what's been cookin at the puddle.

I have been working a lot recently which makes it much harder for a few reasons for me to make home cooked meals. First, I find it much harder to get to the grocery store and secondly, I just don't feel like cooking.

Over the last week or so, I did get to try a few new recipes.

We had a Kielbasa pepper pasta. I wasn't sure just how this recipe would taste as there was not really a sauce that would go onto the noodles, but I was pleasantly surprised because the pasta actually had really good flavor. The other upside of the recipe was that it was easy and quick.



I also tried a new marinade recipe. I marinated a sirloin top steak and Zack grilled it up for dinner one night. The meat had great flavor, and we paired it with baked potatoes and corn on the cob for a yummy dinner.

I made a new dessert recently too. It was and orange chocolate pie. The recipe used vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet placed in a graham cracker crust and covered by a chocolate ganache. It tastes a little like an orange dreamsicle dipped in chocolate. Zack really liked it. I didn't take a picture of this one.

The last new recipe that we tried. was a recipe for southwestern pulled pork burritos. The meat was cooked in a slow cooker and it just fell apart when I went to shred it. It had really good flavor and the burritos were really good. The pulled pork would have been perfect for the tostadas that I made on Cinco de Mayo.

memorial day fun

I was a little bummed as we were approaching memorial day because I had been working a LOT and we didn't really have anything fun planned to do. The Sunday before Memorial Day, we had lunch with our friends Cliff and Pam and we were talking about our mutual lack of plans. We decided that we wanted to do something and we thought that it would be fun to go camping...

We went home and started looking for camp sites ...apparently we were not the only people who thought that camping on Memorial Day would be a good idea. Zack and I checked several different campsites, but we were only able to find a campsite at a park that didn't offer a lot of good options for biking or hiking and we really needed to go somewhere that would have a lot of options for things to do.

Pam had a little more luck finding something. She ended up booking us a campsite at Fort Mountain. We met up at a Walmart on the way out of town to get groceries for our trip. Cliff and Pam are experienced campers and have a lot more camping gear than Zack and I do...which was really nice. We got the groceries that we needed and then headed to find a campsite.


Once we found a campsite that would accommodate 2 tents and that would be safe for little R to run around and play, we started to set up camp. We ended up having a really nice little home away from home.

We decided to have breakfast for dinner the first night. So, we had bacon, french toast, and oranges for dinner. It was delicious. Zack and I don't eat french toast that often. So, it was a treat!

It was surprisingly cold and I was really thankful that I had brought a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt. Who would have thought that it would have been so cold in May. Cliff built a fire and we talked for a while before heading to bed.


Zack and I were awakened to a sweet little voice saying "ZackPaula get up!"How could we sleep longer when we our little friend R was wanting us to get up and play!? We rolled out of our bed to start the day.

We had planned to have a simple breakfast of cereal or bagels each morning. Zack decided to try to toast his bagel over the fire...but he succeeded only in burning a neat pattern into his bagel.

After breakfast, we headed out for a hike to explore the park. We hiked to an overlook with a view of the surrounding area. We also hiked to a tower that had been placed at the top of fort mountain. The tower was a part of an old fort wall. The last thing that we hiked to was a mysterious rock wall that it is believed that Indians had built as a fortification against a more aggressive Indian tribes.


As we were walking past the wall, Pam said, Zack, isn't it your birthday today, Happy Birthday!!" Wow, I am a terrible wife! I had completely forgotten to wish Zack Happy Birthday earlier that morning!! In fact my days were so confused that I didn't even realize that it was Saturday. For some reason, in my head it was Friday.

After our hike, we headed back to our campsite for some lunch and then we drove down to the closest town for a birthday treat. We got some sonic ice cream. Yum!! Happy Birthday Zack!!

After ice cream, we headed back to camp and let little R get a nap. Zack and Cliff biked around the campsite and got and idea of some trails to bike later in the weekend.

For dinner Saturday night, we decided to have grilled chicken, potatoes, and corn on the cob.


After dinner, Pam built a fire and we got ready for bed. Cliff headed back home for the night because he had to be at church the next morning to lead worship. So, after little R went to bed, he headed home. Pam, Zack and I stayed up and made some smore's and played a game of wizards before heading to bed ourselves.

Sunday morning, we got up and had a simple breakfast. After breakfast, we headed down to the campsites playground to let little R play. Unfortunately the playground did not have a very good options for someone as little as R. He ran around and played a little. Then we headed down to the lake and let R throw rocks into the water. Then we headed back to the campsite for some lunch and to let R get a nap.

While R was napping, we played a game of slamwhich. Cliff got back to camp and R was still sleeping. So, we started a game of ticket to ride. When R woke up, we got on our bikes and headed out for an afternoon ride around the lake. We stopped part way around the lake and let R throw some rocks into the lake. While he was throwing rocks, we noticed some big shadows in the water. At first we thought that there was a turtle, but it turned out that there were a bunch of REALLY big fish swimming around.

After our bike ride, we headed back to camp and waited for some friends of ours to come to our campsite to have dinner with us. Caren and Forrest got there and we took the kids down to a little field nearby to play before dinner. Then we headed back to camp and cooked hamburgers and french fries.

It was so good to catch up with Caren and Forrest. It had been a while since we had gotten a chance to sit down with them and spend time with them. After Caren, Forrest and their children left, little R went down for the night and we started another game of ticket to ride. I actually was able to win...that NEVER happens.

After our game, we headed to bed.

Monday morning, we got up and used up our leftover eggs and bacon for a great breakfast. Then, Zack and Cliff headed out for a mountain bike ride. While they were gone, Pam and I tried to start breaking down camp. The guys were gone for about an hour and then they helped us finish packing up camp.

We headed out from our campsite and headed down the mountain. We grabbed some dinner at a wendy's and then we headed our separate ways.

Baseball and...superheros?

Zack and I decided to go to a minor league baseball game a few weeks ago. It was the first game that we had been able to go to this year, and as always, it was a lot of fun. It was super hero night at the ball park and so they had a lot of fun little superhero twists to things going on in between innings. Unfortunately, our team lost, but hopefully Zack and I will be able to go to another game this year and hopefully they will win then!

Strawberry pickin

Every year, I drive past a sign for a local pick your own strawberry farm and every year I tell myself that I am going to go to the farm and pick fresh strawberries. This year, I finally got to go. A few weekends ago, Zack and I were sitting at home trying to decided what we wanted to do and I was making a fruit salad. As I was cutting up some strawberries I was reminded of the strawberry farm. So, Zack and I decided to go and pick some strawberries.

The farm is a few miles from our house. Once you get to the farm, they give you some buckets and take you to one of their fields so that you can pick all of the strawberries that your little heart could want. The strawberry farm had been open for a few weeks by the time that we went and the strawberries were ripe and ready to be picked. I, of course, had to sneak a few strawberries while in the field....1 for the bucket, 1 for me....1 for the bucket 2 for me....you know!

Zack and I filled our buckets and then headed back to the main part of the farm to pay for our strawberries and to get some fresh strawberry ice cream! Zack and I enjoyed getting to spend time together doing something a little different and we got about 4 pounds of awesome fresh strawberries.


The strawberries that we picked were pretty ripe and I didn't want them to go bad before we could use them. So, I decided to freeze them. I froze some of them as whole berries and some as sliced for use in recipes. Now, I will get to remember a fun day Zack and I shared together through out the year as we use our frozen strawberries.