Lanternlight

Fall is coming on far too quickly, so last weekend I made sure to spend some time outside with the kids, enjoying the weather while it is still around. I pulled out our Ladderball, and the kids were both soon having fun trying their hand at this classic backyard game.

Aspen was a natural! She got the hang of it so quickly.

Ethan had his own style and flair!

Nighttime outside can be a lot of fun, especially when you have some oil camping lanterns to play with! We have to enjoy this time before it gets too cold to be out at night anymore.

My lil' lantern princess...

...and my Prince Charming. So contemplative!

Iced Coffee

A friend of mine posted that she had tried a recipe for iced coffee from the Pioneer Woman's blog, which is a site that I find myself frequenting quite often as of late. I love iced coffee, but have never thought of attempting to make it myself. Being the often over-optimistic chef, I decided to jump in with both feet. A quick run to Target to pick up one huge pitcher, a wire strainer, a plastic glass with straw, and some decaf coffee, and I was ready to go!

My coffee and water mixture (a.k.a. the sludge).

After a overnight rest, the sludge gets poured slowly through some paper towels and a strainer into the huge pitcher.

The sludge being separated from the deliciousness.

When I say slowly, I mean slowly. This step took over an hour. After it all was finally poured through, the final product goes back into the fridge for a little more chillin'.

Look at all that coffee!

I could hardly wait for it to be cold enough! I did try the Pioneer woman's suggestion to add some sweetened condensed milk and a splash of creamer to make it a "Russian". 

Yum, yum.

Our second honeymoon | Part 2

As we headed up the shoreline of Lake Superior, there was some beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of being on a bike instead of a car is that it is really hard to take pictures sometimes, so we just had to stop at a scenic overlook and stretch our legs.

Look at that view!

Watch out for falling rocks!

We did run into a nice couple who offered to take our picture, so we didn't have only self-portraits (although Trevor is really good at those). 

Behold the zen master.

After our little break, we did a longer stretch to make it all the way up to our hotel in Tofte. We were staying at the Cliff Dweller, and it was a nice little place with a gorgeous view of Lake Superior. After getting settled in, it was back on the bike to head just a little farther north to our final destination, Grand Marais. 

We ate dinner at a fairly overpriced cafe, did a little shopping, and then walked around enjoying the cool weather and picturesque harbor.

So sunny.

Trevor shows his manliness

T is for... totem?

What a beautiful night!

Our second honeymoon | Part 1

Trevor and I have decided, anniversaries are for suckers.

Instead of a first anniversary, we're going to instead celebrate our year of marriage with a second honeymoon. Our first was to Madeline Islands in Wisconsin, and this time around we decided to go to Lutsen.

Our plan was to take the motorcycle up to the North Shore, stay the night, and then come back the next day. It would be our longest trip ever on the bike, but we figured with enough stops we would be able to handle it. As the weekend approached however, the weather forecast did not look promising. Scattered thunderstorms with a 60% chance of rain.

We decided to chance it, and when Saturday morning came we hopped on the bike and went.

Beautiful cloudy scenery

This was my view most of the time.

Riding on the motorcycle is a lot more tiring than a normal road trip, so we took lots of little breaks to stretch, walk around, and get some coffee.

Them's the rain clouds off to the east... rain, rain go away!

When we reached the Duluth area Trevor wanted to take me to the Jay Cooke State Park, and on the way we ran into Carlton Days, a small town festival with lots of small town traffic. After another small stop, we were back on our way.

Near the entrance to the state park there is a dam by a parking area and some trails to explore. So we took the opportunity to have another break, and did a tiny bit of hiking. 

Trevor is the king of the self-portrait photo

Enjoying a moment of peace...

...and enjoying the view.

Trevor enjoyed some rock-climbing

Trevor gets up close and personal with the local flora

Once we reached Duluth it was lunchtime, so we headed down to Canal Park for something to eat. I had heard of the Northern Waters Smokehaus while watching the Food Network, so I wanted to give it a try.

Proof!

Trevor had a smoked salmon sandwich, while I tried pastrami for the first time. It definitely had a kick, but was pretty good nonetheless. After lunch, I wanted ice cream, so we went searching. We were successful, yet  with temperatures in the 80's and the sun beating down we were hard-pressed to finish the ice cream before it melted into a huge mess. It was like a race.

I think Trevor is losing.

Perhaps I should have thought this through.

After cleaning up, we were off on scenic highway 61, up to the north shore!

Cousin time

This weekend, my brother's wife Kelly was gone to spend some quality time with her mom and her sisters, so we took the opportunity to let the cousins hang out. I love how even at ages 1, 3, 6, and 9 they still get along and have a great time playing together.

Enjoying some mini golf

A new nickname perhaps?

After mini golf we went on to have lunch and hang out at Birch Bay. At first the plan was just to play in the sand, but it soon became clear that the kids wanted to get completely wet and do some swimming! Fortunately, we had thought ahead and brought their suits, and they all had a good time tiring themselves out.

Trying to catch fish

"I bet this water will taste great...

... or maybe not!"

Gotta love the intense "swimming face".

Trevor was having a good time.

A rare moment of sibling bonding. =)

Andrew gets in the mix

A leap of faith!

Kherrington had a great time tasting the "local cuisine"

We took a lot more pictures, the best of which can be viewed on my Facebook album. What a wonderful summer day! I feel like we have to enjoy these now before they are just a memory.

Local adventures

For the past few weeks, I have been trying one new recipe a week in order to expand my repertoire of culinary adventures. I have been especially interested in branching out into different ethnic varieties, including Indian, Mediterranean, and Greek. After a semi-disastrous attempt at curried chicken, a new friend gave me a packet of curry paste to make a second attempt.

Inside the packet was a thick paste, which was then mixed with water and butter. It was really easy, and turned our much better than my first Indian excursion. Curry is definitely a stronger flavor than I am used to, but is nicely complimented by sour cream and rice. 

After our experimental dinner, Trevor surprised me by taking me on a dessert date. It was a beautiful night, with the temperature finally dipping down below 80 degrees, perfect motorcycling weather. We rode to Lost Lake Lodge, where we had dessert and coffee while we enjoyed their outdoor seating and peaceful views of the bay.

I had the chocolate cake, which turned out to be more of a torte. It was very rich and so dense you felt like a little hammer and chisel may be needed. However, the cake's bitterness along with the right hint of sweetness from the chocolate and berry caramel sauces hit all the right notes. I really enjoyed it. Trevor had the Bluebarb crumble, which turned out to be sweet creamy deliciousness.

After our gourmet desserts we were having such a good time riding around that we couldn't head home just yet. We decided to go pay my grandpa a visit at his new house. Neither of us had been there before, so it was exciting to see him and to get a tour. The house is situated on a very nice piece of land, five acres, and has a peaceful view of rolling bluffs. Between the house, the garage, and another outbuilding which used to be a stable, the tour was quite extensive! However, the house had been built in 1910, and had a lot of interesting quirks, which made it fun to explore. The grounds had been planted with some beautiful perennials, and they were busy filling up my grandpa's outside spaces with color.

Who knew that so many adventures lay just beyond our front door! I can't wait to see where our next one will take us.

Grilled Marinated Pork Chops

This weekend, we had the pleasure of hosting a bachelor LAN party for one of our good friends. These types of gatherings are notorious for lots of junk food, so it's nice to have some "real" food thrown in the mix. I found this great recipe at allrecipes.com, and it turned out amazing.

Grilled Marinated Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 6 (1 inch thick) pork chops

Directions

1. Combine the first 10 ingredients in a large resealable plastic bag or shallow glass container; add pork and turn to coat. Seal bag or cover container; refrigerate overnight. Drain and discard marinade. Grill, covered, over medium coals, turning occasionally, for 20-25 minutes or until juices run clear.

When I made this, my pork chops were about half as thick (about 1/2 inch) and I had twice as many, so I just made the same amount of marinade and it turned out fine. I heard somewhere that a marinade with acidity helps to tenderize the meat, which would explain why this works so well!

Cars too!

This past week we were able to go to the Car Show in Aitkin. It was a beautiful day, which was much needed after the perpetual cloud that we have been under in the month of June. We took advantage of the good weather, hopped on the motorcycle, and rode off to see what we could see. If you don't know much about antique cars, be sure to pay special attention to my informative and knowledgeable captions.

Old car.

Not so old car.

Classy interior.

Beige car.

These 2 look sort of alike.

I can tell this car is old... it's front engine cover has rotted away.

Pipes!

This one has a pretty blue bird on it.

Cool matte black finish!

I love this 50's era info panel-thingy

Some of the car owners were a little stiff.

Our future ride!

This last picture may seem out of place for a car show, but the show itself was located at an airport, so there were some cool airplanes there too. We found out that the plane above gets some great gas mileage: only 14 gallons/hour! We best start saving our pennies.