Where To Next?

August 3, 2015December 8, 2015 | Megan

Sometimes when you’ve been immersed in canyon country– the red rocks, vermillion cliffs, green veins of copper deposits, solid blue skies, the gorges, and terraces, and plateaus, and arches cut by water and wind and uplift– you feel as though once you leave you are only biding your time until you can return.

I’m not the only one who can speak to this. The pull of nature is felt in many souls in macrocosm across an entire microcosm of different and varied landscapes. Each geography, vista, clime, and character calling to those who have a particular taste for that beauty remembered on their tongues, stamped on their hearts, thrumming in their pulse. So at this point in the year I ask myself where?

Where to next?

What adventure can be chased in the fall? What canyon traversed, what vista awed over, what area of this river-cut iron-rocked landscape should we visit next? I have three canyon destinations on my radar:

1. Toroweap (or Tuweep).

This gorgeous spot is on the Northern Rim side of the Grand Canyon. Some refer to it as the West Rim, and it is reached by 60 miles of unmaintained road. Taking a southerly route near Pipe Spring National Monument on the edge of the Kaibab Piute Reservation this quiet overlook is worth the effort. I visited once in college with friends and have yet to return to the spot.

I’d like to do some further hiking there, as well as just make it out along that practically impassable road once again. A couple of hurdles to this trip are that you definitely need a 4×4 with high clearance to make the road, and you also need some additional TIME to make it to Toroweap. The road is long, washboarded, and unforgiving.

2. The Subway in Zion National Park.

I’ve wanted to do this hike since college and simply haven’t had time or opportunity yet. I’ve heard incredible things about the canyons, pools, river hiking, and roped descents this trail includes. To hike the subway you must have a permit from the National Park, and they are not always easy to come by. You can put your name in for a lottery 3 months in advance of your hiking date, and you can also sign up at the Ranger Station there at the park

3. Moab, Arches, Canyonlands

We visit here every Spring with our boys, but this trip would be geared for more advanced hiking, climbing, and maybe even some mountain biking. Even if you’ve visited one place repeatedly as we have with the areas around Moab, there is always more to see and do. I’d like to camp in Arches National Park, or check out some hiking in Canyonlands National Park which is even more remote as it is accessible only from a byway from Moab.

So I ask you: where should we go? I’d love to hear about some of your favorite canyon excursions. Have any of you visited Tuweep, Zion, or Moab? Have you an opinion of one you enjoyed most? Or an array of reasons you like all three? Or pros and cons to any or all? I’d love to hear your experiences. Right now we’re still pouring over internet searches and canyoneering guides hoping that one will stand out.

Cheers to chasing adventure this Monday!

XX, Megan

Science Friday: Moon Views

July 31, 2015July 31, 2015 | Megan

We have a new member of our stargazing team over here at Rancho Refined + Rugged. My husband picked up this awesome 6 inch reflector last week on KSL (the Utah equivalent of Craigslist), and we’ve been waiting for an opportune time to take it out for a spin.

I have a 10 inch reflector that I made in High School, but it needs some extra love and attention (read a mirror cleaning and calibration) to be usable. So it’s been great to have this new little telescope for our summer star gazing.

We took our star and constellation viewing activities of last Science Friday and tried out the new telescope in our backyard this week! The boys were ecstatic to be able to use the telescope for the first time. The pictures of the moon were shot by my husband with his iPhone through the telescope lens, and I think they are pretty cool!

Little P also had an exciting breakthrough that night when he sighted his first constellation, Scorpius! Low on the Western horizon, boasting the bright red star Antares on its back. He ran up to me from across the yard, “Mom! Mom! Is that Scorpius?” He asked pointing to the telltale crest of the scorpion’s head in the sky.

“Yes!” Was my amazed reply.

The rest of our little star party was spent looking at the moon from different angels and with different lenses, and adding a few more constellation sightings to our repertoire like Lyra, Cygnus, and Aquila, whose stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair form the Summer Triangle. It was a really special night for our little family.

If you don’t have a telescope at home, you can look for star parties and star gazing groups in your area. Lots of Universities have small observatories attached to them, or look through your local paper or on the signage at your favorite coffee spot for local Astronomy groups.

Star parties are fun whether you sit in your backyard pointing out constellations, planets, meteor showers, and favorite stars, or join a larger group of amateur astronomers who’ve brought their own telescopes out to share! Above all, have an awesome Science Friday!!!!

XX, Megan

Butterfinger Banana Cake

July 29, 2015July 28, 2015 | Megan

The recipe for this cake came from one of my dearest friends and college roommates. In fact, when dredging up the recipe recently I found an email chain I sent out in 2010 to find out “WHO HAS THE RECIPE TO THAT BUTTERFINGER BANANA CAKE?!?”

Cause, really, this might be my favorite cake of all time! Well, or at least tied with chocolate cake with coconut frosting. One of the reasons I hadn’t made this cake for some time was our second babies severe peanut allergy. We were so careful to clear out all of the peanut related EVERYTHING in our cupboards. I wouldn’t have let Butterfingers come within a mile of his proximity.

Now we have been cleared by his allergist to bring back the peanuts! In fact, at the reintroduction stage we were actually supposed to make sure that he was eating peanuts fairly regularly. Anyway, we whipped this cake up this weekend, and it was basically out of the oven and into our bellies!

When my little friend and I made our cake together, it was a REPEAT. Her most memorable comment was, “That batter kind of looks like barf!” She was right. I could have laughed for days. While the batter may appear less than delicious looking, I assure you that the final product is SO WORTH A TRY!

Moist, candy filled and topped. It really doesn’t get much better than this! You should really give it a whirl this fine Wednesday!

XX, Megan

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix (plus ingredients for the mix)
2 bananas, mashed
1 package (fun size) butterfingers, crushed, roughly 10 for the cake and 6 on top
1 container vanilla frosting

Directions:

1. Crush the 10 Butterfingers for the cake mix. Open packages and put them in a dish. Set aside.

2. Mash the banana in the bottom of the bowl you are planning on using to mix your cake. Then prepare cake according to directions on the box.

3. Once you have mixed up the cake mix. Add 10 Butterfingers. Mix well.

4. Pour in greased/floured 9 x 13 or 2 round pans. Bake according to directions on box, though your bake time may be a tiny bit longer. I baked this cake for 35 minutes.

5. Wait until cake cools then frost with Vanilla Frosting and sprinkle on 6 remaining Butterfingers.

6. DEVOUR!!!!

I am not even remotely joking about this step. Devour.

Science Friday: Daytime Constellation Chart

July 24, 2015July 27, 2015 | Megan

Cannot get enough of these adorable kiddos! Today’s Science Friday was really a combination of four small projects concerning constellations.

We did the following:

1. Connect-the-dots constellation worksheets (from this template).

2. Circled some additional constellations from our star charts (current for this time and season of the night sky, you can get them HERE.)

3. Drew our OWN constellation dot-to-dots from the new constellations we discovered.

4. I hole punched a few constellations on some construction paper and we viewed them on the wall in our dark bathroom with a flashlight!

First, as I already mentioned, I wanted to talk to the littles about constellations this week. While this crew have been known to stay up WAY past their bedtimes on long summer nights, I knew this day wouldn’t be one we could head outside to view the constellations at night.

Instead, I used this template from Kiwi Crate (my printer is out of ink, so I actually just did a free-hand worksheet for each child) and made each child a constellation connect-the-dots paper. See below.

After we all finished connecting the dots on our constellations, we talked about how constellations are groupings of stars that form pictures in the sky. We briefly discussed the ancient Romans and Greeks who gave many of our constellations the names we still use today.

Then I gave each of the children a star chart for the current night sky. They each found the names and groupings of other constellations like Bootes, Pegasus, Cephas, Aquila, and more! We circled the constellations they found on their star charts and talked about some of stories behind them.

When they were finished circling constellations on their star charts I gave them each a piece of black construction paper and some metallic markers so that they could copy the constellations they found for themselves.

Last but not least, I used a star hole punch to make rough representations of some of these same constellations on construction paper and then we went for a star viewing in our dark bathroom. I used a flashlight to light up our constellations!

Such a great sequence of projects. The kids were interested and engaged the entire experience. I was amazed at how excited they were to pick out some of the current constellations in the night sky from their star charts. They happily sounded out the names of multiple constellations and asked about the meaning of the names and the stories behind these night-time specters.

Hope you’re able to try these projects at home with your crew. I’d love to hear how your constellation viewing turns out!!!

XX, Megan

So excited to find and identify new constellations we’re up on the table to examine and explain!

Drawing out some of the new constellations we studied.

Making sure her constellation looks just right!

Miles favorite constellation discovery was Pegasus, which he has personally dubbed THE BIGGEST DIPPER!

He’s not far off, some refer to Pegasus as “The Great Square” because it really does form an enormous square in the sky!

Super satisfied with his Pegasus 🙂

Showing off their finished dot-to-dots!

These are some of the larger constellations we used for our bathroom viewing!

Our afternoon viewing of Ursa Major and Orion.

Grilled Island Chicken

July 22, 2015July 22, 2015 | Megan

This is the second time we’ve made Island Chicken this summer. The perfect mix of sweet and savory makes this marinade a must try! The recipe comes from The Scramble. This is one recipe that picky eaters will gobble up!

Our little Chicken Nugget finished off an entire serving of chicken himself, and declared that this was “the best meal EVER!” Yes, those were his words, and I beamed with joy at his comment.

Well, that and his response to our dinnertime talks. We like to ask one another two or three set questions every night: What was the BEST part of your day? What was the HARDEST part of your day? What was a time that you felt LOVED today? To the first, he said, “This food is the BEST part of my day!” Again, scoring huge points with mommy!

Plus is there anything better than grilled pineapple? I think not. I also added a side of sesame broccoli/cauliflower, a super simple recipe that calls for 1 tbsp of sesame oil, 1 tsp of soy, and 2 tsp sesame seeds (whoops, we’re out! So you won’t see any on our veggies:). So simple, and such a great side for this meal.

How will you spend your Wednesday? What do you have planned for dinner? Whatever your schedule, I hope you have a good one!

XX, Megan

Ingredients for main dish
3 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil
1 Fresh pineapple, or use 20 oz. canned pineapple rings/slices in 100% juice, juice reserved
3 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp. minced garlic, (about 2 cloves)
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 – 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Lay the chicken in a flat dish. Mix the marinade by combining the oil, pineapple juice, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and pepper.

Pour the marinade over the chicken. Marinate for 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.

While the chicken is marinating. Cut the pineapple and broccoli.

After 30 minutes (and up to 24 hours after marinating) place the chicken on a preheated grill.

Grill the chicken for 3-5 minutes each side depending on thickness. (These breasts were so thick they took nearly 7 minutes each side.)

Turn the chicken and brush the chicken with the extra marinade.

After you have turned the chicken, add the pineapple to the grill. Grill the pineapple for 2-3 minutes each side.

Meanwhile, sauté the broccoli for 5 minutes in the sesame oil.

Remove all the food from the heat. Let’s EAT! Enjoy!

*The Scramble is a meal planning service to which you can subscribe here. For a fantastic price you will receive 5 weekly meals which means 5 recipes (main course plus a side dish), complete grocery list, the ability to tweak the number of people you are making for, and full nutrition facts. PLUS tips as to how best to PREP your meal beforehand, add a punch of FLAVOR, and how to SLOW COOK almost every recipe if you’re especially slammed that night. This wonderful service really does live up to it’s name. You can come home at 6 p.m. and be sitting down to a DELICIOUS, HEALTHY, HOME COOKED meal by 6:30 p.m. most nights.