Vacation Day

Two weeks ago, Bill had a post call day that landed on a Friday.  Post call means that he was on a 28+ hour "call" the day and night prior.  He takes about 7 calls a month.  If he has a bad call and doesn't get much, if any, sleep, the post call day is meant for sleeping.  If he has a good call and was able to sleep overnight, then it's basically a free day off.  On the chance he had a good call, I took a vacation day.  He got a little less than 4 hours of sleep that night but we stuck to our plans anyway.  We had a fun outdoor lunch at L'Albatros where we shared a three course meal and had some bubbly to really make it feel like a mini-vacation. 

After lunch, we took a stroll through the art museum before heading home and taking naps!  Hey, when the girls are at school, we go wild let me tell ya.  That night our next door neighbors invited us over for delicious steaks on the grill where we shared two more bottles of wine (one sparkling - bubbles make everything better) and a bottle of zinfandel port.  It was such a beautiful and relaxing day and truly felt like we were on vacation.  I think we need to take days like that more often!

California Take 2 - AQ

The last night in California, we headed up to San Francisco for dinner with Bill's cousin Ay Ay and her husband Dane.  We went to AQ and it was phenomenal.  The restaurant itself was light and airy with a definite feeling of Spring.  While Bill and I sat and waited for Ay and Dane, we struck up a conversation with our server about scotch and wine.  He knew we were interested in eating and drinking well that night. 

Dane brought a bottle of Mumm Blanc de Blancs to start dinner.  It was the first time I had ever had Mumm and I am now a huge fan.  We went right to the store and bought a bottle of their Brut when we got home!  Anyway, by now we were good friends with Eric, our server, who we found out worked at one time for Tyler Florence.  Eric was awesome but also realized his money making potential in our table.  That said, he got us to buy amazing wine so it was really a win-win.  Throughout the night we had Dane's wine, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc Sancerre and a bottle of a 1983 Catherine & Pierre Breton Chinon "Beaumont".  At 30 years old, it's the oldest wine I've ever had and it was fantastic!  We each had three wine glasses going on our table plus the decanter. 

Dinner was 9 courses of awesome deliciousness.
Course 1 - an asparagus "cloud" (it was almost like a firm custard) over crumbled pistachios
Course 2 - warm consomme of raw lamb and mint "snow"
Course 3 - strawberry gazpacho with raw halibut and dill oil
Course 4 - beef tongue
Course 5 - skate wing (fish) with pineapple and gnocchi (best gnocchi I've ever had)
Course 6 - veal with smoked foam (best veal I've ever had - they cut it so it resembled pork belly)
Course 7 - cheese plate of hard goat's milk
Course 8 - white chocolate and rhubarb
Course 9 - chocolate, lavender ice cream and honey

Here's how they describe the tasting menu in their menu and if you can believe it, it's only $68 per person (beverages not included).  An absolute steal if you ask me.

As we were paying the bill, Eric brought us macaroons, as if we needed more food!  But of course, they were delicious.  He then took us downstairs to their wine room to show off their extremely impressive collection.  They will soon have the largest collection of unique wine lables, as well as the largest collection of Loire Valley wines, in the entire world.

After dinner, Ay and Dane took us to the Bay Bridge where a local artist was putting on a light show.  The lights were constantly moving and it looked very cool.  It was so nice to stroll down the pier and relax.  It was really a perfect ending to our night.

All in all the night was amazing - amazing food, wine, family and conversation.  We can't wait to go back to see everyone and I'm hoping we can make it back to AQ.  I am seriously in love with this place and am so sad it's so far away.  It's definitely near the top of the best meals I've ever had.

My Little Chef

We decided to make brownies on a whim the other night and I had the best little sous chef helping me.  She remembered that she had gotten aprons for Christmas - my mom had 2 stashed away for her - and Ninang AyAy had also sent one before.  Audrey proudly announced that meant that she owned 3 aprons!  Told you she can add.  ;)  Anyway, after fixing the still long/large apron to get it to fit, we got to work.  Audrey wanted to help with everything so I let her try.

Look at her concentration!

Ta da!

Waiting.....

and waiting.....

and waiting some more!

The brownies were seriously some of the best we'd ever had.  I highly recommend the Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate.  That's what I'll be buying from now on.

Life These Days

Once again I have fallen into the "I'm too busy" trap and have ignored the blog.  I don't know why I can't get my act together.  I have a list of posts in front of me that I'm going to get started on and my goal is to have one new post each day for at least the next week.

In the meantime -

Vivian is doing well and is SO ready to crawl....forward, that is.  She can go backwards and in circles like a champ but she just can't get any forward momentum.  She tries really hard though and I can tell she's getting annoyed.  If you ask her to clap her hands, however, she'll willingly do so.  :)

Audrey is awesome.  We just love this girl to pieces.  She's working on adding and subtracting now and can do so pretty impressively.  Trust me when I say that we do not sit down and show her math flashcards.  We just taught her 1+1=2 and she took it and ran.  Mensa will be calling any day now.  Lol.

Bill and I are actually finding time for ourselves which usually never happens.  Last weekend, we stole away for a really good dinner from one of our favorite chefs in town.  They have this dish called Foie Gras Donuts and it is similar to a jelly donut but with foie gras inside and no powdered sugar.  I know it sounds iffy but it is ridiculously yummy.  After that, one of his co-workers held a small party at her house so we went and hung out for a few hours.  I really like his co-workers and their spouses and wish we could get together more often.  They're all just as busy as he is so our parties are few and far between.  Bill and I have a double-date coming up with our neighbors and are going to another one of our favorite restaurants by the same chef and we're so excited.  It's the same place that we went for Bill's birthday last year and this time I won't be pregnant!!

And on that note - Vivian is 9 months old today!  Crazy!  Now hopefully I can stick to my goal and get this blog rolling again.

Little Entreprenuer

Last Friday Audrey was home sick from school.  That morning over a pancake breakfast she looked at the Mrs. Butterworth syrup container and said, "If she had legs, she could walk around and sell her syrup."  I couldn't believe how insightful that was for a 3 year old.  I'm also hoping this is a glimpse into her future where she's a super successful entreprenuer who invents and sells something fantastic!

Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year a few days late!! After the week and a half break we had, it was hard to get back in the swing of things on Wednesday. We were so spoiled with Bill either being off or only working half days that I did not want to go back to work and take the girls to school. I loved my little break from reality. It was during this downtime that I was able to think about what I wanted to accomplish in 2013. I'm not much of a resolution person but I actually came up with a good handful of goals.

This first one is kind of silly but I want to work on my handwriting. I don't write in cursive - very few people my age do anymore - and over the years, my handwriting has just gotten sloppy. And when I do write in cursive, it's terrible. I really want to make the effort to write nicely again.

I want to save money on food. Being foodies, we spend a ridiculous amount of money each month on food. We don't even shop at Whole Foods or anywhere crazy. It doesn't help that our weekly grocery bill doubled when we moved to Cleveland due to higher prices but I still think the amount we spend is way too much. My goal for the month of January is to see if we can get by on $50 of groceries a week like we used to in Iowa. Even if we go over $50 a week by a little bit, we'll be doing better than the $100+ we currently spend. This has already proved difficult as I spent $57 in week 1 and that was only to cover 4 dinners plus a few stock up items. As for eating out, I'm capping it at $150 on the month. I won't even tell you what we usually spend. This sadly means no date nights because one date would use this all up. Hey, don't judge, remember we like to eat. Good dinners out are what we do. I'll let you know at the end of the month how we fared.

I want to try all of the million recipes I've saved. We have a few tried and true cookbooks that we use but we also have binders full of cut out and handed down recipes.

My goal is to try them all and get rid of the ones we don't like. No point in saving them if we're never going to try them.

I want to finish making our house a home.  I really caught the bug when my dad was here helping with all of the house improvements and from my new under mount lighting.  It's amazing how little fixes and enhancements can really change how you feel about a place.  We still haven't decorated any walls, new 6 panel doors we had hung throughout the house last April have yet to be painted, many rooms either need paint retouched or we'd like to completely change the color, there's gross carpet to pull up, a laundry area that desperately needs some TLC, a cedar closet to refurbish and a guest room that is seriously lacking in furniture.  We have our work cut out for us but I know I'll be so much happier in this house when it's all done.

ADDED 1/9/2013: I forgot that I also want to master a creme brulee!  We have the ramekins and torch but we've never attempted to actually make creme brulee and it's my favorite. 

So that's it.  Nothing crazy and I think it's all attainable.  2012 was great and I'm excited to see what 2013 brings!

Let There Be Light

For Christmas this year, I asked Bill to get me under mount lighting over our stove.  Real sexy, I know.  We'd mentioned adding the lighting a few times in the year and a half that we've lived here but it was just never high on the priority list.  This was the best Christmas gift EVER.  Seriously, I'm ridiculously excited to have light and it really makes cooking so much better.

So a quick, funny story.  On Christmas Eve when Santa was putting together Audrey's kitchen, he was assembling something and wasn't sure what it was.  Behold....Audrey's own under mount lighting and she technically got hers before I got mine!  

On a side note, she really needs to do her dishes more often!  I have no idea where she gets that from....

Cookie Exchange

All of the women on our street got together this past weekend to do a cookie exchange.  Let me make this very clear - I don't bake.  I do my annual pumpkin breads and it stops there.  I CAN bake, I just choose not to.  I don't find it enjoyable, I don't like using rolling pins or anything that you measure with for that matter.  Any recipe that requires a mixer never sees the light of day.  My mom didn't really bake either.  Her brownies from the box were the bomb though.  Seriously awesome and all she'd do was follow the instructions.  She also made the pumpkin breads but that was it.  I'm sure my grandma was very sad about this because she'd bake a lot and it obviously didn't get carried down the line.  Anyway, I've established that I don't bake.

We were instructed to bring 8 dozen cookies - 1 for taste testing and the remainder for people to take home.  There would also be a prize for the most creative plating (I already knew that I wasn't even going to try and compete). While I have a lot of cookie recipes, I don't have any favorites.  I decided to try something new that I found in one of my Christmas cookbooks - Egg Nog cookies.  I know Egg Nog isn't for everyone but I love the C.F. Burger brand and think it's quite yummy.  Luckily I made the dough the night before the exchange because it took an hour just to make it.  I'm pretty sure I did it wrong too.....after you cream the butter and sugar are you supposed to keep using the mixer for the flour and remaining ingredients?  Not sure you are because I did and almost burned out my mixer.  It was hot and smelly and I had to unplug it.  I wish I were kidding.  The recipe said to "add in" the remaining ingredients so I just kept using the mixer.  Anyway, I definitely think I overworked the dough.  The next morning, the dough was hard as a rock and my wrists are still sore from rolling it out.  Ah, rolling it out.  What in the world was I thinking picking a recipe that required to be rolled and cut?  Poor Bill walked into the kitchen after his overnight shift, talked to me for about 2 minutes and then grabbed the girls and hightailed it out of the house.  He later told me that he hasn't seen me that stressed in YEARS.  The last time I was at my dad's house I found all of my mom's old cookie cutters.  She had a large selection of Christmas ones so I picked a few and got to work.  It's probably a good thing the girls weren't home because I had some choice words when the dough would stick to the inside of the cutter or I couldn't peel the dough off of the counter.  These cookies were doomed from the start.  In the end, I have no idea how many cookies I actually made.  I even ran out of time and still have about a quarter of the dough still in the fridge.  I'm pretty sure I'm just going to throw it away.  If eaten right away, while still warm, the cookies actually weren't that bad.  After they sat awhile, they weren't the greatest.  They looked nice though.

Needless to say, I didn't win for my plating presentation.  That went to someone who had shortened her Christmas tree so she used the pieces of the stump as pedestals for her gingerbread cream cheese bites.  She definitely deserved to win.  I had a great time mingling with the girls over hors d'oeurves and their yummy treats.  There were 16 of us so I came home with way too many cookies for just the three solid food eaters in the house and sent Bill to work the next day with a bag full to share with the nurses.  I would definitely do this again but next time, I'm sticking to basic drop cookies or bars or bite sized somethings!

Bring On Fall!

I have all of the essentials to have a yummy Fall!  Just add coffee....

Mr. Freeze

We went to Toledo for a night last week to visit my family and a trip home wouldn't be complete without a stop in at the local ice cream shop, Mr. Freeze!  I've been going there since they opened over 20 years ago and I always crave their Shamrock Sundae in the summertime.  I think it's fun that my own kids can now go to my childhood haunt and start to build their own yummy memories.  It's just a walk up place so there is definitely a lack of seating.  No bother to Audrey, however, who took matters into her own hands and plunked right down on the ground!

 Vivian, just you wait, you're going to love the ice cream too one day.

Audrey Update & Sunbutter

I chatted with the doctor about Audrey's tonsils and weight when I took Viv in for her 2 month appointment.  They aren't going to take any further action right now on the tonsils because they don't seem to be causing any real problems.  The criteria for a tonsilectomy is if the child has 5 cases of strep throat within one year, has sleep apnea or other documented issues directly stemming from the tonsils.  From what I can tell, Audrey is a heavy breather at night with some snoring but I don't think she's a candidate otherwise.  Hopefully she'll end up like Bill - just a person with big tonsils!  We stopped the nose spray because it didn't seem to be working.  I tried to get another pic but Audrey wouldn't stop moving so they all turned out blurry.  If her tonsils have shrunk, it's not noticable anyway. 

Regarding her weight, the doc said that Audrey is only in the 3rd percentile but as long as we focus on getting her to eat good fats and proteins, she'll just check her again at her 3 year appointment.  I know that Audrey is up to 25 pounds so that's a good sign.  She's been eating like a horse too - corn on the cob (she'll eat a whole one!), BBQ ribs, spaghetti with meat sauce, chicken drumettes and, a new item in our arsenal, sunflower seed butter - aka Sunbutter. 

I am really bummed that Audrey can't eat peanut butter.  I feel like she's missing out on a major childhood food so I wanted to find an alternative.  I knew that using another nut butter was risky due to the chance of peanut cross contamination so I looked to see what else was available.  With soy butter or Sunbutter as the other options, I didn't hesitate to go with Sunbutter.  Imagine stuffing your mouth full of sunflower seeds and having it be SUPER sticky - that's pretty much what it tastes like.  It's actually really good and surprisngly, even stickier than peanut butter and with the same amount of protein and fat per serving.  Audrey seems to really like it so I think we've hit the jackpot.  She'll be tested again when she turns 3 to see if she's still allergic to peanuts so until then, Sunbutter and jelly sandwiches it is!  I'm also selfishly excited because we have a number of recipes that call for peanut butter that I pretty much wrote off.  I'm anxious to subsitute the Sunbutter and see if it works.

Happy Birthday, Bill! - May 5, 2012

My man, my handsome, sexy husband, turned 35 this year!  He had requested dinner at his favorite restaurant in town L'Albatros, so I called ahead and arranged for us to have their 6 course tasting menu.  What we didn't know was that they'd prepare a special menu just for the two of us.  When we sat down, they handed us small printouts (see below) of what they were going to prepare.  We looked around and realized that we were the only ones who had these.  After that, the sommelier came by to discuss wine options with Bill as he was planning on having a pairing with each course.  I asked the sommelier to have their mixologist prepare me a surprise mocktail.  I was given the yummiest ginger, rosemary and strawberry drink - a combination I never would have thought of.  It was delicious!

If you count the amuse bouche, we really had 7 courses and by the end, Bill really had 8 glasses of wine because the sommelier threw in an extra glass before the cheese course!  I had to drive home and what you can't see in the picture above is that I was wearing 3" heels and Bill's car is a stick!  Oh well, we made it alive.

The amuse bouche was foie gras terrine over brioche toast with rhubarb compote and edible flowers from their garden.  Not to take away from the other courses but it was quite possibly the best few bites of the whole night.  For the fromage course, a cheese plate - and by "plate" I mean rolling butcher block cart - was brought to our table and a server went through all of our options.  I think there were about 10-12 different varieties to choose from.  They had your mild cheddar all the way to your super stinky blue.  We opted for a creamy cheddar, a goat and the super stinky blue.  It was paired with toast points and fig jam as a palate cleanser.

Throughout the meal, we wondered how we were lucky enough to be enjoying such indulgence.  Life is definitely good and we are definitely spoiled.

Parsnip Fairy

I believe there is a Parsnip Fairy at my work.....either that or I'm being stalked.  True story - I bought parsnips for the first time about a week ago so I could make parsnip puree.  The only person who knew this was Bill (or so I thought) and he and I had discussed going online to find a recipe to make sure we did it correctly.  I've been procrastinating and just haven't gotten around to finding one.  I came into work today (after being out sick yesterday) and ta da!  On my keyboard was a print out (in color, no less!) of a Tyler Florence parsnip puree recipe!!  I'm excited to use it and will let you know how it goes.  I wonder what else I can just think about and have it magically happen?  :) Thank you, Parsnip Fairy!

The Breakfast of Champions

I realize that I said I was going to start eating better but resolutions are only for breaking, right??  I've never been a huge donut person and I'm sure that in the past, I've gone years at a time never even eating one.  I do, however, have fond memories from my childhood of waking up on random Sunday mornings and finding out that one of my parents had already left the house that day to go and bring back donuts.  I also always looked forward to mornings at my cousins' house because they'd get donuts for us to.  In my adult life, I haven't eaten many except when I was pregnant - I craved them like mad.  So much so, that Bill and I scoured this town for donuts one morning and ended up at the local grocery store because no one had any.  Enter my co-worker.  He lives about 30 minutes away in Cedar Rapids where they have stand alone donut shops.  He would bring in donuts every once in awhile and I finally asked him if they had my favorite - chocolate covered, cream filled (white cream, not that yellow custardy stuff - yuck!) long johns.  To my delight, they did!  Now, about every other month, I have a surprise breakfast waiting for me at my desk (the sprinkles aren't normal - those are just for Valentine's Day):

YUM, YUM, YUM!!!!  And I love the bonus frosting on top!  Oh, and did I mention that he always get me TWO?!  :)

New Year's Resolutions

I don't typically "do" New Year's Resolutions.  I like to think that I am continually striving to make myself a better person all year round so why should I only start fresh upon the new year?  This year, however, after some serious reflection about some things I haven't liked in my life, I decided that I would embrace the New Year thinking and take some action.

1)  I will actually call people to talk rather than just text.

The trend of people not speaking to each other on the phone kills me.  Unfortunately, I find that I now do the same thing.  It's so much easier to text someone something quick than call and GASP! have them answer and have to actually talk to them.  But what does that say about us?  Is it really that hard to speak to our so-called friends?  I'm not saying that I will never text anymore, I'm just saying that I will think twice when I try and contact someone.

2)  I will take better care of myself by working out and eating right. 

I was lucky; I only gained 25 pounds when I was pregnant with Audrey.  It wasn't really that hard to lose and in fact, I ended up losing more than 25 pounds.  What I found, however, is that my weight slowly crept back up because I was still eating like I was pregnant - my craving for sweets and ice cream only went away a few months ago - and I wasn't doing anything to excercise.  The result?  In a short span of only a few weeks over the holidays, I gained more than I'm comfortable with.  Starting after New Year's Day, Bill and I dragged out our Wii Fit and agreed that together, we would workout 30 minutes 5-6 nights a week.  The result?  After only 2 weeks, he'd lost 2 pounds and I'd lost 3.   Not too shabby.  Plus I just feel better.  I'd been starting to feel achy and missed the flexibility I once had.  I'm getting my groove back.

Bill and I have also come to realize that we eat way more than we should.  Even little things like at breakfast.  I have always eaten an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast.  I used to just eat half of a muffin until I got pregnant, then I started eating the whole thing.  Sounds minor until you consider that by eating that extra half, I was probably comsuming an additional 150+ calories.  By cutting back to just the one half and smaller portions at lunch and dinner, I figure I'm shaving off enough calories to either lose weight or maintain where I am.

3)  I will be a better friend by responding to emails in a more timely fashion and by checking in "just because".

In the same vein as #1 I will be a better emailer.  It takes me forever to respond to people's emails, if I ever do.  That's not being a very good friend and it makes it seem as though I don't care about them which is definitely not true.  I also find that many of my closer friends will text and email me "just because."  It makes me smile and feel loved.  So the next time I'm thinking about someone, I think I'll let them know with a little note.

4)  I will declutter my life - specifically my email inbox and household items.

My house seems to be overflowing with stuff - mail, items to be recycled, baby toys/clothes, shoes.  In the last few weeks, I went through a lot of my clothing and donated 6 large bags worth, 2 bags of shoes (a 3rd bag went in the trash) and 1 bag of purses.  It felt great!  I still have more to do but I think that since we're getting ready to move, it will be easy to get rid of the junk.  Less to move!

I am embarassed to tell you about my email inboxes.  At work, I have over 1,000 emails in my inbox (and yes, I do archive them!; this is what is left).  My hotmail account also has over 1,000 emails.  Where's that Delete button??

5)  I will post a minimum of 3 blog entries a week with at least one being food focused. 

As I'm sure you've noticed, there's been a flurry of blog activity lately.  As one co-worker said to me, I've posted more entries recently than I have in the last few months.  For some reason, I always get blog ideas in my head and even start to draft the text but then never get around to sitting down and typing it out.  I also really want to keep the "Foodies" side going as well, even if to a lesser degree, because cooking well and drinking wine are large hobbies in Bill's and my life.  Now that Audrey is here, I don't want to lose ourselves and just become mommy and daddy who only make fish sticks and tator tots.  We actually have a life too.

6)  I will go to bed earlier.

Not sure what to say about this one other than it's ridiculous how late I go to bed each night.  There's no excuse for staying up as late as I do so as part of #2, I must start going to bed earlier.

7)  I will read more.

I think this goes without saying but I don't have as much time for myself as I used to.  Reading, not that I was doing it a ton before, has gone by the wayside.  When I lived in Chicago, I could knock out a book a week because all I would do to and from work while on the el was read.  That was awesome.  Santa was good to me this year because I got a Barnes and Noble NOOK.  Yay!!  (If you're trying to decide between eReaders, I highly recommend the NOOK.  Write to me if you want to learn more.)  I'm making a point to set aside time each night and I'm well on my way to catching up on the hottest best sellers.  I may actually read the books my little book club recommends rather than just attending the meetings for the wine!

Cheers to 2011!  May you all find strive to be a better person all year round.

Cleveland Rocks!

The wait is finally over but even after waking up this morning, we had to wait a little longer.  The email Bill was to receive, letting us know where he matched for his Urology residency has historically been sent between 1-3am.  We chose to go to sleep instead of waiting up for it so we could fully digest the news in the morning and let our brains go crazy.  Getting up at 6am was painful but after a night full of a stupid reoccurring dream about the match, I was ready to find out.  With our stomach in knots and feeling slightly nauseous, Bill logged on to his email and....nothing.  No email.  This wasn't supposed to happen so we actually didn't know what to do with ourselves.  We decided to start getting ready for the day and kept checking the email about every 15 minutes or so.  Finally, 7:30 rolled around and Bill had to leave for work - still no email.  We were DYING.  He was able to come back home at 9:15 (I had taken the morning off from work) and ta-da!  The email was there.  It had arrived with 2 minutes to spare at 7:58am.

I think we both held our breath as he opened the email and we quickly scanned through the text.  He matched at...........Case Western in Cleveland!!!!  He's really excited because he had a great interview there, liked all of the guys he met and feels there is a lot of opportunity for him to excel and make a great name for himself.  I'm excited because I have family in Cleveland and surrounding areas - my parents and brother are 2 hours away.  Columbus is a little over 2 hours away - not only are some of my closest friends there but I'll be able to see my Buckeyes play!!  Audrey will be able to grow up going to Cedar Point - the world's BEST amusement park....no seriously, I believe it's won this title a few times.  Cleveland itself has a ton to offer too - a great zoo, museums, pro sports teams, Lake Erie, great shopping, and an amazing food scene.  Foodie friends - I anticipate a lot of good eats in Cleveland!  I heard about this open market today that I can't wait to learn more about.  Exploring the different neighborhoods and restaurants is going to be very, very fun - we can do a lot of damage in 6 years.

Anyway, I'm sure you can tell that I'm pretty excited.  The number of things we have to do now is somewhat overwhelming.  We have to get a realtor and then only have a month or so until we have to put our place on the market and pray to God that it sells, buy a house in a good school system by squeezing in weekends to Cleveland on this already tight schedule and find a new daycare that's as great as the one Audrey's at now.  Oh yeah, and pack and move and Bill still has to focus and graduate, while I work.  I think I'll actually thrive on all of this because I love a good project.  :)~  Get ready, Cleveland, here we come!

Oh, Oh, it's Magic!

You know how sometimes you watch an infomercial and you cringe because it's just THAT bad?  Okay, maybe ALL the time.  The real question is, have you ever actually purchased an "as seen on TV" item?  If not, you will after reading this.  Yes, I'm about to write a blog dedicated to....the Magic Bullet! 

You've likely seen it - the infomercial shows a group of friends waking up one morning and congregating in the kitchen after, what I would guess, was some hard partying.  Suddenly the hosts whip out their Magic Bullet (MB) and everyone's problems dissolve away as they eat chips and guacamole, chicken alfredo, pesto, smoothies and yes, more alcohol for breakfast.  It seems to good to be true: just 1 - 2 - 3 seconds! and you have a myriad of food and beverage options (nevemind that they seem to pause for a second or two while counting).  We received our MB as a Christmas present and never even took it out of the box for quite some time.  I think Bill wanted to start making quick protein shakes and finally opened it.  Ours came with the blender base, two blades (I have no idea what they are called or are supposed to do but I know that we really only use one of them), one small container, one large container, container lids, four handled cups with four tops, a lid with holes in it (for your freshly grated cheese) and one recipe book.  I think newer models come with even more gadgets and containers.  We quickly found that the MB is really all that it promises.  It has actually replaced our fancy schmancy Cuisinart blender!  (To be honest, the Cuisinart was so loud and so big, we rarely even used it in the first place.)  The MB is really small but can still be loud depending on what you're blending. 

So what do we use ours for, you ask?  We use it to make smoothies, protein shakes, malts, pesto sauce, romesco sauce, peanut sauce, other random sauces from recipes, baby food, salsa, waffle/pancake mix, and we use it to shred our parmigiano-reggiano.  Just cut up the cheese into cubes, drop them in and 1-2-3 (okay, cheese takes a little longer) and you're done!  We shred up the whole block and store it in the fridge, ready for use.  The beauty about using it for drinks?  Just use the cup as your ingredients container, blend, put the top on and start drinking! 

Here's a super simple, yet super tasty and nutritious smoothie that I like to make with the MB.  It takes about 1 minute to make from start to finish and makes a great breakfast:
1 banana, broken into a few pieces
1/3 c. frozen blueberries
5 frozen peach slices
1/4 c. orange juice
1/4 c. pomegranate juice
--Add everything to MB and blend.

It truly takes less than 10 seconds to blend most items and the recipe book is actually helpful to give you ideas of what you can make with it.  We honestly use our MB almost every day and if you think you have any need for something like this, I highly recommend that you get one.

Living Peanut Free

So some sad news - Audrey was diagnosed with a peanut allergy on Friday.  She had peanut butter for the first time when we were at my parents house over Christmas and developed a horrible rash, vomiting and swollen hands.  We rushed her to the emergency room where they gave her meds and she was fine after a few hours.  Back in Iowa City, we met with a pediatric allergist who tested her sensitivity to eggs, shellfish, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews and pecans.  Peanuts and eggs caused a reaction large enough to be considered an allergy.  Eggs weren't as severe and since we've given Audrey baked goods and quiche (she LOVES quiche!) without any side effects, the doctor said to keep doing what we're doing but to be aware that she could have a reaction.  The more raw the egg, the more likely a reaction could occur. 

I realize that this isn't the end of the world but I'm really shocked and upset.  I thought we did everything right while I was pregnant and we're not allergic to anything so I was convinced our children would not have any allergies.  The only thing I can think is that I ate peanut butter everyday for breakfast while pregnant.  You'd think that this would have given Audrey enough of it so she wouldn't be allergic but maybe it was the exact opposite.  Whatever it was, I told Bill that I'm not touching any peanuts when baby #2 comes along.  I'm scared for Audrey's future - group functions, going out to eat, going to a friend's house, getting coffee at a coffee shop and not realizing they crushed up a candybar and sprinkled it on top (this one hit me as I was enjoying coffee!).  I think I'm also mourning the fact that she will never have the pleasure of eating a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, delicious Thai food, Buckeyes or a yummy PB&J with a nice cold glass of milk.  20% of kids outgrow peanut allergies by age 4 so I'm hoping she's in that 20%.  I've also heard of a few medical studies now where children are given increasingly larger doses of peanuts until they become immune.  I would not be opposed to getting her into a study if we could find one.  Until then, we are Epi-Pen carriers and I will be constantly worried that we'll actually have to use it.  :(

I'll Have the Surf and Turf

I tagged this as both Family and Foodies because I think it will be appreciated by all audiences.  For Halloween, I really wanted Audrey to go as something cute and girly - a flower or butterfly, perhaps.  Bill was flipping through one of the catalogs that we are now inundated with (curse the company who sold our name!!) and came across an outfit that we just HAD to get for Audrey.  I was not sold but figured I'd let him win this one.  :) What did Audrey go as, you ask?  A LOBSTER!  Of course it only made sense for Bill to pull out his old porterhouse steak costume (that he sewed BY HAND) and for me to pull out my old fork costume.  Put it together and voila!  Surf and Turf!

Dinner is Served

This blog has definitely taken a turn towards family entries - okay, they are mostly about Audrey - but luckily good dinners have begun to return into our mix of meals.  Dinner still leans towards the quick and easy but here are some yummy meals we've had recently.

This first one wasn't recent actually and in fact, I promised many entries about it but never got around to it.  It might of had something to do with the fact that this was my last real meal before morning sickness kicked in full force so it's only been recently that I could think back about this dinner and not feel ill.  Here are some shots of our Cooking Extravaganza #2 with Matt and Sara.  Unfortunately, I don't remember everything that was made amymore.

Course 1 - Lobster Bisque made by Sara

Course 2 - Duck with duck fat potato confit and bacon polenta made by Matt

Course 3 - Moroccan spiced lamb chop with twice baked potato and grilled vegetables made by Bill

Course 4 - Chocolate covered strawberry ice cream bon bon with walnuts made by me

We had another foodie night with Matt and Sara right before the Fourth of July this year and we were fresh off of our Alinea dinner.  We took turns making courses again and even tried our luck at making Alinea's Hot Potato Cold Potato.  Definitely wasn't the same but for our first attempt, it wasn't too terrible either.

Course 1 - Bill's Hot Potato Cold Potato - Using a dixie cup and toothpick: cold potato and white truffle oil soup with a hot potato, crimini mushroom (since we obviously can't find black truffles at the grocery store!), chive, parmesan cheese and butter on the toothpick

Course 2 - spring mix salad with candied pecans, pears, crumbled blue cheese and homemade strawberry vinaigrette made by Bill

Course 3 - the most delicious short ribs, which happens to be from the cow we all purchased, made by Matt

served with a take on a twice baked potato and a slaw salad - both Julia Child's recipes made by Sara

Course 4 - I believe this was also a Julia Child recipe - pound cake with rum sauce and strawberries also made by Sara

This next meal is just one that Bill and I had at home recently.  There is a seafood truck - yes, a truck that sells seafood - that comes up to Iowa City from Texas about once a month and sells seafood.  I know, we were totally skeptical and slightly grossed out too (the oil spill didn't help things either), BUT, we had only heard great things so we decided to check it out and are so glad we did.  Bill bought shrimp and lump claw crab meat and decided to make crab cakes for dinner that night.  I LOVE crab cakes.  If they are ever on a menu, chances are that's what I'm ordering.  The ones he made this night were the best ones I have ever eaten.....seriously. We served the cakes with a cranberry walnut salad, biscuits which I jazzed up with cheddar cheese and fresh thyme and a mango salsa (not pictured).

This last dinner was also just something Bill and I whipped up at home a few weeks ago.  If you're a follower of this blog, you may remember my experience the first time I ever had pork belly.  Pork belly is basically the slab of meat that bacon is cut from.  Imagine bacon as a main course.  Awesome, right??  We were so excited when we found out we could buy it but we weren't sure what to do with it.  We ate at Perennial in Chicago about a year ago where they braised pork belly in red wine and then finished it on the grill so we decided to try that.  We served the pork belly with a caprese salad and celery root puree - which was SO GOOD!  We've had celery root puree a number of times - most recently at Alinea - but we'd never made it ourselves.  I highly recommend trying it - peel, cube and boil the celery root just like you would if you were making mashed potatoes.  Instead of mashing them, put them into a blender.  I actually mashed them a little first with butter and cream but I think you could just add it all straight in the blender.  Yum, yum, yum!

After writing this I wish we were having a super yummy dinner tonight instead of just leftover pizza!  Happy eating!