play time

I sure missed these two pups, and I think they missed me too. 

Oh, and I suppose I missed David as well.

#adultvacay2013

Got back last night from Captiva Island, Florida, where I was staying with 4 of my best friends and sorority sisters from college. Not too much to tell from the trip- mostly chatting into the wee hours of the morning and laying in the sun, so I will let the pictures tell the story.

Firstly, we stayed here, at one of my friend's grandparents' beach house which they graciously let us use.

The house had this view, at sunrise.

We did some of this.

And this.

But mostly this.

And this.

We also posed for a lot of group pics.

Spending time with old friends is good for the soul (the sunshine and beach don't hurt either). I'm back now feeling refreshed (and yet simultaneously exhausted) and grateful for good friends. Now we just have to be sure to make this a tradition.

pizza pizza

Because it was so warm last week we opted to do our cooking outside (except for one foolish day) and so we finally tried grilling pizza. And by we, I mean David.

 

I wish I had some fantastic pointers to give on how to successfully grill pizza, but I was running errands while the actual grilling took place, so I can only relay what David said. In summary, it wasn't that bad. The hardest part was getting the dough on the grill, which he said he had to "just throw on there." Both flipping and removing the pizza he thought he could have done without a peel, but having the peel "definitely made it easier." Ground breaking advice.

We used this recipe, like usual for the dough. Then loaded the pizza with (pre-sauteed) spinach, portabellas, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and feta. It was delicious. 

The dough is always good- we continue to use the recipe as written because it has always turned out well for us and it's quick, easy, and cheap to make. Sometimes however, we substitute wheat flour for some of the white. And when we bake the wheat dough in the oven it does not turn out quite as good as the white- it's a little harder and denser- but whatever, it's better for you and still good, quick, and easy. Last night we went with a batch of wheat dough and (now here is where it actually gets interesting) the texture of the wheat dough grilled was way better than the wheat dough baked; even though, as David admitted, the grilled dough was probably 1 minute overcooked. 

At this point I can't definitely say I like grilled pizza better than baked pizza, I can tell you that last night's pizza turned out better on the grill than it would have in the oven. Now we will have to do a little more experimenting with the grill and the dough to see if we can pick a winner between the two.

So in summary, go buy a peel, or don't... but try grilling pizza this summer!

what i wore wednesday

Outfit #1

Location: Airport

Hat: Kohls/ Shirt: Old Navy/ Skirt: Ross

stowaway

Can't I come with Mom?

miscellaneous

A few tidbits from the last few weeks around here:

1. In case you were wondering why we haven't gotten on that long list of final to-do's for the duplex, one of the reasons (besides of course being out of town) was that during the major storm a few weeks ago, besides damage to our fence, we also lost a few shingles and had a leaky roof, which we did not realize right away. And so, our spare time/ house time was spent patching the roof (and putting buckets in the attic), not upgrading hallways and painting floors.

 

I wish I would have taken a pic of the tarp from the street, but I didn't, so you will have to use your imaginations. The missing shingles were almost at the very apex of the roof, on top of the dormer almost three stories up! Neither David nor myself was brave enough to do the initial patch (just with the tarp) so we had to employ Michael to crawl up there and straddle the peak to get the hole covered. This pic is merely a pic of David rearranging the tarp after another storm came through and blew it sideways. Crawling up there to just move the tarp wasn't so bad, I even tried it myself. Luckily since I've taken this pic our handyman has been free, and has patched it properly with some shingles. Less than $100 and no more leaky roof!

Oh, and while we were up there trying to move the tarp we had a few little helpers who were just dying to come out and see what the commotion was about:

2. Remember how we got to work the Kenny Chesney Concert at Target Field just over a week ago? Well I didn't take any pics so I am not going to do a whole post on it, but I will say that it was absolutely insane. The fans were drunk and obnoxious, which I guess is good for business. I won't be attending a concert like that anytime soon (unless you want to buy me a ticket) as I can't imagine spending my hard earned money on a ticket to then either a. go sober and have drunk people fall all over me and spill beer on me or b. go spend even more money on over priced beer to make everyone around me not seem quite so obnoxious. But whatever floats people's boats, right? And vending a concert is a nice change of pace from the usual baseball game.

I also got to bar-tend at the Tom Petty concert that happened at Target Center a few weeks back. TC was short staffed for the event, so they opened it up to any Target Field vendors who wanted to go over and help out. It was terribly disorganized and a little stressful (since I have never bar-tended or used a cash register or credit card machine before), but I would probably do it again if the opportunity arose. It's always nice to make money while listening to live music; and getting to pour drinks instead of just open bottles was a fun addition to the usual.

3. It was hot last week.

 I thought this was bad at 10:30 at night. But that was before this happened the next day.

Luckily the window AC stayed strong and managed to keep the attic cool enough to sleep in (and luckily we did not lose power for more than a few hours during the day).

I worried about the pups staying cool in the attic (especially with the prospect of the power going out and them being trapped on the 3rd floor with no open windows or breeze), but they toughed it out napped through the heat wave. Franklin didn't seem phased by the warmer temps and was running around cray cray as usual, Winston wasn't quite his chipper self the whole time, so he spent a little more time sprawled out in the air-conditioned attic with a cool washcloth.

4. We had our last.ever training session at the Metrodome yesterday for the final Vikings season. *tear* But really, it was sad. My first job was there. And no matter what other Minnesotans say, enjoying a game, either baseball or football, indoors in the climate controlled stadium is way better than outdoors at say, Target Field. Well, maybe not always, but I just really love the Dome. I'm gonna miss the it and the vendors there. Because vending at the new Vikings stadium, just like at Target Field now, is not going to be even close to the same. So allow me to be sentimental about it for a minute or two. David thinks I am being silly, but I know he's gonna miss it too.

Like our union rep said in an email: Here's to "the  32^nd and final season at the Dome.  A lot of us started our vending careers at this stadium.  I know a lot of memories from the Dome will live on long after the building is gone.  Let us go out in style."

5. I leave for Florida tomorrow! Sun, sisters, vacation- it's gonna be perfect!

Say a prayer for the puppies- ya know, that they will continue to get food and water for the week as David watches them!

road trippin part 4: lansing, mi to minneapolis, mn

Lansing, the last stay of our trip.

We left off on Day 6. We had gotten up and ran around Mackinac, enjoyed some lunch, and then ferried back to our car. It was a fairly quick drive down to Lansing from St. Ignace. The sun came out and we got to enjoy the sights of the great lakes as we drove over the Mackinac bridge and I got a little sentimental we got nearer and nearer to Hillsdale and the towns I visited when I was in Michigan for college. A quick 3 hours later and we were pulling into my friend, and sorority sister, Ashley's house as another sister pulled up right behind.

Unfortunately I did not take a single picture my first night in Lansing, so I did not capture at all getting together with one of my friends for dinner. But we had lots of fun, after catching up at Ashley's, going out for pizza and drinks at a nearby Italian restaurant, and then returning to the house to continue reminiscing and play a few rounds of Trump. Euchre was quite popular at Hillsdale, and apparently in Michigan as a whole, so my friends caught on quite quick to Trump (a game we could play with 5 people).

Day 7 we got up not so bright and early and set out to enjoy rural Michigan with Ashley. Our first stop was a farm to pick strawberries. We were there for the last few days of strawberry picking, before it was blueberry season, so the good berries were hidden in the leaves, but all to soon we had more than enough strawberries to make dessert later that night.

Thus we decided to head a little farther down the road to an orchard that just so happened to have free wine tastings as well as a free "children's" play area.

After a few hours worth of entertainment- tasting 6 house wines and ciders each (and deciding on a bottle or two to bring home), jumping on the blob, strolling through the orchard, sampling free fudge, losing and finding my ID... we headed back to town to enjoy a grilled dinner, strawberry smoothies, and our friends' company for the evening.

Day 7, the last full day of our trip, started off with a quick run around the neighborhood while everyone else slept in. Lazy bums.

Once I got back, and everyone was up and showered, we headed to a quirky breakfast joint called Golden Harvest. We waited about 15 minutes out in the pleasantly-warm Michigan sunshine before being seated in the cozy restaurant (for those Minnesotans reading- it was a titch bigger than the Colossal in Minneapolis, but filled with way more personality).

I had the hardest time deciding what to order. We had to send the waitress away multiple times while I reread over the menu. I ended up going with the "Cereal Killer San'wich"- two slices of Captain Crunch French Toast stuffed with smoked ham, a fried egg, and American cheese. It was delicious and if I ever get a chance to go back I will have a hard time deciding between that sandwich or the plain Captain Crunch French Toast.

Ready to take full advantage of the weather again, and to lounge off our food comas, we headed to the beach. Unfortunately dogs were only allowed on the west side of the park, so we could not do our lounging at the beach proper, but still got to soak up some sun while reading magazines and chit-chatting, we just had to do it on the opposite side of the lake. Once our food was properly digested we mobilized for a quick game or two of pepper before heading off to our last official Michigan activity.

My friend had a package of tickets for the local minor league team, the Lansing Lugnuts, and since David and I rarely get to sit and enjoy a baseball game, we were excited to head downtown and catch the game. We couldn't cheer the team on on an empty stomach, obviously, and since tailgating is not big for the Lugnuts, we stopped at a brewery downtown for a quick bite to eat and a flight of local beers.

The Lugnuts lost pretty miserably, but I think it was safe to say a fun time was had by all. I even got a Lemon Chill for dessert (that's clearly all it takes to make me happy at a sporting event)!

Unfortunately now the clock was starting to tick- we had to be at work (the Kenny Chesney concert), in Minneapolis, the next day at 3:00pm, and we were going to need at least a brief nap between the drive and work if we wanted to be functioning at the concert. Once we got the car all loaded up we discovered we had just a bit more time to enjoy before our planned "midnight" departure, and I will take any excuse to play cards with people who really know how to play cards, so we sat and played a game of Euchre, followed by a few instructional hands of 500 until the clock struck (well more like til everyone got tired). We ended leaving at 11:30pm as we had a long drive, and they both had work in the morning (they being Ashley and her boyfriend).

Ten and a half hours, two large sodas, at least 5 tolls and two large construction areas later and we pulled into our driveway and went immediately to bed. This was officially trip number two that had to be cut short for vending purposes (the first being our honeymoon). But it was totally worth driving through the night and functioning on 4 hours of sleep to be able to have traveled through Wisconsin, the UP, and Mackinac to see a few college friends and be able to return home and go work for 5 hours and make enough to pay for the trip. I guess it was a win win.

We are already planning our next trip around Superior/ to Michigan. We are thinking a little Apostle Islands to Copper Harbor/ the Procupine Mountains to Munising to Traverse City to Chicago to Door County- what, too many stops? But of course there are lots of other places on our list we haven't made it to once, so we'll see what the next few summers bring!

camping cuisine

I recently got into a discussion with someone about camping food. She was looking for meal ideas for an upcoming trip and since I had just gotten back from the Boundary Waters and was about to leave on another part-time camping trip it seemed like I should have some good ideas... but I couldn't think of anything. So I thought I would compose my thoughts a bit on the subject and give you a blog post on it.

Of course there are lots of different types of camping- from wilderness style over a fire where you are moving every day and can barely pack more than dried foods let alone a small cooler to luxury RV camping where you can make anything and everything you would at home comfortably. Our camping tends more towards the first- although I don't think David would ever agree to pack so light that we lived off of dried fruits and oatmeal for a week. For this last trip we were car camping, so we had the luxury of packing a cooler and a small grill to cook over besides just the fire pits that would be at our campsites. We have a smallish car however, so we were mindful not to plan meals that would require a portable gas stove or numerous pots and pans- although if we thought it would have been worth the extra work to haul along we definitely would have, but we are used to having to make do.

This is what we ate on the camping portion of our road trip:

Day 1:
Breakfast- Lemon Blueberry Pancakes (slightly adapted)
Lunch- Sandwiches/ Bagels, fruit, snacks
Dinner- Cheddar Jalapeno Turkey Burgers (adapted) and BLT pasta salad

Day 2:
Breakfast- oatmeal bake
Lunch- Sandwiches/ Bagels, fruit, snacks
Dinner- Grilled cilantro- lime chicken breast with BLT pasta salad

Day 3:
Breakfast-oatmeal bake
Lunch- Sandwiches/ Bagels, fruit, snacks
Dinner- "kabobs" aka- grilled steak and veggies (peppers, onions, mushrooms, peapods)

Day 4:
Breakfast- banana chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs
Lunch- Sandwiches/ Bagels, fruit, snacks

Because we could bring a large cooler our options seemed almost limitless- anything you could make on a grill or on a grate + skillet. We opted for new recipe (cheddar-jalapenos turkey burgers), a camping staple (kabobs), and just something we already had in the freezer (chicken breast) for our dinners. So really what I've had to say so far this isn't ground breaking advice or some unheard of menu. 

However what I think makes a huge difference for us when camping or going up to a cabin where you don't want to spend your time cooking or doing dishes is pre-making/ mixing as much food as possible. Therefore, before we left I had assembled baggies of dry ingredients as well as pre-made a few full dishes so we really only had to focus on one thing at each meal.

I made a dry-ingredient baggy for both types of pancakes (no mixes for us). I pre-chopped and mixed the turkey burgers (the ground turkey, jalapeno, onions, cilantro, garlic, and seasonings) in an easy to throw away baggy. I did the same with the marinated chicken breast. I pre-chopped all the veggies for grilling and tossed them in a gallon-sized baggy. I baked a large dish of oatmeal that I put in individual size tupperwares for quick breakfasts in the cooler. And lastly I made a large amount of our favorite BLT pasta salad that we were able to cram in the cooler (in a large Pyrex bowl) and eat for a few different meals (I'll admit though, the bowl was a hassle... but we ran out of gallon-sized baggies) and a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Yes, this strategy meant a very stressful and busy Thursday morning of cooking and cleaning before our trip, but it allowed us to enjoy meal time more while camping- having to do much less prep and clean up. In addition I think this method allows us to enjoy just as good quality meals as we typically do at home, if not sometimes better, because we like to eat well on vacation. And it means we have to bring along less total food- no toting with an entire container of flour to make pancakes, just the pre-mixed baggies- so we only needed 1 cooler and 1 food basket (laundry basket) to tote around all our food and kitchen needs (1 pot, 1 skillet, tinfoil, silverware, soap, etc).

Do you have any camping/ traveling food menus, tips, or tricks?

road trippin part 3: bay view, mi to mackinac island, mi

Day 5 started with the best of intentions. I got up early, did the dinner dishes at the pump (which was against the rules, shhhhh), and sat with the pups on the shore all before David got up. At this point I was going to get going on a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and banana chocolate-chip pancakes and then follow that up by a quick run, but somehow I winded back up in the tent taking a little nap (letting the waves lull me to sleep was clearly too enticing). By the time I got up there was only time to make that delicious breakfast and tear down camp for our next part of the trip.

We loaded up the car (all the no-longer-needed camping gear crammed in the trunk), combined our necessities to 1 backpack + 1 kennel, and hit the road. All by about lunch time... 

The drive from the campground to St. Ignace where we parked and caught the ferry was just over an hour. By 1:00 we were sitting on the ferry, after being lucky enough (so said the ferry employee) to see the Governor of Michigan disembark from his ferry (perhaps he was coming back from a weekend away at his governor's residence on Mackinac? Lucky Michigan governors...)

Up until this point in the trip we had had pretty good weather (except the 6 hour down pour), lot's of sun, just maybe a little too hot at times. However as soon as we got on the ferry to Mackinac it was obvious the weather was not going to cooperate. The fog and drizzle set in and funny enough would not leave until we stepped off the ferry the next day.

Because we had almost no cell-reception or wifi the entire trip, and because I forgot to write it down, we were unsure if our check in at Mission Point Resort on Mackinac was at 3 or 4. But we figured we only had a day on the island, so we would get there early, hope for an early check in, and if not, stash our bags and walk around. And of course we had to do this as cheap as possible. So we opted not to have our bags automatically valeted to our hotel from the ferry for $6. It was only a 15 minute walk and we had just the backpack and kennel so it was no big deal. We get to the resort around 2, and find out check-in is not til 4 and, of course, or room was not ready yet. I was standing outside with the dogs at this point and did not hear the whole discussion, but basically we ended up not stashing our bags because most people get the valeted over from the ferry, not drag them through town themselves... so there we were at the resort, in the drizzle, having not showered in 2 days due to lack of running water, toting our bags around. We decided to go sit on the lawn and make the best of it, as exploring the area with 2 dogs and 2 bags was a little too ambitious. We looked a little homeless.

We spent the next few hours taking turns exploring the shore or holding the dogs/ watching the bags and, after the rain really picked up, playing some more Chinese Poker in a little pagoda. Finally 4:00 rolled around and we could check in. We (obviously) had dogs so we were relegated to the Straights' Lodge, presumably the less nice of the two lodges available at the resort, but still plenty comfortable. At least the puppies approved and got to frolicking on and between the beds immediately.

Now it was time to shower, finally, and get ready to ditch the pups and enjoy a nice meal at a restaurant. We left back for town around 5:00pm, and it's still sprinkling, which makes me fairly crabby- why would I spend that time blow-drying my hair just to have it get rained on? And of course we were too cheap for the $5/person horse-drawn taxi. But a quick 15 minute walk later, and a $6 dollar umbrella, and I was "as happy as a clam" for the rest of the evening. We spent a little over an hour perusing the shops, getting souvenirs, before we decided it was dinner time. We ended up at the Pink Pony, a restaurant on the water that David had picked even before we got there, and where one of my sorority sisters and her cousins had spent many summers working. Dinner (and the drinks) were delicious, but unfortunately my sorority sister's cousins were off that evening so we couldn't say hi.

Too cheap for another round of drinks at the bar, we head back to the resort with some Michigan beer and an individual glass of wine (who knew they sold those?!) to enjoy the evening on the lawn, looking out over Lake Huron. Pretend these next pics are really artsy.

The next morning, having seemingly spent half our money for the trip the night before on dinner and souvenirs, we opted to forgo the bike rental and run around the island instead. There was one main road, that went around the island in an 8-mile loop. This is how we crammed all our Mackinac site-seeing in:

Now having at least seen the whole island, we clean up in the room before checking out  and then proceed to lug the bags and the dogs back to town (this time we stash the bags with the ferry company). We enjoy our last few hours on the island getting a few more souvenirs (fudge) and lunch eaten on a bench. At this point I would just like to throw in the observation that the puppies were doing very well surrounded by all those horses (apparently over 900 on the island) and bikes and apparently if you travel with your dogs it is an open invitation for strangers to come up and tell you about their dogs. We talked to so too many people about their canines at home (and had countless others come up and ask to pet Winston and Franklin), David even had his picture taken by strangers who were trying to capture a pic of Winston and Franklin... seriously are people crazy or just rude?

By 1:30pm we are back on the ferry to St. Ignace, and by 2:00pm on the road to Lansing and the sun is shining again. Just about 24 overcast hours on Mackinac and we spent about 40% of our entire trip's budget... but really we're glad we went, it's somewhere you have to go once (if you live this close) and somewhere we might even go back, just not anytime too soon.