Tramplingrose

It’s 7:45 on a Sunday, and I have the dishes done, the laundry done, and other than packing my lunch and setting the coffee maker for tomorrow morning, I am done with my chores and can actually relax for the rest of the evening. This is rather unusual for me, as normally, I’d just be switching over the last load of clothes, and would have a million other things to finish up.

I’ve done a fair bit of cooking today. For breakfast, I fried up some bacon and made pancakes. I did my usual addition of cinnamon and nutmeg to the pancake batter, but I did the unusual measurement of said spices (I usually just add to taste), and dumped in way too much nutmeg for my liking. Jay & the bambino liked them fine and ate them up (the bambino actually ate an entire pancake–Usually he just fills up on whatever breakfast meat is available), but I ate the equivalent of 2/3 of a single pancake.

I grilled the steaks and half the sweet corn from yesterday’s farmers market jaunt.

Unfortunately, I overcooked the steaks a bit. Well, more than a bit:

I considered something I never do–Using steak sauce. My steak, sadly, was that dry. The corn was good, and so were the cottage fries I fixed that no one else wanted. I wasn’t as hungry as I thought, and didn’t finish my meal:

I did want to leave room for dessert, which was one reason I didn’t inhale everything:

That, and I’m trying to pay attention to my bodily cues, and stop when I feel comfortably full, but not “I-need-elastic-waist-pants” full. And I think now that it’s taken me over an hour to write this entry, I’ll go fix the coffee maker, pack a lunch and maybe get myself ready for bed!

We had more wacky weather again last night. That seems to be a recurring theme this summer. And of course, it started to get bad right before we walked out the door to drop off the bambino with his grandparents for the evening. There were weird-looking clouds again:

The tornado sirens sounded about 10 minutes after we got to the reception hall, although no one except 2 people ventured to the basement. The rest of us wandered over to the windows to watch the skies (in true SoDak or even Ohio fashion). The radio was piped in, and after hearing that the worst of whatever was going on was north of Brookings, we all relaxed and went milling about. I figured it was a good excuse for some snacks and some wine:

There was quite the spread of fruit, cheese, crackers and veggies (although since I don’t do veggies, I kept going back for fruit, and cheese, and crackers). I also had some wine:

I had 2 small glasses, then switched to coffee in time for dessert:

That bar on the right looked so good when I took it, but I realized there was a problem as soon as I cut into it for a bite–Coconut. I was disappointed, and gave it to Jay to finish. The other bar was more than enough to hold me over for awhile, though.

After about an hour & a half, we decided we’d better go and pick up the bambino, so we left. During the reception, we had a torrential downpour–To the point that a lot of areas around town were flooded:

We ended up pulling into Arby’s to wait and see if the water would recede (and get a little more to eat), because I wasn’t about to drive through that mess. The National Guard recruitment office is next door to Arby’s, and they had a lot of water:

I felt sorry for the two people we saw heading into the building to clean up. There were more weird clouds as the storm moved East:

I’ve experienced more weird and severe weather in the past month than I have in the 5 1/2 years that I’ve lived out here. Although I will say, I think it’s been about that long since I’ve seen hail. Not that I’m wishing for that–Especially not with the garden and all!

I didn’t mention that I got a special delivery on Friday:

Not the Ewok–I actually have a mostly-full wine rack, thanks to Prairie Berry Winery! I need to work up a menu of sorts, since I’m thinking of having some folks over next weekend to help me taste all 4 of those wines. It’ll be part of my contribution to the United Slurps of America project with Swirl, Smell, Slurp. I’ll have more on that next week!

I was pleased to see the farmers market hopping this morning. I even ran into a couple coworkers there. As usual, I attempted to take pictures, but my craptastic camera didn’t cooperate. I’m beginning to see visions of a new Olympus in my future. No matter, though. I came away with a decent amount of stuff, although I didn’t get the bread I wanted:

I did get my farm eggs, though. I emailed someone at Sperlich Gardens earlier in the week, to ask about the eggs, only to hear back that they only have those on Saturdays. Which was fine. Jay & the bambino went with me, and the bambino got himself a nice chocolate chunk cookie. I like the fact that they’re all different sizes and colors:

I’ve got some bacon I should use up, so there will most likely be a breakfast of bacon & eggs in the very near future.

I also picked up more beef, although neither Cliff or the folks from Hegerfeld were there. Someone was selling on behalf of Cliff, so I got some grass-fed ground beef and a couple sirloins for tomorrow’s dinner. Even though I don’t like buying it, I’ve been craving sweet corn, so I did get some as well:

The bank usually contracts with one of the local farms, so every August, we get sweet corn delivered once a week, and employees are able to take what they want. It’s a really nice perk, and I’ve gotten a little hesitant to buy it just for that reason. But grilled sweet corn has been sounding SO good lately, and I figured that with those steaks, it would be a good addition.

We’ll see how Carper’s sweet corn is.

After much hemming & hawing, I also went grocery shopping, although I was afraid that Hy-Vee would be swamped. Thankfully, it wasn’t. I stocked up on a few things there:

One of these days, I really need to get an actual tray for the top of my microwave, to hold all the spices that don’t fit in my spice rack, instead of that crappy paper box top. All in due time. It’s so freakin’ HOT outside that I just did up some quick paninis for lunch:

Mine got a little more done than I’d've liked, but it was okay. I tried some Flat-Outs which were okay. They’re nice in a pinch, when it’s too warm to fire up the oven and bake bread, and I don’t have any thawed.

I need to give myself a pedicure–The bambino is going to spend a couple hours with his grandparents this evening, so that Jay & I can attend a reception for my boss’s son, who got married last weekend. Jay works with the new bride, so I figured it’d be a nice evening out for the two of us (and a good excuse for he & the bambino to get haircuts!). It’s too hot for pants, and since I refuse to wear sandals without painted toenails, I need to redo them. And go put clean sheets on my bed. And iron Jay’s pants. And shower. Time to step away from the computer for awhile!

It’s been an interesting couple of days. Monday was Monday, nothing special there. Yesterday was Jay’s birthday. I had a work-lunch at The Pheasant but I told Jay I’d take him out for dinner at Guadalajara. I usually plan my snacks out a little better than I did yesterday. I ended up having to ask someone at the bar for crackers, since my blood sugar was dropping. I haven’t had that happen in a very long time, but I got shaky and started getting a headache from lack of food. When my lunch came, I practically inhaled it:

I thought it kind of funny that 3 or 4 of us ordered the same entree. After I scarfed my food, I started feeling a LOT better. Next month, I won’t have to worry about that, since the meeting will be at one of the bank branches.

After work, I came home to find that I had a giant box waiting for me:

Thanks to Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker Program, I got some freebies from Eggo Waffles–Some new Fruit Pizzas. I was a little skeptical about them…When I first saw them, I thought it seemed a little much with the granola and cream cheese, etc. I received a sample of each type:

But after popping them into the freezer, we left to go and eat. It was a crazy enough day that I decided I needed a margarita with my meal…I don’t think I’ve had one since right after the bambino was born–Part of my Christmas gift that year was a gift certificate from my mother-in-law along with an offer to babysit. I think the bambino was about 2 weeks old, maybe as old as a month.

I got tacos once again…This time beef hard shells that pretty much fell apart before I could eat them.

This morning, I decided to brave the Fruit Pizza and have one for breakfast:

I chose strawberry, just because the mixed berry variety had blueberries on it, and I am a freak who doesn’t care that much for blueberries. I found it a little amusing that it came in a little tray just like a regular microwave pizza.

And it reminded me a little of the frozen pizzas I occasionally cook for Jay & the bambino. But it looked alright:

It smelled really good while it was spinning around on the turntable.

And it was okay-tasting. Jay thought it tasted basically like an Eggo waffle with fruit on it. It’s nothing I’d probably buy myself, but I wouldn’t refuse it if it was offered to me elsewhere. I took the other pizza into work, to share it with my coworkers. A couple people liked it, some thought it was interesting.

I was excited to come home for lunch–Not only did I get to have lunch with Jay, but our new laptop arrived this morning!!! I’m using it at the moment, to post this entry, and it’s taking some getting used to. Both my parents have laptops, but I’ve had a desktop for probably 10 years or so. Still, the laptop will come in very handy whenever we travel, which is often enough that I always feel like a schlub asking to borrow someone else’s computer. I like it too, because I’m sitting in my living room typing this up, while Jay & the bambino are watching “The Empire Strikes Back.”

It’s so shiny and pretty, and I love it already! We had another exciting “first” today:

Jay’s first pepper, a pepperocini Greek. It’s not quite ripe yet, but it looked tempting enough to Jay that he picked one. The bambino took a bite, said he liked it, took another bite, then spit it out. Jay ate everything but the stem.

And because he’s a good thoughtful husband, he bought us George’s for tonight’s dinner. Which was delicious, as always. I need to get myself out of my work clothes (yes, I’ve been playing with the laptop pretty much since I got home), and into some pajamas. I need to get the bambino ready for bed too.

We had some weird weather last night. As I was finishing up my previous post, I noticed a storm rolling in from the west. I checked online, and we were about to get it with what was supposed to be a severe storm, with baseball-sized hail. Nutjob that I sometimes am, I popped outside to get a better look (looking sort of southwest):

The northwest looked even worse, a few minutes later:

I thought sure the sirens would start going off at any second, once the sky turned greenish, but the weird thing was, other than about 5-10 minutes of heavy rain, lots of thunder and lightning, that was it. The storm passed over us within 10-15 minutes. The other thing that was weird (that Jay & I chalked up to the storm blowing through so fast & hitting so close to sunset), was that the sky then turned orange:

I know in that picture (from my back window), it looks more like I had my camera facing right at the sun or something, but everything had a firey-orange tint to it. Again, I was sure something freaky weather-wise was about to happen, and we’d have to go get the bambino and head to the basement. But I was wrong.

This morning was nice and sunny, and fairly cool for it being roughly mid-July. Inga & Mike came up here for the weekend, so we went and had Sunday dinner with them, and celebrated one of my nephew’s birthdays (along with Jay’s). I was thinking last night that I’d make corn chowder tonight, but since breakfast ended up being Chobani and granola (I never got around to frying the bacon I would’ve needed for the chowder), I decided instead to make use of some of the pasta from a couple nights ago:

Yet another frittata, but this one had the fusilli with toasted breadcrumbs, and some rosemary/garlic dipping spice added in (Inga gave me the idea, after she told me that she & Mike buy various dipping spices all the time, but rather than do like Jay & I, and serve them with olive oil & bread, they add them into whatever they’re cooking–Tonight, I thought I’d give it a try), which made the frittata a little greenish-looking. It tasted fine, though.

This time, I did serve a salad along with it, which may be why Jay only had one slice (normally, I might be slightly offended by the fact that he didn’t polish off half of it right away, but in this case, it means I have 2 days’ worth of lunches, so I’m fine with it).

And since the only dessert-ish items we had were strawberries and pineapples, I opted to eat the berries (Jay had the pineapple). I picked up some cream cheese fruit dip (I know the stuff is horrible for you, but it’s so good!) for the berries:

I’ll have more berries with my lunch tomorrow. I need to start working on my grocery list for next week…I think Saturday morning, the bambino and I might have to make a trek out there–After we hit the farmers market, for the first time in about a month or so!

The bambino was feeling well enough that we did venture off to the Arts Festival after all. We really did only go to eat, although I found a few things that had we more money, I would’ve bought. I figure after about 2 1/2 years, I should maybe start making my own mark on our house. Almost the first food booth we saw was the Hegerfeld booth:

They were offering sirloin sandwich combos, and since we were starving, that’s what Jay & I got. They were delicious! The sirloin was tender and juicy, and cooked perfectly. Had I not filled up immediately, I probably could’ve eaten another one.

We walked around, mainly looking for desserts and the candied nuts tent. I found that, and instead of getting my usual candied almonds, I got pecans this year:

I ate enough of them that after we got home, I gave the rest of the bag to Jay and told him to get rid of them. He polished them off for me.

We also came across the meat-on-a-stick booth that he likes. I don’t know what it is, but something about random chunks of pork creeps me out (nevermind that growing up in Cincinnati, my dad would fix city chicken on occasion, so I’m no stranger to meat on a stick). Jay likes it, though, and apparently, now, so does the bambino:

There was also a new vendor at the festival this year–One selling fried calamari, and alligator. Jay was pretty pumped about that, and wanted to try the alligator, so we headed over. I attempted to take a picture of the actual sign over the booth, but my craptastic camera refused to cooperate. But Jay got himself some gator meat:

The bambino liked this as well. Me being the cowardly unadventurous individual that I am, I refused to try it. Jay said it did taste like dark meat chicken, but slightly different. I’ll take his word for it.

I did, however, try a deep-fried Snickers bar, which was surprisingly not as greasy & disgusting as I thought it would be. I also attempted to take a picture of it, but again, the craptastic camera wouldn’t cooperate.

We left soon after that, and came home. We decided to grill this evening, so we popped out to the store to get some steaks (that’s what the bambino requested). I took a look at the state of our garden on our way out, since we have actual food growing:

I’m so excited for the pumpkins, although I’ve never made a pumpkin pie using an actual fresh pumpkin. I’ve always used canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling). I do love roasted pumpkin seeds, though, so I’m looking forward to having tons of those on-hand.

We’ve also got some tomatoes growing (on Jay’s tomato plants, of course, not mine–Not yet anyway):

Jay’s already drooling at the prospect of homemade salsa, while I’m dreaming of homemade tomato soup. Yum!

We also have a second round of sunflowers trying to grow back:

Some rotten pain-in-the-arse squirrel shredded the flowers off the plants after they first bloomed. These newer blooms are a lot smaller than what first came up. Oh well.

Because of the bambino’s projectile vomiting last night, and not getting a whole lot of sleep (both from him being awake, having to change his bedding once, and then just being alert to see if he needed us), I zonked out on the floor for about 30 minutes. I got up to grill the steaks, which were yummy.

I just threw together some sides–Fries, corn, and some dinner rolls.

We also picked up some cookies for dessert, but I feel like I’ve done nothing but eat all day long, so I think I’ll hold off until tomorrow before having any of them. It looks like we’re in for some stormy weather this evening, so I think I’m going to call it a night!

In reference to my last post about South Dakota wineries, I finally DID get an email response, AND a couple of phone calls. Thanks to the very nice Michele and Karen out at Prairie Berry, Sacha and I both will be receiving 4 bottles of wine next week. More on that to come later.

I haven’t exactly been busy this week, but it feels like it. We’ve had things to do each night after work. For a 3-day work week, it feels like Friday took forever to get here!

I had a lunch meeting on Wednesday (semi-work-related), and went to The Pheasant (which I’ll be going back to again Tuesday for another work-related meeting):

We grilled burgers, hot dogs & brats for dinner that night. I didn’t take pictures.

Thursday was another semi-short day, as I had another meeting from 4-5, then came home (after stopping to get some diced ham), and got to work on dinner:

Pasta with Toasted Breadcrumbs. I used fusilli, since that’s what I had a full pound of.And diced ham, instead of prosciutto, just because I was feeling lazy & not in the mood to chop much. It turned out fine, though:

Jay liked it, since it was “light & buttery” (something I never thought I’d hear him say). I probably should’ve served a salad with it, but, again, I was feeling lazy.

I’ve been going back to eating oatmeal for breakfast, since finally getting to the grocery store earlier this week. I opted to try McCann’s Irish Oatmeal this time around, just because A) I once had a monster obsession with anything from the British Isles, and B) I just wanted something different than Country Choice or Bob’s Red Mill (both of whom make fine, delicious oatmeal).

I happen to like my oatmeal thick & gloppy, and McCann’s turns out just as I always imagined old-school porridge to be. And I don’t know if it’s the fact that the oats are imported from Ireland or what, but they’re a little sweeter and chewier than any other oats I’ve had before. The bambino & I have been sharing a bowl of oatmeal each morning before work/daycare:

(Yeah, I broke down and bought more Dark Chocolate Dreams. It’s like crack to me.)

And speaking of the bambino…The poor little guy’s been sick again. We were planning on going to the Brookings Summer Arts Festival sometime today, but I don’t think it’s going to happen now. My friend Melissa (Of Eden Prairie Cheesecake fame) is on the Board for the Festival, which is a really big deal for Brookings. We’ve only ever purchased one or two things from any of the vendors–We go for the food. I like to get a monster-sized bag of candied almonds to munch as we walk around, Jay likes meat-on-a-stick stuff, and there’s one vendor who does homemade fries cooked to order that I like. But, Thursday, the bambino started saying he felt sick and needed to go to the doctor. He’d fallen and skinned his knee, and we thought he was milking sympathy for that. He seemed fine otherwise. Yesterday, though, was another story. He apparently threw up over at Jay’s mom & dad’s, while Jay was trying to fix their computer. He threw up a few more times over the course of the evening, although he’s been puke-free since about midnight. I’m thinking that while we’ll still probably skip the Arts Festival (at least today), the worst of the vomiting might be over.

And if we do make the attempt to venture over to Pioneer Park, I’ll be back with some pictures of festival food!

So awhile ago, Sacha of Shes Krafty, Swirl, Smell, Slurp, and Somewhere Something asked me about taking part in the United Slurps of America project that she & Jason have started. They needed someone from South Dakota, I happen to live in South Dakota (and like to drink wine), and I’ve been reading Sacha since we were both blogging at Blog City. And when she asked, I accepted, not knowing what a pain in the arse it would be to get SoDak wineries to even respond to my emails, let alone troll for free samples or even suggestions on which wines to taste! As of now, I’ve sent emails to 3 different wineries, with zero response. Quite frankly, I don’t exactly want to have to go to the Brookings Municipal Liquor Store, and buy up 2 of each wine that strikes my fancy, then figure out a way to send them off to California, but it’s looking as though that is what’s going to have to happen, if I am to participate, and Sacha & Jason want to taste SoDak wines. But we’ll see. Maybe the third time emailing someone will be the charm, and I can at least get a reply, even if it’s “Screw you!”

I opted to take a vacation day, to extend my holiday weekend, and not feel so rushed yesterday. I treated today mostly like a normal day–I’d set my alarm to go off at 5, but I don’t think it did (either that, or I was so tired I slept through it). I was up at 6, got Jay & the bambino up at 7, then dropped them off at work and daycare. I came back home to finish up my grocery list, then got the grocery shopping done:

I’m so happy to have food again! The only meat I ended up buying was a 10-pack of pork chops (the only meat we didn’t already have in the freezer). I divided those up (I can get 3 meals from a 10-pack):

My best friend Barbee, her mom & sister chipped in and bought me the Seal-A-Meal as a bridal shower gift. It has come in VERY handy over the years!

After grocery shopping was done, I popped back down to Sioux Falls to do some shopping. Jay needed some clothes, and as long as I was out & about, I picked myself up a new skillet, some slippers, and some cool B&W houndstooth notecards (not only do I love all things plaid, but I also love anything black & white, be it checked or houndstooth). When I got back to town, I unloaded my purchases, then dashed back out to pick up Jay & the bambino.

Jay & I had every intention of doing yoga this afternoon, but my heart wasn’t in it (plus I had/still have a headache), and after he spent about 20 minutes outside tending to the garden and being eaten alive by all the mosquitos, he wasn’t up for it either. I got to work on dinner, instead:

Mozzarella in carrozza, and fried zucchini strips:

I sort of followed the recipe for the mozzarella in carrozza that’s in my Rao’s cookbook, but not entirely. My egg batter wasn’t seasoned with anything other than salt and pepper, and I just used sliced mozzarella, not fresh. Jay still scarfed down 2 sandwiches, so it can’t have been all bad!

As for the fried zucchini, I’m really the only one who likes that. I’d first had it at a restaurant in Pennsylvania–Moon, PA, I think, and I think the name of the place was Mario’s*, but I could be wrong. I loved it, though–It was in the basement of this building, and it was like walking onto the set of GoodFellas. One of their appetizers was fried zucchini strips with a side of marinara. Every so often, I get a craving for it, and make my attempt at replicating it. I found a recipe for the batter, and my strips end up matching my memory, so I’m happy.

*Okay, I broke down and Googled Mario’s. My memory isn’t so bad after all. And the zucchini strips are the first appetizer listed.

We got back from Omaha this evening. Rather than do a long-winded recap of the weekend’s events, here are a few (and by a few, I mean a lot) highlights, even some of our meals:

Inga (the youngest of Jay’s 2 younger sisters) opted for make-your-own-mini-pizzas Saturday night after we arrived. I went for a simple cheese pizza:

I should’ve taken a picture of Mike’s bar, because it’s pretty sweet-looking, and it’s well-stocked. After pizza came cocktails:

Coke and American Honey (I think). It was tasty.

We were going to attempt the Omaha Zoo on Sunday, but it poured pretty much until 9 o’clock at night. We went to the Strategic Air and Space Museum instead. If you’re into military aircraft and such, it’s pretty cool:

The main reason we went was to see Anakin Skywalker’s pod racer, because I am married to and am also raising a Star Wars fanatic:

The bambino got most excited about the helicopters that were on display:

Any time he sees a “ell-copter,” he’ll start singing the theme to “M*A*S*H,” which is both adorable and semi-troubling (Random aside: Until Marilyn Manson did a cover a few years ago, I had no idea the theme even had words, never having seen the movie).

Once we made our way back, it was just about dinnertime, so Mike fired up the grill:

And Inga got out the sangria slush she’d put together the night before:

And after the little ones went to bed, the adults headed out to the front deck to watch fireworks (the block up from where Inga & Mike live apparently has an annual block party, and they pull out all the stops for the 4th of July, neverminding the fact that fireworks are apparently illegal to set off within Omaha city limits). And there was more booze:

Some fancy tequila that isn’t technically tequila (like champagne that’s technically sparkling wine). It smelled fruity and delicious, but it burned going down (in a good way–Not like moonshine, which smells like acetone and burns like acid).

I was slightly afraid when I was taking this picture that I was going to drop the bottle (and no, before anyone asks, I was not drunk). Luckily that didn’t happen.

Jay opted to go to bed shortly after I took this.

And about a half hour later, I did too, but Inga & Mike stayed up (I assume) till the fireworks were done (and Inga, if you want your picture taken off the blog, just let me know & I’ll remove it ASAP).

This morning looked to be okay weather-wise, so we tried the zoo again. Of course, halfway there, the rain started up again, but we figured that most of the stuff we wanted to see was indoors anyway.

My favorite area is the aquarium, although the first area we went to was all the nocturnal creatures–My least favorite exhibit. I don’t like not being able to see, and I don’t care for a lot of the things that come out after dark. The bambino said his favorite thing was seeing the tigers:

Last year when we went, he fell asleep by the time we got to the Cat Complex. I am glad he was awake this time, even if the tigers were the only big cats that were awake:

I think there was a leopard that was awake, but all the rest were zonked out in their respective cages. No matter. By that point, we were ready to head back, get packed up and get back on the road home. And after a quick stop in Sioux Falls, we got in just before 8!

Inga & Mike were awesome hosts (as always), and we all had a great time! I’ve got a busy day ahead of me tomorrow…I’m FINALLY going grocery shopping tomorrow, and then I’m heading back to Sioux Falls to do some clothes shopping and some gift shopping for a certain husband who shares a birthday with Patrick Stewart and Harrison Ford. I’m so excited to sleep in my own bed tonight, it’s not even funny!