Ride the Drive!

This weekend, my friend Amanda and I checked out an event called Ride the Drive. It was so fun! The city closed a bunch of streets (I'm sure drivers were thrilled), and tons of people biked around. There were booths with cool activities like screen printing and hula hoop making, and some totally awesome musical groups were performing along the way.




Amanda and I had to try this vegetable slalom course!



Of course, the Wienermobile was there. We got to go inside... take a look at the details! The dashboard is even shaped like a hot dog. Sweet!




Lance Armstrong was at Ride the Drive, but we didn't see him. We were probably going so fast that he couldn't catch us!

Get Real

Every morning I make a to-do list, and every afternoon, it's still there (despite an entire day of working). That can get exasperating. So here's my new idea: make a realistic to-do list. That would be a list of things that I could potentially accomplish in an 8-hour workday, with some wiggle room for email and random tasks that walk through the door. I'm going to try it out; I'll let you know how it goes.

Slow Poke

I am in love with our slow cooker! Tomorrow night I'm making Palak Paneer in it, and I cannot wait. Hopefully it will knock Karl's socks off when he gets home from work!

Earlier this week, we tried a delicious Enchilada Casserole in the slow cooker. It was super easy: Layer corn tortillas, enchilada sauce, veggies, black beans, and cheese, and cook on low for four hours. If you're an olive lover, throw in a whole can of black ones, sliced, with the veggies. We did, it was awesome. We also put avocado and sour cream on top... yum.

In other news, I finally took Pioneer Woman off of my Google Reader. She is just too prolific for me. I'm trying to simplify my life, and leaving the Pioneer Woman behind was step one. Goodbye, Ree. Have fun on the farm without me.

Catch-Up

Oh ya, I have a blog. I almost forgot! That might be because I've been busy having some serious fun with a few things...

Like our girls' weekend in the Dells this past weekend! I got to ride on one of the Wisconsin Ducks for the first time ever. Lifelong dream fulfilled. The Ducks are from World War II, and they can go on water and land.




And an unbelievable concert by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble on Sunday! Thank you so much to my wonderful mom for taking me! I can't even describe it, except to say that it was way beyond anything I could have expected.



And some fun plans tonight with Karl! Hooray!

Crock Pot Lasagna Recipe

Since you asked, here are instructions to make Crock Pot Lasagna. I've only tried it once, and our creation was based on the recipe in Make it Fast, Cook it Slow by Stephanie O'Dea. It turned out great, and the whole house smelled like an Italian restaurant!

You'll need:
A box of 10 or so noodles (I used brown rice noodles, but you could use any kind)
25 oz. of tomato sauce (we used a store-bought spaghetti sauce)
Veggies or meat (We're not big meat-eaters, so we used eggplant, onion, mushrooms and zucchini)
Riccota cheese (I used about half of one of the smaller-sized containers)
Mozarella cheese

First, saute the vegetables lightly (and brown meat if you're using it). Add the sauce to the veggies and/or meat to make a nice chunky sauce. Assemble the lasagna: Start with a layer of sauce, then add noodles (uncooked!) and ricotta. Repeat. End with sauce, and sprinkle mozarella on top. We cooked our for about 3 1/2 hours on High and it was perfect. So easy!

Happy cooking!

Domesticity-o-Rama

Last night, Karl and I assembled a Crock Pot lasagna and stashed it in the fridge overnight. And you know what felt so awesome? Taking it out of the fridge this morning, plugging the Crock Pot in, and going to work knowing that dinner will be ready when I get home!

It's the little things in life...

I have a little secret to share...

No, I'm not pregnant. But I have been working on something for a really long time! Here's the thing, though: you can't tell anyone. It's top-secret till I actually have it in my hands. The only reason it's secret is that I haven't told any of my co-workers yet (besides the one who worked on the project with me), because in the back of my mind, I'm convinced that something's going to go wrong at the last second and the whole thing will fall through. So mum's the word!

Sworn to secrecy? Good. Here's the secret.

Feel free to order as many as you need for stocking stuffers, housewarming gifts, graduation presents, and coffee table browsing.