Safari Park! July 6, 2011

     Here are some pictures of a little adventure Adam and I went on this summer. I said this in another post but just in case you missed it: this summer we took turns deciding what to do each day. I chose this little outing and it was way too much fun! I saw a billboard for the Safari Park one day while we were driving home from another adventure and I put it on our list of things we wanted to do. Well, when it was my day to choose I picked the Safari Park. I thought the whole concept  of the Safari Park was cool because I don't really enjoy zoos where all of the animals are in small cages, it stinks from there being too much you-know-what in a very small space, and there is no place for the animals to get any real exercise. Well, the Safari Park was not like that at all! I mean sure they put the carnivores separate, and those animals that could easily climb the fence (example: monkeys) were in large cages. But it was more like a HUGE farm where the animals grazed around together, living in harmony (well, I'm sure there have been a few fatalities. Circle of life people!). You are allowed to just drive your car through the park and roll your windows down to pet the herbivores, but can also ride through the park on a trailer hitched to the back of a tractor. Adam and I wanted to ride behind the tractor :) We bought our tickets, found out what time we needed to be at the tractor, and headed to the gift/snack shop. Adam got a ginormous blue popsicle and I got an ice cream cone. 

Here is Adam with his very blue tongue :) At this point we were already loaded onto the trailer behind the tractor.

They give you little buckets of feed to give the animals.

This guy was waiting on us as soon as we entered the park

I love this man! And we are having a very fun time... just like two kids at the zoo :)

Giraffe!

Look at all those deer! ... and all the other things. Adam was really wanting his shotgun right then.

Now these guys look sweet...

and they were...

... but only for a minute! Then they steal your feed bucket!!

This guy looked OLD.

There were lots of deer.

This big man looked so regal to me.

Where's my bow and arrow???

The driver told us that to feed the buffalo you should hold your hand above their head, wait for them to open their mouth and stick their tongue out, then sprinkle the feed on their tongue. It was so weird-- but cool too!

I told you! Animals living together in harmony.

This is what I think Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comit,  Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen look like-- even though this is not a reindeer. 

I got to touch his felt antlers. They were extremely soft.

Now to the two-hump camels.

These guys were just as guilty of bucket stealing as the one-humps.

This little llama momma was precious!

Sweet little ugly face :)

Adam liked this llama the best :) she was very sweet.

*baby voice* oh my goo'ness. jus look a' tha' lil bitty baby llama. It is jus too cute!

After we got off the trailer we went to see a few other animals. These little guys entertained us for a long time. They are so funny!

While we were watching them they would take their little hands, reach out and snatch a few shoots of grass, and then very greedily eat it. These might have been my favorite to watch.

I mean just look at them!!

Then we saw kangaroos. If you look really closely at the one standing up you can see the back leg of her baby sticking out of her pouch.

This was papa kangaroo. He scared me.

Ah! So much fun!

I'm happy I got to share these with y'all! Thanks for reading :)

Love ya!

Blacksburg Farmers' Market, July 2, 2011

      I have been wanting to share these pictures with family and friends back in Alabama for a while to kind of show you a little more of where we live. And for those of you that live here and have not been to the Blacksburg Farmers' Market you should definitely go! There are lots of cool things to see, sample, and buy.

Like this guy! You can watch him make his pottery-- and he would love to talk to you, too!

He explained to us that the pottery needed to dry slowly and the sun was drying it too quickly that day. He was placing his finished pieces under his car to keep them cool and damp.

Here is what his pottery looks like when it's completely finished!

I love him :)

Here are some of the booths set up under the pavilion. Most people sell fresh produce, but you can also find baked goods, fresh meat, and fresh eggs. I love this place!

Here is a view of the pavilion. 

These nice people sell baked goods... Adam and I bought a chocolate chip macaroon to split and it was very delicious.

Look! They are almost gone!

They also sold lemonade in cool glass bottles.

I think they had the most picture friendly and eye-catching booth at the Farmers' Market that day. It had a great country/vintage vibe-- my fave!

See the lady on the left? She makes the most beautiful bouquets to sell. 

Look how pretty! I want one! :) maybe next time.

This lovely gentleman sold us some very yummy goat cheese and fresh butter.

He had samples for us to try... Adam fell in love with the flavored goat cheese.

and I HAD TO HAVE this butter.

Here is another booth that we bought bread at. You see the far left basket? We bought that last loaf of flax seed bread and it was amazing! I had never had such good, chewy, flavorful bread before. The best way to eat it was with butter... fresh butter :)

The lady that sold the bread also sold granola, little boxes of dessert, and flour that she ground herself. I wanted her to be in the picture (she was presh!) but she said she'd rather not. Well at least you get to see her lovely booth!

The Blacksburg Farmers' Market is a really neat and fun place to go. I LOVE going there!

Hope you enjoyed reading more about where Adam and I live :) Love ya!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

     When I became old enough to cook by myself I would often look through my mom's BetterHomes&Garden cookbooks titled "Pies & Pastries" and "Cakes." I would flip through the pages to look at all of the pretty pictures and the ingredient lists. I wanted so badly to make something from those books, but most of the time I shied away from the complicated steps and ingredients that I had no idea what they were. Setting the books back on the shelf, I would head to the pantry and gather all of the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. They weren't exactly the fancy confections from the books, but I knew my brothers and my dad would love them so I generally settled for making those. Cookies of any kind became my go-to cooking fix; peanut butter cookies (my dad's favorite), oatmeal raisin cookies, and of course the tried and true chocolate chip cookies. My brothers and my dad would gobble up any cookies I made, but they always made suggestions-- ok, they told me what was wrong with them. And I'm so glad they did because it has greatly improved my cookie making abilities! Most often their complaints were that the cookies were overcooked, or not chewy or soft enough. So, I began to experiment with recipes to see if they would measure up to "the boys" standards. If there was something about the cookie that didn't turn out right I would tweak the recipe, or throw it out all together. By doing this I have collected and tweaked a handful of cookie recipes that turn out just how the doctor-- the football coach-- and my daddy ordered. 

Here is a picture of me and my brothers in the kitchen! As you can see there is cookie dough batter in the big bowl and my brothers are holding on to the beaters. Beaters with batter are the perfect little lollipops and the three of us fought to get one of the two of them. The brother on the left is the football coach, and the one on the right is the doctor. And yes the cotton-headed-ninny-muggins in the middle is me. Look at my hair!

    The other night I was making some cookies to take to a girl's game night and I wanted something new, something fresh, something that I didn't have a good recipe for. I also wanted something with oatmeal in it because I honestly don't have a good oatmeal cookie recipe. I mean, sure I have one that'll do, but I don't crave those cookies. I wanted a cookie recipe to crave. I began googling "soft oatmeal cookie" and the recipe I am about to show you is one of the first ones to pop up. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Those sounded like just the thing I was looking for--and let me tell you after I made them I was sure they were what I was looking for! These cookies were chewy, soft, nutty from the oatmeal, and indulgent from the chocolate chips. Perfect! I took the cookies to the game night and the girls really liked them. But they had an even bigger, unexpected, fan when I got home. Adam came into the kitchen and took a bite of a cookie-- his eyebrows raised a little and he said, "these are good." We went upstairs to get ready for bed and Adam says, "I think I'm gonna go get another cookie." I was surprised because he normally doesn't eat anything before going to bed. He walked back into our room with a mouthful of cookie, and another cookie in his hand. These, people, are good cookies. 

Here is how you make them:

Start by creaming butter, brown sugar, and white sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.

For the full list of ingredients with measurements click here: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Recipe.

When the butter and sugars are thoroughly creamed, scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add in the eggs one at a time.

I'm going to go ahead and stop right here to apologize for the shadow towards the back of the bowl in these pictures. My stand mixer is the old school kind where the top part doesn't lift, you just have to take off the attachment, and then pop off the bowl. Yeah, that was too much trouble to do every time, so I settled for the shadow. Sorry!

Mix until just incorporated.

In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Then slowly add the dry ingredients(flour, baking soda, salt) to the wet ingredients in the stand mixer. Turn the mixer on slow so the flour doesn't go flying everywhere :) I've been guilty of that WAY too many times.

Mix this until just combined. It will look like this.

Next add the oatmeal.

This recipe calls for quite a bit of oatmeal and I was worried the cookies would turn out dry-- but they definitely didn't. It was the perfect amount.

Finally add in the chocolate chips and stir gently to combine. The recipe actually called for walnuts too, but I didn't have any so they just got left out. 

Drop the dough onto a baking sheet. I used an ice cream scoop to scoop my dough. Also, the recipe says to use an "ungreased cookie sheet"-- but I generally ALWAYS lightly grease mine. I mean what can it hurt, right?

Bake at 325 degrees for 12 minutes. 

When you remove the pans from the oven, allow the cookies to stay in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Yum yum yum these cookies were good! 

Be sure to eat them with a full glass of milk!

Melt in your mouth goodness :) and hey, you can't feel too bad about eating them because they have oatmeal in them. Lots of fiber! The food pyramid says you need that.

Thanks for reading today y'all!! Did you happen to read my post yesterday, too? I have an idea (watch out for the shameless plug)-- you should follow me! Just click "Join this site" on the right hand side of this page. If you already have a google, gmail, or facebook account it's easy!

Anyways, I hope you all are having a wonderful day! Don't get too bored in class ;) or at work, or home... wherever you may be! Love y'all!