Nailed It, Christmas Edition

Hope you had a lovely Christmas!  Mine was wonderful.  It was a nice and relaxing morning as we opened gifts, then had an amazing brunch.

Todd's Frittata

I wish you could smell the cheesiness in the picture above.  It was so yummy.  

Then we had an excellent prime rib dinner.  We had a special stash of my mom's buns!  My mashed potatoes were not as good as my Thanksgiving mashed taters, but they were acceptable.  I think I needed a combination of yellow and russet, and should have used the entire brick of cream cheese.  Live and learn. 

A Merry Christmas Dinner!

Enough about food.  I've been feeling extra crafty lately.  Christmas does that to me.  I love giving homemade gifts because you know they didn't get another one just like it yesterday from a relative, and the gift receiver knows you thought about them while making said project.  I didn't get to everything I wanted to make, but what I did make this year included:

• Homemade sugar scrubs, one old recipe and one new
• Homemade Ginger Hot Cocoa mix (since the guys at the office wouldn't appreciate a sugar scrub)
• A little painting for a few folks I haven't painted for in years past (old design, nothing new)
• And a risky new idea... (I finished at midnight last night)

But first, another story.

I've been on a search for a wreath that doesn't suck.  Why don't I search for a wreath that I actually like, or even that I love?  Thanks for asking.  Because I am extremely picky, and this search has been going on for years.  A wreath that I would love doesn't exist.  I hate fake flowers.  Cause, well, they LOOK fake.  I grow the real thing.  Why bother with an imitation.

I found a wreath at a garage sale for $2 last summer that is acceptable and which now hangs on my front door.  The flowers are obviously fake and they aren't made to try to look real.  It's a grapevine wreath (about the only kind I like) with big cabbage type roses that are red on one side and have a white/brown stripe on the other side that kind of looks like a wood grain.  It will do.

And then one day while flipping through catalogs shopping for Christmas, I found this one:
 

Napa Valley Style with a Napa Valley Price Tag

For those of you who didn't catch the price on this little beauty, it's $129.  Plus shipping.  Did I mention that I'm also cheap thrifty?  Also, there are little things about it that I'm not in love with--there is greenery that looks fake to me, although I love the eucalyptus.  The pomegranates are cute and don't look fake, but the apples look TOO perfect.  SEE HOW I AM?!?!?!!  I pick every wreath apart and focus on the things I don't like although I am proud of mentioning two things that I actually do like.

See the dehydrated orange slice at about 8 o'clock in the picture of that Napa Style wreath?  THAT was my inspiration.


So what do I get for a foodie-couple who describes their style as "minimalists" for Christmas?  Well sometimes it's tough.  But then I think of food (savory over sweet for them), because that is their greatest passion, to get an inspiration.  They also garden, so there are options down that avenue too.  Actually when I think about it, they really aren't hard to shop for at all!

The answer to my question is, a culinary masterpiece.  That orange slice triggered something inside my creative brain cortex--to make a food oriented wreath!  So off to Michael's I went.  I went up and down every stinking aisle trying to find the perfect food oriented options to attach to the perfect grapevine wreaths I chose.  I could go with little fake oranges and fake lemons & fake limes, and fake apples.  Or I could go with fake little peppers and fake artichokes, and fake carrots.  And then?  It will look... fake.  Forget it, I give up on these options because it's going to look HORRIBLE.  And fake.

But I didn't give up on the idea.  Instead I made a grocery store list which consisted of:

• Bay leaves (hubby acquired 100 leaves off eBay, thanks dear!)
• Blood oranges
• Lemon
• Red apple
• Garlic heads
• Sage (from my own garden)
• Chili peppers (from our kitchen cabinets, some are dried from our own garden) 

My hubby acquired the goods, and enlisted the help of a friend because our small-podunk town doesn't carry blood oranges.  Once I acquired my goodies, I started slicing very carefully on my mandolin slicer (that goes BOTH ways--very cool kitchen tool that chops slicing time in HALF). 

Then I placed my sliced pieces on wax paper lined cookie trays and baked at 125-150 degrees for a day.  I baked the garlic heads for about 3 days.  My sage dried nicely on it's own, since I picked it a few months ago, just had to keep it away from prying dog noses.  I've been planning this for months.

But I was nervous about the end result.  Because remember?  I'm really picky.  But I started assembling the wreath last night, and I couldn't stop until I was finished.  Here it is:  

My Homemade Culinary Masterpiece!

I think I NAILED IT!  EVERYTHING except the glue and the grapevine is edible.  Or was, before I dehydrated it.  Oh, there I go again, talking about food.  Also, it smells good.  The sage really gives it a nice fragrance.  

I think they are really going to like it.  It's pretty fragile though--I hope it makes it home with them without too many broken pieces.


This took an amazing amount of slices from an apple, a lemon and three blood oranges.  I thought I would have enough to make one for my own front door too, but I have to dry more fruit out before I can assemble my own.

Also, I'm a tiny bit worried that birds will try to eat the dried fruit from my front door.  Oh, the problems of living in the country....




So, what do you think of my culinary masterpiece?  Hope you had a great Christmas whether it was crafty or not!

Still Mourning

I'm so thankful that we still have Keystone.  He's such a perfect furry-kid.  He's my awesome little old man.  But so often I think of how there should be another little girl here.  

We played in the snow today, the first time this season.  I know we both kept thinking how much Abby would have loved it.   

I think there is always going to be a hole in my heart where Abbytail should still be right now.

Abbytail 2004

Abbytail 2005

The Barn

Just a quick post to show you the progress on our detached garage!  We are loving it.  Todd had the entire floor inside poured, and a driveway poured as well.  Lots of dirt work was done around the  building.  And we got garage DOORS! 

We are loving how it turned out.  Where the golf cart is under the roof, will be a brick patio next spring.  

I can almost hear my chickens chirping...

It's Been 3 Years

Happy holidays!  It's already that joyous time of the year when everyone is over extended: going to too many parties/planned events, trying to get all the gifts bought/wrapped/mailed, decorating the house, while keeping up with laundry, paying property taxes, cooking, cleaning, caring for the animals, oh yea and going to work, etc., etc., etc.  I can't believe Christmas is only a few weeks away.  Good thing I've been shopping for months.  Too bad I haven't been wrapping!

The last 2 months have just FLOWN by for me, and the first thing I gave up was blogging.  But now I'm ready to get back to it.  I'm not sure how many readers I have anymore, but whoever you are, I've missed you!  I've had a very fun fall, so I will eventually recap the highlights for you.  For now, I'll talk about this past weekend:  Thanksgiving!

Joey was tired after his Thanksgiving holiday

It's been 3 years since I started this blog!  Happy anniversary to my little cyber garden.  This Thanksgiving has been really great.  We "got my parents" this year, so they were here to help celebrate and cook (well, my mom helped with the cooking and dad dog-sat the pups).  It was a perfect meal!  

Here is Todd's beautiful fresh bird.  I don't know if it was so special because it was fresh and never frozen, or all the love Todd put into the brine.  Whatever the reason, it was magic.

I'm not that big of a turkey fan but I LOVED THIS BIRD

Here is my wonderful plate of perfect food.  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!  And Todd's gravy was the best ever.  I could drink that stuff with a straw.

The perfect plate

And then we had pie.

I can smell the goodness just looking at this picture

You all know that my Thanksgiving breakfast tradition is to bake monkey bread.  This year was no exception.  Every year I have a dilemma because my bread grows so much that I wake up to an evil monster lurking in the kitchen.  This year, I decided to outsmart the small bundt pan, and make it like the restaurants who serve it on their buffets.  In a big pan.

Before

Finally, I woke up to what I expected!  The bread had risen without a mess!  I learned that it is more difficult to cook this way.  I need to put foil over it so that it completely bakes without over-browning.  Oh well, next year will be even better!

After
You can't see all the oozy gooey goodness on the bottom of this dish, but it's there

And this is what we got to eat!

Our breakfast:  Yummy!

Our pups had a great time being SPOILED rotten by their grandparents.  They went on walks, and took naps on the couch, and got belly rubs all day and night long.  Just LOOK AT THIS!

Jessie and Joey adore their grandpa

And look at THIS!

Keystone was exhausted from all the partying

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, however you wished to celebrate!  Thanks for reading, and I'll yap with you again soon.

#14

We enjoyed our 14th anniversary by doing what we love the most--spending the day with our furry kids.  We love finding a swimming hole/creek to go splash around in and frolic until we are worn out.

We found a great state park to go play.  We were hopeful that Jessie would finally learn to swim.

Here are the kids when we arrived at our destination:

Keystone was the only one with a clue

We were able to walk out to the water.  Jessie thought she could just run around without getting wet.

Aren't you going to get in, Jessie?!?

Keystone LOVES to swim!

Joey loves to swim too!

Jessie sort of...

... skips along ...

      ... the surface!

 

Eventually, we found a spot deep enough, where we all waded/swam across to the other side, leaving Jessie all alone.  Would she do it?  Would she swim?

Come on, Jessie!  You can do it!

The answer is YES!  She DOES swim across!  She was very hesitant about it, but she figured it out.  Finally, all of our dogs are water dogs!

This part was deep for a few paddles

It was so fun walking up the very shallow "shelves" of water

Here are more of my very favorite random pictures from our day.  It was the best anniversary day ever.

 

Jessie "the bullet" takes the lead

Having fun running up the shore

My Keystone

My goofy puppies

We went to our favorite local Italian restaurant for dinner.  Had an amazing meal.  I'll have to share pictures of what we had soon.  We had a very adventurous day!

BnB '13 the Fall Edition Finale

What a great visit Tullybird and I had.  It was great for her to experience another season in the Midwest.  It was fun to see someone observe things that I take for granted.

Cicada's are in full chorus in the trees.  I love the sound of those awesome little (actually, not so little) bugs.  It's like Mother Nature's white noise to me.  Next to softly falling rain, it can lull me right to sleep.  I really wish she could have heard the screech owl.  That would have been a real hoot.

The highlight of our time for me was the horseback trail ride.  We started the day with a tasty breakfast sammich.

Grilled homemade bun, crispy bacon, cheddar cheese and an over-easy egg = yummy

The day was beautiful and warm.  Not too hot, not too cool, it was just right.  I got to introduce Tullybird to my boyfriend Jake, and she got to see all the other animals too.  Here we are on the trail.

I know you're thinking of the theme music to Bonanza

Cowgirls!

Our horses casually walked the hour long ride.  It was just long enough to make our tail bones remind us that they are there.  This was my view on the trail:

There were just 5 of us on the ride

Towards the last part of the ride, we went through a grove of trees.  All the other horses were hanging out there since it was nice and cool.  The guide had instructed us to keep our horse on the path following the horse in front of it, and don't stop.  This picture is really blurry, but you can see the horses on the far edge. We had walked right by them.

I hope you're not adjusting your glasses, this isn't meant to be in focus--I was ON A HORSE!

We were almost out of the "forest", and the "lead" horse, the top dog, the alpha male, the #1 Kahuna, decided to "play" with us.  He came up and stood right in front of my horse.  HOLY COW.  So I told Cheyenne (my horse) to Whoa and stay.  The lead horse wasn't moving out of my way.  The horse in front if it, started to act like it wanted to kick back.  That made the lead horse act like he wanted to kick my horse!  So, I kept mine still and didn't move any closer.  Then all of a sudden, the lead horse walked in line, like he wanted to go on the trail ride with us!  We all walked a little ways, then he just went on his merry way.  It was intense--and SO COOL!!!!  

Horses mystify me.  They all have their own personality, just like dogs.  They are huge, playful, beautiful, vulnerable, and strong, all at the same time.  I am so enamored with them.

After our ride was over, the other couple had brought apples and carrots to feed the horses and let us have some too.  It was funny to see which horses did not like apples, and which did not like carrots.  I believe most preferred the carrots.  Our trail guide was actually Topgun (and his owner).  He's absolutely magnificent.

Topgun, you melt my heart

After our morning equine adventure, we planned to stay in that area.  We went to a farmer's market type of store, only on a farm.  I am happy to report, it is officially PUMPKIN SEASON!!!!

This extra tall pumpkin made my heart happy to see its beauty

Two more pumpkin beauties

We visited a local winery, ate at their restaurant, and did a little shopping in the little town.  We returned home to have a wonderful prime rib dinner.  I can't believe we hadn't prepared this for her yet.  I made a homemade raspberry dressing that turned out pretty good.  We dined like queens and a king that night!

Beef!

The next day, we went shopping on The Plaza.  We had lunch at our favorite burger place Blanc Burgers & Bottles, and had martini's.  Now, that's a good day off!

Our lunchtime 'Tinis

Tullybird loves their Homemade Pickle Martini.  My Strawberry Blonde Martini was just alright.  It needed to be sweeter.  It had limon vodka, strawberry vodka, and strawberry puree, and probably something else that I don't remember.  It was missing something, but I still drank it!

I hadn't had seafood in awhile, so I opted for the Salmon Burger.  I heard it was great.  It was very nice and light.  I was not overly stuffed and miserable after I finished it, but I was very full.  I enjoyed every bite, and the Asian slaw was brilliant.

Yep, I gave my pickle to Tullybird

Smoked Gouda, bacon, an onion ring, some fancy ale BBQ sauce, those were the highlights of her burger

Tullybird's burger looked incredible and she loved it!  I'm having that one next time if I am in the mood for beef.  We had sweet potato fries, and OMG were they tasty.  I really loved them, especially with the slightly spicy aioli dipping sauce.  My mouth was on fire, but I didn't care.


We had chicken stuffed Mexican style Giant Marconi peppers for dinner.  We had watermelon margaritas for our evening beverage.  Hey, it was her last night, so we had several watermelon margaritas!

My cheesy chicken stuffed Giant Marconi pepper

Very tasty way to eat watermelon

The next morning, we actually got to stop by a garage sale in my old neighborhood.  Tullybird got to meet the old 'hood.  Then I dropped her off at the airport.

It was back to reality for her.  Luckily, I had a few more days off.  I can't wait for her next visit!  We have So. Much. Fun.

BnB '13 the Fall Edition

Surprise!  Tullybird came for another visit this year!  She wanted to experience another month in the Midwest besides May.

We started her visit off with an excellent lunch, at Oklahoma Joe's.  I tell ya, at 3:30pm, this place was still hopping.  But it was a manageable size of crowd.  We opted for the dine-in experience, since she has never eaten inside a gas station.  It was tasty.

The Z-man sandwich.  Amazing.

The evening of her first day, we had on the agenda "meatloaf surprise" for dinner.  

Meatloaf surprise (cheesy hotdog), roasted root vege's, homemade bun, and salad with fresh raspberry dressing

Todd always puts a river of mozzarella in the middle of his meatloaf.  And he hides something.  This time it was mini cheesy hotdogs.  Yum.

Oh yea, and we had PB&T's for our beverage that evening.  We had a version of this drink last year, but I believe it was even better this year with a few changes.

PB&Ts

 PB&T's, the enhanced version:
2 parts Sprite
1 part Grape Juice
1 part PB&J Vodka (yes, this is peanut butter and jelly flavored vodka)
1 part Raspberry Liquor (like Chambord)
1/2 part Raspberry Vodka

These should mix like a martini.  However, if you serve them in a beer mug, I suggest that you limit consumption to 3.  Because 4 is just 1 to many.

This morning, we had a puffy pancake that I call a Dutch Baby Pancake.  It was sooooo good!

It's a MAGIC pancake!

Breakfast also included eggs and bacon.  It was tasty.

Blueberry butter on the pancake was great--it looks gross before it melted, but it was wonderful

We had a Mexican fiesta tonight, but I forgot to take a picture of Todd's awesome chili Verde.  That man can cook some pork!  We skipped the margaritas though, because we are waking up early tomorrow to hit the trail.

I leave you with a picture of the kids from a few weeks ago.  Aren't they precious?

Bye bye!