CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A Fly On The Wall During The Palm Sunday Pancake Breakfast

Amie: So hun, what do you want to do for Easter dinner this year?
Jay: I dunno.
Amie: Well, I know you're never too excited about ham, so maybe lamb? Or we could be really crazy and get duck!
Jay: How about goat?
Amie: ::silence::
Amie: I think duck sounds so good! And we've never cooked duck before!
Jay: I hear goat is really healthy and we've never cooked it before.
Amie: ::silence::
Amie: But where do you even BUY goat? It's not like Safeway has it over by the pork & beef?
Jay: There's that mediterranean place where we got that really good hummus. I bet they have goat.
Amie: Really? But doesn't duck sound soooo good?! I love duck! And that lamb we made a few years ago was delicious!
Jay: Ready to go? The let's go to the Farmer's Market while it's still early....

10 minutes later at the Farmer's Market we come upon this sign:

Jay: 1 Amie: 0

And I must say I'm surprised nobody noticed the Goat Loin Chop in the last post...
I don't think we're going to have it for Easter Dinner, but we will be having it soon, so stay tuned for details...


                          

Monday, March 29, 2010

Weekend Update: Home Sweet Home

On Thursday night, Jay and I looked at each other in shock once again realizing that we'd be home together for another weekend. I know it's probably sounding old to you by now, but for us it really is nice to be home together! Especially after last year

Friday night after work we headed directly to Chino Bandito to meet up with not only Jeff, Tara & Alistair but also our friends The Jarmans who were in town from the L.A. area. We had yet to meet little Liam, so it was such a treat getting to meet him and to catch up with Angie & Chad. 

Liam & I got along very well!


The must-take photo with Chino's mascot

Saturday morning after relaxing at home, we headed to the local nursery to find ourselves some pepper plants! My dad made us some hot sauce last year and Jay wants to try to make (and grow!) his own! It was a beautiful day to be at the nursery - being there reminded me of family trips to Claussen's in Vermont when I was growing up!

Look at the smile I caught on Jay! He was strategically trying to avoid the camera, so I think this is a pretty good catch!
The flowers were beautiful! I look forward to the day we can have our own gardens. Flowers out front and a big vegetable garden out back! 

We ended up coming home with a habanero plant and a tomato plant. We were told that both would do well in big pots since we don't have a real yard to plant them in. The other pots in the below picture include seeds (that I found in my storage - they're old though, so not sure if they'll "work") for cilantro, green onion and rosemary. 


Look at Jay tending to his habanero. The guy at the nursery gave him some tips as to how to make them extra hot, so we'll see how that works out!


Remember this post from a few weeks ago when we got cheese curd at the farmer's market? Well lookee what we made here for dinner on Saturday night! I call it Arizona Poutine since we used jalapeno cheese curd. I think it turned out pretty good - not a huge fan of the gravy as I've been spoiled with the homemade stuff my whole life, but overall, I say it was pretty successful! You definitely can't buy this in Phoenix!


And from the farmer's market this week, here's our bounty:

I have decided to do a few "From our Kitchen" posts related to what we get at the farmer's market throughout the week. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with all the yummy things we make!

Until then though - you know it's fresh and local when you get oranges that look like this! It's pretty enough to be in a Sunkist commercial or something!


Can you believe we went to church, enjoyed the annual Knights of Columbus Palm Sunday Pancake Breakfast afterwards (we love it), AND hit the farmer's market all by 11:00am? It was so nice to be up & out and have a full day ahead of us afterwards! We ended up enjoying some sun at the pool for a bit and then got in a workout at the gym as well. We actually worked out both Saturday and Sunday evenings. And tonight too. It feels good to get in some exercise! It also makes me feel less guilt when eating things like this delicious homemade pesto & chicken pasta (made with our very own basil!) that Jay whipped up for dinner last night:


We did a bunch of other cooking this weekend as well so I'll get some fun posts together for those soon! 

Have a great week!
xoxox

Monday, March 22, 2010

Weekend Update: Celebrating Spring

Jay and I had another wonderful weekend at home. It started Friday afternoon when we met up with Ryan for lunch at Pita Jungle. He had such a great time with us that he spent the rest of the afternoon with Jay and let us (Jay) cook him dinner! I had to work and then got my hair cut (like my summer "do"?), so the guys made sure dinner was ready when I got home. What a treat! 
On the menu - Pioneer Woman's Macaroni & Cheese. The only words I can describe this dish is a piece of heaven. And the fact that I didn't have to cook it? Priceless.
It was so nice having our special dinner guest. Especially since he's now living so far away in Jersey. He's not in this neck of the woods very much anymore. 
You know what's weird about him though? He puts ketchup on everything. Even on PW's Macaroni & Cheese. But that's ok. We still love him.
I can't believe we almost ate the whole thing!
Saturday morning we headed to downtown Chandler to attend the city's 1st annual "Barbeque Throwdown". It was the perfect day to be outside and we were both anxious to taste some award winning barbeque. There were all sorts of set-ups from "Big Green Eggs" to huge smokers like this team below:
I stayed "green" and held onto my fork. It ended up being a good thing because forks (and eventually samples) were hard to find as the day progressed! I think all of the vendors were surprised at the attendance & weren't quite prepared for it.
We both got more sun than we had expected! Jay got a red neck (hehe) & I got a little burn on my chest. Next time we won't let that morning breeze trick us into thinking it would be "not too hot" out.
One of the coolest parts of the day was that we ran into Myla who was there with a bunch her friends!! It was such a treat - she lives on the complete other side of town, so to see her there was a very happy but unexpected surprise! We ended up spending most of our time with them (and Jay took stroller duty for her friend Jerilyn and baby Talon (sp?).
After we had our fill, we headed to El Zocalo for some drinks & basketball. I had a delicious margarita and Jay had a beer. It really hit the spot soooo.......you remember our last update where I called us old? Yeah, well, look at what we did the remainder of Saturday afternoon:
And of course, we had to get this delivered later on to round it all off:
Ahhh just like the good ol' days! I guess I spoke too soon about the getting old thing. :) It really was such a blast. We watched basketball, I did laundry (I will admit - the beers made it not so bad), and we just had a nice time at home!

Sunday morning after mass, there was a group from Bethlehem selling carvings in the courtyard. They come every year or so & I've always wanted to purchase a nativity scene from them. Well this year, we finally caved and brought this home with us: 
It is hand-carved from genuine olive wood in the Holy Land. The group of Christians that sell these pieces are able to stay living in Bethlehem by selling these carvings throughout the year. I just love it & look forward to bringing it out during Advent later this year.

Once again we headed to the farmer's market after church to get some veggies for the week. Here's our bounty: 
We made a delicious bruschetta for dinner with the tomatoes (and basil from our new plant!) and a salad with those fresh greens in the back. Jay also made a yummy tangelo vinaigrette to top it off! So fresh & of course it felt great to know we were eating from (and supporting) local farmers! Later this week we're going to make one of our favorite sides by roasting the beets, carrots & turnips.

Phew! Once again we packed in so much fun stuff into just a few days! Spring is definitely in the air! 

Hope you have a great week!

xoxo

Friday, March 19, 2010

a WONDERful St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day isn't what it used to be. For me at least. I mean, back in college it was Taking Beer In Your Coffee Mug To Class Day. Either that or Spend The Day Drinking Green Beer At The Bar Day. I'm not sure if we celebrated this way because we were all a bunch of Irish Catholics or if that's just how everyone did it, but all I know is I'm way too old for that now. 

And if I'm too old for that, Jay might be too. (I'm just sayin')

Anyway - my grown-up tradition has been to enjoy Corned Beef & Cabbage for dinner on St. Patrick's night. If Jay got as excited as I do about it I'd probably try making it myself, but he could take it or leave it so I just get take out instead. AJ's is a fancy-schmancy grocery store here in the Phoenix area & they always put together a great meal that I pick up on my way home from work. It's way better than going to a crowded bar & waiting for an order to be ready. Or even worse trying to find a parking spot. 


Jay had to work until about 6:00, so I enjoyed most of this meal by myself before he got home. I pretty much inhaled the first few bites of the meat because it's oh-so-good and I only have it once a year. All that fat - delish! There was so much of it that even after Jay had a few bites, we had some left over for Thursday night. 

After dinner, we enjoyed a nice mid-week date & caught the new Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3D. 
It was on the biggest screen in Arizona - towering a full 6 stories high! Pretty cool! I hadn't seen a 3D movie since I went to Disney World back in the '90s so it was quite the experience. Expensive popcorn & soda was the icing on the cake.

Of course we had to get a picture to document our H-O-T glasses (Jay suggested the serious pose):
Well the weekend is here and we're both home AGAIN (!!!!) so stay tuned for another fun-packed weekend update! 

xoxo

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Weekend Update: Home at Last!

Jay and I were both home at the same time this weekend! Can you believe it? I still can't get over how nice it was to have a "normal" weekend at home with my love :)

Saturday morning we slept in and then made our way to the mall to get Jay some new shoes for work. We finally got him a nice pair of Ecco's that will hopefully last way longer (and be more comfortable) than the cheepies he usually picks out!

After that, we decided to enjoy the beautiful spring day and go for a little hike on South Mountain. I really wish I brought my camera because it was SO GREEN from all the rain we got this winter. Anyway, when we got back, Jay decided to go out & do some pull-ups on our patio while I did some push-ups inside. I heard a big THUD and went outside to see an injured husband. Instead of doing them like he usually does like this (notice his head placement):
He did one facing the other way and brought his head right up into that wooden beam. Ouch! Check out Scarface the damage:

We did a little First Aid at home and then made Southwestern Butternut Squash Soup thanks to this recipe that Leah sent me on Friday. It's so easy! You start by browning some onion & garlic with spices, then add broth & chunks of peeled squash:

Then you puree it in batches in a blender before returning to the pot to add black beans, tomatoes & corn:

It is good just like this, but if you want to go crazy...

...you can add some tortilla chips or sour cream if you like that kinda thing. It was so smooth & creamy and very filling! We definitely recommend this recipe for something quick & easy! It also makes quite a bit, so you will have enough to freeze for later!

Today after church we went to the Ahwatukee Farmer's Market. It's right around the corner from our house & always has a great selection! This time we ended up coming home with all these local yummies - sauce tomatoes, jalapeno cheese curd (I'm thinking of making poutine!), bacon, and a sweet basil plant that Jay just HAD to have! Let's hope that he's better with plants than I am!
After the Farmer's Market, we headed to the pool to catch some rays. It was just barely warm enough out for bathing suits and a nice nap by the pool. 

Oh yeah, while we were out we also picked up a version of Alice in Wonderland at Blockbuster to watch since we plan on seeing the new one in Imax 3D this week (it's sold out this weekend). Unfortunately they didn't have the cartoon version & the version I got was just not right. I wanted Jay to see the original! Oh well. I could only get through about 30 minutes of it before getting annoyed and turning it off. We'll find the cartoon one some other day for Jay to watch. 

And just now, well, we just finished enjoying White Russians we made with our homemade kahlua! So delicious!!

 
And now we're heading out to get some dinner with one of Jay's friends that is in town for work, but has the night off.  Have a great week!

xoxo

Monday, March 8, 2010

Weekend Update: Sleeping Beauties

Late Friday night Jay and I got on the open road and headed to San Diego to see Tori's girls in their first (and hopefully not last!) musical - Sleeping Beauty. It was a rough drive out there since it was so late, but we made it and groggily arrived around 2am.

The play was put on by Christian Youth Theatre and was held at a local school. We attended their 8th (out of 9!) show on Saturday afternoon and can't even express how impressed we were! We knew the girls would be great - they had been rehearsing for months - but on top of that, the set and effects were outstanding!

::sidenote:: did you know that the earliest copy of the story was written by a Frenchman named Charles Perrault in 1697? 

Now let me introduce you to Salt and Pepper - two of the twelve spinning fairies in a newly updated version (though based on one of many past interpretations) of the classic:
Isabel was Pepper and Serena was salt. All of the fairies had "flavorful" names including Chicory, Clove and Paprika and were dressed in colors that matched their name. 
We are so proud! They did a fantastic job!
The whole family - look how big Noah is now (turning 3 next month)!
After the play, we dropped Noah off at the babysitter so us adults could get some q.t.. We picked a place in Pacific Beach for snacks and drinks and felt old with all of the college kids that were out & about!
We found out at the very last minute that Adam was going to be in town and were glad that he was able to make it home!
 It has been quite a while since we've gone out just the 4 of us & it was so nice to catch up! It's crazy to think that we all met at flight school....Tori & I as the students and Adam & Jay as the instructors! How time flies, eh?!

xoxo