November 19th, 2009

I don't know what it is about men and Buffalo Wings. The person (assuming it was a man) who came up with Buffalo Wild Wings was onto something. Trent and Ryan went there last night for dinner and the girls and I had a lady night at home. It was fun. We had mellow leftover night, played with Little People, had bath, books, and bedtime. Also Sydney officially graduated from her bath seat and is a big girl seat free in the tub. She was quite proud! Trent came home happy and buffalo'd up.

November 17, 2009

I love sushi, Trent does not. So it's the perfect cuisine for a girls dinner out (and also I've never even tried to make it, some things are just meant to be outsourced). Erin, Beth, Julie, and I all had sushi and drinks at Subzero in the Central West End. We were chatty chatty because I didn't get home until almost 11, which is pretty crazy for me on a school night. But totally worth it.

November 16th, 2009

Good friends of ours, Stef and Tim, had a baby girl 2 weeks ago who was born at 27 weeks. She's been a strong baby and is in the NICU probably until New Years. Stef and Tim have been spending much time at the hospital with Baby Ella and I wanted to make dinner for them. I made sausage and mushroom calzones, mixed green salad, and gave them some of the pumpkin gooey butter cake bars I made on Sunday night. Stef came over to pick dinner up and brought Ella's newest pictures to show off. Hopefully we'll get to go and visit Ella soon!

November 15, 2009

Erin's in town from NYC, so Markham decided to have us all over for dinner. I've talked about wingdings before and Markham's the gal who gave me the coveted recipe. Erin's never had them, so Markham decided it was time. Wingdings are chicken cooked in a sweet and sour sauce served over rice. Erin always brings a salad and is quite good at matching the salad to the main course, so it was an asian inspired bowl of raw veggie goodness. I brought dessert, pumpkin gooey butter cake bars. Fun way to end the weekend and Erin can cross wingdings off her bucket list.

November 14th, 2009

Trent and I went to Pi on Delmar for lunch. Afterwards we went and saw "How I Got Lost" at the St Louis International Film Festival because Sydney had a cameo in it. Pi was incredibly yummy (as President Obama will attest), but we got deep dish and it took longer than we thought and were running late for the movie. So we took most of it home and got to enjoy it again for dinner. It was hard slaving over that microwave heating up pizza, but somebody's gotta do it.

November 13, 2009

I like the idea of sloppy joes, but not necessarily the old school way. They're too messy to eat with your hands, the sauce is too sweet, and the bread gets all soggy (sogginess is a thing with me, don't get me started on cereal). So I like taking the method of sloppy joes and changing it up. Rachel Ray first gave me the idea with a Sloppy Cubano, which I highly recommend googling the recipe. I made a thick bolognese sauce with ground pork and toasted big pieces of garlic crostini. I then put the sauce on the crostini and melted mozzerella cheese. It was a cross between pizza bread and an open face sloppy joe. I served them with a mixed green salad. I'm also weird about too much dressing because I don't like soggy lettuce. Sogginess avoided on all fronts, whew, crisis avoided.

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.