Whirlwind of Adventure pt1

So if you are me and you don't have enough time to do everything you want to do, what do you do??? Well obviously you pack it all in to a smaller amount of time and give up a little sleep and maybe a touch of sanity... So lets begin this whirlwind of adventure.

Less than a week after returning home from the great smoky mountains and all the adventure there, we are off again, this time to our nations capitol, Washington, DC. I have never been and I can already tell you i would very much like to go back and spend more time there. There are a lot of things I loved about it but not the weather, it was a little cold with a large side of rain, not how I like my weather. Anyway, we arrived and went right to seeing and doing things a little stop here a little stop there and had a great lunch at Pizzeria Paradiso, it was fantastic, a lot of great beer on tap, as well as wonderful wood fired pizzas. We then took a walk down the National Mall.
I am a bit of a skeptic, but even beyond all the people all over the place and the field trips and gift shops, I could feel the history and the heritage around me. I stood in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln reading his first and second addresses on the walls, and I cannot even explain the feeling that came over me, maybe it was a longing to have true leaders like that again for our country. I also stood on the steps and looked out toward the Washington Monument (the reflecting pool was under construction...) and thought about the pictures from days before when it was filled with people protesting war or injustice or listening to people speaking. All I can really tell you is if you have never been there, and if you have any feelings toward real patriotism, you should find time to visit. No matter how many pictures you see, or even how well they are taken and the objects depicted, you cannot understand the feeling of these "objects" until you stand before them.

That night we went out with friends and had a great time. It turns out that this city also has a great night life as well...

On my second day in DC I had most of the day to myself, so once it finally stopped raining too hard and i rolled out of bed, I took off in my usual fashion... Pick a direction and start walking. There were things I intended on seeing but I wasn't going to limit myself by setting the gps on my phone and following it with my head down. I was correct in my natural direction finding and was on my way to the Capitol Building. I wandered about for quite a while making it to many of the places I wanted to see including; The Capitol Building, The Library of Congress, The National Archives, The Smithsonian. I wandered by many building that I did not even know I wanted to see...

I laughed very hard at this one because just before I was thinking it would be cool to see. I almost walked right past it because it is so plain. When you look a bit more carefully you start to notice the cameras and security surrounding it....

 I don't know what this building is but I found the vehicle sitting outside of it a little unnerving...

Here have a better look.

Yep.

I did not previously realize that The Lincoln Memorial, The Reflecting Pool, The Washington Monument, This Statue, and The Capitol Building all make an almost perfect line... The Capitol Building is slightly off center.

Speaking of which...

The front of The Library of Congress.

 The Fountain out in front of it. It struck me as a little odd and/or angry...








Including this little guy...

DC was filled with statues and memorials most of which were very beautiful.
















After my little 4 hour walk around the city I went back to take a nap and shower before dinner, which happened to be the best Italian meal of my life. It was at "Al Tiramisu".

Unfortunately this was my last day in Washington, DC. for now, but I am sure that I will have to return to see even more.

After some traveling to Baltimore I hopped on a plane headed towards Grand Rapids, Michigan. Next time I will be talking about my trip home, a couple of road trips, and a short stay in Mammoth Cave National Park.

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
~George Washington

Recipe of the Week: A Tale of Two Sauces...

Recently I have made two sauces I am very happy with. I couldn't decide which one was better or which I wanted to talk about more, so I decided both. Instead of focusing on the whole meal I will just talk about the sauces I created for the meal.

First up; Curry Sauce

I created this curry for a beef dish. Having never made curry before I did a good bit of research first even though I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to do anyway. After looking at recipe after recipe I decided to just wing it how I wanted to anyway. Last, a lot of the "quick" curry recipes I found were based in mayonnaise, gross.

Anyway on to my curry, I like food to have a bit of spice but not be overly hot, I just don't enjoy it. I went with mild curry powder, but if you like it hot use medium or even hot curry powder.

Ingredients;
1 can coconut milk (1 3/4 cup)
1 1/2 tbsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne powder
1 tsp. yellow Indian mustard
1 tsp. salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon (no I don't have a real measurement)
2 Tbsp. minced onion (ish)
1 large clove of garlic (minced)
1 Medium splash of good white wine

In a small/medium pot bring the coconut milk to a slight boil. Add all ingredients. Stir until blended evenly. Bring back to a slight boil, Then turn down heat and let it sit for 20 minutes stirring every few minutes. It is fairly quick and simple, also quite delicious. I found it has a great initial flavor and just a little bit of heat that slowly creeps up.

Sauce #2; Sweet and Spicy Barbecue

Like many people I love barbecue. Today I decided I was going to make my own barbecue sauce. I have helped friends make their own sauce before. Again I did a bit of research before jumping right in but again I just could not find one I liked. I did find one that i really did not like which was equal parts ketchup and Pepsi, I understand why this would work but it just sems wrong to me. Very, very wrong. Jump right in I go...

Ingredients;

2 cups ketchup (use plain ketchup with as few additives as possible)
1 cup brown sugar
5 tbsp. white vinegar (I think next time I will try white wine in place of this)
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. papper
2 1/2 tsp. chili powder
2/3 tsp. cayenne pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon squeezed

Mix all ingredients into a small pot, stir and heat to a slight boil. Turn down heat and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes.

I created this for use on several chicken drumsticks so it is quite a bit of sauce... You might want to cut all ingredients in half if just making a couple of chicken breasts or smaller meals. But, I found it to be a tasty and sweet sauce with just a little bit of heat.


"What I've enjoyed most, though, is meeting people who have a real interest in food and sharing ideas with them. Good food is a global thing and I find that there is always something new and amazing to learn - I love it!"
~Jamie Oliver

Smokey Mountain adventures...

This past weekend I was traveling from Georgia to Tennessee. What a better way to get there than to go thru the Great Smokey Mountain National Park? Given that we had a few hours during the first day free, and a few hours on the second day as well, it became my responsibility to plan how we were spending that time. When planning trips there are several factors you should keep in mind; obviously travel time, to wherever you are going. Also the time the hike itself will take. I use this as my general base, the avg person hikes 3mph on a hike that is considered strenuous or moderate I knock that down to 2mph. Now, in this planning you have to also be careful because if you are prone to stopping for a lot of pictures (like I can be) that will really slow your pace down, and unless you plan on getting to your destination then turning right around you might want to add some time there too.
I figured we had about 2 hours of hiking so I picked a nice easy 1.7 mile hike that would take to a waterfall. It gave use a great opportunity to take lots of pictures, enjoy our walk and stop for a while at the falls.
We arrived earlier than expected which was great! It meant we had even more time than planned. We found our first cascade with no problem, it was right on the main trail.
We also found our target waterfall in a great amount of time
























We decided that since we still had so much time we would wander a bit farther. We wandered over bridges and thru the woods... eventually we decided that the trail we were following obviously went in this direction over here... Well "A" trail did but it was not "our" trail... it was however a great uphill hike that wore me out and made me very hungry.
I probably should have know better when most of the trail looked like this... (Pictured left)
But eventually we gave up and doubled back, we had been having second thoughts for a while and the turning point for us was finding a small graveyard in the middle of the trail (not pictured, it felt disrespectful to take a picture of these graves)
Instead we headed back and found a great little place for the lunch M had packed for us. I dubbed it "lunch rock". The view from it is pictured below.














After lunch it was time to head out, I do have to say this driving thru the Great Smokey Mountains is beautiful. But for the rest of the day there was work to be done. More adventures tomorrow...

And its tomorrow.... That went a lot faster for you than it did for me, but you missed out on a fun night of drinking too. Sorry.




I spent part of the next day sitting on a bench doing some writing and thinking and this little guy came up to say "HI"





We head back into the park and decide to grab a paper map from the visitor site (I had downloaded the pdf maps to my I-pad which was great for driving) then we realize where our trailhead is and we head back out of the park and thru town and right by our hotel... then we find our trailhead, now on this day there is a massive storm cell moving across the mid southern states, not the tornado one but it didn't look too pleasant. What do we do about it you ask??? Nothing, its a giant storm what can we do except go hiking... So we did, and a great hike it was. For anyone headed that way check out "rainbow falls".

I could tell you all of the details but really there are just too many to mention on this trail, the whole thing was beautiful. I will give you a few of the pictures though.

 Multiple waterfalls.

 There we some great tiny bridges. 

 Lots of hiking by streams but no hiking in them.

I will also mention that on the way up the trail was clear, and on the way back a tree had fallen crossing the path. No, we didn't hear it... To close I will say, it didn't storm on us not even a little...


"No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause."
~Theodore Roosevelt

Flowers are people too...

A few days ago I had the opportunity to go to the Atlanta botanical gardens. I thought it would be a great places to take a nice walk get some fresh air and take lovely pictures. I don't have much to say about the gardens themselves, they are very nice but this post is mostly about the pictures.

In the edible garden and outdoor kitchen they grew all kinds of herbs and spices as well as tomatoes and other such things. the sample they gave us was delicious...

The have a beautiful orchid garden!

They also have a very lovely simulated rain forest room, complete with weird live birds, thick humidity and poisonous frogs... the frogs are the only ones I didn't get a picture of...

Overall it was a great little day trip and if there is a botanical garden near you i encourage you to go visit. Who knows it might also have a beautiful view of the city you live in...

"Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts."

~ Sigmund Freud

Recipe of the Week!

I am going to start posting weekly recipes. We will see how well I actually do with this. Not because I don't like cooking (I love cooking) but more because I am not great at adhering to my own schedule in this respect...

None the less, here we go. I figured it would be best and most fitting to start with breakfast. It is easily my favorite meal, and also the one that I enjoy cooking the most.

This is a version of the "Sweet Potato Scramble" that I so enjoy making and eating.

Ingredients; Serves 2
~ 1/2 Large Sweet Potato (Shredded)
~ 4 eggs
~ 2 Small handfuls of fresh spinach (sliced)
~ 8oz Black Beans
~ About 3oz Chopped Onion
~ 2 Slices Bread of choice
~ Butter
~ Salsa
~ Low Fat Sour Cream

In a separate pan or small pot heat the black beans on low heat. in a large frying pan, on medium heat, put a small bit of butter or olive oil depending on your taste. Begin Cooking the sweet potato hash. You will find when shredding the potato there is a good bit of water held up inside of it. (this was a surprise to me the first time) Cook On medium heat until mostly done, takes several minutes.
While Cooking the potato, whip the 4 eggs into a separate bowl.
Next put the onion in with the sweet potato. I do this because I find if you cook the onion too long it loses all of its flavor but I want it to soften and mix its flavor among the potato. This is also where I would add a bit of mushroom or chopped peppers as well, but my fridge did not have those this morning.
Toast the Bread, today I chose a simple whole wheat bread, but looking back on it, the texture of a multi-grain bread would have been wonderful and a bit healthier or I will often replace the bread with a tortilla shell.
Now that the potato and onion are cooked take the bowl of egg and pour into the pan, cook just as you would scrambled eggs.
Everything is prepared now just put it together...
First the bread makes a stable base for your plate, I chose to butter mine but this is not necessary.. Then, lay down a bed of the fresh sliced spinach, the black beans, and top it off with your sweet potato scramble. add a little salt and pepper to taste or even a little hot sauce goes wonderfully, but don't over do it there are a lot of wonderful flavors in here and it would be such a waste to drown them all out with too much hot sauce. Add a small serving of the salsa and sour cream on the side. Last, I enjoy a glass of juice with my breakfast but it is equally good with water or your morning coffee...

I hope you find, as I do, the wonderful mixtures of both flavors and textures inside this meal, while also being hearty enough to carry you well into your day..

Enjoy!

If you have suggestions or recipes of your own feel free to email them to me at WanderlustTrail@gmail.com

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. "
~Benjamin Franklin