Yogurt and Honey

Yogurt is a staple in Greek cuisine. Whether it's being used to make tzatziki (recipe coming soon) or eaten by itself, buying plain yogurt is as regular a purchase as milk or eggs are in this country.

One of my all-time favorite snacks is yogurt and honey. The sweetness of the honey mellows out the tartness of the yogurt and it is simply delicious and filling. You may have noticed that "Greek-style" yogurt has recently made an appearance in the states. In the tzatziki recipe, I'm going to show you how to get the same thick consistency with regular American-style yogurt, but for the purpose of this snack, we'll just take the route of convenience and buy it ready made.



I really like this Oikos yogurt. It's organic, has 0% milkfat and it has a nice creamy texture. Keep in mind that any plain yogurt will work here, I just happen to like this one in particular.

The second ingredient in our snack today is honey. Now, there are a thousand different types of honey out there. I highly recommend buying non-filtered honey that is local to your area. I read in one of my health books that consuming local honey can help your allergies and I'm all about helping with the allergies. Now,it just so happens that our next door neighbor has a beehive in his backyard (yeah, I was suprised too) so I have REALLY local honey. He brought it over in a little jar with a piece of the honeycomb inside.



I couldn't help but think that Winnie the Pooh would have been super jealous...and then I groaned inwardly since all of my mental references now revolve around children's characters. As soon as our neighbor was out of sight, I dipped my finger into the honey jar and took a little taste. Man, it was so sweet and delightful. I couldn't wait to drown my yogurt in it.

I usually add about a cup of yogurt into my bowl and then drizzle some honey on top.



Then I give it a good stir until I can no longer see threads of honey.



Then I give it a taste to see if it's sweet enough and I'll keep adding honey until I'm satisfied. Yogurt with honey is such a great snack because it's natural, has tons of protein and it's sweet enough that it feels like a treat. I love it when snacks make sense.

This And That

Can I just say that trying to buy a house is stressful! I'm almost certain that we aren't going to get the house that I love because the seller is not in a must-sell situation so she's being a bit demanding for the current housing market. I don't care how cute I think her house is, momma didn't raise a fool and I refuse to overpay in this market. So, we're going to counter her counter offer with one just a smidge higher than our original offer (which I think was quite generous to begin with), which she'll probably turn down so we'll have to find a rental. Oh joy of joys. I think I will task the Irishman with that job...and then probably take it over myself a mere 12 hours after I've asked him to do it. I'm entirely too predictable.

In between all of my house hunting ridiculousness, I'm still training for my triathlon, which is now only a month away! It doesn't help (or maybe it does) that exercise is my main stress reliever. I came home from the gym the other day only to find myself changing from my cycling shoes to my running shoes and heading back out the door. I was quite literally running away from everything I had to do.

I've also been cooking a lot more since cooking is therapeutic in its own way. The Irishman's friends benefit when my stress levels are higher since I cook and bake more things that we could possibly eat in a week. So, I bake dozens of muffins and cookies and cakes and then I send them out the door with him. The other thing I love doing is chopping vegetables. I like the rhythm of it. However, I can't pawn off chopped veggies quite as easily as I can baked goods and 5 lbs. of chopped onions will really stink up your fridge.

Last on my list of therapies is wine. Lots of wine. Interestingly enough, my father was the one who introduced me to this particular stress reliever. I remember that when I was 20 years old (err, let's make that 21 for the purposes of this story) and I was getting ready to go on a week-long trip by myself to Washington D.C., I was having some anxiety over it and in his quiet way, my dad brought me a glass of Cabernet and said, "just drink this." Yup, it worked wonders. Unfortunately, I have a child and I teach an 8am class, so losing myself in a bottle like the character of an old country song just isn't in the cards these days. Plus, have you ever tried to run with a hangover? I don't recommend it.

So, I've been running and baking and writing rambling posts WAY past my bedtime (seriously, it's like 9:45!) wishing the next month away. I'm sure that we'll eventually find a place to live and rent our own house and hire a moving company and put deposits for cable/phone/utilities/internet, but in the meantime, the distance between here and there seems quite far.

French Toast

I have a confession to make. I have a weakness for a couple of things: McDonald's french fries, buttered popcorn and Cracker Barrel french toast. In all of my french toast making years, my french toast has never even come close. So, I set out on a mission to duplicate the heavenly goodness. Plus, I'm almost certain that any version I made would be infinitely better for me. It actually took far fewer tries than I anticipated, so of course, now I need to pass on my addiction to all of you. I'm such a giver.

Ok, here are our ingredients: Sourdough bread, 1 egg, 1/2 cup milk, 1 teaspoon sugar, a sprinkle of cinnamon and butter. (These amounts will generally cover 4 slices of bread, so if you're cooking more than that, just double the amounts.)



First, we're going to add the milk, egg, sugar and cinnamon into a shallow dish.



Whisk it all together until the egg is incorporated.



Put a pad of butter into your pan.



As the butter begins to melt, drop a slice of sourdough bread into your dish.



Let it soak for 20-30 seconds or so and then flip it.



After another 20-30 seconds, transfer the soaked bread onto your pan. This is done most easily with a wide flat spatula. Cook the slice of french toast for a couple of minutes or until it's a nice golden brown color.



Cook the second side for another couple of minutes and then slide it onto your plate. Before I cook the next slice, I usually add another pad of butter so that it gets the same lovely golden-brown color. Once all of your slices are cooked and on your plate, pour some pure maple syrup on top and enjoy.



Lord help me, you have no idea how good this is. The sourdough bread is definitely the key here and while you could add grated orange peel or vanilla to your batter, I think it's fantastic just how it is. While french toast is generally considered a breakfast food, I actually love it for lunch or dinner. In fact, I think that breakfast for dinner is one of the best ideas ever.

Quote Of The Day

"Stupid should be painful."

A friend of mine says this all of the time and it's so true. If stupid were painful, maybe people would be more mindful of their actions. My observation of stupidity for today happened when I tried to parallel park this morning. This is how it happened.

I was driving on campus on a narrow road and spotted a parallel parking spot on the right-hand side of the road. I put on my blinker and pulled up parallel to the car in front of the spot that I was going to take (sounds pretty standard, right?). I put the truck into reverse and started to park. The car behind me started laying on the horn and gesturing wildly because apparently the driver thought that she would just swing around me, never mind the fact that as I cut the wheel, the front end of my 2 ton truck would block her access.

I stopped reversing when I heard her horn and I looked into her car and gave her a look like she had sprouted a second head. Her windows were down so I rolled mine down as well. She screamed at me, "What are you doing?!?!" I answered calmly, "I'm parallel parking. Did you skip driving school?"

And I rolled up my window and finished parking. The irony here is that she thought that I was the idiot. I think this pretty much sums up by I have minimal interaction with other people.

P.S. A recipe is coming later today!

Archives

I was looking through my old photo files and I just had to share these. I can't believe that most of these were over two years ago and that my little peanut is now such a little boy instead of a baby.

Ok, I simply can't HANDLE the cuteness of this first picture.



Parker's face is like all of the bunnies and puppies and honey in the world all wrapped up into one little person. He was just such a sweet little baby with such a sweet face. Again, this cuteness is not something I can handle. I have to look away every 10 seconds or so to prevent being completely sucked in.

This next one is the first time he pulled up to his hands and knees.



He'd been trying for so long and he was so proud of himself when he finally did it. I love his "Look mom!" expression here. Oh man, this kid really knows how to work those smiles.

Finally, here's one that has a baby and puppies. Nona was so protective of Parker when he was sweet and little....and immobile. She still adores him, but she's just as often running from him as she's running towards him.



What a sweet baby girl and what a sweet baby Parker. Pictures are so powerful, aren't they? They bring you back to that moment and you can't help but get caught back up in it.

Possibly "THE" House

Well, it was an exhausting trip, but all in all, quite productive. We saw about 12 houses that met our criteria and the general theme was that we either found a great house on a poor piece of land or a bad house on a great piece of land...with one exception. The house that we're going to make an offer on is a historic house (built in 1910) that has a new roof, plumbing and A/C, but the original hardwood floors, windows and built-in cabinetry. There is plenty of room for expansion (it has a huge unfinished basement) and it's located in the downtown area, which we love.

Here are some teaser pictures for you. I don't want all of you to get too attached in the event that the seller does not accept our offer or we decide that it would be too much work, but I do want to share how much character this house has. It's just oozing coolness.

The view from the front door looking in. Notice the built-in bookshelves and the original fireplace.



Here is the view from the entrance to the dining room, looking back into the living room. Outside the window is a huge front porch.



From the dining room entrance looking in. It's seriously huge. The kitchen is to the left.



From the inside corner of the dining room.



And the kitchen, which needs to be redone.



The good news is that it's fairly small so redoing all of the cabinets and counter tops will be a minimal expense. The bad news is that it's fairly small and I would have to redo it to be remotely pleased. I'm sure we all know how much I like to putter around the kitchen. I think another positive here is that I'll have the chance to pick the colors and materials that we'd use, so it will be exactly to my liking.

A solarium that extends beyond the kitchen and houses the current utility area.



The unfinished basement.



The carriage-house (where they use to park their carriages pre-Ford days). This would be converted into a modern garage.



I'll be sure to keep you posted on whether we'll be calling this historic piece of loveliness (and a crapload of work!) ours, so stay tuned...

Shhhh....We're Hunting Houses!

Well folks, we are about to depart for North Carolina to find a place to live in the fall. A daunting prospect indeed! Whether we're going to rent or buy is yet to be determined. The determination will be whether we find something that meets all of our very stringent criteria.

Picking a house is so difficult because we're not just picking the house itself. We're also looking at school districts, proximity to town, year-round access (while a house on the top of a mountain sounds lovely, being snowed in for weeks does not). Oh, and obviously we have to be able to afford it.

We're all over the place with our likes and dislikes. I am so drawn to historic homes with their cathedral ceilings and original hardwood floors; however, someone else will have already needed to do the major renovations for us because while the Irishman is a lot of things, being overly handy is not one of them (sorry dear, but it's true). We also like the idea of having a lot of acreage, but being city folk (as we're going to be lovingly referred to by all of our new neighbors that I will do my best to avoid), I'm not sure that being exceedingly isolated is in our best interest. You know, the whole bears and serial killers thing. If someone is trying to kill you and you scream and no one is there to hear your scream so you flee... what, you've never had that thought? Hmmm, perhaps I'm spending too much time in prison.

Anyway, I'm certain that our real estate agent thinks that we're total flakes because we've sent her listings that we like that range from 1500 to 3000 sq. ft., that are both downtown and in the mountains, that were built in 1910 and 2008... you get my point.

What it really comes down to is this: We'll know it when we see it. And when we see it, I'll share it with you since I'll have my camera with me the entire time.

Wish us happy hunting everyone!