Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I posted one of our favorite soup recipes last fall but our food photography was pretty much atrocious then.  Not that it’s Pioneer Woman good now but we’re making improvements.  Did you know that Nate has a thing for the Pioneer Woman?  I don’t think it’s really a romantic thing.  More of a “I wish my wife was as good with a camera and whisk” kind of thing.  I get it. 

He’s blushing now.  That’s why I love him.

Enough mushy stuff.  Well, mushy love stuff.  How about mushy soup stuff?

Loaded Baked Potato Soup to be exact.

We love this baked potato soup recipe because it’s an easy dinner idea for the week but still tastes week-end good.  You get that, right? 

Loaded “Baked Potato” Soup

• Southern Style Hash browns (1 bag)
• 3 cans chicken broth
• 3 cups milk
• 12 pieces of bacon (we go with the easy microwave kind)
• 2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 green onion (diced)

Combine broth, milk, and green onion in stock pot.  Once hot, add hash browns.  Cook hash browns until mushy (technical term).  Mash with potato masher (one of my favorite utensils..after the whisk).  Add bacon.  Simmer for about 5 minutes.  Add cheese.  Simmer for about 5 minutes.  Add flour to thicken to desired consistency.  Enjoy!

We always enjoy it with salad Rhodes frozen bread. 

What’s your favorite soup recipe?  How about favorite comfort food?  Celebrity crushes?  Blog celebrity crushes?

Be sure to check out more recipes here!

Death in the Grand Canyon

***Beings DIY projects take us 17 times longer in our 30’s than they did in our 20’s, you all are stuck with more vacation photos today.  Mwah ha ha.***

Our last stop in Arizona was the Grand Canyon.  (You can read about our stop in Sedona here and here.)

It’s grand.  I think these photos are great but photos really can’t do this place justice.  My brain couldn’t wrap around the massiveness of the Canyon.

It was almost like I was in a dream.  Except Nate had one of his dumb shirts on which helped me remember that it was in no dream.  In my dreams, there are no Reese’s or Woot shirts.

We spent 3 nights and two days in the Grand Canyon.  More than plenty.  The place is massive but it looks about the same no matter where you go.  If you’re not big into hiking, I wouldn’t suggest more than one day or you’ll end up spending some of your time on Instagram and driving your brother nuts.  Actually, it was nice having some time just to sit and relax and take in nature.  I’m no help.

Tips for those looking to go to the Grand Canyon…Right after Labor Day turned out to be a great time to go.  There are less people.  The number of buses running decreased during our two days there.  Less people is always a win with us.  The weather was actually great too.  Low 80’s at the rim during the day and 60’s at night.

We stayed in Tusayan which is right outside of the Canyon.  There is very little in the town and hotels are expensive (but less expensive than in the park).  It was really nice to be so close to the park…but I didn’t want to eat fast food (only food option) for many weeks after.

We “hiked” around the rim.  There are quite a few miles of paved and unpaved trails that go along the rim.  We were all surprised at the lack of guard rails in the park.  And the lack of brain cells of people running and hanging on the edge.  Not this girl. 

There’s a big giant hole over that edge.  A giant beautiful hole.

We headed out early our first morning for a hike in the canyon.  Nate and my brother assured me that the “difficult” trail rating was only to scare away people that don’t exercise. It didn’t really mean difficult hiking.  I surround myself with geniuses.  I knew they were full of crap but decided that I needed to try anyways.  How often does this Iowa girl get to the Grand Canyon?

We started out on the South Kaibob trail. 

Oh hello trail that I thought would be the cause of my death.  Did you know that only one person per year dies from falling in the Grand Canyon? Yes, I did Google that after this hike.

Oh man, my heart is racing just looking at this photo.  My fear of heights got me big time at the Grand Canyon. I honestly hadn’t expected to be so nervous the entire time. My knees were shaking uncontrollably going down this trail. 

All of the signs in the park state it will take you double the time to get back up as it does for you to get down.  It took us 2 1/2 hours to get down and 45 minutes to get back up. I struggled big time going down and I wanted out of that hole on the way up.

I don’t want to scare others from hiking the trail.  Just be prepared if you have a fear of heights.  Elderly people were booking it past me.  This nice couple (approximately older than the Grand Canyon) passed us on the way down and then were cheering me on as they were on their way back up. 

The views were incredible and I’m very glad I did it.  I just might get myself a nice prescription for some Xanax for my rim to rim hike.

We made it to the first stop on the trail.  I really didn’t want to go any farther.  This smile is fake.  I promise you.

Nate and my brother really wanted to make it to the second stop on the trail.  With the encouragement of our ancient friends, I grabbed on to my brother’s backpack and hit the trail.  I still owe him for a chiro visit.

The views at the second stop were worth the year that I lost due to extreme stress.

Overall, we enjoyed our trip the Grand Canyon.  Lots of great views of a giant hole…and elk.

How’s that for a random ending of a post.  I was boring myself.  I might get around to putting the photos up on Flickr.  Maybe.

Have you been to the Grand Canyon?  Any plans to go there?  Where should Nate and I head on our next adventure? 

Diggin’ It- Life Edition

Wowsers.  This week has been busy.  I’m too lazy to pester Nate and Ike for their weekly favorites so we’ll bring that back next.  Today I’ll share with you awesome things happening in our lives.  Most of the photos are from Instagram.  If you don’t Instagram it, it didn’t happen.

I added some fall goodness to the front entry.  I should photograph the whole thing but the darn Boxelder bugs swarm our front door and will not die.

The fall colors in our town are quite stunning this year.  This was taken on our nightly walk.

It’s also harvest time. I love the Midwest.

You want to know another reason why I love the Midwest?  Tenderloins bigger than your head.  Lyndsay had no clue what the following masterpiece was.  I didn’t realize that pork tenderloins were a Midwest only type of thing.  I don’t know how one lives without the pork tenderloin in their life.

Speaking of food (this post has some focus issues), I have a deep love for pumpkin this fall.  I’ve never been a huge pumpkin fan before.  But this fall.  This is the fall that I only shove pumpkin…and tenderloins in my mouth.  Like these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins I made last Sunday.  And yes, I am going to have to up my workout routine.  Doh.

Eating reminds me of the kitchen.  Ike was concerned that we would never be finished tiling the kitchen backsplash.  It was a valid concern.  No worries little buddy, the tile is now up waiting for grout on Sunday!  Lots of kitchen posts coming up soon…ish.  If I can get my blogging act together.

Speaking of Ike, he just wants to say “hi” and he hopes you have a happy week-end!

How are the fall colors in your area?  Have you had a tenderloin? Could you live without them?  (It just seems wrong.)  How about pumpkin?  Who’s pumped to see this backsplash that has taken us four years to install?

The Color Run- Tips

I made a New Year’s Resolution way back in the beginning of this ol’ year of 2012…If you are invited to do something.  Do it.  Unless you have a legitimate excuse.  New Girl premiere.  Not legit.  Work. Legit.

Why this resolution?  Because I am 110% an introvert.  And good at math.  People suck energy out of me.  I don’t want it to be this way.  But it is.  I needed an extra push to get me out of the house.  Luckily most of my friends are extroverts so this resolution works out nicely.

When one of my favorite people in life called me in May and told me that I needed to sign up for The Color Run in Des Moines in October, I did it.  After some hesitation.  Maybe I’ll have something important going on in October.  What if it’s cold?  What is I don’t train enough?  It is a 5K.  I can totally just sign up later if needed.  My friend swore to me that it would sell out fast and I needed to do it.  She was right.

So. Much. Fun.

We started the day in our nice and clean white shirts.  We being Nate’s sister (Lisa), one of my favorite people in the world (Melissa) and myself.

It was 44 degrees at 1:00PM.  There were 27,000 people racing.  You know, the entire state of Iowa.  I don’t do cold or crowds and yet I still had fun.  I think the massive amount of people helped raise the air temperature a bit.

We were released in waves of 1000.  So many people.  Obviously cool things need to keep coming to Iowa because we come out of the woodwork for this stuff.

At each kilometer were splashed with powder.  The powder is colored corn starch.  Completely safe.  This is what the first kilometer color site looked like.  Ooo, orangey.

Oh hey, Nate! Thanks for being our personal photographer.

The blue was really pretty.  As was the race course.

As were we after a couple of kilometers of The Color Run.

We ran jogged most of the 5K.  There were so many people that it would have been extremely hard to run the entire race.  I’d say about 70% of people walked the whole thing.  If you want a serious 5K, The Color Run probably isn’t your best bet.  We walked through each color station.  The people that ran through the stations had very little color on them at the end.  What fun is that?

At the end there is a big ol’ explosion of color.  At the beginning of the race you are given a packet of color to save until the end and then there is a countdown to throw the color in the air.  Very cool.

At the end we took a bunch of nerdy photos…

Moral of this story…introverts, get out of your house!!

I do have some tips for those planning on running The Color Run or pondering it.

• If The Color Run is coming to your city…or state…do it!!
• Sign up for the first wave if possible.  There is so much anticipation of what is to come. If you’re in the second wave you already see how the first runners look, what the end color explosion looks like, etc.
• If you live in Iowa, have many different white shirts options.  I am still freezing.  I will not be warm again until June 2013.
• You many notice bandanas in the pictures.  There were quite helpful on reducing the amount of corn starch inhaled.
• Have your husband photograph. 
• Wear sunglasses.  I can only imagine how much fun corn starch to the eye is.
• I mentioned before that most people walked.  Anyone can do this.  There were even kids in strollers….most were screaming sad screams though…so there’s that.

Have you ran The Color Run?  Do you plan to?  Any fellow introverts trying to make it amongst the energy sucking extroverts?

Behind the Couch Feelings

Do you have one of those rooms in your home that you just aren’t sure how to decorate?  Yeah, me too. 

That room is our office.  It continues to baffle me.  It’s the only room left on our main level that needs a loving decorating touch.

Here’s what it looks like currently…

Well, minus the curtains. They went to live with my parents because there was just too much ivory going on in the room. You live.  You learn.  The parents did give me life so it was only fair they get my hand me down curtains.

I think we are going to purchase the Karl sectional (the smallest version available) from Ikea.  My brother purchased it and it’s comfy.  This room doesn’t get a ton of use but we would like to use it a little more for lounging and a semi-inexpensive sectional seems like a good fit.

I think I’ve decided that I actually like the wall color.  My laziness may be working it’s magic on my brain too.  I can’t tell for sure.  How do you feel about it?

My biggest conundrum now is what to put behind the couch…or soon to be sectional.

I ponder this space while running 30 minutes three times per week.  I’ve got nothing.  That’s 90 minutes per week for the past 4 months and no ideas.  Okay, fine…probably more like 30 minutes of pondering per week. The other 60 minutes are focusing on not dying.  But still.  (I highly recommend decorating rooms while you run.  It’s amazing how fast the time flies.  Seriously.)

There’s art.  But what kind of art?  I like things to have a purpose.  A map would be an obvious choice but that seems a little themey to me.  I had pondered some kind of word art but word art can turn cheesy real quick like.  And what word?  I thought about shelves with photos but I want something a little unique. 

Maybe I just need to run more.

What are your thoughts?  What’s your go-to behind the couch solution? Help!  Share those genius ideas! 

Do you have a room that needs help that you would like Décor and the Dog readers to assist you with?  E-mail me at decorandthedog (at) gmail.com. 

Our Kitchen and Blogging

Alternate title: Our Kitchen Tile Progress and Why I’ll Never Be a Big Blogger

You may want to sit down for this one.  Seriously.  We started a house project.  Our kitchen backsplash to be exact.  This may be our first major project in almost a year. 

We started yesterday and didn’t get as far as we would have liked.  Tile saw issues, measuring issues.  Most of you know how that goes.  But so far.  We are loving it. We hope to have it done by next week. If you tell me you hate it, I’ll sucker punch you.

Which brings me to my next topic…..why I’ll never be a big blogger.

1. I want to apologize to those that we offended with the YouTube video link that we posted last week.  I’m not sorry that we posted it but I am sorry that I didn’t put a warning.  I honestly forget the number of people that read this blog.  I don’t really care so much about pleasing others with this blog..as in, what kind of content I post but I don’t want to offend others…unless it’s with paint colors or fabric swatches.  I’ve been offended by some paint colors out there.  I get it.  We don’t think suicide is funny. I lost two classmates in high school from suicide.  I didn’t watch the video all of the way through and Nate isn’t easily offended.  We just thought the original principle was funny.  We will warn you about potential poor choices in the sense of humor department in the future.  The end.

2.  I haven’t completed a larger house project in almost a year.  The shame.  And lack of motivation.

3. I posted an in-progress photo of my kitchen.  The horror.  I did add a fun filter.  I get hipster blogger points for that though, right?

4. I threatened to sucker punch my readers.

5.  There are no bottles of Pellegrino on my kitchen…even in the progress shot.  What kind of blogger am I?

Have you been suffering from project lulls?  What’s holding your back from big blogger fame?  You always have Pellegrino out on your counters, right?

Diggin’ It

It’s Friday.  Beautiful, beautiful Friday.  Don’t you just love Friday?  Me too.

Here’s what we are diggin’ this week.

1. World Market's Yarrow Curtains:  It’s a really stinking good thing that we don’t have a World Market in our town.  Seriously.  I am, however, headed to the land of World Market this week-end and these beauties may be coming home with me.  If I don’t hate them in person.  Which is always a good possibility.

2. BB Daily Deals:  Rachel's mom has opened an on-line boutique called BB Daily Deals.  Sign up and you will receive e-mails regarding two deals per week.  I hear the selection is going to be great… cute boutique clothing and accessories to seasonal home décor to adorable kitchen items.  This week’s deals were the cute key fobs above and adorable seasonal garland.  Be sure to sign up here!

3. The Color Run:  I am running The Color Run tomorrow with some friends from back home and Nate’s sister.  The Color Run’s slogan is that it’s the “Happiest 5K on the Planet”.  The only rule is that you start with a white shirt.  You can walk, run, or dance your way to the finish.  At each kilometer, you are blitzed with color.  I. Can’t. Wait.

1.  Baby by Summer of Tears: **Warning:  This video has some sensitive material. If you’re easily offended, please skip!**   Nate showed this YouTube video to me last week-end. Mascara was running.  We both about peed our pants.  It’s about how these new parents feel more prepared to have children because of their dog.  Good stuff.

2. Photo Editor by Aviary: Nate thinks this app has better options to get you better photos on your phone.  There are more fine tuning options.  (That’s all I could get out of him.  Seriously, this series is liking pulling teeth.)

1. Self Portraits. Ike’s loving photos of himself this week.  There are no issues with self esteem and our furry friend.  I think this high level of self love comes from hearing “I love your dog”, “That’s the cutest dog ever”, “I’m going to steal your dog” on our nightly walks.  Oh, Ike.

What are you diggin’ this week?  Have you ran The Color Run? What’s your favorite phone photo app? Does your dog like looking at himself in the mirror too?

Hiking in Sedona

Alternate title:  I shouldn’t post some of these photos on the interweb.

On Tuesday I mentioned that most of our time in Sedona was spent hiking.  We’re wild and crazy kids.

Our first stop was the Boynton Canyon trail.  We were greeted with a bear warning.  My brother and I were fully prepared to take on any wild animals that we might encounter.

No, we didn’t encounter any wild animals.  Yes, I wore lots of sunscreen.  Yes, my nickname was bear meat. No Mom, we will never grow up.

This hike was a 6 mile round trip hike through the canyon.  It was a fairly easy hike.  Most of it was shaded which was an added benefit.

This hike was pretty uneventful.  Some nice Austrian man took our photo at the end of the trail.  We gave my brother lessons in composition while on this trip.  Looks like we should have also offered them to our new friend.

Nate took pretty photos.  My brother and I were obnoxious. The usual. The following pose is still in, right?

My brother wants everyone to know that he took the following photo. Not Nate.  Just to clear that up.

Our next trail was Devil’s Bridge. A 3 mile round trip trail. My brother and Nate enjoyed this trail.  I did not.  This is the time that I tell you all about my fear of heights.  I like to hike flat trails.  Not trails where I can fall to my death…like this trail.  Here is the bridge.  My brother and Nate walked out on that thing.  I did not.  No way.  No how.

The views on the way up were quite awesome.

The trail itself.  Eh.   This was a good part.

The following photo sums up this hike.  Me baby stepping up the trail.  Nate taking photos of my rear (which I cropped out to save us all).  My brother resting and taunting me.  I hate my brother.  And my husband.

We eventually made it to the top.  Where I sat firmly planted in a safe location. 

My brother and Nate walked on out on that thing.  Dumb. Some doctor kept trying to get me to go out there.  I forgave him after he saved us a 1.5 mile hike back from the trailhead to our car.

Our last hike was the West Fork Oak Creek trail.  This hike was 6 miles round trip.  This trail had 12 creek crossings which was kind of fun.

The only thing we disliked about this trail was that the end was pretty uneventful.  We were hoping for some big pool or awesome view. This was it.  Still pretty but eh.

This concludes our hiking tour of Sedona.  Are you still awake?  Anyone?

Do you like to hike?  Anyone else with a major fear of heights?  (Just wait for the Grand Canyon post!)

Random Acts of Craftiness- Husband Judge

Nate had the honor of being September’s husband judge for the Random Acts of Craftiness Challenge. 

I don’t think he could quite grasp how big of an honor this was…as I forced him to look through the submissions and pick his favorites.  I’m sure this would be like him making me pick players for a fantasy football team.  Wait. Nothing could be that bad.  And crafts are fun.  Especially for dudes.

Without further ado, here are Nate’s top 3 picks from September's challenge…in order of entry into the challenge.  Nate’s a middle child.  He likes things to be fair.

Dominos Mirror by Accomplishing Dreams. 

Nate liked that this wasn’t a girly project.  It was practical and not girly.  (He’s a man of many words.)

Candlesticks from Dominos by The Money Pit. 

Nate liked the practicality of these candle sticks.  He thought they’d be something that I’d like.  He is a good judge of my taste.  I tried the phrase “Use your words, Nate” at this stage to try to get more out of him.  As you can guess, that got me REALLY far.

The Almost Sunburst Mirror by Corner of Main. 

Nate thought this looked really cool even though it’s not finished.  Maybe this will be enough motivation for Kelly to complete it.  I mean, it was awarded the husband judge award.  That’s big stuff.

Thanks to everyone that participated!  You check out my project here. You can check out all of the other projects here!

The theme for October's Challenge is Odd and Ends from the Hardware Store.  I think you should join in on the fun.  You don’t even need a blog.  Ponder it.

Will you be participating in October’s challenge? What were your favorite picks?  Who thinks Nate needs to use his words?

Sedona

Do you all remember when I told you that we went on vacation?…a month ago.  I finally have photos to prove it.  For real.  And who doesn’t love blogger vacation photos?

Our first stop in Arizona was Sedona. 

Photos can not capture how amazing this place is.  I felt like I was in movie set the whole time we were there. Hence my movie star hipster pose.

Where We Stayed:  We stayed in this condo. We like using VRBO for our vacations.  This 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo was $110/night which is cheaper than most hotels.  It was pretty horribly decorated but was clean and quiet.  We like the extra space that a condo offers.  It also allows us to eat in breakfast and lunch to help save a little extra cash. The condo also had a salt water pool.  We had the pool to ourselves most of the afternoon.  The owners were super easy to work with.  Thumbs up.

Where We Ate: We enjoyed suppers at Picazzos, Oak Creek Brew Co., and Plaza Bonita.  The food was delicious at all of them.  They all get great recommendations from us.  For whatever that is worth.

What We Did:  We hiked every morning.  We got up early to beat the heat.  We would hike until lunch time.  We would eat lunch in the condo.  Nap.  Swim in the pool.  Go out for supper.  Watch the sunset.  Sleep.  Repeat times 3 days.  Man, I miss vacation.  I’ll share more photos of our hikes in the next week or so.

We were warned that Sedona at the end of August/beginning of September would be extremely hot.  It was hot but not enough to limit us from doing the activities that we wanted.  We woke up early to hike and swam in the afternoon.  Take that heat.  We were also there during the beginning of a rainy season.  It rained each afternoon but we used that time to nap.  Take that rain.  The rain also lent itself to some fun photos.

This last photo reminds me.  The next time my brother joins us on vacation, he’s going to need to bring a girl.  Just saying. I can no longer spend a week as the third wheel. I’ll even host a blog giveaway for the position if needed.  You think I’m joking.

Have you been to Sedona?  Who’s up for being my brother’s next vacation date?