Went out for a weeknight girls night out with Lori, Laura, Doray and Irene. The wine was delicious!
Category: Food & Drink
Mmm mango marg.
I love Saturdays. And I love Chuy’s mango margaritas. Monte prefers their Texas martinis. A good combo. After dinner we took a walk around the hood.
Three birds.
I found myself taking 2 pictures today. After looking at them, they had something in common- both pictures of birds… so to speak.
First one taken while on a walk after work.
Second one right before dinner – Monte’s latest technique for grilling chicken … posed by me 🙂 Brined grilled chicken cooked with applewood chips. Yummy!
Tuesday night at the chez.
We had a bit of a late start for dinner. But it was worth the wait. Monte whipped up some pizza dough and Julie and I were on toppings duty. We played a few rounds of rummikub – a fun tile game that’s a mix of rummy and dominoes. Try it. You’ll like it. That goes for the pizza or the game. 🙂
Sweet red peppers.
Oh man, I love roasted red peppers. I made up a batch for dinner tonight.
I blacken them whole right on top of the gas burner.
Sweat them in a ziploc bag to allow the skin to separate while they cool to the touch.
Cut them open to remove the stem and seeds. Then scrape off the burnt skin leaving the sweet roasted meat.
I warmed them again in a 200 degree oven before filling them
For the filling I stirred up about an ounce of soft goat cheese per pepper, one minced clove of garlic and about a tablespoon of plain Greek yogurt and spread it on the insides of the peppers. Then folded them back up.
The presentation here isn’t great, but they were delicious!!
Citrus bonanza.
Mom sent us a gift certificate from Pittman & Davis orchards at Christmas. We got a batch of fruit from them yesterday. http://www.pittmandavis.com. The ones on the right are Temple oranges, a cross between a tangerine and an orange. The ones on the left are gigantic ruby red grapefruit and are delicious!!!
Need to order a bunch more of these.
Still on vacation!
Today we set out to run a few errands. For New Year’s Eve this year we are attending a party with a murder-mystery-dinner-party theme. We have each been given a part ahead of time and have to come dressed the part. So today our mission was to set out to find appropriate garb and accoutrement. A couple of stops and several hours later we came home with most of what we needed. Stay tuned for more on that in the next few days.
Tonight we stuck close to home, watched reruns of Season 2 of Downton Abbey to prepare for the kickoff of Season 3 in a week or two, and warmed ourselves up with a couple of mugs of hot chocolate. I love these snowman-in-a-snowball mugs that my mom gave us many years ago.
Cheers!
Merry Christmas!
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere! Guess who’s is who’s. 🙂
Tis the season.
When I was growing up, my mom would make Chex party mix every year around Christmas time. I spent many a New Year’s Eve playing board games with my family – and there was always a big bowl of party mix on the table.
Though I rarely make it, it’s something I identify with the holidays. Today mom and I made a batch.
Here’s the recipe that’s made the rounds in our family:
Party Mix
1 small box (~14 oz) each: Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Cheerios
1 bag pretzel sticks
2 lbs mixed nuts
1 1/2 lbs butter, melted
3-4 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
Garlic salt
Mix ingredients in big brown paper grocery bag. Melt butter on low heat on stovetop and stir in worchestershire sauce. Place dry ingredients in shallow pans. Pour melted mixture evenly over dry ingredients.
Bake at 250 degrees for 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. Sprinkle with garlic salt between stirrings, to taste.
Sister time (and a little football).
Last night my mom and I went over to Noreen and David’s for dinner. Colleen and Jake drove over and joined us. After dinner we all sat around just telling funny stories for a couple hours. It’s nice to laugh like that. Everyone in my family is a comedian it seems…
Instead of driving all the way back to Seattle, Colleen and Jake slept at my mom’s, as we were planning on going to Francine and Art’s in the morning to watch the Seahawks game… a rare treat for me, since in Texas all that is usually on the networks is the Cowboys or the Texans (ho hum).
When I went out the front door to get the paper I was greeted by this stunning view of the Olympics. They seemed particularly white today.
Francine whipped up some biscuits & gravy and mimosa’s — breakfast of football divas 🙂 Noreen and David came over after church and we all cheered and screamed at the refs until the Seahawks won in overtime. Awesome!
Ride through the ‘hood.
Went for a bike ride around the neighborhood today. There are a handful of pecan trees nearby that are on common grounds in the neighborhood. We stopped by to gather a bunch of pecans that had fallen. We have several pecan trees in our own backyard, but they don’t bear much fruit – at least not any of the years we have lived here. So it’s nice to find a few that we can harvest from nearby. They are very sweet this year.
Julie and I rented a movie from a nearby RedBox last night – The Amazing Spiderman. It was a good flick. Stop number 2 on the bike ride today was the RedBox to drop the movie off. Then we rode to Academy to see what we could see. Then we stopped by the local pet store to check out the birdies. This is one of two very friendly macaws that live there.
Thankful.
Every year my birthday falls near Thanksgiving, and every few years it falls on Thanksgiving. So, when I was a kid, my birthday cakes and decorations always had pilgrims on them. This pair of pilgrims are ones that my mom sent me several years back. I just had to break them out today. I hope each of you had a wonderful day.
We certainly had a great day. Julie, Marty, Sue, Laura and Joe joined us. The menu included roasted (brined) turkey – 2 of them, to make sure we had leftovers, absolutely heavenly mashed potatoes, delicious and sweet squash fest, cranberry relish, green beans, the (awesome) brussels sprouts dish, and homemade yeast rolls. For dessert we had monte’s apple tart, a birthday cake, and homemade vanilla icecream. Woof!
After the delicious and nearly debilitating dinner, we had to move around a bit, so we played games inside and out until the cows came home.
I am thankful for all the blessings I have been given, great friends and family. I am truly blessed.
And, one more thing to be thankful for: thanks, Marty and Sue for the pretty vase!
Tower o’ sprouts.
We hit the grocery store early today with our Thanksgiving shopping list: turkey: check….potatoes: check…green beans: check. Then I spied this spire and couldn’t pass it up. So we’ll have 2 green veggies on the table this year. 🙂 I love brussels sprouts and found this recipe from smittenkitchen.com earlier this year. I tried it once…with pork chops i think, and it was delicious.
Dijon-Braised Brussels Sprouts
Serves 4
1 lb brussels sprouts
1 T unsalted butter
1 T olive oil
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup broth (chicken or vegetable)
2 to 3 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 T heavy cream
1 T dijon mustard (or more to taste)
Peel several of outer leaves off each sprout and halve lengthwise. In a large, heavy 12-inch skillet heat butter and oil over moderate heat. Place sprouts in skillet, cut sides down, in one layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook sprouts, without turning, until undersides are golden brown, about 5 minutes. If sprouts don’t fit in one layer, brown them in batches, then add them all back to the pan, spreading them as flat as possible, before continuing with the shallots, wine, etc.
Add shallots, wine and stock. Once simmering, reduce the heat to medium-low (for a gentle simmer), cover the pot and cook the sprouts until they are tender can be pierced easily with the tip of a paring knife, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the lid, and scoop out sprouts (leaving the sauce behind). Add cream and simmer for two to three minutes, until slightly thickened. Whisk in mustard. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as necessary with more salt, pepper or Dijon. Drizzle sauce over brussels sprouts and serve immediately.
Corked.
I was inspired to make this wreath by a do-it-yourself project that I ran across on pinterest (original link here) and pinned it in my “DIY: wannado’s” board a month or so ago. I immediately knew that I was going to try to make one – not just because I loved the way it looked, but because I have been hoarding corks for 10-15 years (much to monte’s bemusement) just waiting for a project I could use them in. The hot-pad-trivet-made-out-of-corks projects I usually run across just didn’t do it for me.
I love wreaths, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, I knew I’d better get started if I wanted to finish it before the holidays. I love how it turned out. Here’s how I did it.
I bought an 18″ diameter straw wreath body (from Michael’s) a box of 1 1/4″ dressmaker pins (longer is better) and some craft glue (from Joanne’s). Then I dug out and dusted off several bags/boxes labeled “corks” from the garage and started sorting. I didn’t keep track of exactly how many I used, but I’m pretty sure it’s on the order of about 400-500 corks. I can’t help but do a little math here…. if i estimate that on average I spent $12 a bottle… that means this wreath cost in the neighborhood of about $5000. (heheheh… sigh) Anyway, as I was sorting, I tossed corks that weren’t 100% solid cork. Many were made up of lots of little pieces of cork molded in the shape of a cork. I also wanted to mix up the red wine (stained) & white wine corks and mix in a champagne cork every now and then. So I picked out bunches of them as I went along.
Stick a pin into each cork – get a good bite but leave as much of the pin hanging out as you can.
Then put a line of glue on the pin.
Then stick the cork into position by pushing the head end of the pin into the straw wreath form. I inserted them all at an angle, where one row laid on top of the last one. Sometimes the pins went into a gap between the straw and didn’t stick well. So try to make sure you poke the pin through some of the straw when you push them in. Between the pins and the glue, the corks were surprisingly stable in the wreath when finished.
I must admit that it was a little daunting getting started, but after the first row or two, it really was easy and went a lot quicker than I expected. Here is a close up of how the layering turned out. Some of the corks had years printed on the end or a unique logo, which added a nice touch to the detail.
I hastily added the ribbon as an afterthought, to dress it up for the holidays. I know the ribbon looks a bit hokey, but I wanted to hang it up on the door to take a picture, so I was in a hurry. But you get the idea. After Christmas I’ll remove the ribbon and hang it on a wall in the house dining room or kitchen.
Start saving those corks!
Sheila365 