Happy Halloween!!!

We were awfully fortunate this week in that Sandy didn't cause serious damage in this area. Lots of heavy rain, and some big trees down in town, but certainly nothing compared to what NJ/NY is facing. Jack and Jill did have school cancelled Monday and Tuesday, but now they are back  in business!! 

The pumpkins are carved, the decorations hung, and the costumes ready: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! It's been a long time (okay, let's be real, it's been like 6 years) since I've been trick-or-treating. Well, my friends, tonight is the glorious night that I once again relive childhood and go with the little tots! (eek, I should probably figure out a costume...STAT!) 

Life has been pretty low-key as of late. I think I've got the routine pretty well under control, and I am loving it being fall. Nothing is prettier than the drive down the GW parkway, lined with colorful trees crisp with autumn (made complete often with an afternoon coffee and carefree tunes- does driving get more perfect than that?) 

Another thing I love about fall: soups.stews. cold weather cooking! (Did I mention that Mickey and Minnie bought a new crockpot because I was putting it to use?...now we have a giant crockpot (by which I mean avg.-sized, but bigger than the previously owned small crockpot)  Which, would this blog post be complete without a recipe? This one was a real winner! It's supposedly Spanish-style...I never had anything like it while I was in Spain, but whether it's authentic Spanish or not, it is delicious, and awfully easy to make! (We doubled it, and good thing....that will most likely become lunch for the week! yummmy!) 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spanish-turkey-meatball-stew-recipe/index.html  

Now, let's reflect on the exercise aspect of my life these days...It has finally become my favorite outdoor weather: the weather that is cool and breezy so you can wear sweats and  along sleeve t shirt without ever getting warm. I've been trying to spend time outdoors before it starts to get too cold. So I've taken Pluto for a few night walks (which are always more enjoyable in theory than in reality, but oh well!). This weekend I decided to go for a run, which would simultaneously help me in figuring out the lay of the town some more. Well I was overly ambitious, and what I intended to be a 2 mile run, became more like a 1.5mile run, with an additional 3.5 miles of walking....But, I did make a big connection in terms of how the roads in town come together, so it was great! I also went to go play tennis with a friend this weekend. We spent probably half an hour trying to locate an available court. Apparently the tennis league reserves practically all the courts, which means goodluck to you if you arent in the league with finding somewhere to play! Well finally we neared a court that had some older people sitting on a bench, but no one playing. We asked if they were using the court, and they said we were welcome to use it. When we got onto the court they asked if we would be interested in playing doubles. Now, I haven't played an actual match since sophomore year of high school. I played (more like piddled around) two times in my four years at college- and my friend hasn't played in at least a year, and claims to have learned how to play from mario tennis...Despite our clear lack of God-given talent, we figured that the pair of 60-yr-olds who were asking us to play might not be too much better than us. I am now humbled by the fact that age is no indication of ability. We were absolutely destroyed (6-1) by this pair. DESTROYED. It was fun, don't get me wrong, but talk about a wake up call! Man oh man do I need to start practicing!

And, I've been keeping up with the personal training sessions that Minnie so generously allows me to crash. (I don't know if I had mentioned, she has a personal trainer come to the house about twice a week, so I've been joining them). Now, the trainer comes at 6 AM, which means I wake up around 530 (ie I set my alarm for about 530 but most times roll out of bed at 555 and throw on gym clothes just as they're coming downstairs). I never thought working out in the morning would be an enjoyable thing- it's one of those things that I thought people were actually crazy for doing...there are not many things worth getting out of bed for before 6 AM...I didn't think this was possible, but I actually get so energized from working out in the morning. When the trainer comes, I actually end up not drinking coffee those mornings, because I'm so awake and refreshed and ready to go for the day (unlike most days...) It seems as though all those "crazy people" who get up early to work out are actually on to something...who'd have thunk it? 

All right, I must get ready to run some errands! Happy Halloween!

Rachel 

Time to Play Catch Up!

Why hello again, 

Sorry about that almost 2-week hiatus. It seems my blog got away from me in these hectic days. I can't believe it's Friday once again. Time marches on to the ever-rhythmic drum, and I find I often don't keep up. It seems that each week I'm a straggler; somehow caught up back in the Tuesdays/Wednesdays- always shocked to learn we somehow have made it to a weekend. But alas, here we are!

This has been a wonderful week! Kristina is up and visiting friends in DC for a while, which means I got to steal her away and spend all day with her on Wednesday- hurray for friends!! We hit up my favorite cafe (how fun that I have a *favorite* cafe!) and just caught up a bit on life and talked about the future. Unfortunately Wednesday had a cloud hanging over it; the cold that overcame me...It started with a case of morning sniffles, but progressed to an unfortunate sneezing-fit sort of day, complete with headache and quite overactive sinus. Yuck! I went to bed early and slept almost all day Thursday to allow my body to fully devote to recovery. I'm much better today, though I feel myself wishing I could spend some time sleeping once again!  In about 15 hours, me and my bed will reunite! 

In other news, I found a church last weekend that I *LOVE*. Well, technically, I didn't "find" it- someone recommended I go there after describing what I was looking for- and they were dead on. The church has a large number of 20-30 yr olds, complete with Bible study and social activities. So from here on out, my Thursday nights will most often be used to meet and mingle while simultaneously growing my faith! (talk about a win-win). 

Other news for the week- I successfully woke up at 5:30 not once but *twice* this week for personal training sessions. Talk about a painful experience! On the bright side, I no longer get agonizingly sore afterward, which makes me think that I'm getting stronger- although in theory I guess it could mean I'm not pushing it as much- but I assure you, that is not the case. It is pretty incredible how your body can be shaking and nearly collapsing during a workout, but less than an hour later is feeling fine and ready for the day!

The fam. is great these days. They're actually leaving for the weekend, which means Pluto and I will have some serious bonding time. (Jury's still out on whether that's good or not...) The question is how shall I spend the weekend? I bought a bike lock, so the goal is to ride out to Georgetown, park the bike, and just meander around and see what the town has to offer. I need to take advantage of bike season before it gets too cold to bike!!

I haven't been cooking too much in the recent past: when the days are busy, or Micky and Minnie have night meetings/commitments, I end up spoiling the kids with their favorites; chicken nuggets and PB&Js. But this coming week I think I'll be kicking the crock pot into full gear! One recipe worth trying though is this baked oatmeal: I cooked it in a circular cake pan and cut it into wedges. DE.LISH.OUS! Unfortunately, I think I liked it more than the kids- and that's never a good thing...but oh well. Definitely worth trying!! It comes out almost like a bread, not what I was expecting, but super tasty! ENJOY!



http://gingerbreadbagels.com/2011/03/22/peanut-butter-banana-oatmeal-squares/

Also, time for a special shout out: Happy Birthday to the best Grandma in town!! I hope it's a very special 77th!!

Love, 

Rachel 

Cooking for a Crowd

I'm starting to think I need to be a spokesperson for Pinterest, I literally use it on almost a daily basis, and am in love with it! So since this is obviously a cooking blog (inadvertently) it only seems right that I include the recipes of the night...I have been dying to make this lasagna ever since I saw the recipe- so glad I finally got the chance! I used hot chicken sausage, because Harris Teeter seemed to be out of the turkey variety, and I think it was awesome! (I normally am not a pasta person, and I hateeee sausage...I wouldn't have been able to eat this if it didn't involve removing the casing...thank goodness for that step!)


 Caprese Lasagna with Hot turkey (or chicken) sausage


http://iowagirleats.com/2012/05/31/caprese-lasagna-with-spicy-turkey-sausage/

And if serving pasta isn't carb-olicious enough...Obviously adding fresh baked bread is the only way to go!! This was another recipe I was dying to try out, and while I'm not sure if it's okay in the culinary world to serve it with lasagna, I did, and I found it awfully delicious!!! (Like I think I need to join the gym tomorrow to work off the 3-4 lb gain induced by this meal...just saying...) 

Artisan Bread Recipe

http://theitaliandishblog.com/imported-20090913150324/2010/2/26/amazing-artisan-bread-for-40-cents-a-loaf-no-kneading-no-fus.html

So now, obviously a big part of my cooking is trying to broaden Jack and Jill's horizons of foods they will eat...Jill ate like 3 bites of the lasagna (which was more than we would've expected...) and they both loved loved the bread, so that's good...But then there's Jack, and the lasagna. If they say it's a compliment to the chef to belch after a delicious meal, then I should be outrageously flattered that Jack threw up *on me*(!!!) mid-bite, right? (Whatever helps me sleep at night!) 

I don't handle throw up well, which means for the future- I will probably make him taste more flavor-neutral foods, and I will probably choose my seat at the table methodically from now on. 

At least Pluto still loves me and my cooking- he ate any dropped pieces right off the floor, and licked up Jack's vomited lasagna- yummmoooo. 


On a completely unrelated note: last week I ventured into DC twice- once to see the Air & Space museum with a friend, and once with Jill for a picnic on the Potomac River. She had the day off- so after our picnic we went to the MLKJ Memorial and meandered around a bit! Loveddd it!

View from our lunch spot

MLKJ Memorial (which I think is a fairly new addition to the DC Memorials)

Me with the majority of a cool MLKJ quote...gotta love Jill for trying...7 yr. old camera skills are still slightly amateur I guess...

Then this weekend we went to Monticello (Jefferson's home). I would love to show pictures of  just how beautiful this house is, but unfortunately, I was quite a goof, and left my sd card in my comp...which meant zero memory on the camera...ie...no pics :/ But it was so fun, and a nice way to bond with the family and their friends! I didn't realize how far Monticello is from DC- it's about a 3-hr ride (one-way), so that was quite the trek- but well worth it! 

Welp, I best go restore my Pinterest collection as I'm beginning to deplete my recipes (not really, but can you ever have too many pins? I think not!)

I'll post picture-progress soon from my picture challenge!

xoxo

Rachel 

Just "Caching" Up!!

Ooh, aren't I funny with my title...? I just got back from geocaching. I went and visited a lovely little park in Arlington to drop off a travel bug. The park actually backs right up to the Potomac River (I didn't go all the way there today) but I'm thinking maybe later this week I'll venture all the way to the river. 

This was one busy weekend. Jill had a birthday party, so I was helping out and doing a lot of prep work for that. It was sooo much fun. There were line dancers, and horses- it was like from out of a movie. (Like the Hannah Montana movie- aka, the DREAM PARTY!). There were quite a few girls there, and I was shocked at how well-behaved they were. I guess having to patiently wait to ride ponies will keep kids in check.  I decided that I wanted to make Jill a gift instead of buying her something, so thanks to instructions/idea found on Pinterest, Jill is now the proud owner of an RG original journal. 

I'm not one to brag, but I think it came out pretty well...binding a book, while I guess it should be considered an easy task, was more difficult than I was anticipating...It is hard to get the pages to align and all that. But it was a success all the same!

I also found another idea on Pinterest, which is the picture-a-day challenge. For the month of October, you have to take a picture every day. Today's picture "somewhere you stood". (I decided to  put 2 pics of where I stood, as I was struggling to decide which one to post!)

Anyhow, time for me to grab some lunch before picking up Jack and Jill! Until next time!

Rachel