Anyways, the conference is always interesting and I learn a lot, but the best part has to be the location.
Every year I attend a conference in Shepherdstown, WV for work and it is actually one of the highlights of my fall season! I mean besides football, my riding boots, apple cider and of course Thanksgiving :). Anyways, the conference is always interesting and I learn a lot, but the best part has to be the location. The conference takes place along the Potomac River in West Virginia. The campus we stay on is in the woods and you really feel a connection to nature while being there. Every year we take a hike down to the river, skip some rocks, and do a little photo session. However, this year weeks of rain had caused the river to rise to the point where we couldn't make it down to the banks, and it was rainy and dreary for most of our time there. I was very sad, but we still really enjoyed the feeling of being slightly disconnected from the rest of the world. So I hope you all enjoyed some of these snapshots from last years trip!
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This past weekend I spent with my family in Pennsylvania. Which means, beer and home-cooked, rib sticking food like macaroni and cheese, wings, potato salad and apple pie. I loved it all, but I am officially 5 pounds heavier and needed something light to eat this week.
I immediately went through my old soup recipes and found one of my springtime minestrone soups from Eat Live Run. Yes it has springtime in the title, and yes this is fall, but it was just as delicious! The ingredients can also be adjusted based on what is in season. I substituted kale for swiss chard and it worked out just fine! Yuuuuum, perfect dish and I have been eating it all week! Ugh. Every time I look at these pictures.. I miss it so much! I want to go back! After we drank our sangria, we made our way down to the port. How different this place was! With sailboats and palm trees everywhere. It was incredible! We walked back into the city along the narrow streets to La Placa Reial. This place was famous for its lamp posts designed by Barcelona's most famous architect, Gaudi. We eventually made it to our second church of the trip, La Seu or Catedral. Just like Maria del Mar, this church was in a square surrounded by businesses and restaurants that came much later. It was a magnificent sight to see from the outside, and I was a dummy for not bringing my other lens. I was stuck with my 35mm prime that made me walk across the entire square just to try and get the church in the picture. On the inside the ceilings were high and the walls had remarkable stained glass windows. It was extremely dark though, and very hard to photograph. We were very excited for our first dinner in Barcelona, especially after how wonderful lunch was! We tried to go to a few places, but they were all closed for vacation, so we popped into the first place we came across. Sadly, the meal was not what we had expected. Their chef was actually on vacation (should have been our first sign). It wasn't terrible, but we had such high hopes. Not to worry, dessert made up for it! We came across the street vendors on Las Ramblas on the way home, and snagged a waffle dessert! It was covered in dark chocolate and hazelnuts....
Right then and there, I could have died, and been content. Just imagine, all this in one day! The next was even better! This is a recipe I have been wanting to try ever since I saw it pop up on Pintrest. Everyone has pintrest right? If not, get it... fast! It is my huge addiction that keeps me up late at night when I can't seem to fall asleep right away. Anyways, this recipe comes from an adapted version from Paula Deen. I mean we all love Paula Deen, but I don't need to eat a whole stick of butter in my soup. The ingredients are simple which is great! Can of tomato sauce, can of diced tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, garlic, parmesan cheese, onion, green pepper, vegetable broth and lasagna noodles. The original recipe calls for ground beef or turkey, but I substituted mushrooms in to make it veggie friendly! Chop up all your vegetables and toss them in a pot with some olive oil. Cook until tender. Pour in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and vegetable broth and cook for 10-15 minutes. Then throw in the lasagna noodles after you break them up. I made the mistake of forgetting this part and tossing in whole noodles... don't be like me. Break up your noodles.
The whole thing cooks for another 5-10 minutes until the noodles are soft. Pour into a bowl and cover with shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese, and a little bit of basil and enjoy! Next time I think I may throw the soup in the broiler with the cheese on top to get some of that melty, cheesy goodness :) Overall though, it was a great dish and a perfect addition to my fall menu! I promised you that I would explain why my blogging has been sub-par lately, and here it is. Grad school. During the week, my first class is on Monday from 5:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. and my second class is on Wednesday from 8:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. Yes you read both of those right. These are in class classes, not online, and I have to drive 45 minutes each way to get there. Needless to say I have been pretty exhausted come the end of the week, and somewhat delirious. More than once I have called Jake near tears because I am just so exhausted mentally and physically. My mind has been so frazzled lately that this incident with a pepper pretty much made my week: I know, sad isn't it? I mean it is pretty funny, but come on, it isn't the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. Besides the fact that my body is still trying to adjust to this schedule change, classes seem to be going well. I enjoy the topics that I am learning which I think shows that I made the right decision to go back to school. I have also received pretty good feedback from my professors already which is validating, especially since this world of communications is completely different for me. For the next 10-12 weeks of the semester I just need to get into a groove and start balancing everything better. Easier than done right? Any tips for how to survive grad school? This is something on my list that I have been disappointed in my ability to complete. It seems that out of 30 days in a month, I can't seem to find the time to do. That isn't even the whole truth. I can't seem to find the moment where I want to or am in the mood to volunteer. Maybe that is normal, but I really wish I had been better at this. I had such good intentions. So when I saw an email from the Annapolis Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (ASCPA) that they needed volunteers for an event on Saturday afternoon. I sat staring at the email going back and forth in my mind. "I have to babysit on Saturday night..." "I'm not babysitting till 7:30.." "Well I think I have something else to do..." "No you don't..." "Ok, I will do it..." It was a great decision. Meet Lucille: She is a five year-old hound dog and a huge sweetheart. When I walked in they asked me which dog I would like to take, I had a choice between Lucille the hound dog and a Black Lab. Obviously the word "hound dog" got me. I grew up with one: Lucille was great though. The plan was to walk around downtown for a couple hours, talk to a few people and maybe get a few donations. It was such a gorgeous day, and after all that rain, it was nice to be outside. Lucille and I had a great walk. We made our way over the drawbridge, which was somewhat hilarious because Lucille had never walked over the grates before and got a little nervous. With a little coaching she made it over just fine. Lucille grabbed a lot of people's attention, and ended up doing a great job by raising around $15 from donations!
Being with Lucille also made me realize how awesome it can be to volunteer. Now I know it sounds kind of cheezy, but being with her really made me remember why I wanted to volunteer in the first place. It was 2 great hours that I spent hanging out with a dog, talking to really nice people, and enjoying the amazing weather. 2 hours I probably would have spent inside, alone, watching meaningless T.V.... like I may be doing now. So thanks Lucille, for an amazing day! I am getting back in my groove finally of looking for vegetarian recipes! Not that I can say that this will last forever, because I am sure something will come up, *cough* grad school *cough*, and I won't have time, and throw together something like this, but for this week, I did good. So as I was about to head to the grocery store, I discussed some options of veggie meals with Jake, and he suggested stuffed peppers. Fact: I had never had a stuffed pepper Fact: I wasn't even sure what went into stuffed pepper So with a goal in mind, I perused the vegetable bins to see what I could find. I came up with this: I bought tomato, onion and parmesan cheese, knowing that I had pasta sauce and garlic at home. I also had a few stalks of celery that I thought I might throw in, but decided against it. I cut up the veggies into bite size pieces, hollowed out the peppers, and then sauteed the onions in garlic. I eventually added the pieces of green pepper I chopped up from the tops and tomatoes to the pan, but I had a quarter-life brain fart. Wait, I'm not even 25 yet. Please send help. Once everything was nice and warm, I layered in some of the rice I had cooked up at the bottom of the pepper, and then filled in the rest with veggies, and topped with fresh grated parmesan...yum. They baked for about 30 min at 375. I actually turned on the broiler for the last 5 minutes to get the cheese a little more melty. I really didn't know how to approach this meal either. Do I scoop out the insides? Do I cut it all up? So I just sliced it in half, and this happened. YUM! I think next time I will add in mushrooms for a little more of a "meaty" texture and possibly do multiple layers of the cheese, sauce, veggies and rice.
All in all though, it was an easy recipe and was pretty cheap too! 3 peppers 1 onion 1 tomato 1/2 cup parmesan cheese garlic (to taste) 3/4 cup of tomato sauce 1 cup cooked rice 1/2 tb EVOO Cut off the tops of all the peppers, and hollow out the inside. Cut up the pieces of the pepper from the tops, along with the tomato and onion. Sautee the onions and garlic in the olive oil until they start to become translucent. Add in the peppers and cook for 5 more minutes. Then add the tomatoes and cook for about 3 min. Divide up the rice, vegetables and tomato sauce between the peppers, making layers. Grate parmesan cheese on top and bake for 30 min at 375. Enjoy! *NOTE* As I sit here and write this next installment about our trip, I realize exactly how much we saw and did in such a small amount of time! Wow! I am also sad because it makes me miss traveling... I think another trip is in order.. After we left Parc de la Cituadella, we wandered through the narrow Barcelona streets back to our rental office to check into our apartment. Along the way I took one of my favorite pictures of the trip! This guy was trying to stay cool in the shade outside of his owners store. Once we arrived at our place on Las Ramblas, we threw our stuff down and ran right back out the door! There were things to see and do! We made our way down the famous Las Ramblas and took in all the interesting sites to see. There are flower stands, gift shops, street performers and people selling art and jewelry. One of the most famous stops, and the place Jake was the most excited to see, was Mercat de la Boqueria. It is a market space made up of hundreds of stalls where all the locals go to buy and sell fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese, candy and seafood. There are a handful of tapas places located right in the market and if you see and open seat, I would grab it fast! They are in high demand! We waited for a seat at El Quim, which Jake had done a little research about. It was such an amazing meal. We ordered olives in a cava reduction, patatas bravas (aka potatoes in an amazing spicy sauce..aka my favorite thing ever), prawns in garlic and cava reduction, and thin sliced "acorn fed" Iberian ham. I had never heard of Iberian ham before, but my goodness it was amazing. Silky smooth and almost oily to the touch. The best part about the tapas place was they were about as big as a walk-in closet with about 6-7 cooks all running around making the food fresh. After the amazing meal we decided to continue our walk down Las Ramblas where we obviously stopped and enjoyed some sangria. At the bottom of Las Ramblas you run into the port area, where there was a monument to good old Christopher Columbus. I made Jake ride the lion that was there. I mean come on, how could one resist? Our visit in Spain was just getting started, but I already felt I had been in the city for weeks!
So, I didn't post any "Days in Nature" posts in July because, I mean come on I think this counted, right? So last weekend I had the pleasure of spending a girls weekend in the Shenandoah valley shacked up in a pretty sweet cabin complete with fire pit, hot tub and tubes for cruising down the river. We had so many things planned, but someone else had a different idea.. Irene decided that she also wanted to come and join the party, and bring all her rain and wind with her. Now, we didn't have as much as our friends right on the coast, but it did manage to squash our river tubing and time around the fire pit. As always though, we made the best of our situation and decided a nice drive along skyline drive would be just the ticket! Once we made our way to the park, we stopped off at the visitors center for a very important thing... The National Park Passport! This is something that a few of our friends have bought and are having a blast trying to complete, so.. I decided to join the fun! You basically visit every national park in the U.S. and get a stamp at every visit! After getting our stamps, we did a little drive along Skyline Drive. Rain? Fog? Wind? Nah, we had a great time and actually saw some amazing views despite the weather. I wish we could of had better weather for a more outdoorsy experience, but all in all it was a great trip and now I have my passport trips to look forward to!
This sandwich came from a combination of many inspirations, and I think actually turned out to be one of my favorite recipes of all time! I know right? The first inspiration came to me from this sandwich: This amazing looking sandwich is from a local restaurant called Rams Head. It has portobello mushrooms marinated in jalepeno cilantro vinaigrette, roasted red peppers, spinach, tomato, melted mozzarella and roasted red pepper aioli on focaccia bread. I die. This is also one of my most favorite pictures I have ever taken. Just look at that cheese! Once I started thinking about a portobello sandwich, I started to remember one I saw on Pioneer Woman a while back, that I always wanted to try. This sandwich is the Portobello-Prosciutto Burger. It has grilled portobello mushrooms soaked in red wine, topped with provolone cheese, prosciutto, basil lettuce and a basil mayo on a Kaiser roll. Yea, I also die. So keeping these two sandwiches in mind, I came up with a little hybrid of the two that I think turned out AMAZING! If I do say so myself... What I used: Portobello (duh), red pepper, spinach, on a Kaiser roll with a basil mayonnaise. Now, yes there is pepper-jack cheese in this picture, but I did not end up using it. I swapped it for some parmesan instead. I first roasted the red pepper on my gas stove, and let it rest covered in a bowl for 15 minutes. I then drizzled my portobello with EVOO and a little salt and pepper before slapping it on the good old George Foreman. It is also a must that you toast the bread. Understand? Chop up the basil and mix with the mayo to spread on the toasted bun. Place your spinach and sliced red pepper on the dressing, and then slap that portobello right on top and there you have it! I honestly think I am hooked for life on these sandwiches. The mushroom is so meaty that you don't even realize you aren't eating meat! There is also nothing better than a roasted red pepper, just saying.
Please do yourself a favor and make this ASAP! Portobello Sandwich 1 portobello mushroom cap 1 red pepper handful of spinach 1 Kaiser roll 1 TB mayo 1/2 TB chopped basil Roast the red pepper until thoroughly charred on the outside. place in covered bowl and let sit for 15 min. Then wash under cold water to remove char. Drizzle mushroom cap with EVOO and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill for 5-10 min (depending on size). Mix mayo and basil and spread on toasted Kaiser roll. Assemble your sandwich and enjoy! |