Stuffed Zucchini with a side of Roasted Tomatoes

This week I had a gigantic zucchini from my garden that I had to use, so I decided to make stuffed zucchini.  It's something that I haven't made in a really long time, but is a yummy way to use more veggies in our dinner.  I again didn't take any pictures while I was cooking, so sorry about that!  I made some roasted tomatoes with it as I have SO many tomatoes from my garden and am always looking for new ways to use them.  So, on to the recipe.

Stuffed Zucchini

Ingredients:

1 large zucchini
1 cup mushrooms sliced
1/2 lb of mild Italian sausage bulk
1 tablespoon of fresh basil minced
1 tablespoon of fresh oregano minced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 cup of Italian bread crumbs
1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Heat a saute pan and put the olive oil in.  Then add the sausage and saute until browned (break the sausage up with a wooden spoon as it's cooking)  While the sausage is browning slice the zucchini in half.  Using a melon-baller scoop out the center of the zucchini to make small boats to put the stuffing in.  Place these on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Chop the scooped out zucchini into bite size pieces.  After the sausage is done remove it from the pan and set it aside in a bowl.  Then add the basil and oregano to the pan.  After about 30 seconds you should start to smell the herbs cooking, then add the chopped zucchini, season with salt and pepper, and saute for 2 minutes.  Then add the mushrooms.  Saute these together for another 2 minutes until they are almost fully cooked.  Then mix in the browned Italian sausage.  Turn off the heat and stir in half of the grated cheese.  The mixture is now ready to add to your zucchini boat.  Fill as much of the mixture in that you can, top with a sprinkling of breadcrumbs and the rest of the cheese.  Put in the oven for 20 minutes or until zucchini boats are tender. Enjoy!

Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients:

2 large tomatoes quartered (any variety - I used big boys)
1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary minced
1 tablespoon of fresh thyme minced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place the tomatoes on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Sprinkle the tomatoes with the oil, then add salt and pepper.  Sprinkle each tomato with the rosemary and thyme, and then add the balsamic vinegar.  Pop these in the oven for 10 minutes and enjoy!

Both recipes turned out great and was a great way to use some of our fresh veggies for dinner.

Weekend Recap: Michigan Dunes and Camping (Sort of)

This weekend Teddy and I went with friends and family to Mears, Michigan to camp, dune ride, and enjoy Silver Lake.  On Friday Teddy and I got a late start after work and hit the road around 5pm.  We knew we would be getting up there late, and since we have awesome friends and family they brought our tent up for us earlier to set up before dark hit.  We were all a little worried about the weather as showers were in the forecast for Friday, but we figured it would be fine.  We'd been camping in the rain before, right?! 

We were about 20 miles from our destination when we got a call from Erica, that we had missed all the fun.  A storm had blown through (which we were driving in), and they had to set up some other later arrival tents in a downpour.  In addition, tents already set up were being blown all over the camp ground.  We were happy to hear that they moved our tent from the swamp that had accumulated around it to higher ground. 

We finally arrived at the camp ground and everyone was tucked away in their tents trying for shelter from the rain.  We ran in, set up our air mattress and got ready for bed, when we suddenly realized that our rain fly was leaking.  Not terribly, just a fairly constant dripping throughout the tent.  And of course, most of the dripping was on my face while I am trying to sleep.  I crawled under the sleeping bag for protection from the drips and somehow even though it was a humid, sticky mess, I fell asleep. 

At 2:30 am I woke up to find Teddy just staring at the ceiling (he started to get dripped on too), the sleeping bag soaked, and the pillow soaked with the storm still screaming outside.  It was kind of like Chinese water torture.  We both then decided we were done with camping for the night and left to find a potential hotel for the night.  Teddy remembered seeing a hotel when we got off the highway just a few miles from our campground.  So, we went there, and of course, they were full.  Teddy explained the situation, and the hotel clerk said, "Well, we do have our overrun room."  She took Teddy to see it and he was sold.  I think I would have slept in a broom closet at that point. 

Their overrun room was a VERY large conference room with table, chairs, two couches, tv, and two double beds.  The one wall wasn't a real wall, but one of those dividers that can split a large room into two.  On the other side of that wall was the breakfast area.  We didn't care, we had a bathroom, a bed, and a roof that didn't drip on us.  We woke up the next morning to the beep of the waffle maker through the dividing wall.  :)

Here Teddy is modeling the dance floor that was part of the room.

The next morning we headed back to the camp site to meet up with everyone and get ready for the dunes.  The sky still looked a little ominous, but we were hopeful that the rain and bad weather was behind us, and we'd be able to enjoy the beach and dune riding.  So, we headed out and set up camp at the beach.

This is the entrance to the park.  Just over that hill are some huge dune hills and a beach

Heading towards the beach

Some campers got to the beach first and were already relaxing

Emily was having fun playing in the sand

After we got completely set up at the beach we had a quick sand volleyball match.  It was Teddy, Kris, Toby, Jill, and Heather vs. Erica, Mark, Casey, Joe, and Me.  It was a good game, my team unfortunately lost, but I think we won in spirit!  We all relaxed for a bit after that.

Kirstyn, Mark & Shelby relaxing before a dune run

Pretty soon, the group wanted to go out for their first run on the dunes.

Mark, Heather and Erica took their Jeeps out for the first run of the day

While they were gone, Teddy, Becky and I just relaxed beach side chatting and reading.  By the time the group got back it was lunch time and the sun was really coming out.  So, we grabbed some grub and then enjoyed the sun.  There was some swimming, frisbee throwing, football throwing, floating, and talking going on.  A group also buried Casey.  Doesn't he look cozy.

Emily had so much fun running and playing, that she was ready for a quick nap.

The group wanted to do one more run of the dunes before they called it a day and I decided to head out with them.  It was the first time I would be heading out on the big hills with these guys, and we were going to head here...

This is razor back.  It's called that because the top is as thin as a razor's edge with a straight drop down on the other side.  AHHHHH!  We drove all over those dunes (I of course forgot to bring my camera on the run with us), and had a ton of fun. 

This is when we returned from the run - I popped out the top of the Jeep waving at Teddy

It was a fun ride!

When we got back, we broke down camp to head back to the camp ground for some dinner and campfire time.  But of course before we did that, we needed to take a group photo of all the dune runners that day.

Kirstyn and Casey were taking photos, so their missing from the shot, but we have Jennifer, Heather, Teddy, Me, Kris, Mark, Joe, Becky, Jill and Toby.  It was a great group!

Back at the campground we got a fire going while people showered all the sand off.  Some people were still drying out things from the storms the night before.

We were ready to make some dinner.  Emily was excited to be hanging out by the fire.

Ok, maybe she was a little tired.

After everyone ate, we decided to head into town for some ice cream and go karts.  Kris was ready to get this thing going.

So we piled in cars and headed into town.

Kris was really excited to take Emily out on the go karts.  She wasn't so sure...but she had some fun.

Emily's getting strapped in

Kris is getting lined up to start the race

Look how fast they were going!

Here they are! 

I think Emily had a fun time, but I think we all enjoyed watching her fly around the track even more.  Here's a short video of her ride.

We all had a great time in town, but were ready to head back to the campsite fore some more campfire time. 

After hanging out with everyone for a while, Teddy and I decided to hit the road.  We were not going to be staying in our wet tent for the night, so we thought we'd drive an hour or so and find a hotel to crash for the night.  Our tent went right into the dumpster on our way out.  Leaky tents are no fun! 

We were about an hour into our drive when we hit Holland Michigan.  There was a pretty large area off the highway with 4 or 5 hotels, so we thought this would be a good place to stop.  Every hotel had a No Vacancy sign on its front door...Uh oh!  So, we headed down to Saugatauk hoping to get a room there.  And, no such luck.  It was the same situation - No Vacancy. 

At that point I was getting pretty sleepy.  Teddy insisted that he was fine and would stop again if he was getting too tired.  We had about 2 hours and 30 minutes left in our drive.  I must have fallen asleep because next thing I knew, I woke up and we were in Michigan City, Indiana about an hour away from home.  I couldn't believe we were going to make that full drive that late at night.  We pulled into home around 3:00am and just collapsed into bed. 

Wow, were we tired!  We woke up around 11am on Sunday, ran over to my parents to pick up Fozzie and then spent the rest of the day running errands (laundry, grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, etc...) 

It was a busy weekend, but jam packed with fun!  Thanks to Kris and Erica for planning everything on the camping trip.  You guys always make it a blast for everyone.

Weekend Wrap Up: Birthday Extravaganza!

This weekend was the weekend of birthday's.  Teddy and I both took Friday off work (Whoo Hoo!) to head down to Flora and celebrate Aunt Penny's birthday with her.  We hadn't seen Penny since the wedding and were excited to catch up with her and hang out around town.  So, we caravaned down with Teddy's mom and Jennifer.  When we got there it was around lunch time and after Penny's doctor appointment we headed out to get some grub!

As you can see, Penny was pretty excited to be heading out to lunch with us all.  We headed to La Fuente, a Mexican restaurant in town.  The food was good, but Penny wouldn't let them slap a sombrero on her to sing happy birthday.  Birthday songs would have to wait.

On our way back from lunch Penny had to stop by work to do a few things and pick up her computer.  So we got to check out her newspaper, The Hometown Journal.

Teddy in front of the paper's offices

Penny working away

This is us "patiently" waiting for Penny to finish working

After Penny finished working, we went back to the house to hang out and talk for a while.  I think there may have even been a few naps in there.  Teddy's mom then started dinner, and we had a great meal of pork roast, potatoes and asparagus.  Yum! 

Here we all are ready to enjoy some yummy dinner!

All afternoon the house smelled of something chocolately and delicious, and we discovered that Mom had made a birthday cake for Penny. 

Here Penny blows out her pretend candles - we weren't overly prepared...

We had a great time enjoying cake, but mostly we enjoyed the company.  The next day Teddy and I brought over the fixings for breakfast and made some omelets, hash browns and bacon.  We then played a new game that Jennifer had brought with her, none other than a Lego game. (what else!)  Then Penny had to go to her appointment and we caught up with her there for a little while to get in maximum visiting time since we had to leave later that day.  After working around the house a little bit, Teddy, Jennifer and I packed up to head home on Saturday. 

On our way home we stopped by and picked up Fozzie from mom and dad's.  He was pretty excited to see us.  And we got to check out their new car!  Very cool. 

On Sunday, the Lach clan was getting together to celebrate Teddy's dad's birthday.  We started out with Jennifer, Teddy and I taking him to breakfast.  Then we all headed out to run some errands before Erica and Kris came down with the kiddos.  Around lunch time we met Kris, Erica and the kids over at Grandma's house for a visit before we all went to lunch.  Dad decided he wanted Portillo's for lunch, so we said goodbye to Grandma, and headed over to Portillo's for some beef sandwiches, and more importantly, picked up a chocolate cake there to sing happy birthday to him later. 

We headed back to his house after that and hung out watching some movies and playing with Emily and Carson for a while before we all decided we just really wanted some chocolate cake for dinner.  So we all gathered in the kitchen to sing happy birthday to Dad.

We had some additional candle issues here, but he was enjoying his birthday song anyway

Dad, Jennifer, Kris, Erica, Emily, Me

Same pic, but with Teddy instead of me

We all grabbed a big slice of cake and headed out to the patio to enjoy more cake and company on Dad's birthday. 

It was a great weekend of birthday celebrations!  So, Happy Birthday to Penny and Dad.  I hope you both had a great time.

Eggplant Parmesan

Well, to start off, I can't believe that I have posted 50 times on my blog.  When I started this in January it really was just for Teddy and I to keep a record of what was going on in our lives since time seems to strip us of our memories.  Now I'm 8 months in, blogging on average once per week, enjoying writing, and taking  a lot more pictures. (Although this post won't have pictures because I do lapse into forgetfulness from time to time)  It even seems that some of our family and friends are actually reading the blog, which I never expected.  It is a nice surprise when someone comments to me on what they read in my blog recently.  I am happy to say that this is one new years resolution that I've actually kept up with. 

Ok, so on to the actual purpose for today's blog.  I have been in a cooking rut, making a lot of the same things over and over again.  I have tried some new recipes that have all been delicious, but my favorite kind of cooking is to just take some ingredients that I have on hand, think might be good, or that I remember from watching some cooking show and throw it together hoping for the best.  At the farmers market there was a ton of eggplant, and it all looked so fresh and delicious.  I had never cooked with eggplant, but thought why not give it a try.  I've been trying to incorporate a meatless meal in our diet every now and then since we tend to eat some form of meat at every meal. 

So, Monday night as I was trying to figure out what to make, I was running through my pantry and fridge contents in my head while I was on the train headed home and thought, why not Eggplant Parmesan.  I've made chicken parm before, so it can't be all that different.  And I actually had all the ingredients.  I made it with some roasted rosemary and thyme potatoes, which was a nice alternative to pasta.  Teddy loved it, so we had a delicious meat free dinner that I'm happy to say I'd definitely try again.  And even better, it was pretty darn easy.  So, here is what I did:

Ingredients:
1 eggplant sliced into half inch rounds
1 egg
1 splash of milk
1 cup of italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
ground pepper to taste
1 cup marinara sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  I mixed the egg, splash of milk and some ground pepper together in a small bowl.  I then put the bread crumbs in another bowl and dipped the sliced eggplant first in the egg mixture and then coated it with the bread crumbs.  While I was doing this I had my saute pan heating over medium high heat.  I put in about a tablespoon of olive oil (I use flavored oil from a local store called the Olive Tap - this time I used the Tuscan Herb blend) and then added the bread crumb coated egg plant.  I let them brown on each side for 2 - 3 minutes and then put them on a cookie sheet and popped them in the oven for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes I flipped them over, put about a table spoon of jar marinara sauce on each slice and sprinkled enough cheese to cover the sauce.  They then went back into the oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese melted. 

The eggplant was tender and flavorful with the crispy breadcrumb crust mixed with the tomato sauce and gooey cheese.  It was absolutely delicious!  I have heard the skin of eggplant can be tough, but mine was fork tender and not even noticeable.  I'm sure that is more due to the freshness of the eggplant buying it at the farmers market and less due to how I cooked it.

On to the roasted potatoes.

Ingredients:

6 small fingerling potatoes cut into half inch chunks
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary minced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme minced
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Put the potatoes on a cookie sheet, sprinkle them with the rosemary and thyme and then drizzle over the olive oil.  Using your hands mix the potatoes so they all get an even coating of the oil and herbs.  Pop them in the oven for about 25 - 30 minutes. 

The potatoes were crispy/crunchy on the outside, but light and fluffy on the inside.  They were really quite good, and I bet would work well in a foil pan on the grill as well if you don't want your oven on in the house. 

It was a great dinner, and I was happy getting my fix in trying to make something I never had before.  And the biggest payoff was that it actually tasted great, and took no time to get on the table.

Honeymoon Maui: Top Ten

Similar to Kauai I thought I'd list my top ten favorite things from Maui.  This was an equally amazing place to Kauai, but it was SO different!

10.  The Luau

The luau we wanted to go to was sold out on Maui, so we went to another one that was a little different from the traditional luau.  We went to Feast at Lele.  At this one, you had a private table and five courses that were served to your table vs. the typical buffet.  There was dancing between each course and overall we enjoyed the show.  The food was OK.  I don't know if we'd do a luau again; it's one of those things you have to do at least once when you go to Hawaii.  And even though the food wasn't the best, we did really have a great time.

9.  The Canoeing

The Four Seasons Hotel on Maui has an outrigger canoe program where they'll take two couples out in the morning to teach them the proper calls and form for canoeing.  And while you're out they tell you more about Maui and the surrounding islands.  It was a great trip.  What amazed me was that every morning the ocean was like glass.  No real surf and clear as could be.  And then around lunchtime, the surf kicked up as the tide came in and it was completely different.

8.  The Sunsets

We saw some of the most amazing sunsets while on Hawaii.  This one was at Mama's Fish House, which was one of our dinner stops one night.  As we walked up to the restaurant, this was the view in front of us, and we were blown away. 

7.  The Pools

There were two main pools at the Four Seasons on Maui.  The top picture was the main pool surrounded by beach chairs and cabanas, this pool was a great place to spend your day.  The other pool was an adult only infinity pool (bottom picture).  This pool was just incredible with the pool looking like it was spilling into the ocean and beautiful beach views it was amazing.

6. Banyan Tree Park, Lahaina

We went walking around all the shops in Lahaina before the Luau and came across Banyan Tree Park.  The tree Teddy is in front of is only one tree.  I couldn't even get it all into one shot, but it was huge!  We were amazed at how the tree shoots down into the ground from its branches.  Lahaina itself was a cute little town with lots of great shops.  We spent a lot of time admiring some of the local artists works at all the galleries scattered throughout town.

5.  The Pampering

The Four Seasons certainly knows how to take care of its guests and offer wonderful amenities including pool side massages!  That's me in the top picture getting a pool side foot massage.  I can feel myself relaxing just thinking about it.  Whether in a cabana or a poolside chair, the staff at the hotel were always coming by to refill your water and give you the next treat.  They came around hourly with skewers of pineapple, cucumbers and cold towels for your eyes, strawberry jello with mint, to spritz you with cool water, aloe for your skin.  The list goes on and on.  They definitely made sure we enjoyed ourselves poolside here.

4.  Capische?

Our favorite meal of Hawaii was at a place called Capische? in Wailea.  It is higher up away from the beach, so it has these amazing panoramic views of the beachfront and neighboring islands.  The sunset from here was amazing as well.  We started off sharing a mushroom truffle risotto that was absolutely delicious.  Then Teddy got the shrimp carbonara for dinner and I got the cioppino.  OMG, we were in heaven.  It was all so tasty and scrumptious.  I couldn't get over it.  This was our last dinner on Maui and we definitely decided to end on a high note.  For dessert we split a trio of gelato of chocolate, vanilla and nuttela banana.  I was officially in heaven.  What a great place this was.  A little pricey, but totally worth it.

3.  The Beach

The Four Seasons is right on the beach in Wailea.  It was an amazing place to be.  The first picture is a shot from the infinity pool.  When you get there you ask for a chair and umbrella, which they run down to set up for you immediately with fresh chair coverings and towels.  You get the same service here as you do poolside at the hotel.  We had a great time swimming in the ocean and lounging in the shade of our umbrella. 

2.  Snorkling at Molokini

We took a catamaran out to Molokini for a 6:30am tour.  You can see Molokini in the background of the picture, it's a small crescent shaped crater in the left background.  It is a sunken volcano that now has a nice reef within it.  The early morning cruise was the best choice we made.  The boat was only at about half capacity, the water was smooth and clear as glass, and we saw tons of great fish.  This Hawaii trip was the first time Teddy had been snorkeling and we tried it a couple of times on Kauai, but this boat cruise on Maui was pretty amazing.  He loved it!  We spent the morning swimming about pointing out colorful fish to each other.  Then we both spotted an eel that was chasing all the fish down, and he was super close to us, so we were freaked out.  Then we spot a reef shark come swimming in.  For some reason that was less freaky than the eel, which I think was because he was far enough away that we had a stupid sense of security that we could swim back to the boat before he got us (if he went into attack mode)  After about an hour or so at Molokini we boarded the boat back up and went to Turtle Town.  There is a coastal reef with a bunch of sea caves that turtles like to hang out in.  We saw a few turtles swiming around gracefully in the water.  Teddy said I almost touched one when we were swimming back to the boat, but I didn't see it until I was past it.  When we got back to shore there was a TON of people waiting for the 9:30 boat.  I'm so glad we did the early morning cruise!

1.  Spending time with my new husband

This trip was just perfect in every way.  Teddy and I had the best time and can't say enough good things about Maui.  But with all the amazing things, most of all I'm glad that I got to do them with Teddy.  We enjoyed every minute together, and look forward to many more adventures in life.  I love this goofball, and he made this trip the best it could be.