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!

Pasta is my favorite food. It is pure magic, you can make so many different dishes with it. The only problem with this food of the gods is the carb-o-load that comes with it. Enter spaghetti squash.
I've pretty much been waiting to dig into this bad boy for about two weeks. The squash keeps at room temperature for about a month I've been told so I literally made a shrine to it on my counter top.
Since it's summer and my house is small, I hate heating it up with the oven, but I wasn't about to microwave my squash. In my opinion it tastes so much better roasted in the oven. I waited for a coolish evening to bake the squash and it couldn't have turned out better.
The trickiest part about spaghetti squash is trying to crack it open. I used a giant meat cleaver and even then it took me awhile to pry the two halves apart. Once I finally got it open I scooped out all the seeds and season each half with salt, pepper, and a bit of Mrs. Dash seasoning, then drizzled it with olive oil. Placing the halves cut side down on my baking sheet I popped those bad boys in my preheated (400 degrees) oven.
The squash takes 40 minutes to cook so I went and scrolled through Instagram, walked my neighbor's dog, fed my dad and then it was finally time to take them out! I scraped one side of the hot squash with a fork and placed it into a glass bowl. I saved this half for leftovers because I am a small gal and although always hungry I don't think I could ever finish an entire squash in one sitting. The second half I scraped clean and tossed with olive oil, marinara sauce, and fresh mozzarella. I replaced the spaghetti goodness into the skin(?) of the squash using it for a serving dish. Of course I topped it with some more cheese and dug right in!

The squash is great as a leftover too! The second day I wasn't feeling the marinara route, so I decided to sauteed the squash with fresh garlic, olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and lots of Parmesan cheese. It was just as good as the fresh squash!

Needless to say I was pretty proud of my adventure with spaghetti squash and my pinterest has literally been consumed with different squash recipes that I have a hankering to try. I think my next adventure is going to be with an Alfredo sauce and some mushrooms and caramelized onions...stay tuned!

If you're looking for more in depth information about cooking spaghetti squash and the nutrition behind it check out this post by Quick Easy Cook!