Spinach Salad

While making breakfast this morning, I looked out the window and discovered we had an inch or two of snow, just enough to cover the grass and coat the trees.  Between the snow and the oatmeal I was eating, this morning had a distinctly winter feel.

A couple of weekends ago Wendy and I went to Phoenix to visit Joy and Cory.  It was the first time either of us had spent any substantial amount of time in Phoenix, so it was cool to get a feel for the area.  My impression is that it looks entirely like an alien world.  The landscape is barren and sun-bleached, with cactus of all different shapes and sizes poking out of the ground.  The vegetation is just vastly different from the Midwest.

We did some cool things while we were there, including visiting the Botanical Gardens and viewing artwork and decorations produced by local artists.  My favorite activity was going to Taliesin West, which served as Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and as a school for aspiring architects.  Wright’s summer home, Taliesin, was in Wisconsin, just west of Madison.  We haven’t been to see it yet, but we both want to now that we’ve seen Taliesin West.

Our flight to Phoenix went smoothly (discounting the extremely talkative retired guy I sat next to), but our flight home was delayed by 3 hours, which was never fully explained, but we overheard the ticket-counter lady saying that if a flight has to be delayed, Southwest likes to delay the Phoenix to Milwaukee flight because it’s a long haul flight with few connections in Milwaukee.  So that’s something to be aware of in the future.  At least they did give each of us a $100 voucher for a future flight.

While we visited Joy and Cory, we had a spinach salad for dinner a couple of nights.  That led to a conversation about something I discovered a few years ago: spinach helps me sleep better.  Even if I’ve been sleeping well, I can still tell that I sleep deeper than usual the night after eating spinach.  But, it has to be fresh spinach: frozen or cooked spinach doesn’t do the trick.

I discovered this effect after I kept reading about people making green smoothies (spinach + fruit blended together) as a way to get lots of leafy green vegetables.  So I decided to give it a shot.  For my first attempt, I went heavy on the spinach and light on the fruit (I think I used spinach, a banana, and ice cubes).  The result, as you might imagine, really wasn’t that good.  But I’d made a big glass of it, so I drank it.  And when I woke up the next morning I could not believe how well I’d slept.  That’s when I made the link.

I tried green smoothies a couple more times and discovered the magic ratio was 2 parts fruit to 1 part spinach.  If you did that, you really couldn’t tell there was any spinach; it tasted just like a fruit smoothie.  But that meant not as much spinach, so the improved-sleep effect wasn’t as great.  Eventually I stopped with the smoothies, deciding that eating a spinach salad was just as easy, tasted just as good, if not better, and as an added bonus I didn’t have to wash the blender when I was done.

The spinach salad we had in Phoenix was delicious: it had spinach, feta, dried cranberries, pecans, onions, and raspberry vinaigrette.  I highly recommend it.

Must Be Beautiful This Time of Year...

...all that snow!

We got somewhere around 20 inches - we measured anywhere from 16-36 inches, depending on the drifting.

For a sense of perspective, check out this post. Now imagine those bushes around the flag pole, only imagine them 4 and a half years taller. Now...

Those bushes are still there. Honest.

A few more pictures:

Randy worked really hard to get the driveway and front walk cleared. It even took our neighbors, who all have snowblowers, several hours to get their driveways cleared.

The driveway before:

And the driveway after:

Our street didn't get plowed until about 7 p.m. That's actually not bad, considering all the reports we read of snowplows getting stuck in drifts.

We ended up with a big drift in our backyard that was at least 36 inches tall. Is now the time to mention that I have a 27 inch-inseam?

Hope everyone is staying warm and getting shoveled out!

PictureFest

Like much of the country, we were hit with heavy snow last week. Here's the view we had from our kitchen window after the snow stopped:


We were curious as to how much snow we received, so Wendy bravely went forth with measuring tape in hand.


We measured 9" on the railing, and up to a foot on the deck. Later that day, I performed my own act of bravery by shoveling the driveway (with the snow shovel we cleverly bought the night before the storm hit).


It's been a week, and there's still plenty of snow left on the ground. The highs the past few days have been in the teens, but thankfully we're due for a warm-up this weekend, with temperatures returning to the mid-40's.

Turning from the outside to the inside, here are the highly anticipated photos of our dining room and living room.


The living room still has some work left to be done (note the lack of a coffee table, end table, and pictures).


And, finally, our snazzy red bathroom, which Wendy painted just before Thanksgiving.


I hope you enjoyed the tour. Please come again soon!