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."

~Alfred (from The Dark Knight)

Thoughts and prayers out to all affected by the shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

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).

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!

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!

The whole crew

Sitting in prime foul-ball territory, but of course none came our way

Seventh inning stretch!

We heart Target Field!

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"

Approaching the blue color station

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

One of many, many waves of runners--I think they were expecting a total of 20,000 runners by the end of the event!

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!

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!

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!

Way better than a little bit of caramel swirled over the top from a pouch, right?