Coleslaw: Leftover edition

Hello Crushers!

Back in this post, I mentioned that I had received a co-worker's crop share since she was out of town. We received lots of fun veggies including a cabbage. Since we made slow cooker SoCo Pulled Pork last night, I decided to make some coleslaw. Since I couldn't remember what I had used for the dressing the last time I made slaw and my phone was dead so I couldn't look it up, I made one up using some leftover dill dip. (And a run-on sentence.) The slaw was surprisingly good!

Dill and Dijon Coleslaw
Ingredients:
1 small or medium head of cabbage
4 carrots
2 small onions or one bigger onion
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup dill dip (dill to taste and equal parts mayo and sour cream)
Milk to thin out the dill dip (about 2 Tbsp)
Pepper to taste

Gear you'll need: Something to slice up the veggies like a food processor (that's what I used), a mandolin or a really sharp knife; a big bowl with a lid, a small bowl to mix the dressing and a spoon or fork.

Directions: Slice up all the veggies in thin strips and place in a big bowl. In a separate small bowl, put in the dill dip, mustard and just enough milk to make it runny. Go ahead and give it a few dashes of pepper, too. Whip that up with a fork or spoon until it's smooth. Pour the dressing over the veggies. Now you can either carefully stir that up until the veggies or well-coated or put a tightly-fitting lid on the bowl and shake it up! Shake, shake, shake... Shake, shake, shake...

Tip: Oddly enough, if you shake whatever item you need to to the refrain of "Shake your booty"  by KC and the Sunshine Band, that's almost the perfect amount of time to mix something up. Go ahead and try it with a dressing or when you need to coat something with flour or powdered sugar. Kind of like doing CPR to the beat of "Stayin' Alive" but not really. 

Anyway, once you've got the veggies all coated, they are ready to be served and enjoyed. This would be good on a sandwich or as a side dish.

Enjoy your coleslaw and a dill dip-free fridge!

Virtual Running Date No. 19: Nothing says "I love you" like an 18-mile bike ride

Good morning Crushers!

Steve and I have officially been married for one year and one day today. I know! I know. I know. It's not like it's the biggest deal in the world, but I firmly believe that things should be celebrated. Instead of going out to a fancy schmancy dinner or a weekend getaway, we had a low-key weekend. It was so nice.

If we were on a running date, I would tell you that I didn't even know it was possible that every campsite in the entire state of Wisconsin could be booked in one weekend. Seriously, people?!

Anyway, it ended up being a chilly weekend, so I was glad to sleep indoors. A year ago, we had the hottest summer on record in a long time with a drought. This year? We went fishing with friends on their new boat while wearing jeans, long-sleeved shirts and jackets. Huh.

If we were on a running date, I would tell you all about our four-day anniversary extravaganza filled with totally random fun. Thursday night, we went to Germanfest and sang German songs while eating potato pancakes and drinking Weiss beir. Delicious! Friday night, we hung out with one of my friends and her kiddos at the Washington County Fair. Her 5-year-old LOVED telling us all about the tractors and animals. He is so smart! Her little guy, who is only 2, was more interested in trying to eat everything he could get his hands on. Since it was the Fair, he knew that great food was all around him! Smarty.

As promised back in this post, we are still running. Saturday morning, we ran for about 3 miles on a path near the farmers' market and picked up some tasty coffee and a bouquet of flowers for the house since we were supposed to have a showing on Sunday (which didn't end up happening - oh well). We helped a neighbor pack up their house and load a truck since they'll be moving. Then it was time to fish at Browns Lake! My good friend Hannah and he husband bought a fishing boat this spring and they hosted us for the whole afternoon and evening!

Steve caught the biggest fish.

His Bear Grylls moment

Me with Hannah, the hostess with the mostess!

When Hannah heard that all of our anniversary plans were falling through, she quickly offered to organize a cook out and everything! We spent a few hours on the boat, caught lots of fish of all sizes and then had a bonfire back at their house. We brought cupcakes and this corn salad that I previously mentioned. I have a feeling that I'll be making it every time we get together from now on. So good!

Nothing says "I love you" like a long bike ride.

Anniversary Ducks in Lisbon

If we were on a virtual running date, I would tell you about Sunday when we took a long bike ride on the Bugline Trail out to the town of Merton. We got to play tourist and had the most delicious chicken at "On The Rocks" before hoping back on the bikes to go home. We saw deer, ducks and a few lakes.  It was such a nice day for it.

Steve got a Bloody Mary at the pub.

Since Steve is the hardest person in the world to surprise, he guessed my surprise of taking him out to dinner for his ultimate splurge food: Pizza Hut's stuffed crust pizza. Instead, we're planning on trying to make our own version of it at home this week. We used up a gift card and went out to a Chinese restaurant instead.

A very fitting first anniversary fortune cookie message:
"Many pleasurable and memorable adventures are in store for you."

Faith-filled Friday: Spills

Good morning, Crushers,

This week has been full of spills. I'm not just talking about how I forgot to screw the top back on the juice bottle before Steve shook it up. Whoops. I actually injured myself by stepping off of a stair in a goofy way and rolled my ankle really bad. I thought I heard a snap, but that might have been the gravel I was walking on and not a bone. So, despite a lot of pain, there has been barely any swelling, no bruising and no trips to the ER. WHOO!

If you know me in person, you would say, "Jen, this is SO you." like my friend Courtney did after I posted this message on Facebook:

In the past year, I've seen bears in Yosemite and hiked up Half Dome, made it down my first black diamond hill skiing, got a new personal best running a half marathon, saw a shark and snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef and never got more than a bruise or scratch, but I trip and roll my ankle walking to my car after playing horseshoes. Go figure. At least I have a new high average!

Seriously?!

Anyway, this is one of the many reasons that I have the Bible passage Isaiah 40:31 inscribed on my Road ID.

"but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

I know that no matter what crazy stuff I do or what troubles I have or how many times I sprain something, I have God there by my side. It's a simple as that. Fortunately, I can share God, my constant, with others because he is there for everyone. For instance, remember Beth and Brandon that I wrote about in my last post? Beth is continually praising God for every positive step that Brandon is making and leaning on Him when Brandon's health has a setback. It's amazing. She knows that no matter what they're going through, God is there. He will always be there. I love that and I hope you do too.

I'm also loving the fact that despite being accident prone, I've learned to listen to my body and let it heal. I did not play softball on Wednesday night because I know that we have packed weekend. (Plus, I took a really awful spill while running to first base back in 2010 because of a broken shoe, which resulted in a sprained wrist, scarred knees/legs and a lot of bruises).

I'm going to make this salad for when we go on the boat tomorrow with Hannah and Lee.

Also, if you ever come to Milwaukee on the last full weekend of July, please go to Germanfest. Milwaukee is filled with rich German heritage (as well as Italian, Polish, Jewish, Irish, Greek, Norwegian, Native American, and more!), so of course, we all stand up and sing "Ein Prosit" together while drinking a beer. We also dance and listen to "ooh pa pa" bands. Got to love the music, the food (hello, potato pancakes!) and the camaraderie.

Please note that we did not spill our beer or potato pancakes while dancing and singing.
Also, I will admit that I saw the guy playing the matter horn and said, "Look, it's a German didgeridoo!" Fail.

Salad Experiment Results

Hey Crushers,
This salad experiment worked REALLY well. I just took the lid off of the container, put a bowl upside down on top of the container and flipped it so that the greens went to the bottom of the bowl and the veggie toppings and dressing were on the top.

Before: here is the salad that I made at about 8 p.m. on Sunday night.

The greens stayed away from the dressing which kept them from going limp and soggy. The tomatoes, peppers and olives got nicely marinated, and did their jobs keeping the dressing from the greens. Overall, I'd say this was a success and will probably make my lunch salads like this from now on.

After: being in a container overnight, the salad was still fresh at lunchtime on Monday!

I wonder how this would work for a taco salad... Good thing we're having tacos tonight and I can report back later. UPDATE: We didn't have any taco leftovers, so I can't report on how this worked. I'm still thinking it would have been awesome.

In other news, one of my co-workers is out of town this week, so I'm getting her crop share as part of our office's community supported agriculture project with the Wellness Committee. I'm not signed up since we have our own booming garden, but I am really excited to see what veggie goodness we're going to get! I hear green beans, cabbage and carrots are part of this week's share.

Steve and I will be celebrating our one year anniversary on July 28. I can't believe how fast the year has gone, but time flies when you're having fun, right? I'll do a little photo recap that day. Plus, I've got something up my sleeve to surprise him with on our anniversary. Since he reads the blog, I can't tell you now, but rest assured that he'll be surprised this weekend. Muwahahaha!

FYI - the top tier of our wedding cake has already been eaten. You see, in January we noticed that the cake was starting to look a little wonky in the freezer and we weren't sure how tasty it would be come July. Instead of waiting, we decided to celebrate our "half" anniversary and ate the cake. So good, but slightly freezer-burnt. In order to keep tradition (sort of), I ordered a dozen cupcakes from our bakery in the same flavors. Yum.

Last piece of news: I ran into one of the kids that I went to grade school with last night. Small world, right? Anyway, his sister Beth is due to have her first baby any day now. About a week ago, doctors discovered her husband, Brandon, had a brain aneurysm. He survived, thankfully, but is in VERY serious condition at a local hospital. Please include Brandon and Beth in your prayers. They need them!

Virtual Running Date No. 18: A salad experiment

Good morning, Crushers!

For today's virtual running date, I have to admit that I didn't run last weekend. I was not feeling all that great, so running for miles in hot weather did not seem like a prudent idea. That unfair feeling of "why am I sick on a Saturday?" that you had when you were in grade school seemed to follow me into adulthood. "Why do I feel gross in Summer?" Summer should be the healthiest time of year, right? Never mind all the injuries, bug bites and rashes from various plants that emergency rooms see during summer...

Anyway, if we were running today, I'd tell you that we had a house showing this weekend, so our plans got further tossed about by doing a mega clean. Our house is usually very neat, but when we have a house showing, I go in mega clean mode. I even made Steve help me pull apart our big picture window on the front of our house to clean it. FYI - vinegar and water works great, but makes your windows smell like pickles. Perhaps, I'll stick with Windex?

If we were running today, I'd tell you that if you're not feeling so hot, don't run, but I guess I barely listen to my own advice. Instead of running, we decided to play 18 "holes" of disc golf. If you haven't played, find someone out there to teach you. It's really fun! I bet if you tossed it out there on facebook or any other favorite social media site, you'd have a disc golf buddy in no time. It's a nice long walk, you don't usually lose  the discs (I lose at least one golf ball when I golf the regular way every time), and it's a nice alternative to whatever exercise you were going to do.

If we were running today, I'd also tell you about my make-ahead-salad experiment. I have been seeing variations of this idea on Pinterest since I got an account about a year ago, but never really tried it. Or if I did, I bet it went so horribly wrong that I blocked it out of my mind. Regardless, I'm trying it (again). Here is what you do:

1. Gather all your salad ingredients (mine included tomatoes, peppers including some from our garden, salad greens from our garden, onion, radish from our garden, parm cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. 
2. Pour a serving (more or less) of your dressing in the bottom of a container that has a lid. 
3. Chop up the "big" stuff and put those in next.
4. Add any cheese or seasonings.
5. Finally, put your greens in the container and close it up tight.

The idea is that the big veggies put enough of a barrier between the dressing and the salad greens so that they don't go limp by the time that you actually eat them for lunch at work the next day. Here is the before picture:

Note how the dressing at the bottom doesn't even come close to touching the greens.

I'll report back later to see how it looks and tastes. Stay tuned...

Faith-filled Fridays: Answers and grilled fruit

Good morning, Crushers!

I love to know how things work. If I don't know, I will look it up. I could spend hours on the Internet researching how things work or what to do if they don't. I think that's one of the reasons I like to cook so much. I want the answers on how to make tasty food. How did they do that? I need answers! Especially about grilling fruit. Mine always falls apart. I digress...

I do not have all the answers. No one does, and that's OK. However, there are times where you have to be able to provide an answer. "No" or silence are acceptable answers in some cases. I remember some college classmate of mine who posed the question, "What about when God doesn't answer your prayers?" The professor answered, "It's not that He doesn't answer you, it's just that 'no' or 'wait' is an answer." Light bulb moment!

I recently had a few people tell me about how they had gotten into discussions about their faith, whether they wanted to or not. I think a lot of times people do not want to have to defend themselves and would prefer not to answer by changing the subject or avoiding the topic. But those moments do pop up. In 1 Peter 3:15, Peter is writing about suffering for doing good and talking about what happens when you are confronted by people who are mean and who want you to squirm. He says: "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect".

It's hard. It really is. Often times the people that confront you are not prepared to listen because they think that they already have the answers or are ready with their next statement. Some times they do it to make fun of you. Those are the worst because that no matter what you say, it won't help. 

Paul took time in his letter to the Colossian people in chapter 4 verses 2-6 saying "2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."

Maybe add that to your prayers? Pray that when the occasion rises, you can meet it with the right words. I know that I'm focusing on "the attack", but there are going to be times when you can also show your faith and love to people who are struggling or grieving. They may look to you for why you aren't afraid or aren't despairing. You have faith and hope in Jesus!

Let's all pray that we can be more like Peter in Matthew 16 when Jesus asked him "Who do you say I am?" Let us all be able to answer clearly, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Have a great weekend everyone! And seriously, if you have good tips on grilling fruit, let me know in the comments!

Garden Update

Good morning, Crushers!

We have some green peppers almost ready to eat and our first red tomato! I'm really excited about this, so I just had Steve text me photos so I could post them and share them with you. Best. Husband. Ever. Also? He made me a watermelon and raspberry smoothie yesterday before I went to work. Ah love...

Hello tomato!

Gorgeous green peppers!
Steve is obviously a better food photog than me.