Fab Friday Feature

Today's Feature: The Harvest Box

For more information click here http://denisonfarms.com/harvestbox.html

We are first time harvest box recipients and enjoying every minute of it. We highly recommend you check your local farms to see if they do something similar. It makes it a little harder to do meal plans since you don't know what produce you are getting until you go pick up your box, but the payoff is worth it.

Our Happenings as of Late

I know I have been doing a really bad job of updating our blog with pictures, so here are a few from our latest adventures. We love the beach.
Waldport at my parents beach house. It was one of those rare beach weekends, the sun actually came out:)
Mac had a good time at the beach too
Opening night at the Corvallis Knights baseball game.
Our first crops of the year. Zucchini
Our apples won't be ready for a while but it is fun to watch them grow.
Our crazy climbing peas that are taking over.

I will post more pictures as soon as I get the time to download them all.

Fab Friday Feature

Today's Feature: Our favorite Banana Nut Muffin Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour (you can substitute whole wheat flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup apple sauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.

Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy

Mr. Smarty-pants

I just wanted to take a second to brag a little bit about Chris. He has officially finished his first year of grad school with a 4.0. Can you believe it? I am so proud of him!

Fab Friday Feature!

Today's Fab Feature: My favorite road trip websites

With our upcoming road trip extravaganza I have been searching the internet like crazy for helpful tips and suggestions. The following are my top 5 road trip websites.....

1. www.roadfood.com
This is a great site with restaurant recommendations from locals and other travelers.

2. www.momsminivan.com
For all those mom's out there who are wondering what to do with your kid on a trip, check this out. There are ton's of free templates to download for kids of all ages...even adults(car bingo, road trip scavenger hunts, battleship, etc).

3. www.roadsideamerica.com
Ever wonder where the largest ball of stamps is stored? Did you know that just outside Salt Lake City you can find the largest pit in the world? Well, I didn't until I found this website. It is full of oddball facts and landmarks all over the US and Canada. These random places are perfect for a quick pit stop to get out and stretch your legs.

4. www.roadtripamerica.com
With gas prices rising this is the site for you. It will estimate the cost of your road trip based on miles per gallon, trip length, and the current cost gas. It will also tell you the cheapest places to get gas along the way. Cool huh?

5. www.thebathroomdiaries.com
For all you neat freaks (myself included), this is a great one. It is a forum for truck drivers, locals, and road-trippers to discuss their bathroom experiences at rest areas. Most of them are horror stories about unsanitary conditions, others are recommendations. There are even rankings for the cleanest bathrooms.

Fab Friday Feature!!

Today's Fab Friday Feature: National Doughnut DayYep, that's right...it's doughnut day. Who knew there was such a holiday, well besides MSN since that's who informed me. Who cares about the nutritional value, it's time to celebrate!

Busy Saturday

For some reason Chris and I woke up early Saturday, so we decided to take a early morning walk to the park to feed the ducks. As you can tell by the picture, Chris is wide awake and I need my coffee.
I was a little more awake by the time we got to the ducks.
Here are some of the little guys that were lucky enough to have some old hot dog buns for breakfast.
After our walk, I headed into Corvallis to hit the farmer's market and attend Cindy's bridal shower. After the shower Chris, Adam, Imelda and I drove up to Portland to Celebrate a 4- way birthday party for some of our friends. We feasted on Sushi and watched others enjoy their Shabu Shabu at Meiji-En Japanese Restaurant off Broadway.

Eventhough Portland is so close, we don't get up there nearly enough. I am glad we were able to catch up with old/new friends:)

Pictures of the Yard for Grandma K

Chris has informed me that I need to post some more pictures of our yard in bloom for his Grandma in Wyoming, so here they are Grandma K. I took a lot more but for some reason the majority of them were blurry, sorry. One of our apple trees....I think it's a Gala??
Our loney little Hosta.
Pole peas and green onions (really they are onions, not grass)
Bush beans, pole beans, raddishes, and corn.