Hoppy Easter!
Sunday, April 8, 2012 -
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Happy New Year!
Sunday, January 1, 2012 -
Pierre - Good One...
Friday, July 8, 2011 -
And try to name all the state capitals...
Try it. Pierre may surprise you...
Anyway, from Indy to Eagle River, Wisconsin we drove. I was happy to spend time in the big W for the holiday weekend once again, but this time with friends in tow. Once we arrived, there was plenty of lake, beverages, cheese, brats and more cheese to be had (have you ever dipped a Cheese-It into Ron's Cream Cheese? If not, you are missing the high life my friend.) Of course, we bought ice cream from the lake ice cream vendor. Delicious Choco Taco!
I even introduced the non-Wisconsinites to the concept of a Supper Club. Sipped Capital Brewing for the first time - even included a brew named Supper Club. And of course, New Glarus brewing company is always top of my list in Wisconsin...
Mom and dad were absolutely fantastic - thank you everything; I loved seeing you and spending time with you! Here are a few more photos:
Hope everyone enjoyed their Independence Day. And now, it is just about time for the weekend - enjoy yourself again!
Prawns with a bit of Steak
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 -
As we enjoyed our salad course on Valentine's Day, I had already prepped everything for the main entree. This included a well seasoned steak (note - hubs worked on the steak), prawns (remember our visit to Wisco?) and some parsnip puree. Prior to the serving the salad, I simply peeled and chopped the parsnips. Rather than cooking them in water and adding cream later, I decided to boil them in the cream directly to add more creamy flavor. I added garlic, thyme and a bay leaf to give it some flavor. And that's it...I let it all boil and cook together while I prepped everything else. All that was left to do before serving was to puree the mix (minus the bay leaf) together with some butter and serve.
For the prawns, I wanted to do something different than just broiling them like we had previously. I decided to make a butter bath to cook them in out of some parsley that I had. A stick of butter, an extremely large portion of garlic about about 1/2 a cup of parsley all went into the pan to melt together. I seasoned the prawns, which I had deveined and removed the shell from, with some lemon zest and garlic before placing them into the pan to cook. While this was all happening, hubby was grilling the steak outside.
A very simple meal to prep, it still had the appearance of love and sophistication at the table. The parsnips were buttery and sweet, smooth and creamy. A great base for the Rib Eye steak which was bought from a local grocery store. Hubs created a simple rub out of Worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic and pepper which gave it incredible flavor. The fat marbled steak was rich in flavor, and perfect accompannient to the garlic prawns. Strong in garlic flavor without being overwhelming due to the rich buttery taste, the seafood wasn't lost in the taste.
Definitely a great dinner, and I was happy to see that we saved room for the dessert (which was baking in the oven during dinner), apple turnovers.
A Weekend of Modifications & Cooking
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 -
Yup, I've been fighting a cold since Saturday. 'Tis the season I guess. And though it isn't a horrible cold (despite that I sound like a frog and my head is pounding), it still doesn't make me want to do much despite the pending holiday. So our advent fun has been slightly derailed...but alas, we still try!
Day 17: Happy Chrisma-Hanukwan-Zakah Celebration: Every holiday, hubs and I host our annual holiday gathering for our close friends. Uber casual affair: claymation (specifically Rudolph, hubs fave) and other holiday movies are shown while people mix and mingle with drinks & nosh. Featured this year was hubs home brew of Nut Brown and Hefe - both delicious - and mix of food, including jalapeno popper dip, mini crab quiches, fruit salsa and gorgonzola & pear pizza's drizzled with a honey balsamic sauce. It was a wonderful, laid back evening - thanks to those who joined us!
Day 18: A Stately Affair: We modified this day, as we were going to visit the Indiana State Museum to see both the Titanic Exhibition and 'Odd Indiana.' Plus, Celebration Crossing is always cute if you want to get in the holiday spirit. They even have this little train you can ride, it's adorable. Unfortunately, neither one of us were quite in the mood to go and ended up catching up on some DVR'd tele and holiday shopping. But I'm not complaining! We even decided to have a home fondue evening. We only made it through the cheese course (a basic swiss with adobo chili and bacon) as we were too full for our pending chocolate. Maybe we'll get to it later in the week, and if not, we'll just have lots of fruit to eat up!
Day 19: A House of Ginger: This is another modification, because we didn't build our Gingerbread house as intended. I guess the weekend of no plans was in full force! Instead, we finished holiday shopping and made lots of yummy food throughout the day, including bleu cheese meatballs in this rich and creamy bleu cheese sauce (note - sounds like a lot of bleu, but in reality, it wasn't at all. Fantastic with some good bread too, which we had), sausage and cheddar biscuits and bacon wrapped jalapenos (of course I had to use up the leftovers from the dip!) This was all after a yummy breakfast of pumpkin spiced waffles (subtly, cause we spread some blueberry sauce on top still) and thickly sliced bacon. Lazy Sunday, my favorite.
Day 20: Holiday Exchange: Our own private holiday gift giving, hubs and I have decided to exchange a few small items because we are going to get something 'big' after the holiday. By big, we mean probably another pup. We plan on rescuing one from Tri-State Rescue, so we are waiting for the right one to come along as well as the right time. Nala does need a playmate, so we'll see...but back to the evening. I must have been a good girl this year, because I got lots of Disney love, especially Nightmare Before Christmas. I heart Disney's Vinylmation, so that was a fun treat. And the ornament exchange is tradition, as is the Disney Precious Moment (hubs gets me one every year since we've been married because we had one on our cake table.) I gave hubs his ornament, some basic beer mugs for the sharing of home brews (time to pack up some of those pint glasses!) and his last gift hasn't arrived yet. He really wanted the 1 liter beer mug, similar to the Hofbrauhaus glass. What my baby wants, my baby gets - it should arrive a few days after the holiday.The final week of the advent calendar is here - looking forward to some great food (my taste buds better start working as should my nose...) with friends and holidays with the family! And of course, happy Winter Solstice!
Gift giving - anything you excited for if you are giving or receiving?
A Very Merry Social Weekend
Sunday, December 12, 2010 -
Day 10: Tini's & Turtlenecks was a theme carried through by our friend (who Tim loving refers to as 'Cougar') who was hosting her holiday party. It was a great evening filled with new friends, a fantastic food spread and delicious drinks. We were all cheery on Friday evening - how could you not be when surrounded by friends? I adore LE, she is one of those fantastic people you meet in life and appreciate more and more each day. And her brother D and other roommate T were fantastic hosts as well!
Saturday was Day 11: Beer with a Twist, hubs first physical gift. Hubs loves his beer (as I speak, he is upstairs brewing) and pretzels. I found a place out of Brooklyn, NY called Liddabits that makes beer and pretzel caramels, so why not give them a try? I ended up purchasing a gift package named 'The Cult Classic' which consisted of the beer & pretzel caramels, sea salt caramels, honeycomb, and two candy bars (the Snacker and King.) The caramels are all we've tried so far, and they really are fantastic. Sweet, one piece is all you need. The beer flavors are subtle, but compliment the salty crunch of pretzels. Look them up if you are in Brooklyn, but know that Indy has some pretty fantastic sweets as well (hello Indy's Best Chocolate WeeMac truffles...and have you seen their holiday flavors? I can't wait to give them a try!!!)That evening we also celebrated my dear friend MM's 28th birthday with dinner at Scotty's Brewhouse and an evening of comedy at Morty's. Dinner was stellar, comedians were lack luster, but the friends were everything expected - fantastic. Hope she enjoys her birthday - love you M!
Today, Day 12: Holiday Brunch included hubs and I making some Sunday brunch together. We had settled on crab benedict (such a lover of crab for breakfast) and I prepped the crab, english muffins and poached the eggs while hubs whipped up a homemade hollandaise sauce. Over some delightful coffee, we enjoyed breakfast while the snow came down. Next up, football and an evening out at Fogo De Chao for Tim's work holiday party.And of course, happy birthday wishes to MR, the future Mrs. PD, who is celebrating her birthday in Boston. Can't wait to see her get married in February - virtual hugs from Indy my dearest, I adore you!
On a sad note, one of our hedgehogs isn't doing so well. I think we may become a one hedgehog household very soon. Good vibes to Erbert today...
How was your weekend?
July 4th in the big W
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 -
Hubs wanted to make the trek to Wisconsin so we could spend the long weekend at the lake. As always, I love seeing my mom and dad and spending time at their lakehouse in Eagle River. So we decided to surprise them!
Welcome to the Lake!
And, hubby was excited to see if pup liked water. For the record, she doesn't.
4th of July was no different. Lots of great food cooked over the campfire (and yes, this includes gigantic s'mores too!) including steak, brats and grilled side dishes. Of course, drinks were also flowing as we spent all day on the boat, only to round out the perfection with a night cruise as well. There were a few surprises (see photos below,) but all in all, it was exactly what I needed before my two week trip to Florida.
Enjoy the photo recap!
Mom & Dad ready for the parade - aren't they cute?!
Only in Wisconsin does the Leine's float hand out beer. Yes, not candy, but beer. LOVE.
Grand Marshall of the parade was Olympic Silver Medalist,
Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej.
She is an Eagle River native, and I completely dorked it up &
asked to touch the medal and take a photo with her.
One of the candy shops - he's making chocolate fudge. NOM.
Momma and hubs
My dad celebrating the high life with family friend, PB.
Yes, this is my doing karaoke.
Tribute to my dear friend, Fun & Fearless, I sang a little Sweet Caroline
And then my two favorite men followed with their own sing song.
One of my favorite places, a bar/restaurant called Sweetwater.
Nice little segway to the next blogs that you may enjoy!