Garden Fail

Totally inattentive gardener + record drought conditions =

And here's another picture for good measure:

If you look closely at the pictures, you can see plenty of green tomatoes, some of them fairly decent sized. However, it will be hard for them to ripen considering the plants themselves are completely brown and dead. There's even a cute little green pepper visible on the plant in the first picture, although it isn't too hard to spot since the rest of the plant is brown and wilted. And let's not talk about dry and brittle corn stalks....

There is some semblance of green in the second photo thanks to our broccoli plant--and even a few last florets of broccoli that might actually be edible. And hiding behind the broccoli plants are our carrots, which are remarkably green and full, so we might actually have some carrots for stews this fall. Provided we actually, you know, go out and pick them.

Here's to better luck next year (and, you know, actually getting some rain so we don't have to spend a ridiculous amount of money watering our garden. Speaking of which, our neighbors just installed sod. Which requires TONS of water to keep it from dying. I don't even want to think about what their water bills are going to be. Shudder).

Nothing

Things I could blog about today:

My complete and total disregard of my garden
My recipe (actually, Mama Shirley's recipe) for Shrimp Etouffee
The Vikings game my family went to over two weeks ago
The super-delicious Woodchuck Fall Cider that is now available
My super crazy busy insane life right now

And you know what? Instead of any of those, you are getting nothing. Because I've disregarded my garden so much that I haven't even been out to take a picture of it, and what's the fun in a post about my failed garden when I don't even have a picture of it? And while I have a (super delicious looking) picture of the shrimp etoufee, I keep forgetting to grab the recipe card. As in--have been forgetting for the past two months. And it's definitely not a recipe that I've committed to memory. So that post won't be coming. And the Vikings game? I blame Darrell on that one because the photos still aren't edited. And when I say "blame", I really don't mean it because he's been doing all of the housework I've been neglecting (cooking, laundry, and cleaning included), plus doing an exceptional job taking (and editing) pictures from my soccer games. And while I've certainly had my fair share of the Woodchuck Fall Cider, I've never actually drank it slowly enough to be able to post a (moderately) accurate review of it--plus there's the whole piece of needing to remember to take a picture of it before I polish off the bottle. Maybe this weekend I'll remember to take tasting notes and a photo while I'm enjoying some with my sister. Or (more than likely) maybe I'll get too distracted by wedding planning to remember. And my super crazy busy life right now? Sure, I could complain about it, but no one would want to listen anyway, so what's the point (especially since 90% of it is more-or-less self-inflicted).

Hopefully I'll have some time to prepare something legitimate for Friday, but that would require planning more than one day in advance. And right now, I've been living my life planning three hours in advance (if I'm lucky). So we'll see how that goes.

Let the Fun Begin!

Time to wipe the dust off my wedding planning gear! My sister made the call asking for some information from my wedding, so I (thankfully!) get to use this box of stuff I've been saving since my wedding two and a half years ago. I may have started looking through it already last night (even though I'm not getting together with my sister until this weekend), and it made me super excited. Plus I get to pull out and play with my guest-list spreadsheet and my budgeting spreadsheet.... Woot!

(Fact: I might need Darrell to have a shock-collar on me this weekend. I can already tell that I'm probably going to stick my nose into my sister's wedding planning business a little more than I should. Because It's. Not. My. Wedding. To. Plan. Even though I may want to.)

Cajun Chicken... Pizza!

So I've been dying to post this recipe since the moment we tried it, but life went and got in the way of that, so I'm just now getting around to it (a whole week after we actually made it! Disaster). This may seriously be the best pizza Darrell and I have ever made, and one that you definitely need to try. Like tonight. I know you won't regret it.

Just a quick, fun backstory on this. Darrell and I had originally planned to make our (also delicious) cajun chicken pasta last Friday night as kind of a special at-home date night since our schedules have been so crazy lately and we finally had a free night. Well, at work on Friday, it was like I was seeing/hearing about pizza EVERYWHERE. Kids were getting it for lunch, co-workers were planning to grab take-out for their family for dinner, and there was even a news article about some pizza chain or another online. And I just couldn't get pizza out of my head. So, I begged asked Darrell if we could modify our dinner plans and attempt to turn our cajun chicken pasta into a cajun chicken pizza. The result was to die for. In fact, as soon as he pulled the pizza out of the oven, Darrell was the one insisting that we take a picture of it. And usually he rolls his eyes at me when I delay dinner to photograph our food. But this pizza just looked that good--and tasted even better.

Cajun Chicken Pizza

1 pizza crust (we used our crusty pizza dough recipe)
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, thinly sliced
4 oz mushrooms, sliced (approximately)
1-2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
8 oz Alfredo sauce (approximately--we used about half a jar)
1-2 cups Parmesan and/or mozzarella cheese
Cajun and other seasonings as desired

Coat the chicken breast pieces with a cajun seasoning and cook in a small amount of oil until juices run clear. Lightly saute the mushrooms in a little bit of butter, then add the slices of pepper for a few minutes. Mix the cajun spices and other seasonings into the Alfredo sauce (vary amount based on how cajun-y you want the sauce to be). Spread sauce over pizza crust, then top with cheese, chicken, and the vegetables. Bake for approximately 20 minutes in a 425* oven (at least I think that was the oven temp we used! I can never remember. Just pull it out when the crust is starting to brown). Slice and enjoy!

Of course, despite all of our excitement over how well the pizza turned out, Darrell did roll his eyes a little bit at the situation because he's now afraid I'm going to try to turn all of our recipes into pizzas. But I don't see anything wrong with that... Don't you think this Jack Daniel's glaze would make a delicious pizza sauce? Or what about this roasted pepper-tomatillo sauce? The possibilities are endless!

More News...

Apparently this is turning into Family Week here on the blog, although this is a post that I wish I didn't have to type (much unlike the news of my sister's engagement). This time I'll be featuring my brother, and more importantly, his girlfriend Macy.

Yes, her eyes are naturally that blue. And yes, her hair always looks that flawless. Not that I'm jealous or anything

To respect their privacy, I won't divulge all the details, but what I can say is that Macy will be having a fairly routine but potentially serious surgery next week Thursday. Prayers of comfort and healing would be appreciated!

Big News!

My sister is engaged!

This is actually an old picture of them, but my sister never updates her Facebook so it will have to do

I have a picture of her actual (beautiful!) ring, but it's on my phone and my phone isn't smart enough to share the picture with the internet, so after some extensive google searching I found one that looks pretty similar.

The biggest difference is that her band is a little thinner around the edges of the diamonds in her setting

Since Darrell has reminded me countless times (even before she got engaged) that this is not my wedding to plan, I've already started throwing myself into the plans for her bridal shower. Although I have my fingers crossed that she's going to be asking me for help with the actual wedding plans!

Face Palm Friday

Well, I had a worthwhile (and delicious) recipe all ready to go for today, and then something happened that I just couldn't resist posting. In fact, this was the second time something like this has happened this week, so it was even more of a sign that it needed to be out on the interwebs. And who knows, maybe this Face Palm Friday thing will catch on; it's got a nice ring to it!

So here's the latest face palm in my life. As you may know, I work in a high school. More specifically, I work with students who, for whatever reason, are behind in or struggling with their classes. Sometimes I feel bad for the students because they genuinely cannot grasp the concept being taught (Algebra II can be legit difficult, people), but sometimes I feel like the students bring their problems on themselves. Case in point: twice this week (twice!) I have had students complain to me because they can't find the answer to a question on a worksheet. When asked what they've done to determine the answer, I've gotten variations of this same response: "Well, I've looked through the chapter, but the word I'm trying to find isn't one of the bolded or italicized words so I don't know how I'm supposed to find it". Umm, really? Of course, I don't say that to the student; I politely tell them that they might need to read the chapter in order to find the answer to their question. To which one of the students responded, "You mean like start with the first word at the beginning of the chapter and read until the last word at the end of the chapter?". Yes, yes, that's exactly what I mean. That's exactly what it means to "read the chapter". Sigh.

It's days like today where I have to (constantly) remind myself that what might be (painfully) obvious to me is not always obvious to these kids. And that's what I'm here to help with--sometimes that might mean helping a student understand how to rationalize the denominator of a radical function; sometimes it means clarifying the meaning behind simple phrases like "read the chapter". Oh, the joys of high school.

Labor Day 2012

So I almost considered not even bothering to put this post up since we're already a week and a half past Labor Day... But this trip marked our fifth state park that we've camped in, so it was another item off the 101 in 1001 list and I wanted to at least document that. And since our trip to the MN State Fair was the most exciting part of our weekend I won't bore you with lots of meaningless details--just the pictures (since I'm sure you've all been waiting anxiously for those!)

Our awesome campsite

There was a ton of wildlife in the area--including these super cute little mice! We also had some deer come to within ten yards of our tent, but didn't want to scare them away by getting the camera

The park (Willow River State Park) had lots of hiking trails and a pretty sweet waterfall on its property. If you enlarge the picture you can see the tons of people that were playing in the (super cold!) water. Definitely a fun family spot 

Not much else to report--we're pretty laid back campers so when we weren't at the fair we were just hiking, napping in our hammocks, or doing logic/Sudoku puzzles! We really enjoyed the park and would definitely consider going back there (the five hour drive was a little long, but we loved the proximity to Minneapolis!)

Photo Gem

One of the best parts about Darrell being a "camera person" is that he is plenty willing to come to the games I am coaching (because honestly, unless you have a legitimate investment in the game, girl's soccer can be kind of boring. Especially if you are a male soccer player. So taking pictures keeps him occupied). And the best part about him being a talented camera person with nice equipment is that he is able to capture shots like this:

Pretty darn sweet.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

So I'm still waiting for Darrell to edit our photos from our Labor Day Camping trip (I'll cut him some slack though... He has been going into work early all week and picking up my slack around the house since like I'm always gone at either soccer or Excel. Although he has been spending his free time watching (and re-watching) GT's football season opener from Monday night. But I suppose that is permissible). And I figure it's bad form to totally neglect my blog while waiting for those photos, so in the meantime I'll post a food recipe that's been sitting around for months.

This is actually probably one of the first homemade pizzas we ever made (aside from a basic "pepperoni and cheese" pizza), and it's one we've gone back to quite a few times. I don't think we ever make it quite the same way, though, which is why the "recipe" is more of a vague ingredient list for you to modify and adjust as you like. Because that's what we constantly do.

We've also been sticking with the crusty pizza dough recipe, although this time we had the forethought to pre-bake the crust for a few minutes before arranging the toppings. This way the crust was cooked through while the cheese was still a golden brown (and not as black as it has been on some of the past pizzas). Not that the blackened cheese really affected the taste of the pizza that much; golden-brown cheese just makes the whole thing look a little bit more palatable.

Anyway, enough novel-writing and on with the pizza.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 pizza crust (we used to make this on the store-bought crusts before we started making our own and it always came out just fine)
BBQ sauce
Tomato sauce and/or ranch dressing (I believe the "original" recipe called for just tomato sauce, but we've gradually been replacing the tomato sauce with ranch because I heart ranch)
1 small red onion, diced
1 chicken breast, cut into pieces
Mozzarella cheese
Parsley and/or cilantro
(I warned you that it wasn't going to be very exact; like I said, we change something up just about every time we cook it)

To prepare the chicken, cook it in a small amount of BBQ sauce. Season as desired. For the sauce, combine equal parts of BBQ sauce with the tomato sauce/ranch dressing. Spread over the crust. Top with cooked chicken and diced red onion. Cover with cheese (I'm always of the opinion the more the better), and sprinkle with chopped parsley or cilantro. Bake until crust has started to brown and cheese is golden (we usually bake our pizzas in a 400* to 425* oven for 12-15 minutes, or 15-20 minutes if you don't pre-bake the crust).

I hope the ambiguity of that recipe isn't too overwhelming or disconcerting for any of you--I'm of the mentality that as long as you have some sort of sauce, protein, and cheese, it's pretty hard to mess up a homemade pizza. So think of this as just another suggestion for a new way to dress up your next pizza--but feel free to adapt it and make it your own!

MN State Fair

In keeping with our Labor Day Camping tradition, Darrell and I hit the road Friday after work for a fun-filled weekend of camping. And since we have (quite a few) items to still cross off our "101 in 1001" list--before April 20th!--we planned our trip strategically and killed a few birds with one stone. Namely, we planned our camping excursion near Minneapolis so that on Sunday we could hit up the famed Minnesota State Fair.

Now, you may be wondering why we chose to fulfill our "Go to a State Fair" goal by attending the Minnesota fair instead of the one in our home state. Well, quite simply, Minnesota's fair is much larger, and subsequently has much more to do (and eat!). To put it in terms of numbers: South Dakota's fair aims to have over 200,000 attendees during its five-day run. Minnesota's fair, which runs for twelve days, can have 200,000 visitors in a single day. And since we were there over Labor Day weekend, which is naturally their busiest time, things were pretty packed.

Minnesota was also an easy choice for us because I have family in the area, so we were able to meet up with them at the fair, which was lots of fun. While Darrell and I enjoyed the fair just ourselves, it was cool to see the excitement of the fair through the eyes of some kids--plus the fair had lots of fun activities for the young ones. Like a totally awesome ropes course put on by the Boy Scouts and a live fishing station sponsored by Gander Mountain.

As an added surprise, I was able to cross "Sing Karaoke" off my portion of the "101 in 1001" list. The State Fair had what they called a Giant Sing Along stage, where fifteen to twenty microphones were available for anyone to step up to and sing karaoke into. So while it maybe wasn't true karaoke, we're still counting it. And if opportunity to do "real" karaoke presents itself, I'll maybe still consider it. Maybe.

Getting ready to sing along to "We are Young" by Fun--great song!

And of course, no trip to a fair is complete without some delicious fair food. It was nice to be out there with a group, because then we could share some of the items and not have to spend all our money (or calories!) on a full serving. I think my favorite was definitely the cheese curds, although Sweet Martha's cookies and the freshly made ice cream sundae were pretty good as well. And I refused to leave until we got something totally ridiculous....

Believe it or not, that's the "small" turkey leg. It was pretty awesome. Sadly, we didn't see the booth that was selling red velvet funnel cakes until after we'd already eaten our full, so I guess that's just a reason to go back another year. Which I certainly look forward to doing.

We've got pictures from our camping adventure as well, but Darrell doesn't have those edited yet so I'll have to get to them later this week. I will say this--the campground was pretty awesome, and I'm convinced we had the best campsite at the park!