November 12, 2009

Thursdays are my grocery shopping day at Sappington Farmer's Market. I normally work out at the Y, get a starbucks, and head to the store while Lauren's still in school for the morning. I shop sweaty and caffeinated, it's a pretty look I own. Well this Thursday there was a vendor who was cooking gyros to sample. Now in my post workout, drinking coffee state, it smelled amazing, but sounded awful to try at that time. Sydney wanted the pita part and after much coaxing (well, not THAT much), I tried one too. So glad I did! It was the gyro meat, tsatsiki sauce, and flatbread, so good and so easy! I bought all three components and made them for dinner because we had to pick up Lauren's pizzas from her school fundraiser that night, so I needed a quick and easy dinner anyway. I added baby spinach and tomatoes to the gyros and Trent decided it's his new favorite meal. Thank you pushy sample lady, you do your job well.

November 11th, 2009

I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of butternut squash, but always have one on hand from our CSA during the fall. I've tried making it many different ways and still no dice. Last night we had my parents and Grandpa Coco over for dinner. I know they all like butternut squash and decided to make it to get rid of it. I diced it, then roasted it with garlic and sage and had no intention of liking it. Reverse psychology wins again, because I loved it! I also made brussel sprouts with diced bacon, our family recipe for Thanksgiving stuffing (had it in the freezer), orange cranberry sauce, honey mustard roasted chicken thighs, gravy, and apple pie. I was planning on sending Grandpa Coco home with a big bag of leftovers from dinner to enjoy today, but there wasn't any. But I did send him off with two pieces of apple pie. Now I'm excited to get my next butternut squash CSA installment.

November 10th, 2009

I have a secret boyfriend who I call on from time to time. He's been in my life since before I got married and Trent's fine with it. He's good to me and even takes care of cooking dinner when I'm not home. I call him Mr Crockpot. Tuesday was a crazy day of errands, Lauren had preschool, and then we went to the hospital to visit Maryann and Baby Ella. So before I left the house, I made my favorite crockpot meal, pork roast over cannelini beans and carrots. The pork is seasoned with tons of garlic, sage, and rosemary. I got the recipe from Cooking Light and it's a keeper, just like my boyfriend.

November 8th, 2009

I am one lucky girl because I have 2 cute cute cute nephews (who have the same birthday too!). Sunday night we watched Bryan for the evening while Julie, Ben, and Gen went to a 1 year old birthday party. I wanted to make something the kids would like, so I busted out the frozen french fries. Then I made feta stuffed turkey burgers for me and Trent. Apparently I was really slaving over those tricky frozen fries because I neglected to cook the turkey burgers fully. I don't know about you, but I'm more of a well done kind of gal when it comes to poultry. So the french fries became an appetizer and the burgers our entree. See how fancy we are on Sunday nights, we eat in courses!

November 6th, 2009

This was a great day! Bethanie, Mandy, and I took our kids to The Butterfly House for a morning/afternoon of fun. Then the evening was all about lady fun. Julie had a ladies only party at her house. There was fondue, there was entertainment, and there was much fun had by all. Oh, and there was wine....and a grilled cheese from Steak and Shake on the way home, hee hee.

November 4th, 2009

I'm a big fan of Michael Jackson's music and really wanted to see "This is It" while it was still in theaters. Luckily Bethanie and Erin joined me! Afterwards we went to 54th Street Bar and Grill for dinner. It just opened this week and shares a parking lot with Ronnie's, the theater down the street from us. We've been very excited about 54th Street opening because we now are fancy and have 2 choices for restaurants whenever we go to Ronnie's. The movie was fun to watch and the dancing was amazing. 54th Street was good too, they have a huge menu with just about anything on it. I went with the cuban sandwich...and also enjoyed the second half for lunch the next day. And just so you know, Michael says everything with "L-O-V-E."

November 3rd, 2009

Last night I didn't feel like cooking and I was getting pretty tired of eating my food. I wanted someone else's food. Our neighborhood has some decent takeout, but I was tired of their food too. Apparently I was finicky and had many opinions. So we ordered food from Blue Elephant, a thai place in Clayton, where Trent works. He picked it up on his way home. We had chicken pad thai, shrimp shumai, and ginger chicken. It hit the spot and I'm excited when my finicky mood strikes again because I know just who to call. In case you're curious www.blueelephant-stl.com.

November 1st, 2009

Sunday nights at home are just the best. I love cooking on Sunday nights because Trent can either entertain the girls or he likes to be the sous chef, either way, it's great. I try not to put any new recipes in my recipe binder unless I've tried them. Way too many times I'll be looking through my recipes and come across something random like pumpkin seed encrusted salmon with turnip puree. At some point in my life I not only thought it looked good, but decided to keep the recipe and make it. Trent doesn't like salmon, I don't like turnips...and then I'd be stuck with a container of pumpkin seeds in our pantry that I'd have to put out in a bowl for company one night hoping someone would eat them. Then I'd throw the leftovers from the bowl in the compost and have pumpkin vines growing in the herb garden (see, I know what would happen...only because it has). Anyway, new rule is I have to try it before I keep it. So I made cheesy rice fritters over a baby spinach salad with a lemon vinagrette. My sous chef commented it was alot of steps for rice, but I put it in the binder because it's a great and frugal way to use leftover rice from chinese takeout.

October 31st, 2009

Halloween! We decided stay home and trick or treat in our neighborhood this halloween for the first time. Normally we go to a friend's house in South City who live on a block that goes ALL OUT and it's great fun. Our neighborhood doesn't have alot of families with small children (in fact I know of 4 in our whole subdivision). I was skeptical our halloween would be as fun and festive, but we had a fantastic evening. Grandpa Coco came over for dinner. I made a halloween "Garbage Dip" with a garnish that looked like a hand coming out of it and "caterpillars" which were really pigs in a blanket with embellishment. I also roasted some asparagus...I have a thing with having to have a vegetable, especially on a night focusing around candy. After dinner I got the girls dressed in their costumes and took them around the neighborhood while Trent and Grandpa Coco handed out candy. I had a blast and so did the girls, they loved holding out their bags and doing their tricks. The whole time I felt like a hypocrite encouraging the girls to take candy from the strangers....especially if it was chocolate candy. There were more houses participating than I imagined and it was fun to walk out the front door and festivities immediately began. And, to be honest, I loved peeking in our neighbors' houses. When we got back to our house, my parents were there to see the girls and give them Halloween treats. It was a great halloween, probably my favorite one since we've had the girls.

October 29th, 2009

Dinner last night was completely upstaged by dessert. I went to The Chocolate Bar with Futhey, Markham, and Stef. Just the fact it has chocolate AND bar in the name makes me smile. We had a fantastic time and split three (yes three) desserts. I think my favorite was a molten chocolate brownie with melted coffee ice cream on top, oh so good! Good friends, dessert, and wine...what a perfect combination.