Shenandoah National Park

We've been pretty busy lately! September started with my birthday and Andrew coming home after six months away!!! We dove right into a housing project (which I'll post about later).

 

But, we also went camping!

 We planned to camp in Ohio, but last minute we decided to go down to Shenandoah National Park. We are so glad we did, the seven hour drive was worth it! We camped at Lewis Mountain, towards the center of the park, but I'll talk about the campsite more later.

The first night, we set up camp and made stew for dinner while the fog and mist settled in around us. We arrived Monday and the forecast for Tuesday was 100% rain, and it got there early. By the time we were done cleaning up dinner, it started to come down and we called it a night and curled up in our tent.

 

Rain...rain...rain. All night, we woke up quite a bit due to the wind and pelting of raindrops on our tent. We stayed dry though, we're very happy with our REI Halfdome tent.

 

We woke up early (still pouring rain) and decided we'd go eat breakfast at the Big Meadow Lodge. It was delicious and worth not cooking in the rain. We needed gas and drove from Big Meadow north out of the park. Stopping at the Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center along the way. Can you see the rain in that picture??

Along our drive we realized that the rest of the park was exposed to way more wind than our campground. We even encountered a tree across the road. Instead of turning back, Andrew and I got out of the car and moved it ourselves. We felt pretty badass. Sadly, I didn't take pictures of it across the road. But, you can see where it came off the rocks and to the other side.

 

After getting gas, ice and a car-charger for Andrew's cell phone we went back the way we came and had a few nice moments of no rain.

 

That's when we decided we'd go for a hike, it was barely sprinkling and we just had to get out of the car. We were right by White Oak Trail, and decided to do that. We ate a quick lunch in the car and headed down. Just before we stopped at the Skyland Lodge and I bought a rain jacket (such a good idea).

 

Not 500 feet down the trail it started to rain...then pour. We hovered under some pine trees for a few minutes hoping it would slow down but it never did. So we just pressed on. 

 Within minutes, exposed skin was soaked through. But the trail was very pretty...and there was no one else on it.

 You wind your way down, coming close to the water from time to time. I was pretty happy with my gift shop rain jacket, it kept me pretty dry up top. My jeans soaked through in minutes though.

 

We saw lots of salamanders!! I've never seen a salamander in the wild and I was silly excited about every one. It was too wet to stop and get any pictures of them though.

 Finally, we made it down to the falls, this was only the first leg of the longer hike, but we decided we should head back.

 Despite the pouring rain, it was gorgeous. The rain probably made the falls even more impressive.

So, after a Cliff bar, we headed back up to complete the 3.6 mile trek in the rain.

 

We headed back to camp for hot showers and dry clothes. Then decided we didn't feel like cooking dinner in the rain either and went back to the lodge for a delicious, hot, filling...and so yummy dinner.

 

 All in all it was a good day in the rain. Originally, we had planned to leave on Wednesday but the weather was supposed to be perfect and we decided to stay another day so we could hike in the sunshine. And Wednesday turned out to be gorgeous...but there are pictures and another post for that.



WIAW: Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

This week I'm not going to focus too much on what I ate, but more on what I made. There are some food pictures at the end. But yesterday, I was too busy cooking to take pictures of what I was eating.

But, I'm still going to link up with the awesome Jenn at Peas and Crayons, because I made something that's going to eventually be in a WIAW.

 

Spaghetti sauce!!!

I have three rather large tomato plants, Big Boy, Rutger and a Julianna Grape. In about two days I had ten ripe tomatoes, and that's more than I can eat before they go bad. I decided to make spaghetti sauce. Apparently, it can be tricky, you want a pressure cooker or the right amount of acid to kill botulism. Well, I didn't want to mess with that. So I looked around for recipes specifically for freezing. I went with this Freezer Spaghetti Sauce (link). I left out the green pepper and tomato paste (I wanted something fresh, no point in adding canned stuff).

 

 

 To peel a tomato, you want a pot of boiling water. Drop in your tomatoes, about two at a time and boil 45 seconds to a minute, some took longer than that. You're good to take it out the pot when you see the skin split. Take the tomato out with a giant slotted spoon and dump into a icy water bath.

The skin will slide right off. Then I quartered and de-seeded, and chopped the tomatoes. If you have stubborn seeds, run the tomato under water to help wash the seeds out. I had about 6 cups of tomatoes, and adjuted the recipe as needed. 

 

After the onions are cooked, add the tomatoes and spices and cook, cook cook. It took mine about

1 1/2 hours until they were done. 

Of course, it was way too chunky, so it got a ride in the blender, weeeee...and turned orange as a result. whatev

To make scooping easy, I placed a freezer quart bag in a wide mouth mug and dumped in 1 cup of sauce. 1 cup between Andrew and me will probably make two dinners. I don't like drenching my noodles in sauce. After they cooled for a few minutes in the quart sized bags I squeezed all the air out and sealed them. All three small bags went into a labeled gallon freezer bag for extra protection. 

I just had a little taste-it was pretty good, a little sweet (I think from the onions) and needed some more spice. I wasn't sure if frozen spices would get stronger in the freezer, but I didn't want to mess it up. So when I thaw these for cooking, I'll add some more spices while reheating.

 

Since I have so many tomatoes, this is something I will do again, I would love to not have to buy spaghetti sauce all winter long.

 

Alright, now to the food I did eat. Breakfast and lunch were pretty much the same as usual. But, I had to talk about some cool stuff. 

Wholly Guacamole! I first saw this product out in Texas and it was sooo good! It's gluten free and has no artificial anything. I finally saw it here in Ohio, but they also had these 100 calorie snack packs. So, cool. They have a bunch of potassium, and avocado is great. It's an easy, energy-packed snack pack...say that 5 times fast. 

Next up: More fake meat. Remember my Smart Sausage from last week? Yummy, well I decided to try their lean ground sausage in one of my favorite dishes. Sausage stuffed acorn squash.

 

This is a leaner meat, so there are less calories, less sodium, but still has excellent protein and potassium. Cut your squash in half, take out the seeds, form a ball of sausage and stuff into the squash. Cook at 350* for about 55 minutes. After it's cooked, add pepper and a touch of cinnamon.

 

Delicious! I am so pleased with their products, it smells and tastes like regular sausage. You can also see in red on the package that they don't use any freaky soy beans. I love that!  

Have you guys ever made spaghetti sauce?

Thrifting and Fall Decor: Owls Ahead

Is anyone else ready for fall? I am. I am already drooling over holiday decorations, I even have several holiday/fall related Pinterest boards. : )

This week our Hobby Lobby had 40% off all Fall Decor and I figured I should check that out...

I wound up with only a few things. Several candles (which smell delicious). We love candles. As soon as the temperatures drop our house is alight with candles. I love the warm glow and scent of candles and we have boxes full of them.

Most of our candles sit on trays, so I bought the cute yellow glass owl votive holder. I also got the owl statue. It is meant to be a fall only decoration, but it looks pretty good holding up my James Herriot book, doesn't it?

I also decided to check out a thrift/consignment store we've only been to once. I didn't have anything in mind but figured I'd go check it out.

I've never considered myself a good thrifter. When I used to walk into a Goodwill or thrift store where I used to live I would feel all panicky and gross. They were so unorganized, messy and everything looked seriously used...badly.

The places I've been to in Ohio are so different. They are pretty neat and organized, and there are a few things that look battered but most everything looks like it came from a good home, was loved but just wasn't needed anymore.

With my thrifting odds greatly in my favor, I went over and wound up with stuff!!!

 Christmas tins!! Do you guys put your holiday treats in these kind of tins? I grew up with tins like this and I was telling my mom, that the sound of opening a tin to get a piece of chocolately fudge was part of the holiday experience. Putting goodies in tupperwares just isn't the same. The ugly green one on the left actually has a music box in the lid and plays "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". I think I'll spray paint that one to cover up the ugly green and yellow stuff.

Everything wound up being on sale and when I first went to check out I didn't have enough for the minimum purchase. So I had to go bulk up my finds. At the last minute I spied these awesome owl prints!

It was immediate love! I don't care for the frames, but those are easily replaced or painted. The feel of the prints is so vintage and cool. Plus, they're owls.

Like how Arson totally photo bombed the bottom pic?

I also bought two small milk vases and a reusable bag that says  "Keep Clark County Beautiful". I'm having fun getting ready for the holiday season and loving Ohio thrift stores.

Do you guys go thrifting? Find anything awesome?