Deep Creek and Breakfast Casserole

Well, I'm back from another weekend away! Had a blast with some friends in McHenry, Maryland at Deep Creek Lake. It was my first time there, and it was absolutely beautiful - here is the view from my friend Corey's house where we stayed:

Amazing. 

Over the weekend everyone had a turn to make a meal - Meg and I were responsible for Saturday morning breakfast. Success! We made a super easy and delicious egg and sausage casserole. The recipe came from Megs fantastic cook of a mother, Nancy, and is called "Dad's Xmas Morning Egg Casserole." Super easy to make, and very convenient because you can put most of it together the night before:

Dad's Xmas Morning Egg Casserole:

1 lb sausage 

1/2 lb shredded sharp cheese

1/2 t dry mustard

1/2 t paprika

1 t salt

1 C sour cream

1 dozen eggs

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees

Coat a 2-3 qt dish with Pam or substitute and put 1/2 of the cheese on bottom of dish

Cook and drain sausage

Mix spices with sour cream

Add cooked sausage to sour cream mixture

Spread sour cream sausage mixture over cheese 

(above part can be done the night before)

Beat eggs and pour over sausage mixture

Place in oven for 30-40 minutes (best way to check if it is done is to give the pan a shake to make sure the eggs are fully cooked)

We weren't the only ones who did good, the weekend involved lots of other fantastic eats and drinks:

In addition to eating, we also did lots of boating:

Lots of hanging out and games:

And of course, lots of dancing:

Good times!

cheers. xo.

MK

Karen's Corn and Black Bean Dip

When I went to visit my dear friend Jamie a few weeks ago - she made this amaaaaazing dip that her mother (Karen) makes. So simple, so easy, and so delicious. It's perfect because it is made with all ingredients that you can keep in the house - so any time you need to whip something together quickly before heading out the door to meet some friends or family - you can make this:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1 can of black beans

1 can of corn 

Feta cheese

green onion (if you have it)

To make the dressing I mixed the sugar and the apple cider vinegar together, then slowly whisked in the olive oil. Every time I have made this I have had to make adjustments to the dressing - so make sure to TASTE and adjust!

Then I rinsed and dried out as much as possible the black beans and the corn - then just poured the dressing right on top!

I am taking this to Deep Creek with me this weekend as a snack with some tortilla chips for everyone. I'm hoping the flavor from the dressing really gets soaked into the corn and beans overnight. I will add the Feta when it's time to serve. Green onions are an option if you have them laying around as well.

p.s. I took this to a tailgate once and forgot the Feta cheese - it was still a big hit.
p.s.s. I doubled the recipe in these photos.

Looking forward to another weekend away!

xo. cheers.

MK

Laaaaancaster

So, I got to visit Lancaster this weekend. Despite it taking me three days to say the name properly - I had a blast. I didn't really know what to expect - I was surprisingly delighted. Lots of art, eats, Amish and craft beer.

I went to visit my friend Marianne who recently took a job in the area and she decided to move right into the heart of Lancaster City. I came on a great weekend, the weather was beautiful and when I arrived on Friday - it was First Friday - so all the galleries were free and open to the public. We got to walk and catch up along Gallery Row, just a few short blocks from her apartment:

 We passed Mack, the Coffee Man along the way:

After exploring some fantastic art at the many galleries, we missed the boat to eat at some of the restaurants on Gallery Row because we didn't have a reservation - but I have a list of places that I want to try on my next visit - one place that looked fantastic was Pour.  So, for our dinner we decided to just go with some cheese and crackers, yum:

The next day we visited the Lancaster Central Market - America's oldest farmers market. If I lived in Lancaster, I'm sure I'd be there every Saturday. Lots of fresh fruit, dairy and meat - and lots and lots of jam:

After our visit to the market, we ventured out to Lititz, a small town in Lancaster County recently voted "Americas Coolest Small Town"- true story. We did some eating and lots of thrifting:

Saturday night we visited The Taproom - a bar that serves beers from the Spring House Brewing Co: Never ever have I ordered a beer flight where every beer, I liked: 

My two favorite: Diabolical Dr. Wit and Braaaiins Pumpkin Ale. So excited for Fall and Pumpkin beers:

Sunday we had breakfast at a Lancaster favorite, Rachels Cafe and Creperie:

The crepes were good, I had a breakfast crepe with eggs, sausage, rice and salsa - it was good, but not gonna lie, I was a little dissapointed. I did have one of the best chai teas I've ever had - probably because the milk they used was delicious and local from Maplehofe Dairy:

After lunch we left the city to explore Amish country. It was a beautiful day to visit and it was very interesting and fascinating to view the culture. You know you've entered Amish Country when you share the road with horse and buggy:

In case you need clarification:

We even took a wagon ride ourselves - what dorks:

The farmland truly was breathtakingly beautiful:

So, all in all, a very successful and eventful weekend, relaxing too. It was nice to get away and I was excited to explore a new place. Looking forward to another visit!

cheers. xo,

MK

it's okay to start over

Slacker!

No, not slacker - just - sidetracked.

Summer is here, but passing quickly - a lot has happened and there is a lot to come. I figured this is a great time to restart the blog:

A lot has happened, but I'm just going to start fresh. I will share that over the past two weeks I have had a lot of good eats; I visited Il Pizzaiolo, Verde, Azul (where I had the best Bloody Mary of my life), Salt of the Earth and Tessaro's. 

Il Pizzaiolo:

Il Pizzaiolo was great. I was a little weary about the wine selection - I remember this same thought the time that I visited the Mt. Lebanon location - this time I was at the newer Market Square spot - which I found to be bigger and more comfortable than Lebo overall. The waitress chose the closest option to a Sauvignon Blanc - which is my favorite wine on a hot summer night - and I was happy with her choice. Though I hate being blind to wine.

My salad was phenom. I had the Insalata Romana with arugula, radicchio, frisee, tomatoes and anchovies (which were optional - but they MADE the salad) yum:

And, naturally, I ordered a pizza, for myself:

To be fair, their pizzas are thin crust wood-fired pizza - and I did take half home ;-)

I went with the Funghi - but it was hard for me to choose between that and the Prosciutto E Arugula pizza - I was very satisfied with my choice though.

Service was good, 'til the end - when I think our waitress forgot about us. We waited for our check a little longer than I think we should have, but overall, satisfied with the service and food.

Verde:

I had a similair experience at Verde as far as service goes. Started off great and then slowly faded off, we all could have gone for a second margarita, but weren't really given the chance - pretty sure this waitress just wanted to go home. That did not, however, make my experience a bad one.

I came in with the mind set of getting the Lavender Margarita that everyone was telling me about when they talked about Verde and their delicious craft margaritas, but much to my dissapointment, the Lavender Margarita was only on their Spring menu, and we are in full swing summertime - so I had the Black Rose Margarita, which was very tasty. Loved the rosemary garnish:

For dinner I went with a pork quesadilla appetizer - which was far from just a starter and was more than enough for a meal - however, I could have been pretty stuffed from the first round of free chips and salsa that they give you, and the fresh guacomole that we had ordered before our dinners came.

Everyone I have talked to really loves this place - and I definitely give it a thumbs up as well.

Azul:

As I had mentioned before - I had the best Bloody Mary of my life last Sunday at Azul. I needed to go the grocery store because I had no food in my house, but I was starving, so I decided to go down to get a bowl of Azul soup - when the waitress (owner) presented it to me she said, "Here is your chicken stew," and that it was. Heart and delicious, great flavor and loved the big chunks of avocado in it:

AND I figured I would get a Bloody while I was waiting. Such a good decision. I'll repeat what I had mentioned earlier -  this was the best Bloody Mary I have ever had in my life. The owner (I wish I knew her name!) explained to me that they do not use any horseradish and that they use orange, lemon and lime juice. They also use a spice called Tajin, which is what is around the rim along with salt in the picture below. Basically Tajin is dehydrated lime juice, chili peppers and salt. SO GOOD. I stopped at Reyna's in the Strip this weekend to pick some up. She said it's great on cantelope and I looked online and saw that it would be good to put on cucumbers too, for something simple - excited to use it.

Salt of the Earth:

I have been wanting to go to Salt of the Earth for some time, so when my friend Lisa was coming into town for a few days I suggested that we go. It was pretty fantastic.

Their menu changes constantly because they only use fresh and local ingredients - they don't actually have a menu, they write their menu on chalkboards, as shown above. Now, I was able to check out the menu online - but it was just subject to change. Dinner was a tough choice, some very interesting combinations of food. After some help from our waiter, we went with the Alaskan Salmon and Chilled Udon as our appetizers, and I had the Hanger Steak as my main dish. The flavors and presentations were spot on:

(poor quality pictures, I blame the lighting)

Tessaro's:

So much to my surprise and excitement, my very good friend Marianne decided to visit this past Saturday. She drove in with her sister who was planning to meet some friends at Tessaro's for burgers. Having never had one of their famous burgers, I was pumped. I had the Gourmet Burger (pictured below) which was topped with pepper jack cheese (my choice), sauteed onion, sauteed mushroom, lettuce, tomato and mayo. Yea, it was good:

So, it's defintely been a foodie type of two weeks, and I'm happy for it. Looking forward to sharing more. 

xo. cheers. namaste,

MK