Attached to the North-Eastern-ish end of the Great Lake Huron is a huge bay, Georgian Bay to be exact. The wedding was yesterday and was absolutely beautiful. There will be pictures as soon as Alex and I get home and move (which by the way, is a little bit of a disaster, but that's a story for another time).
Now, however, it is time to walk down to the dining hall and have breakfast. Next week I might go more in depth about the trip.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Vacation Notice (plus food)
I ALMOST FORGOT TO BLOG TODAY!!!!
Thanks goodness I am currently three hours ahead you schmucks (and by schmucks I mean loved ones).
Alex and I made it through our flight to Pittsburgh PA with little scathing but little sleep. Our flights were on time but our fellow passengers were not so nice about leaving their reading lights on. My father had warned me prior to the flight that I should find myself one of those sleeping masks, but they've always seemed so dramatic, however useful they might mean. So, not too much sleep, but much fun to be found upon our arrival.
We stumbled on a fellow wedding goer in the airport before renting our car. She had had some troubles getting there at the time she had planned to, and luckily got into PA just a half hour before us. We took this sorry traveler with us and drove the hour out of town to get to the bride and groom's house (almost finished being built but not quite). The half completed state of the home along with the general layout and sheer number of windows reminds me a great deal of Lake Tahoe. To top it off we are staying in the groom's parent's guest house (their property is across the country road from the bride and groom) which is eerily similar to the little house. This feels more like a vacation than I could have ever expected it to. Exciting!
We made dinner last night for ten. A success! Alex and I have this wonderful hominy dish that he invented some time ago. In fact, here, let me give it to you:
K & A's Magical Hominy
Chop into desired shape and combine with desired amount of oil:
1 sweet onion (we prefer wallawalla's)
Saute over medium heat until just starting to brown and then add:
1-3 cloves of garlic depending on garlicky preference
After another 2 minutes sprinkle:
2-3 Tbsp Chili Powder
1-2 Tbsp Cumin (we usually grind whole seeds with a mortar and pestle but that's a little involved)
Mix to combine and push to one side of the pan
On the empty side of the pan break:
2-3 eggs
You can mix this first, but Alex and I usually leave them hole and let the whites cook a little before breaking them apart and mixing them into the onion mixture
Now comes the easy part!
Add:
1 can Diced Tomatoes
1 can Hominy
1/2 Tbsp canned diced jalapenos
1 small can olives
salt and pepper to taste
Let this simmer and condense a little, and in the meanwhile grate about:
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese
and:
place about 12-16 tortillas on a baking sheet and sprinkle with water and cover with foil
bake at 200 while you finish your meal (you can also microwave to soften tortillas but we don't own one of those)
When mix has reduced a bit sprinkle the cheese on top and and turn off the heat.
To assemble, layer two to three tortillas and place a small scoop of hominy onto them as well as a small dollop of nonfat plain yogurt (trust me on this, its way better than sour cream this way). Eat like a taco! Yum!
This should make about 8 tacos... about
You can also cook in a non-stick pan with cooking spray, omit the cheese, and eat with one tortilla for a really low calorie low fat meal.
Today, I do not know what awaits us, but the plan for tomorrow is to drive the hour south to Fallingwater. We were hoping we could swing stopping at another of FLW's landmarks on the way to Canada, but I think the time conflict will stress out the bride a bit too much and having been related to a bride, I don't think I want to risk unleashing the wrath of hell. So Fallingwater and then a exploration of the big city - aka Pittsburgh. Oh, and we'll also have to go shopping at some point, but who wants to think about chores.
Now I am feeling a little anti-social for having typed for so long, so enjoy the good food and hopefully I will get a chance to get to you next Sunday, though I'm wary of promising that I will have Internet access at a remote fishing club in Canada.
Don't hold your breath, you might die.
Thanks goodness I am currently three hours ahead you schmucks (and by schmucks I mean loved ones).
Alex and I made it through our flight to Pittsburgh PA with little scathing but little sleep. Our flights were on time but our fellow passengers were not so nice about leaving their reading lights on. My father had warned me prior to the flight that I should find myself one of those sleeping masks, but they've always seemed so dramatic, however useful they might mean. So, not too much sleep, but much fun to be found upon our arrival.
We stumbled on a fellow wedding goer in the airport before renting our car. She had had some troubles getting there at the time she had planned to, and luckily got into PA just a half hour before us. We took this sorry traveler with us and drove the hour out of town to get to the bride and groom's house (almost finished being built but not quite). The half completed state of the home along with the general layout and sheer number of windows reminds me a great deal of Lake Tahoe. To top it off we are staying in the groom's parent's guest house (their property is across the country road from the bride and groom) which is eerily similar to the little house. This feels more like a vacation than I could have ever expected it to. Exciting!
We made dinner last night for ten. A success! Alex and I have this wonderful hominy dish that he invented some time ago. In fact, here, let me give it to you:
K & A's Magical Hominy
Chop into desired shape and combine with desired amount of oil:
1 sweet onion (we prefer wallawalla's)
Saute over medium heat until just starting to brown and then add:
1-3 cloves of garlic depending on garlicky preference
After another 2 minutes sprinkle:
2-3 Tbsp Chili Powder
1-2 Tbsp Cumin (we usually grind whole seeds with a mortar and pestle but that's a little involved)
Mix to combine and push to one side of the pan
On the empty side of the pan break:
2-3 eggs
You can mix this first, but Alex and I usually leave them hole and let the whites cook a little before breaking them apart and mixing them into the onion mixture
Now comes the easy part!
Add:
1 can Diced Tomatoes
1 can Hominy
1/2 Tbsp canned diced jalapenos
1 small can olives
salt and pepper to taste
Let this simmer and condense a little, and in the meanwhile grate about:
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese
and:
place about 12-16 tortillas on a baking sheet and sprinkle with water and cover with foil
bake at 200 while you finish your meal (you can also microwave to soften tortillas but we don't own one of those)
When mix has reduced a bit sprinkle the cheese on top and and turn off the heat.
To assemble, layer two to three tortillas and place a small scoop of hominy onto them as well as a small dollop of nonfat plain yogurt (trust me on this, its way better than sour cream this way). Eat like a taco! Yum!
This should make about 8 tacos... about
You can also cook in a non-stick pan with cooking spray, omit the cheese, and eat with one tortilla for a really low calorie low fat meal.
Today, I do not know what awaits us, but the plan for tomorrow is to drive the hour south to Fallingwater. We were hoping we could swing stopping at another of FLW's landmarks on the way to Canada, but I think the time conflict will stress out the bride a bit too much and having been related to a bride, I don't think I want to risk unleashing the wrath of hell. So Fallingwater and then a exploration of the big city - aka Pittsburgh. Oh, and we'll also have to go shopping at some point, but who wants to think about chores.
Now I am feeling a little anti-social for having typed for so long, so enjoy the good food and hopefully I will get a chance to get to you next Sunday, though I'm wary of promising that I will have Internet access at a remote fishing club in Canada.
Don't hold your breath, you might die.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Snap-Shot
Alex and I are a week away from lift off to vacation and about all my mind can focus on is going over and over the time frame we have left and how we should best use each day to get ready. We have to pack, so I am obsessing over the order in which we should pack things (and by pack, I mean our entire apartment since we are moving less than a week after we get back). Then of course there is packing for the actual trip and how we will manage food once we get there (since we really aren't going to be eating out at all while we are there). And of course, this leaves finances which I need to fully take account of and get a really good picture of where I am at currently and where I will be at when we leave in a week, etc. Like I said, obsessive.
My life currently is simultaneously stressful and mundane, and I feel as though my writing has become redundant, because nothing ever changes. So, as you can imagine, I am having trouble writing something interesting about it. So long as we're being mundane, I could just stick with the usual: the weather.
It has been good, it rained the night before last so yesterday was cooler than usual, but all and all we've seen sunshine and warmth. Blue skies and little white puffy clouds with a slight breeze is what I can deduce from my view out the window. Summer is all too short here, and though the rain and its smell were a nice reprieve, it brings with it the dread of 6+ months of dreariness.
There is only so much you can write about the weather though. Mainly that.
Current events is another option: Bernie Mac died at 50, according to the featured articles on Yahoo!, and America came home with the gold in fencing. I don't know anything about Bernie Mac's work, and I once tried fencing at German Camp but I learned more from "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" than I did there. "Thrust, Perry, Thrust, Perry, GOOD!"
I guess John Edwards had an affair... but I'm not going there.
That's all Yahoo! has given me lately.
Current events here center around how the cops are bad and the hippies hate industry.
We could try work! Yes work: ..... I framed. People picked up the frames. Some of them didn't like it, so I framed them again and they picked it up again.
Um.... I tutored too. In math. It was math-tastic.
Alex's work?: All I know is he watches youtube all day and sometimes has a styrofoam punching contest with his coworkers. I'm still not sure how he gets paid for this. Lucky bastard.
School?? Maybe?: I sent in my application and have to get my transcripts in before I head out for vacation (oh, and thank you cards to my two letter writers). Alex isn't in school right now, but he's been assigned to a studio in portland, so he's all set to go to class there. Hopefully we find a place to live too.
Well, I'm out of ideas. This should give you a pretty good picture of life here, though, I think. I can always elaborate if need be. Just let me know. And I will. Just for you.
Shopping adventures await, I must take my leave of you. Farewell!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Ode to my Stomach
Oh, what to write about today? Digestion? That sounds fitting.
I was known in college for my "amazing" stomach. I have stress related illnesses that aren't pretty, or fun, or in any way something I should EVER share in detail - with ANYONE. So you're safe from a blog about bowel movements, but you aren't safe from the lessons I've learned from them.
Alex says that my stomach talks, and he means that in a sort of Rice Krispy Cereal sort of way. Not that I snap, crackle, and pop, per-say, but that the gurgling that does go on doesn't ever form words: though it might be kind of crazy if it actually were something living in there (besides bacteria) then I would have a real excuse for this. But as it stands, there is no alien growing in my stomach, so this is all me, and it is something I am responsible for. My stomach may not talk to me directly with words and coherent sentences, but it does send me signals, and they are usually meant to say "what the hell was that all about?!" Over the years I've learned what really pisses my digestive tract off, and this last week with my parents in town, I think I did every last one of those things.
1. I over-ate: this is by far the worst thing I can do. I should be thrilled that in a society where eating gargantuan proportions is the norm that I have a built in system for telling me how completely idiotic that is, but in reality, it just sucks. So, of course, I over-ate on Thursday and Friday. Not so bad since my parents had been in town since Tuesday, but just as painful.
2. I ate things I hadn't eaten in awhile (and in large proportion): I'm a creature of habit through and through, I don't like change mentally or emotionally and I apparently don't like it physically either. Chocolates, meat, fried foods, too much dairy, too many sweets, artificial sweeteners, and not enough fruits and veggies... is that enough change for you?
3. See the mention of fried foods above
4. Apparently artificial sweeteners (the chocolates were sugar free) give me a headache.
5. I can't think of anything else but if my digestive tract could talk, I'm sure it could.
So you see, I over-did it in general this week. It was wonderful to take a week off from eating healthy and losing weight, but it made me realize just how much my body likes the new way I am eating and how much it dislikes the old way. So its back to whole grains and limited oils and sweets (with real sugar if I have them, although I've never had a problem with splenda so I could go that route too) and tons of veggies and fruit throughout the day. It will take me a weeks to adjust back, but it shouldn't be as painful as the last two days.
Alex made sure to make me promise last night that I would start back up on weight watchers again today and take it more seriously. He's done a really good job with making recipes and altering the way he cooks for me, and he didn't get much benefit from my week of reckless eating, so I can see he how he would see this whole thing as rather simple minded. I'm also planning on getting back on the acidophillis and fiber band wagon to get ready for vacation.
Despite the whole food fiasco, it was absolutely wonderful to see my folks, and I am looking forward to making it back down south in October and December this year. I'll be poorer after the move, but I'll have a better schedule for seeing my family, and that (as corny as it sounds) makes me richer.
Well, I've finished my puffed millet cereal and dried currants and I should probably drag Alex out of bed seeing as how its afternoon now. Have a wonderful week and I'll see you back here next time: same blog time, same blog station.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
