Fair Stuff, School Stuff

And you can probably already tell I'm back to having little free time seeing that it's Wednesday and it's my first post of the week. Oh the joys of being a full time student in a demanding program. Classes have been going well - we're just being thrown right back into the fire - but it's good to be back. Even if I do complain about it more than I should.

 

I will tell you that my Maternal and Pediatric class I have on Wednesdays is going to R-O-C-K! Oh my goodness...I didn't want class to end to day! I knew when I decided to go back to school for nursing that I wanted to work with kids (whether it'd be NICU, Peds, Labor & Delivery, etc) but I didn't realize how much of a calling it really was for me. And because of the fact that I have an insane case of baby fever, I can really tell this will probably be my favorite class. Ever. After I write this post I'm going to go read my Maternal book for my reading assignment, but let's be honest, I'm reading it as fun:)

 

On to other things...Sunday afternoon, Joe and I hit the streets of the Minnesota State Fair! It was a beautiful day to walk around, take in the sights and smells and try a few things to eat.

 

 

We had freshly squeezed lemonade, a pronto pup, a gyro, a deep friend snickers bar and a caramel apple sundae with cinnamon ice cream, picked by yours truly. It was awesome.

 

For some reason, all the barns were closed due to deep cleaning and all I wanted to do was look at the cow butts, sheep, pigs and goats - it's a family tradition! At least we could see these HUGE horses and walk through the Miracle of Birth barn.

 

We tend to make a big circle around the fairgrounds, checking out booths and buildings that catch our eye as we pass them. I'll be back there again tomorrow night for the Rascal Flatts concert at the Grandstand. I'm going with my friends from high school...it's become a tradition every time they're in town. Any favorite fair traditions out there?

 

Happy Wednesday!

Goodbye Freedom...

Or goodbye to life as I know it.

Okay, I'm over exaggerating but school starts on Monday.

Dun Dun Dun!!

The summer flew by. Is it really the last weekend of August? I'm still in complete denial that school is starting up again. I mean, I really have been enjoying nursing school. I love what I'm learning, I've made some amazing friends. But of course, the 3rd and 4th semester students have told us nothing but horror stories about our upcoming 2nd semester. I get it. Nursing school is work your life. I'd just rather figure that out myself than psyching myself out.

 

With that being said, I can't promise daily or tri-weekly posts like I've been trying to do this summer but I can assure you...I will not leave you. I enjoy writing too much to just set it aside. It's kind of like a little getaway from my crazy busy schedule. So stayed tuned for horror stories from nursing school, the lastest thing Stella did or chewed up and life in between it all.

 

 

 

Stella's Recent Doings...

Oh sure. Stella has been a very good puppy. And I mean VERY good.

 

She...

 

...Doesn't bark. Unless she sees something that spooks her a bit which is understandable.

...Loves to cuddle. Yes, we have a 60 pound dog who thinks she's a lap dog. And I love it.

...Is smart. For example, I can say "Where's your ball?" and she'll go and find it and bring it back to me. It's awesome.

...Didn't have a huge chewing phase like a lot of puppies do...she mostly got at our toilet paper which is a lot better than our shoes or socks.

...Is calm for a lab. Meaning, in a room full of people with things going on she'll just lay down in the middle of it all and hang out.

...Is a good listener...when she chooses to be. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times when I tell her to come and she's way to busy investigating something to pay any attention to me.

 

However, lately...she's been a little trouble maker. We've been leaving her out of her kennel since she was about six months old and we've rarely had a problem. Remember the toilet paper I mentioned above? That would be the extent of what she'd get into and we solved that problem by shutting the doors to the bathrooms. However, the real mess started last week.

 

Monday I ran to the grocery store and when I came home she had chewed up Joe's Chaco sandals. Plus, she had my good walking/hiking shoes next in line. They were wet like she'd been licking them but no sign of destruction yet. Okay...Joe needs a new pair of sandals...we can handle that.

 

Then that same night, I left to volunteer at the hospital and Joe was taking one of his finals. I left at 6pm and he got home at 7pm. Within that hour she managed chew up about four decks of cards and our games UNO and Farkle. (For those of you who don't know what Farkle is...it's a dice game that comes in this heavy plastic like cup thing that you use to shake up the dice.) Nothing was salvageable. Not even the plastic!

 

Ugh. She knows what she does is wrong (see she's smart) because as soon as you walk in the door she is crawling to you with her ears as low as they can go. And she looks sad.

 

The next incident happened on Thursday. Joe and I went out for dinner, we were gone for about an hour, and this time she pulled books off our bookshelf and decided to chew those up! AHHH! We got mad at her again...I don't think I've said the word NO so many times within a five minute time span and we hoped she learned her lesson.

 

Not quite. Saturday we had to run about an hours worth of errands and although I mentioned putting her in the kennel, Joe wanted to give her one more try. He has a lot of faith in her. She got into the ONE thing I really care/need. My nursing textbook that I use for every. single. class. My heart sank and I started crying. Thankfully, I found my $180 book on Amazon for $90 and I should be getting it today or tomorrow.

 

Now, Stella is back in the kennel when we leave the house. The poor girl is to big for it too and can't sit up straight in it. Hopefully she'll realize it's not okay to chew on anything except for her toys. And it's so hard to stay mad when you're looking at this face...

 



Stella's Girls' Night

On Saturday night Joe and I had a few friends over for a fire. It was such a perfect night for hopefully many more fires to come this fall. However, we're not the only ones who had friends over. Stella had her first "Girls' Night" as I like to call it. :) I know, she has no understanding of what "girls night" means but just let me roll with it. Our friends Megan and Matt brought their yellow lab, Charlie, and Joe and Britta brought their black lab, Ruby! Ruby was the boss lady and the other two girls just followed along haha.

Stella and Charlie could be twins...seriously. Stella is the one standing, Charlie has the ball.

This was the best we could do to get them to sit still for a quick picture or two...distract them with a ball. It was so hard to get a picture since they were all over the place.

Having these three girls run around like crazy made our house feel very tiny but it was so much fun to watch them play together. All. Night. Long. There heads and necks were sopping wet from playing with their mouths wide open. When every left for the night, Stella collapsed from exhaustion. She got up the next morning to eat and then went back to bed for the morning.  

Can't wait for the next get together!!

Frame it up!

I have been working on a couple projects lately around the house and although one is not 100% finished, I couldn't wait to share them with you! I've been wanting to put up a gallery of frames in our upstairs hallway for quite some time so I started working on it. I wanted to share pictures of our travels, art we either did or found...basically anything and everything that could be put in a frame that meant something to us.

A couple weekends ago I picked up eleven frames from IKEA for $50! Talk about cheap!! And you see those two dark frames in the back? Well, I had four of them that Joe let me do a little makeover on.

Here they are with a few other frames from around the house I found to use.

I picked up some primer/paint in one to work a little magic on these frames!

Drying!

Then I went to Goodwill to browse their frame selection. I picked up another eleven for $30 although I've only used a couple of them. I didn't like how some of them turned out and ended up not needed as many as I thought. Oh well...

I needed more spray paint so off to Menard's I went and I ended up picking up these. The primer/paint in one worked just fine but I though I'd try this as well.

I really need to wear gloves...my hands were white for days!

And off to work I went...

So, here's the hallway I wanted to make my gallery in. I took the Sunday paper and cut it up to the sizes of the frames I had. Then I used some painter's tape to put them on the walls to help me visually see where/how to place them without creating dozens of holes. Once I got all the frames up, the hallway seemed really small and tight. I should have taken a picture for you to see but I got to excited trying out another spot.

Welcome to above our couch in the living room. The frames and layout looked much better here...so out came the nails again and...

Wha-la! I love it! I love the layout, the look of it, everything about it! Now we just have to find pictures for our frames!

And I continued with the frames upstairs! Again, totally loving the look of it!

And I kept two of the big ones in the hallway.

Now for the second project that has been hanging over my head since the end of June. Joe and I FINALLY finished painting the stairs!

So glad to have our big painting project done!

Just in time for school to start a week from today. Boo.

Meal time!

One more post with some recipes I conquered on Sunday to start getting you hungry for lunch. For dinner, I made a whole chicken in the crock pot, wild rice (unfortunately not from scratch but from a box) and zucchini chips!

Here's what you'll need...

The Best Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon thyme

½ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon cayenne (red) pepper (I didn't put this much in - too much for me!)

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 onion

1 large chicken

1. Combine the dried spices in a small bowl.

2. Loosely chop the onion and place it in the bottom of the slow cooker.

3. Remove any giblets from the chicken and then rub the spice mixture all over. You can even put some of the spices inside the cavity and under the skin covering the breasts.

4. Put prepared chicken on top of the onions in the slow cooker, cover it, and turn it on to high. There is no need to add any liquid.

5. Cook for 4 – 5 hours (for a 3 or 4 pound chicken) or until the chicken is falling off the bone.

Zucchini Chips

2 medium sized zucchinis

3 eggs

1 ½ cups whole-wheat breadcrumbs (I only had regular breadcrumbs)

½ cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish

Olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Thinly slice zucchini into 1/8” round pieces.

2. Beat eggs in a shallow bowl. Hello farm fresh eggs from the farmers' market:)

3. Using a small food processor process the breadcrumbs, grated cheese, and a couple dashes of salt & pepper together until fine. Put the breadcrumb mixture in a shallow bowl.

4. Pour a thin layer of olive oil in the bottom of a medium to large sauté pan and turn the heat to medium. Let it heat up while you start preparing the zucchini.

5. Make an assembly line in the following order: raw zucchini slices, beaten egg, breadcrumb mixture, and empty plate.

6. Coat a few of the zucchini slices with the egg and shake off the excess. Drop those pieces on top of the breadcrumb mixture and coat them with breadcrumbs. Shake off the excess breadcrumbs and transfer the coated zucchini slices to the clean plate.

7. As soon as you have enough zucchini slices breaded to make a single layer across the bottom of the pan, slide them in the oil to start cooking.

8. Meanwhile, start coating the next batch of zucchini, but check the stove after 2 or 3 minutes to see if the bottom of the zucchini is turning golden brown. Once they are brown flip them over and add more olive oil if necessary to keep the bottom of the breaded zucchini “wet.” Once both sides are golden brown transfer them to a paper towel lined plate and keep warm.

9. Repeat process until all the zucchini are cooked. Arrange them on a serving platter, garnish with Parmesan cheese, and enjoy!

Both the chicken and zucchini chips were delicious! Enjoy!! 

Here's a picture of Stella enjoy zucchini. If only our future children will eat this good...

Holy Zucchini

The motion in the ocean, er, kitchen didn't stop at the Pickled Hot Banana Peppers I told you about in yesterday's post. During our trip to the farmers' market I also picked up myself some zucchini! I have a couple recipes I used the zucchini to share with you so I'll start off with the recipe for Zucchini Bread! You'll have to wait another day for my other recipe:)

What you'll need for TWO loaves of bread. I cut everything in half and just made one loaf. Mistake number one because the loaf is almost gone. I made it two days ago.

3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking powder
3 beaten eggs
2 c. sugar
3 tsp. vanilla
1 c. oil
3 c. grated zucchini (Peel and seed if you wish.) I only peeled the zucchini, seeds were left in. 

You can add a cup of nuts or raisins if you wish. (I added raisins.)

 Bake in 2 greased bread pans, 325-350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until done. (350 degrees for about 50 minutes worked for me!)

Here's my zucchinis - which I have never before bought in my life!

I mixed all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the liquids in another. Does it really matter how you mix it? Probably not. But that's just what I did. Next, mix all ingredients together (dry and liquid) adding the zucchini last. Before I added the zucchini the texture was a little weird to me (just felt like a bunch of sugar) but the zucchini was really moist so it added some "wetness" to the batter. Sorry for those of you who don't like the words "moist" and "wetness" haha.

Fifty minutes later the oven blessed us with this beauty. My Mom said the picture made it look like the bread was flat but it really wasn't. And the best part...it's de-lish-ous!

 

Happy Baking!

A treat for Joe...

On Sunday, Joe and I went to the St. Paul Farmers' Market which you can read about over on MN Blog. I've always wanted to go but in the summer, we are rarely home if you can't tell. We just happened to be in town this weekend which was a nice break from all the traveling we've been doing lately so this little piggy went to the market. (Sorry, I babysat for some friends on Friday night and as you can tell, we did a few nursery rhymes!)

Anyway, we picked up a few things while we were there and one of our items were banana peppers. For Joe of course, not me. I can't handle the slightest ounce of anything remotely hot or spicy. He tried one once we got home and said it didn't really taste sweet or hot so I went straight to Google for help in finding a canning recipe for HOT banana peppers.

I give you... Hot pickled Banana Peppers. Not sure what they'll taste like when they're ready but I hope they'll be hot enough for Joe!

What you'll need:

About 25 banana peppers

2 cups water

3 cups distilled white vinegar

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup salt

2 tablespoons whole peppercorns

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

1 tablespoon dill seeds

2 teaspoons ground allspice

I also added a little bit of cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes to spice it up a bit.

The recipe makes about four pint-sized jars, so out came the big stock pot of boiling water to sterilize the jars and lids. First, I got the peppers ready by cutting off the tops, slicing the peppers into rings and removing the core. Then you soak the peppers in a bowl of ice water with a tablespoon of salt for at least an hour. Don't ask me why you do this step...it's just what the recipe said to do:)

About a half hour into icing the peppars, I started sterilizing the jars and lids in boiling water for about 10 minutes.

Next, bring the remaining ingredients (water, vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices) to a boil as well.

Once everything was boiling and good to go, I filled the jars with the peppers and then poured the vinegar mixture over them. I used a small handheld strainer when pouring the liquid into the jars, so I could evenly divide the spices among the four jars. Caution: It will be hot!! Glasses will fog!!

Put the lids on the jars, screw the tops on and return them to the boiling water to process. At this point I didn't read the directions far enough because I had already dumped my hot water into the sink! Bahh!! So I had to fill the pot up again and start boiling some more water. You'll want to boil the jars vigorously for 40 minutes, then remove from the liquid and set on a dish towel to cool. Then you wait for the lids to pop!

The recipe said to wait about a month before diving into them! Joe looked pretty excited when he came home from the library and saw what I did. I hope they taste great! Otherwise, we have four jars of pickled hot banana peppers up for grabs!

Chicago Bound!

Finally. Time to sit down and tell you all about Chicago! Joe and I were there from Thursday through Sunday and it was such a great, quick getaway. Joe had spent the summer before his senior year of college near Chicago for an internship so it was nice having my own personal tour guide.

Day 1 We did a lot of exploring and walking around the city taking in all the sights.

This was a big amphitheater in Millennium Park. We sat on the grass and listened to a free Jazz concert for a bit and had some free raspberry lemonade that was AMAZING.

Here we are taking our picture in the reflection of the bean. A must do in Chicago!

The mouths would eventually move and a fountain of water would come out of them. Pretty neat!

Walking along Lake Michigan.

Day 2 we rented bikes for the day and went on a 17 mile bike ride.

So I have a funny story which Joe could definitely tell better in person but I'll give it a go with words. On our bike ride we were coming around this corner and one of those segway tours was coming passing us by. A lady in the back started losing control of her segway and her natural reaction was to jump off. Totally understandable. Well, this segway keeps moving and Joe and I had to get out of the way before it ran us over (it was really close to taking one of us out), it tipped over and kept moving straight off the pier and into the water. The look on the lady's face was priceless and the look on the tour guide's face was pure shock. Joe and I just looked at each other and kept saying, "Did that really just happen?" haha. Yes. Yes it did.

Before we returned our bikes, we made a pit stop at a beach. It was the perfect way to cool down on such a hot day and the water was surprisingly warm!

After we took a dip in the water we went through Lincoln Park Zoo.

Day 3 we met up with my friends Kelsey and Joe who were heading to Lollapalooza (music festival) for brunch. Then we did some more walking around and hopped on a water taxi to ride on the river!

We visited Navy Pier on our last night in the city and were loving the views.

Day 4 We, you guessed, walked around some more before catching the train back to the airport.

It was so nice to take a break from our every day life and spend time with each other. Although, I really missed Stella. She had fun being spoiled by my sister though and I'm sure she didn't miss us that much. Here's to another pin on the map!