Mud Hen Marsh

As the weather warms up I'm sure there will be more of these types of posts; our outdoor adventures.

The other day I was driving around a little north of here and passed by a gravel pull off with a sign. I've seen many of these but am usually going to fast to check them out (45mph). I made the effort to get back up there and explore this one a little more today: Mud Hen Marsh.

We got to try out Aidan's new back-pack carrier. I'm very excited about the new possibilities with this: REAL hiking, no more paved and gravel paths for the dinosaur stroller.

This pine cone was found standing up on the path:

There were two separate lakes, each with an island. They were pretty alright, but I only saw one duck, otherwise there were just geese.

Except for one heron. This is where I wish I would have brought my DSLR, the heron flew away faster than my camera could zoom in to get anything of him. He's behind a tree, hopefully my Photoshopping will bring him out a little better here:

 

Yeah...not the best shot in the world that's for sure. Oh well..next time I promise I'll bring the Nikon.

By the way let me just add that I hate blogger's posting settings/format. My text and photos are NEVER the way they should be and I have to spend forever figuring out how to "return" to start typing a new sentence after a photo. UGH.

I know there's a name for these...but for now we'll give them the classic kid name: stickers. Burrs. What are they? Anybody? They were all over the place here.

We saw deer tracks! That was exciting...certainly not as exciting as a real dear would have been though. We'd have to have been a lot earlier for that. 

 

 

There was a look-out building but it had lots of bees swarming around it and looked locked (probably for that reason). We didn't get too close.

A dam brought the water levels down into a smaller pool, nearer to the road. By the way, there's a sign that says "Danger. Keep off." Explain that to curious minds, and a 9 year old.

There were some interesting looking birds around. Perhaps one day I'll have enough time and energy to study them and bring along a bird identifier but today I was lucky to remember the binoculars. Again, I wish I would have had my DSLR. Photoshopping again to bring out the details...sort of.

It's a pretty neat place, all in all. I'd like to explore the area more because everywhere around Hoover Reservoir has some kind of pull of and nature preserve area to check out. Perhaps a tour is in order one of these days.

By the way, if you're out in the woods: check for ticks. I'm coming to find that I'm a "tick magnet", unfortunately. Luckily though I haven't been bitten--yet.

Accidental Hiatus

I realize now how long it's been since I updated. I've been thinking about it but I'm very sorry.

Life has gotten a little busy recently and I'm feeling very unorganized and off-track.

I tried a new recipe two weeks ago that I was going to blog about, but in all honesty it went horribly horribly wrong. Apparently I misunderstood one of the ingredients (it's a latin american recipe) and it turned out like a hardened puddle of molasses, though it was supposed to be a taffy like candy. I guess that's what happens sometimes when you have no clear recipe and no clear idea of what it is you're really trying to make anyway.

Hopefully I'll get everything back on track soon and have some great posts coming in again!

In the mean time, happy spring!

Edit: here's some photos of that molasses monster...

Carne Asada

While I don't believe my Carne Asada is ever as good as the way my boyfriend's sister or aunt makes it...this turned out pretty good this time. Not your traditional American Easter dinner, it's actually totally Mexican as I'm just finding out...his family didn't even know about it until they saw it in America. In El Salvador they celebrate Easter by going to church and then the beach. Sounds good to me. Apparently bread is a traditional Easter meal, but he's a guy and was a kid when he last celebrated there so we can't rely on his limited memory of what was served...anyway...

I started with some sirloin tip eye steak cut very thin. We get ours from the local Mexican store. Every time I go in they give me a different cut of meat...sometimes it's flank or skirt steak, but any of these will work. I need to start talking with the Salvadoran ladies myself without the middle-man translator, because he seems to leave a lot of things out when it comes to cooking.

We need:
Your steak
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Worcestershire Sauce
Some beer (probably optional...)
A red onion

Edit: Some of those things he left out in translation:

Onion powder
Garlic powder
Tenderizer (we used Chef Merito brand...found for sure at the Mexican Store..maybe in the ethnic aisle but anything will probably work fine)
Beef Bullion powder
Adobo (we used Goya brand)

All of the above seasonings are added with the mayo and mustard to marinate. When I saw it made it really was a little of this a little of that ***taste*** a little more of this ***taste*** a little more of that...I have no idea exactly how much she put in it but I'll try to get exact measurements for you all.


I honestly hate reading recipes online or on blogs that don't have measurements, and I apologize for having done that to you, including now, but this isn't a measuring kind of recipe. I have never been told how much to put in by anyone, it's just eyeballing. Obviously it depends on how much meat you start with. In this example I used 4 lbs.

Mayo...

Mustard...

Worsht-Worchest-Worshtershire-Worcestershire Sauce...

Then I get to mixin...

You know you're cooking good food when your hands get dirty. There's something very gratifying about making food with your hands.

Oh and don't forget your beer...if you so choose, and I do suggest adding it!

I wasn't paying attention here and poured most of it in, when I really only needed like 1/4 Cup...enough to cover the meat, and mix it so it got to all of it...not a soak just a "rub". I had to pour off the rest.

Now for the red onion. I chopped mine up, just a bit of it, maybe a fourth. I mixed these pieces in with the meat.

This is where I covered it and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Save the rest of your red onion!!! It's used to clean the grill, like so:

Bring out the meat, and start grillin'

It's good well done, or almost done. There will be burnt edges to get the center cooked through.

Yum! I made it with tortillas and rice, of course.
Here it is again...

Easter Cards

Having a Cricut Expression around has encouraged me to get into papercrafting a lot. I made these cards without the Cricut, though...anyone can do this for pretty cheap!!

I used a scrapbooking paper stack that has cut-out letters and some embellishments (I used flowers). I got this at Tuesday Morning for $2.99 (I think...). I now realize one sheet the cutter wasn't aligned with the print so it's kind of useless with the pictures cut in the middle...but the rest of it is worth it for sure!!

I also used some 3-D foam stickers. These are great for adding dimension to your cards, signs, anything really.

This is what I gathered to get creative with...I only used one of the scalloped scissors on the right side. The rest of it was...just for inspiration?

I've come to prefer starting with my available envelops for size and cutting my cards to fit them. While I love being able to make envelops on the Cricut...I don't like having to because my card is too big/small for the ones I have on hand. Plus the Cricut ones aren't always big enough either.

P.S. I love the Cricut cutter. They make other brands the same, but this one is great because you can always measure your cuts...you can see through to know it's lined up right...you can use the raised edge to make your folds even. I LOVE it.

So I cut it just so it will have enough room to not be crowded..but not wiggle too much...the pencil is for scale, the top is the envelope (it will be bigger) and the bottom is the paper. I have it indented about this far on the right edge.

After I cut, it's time to fold. Again, I love the cutter...I always use the raised edge to make sure my fold isn't uneven. I also love the scraper. It's supposed to be for cleaning your cut mats I think so they stick better...? But I use it to score my folds. It works wonderfully. I never saw a package so I may be totally off about it's use.

Now for the fun part...assembling.
I punched out my letters from my "Scrap Pack".

 I had to decide how to make these too-big letters fit nicely on my little card.
They could go like this...

Or like this...

Or like this...

I liked this arrangement. I used a ruler to help me keep my letters straight. For these I used the glue roller thingi-ma-bob. See another post about the Scotch roller..

Then I used the roller to attach some patterned background paper.

And here come the 3-D Dot Stickers. As you can see I paid $1.04 at Meijer for these. I love clearance pricing stickers. My eye is trained to find orange at Meijer and red at Target for sure.

They're double-stick, so I just pealed the back, attached it to my letter, and then pealed the other side and pressed it on where I wanted it.

This card started out being for a 3 year old boy. I then thought it might be a little too fragile for his fingers, so I made another one for him. This one has a different special recipient.


The next card is even easier to make. I used a scrap from my scrapbook paper that was too small from the last card, and cut the edge with the fancy scalloped scissors to add some flair. At Hobby Lobby (I wish we still had one up the street from me) I found some card-stock stickers. Even better. These were a whopping $2.99 but they were the best Easter ones they had this close to the holiday and they felt very nice.

The pastels are kind of hard to see here...sorry. I kept adding stickers. I put too much thought into this.

It was a little plain, so I added some flowers from my scrap-pack. One 3-D, one level for dimension.

So...I made two cards, and still have the materials to make MANY more with this stuff. The 100 sheets of white card stock was like $1-2 at Big Lots--I still call it Odd Lots in my head and vernacular.

So, not including equipment or glue, but including my on-hand materials with the card stock, these two (and potentially many more) cards cost me $8.02 at most, with lots left over. If we took the time to divide it all out it's...basically free and obviously way less than Gibson, Hallmark, Papyrus, would charge. And it's personal.