Tag: Food

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Memorial Weekend

This is why I haven’t been posting…

On Saturday my dad came over to show Steve and me how to change a light fixture, so now we have a new chandelier hanging in our dining room. After that took Riley hiking near Lake Thompson and to a strawberry festival at Sky Meadows State Park, then had dinner at the Hummers’. On Sunday my parents came over for lunch after church, and our friend Tim brought steaks to grill for dinner and then we watched a movie. Yesterday we did yard work and cleaned the house to get ready for a cookout last night. We ended up having 17 people come (a new record); the guys played bocce ball and basketball, the girls sipped margaritas and pretended not to notice how hot it was. Then we made pocket sandwiches in pie irons over the fire pit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for s’mores. It’s the best part of camping without sleeping on the ground.

We had a blast this weekend!

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Happy

Steve and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary today. We don’t usually go all out with extravagant gifts or trips to celebrate, but we do eat well. Last night we went out for ribs, crabcakes, and beer (Newtown Tavern, sister restaurant to Cork Street Tavern, a.k.a. the best ribs in the Valley) and today we did the champagne brunch — including more crabcakes — at Village Square (the best restaurant in town).

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Kill the fatted calf

I had just opened a bag of salt & vinegar potato chips to pout about my missing jewelry orders when I thought of one more place they could be, and there they were. I now remember packing them in the outside pocket of my suitcase so they’d be safe and accessible. Too safe, I guess.

Today I received an unexpected package in the mail. Two of my jewelry students from Sparkles sent a sampler of chololate bark from Lumu Candy and I got all choked up right there in the driveway. Totally made my day. Thanks, Bernie and Susan!
We’re still unpacking boxes, but we’re almost finished. Some stuff I want to leave packed until after I’ve done some painting (like the china so I don’t have to move the cabinet when it’s full, stuff like that). The cable guys were here this morning so we can see our beloved primetime shows again. I’ve been watching some of them online, but it’s not the same as being curled up on the sofa with Steve and Riley. We’re also taking bids from water treatment companies because apparently our water has more chlorine in it than swimming pools require.

Rita’s had free water ice today, so I met my mom there to celebrate the first day of spring. Last night my friend Cheryl booked us a trip to Barbados (woo hoo!), so I got coconut creme to celebrate that, too. She lives in Delaware and I miss her a lot, so I hope having a trip to look forward to will help the withdrawal.
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I like Mike’s

I had picked out a table and chairs for our breakfast room and planned a trip with my mom to Ikea (it’s all about the lingonberries). But, in browsing on Craigslist over the weekend I found the exact set I wanted for half off. The only catch was they were located in Arlington, about 90 minutes away barring any traffic situations.

I was reading Kerry Bogert’s blog earlier about her trip to visit jewelry buddies in Northern Virginia (Hey, Cindy!) and their awesome meal at Mike’s. So, Steve and I (and Phoebe) took a road trip to pick up the table & chairs, and I sweetened the deal by taking him to Mike’s afterward. Incredible lump crabcakes and fall-off-the-bone ribs, definitely in our top 10 favorite restaurants.

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Need coffee to make coffee

This morning I made coffee. Filled the reservoir up, measured the grinds, turned it on. Then I went to answer some emails and heard it happily brewing. We have the kind of coffee maker that brews directly into one or two travel mugs, and apparently after I used my mug to pour the water in I placed it on the counter. And so the coffee brewed onto the counter instead of the mug. The hand towel sitting nearby took the brunt of it and I came back before Riley lapped up the rest. (Caffeine is not good for dogs.) Forgive me if I didn’t include a picture!

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Bradenton Beach

We’ve had great weather, so much of our time has been doing beach stuff like sitting on the sand or by the pool, eating ice cream, and poking around gift shops. It took us a while to get into vacation mode after a busy week. We’ll be sitting and reading and I’d interrupt the sound of waves and seagulls with, “Maybe we could put the green dresser in the foyer” or “Remind me to call the cable company to get our service transferred.” And then I’d go back to my magazine and just enjoy relaxing.

Highlights:
Eating grouper at the restaurant on the fishing pier and liking it (never mind that it was smothered in hollandaise and crabmeat)

The second-floor heated pool right outside our room (hotels.com hooked us up – the resort was amazing)

Riding the free trolley up and down the island

All-you-can-eat pancakes & sausage

Mr. Bones BBQ (are you sensing a food theme?)

Watching sunsets on the Gulf

Bathing suits during the day, jeans and a fleece in the evening

More seafood on a different pier (Thanks for the tip, Brenda!)

Turtle sundae with coffee ice cream

Playing mini golf on I-Drive (I hit it in the water more than once)

Subs from Publix

More Tijuana Flats before we flew home

De-stressing together (priceless)

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Little Miss Sunshine

Steve had a conference this week in Orlando, so yesterday I flew down to join him. After delays at the airport on both ends, I was able to meet my friend Sarah for dinner at Tijuana Flats – one of my favorite people and one of my favorite sources of Mexican food. We met in college and get together whenever we can; she’s one of my friends who a) we can pick up where we left off and don’t have to stay in constant contact, and b) didn’t lose her personality or interests after she had a baby. Great example to follow!

Since I got here at night, it seemed chilly, nothing like summer. The weather channel said today was supposed to be in the high 70s and I didn’t believe them or remember what that felt like. I went and got breakfast at Downtown Disney in jeans and a t-shirt and had to change by 10am.

For the weekend we’re heading to Bradenton Beach, but first I am sitting by the pool until Steve gets finished with his conference. Working on a scarf for my pal Cheryl, but it does seem weird to be knitting here. I also have a stack of magazines to look through before moving. Even if I’m not decorating a house, I love tearing out ideas of stuff to do in the future. As a result of the organizer coming in December, I am working on getting all these tear sheets into accordion files. But I’m on vacation, so I’m not worrying about that right now…

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A martini with a side of brie, please

My jewelry pal Claire has exquisite taste and creativity, and I am the happy recipient of the coolest olive pick and spreader I have ever seen. I knew about bead pens that have an empty shaft and screw-cap to display lampwork beads, but I had never seen a pick or spreader. I will definitely be using them on New Year’s Eve. Thank you, Claire!

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Grits

Mmm the creamy, buttery goodness of grits in the winter. Well, almost winter.

My roommates in college (in PA) were all from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line and liked to eat grits though we didn’t know what they were. Some kind of grain, perhaps from the grit plant? We even looked it up on the canister ingredients: White hominy grits and a bunch of fortifiers. Thanks. Being the scholars that we were, we even looked it up online (this was like 1998, before google was a verb) and found out not only that grits are corn, but that we were all GRITS. Girls raised in the south. Hee hee. And most of us married Yankees, go figure.

Check out www.grits.com for more info and recipes including southern sweet tea.

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Holy hot granola, Batman!

A front is indeed coming through today, so I thought I’d share my recipe for hot granola. Umm… Isn’t that oatmeal? you ask. It’s oatmeal al dente.

Per serving:
1/3 cup granola
1/4 cup water or milk
Microwave for 60-90 seconds, let it rest a bit or you will burn your tongue like me.

I like raisins, but I don’t like the ones that come in granola (my store only carrys the with-raisin varieties, and I have TMJ problems – another time, another blog entry). They’re not just dried grapes in granola they’re dried raisins, which I’m sure is so they don’t make the crunchy part stale. But in hot granola they reconstitute and become plump and juicy again.