Soaking up the Texas Sun

This white, freckly, European skin of mine can't really get tan, but I'll still take every ray of sun I can get! It's starting to get REALLY hot too, so this won't last much longer!

((Look at those beautiful blossoms!))

River Float

Since it's insanely hot in Texas basically year round, the "thing" to do is float the river. So we hitched a ride with a shady group from USAA in a beat up bus to float a river. Getting there and back was quite the experience ((And we may have changed into our suits on the side of the road)), but actually floating the river was fantastic (drunks, lost sunglasses, and all)!

Zack looking all cute and ready to float!

 On the River

This particular river was Near San Marcos

Party people on the river

There were turtles EVERYWHERE!

It was so awesome!

:D

3 hours later!

A few of those shady buses I mentioned earlier.

They had been modded so tubes could be thrown in the back, 

and the seats were facing each other like a limo.

Then when we got home we found that spray sunscreen needs to be applied with care...

((poor Z!))

P.S.-I must still have "it" because I totally got hit on twice. Then again, drunks will go for anything. ;)

San Antonio Gun Club

Zack has a friend at work who shoots competitively. So on a very hot Friday afternoon we joined him at the San Antonio Gun Club, the oldest active gun club in the country and the only shotgun shooting facility located in the heart of a metropolitan city. The SAGC was officially chartered in 1921 and has been in its current location since 1930. I had some more really great photos, but unfortunately Zack's phone had to be reformatted and photos were lost! That's just the way it goes sometimes.

High house. The smoke stacks you see in the background are the Alamo Quarry Market, an old cement factory-turned market and theater.

Low house

Inside the office

Chacho's

One of our favorite restaurants down here is Chacho's. It's great Mexican food, in great portions, for a great price. They are also famous for their margaritas, but we wouldn't know about that. :p Anyway, today with our order of chips we got the mother-of-all-chips. I just had to share!

((Pretty dang impressive!))

Greenway Trails

I just love the greenway trails down here. When it's not deathly hot I love to walk/run them! There's always lots of deer and other creatures. I came across this guy and pestered him a little bit. He was just too cute. Then I took a photo. :)

Spaghetti Spaghetti

Last night over dinner:

Ashley - "I feel like we're at a gourmet restaurant! We should own a restaurant and serve this. What would we call it? 'Spaghetti -some special word for squash- with Roasted Garlic Marinara?'"

Zack - "No. It should be called 'Spaghetti Spaghetti!'"

So, what IS Spaghetti Spaghetti? Well it's a little Spaghetti Squash....

Plus some homemade marinara with roasted garlic tossed in!

Talk about delicious!

Cooking the squash was so easy! I LOVE squash, but this was my first time cooking a Spaghetti Squash.

Wash it

Cut it lengthwise

Scoop out the seeds

Place flesh side down in a pan with some water

Pierce the skin with a fork a couple times

Put it in the oven at 450 for about 40 minutes

Let it cool a little

Pull out the flesh with a fork

Viola!

Roasting garlic is really easy too!

Peel off the outer layers of a head of garlic (for this dish I used two heads of garlic)

Cut off about 1/4 of an inch of the top of the garlic

Place in tin foil

Drizzle olive oil over the garlic

Close up the foil and toss it in the oven with the squash for about 30 minutes

Let it cool until you can handle it and then just pop the cloves out!

The marinara sauce takes about 20 minutes to make. I used a recipe online and adjusted it for my needs.

Make it while the squash and garlic is cooking!

Heat up a skillet on medium heat and then toss in some olive oil

Saute about a cup of chopped onion (you know, until soft and translucent and all that jazz)

Now to get all those brown bits you're going to add 1/2 cup of a 1:1 ratio of cider vinegar and water to the pan and scrape/stir

Get it boiling and let it keep cooking for about a minute or so

Add 2 14oz cans of tomato sauce (or diced, or crushed, or whatever type of tomato you prefer)

Also add 1 Tbl parsley (I also added about 3/4 tsp basil)

1 tsp or so salt

1/4 to 1/2 tsp pepper

Hopefully your garlic is ready now, this is when I tossed mine in. If you don't like roasted garlic, you can just use a clove or two of minced garlic and saute it with the onion. I tossed my roasted cloves in whole, but you can mash yours or do whatever you like. Also, you can use as little or as much as you like! It's great mashed with butter and used for garlic bread (which would be a perfect addition for this meal)!

Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down and let it simmer (stirring occasionally) until dinner time

Then scoop up however much squash and sauce you'd like and eat!!!

I'll definitely experiment with spaghetti squash again, it's delicious!