Snug Hollow Farm

When do we get to go back??? This B+B was amazing beyond my wildest expectations. Well, once we got there. MAYBE an hour into our trip we're suddenly at a dead stop on 75S. FOR TWO HOURS. Poor Brian drove about 3 miles in 2 hours. And with a stick shift folks, that's not fun. An RV had pretty much exploded all over the road. They loaded it onto a flatbed truck and it was literally like a sandwich with each side of the RV stacked on top of the other. Total destruction. So anyways, we finally arrived around 8pm. The thing is, it takes a good 5-10 minutes to get to the farm after turning off the "main" road. You know to turn because you get to the barn with this quilt square on it:

Apparently it's a "thing" to have quilt squares on your barns. I never realized it till I was actually looking for one!
It sure beats confederate flags if you ask me.

You're driving and driving and wondering if you're going to get jumped by hobbits and woodland creatures when you see this sign:

And you think hallelujah we're almost there. 

And then after another 5 minutes you finally reach the cattle gate (which you have to get out and open and then shut behind you).

No hunting. Bummer.

After we got through the gate it was just another minute around the bend to the house. The first time in we saw a little 2-4 point buck! It just stood there and stared at us. We sat there and stared at it. It was very curious, but not scared until we started driving again and the diesel engine wasn't to its liking.

So we FINALLY get there and Barbara made us a delicious dinner. I sadly didn't get pics of any of the food, but I can describe the meals for you here:

Bowtie pasta with lemon cream sauce, snap peas, corn off the cob and strawberry pie

Oat pancakes and poached eggs with fresh fruit and yogurt

Scalloped potatoes, baked beans, corn succotash and cornbread with apple dumplings

Breakfast potatoes, scrambled eggs, biscuits and granola with fruit

Everything is vegetarian and homemade. We of course bought her cookbook. And I found two new products to add to my cooking repertoire: nutritional yeast for some added protein and a nutty flavor and Tamari, a gluten-free soy sauce that gives dishes a bit of a meaty flavor. 

So the first night we were exhausted and after some wine and poking around the house a bit retired early to bed in our beautiful room: 

It had a private bathroom and a little room off the back with two twin beds in it!
Yes, those are fresh flowers by the lamp. :)

The only problem was it felt like Christmas to me. I couldn't believe the place was so perfect. I couldn't believe the people were so nice. And I couldn't fall asleep to save my life.  Saturday morning I woke up about 6:30 (darn you work habits!) and I was so excited I just got up. Nobody was awake yet so I peeked out the back door (which was left open all night, like all the others, for air flow--no central air!) and it was so foggy and misty and eerie it was just awesome. So I ran back upstairs and got the camera and manual to try and play around a bit. 

The problem is the sun was rising so fast that I didn't have enough time to play and get it quite right. But here's a really crummy example of how cool the mist was: 

It was much darker than this photo would have you believe. 

So I sat on the porch for over an hour by myself and just rocked away in a chair. So peaceful. I wasn't actually watching the sun itself rise, but it was wonderful to listen to the world wake up (and get rid of the bat that had been flying around the porch with me!). 

I spent a lot of time out there in the chair and here: 

Heaven is anywhere there's a porch swing.

So Saturday we really didn't do much of anything. It was blazing hot, and Brian wanted to take his first of 75 naps of the day, so we didn't start our little hike around the property till at least 11:30 (not a great idea). I should also mention we didn't go around the ENTIRE property--it's 300 acres--but stayed within the mowed paths to catch some of the highlights quickly: 

I think there may have been horses here once.

A little hill of tall grasses.

A pond by the bigger cabin. Barbara said people used to swim in it
but now there's turtles "as big as you" in it!

Now, many of you may know that I am quite a morbid person and love a good, old cemetery. Snug Hollow just happens to have a little cemetery on it that added to the creepiness off in the distance as the sun rose that morning. So of course I wanted to go check it out and see how old the gravestones are. Turns out--not THAT old. Someone was buried there in 2001 for goodness' sakes! However, still a cemetery and still cool in my eyes. 

There is just something so creepy and wrong and awesome about this picture. I looked down
and realized both our shadows were over the grave and made Brian stay put. It just
makes me think of mortality and life and death, young and old. Amazing.

Handsome husband. He really was having a good time. The cemetery just had about
a million bugs and I thought WE were getting eaten alive, but turns out, as usual
it was just me. 

So after that adventure we headed back towards the house via the vegetable and flower gardens:

Here's a photo of the farmhouse from the path leading back:

The screened porch there is where we ate all our meals.

And one of the cabin we'll be staying in for our mom/daughter weekend: 

It looks SO SMALL but I swear on the inside there is room to sleep at least 9,
two stories, and a mini kitchen! Plus a covered porch on the back with
tons of rocking chairs.

I'm going to have to do a second post of all the awesome little touches that Barbara has throughout the house that just make you feel at home. There's always something new and interesting to discover. Here's us on Saturday, so thankful we found Snug Hollow:

Thank you Barbara for a wonderful weekend!!!

Saturday night after dinner Barbara taught us how to play Fast Scrabble (awesome game) and then we retired pretty early again. Since I had been up since 6:30 I was ready for bed!!

This is the second time we've stayed at a B+B. The first time was for our first anniversary, and it was really more like staying in the guest house. It was our own little cottage separate from the main house. Peggy brought us breakfast each morning and then we did our own thing for the rest of the day. It was very nice and relaxing and the food was delicious, but it wasn't Snug Hollow. 

I really, really enjoyed being in the main house. I was a little apprehensive and couldn't remember if we had a private bathroom or not. But I loved getting to meet new people. I know this sounds weird, but at the end of every meal I would be racking my brain to make sure I'd really never met any of the other guests before. They just seemed so familiar that I felt like maybe I actually did know them in "real life." Everyone stayed for 30 minutes to an hour after every meal just talking and sharing stories and getting to know one another. 

And I couldn't end the post without mentioning Barbara's wonderful helpers that we met: Olivia, Nikki and Connor. Everyone was just so nice and accommodating. They would introduce themselves when they arrived and then be sure to come say goodbye on their way out. Such thoughtful, hard-working people. 

Needless to say, we'll be back again and again and I think I may have found my new preferred mode of travel: B+B to B+B.

(Check out the second post about Snug Hollow here)

Labor Day Getaway!

This weekend (one of the last free till the end of band season in November) we're headed to Red River Gorge for the first time! I found an awesome B+B on a 300 acre property/organic farm. I am so excited for this relaxing trip with my lovely husband. We're taking our camera and a huge book about how to actually use it and we're going to become GOOD at something other than the auto setting. :) Here's some pics of Snug Hollow Farm:

Rocking chairs on a porch are definitely in our future.

I believe we'll be eating dinner here in the main farmhouse.

Beautiful!! 300 acres to hike and wander through.

Our wedding photographer, Steph Carson, now lives in Red River Gorge. We had originally hoped to get some updated photos of the two of us taken over the weekend. The last time we had professionals done was our wedding, when my hair was like a pixie! But she's ironically going to be shooting weddings in Cincy so it just wasn't meant to be this time.

One thing I'm really excited about is the fact that Barbara, the owner of Snug Hollow, is a wonderful cook and even has her own cookbook! She also cooks all vegetarian. I cannot wait to have some awesome, professionally prepared veggie food all weekend. Here's an excerpt from reviews/her book:

Cooking is my passion and even though I am an amateur, my time in the kitchen is a calling. Cooking is not a chore here but a daily meditation. The planning, preparation and sharing of vegetarian meals are joys for me and gifts to our guests. At Snug Hollow, the sunny kitchen is the engine room of the house. Bread is baked daily; soups simmer on the stove and the pies in the oven fill the house with a fragrant promise of what’s to come. Hearty breakfasts, lunches and elegant dinners are lovingly prepared and make their way to the table...another memorable meal! I’m not sure if I was born to cook, but I sure have a love of preparing food my way. Since becoming a vegetarian 32 years ago I have searched for creative ways to cook and prepare delicious meals. My preference is to serve up old favorites with as little alteration as possible. Stuffed green peppers, pot pies, bean soup, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese or even a good cheesy pizza are my favorites. 

Yeah I think that'll work. :) 

We don't really have many specific plans for the weekend. We are going to be near Berea, which is a great arts and crafts town. We'll obviously be near the gorge which we've never seen. And then there will be a 300 acre farm at our disposal too!! 

We're hoping this will be the next location for our upcoming Mothers and Daughters Gone Wild trip of 2012 (see here for some details on the previous trip).

I'll report back next week with hopefully some amazing photos from the weekend. Have a safe Labor Day and for heaven's sakes, do some relaxing!!  

Fancy Dinner at Mom's

In July while I was home from tour for a few days alone Mom had me over for a fancy dinner so I wouldn't spend all my time at home by myself. Cindy from downstairs came up too. It was really nice to be around other people outside of work. Mom said I talked like crazy--but it was just so nice not to be talking to the cats! They tend to cut the conversations pretty short. There was a TON of delicious food, but these were the prettiest pictures. :)


Here's a fancy salad that mom made: 

Love avocados!!

Peach martinis with champagne! Summery!

Peach martinis in a pitcher on Mom's pretty countertop.

Breakfast Smoothies aka Green Monsters

So now that I'm working out (more to come on that later) I've started making smoothie/protein shakes again. These are so much better than the ones I came up with a few years ago. And probably healthier too. I thought I'd share in case any of you were looking for a healthy breakfast alternative or snack. Though honestly, I have so many calories in this thing it's probably only suitable for breakfast now. 

Yep, it's green.

I do realize that this probably looks completely unappetizing.

You've gotta trust me on this one!

Breakfast Smoothie
1/2 cup (or so) of plain 0% fat greek yogurt
1/4 cup (or so) of 1% milk (soon to be replaced by kefir)
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder (I get Whole Foods' generic 365 brand)
Couple TBS of flax seeds (will soon be replaced with GROUND flaxseed. So much easier to deal with)
Large handful of spinach (that's why it's green!)
1 banana
1 cup blueberries
6 ice cubes


I mix the first 5 ingredients together first to make sure all the spinach is really blended well. You definitely don't want to be eating a salad in the middle of your smoothie. And honestly--YOU CAN'T TASTE ANY SPINACH. But you're getting the health benefits of at least a whole serving (perhaps more...I use a lot) such as lots of iron! 

Plus, Finny loves that he gets his favorite treat almost every day now!
He's a weird one.....

Greek yogurt has a TON of protein in it. One cup has about 45% of your daily needs. I can't bring myself to eat it out of the container plain (it's sour and thick and I can't help thinking I'm eating bad cottage cheese...). But this is a great way to incorporate it. 


I also add the protein powder at this stage with the liquids because I've realized that when you don't make it wet, it is puffed up in a cloud all over the sides of your blender and you're standing there wondering what the point of putting it in at all was! 


The blueberries at Whole Foods right now are some of the best I've ever had. And you're getting a ton of antioxidants through them. You could also add some strawberries in there, but I consider them more "dessert fruits" and don't really want the extra sugar. I have some peaches ripening right now and I'm thinking a banana, blueberry, peach smoothie sounds pretty much amazing. 


The cool thing about this smoothie is you're getting 3-4 servings of different fruits and veggies in one meal!! It's easy to consume--you can drink it while you're getting ready in the morning/walking around/on the way to work, etc. And you'll absolutely stay full for several hours.


I mentioned Kefir in the ingredients list. It's something quite interesting that I've learned about recently thanks to the wisdom of Mother Earth News. This article is REALLY interesting. If nothing else read the first page and I guarantee you'll want to continue on. I've thought about getting the bacterial culture to make it myself (you just add the culture to regular milk and it "processes" it for you..) but I discovered you can buy it at Whole Foods (of course you can). So I think I might get some there soon to see if I can stomach it. It's supposed to have a somewhat sour taste and I'm afraid, and probably rightly so, that it's going to be like drinking greek yogurt. So into the smoothie it will go, to be disguised by the wonderful fruits and veggies!!


Any suggestions to make this even better/healthier?

On Tour with Blue Stars (aka where we were all summer)

This post has been long overdue. I explained awhile ago in some detail what drum corps is and about the Blue Stars in general. If you missed that one check this out to get some background info. 

Clear as mud now? Excellent. 

So I ended up spending about 20 days on tour!!!! There was one point where I had been away 16 out of 20 days in June-early July. And here's the thing--some people (like our lovely admin staff and head cook) didn't take ANY days off this summer. I cannot imagine. 

So here's a crash course on what it's like to be on tour. It's exhausting. Emotionally draining. Hard, hard work. Fun. Rewarding. Life-changing. The people you meet and friends you make and sense of satisfaction you have from knowing you helped the corps get down the road and these kids' summers become a success is irreplaceable. I'll be the first to admit it was hard to get back to the corps for finals week. I had been settled in at home for about a month and I was not as eager as before to get back to work. But it ended up being a great end to the season. 

First, the summer went SO FAST. I thought our anniversary was yesterday, and now it's the middle of August. (Side note, I'll share the hilarious story of how we spent our anniversary in a separate post.)

So, I spent my time working on the food truck. Here it is, in all its glory: 

It's in the back of a semi!!!

One side has doors that open. Screens on the top. Shelves on the bottom so we can slide food out to servers at a normal height and don't have to carry all the food around the truck. 

And the inside! It's pretty creative how these things are constructed. There would be 4-6 of us working on here at a time. You get to know your cook crew very well--mostly because you're standing within 2 feet of them for 12 hours. And when you're not standing next to them you're bumping into them and rubbing up against them to get to another part of the truck! 

One side is 3 huge stainless steel sinks and cabinets above that hold all the spices, vegetarian special food and gluten-free food. 

The other side is a long stainless steel counter that we chop on. Here we were making broccoli that was steamed and mixed with sauteed shallots, garlic, lemon juice and basil. Delicious!

There is also: 

An 8-burner gas stove (the oven under it is broken but technically there) and a huge convection oven (My best friend. That thing is killer!!)

We have a "regular" fridge, industrial fridge and industrial freezer (industrials seen on left and right below):

Dry storage is in the back. 

More dry storage and a washer and dryer on the other end of the truck.

Being the Blue Star Diner and all, we had lots of blue stars to decorate!

And there you have it! 4-6 of us cranked out 4 meals a day for 200 people and did a damn good job of it. It was just amazing cooking with so many hard workers and our fearless leader Bob. I'll have to do a separate post about how one actually LIVES while on tour. It's an experience! 


Go here for part 2.

Indy Weekend Extravaganza

This past weekend was amazing. I relaxed. As in literally, for the first time in a LONG, long time, I had nothing that had to be done. Nowhere I had to go. I visited Nicki, who recently moved to Indy, at her new place. And we determined this was the first girls sleepover weekend we've had since the 8th grade. I can tell you, adult sleepovers are much more fun than as 8th graders. They include Parsons Rum Surprises!!

The "surprise," for me personally, is the fact that there are TWO shots of rum in these things!

So we started the weekend with a tour of the decorated apartment (I was only there for move-in and the very beginning of the IKEA furniture building marathon months ago). And then Rum Surprises and snacks while we waited for a cab to take us to a really cool area near Butler University called Broad Ripple. 

Yes, that is a hummus wheel of awesomeness. 

We then went to dinner at a place called Brugge in Broad Ripple. Their claim to fame is a huge cone of fries with 12 dipping sauces and a beer that will knock you over after two (we've been warned to never have three). (I've linked you to the menu. I didn't understand half of it but it all sounded good!) And we were so excited about our fries that we forgot to take pictures. AND, we only got the large size that comes with 3 dipping sauces so it wouldn't have been that impressive. So take my word for it: fries were excellent and the sauces were epic. And next time we're getting all 12!


On Saturday we went to the pool and I got to lay out for the first time this summer!! We were only out for about an hour and a half but I did get a little color and it was hilarious to watch all the single residents take up posts at the pool watching one another. Literally every person that came to the pool area brought their own rolling cooler of beer with them. Hilarious. 

I'm actually at the pool!!!!! Laying out!!!!!!

After lunch at Nicki's we decided on a plan of action for the day: shopping at a little boutique called Pitaya (it's like Fig Leaf for all you Oxford folks), a drive through Butler's campus, ice cream, kitten shopping and then to the store for supplies for making dinner. Then drinks and hanging out for the rest of the evening. So here's how we did: 

Ready to leave for our Indy day!!!

Fun hat from Pitaya!!

Hilarious sign on the way to campus.

Someone explain the above to me. Do you have to RENT your grave for ever and ever? That's certainly what it sounds like. There's no overall cost as if $29.99 is a payment plan. It clearly says per month. 

Frozen yogurt from Huddles. 

This was really delicious. You pick your yogurt from the wall (and you can have as many taste tests as you need...I legitimately needed a lot) and then YOU put all your toppings on. They weigh your cup at the end and that's how much you pay! I got a swirl of cake batter and red velvet cake yogurt. Toppings: strawberries, yogurt chips, raspberries, blueberries and pieces of cheesecake. 

And now the most exciting part: 

Kittehs!!!!

This cute little guy popped out from under the blanket when we knelt down! There were three crazy orange tabbies wrestling each other and he had been hiding under the blanket in the middle of the cage. Nicki decided she wanted to hold him first. 

Hi Lady. Are you my new mom? 

And the moral of the story is, an hour and a half later Tucker was the newest member of the Parsons family!!! And needless to say our making dinner plans went a little awry. Who can cook when there's an adorable kitten to play with!!

I'm watching you human!!

He is such a little lover! He wants to snuggle constantly. And if he's not in snuggle mode he's running around like a maniac and playing with toys. And because he's such a little baby still he takes naps often, in the middle of whatever he was doing. 

Out!

Nice posing Tucker!!

We were slightly concerned about how he would be the first night, but it was perfect! I woke up a couple times and he was curled up around Nicki's head on her pillow. Absolutely adorable. And at one point, this was some epic snuggling he created: 

It did become one of those situations where you have to pretend to be asleep at some point. We needed more sleep!!!

Once we were finally able to drag ourselves out of bed Sunday morning, we went to breakfast/brunch at a really awesome place that reminded me very much of First Watch: Le Peep. How cute is that?! Check out the menu. You'll be starving. I had a skillet thing of potatoes, onion, bacon, avocado, Wisconsin white cheddar cheese and two eggs over easy on top. And the granola pancakes I was told were amazing so I got a blueberry one to try. WOW. Best pancake of my life. Be jealous: 

PERFECT eggs over easy. 

The butter in the middle = real and fluffy and amazing.

After brunch I got ready to head towards home. Brian's band camp parent preview was Sunday afternoon and the timing of everything just worked out so well! Such a much-needed weekend with a lovely host and wonderful friend. I cannot wait to go back!!!!