Improvising the Sunday Brunch

Is that my awesome boyfriend I spy making breakfast? It totally is. One Sunday morning I'd whipped up the pancake batter, then took the dogs outside and swore I could smell breakfast food cooking (even though I said I'd start cooking as soon as I came in). When I got back inside, Ashley had the pancakes almost finished and was about to start on the eggs. He's the best.

Here's where things got interesting...I don't eat breakfast sausage (in fact, it wasn't until very recently that I even ate a grilled chicken sausage). Usually though, I have some breakfasty meat product in my fridge or freezer for Ashley to eat on the weekends. Except this time. He finished the sausages the weekend before, and I'd put the bacon in the freezer so it wouldn't go bad. Oops. Being the good sport and brave food eater that he is, he opted for a turkey hot dog and said "why not?." So he chopped it up and threw it in with his eggs, scrambled it all up and called it good.

Cutting up 1 turkey hotdog into bite-sized pieces to add to the eggs.

Mixing it all together.

Scramble time!

What lesson did we learn today, friends? Fake it so you can make it!

The Cheater's Margarita

In the spirit of the weekend (as if we need a reason...ahem), how about a drink recipe? I like to call this one the "Cheater's Margarita" because, well, I cheated!

When it comes to a mixed drink, there's nothing I find more unsatisfying than an overly sweet, not quite real enough fruit flavored drink mix (probably loaded with calories, no less) to be the deathbed of good alcohol. You catching my drift here?

That said, the last time I made these margaritas, I wasn't exactly in the mood to be squeezing lime after lime (time after time?). So, read on my friends and find out how to cheat your way to a delicious margarita!

Liquor: silver tequila and triple sec

Other: Simply Limeade and Simply Lemonade

In a shaker (ok, who am I kidding? a pitcher...) with ice, add a 1:3 ration of triple sec to tequila. Then, shake up your bottles of Simply Limeade and Simply Lemonade really well. [Note - these do have pulp, so if you don't like it, use a strainer when pouring them into your pitcher.] Add about the same ratio (1:3) of lemonade to limeade. The lemonade cuts the tartness of the lime just a bit and makes a really smooth drink. Stir or shake it up, and test the flavor. Adjust to meet your taste preferences, then pour and serve.

And there you go...sit back and enjoy a summer day while sipping on a Cheater's Margarita!

Blueberries!

Growing up on the Outer Banks, one of my favorite summer activities (well, besides going to the beach...duh) was picking blueberries. If I remember correctly, the blueberry farm was on Waterlily Road. We went several times during the summer and every time would leave with loads of blueberries. As a kid, it was super exciting to stop at Joe's "Tarheel Produce," where he'd pay you a couple bucks a quart for your extra blueberries. Cash-money, baby!

So, needless to say, I still love picking blueberries. A few weekends ago, right at the beginning of blueberry season up here in PA, Ashley and I went to Solebury Orchards in New Hope, PA for some fresh berries (they also have the best apple cider donuts I've ever had...like, to die for...but shhhh, don't tell anyone!).

Picking was decent. We both ended up with a lot of those not-quite-ripe-but-who-cares-because-they're-the-best-ones-anyway berries in our quart-sized containers. I ate all of mine by Thursday (we picked on a Sunday), and Ashley froze his (I know, kind of a sin, right?). He has good reason though! He recently bought an at-home beer brewing kit and as a substitute for some of the sugar, he's going to add the quart of blueberries he picked. We've had some good fruit-infused beers, and I think it'll turn out really well! His kit is for a Belgian Triple, so if he does it well, the end result might be a little something like the Three Philosophers beer that he loves, just with blueberries instead of cherries.

Repeat that last title...

Gosh, I am getting bad at this. So there are a lot of new things on the horizon.

The public school district where I have been working as a Special Education teacher for the last 5 months has gone to hell. That being said, I'm currently without a teaching job for the fall. I didn't realize I was going to love teaching as much as a did. I'll tell anyone I meet that I love a challenge, and that's certainly what I was handed when I began working in February. And you know what? All the more reason why I loved it. Disrespectful students began to respect me, themselves and each other. Apathetic students began to care about their progress in classes. Students who were used to failing had a taste of success, and I became their biggest cheerleader. Students who weren't used to guidance were given a dose of tough love. The transformation for them (and me!) was amazing. I wouldn't have traded any single tough day...days when I wanted to throw the books down and go running out the door in tears...for anything in the world. And that's why I'm so passionate about getting back in the classroom this fall.

A college friend is following his dreams and starting an online, location-based magazine, and he has asked me to be the editor! Right now it's just a side project with collaboration from friends and friends of friends, but we're really hoping to see this go somewhere. And that's why I want you to check it out (and if you feel so compelled, by all means...spread the word)! We're called Culprit Magazine. Follow the link and you'll be taken to our website, which will be going live with the first issue August 1st! You can also follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook. It's all about staying connected! Through Culprit Magazine, you'll be able to browse events calendars (tailored to each of our initial major cities - NYC, Philadelphia and L.A.), read articles related to events or activities in each of those cities, as well as read articles that may interest anyone in any location. We're all about access, so we've created a wide variety of interest categories to appeal to our readers. Hope to find you browsing the site in August!

Finally (I know, I know...I'm just like those TV shows that show all of the good stuff on commercials, then you find out that clip is from the last minute of the show), what people originally started coming here to read...the food. I have a ton of pictures to upload and meals to write about, my garden to rave (and fuss) about, restaurants to discuss and much more. But for the rest of the night, I must put on my editor's cap (ok fine - glasses) and read through my first batch of stories.

So for now, I'll leave you with a tasty imagine of summertime from the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk in Delaware. Yum!

Dang, it's been awhile

I've been back to the grind after enjoying an awesomely uncommitted 9 days off from work...thank you spring break! I was just a tad bit lazy, waking up most days around...err...10. It was so nice to take my time getting out of bed, making a cup of coffee and taking the dogs to the backyard to play.

I finally did some serious work in my garden, tilling in some topsoil, marking off planting locations for the little guys still sprouting inside, and getting the direct-seed fruits and veggies in the ground. This year I hope to be enjoying a bounty of: cantaloupe, summer squash, Boothby's blond cucumber, dinosaur kale, kaleidoscope mix (colorful!) carrots, assorted beets, a purple heirloom bean, garden peach tomatoes (my favorite from last year), carnival (more colorful!) bell peppers, and lots of lettuce for salads. I'm just crossing my dirt-covered fingers that everything sprouts.

Another wonderful think about spring: seasonal beer. Well, that's wonderful about any season, but it's extra fun with a cool bottle opener. I picked this one up during my birthday trip to Baltimore, and Ashley also bought one. He's going to turn his into a door knocker, which is a cool idea. Having grown up at the beach, I can't pass up anything that's mermaid and awesome.

I freakin' love Seitan

The end.

Pizza and Beer Night

Never mind the 6-pack and extra large pie from the local pizza parlor. This was a make-it-yourself night. My local Whole Foods is also home to a great little pub. If you know Pennsylvania, you know the odd beer-purchasing laws of the state (i.e. beer purchases are mostly restricted to buying entire cases from beer distributors), which is partly why I love WF so much. In the pub, you can buy large, individual bottles of some of the delicious microbrews or seasonal 6-packs from the walk-in fridge room; fill up a growler to go or enjoy a pint inside the pub. It's a small spot, and every time I've been there it's been full of people.

At the local bar, I enjoyed a delicious Belgian dubble, so I was excited to see one inside the fridge room. Ashley's been on a hunt for a random beer I had leftover after my neighborhood Halloween party - Three Philosophers. It's a cherry Belgian tripel. Whole Foods had it!

We were planning to make our own pizzas for dinner, originally on pitas, but then Ashley spotted the garlic naan. Best idea ever. The garlic flavor of the "pizza crust" added a little extra something to the pizzas. We bought a package of four and ended up using all of them (Ashley ate both for dinner; I saved one of mine to have the next day).

To start, we rubbed a little olive oil on top of the naan (the secret to all great pizzas!), and then the sauce. I used Muir Glen's organic pizza sauce, which already had Italian spices in it, so we didn't need to add our own. And finally, mozzarella cheese and we each chose our own toppings (he likes pepperoni and I like olives). Into the oven they went at 400 for about 15 minutes...perfect and tasty!