Mountain Storms and Western Suns

It was a rainy night in the middle of the Ozarks when the wind came rolling over the hills. Nestled in their bed the husband and wife slept soundly while their dog stood alert, a sense in her canine bones that something just wasn't right. A flash of lightning lit up the night sky, illuminating the room and its inhabitants. Then, as if a loud gong was struck in the heavens, a thunderclap shook the house and reverberated across the mountain, setting the cur to scramble quickly under the bed.

If our weekend were to be set to a novella, this is how it would begin. A rainy weekend, hunkered down in the house, watching old movies, eating lots of food, and hoping that we only had to contend with the thunderstorms and not the potential tornadoes that were forecasted.

While Sabrina is not the biggest fan of thunderstorms - as noted by her disappearing act under the bed - she doesn't mind a nice, lazy weekend in the house. There were a few breaks in the bad weather to take her out for at least one walk on Saturday and Sunday. Otherwise, she was content to just laze about the house enjoying the time with her people.

As I mentioned earlier, we spent most of the weekend eating and watching old movies. Particularly enjoyable was our Saturday evening "Dinner and a Movie" - Pork Pizzaoila and "Clue" (the 1985 cinematic version of the beloved Hasbro board-game).  There's nothing quite as good as watching a movie that you recall with fond memories from your childhood, along with feel good food.

Today, again relegated to staying inside the house due to the bad weather, we decided to do brunch: Spinach and Gruyere Quiche, Mixed Greens with Toasted Pecans and Pears in a Maple Honey Vinaigrette, Coffee and Wine. It took us a few hours, and I have to give props to my wonderful husband who made the quiche (all from scratch, thanks to Martha Stewart) to impeccable standards. Matt has officially become the "Brunch-master," while I maintain my Executive Chef status Monday thru Saturday and for Sunday evening meals.

This evening, sated from all the food and cuddled up on the couch, Matt and I looked out our front window to see that the sky had gone from gray to gold. 

 

The dog resumed her rounds of the house. She returned to the living room where her people sat and surveyed the area. Outside a coyote howled, and in the nearby meadow a cow plaintively lowed. There would be no rain tonight, no flashes of lightning, no loud claps of thunder. Resigned that all was right and well, that there would be no cause to scamper for the underside of the bed this evening, she lowered herself to the floor and curled up in a snug ball. As her eyes closed she felt secure and warm, bathed in the fading glow of the setting sun.

Ramblin' Roads

On Wednesday, Sabrina and I loaded up the car for our weekly "exploration" of Pulaski County. She brought along her trusty Nylabone, while I packed my water bottle (and Sabrina's travel water carrier) and the Nikon. We set off not really knowing where we were going, but sure that the pleasant day would guide us in the right direction.

Now normally I research a point of interest in Pulaski County every week and then make sure I know how to get to said location. But this past week I really just wanted to get out of the house and into the country. I wanted to find a secluded little place where I could park the car and take Sabrina on a long walk through the woods, and maybe - if I was lucky - find something cool to photograph while we were out. Fortunately for me, luck was on my side.

I decided to head up Route 66 in hopes of finding a promising rural road that could lead to untold trails and treasure. What I found was Temporal Lane, a packed dirt road which winds its way southeast of Devils Elbow and happens to run under the wooden trestle railroad, running between Rolla and Ft. Leonard Wood, which I had previously blogged about in my February post, Get Your Kicks. The structure is in amazing condition, and I couldn't help but take all kinds of pictures of the trestles which have kept the railway standing for 70 years!

I was tempted to jump the fence at the base of the bridge and get a shot of the track up top, but - aside from the horse in the pasture that I thought I might spook - the farmer's house, on whose property the bridge lies, was in plain sight.  I decided to count myself lucky to have gotten some great, up-close shots of the beautifully engineered structure.

Sabrina was pretty happy with the day, as well. She loves a good car ride, but she also loves to see the wildlife in the countryside and to get out and stretch her legs in the woods. She's definitely in her element when she's nosing around in the underbrush, undoubtedly smelling all of the critters that were scurrying around the night before. Additionally, there's nothing she enjoys more than a nice clean stream or river, where after a long hike she puts her paws in the water for a cool-down and dips her snout in for a few long, languid laps. Lucky for us, all of the the things Sabrina loves to do were at our beck and call on our adventure down Temporal Lane.

(This picture was taken with my camera phone, thus the quality and resolution is slightly lacking)

We made our way back home, having spent a couple of hours out and about charting the great wilds of Missouri. Our first priority of business was to check for ticks and delouse ourselves if necessary. As luck would have it, we were free and clear of the little parasites!

On such a beautiful day it was nice to just get out of the house and not really know where I was heading; inevitably finding that when you aren't looking for anything in particular you find the most beautiful treasures. 

A Feast for Easter

I love holidays! Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas are some of my most cherished days of the year because they are almost always filled with family, laughter, love and lots of food.

Typically I've always spent these special days at my grandmother's, my aunt's, my mother's, my father's or my in-law's homes. This year, however, Matt and I spent Easter together, just the two of us. It was our first Easter as husband and wife, in our first home, with our first dog, making our first Easter meal traditions.

Our epicurean celebration of Easter began Saturday night when we sat down to eat saffron risotto with scallops. It was a nice dish, but - to my dismay - a little dull. The rice was great, but I had woefully under seasoned the scallops. I learned on Saturday that no matter what you use to cook scallops in - I used butter, garlic, lemon and wine - even if you cook them perfectly, it's all about the right amount of salt. I used too little, and (as anyone who has ever eaten a scallop will tell you) they tasted a little sweet and bland. So, I am determined to try this recipe again and perfect the scallop's execution. Once complete I will post under the "Pages" section of the blog, and then you can all determine if it's a success or a failure!

Following my Easter Eve meal, I was determined to make Easter dinner phenomenal, but my husband beat me to the punch!

I woke up early on Sunday and got ready for church, while Matt took Sabrina out for a long walk. My plan was to return from the Easter service, start my dessert, move on to prepping for dinner, and eat our feast around 5 o'clock.

Upon my return from church, however, I was greeted by the smell of biscuits, bacon and hollandaise cooking in the kitchen, and my husband (with trusty Sabrina at his feet) putting together a variation of eggs benedict - my favorite breakfast meal of all time!

It was delicious! Matt poached his first egg and I watched in silent admiration, having never done it myself. He used biscuits instead of English muffins (our grocery store apparently had a run on the bakery item), and bacon instead of canadian ham. I also got a special parfait of sugar-free pudding with plum preserves to accompany my plate, and a mimosa to wash it all down. Super yummy! We were both so excited by the meal, we decided to make it again this coming Sunday in hopes of truly mastering the art of poaching an egg; a future blog, I'm sure!

With our bellies full, and the mimosa's flowing, we decided to take some time for the food to digest before  jumping into preparing dinner. Ready with a plan, Matt ushered me into the living room where he had Breakfast at Tiffany's all queued up and ready to watch. We spent the next couple of hours enjoying Truman Capote's wonderful story, which always leaves me silently crying as Holly finds herself and "Cat" in the end. It's such a good story. If you've never seen it or you haven't watched it in a while, go add it to your Netflix list!

I immediately started getting everything ready for dinner and dessert once we were done watching the movie. On the menu: Lamb Chops with a Rosemary/Thyme/Garlic Oil Rub and Red Wine Reduction, String Beans with Almonds, Roasted Baby Potatoes, and Pecan Pie. Although I started cooking a little later than I had intended, we sat down to eat at 6:30, which worked out perfectly.

I have to thank my dinner success to the following individuals and companies:
- Emeril Lagasse for the lamb recipe, which I tweaked here and there.
- My Uncle Jamie, who makes string beans with almonds every Easter, and it just wouldn't have been the same without them.
- Price Cutter for the beautiful loaf of bread, which I brushed the residual rosemary/thyme/garlic oil rub over and baked for 5 minutes at 400 degrees.
- Fannie Farmer, for the amazing pecan pie (homemade pie dough and all)! **Check out my 'pages' tab where I've listed this recipe for the "Best-of-All Pecan Pie"**
- I'm happy to say the roasted potatoes were all mine!

At the end of the day we were all pretty tuckered from all of the good eating. Even Sabrina was knocked out, having gotten to try real bacon, lamb and string beans all in  one day!

It was a day filled with laughter, love, food and our new family memories. I hope that you all had just as wonderful a day!