HAPPY WEEKEND

I love when new people come to Coeur d'Alene and I get to show them the cool stuff around my city. I grew up in Hayden, technically. Which is sort of like telling people you're from Seattle when you live in Kirkland. It's all the pacific northwest, but to outsiders Hayden and Coeur d'Alene are the same place - at least according to Nathan, who is apparently an authority on the subject.

Anyway, the two of us got to play tour guides of sorts for his grandparents this weekend. We took them to some great restaurants with some beautiful views - because if there's one thing Coeur d'Alene is not short on, it's them views. Lakes and mountains and pine trees and the forest is right in the middle of town - I mean, this is a dream world, people. 

Friday night we went to Dockside, which is hidden in a back corner of the resort and it over looks the marina. Nathan's grandma had never tasted huckleberries, which are basically the best berry you could ever eat in your life, so naturally that needed to be remedied. We ordered the huckleberry cobbler for dessert and it was ah-mazing.

Saturday Nathan and I drove out to a little tiny town an hour away to help celebrate my friend Joel's daughter's birthday. Joel, in all his expert communicator glory, did not relay the information that I would be in attendance so upon my arrival the kids ran out of the house and Jack jumped into my arms for the biggest hug I think you could get from a six year old. Which, that just made the whole drive out there worth it. Good gravy I love that family. Sheeeeesh. 

We met back up with the grandparents for another dinner with a gorgeous view at Tony's On The Lake. Nathan and I discovered it on a late night adventure last summer and he's basically been dying to go back ever since. And then we stood outside to take our picture with this giant bridge in the background because we are the coolest. 

And then, to round out our incredible dining experience, we hit up Le Peep (my favorite restaurant!) for lunch Sunday afternoon before we hugged and kissed goodbye. I love Le Peep, but I did not want to go. I was not ready to say adios to that Nathan kid. Sometimes these weekends with him just feel like a giant wonderful dream and then I have to wake up to a harsh reality that he lives two hours away. Sad face. 

All in all, it was a good weekend with great company and delicious food. Just come back already, Nathan. ♥

late night kitchen adventure

PC and I have this habit of playing video games in the evening for hours. Inevitably we will turn to each other and our respective stomachs will gurgle and grumble. 

"I'm hungry," he says. "What is there to eat?"

And then it is my job to figure out something to make. Usually I resort to chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven, covered in vanilla ice cream and slathered with chocolate syrup. But last night I didn't have any cookie mix, we were all out of ice cream and there was no chocolate syrup to be found.

That is when the miracle of the internet came into play. To the Googles! Because the internet knows everything. I typed in various ingredients that were stored in the pantry and tagged on the word dessert. I was greeted with hundreds of recipes, so I sorted through various ones that sounded appetizing and that we also had all the necessities. Mostly I wanted to only use things that we already had because a) it was late and i didn't want to go anywhere I didn't have to and b) going to the store means spending money, and I really just can't do too much of that at the moment.

So I found a recipe that was just exactly what I was looking for and I set to work. I got out all the ingredients I would need and started measuring them out and mixing them together.

After a couple minutes of measuring and mixing, my arm was tired from stirring everything together and I just wanted to sit for a bit. But the dough was looking fabulous and the oven was hot, so I spooned the dough onto the cookie sheet and set it to bake for 10 minutes.

The dough, undergoing transformation.

Ten minutes later I was greeted with piping hot chocolate chip scones that were absolutely delicious. Seriously you guys, I am turning into quite the little domestic housewife, except for the whole not actually being a wife part, you know how it goes.

We had a couple for dessert last night, and a few for breakfast this morning. The dough yields about 18 scones depending on how big you make them. I just used a table spoon, so some of my scones were a lot larger than others, but it's really up to you to decide how big you want them to be.


Chocolate Chip Scones
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 egg, well beaten plus milk, to make 1 cup
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. Grease or spray a large cookie sheet.
Stir together dry ingredients including the sugar. Cut butter into flour mixture. Add chocolate chips (or raisins if you want, or nothing if you're a plain jane kind of girl (or guy)), stir to mix well. Beat egg in measuring cup. Add milk to make 1 cup. Stir into flour. Drop roughly tablespoon size scoops on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

*You can knead 15-20 times and roll out and cut if you wish, but I prefer the ease of the drop method*

Half A Century

I spent most of my spring break in Arizona visiting my mom's side of the family for the joyous celebration of my maternal grandparent's 50th Wedding Anniversary Extravaganza. 

There were lots of people there I had never met before, so I hid behind the lens of a camera, documenting the momentous occasion instead of mingling with my relatives. I did a lot of mingling too, don't get me wrong, but there's only so much small talk I can take before this introvert needs some quality alone time. 

 

It seemed like it was a go-go-go-never stop vacation that you need a vacation from right after it's over to recuperate from. It would have been nice to end the trip with a whole day of blissful nothingness, but I tell you, school just has to ruin everything. I flew back Sunday morning, and departed again Sunday afternoon so I could come back to Moscow for school today.

So my day of nothingness was spent in an airport, on a plane and in a car. I fell asleep somewhere around 10 o'clock because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I think that's the earliest I've gone to bed in a long time, but I was totally exhausted. (A good kind of exhausted!)

Besides the fact there were many people in attendance whom I had never seen before in my life, there were quite a few family members I was happy to have the chance to hug again. I spent a lot of time with my aunt and uncles and my little cousin Princess M. We spent a whole evening making up Haiku poems because M loves to write poems and put words together - she's actually really good at it. She even memorized a poem to recite for the Anniversary Celebration.

Besides the anniversary party, I also attended my first major league baseball game (The Mariners and The Royals) (you can guess who won), but we also had a barbecue, and after the afternoon anniversary get together, we partied into the night (meaning, until about 9) with more family and more food.

The weather was beautiful, and the DP and I even commandeered some time out of our busy schedules to lounge around in the back yard in our swimsuits to soak up some sunshine. We read our books, listened to some music, played with the dog, and attempted to color our skin (we're still pasty white Idaho girls though).

And then, Saturday afternoon we prepped and primped and put on our smokin' hot dresses to wow the world. I think just about all of my relatives confused me and DP, and kept complimenting my mother on her beautiful girls.

Also, I think it literally shocked everyone when they asked me how old I was/what grade I was in. It took a few tries to get people to believe that I was a junior at a university, not a high school. That was pretty fun for me, to be honest.

Mom, DP and me. We are looking pretty snazzy! 

Grandma was just beside herself with joy I think the entire time. She was just right in her element, surrounded by all her family and friends. 

I'm pretty sure that everyone who came had a complete blast. I know my aunt worked really hard to pull a lot of things together, and once Mom, DP and I arrived we all worked hard setting everything up. I think it turned out beautiful, and even though I came home completely exhausted, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

Happy 50th Gramma and Grandpa!

If It Ain't Eggs, It Ain't Breakfast. I Love Eggs.

*I'm going to preface this post by saying that while I really do think eggs are an important part of breakfast, some of the delicacies I have listed here do not include these chicken produced wonders. However, that is not to say that I do not eat eggs alongside of or closely following the scrumptious foods of my breakfast list*

I'm glad it's the weekend. I really am. Weekends are the only days of the week where it is permissible to stay up until the earliest hours of the morning and sleep in past noon. Though, truth be told I usually crash around 2 o'clock, which seems to be the latest that my brain parts allow me to function, and I wake up crusty eyed somewhere around 9:30 or 10:00, which is just a couple hours before anyone else is awake.

It gets me thinking though, being awake all by myself, how nice it would be to have a kitchen to wander into. I could make breakfast! I could cook bacon. And eggs. And mix them together, throw them into a skillet warmed tortilla, slap on some salsa and scarf it down like there's no tomorrow. Because don't you know it, but I make some of the best breakfast burritos around.

Or, do you know what I've really been craving for breakfast? Whole wheat waffles with blackberries. And maple syrup. You see, I'm very picky about my pancakes, waffles included. I have to be in the right mood, the planets have to align just so, and someone else has to want them right along with me. This doesn't happen very often, and most of the time I only eat the flapjacks because they are there and I'm too lazy to cook anything else.

But I have to tell you that my absolute favorite breakfast food is Eggs Benedict. I have no idea why they call it Benedict, as I don't believe it has anything to do with treasonous acts of a certain Arnold of the Benedict variety. However, this way of preparing eggs is quite lovely. My mother makes a white jalapeño sauce occasionally instead of the traditional Hollandaise version. I love both. Poached eggs, Canadian Bacon (or slices of ham, whatever's available), toasted English muffins, and creamy sauce of your choice - what is NOT to love?

Nothing. Because everything I just listed is delicious.

French toast, with powdered sugar because people who eat it with syrup are nuts, is ranked number two in my lists of breakfast foods that deserve awards. Along with gooey, straight out of the oven cinnamon rolls. Cream cheese frosting please, and nothing else. Mmmm, I am making myself hungry. Perhaps I now have to make a trip to the grocery store in order to obtain the deliciousness that is not ever even in the slightest found in the school cafeteria also referred to as Bob's.

Great. Now I'm starving.

What do you eat for breakfast? And please don't say oatmeal, or I fear we'll never be able to become friends.   

What Natalie's Been Doing Instead Of Blogging

I was 'Natbat' for Halloween. I had mixed reviews on thoughts about my costume, but in the end, I liked it. And that's all that matters! 

I worked Halloween night, so there was no party wild nights for me. There was a family that came into the shop dressed as the Incredibles and one of my coworkers was a lovely Carmen San Diego. She had a brown wig, red trench coat and everything. It was awesome. 

Prince Charming came in to visit me wearing his creepy wooden mask he bought at a street fair this summer. It was shocking to see him walk through the door with long black hair and tusks sticking out of his hooded Twinlow sweatshirt. 

Prince Charming and I have been hanging out a lot with one of his friends from VTD and his girlfriend. We do a lot of "double dating" aka hanging out at their apartment playing video games, eating dinner, and going on WinCo runs. 

The other night I was craving lasagna, so I commandeered the kitchen at Prince's friends house (who really needs a good blog name, but I can't think of one at the moment) and I cooked us dinner. I didn't have all of the usual ingredients, but it turned out delicious and there were no leftovers.

And in my world, no leftovers = huge success.

Then I went to Zelda's on Wednesday for our annual Criminal Minds hang out night, where we baked these delicious goodies:

And then we decorated them for Halloween even though Halloween is over. We just weren't ready to decorate for Thanksgiving quite yet. We also watched episodes of Castle before the new Criminal Minds was on.

Aren't they cute? Those are the ones I did. I don't have a good picture of the ones that Zelda decorated, but hers were probably more awesome than mine, haha. I was too wrapped up in the show to really get into the decorating. 

Also, I've found some interesting stuff this week around town. I had to go to Moscow Building supply for some plexiglass for my printmaking class and while we were there we found these bad boys, but we didn't purchase them, so I can't tell you if they taste good or not. 

I didn't want it to magically turn me into a commie, so I just took their picture. 

 In my building this sign is posted on the doorway. I'm pretty sure it belongs on Fail Blog and not on the main entrance to my place of residence.

I just have to ask though, what does Chilly taste like?

The Makings of a Masterpiece

I got my hair cut. I like to keep it about shoulder length because when it gets longer than that it just hangs on my face and I can't really do much with it. 

Does it look blonde to anyone else? The last time I colored my hair is was a dark brown, but the sun popped out and here is this blonde hair showing up on my head! Not that I'm complaining because I was thinking about coloring my hair back to this dirty dishwater blonde, but now I don't need to. Which is awesome.

So with my new haircut in tow, we were trying to decide what to have for dessert. TheKeeper and I wanted chocolate cake, but I didn't get to make it until yesterday evening after dinner and by that time TheKeeper was in Las Vegas for a soccer tournament. 

But here is the masterpiece I created. I think I'm going to drop out of college and take up a degree in the Culinary Arts. (Yeah right.)

But it does look amazing, does it not? I am awesome I tell you! And modest too. So very modest. *ahem*