Almost Wordless Wednesday (two days late)

I meant to post this for Almost Wordless Wednesday but ran out of time. This month Izzy has suddenly decided that she LOVES corn. Corn is absolutely my favorite thing in the world (especially in-season Michigan corn) so she clearly gets this trait from me. These pictures were just too funny not to post.

Like you Izzy I often want to make out with my corn on the cob because it tastes so  good

Yes why this is the most delicious thing on the planet. I totally understand your desire to show it off to the camera.

I still need to teach her how to properly get ALL of the corn off the cob....but maybe I will wait a while so that I can eat her leftovers!!

Thanksgiving tomorrow

Turkey Day is tomorrow and as I have already mentioned, I can't wait! CP started cooking for the meal this past weekend while Izzy slept and while I drank my face off in NYC.

I love looking back on our various Thanksgiving menus to see what has changed and what we always have. For instance, I love that we always start the meal with a soup. This year CP and my mom will be preparing the following:

Brined Turkey (in the oven, not smoked like last year)

Gravy

Butternut Squash Bisque

Green Beans (I think CP is planning on making them unhealthy with bacon)

Mashed potatoes (I shot down CP making both mashed potatoes AND a sweet potato dish)

Stuffing

Salad

Pie/tart (not quite sure what kind my mom is making- probably pear)

It's a smaller meal than usual this year since it will only be 5 adults and Izzy but I'm okay with that. CP also decided to get a smaller 10 pound turkey which I'm kind of bummed about because that means we won't have a lot of leftovers.

It's so crazy to think that last year I was 39 weeks, 1 day pregnant on Thanksgiving! I know that I say this every year but man what a difference a year makes!!

Curious about our previous menus?  Here is 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009.  What does your menu look like this year?

Lactation cookies

As I have mentioned before, my milk supply has been a little iffy and I want to make sure that I have enough milk stockpiled before heading back to work next month.  I have been eating a ton of oatmeal, but half the time I don't eat breakfast and I'm also getting kind of sick of oatmeal!  I heard about lactation cookies and thought that I would give them a whirl.  I found this recipe from La Leche League and thought I would share it for anyone else wanting to boost their milk supply.

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 tbl water
2 tbl flaxseed meal (no substitution)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups thick cut oats
1 cup chocolate chips (I used raisins)
2-4 tbl brewers yeast (no substitution)- I used 3 tbl

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix flaxseed meal and water; set aside for 3-5 minutes.

Mix softened butter and sugar together.  Add eggs.

Stir flaxseed mix into butter mix and add vanilla.  Beat until well blended.

Mix dry ingredients (except oats and chocolate chips/raisins) together.

Add butter mix to dry ingredients.  Stir in the oats and then the chocolate chips/raisins.

Drop on parchment paper on baking sheet and bake for 8-12 minutes.


Note: this recipe makes A LOT of cookies.  I only cooked half of the dough and froze the rest.

Thanksgiving menu

I didn't want to  break my streak of posting our Thanksgiving menu, despite the fact that it is going to be a crazy day tomorrow.  I will start cleaning tonight with hopes that the dogs don't leave too much fur around the house before the guests arrive tomorrow.  This year I get out of doing any cooking, although I helped CP last night with one his dishes (and will probably help him again tonight).

My sister's boyfriend's family is still coming tomorrow, even though I am regretting telling my sister that it was okay.  Oh well- too late now!!  So we will have 10 people plus an infant tomorrow.  Should be interesting!

Turkey*- CP will be smoking the turkey this year.  We will see how it turns out!
Mashed potatoes
Stuffing
Butternut squash soup*
Wild rice salad*
Gravy*
Brussels sprouts
Vegetable tian- not sure what this is but I'm sure it's something my sister found on Pinterest and wanted to make
Salad
Bread
Pumpkin pie- you know, for the guest coming to our house that was too lazy to make it themselves or buy it on the way!!!  ARGGGHHH!
Pear tart

*CP is making all of the starred items.  The rest will be prepared by my mom and sister.

It's crazy.  Last year we were in the middle of our dining room renovation and we spent Thanksgiving weekend at my parents house in MI.  This year?  Our house is fairly done in terms of renovation and I will be a mother in two short days.  What a difference a year makes.

Interested in our menu for 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009?  Click on the links!

How will your turkey be prepared this year?  I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Fresh dishes

I LOVE FRESH PRODUCE IN THE SUMMER.  Sometimes it makes me want to move to a warmer climate to have a longer growing season, but I would miss the snow and yes, even the cold.

Recently, I have had two AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS dishes that I just had to share.

Lemony Orzo Pasta Salad

Looking for a super easy but also tasty summer salad?  My friend made this a few weeks ago when we were at her house and I had to make it myself.  It's fresh and light- perfect for hot days.  Did I mention that lately I have been a bit obsessed with orzo pasta?

Ingredients:
-2 cups of dry orzo pasta
-2 tbsp olive oil
-juice and zest of 1 lemon
-1 large English cucumber, seeded and chopped
-1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
-1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
-1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
-salt and pepper to taste

*Note: we had fresh basil that we chopped and added into the salad

Directions:
1. Cook the orzo according to package directions.
2. Drain the pasta, then let it cool for a few minutes.
3. Toss pasta with the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, cucumber, feta, and herbs.
4. Season with salt and pepper.

Recipe originally found here


Eggplant and Red Pepper Salad

My mom made this dish this past weekend and WOW.  I will definitely be making this again soon- especially once we have eggplants to pick from our garden!

Ingredients:
-1 large eggplant, peeled and sliced crosswise into 1/4-inch rounds
-2 tbsp kosher salt
-6 tbsp vegetable oil
-1 large onion, finely diced
-2 large red bell peppers, finely diced
-3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
-1/4 cup chopped parsley
-1/4 cup lemon juice
-1 tsp paprika

Directions:
1. Sprinkle eggplant with salt, arrange in a single layer on a paper-towel-lined plate and let rest for 1 hour.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat.  Add onions, peppers, garlic, and saute until onion is soft and translucent, 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, thoroughly rinse salt from eggplant and blot dry.
4. In another saute pan set over medium-high heat, heat 2 tbsp oil until it shimmers.  Working in batches, add eggplant in a single layer and fry until dark brown all over, 2-3 minutes per side.  Transfer eggplant to paper-towel-lined plate as you go.  Repeat with remaining rounds, adding oil as necessary.
5. Add eggplant to onion-pepper mixture and cook, stirring to combine, 5 minutes.
6. Remove pan from heat.  Mix in parsley, lemon juice, and paprika.

Not sure where my mom found this recipe, but I know she cut it out from a newspaper!  Maybe the Chicago Tribune?

Cheese please

As I mentioned on Monday, I am ALL about cheese right now.  The best kind?  Hot melted cheese.  So when CP and I were looking for a salad recipe to make for dinner on Sunday night with my parents, we came across a rye berry, leek, sun-dried tomato salad with broiled cheese on top?  I was sold.

Then CP left for Puerto Rico (thankfully he is back tonight) and I had some leftover cheese.  So I decided just to make the cheese part of the salad.  Totally worth it.

Want an easy appetizer or something quick to put on top of bread?  This is your dish.  As always, sorry for the crappy iPhone pictures because god knows I'll never be a food blogger.  

Ingredients

1/4 lb of haloumi cheese (we couldn't find this but a good and easier-to-find substitute is queso blanco)

1.5 tsp of oregano and thyme

1/4 tsp of black pepper (we used white)

2 tsp of olive oil (we used the oil from the sun-dried tomato bottle)

*note- the cheese is already salty so no salt is needed in this recipe*

Directions

1. Place a rack 6 inches from the heat source and put your oven on broil.

2. Cut the cheese into thin slices and put them on a plate.

3. Brush cheese with olive oil, then sprinkle with herbs and pepper.

4. Turn cheese over and brush the other side with olive oil, then sprinkle with herbs and pepper.

5. Transfer the cheese to a broiler pan (we lined it with foil for easy clean up) and cook for 5 minutes or less- basically until brown.  Turn once during cooking.

As you can see I came VERY close to burning these!

The verdict?  Positively delicious!!

New food

This weekend CP and I tried Guatemalan food for the first time.  He has been traveling to a number of Latin American countries for work and has discovered papusas.  He then took it upon himself to drive us down to a papusa restaurant highly rated by Yelpers for lunch on Saturday.  Good thing I still have my appetite these days!

I started out by getting a banana shake which was not as thick as a milkshake, but refreshing and light.  The restaurant also brought us hot horchata which I had never had before.  It's a drink that has rice in it and it's sweet and delicious.

Horchata picture from here (link includes recipe) 

When CP first described papusas they sounded like empanadas which I LOVED when I lived in Argentina, but when I tasted them they are more like quesadillas.  Except instead of tortillas on the outside, the "dough" is masa harina (what is used in tamales).  My papusa was a vegetarian which CP promised would have a lot of cheese (right now I'm really big on cheese), along with zucchini in it.  He got one with Guatemalan flowers in it and then one with chicharrones (aka fried pork belly).  Papusas usually come with what looks like a coleslaw mix to put on top.  

Picture from here

I had to take some of my meal home because the shake, chips and salsa and the horchata drink filled me up before my meal even arrived!  The best part was the meal was so inexpensive!!

I can definitely see CP and I trying to make papusas in the near future.  If you want an easy recipe I found one here.  As with empanadas and tamales, you could easily put whatever you want inside the dough!

Have you tried some new foods recently?

Good and the Bad- Easter weekend edition

Good and the Bad

All of the Good from Easter weekend:

*CP worked really hard Friday and Saturday to finish painting both our bedroom and the first floor bathroom (even though we use low VOC paint we decided that I should stay out of the room).  We now need to clean up the floors, hang our new blinds, put up the custom shelves for our closet, and move our furniture back into the room.  I can't wait!!  (Hopefully I can post some before & after pictures soon.)

*Saturday night I finally met my good high school friend's wife and he finally met CP.  We had a fun night out- I wish that he still lived in the Chicago area.

*CP made a delicious Easter dinner of ham, spring pea soup, an asparagus/lima bean dish, and a spinach/potato souffle.  I made rolls (but forgot to add salt- whoops!) while my mom made a limoncello trifle and my sister made a yellow cake shaped like a bunny.  It was all delicious (I couldn't eat the trifle because it had raw eggs in it).

*Fuzzy Britches and Busters' "cousin" came with  my sister and her boyfriend so Buster had some much-needed play time/rough housing last night.   

*Beautiful weather this weekend.  In the high 50s both days and sunny.  I took Buster on a 2.3 mile walk on Saturday and it was glorious.  I can't wait until it continues to get nicer out!

*My daffodils, tulips, crocuses, and hyacinths bulbs that I planted last fall are finally starting to pop up through the mulch.  I can't wait to see them- that's when spring is really in full swing!

All of the Bad from Easter weekend:

*Right before CP and I were about to put up the new mirror in the downstairs bathroom, I dropped it and it broke.  Now we have to go buy a new one because we have already drilled the holes for the mirror and don't want to ruin the nice new walls!

*My parents have a timeshare and often can't use the points so CP and I get to take fabulous trips.  It's how we have been able to travel to Hawaii, Cancun, the Bahamas, and ski in Colorado.  I truly thought that our IVF cycle wasn't going to work so before we started it we put in a request to go to Ecuador.  As you guys know, CP has been traveling around the world for work and because his company flies him on business class, we already have two free flights to go anywhere in the world except for Australia/New Zealand.  So between the free hotel and free flights we were looking at a really inexpensive vacation.  Unfortunately, we were still on the waiting list, then found out about the pregnancy, so we decided to withdraw the request.  Hopefully we get to head down there soon....for now it just won't work.

*We have been trying to sell our condo out west for 2.5 months now.  It's extremely frustrating that we haven't had any offers yet.  I really am loathe to rent it out again but it may come to that.  *sigh*  We were hoping to use the proceeds on our house here- like for windows or siding.  :-(

*Speaking of our house, we are fairly certain that we have a dead animal in one of our air ducts.  The smell started on Friday while I was working from home and I thought it was burnt hair or something.  We opened doors and windows and asked my parents what they thought it was....yep, dead animal.  Unfortunately the duct cleaner company can't come to our house until Weds and the temperature has dropped back down to 40 so no open windows.  :-(  I guess I'm going to have to burn a scented candle!

How was your weekend?

Snippets

CP left for Colombia yesterday.  He gets back late Friday and then is off to Brazil Sat night.  I can handle him gone for this month, but will definitely need him around more next month....  The sooner we get our IVF schedule down, the better so that he can block out dates where he can't travel.

Thankfully CP is leaving me with delicious and super healthy food to eat the rest of the week.  We decided to take a weekend off of home improvement stuff and have a fairly lazy weekend.  Sunday we ended up cooking most of the day, but CP finds that "relaxing."  Weirdo.  We had my parents over for dinner on Sunday night to a Lebanese feast.  Three kinds of hummus (regular, beet hummus and pumpkin hummus), chicken kibbe, small eggplants stuffed with lamb, a winter tabouli salad, fool moudamas, and a red curry soup.  Thankfully my parents took some of the food home, but I definitely have enough food for lunch AND dinner while CP is gone. 

Beets make for a very pink hummus!!

I went to my first fertility acupuncture appointment on Saturday.  Acupuncture is covered by CP's insurance (which I am still on for now), but it doesn't cover IVF.  My insurance covers IVF, but not acupuncture.  Weird.  Anyway, I have had acupuncture before (in high school for pain in my right shoulder.  Nothing else worked- I don't think I could have finished the tennis season that year without it) so it wasn't scary.  I had some fertility-friendly tea, told the acupuncturist way too much about bowel movements, my cycle, whether I had hot or cold feet, my diet, etc. and had a bunch of needles stuck in me.  It was pretty relaxing so I'm headed back next Saturday for another appointment.  CP thinks that I am crazy but whatever.

So technically my one-month dose of Lupron should be fading away as of yesterday, but the symptoms are sure deciding to stick around.  My headaches aren't so bad anymore (more like background headaches), but the body aches and the exhaustion are killing me.  I haven't really been working out too hard because even just a walk with Buster on Sunday made my body feel like it had been hit by a truck yesterday.  I wonder if it is the combination of the Lupron AND the birth control pills?

Our condo out west has been on the market for a month now without any offers.  It would be REALLY REALLY REALLY nice to sell it as we could really use the money towards our current house.  Not having renters in the condo for the past two months has not helped our bank account....

Nor is the $2600 my insurance company is telling me we will have to pay for our IVF meds.  I was expecting to pay at least a little, but the Gonal f is $1770.  I don't know how you ladies without insurance do it.

Easter weekend

What a relaxing Easter weekend! CP got home from work travel on Friday night and Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed down to my aunt’s house (last year I went to the spa weekend at her house).

We were a little worried about the fact that there would be SIX dogs at her house this weekend. Yes, my aunt and uncle have four dogs- and one of them is not spayed. We were extra worried about Buster’s hormones going into overdrive because she will also be in heat pretty soon. Thankfully, all of the dogs got along and our dogs came home EXHAUSTED from running around.

When we go to my aunt and uncle’s house we know that we will get two things: 1. Great food and 2. Great wine. They have a huge garden and relationships with local butchers, seafood markets, etc. They also have a ridiculous wine cellar and my uncle is quite knowledgeable on the subject. This weekend was no different- especially for Easter lunch.

My uncle decided to break out his roasting box and roast a pig. The pig goes into the box and the coals are on top, cooking the pig below. It took about 3.5 hours.

CP helped my step-cousin smoke eggs (who knew you could do that?) and smoke a couple of birds my uncle hunted last fall. Add some delicious scalloped potatoes (made even better with no cheese) and some veggies and it was a fantastic meal.

The dogs passed out for most of the ride home….Buster in what looked like the most uncomfortable position in the world.

How was your Easter weekend?

Pinterest

Every day more and more of my friends are joining Pinterest. I was annoyed at having to get an invite, and still think that having to get an invite to join the website is silly, but I’m glad that I did. I annoy CP on a daily basis by showing him something I found on Pinterest…a new recipe, a piece of furniture for our sunroom, DIY crafts, etc.

Not everything that you find on Pinterest works. For instance, I showed CP a picture of a coffee table made out of two skids. His comment was, “That will never work. They use the crappiest wood for skids and even if you sanded them there would be all kinds of splinters and it would never hold anything.” Point taken. I’m glad that I have him around for some logical thinking because otherwise I was starting to get excited about the new coffee table I was going to make! Ha.

So far I have mainly made food off of Pinterest. Here are my comments in case you would like to pin these items.

Sock bun/ Curly Hair Without Heat

(Me with my sock bun)

I tried out this technique one night when bored (see picture above). The video at the end of the post was easy to follow and sure enough I had a sock bun (which I loved as a hairstyle- will definitely be doing it again). The next morning when I took the bun out though, my hair was nice and curly but too poofy. I blame this on the fact that the tutorial tells you to put it high on your head. I will try this again with it lower on my head.

Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread

I made this recipe for the Superbowl- but without pepperoni. The recipe was pretty good (I used Whole Foods pre-made pizza dough), but would have liked a little more flavor. The outside pieces of monkey bread were great because you brush the outside of the pan with garlic butter, but the inside were kind of dull (despite the fact that I brushed them with the garlic butter as well). I would probably not make this again.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Delicious. I would definitely make this again. I took it to a party and everyone loved it!

Caramel Brownies

The overall brownie taste was good, but somehow my brownie texture was more like fudge than a brownie. I did use pre-made caramel sauce from Whole Foods so that might have been my issue. My coworkers LOVED these despite the not-quite-right texture.

Skinny Spinach Macaroni bites

The idea of putting healthier mac and cheese (with spinach to up the healthy factor) into a muffin tin is a good one…but the mac and cheese didn’t have a lot of flavor. I would not make this again.

2 Minute Salted Caramel Mug Cake

Last but certainly not least, the mug cake. One night CP declared that he wanted dessert. This doesn’t happen very often so I was shocked. He suggested going for ice cream; I suggested that he help me try out this fast recipe. I made sure that I had all of the ingredients and ended up making the salted caramel chocolate mug cake (I substituted white chocolate chips for the salted caramel pieces). OMG. I couldn’t believe that it worked but after two minutes in the microwave, there it was: a delicious, moist, and gooey chocolate cake that I whipped up in minutes. In hindsight finding this post was probably a bad idea because I know that I have the ingredients on hand and will make the cake again!

Have you pinned anything good recently? Leave the link in the comments so that I can check it out!

*All images taken from Pinterest (other than my hair picture)*

Thank goodness for a random Monday holiday!

UGH. It’s already Wednesday, I don’t have anything planned after work this whole week and yet I am feeling exhausted and beat up. Boooo. And this is only my second day at work this week!

· Saturday morning I woke up to do a stair workout with a friend. We did 10 sets of an outside 87-stair amphitheatre. The race we have in late March is 688 stairs but we want to be ready! In other good news my friend and I have both raised over $500 (there is a $100 minimum) which means we will be invited to the VIP after party. Woo hoo!
· I then had a glorious hour in New York & Company shopping for myself. CP and I have ourselves on a strict clothing budget ($150/month) which we generally don’t use every month. But it had been a while since I went shopping and I needed a few work clothes. I found some really cute tops and the buy 1 get 1 free pants event is always great.

I bought this polka-dot shirt (I LOVE polka dots!) in black.

I got this shirt and a matching red cardigan. I'm wearing it today!

I got this shirt in blue to put under a couple of suit jackets.

· CP and I spent most of Saturday afternoon cooking/baking for each other. My new favorite cookbook is Cook’s Illustrated. We get the monthly magazine but last year they compiled 900+ pages of recipes into an amazing cookbook. It was a GREAT Christmas present for CP. That night we feasted on braised lamb shanks, creamy polenta, and broccoletti. For dessert I made a classic fresh fruit tart. The custard alone was to die for. I will definitely make it again (despite the fact that the actual tart shell took a long time to make).

Yes the raspberries are shaped like a heart. I am a dork.

· Sunday we spent time at the CT dog show with friends, then tired the dogs out at a local state park.
· Monday I had a glorious day off from work so Buster and I and met a friend and her dog for a hike. (Fuzzy Britches was a little sore and tired from her day on Sunday so she kept CP company while he worked.) Our 2+ hour hike was refreshing and Buster was beat afterwards because he was racing around the woods most of the time with his friend.

Buster on our hike

· Other than that….I’m stuck coming into work all this week and next week because my coworker is out having surgery on her knee. I'm crossing my fingers that I can go back to working from home two days a week after we get back from vacation. I am going to miss working in sweatpants. In addition, I am doing most of my coworkers work so it makes for very busy days and I’m forecasting some late nights.

....and I have no conclusion for this post. :-)

*I was not compensated for the products in this post. All opinions are mine.*

Turkey Day!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am so excited about all of the yummy food that CP is making! CP’s grandmother, his mom and her husband are coming down from NH later today. We would have gone up to NH with the dogs, however I have to work on Friday. :-(

As usual, CP is planning on making way too much food for only 5 people. But at least I know where he gets it from- his mom is baking 4 (!!) pies (AGAIN) to bring down which is so ridiculous. Her excuse is that her friend and friend’s brother will be stopping by for dessert on Thursday night. Luckily I only like two of the desserts so I won’t be tempted by the other two.

Our meal:

Butternut squash bisque
Salad with pears and gorgonzola cheese (featuring lettuce from our garden!)
Turkey (currently sitting in a maple brine)
Mashed potatoes
Wild rice salad (healthier than stuffing)
Roasted root veggies (carrots, parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes)
Kale and bacon
Cranberry sauce (since CP is the only one to eat it he got it in can form this year)
Gravy
Dinner rolls (made by me!)

Dessert:

Pecan Pie
Squash Pie
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (made by me!)

Interested in what our meal looked like in 2010 and 2009?


Does your family make too much food for Thanksgiving? How many people are you having over to your house? Whatever you are doing, I hope that you have a great Turkey Day!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

This is what our street looks like 2 1/2 weeks after Winter Storm Alfred. Our town has promised to pick up the tree branches- we just aren't sure when.

The dogs have enjoyed their new chew toys.....


Especially this limb....

Fuzzy Britches' favorite thing these days is to squeeze herself into the smallest places possible....here it is under a side table.

Being at home while CP works has made me bored....so I made a test batch of dinner rolls for Thanksgiving. They turned out great!

We also had very brown bananas so I made banana bread muffins with raisins. Yum!

Despite lots of leaf stalks breaking due to Winter Storm Alfred, the brussel sprout plants are surviving and the sprouts are getting bigger!

Winter beets are looking good under our winter greenhouse.

Spinach on the left, swiss chard on the right and out-of-control lettuce in the back!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

CP and I have been very busy this last couple of weekends. This past weekend we decided to tackle the 20 or so hemlock bushes that line the side of our yard. The previous owners clearly did nothing to the bushes except cut them back a bunch. Unfortunately there was a ton of dead wood inside the bushes- so despite the 80+ degree temps, CP and I donned long pants, long-sleeved shirts and gloves to cut and pull all of the dead wood out. The branches were killers- I ripped up my forearms and now have holes in the gloves and the shirt I wore! I ended up running three full loads of dead branches in our Ford Escape to the town recycling center.

My scratched up forearm. Ah the joys of homeownership!

I finally broke down and installed Instagram on my iPhone. Had I known that it was a FREE APP I would have done it a long time ago. It's really fun to play with!

Thankfully we didn't pull out the huge brussel sprouts you see in the back...because they have just started to sprout! And finally our leeks are growing thicker so we can start using them.

Lemongrass planted from seed. That is going to make some great lemongrass ice cream! :-)

Yummy eggplants! This plant will be pulled this weekend because eggplants need hot weather.

CP made this last night for dinner. It was a a delicious mix of beef, fresh sage from our garden, onions and spices.

With the colder weather approaching, the dogs were fighting over the one dog bed that we have, so I went out and found the biggest one available. As soon as I dropped it into our bedroom and left for two seconds, Buster peed on it to mark his territory. Arrrgh. I steam cleaned it, but Buster seems to be the one to lie down on it at night.

The dogs getting along on their new dog bed. This only lasted 10 minutes. (The crazy eyes are due to the flash- in people it causes red eyes, in dogs, yellow.)

Our town has a decent farmers market so CP and I decided to can a bunch of veggies/herbs from our garden and fruit from the farmers market.

A full weekend of canning while it rained outside! From left to right: Curried apple chutney, Cranberry Pear Jam, Apple Pie in a Jar, Green Tomato chutney and Herb Jelly. Not pictured: Apple butter.

The good and the bad of our vacation

The Good:

*Spending time with CP’s family.

*Spending time with law school friends- some that I haven’t seen since graduation. It’s amazing how many people in my class have had to open up their own law firms because they couldn’t find a job after graduation.

*Spending time at the pool, walking around National Parks/monuments and then hiking near Rocky Mountain National Park.

*No Lupron freakouts. Yay!

*RELAXING.

*Adding a new TV show to the list of shows that we can watch together. CP and I had never heard of Archer, a cartoon on FX about a secret spy who is completely self-absorbed. The show is HILARIOUS. Chris Parnell (from SNL), Aisha Tyler (Ross’ black girlfriend on Friends), Jessica Walter (the mother on Arrested Development) are all voices on the show. Do you like inappropriate humor? Then you would love this show.

*Eating DELICIOUS Mexican/Southwestern food that we simply can’t get in CT. Boy I miss things that contain green chili sauce in them/on them.

*Luckily for us, New Mexican hatch chiles were in season and we found a place to buy two bushels. We gave some to my SIL and some to our friends for letting us stay at their place in Denver. This week my SIL is shipping us the frozen chiles. I can’t wait for CP’s green chili stew!!!

*Spending some time with one of my bridesmaids, her husband and her new son. He was adorable! We also found out that she is expecting another one!

*Hearing that two more law school friends will be starting to try for a baby in about a year or so. I hope that they don’t have the problems that we are having.

*Hitting up the outlets in CA. I was able to snag some great deals on cute clothes and some new shoes.



The Bad:

*Not making it into Rocky Mountain National Park for the start of the elk rut.

*Although my hormones stayed in check (partly because my doctor had me take 5 more days of birth control pills after the shot), I started getting hot flashes two days after I stopped taking the pills. It feels just like it sounds- the heat runs through your body and lasts a minute or two. It’s not too bad so far….although they would have been awful in the heat in CA! My mom said that the worst ones wake you up at night.

*Not only am I getting hot flashes, but my body decided to (ahem) “flush out” my system before my ovaries shut down so I started going through super tampons like it was my job the past two days. I had to leave brunch at dim sum to run to the store to grab more tampons with my friend’s car because it was that bad. Mr. Fibroid must know that his end is near and is trying to aggravate me as much as possible while he is still around. Bastard.

*CP had some flushing out of his system too- except from a different orifice. He is such a giving guy that he gave whatever illness he had to me yesterday. That’s a very uncomfortable illness to have on a four hour flight home on 9/11 when you don’t want to arise suspicion for going to the bathroom too much. Thanks sweetie!

*Jet lag. Once again CP and I were not tired when it came time to go to bed. So we were up until almost 12am. That 5:45am alarm came way too early….

*Thanks to our poor eating, yesterday morning I weighed in at 208. Must get back on the workout train!!

Weekend

This weekend CP and I didn’t have anything planned per se, but managed to have an exhausting weekend nevertheless.

On Saturday CP needed to do some work so I went for a run (C25K Week 3, Run 2)- it was much easier than the run last week (Week 3, Run 1). That may have been because it was a little cooler outside. I then came back to the house and popped in The Biggest Loser’s Weight Loss Yoga DVD. Working out win!

Lunch that day consisted of a salad with lettuce, cucumbers, radishes and cherry tomatoes all from our garden. Yum. We then took the dogs to the brook so that they could cool off in the water and went food shopping. I made two Indian dishes for dinner (Butter Tomato Sauce- with fresh tomatoes from our garden and Zesty Green Beans- also from our garden) while CP readied the meat.

Zesty Green Beans

We ended up buying almost 40 pounds of meat on Saturday because CP decided he was going to make sausage all day. And I mean ALL DAY. While I took the dogs for an hour walk, CP made Chicken Apple sausage, a delicious breakfast sausage. I then helped him put together the spices for an Argentinean Chorizo. Next up was a Chicken/Turkey Sausage with Roasted Green Chiles. Finally, a Buffalo sausage that CP ended up smoking until 10pm last night. The last sausage is AMAZING and is super delicious with cheese as an appetizer. Mmmmmm. So now our basement freezer is stocked with vacuum-sealed sausages….which we are going to have to start eating as our beef CSA starts up again in November!

Smoked Buffalo sausages

The only bad part of the weekend? I got my period which meant that I couldn’t sleep last night because I was up worrying about getting the Lupron shot tomorrow. I really need to stop reading Internet comments about the side effects. All I can do is stay positive and hope that I come out of the three month shot unscathed.

But today is another day and hopefully I am able to sleep tonight. After work today I am taking the dogs to a local pool for a dog park fundraiser. After the pool is closed for the summer (yesterday), the town allows dogs to jump in for a day. Fuzzy Britches is going to be so excited! Buster will probably just play with other dogs instead of swimming…. But it should be hilarious.

How was your weekend?

Monday bullets

*My interview on Friday was going well…..until they informed me that it was only a part time job. Hmmm. I didn’t see that anywhere on the job details and all of my job searches had been for full time employment. I found this out about 10 minutes into the interview and we hung up shortly after that because there was no use in continuing the conversation. Oh well.

*Friday night I went to see OAR with a friend. It was my first time seeing them and it ended up being a really fun concert.

*Saturday CP went over to a friend’s house at 7am to help smoke pork and drink Bloody Mary’s (crazy men and their meat). Meanwhile I went to a yoga class, took the dogs for a long walk and cleaned the house. That night we headed over to the same friend’s house for the delicious pork dinner and drinks. We never mean to stay late/drink a lot at their house but it always seems to happen…..

*Sunday we didn’t have anything planned for the day because it poured rain all day, but we ended up being very productive. We went to the mall to get outfits for my father-in-law's upcoming wedding. I bought the dress below which isn’t usually something that I would wear but I thought that it would be a great dress for a HOT HOT HOT wedding in Palm Springs and hopefully the wedding in Denver the following weekend (meaning I only have to pack one dress for both weddings).

What color shoes do you think would work with this dress? (NOT purple)

*CP and I also got busy cooking and baking. CP put a beef roast (our last roast from our beef CSA last year) on the rotisserie in his grill with some salt and pepper and later made a chimichurri sauce- delicious. We also used cherry tomatoes and basil from our garden, pairing it with fresh mozzarella for an amazing salad. Meanwhile I made two loaves of banana bread, two loaves of sandwich bread and chicken salad using herbs from our garden so that we would have lunch for this week. Whew!

What did you do this weekend?

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I'm not sure why this picture keeps loading upside down because it is saved correctly, but these are some of the Natchitoches Meat Pies that we made this past weekend to save and make in the next few months. Yum!

Quiche made this past weekend with swiss chard from our garden!

After meeting with the fertility doctor, he suggested that we test for various genetic diseases. If my insurance doesn't cover the test, it is only $316. We decided to go ahead and do the test because if we are both a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis (which would give any baby that we had together a 1 and 4 chance of having CF), we won't be having kids. The test was easy- just spitting into the container I am holding up the picture, mixing a preservation liquid into my spit, sealing the package and then calling FedEx to get the sample picked up. I should hear back in a couple of weeks.



Kefta Beef Fingers made this past weekend to freeze and make later. We used 5 pounds of beef so we made quite a bit! I promise they look better

once grilled. :-)

It's not the prettiest of pictures, but this Roasted Veggie Stacked Enchilada (recipe from The Sweets Life) was delicious! CP is not always a fan of the entrees that I choose to make, but he really enjoyed this. We will definitely make it again.

I got bored one day and decided to make cinnamon rolls. They are surprisingly not that difficult and I got to use my bundt pans. It was really hard to not eat more than one or two for breakfast!

It's blueberry season in the Northeast so while CP and I were in NH we picked up some fresh blueberries. CP LOVES when I bake pies. I really only like baking pies if the bottom crust is premade and I can make a crumb topping (because it is easier). :-)