Parents!

This weekend, I went to the upstate to hang out with my parents for a bit. Really that translates to shopping with my mom and watching the Gamecocks lose with my dad.

The Gamecocks situation was sad. I never watch football. Even when I go to a football game, I just chat or play on my phone. I don't pay attention. I think this is really because I don't understand football. I get it overall, but there are things that I don't get. I do have one new question based on the fact that I actually watched the game. I paid attention to players' numbers so that I could try to keep track of who was who. Garcia is #5. Then, there's this guy who plays defense who is ALSO #5! How can this be!? I mean, I get that one is playing offense and the other is playing defense, but really how can there be two #5's on the team? Is it because Garcia is QB, so he doesn't count? Is it really just because they are in different categories? Oh the mystery. I talked a lot about that during the game. I think my dad was annoyed with me, and we were both annoyed that they lost in the last seconds of the game. The one game I watched too. Bad football karma maybe? Speaking of #5, when I played basketball in middle school, I was #5. How 'bout that?

More interesting was shopping with my mom. We had fun and she got me treats which I totally didn't need or really deserve. She's just awesome like that! Most exciting was the fact that I got new boots. Exhibit A:


I seriously love these boots. Love them.

Then there are these guys. Exhibit B:


Now here's the thing about these boots. They pretty much require that I wear them over my jeans. I have a problem with that though. I normally don't wear my shoes on the outside of my pants as that's a fashion trend that is well, weird to me. I'm game though; I'll totally play along. But, I always wear boot cut jeans, so that's a lot of pants to stuff in your boots. I need tips on this practice. I seriously have contemplated buying skinny jeans, another fashion trend that gives me the heebie jeebies, just so I don't have to have put forth so much effort to put the shoes on the outside of the pants. Oh, the dilemmas I face!

Going to the Fair

On Friday afternoon, Will and I headed to the State Fair. We don't go to the fair every year because it's like a repeat from the year before, but this year, we were really just in need of Mini Doughnuts.



From the minute we entered the gates, we were on a mission for these guys. Yum.



Lots of fair food vendors tell lies about how they have Elephant Ears, Funnel Cake, Mini Doughnuts! This vendor had it right. Really, it's just fried dough. No need to call it fancy names.



Other than the doughnuts, we were able to resist all of the other options, though we did share a fresh squeezed lemonade that was loaded down with sugar.



But really, that was all!

Other than eating we checked out the animals. In the cattle barn, I was amazed by all the 4-H kids who were working and taking care of their cows. They were teenagers, who were willingly working. With cows. Amazing. Because I was so impressed by the kids' efforts to take care of cows and was carrying on about how I never had experience with animals blah blah blah, Will seized the opportunity to launch into a discussion about how we should get a milk cow. Maybe like this one.



I really have no idea if this is a milk cow. Could just be beef. No clue.

We added this to our plans for after I finish school and we suddenly are free to do things like move to a farm. Will suggested I use the cow idea as motivation for finishing school. Dr. G on the farm with her cow. That's not quite what I'd pictured, but hey, at this point if I can just be finished I'd be happy, even if I do live on a farm with cows.

This cow, in particular, was huge and pregnant. She made me worry about child birth because, well...look at her. Holy crap. Huge.



The only ride I was brave enough to get on was the chair lift because I seriously don't trust rusty rides that fold up and travel around the country. Yea, that'd be the one that could drop you from the cable leaving you with nothing but a broken neck. Here's the view.

Best Sunday Ever

Here's how to have the best Sunday ever, if you're into that kind of thing. :)

1. Sleep in.
2. Eat blueberry pancakes (made by husband, not from a box mix) and drink cinnamon coffee (Starbucks new flavored line is actually good, and I'm not always a fan of flavored coffee.)
3. Watch CBS Sunday Morning News, which is the best news program on television.
4. Get back in bed and read a magazine with more coffee.
5. Go for a run to take in some fall sunshine.
6. Go back to bed with laptop to read blogs and look for fall-like recipes.

I haven't gotten to numbers 7+, but 1-6 have been fabulous.

Calling Egypt

Tonight I went to Tractor Supply with the husband. We had to buy rabbit food and stuff to make a gate. Just usual Thursday night errands.

We go to Tractor Supply on a weekly basis, so the people who work there know us and are always super nice. They are mostly high school students, so I find them to be very funny. Tonight, the guy checking us out asked Will for his phone number. Will told him no because we never really cooperate when people ask for our number. So, the girl who was working watches him click through to the next screen on the register, and she said, "Why didn't you make one up?" The guy said he didn't care about his rating, so I assume the more phone numbers they get from customers, the higher their rating. So this little happening led to a conversation all about making up phone numbers or not making up phone numbers. The girl said she always made up numbers when people didn't just give them to her. The guy replied, "Yea, I think you put in a number for somewhere in Egypt the other day." She started laughing and asked him if he knew that for sure. He said that he did because he saw it on the paper in the office. "It said Egypt or something. For real!"

Who knew calling Egypt was so easy you can just make up a number? For real!?

Butternut!

For the past couple of years I've wanted to cook with butternut squash, but never really got around to figuring that out. This year though, that has all changed.



I made some yummy ravioli for dinner with a butternut squash sauce. The ravioli was store bought spinach ricotta. In my opinion you should always have a box of ravioli in the refrigerator. So good! Totally a comfort food at my house. Tonight I changed up the sauce though and rather than the usual marinara, I went all kinds of butternutty!

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart. I'm not the hugest Martha fan, but her recipes are pretty much a guarantee for a good meal. Last week, I stayed home for a personal sanity day and Martha was on Today. Her segment was all about meals you can make in place of something yummy and bad for you. Meredith was the Today anchor on the segment. They started with a replacement for pizza. Martha shared a recipe for tomato soup. Seriously!? Meredith called her out about it and kind of laughed at her for thinking soup would be as satisfying as pizza. Martha responded, "Oh but Meredith, you didn't try it with the crusty bread! It's just like pizza!" Meredith said, "Um, maybe for you!" and rolled her eyes. I love Meredith! I'm with her on this one. I love tomato soup, but it certainly doesn't replace pizza.

But the butternut sauce was a winner. I changed just a couple things.

*I didn't use a whole cup of half and half, just enough in my opinion, which was only about half a cup. I also used fat free.
*I used garlic out of the jar and just put it in at the time I pureed it. Roasted garlic would have been lovely I'm sure, but I use garlic from a jar because I'm not that fancy.
*After I pureed the sauce, I put it in a sauce pan to heat it up. I added some grated parm at this point b/c parm makes everything amazing.

Okay, that's it. Now, go try it!

GPOYW

Me & Clovie!

Feels Like Fall

The weather is finally cooler and Starbucks has the pumpkin spice latte, so it must be fall, right?

Over the weekend, we went camping. It was fun. We had adventures. Here are some highlights:

Driving through the middle of nowhere in Georgia, we came across these guys.



From them, we bought these.



After the doughnut score, we got behind this guy, so it took us longer to get to our final destination.



Once we made it and set up camp



we went on a hunt for firewood.



Being the only girl on the camping trip is the best because I got to drive, which meant I didn't have to drag tree limbs and such. In the middle of the woods, we did come upon this sign, which was odd but effective because I stopped to think about it.




The firewood helped me make these yummy smores!



After smores, we headed up to the top of some mountain to look at the stars. No picture of that to share, but it was awesome. The weather was amazing so there were no clouds. We could even see the Milky Way and shooting stars and all. We all got on top of the Four Runner, and it was like we were in a movie. Well, maybe not. It was freezing, and I was scared some scary person was going to run out of the woods at us, but I've only seen people sitting on their cars looking at the stars in movies, hence my reference.

On the way home, we drove through Helen, GA just to see it because I'd never been there. Nothing that interesting except a bunch of buildings that looked German? or Dutch? I did see this horse though.