Fruited Baked Oatmeal

When PreventionRD's baked oatmeal showed up in my google reader this week, I knew it was something I had to try. I had (mostly) all the ingredients on hand so I whipped it up this morning for breakfast.

My one modification was that I added in fresh fruit. I had some apple slices that hadn't gotten eaten, so I chopped them up and mixed them in about half of the dish, making it apple-cinnamon baked oatmeal. Another section got some fresh raspberries.

Mine didn't hold together because I didn't have the full 3 cups of oats on hand (just a little over 2 1/2) - rather than run out for more I just made do. Even crumbly, it was fantastic!

I imagine this would be amazing with a whole bunch of mixed berries.

Baked Oatmeal

(adapted from PreventionRD, originally from Taste of Home)

3 c. oats
1 c. brown sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 c. milk
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 t. vanilla extract
Fresh fruit, chopped

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Add in fruit as desired.

Pour into a greased 9 in. square pan and back at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until set. Serve warm and enjoy!

Grilled Pizza

I kept seeing recipes for grilled pizza in my google reader and I was really intrigued. How does it not fall through? Wouldn't it stick? Still, it sounded good. I finally got around to making it for dinner tonight and it was good - really good. And surprisingly easy.

I rolled out several smaller balls of pizza dough and laid them on the grill. After a minute or two, flip them over and add the toppings you want. We kept them on until the cheese was bubbly.



I used non-stick grill spray and had no trouble with the dough sticking. I made my own pizza dough using the recipe below and it took less than an hour total - you could easily speed this up by using store-bought dough.

Pizza Dough
Enough for 4 small pizzas
(adapted from Finding Joy in My Kitchen)

1 1/2 T. yeast
1 C. warm water
1/2 T. Salt
1 T. Olive Oil
1 T. Honey
1 C. Bread flour
2 C. All-Purpose Flour

In a large bowl, combine water and yeast. Let sit for 2 minutes. Add in oil, salt and honey and stir. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add the flour mixture and knead until the dough ball begins to stick together.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover. Allow to rise for 30 minutes until the dough is doubled in size.

Garden Update

A few months ago I showed you the little container garden I started. Everything did make the move, but it's not doing as well since. I'm thinking it's mostly because of the crazy heat we've been getting here.

The lettuce died out completely and all of the herbs pretty much keeled over. This is what it looks like today:



Despite the sorry look, it is giving us some produce. I picked these guys from the garden today, and there's an eggplant and some more tomatoes that are ready to be picked soon.



The real surprise, though, has been these guys:



Cherry tomatoes!

The previous owners must have had their garden in the same spot, because they popped up right around the time we moved in. I've been watering them and they're thriving!

A Quick Note on Blog Comments

I've been digging through all the comments left while we were away (and before we left, and after we'd gotten home) and it seems like I can't respond to most of them.

Why? Because so many you comment-ers don't have your emails showing in your blogger profiles!

If you go into your blogger profile, there's a little box you can check off that says "show my email address". This doesn't actually put the address in your profile - but it does put a link in so people looking at your profile can email you.

It also makes it so when you comment on blogger blogs (like mine), the blog owner (me) can reply directly to you. I completely understand and respect privacy concerns, but I'd love to be able to reply to more of your comments and questions.

And if you don't want to update your profile but would like me to reply or chat drop me an email (found in my blogger profile) and let me know - I'll keep it "on file" so when you comment I can write you back.

Outer Banks: Souvenirs

I used to bring a lot home from vacations - pins, postcards, trinkets, shirts. I also didn't used to travel as much. Sometime after a few dozen trips together, Mark and I decided to pair down on our souvenirs.

I've already mentioned here that we ditched getting each other Christmas ornaments each year in favor of picking up an ornament from where we've vacationed that year. The hope is that someday we'll have a tree full of travel memories. We picked up a sparkly shell one for this trip.

The other memento we brought home was a local cookbook. We've gotten these on our last few trips and it's a lot of fun to be able to recreate the local cuisine once we're home again.

What are your favorite things to bring back from vacation?

Outer Banks: Duck Donuts

I love trying the local restaurants when we travel. My favorite of the trip was definitely Duck Donuts. All of the doughnuts there are fresh (as in, just came out of the fryer) and made-to-order (as in, they add glazes/toppings after you order them).

I was pretty much in my glory.

Those are our doughnuts getting glazed up!

Top row: 2 chocolate glaze, naked, powdered sugar
Middle Row: vanilla glaze, maple glaze, 2 cinnamon sugar
Bottom row: glazed, strawberry glaze with rainbow sprinkles, strawberry glaze

Can you guess which one was mine?

Outer Banks: Currituck Beach Lighthouse

We drove up to Corolla one day and checked out the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. It was cool to see, but the real gem of the day we stumbled on by accident.



After we checked out the lighthouse we were walking the grounds trying to find the nearby historic village. There was a dirt road we thought it would be down, but the road was blocked by a car. We saw people down there though, so we went to check it out. What did we find? A shipwreck - possibly from 1609.

The wreck was uncovered on Corolla beach after some storms this past Fall. It was moved off the beach to this location by the lighthouse. On the day we were there, they were loading the shipwreck up to be transported to a museum in Hatteras.

We were standing right next to the ship. Maybe it's the history geek in me, but I was so excited to be standing next to such a cool piece of history.

Outer Banks: Elizabethan Gardens

Our first full day in North Carolina we headed over to the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo - they were beautiful. And, they were full of hydrangeas and crepe mrytle! As we re-do the landscaping of the yard, I'm going to be adding in some hydrangea but after seeing all the pink crepe mrytle I'd love to have those too. We'll see if they'll survive in the NJ cold!

The whole crew - Mark's Dad and Mom, Mark's brother Andy, Mark, Me, Mark's Uncle Pete and Aunt Susan

Update on Our Patient

I picked up Kali from the vet yesterday afternoon and so far, so good. She's shaved on her belly and has staples where they opened her up. She has to wear a cone and she has to stay secluded until she goes back for her follow-up appointment.

All things considered, though, she's doing great. She's in good spirits - wants to cuddle and doesn't want to stay in her room.

But, she looks a little pathetic.

We're planning a quiet weekend around here to give both her and Rocky a lot of TLC. We have to keep Kali in isolation for another week - hopefully the week goes quietly and quickly!

Good, Bad

Good: Mark and I got to spend the last few days getting some much needed R & R down in North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Bad: Our R & R was cut short when we got a phone call from my Mom this morning saying Kali was sick and they were taking her to the vet. Turns out she managed to eat a small piece of ribbon and they ended up doing surgery to remove it from her intestines.

I'm feeling like the worst kitty-Mom ever right now. Kali was sick and needed me and I was eight hours away laying on the beach. I know, logically, that me being here really wouldn't have changed anything - but I'm feeling incredibly guilty that I wasn't around.

Thankfully, we left the cats in good hands while we were away - my family's - and they whisked her off to the fantastic animal trauma center who fixed her up nicely. She's spending the night there recovering and should be home tomorrow or the next day.

Still, the house seems so empty with one of our kitties missing. I can't stand it.

Anyone know what kind of plant this is?

This plant was the table centerpiece at the retirement dinner for Mark's parents a few weeks ago. Our gardener (Mark's Mom) isn't sure what it is - any ideas?

Grilled Dijon Chicken & Fabulous Leftovers

I love this recipe because it's really a two-fer. It's good the first time around, but as leftovers? Awesome.

The first time around, it's Dijon-marinated chicken on the grill. The second time around, it's these great, gooey sandwiches:

You can stop drooling now! Seriously, though, they've quickly become a favorite around here.

Dijon Chicken Marinade
(from Homemade By Holman)

1/3 c. Dijon mustard
2 T. apple cider vinegar
2 T. honey
1 T. lemon juice
1 t. dried thyme
1 t. smoked paprika
1 t. black pepper
1/2 t. salt

Add mustard, vinegar, honey and lemon juice to a bowl and whisk until smooth. Add spices and stir. Place chicken breasts in a large Ziploc bag (I used about 1 1/2 lbs.) and add the marinade. Close the bag and move the chicken around to make sure they're evenly coated. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Grill over medium high heat for 10-12 minutes, turning once.

Dijon Chicken Club Sandwiches
(also by Homemade by Holman)

For each sandwich:
2 slices of bread
2 slices of bacon (already cooked)
1 slice mozzarella cheese
Leftover chicken, cut up
1 t. Dijon mustard
butter

The general idea here is that you're making a jazzed-up grilled cheese. Prepare a skillet over medium-high heat. You want to butter one side of each piece of bread. Put once slice butter-side down in the skillet and layer: mustard, cut up chicken, bacon, cheese. Top with other slice of bread, butter-side up. When the bread on the bottom gets to be golden-brown (about 3-4 minutes), flip the sandwich over and brown up the other side.

Photo Flashback: Outer Banks, NC

Ever get really lucky with a good picture? This is one of mine.

Mark and I - along with a group of our college friends - rented a house in OBX for a week right after finals in 2006. It was a fantastic trip. One of the last mornings there, Mark and I got up early to take a walk along the beach and watch the sun rise. We propped the camera on a fence post, set the self timer - and this is what we got.

Four years and literally hundreds of pictures later, it's still one of my favorites of the two of us.

Char Siu Pork for Two

I really wish scent-o-vision was already invented because this dish smelled divine. It's an Asian pork dish and a pared down version of this recipe from Crepes of Wrath. The original recipe calls for 3 lbs of pork and says it serves 2-3; I made it with slightly under a pound of pork and served it with rice and vegetables and it was more than enough for us.

Char Siu Pork

(Adapted from Crepes of Wrath)

1 lb. boneless pork loin

3 T. low-sodium soy sauce

3 T. oyster sauce

1 T. white wine vinegar

3 T. brown sugar

1/4 c. white sugar

1 t. Chinese 5 spice powder

1/2 t. salt

pinch of ground ginger

honey

Whisk together all ingredients except pork and honey. Place pork in a large Ziploc bag and add marinade. Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place pork in a greased pan (I used a Pyrex baking dish) and cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes then flip the pork and bake for another 20 minutes.

Remove the foil and turn the oven to broil for 5-8 minutes - until the skin is crispy and shiny. Take the pork out, baste it with juices from the pan and then brush liberally with honey. Slice it up and you're good to go!

Congrats, Cindy & Anthony!

Our friends Cindy and Anthony are tying the knot today! The ceremony should be starting right about now, actually.

We can't be there physically - but we're there in spirit. Wishing you guys all the best!

Anniversary Celebrating

Our first anniversary was low-key and perfect.

To mark the occasion we went to Sunday brunch at Perona Farms, where we had our wedding reception. Our wedding coordinator, Tracey, was seating guests and when we walked in she was like, "Don't tell me it's been a year already!" It was nice being remembered - and super nice that they treated us to mimosas.

One of the things I loved about Perona was that they really went out of their way to make you feel like family. Even though we're no longer wedding clients, Tracey was more than happy to step away from her hosting duties for a few minutes to take our picture in the garden.


A year later, I'm still so glad we had our reception there - and I'm hoping that we'll make going back a tradition.

On a similar note, our cake was still fantastic a year later. As you might remember, we decided not to wait to break into the top tier - but I did freeze two slices. They were delish!

On the gift front, I got the coolest paper gift ever. I had a really hard time coming up with anything creative or fun to fit into the traditional category; my husband, however, is a much better gift giver. He recreated our reception centerpieces using paper flowers.

These were our wedding centerpieces:

And this is Mark's recreation:

Coolest thing ever, no? It's sitting on my dresser and it's a lovely daily reminder of our wedding day.

I Write Like

One of my writer friends passed along this fun website - I Write Like - where you put in a sample of something you've written and it tells you who your writing is similar to. Cool, huh?

I plugged in my 2008 NaNoWriMo project and got:

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

My 2009 NaNoWriMo project got:

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that neigther name rang a bell. So, I did some googling.

According to Wikipedia:

David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California. He was widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which Time included in its All-Time 100 Greatest Novels list (covering the period 1923–2006). Los Angeles Times book editor David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years."

James Joyce was an Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Along with Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and others, Joyce was a key figure in the development of the modernist novel. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses (1922).

Apparently, I'm in pretty good company. I'm going to add some of their books to my to-be read list. Even if it is just a quick internet analysis, I think it would be interesting to read books by people I write like.

Who do you write like?

Hawk?

We've gotten pretty well acquainted with one of our neighbors so far - it seems we have a family of Hawks that live or hang out in the trees out back.

We've done some googling and we're pretty sure they are Cooper's Hawks. We did find bird pieces when we were cleaning up the yard over the weekend, so we believe they're hunting in the area. Thankfully, they're too small to be able to pose any real danger to the cats.

They do, however, hunt birds which has me wondering if I really want to hang up a bird feeder after all. I had my heart set on one because I would love to be able to sit out on the deck and bird watch. On the other hand, I'd rather not encourage the hawks to hang around by giving them easy prey.

What would you do?

Happy Anniversary

One year ago today, Mark and I said our wedding vows. Six years ago today we started dating.

The last six years have treated us so well. We've been able to travel more than I'd ever dreamed and spend a lot of time doing things we love. This last year has been particularly wonderful; we adopted the kittens and bought our first home.

I can only hope that the next fifty years are just as good to us.

Happy (First/Sixth) Anniversary, Mark. I love you, always.

Sentimental Gifts

We've gotten a bunch of great housewarming gifts, but I wanted to share this one as it's a sentimental favorite:

My Mom cross-stitched that for us! It's beautiful, and currently hanging up in our kitchen. We're so lucky to have such thoughtful and talented people in our life!

Future Projects to Tackle

Now that we've been in the house for a few weeks, our list of projects to do is really starting to grow. We'd love to re-do the kitchen at some point and we'd love to replace this vanity:

And after browsing through the vanities at JustVanities.com I was practically drooling. I think this one would look particularly nice.


JustVanities.com is one of CSNStores 200+ specialty shops. I did a review of their sites a few months ago and was really impressed. They must have heard we just moved and are tackling projects left and right because they've asked me to do another review.


The problem with CSNStores (which is hardly a problem) is they have so much we're having trouble deciding exactly what to get. The choices are:

A - Something practical that we may or may not need immediately.

As first time homeowners, there are tons of things that we need to get - shovels, rakes and other tools for around the yard.

B - Something fun for the new yard.

We have a great new yard and nearly no toys for it.

C - Something to help a future project.

We have plans to remove all the red rocks from the gardens and mulch instead - for that we'll need a wheelbarrow.

D - Something for a quick makeover.

We've talked about getting slip-covers for the couches to update the look of the living room.

E - Something for the cats.

We had no room for a cat tree in the apartment, and they would love something like this!

What would you pick? Or is there something else from CSNStores you think we need? We'd love to hear what you think before we decide!

Lots of Work Around the House

We've spent the better party of the last five days on getting stuff together at the house.

I painted the pantry.


And got it filled and organized.


The rest of the kitchen also got cleaned and organized. It actually looks like a kitchen now.


We bought a shower curtain and some other accessories for the downstairs bathroom.


Mark switched out the blades on one of the bedroom fans.


He also built me a shoe rack for my closet - which is all nice and organized now.


Mark's parents came down on Thursday and did some work in the front garden. They trimmed up all of the bushes and cleaned things out quite a bit. It looks much better.



We also power-washed the deck and all of the sidewalks. Mark and my brother, PJ, bought and assembled a lawnmower and PJ mowed the lawn. So much work for one weekend - going back to work today is going to seem like a break!