Rug a dug dug

You guys.... Something incredible happened this weekend. Sean (you know, my husband) and I were on the same page about something. Like, totally on the same wavelength. We liked the same thing. At the same time. It involved a decent amount of cash, but we both went for it. Together. Yeah, Sean and I. I'm still in shock... I shall reminisce the strange occurrence while sitting on our glorious NEW RUG!!!!!!!!!!!

It's so yummy. The pile on this thing is crazy; I would guess around 2" deep? When you step on it, your toes disappear. It's amazing. And while we spent a decent amount on it ($300), it's so worth it. The best part is that we're able to justify the purchase because the rug is huuuuuge. And fluffy. It's safe to say we're obsessed. We ate dinner at the coffee table, while sitting on the rug. We watched a movie, while sitting on the rug. We played with the dogs, while sitting on the rug. I then picked up a bunch of dog hair, off the rug. And then Sean spilled a drink, on the rug. And then I threatened to strangle him.

That pretty much sums up our weekend, though. I did a workout that totally kicked my @$$ and then went out on the boat and got a splotchy, horrible looking sunburn. Now my body is all like "WTF Cali?!?" So, if you're looking for me, I'll be drinking gallons of water and soaking in gobs of lotion, ON MY NEW RUG!

-C Doc

Caching up with the times

Alas! I am back... and once again I'm procrastinating and holding out on the geo caching adventure (see, my title wasn't a typo. ha.). While I'm at it, I'll be honest. I probably won't write too much about it, because if I haven't done it yet, I probably wont do it. Why? Because I'm lazy. Just know that we had fun, it was hot, there were bugs and we found the five cashes that we set out to find. Here are some pictures :)

^^^^^

This was the creepy house in the woods. The roof had caved in, most of the walls had fallen down and there were trees growing throughout the structure. The geo cache, which was a tupper-ware full of trinkets and small items, was shoved back in the chimney. Once we found it, we signed the sheet and ran for the car as fast as we could!

Anyhoo, back to why I originally started writing. I have a delish dish that you all need to try! Provided that you like Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches, you will love these! They're Philly Cheese Steak Stuffed Peppers, yum! Here are the ingredients:

 

The glass of wine is totally optional, but definitely recommended. You don't put it in the food or anything, it just tastes good and makes your day better :) What you really need is roast beef (I ordered a pound thinly sliced but only used about 1/2-3/4 of the pound for this meal), 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese, a small onion (I used about half), a heaping handful of mushrooms, and the peppers to stuff! The amounts of ingredients I used yielded enough of the meat mixture for three peppers. Perfect for me and the hubs.

I started by roughly chopping the onion and mushrooms up. I then sauteed them on a medium/high heat with some olive oil and spices. While that was going, I prepared my peppers and meat. I chopped the tops of the peppers and removed the veins and seeds. For the meat, I rolled up the big slices and ran my knife through it several times.

***Side note: check out that knife! Sean and I bought it while in Georgia at a knife store. It's made from porcelain and get this, it never (ever!) has to be sharpened! Perfect for my lazy self (as noted above).

When the veggies were done, I threw in the meat to brown it up a bit. While that was going, I put about one cup of cheese in the bottoms up my peppers:

Then I filled them with my meat mixture and topped them with the remaining cheese!

I baked them in the oven (that's pretty obvious I guess) at 400* for about 15-20 minutes. It cooks the pepper perfectly! Tender and roasted with a hint of crunch. Just how I like it. For all you health nuts, this is a no-carb meal! But, that won't fly in our house... No sir. So I made some spicy yellow rice :)

There's that pesky wine glass again...

The meal was great and very easy to make! It was a cool spin on stuffed peppers and it's definitely something you can play with when it comes to flavors. I think I may do some fajita stuffed peppers in the future. Or maybe some with pork and wild rice... The possibilities are endless! Enjoy :)

-C Doc

It's a southern thang

Ya know what's funny? The fact that we drove 400 miles north to get to the heart of the south... Florida is geographically more southern than Georgia, but we're mostly known for the beaches, the blue waters, fishing and all things tropical. And while we have our fair share of red-neckery goin' on, there is just something so simple and laid back about "the south". I love it. The people are so kind, willing to help you with anything, they have cute accents, they make awesome fattening food and, let's be honest, they make some amazing moonshine...

Fun fact: we had some of the best tasting moonshine while in Georgia! And guess who made it?! The freaking cop. I can't make this up... The cop (one of the two) in the town that we stayed in made the best apple pie moonshine that I've ever had. It seriously doesn't get any more small-town than that. This shine tasted like apple cider; no burn at all, no scrunched up face when you swallowed it, just smooth, good tasting juice whiskey. I could've chugged the whole entire mason jar if you'd let me. I would have passed out in the yard, but it would have gone down soooo smooth, unlike my decent to the ground would have been. Cheers to that :)

Getting back to where I was originally going with this post; I really miss that simplicity. The lounging around, listening to the rain, looking at the beautiful scenery, hanging with friends, chugging moonshine, and eating and drinking to my heart’s content. That’s all pretty much the definition of vacation, and part of the reason why I miss it so much is because I’m back to work and back to real-life. which can suck. Cleaning, cooking, laundry, chores; they're all buzzkills. I’m all about hanging around, having Mike’s family cook for us and paying some cleaning lady at the end of the week to tidy our house after we leave. Fantastic! Sign me up. I'm convinced those are the reasons we’d like to make the trip an annual happening in our lives haha. But, in addition to being a bum, something you have to do while up there is go to the Tractor Supply Store. It’s a staple up there. They sell everything from lawn mowers, to clothes, chickens and home decor! It’s as random as you can imagine. Sean and I bought some toys for our boys (of course) and I found a super cute American flag star to adorn my door since my beloved wreath stained it pink. I’m still bitter about it, mainly because it's still pink. So, it’s being replaced by something that will cause no harm to our lovely entryway. For a mere $4 :)

 

Cute, right? I’m loving the Americana theme right now and plan to stick with it for the rest of the summer. I wanted to bring some of that feeling to the inside of our Dockerty Domain. I not only wanted to stay with the Americana theme, but after our fun trip, I also wanted to add in some southern flair. I love changing out our tablescape with fun tablecloths, runners and centerpieces, and for a while, we were rocking this:

It’s an assortment of random candles and things I had around the house. The vase the flower is stuck in is actually a ceramic bottle of wine that was given to Sean by one of his customers. It tasted great and had a cool bottle so I kept it, washed it out and stuck some fake foliage in there. How often do you see a ceramic wine bottle? And you know me and fake flowers… it’s starting to get a little ridiculous. Naturally I carried on my obsession with the carefree and effortless task of keeping fake flowers alive. So, without further ado, I now present to you: Das Boot.

It doesn’t get much more 'merican and southern than a cowboy boot, a bandana and some sunflowers… especially paired with a candle that looks like a log and an old Ball mason jar! Hot dang we got ourselves a centerpiece here!  I’m sure Sean thinks I’m off my rocker, especially since he only found one boot in the closet and came across the other one on our kitchen table, but I had to stick with the theme! It’s all about dedication, and by golly, I’m committed. He’s finally learned not to say anything anymore; usually I just get a bewildered look and a shake of the head with an occasional eye roll. And I’m OK with that. He does silly stuff too. Tit for tat, as they say. Next, I’m going to find a place for a huuuge infinity scarf that I got for the Fourth of July that’s big enough to park my truck in… no joke, this scarf is massive. I must find somewhere to display it.

Next week I’ll be back with our geo caching adventures from GA. Maybe we’ll go on a geo cache escapade in our own town this weekend! Who knows what sort of wine-induced shenanigans we’ll get ourselves into…

-C Doc

Feelin' Peachy

Well, we all made it back in one piece! The seven of us had a wonderful time in the Peachy State of Georgia and although it hasn't been set in stone, I believe we'd like to make it an annual trip! The main reason we went up there were for the fabulous Fourth of July Festivities that we'd been hearing about for years but, thanks to our dear friend, Mother Nature, every single event got cancelled due to rain.... Fantastic. No worries though, we still did everything we set out to do. Our itinerary consisted of:

Boating and tubing on Lake Burton
Zip Lining (210' off the ground!!!)
Winery Tour
Waterfall Climbing
Hiking some trails
Geo caching
Fireworks and Parade (which didn't happen)

Although I don't have pictures of every activity we did, I do have some. So, without further ado, I give you the 1st Annual Trip to Sky Valley, Georgia:

You like how I ended it with the best picture? I mean seriously, how often do you see a big guy dancing on a waterfall? Ya gotta love Mikey boy.... Briana has a ton of pictures that she took with her super-duper-nice camera, but I don't think she's uploaded them yet.

I'll be back another day with the geo caching pictures that I have. I gotta say, that is one cool hobby. It makes you think as if you were trying to depict some crazy puzzle and it has you travel to places that you never thought existed... like an abandoned house in the woods! That one was crazy, creepy and eerie but it was cool to find once we batted down all the spider webs, dodged the poison ivy and listened closely for banjos... I'm not kidding...

All in all, we had a wonderful trip, despite the insane amounts of rain we had. Many bottles of wine, beer and liquor were consumed, many laughs were had and many memories were made. All the ingredients to a wonderful vacation. But, as they say, there's no place like home. Sean and I missed our fur-kids like crazy! It's kind of ridiculous how attached we are to them... and although the mountains and scenery in Georgia are spectacular, there's nothing that compares to a Florida sunset :)

Home sweet home.

-C Doc