Monday, October 15, 2012

Menu Plan Monday

I love menu planning!! I plan for a whole month at a time, and usually try to shop for two-three weeks at once. This saves on the little trips to the grocery store at the last minute, which always result in coming home with so much more! I find menu ideas in many different places. I decided to join I'm an Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday, and I hope to be able to share recipes, as well as enjoy some new ones!
Here is my menu for this week:
Monday: Taco Soup
Tuesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs
Wednesday: Mexican CrockPot Chicken
Thursday: Keilbasa, Veggies, pasta & Cheese
Friday: Homemade Pizza Night!
Saturday: Enchilada Casserole
Sunday: Baked Chicken with Green beans and Brown Rice

Some of the recipes can be found in my "Recipes" tab! :)


I also follow the Marine Parents Military Monday blog Hop!

 
 
I hope to "meet" some of you soon!! :)


Sunday, October 14, 2012

Our Last Camping Trip

Our last trip of the year is usually during the second week of October. We go for our anniversary. This time, we decided to go to Vermont since we haven't been yet. We stayed at a campground on the West River. It was about  three hours away. Some friends/neighbors also went with us. This was their first time camping in their camper. We had a lot of fun despite all the rain!
Our camp site was right on the river! If you look close you can see the mountain through the fog!

Here it is once it started to clear up!


Kyle and I went on a little walk and found some very colorful rocks!

 
 
After we had lunch, we drove down the road to the Grafton Village Cheese Factory where we learned hoe cheese is made. Another interesting thing we lerned is that the word "cheddar" is a verb that means flip. So, a cheese cannot be called a cheddar unless it has been flipped during the making process! Did you know that?

Jacob watching the guys drain the whey

This one was all finished

Hi, Zoey!

Draining and separating

Pressing out all the whey

This is how it gets flipped. By hand!
And cut again. And flipped every 15 minutes for an hour!




After our cheese-making lesson, we sampled some of the cheeses made at the factory, including an 8-year aged cheddar and an apple pie cheddar (this one was my favorite!!) We ended up buying a block of one year aged and some summer sausage, and headed down the road to the Saxtons River Distillery! They make maple liquer. It was very tasty!!



 
We ended the day with a visit to a big covered bridge and spent the night by the campfire!
 
 
 
 
Finally, on the morning before we drove home, we took a walk around the campsite. We thought we would take advantage of the sun being out! The kids played in the leaves, and we collected lots of colorful leaves to make placemats with next week!!
 

 
 
That's all I have for today! I hope you enjoy the photos!
 
 
Until next time,