The Wild, Wild West

Sam and I, ever slaves to your needs for new scenery and entertainment, went on location to my home state of Idaho recently.  Okay, so I realize that at least half of my readers might not find this location a novelty because they live there already and may even be in these pictures, but work with me here.  See it anew.

It is always good to be in Boise.  Sam stayed in Georgia for a few days doing top secret paperwork for his job before catching up with me in B-town, and I got to spend time with my family and these gorgeous girls:

Here we are at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, one of my favorite places in the world to be.  We went to a play that was the absolute perfect level of scariness--The Woman in Black.  I love that level of fear, when things are just deliciously scary.  You remember that feeling when you were a little kid and adults would fake chase you around?  You knew they were coming to get you and it was so exhilarating and fun.  That's how this play felt. 

As we have established, I'm a woman who loves her coffee, so we also had to have a girls morning at Big City Coffee, a Boise tradition.  While Atlanta has ridiculously cool stuff to do, I have not yet found the place that serves scones and muffins the size of your head.  Maybe I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands and introduce Atlanta to the giangantic, home made muffin, farm store theme scene.

Seriously, how cool is this?  If they made up a bed for me I could live there quite happily.

Once my Sam rolled into town there was only one place he wanted to be:

Goldy's has a special spot in both our hearts because it is one of the first places we went after we met.  On that fateful morning a couple got engaged while we were halfway through our marmalade french toast (which I retroactively took as a sign of good things to come).  That, and it has amazing food.  It also has an amazingly long line on Saturday mornings.  It takes so long to get in that they take your cell number and let you roam around the farmers market, which we did.  

We wandered around for about an hour, listening to street musicians, sampling blue cheese dressing and strawberries and dutch cookies.   I started to think to myself that, all sampling aside,  I really was getting hungry and maybe something had gone wrong with our reservation.  I asked Sam whose number he gave.  And he said mine.  And I said, (why did I say this?) are you sure you told them the right number?  So I called them.  And then I gave them my number again.  But wait!  After I hung up the phone I had the sneaking suspicion--no I KNEW-- I had just given them my number wrong.  Have you ever had a neurotic moment of self doubt like this?  When you suddenly forget your own phone number because you are so excited about a chorizo breakfast burrito?  

This is my lovely mom, who is new to the mother in law business, but who wants it to be known that while she can keep her opinions (like what has happened to you that you can't remember your phone number?) to herself, she won't be wearing beige anytime soon.  And there is my sweet Sam.  Calling Goldy's again to clarify that we were the perfectly sane people who really wanted to eat there and who really, really wanted to be contacted.  It was touch and go, but I am happy to say that I didn't let a little thing like my pride get between me and that breakfast burrito.  I know that as I took you on this emotional roller coaster of a story you are probably asking yourself, was all that pain and drama worth it in the end?   Mmmmm hmmmm.

Oktober-Feast

Okay, yes, I am aware that is an incredibly cheesy title.  But I chose it on purpose!  Because this will be by far the post with the most cheese I could possibly munster (seriously, somebody stop me, I know that is a terrible joke and I can't stop myself--turn your heads).   And speaking of embarrassing--side note--yesterday I was looking for sweet potatoes at the grocery store.  I found yams, which I will admit did look a lot like sweet potatoes.  But I couldn't find sweet potatoes.  So there I am, standing in front of the yams and I ask the produce man where I could find sweet potatoes.  He just looks at me with that look that says, please, please lady, don't make me point out your foolishness to your face.  So yeah, for that one other person out there who doesn't know, yams and sweet potatoes are the same thing.

Anyway, last night in Atlanta Sam and I had friends coming over and it felt like fall.  For Sam, this is a tragedy because he is very much a warm weather person, but for this Idaho girl it feels like heaven.  It was time for pumpkins and candles and apple cider and every fall thing.

While Sam planned a trip to Aruba online, 

I lit candles and waved my cinnamon broom in the air and generally cooked myself into a frenzy.

Which brings me to cheese.  Years ago my dad (here pictured at a haunted hotel in Silver City--spoiler alert, future blog on the way!)

went to the library, flipped through a cookbook and copied out a French recipe for cheese bread.  Now, my dad is not usually one to copy recipes, but he has very good instincts about food and must have known he was holding a classic.  Years later it is still a family favorite.  Some people think that Southerners like Paula Dean have taken the prize for putting the most fattening foods together.  I tend to think that the French had cornered the market on fat centuries ago.  Whoever the winner is, no one can dispute that this is a ridiculously fattening recipe.  Seriously, I have no defense for this amount of cheese.   If you like cheese, you will love this and that's all that needs to be said.  There is just enough butter and eggs in here to hold the cheese together.  

Cheese Bread 

1 stick of butter

1 1/4 c. flour

4 eggs

3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded swiss cheese (the kinds of cheese don't necessarily make or break it, just the amount)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

2 jalapenos, finely chopped (I never put these in, but you can if you want to)

1/4 cup yellow onion, finely chopped

1/8 tsp. cayenne (I put in red pepper flakes when I don't have cayenne)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium sized sauce pan, melt the butter over a medium heat.  Add all the flour at once, stirring over the heat until it incorporates into the butter to become one big ball. Take the pan off the heat.  Add the eggs, one at a time, fully stirring in one before adding the next. Add the cheese.  (The mixture will be hard to stir so I hope you've been working out. And if you have, all your good work is about to be undone, so sorry about that.) Stir in the spices, garlic and onion. Bake in a greased cast iron skillet or 9 x 9 pan for 40-45 minutes. I would make the slices on the smaller side since there is enough cheese in there for your daily allotment of calories.

This is my cheese bread just ready to come out of the oven:

Now, much as we all love cheese, it wouldn't look good to serve it by itself.  So we needed some soup. This recipe for turkey chili is really easy and I love the flavor.  Hopefully you will, too.  You can mess with this recipe and it will turn out fine.  I sometimes add some kidney beans when I'm moody and rebellious.

Indian Summer Turkey Chili

(page 31 for those of you who have my cookbook)

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

1 1/4 lbs ground turkey

1 TBSP grill seasoning

1 TBSP ground cumin

2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

2 TBSP hot sauce (I can only do 1/2 TBSP, I'm a wimp)

1 large yellow onion, chopped (reserve 1/4 of the onion for topping the chili)

2 bell peppers, any color, cored seeded, and chopped

3/4 cup (1/2 bottle) beer

28 oz. can tomato sauce

1/2 cup smokey barbecue sauce

1 cup frozen corn 

Heat a pot over medium to high heat.  Add the olive oil and ground turkey.  Season the meat with the chili powder, grill seasoning, cumin, Worcestershire, and hot sauce.  Break up the meat with the back of a wooden spoon into small crumbles.  

Brown the meat for 5 minutes, then add the onion and bell peppers and cook for 10 minutes more.  Add the beer and deglaze the pan, scraping up the drippings and cooking off the alcohol.  Add the tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, and corn and bring the chili to a bubble.  Let the chili simmer for 10 minutes.  Adjust the seasonings and heat level to your taste.  Remove from the heat and serve.

Chili is such a temperamental model at night...

Of course, what would our party be without apple cider?  It is so easy to make, and it makes the house smell so good.  Just get a gallon of apple juice, throw in a couple of cinnamon sticks and some whole cloves, and heat on the stove.  Yum.

And finally, what would fall be without a cookie?  Since we already had molasses cookies and Sam and I still have some of those in the freezer, I thought blondies were in order.  

Blondies

• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup butter
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 egg
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 to 1 cup of chopped pecans (or any other nut you've got lying around).
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine butter and brown sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix in thoroughly.  Then through in the flour mixture and finally add the chopped nuts.  Bake for 20-25 minutes in a greased 9 x 13 pan.

So cute in their Polish pottery!

Here they are by candlelight

Happy October everyone!  From us, the hard living, cranky people in bad lighting...

This photo was taken pre-cheese bread

Just when I thought I was out...

When Sam and I were dating we used to talk on the phone for hours about everything in the world.  It was so fun to discover all the things we had in common; I knew it was destiny for us to be together. I remember how shocked I was when I learned that Sam and I had both spent time in high school cleaning out dirty trailer homes that renters had left behind.  For those of you uninitiated into the elite circle of cleaning executives in the rental industry it isn't all just dirty diapers and rings on the tub.  Sometimes the previous occupants had pets! For me, thinking that Sam and I had both scrapped hideously gross ovens and emptied the rotting food out of stranger's refrigerators was a bonding moment.  I liked him even more!  Oh, the romance of those early days...

Not so romantic however, is when past meets present and you look at your husband, now a landlord, and realize that his renter's mess is your renter's mess.  My expertise in this field has honed my instincts so acutely that I knew without even going into the house that this was going to require a more invasive
cleaning intervention.

I love that my father and my husband are both entrepreneurs.  I love when rent checks come.  But, and I say this with a great deal of shame, sometimes when people are having phone conversations and falling in love, they can misrepresent themselves.  It may be that when our heroine spoke of her cleaning days in the blush of first love, she spoke of them with the fond remembrance of someone who thought she would never have to do that again.

When we got through the door, the air was ripe with eau de chien (if I've spelled essence of dog correctly, that is) and some people (namely me) were not quite as jolly about the cleaning prospect in front of them as they were about remembering their war stories.   And really, back then it was my tough as nails sister that scraped the dead mouse off the stove top, not me.  I don't want to get into all the gory details, but needless to say, a heroine was flea bitten in the line of duty when she got reintroduced to the cleaning scene.  And she didn't necessarily react gracefully to that fact.

From the Sam and Sarah "Emotions" Collection, a Macbook Photo Booth Production

So anyway, here we are working along.  We sort through a fair amount of junk.  Our noses become numb.  We start enjoying the camaraderie of working together.  I start thinking that really, this isn't that bad at all.  And then we find it.  It!  The jewel that makes every moment of the day worthwhile.  Sometimes, just like on Antiques Roadshow, dreams do come true.  

You can see on Sam's face that he is shocked by our find.  No, your eyes do not deceive you.  That really is Jesus on high thread count velvet with an El Greco revival K-Mart parking lot frame.  Needless to say, there will be some new art in the Chalkboard House.

The Conclusion of the Battle of Tunnel Hill

Look!  I really did follow through!  I'm giving myself 12.5 gold stars.  So, when we last left our heroine she and her husband were on the battle field.  One thing I haven't yet told you about the battle was that it was the most humid and hot time I have ever spent in Georgia.  Sam and I were trying to stay cool under an umbrella, but our courage waned as the heat and the battle wore on and our confusion mounted.

I knew when I began covering this war that though the battle itself was important, I wanted to capture the gritty truth of the human drama of what was unfolding before us.  The face of an old man watching his son go off to a reenactment,

the worried wife who wonders if her husband will be one of the first to go,

and most importantly the nurses who get out on the battle field in HOOP SKIRTS to tend to the wounded in 90 degree weather!

There is no way I am woman enough for that job.  In fact, perhaps one of the most shocking things about my coverage of this battle is that Sam and I

were so overheated and parched that we went to get lemonade and missed the end of the battle!  Christiane Amanpour never does anything like that.  Oh, the shame!  However, can I just say in my defense that this was the best lemonade of my life and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I really like how they made such an effort to have their products take you back in time.  One of my favorite parts of this event was wandering through the camps (both teams camp out the night before the battle with gear from the time period) and seeing all the fun people were having with historical accuracy.

By the time Sam and I got back to the front, we learned that despite heavy casualties early on the South had won the battle (which means that the North gets to win the next day because in reenactment land you very sensibly take turns).  The conquered blue team lined up to shoot their guns at the end of the battle.

I thought to myself, "Oh good, a chance to redeem my lack of footage of the end of the battle."  I would get a picture of all the guns firing at once.  Instead, I caught this,

which I think powerfully captures how scary and loud it is when a lot of guns are fired at once.

The Battle of Tunnel Hill

Little did I expect when I moved to the south that I would become a war correspondent.  But when I heard that Sam's home town of Tunnel Hill, GA had a Civil War Reenactment coming up, I knew that you would need up to the minute (or at least within the week) coverage.  I woke up so excited--this was my first war!  Taking pictures in the car, I you can see I had all the intensity of Liza Minnelli gearing up for a show:

My sweet Sam was also looking forward to our adventures, but he to had make a stop on the way.  As sometimes happens in married life, one person is really excited and chomping at the bit to get to the scene of battle, and the other person has to go to the bank and do important business and leaves the war correspondent in the car for 45 minutes.  I had to ask myself, what would Christiane Amanpour do in a situation like this?

Perhaps just cover the story that was unfolding before her...

I think the bun is the most compelling aspect of this photo narrative

At last, important business done, we were able to go off to war.  The first thing to note is that the Battle of Tunnel Hill, historically speaking, is just the tiniest bit imaginary.  There were a few skirmishes in the area, but according to Sam no one died and there was never a real battle.  That being said, the fighting was still intense.

What you will notice is that throughout most of this coverage, I have pretty much no idea what is going on.  The blue and grey teams started out shooting at each other from a distance of about 50 ft for the first part of the battle, but no one died.  Sam and I theorized that this could be because none of the soldiers wanted to be taken out that soon.

After awhile people started riding around on horses, and the cannon fire began.

Unfortunately, that's when we started getting some wounded and dead people.  This poor (and ambitious!) guy was blown right off his horse.

The grey team seemed to be losing more people and soon the dead were scattered everywhere.

The great part about being a reenactment correspondent is that there is hope even for the dead, who sometimes miraculously are able to sit up and keep an eye on the battle even in their state of demise.

Still confusion reigned.  Who was winning?  What was happening?  I expressed this to my Sam.

While that may be true, I bet all of you want to know who actually won.  Well, stay tuned because tomorrow I really will tell you.  Now, I recognize that I'm kind of a false promiser.  More than once I've told you I would finish something and (fickle woman!) didn't do it.  Just try to have faith in me.  

J.O.B.

I interrupt our previously scheduled stay-cation to bring you an important update.  Friends, having been employment challenged for a while now, it gives me great pleasure to announce to you that I have work! Where could a heroine

who clearly loves fun accessories,

adores the latest in home decor,

I call this Spicy Susan

and is seriously addicted to spending time with people from far away places

Sam and my lovely friends from Burma

find a job?

Ten Thousand Villages!

Sam says he isn't quite sure how he is going to feel once I start making my millions in fair trade and surpass his income, but I told him we didn't have to cross that bridge this week.  For now, part time, temporary, holiday season me will be excited about working at a place where I've loved shopping for years.  

You probably thought I was done, huh?  Nope.  It was a big day!  In addition to that, I may start doing a little counseling on the side.  I've talked to someone about renting space in their practice.  So don't get too excited all at once, but hold on to your hats because who knows what will happen next!

As if all this wasn't enough, I am SO excited to tell you that I'm yet again being sent on location to cover Georgia for my blog.  The next time we meet, I'll be giving you updates from one of the most southern things you can possibly do:

Reenact the Civil War!!!  Stay tuned to see who wins.  

Sam and Sarah's Ultimate Staycation, Day 1

Last Saturday morning found our hero and heroine with a glorious three day weekend spread out before them like a the scenic expanse of a very empty canyon.  The heroine (having spent a good deal of time and money in a counseling program to learn that she is ever so slightly depressive and needs structure in her life) suggested that if she did not stop sitting on the couch like a lump the faint halo of grumpiness around her could degenerate quickly to boredom, hypochondria, or crying for no real--how do you say it--reason (echoes of earlier blogs, are we catching a theme here?).  Sam, being the excellent husband and supporter (even proponent) of hair brained schemes that he is, agreed that this called for an old fashioned stay-cation.  We made a list of all the things we wanted to do and began the merriment.

But.

As so often happens in the Chalkboard House, the sweetness of life is mixed with the bitter.  And the bitter, bitter pill of this stay-cation is that due to a technical failure that was no one but Kodak's fault all the photographs we took of it were lost with nothing but a "memory card failure error" message to explain why.

Obviously, we were upset.  What could I do?  Not blog?  Never!  Only on days when I don't feel like it could this be an acceptable excuse.  No, there was only one solution:  I was forced to find random pictures from the internet to try and recreate the events of our stay-cation.  

Day 1

Our theme for this day was Atlanta (this may seem like an obvious theme for someone on a stay-cation in Atlanta, but roll with me, I like having theme days).

The first stop to represent Atlanta of course had to be Target.  We live large, what can I day?  Why Target?  Because I

(here played by Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, because I love her and always will) needed a bike for further adventures

(my bike is played by Wonder Woman's invisible plane, because unfortunately for her she never had an invisible bike).

I hate to break things into rankings, but my favorite part of Day 1 may actually have been riding my new bike around the Target parking lot and the thrill of getting it into the Honda Civic when we thought there was no possible way

(Just pretend the snuggie/lamp/ducky/frame is my bike).  After accomplishing mission GSaB, we went home, recuperated, ate leftovers, and went, to....

The Cyclorama!  This depiction of the Battle of Atlanta is the largest painting and diorama in the world!  It was a lot of fun.  At the gift shop, they had a hat and beard you could put on to look like Abraham Lincoln.  I took a hilarious picture with this on:

(shown here as Wonder Woman and Abraham Lincoln morphed together).  Of course, since we were in the area we had to stop at Atlanta's gourmet ice cream shop, Morelli's, were they make incredible ice cream in crazy flavors like maple bacon brittle, and coconut jalapeno.  Sam kept it traditional with butter pecan

He looked much better than this picture of Vince Vaughn with vanilla ice cream.  And I had Elvis Lives

which is banana, peanut butter, and chocolate.  That would have been enough for one day, but I didn't get my super hero status just by randomly downloading pictures of others.  No!  We kept the party going with a bike ride along the Chattahootchee and a movie night.

Day one was a major success!