Well, it only took ten hours of playing (and in my case, watching) in the hot sun, but my brother's baseball team managed to pull off the two victories they needed this past weekend to stamp their ticket to the state tournament--for the first time in the team's history!
I wish I had a cool picture of the team celebrating, but I don't. Not because Darrell failed to take a picture of said celebration, but because the team failed to celebrate. At all. Sorely disappointing. I've seen them celebrate more after a home run than they did after sealing their berth to State. Lame.
Their first game in the State Tournament is this weekend against the team from Renner, South Dakota--a team that they have never beat. But this seems to be the year for breaking the mold, so let's hope that continues!
Tales of a South Dakotan married to a North Carolinian
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
In honor of my brother's baseball beginning their playoffs this weekend to make it to the State Amateur Baseball Tournament, I thought I'd post a picture of a piece of artwork that we recently gifted to my brother for his new house.
Years ago, Darrell took a panoramic shot of the team playing at their home field and we gifted it to my dad for Christmas. My brother has always talked about wanting one of his own, so a few weeks ago Darrell had a chance to recreate the picture--but with a nicer lens and quite a bit more photography experience, he was able to produce a much more clear image. Unlike the photo my dad has, on this photo you can read the scoreboard and numbers on the players jersey (including my brother's, who is pitching). Plus, Darrell was able to capture an sweet sunset this time around. The creation and printing of the image was so easy (at least Darrell made it look really easy; I didn't really do anything) that I'm starting a mental list of other "scenes" I want Darrell to turn into panoramas for out house--I'll worry about where to hang them later!
Best of luck to the Sioux Falls Saints as they attempt to qualify for their first state tournament this weekend!
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| Actual size: Three feet long by one foot tall |
Best of luck to the Sioux Falls Saints as they attempt to qualify for their first state tournament this weekend!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Unreal
First, there was what I thought was near-and-certain death for my zucchini plants. But, I persevered and proactivity tried to stop the infestation (unlike my method of just ripping the plants out like I did last year) and some of them made a recovery. And not just a weak, slow recovery, but instead produced this massive zucchini less than a week later.
Well, folks, apparently the show isn't over yet. Because just a few days ago, I harvested this bad boy from my garden.
And for a visual on the girth, here is me trying to wrap my hand around it.
Seriously. That's all the farther I can get my hand around the zucchini. It's ridiculous.
Unfortunately, my plant must have put any and all energy that it had into this fruit, because when I went out to the garden a few nights later to pick some broccoli for dinner, the plant was totally wilted. Not just overwhelmed from the ridiculous heat kind of wilted, but totally and completely gone kind of wilted. I don't think any amount of water and/or cool weather could help this plant. But, at least it went out with a bang. And I've still got one zucchini plant that is fighting away, plus my squash plants are starting to produce some fruit, so not all is lost (and temperatures are supposed to drop below ninety this weekend! Still no rain in the forecast, but at least that's something I can help supplement).
As I mentioned, we also harvested some broccoli the other day.
Not near as spectacular as the size of my zucchini, but any time I can get fresh produce for free by walking out my back door I call it a win in my book. Hopefully it'll only be a few more weeks before I can start getting some beans and tomatoes from our garden as well!
PS Have you gotten your blizzard yet? Don't forget about Miracle Treat Day today going on at Dairy Queens nationwide!
Well, folks, apparently the show isn't over yet. Because just a few days ago, I harvested this bad boy from my garden.
And for a visual on the girth, here is me trying to wrap my hand around it.
Seriously. That's all the farther I can get my hand around the zucchini. It's ridiculous.
Unfortunately, my plant must have put any and all energy that it had into this fruit, because when I went out to the garden a few nights later to pick some broccoli for dinner, the plant was totally wilted. Not just overwhelmed from the ridiculous heat kind of wilted, but totally and completely gone kind of wilted. I don't think any amount of water and/or cool weather could help this plant. But, at least it went out with a bang. And I've still got one zucchini plant that is fighting away, plus my squash plants are starting to produce some fruit, so not all is lost (and temperatures are supposed to drop below ninety this weekend! Still no rain in the forecast, but at least that's something I can help supplement).
As I mentioned, we also harvested some broccoli the other day.
Not near as spectacular as the size of my zucchini, but any time I can get fresh produce for free by walking out my back door I call it a win in my book. Hopefully it'll only be a few more weeks before I can start getting some beans and tomatoes from our garden as well!
PS Have you gotten your blizzard yet? Don't forget about Miracle Treat Day today going on at Dairy Queens nationwide!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Miracle Treat Day
I don't know what summer has been like for all of you, but here in South Dakota, it's been hot. Crazy hot. And what tastes better on a hot day than ice cream? Darrell and I have gone through quite a few pints at home, made countless trips to Cherry Berry and Peachwave (self-serve frozen yogurt establishments), and have even visited B&G Milky Way a few times. But even with all these options, sometimes nothing will hit the spot quite like a DQ Blizzard. And you can bet I've had my fair share of those this summer as well.
So it goes without saying that I'm super excited for tomorrow--so excited that I'm even giving Dairy Queen free, unsolicited advertising for their Miracle Treat Day. Is there any better combination than a DQ Blizzard and fundraising money for sick kids and family in your community? I think not. And as an added bonus, if you RSVP on Facebook, Dairy Queen will donate $1 for your RSVP--up to $50,000!
So what are you waiting for? Put in your RSVP, then head out to DQ tomorrow to enjoy a blizzard--or two!
So it goes without saying that I'm super excited for tomorrow--so excited that I'm even giving Dairy Queen free, unsolicited advertising for their Miracle Treat Day. Is there any better combination than a DQ Blizzard and fundraising money for sick kids and family in your community? I think not. And as an added bonus, if you RSVP on Facebook, Dairy Queen will donate $1 for your RSVP--up to $50,000!
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| image from dairyqueen.com |
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Grandma's Monster Cookies
Usually when I post recipes on here, I include the link to website where I originally found the recipe because I'm not exactly brave enough in the kitchen to create my own recipes. However, I don't exactly have a link to the original location of this recipe. All I have is this:
The original, handwritten recipe from my late Grandma Bev. (Quick note for those of you who still hand write recipes--for the sake of your children and grandchildren, please use pen! I know writing in pen makes it harder to correct mistakes, but pencil smears and fades so easily.) My grandmother loved baking, and some of my fondest memories of her are helping her cut out and decorate sugar cookies around Christmas. So when I stumbled across a box of her old recipes at my sister's house last winter, I quickly commandeered it (sorry Midge!). Unfortunately, many of the recipes were smeared or faded so badly that I couldn't make them out (plus my grandma used some strange abbreviations!), but this monster cookie recipe was perfectly readable. And it's a darn good thing it was, because this recipe is delicious (and deliciously easy). I've served it to three different groups of people over the past few days, and it's gotten nothing but rave reviews from everyone (someone even said it was better than the monster cookies sold at a bakery here in town!). You won't regret giving this recipe a try!
Grandma's Monster Cookies
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
3 cups peanut butter
1 cup butter
6 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
4 tsp baking soda
9 cups oatmeal
1 12 oz pkg chocolate chips
1/2 pound M&Ms
1/2 pound chopped nuts (optional--add more M&Ms/chocolate chips if omitting)
Preheat oven to 375*. Beat together sugars and butter; stir in peanut butter until well mixed. Stir in eggs, vanilla, soda and mix well. Fold in (by hand) oatmeal, chocolate chips, and M&Ms. Drop by tablespoon full onto greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Do not over bake.
I should also note that according to my grandma this recipe makes over ten dozen cookies. As I mentioned, my grandmother was a huge baker. It wasn't uncommon for her to provide sweets for a social event, and subsequently, it wasn't out of the norm for her to bake twelve to thirteen dozen cookies at one time. However, I *only* got seven dozen cookies out of my batch (and I swear I didn't eat that much dough). It is certainly easy enough to cut the recipe in half if you feel that is necessary, but they're good enough that you might as well just make the full batch and make someone's day by sharing them. And if you are intimidated by baking that many cookies, it really isn't that bad. All you need is a good system--two cookies sheets, cooling racks at the ready, and a container to move the cooled cookies into once the racks fill up.
Easy peasy! And so worth it--we're down to just four left out of our batch, and I'm thinking I might have to make some more again very soon!
The original, handwritten recipe from my late Grandma Bev. (Quick note for those of you who still hand write recipes--for the sake of your children and grandchildren, please use pen! I know writing in pen makes it harder to correct mistakes, but pencil smears and fades so easily.) My grandmother loved baking, and some of my fondest memories of her are helping her cut out and decorate sugar cookies around Christmas. So when I stumbled across a box of her old recipes at my sister's house last winter, I quickly commandeered it (sorry Midge!). Unfortunately, many of the recipes were smeared or faded so badly that I couldn't make them out (plus my grandma used some strange abbreviations!), but this monster cookie recipe was perfectly readable. And it's a darn good thing it was, because this recipe is delicious (and deliciously easy). I've served it to three different groups of people over the past few days, and it's gotten nothing but rave reviews from everyone (someone even said it was better than the monster cookies sold at a bakery here in town!). You won't regret giving this recipe a try!
Grandma's Monster Cookies
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
3 cups peanut butter
1 cup butter
6 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
4 tsp baking soda
9 cups oatmeal
1 12 oz pkg chocolate chips
1/2 pound M&Ms
1/2 pound chopped nuts (optional--add more M&Ms/chocolate chips if omitting)
Preheat oven to 375*. Beat together sugars and butter; stir in peanut butter until well mixed. Stir in eggs, vanilla, soda and mix well. Fold in (by hand) oatmeal, chocolate chips, and M&Ms. Drop by tablespoon full onto greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Do not over bake.
I should also note that according to my grandma this recipe makes over ten dozen cookies. As I mentioned, my grandmother was a huge baker. It wasn't uncommon for her to provide sweets for a social event, and subsequently, it wasn't out of the norm for her to bake twelve to thirteen dozen cookies at one time. However, I *only* got seven dozen cookies out of my batch (and I swear I didn't eat that much dough). It is certainly easy enough to cut the recipe in half if you feel that is necessary, but they're good enough that you might as well just make the full batch and make someone's day by sharing them. And if you are intimidated by baking that many cookies, it really isn't that bad. All you need is a good system--two cookies sheets, cooling racks at the ready, and a container to move the cooled cookies into once the racks fill up.
Easy peasy! And so worth it--we're down to just four left out of our batch, and I'm thinking I might have to make some more again very soon!
Monday, July 23, 2012
Trip to Okoboji
Before I tell you about our trip to Okoboji this past weekend, you should understand a little something about what the weather has been like around here. For the past three or four weeks, we've had days with temperatures consistently in the nineties, lots (and lots) of sun, and no rain. So, when a trip to Lake Okoboji was looming on our horizon, we were looking forward to spending some time out on the water to make the sun and heat a little bit more bearable. However, we weren't on the bus but ten minutes before it started to drizzle--and it never really let up the whole trip.
Now, truthfully, no one was terribly upset that we were finally getting some badly needed rain, and the overcast skies were a nice change from having the sun beating down on you, but it was just one of those "of all the days to have this weather" kind of moments.
We went on the trip with one of Darrell's unit in the the Shrine, the Fife and Drum. Usually, this unit dresses up in Revolutionary War Era uniforms and plays patriotic songs on (not surprisingly) fifes and drums in local parades. A few of the members have property at the lake, so for many years the unit has been making the trip down to Okoboji. It used to be that they would go down for a parade in the morning, then hang out on the boat through the afternoon. Lately, though, they've just been going down more or less for fun, but still taking their instruments and "parading" through some of the lake-front bars (and off the boat). This was our first year on the trip, and the whole ordeal was quite entertaining, although they modified their uniform slightly to account for the heat. Darrell doesn't actually play an instrument; he is sort of the unofficial photographer of the unit, and he captured quite a few good shots of the day.
I'm not sure how much the lake-goers enjoy the antics of our group (especially the song that has a gun-shot halfway through), but we certainly had a good time!
Now, truthfully, no one was terribly upset that we were finally getting some badly needed rain, and the overcast skies were a nice change from having the sun beating down on you, but it was just one of those "of all the days to have this weather" kind of moments.
We went on the trip with one of Darrell's unit in the the Shrine, the Fife and Drum. Usually, this unit dresses up in Revolutionary War Era uniforms and plays patriotic songs on (not surprisingly) fifes and drums in local parades. A few of the members have property at the lake, so for many years the unit has been making the trip down to Okoboji. It used to be that they would go down for a parade in the morning, then hang out on the boat through the afternoon. Lately, though, they've just been going down more or less for fun, but still taking their instruments and "parading" through some of the lake-front bars (and off the boat). This was our first year on the trip, and the whole ordeal was quite entertaining, although they modified their uniform slightly to account for the heat. Darrell doesn't actually play an instrument; he is sort of the unofficial photographer of the unit, and he captured quite a few good shots of the day.
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| "Parading" around one of the dock areas |
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| The Fife wives on the trip |
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| Hanging out at the well-known Barefoot Bar |
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| Ballyhooing off the boat |
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| The whole crew getting ready to head home |
Friday, July 20, 2012
Sadness
"Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."
Thoughts and prayers out to all affected by the shooting in Aurora, Colorado.
~Alfred (from The Dark Knight)
Thoughts and prayers out to all affected by the shooting in Aurora, Colorado.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Back with a Vengeance
Apparently my zucchini didn't take too kindly to the fact that I said it was dying. Because it's making a rebound--and wiping out any lingering questions about its vitality.
Is that not a massive zucchini? Of course, the plant doesn't all the credit for its rebound; I definitely had a part in that. But I'm certainly glad to see the plant is a fighter--and will be even more glad if it keeps producing crazy big zucchini!
For those of you who are curious, my approach to combating the bugs that had infested our plants was pretty simple. Some of plants definitely looked beyond saving, so I pulled those out to give the other plants more breathing space as they worked to fight against the infestation. With the remaining plants, I started by cutting out as much of the damaged area as I could (and in the process found quite a few larvae inside the stalks--definitely the culprits, and most likely squash vine borers). Then, I sprayed the "open wounds" with a soap/water solution and packed fresh soil around the area to encourage new roots to set. That's it! We haven't cut into the zucchini to see if the soap/water solution is going to affect the taste of the fruit, but I'm not too concerned. And we've seen quite a few blossoms pop up over the past few days, which makes me believe the presence of this zucchini wasn't just a fluke incident. Now if I could just figure out how to keep these pests out of my plants in the first place life would be good (and, you know, a few inches of rain would be nice too. I'm seriously dreading our water bill this month).
Is that not a massive zucchini? Of course, the plant doesn't all the credit for its rebound; I definitely had a part in that. But I'm certainly glad to see the plant is a fighter--and will be even more glad if it keeps producing crazy big zucchini!
For those of you who are curious, my approach to combating the bugs that had infested our plants was pretty simple. Some of plants definitely looked beyond saving, so I pulled those out to give the other plants more breathing space as they worked to fight against the infestation. With the remaining plants, I started by cutting out as much of the damaged area as I could (and in the process found quite a few larvae inside the stalks--definitely the culprits, and most likely squash vine borers). Then, I sprayed the "open wounds" with a soap/water solution and packed fresh soil around the area to encourage new roots to set. That's it! We haven't cut into the zucchini to see if the soap/water solution is going to affect the taste of the fruit, but I'm not too concerned. And we've seen quite a few blossoms pop up over the past few days, which makes me believe the presence of this zucchini wasn't just a fluke incident. Now if I could just figure out how to keep these pests out of my plants in the first place life would be good (and, you know, a few inches of rain would be nice too. I'm seriously dreading our water bill this month).
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Four Vines Naked Chardonnay
So I know it's been like six months since I've posted about any beer/wine, but trust me, it isn't for lack of drinking the stuff. It's more a lack of awareness to stop and take a picture before I have the whole bottle polished off. I suppose there are worse problems to have.
This was one, though, that I wasn't about to forget to document. After my first sip, I felt compelled to share this wine with the world (or at least the handful of people who read my blog). Why? Honestly, it was because I had to check the label and make sure I had bought a chardonnay (like I thought) and not a pinot grigo (like it tasted like). It lacks any of the dryness that I usually associate with chardonnays, and was instead teeming with crisp fruit notes (pear I could identify, the website also identifies apple and white peach as being present). I'm not sure if the fact that the wine is aged in a oak-free barrel (hence the name "naked") is responsible for this or not, but I'm definitely a fan. It was the perfect wine to sip on a warm summer day--and unfortunately, those warm summer days have long outlasted my bottle of naked chardonnay. Good thing I can always get more!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Twins Time
While we were up in the Cities for the Color Run, we were able to squeeze in a family trip to watch the Twins play. It's fortunate they have a pretty awesome ballpark, because lately the games have been less than awesome. We watched them lose nine to three (giving up something like three home runs), and I'm pretty sure they lost nine to three the next day as well. But with good seats, good company, and good weather (albeit a little warm), it's hard to complain!
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| The whole crew |
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| Sitting in prime foul-ball territory, but of course none came our way |
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| Seventh inning stretch! |
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| We heart Target Field! |
Monday, July 16, 2012
The Color Run!
If you are on Facebook, chances are you've seen photos popping up all over the place about an event called The Color Run--also known as the Happiest 5k on the Planet. Well, we ran in the event this past weekend in Minneapolis, and it definitely lived up to the hype!
Here's the basic premise of The Color Run. You start the race in a nice white t-shirt
and by the time you finish you look like this!
How this transformation happens is that at every kilometer of the race, volunteers spray the runners with a colored "elf dust"
and at the end of the race all of the runners have their own color packet to toss into the air for a final blast of color.
It was seriously awesome. And even though it was seriously crowded with tons of runners
the workers and volunteers did a fantasic job making sure everying ran smoothly. Plus they had an awesome soundtrack of songs playing to keep runners pumped up while they were waiting for their "wave" to start. Dance moves were definitely busted out.
We ran the race with my sister and her boyfriend, my brother's girlfriend Macy (who actually gets the credit for finding the event in the first place!), and my mom. My brother was supposed to run, but he injured his foot playing baseball, and didn't think that doing a three mile walk/run was the best idea. So my mom agreed to take his place--but when we showed her pictures from other events, she was definitely re-thinking her decision. However, much like everyone else at the event, she ended up having a great time--and we're all looking forward to running it again next year!
And, just for fun, here's a progression of the color madness over the course of the 5k--it really is the Happiest 5k on the Planet!
Here's the basic premise of The Color Run. You start the race in a nice white t-shirt
and by the time you finish you look like this!
How this transformation happens is that at every kilometer of the race, volunteers spray the runners with a colored "elf dust"
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| Approaching the blue color station |
It was seriously awesome. And even though it was seriously crowded with tons of runners
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| One of many, many waves of runners--I think they were expecting a total of 20,000 runners by the end of the event! |
We ran the race with my sister and her boyfriend, my brother's girlfriend Macy (who actually gets the credit for finding the event in the first place!), and my mom. My brother was supposed to run, but he injured his foot playing baseball, and didn't think that doing a three mile walk/run was the best idea. So my mom agreed to take his place--but when we showed her pictures from other events, she was definitely re-thinking her decision. However, much like everyone else at the event, she ended up having a great time--and we're all looking forward to running it again next year!
And, just for fun, here's a progression of the color madness over the course of the 5k--it really is the Happiest 5k on the Planet!
Friday, July 13, 2012
Peas and Carrots and Onions Oh My!
Well, although discovering the infestation of our zucchini plants was a disappointing start to the week (they might be recovering though! fingers crossed), we've actually had a fairly successful week of gardening.
Since these were all new additions to our garden this year, we weren't entirely certain when to harvest them. The peas weren't too bad since they are above ground, but we were shooting in the dark with the onions and carrots. We were pretty pleased with the size of the red onions, although stopped after pulling just one carrot since it was still pretty small. And because we really weren't going to be doing any cooking with just one carrot, Darrell insisted that I eat it Bugs Bunny style.
I was pretty pleased with the flavor; I usually buy baby carrots which generally have less of an "earthy" taste and are a little more tender, but this one was pretty good. Definitely looking forward to picking the rest when they are a little more ready!
We love using sugar snap peas in our stir frys, which was exactly where these peas (and one of the red onions) ended up.
We kind of made this one up as we went; we had a partially used jar of asian toasted sesame sauce that we wanted to get rid of, so we cooked the pork and veggies (yellow pepper, broccoli slaw, sliced zucchini, peas, and red onion) in that and then tossed some rice noodles in hoisen and soy sauce. It was actually a little less flavorful than we were expecting it to be, and probably not something we're itching to recreate, but it was perfect for what we were trying to do. Looking forward to trying something different with the next batch of peas we get from the garden--and it looks like we'll be getting green beans soon as well!
Since these were all new additions to our garden this year, we weren't entirely certain when to harvest them. The peas weren't too bad since they are above ground, but we were shooting in the dark with the onions and carrots. We were pretty pleased with the size of the red onions, although stopped after pulling just one carrot since it was still pretty small. And because we really weren't going to be doing any cooking with just one carrot, Darrell insisted that I eat it Bugs Bunny style.
I was pretty pleased with the flavor; I usually buy baby carrots which generally have less of an "earthy" taste and are a little more tender, but this one was pretty good. Definitely looking forward to picking the rest when they are a little more ready!
We love using sugar snap peas in our stir frys, which was exactly where these peas (and one of the red onions) ended up.
We kind of made this one up as we went; we had a partially used jar of asian toasted sesame sauce that we wanted to get rid of, so we cooked the pork and veggies (yellow pepper, broccoli slaw, sliced zucchini, peas, and red onion) in that and then tossed some rice noodles in hoisen and soy sauce. It was actually a little less flavorful than we were expecting it to be, and probably not something we're itching to recreate, but it was perfect for what we were trying to do. Looking forward to trying something different with the next batch of peas we get from the garden--and it looks like we'll be getting green beans soon as well!
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Caramel Brownies
So you know those super easy, super convenient brownie mixes that come with a "caramel pouch" so that you can add a caramel swirl? Well--these are waaaay more delicious. And only a little bit more work. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to try making these from scratch and eliminate all boxed mixes, but for now, I'm in love with making these just the way they are.
Caramel Brownies
1 (14 oz) pkg caramels, unwrapped (probably the most time-consuming part of the whole recipe!)
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk*, divided
1 pkg chocolate cake mix with pudding in the mix (Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, etc)
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350* and grease a 9x13 pan. In a large bowl, stir together cake mix, melted butter, and 1/3 cup of the sweetened condensed milk. Do not use a mixer. Press half the dough into prepared pan and bake for ten minutes. Meanwhile, combine caramels and remaining 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk in a large saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. When bars are done, remove from oven and top with chocolate chips, then pour the caramel mixture evenly over the chips. Crumble the remaining dough over the caramel mixture. Bake for an additional fifteen to eighteen minutes. Cool completely before cutting.
*So I got to the point where I had thought I had this recipe memorized, and made it two or three times with sweentened condensed milk, only to pull the recipe card out and discover that the recipe actually calls for evaporated milk instead. I don't know if I've ever actually made these with evaporated milk (except maybe the first time!), but I really like them with the sweetened condensed milk so I don't think I'll be straying from that any time soon.
And just because I think the layers in these bars are super fun (and because I baked them in a glass pan so you can see through it!), here's another picture of these delicious goodies!
Caramel Brownies
1 (14 oz) pkg caramels, unwrapped (probably the most time-consuming part of the whole recipe!)
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk*, divided
1 pkg chocolate cake mix with pudding in the mix (Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, etc)
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350* and grease a 9x13 pan. In a large bowl, stir together cake mix, melted butter, and 1/3 cup of the sweetened condensed milk. Do not use a mixer. Press half the dough into prepared pan and bake for ten minutes. Meanwhile, combine caramels and remaining 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk in a large saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. When bars are done, remove from oven and top with chocolate chips, then pour the caramel mixture evenly over the chips. Crumble the remaining dough over the caramel mixture. Bake for an additional fifteen to eighteen minutes. Cool completely before cutting.
*So I got to the point where I had thought I had this recipe memorized, and made it two or three times with sweentened condensed milk, only to pull the recipe card out and discover that the recipe actually calls for evaporated milk instead. I don't know if I've ever actually made these with evaporated milk (except maybe the first time!), but I really like them with the sweetened condensed milk so I don't think I'll be straying from that any time soon.
And just because I think the layers in these bars are super fun (and because I baked them in a glass pan so you can see through it!), here's another picture of these delicious goodies!
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| Way better than a little bit of caramel swirled over the top from a pouch, right? |
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Landscaping: Done!
Those of you who are friends of mine on Facebook may have seen this picture on Saturday:
I present to you nine tons of river rock. Which, after a marathon weekend of work and help from some dear friends, is now all laying around the exterior of our house. Finally. This project has only been on our to-do list since we bought our house nearly three years ago.
All in all, the project wasn't that awful. It certainly required quite a bit of physical labor, but after chatting with some neighbors who paid to get theirs professional done (or know someone who did), it sounds like we were able to save ourselves a significant chunk of change doing it ourselves. So, for anyone out there in the blogosphere who might be considering this project for his- or herself, I figured I'd give a little tutorial (like I did when we--Darrell--built a lower deck for our house last fall). Please treat this as one of many landscaping guides if you are considering a project of your own--we don't claim to be experts and we used quite a few websites along the way to help us determine our process. But I do have lots of fancy pictures to go with our steps, which is something I found other sites were lacking.
Step One: Determine the area to be landscaped
This may like a super obvious first step, but don't dismiss it. Being thorough with this step will save you trips to the store to get additional supplies (which we had to do) or trips to return leftover supplies (which we also had to do). We used stakes and twine to "draw" our landscaping plan around the whole perimeter of our house, which also helped give a concrete image of a vague mental idea (such as "I want a curvy thing here"). After getting the shape and curves of the twine just right, we used spray paint to mark a more permanent boundary so that we could remove the twine and measure it.
Now, I can't stress this enough, but make sure you measure carefully. If you are off on the length of the perimeter (necessary for determining the amount of edging to buy), your calculations on the area being landscaped will be off (necessary for determining the amount of weed-blocking fabric and rocks to buy). We were right on for the length of the edging, but we made quite a few approximations on the area and ended up with not enough fabric and too much rock.
Since we were going to be landscaping over an area that was already planted with grass seed, we needed to kill the grass first to make the rest of the process go more smoothly. Not a difficult task once we had marked off the perimeter of the landscaping.
Step Two: Buy/Order your supplies
This probably is not something that needs to be listed as it own separate step, but I want to mention a few things to keep in mind as you are shopping, so I'm making it its own point. The biggest thing we learned about supplies was to err on the side of getting too much (especially if you are going to end up with nine tons of rock blocking your driveway so you can't get to the store). Darrell calculated the amount of landscaping fabric we were going to need based on how much square footage we were covering, but did not take into consideration the fact that any overlap would require a minimum of two additional inches of fabric (and in most places, we overlapped closer to five inches just to be safe). Likewise, when it came to pinning in the edging and pinning down the fabric, we opted to do a little more than the recommendation just to make sure nothing was budging, especially around turns and corners. Since Darrell initially stuck to the "five feet between pins" rule when he was buying pins for the edging, we ended up way short. And although the last thing we wanted to do was move extra rock after laying enough to cover the perimeter of our house, we're glad we bought a little too much instead of not enough because the rock will inevitably settle in places and expose the fabric tarp, which I definitely don't want. So now instead of having to buy a small amount more to fix gaps in two or three years, all we'll have to do is pull a handful or two out from the extra pile under our deck.
Step Three: Dig a trench for the edging
This step may vary depending on the type of edging you buy. We bought the simple black edging that has a depth of about five inches. To create the trench, we started by standing on the edge of a flat-bottom shovel to bury it about six inches in the ground.
Having the painted line at this point was also very helpful because it created a very easy path to follow for digging the trench.
Now, while we could have left the trench like this except for the places we needed to put a pin into, we opted to dig out the trench even further along the whole perimeter of the house. Since we weren't removing the sod underneath the landscaping, making a wider cut on the trench helped to establish the barrier between the landscaping and the lawn by giving the rock a place to settle instead of just rolling over the edging and onto the lawn. To make the trench wider, we dug the same shovel in toward the initial cut at approximately a forty-five degree angle, starting at what would be the landscaped side of the trench and removed the sod and dirt (most of the time we stuck this extra bit of dirt along the side of the house to help ensure that the landscaping would slope away from the house and not cause water issues).
Step Three: Lay the edging
Again, this step may vary some based on the edging you buy; I'll be explaining what we did for our particular edging since that's really all I know.
With our wide trench, it was really easy to lay the edging into place. We made sure the trench was deep enough so that just the top rounded part was above the soil line. Then, with a hammer and edging pins, we began securing the edging at approximately three foot intervals (more frequently around curves).
Secure the edging into the lawn side of the trench (which should be the flat side anyway) and be sure to set the pin at a downward angle, making sure that it isn't too close to the top or bottom (otherwise it might not take much force for the edging to rip free of the pin).
Step Four: Lay a weed-blocking fabric
Up to this point, most of the steps can be completed with just one person (although if just one person is digging the trench, expect that person to be very very sore). Laying the fabric, though, is definitely much easier with two people, especially in South Dakota where it is perpetually windy. I usually ended up holding down one end of the fabric while Darrell rolled it out to the desired length, cut it, then worked his way back toward me pinning at about two foot intervals. While one person could pin down or use a rock to secure one end while unrolling at the other, pulling the fabric taut around a pin or rock could cause a tear, which would create a spot for weeds to get through (and--knowing my luck--a big ol' thistle would find its way right to that hole).
In fitting with my desire to prevent any type of weed growth, we overlapped pieces of fabric more than the recommended two inches. We were also sure to leave plenty of excess along the edge with the trench, because as the rocks settled in they pulled the tarp down with them, and we wanted to make sure the soil wasn't going to be exposed. Of course, in many places we left a little bit too much excess and had fabric hanging out from underneath the rock after it was laid, but all Darrell had to do was give it a quick cut with a pocket knife to get rid of it.
Step Five: Spread the rock
This is a step where more is definitely merrier. Process-wise it isn't very challenging (just dump the rock on to of the landscaping fabric), but filling, pushing, and dumping wheelbarrows full of rock can get exhausting. There were four of us working; the three guys would rotate between the two wheelbarrows and shoveling while I spread out the rock. I discovered that a garden hoe worked really well to move the rock around (I used a rake for a little while but it just wasn't quite as efficient), although I accidentally ripped a few holes in the fabric because I wasn't being careful. A few things to keep in mind while laying and spreading the rock:
--Try to make sure the fabric doesn't fold over as you are emptying the wheelbarrow and expose soil (another reason to put some extra inches down on the overlap)
--Be careful not to run over the edging with the wheelbarrows (especially when full) because it can put kinks in the plastic or possibly tear it.
--To encourage draining, slope the rock away from the house
And that's it!
Of course, you'll probably want to include plants or other vegetation in your landscaping, but if you are a fool like us and plan to do this during one of the hottest months of the year, vegetation will have to wait.
Now if it would just rain and wash away some of the loose soil and dust from the rocks that would be great. Not to mention make our grass look not near so pathetic.
I present to you nine tons of river rock. Which, after a marathon weekend of work and help from some dear friends, is now all laying around the exterior of our house. Finally. This project has only been on our to-do list since we bought our house nearly three years ago.
All in all, the project wasn't that awful. It certainly required quite a bit of physical labor, but after chatting with some neighbors who paid to get theirs professional done (or know someone who did), it sounds like we were able to save ourselves a significant chunk of change doing it ourselves. So, for anyone out there in the blogosphere who might be considering this project for his- or herself, I figured I'd give a little tutorial (like I did when we--Darrell--built a lower deck for our house last fall). Please treat this as one of many landscaping guides if you are considering a project of your own--we don't claim to be experts and we used quite a few websites along the way to help us determine our process. But I do have lots of fancy pictures to go with our steps, which is something I found other sites were lacking.
Step One: Determine the area to be landscaped
This may like a super obvious first step, but don't dismiss it. Being thorough with this step will save you trips to the store to get additional supplies (which we had to do) or trips to return leftover supplies (which we also had to do). We used stakes and twine to "draw" our landscaping plan around the whole perimeter of our house, which also helped give a concrete image of a vague mental idea (such as "I want a curvy thing here"). After getting the shape and curves of the twine just right, we used spray paint to mark a more permanent boundary so that we could remove the twine and measure it.
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| Ooh, fancy curves |
Since we were going to be landscaping over an area that was already planted with grass seed, we needed to kill the grass first to make the rest of the process go more smoothly. Not a difficult task once we had marked off the perimeter of the landscaping.
 |
| Probably don't need a picture of Darrell spraying grass killer, but whatever |
This probably is not something that needs to be listed as it own separate step, but I want to mention a few things to keep in mind as you are shopping, so I'm making it its own point. The biggest thing we learned about supplies was to err on the side of getting too much (especially if you are going to end up with nine tons of rock blocking your driveway so you can't get to the store). Darrell calculated the amount of landscaping fabric we were going to need based on how much square footage we were covering, but did not take into consideration the fact that any overlap would require a minimum of two additional inches of fabric (and in most places, we overlapped closer to five inches just to be safe). Likewise, when it came to pinning in the edging and pinning down the fabric, we opted to do a little more than the recommendation just to make sure nothing was budging, especially around turns and corners. Since Darrell initially stuck to the "five feet between pins" rule when he was buying pins for the edging, we ended up way short. And although the last thing we wanted to do was move extra rock after laying enough to cover the perimeter of our house, we're glad we bought a little too much instead of not enough because the rock will inevitably settle in places and expose the fabric tarp, which I definitely don't want. So now instead of having to buy a small amount more to fix gaps in two or three years, all we'll have to do is pull a handful or two out from the extra pile under our deck.
Step Three: Dig a trench for the edging
This step may vary depending on the type of edging you buy. We bought the simple black edging that has a depth of about five inches. To create the trench, we started by standing on the edge of a flat-bottom shovel to bury it about six inches in the ground.
 |
| Our garden spade purchase--it definitely looks a little worse for the wear now |
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| The initial cut for the trench--and yes, we only killed the grass on one side of that cut; the dry weather and heat is responsible for killing the majority of the grass in our yard |
Now, while we could have left the trench like this except for the places we needed to put a pin into, we opted to dig out the trench even further along the whole perimeter of the house. Since we weren't removing the sod underneath the landscaping, making a wider cut on the trench helped to establish the barrier between the landscaping and the lawn by giving the rock a place to settle instead of just rolling over the edging and onto the lawn. To make the trench wider, we dug the same shovel in toward the initial cut at approximately a forty-five degree angle, starting at what would be the landscaped side of the trench and removed the sod and dirt (most of the time we stuck this extra bit of dirt along the side of the house to help ensure that the landscaping would slope away from the house and not cause water issues).
 |
| The wider trench, with the to-be landscaped side on the right. This was quite the pain to cut (but we're definitely glad we did it) |
Again, this step may vary some based on the edging you buy; I'll be explaining what we did for our particular edging since that's really all I know.
With our wide trench, it was really easy to lay the edging into place. We made sure the trench was deep enough so that just the top rounded part was above the soil line. Then, with a hammer and edging pins, we began securing the edging at approximately three foot intervals (more frequently around curves).
Secure the edging into the lawn side of the trench (which should be the flat side anyway) and be sure to set the pin at a downward angle, making sure that it isn't too close to the top or bottom (otherwise it might not take much force for the edging to rip free of the pin).
 |
| Done with the edging |
Up to this point, most of the steps can be completed with just one person (although if just one person is digging the trench, expect that person to be very very sore). Laying the fabric, though, is definitely much easier with two people, especially in South Dakota where it is perpetually windy. I usually ended up holding down one end of the fabric while Darrell rolled it out to the desired length, cut it, then worked his way back toward me pinning at about two foot intervals. While one person could pin down or use a rock to secure one end while unrolling at the other, pulling the fabric taut around a pin or rock could cause a tear, which would create a spot for weeds to get through (and--knowing my luck--a big ol' thistle would find its way right to that hole).
In fitting with my desire to prevent any type of weed growth, we overlapped pieces of fabric more than the recommended two inches. We were also sure to leave plenty of excess along the edge with the trench, because as the rocks settled in they pulled the tarp down with them, and we wanted to make sure the soil wasn't going to be exposed. Of course, in many places we left a little bit too much excess and had fabric hanging out from underneath the rock after it was laid, but all Darrell had to do was give it a quick cut with a pocket knife to get rid of it.
Step Five: Spread the rock
This is a step where more is definitely merrier. Process-wise it isn't very challenging (just dump the rock on to of the landscaping fabric), but filling, pushing, and dumping wheelbarrows full of rock can get exhausting. There were four of us working; the three guys would rotate between the two wheelbarrows and shoveling while I spread out the rock. I discovered that a garden hoe worked really well to move the rock around (I used a rake for a little while but it just wasn't quite as efficient), although I accidentally ripped a few holes in the fabric because I wasn't being careful. A few things to keep in mind while laying and spreading the rock:
--Try to make sure the fabric doesn't fold over as you are emptying the wheelbarrow and expose soil (another reason to put some extra inches down on the overlap)
--Be careful not to run over the edging with the wheelbarrows (especially when full) because it can put kinks in the plastic or possibly tear it.
--To encourage draining, slope the rock away from the house
And that's it!
Of course, you'll probably want to include plants or other vegetation in your landscaping, but if you are a fool like us and plan to do this during one of the hottest months of the year, vegetation will have to wait.
Now if it would just rain and wash away some of the loose soil and dust from the rocks that would be great. Not to mention make our grass look not near so pathetic.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
4th of July
I know everyone out there is sad that their nights are no longer being interrupted by exploding fireworks that sound like gunshots when you are trying to sleep (or was Darrell the only person who had to work early on July 5th and was trying to go to sleep while fireworks were incessantly going off literally two houses down from us?), so I figured I'd do my best to rekindle those memories by sharing our 4th of July pictures (no sound though, sorry). And as Darrell commented like seven times as we were watching fireworks at the lake on July 3rd, we didn't get as good of pictures as we could have because he didn't have "his" camera and tripod and everything else. Well, I say la-ti-da to that; I think we managed to capture a few good ones in spite of my inferior camera. You be the judge.
On the morning of the fourth, before everyone split their own ways for work obligations on the fifth, we headed out to a nearby golf course to play a little couples scramble.
Thankfully Darrell carried our team well enough for us to finish in second behind my brother and his girlfriend Macy. Maybe next year I'll actually swing a club or two before hitting the links--and you know, have my own clubs or something. Minor detail.
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| Love the full moon in this shot with the exploding fireworks! |
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| Another shot with the moon and reflections over the lake |
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| Cheesy caption about our love igniting its own fireworks? No? Okay |
Thankfully Darrell carried our team well enough for us to finish in second behind my brother and his girlfriend Macy. Maybe next year I'll actually swing a club or two before hitting the links--and you know, have my own clubs or something. Minor detail.
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