The menu includes: breakfast burger topped with an egg and drizzled with Hook’s cheddar cheese sauce; rainbow potato hash; fresh mixed greens with Renaissance Farm vinaigrette; mixed berry coffee cake; vegetarian option: substitute spinach and mushrooms for burger. Beverages: organic fair trade coffee or tea; and apple cider or cranberry juice. Milk upon request.

Story of this whole trip to follow

My sister and I stopped by this place called Pockets, after she picked me up from the train.  We had planned on making chicken wings but it was too late to marinate and get them all ready so we decided to make them for lunch the next day. This place was really good, and apparently very popular with the Chicago PD.  There were 3 tables of them when we walked in and 2 more undercover cops came in after us!

Mickey’s Diner (Picture to come) was in many movies, most recognizably Mighty Ducks I, II, III.  Last time I was in the twin Cities to see my boyfriend he mentioned it to me and I was like ooooooo.  So this time we were planning on venturing into St. Paul for the Winter Carnival, so I said Lets go to Mickeys Diner.  It was great!!  The food and atmosphere were so much fun!   The whole experience was a blast and I’d love to go back again!! Check it out if your around, stop in for a malt, or one of their special sandwiches!

Until today I’d never dipped an oreo in milk!

My sister and I made this pie with my grandma for our Shabbat dinner. It was soo delicious that my sister wants the same one for her birthday! I hope to make more pies soon! Since I really really love to make pies!

While hanging out at the Airport waiting for our flight from Atlanta to West Palm Beach my sister and I came across and awesome fast southwestern food place. We didn’t eat anything besides these fabulous chips but they were just awesome! For only $0.93 we got a half of a big bag of chips (like the size of a MC D’s carryout bag) and all the salsa we wanted! It was awesome! The salsa’s were great too!! So next time your in Atlanta check out Moe’s Southwest Grill

Candied Lemon Slices

Recipe Origin: adapted from Martha Stewart and Culinary School of the Rockies Prep Time: 10 Minutes Ready In: 1-24 Hours

Finally have the Candied Lemons the way i’d like them.. well almost! But it was a great 1st try!

My College friend got married today. She was soo beautiful!

This was the first year that my sister and I has thanksgiving alone. We did it all turkey, stuffing, potatoes, 2 pies, etc. We had never made a turkey before it was a seriously learning experience. It cooked okay and turned out with a nice golden skin, but when it came to the carving we were stumped! It’s so hard!! We put Oregano and another spice I can’t remember in it! It smelled great!

HOW TO:

Cut the top and bottom off the washed lemons:

Using a mandoline or sharp knife, cut lemon into 12 paper-thin slices; discard seeds and ends of rind.

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat, and add lemon slices; stir until softened, about 1 minute. Drain, and immediately plunge slices into ice-water bath. Drain.

Bring sugar and 1 cup water to a boil in a medium skillet, swirling to dissolve sugar. When liquid is clear and bubbling, reduce heat to medium-low.

Add lemon slices, arranging them in one layer with tongs. Simmer (do not let boil) until rinds are translucent, about 1 hour. 4.

Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment. Let stand until ready to serve. Mine have been drying for 2 days now. They are still rather tacky but I will cover them in sugar tonight.

Candied Lemon Slices

Recipe Origin: adapted from Martha Stewart and Culinary School of the Rockies Prep Time: 10 Minutes Ready In: 1 -24 Hours

I went to Minneapolis this weekend and while killing time I headed over to Minnehaha falls, where i’ve been wanting to go for a while it’s really beautiful!

Minnehaha Falls is located in Minnehaha Park along Minnehaha Creek shortly before it merges into the mighty Mississippi River in a large city park located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minnehaha Falls is beautiful in its own right but is really famous today because it is the waterfall of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem “Song of Hiawatha”. The waterfall is 55 feet high and the park is located off of Hiawatha Ave (Route 55).

While in Minneapolis I always seem to meet up with my friends at the Cheesecake Factory, the same one everytime. I never order cheesecake because it’s always so rich and just too much, but I needed to take a picture of something, so my boyfriend and I picked out the pretties one. It tasted pretty good too!

I went for a drive today, because it’s fall my favorite time of year. I went through the winding road of the dairy state. Finding things i’d never seen before and roads that took me places I didn’t know. I stoped at Appleberry Farms to see their pumpkin crop. They had about half as many as last year but still a nice picture.

The View from the Pumpkin Wagon

Yesterday I noticed that there were a bunch of people canoeing in Wingra Creek, So today I stopped by to take some pictures. These students at Wright Middle School were being taught how to canoe as part of their regular gym class. As urban students many of them aren’t exposed to this type of activity, even though Madison had 4 lakes and many places to rent canoes and kayaks. The canoes are lent to the school from Madison School Community Rec (MSCR) and the teachers were taught how to teach canoeing through a grant.

I spoke to two students who were curious why I was taking pictures and they said that they loved this part of gym class. The students were quite entertaining, they had a hard time going straight, unlike some of their peers who picked up the paddle quite easily.

Tonight I went to see King Henry the 5th with my friend and her family. Just like almost everytime i’ve been out to American Players Theater it rained. On the drive to Spring Green it started sprinkling, then stopped while we ate out picnic dinner, but partially through the first act, the sprinkles returned. Then they turned into a pretty nice downpour. After the intermission the rain continued to come down pretty hard and we were told there would be a break in the show until the rain let up. After this point I started to understand more about the play. Shakespeare is soo confusing, if only they talked in normal english! I was able to understand what was going on more when the actors were being Welsh. When the play ended and we headed back to the car the rain… well pretty much ended! I guess it usually happens that way! Even with the rain I had a lovely time with my friend, her mom and her sister. They are all such smart people I always learn about different things around them then other wise!

The story of the World’s Largest Penny in Woodruff Wisconsin is here at Roadside America

The World’s Largest Penny commemorates a 1953 fundraising stunt. Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb (known locally as “The Angel On Snowshoes”) implored local school children to save their pennies so that Woodruff could build a hospital. TV picked up on the story and pennies were soon pouring in from all over the country — 1.7 million in all.

Woodruff got its hospital, and the schoolchildren of 1953 are just about ready to enter the new assisted living facility behind the penny.

World’s Largest Penny in 1953.
Agnes Wiedemeier provided this photo shot by her mother, Jennie Trinka, in 1953 of Agnes (far left) with three friends

The Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb Museum, which is a block away from the Penny, features memorabilia from the town’s annual “Million Penny Parades” and a video of Dr. Kate on This is Your Life.

This weekend while camping in the north woods of Wisconsin, my sister and I caught an amazing sight. We were heading back to the campsite after a quick run into town and we saw an Eagle sitting on the side of the road eating some roadkill. As some cars drove by the Eagle was frightened and flew up into a tree above the road. I had pulled over so I could take pictures, and as I was taking pictures of the beautiful bird below another Eagle came out of the woods to eat the roadkill. That was we weren’t sure if it was an eagle right away because it looked like a wild turkey, but it was a huge beautiful Eagle!

The rest of the camping trip wasn’t as successful as we would have liked.

We took a drive to the Lac Du Flambeau Indian reservation which was interesting but sadly their grocery store had nothing out of the ordinary or interesting.

On our way to go see the waterfalls in Michigan we came across an area where many years ago they had used for logging. It was really neat all the old logs still in the water and how it changed the look of the water.

Even though our trip to the waterfalls was cold and wet, we had lots of fun *(photos from that will be in the next post!)

After an afternoon of pouring rain and storms we took in one of our favorite summer traditions in Minocqua, the Min-aqua Bat waterski show. Many of the particpants had already left for the summer but there were a few there and they put on a different type of show. It was fun, even though there were only 10 of us in the audience!

We went on the Wisconsin Ducks Tour in the Dells, after freezing at Noah’s ark this weekend. I’d never been on the Ducks and it sounded like fun. It was very educational after the rebuild that has been occurring. This is the area where the levy broke last summer during the floods, and washed away a few houses on Lake Delton.

My boyfriend and I went camping in the Wisconsin Dells this weekend, and somehow I forgot my tripod. I really liked how this photo came out when I looked at it in my camera, as if it was painted. This is the bridge over the Wisconsin River as seen from Point Bluff Resort.

Storms Swept through south-western Wisconsin tonight. Madison yet again was missed by the weather, but south and north and west of us got hit. This photo was taking near Verona, Wi just south of my house.

This building was part of the Civilian Conservation Corps implemented by Franklin D. Roosevelt. You can read more about it here.

This building was on the Franklin Lake trail which is home to “Avenue of the Giants”, 400 year old giant white pines and one of the finest old growth hemlock stands in the state.

Brewers Game at Miller Park
My first try with a tilt shift! thanks to liltbraty2009

Tonight after going to the gym I helped a friend put together her new bookshelf from ikea then 3/4 of my camping trip friends planned the meals for our trip in 2 weeks. We thought of everything from pulling a “jackass”(the movie) move and dropping a watermelon from a tree, to hard lemonades (cause those are great for hiking right?!). I can’t wait for camping. But before I get to go to Northern Wisconsin, it’ll be another weekend in Milwaukee, this time for 2 brewer games, extreme tailgating, and fun with my friends.

As a Wisconsin girl, born and bred, I love nature, farms, and the country. The smell of going out into the country on a fall day just makes me smile!

We went to the Milwaukee zoo today. The whole time we were walking around we were looking for animals that started with the letter D, unfortunately besides ducks which are SOOOO uninteresting, I only found this dinosaur. Funny thing is that before we rounded the curve where this dino resides I said too bad there aren’t dinosaurs at the zoo. My boyfriend laughed at me but I was serious! Then up pops this dinosaur!