The Sratty Archaeologist

As you all know fall is my favorite season. There are so many things to do when the leaves start to turn orange and I live for it. I am #basic and am so proud of it. I see nothing wrong with being basic and enjoy festive fall things. Do you, and screw anyone else who gives you grief about what you like. So here are my favorite things about fall.
First off, can I get a hell yeah for pumpkin picking and corn mazes. There honestly is no better date with your guy or with your gals then heading out to a pumpkin patch taking some cute pictures and then getting lost in a corn maze together. Chris and I went to Mazeilla in Saylorsburg, PA when I visited him over his long weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect and we got to spend all day outside enjoying the fresh air. The corn maze defeated us in the end but we did of course get our stereotypical pumpkin patch picture after. Too cute am I right? For a beautiful Saturday, it was pretty crowded but not too overwhelming.


Another fall activity I'm obsessed with is baking with all the fresh produce. I'm allergic to raw apples ( I know random) but I can eat apples so long as they are cooked. I love experimenting with new recipes with baked apples and I found two standout recipes for apple season this year. One was a apple pie bread which was similar to a coffeecake, check out the recipe here! Literally, this is the BEST apple bread.


Another was hasselback apples stuffed with oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I topped these bad boys with caramel sauce, so yummy. My baking endeavors have been going fairly well and my mom is looking for someone to do pie for Thanksgiving? Caramel apple pie anyone? Maybe.
The only downside to this amazing time of year is the amount of school work I have going on. So cheers to fall, I'm off to finish a cranking out a Museum Registration take home exam!

A little pattern mixing and some corn maze action

Photo Courtesy of Yelp

I'm a total foodie. I dream about what to eat for dinner while I'm eating breakfast. Anytime I get the chance to try a new restaurant I get super excited. So this series will be a few of my favorites.
I'm starting off with one of my favorite restaurants from my old stomping ground in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Stonehouse is a pizzeria and pastaria. It has an impressive menu of wood fired pizza, pasta, and other yummy entrees. They have homemade pastries, pizza dough, and get a lot of their ingredients from local farms.
The pizza is the standout item on the menu. The dough is made fresh and its a sourdough which gives the pizza a distinctive taste. Don't worry if you're gluten free, there's an option for you too! There's a total of twelve pizzas on their menu not including the make your own option. My personal favorites are the Stonehouse Pizza and the Charles Pizza. The Stonehouse Pizza is topped with Italian sausage, mushrooms, caramelized garlic, ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, and of course their incredible sweet marinara sauce. The Charles is just as decedent with the excellent sauce and mozzarella topped with thin slices of prosciutto on top of a bed of burglar and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Um yes please. I've also tried the Classic Margarita, the Carne, Four Cheese, and Buffalo Chicken Pizza.
The best way to test out all of these options is to find a few friends ( or just a hungry boyfriend) and get yourself the pizza tower. For $33 you get three of their pies which is a pretty awesome deal. Not going to lie, Chris and I have polish one of these off in one sitting, but if you're not feeling that ambitious leftovers are still great.




While the best thing on the menu is the pizza, the rest of the menu is also amazing. My parents absolutely love this restaurant. Whenever they would come visit me at school, we'd always head to the Stonehouse. They even made sure they got to go after my graduation for dinner. My dad loves the calamari both the traditional fried version and the grilled version which is tossed with dressing, celery, capers, and olives. My mom and I both love the pasta option with a meatball.,You can choose between marinara, Alfredo, or vodka sauce ( my personal favorite is vodka) with a choice of pasta, some of which is homemade! And the meatball is HUGE and perfect. It's a perfect cozy meal.
So if you're in Williamsport, make sure to try this gem, I guarantee you that you'll fall in love with the pizza and the atmosphere!

I'm back at it again with experimenting with vegetables as pasta! Today's excursion was with zoodles aka zucchini noodles! I bought a Veggetti which spiralizes vegtables. I bought a lovely zucchini for dinner and decided to spiral it up to create a healthier pasta alternative.
So a little jaw surgery update for you all. So I basically can eat whatever I want now except stuff that's super hard or crunchy, that's still kinda hard on my teeth. I've been seriously craving fresh veggies. Some crunchy roasted broccoli, refreshing celery with dip, yum. Alas I am still unable to chow down on these treats. Sometimes chips even get me. So I've been making due with a lot of softer vegetables like spinach, or really soft boiled broccoli, string beans etc.

Back to the zoodles. So the Veggetti is pretty easy to use, you chop the zucchini in half and shove it into the contraption and get to twisting. Let me tell you this was a bit of an arm workout for me. Once you've spiraled everything you're supposed to cut the zoodles in half. This is where I went wrong. My hunger induced impatience got the best of me and this gal over here neglected to chop the long strands in half which made eating them very difficult.


I decided to saute the noodles in some store bought Alfredo sauce. Of course you could make your own Alfredo sauce especially if you want to control the salt or any other ingredients but I was feeling particularly lazy and very hungry. I heated them up tossing the mix constantly for about 5 minutes until the zoodles were cooked through and tender. I made it extra saucy by accident but hey it was very delicious. I sprinkled the finish product with some Parmesan cheese and some fresh cracked black pepper. and got to eating.
Since my first foray into zoodles, I've cooked them with tomato sauce, or even just sauteed them with some garlic and oil. All options are equally delicious and a great pasta alternative for those who want to be a little bit more healthy in their eating habits.