Kate & Lauren Go West-Days 3 & 4 (Tucumcari and Flagstaff)

  On day 3 of our epic road trip west, we got up and headed for Tucumcari, New Mexico.  First things first, breakfast at Whataburger! We were in Texas, we couldn't resist!

  We hit our first traffic jam in Dallas, but it wasn't too bad, and didn't last very long.  

The big D! And I do mean Dallas! 

After Dallas, the weather was terrible.  The radar looked like this: 

Not cool.  That blue stuff is snow.  Not cool.

At one point, we stopped to get gas, and snowflakes were actually hitting my face while I was pumping gas.  It was also freezing.  

From East Texas to West Texas, the landscape changed a lot. East Texas was hilly and more wooded, where as West Texas was FLAT and we could see for miles.  At least until the rain started.  One awesome thing about Texas is that the highway speed limit is 75. That was nice.  

Flat, flat, flat.  We were watching for twisters! 

I drove some of the way through West Texas and the only time I was truly uncomfortable was when we were driving through Amarillo.  Pouring rain, huge trucks, and traffic, aka the worst possible combination on a highway that I didn't know.  Not cool.  (This drive may have been my least favorite part of the whole trip).   Outside of Amarillo, we planned on stopping at the Cadillac Ranch, but when we passed by it was SO muddy.  Not worth it, so we waved at the cars and carried on. Eventually, we crossed into New Mexico.  

New Mexico! 

We were about 30 miles from our destination when Kate made me stop at the mid-point of Rt. 66.  I got out of the car for a minute but ugh, it was freezing and windy and the rain/snow was hurting my face.  Did not stay out there very long! 

 She had to get over there and take a pic.

This is how I felt about it.

We finally arrived in Tucumcari about 4:00 in the afternoon.  Why Tucumcari? Well...a friend of ours from high school is married to a guy whose family owns a motel (The Blue Swallow Motel) on Rt. 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and we got to stay there! Her and her husband and in-laws take turns running the motel.  I tell ya, it was one of the coolest places I have ever stayed. Everything was SO retro but in a very classy, well-done way.  I loved it there, and again, it was awesome to see friends! 

We had a garage next to our room that was painted on the inside. Very cool! 

The inside of the room.  I slept SO well that night! 

Kate and I with Jessica and Cameron. Thank you all again for your hospitality, we loved it there! 

The Blue Swallow has a webcam, and my sister saw us on it! Fun! 

Kate walking to our room after a very yummy dinner.  

We went to dinner at a place on Rt. 66 called Del's which was so delicious. We also had sopaipillas  and honey, which is a New Mexico thing. They were great.  (We may have had these in Texas too, but I can't remember!)  

After dinner, we got the tour of Tucumcari.  Much of it is abandoned these days, a far cry from it's hey day in the 50's and 60's.  Here is an old park, that apparently used to be a hopping place, but is now completely overgrown and empty.  This place reminded me of somewhere an urban photographer would go.  (If you don't know what those are, they are people who take photos at old and abandoned shopping malls, cities, parks, etc. I find their work fascinating.)

After dinner and our tour, we hung out in the lobby for a little while.  The Blue Swallow was at full capacity that night, (as they are most nights it seems!), and yet there were still a few people who stopped in looking for rooms.  It was really neat though, to get to talk to people from all over, and hear their stories.  If you are ever driving on Rt. 66, don't miss The Blue Swallow. It's fantastic! 

Day 4

We got up early again on day 4 (time zone change probs),  and headed for Flagstaff, Arizona.  

Back on Rt. 66! 

It wasn't a long trip distance wise, but we took our time getting there, and got to see a lot of neat things on the way.  The landscape continued to change as we went West.  

Our first sighting of mountains! 

    The first stop we made was in Old Town Albuquerque.  VERY cool place.  Lots of Indian shops, restaurants, and beautiful Southwestern buildings.  We shopped some and bought some souvenirs and then had an "authentic" New Mexican lunch.  I don't know what qualifies food as New Mexican, but I can tell you my meal was SPICY.  So yummy but my mouth was on fire.  I had a bean and cheese burrito.  It was awesome.  Oh and we had soapaipillas again! 

I was starving apparently, excuse the fact that I had already eaten the rice when I took this! :)

The first church in Albuquerque, built by the Spanish settlers. (I think..)

Old Town selfie! 

After Albuquerque, we crossed into Arizona! 

 We made our next stop at The Petrified National Forest.  What an AWESOME place.  I was a bit skeptical, but Kate convinced me, and it was definitely worth the 2 hours of extra time that we spent there.  I can't even really describe it, but here's a couple pictures that might help.  They don't fully do it justice.  If you are ever close to this, you should stop.  It's awesome.  

 There are beautiful colored mountains all around, it is just glorious.  

    After the Petrified Forest, we made our way to Kate's Aunt and Uncle's vacation home in Flagstaff.  Flagstaff was not at ALL like the Arizona I remember visiting in childhood.  When I was a kid, we went to Tucson, which was desert-y and full of cactus and very HOT.  Flagstaff is wooded, full of pine trees and chilly.  Very odd. But very beautiful.  The home we stayed in was just lovely, in a beautiful neighborhood in the woodsy mountains.  Kate's Uncle George took us to a really cool restaurant for dinner.  It was a steakhouse, but all the servers were musical theater students at Northern Arizona University, and they all sang show tunes! It was so neat.  They even took requests, and sang Kate's favorite song from Les Mis.  Very cool place.  

I had this awesome prickly pear drink. Yum.

Our server was the tall one in the middle. So fun! 

After dinner we toured Flagstaff some.  When we got back to the house, we went straight to bed. It had been a VERY long day.  Next we were off to the Grand Canyon and VEGAS!! (My fav place).  Stay tuned! 

  

Kate and Lauren Go West-Days 1 & 2 (Nashville and Tyler)

Starting today I am going to blog about our EPIC road trip out west.  It was an AWESOME trip and I am so excited to share the stories and adventures with you! Background: My biffle Kate was moving out to San Francisco for a new job, so we decided to road trip across the country to move her there!


Day 1

    The weather the day we left Kentucky was horrendous.  Pouring rain, and cold. We started out day 1 in Georgetown, Indiana, (just outside of Louisville), at a birthday party.  Okay, so we weren't actually there for the birthday party part, but we were there to spend time with Kate's siblings before her big move.  Everyone was very nice and welcoming, and it was a fun time.  I met a 94 year old woman who was in the Navy in World War II. That was cool.  They fed us while we were there, a delicious brunch of french toast and sausage.  Kate also had brisket and BBQ pork and said it was wonderful as well.  I tell ya, a LOT of this trip was about food.  Just wait and see! :)

   From Indiana, we headed to Nashville! We started playing the license plate game on the way there, did you know there's an app for that? Fun.  By Bowling Green we had seen 14 different license plates! Neato.

Of course we had to take a picture of the Corvette museum, with more time we would have stopped.

Tennessee! 

Nashville! I really love this city!

When we got to Nashville, we found our dear friend Jori's place with no problem at all. In fact, she lives in the same neighborhood as Big and Rich. (I can't remember if it's Big or Rich's house..) Fun fact: Big or Rich's house is UGLY.    We freshened up and headed out on the town! We went to a block party at Marathon Music Works, which was great fun.  I didn't know any of the bands, but Jori did.  It was nice to sit and enjoy the weather, music, and each other's company! It was so great to see Jori!  

On the way, we went to a FLOAT store. It was a little shop that just sells root beer floats. Omg, they were so good.  Mine was something like butterbeer, and it had a cookie in it.  YUM (Told you this would all be about food).   

We enjoyed our floats in this little courtyard, it was so beautiful!

At the festival we had brick oven pizza from a food truck, and free water. This pizza was YUM and made me think of Ben and I's favorite Indiana pizza place, Tony Sacco's.  

Love these girls, love Nashville.

After the music festival, we went downtown to Broadway.  We got down there at 8:30, with an understanding that we were leaving by 10, because A) We are old. and B) We had a LOT of driving to do.  We went to a dueling piano bar called The Big Bang and it was a lot of fun. They played great songs, and we saw a LOT of bachelorettes.  Brought back so many memories of my own bach in Nashville! When we got back to Jori's (yes, at 10), we had some yummy guacamole.  I don't even really like guacamole, but this one was so good.  Jori made it from scratch.  Mmm. After our snack it was off to bed!!

Downtown selfie

Day 2

  We got up the next morning and had coffee with Jori, then headed out about 8 am.  The weather in Nashville the day we arrived was perfect, but the morning we left was cloudy and rainy.  We drove down to Memphis, and then crossed the Mighty Mississippi! That was neat.  

Arkansas!

The ever-changing landscape...

    We drove all the way across Arkansas, and into Texas, which I have to say was pretty boring.  We listened to a lot of music and jammed.  And by jammed I mean we sang at the top of our lungs.  :) We had to get off the highway about 2 hours before we actually got to Tyler, and that was terrible.  Drivers in East Texas are SLOW.  It was painful, but we finally made it to Melissa's, another high school friend of ours.  (We stayed with people we knew the entire way! Amazing!) Melissa and Chris's place was super cute, and it was of course amazing to see AB! She showed me her room, (which we were staying in), and her American Girl Dolls, and was her always adorable self.

Texas! 

Love this little girl! She's so big now though, she is even president of her class at her new school! 

After playing a fun dictionary-type game that AB insisted we play, the girls went to dinner at a yummy Mexican place.  During dinner, we talked to Annabelle about her new friends, and she asked us lots of funny and interesting questions. I can't get over how grown up she is. My favorite part, (besides spending time with besties), was that this place gives everyone their OWN salsa, and their OWN cream sauce thing, which was SO good.  

Also, see the butter? Apparently squeeze butter is a thing in Tyler, Texas. With Mexican food. Weird. 

After dinner, we took AB home and then went to a brew house type thing.  It was Sunday night, so there weren't many people in there.  It was so nice to spend time and just talk with Melissa and Kate.  These 2 are some of my best friends in the whole world, and I am so sad we are living in 3 completely different corners of the country.  I loved being with them though, it felt like being home. :)

We all had local brews, mmm.

All in all, days 1 & 2 were VERY long, but totally worth it to see our friends.  :) Stay tuned for Days 3 &4! 

Pioneer Woman Wednesday #2 & a ROAD TRIP!

I can't believe that it is already Wednesday again, but here we are! Today's Pioneer Woman Wednesday is all about her Puffed Pastry Pizza.  I have actually made these twice.  The first time was when my parents and Grandma visited for my birthday, and then I made them again at my parent's house over Easter.  The best part of them is that they are super easy.  Also, as you will see, I pretty much don't follow the Pioneer Woman recipe at all, other than the way she cuts the pastry and her cook times.  She puts lots of yummy stuff on the pizzas, but they are things that my husband wouldn't even look at (i.e, caramelized onions & goat cheese), so I just put on whatever whoever is eating them wants.  Actually, as I was writing that last sentence it occurred to me that Ben has never actually even tried these...he wasn't there at my parents the night I made them, and he was taking a nap when we ate them when my parents were visiting me.  Weird.


Okay, so these pizzas are seriously super easy.  All I did was cut the pastry into strips, (it is super important when using pastry that it is THAWED. I pull them out of the freezer hours ahead of time and put them in the fridge. This works beautifully.  The first time I used them I didn't thaw them ahead, so I put them in the microwave.  Did not work as beautifully, although it did still work. But they can't be cut or anything when they are frozen. Trust me.)

After I cut the pastry into strips (like the recipe says), I simply put on whatever toppings our hearts desire. I like just cheese.  Or cheese and garlic.  For others, I've put on pepperoni, ham, bacon, etc.  Whatever you like on pizza works.  In the recipe, Ree says to not put on much cheese, but I've never had a problem with it. I don't measure specific amounts of the toppings, it's just whatever each person likes!  Once the toppings are on, I bake it for the time the recipe says, and then it's done! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!!

We had the pizzas with salad, and it was a fantastic lunch!! Not too heavy, but kept us full until dinner!

Overall impression of this recipe: E-Z! And very customizable to everyone's likes.  Would probably be awesome for kiddos.  

Challenges: The first time I made these, the pizzas on the Pampered Chef stoneware (above), stuck to the pan.  Also, I am impatient so I think they could have cooked a little longer.  

Things I will change next time: The 2nd time I made these, my oven wasn't hot enough so they took forever, so next time I will be sure to cook them for the right time at the right temperature.  Also, the recipe calls for olive oil on the dough but I think that makes it too wet, so I won't do that again.  (Good chance I used too much but...).  

Do I recommend this recipe? : Chya! 

And now for something completely different....

A ROAD TRIP!

   My biffle Kate got a new job! In San Fransisco! So this weekend her and I are leaving on a cross country road trip to get her moved out there! Ah! Road trips are one of my favorite things in life, and I am SO excited.  The best part is that we are only stopping overnight in places where we know people, so we won't have to stay in a hotel at all.  We will be going to a ton of places I've never been and I am so excited for that.  Oh, and I will be blogging about our adventures! I haven't decided if it will be a real-time blog (like each night when we arrive in our destination for the day), or if I will do it all when I get home.  It mostly depends on internet access.  And how well this website does on my iPad.  But, the point is, I CAN'T WAIT for our trip, and I can't wait to tell all of you all about it! Yippee!

Kate and I at Keeneland this fall.  There will be a ton of selfies just like this to come, I'm sure! :)

Pioneer Woman Wednesday Number 1!

It's Pioneer Woman Wednesday! As promised, each Wednesday I will review/write about my experiences with Pioneer Woman recipes!

For week number 1, I made the Easy Calzones.  I must say, they were pretty easy! And delicious. One of my challenges with all of her recipes is that they usually serve 4 or 6 or 8 people, and I am usually (not always) just cooking for 2, so I get to use my handy dandy (or lack of) math skills to cut the recipes in half.  That's how it was for this recipe. Hers serves 8, and I really only needed 2. The recipe calls for Rhodes Frozen Dinner rolls, (or a loaf),  but it didn't specify how many, so I totally guessed on how many rolls to use.  I went with 6, and I think they ended up being the perfect size.  I had to let the rolls thaw and rise for a few hours. I got a little impatient (shocker) and probably pulled them out too soon. I put them out to thaw at 11:30 and didn't use them until 5:15. They got HUGE!

See that can of cream of potato soup? Funny story.  I CANNOT find my rolling pin. It's just gone. Actually, I'm pretty certain it's in a box in our garage. (Separate from the apartment).  Which we can't get into.  Because we lost the opener. Yeah.  So I had to get creative with how to roll these puppies out. I found this big can in the pantry, and it worked GREAT! I squished 3 rolls together for each calzone.  With lots of flour, I put some wax paper on top of the dough and rolled it out with the can. Easy peasy life hack!  When your rolling pin is MIA, use a can! 

After I rolled the dough out "paper thin" as the recipe says, I thought the calzones looked a little small for the amount of yumminess I wanted to put in them, so I rolled them out some more.   For the filling, I mostly just cut her recipe in half, leaving out egg and replacing the meats.  The egg part freaked me out, (I don't know why..) so for the cheese I used:
7.5 oz. ricotta (approximately, it was about half a 15 oz container)

1/4 C parmesean

3/4 C mozzarella

1/2 tsp. salt

A tiny amount of pepper (husband doesn't like it so much)

1 tbsp. parsley 

Mmm cheese. I don't know why you can't see the parsley in this pic, but it was there!

For the meat, I used pepperoni and ham in Ben's, and leftover pesto chicken, (I LOVE pesto right now), in mine.

Calzones, ready to be folded and baked. Mmm.

After the calzones were filled, I folded them and brushed them with egg, like the recipe says. Then I baked them for approximately 18 minutes. This is longer than the recipe called for, but I didn't think they were done enough or golden enough after 13 minutes so I left them in for a bit longer.  Ben's ended up perfect, mine coulda used another minute or so.  Overall they were really good though! 

Folded, brushed, ready for the oven.  Parchment paper is the best invention ever, btw.

I served the calzones with Bertolli Organic Traditional Tomato and Basil sauce, aka the best red sauce ever.  It is my absolute favorite sauce, but I can't always find it. Luckily, the grocery store I've been going to lately has it. (Harris Teeter, which, fun fact, is the store that bought out the Winn Dixies around here. Good news, Harris Teeter is aweeesoomme, and way nicer than Winn Dixie. But also kinda expensive...)

Overall impression of this recipe: Very delicious and easy 

Challenges: Cutting the recipe in half (math, especially fractions, are NOT my forte.  Probably wouldn't be a problem for a normal person.) Rolling the dough out was also a challenge, and took slightly more effort than I anticipated.  

Things I will change next time: I might use 1 more roll for each calzone next time.  Although, we both ate them all and were full for the rest of the night, so maybe not.  I also will put in more meat and less cheese next time.  I just had a ton of the cheese mixture so I was trying to use it all.  Maybe next time I would quarter the cheese mixture from the recipe. (I will have to call Ben or my Dad to figure that out.  :) JUST KIDDING! I will google it...)  I might also throw in some (super) finely chopped spinach, to up the health factor,  at least in my calzone, I know my dearest doesn't prefer spinach. 

Do I recommend this recipe?: Heck yes! 

Let me know if you try these, I would highly recommend them! Thanks for reading my FIRST Pioneer Woman Wednesday! 

Life Lately

It has been a while since I've written a blog post, but that changes today!  I have had so much to write about, so naturally I was overwhelmed and didn't write at all.  I am working on a set schedule for my blog posts.  My college friend Amy does Frugal Fridays and every time I read it I am inspired to have a day or two for a specific topic.  I have still been cooking all the time, and my latest cooking has been heavily influenced by The Pioneer Woman. So, I've decided to dedicate Wednesdays to reviewing recipes I've made that are hers, or some version of hers.  I've already made about 10 of her recipes, and have a list of a bunch more to try.  I think it will be helpful to keep me on track if I have a schedule of what I am reviewing each Wednesday, so I am working on that now.  Pioneer Woman Wednesday starts this Wednesday, get excited!


 Okay, so on to the actual point of this post.  Life lately.  Life has been...nuts? Crazy? Sad? Frustrating? Wild? I don't even know the word to use to describe the last few weeks. Things were relatively normal in the days after my birthday.  My parents and Grandma Watkins came to visit us the weekend after my birthday.  That was fun! My parents came late Friday night and my Grandma came on Saturday morning.  I made pizza and a salad for lunch.  It was good for my soul to have guests here.  I am not working currently, and the walls of this apartment sometimes feel like they are coming in on me.  We had a wonderful visit with the family though.  We went to a nearby winery, (which happens to be owned by the same guy that owns the race team Ben works for), and it was so beautiful. We went out to dinner, and really just enjoyed being together!

 Childress Vineyards

After my parents and Grandma left, we made plans for my in-laws to come down at the end of the month.  We were, (and still are), really liking Ben's new job.  His hours are relatively normal. We get to spend weekends together.  A lot of our weekends have been spent house hunting, but I think we have narrowed down the area we would like to live in. One weekend in March we did a Home Tour put on by the local Junior League, and that was really fun.  We got to see a lot of Winston-Salem that we didn't even know existed, which is always exciting.  He works on Sunday afternoons/evenings during the Nascar races, but he is just at the shop, and is home in time for dinner. I love that.



2 and a half weeks ago, my Grandma Hart took a turn for the worst.  She started dialysis in August, and has been having some health issues since about Christmas.  But, every time she would end up sick or in the hospital, she has bounced back. She's a stubborn one, not ready to give up I guess! Anyways, on Wednesday the 25th my parents said we should probably think about getting up to Ohio to be with her, because things just weren't looking very well.  Ben was able to get out of work, (another perk of this new job, a very understanding and kind boss), and we got on the road Wednesday afternoon.  It was an intense morning for me, trying to figure out what to do with the dog, and oh yeah, my in-laws were supposed to arrive Saturday! We had no idea when we would be back.  Despite it being Spring Break in our area, I was able to get Kato into the kennel until Saturday, and my in-laws decided to come down here, (even though we probably wouldn't be home), and pick Kato up from the kennel. Thank goodness.



Our trip up north went pretty smoothly. We did have to take an unplanned 2 hour pit stop to pick up my sister from the Akron airport. It was alright though.  We made it to the hospital around midnight and were able to go in and see my Grandma before we headed to my Aunt's for the night.  Seeing Grandma that night made everything very real.  She wasn't really coherent and that was hard to see.



The family spent the next day at the hospital.  It was horrible, and I really think hospital waiting rooms are the worst place on earth.  Everyone is sad and crying, it was just miserable.  I was so grateful though, to be surrounded by my family. We could lean on each other to get through it. I went into Grandma's room a few times, but I just didn't want to remember her like that, so I spent most of the day in the waiting room.  Ben and I went to dinner with my cousins and sister that night, which was really nice.



Friday was more of the same. The family was at the hospital all together.  My cousins and I passed the hours playing Phase 10 (I know Grandma would approve!).  The last time I went in to Grandma's room, she looked and sounded the worst than I had seen yet.  On Friday evening, we left the hospital around 7. My parents stayed there.  They called around 10:30 pm to say that she was gone.  It was a horrible night, but I am so thankful I was with my husband, sister, and other family members.



On Saturday, planning began for a memorial service.  My Grandma had a tradition of smoking Black and Mild's with the grandchildren at each of our graduation parties, so we decided that the best way to honor her would be to have a Black and Mild all together.  We spent that evening playing cards, (again, Grandma loved cards), and laughing a lot. Despite the circumstances, it was nice to be together.  We smoked our Black and Mild's and watched the UK game. (Meh).  During the game, I started feeling SUPER gross. I was so nauseous and just wanted to puke.  Dad said it was probably the tobacco (ew), so I tried chewing some gum.  I ended up throwing up right before bed, and then every hour until 5 am. It. Was. Awful.  My mom and Ben took me to the ER around 6.  It was so bad I could barely walk to the car. When I got to the ER, they immediately gave me fluids, nausea, and pain meds.  I started feeling better pretty quickly after that. I ended up being diagnosed with gastroenteritis...aka food poisoning or a bug.  It was probably a bug, several of my other family members ended up with it as well.  Yuck.



We had to drive back to North Carolina after I was discharged from the hospital, because Ben had to go back to work on Monday.  I had already decided to fly back to Ohio Monday night for the calling hours on Tuesday.  The drive home was miserable.  Luckily, when we got here, the apartment was spotless and everything was taken care of, thanks to my in-laws.  What a relief! I went right to bed.


Monday I felt much better, and by the calling hours on Tuesday I was doing well.  Although, when the whole family went to dinner that night, I only ate mashed potatoes.  It took me until the weekend to feel comfortable eating normally again.

Luckily, since we have been back this week I have been feeling fine.

One last thing. I wasn't sure if I should share this or not, but it was such an emotional and crazy moment, I think the world should hear about it.  We got back from Easter weekend on Monday.  In the mail, there was a birthday card and $20 for me, from my Grandma Hart. She must have sent it in the last few days before she got really bad. I cried so much when I read it.  I am so humbled that she thought of me, and it is a gift I will covet and keep forever.  Just writing about it now is making me tear up. Sniff. I miss Grandma so much, but I know she is up there hanging with Grandpa and her sister, watching over us.  Thank you for the card Grandma, I love you!!

Me, Grandma, her dog Baby, and Sister in 2009