the weekend

Is it too late to talk about the weekend? Here's my excuse: We got back from the cabin on Monday evening and then yesterday was....really busy. Yes. That's what happened.

We went to the cabin over the weekend just the two of us, which we haven't done since this trip.

I walked over to the sink one morning and saw three deer in the yard. And then suddenly there were six! I only got a picture of this one though. There were more, I swear!




I did quite a bit of knitting. I would have done more if I wasn't so doggone hooked on Words with Friends.



The rest of the time we just sat on the couch. Literally. We hardly moved from the couch all weekend! We were such slugs. This picture is really for this post though, over on our other website



And then we drove home in a blizzard. So, that was fun.

crap that dave says

I'm sure most of you have seen it already, but if not, I would like to draw your attention to our side bar. There you will find a link to our newest project called Crap That Dave Says.

It all started the other night while I was cracking up about something funny and ridiculous that Dave said and I announced "I'm going to start a blog called Crap That Dave says," kind of as a joke, but then I really did.

Enjoy.

boeuf bourguignon

It's one of Julie Child's famous dishes. I tried my hand at it for our Valentine dinner. How did it turn out? Hmm...let's just say I didn't do it justice. But. That might be because our oven almost started on fire right before I started making it. I had our Valentine cheesecake in there and my springform pan was dripping butter all over the bottom of the oven. Picture this: kitchen and surrounding rooms filled with smoke and a dizzying smell that I couldn't escape. It was pretty epic.

So after waiting for the oven to cool down so I could scrub it out, I finally started the 4 hour process of the beef dish. And I had one more thing against me. I didn't have tomato paste. The recipe only called for a few tablespoons of it so I thought I could just omit it. That might have been where I went wrong.

In all honesty, both the cheesecake and the main meal turned out just fine and I would encourage anyone to try making it. It was definitely a learning process! Now that I kind of know how to do it, I think I'm going to try it again will the right ingredients. Ha!

I also don't think this is what it's supposed to look like, but I may or may not have skipped a step or two in the "presentation" part of the recipe. Come on Julia......I had already been at it for four hours, I couldn't bother with presentation!





Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have a piece of leftover cheesecake. Because it's YUM!

valentine garland

I love garland. It's just so happy and festive. I don't really have much in the way of Valentine decorations, so I thought I would rustle up a little heart garland.



It was super simple. All you need is card stock, scissors and twine or string. It actually would have been easier with a heart shaped punch for the middle hole, but I don't have one of those



Since our Anniversary and Valentine's day are only 5 days apart, we have made it a tradition to stay in on Heart Day and just enjoy a quiet night at home. I'm going to attempt a Julie Child recipe. Details to come I'm sure.

What are your plans?

more about three years

We had a wonderful time celebrating our anniversary last night! We went to Broder's which is one of our favorite little places. They make their own pasta so it's always super delicious. Here's what we dined on:





looks amazing doesn't it? That's because it was. I wanted to get a picture of the two of us to document our third year, but I only had my phone camera and the food was there on the table, hot and ready to eat. I interrupted our neighbor's conversation to ask if she would take a picture of us with my phone. She accepted, but looked at me like I had just grown another head. We really were having a good time, despite what this picture seems to reveal:



Don't we look awkward?

You can see how we celebrated our first two years here and here

We are traditionalists when it comes to the anniversary gift and this year it was leather. I decided that I was going to make Dave a wallet, so that's what I did. With the help of my sister of course. But I did most of the sewing, promise!





I think it turned out quite nicely. I'm also going to show you the card I made. Mostly because I'm proud of it.



Cute right? Speaking of cards, I made another card recently for a friend of ours. Can you tell what it's supposed to be?? Those of you who already know are not allowed to guess.



And no, the dude is not from the Nickelodeon show "Doug" even though that's what it looks like. HA! Ahhh...that card makes me happy.

What else....oh yes! I have to show you what Dave got me. Because its awesome. And he deserves props because he picked it out with ZERO help from me and hit it out of the park!

Behold:



And this is my favorite part. Look at the inside:



I'm in love.

3 years

Three years ago today I married my best friend. I know everyone says that but we really were best friends for 12 years before we got marreid. Crazy right??

I love you David!

More anniversary fun to come! I made David's present but cant post pictures until after he opens it tonight. Stay tuned!

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dinner last night

This one also came from my mom.

Potato and Ham Chowder

3 Tbsp. butter
1 pound red potatoes (or whatever kind you have)cut in ½ in chunks(about 3 cups)
1 cup chopped onions
½ cup diced celery ( I use ¾ cup)
4 cups milk
1 cup cream
3 tbsp. flour
2 cups cooked ham diced
1 cup corn (optional)
¼ tsp. pepper
2Tbsp. olive oil

Step 1
Melt butter in 3 quart pot over medium heat. Stir in potatoes, onions, and celery. Cover and cook 10-12 min. stirring occasionally until potatoes almost tender. Heat olive oil in a small fry pan then add ham and stir constantly until slightly browned. Deglaze pan with a couple Tbsp. of milk keeping drippings in pan with ham.

Step 2
Whisk ½ cup of milk with the flour until smooth. Stir into potato mixture along with the remaining milk and cream. Add ham and dripping from the pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 5 min. or until thickened, stirring often. Add corn and pepper and simmer 5 min. longer until corn is tender.

Served with homemade french bread and a salad.

the weekend

Another great weekend!

Here are some highlights:

While we were running errands, we were listening to the ipod on "shuffle" which can be very dangerous, but the ipod was being very kind to us! Especially with this gem:



I got this picture for Dave a long time ago and we finally got it framed and hung!



Psycho Suzi's! It's a super sweet, super themed tiki restaurant.





They have carpet that looks just like wood planks. Crazy!

I started making bread in the form of artisan loaves. It's easy and delicious. I didn't get a chance to take a proper picture before it was mostly devoured!



And we of course watched the big game, but I don't have any pictures of that. I was too busy cheering on the green and yellow!!

the dude

so, we have this neighbor, and he's kind of an enigma. He's almost always outside. Sun, rain, summer, winter, whatever he is outside. In the summer he is always shirtless and his skin is tanned beyond recognition, as in....looks like he has had leather grafted to his body.

Every time we see him he is either mowing a lawn (his or someone else's) or snow blowing, or shoveling or sitting in his big truck in his driveway smoking.

Even though we see him on almost a daily basis, it's still like a Bigfoot sighting or something. We get quiet and one us whispers "the dude...." like it's a celebrity sighting but we don't want him to know that we know who he is. Or something.

The dude abides.

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dinner last night

Chicken Cordon Bleu

This is adapted from one of my mom's recipes and I'm not sure where the original came from. It's a pretty standard chicken cordon bleu recipe.

Ingredients:
skinless boneless chicken breasts
sliced ham
swiss cheese
cream of mush soup (make sure to get the kind with no MSG)
1 egg
panko crumbs

*pound chicken breasts until they are 1/2 inch thick
*dip chicken breast in beaten egg and then into the bread crumbs
*place chicken in a baking dish
*top chicken with ham and swiss cheese
*top with soup - I don't use the whole can. maybe 1/2 to 3/4 just enough to cover and keep the chicken moist
*bake for 50 minutes covered in a 350 degree oven.

I served it with steamed broccoli and garlic cheese bread. Yum!

weekend

I can still talk about the weekend right? It's only Tuesday so I'm going to say yes.



This winter has been forever long. Seriously. I need fresh flowers to keep me sane.

Remember when I told you about our extra large visitor? Behold:





I'm paranoid about ice dams, so Dave is trying to quell my fears by scraping off part of the roof. What a guy!