Dinner : Spaghetti and Garlic Knots!

Yesterday I came across this blog post for Garlic Knots by Baking in my Bathing Suit.  It was snowing outside (I know... in May. How gross!).  And I really needed some comfort food. (Comfort food - see pasta, white bread, carbs.)


Everyone at work seems to be bringing salads right now.

I had my salad packed and ready to go for lunch, and it wasn't seemingly all that appealing.  But I ate it anyways.  Since I was so good about eating 'right' for lunch, I decided I should be able to splurge for dinner, at least a little bit.

And her Garlic Knots looked DELICIOUS! (plus I hate vampires).  Well, maybe I do not hate vampires.  But I do not feel like meeting any, any time soon.

Ready for the oven!

Let's just say that I perhaps am quite inept at making knots with dough. I can tie my shoes with relative ease - but those are tied in bows!

Right out of the oven, last brushing of garlic butter mixture.

Don't they look tasty?  They smelled wonderful too!  I had to hold myself back from trying one straight out of the oven, trying not to burn my tongue (which always happens with pizza!).


Heading to the table!

They made it to the plate (mostly).  Not going to lie, there were a few casualties.  But they were devoured with care and consideration (you know, so that I did not burn my tongue!).

This morning I woke up to a text from the hubster's brother, thankfully none of our snow that fell stuck around.  In Southern Minnesota however, the story is quite different.  A total of 10" fell. So glad we are heading down tonight for a 'Wild Ladies Night Out'. (I know, on a Thursday??)

Please note, I do not drink Coors

I am the odd duck out every time I go down there (if the girls are not drinking wine anyways).  I am currently dabbling with some Smartini in the Pomegranate flavor.  1.5 oz has 34 calories.  I fill a glass with ice, top it with Sprite Zero, and a splash or two or the Smartini. It is pretty tasty, but it's only 25 proof.  (not nearly as tasty as my Cherry Rum at 42 proof - or Bacardi Torched Cherry-no idea on proof. Did you check out how I make the Torched Cherry Lemonade? Basically lemonade with a splash of Torched Cherry, splash of grenadine, and a cherry, oh summer, how I wish you would come soon..)

Do you have any low calorie favorites to share?

Fantastic Weekend!

My weekend was great!  I hope yours was too!

Yesterday my dad came over and brought my treadmill to me, and he ate Crock-Pot Chicken Tacos with me for dinner.  They were pretty good. 

Literally just 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, a jar of salsa, and taco seasoning.  Turned the crock-pot on high for 4 hours.  Pulled the chicken out to shred, and then added some canned Jalapenos at the end, but, I really didn't notice them. 

I saved a couple cups of the shredded chicken to make Chicken Tortilla Soup later too.

After that, the Boyfriend and I went to my friend's house and had some adult beverages, and played that corn hole game.  I like it, it's that beanbag/toss in the hole cut out.  And then we came home, and I watched my CBS Sunday Morning, and my little sister sends me a text asking what I am doing in the afternoon, and perhaps she and her son would like to come over.  So I offered up dinner, and that set in motion the rest of my day!

Once the Boyfriend awoke, I let him know we would be having company for dinner, and that we would be needing to go get groceries sooner than later. Because I wanted some time for my salads I would be making to marinate. 

We ended up with Corn on the Cob, Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Creamy Cucumber Salad, Broccoli Salad.



A FEAST!

It was all super good.  And then after all that, of course we needed dessert!  I had baked the 4 layers on Saturday morning.  But I needed to make the frosting and assemble this mammoth thing!

My first attempt at a gradient cake with ombre frosting.

I am not going to lie, I used 2 box white cake mixes, and added blue and violet food coloring to the Buttercream Frosting I made.  There was a lot of frosting, I made 3 batches, and used it all.

For both the cake and the frosting, I used more food coloring for the dark blue then I did for the lighter blue layers.

The frosting was Wilton's Buttercream frosting recipe.  I used a basic ombre technique I found here.

My 2 year old nephew poo'd blue the next day...  :)

Have you made a gradient cake or ombre frosting?  They are all over Pintrest - I would love to see or hear about your creation!

Softball Tournament!

One of the softball teams that I am on, season's ended on Thursday.  But we had a tournament that started Friday, and ended today(for us).

It was double elimination tournament, we lost a game Friday, and the one game we played today.

I play on D Leagues.  Which for those of you who do not know, is the just for fun league.  Perhaps the players have some skill, but it's not that good.  :)  And the teams I am on, tend to be one of the winningest teams for each of their respective leagues.  For the softball tournament we played in though, we got bumped up to the C league.  And that was a mix of C and B leagues.  A league is the most competitive/skilled teams...

The Virg Ellrich/Fireman's Tournament is kind of a big deal.  There are 157 teams that play in it, and we ended up playing against a team from Bemidiji - which is about a 4 hour drive.

On Friday night when we played, I saw people eating corn on the cob.  It looked DELICIOUS! - I knew I was going to have to get myself one of those after our game on Saturday.

So when I showed up for our game, I first went over and picked up a beer (it was hot.. I needed to stay hydrated!). 



Stay Hydrated!

And after we lost our game, I went and grabbed a cob, it was $2.  If I had been thinking I would have bought 3 for $5, and would have enjoyed them to the fullest!  But before I went to the tournament I had done some baking, and had started some crockpot chicken tacos earlier, and my dad was on his way to my place with my treadmill, so I had to get going.

Pillsbury Blueberry Muffins

I will say though, they had a pretty good set up though for the corn.  They had butter and a pastry brush to slather it all over the cob, and the salt and pepper shakers.  Super good!

What food item do you make sure you get when you go to festivals/fairs?

Cold Brewed Coffee!

I have a new obsession.  I will admit it.  It is borderline cRaZy.  But, I am okay with it, because it also saves me a couple of greenbacks a week.  Okay.  Honestly, about $20 a week.  Which is uber ridiculous.  I know.

Please note, both are not mine! One is the Boyfriend's.

See, I drink what I would call 'fake' coffee drinks.  I go to the Caribou, or Starbucks and order a mocha of some sort, lately it's been over ice. At Caribou it's a White Northern Lite Mocha - no whip.  Or at Starbucks I get a Mocha Frappuccino.  I generally will go to Caribou though, not sure why, maybe because it is sweeter. 

But my problem comes in, that I will stop 3-4 times a week. In my city, I pay $4.70 a pop.  And that is too much to be wasting a week; I would rather buy shoes or something more fun, and lasts longer.

So I was floating around trying to find a way to make something as enjoyable at home.  I found this blog, but there are tons out there with a recipe.  And they all pretty much follow the recipe published in the New York Times.

People say cold brewed is better for you, as it it is less acidic.  I say okay...?  Whatever that means.  The coffee does taste better than the made in a coffee maker, and cooled coffee.  There is a different flavor in it.  I am serious!

My dad quit drinking coffee because he wasn't enjoying the flavor any more.  I didn't know that, and brought him some when I went to the Patriot Ride (post can be found here).  He was quite surprised that it was Folger's cold brewed coffee, as Folger's was his brand he drank, and he said his didn't taste like this.. :)

I like Snapguide.  It's an app for my nifty iPhone.  It hasn't really caught on I don't think.  They have a little fine tuning to do, but I hope it does catch on.  You can make step by step guides in a SNAP! :)

You can see the guide that I created here if you would like, but it is pretty basic.

You will need a large container, preferably with a cover. A strainer, a coffee filter or two, a large bowl for the strainer to sit in, filtered water and your favorite blend coffee of course!



Basically everything you need!

The recipe:

1 cup of coffee, ground

4 1/2 cups of filtered water

Put them together in a container, stir them up to make sure all of the grounds are wet, set it on the counter for 8-12 hours.  I do this while I sleep, and in the morning, I set up the strainer, put a coffee filter in it, and strain it. 

AND Boom! Coffee is ready to enjoy.  But not straight - are you nuts?! This is a highly concentrated mixture!!



Mix it half and half with water-milk, cream what have you, and enjoy with ice.  The NYTimes says you can heat it/add hot water to it, but I am currently not interested in trying it that way.  I fill the cup about half way with ice, dump the coffee mixture in about 3/4 full, put some milk, and about 1/16 cup of Italian Sweet Cream Coffee mate.



Hello lovely!

I am not going to lie, it is kind of nice to come home in the morning after a 'run', grab a shower, get ready for work, dump this together and head off to work.  I will literally head to bed looking forward to the morning, because I know I will be enjoying this!

Hope you try it - SOON!

Patriot Ride 2012

Today was the Patriot Ride at Lion's Park in Ham Lake!



A look at not even a quarter of the bikes.



I must admit, I had never previously attended the ride.  My Dad has, my sisters (I have 2) have.  My niece and both nephews have also.  Not me though, which is a little odd, as I was the one in the family that spent the most time at this park playing softball.  Oh how I still, to this day, LOVE softball. :)

 

For anyone who does not know what the Patriot Ride is, let me give you a brief undetailed (slightly inaccurate) description:

About a Million bikers come together, in remembrance and honor of men and women that have served, and are serving for the US, as well as support their families.  There is a program and then the men and women participating on the motorcycle ride, head down the highway 2 by 2 to Cambridge, MN with a stop (I believe) on the way, and then they come together and have a bite to eat, and then head back to the park for a dance and celebration.

At any rate, it was slightly drizzling the whole morning.  I brought an umbrella, and never opened it.  It wasn't a hard enough drizzle to make me want to open it.  My dad and myself, like most everyone else there, walked around damp at best. 



The Helicopter!

 But it was a very nice time; they presented the colors, had about a half hour program.  There was a helicopter at the softball fields, that anyone could get in and explore, and took off prior to the start of the ride.  

After the program all the riders went over to their bikes, some put their rain gear on, and at about 11:50 or so the helicopter took off.  And as soon as the helicopter took off, the sun came out. 

Which made me feel bad for all the riders that had put on their rain gear in preparation of the ride.  Because when the sun came out - it was HOT!  I was damp, and at least the sun would dry my light weight shirt and jeans, but the people that were damp, and under rain gear, just seems like it would be a sauna under there.

 

Enjoy just a portion of the bikers going by below.  I am not even kidding you, this is not even close to the entire ride, it went by for about.. 45 minutes?  Granted there were a couple parts where there was a pause for like 4 minutes in between the three groups.  It is a powerful group and sight to see all of the bikers coming out to support the troops, and driving down the Highway.



   

Find out more about the MN Patriot Guard here.  Find out more about the MN Military Appreciation Fund here. See more Patriot Ride photos of the ride here.

  

Semi Truck with POW MIA paint job.

Personal note: my Dad's father (my grandpa) is a Veteran.  A former POW, who was MIA.  He came back, and started a family, which is how I have my dad(and aunt and uncles).  One story that I have heard (and there are very few, as my grandpa doesn't talk much about it) is that he ate raw potatoes that he stole when he was sent out to the field wile being held as a prisoner.



After the ride, I came back home, did a bunch of nothing.  Waited for the Boyfriend to get off of work and come home.  Which he eventually did, and we are starting our Saturday night off enjoying some adult beverages. 

Bacardi Torched Cherry Lemonade.  With a maraschino cherry!

Happy Saturday night people!