Ode: Logan's Heroes

In Logan, there is a dive-y looking place on the corner of Main and about 1st south called Logan's Heroes. If you were a visitor to Cache valley, you'd never dream of visiting- there's very little parking, the wood panelling on the outside appears to be full of wormholes (although it is painted nicely). It's probably just as well, though, because once you've had a Logan's Heroes sandwich, you will crave it for the rest of your life.

In spite of the dive-y look (or perhaps because of it?) it is a super-friendly place to eat and hang out. It's the kind of place that the "regulars" know to come in the back door- like you do only at a good friend's home. The fake wood paneling, cheesy booths and faded pictures on the wall reminds you of a worn, comfortable family room. The owner knows and remembers everyone (even if you haven't been in years!) and greets you warmly. After we moved to AZ, I returned on a visit and he remembered me and I hadn't been there in at least 2 years!
I don't know what it is about these sandwiches. They appear to be just your average (to slightly below-average) sandwich filled with shredded iceburg, pickles, tomatoes, olives, mystery cheese and meat of your choice (although I LOVE the veggie). Even the picture above makes it look like nothing too special.

But oh, there is nothing in the world like the taste and, for the life of me, I can't figure out what makes it sooo good. My theory is that there is pixie dust (or crack) sprinkled on every sandwich that makes it taste so good. Or perhaps it is the dusting of green flecks (basil? oregano?) that every sandwich gets. Or the delicious, soft and extremely rich-tasting bread.

Who knows? All I know is that when I've lived far away (CA, AZ) I've frequently thought and plotted about how to get one mailed to me. That's how addicting these things are- I'd pay $30 to have it overnighted in a special cold box. They are that good.

BTW- This is my 200th post! Go me! I deserve a reward- like a Logan's Hero...

My All-Time Favorite Food Site

Ahhh- Tastespotting. How I love thee, my community-driven visual potluck! I can't decide what I love best... Is it the new food ideas? The beautiful photos of yummy food? Or is it the dozens (literally) of new recipes you've inspired me to try?

I may never know.

Veggie Pot Pie= Comfort Food

Before we get to Sunday's dinner, I just had to share our cute new "harvest" decoration. I'm not on the ball like Jenn and we had no Halloween decorations. I decided to go with a "harvest" theme so I won't have to take them down until it is time for Christmas!

The leaves were fun- we just painted on regular paper with "fall" colors so it was pretty solidly colored. Then we traced leaf templates (found on the internets) on the backside of the paper and cut them out.Sunday dinner was so delicious I just had to share! I adapted this veggie pot pie recipe to make these love vegetarian pot pies. They were SOO good even meat-eaters would have to agree they rock. I really, really encourage you to try this one out.

There is a bit of prep with all the veggie cutting, but it really is worth it and if you do it in advance (like on a Sat or Sun afternoon?) this would go together super-fast for a weeknight meal.

My favorite things about pot pie in general is the gravy and the crust. This recipe has both- we were suprised at how rich and "deep" the flavors of the gravy were for a non-meat meal- I think it's the combo of the veggies and the soy sauce.

For the veggies, we mostly used what we had on hand, but you could pretty much do anything you wanted- peas would be nice. I think we'll stick with the baby 'bello mushrooms for this- I think it contributed to flavor and color of the gravy. Next time, we're going to also try adding barley or bulger wheat to give it even more substance.

In order to cut down on the calories (and make and excuse to use my new ramekins) we opted for puff pastry instead of the full on top and bottom pie crust the original recipe called for. I think either would be good, but the puff pastry was a hit with everyone- especially the girls.

Mak's Veggie Pot Pie

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
8 ounces baby 'bello mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced

Heat olive oil over med heat (use a deep skillet or dutch oven). Add onion, mushrooms and garlic and cook about 2 min.

2 large carrots, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups cauliflower florets
1 can Garbanzo beans
1 cup thawed frozen green beans, diced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 cups vegetable broth

Add the rest of the veggies, salt, pepper and broth and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling reduce and let it simmer until the veggies are just tender- about 5 min.

2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 c. water

In a small bowl, mix the water, soy sauce and cornstarch until the cornstarch is fully dissolved. Bring the veggies and broth to a boil and add the cornstarch/soy mixture. Cook until the gravy thickens- about 3 min.

Spoon veggies and gravy into ramekins (or a pie plate or 11 x 7 casserole). Cover loosely with 1 sheet of puff pastry (cut to size for the ramekins). Bake at 400 for 15 min for ramekins, or 20-30 for a larger dish.

Funtastic Fall

On Day 2 of celebrating Uncle Ed's birthday, we went to "Funtastic Fall" at the American West Heritage Center in Logan. It was SO much fun. The weather was cool-ish, but it wasn't cold. We couldn't believe how much there was to do! We went in thinking we'd spend an hour or two and ended up staying 4 and we could have done more.

After a train ride (sorry, the pics were boring) we ventured into the headless horseman corn maze. Aside from being muddy, it was pretty fun. The corn blocked the cold breeze and the kids had fun for most of it.

This is typical- Daddies were navigating and the kids kept running (in spite of the repeated warning by the mommies that they'd slip in the mud...). We were REALLY glad we had a map to follow in the maze- it would have taken us FOREVER to get out without it.

David was done about 1/2 into it. See the sad maze face? In the end we completed it and all of us (except David) were dirty, but triumphant. Check out our "battle mud"!

Next was the "hay fort". It was basically a pile of those giant hay bales with loose hay all around that you could jump into. I had a lot of fun with the "sport" setting on my camera and caught these fun mid-air shots.

To all those who think that Birdy sticking her tounge out when she is concentrating came from me, observe DMP in these pics and maybe we should rethink-

This has to be the gay-est jump ever. We have a video of it too, but I'm holding that for bigger blackmail opportunities.Next, it was on to the not-so-super-slide. The kids didn't slide very fast- it was more like scooting down the hill on your bum, but they still went down a couple of times each.

The slide guy told me that there was a gourd launcher. Like DMP and his crawdads, I realized launching pumpkins from a giant slingshot was one of my long-buried wishes.

They were out of pumpkins at the top of the hill, so my sweet guy hiked all they way down to get some just for me to launch- thanks Honey! (Ed helped, too. And yes, those are buffalo in the field behind them).

That thing was harder to pull back than I thought- and it was really hard to keep the pun'kin in the leather thingy. My first attempt was a failure, but the second smashed beautifully!

The young 'ens then got to go for a pony ride.

We visited some nice and tiny goats. One tried to eat Bree's skirt.

The Jensen farm (a working historical "re-enactment" farm) had some activities for the kids- including pumpkin carving! Birdy picked a baby one:

And Daddy helped carve them up:

We had such a fun-a-licious, fun-tastic, fall time with our cousins!

Suprise Uncle Ed!!

My SIL invited us to come to their house to celebrate DMP's brother's birthday. It was a surprise for the big 4-0! When I met DMP, they were roommates, and it is amazing to think that 11 years later we are still all hanging out!

Before Ed came home from work, we got to visit with our "sort of faraway cousins". Above is "baby" David- he is such a cutie and has the most adorable freckles. He also shares a birthday with Birdy and they are both really tall.
EJ and BreeBree are great buddies. Aunt T did their hair and they look so cute! All the kiddos had so much fun together in Uncle Ed and Aunt T's giant yard!Ed came home and we successfully surprised him (it didn't hurt that it was a week after his real birthday...)! The kids thought it was hi-larious and David kept jumping out and saying "Surprise" for a good 20 min. after Ed got home.

As you can see- Ed is very excited about this birthday :)
Just in time for Halloween, Donny lost ANOTHER tooth. At the rate he's going, he'll be on the pudding-only diet. It is pretty cute that he now looks like a Jack-o-Lantern. The tooth fairy came while we were there and now EJ is really into the idea of trading teeth for dollars. Every visit, Ed talks up the Crumb Brother's bakery and especially the chocolate croissants. We got some for breakfast for everyone and boy-howdy is it good. He wasn't kidding. The chocolate croissants are super, and the danishes were also really good- the apple one (on the left) was my favorite I think. The one on the bottom is a glazed lemon scone, and the kids didn't dig it, but we adults gobbled it up. Anyone in Cache Valley should check it out- delish!

Birdy + Mommy's Glasses

More Fall!

Seems as though the blog-o-verse is full of poetic odes to Fall. This is one more :) We took a picnic up Provo Canyon to South Fork park again.

We threw leaves (you can't tell with the background, but they were thrown).

"How 'bout a little sugar for the Chester-Monster?"

Look at that happy dog grin! He loves being outside (and curly fries).

We found all kinds of things to play in the river with!

The End

They're gonna be hot this Christmas season!

Kid slippers. Perfect for everyone on your list!

So you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Our neighbor Stacy inspired us to try training Chester some more. So far, he will pretty reliably "sit" and go "up" if he knows there is a treat involved. This is an example of "up". Next up? Dancing.

By the way- Chihuahua's are dumb. Small dog = Small brain :) Once he sees a treat, it is really hard for him to focus on any other thought than "Treat! I'm gonna get a treat! Where's the treat?".

BTW- Chester has nothin' on my cousin's dog (his twin!). Check out Lily's trick on their blog.

Finally!

I finally finished EJ's birthday blanket. It's only a couple of weeks late- right? I think it turned out cute (and so what if it isn't TOTALLY square).

However, I swear on Chester and this blog that I will never, never, ever, NEVER do another blanket in all single crochet. This thing took so freakin' long to make!

Lucky Me

Sure it's a cube, but it's a cube with a view. This is the view from my desk looking out over the top of my open laptop. Neener, Neener, Neener.

It is so nice to pause in my busy day and look at the beautiful leaves, mountains and birds. I've told them I'll move from my cube over my cold, dead, body.

A Long Awaited Wish Fulfillment

Guest Post by DMP

A long time ago in a third-grade classroom far, far away (on Judea's plain), I read an excerpt from a story that involved kids catching crawdads a.k.a. crayfish, crawfish, or if you're Birdy, "lobsters". I really wanted to try it, but alas there was nowhere nearby to do so.

Years passed, I grew up and the desire to fish for crawdads faded away and died - or so I thought. A few weeks ago, a group of my wife's family went fishing for crawdads. My parents were in town and we declined the invitation to go fishing. I was somewhat surprised to discover that I was genuinely disappointed. Apparently the desire, which I had believed long dead, had only been hiding in the remote depths of my subconscious waiting to be reawakened. I was like a crawdad-killing sleeper cell.

Another trip was planned, and Saturday (yesterday), Grandpa, EJ, Birdy, and I set out fulfill my long-suppressed childhood wish. (They all thought it sounded like fun too.)

The saddest part of the story is that I brought along a camera and dead battery, and have absolutely no photographic evidence of the adventure. Just try to imagine.

The girls had a great time. Another group of kids happened to be fishing for crawdads nearby. They already had a few when we arrived, and kindly showed them to EJ and Birdy. EJ and Birdy then returned the favor with the first dozen or so of our catch. They would run across the docks to their new friends and proudly announce, " We caught another," or, " We got two more!"

EJ declared herself to be "Captain Jasmine" and had to be addressed appropriately for the majority of our two hours of fishing.

On our triumphant return to Grandma and Grandpa's house, EJ saw the cooked crawdads and asked, "Why aren't they talking? Why aren't they moving anymore?" She did not appear overly concerned with the reason and seemed to enjoy the meat as did Birdy.

So, that was one fun day for Grandpa, the girls and myself, and one childhood wish fulfilled.

Verdict: I'd do it again.

Win a Trip

Hi fam and friends! Check out this giveaway for a shot to win a trip. Plus, it is a fun website all about fun stuff to do on the wasatch front!

http://www.sweetlifeinthevalley.com/2007/09/disneyland-giveaway-sweet-life-in.html

and it's sister site:

http://outandaboutwiththefamily.com/blog/2009/10/09/disneyland-giveaway-with-out-about-with-the-family-and-sweet-life-in-the-valley-be-our-guest/

EJ + Camera = Self & Family Pics