Quick yummo of the week- Vegetarian style.

I came across an interesting recipe that is really not much of a recipe, as you can throw together whatever you want and do this.....

This Asparagus and Mushroom melts recipe was from here- Oh My Veggies is a great vegetarian recipe blog.  I don't do a lot of bothering with new things so much anymore.  I tend to throw stuff together, figure out a sauce or flavoring and put it over something.  I have a lot of templates that I use and frequently it is just steam some veggies and shake on any number of hot sauces that I own. 

ANYWAY, this looked really good to me earlier in the week and I ACTUALLY had the mushrooms, asparagus and some sour dough bread in the freezer.  Must have been fate.  So whilst whipping up a batch of sugar candy for the bees, I also made up these melts.

None of this is very hard- toast your bread in the broiler.  Sauté some onion (they say shallots, but you use what you have) in olive oil, add in some chopped mushrooms and then a minute or two later some chopped asparagus.  Let this cook a wee bit, until it is the doneness you like and mix in a teaspoon of red wine vinegar (really do this, can't explain why, but it is a good part of the flavor profile) and some thyme leaves.  Pile this all up on your sourdough, top with cheese - the first round I put on some shredded swiss and some parmesan flakes.....  and broil it until its melty/toasty.

Well this was so good that I made it again the next night, this time I had stopped and picked some provolone which I used instead of the swiss.  And then I did try out some hot sauce on the top and that is a complete winner.  I used the original Louisiana Hot Sauce for this- didn't want any lime or chipotle or other flavors on this. 

I can see using something like broccoli for this melt too- in fact the OMV recipe was a riff on Smitten Kitchens Broccoli melts.... and you just can never go wrong with a SK recipe.

So, yeah, if you are wanting something fast easy and yummy- try this.  I suppose you could put something like bacon on it too, but I for one see no need.....  But you knew that, didn't you.  coming up on 4 years vegetarian and have never looked back.  

A little Mad Update!

It has been almost a month and what the heck is going on here??  Lol, I have been sort of busy with stuff, and here is a small rundown.

Lola really took this all like a trouper! Other of us, not so much.

 First of all- the play is done and also so is the 3rd quarter.... this sort of speaks for itself I think.

Next- Spring break happened, as did Easter.  As did some doofus kid in the HS (who is lucky I don't remember who they are) sneezed in my general direction and was SICK for the entirety of spring break.  Not like deadly sick after Sunday/Monday but still.  GEEZ.

I was recovered enough Tuesday to go visit the Janesville Oswalds, though I was a little out of it most of the time.  Oh well.  Got to do some Easter egg dyeing and went to the library and the Discovery center and some things like that.  That was pretty enjoyable!  :)

Got to see the Park Falls Oswalds on Easter when they came over to have supper on that Sunday.  SO much fun to see all of them.  Grandchildren are the best, people!!

I may or may not have indicated that I have acquired a new camera/lenses and to go with that new photo editing software.....  And man have I got a lot of learning to do....  These days you will find me glued to my computer screen going through Lightroom editing videos.  It is so different than Aperture, which is what I was using before.  And I have to figure out a way to get my pictures from one computer to another.... its all so damn complicated and I am far from being a computer newbie.  UGH.  Good thing I have a friend who has helped me a little figure this stuff out, now I owe him some honey.  And probably a portion of my soul or something.  hehe

The melting ice at the boat landing....  hurry UP already

Anywho, I've been only able to get out for limited amounts of picture taking since the weather has been decidedly uncooperative these days.  But that is sort of no excuse, but really at this time of the year, no one wants to see shot after shot after shot of grey clouds.  Least of all this sunshiney person.  So I am slowly beginning to reload my RAW files from my SD cards into my new computer and will begin reprocessing. All this sounds like first world problems, I know, but the struggle is real.  HA!!!

A maple tap sap drip!

Let's see what else.... oh.  I am getting to that time during tax season where I am sick of being alone.  This is all exacerbated by the fact that I can't be kayaking.....  I have a super long lens JUST FOR THIS PURPOSE of getting the birds on the water in the early spring and things are not cooperating.  Le sigh.  Anyway, as much as I LOVE my alone time, I'm over this whole thing.  I still do not fully understand why tax season continues until April 18 this year, so another weekend of no interruptions and quiet in the house and.... so what is the issue here??  HAHA  Sorry honey.  Seriously though, it will be nice to do something like have a driver for my photography addiction.

Speaking of addiction- If I don't get up to Bayfield soon, I am going to run away from home.  Lol.  I need Coco's, Madeline Island and The Bigwater Coffee shop asap, with some hiking thrown in for good measure.  Like- gotta go soon!!!  The lake is calling me.

Anyway, that is all for this update.  I might have a photo post in me later... but for now I have to go do a few more things before I go out for lunch.  Which is a good part of Tax Season- out for lunch!  :)

This week the temperature is sure to be going up and you WILL find me in my kayak by the weekend.  And that will bring me a lot of joy!

Bees and ice

My my my, I have fallen behind on blogging.  Last time I did that I ended up having various stupid things happen to me and then I had nothing but time to write out my woes ..... maybe all a coincidence, but maybe not!  HA!  

Smith Lake is starting to thaw

Anyway, I have been wanting to blog for a while, but I have this life that keeps me hopping.  The play, in specific, was a time consumer.  I will say, this was quite the remarkable group of kids.  No drama, everyone took care of themselves, and their props and costumes, and it was pretty amazing.  I enjoyed them very much!  They all (well almost all) listened when I ask them to get out of the way of the stage crew, and they cheerfully cleaned up after themselves and it was good.

Stage crew

I had company on my porch!

Anyway, this particular past weekend, Saturday was just a spectacular day.  Warm (yes- 65 in March- warm!!) ;) and sunny and lovely.  Why, I even sat in the sun in the morning on my lovely yellow Adirnondack chair.  After doing a bunch of errands, I went for a walk down to the lake, carrying my new camera equipment, which is incredibly heavy!  Lol.  I was so happy to be outside, and in the sun and not in school. It has been really cloudy/rainy/icy and I haven't been as active as I want to be.  So, it was a great thing to be outside.  I checked out the ice and refused to walk out on it, though there were people who indeed walked out right in front of me

So the other interesting thing that went on is that we have verified that indeed one of the bee hives has lived through the winter.  Upon discussion with a fellow beekeeper that I know, I found out that the Mad-Middle son had some pollen patties left, so the bees got some protein, which is probably pretty important at this time of the year.  You should see those poor bees flying around trying to  find something to eat.... they did hang out in the driveway, I assume drinking water.

I took pictures of the bees from a safe distance (they were a little cranky) with my new long camera lens.  I put out one honey frame that did not get cleaned out completely, and they were all over it.  Bees are such interesting little things. 

The kids cleaning out a honey comb

Lots of bee butts in the air

I did cook up a batch of sugar candy for the hive this weekend as well.  Want to make sure that they get enough calories for the next month of bee famine. Anyway, I made it and left it until the MA could put it out, as I was too tired to go out on Sunday afternoon when I got back from the play.  We removed the 3 discs from the paper plates and he sort of folded them up a little and left.  He marched right back into the house less than 5 minutes later with said sugar candy because the bees were still hanging out - similar to the photo below.....

They sure are messy in the spring- here they are hanging out outside of the hive on a lovely 60 degree day. 

Unbeknownst to me, he laid the blob of cooked sugar water on top of a package of chocolate chip cookies (that's right- nothing homemade this weekend).  Right before we went to bed, I heard a rustling from the front room, where he had gone to lock the door and such.  I looked into the room to see him trying to pull the table cloth out of the sugar blob, and then started to try to remove the sticky mess from the cookies package.  This candy is not rock hard, and eventually flows and bends.... especially since it isn't really very cold out.  I rolled my eyes so hard at this one!  Shaking my head, I took the whole mess and threw it into the freezer overnight.  good grief.  I was able to fairly easily take the now frozen sugar mass off of the plastic package and lay it on another paper plate, where it stayed until the bees were presented with breakfast Monday morning.....  always an adventure living with this supposedly intelligent person who is in sort of work induced state of stupor.   Similar to what I am like most afternoons, but have the luxury of recovering from my stresses in relative peace and tranquility.  At least now that the play is done....

We all have our work crosses to bear I guess.

Anyway, onto a definitely not spring-like week.  While we have started off warm, things are looking to go downhill quickly.  We shall see!  I won't jinx it here...  

Until next time, be a joy giver!!  

Today's yummos

I usually do a bit of cooking on the weekends...  it is hard to find good vegetarian things that are fast and easy to make or convenient to have on hand!  There is no open a can of tuna, ya know?  Anyway, I get tired of frozen stuff, of which our grocery store has a sort of ok selection, so I cook.  And if only I could get someone to wash dishes and clean up after me.

So let me digress for a moment to Coco's of Washburn.  The Mad-English teacher and I frequently will split up orders of dal and falafel and enjoy 2 amazing dishes. While I love the falafel, I adore the masoor dal that they make.  It has warm Indian spices, a little pepper hotness and yet has a punch of ginger from a red cabbage component and a yogurt sauce that has cucumber and possibly dill. Anyway - I continue to try and replicate this dish, only because I can't get up to Washburn more than every 4-6 weeks or so.  

Dal with gingered cabbage and yogurt

I've made dal a couple times now- and I have that pretty well situated.  I used this "recipe", so to speak, and followed some of the recommendations, at least the things I had in my very well stocked spice rack.  But the red cabbage I wasn't sure at all about.

Gingered red cabbage

The dal I made last week I paired up with some fermented ginger carrots that I had in my frig.  THAT was really good!  Perfect complimentary foods, so I wanted to go the next step and work on that Coco's dish.

I found that most of the recipes are either  coleslaw or a sweet-sour recipe, but there were some that had a simple ginger based flavoring.  And this is what I went with- with a little adjustment.  I only put in one tablespoon of brown sugar and just a little balsamic vinegar.

I got the formula for dal from Food 52, a guideline for this simple dish.  I used yellow split peas, and threw a bit of turmeric and a piece of ginger in it, you cook it down for a while- up to an hour.

You saute the onion/garlic in oil and then heat up your spices  (I used cumin, coriander, pepper flakes and some good curry powder) to let them release their flavors, and pour that into the dal, then add in your veggies and in this case parsley.  Last week I used spinach for the greens.  

Then you cook that all down into this not quite soup, not really stew that is dal!  I combined a scoop of the cabbage and a scoop of yogurt that had a little za'atar on it, and then the dal.  I do not have access to naan or a lavash here, so flat bread it is! It was outstanding.  Not exactly what Coco's serves, but it is super good.  

It is so nice to come home and be able to have a quick and delicious supper after a LONG day at school.

Aaaaand, I had some bananas that I just didn't get a chance to eat this week.  So I made that amazing double chocolate banana bread recipe from last winter!  

Double chocolate banana bread

It is no wonder I am sleepy tonight!  I got a great walk in this morning, and I was only mildly bothered by ice chunks. ;)

Anyway, I am going to continue my evening and get ready to start a new week.... one that I hope is full of joy.

First photos

I have a new obsession- of course I have quite a few of them, which is why I am distracted like 24/7 these days- that thing is a new camera.  I recently had a little unexpected ship that came in (our family's euphemism for money coming in from an outside source, to put it in a fairly dull way) and so I got myself some better camera equipment.

My first thought was a boring thing, like pay off a bill that I have- I mean that was the only thing that sprang to mind when I found out about this.  Then I thought.... hey I could pick up that new camera lens I have been saving for/coveting/drooling over....  then the ideas came pouring in and I could spend 3 times as much-  you know how that goes.

So I consulted with a photog friend of mine about the lens and she insisted (!) that I get a new camera body as well, and as long as I was getting a telephoto lens, I should get a wide angle to go with the rest of it, and so that is sitting on my coffee table right meow!

It is an interesting thing about me- I have no problem spending money in my head, I have NO problem enjoying these things that I get.  I have a real issue actually pulling the trigger on big purchases.  I guess because so many things like this I waited to have the money for them, and in reality I did for this too, but to actually go and buy like this-almost without restraint- was really weird.  It made me strangely uncomfortable.  I have gotten over it. :)

I actually enjoy the anticipation of getting as much as the having (um, well, sort of), apparently delayed gratification is a pleasure for me.  I really do like the waiting and thinking about things and what I will do with them.  It is satisfying when it happens then and I really appreciate what I have in my hands.  I took 10 whole photos so far.  The first night- and I knew this would happen- I couldn't even do anything with it, as I had to charge the battery.  I plugged it in after I got home late from play practice- and it was ready just as I headed to bed....  I knew better than to do anything with it then.  So I thought about it all day, and by the time I got home Wednesday night I was fairly twitching.  So many new things to learn, and I am just bathing in the joy of this....

Such a pretty girl! Canon 70D with a Sigma 24-70 4.5 lens

I took the first photo that night- nothing struck me as very interesting in the house- so I made a self portrait.  Just for something to do.  Yesterday then, I went outside and did a little bit there.  I took a Lola picture and eventually a sunset picture, and in between I took this of one of the kitties.  I was smitten with the camera then and there.  The lighting was perfect, her expression was adorable and I got her in a perfect pose.  This photos was cropped and nothing else.  I learned a few settings on the fly, and was quite happy with this first grouping of pictures.  It is quite amazing how different cameras are from one another.  Now I have to figure out if I truly want to use the wifi connectivity or not.  If it doesn't work it will make me INSANE, and none of us wants that.  haha.

So I have been digging around on line and have ordered a companion manual and all that- I could read the camera instructions, but wow people, those things are boring.  :)  I have to find it, though, I know I will need it today.  All those words and almost no pictures....  hehehe.  Seems sort of ironic that a camera manual is so text based and not so much visual.

Anyway, I should finish this off.  The MA will be up soon and I need to go to get a little pampering session for my toes and the horse won't feed himself- not in the winter at least.  OH- Jacpot portraits will be coming I should think.  Maybe someone should send me daffodils so I could shoot those inside.....  So many wonderful possibilities for the day....  so much joy to be discovered.

Winter in the north

I had been waiting for this adventure for quite a while- this little trip to Bayfield.  It was originally made to give us a place to crash after the Book Across the Bay, which we decided for a variety of reasons to nix.  Much of it is related to my fear of ice(y water).  Lol, say what you will that and a few other things made us decide to snowshoe on dry land.  Good decision for us, really.

Ravine Trail in Bayfield

Ravine Trail

Jerry Jay Jolly Trail

Jerry Jay Jolly Trail

We - meaning the Mad-Science Teacher and the Mad-English Teacher and I - began our journey by heading up to Washburn and ate at the fabulous Coco's.  This of course is no big surprise, and our breakfast was fantastic, which is also no big surprise.   After eating, we went to check out the Jerry Jay Jolly Trails to see where it was, and then took a drive over to the Big Ravine trail over by the Bayfield High school.  These were two fantastic places to snow shoe.  Big hills, beautifully groomed trails and a sunny day made for some amazing hours out in the snow.  These are some really good wide trails that made it a pleasure for us to walk.  

Ice 

While one of us stayed at the Bayfield Inn, the other two of us stayed at the delightful little Isaac Wing house- in the QEII apartment.  It is a cozy little place on the bottom floor that has a reasonable view of the lake.  Reasonable enough for photographer sorts to notice amazing sunrises and have to dash out to the dock in really, really, cold weather!!  Anyway, it is such a nice place with a little sitting area and a mini kitchen and most importantly, 1 block away from Big Water Coffee!!  :)

The ice and the ferry trail

Ferrys in dock

We enjoyed a really nice meal at Gruenke's where we entertained ourselves quite nicely with lively conversation and a few unexpected purse surprises....  it was one of those  you had to be there moments.  The rest of the evening was filled with us chit chatting, walking around in the dark, and finally turning in a little early.  I was tired but unfortunately as is my weirdo habit, didn't fall asleep.  Until way late.  ugh.  But all was well, I do well with a day or two of poor snoozing.

A sad little photo of the docks at night...  lol

The next morning, as I alluded to above, while began as not the greatest looking sunrise, developed into a spectacular one.  I am so excited to have captured this.  I felt like my trip was done.  I had a wonderful Saturday, but that moment was just amazing.

Sunrise over the ferry and the dock

Waiting for summer

Clouds and color

 Well, of course we were not done, as we had some Island visiting to do.  There was a powerful need for the three of us to get over to the island and that need was met.  It is a very interesting thing to ride that ferry through the ice. The ferry rides sort of low in the back and shakes and rocks and makes quite a noise as it cuts its path through the slush.  It is a little unsettling when it is your own car on that ferry! :)

Heading out on the ferry

slushy

The Science teacher in her element

We spent the morning on the island walking at Big Bay State Park, looking out at the ice formations, chatting with people and their doggies (of course we talk to their doggies)  and generally having a great time.  Got a couple of good pictures too!

It was a great weekend, though we surely should have stayed another day, but that will have to wait for summer....  which cannot come soon enough.

However we should not be wishing our life away, so I will find my joy every day.