Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Life: Last week

I wanted to thank the few people who gave feedback on what they liked and what they wanted to see on this blog. Though I was a little sad that I didn't get more input, as I really wanted to see what might make this a more readable and enjoyable blog. So here is me begging...please give me some insight and feedback!

Anywho, moving on.

This past week was Nate's spring break. It was a much needed break after a long, hard, quarter of classes. We kicked off the break with our St. Patrick's Day/finals are over party...which was awesome! So awesome that we didn't get any pictures. I will say that there was great food, laughter, friends, games and a lot of beer. Lets just say that our recycling bin was brimming with bottles.

The rest of the week was spent hanging out with friends, going to a dance and 2 full days of exploring new restaurants. Nate and I had realized that we hadn't been finding new places to eat and hang out at. So we changed that and ending up finding a great pizza and beer place, where they change out the beers on tap every few weeks. An ice cream shop with yummy custard! Two great places for beer, one of which we need to go back to for their sandwiches. A Mexican restaurant with great prices and amazingly flavorful meats and sauces. And a bar that has amazing french fries and lets you take home growlers of any of the beer they have on tap! We also tried to go to another bar that is supposed to have amazing prime rib, but when we got there it was packed and there was an hour and a half wait just for food. So we'll be going back, perhaps this weekend. I will say that the wait was a little annoying (hey I was hungry), but at the same time it makes it seem as though the good food rumor just might be true!

Of course, though, we can't have a great weekend without issues. Sadly yesterday, Emmett twisted his leg oddly while on the sofa which sent him into a screaming fit. It was a wakeup call that we needed to remind us that Emmett has bad hips. So all of yesterday was spent trying to get his pain back under control.

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This of course also meant trying to make him eat. Which he did not want to do.

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And also making him as comfortable as possible.

He did start feeling better last night, but this morning I woke up to him throwing up on the bed. After he was done, he started coughing/gagging for a little too long for comfort. Awesome way to start the day. I"m keeping a close eye on him, but it's most likely because of the pain medication he takes when he has a flair up.

Currently he's being a butthead and climbing up onto the sofa when I have my back turned for 2 seconds and then jumping off when he feels like it. Sometimes I think that he's trying to send me to an early stressed out grave. But man do I love that little fuzz-butt!

Hopefully he'll start feeling better, because I need to get back to the gym. I mean I did eat my way through Dayton in two days...and perhaps had a stress fest at Taco Bell (damn crappy food being all I want when stressed). Lets just say that I am dreading the scale.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Food: Spicy Ketchup

I found a new ketchup that I may not be able to live without. This is a serious love at first taste moment y'all. It's from Maya Kaimal and I bought a bottle of their spicy ketchup at Williams-Sonoma a year or so ago. It was a total impulse buy, much like everything is at that store. It also didn't hurt that it was on sale for like $3.


I mean $3...why not!?

It took us awhile to pop it open, but when we did...OMG! It's chunky, but not so chunky that it is no longer usable as a dipping sauce. It has the warmth of cumin and a little added heat from peppers. It's the perfect balance of flavors, with nothing being overpowering.

This is going to have to be a staple in our household. Guess it's time to start making french fries!

Trying our hand at something new

We tried to make something I haven't made since I lived at home...

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Perhaps you can guess what it is before I do a post about it...

Organizing: For Emmett

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This dog of ours is very very spoiled. Between the Lovesac (that he has turned into his own over sized dog bed) to the copious amount of toys, he never has to worry about anything. Recently I've been noticing that his stuff has overflowed to a cabinet in the kitchen, a cabinet in the laundry room and a box out in the garage. I decided today that I would work on getting his stuff organized and to hopefully be able to use the cabinet in the laundry room for laundry related things.

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A lot of this is from the laundry room and the box we keep outside. This is the pile that started forming as I was cleaning out both of those things.

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This is the cabinet that is in our kitchen. We mostly kept his treats, wet dog food, pills and paperwork in there. Though slowly we started adding his back-up stuffed animal and ball collection in there and as you can see it exploded everywhere.

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The box. Empty, clean and ready to go. I decided to use it for all of his extra toys, because we don't readily need them and they can be kept in the garage next to his food bin.

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All of his toys packed up and ready to be played with. We do go a little overboard with the toys, but he rips through stuffed toys like nothing. So with-in a day we have stuffing everywhere while he plays with the empty shell. The remote control car is a fun indoor, bad weather toy. He loves chasing it around the house. The long stick in the front of the box is a bubble wand. He could chase bubbles and pop them for hours.

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The laundry room cabinet is all clean with actual places to put my laundry stuff. I'm still using a small shelf for his shirts, brush and leashes. It's really the best place for them, so I don't mind half a shelf.

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Here's the kitchen cabinet all organized. I decided to keep his treats, wet dog food, pills, paperwork and tooth brush in there. It keeps the treats in a spot where we will actually remember to use them. Plus we don't have to worry about things getting buried under all of those toys.


Well, there was an hour long of organizing and I must say I am very happy with it. What can you get done in an hour? Is there something that you need to organize, but just haven't gotten to? Let me know in the comments!

Life: Happy late Thanksgiving!

It was just Nate and I this year, which was absolutely perfect for us. No small talk needed...no waiting around because someone thought their dish would be done sooner...no needing the house to be perfectly clean. Don't get me wrong, we love having dinner with our friends but our friends live nowhere near us.
With it only being the two of us I decided to go the duck route. That's right, no turkey for us. Duck is a much loved food in our house, plus it's just the perfect size for two people.
After a quick trip to Wal-Mart, because yes I forgot to get the vegetables to stuff in the duck, we were off and running.

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Here's my vegetable mix. I used onions, carrots, celery, garlic and apples. I then sprinkle it with some salt and pepper and mix away.

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Nate was my official duck stuffer. He likes helping, so got him to prep the duck (cleaning out extra fat and scoring the skin so that the fat can drain out). You can also see the giblets being boiled in the upper left corner (for some giblet gravy)!

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A stuffed duck! You can see the scoring in the skin here. We also took a salt, pepper and olive oil mix and coated the top of the bird with it.

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The duck is ready for the oven! I place the leftover veggies all around the duck and then poured some chicken stock into the bottom of the pan for moisture. I also mixed the rest of the chicken stock with some salt and pepper and used it to baste the duck.

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Duck in the oven with our scalloped potatoes.

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My mom's giblet gravy. Easy to make and yet so freaking yummy that it makes me drool!

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Duck is done and being cut up! It turned out perfectly yet again.


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We also got a fake Christmas tree. Yes this breaks my heart to no end. In my 26 years of life I have never had a fake tree in my home. We went with one this year because of cost and the fact that this town does not make it easy to get rid of your fresh tree (oh and we're stupid lazy about getting it out of our house). Also, you may notice it's color. Yes, it's a dark plum color (there's a purple layer and a black layer). We both decided that if we were going to get a fake tree...it was going to be SUPER fake. None of this trying to get a fake tree that looks real. I can guarantee that if you come to my house there will be a lot of tree scented candles burning so I don't freak out.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and has now switched over to the happiest time of year!

Life: On the road again...

Today is our last day in Colorado *major sad face*. We got to do a lot and didn't have to rush around like the last few times we were up here. I think we ate at almost every place we wanted to (minus Jake and Telly's, Margarita at Pine Creek, Amanda's Fonda and Paravicini). We did eat rather frequently at La Baguette, probably my all time favorite place to eat...ever! If you're ever in Colo Spgs, CO go there and eat! Have the cheese tortellini, the cheese fondue and the french onion soup (and the salad nicoise which comes highly recommended by a friend).

I'm really happy that Nate and I were able to do so much; we got the car in for maintenance and all season tires (good thing because it snowed while we were here), I got my hair cut and colored by someone who knows what they are doing (yay!), did the all important shopping at stores NM doesn't have, had Nate finally try DP Dough, went to the Fine Art Center and saw their permanent Dale Chihuly exhibit (I will be posting about it later this week), went to Ft Collins and randomly found a dog fair(good thing we had Emmett!) and we got to meet an awesome couple who's wife is on a forum that I frequent!

This was an awesome trip! I am very happy we got the chance to come up here. Sadly we are on our way back down to ABQ, but not before we stop at La Baguette one more time!
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