Happy husband

Adam got a draw knife.

Using it looks like this:

And this:

He's taking the huge log (previously referenced here) and smoothing it out to make a bench. The garage smells wonderful because the log is cedar.

Adam just came in and said that using the draw knife was *totally awesome*, and I asked if I need to find him more logs and he said yes! Win! We'll end up with a whole house full of woodsy furniture.

Bench trial--a success. Spencer agrees.

And I just like this photo because Spenc's head is the only thing moving. :)

Food Lately

Been a little busy around here...no time for blogging!

But, we have been eating well.

Definitely snacking well! Adam made Chex Mix...recipe from his brain. 

I made granola, which is actually more like crunchy toasted oats (not very sweet), recipe here. This stuff is perfect to add to plain low fat greek yogurt with a dollop of jam. 

And, I made more meatballs! These are not cheese stuffed ones (like I made before) but they are my own creation based off of the cheese stuffed ones (very similar but I used shredded mozzarella instead of romano mixed in with the beef). I used four and half pounds of beef for these! We've got a bunch in the fridge and lots more in the freezer. 

And Adam made chicken noodle soup from scratch! (Even made his own stock!) Very good. Chickens were on sale so we've actually got a whole chicken in the slow cooker now to make more stock (and more shredded chicken!). 

FYI: That's not actually canned, we just use jars for leftovers sometimes. 

Tonight I made tasty (but not very photogenic) grilled cheese sandwiches to eat with pears and soup leftovers. I had two ends of bread left so I made sandwiches on both cornmeal bread and sweet white bread with cheddar and swiss. Ya!

Fig delight

Figs, fresh from the tree.

Feta.

Proscuitto. 

Broil.

Crispy. Sweet. Salty.

e a t.

Nutella and meatballs...

Over the weekend we got inspired....we made our own Nutella!

We started by toasting the hazelnuts (350 degrees, about 10-12 minutes) and
then removing their skins by rubbing them in a textured towel.

Then, we processed the nuts alone for about 7 minutes, until they started to form a paste.
We added some cocoa powder and powdered sugar.
After processing that, we added a little canola oil until the texture became more spreadable.

This is the finished product!

We both agree that ours is MUCH less sweet than store bought Nutella. And, we like ours best off of a spoon--not on toast; the flavor is not strong enough to hold up with bread, crackers or cookies. In comparison, regular Nutella tastes sickly sweet, so sweet it hurts my teeth!

After our Nutella adventure, I made these:

They are actually mozzarella stuffed meatballs and we ate them as mini-hamburgers (recommend hearty dinner rolls for buns). They were a total hit--amazing!! I got the recipe here and we highly recommend them!

Mt. Rose Weekend: Cooking

A week ago we went up to Tahoe for the weekend. We drove up to Auburn and ran and biked in the ravine, and then drove up the hill Saturday evening. We drove on Highway 267 and, just after Brockway Summit, turned off the highway and drove out the (paved!) road to Watson Lake. We found the small (free!) campground and parked the van, and then went on a short hike to the summit of Mt. Watson. The campground is totally rustic (parking spaces and fire rings but nothing else), but it was quiet and scenic, and we liked it. 

Then, we cooked! 

We baked bread in the dutch oven. I had pre-made the dough in the bread machine. 

We drank tea, and made a chicken pot pie filling to eat with our freshly baked bread.

For dessert, I went all out and made blondies (read: butter, brown sugar, a little flour), with three kinds of chips: mini semi-sweet and regular size dark chocolate, and peanut butter. Yes!

The next morning...

We drove up Mt. Rose and Adam and Brian mountain biked, and I hiked with the dogs on the Tahoe Rim Trail. We saw two deer! Big ones. And some great views: 

I loved the meadow near where we parked.

DOGFACE II

Again, with the leaf on the face. This one wins because you can see her teeth. 

Highway 88-Kirkwood, Lake Margaret, Meiss Trailhead

So, a few weeks back we did a fun weekend of hiking around Highway 88 near Kirkwood.

We only had the phone with us for pictures this whole weekend...I apologize...
This is on the hike out to Lake Margaret.

On Saturday, we met up with a friend of mine and hiked all over the actual Kirkwood Ski area (looking for a lost ski...don't ask..! :) ). That was fun (TONS of ski run flowers!) and we probably did maybe 5 miles there. That same afternoon, we went just a tiny bit farther up Highway 88 to the Lake Margaret trailhead. Our hiking book said this was a pretty easy 5 mile round trip hike, so we decided it would be a good finish to our day.

Lake Margaret (sorry for the lack of lake pictures, you'll have to imagine here!) is a very pretty small lake, and the hike isn't easy (more like a solid moderate) but it also isn't terribly long. There are a few campsites around the lake so it could even be an easy overnight backpacking trip (even good with small kids!). I went for a swim--it was PERFECT! A lovely way to end the day.

Meiss hike flowers

The next day, we went even farther up Highway 88 to the Meiss Trailhead and hiked out to Meiss Lake. This was an absolutely stunning hike. The flowers were in full bloom, the weather was perfect, there was still snow on the surrounding mountains...really it was amazing. During the hike we kept having to yell out, "SO PRETTY!! PRETTY!" Of course, we still only had the phone with us to take pictures (so this post really is lame...telling about pretty things and illustrating them with crummy phone pictures....).

Our destination is in the background, Meiss Lake. The dogs LOVED this wet meadow!

Everyone relaxing at the lake.

Hiking out...picturesque!

Highly recommended hikes, particularly in the height of flower season! Meiss trailhead also looks like a fantastic place to go snowshoeing--we will definitely check it out this winter!

Winner for best action shot: