It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

Well, long time no blog. I can't believe it's the end of 2009 and Christmas is almost here. Field hockey season has come and gone and I didn't write one post about my thoughts on the season or coaching. I'm disappointed I didn't have time to blog about one of my favorite activities. Maybe next season.

Anyway, my decorations are up and we have enough snow that I'm sure it will be a white Christmas. The biggest storm in years left us with 20 inches of snow in Fairfield! I haven't seen this much snow in a long time!

20 inches of snow piled up on the grill.

View from the front door.

Christmas tree downstairs.

Christmas tree upstairs.

Breast Cancer Awareness

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. This is one cause that every team, company, organization, and individual seem to want to support. From tough NFL linebackers wearing pink shoes and gloves to races for the cure with thousands of participants, everyone is supporting the cause; and what a great cause it is! So many products on the shelves of stores all across America are now available in pink to support the cause. I'm not sure if this is just a marketing ploy or if the companies really believe in the cause, most likely a little of both, but either way donations are still being made in order to support the Susan G. Komen foundation and other breast cancer organizations.

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a Phil Vaser concert. Bomshel opened up for Phil. Bomshel's current hit "Fight Like a Girl" speaks to me on many levels but I think it's an appropriate theme song for the breast cancer cause. Check it out here.

How can you help support this most worth cause?

Outer Banks, fun times

Last week I took a trip to Duck, North Carolina which is in the Outer Banks (OBX). I love the Outer Banks, it's not only a beautiful area but it's relaxed and less commercialized than some of the other beaches on the east coast. I've never been on a beach in OBX that was not clean and for the most part the beaches are not overly crowded. I like that you can stay in a house rather than a hotel room, in fact there are very few hotels in the Outer Banks. Staying in a house allows you to back and forth between your house, the beach, and a pool while having all the convienences of home. The houses, some of which are very luxurious, are affordable, especially if you are travelling with another family or two. The house we stayed in was located on the sound side in on Jaycrest Street. This was a duplex and condo development which included an indoor pool and tennis court. The sound view was very peaceful and we watched the sun go down each evening from the deck.

The beach

Our view from the deck at sunset

A brief review of restaurants we visited.

High Cotton:

This is a BBQ restaurant. The establishment offers both dine in and carry out. The menu consists of pulled pork and chicken as well as barbecued chicken and ribs. We ordered the pulled pork, ribs, hush puppies, and potato salad. The ribs were excellent and of course hush puppies are a must in NC. The pork was very good but we didn't get any bbq sauce in our take out order so this was disappointing. I'd still recommend the pulled pork, just make sure you ask for sauce. Our order cost about $40, it was easily enough food for 5 people as the 3 of us had a good amount left over. High Cotton is a great choice for take out or a quick meal.

Blue Point:

A friend recommended this restaurant to me as it has become her favorite place in Duck during her visits to OBX. The Blue Point is one of the nicer dining establishments in Duck. Prices are as you would expect in a fine dining establishment. The restaurant is very quaint. The interior can be described as "diner becomes mod." The "Point" is located along the sound and tables along the windows offer a pretty view. Several tables and chairs are set up outside along the sound. I visited the Point at lunch and I do not know if these tables and chairs are for dining in the evening. The lunch menu included soups, salads, sandwiches and light entrees. The menu was on the smaller side but still had plenty of choices. I had the crab and shrimp roll, which was similar to a lobster roll in Maine. It was topped with a creamy dressing and was delicious. My sand which was served with homemade chips. My friends had the lunch special which was mahi-mahi served with rice. The dish was flavored with a butter and basil sauce and both women seemed to very much enjoy their lunch. The portion of the fish and the rice was just right for lunch. Service at the Blue Point was excellent as well. I would definitely return to the Point for lunch or dinner.

Aqua:

Aqua is a day spa, restaurant and martini bar...talk about having everything you could possible need under one roof! Aqua is also located along the sound so the views are pretty from every window. We stopped by Aqua to sample one of their martinis and have a dessert. The restaurant bar area is very trendy, the perfect place to have a martini. I had the Bellini-tini which as you would expected tasted very much like a peach Bellini, yum! We shared the key lime creme bruele and while I'm not a fan of key lime I enjoyed this dessert very much. The creme bruele was not overly limey and it was very light. One of the other women I was with was having the soup of the day which was a roasted corn and crab soup, I tried this soup and all I can say is Wow. The soup had a wonderful combination of flavors, of course how could it not with corn and crab. All of the food I saw being served at Aqua looked delicious. Next time I visit, OBX I'll definitely have to have an entire meal at Aqua.

Sunset Grille and Raw Bar

We ate dinner at Sunset one evening. There was a bit of a wait so we enjoyed some cocktails on the dock while we waited. You really cannot beat the atmosphere at Sunset as it has lots of outside seating right on the sound. They have a great selection of frozen and tropical drinks. I very much enjoyed my mango daiquiris. Sunset has a raw bar as well as steamed seafood. They also have a full menu of dinners, sandwiches, salads and even sushi. We started with raw oysters and steamed clams both of which were good. For my meal, I had the tuna which was the catch of the day, this is where the food turned bad. The tuna was over cooked and try, with little seasoning or taste. My friends had steamed crabs, which they said were OK. They also had sushi, which they were satisfied with. The name of this restaurant is very fitting because the sunset view is spectacular. This is a great place to have drinks and watch the sunset but I'd choose a different restaurant for dinner.

Sunset at Sunset

A Spur of the Moment Getaway

On Saturday afternoon, Nate and I decided we would head down to the Chesapeake Bay. We were hungry for crabs and the bay has been calling our names since the weather has gotten warmer. Since we got a late start, due to me working the YWCA 5K (a really great event but not the topic of this blog), we decided we would go to Kent Island rather than St. Michaels and Tilghman Island where we usually venture. Kent Island is less than 2 and half hours from our house, so it's a quick trip. There is a section of Kent Island along Route 50 called Kent Narrows that has several hotels and restaurants. It's basically a party spot for tourists and boaters and we fit in well amongst the crowd.

Our fist stop, which was located just before the Narrows, was at Hemmingways for a snack and beverage. Hemmingways had a great view of the bay and nice outside seating but our crab pretzel was not the best. After Hemmingways, we headed over to the main section of the Narrows which has several hotels, condos, and about 6 restaurants/bars. We were lucky that one of the hotels had a room left so we checked in and then headed to the Prime outlets for a few quick purchases (it was chilly and I forgot to pack jeans). Next, we decided to go to the Jetty. The Jetty is a very fun restaurant/bar with a great atmosphere. The jetty had live music and $5.00 crushes (orange and mango) so it was perfect! We were seated right next to the water, where we could look out over the bay at the setting sun. We loved the atmosphere and therefore did not leave as planned for dinner, instead for ordered a dozen crabs. The crabs were not cooked properly and had a poor taste. This was quite disappointing considering we were sitting right next to the bay. I didn't see any of the other the food that was being served at the Jetty but it was packed and many people were eating dinner. I'd say stick to drinks and appetizers here while you enjoy live music and the view. To conclude our night we went to the Red Eye Dock Bar, what another great bar! This place is very large with lots of outside space. The Red Eye had an 80's cover band playing. I'm not a music expert so I enjoyed listening, although it made me miss my TU girls. Anyway, Nate said the band was good but that singer needed some improvement. The Red Eye had all flavors of 3 Olives, which is important if you want to be considered a good bar by me:). I really enjoyed both the Jetty and Red Eye, good times!

On Sunday we drove around Kent Island, exploring the neighborhoods. We enjoyed some nice views of the bay and picked up some local produce. We then headed back to the Narrows and ate at the Crab Deck. Here we enjoyed crabs that were cooked to perfection. They had a wonderful flavor and satisfied our craving that we had drove to the bay to enjoy. The crab deck also has lots of outside seating where you can watch the boats and feed the ducks. After filling our bellies, we headed home. This was a great spur of the moment trip and we will return to the bay again soon, probably with our canoe and a crab pot.


Some pics:

Nate, Bay Bridge in the background

The folks in Kent Island are proud of the USA, flags are flown everywehre:)

Sunset from the JettyDown by the bay...

A Million Dollar View

Nate and I decided to check out the newest winery in Adams County, Hauser Estate Winery. The winery is located amongst the orchards and rolling hills in Biglerville, PA. The facility has been open for a little while now, but we had never ventured up, only admired it from the road. It's located in an absolutely beautiful spot, at the top of a hill. The view from the winery is spectacular! It has to be one of the best views in all of Adams County. You look out over the vineyards and orchards for miles and also and can see the Round Barn on the other side of the road. Being in this beautiful setting, almost makes you feel like you are on vacation, it's quite relaxing.

The winery has a large tasting room with a pretty fireplace, and a large deck out back to enjoy the views from. On the evening we went up, they had live music playing and food catered by a local restaurant. You can find a list of these events on the website (link above). The music was Jimmy Buffet music and although the singer did not sound exactly like Jimmy, he was entertaining. All of the wines and hard ciders the winery produces were for sale by the glass or bottle. They allowed you to taste anything you wanted at no cost. Now remember this is Pennsylvania wine and we are not known for our wine, so just be aware that you are drinking PA wine. I will say that the Chardonnay was OK but sitting out on the deck enjoying the views made it great. The winery can also be rented for special events such as weddings and banquets, I'm sure it would make the perfect atmosphere for a party:)

Here some pics from Hauser Estate that don't quite do the views justice:

State College Arts Fest

Today, Tammy and I went to the State College Arts Festival and to the Boalsburg People's Choice Festival It was my first time to both and I was not disappointed. We started in State College, which has vendors throughout town and on campus. The vendors in State College were invited vendors, these vendors had great quality items. There were many photographers, in addition to jewelers, glass artists, potters, and woodworkers. Some of the vendors were affordable, while others had single pieces that were thousands of dollars. I purchased 3 matted photos from Pat Little, I loved his unique and modern work. Thursday morning was a good time to go to the festival in State College, it was not crowded when we got there but by the time left around 2:00 it was getting crowded. We didn't take in any of the music but there was a jam packed line up of different bands throughout the weekend.

In Boalsburg not all of the vendors were good quality, but we found some nice pottery and some other vendors also had quality items such as knives, glass jewelery beads and photographs. This festival was not crowded as it is in a wide open space with plenty of room for everyone. If you like festival food Boalsburg has all the offerings, which the show in State College lacked, everything from kettle corn, to ribs, to crepes can be found at Boalsburg. It was hard to choose what to eat first!

A few pictures from the day:

Downtown State College

A landscape set up for the art show

I like PSU's signs around the stadium.

A Food Weekend

Nate and I started off the weekend by eating out with friends at the Firehouse in Harrisburg and then we pretty much turned this weekend into a summer food weekend. It's Sunday evening and I'm definitely full. On Saturday we cooked "fireman's chicken" for dinner accompanied by pasta salad and corn on the cob. For dessert, fresh strawberry sundaes.

Let me explain what I mean by fireman's chicken...at least where I live the local firemen are always having chicken bbq's. They cook the chicken on large bbq pits but it's just as good on the grill. The chicken always has great flavor and is so juicy inside. If you'd like to make your own fireman's chicken here's how:
1. Use chicken halves or chicken breasts with the ribs and bones still in and the skin still on.
2. Season chicken with some of your favorite spices or even Season All works fine.
3. In a sauce pan heat up 1 cup vinegar, 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup of water and salt. After this mixture is heated up, let it cool slightly then pour it into a spray bottle. Mixture will coat about 6-8 pieces of chicken.
4. Put your chicken on the grill on medium heat and spray your chicken with the mixture often, turning too keep it from burning.
5.The chicken will take about 25 minutes to cook but will depend on the size of the chicken pieces. When your chicken is almost done, if desired, brush with some bbq sauce and cook for a few more seconds on each side.
6. Enjoy!

Fireman's Chicken

Tonight, we had baby back ribs, that literally fell right off the bone, with salads, ,baked potatoes, and rice krispie treats for dessert (I know these are for kids, but I love these treats and it's so easy to make!). I think the secret to ribs is making sure you remove the membrane from the back of the ribs before cooking. We season our ribs the night before with meat tenderizer and Sweet Baby Rays then wrap the ribs in tin foil and put in the refrigerator until we are ready to cook. We baked the meat at 300 degrees for about 3 1/2 hours. After this, we take the ribs out and smother with another coat of Sweet Baby Rays and finally put on the meant on the grill for a minute or two, if they aren't falling apart. Tonight, we just stuck the ribs back in the oven for a few more minutes to cook the bbq sauce in. Yum!

Firehouse- Restaurant Review

Nate and I met up with our friends, HA and Jason, for dinner in Harrisburg at the Firehouse. The Firehouse was one of my favorite restaurants when I lived in Harrisburg and it did not disappoint me this time. We had not seen HA and Jason, since Jessie and Rocco's wedding in November so it was fun to catch up with them. HA just returned from the beach and they have a trip to London planned this summer...so jealous.

Now for the restaurant review. I started off with a fruity tutti martini, the others had wine and beer. I must say the martini menu is excellent and the fruity tutti was quite tasty. I also had a woo woo which was just vodka, cranberry, and peach schnapps but tasty nonetheless. For our appetizer Nate and I ordered the crab puffs which were excellent. It was made of a creamy crab dip like filling which was inside a crunchy and flaky won ton. The plate included 6 won tons. HA and Jason had calamari, which I did not try but the portion was generous and it looked tasty. I went to the restaurant with the intention of having sea bass, my favorite fish, but after reading the menu seemed to be in the mood for tuna. Actually, Nate and I both ordered the pepper seared tuna as our main course. The tuna was served with rice and vegetables in with a spicy mango sauce. The tuna was very spicy, but this should be expected as the tuna is "pepper" seared. The rice and vegetables were delicious with just the right combination of flavors. Our tuna was cooked as we ordered and overall we were very pleased. HA ordered the stuffed flounder special and Jason had a pasta with chicken in peppers. They seemed to enjoy both entrees but I did not try either selection. We didn't have room for dessert with the appetizers, salad, tasty bread, and entrees we were stuffed!

The Firehouse is a very quaint restaurant and as you would expect is in fact a converted firehouse, pole and all, but I found it to be quiet noisy, which I believe is the norm. It was even loud when I was there a few months ago for lunch. It's not a restaurant you should choose for a quiet romantic evening. We received excellent service and our table was ready at the time of our reservation. The Firehouse is a great restaurant to enjoy a tasty meal with friends.

Local Strawberries

I love seeing the signs for local strawberries that pop up in June, it's a sure sign that summer is here. There's not much that tastes better than fresh strawberries. My two favorite recipes with strawberries are Strawberry Salad and Strawberry Pie. In case you'd like to try them:

Strawberry Salad
1/2 bag spinach
1/2 bag red lettuce
1 quart strawberries sliced
1/2 cup red onion (I always put less though)
Toss together the above

Dressing for salad:
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 Tsp poppy seeds
Mix above together and refrigerate several hours before serving, pour over salad just before serving.

Other toppings that taste yummy in this as well: grilled chicken, feta cheese, walnuts.

Strawberry Pie
I always use a graham cracker crust because that's what I prefer. I know some in my family prefer an oil crust, which is similar to regular pie crust but more flaky.

Fill pie crust with sliced strawberries
Other ingredients
1 1/3 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs cornstarch
3 oz box strawberry jello (I use sugar free...I think the kind w/ sugar would make this recipe too sweet)
Directions: In saucepan combine sugar, cornstarch and jello. Add water. Bring to a boil stirring constantly until thickened. Pour over strawberries, chill until firm.

What are your favorite strawberry recipes?

3 Years of Work

I just realized it's been 3 years since Nate and I moved into our home. As I look around, I'm pretty impressed, if I do say so myself, by all the work we've done to make our house a home. I'll try to detail some of our projects over the past 3 years but I'm sure I'll miss a few. This is how it all started out...

An empty lotMaking progress

Completed House

The backThe back yard

So I'll start with the changes outside, we've had the driveway paved, added a patio and a deck out back, put in several retaining walls and 2 sets of steps, put in a sidewalk, and added a railing to the porch. We've also done a lot of landscaping including. clearing a bunch of brush out back. I think we are almost done with the outside now it will just be constanly maintaining our landscaping and of course we will always have more brush to clear. Here's how it looks now:

Nate's magnificent retaining wall and our paved driveway.A flower bed out front with a pretty kitty.One of my prized hydrangeas out front.Steps and sidewalk coming up to the frontOur most recent project outside. Steps down to the back and sidewalk. We are still waiting on the grass to grow.Our deck, this we did not do ourselves. S&J Construction built it for us and did a great job.

Decks from the back yard with landscaping around

View from the deck, I don't know if you can tell how much brush we've cleared but we are making progress. You can see one of our 2 flower beds in the back yard too.


Our quaint patio, complete with fire pit.

My newest flower bed as seen from above on the deck. It's right beside our patio.

More brush cleared on the side.

OK, I'll stop with pictures of the outside, and move onto the inside. Inside, we've painted every room in the house with the exception of the upstairs guest bath and one guest room. We've chosen some bold choices such as red, terracotta, and deep blue and we have paired these colors with warm neutrals. We've worked for hours and hours finishing our basement, including a large living area, a "man" room for all of Nate's hunting and fishing things, and a full bathroom. I'm happy to report it's almost done and I'm thrilled with the way it is turning out. The projects in the basement that we still need to finish include: tiling the bathroom shower, putting in a vanity and toilet, building a bar or wet bar, and carpeting the steps. Let's see, what else have we done inside? We've added chair rail and crown molding in the dining room, tiled the kitchen backslash, finished the stair railing, changed door hinges to silver, added cupboards to the laundry room, and put knobs and handles on all of the cupboards. I'm sure I'm missing some things but you get the drift. A few pics of our work inside:

Chair rail and crown molding in the dining room.

The stairway, obviously, at Christmas

Living room in the basement, when we started we had nothing but concrete floors.

Another view

I don't know if you can tell from this pic but I'm trying to show the knee wall under the window.

It's been a great 3 years in our home and I'm very pleased with all we've accomplished. I don't know if we will ever run out of home improvement projects but we've at least crossed some off of the list.

Summer Nights

Over the weekend we got to catch up with Nick and Heather, and their kids Jade and Blake. It had been a while (too long) since we hung out with them and it's always a good time when we get together. Brett and Allison joined us for the evening too. What's better than an evening with good friends, crabs, beer, fireworks, a camp fire and smores? Ahh, I love summer! Hope we can do this again soon:) Some pics from our fun summer evening.

Pittsburgh- The City of Champions

Way to go Pens....from fighting their way into the playoffs to Stanley Cup Champs!

Superbowl Champs and Stanley Cup Champs all in one year it's a good time to be a fan:)

A Tale of Two Cities

Over Memorial Day weekend, Nate and I headed north to Stroudsburg, PA to visit our friends Anthony and Lynn. While visiting we spent a day in the Big Apple. New York City always amazes me; it’s so grand that it makes me feel like I’ve entered a whole new world. NYC is a great place to visit but I could never live there, I feel like the city would just swallow me up.

It was Nate’s first time ever in New York City! We tried to cover as much of the city as possible during our day. We started in Times Square where streets were shut down and vendors were selling all kinds of items and food. We walked through Times Square and then on to Central Park, where many people were hanging out enjoying the beautiful day. We then headed down 5th Avenue stopping a few places along the way. From there, it was on to the Empire State building. Unfortunately, our camera ran out of battery power before we made it to the look-out at the top of the building. After the Empire State building, we took the subway to Ground Zero and from there we headed over to Battery Park and looked across the harbor to see Lady Liberty. By this point we were getting tired and hungry, so we tried to make our way to Little Italy for dinner but somehow the boys misread the map and we ended up in Soho. We still managed to find a nice little Italian restaurant and had a lovely dinner with great wine and a yummy dessert. After refueling, we headed back to Time Square and stopped by Hard Rock and Espn Zone before calling it a day. Thanks for a great weekend Anthony and Lynn, can't wait to see you soon on your wedding day!

A few people were in Times Square as you can see....

Nate and Anthony in Central Park

Tiffanie @ Tiffany's

How do we get there?

This past weekend I headed out to Pittsburgh, home of the Superbowl champs, to stock Willie Parker…oh wait, I mean visit my best friend Summer. It was a great day in the Burgh! We went to an arts festival during the day. This was a great event with tons of vendors and good (unhealthy of course) food. I bought an awesome picture by Robert Sovers and a cool piece of pottery from Ole Fish House Pottery. I loved the Alpha Canvas work and just might visit their website to order “our name.”

We spent the evening in the South Side. I had never been to the South Side before and I LOVED it. There is great shopping and all kinds of bars and restaurants in this area. We had a fun dinner at Hofbrauhaus, a german restaurant. The food here was pretty good, although Summer’s made her feel a little funny. There is a ton of outside seating at the restaurant and it’s right along the water, definitely a great place to hang out on a nice day. After dinner, we went into a few bars and watched the Pens, although disappointed in the game, as Noah said “That’s why it’s a 7 game series!”

The great thing about Pittsburgh is that the people are friendly and you don’t have the “popped collars” and “designer everything” attitudes that you have in some urban areas. "Pittsburghers" are just normal folks, with accents somewhat like my own Fulton County Hick accent, who are making an honest living, cheering hard for their favorite teams, and having fun. Pittsburgh is definitely a place I could live, but it would make for quite a long drive to a beach, so for now I’ll just visit. Thanks for a fun weekend Summer and Noah, come see us soon!