News for the Valentine's Day Scrooge

I have never been able to understand those Valentine's Day Scrooges out there. I guess if you have had bad love-life luck as of late it is permissible to role your eyes at the rose stands and chocolate displays. But I have recently encountered people who are blessed to be surrounded by love and happiness and still grumble about the day. These people are forgetting the underlying reason for celebration: love. And I don't just mean romantic love. Some of my earliest (and best!) memories of Valentine's Day are of discovering a new pair of socks waiting on my plate at the dinner table -- a token of love from mom. I agree, the commercialism and Hallmark holiday is a little over the top.. ok, sickening. Yes, I too avert my eyes and speed walk past the seasonal aisle in Target so I don't have to look at the copious amounts of heart-shaped chocolates and teddy-bears that will soon enter the lives of another couple for a moment's proof of love before being tossed aside. Hallmark wins. Ba-humbug. But the underlying excuse to show love for the people, the world, and simply life around you is too good to pass up. Hallmark and commercialism hasn't stopped us from celebrating the true meaning of Christmas, even though for many, gifts and goodies is all that Christmas is about. A store can stock pile on tacky Christmas gifts and and pass it off as "getting in the christmas spirit". But poor Vday has no long-standing Biblical story and truly WAS invented - there is no denying it is a Hallmark holiday. But that doesn't mean we can't make it something more. So do something fun this weekend to celebrate your love for the people, the world and life around you! I am proud to say Evan and I will be celebrating Valentine's Day this year by making a nice home-cooked meal (as of yet to be determined), playing scrabble and dominoes into the night, and perhaps venturing out to a Shakespeare play on Sunday. And by the way, I'm truly not that righteous - I enjoy my share of the commercial holiday; I'm betting we'll even eat some chocolate : )

Snowscapes

Here is a montage I created from the photos I took February 2008 (mentioned in post below). It was a frigid day (much like every other day in Minnesota!) so it was a challenge just to steady the camera and press the shutter without shaking. But I ventured out into the snow-blown fields at the Pierson farm with the only companion daring enough to accompany me: Kate, the beautiful golden retriever. Together we were witness to the intricate patterns chiseled into the lonely snowscape. Close up, the delicate blue ridges could pass for mountains with deep chasms and shadows. But we weren't alone out there - we spied other signs of life! Notice the bird print who's delicate pattern was left undisturbed by the passing wind? Or the frail flowering stalks, somehow bracing the cold, insistent on the promise of spring? What a fun little backyard photo safari I had that afternoon on the farm.

PS -- Click on the montage for a larger view so you can see all the details and patterns.

Waiting for the Thaw

I was just going through my inbox of photos waiting to be edited and came across a collection that I shot LAST February (baaad Carolyn). But now I am glad I waited this long to edit them, because seeing these images of the frozen tundra that was Minnesota 2008 reminds me that this is just a cycle we are going through and of course, as always, we will eventually thaw in 2009.

I am actually enjoying winter a lot more this year than in the past, and I attribute much of this to my newfound hobby: nordic skiing. This past Saturday we ventured up to the cities to spectate at a few of the Loppet events. I am not sure exactly what Loppet stands for, but I do know what we witnessed: crazy Minnesotan nordic skiers racing across Lake of the Isles led by their dogs! I wish we had seen some of the top finishers, who I imagine were well practiced and trained, moving forward as a united source of power and synchronized agility. But by the time we arrived the last batch of dog-owner tandems were just coming down the homestretch, and it seemed to me as though the dog provided more of a challenge to the skier than a source of horse...err dog power. Some dogs are made to run with sleighs across the arctic, others prefer to sniff other dogs and pull towards the excitement of the crowd. But it was great to see. Even the dogs who weren't quite cut out for the venture basked in the attention of this dog-geared day. And they sure looked proud to be part of a pack!

I am including a photo from February 2008 so you too can remember how you have endured, conquered, and perhaps even enjoyed winter before. Take time to revel in the beauty and patterns Old Man Winter so delicately creates!

Recipe: Stromboli with Pesto Sauce

Last week we had dinner with out friends Marit and Tim. They had just finished remodeling their kitchen so it was a treat to have a home-cooked meal at their place. For dinner, they whipped up some tasty stromboli - a recipe they got from a cooking class last fall. Evan and I haven't yet made it on our own, but I'm sure it'll be on the menu one of these upcoming weeks. It is a great variation on the traditional pizza. Here it is:

Ingredients:
1 package pizza crust (either store bought or make your own)
1/4 lb. italian meat, thinly sliced (ie: pepperoni)
1/4 lb. italian meat, thinly sliced (ie: salami)
slices of italian cheese (is: mozzarella and provolone) Although shredded mozzarella would taste fine.. but more like pizza.
1/2 cup prepared pesto sauce
2 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:
Unroll pizza dough onto a floured surface. Spread 1/2 c. of prepared pesto onto dough. Layer meats and cheese on top of pesto. Carefully roll pizza from the long end of dough, sealing the sides and bottom well. Transfer to a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Brush the top of stromboli with melted butter. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the pizza crust is well baked. Cut into 8 slices.

Notes:
Marit sprinkled crust with whole wheat flour before baking. You could include some roasted veggies. Great dipped in pizza sauce!

Happy 2009!

Well it's about time I make another entry in our little blog! What a busy couple months it has been, filled with family, friends, laughter, good times, and sugar. Ha. Seriously, I am plump full of sugar (but I hope not too plump!) and don't think I'll have another craving of that sweet stuff until March... or April. But that's part of what Christmas is about: enjoying all the sweet things in life! Here's a little recap of our activities this past month:

After venturing out on our own to a local Apple Valley Christmas Eve church service, we cozied in at the Pierson farm with some grasshoppers, games, and then some late-night gift opening -- I think we were up until 1am! We braved the arctic-cold Christmas morning and went to church then off to the grandparents for a noon feast. We then headed back up to Apple Valley to pack and prepare for our flight to Jersey!

Our week in New Jersey went by quickly as we packed in lots of hiking, dog-runs, seeing high school and even grade-school friends, a trip into NYC where we saw the Lion King and enjoyed a great Italian dinner with my family, and a New Years party at good ol' 10 Holly lane. I'll post pictures once I get a few other projects done that have been taking precedence (this post being one of them!)

The new year has been finding us well thus far. Thanks to my friend Marit, I have had the opportunity to test my skills at cross-country skiing! I am a fairly experienced downhill skier, so I was surprised to find that cross-country skiing is HARD! I fell down twice! But this afternoon I tried it again and I felt much more at ease. There is a park near here (Lebanon Hills Regional Park) that has great groomed trails surrounding a spread of lakes. It was absolutely BEAUtiful tonight -- so idyllic and peaceful. It has been snowing all day so by the time we hit the trails at 4:30 there was a nice fluffy pillow-top for us to play on. This park has the perfect combination of landscapes: we wove between birch trees, trucked up hills in fields of lonely stalks, and flew under the dense evergreen canopy of a snow-covered forrest. I loved it. Sometimes, when the wind blew, a shower of snow fell from the trees -- once I got a mouthful of it! Time got away from us and before we knew it we couldn't see our tracks very well... when we came across a sign we realized we were a ways from our cars. But we got back on track and booked it home. What a good workout. One of the gifts of cross country skiing is driving home with your mind still on the trail you left behind, while everyone else on the road is just trying to fight the traffic and make it home so they can get out of the wintry mess. If you are going to be truly happy living in Minnesota, you have to embrace winter : )

Gingerbread Houses

We hosted a small gingerbread house party this weekend with a few college friends. I spent the week making the houses from scratch and baking them in a mold we bought from the Pampered Chef. Turns out this mold is quite the novelty item as we discovered it was only made in 1992. I guess we were pretty lucky to find one on good ol' ebay!

From left to right, top to bottom, we have:

Marit & Tim Oberle - very cute house, complete with smoke in the chimney! Tim added fun lawn details, like a patio, a pond with swedish fish, a lamp post and a junk pile!

Mitch and Colleen - most candy-bedecked house of them all with nice patterns on the roof! Unique use of chimney as a walkway, and surprisingly sturdy for all the slanting walls!

Evan & Carolyn Pierson - interesting combination of precision and wild creativity.... C tended to the house while E made room for the dog in the backyard (note the doghouse at the right). Mailbox and gate complete the front of this snow-gabled cottage.

Dub (Andrew) - the first eco-friendly gingerbread house on the block! The solar panels are the highlight of this one, but the slide down to the patio is a great feature too! Note the gingerbread man pegged by a snowball. What a happy gingerbread community!

**You may need to click on the collage to view each house up close**

Christmas Decorations

We got our tree this past Sunday and had fun decking out our place. Last year we walked to get our tree in the snow, and we could have repeated that fun tradition this year since we have our share of snow, but alas, it was freeezing. We ended up driving to get our little tree at a local farmer's market-type establishment. I wanted to go to a tree farm to cut one down, but once again, just a little too cold for that this time. 

The 3 poinsettias were purchased on Black Friday at the Home Depot just up the road... at 6am! That's right, we were the crazies out and about that early morning. But we weren't at Best Buy stocking up on electronics... we were picking out $1 flowers, haha! You can see Evan... er.. Mr. Pierson sitting at his desk grading tests! What a good teacher. After doing the tree we had some leftover lights so I just kept going and decorated the whole living room... perhaps a bit over done? Hahha... but you can only do this once a year! Evan whipped up some banana bread tonight and I baked a gingerbread house so it is smelling oh so festive in Apple Valley tonight : )

Christmas Cookie Bake

Here are some pictures from our Pierson Cookie Bake held Thanksgiving Eve. It was a good thing we all had full bellies before the baking began! We made a total of 11 cookies/treats I think... I may have lost track! I don't think I have ever made so many cookies at once! Now we all have our stash of Christmas treats - I froze half so we can spread out the fun. What a fun tradition to begin! Hopefully we'll do it again next year! I think it would be fun to gather all the recipes and put them in a book somewhere so we can remember all that we did... and keep on adding to the list! YUM YUM! Here is what I remember:

1 - classic sugar cookies w/2 kinds of frosting

2 - krumkaka (Norwegian cookies)

3 - Russian Teacakes/Snowballs

4 - Peanut Butter Cup cookies

5 - Haystacks

6 - caramels

7 - (white) chocolate covered pretzels

8 - chocolate covered ritz peanut butter cracker sandwiches

9 - Pretzel, pecan, caramel clusters (I made up that name as I don't remember)

10 - gingerbread men

I feel like there were a few more! What am I forgetting?

Thanksgiving festivities

We drove down to Evan's grandparents' in Goodhue, MN for Thanksgiving, joined by the rest of the immediate Piersons and some other extended relatives. After a wonderful meal we were tempted by the whipped cream to play this fun (and messy) little game!

SPOILER ALERT!

Did you catch what happened in the second video? Beth (Evan's aunt, Mary's sister) hit her whipped cream to the ceiling, and Mary's landed in Beth's hand! Hahaha, they couldn't have planned it better!

My Lucky Husband!

For Riley's 21st birthday last weekend (Nov 30) we drove to a small town called Flandreau right over the border into South Dakota. The attraction? A "cash tunnel" in the town's casino! If it is your birthday month you can stand in the glass cylinder and try grab as much cash as you can, fighting the wind - but you only have 20 seconds! It just so happened to also be Evan's birthday month so he got to participate as well! There is $700 flying around the machine, and only 2 100-dollar bills, but Evan was lucky to grab one of them! Here is a picture of him concentrating on stuffing that 100-dollar bill into the box. (Sorry it is a bad picture... this is a polaroid the casino took since we weren't allowed to snap photos). Although it was a long drive, it was worth it. Besides spending some quality time with the Piersons, we got to meet up and visit with our good college friend Erin Mercer!