Hike

We went on a 5.5 turned 7.5 mile hike yesterday, there was a tree down on the road, so we had an extra mile to the trailhead. The overlook at the end was beautiful. I took a video since you couldn't get a true idea from pictures. It was a good start at working off all that fat we have been accumulating.

Oregon Coast

We are staying at Depoe Bay for a few days. We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium after I promised Aaron I would take him there (3 years ago, oops). He had never been there before. We happened to get great weather while we were there. Here are some of our photos.

What We've Been Up To

I don't feel like we have a lot to show for how "busy" it feels like we've been...but we have been making a lot of things. We tried to ignore Christmas, but it kept coming at us, so we ended up doing a lot of last minute present making. Aaron has been making mittens from old sweaters. I don't have any pictures of the finished products, but they are turning out really nice. We are going to try to sell them on Etsy, since we got a ton of old sweaters.


Seen here:


I have been batiking up a storm.


We drove to Albany and Salem for Christmas. Here is our fruit platter.


Delicious meats and cheeses.


Our cookies that were made while sewing, batiking, packing, etc.


Christmas was fun, our longtime friends and neighbors had been without power for 4 days, so my parents invited them over for "showers and dinner". It was really nice to spend time with them and they were so thankful for warm food and good company.

And we did a little thrifting on the way home. We stopped at this antique mall in Albany called Pastimes that is always fun to visit, only to find out it's going out of business. Sad, but most of the pyrex we found was 20% off, so we um, picked up a few pieces. These match our set of dishes, (we also found two of our small plates for .50 each the other day, pretty beat up, but it's always nice to have extras) a bread pan and a casserole dish.


The refrigerator box on the left is in really good shape and I love it. Small casserole dish on the right and we aren't sure what the middle bowl is for, it's a strange shape. I'm thinking it will be a perfect whipped cream bowl.

Thanksgiving!

I picked up Aaron in Portland on Saturday and we walked around Saturday market for a while, had lunch at American Dream (In Portland, do not recommend it, especially if you are trying to fulfill a craving for Corvallis AD). Then we stopped by his parents house for a visit, and drove back to Eugene. Snow was in the forecast, so we decided Monday would be a good day to do our Thanksgiving dinner together. We wanted to do one together since we weren't able to have it with each other this year.
This year we tried salting our turkey rather than brining it. On Sunday we rubbed our turkey down with kosher salt, herbs, and lemon peel. Monday we began cooking, but planning out the oven schedule very poorly. There was definitely a backlog of things waiting to be baked.
Aaron was rinsing the salt out of the turkey and I looked over to see my kitchen faucet being consumed by this raw bird carcass, he was so focused on what he was doing he hadn't noticed. Needless to say all was sprayed down with bleach very well after.



This was our first full turkey, so we learned a few things along the way. One mistake that was made was cutting off the excess neck skin. You need that to seal things up. So Aaron did a quick patch job with some toothpicks. Luckily he had saved the skin.



It turned out beautifully, and was some of the best turkey I've ever had, seriously. I'd like to try salting again, it turned out just a touch too salty, but the flavor was excellent and it was really moist too.


Here are the final results: (minus the wheat rolls which hung out a really long time waiting to be baked and got a bit ugly and huge in the meantime)
Turkey gravy
Twice baked potatoes (sharp cheddar, sour cream, 1/2 and 1/2, you know, low calorie stuff)
Cranberry relish (fresh cranberries, an orange, lemon juice, sugar, cayenne pepper and dry mustard) This was super good and I don't normally care for it, it also called for peaches which we didn't have.
Stuffing (cornbread, wild rice, dried apricots, dried cherries, bacon, onion, mushrooms)
Nutmeg muffin
We also had pumpkin pie with whipped cream and I made the classic Gallagher Thanksgiving jello. Which is definitely an unusual recipe, but I love it. I really wish I had taken a picture of its pink tackiness in the blue Pyrex casserole dish. It was beautiful.



Speaking of Pyrex, I got an early Christmas present...These tiny lime green containers to match our set of lime green Pyrex dishes. I love them!!!

We walked around a lot yesterday, despite the inch of ice on everything, it's really not too bad, you just have to be careful. People are peeling out all over the place, but most people are driving very slow and cautiously. It's very strange Oregon weather, very cold, several inches of powdery snow that's lasted two days. I just checked the weather, and it looks like a few more inches are expected. I'm kind of over it, and will not be too heartbroken if it doesn't happen. I don't think I'd make it easily in anyplace super cold.

First term...OVER!!!

I just took my last final and.....I GOT STRAIGHT A's!!!
Not too shabby for 16 credits!

I can't wait to:
Deep clean every room in my house
See Aaron
Batik
Read for pleasure
Watch movies
Cook
Be Merry
Etc.

Finals

It's finals time. I am just as bored with this as all of you. I can't wait until I can clean my house and work on Christmas presents without feeling guilty. Aaron arrives in one week and I am not ready yet!
I'm going to try to knock out two finals today, then just two more to go!

Awesome Weekend

So I can finally blog about all the batiking I've been doing! Amber had her baby shower this weekend, so I had been preparing her gift. I made a bunch of onesies, and I had a great time making them. I've have learned so much just by practicing, and trial and error. I'm happy I've finally mastered bright colors!



Amber's gift:


She loved them and I'm so glad! It's always hard to be objective about your own art.


Everyone at her shower designed and made their own monster for the baby. It was super fun and interesting to see how different everyone made theirs. Here is Amber with the monster I made:



Amber with all the monsters:


After the shower I got to go back to see how her remodel is going and catch up with her.
Today I suggested to my parents that we go to Silver (Silver Creek, anyone know the story with the two names?) Falls and hike around. On the way we passed this house that has had camels for years. This was the first time that I had stopped. We got out and I took some pictures, and as we were leaving I realized how close I could have gotten. I was regretting that I hadn't gotten any head shots. Side note, Megan add this on the list with the moose. What a crazy animal.


So we went to Silver Falls, hiked about 4 miles and saw 5 out of the 10 falls. It was chilly, but really not that bad was we got moving. I took more pictures, but they didn't turn out well. I think the foggy/mistiness threw my camera off.

At my request we stopped by the camel house again. It was feeding time and we got pretty close to them. I noticed a young one mixed in. I took pictures for a few minutes and pretty soon the owner came walking out. I was a little worried he was going to tell us to leave or something, but he came up and my dad quickly introduced himself. My dad knew who he was, he was an attorney in Salem. He let us go in, we even got to pet them! We asked questions and learned about them.
The baby, I love this. His little face hasn't quite filled in right and he looks a bit like ET.


A sea of humps


Baby again, he is 8 months old.


This one really liked this hat (why am I wearing this ridiculous hat you ask, because it was cold and that's the one my mom dug out for me, as she wore her stylish Arcteryx hat) and I would be standing there and all the sudden feel the camel nuzzling my head.



So close to them! This is the nuzzler.

This guy also has zebras, wallabys and I think kangaroos. It's unclear to me why he has them...I think for breeding? I know that's why he has the camels, he has 14. He was very educated on them, and seemed to have some sort of a vet background as well. This one is young.

I'm so happy I worked so hard during the week so I could take some time off. I can't wait for Christmas break!

Apple Pressing at the Jones House

Yesterday was the annual Jones Apple Pressing Day. This was my first one, as every other year it seems like I had something else going on that day. It was impressive, there were a lot of people there (too many as it turned out), we had 3 presses going, and a whole system working to make the cider. Here are just some of the jugs lined up to be filled.




The trailer full of apples


There were lots of little hands helping.


The filled jugs ready to go home


The overview:


We actually ran out of cider...and had to run to neighbor's property to pick some more. We picked every last apple, and there still wasn't enough to go around.


One woman ran home to get two of these baskets full of apples to help the shortage.


Dirty press


I felt really bad that the Joneses didn't get any cider out of the deal, not even a gallon. In past years they had a ton of excess, so they invited more people this year. Many people showed up with 10 or so jugs, and those that left early made out before we knew we were going to come up short. It was still a great day, and I think everyone had a good time.
I really should have taken a picture of all the cookies, cakes, chips, and soup that were in the garage. It was quite a spread.
After apple pressing, I took Ashlee to one of my favorite hiking spots. It was nice to exercise a bit after eating all that sugar. We stopped by Juanita's for a bit, talked with her and then went to American Dream to split a piece of pizza. It was Ashlee's first time and she loved it.
We drove back to Eugene and stopped at the grocery store to pick up some things for more pizza at Jesse and Lauren's when Ashlee realized she had left her wallet in the bathroom at American Dream. I called while she kept looking in the car. The guy at AD was surprisingly rude about the whole thing, to his credit it was a game day, so it was crazy there, but still. Luckily Ashlee had merely stashed her wallet in my purse for some reason, and everything turned out ok.
Then we headed to J/L's to make brick oven pizzas. They had a few people over, and it was a lot of fun talking with everyone and eating way too much. I didn't get a picture, but they also made apple crisps in the brick oven, which we had with ice cream.


Definitely the most fun I've had since I started school. I'm glad Ashlee came with me, we had a great time.

I wish that I had something interesting to report, or at least some photos...This morning rather than learning all of the insertions and origins of the head muscles I decided my time would be better spent re-organizing all of my DVDs. I also have been working out finally, I have a free week pass to a gym that is two blocks from my house. I'm trying to go everyday. Yesterday I used the eliptical and ran on the treadmill. If it's any indication how weak my arms have gotten, my arms, hands and fingers are sore, just from running! I've been doing shoulder strengthening and I am not in pain at night like I used to be. I still have a ways to go, but it is coming along slowly.
My friend from class is coming over today to watch movies and draw teeth...this big assignment I've been putting off. 14 different teeth from 5 angles each. Blech.

Pie Crust, My Nemesis

Let me take you back to two Octobers ago...I can't remember how many hours I was working, or how many classes I was taking, but I was doing both, and I was stressed. Thanksgiving was at my Aunt Connie's house, which can be a stressful event in itself. She is a very good cook, extremely picky about her food and to make matters worse I volunteered to take the pie.
I didn't even know I couldn't make a decent pie at that point. I began making the pie, possibly the night before, and ended up in tears. It was too thin, kept getting holes in it, not sticking together properly, then sticking too much. I called my mom sobbing, and under her advice decided to just buy a pie crust, I had too many other things going on. So I did, I went to WINCO, bought a pre-made pie crust, and made my pie. It was stress free but...I was horribly embarrassed to be taking this pre-made pie crust to Connie's house. I was nervous about it all through dinner. When it came to dessert time, I watched Connie and saw the disapproval spread across her face. She knew. Of course she knew, there is no comparison to homemade. I kept quiet as she ate everything on her plate except the crust of her pie, ashamed.
I think I tried the traditional crust maybe once more and said to hell with it, and switched to glorious, wonderful oil press crusts. 4 ingredients, mix, and press into the pie plate. Presto! No rolling, no ice cubes, no worries! Screw you old fashioned pie crust you asshole!
Bring us to tonight. I want pumpkin pie. I don't have enough oil for oil crust. I do have butter and shortening. Hmm. No such thing as a press butter crust? What do they know? I will just make my own I said. Erin 1, Crust 0. Well, I made my dough, without a food processor, so I'm expecting this crust to be tough from the get go. Erin 1, Crust 1. Oh well I said, it's still pie!



So I press it in, pressing lightly around the chunks of butter and shortening. So easy! Erin 2, Crust 1.



I fill it with pumpkin goodness and put it in the oven. Not 5 minutes later the butter chunks are melting and dripping down all over the oven. Probably should have put that on a cookie sheet. Erin 2, Crust 2. So I drag out this hot liquid pie to put it on a cookie sheet, (Aaron on the phone tonight, why didn't you just put the cookie sheet on the second rack under the pie? Well because I didn't think of that!) thinking to myself, I really should have put this on a cookie sheet with an edge all the way around. Total idiot. So every 10 minutes or so I have to blot the butter off the cookie sheet so it doesn't run over AGAIN. Erin 2, Crust 3.
Then, it took forever to bake because I was opening the oven constantly. Meanwhile the crust is getting too dark, and I'm fumbling around trying to find my crust protectors. Erin 2, Crust 4.


Finally, 30 minutes after it should have been done, it was finished. It is quite possibly the ugliest pie I have ever made. I have yet to taste it, but I'm going to call final score: Erin 2, Crust 5. I think from now on I am going to stick to what I know I can do, which is the fool proof oil crust. This was pretty much a disaster, and I refuse to give in to ice cubes and pastry cloths and rolling pins.

Seed Toasting

I just toasted acorn squash seeds with sugar and a little salt....soo so so good. I just ate all of them in like 7 minutes. I think they are better than the pumpkin seeds because they are small and tender and cute. Try it!

Big Step!

My goal for the last week was to be able to touch my left thumb to my left shoulder...today I actually exceeded that goal with the help of my therapist. I touched my fingers to my shoulder and it sounds like such a small thing, but I really felt like I would never be able to bend my elbow that far again! Woohooo for the road to recovery!!!

Election

The best news I've heard this entire election: Rogue Palin
Maybe she is actually brilliant and planned this whole attack on the McCain campaign? Nah. But she really did single handedly derail it, and McCain committed political suicide by choosing her. I cast my vote yesterday, I'm excited for the outcome of this election.

Pumpkins!

Last night I carved pumpkins at Jesse and Lauren's. Some old friends Emy and Adam were there as well. Mine is the monster on the left. I gutted another one, but have yet to carve it. Maybe today...maybe not...I can't believe how fast today is going! Maybe it's all the tests I have this weekend that I'm putting off.



Today I made all the seeds into sweet and salty cinnamon goodness. I have got to make pumpkin pie soon, I'm craving it! Actually I seem to be craving all things unhealthy lately, I blame it on fall and the impending cold weather.

Funny!

Fall