Last adventure of 2011

We've had such incredible, unseasonable weather this December.  Today it was in the 70s with a cloudless blue sky.  I wish August was this perfect.

We drove south today to visit the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge and then into Savannah for lunch and a lot of walking to burn off lunch.  Being Saturday and New Year's Eve, Savannah was buzzing with people.

This is the ornate Scottish Rite building downtown Savannah, GA.

At the Refuge, we finally did the 4-mile Laurel Hill driving loop, which follows the dikes through the marshes.  We saw several different bird species - two kinds of egrets, herons, hawks, coots, a couple types of ibis, cormorants, and a few other species of ducks.  We also saw nine alligators - a couple were pretty big.

Despite all the cool things we saw, Steve said this was his favorite wildlife encounter of the day...right outside our front door.

There's an anole living between the brick veneer and the house structure, and it must be warm and safe in there because he's been living there as long as we've been in the house.  Today he jumped onto our screen door and we were afraid he was going to get in the house, so Steve reached up to shoo him towards the outside and the anole jumped on his arm and stayed long enough for me to snap several pictures.

2011 Highlights

I thought I'd go through my photos for the year and try to pick my favorite photo or memory from each month.

January
I got my new camera at the end of 2010 and spent much of January 2011 (and February) taking pictures of Charleston.  We took lots of walks downtown with the dog, enjoying the usually mild winter weather.  The 'pineapple' fountain is a favorite Charleston landmark.

February
There is something blooming almost year-round here, and by February the air is starting to get fragrant again.  I practiced some night photography, sans tripod, with only limited success, and we had more weekend strolls downtown with the camera in tow.

March
In early March I went to Japan to visit Tami, Erik and family.  We had a great visit and I got to explore some amazing sites.  Kamakura (top photo) is a town south of Tokyo full of temples and shrines.  I also took a day trip to Nikko, a city northwest of Tokyo that was beautiful under the fresh snow.

April
Jane came to visit and we spent our days showing her the sites of the city and some of the native critters of the swamp.  

May
For our 9-year anniversary we took a sunset cruise of the Charleston harbor and spotted this pelican.  It was a beautiful night on the water - not too hot, not too cool.

June
It was getting hot in the lowcountry so we headed upstate to the 'mountains' for some camping.  Steve and Seca spent some time relaxing at the park visitor center with a fantastic view of the lake and Table Rock mountain. Steve also bought his new motorcycle!

July
We found Forty Acre Rock natural area in July where Steve hammed it up for the camera.  This was the trip where we met Beth, and we've been friends ever since. 

August
Ugh!  The hottest part of summer.  We found shade and entertainment where we could.  Riding the motorcycle was tolerable as long as you were moving.  Don't stop too long or the mosquitoes will eat you alive!

September
Still hot enough that the beach feels great, September was full of birthday camping, the Scottish Games festival, and a fun work meeting in Seattle.

October
You gotta love a fair.  We went to two, and both were great people watching!

November
Steve taking a flying leap across the tidal creek.  We went camping with Fred and Julie and the dogs - Steve was exploring the far side of the creek which the rest of us declined to jump.

December
Since Steve probably won't be happy with me if I post the hilarious picture of him with an orange leaf up his nose ("Hey, it does smell good!") while at Charles Towne Landing, this one of him at Botany Bay will have to suffice.  Happy 2011 everyone!  I hope the year has been as fun for you as it has for us!

Yep. Running.

So tonight Steve, Beth and I all signed up for two running events in March - the Rugged Maniac 5k on March 24 and the Cooper River Bridge Run (10k) on March 31.  Sweet.  That's only a little bit crazy, right?  I have three months to get ready.  :)

Yee haw.

Happy Birthday Steve!

Happy Birthday!  I love you!
Kari

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! 

We celebrated with friends this year - dinner and the movie Elf (my personal favorite holiday movie Of All Time).  Friend and co-worker Julie made a fantastic chocolate-chocolate-chocolate cake.  It may have been the most chocolatey cake I've ever had (and GOOD).  We all overdosed on homemade Thai food, Julie's cake, and the peanut butter mousse pie I made.  It was really fun, if a bit non-traditional.  :) 

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Holiday!

Baked Caramel Apple French Toast

It's Christmas Eve!  We're having friends over tomorrow night to celebrate, so today we'll be doing some relaxing frantic cleaning and food preparation.  Actually, the house is fairly clean overall, but we need to put away some clutter and mop the kitchen and bathroom floors.  With the dog it's pretty impossible to keep the floors clean because she slobbers like a rabid beast all over the kitchen every time she drinks from her water bowl and the bathroom is her favorite place to sleep while we're gone (bizarre, I know). 

Before we kicked off this cleaning frenzy, I made a fancy breakfast.  I'll skip straight to Steve's 'review' of the dish...He gave it 7 out of 10.  Apparently he doesn't love fruity breakfast French toast as much as I do.  I though it was pretty good, worthy of at least 8/10, maybe even 8.5!

Here's the recipe, and some photos along the way.  The best part is that this can be made the night before, and baked in the morning!  I'll give instructions for the few changes you'll need to make for the overnight version at the very end. 

Baked Caramel Apple French Toast
Serves...I don't know, maybe 4-6.  

NOTE!  I made roughly a half batch and it was good for the two of us with three smallish pieces each (the recipe below is for the 'whole' batch, not the half we made). Use bread that is pretty hearty that you slice yourself, not that soft airy french bread you get at the grocery store.  I used a seeded baguette that was pretty dense and cut six slices from the loaf.  Figure on 2-3 slices per person, depending on the diameter of the bread. 

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
2 large tart apples (such as Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 in thick
3 eggs
1 cup milk (don't use skim)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 loaf good bread, sliced 3/4 to 1 inch thick

Optional: maple syrup for serving (I don't think you need it, there's enough caramel apple sauce in the pan)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

On an cooling rack set over an ungreased cookie sheet, place the bread slices in a single layer and place in the oven for 5-8 minutes, then flip the slices and bake another 5-8 minutes.  The goal is to get good, dry slices, without adding color to the tops of the bread.  This will help the bread soak up the milk and egg mixture and is worth the extra step.  Let the bread cool while you finish the next steps.  Increase oven to 350.

In a small saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup to a boil and cook until sugar is dissolved, about 2-4 minutes.  Pour into an ungreased 9x13 inch pan. 

Arrange the sliced apples on top.  (Remember, I made only a half recipe so I had to use a smaller baking dish than the 9x13 size).

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Dip the bread slices into the egg mixture and let soak for 30 seconds per side, flipping once to coat both sides.  Arrange the bread on top of the apples. 

 
Bake for 30-40 minutes.  The apples will be soft and the caramel hot and bubbly.  If the bread slices start to brown too much, cover very loosely with foil.  To serve, place the French toast browned side down and arrange apples on top.  Spoon extra caramel sauce over the top if desired.

To make ahead:  Arrange sliced apples in pan first, then cover with caramel sauce (helps keep apples from browning so much overnight).  Place bread slices, soaked in egg mixture as in the original recipe, on top of apples and caramel.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate overnight.  In the morning, remove from refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking (while oven is preheating).  Remove plastic wrap and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

bread with a hole in the middle

I love bagels.  But, grocery store bagels leave me sad and wishing I had eaten toast (or sometimes, sawdust) instead.  We have a Bruegger's in Charleston, but it's downtown and requires a special trip.  They can't be that hard to make, right?  I bake bread all the time and there's a bagel recipe in my go-to easy bread cookbook (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day).  Tonight we had leftovers for dinner, which meant time left over to try making bagels.  I enlisted Steve as a lead timer, chief photographer, and assistant baker.  He did good.

The cookbook focuses on bread dough that is relatively wet, requires no kneading, and keeps for up to two weeks in the refrigerator.  I mixed up the bagel dough last night, let it rise for two hours on the counter then put it in the fridge - easy.  I used the big mixer with a dough hook for the mixing, and the dough looked like this when I was done:

Tonight after dinner, I shaped some of the dough into balls.  We only used about 1/3 of the dough and it made 6 good-sized bagels.  You're supposed to let the shaped balls rest for 20 minutes while the oven and baking stone are preheating.  According to our oven thermometer, our oven is a whopping 100 degrees off!

While the dough was...sitting there I guess, I started the boiling pot.  Then just before boiling the bagels I poked a hole in and stretched them out until the center hole was 3x the size of the side wall of the bagel (per book instructions).  At the end, I'll go over some of our mistakes learned lessons.

Boil the bagels, two minutes per side.  Then remove and put on a floured towel.  This was a disaster.  Top the wet boiled bagels with toppings - we optet for garlic and onion flakes.

Gracefully slide the bagels off the peel and onto the stones.  This part in reality was also a bit less elegant than I had imagined in my head.  We ended up doing the boiling and baking in two batches because it was a bit of a mess the first time.  Next time, we'll be able to do it all at once and it won't take us both to make them.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until well browned.  I opted to pull them out a bit early since I didn't want the toppings to burn.

Eat while warm!  They were AMAZING!  We thought the texture was good - especially on the second batch - they were chewy and slightly crunchy on the outside.  So this is what we would note for the next time:

1) the water has to be boiling, not just simmering, when you cook them.  it was a bare simmer for the first batch and they didn't set up enough, which just make a horrible, doughy mess on the 'floured towel' they recommended for the wet bagels before baking.  We extended the boiling time to a solid 2 minutes per side, and they felt firmer for the second batch.

2) skip the floured towel.  It was a nasty, snotty mess.  For the second batch we used a slotted spatula to pull them out of the water, then blotted the spatula with the bagel still on it on a towel.  It helped that the second batch was firmer since we boiled them more.  Once out of the water and blotted the whole works could go on a pizza peel (sprinkled with cornmeal) or maybe next time we'll try a lightly oiled baking sheet or - better - onto parchment paper on the pizza peel.

3) make the hole big enough, but not too big.  The second batch (the picture above of them boiling) was a bit too big.  I think I'd go for a hole 2x the size of the bagel wall and see where that gets me.

Beautiful fall day...in December

There is nothing about South Carolina or the weather here or our house that makes me think it's Christmas in one week.  Today was a perfect, cloudless, 60 degrees with a light breeze and falling leaves.  We don't have any holiday decorations up because, well, we don't have any.  We haven't had a Christmas tree since we owned the house in Ridgeway, although I never missed it because we at least had snow in Wisconsin and the house (and boat) in Maryland were too small. 

Today though, a week out from Christmas day, it feels like September.  Steve and I raked leaves for a bit this morning (our tree is really starting to lose them now).  Then Beth picked us up and we all went out to Charlestowne Landing, the actual settlement site from 1670.  We've been there before (see July 2011 post) - there's a small zoo of local animals, a replica trading ship, archaeological sites, a plantation house, and lots of gardens and ponds.  For $7.50, it's a heck of a bargain.  Today we were shocked to see flowers blooming - and lots of them.  I'm pretty sure they are camellias, which I thought bloomed in spring.  Maybe they do bloom then too, or maybe they're messed up since it's so warm out.  Either way, they're pretty!

The same cannot be said for this turkey.  They're pretty unattractive.  Look at the hair on the end of that...thing...by it's beak.  Not pretty.

 

Running

Encouraged and (I'll admit) a bit envious of Steve's fun time with the Tough Mudder a couple of weeks ago, I have started running.  Well, maybe running is a bit of an overstatement, because it's more like a lumbering-foot shuffle-while gasping for breath endeavor right now.  But, today was the second attempt this week, and I was faster, but didn't go farther.  There will be no pictures.  It's not pretty. 

It feels good though.

Windy day at the beach

Even though it was cold(ish) and cloudy, Steve, Beth and I packed on layers of clothing and went to the beach.  I don't know birds very well, but I think these were some sort of ibis (from the bill shape).  We also saw these (below) on the beach - again, I don't know what they are.  I guess I should invest in a bird book!

As usual, we had the beach to ourselves. Since no shell collecting is allowed at Botany Bay there's always an awesome array of shells, but today was even better than usual.  We found about 10 really nice pen shells, which are usually broken into bits because they're so delicate.  One was more than a foot long and both sides were still together and unbroken!  Someone had stuck this shell onto the root of a tree.  The shell was bigger than my fist and in nearly perfect condition.

 
Steve found a horseshoe crab exoskeleton too.  Seca used to get really freaked out by them when we lived in Maryland.  :)

Workshop = more work than shop

I was in St. Petersburg, Florida for a workshop on stock assessments.  It was a 'working' workshop, where you get lectures and exercises and have to work late into the night with a group on a project.  I wasn't that excited to go because I knew there would be a lot of work involved but I am so happy that I did get to go in the end.  I learned a lot - about stock assessments, new tools for doing analyses, and as an added bonus, I think what I learned will make me a better coordinator at work.  There was some time for fun - happy hour at the hotel was from 5-7 and included free drinks and snacks so we would gather there for some socializing.  And I got up early most morning and went for walks.  The room where the workshop was held was overlooking a small airport, which was distracting because of the nice view of the city and the steady stream of airplanes in and out.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Building (where we met each day) also had some cool 'ocean life' themed mosaics on the walls...