the littlebig midwest

I did a poor job of documenting our summer travels on the bus, partly because I didn't take my camera, and partly due to laziness. What pictures I did take are here now. The last few days of our trip we stopped in Condordia, Kansas. It was so wonderful to see some of our favorite people, the Millers! We were also able to see our friend Sorrel!They have an adorable house fully stocked with world-wide goodies. Robert and I were honored to park our bus in their back yard!





Rayna, Jaydinn and I all cooked dinner together one night.




love the walls, Christie is amazing!





We are really in the Midwest. There are bulk containers of mayo, and chili beans, at a normal grocery store!




[we did not buy these items!]



we went from Concordia to Lawrence, KS. I love Lawrence, it's beautiful and quaint and cultured. It's like a small town and Santa Cruz, CA all in one. I did a good deal of shopping here, antique and thrift stores and their amazing fabric store!








[some yummy cookies I made last night]


this weekend we went to the nashville art crawl and Robert had a cougar all up in his grill. This lady wanted Robert, I let his ego puff up at little bit. I was chuckling a bit!

floating on the river.

this past week we had a sweet Swedish lady around, we decided to float down the cumberland river in a beautiful canoe. this fellow bob dylan lover got to see all of downtown nashville! floating the river. oh what a wonderful day it was.





we worked up a huge appetite to make homemade pizza's!




then I tested out some fruit sweetened chocolate, oatmeal cookies. they turned out a little bit too crumbly, but nothing the peanut butter couldn't fix on my next batch.








also, here are some vegan nachos i made! turned out delicious!

a weekend too busy to blog.

oh my this past week[end] was so action-packed.
the warm weather is settling in and my summer-skin is starting to breathe! I am thrilled beyond belief!
Thursday my sweet niece Maiah came over to my house for dog walks, baking 101, exploring my favorite bakery and enjoying being family!



[Maiah and her blue cake!]




[Maiah's wonderful decorating skills! she is a natural]




[she even got to meet my sweet little friend, Gabe at whole foods!]

Then on Friday I through a huge birthday party for my wonderful husband, Robert who is now a mere 23 years old!
this year being his first birthday spent with me [last year he was out of town] I wanted to make it really special, so we had a Fiesta Potluck in our backyard. Oh it was so fun!






[wizard helped get the party together]



[margarita glasses, thanks to my sister Shannon]





[Ellis tradition decorations!]


The day before I gave robert a few of his birthday gifts [one being a flip video camera, so i'll be sure to post video's sometime!] and I also had to prepare margarita's to freeze over night and yummy enchiladas!










On Saturday we went to my parent's house for a fabulous meal and family birthday party! Robert got ton's of great gifts and he is so grateful to have a wonderful weekend, all about him! Thank you to both of our families!

warm delights

i love the reverence of the morning.

the silence.

the birds outside my window.

when my feet first come out of the covers and touch the ground, and are frozen.

no filters of daily situations have crowded my vision.

i am so happy.

some of my best-loved days start off with 2 admired ladies.

once (or twice, if lucky) a week, we get together and just indulge and dream.

every time we gather there is some marvelous homemade treat, pancakes, scones, muffins, or some left over dessert from the night before.

this week it was Sarah's homemade rice flour apple pie!

then we always have coffee, and sometimes breakfast.

but the most fulfilling part of this ritual is the intimacy and love that is exchanged.

the dreams we have for our lives, traveling the world with our spouses and dogs.

what life changing things we are experiencing every day.

i usually get in my car to head home, i can be brought to tears by any little thing because i realize how blessed i am to have these women in my life.

i find myself being thankful.

Julia- strong, and independent, but soft spirited and sensitive to her surroundings.

motivated and determined, yet hopeful for things unsolved.

her heart reaches out to others in so countless courses of action.

she is a nomad deep down. but has settled, but soon she will rise and become a wanderer.

Sarah- sweet hearted and in a strategic way, inspires me.

the peace that surrounds her is surpassing to me.

as part of every year christmas tradition, my family admires the very thoroughly covered trees and bushed.

we went and were instantly put into the christmas spirit.

chocolate. lights. love. family.

christmas lights!

surprise my hubby + dad with their favorite banana pudding- even made little tart pans!

we went and took "backdrop" pictures at the Opryland Hotel with our dear friends, the Rhodes.

Saturday my parents offered to take robert + i to our favorite breakfast/lunch/dinner place in nashville! Marche!

a fabulous weekend! now to get ready for christmas!

a little bit more giving

here are a few more pictures from the thanksgiving weekend.

and of course the recipe!

home made pumpkin ice cream on thanksgiving!

so this week weekend, being so full of cold turkey sandwiches and dried up mashed potatoes, we decided to do TACO NIGHT! i made my famous guacamole.

like my grandmothers apple pie, french pastry recipe; i don't think i will ever give up my guacamole recipe! its just too great. just indulgence. not once have i made it, and there be left overs. although guacamole is simple and most people make a wonderful version of it, mine has something special besides love in it to make is superb! maybe one day.

price eats alot: again.

on sunday we drove to Salina, to meet our dear friends Stephen + Christie Miller for breakfast. the only place in Salina, KS for breakfast is this place called Russell's.

When i looked them up, the first thing on their website says "if you feel like a cinnamon roll at 3am, Russell's is the place to come!"

i knew right then we would be in a pool of grease.

it was fabulous!

robert got these 3 HUGE pancakes for 7$. and he couldn't even finish them!

then we went to target to try and get in the spirit and got sad because of consumerism so we picked up a baby instead. (maybe he is from santa)

his name is finn.

then of course we had game night:

Scrabble Slam

~

and now for my recipe:

peanut butter chocolate cup tea cakes!

first i make my gooey peanut butter cookies!

(this makes about 2 dozen- or 17 big cookies)

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. organic raw peanut butter (or almond butter)

1 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

2 free range eggs

2 tbs. light corn syrup

2 tbs. water

2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

oven: 375 degrees

in a bowl, mix together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until creamy smooth!

beat in eggs, one at a time, then the corn syrup, water and vanilla

then add the flour, baking soda and salt. all together.

then bake for about 12-14 minutes or until they look done!

then while the peanut butter cookies are cooling, take some chocolate chips and melt them in a double-boiler, make sure you don't burn the chocolate and stir it frequently!

dip each cookie into the chocolate (with pastry tongs) then hold the cookie for at least 30 seconds to let it set, then place on wax paper.

once the cookies are all dried, roll them all in powdered sugar!

walllllah! you have an incredible, pretty tea cake/peanut butter chocolate cup!

enjoy!

more bites tomorrow!

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fall moped rides and good friends

last november my life changed. not only did i have a blingin ring on my left hand, but I also got my first "moped" well it was actually a "noped" because it had no pedals, but a kick start, but it was NOT a scooter.

so since then, i've gone through that moped, and now moved on to a smaller, faster, "murdered out" black and gold moped, (which happens to match my gold sparkly helmet just perfect!)

we've gone down to 1 vehicle, a volvo wagon and 6 mopeds. its such a wonderful feeling, about 90 miles to the gallon! what a steal! take that america! finally taking something back.

it feels so great. the wind in your face.

the other night robert and I went over to our good friends and neighbors, Jesse and Julia Kevon and the lovely wife was chopping away at his hair. such a cute panorama: the sweet, helpful wife cutting the bad ass hair for a wedding he was going to be in the following weekend.

just a sweet image.

on the way home Robert and I just looked at each other and I told him how grateful I was to be married and to get to experience life together! We were jubilant lovers.

we made fun of Jesse here, he kind of looked weird, but he usually has an interesting smirk on his face.

what we've been cooking up lately!

chocolate chip cookies, my brother and niece didn't even notice that they were "healthy."

and dinner when robert was sick: tortellini vegetable soup, toasted butter croissants, and sweet potato fries with cinnamon! and white wine, but only for me. water for the sickling :)

and now for the band we must tell about!

robert's friend Ben, from Chicago is in this band, (The Soil & The Sun) we saw them on Friday night at a community house show. They are stupendous! We really enjoyed their show! they are on tour now. hopefully the couple of demolished dollars that I threw in their "gas" bucket got them to Charleston, South Carolina where their next show was! They are great!

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