or, in our case, three weeks)

This step could probably be omitted if you were pressed for time, but it certainly makes the next step easier.

Scalp the ground to remove the sod

Since were were having to level the patio with the cement slab that the builders put at the bottom of our deck, it was really important for us to remove the grass and the grass only (because apparently it was a good idea to build the cement slab three inches above the dirt). So having all the grass dead made this step a lot easier. If depth wasn't an issue you wouldn't necessarily have to kill the grass; you could probably just get by pulling up the whole chunk of sod. An important note: Darrell was initially considering just placing the sand and patio blocks over the dead grass, but one of our super handy neighbors pointed out that as the grass decomposed it would create air pockets and potentially shift the level of the patio. So we scratched that idea and went ahead and scalped (and by we I mean Darrell--that should pretty well be understood for this whole project)

Level the ground with sand and begin laying patio blocks

I can tell you that Darrell went through A LOT of sand for this step--and even with all the sand he used (including a second trip to Menards that morning) it still wasn't enough to level the patio completely with that stupid cement slab. So there's a little bit of a toe-catch. But, a few notes on the leveling. I know that Darrell used a leftover piece of wood from our cabinets (you can see it in the upper right hand corner of the screen) to help him level, and he was excited to find this in our basement because apparently since it was a piece to be used for interior design, it was guaranteed to be super straight and level. It's also important to make sure the patio isn't 100% level because then the water will just pool on it; it should slope ever so slightly away from the house. Oh, and make sure to pack the sand down with a tamper or something to minimize shifting.

I don't have super clear explanations for laying the patio blocks since I didn't do any of this step, but what I know from talking to Darrell and listening to our neighbor is that it is (obviously) important to make sure you are laying the patio blocks straight. I know they talked about measuring off quadrants with twine and using the pythagorean theorem and whatnot to guarantee straight lines--not sure how much of that Darrell did, but I suppose it does make sense. I think Darrell was a little lax on this step mostly because it wasn't a super precise area that we were putting the patio into; if the blocks got off ever so slightly it wasn't like we were going to be running into an issue of having to cut a block down or something. And, just for fun, here's a picture of Darrell laying the last block (but don't be fooled, our steps aren't done yet!)

"Lock" the blocks in place by filling the gaps with sand

See, I did contribute a little bit! Darrell bought a special sand for this step; it's got a weed-blocker in it and it's specially formulated to be adhesive once it gets wet. We just used a broom to push the sand around the patio and let it fall into the cracks; we also walked on all the stones and tried to make the jiggle so that we could push more sand that fell into any gaps that formed. Then just spray it with water, let it dry at least overnight and you're ready for the last step.

Enjoy!

This step works best with a beer in hand and fire in the pit...

And of course plenty of s'more fixings ready to go!

We truthfully couldn't have picked a better weekend to do this project; highs over the weekend were in the seventies, but once the sun went down the temps dropped to the forties/fifties which made it perfect weather for gathering around a fire! We're supposed to have more of the same weather this weekend (and this week!), so I fully expect the patio to get some good use!

And oh yeah--another item off the list! Only a year and a half left to get through it--eek!

Homemade Pizza Take Two

Remember my first attempt at making homemade pizza? Yeah, that was a little bit of a disaster. But, I learned a few things from that experience, and was ready to try my hand at it again. This time I used a crust recipe that came with my new mixture, so it was super easy and straightforward. The only uncertain part of the pizza was the toppings--the meat I was intending to use had spoiled, so I had to throw something together at the last minute sans recipe. The result? A pretty tasty pizza if I do say so myself.

Crusty Pizza Dough
(recipe included with my KitchenAid Mixer)

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cup flour. Attach bowl and PowerKnead Dough Hook to mixer. Turn to speed 2 and mix about 1 minute. Continuing on speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix about 1 1/2 minutes, or until dough starts to clean sides of bowl. Knead on speed 2 about 2 minutes longer. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down.
Brush 14" pizza pan with oil. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Press dough across bottom of pan, forming a collar around edge to hold toppings.

So far so good! I actually used a pizza pan this time instead of trying to transfer to my pizza stone

Add toppings as desired. For me, this is where things started to get a little uncertain--I had some ranch dressing that needed to get used, as well as a yellow pepper, and I was planning to do some sort of Philly Cheesesteak pizza. Until I discovered that my steak had spoiled. So, I took inventory of my kitchen and came up with this:

Diced (cooked) bacon, diced tomato, garlic, diced yellow pepper, sauteed together slightly and spread onto the crust which had been topped with a thin layer of ranch. I threw a little cheese on there, baked it at 450* for about 20 minutes, and viola!

Pizza goodness. I was a little concerned that the cheese was darkening significantly more than the crust and was worried that the crust would be under-baked, but it came out perfectly crispy. And my haphazard topping was pretty tasty as well. Definitely something that I'd consider playing around with again in the future--especially the idea of using some ranch in place of or in addition to a tomato sauce. Yum yum.

Coming up this week--a finished (!!!) patio and the cutest birthday girl ever!

Water for Elephants

I love love love this book. I'm really sad that I borrowed it from my sister-in-law and have to return it and can't just keep it for myself. You can bet I'll be buying this if I ever see it show up in a second-hand store somewhere. Although I doubt it will ever make it there since it's So. Good. and no one in their right mind would permanently part with it. A few of the things I loved about this book:

--It's about elephants (loosely, at least. And I love elephants. Did you not know that? Now you do)
--It's told by what I am picturing to be the cutest old man in the world (have you seen the movie Up? I'm picturing him to be like that guy--a little cantankerous, but sweet)
--There's a super dramatic (read: life and death possibility) love triangle
--It's a circus, so there are all sorts of quirky characters who make for "amazing spectacles" during the performance
--It's historically accurate, with good details about prohibition and survival during the Great Depression
--Did I mention that there's an elephant in it and it's narrated by a super cute old man?

I seriously flew through this book once I started reading it. So much so that I might actually read it again before giving it back (although I do have a stack of other books staring at me as well--so much to read, so little time!). And I know it will probably seem like I completely go back and forth on this whole "book made into a movie" thing, but this is another movie that I am actually excited to see. Granted, I'm sure the movie will screw up all sorts of things and the old man will not be cute at all--but I've read some reviews, including ones by people who have read the book, and it seems like the movie makers did a pretty good job. And besides--an elephant in a movie? I'm so there.

Patio Progress

The one slightly productive ramification of the temperatures dropping is that it's kicked our butts into gear about getting our lower patio finished. We don't exactly want to be scraping snow out of the way in order to lay our patio blocks. So we got to it. And got serious about it.

That's right--we've got ourselves an Excel spreadsheet. Drawn to scale and everything. We had a couple different ideas of how to lay the blocks, and figured this wasn't really a good step to just "wing". Arranging and rearranging forty pound patio blocks is not my idea of a good time. And Darrell figured that if we were going to do a scale drawing, we were going to do it right (or, in his words "perfect"). The design above isn't exactly the design we settled on, but I will give Darrell credit for the template he built; it was super easy to just highlight and fill different "cells" on Excel to get an idea for how the patio will look. Plus the drawing also gave us an exact count on how many of each color block we need--and also made us realize that we didn't initially measure the space correctly, so we had to go back out and spray again to kill more grass.

The plan for this weekend?? Get it finished! Of course, we first have to figure out how to get nearly two tons of patio blocks and leveling sand to our house.... And then spend the majority of an afternoon carrying the items one at a time to our backyard.... But those are just minor details :-)

Ginger Glazed Salmon

Patio weather is fast disappearing here in good ole South Dakota (we've already had one freeze and a possibility of another one tonight!) so I figured I should get up this lingering grill dinner that I've had sitting around for some time now. Truthfully, the recipe calls for the salmon to be baked--but nothing beats putting a whole meal right on the grill (and clean-up is way easier too!)

Ginger Glazed Salmon


3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp grated fresh ginger root
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
4 salmon fillets (we only ever make two, but never bother halving the glaze)

In a shallow dish, stir together the honey, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, ginger, garlic and olive oil. Season fish fillets with salt and pepper, and place them skin side down in the dish, Cover and refrigerate twenty minutes to marinade. Place fish on a foil lined baking sheet and bake ten to fifteen minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

A few notes/modifications: If you don't have time to marinade it, just drizzle some of the marinade over the fish before baking and reduce the rest of it on the stove to a glaze to serve with the fish. If you are grilling the fish, you can skip the marinade step and baste the fish frequently while grilling.

It's a super easy recipe, with no fancy bells and whistles, but you wouldn't know it from the result. Salmon is one of our favorite dishes to go to when we need a quick dinner, and we especially love the ease of this one--and the fact that we usually always have the ingredients for it on hand!

On a sad note, it's probably going to be about eight months before I get this view again at dinner. Boo winter.

I Only Have Myself to Blame

Lesson Learned: When Darrell gets into a book, he really gets into it. Granted, I'm not exactly the person to point fingers on this issue.... But still. It's a little bit extreme (for him especially!) to come home from volleyball at 9:00 (which he went to straight from work for the record), shower, and then immediately pull out his book. He didn't even bat an eye when I pulled two shopping bags filled with 24 bottles of Woodchuck Fall Cider out of my car, brought them into the living room where he was reading, and proceeded to repackage them into a different bag so my parents can take them to my sister this weekend. No questions, no raised eyebrows, nothing. Sigh.

I guess this is what I get for literally pushing the book into his hands and telling him that he absolutely must read this book because it is so good. At least I'm validated in knowing that he doesn't think I'm lying about how good the book is.

For the record, the book in question is Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. It's a true-life account of the Vietnam War as told by a helicopter pilot--super intense!

Prom 2011

Yes, you read that right. Darrell and I totally rocked out at Prom last weekend. And no--we didn't crash any boring high school dance--it was a legit adult prom (I'd say that the availability of booze set it apart from a high school prom, but let's be real. I was a high school student once. I work in a high school. There's booze to be had if you know who to talk to). Every year the Potentate (head honcho) of the Shrine throws a themed ball, and this year was a Prom theme. But it was even a little bit more awesome than that; the exact theme was "We pick the date, you pick the decade". So Darrell and I rocked a little old-school apparel for the event.

Like the cliche prom pose?

Darrell is sporting a three-piece suit that we found at a second-hand store literally six hours before the event, and I'm wearing a bridesmaid dress that my mom wore in my aunt's wedding back in the early eighties. I felt pretty awesome rocking the off-the-shoulder sleeves.

As a part of the "entertainment" for the night they organized a "name that tune" competition, with the winners of each era (fifties through nineties) competing in an additional challenge to win free drinks for their table. My mom correctly named a tune, so three members from our table had to go up to the front for the "Ball Catch" competition. Here's the rundown--my mom has a bucket of ping-pong balls, I have an ice cream bucket on my head, and our third team member is chasing down strays. I wasn't expecting it to be too bad--until they announced the catch: the balls had to bounce at least once before being caught. Now, I love my mom and all, but bouncing a ping-pong ball to the top of someone's head is no easy task. So, being the young, agile person that I am, I dropped to my knees. And, much to my mom's disbelief, caught the first five balls she bounced. BAM!

And of course, as there always is at Prom, there was plenty of dancing to be had. But, unlike my actual high school prom (which, ironically, was held at the same venue), the music was actually good, and I didn't have to watch people grinding all over each other on the dance floor. Ah, maturity. It's a wonderful thing.

Jitterbugging it up with my dad

They also had a few cool "staged" picture areas complete with props....

and uber-cliche romantic backdrops.

I'm not so good at being romantic--I'm much better at being goofy

We had such a blast, and it was great just to spend some time together after the crazy work hours we've been putting in lately. Now if only we had something like this to look forward to every weekend!

Learning Curve

Lesson One: Cameras are not for eating (and, for the record, neither are my toes, which she just took a bite of--little bugger has some sharp teeth in there!)

Lesson Two: Remote controls work best when pointed at the TV, not your belly

Guess we have some things to work on next time I babysit. But for now, I'm going to go back to enjoying my Monday evening with this cutie!

Secrets She Left Behind

After spending most of the summer not doing any leisure reading, I stupidly decided to pick up some books that I've had sitting around mid-August and start them--right around the same time school started back up. Terrible timing. I'm one of those readers where once I get in a book I don't want to set it down--not for work, not to eat, not for anything. The upside of this is that once I get to that point in a book it usually only takes me another day (or two at the most) to finish it so I manage to get back to my normal life pretty quickly.

This was one of those books that totally sucked me in. I foolishly brought it along when Darrell and I went camping over Labor Day, and spent the majority of one day in my hammock reading it. Great for relaxing--not great for spending time with my husband. I really loved the depth of characters in this book, and Chamberlain does a wonderful job telling the story through the eyes of the four main characters and staying true to their personality and way of talking. When she switched narrators I really felt like I was talking with a completely different person, sometimes forgetting that all the characters were penned by the same writer.

And of course, beyond just the characters themselves, the plot of the book was wonderfully paced. There were definite "I can't turn the page fast enough" moments, but mixed in with plenty of calmer "I could close the book after this chapter (if I really wanted to) and not be dying of suspense" moments. Plus, I've actually been to the place where the book was written, so it was really fun stumbling across familiar landmarks in the author's descriptions.

Hold the phone. I totally just learned that this book is (according to Amazon.com) a "follow up to Before the Storm that can stand alone as a fast-paced read". What?!?! I'm way upset I didn't know that before I read Secrets She Left Behind; now I feel like a lot of the things that were plot twists to me were actually giveaways to what happened in Before the Storm. Sigh. Guess I'll just have to read the first one to find out for sure.

And that, my friends, is the best accolade that I can give a book--not that I will read the same book again (there is too much great literature out there for that!), but that I will actively seek out other books by this author because I have been totally sucked in to her writing style.

MIkkeller Ris a la M'ale

This brew was another of my finds from the warehouse liquor store in Chicago. I'm a little familiar with the Mikkeller name; one of the nice specialty bars in Sioux Falls has had some of their beers available on occasion or two, and from what I could remember, Darrell and I were always pleased with our selections. Until we came across this one. Truthfully, this was more of an impulse buy than a well thought-out purchase; the label boasts that this beer is brewed with almonds and cherries, and I was instantly intrigued. And since the rest of the bottle is printed in Danish, I bought it solely on that information. I was even super proud of myself--when I got home, I boasted to Darrell "Look at this really cool and unique beer I found!", to which he responded "Cherries and almonds? I'm not drinking that". So, I smugly sat down with the beer one evening, sure I was going to be in for a treat. We had gotten a variety of fruit-infused lambics as a wedding gift (chalk one up for people knowing their audience!), and I pretty well enjoyed them all, so I was imagining that this would be very similar. Well, I was quite incorrect. It was not crisp and slightly sour like I remembered the lambics being, nor did it have much of a pronounced cherry or almond taste at all. In fact, it didn't really have any sort of pronounced taste; it was just there. I suppose that if I had been sitting on the deck of a beach house watching the sun set over the ocean it would have been the perfect beer for the occasion (but then again--is there really a wrong beer for that occasion?), but for just a normal night it was certainly nothing special. Perhaps I built it up too much, but Darrell did agree that it seemed to be lacking something--flavor, depth, hops--something.

Would I drink it again? Sure, if someone was buying it for me. Would I buy it myself? Probably not. Will I learn to stick with buying types of beers (and wines) that I know I like instead of giving in to spontaneous desires to try something new just because "it looks cool"? Doubtful. But hey--maybe one of these days I'll strike gold on a new and unfamiliar brew--maybe.

Ready for Baby?!?!

Now, before anyone gets too excited (ahem, Kim and Shirley), I'm going to start by saying this DOES NOT mean Darrell and I are jumping on the baby wagon. Not anytime soon, at least. What I do mean, though, is that WHEN we get pregnant, I'll think we'll be set to handle it.

Allow me to explain. Last night I babysat my friend's one-year old for four hours (and did I remember to take a single picture? Nope. I'm babysitting again next week, so maybe I'll remember then). Allow me to be somewhat boastful and brag about my accomplishments and productivity, all while watching a toddler (who, for the record, was not contained in a pack-n-play and was instead crawling around the house and exploring.

--Made lasagna for dinner (I did cheat and start it a little before she got there, but I still had to assemble it and put it in the oven with her there)
--Washed dishes from making dinner (and other assorted dishes stacked on our counter)
--Pushed the baby and stroller (and diaper bag and extra blankets and snack) to the high school and back (approximately one mile round trip, half of which is a gravel sidewalk)
--Sat through a 40-minute coronation ceremony for Homecoming (only a few fusses here and there, from the baby, not me)
--And, most importantly, I kept the baby alive and made sure she didn't ingest any foreign objects or break anything in our non-baby proofed house

Not too bad, eh?? And yes, I totally realize that one night does not equate a lifetime of caring for a child, and let's be honest, I didn't even have to deal with a dirty diaper so it wasn't even that realistic, but I was still pretty proud. And I even did most of the work by myself; Darrell came home for a short while and helped entertain Baby K while I was finishing up the dishes and getting the stuff loaded for our walk, but then he had to leave for a volleyball game, so the rest was on my own.

I know that Darrell and I will still be totally overwhelmed when we have a kid of our own, but it's nice to know that with a little bit of work and compromise we can still maintain a comparable lifestyle to the one we live now. Hopefully the next few babysitting experiences go equally smoothly and don't totally deter us from ever having kids of our own!

Red Beans and Rice

When Darrell and I gave up Zatarain's boxed rice mixes after college, I had only one request: that we find different, homemade kielbasa recipe. Well, we were finally successful on that (click here for the delicious honey mustard kielbasa and potatoes), and I was content. However, Darrell revealed later that while he liked the new kielbasa recipe, he was still missing the red beans and rice. So, we decided to give it another go--but this time, no box mix to start with. We were going to attempt it from scratch this time.

And boy, am I ever glad we did. I was a little wary of the recipe at first (the ingredient list was super intimidating long), but it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. Sure, there's a little bit of prep work chopping the vegetables. And yeah, it has to simmer for like two and a half hours. But it's so worth it, and the flavors are so fantastic--after trying this recipe, I'm not even sure if Zatarain's can call what they do "red beans and rice".

Red Beans and Rice
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

1 lb dry kidney beans
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 stalks celery, chopped
6 cups water
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 pound kielbasa, sliced

Hot rice for serving

Rinse beans, and then soak them in a large pot of water overnight (we always skip this step and just buy canned beans that don't need to be soaked).

In a skillet, heat oli over medium heat. Cook onion, bell pepper, garlic, and celery for three to four minutes. Rinse beans, and transfer to a large pot with six cups of water. Stir cooked vegetables into beans. Season with bay leaves, cayenne pepper, thyme, sage, parsley, and Cajun seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 2 1/2 hours. Stir sausage into beans and continue to simmer for thirty minutes (this is usually a good time to start the rice so everything's done at about the same time!)

Serve bean mixture over hot rice and enjoy!

I should also mention that even if you are cooking for two, don't be afraid to do the whole recipe. It may make a lot, but this is definitely a recipe that only gets better the longer it sits!

The Reader

As you can see, I'm not referring to myself, but rather to a book. Although lately, it would be pretty easy to dub me as "the reader"--this is just the tip of the iceberg on books I need to blog about. I'll try to space them out so as not to bore the non-readers.

I had one overwhelming reaction after reading this book--I want to see the movie. This may surprise those of you who know me; after being incredibly disappointed in the movie for The Time Traveler's Wife, I vowed never again to watch a movie after first falling in love with the book. And that reason is precisely why I want to see the movie for this book--I didn't fall in love with it. I really enjoyed it (as is usually the case with war-based literature), but there was just something that I didn't love. Additionally, a large part of the book is narrative (at times it seemed like chapters went past without any action happening, just inward reflection on the part of the narrator), and I'm really curious to see how they are able to convey the same emotion and depth of thought and "self-revleations" in a cinematic setting.

The book itself is about a young boy in Germany who has a chance encounter with a lady in his neighborhood, and this encounter develops into something a little deeper than a friendship. Things end somewhat unexpectedly, and many years later, as a law student, the grown-up boy is sitting in on a trial for war criminals and sees a familiar face among the defendants. Hurt and bewildered, he becomes obsessed with the trial, and it continues to follow him even after the verdict is read.

This is probably not a good book for someone (like my dear husband) who tends to fall into the cracks on books with lots of narration and description. Darrell very much prefers action-heavy books (I currently have him reading one of my favorite Vietnam war novels, Chickenhawk), and I know that he would probably not make it through this book. Truthfully, there were times even for me that things started to get a little dry, but the alternative was helping my sister with a rummage sale, so I powered through the book. And really, I'm glad I did, because it was really just the middle where things got a little overly narrative and descriptive; the beginning and end were pretty engaging. And who knows--maybe I'll end up enjoying the movie more than the book for once!

Landscaping Progress (ish...)

Well, we've been in our house for nearly two years, and our landscaping so far consists of three trees (and a garden, if you can count that). Trust me, we have much more ambitious plans, but we just haven't gotten around to any of it. Until now...

We don't really have much accomplished, but now we at least have reason to--either that or live with a massive dead patch in our backyard. You see, we have a nice deck attached to our house, but it's really just big enough for our patio table and grill. So, we decided that we wanted to build a patio at the foot of the staircase off our deck so we can have bonfires (and maybe a porch swing!). What, you may ask, do we know about building a stone patio? Absolutely nothing. But Darrell is convinced he can figure it out himself, and has already picked out the patio blocks from Menards, so the project has begun. Step one? Kill all the grass--and then kill it a second time so it is less likely to grow back. Step two? Use the weed-wacker to cut down all the grass once it has died (which makes for a pretty comical bald spot in our yard). Step three? Well, I don't know. We haven't gotten that far yet. And we've both been swamped at work, both during the work week and weekend, so it doesn't appear that we'll be making progress terribly soon. But, at least now we have to do something--and hopefully at a faster pace than it's taken us get this far!

Wacipi

Well, Darrell and I crossed another item off of our "101 in 1001" list--at least close enough to the item on our list that we're going to count it. To kick off our Labor Day weekend festivities, we traveled up to Enemy Swim Day School, where my sister teaches, for their annual beginning of the year Wacipi (or pow-wow). It was pretty interesting, but since it was their big kick-off for the school year, there was a lot of conversation about the staff and students and recognitions and awards and whatnot. Not exactly the most captivating of material. Plus, Native Americans are notorious for not having a sense of time, and that was clearly evident at the pow-wow. Stories drug on and on, they waited ages for volunteers (long past when any other MC would have just given up and assumed no one was going to volunteer), and "one last thing" happened about five times. But, it was still cool to see some of the "traditional" regalia (I mark it in quotes because I'm not sure how traditional neon colors are, but whatever) and their dances, although I wish I knew more about the different types of songs and dances. Although as Darrell said--maybe there isn't much else to know and the whole point is just to be moved by the music, however the spirit chooses to move you. Darrell and I even joined in the fun for a few "inclusive" dances, including the potato dance where we had to dance while holding a potato between our foreheads. We were one of the first couples out (behind my sister and her boyfriend and my parents). I did manage to get a few pictures, although by the time I got my camera out it was already dark so they aren't the best quality.

A group of children dancers

Some of the very ornately decorated men

Which of these is not like the other? Oh yeah, it's me, standing out like a sore thumb in my teal shirt as I dance walk in rhythm with my sister

My sister's superintendent did catch us afterwards and say that if we wanted to see a "real" pow-wow then we should come back the following afternoon, so apparently there was something about our pow-wow that wasn't real. I'd definitely be willing to go again if I had the opportunity, but I'm certainly not going to make it a top priority--for now, this will suffice as our "pow-wow" experience!

Labor Day Camping

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day--and didn't get too rudely awakened by your alarm clock this morning to return to the real world! Getting up early after a holiday weekend is always tough for me, especially when we spend the holiday weekend camping and sleeping in until nine. At least there's only four days of work to make it through before another weekend comes!

Darrell and I have been camping on Labor Day for the past four years (we would have started sooner but I always had soccer games over Labor Day in college). It's a tradition he's done with his family since he was a kid, and although we can't (realistically) fly out to Georgia to camp with his whole extended family, we've decided to keep the tradition going in the Midwest. We've been to a different state park every year, and I have to say, I think this year at Roy Lake was my favorite. Check out this campsite:

Right on the lake, pretty secluded, and plenty of trees to hang our hammocks from. Wonderfully relaxing. Saturday was really windy though (and a little chilly!), so we decided that instead of lying around the campsite all day we go out and see some of the nearby landmarks, since neither of us had been in this area. We started with a visit to Sica Hollow State Park to hike the "famed" Trail of the Spirits.

The park, according to the website, was named "Sica", which means evil or bad, because of the mysterious happenings, particularly along the trail, like gurgling reddish bogs, which Native American lore, was the blood and flesh of their ancestors. Of course, you wouldn't know any of this going on the trail, because there is absolutely no information about the trail at the camp itself. We didn't even know anything about the route or distance of the trail it was so poorly marked. Subsequently, the whole thing was a little anti-climatic, but still had plenty of fantastic views that momentarily made us forget we were in South Dakota (and near the North Dakota border no less!)

We then drove to the Nicollet Tower outside of Sisseton, which promised a breath-taking aerial view of the prairie. And it didn't disappoint. Climbing up the tower in the high winds was a little nerve-wracking, but there was some solid construction that went into this tower and it didn't waver a bit.

The view from the top

Hi Darrell!

Our last stop of the day was Fort Sisseton, which was pretty cool to see, but also a little anti-climatic. The fort itself doesn't have much in terms of a historical significance, especially since it was only in use as a fort for around twenty years. However, it was really interesting to see how things may have looked back then and get a feel for what life was like for the soldiers and early settlers. 

Mock-up display of the kitchen area for the fort

We were ready for a relaxing evening by the fire after spending the afternoon driving and hiking around, and soon realized another bonus of our campsite: awesome sunsets.

I miss it already just by looking at the picture. It was seriously the perfect campsite, plus a great campground. There was a disc-golf course (which we played on Sunday), lots of paths for biking (score for remembering to bring ours!), canoe rentals (which we would have done if it hadn't been so chilly and windy), and a swimming beach (again, a little chilly for that). They also had a floating bridge leading to an island trail, but the trail was closed due to flooding, which was unfortunate.

Like I mentioned at the beginning, getting up for work this morning was a little rough, and now you can see why. I thought maybe it'd be easier since I certainly caught up on sleep this weekend, but apparently it only takes a few short days for my body to get used to sleeping in. Oh well; tomorrow's already Wednesday and the weekend will be here soon enough!

I can't resist sharing this parting shot--is my husband skilled with the camera or what?

Green Beans!

Well, it was about time we had some good news come out of our garden. After losing all of our summer squash and zucchini plants, we were starting to feel a little discouraged. But then we finally started to see some produce on this guy!

Let me tell you, we sure weren't expecting much from our green bean plants based on the progress (or lack thereof) that they've been making the past few weeks. But it seems that these beans must have shot out in a few short days because the plants went from bare to bountiful in no time at all! We actually had enough to make a fairly hearty side for our meal last night, and they were sure tasty. Not quite the pronounced difference between the garden and store-bought like we saw with the zucchini, but still good. 

And in other exciting news, we also had a pepper! Which, again, was a total surprise because the plants really haven't changed in weeks. We almost didn't see it either, because it was growing underneath some of the leaves and blended in perfectly. Unfortunately, it rotted before it ripened (and before I could get a picture of it), but it's a promising sign!

Eleven Minutes

Here's a tip I learned from someone after reading this book. When you are picking up a book by a well-known author and the author's name is bigger than the title of the book, chances are they are trying to sell the book strictly by the popularity of the author, not by the content of the book. Years and years ago I read The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, and while I don't remember it all that well anymore, I remember just loving it at the time (and I really should re-read it since I own the book). Well, I should have known from the start that this book was going to be a little different. Coelho starts off in his foreword by saying that in his previous books he's tried to address important aspects of life--family, faith, knowledge, etc--but he feels like it's time to go darker and deeper. Such is the nature of this book. The book pretty well centers around sex and prostitution, addressing aspects of both ranging from societal acceptance to moral responsibility. And let me tell you--it's a little intense at times.

Now, before I come off as totally negative, don't automatically assume you should turn away any opportunity to read this book. But maybe expect to read it twice. Because the first time through, I was still getting a little over the shock of the content to really appreciate and think about the questions and challenges Coelho was addressing, and I really do feel like he showed a lot of courage by discussing these topics in such detail. And, maybe sometime a few years from now, I'll be able to pick up this book again and really understand what I'm getting into, and thus be able to get more out of it.

I do also feel compelled to say that I had a major issue with the ending, which is also possibly why I finished the book unable to really reflect on some the bigger, more challenging issues. I won't say exactly what it was about the ending that bothered me, because doing so would completely give it away, which is something I strive not to do in my book reviews.

All in all, it's not an awful book. Had it not been written by someone with the clout of Paul Coelho, it probably wouldn't have sold many copies, let alone make it to publication. I'm inclined to believe that it is only because of the name Coelho that this book has received any sort of an audience, because it's content is not widely popular (or, in many places, socially acceptable). Part of me is inclined to say that this would make a good book-club book because it really begs to be discussed--but then part of me knows that this would be widely unsuccessful in a lot of book clubs because I don't see too many clubs being super comfortable discussing the ideas about sex and prostitution that are presented in this book. I further don't see many book club members being comfortable discussing how these ideas and prejudices about sex and prostitution are present in their lives and relationships, which I believe is what Coelho ultimately wants his readers to reflect on.