Last weekend of August

It was a weekend with much anticipation and preparation.  My good friend, Mike Steimel, was getting married.  Mike was born in the summer of ‘69 (not kidding) and never engaged or married before, so this was pretty big.  They were getting married at UMSL’s chapel and had the rehearsal dinner Friday night at UMSL’s Provincial House Museum Room.  All went off without a hitch, we were ready for the big show.

The bride and bridesmaids met bright and early to get our hair and makeup (7 am to be exact).  There were 12 ladies of us ladies getting beautified, so we needed to start early.

The ceremony (which was wedding party, out of town guests, and family only) was at noon.

Trent took this picture and I absolutely love it, Mike is popping the champagne….and his expression shows it.  The ceremony was intimate and beautiful.

Next on the agenda was the first (yes, first) reception at Maggianos.  Maggiano’s was food, followed by food, followed by food, followed by wedding cake, followed by a dessert trio, followed by toasts and dancing.  I was full to my eyelids and it was all delicious.  Of course I took absolutely no pictures of all the delicious things that were served, which I regret.  We were at a table where I didn’t want to be the weirdo bridesmaid taking pictures of everyone’s food.  Just didn’t want to be that girl.

Then there was a second reception that was geared to be more of a great party (and wow was it just that).  It was at Blueberry Hill’s Duckroom where Mike and Amy first met.  All of our group of friends were there in attendance (which meant lots of traveling and lots of babysitting gigs were happening) and we danced the night away.  It was a blast.

The girl in the back is a bridesmaid, Angie, who makes a hobby out of photo bombing. 

Angie also appreciates the fine art of rabbit ears.

But really her true love is in the photo bombing.  Good thing I like her. ;)

Such a memorable weekend.  A month later I still think about how much fun it was on a daily basis and all the great memories.

August 23rd, 2011

A dear friend, Mike Steimel, was getting married this weekend.  He was in town before his fiancé, Amy, and I invited him over for dinner to catch up.  He lives in California and doesn’t come home too often, so I was excited to hear all about what he’s been up to. 

I set out a plate of Chip Goo for people to munch on.  It’s a crowd friendly old school favorite with our group of friends.  It’s also incredibly easy.  Spread Cream Cheese, your favorite canned chili (I use Hormel’s turkey with beans), and shredded Monterey Jack cheese.  Melt in the microwave for 2-3 minutes until the cheese is bubbly.  The girls love this dip.  Love it so much I kinda need to make one just for themselves because they tend to lick the spoon, drool over the dip….let’s just say double dip…a lot.

For a side I did “The Works” potato salad.  Pampered Chef has a good version here.  Only I diced unpeeled potatoes and boil, then combine with sauce while the potatoes are still hot to absorb the yummy stuff.

Corn and avocado salad with my absolute favorite napkins my Grandma Coco made for me in the background.

For the main, I grilled petite filets on our grill and also (over)grilled some corn on the cob. 

Dessert was strawberry shortcakes.  One time I was at a local farmer’s market and behind me was a woman who looked familiar with a shopping cart FULL of containers of strawberries.  She had a Lubeley's Bakery Shirt on, which is our local bakery and I made the connection that’s why she looked so familiar.  It was the Thursday before Father’s Day weekend and I asked her what she was going to do with all those strawberries.  She said every year for Father’s Day they make a ton of strawberry shortcakes because she has never met a man who didn’t like strawberry shortcake, so they sell like shortcakes hotcakes.  I thought about it and did a quick mental scan of men I know and their opinion on strawberry shortcakes and her theory proved right in my neck of the woods.

And there you have it.

August 22nd, 2011

On hand I had a little bit of leftover grilled chicken, an ear of corn, and a perfectly ripe avocado.

Salad for dinner it is then!

August 20th, 2011

Kirk and Sally are in St. Louis!  Kirk and Trent are putting in a storm door.  Kirk put in a new front door in May with his friend Curt.  I absolutely love it!  Our old door was, well, let’s just say I didn’t like it. At all.  We didn’t put in a storm door at the time and decided to live storm door free and see if we liked it.  I was fine storm door free, except the kids could very easily open the door whenever they wanted to go outside or random teenager trying to sell me $40 books that will be donated to poor people so the teenager could go to Italy someone would knock on the door.  I would go upstairs to take a shower and every time I would tell the girls that they were not to open the door if anyone knocked and not to go outside.  Also if someone knocked at the door, I had no idea who was on the other side of the door until I opened it and then boom, the person was right there soliciting their tree trimming service with their confederate flag covered truck circa de 1972 smelling of marijuana.  Kinda creeped me out a bit.  Trent ordered a pretty storm door with a lock and the plan was for Kirk and Trent to put it in.  Easy enough.  Only Murphy’s Law kicked in high gear and it turned into a frustrating high maintenance nothing went right project. 

There she is!  I love love love it!  Not only do I feel better security wise, I can now open the front door in the afternoon and let the sunlight in or have the door open for Lauren when she gets off the bus. 

I have a recipe binder that is the hub of all kinds of recipes.  Recipes I want to try, recipes I’ve tried and love, family recipes, friend’s recipes, and recipes of mine that I have in there just to remind myself it exists and I should make it again.  Well I had a recipe in there that was in the “want to try” category….for over a year.  It was time already to buck and up see if it was a keeper.  It was Rachel Ray's Chicken Tarragon with Green Bean Rice Pilaf that was in her magazine.  I also had a ton of tarragon in the garden and needed to rationalize why I planted it.

Some veggies from the garden I cut up for Kirk to munch on.

And some more veggies I picked to send home with Kirk and Sally.

The tarragon chicken…definitely saucy!

The rice made a nice bed for all the sauce.  Rachel Ray does this thing were she makes rice pilaf with broken spaghetti combined with rice (the recipe I hyperlinked shows the method).  I see no point in breaking spaghetti and use rice only.  To each their own.

Also served bread (which I didn’t make, heat and eat from the grocery store) and mixed green salad.  The recipe turned out good and made the cut to permanently take up residence in the recipe binder.

August 19th, 2011

Sydney and I had a hard, long day ahead of us.  We had plans to go to Grant’s Farm and feed our friend’s chickens.  Then that evening Trent’s parents were due in town, so I decided to also make a cherry raspberry pie for a treat upon their arrival.

This is the second time I’ve made this recipe, it’s from Family Circle* and I think it’s going to be my go to Cherry Pie recipe.  I feel so adult saying “my cherry pie recipe.”  Like decades from now my great grandchildren will be calling each other “Hey Lisa, it’s Colleen.  Look, I’m having people over tonight and lost Grandma Jenny’s cherry pie recipe, would you send it to my phone?”  Now I know “sending to my phone” is so 2011 and there will be some other crazy way the kids get information to each other, like digital brainwaves or something, but it’s my future pretend conversation, so there.

Sydney and I had a great time at Grant’s Farm.  Having one kid is easy breezy on outings.  I’m so used to zone defense that man to man is like a pie cake walk. 

Goats gettin’ sloppy.

Playing in the mist machine.

Fun was had.  Now off from one farm to another.  The next one was a workin’ gig, we had duties and such.

This isn’t your ordinary chicken coop, this coop could be on MTV’s show Coop Cribs.  There’s really not a show like that and they probably wouldn’t be on it anyway because these chickens don’t have 5-7 vehicles in their garage.  But they are close, maybe they could be on The Real Chickens of Affton City.

Letting the chickens out and feeding them a snack.

Dinner!  I made a big pot of Cannellini bean, kale, and sausage soup.  I used turkey kielbasa, added petite diced tomatoes and it worked great.  Instead of water I used chicken stock. 

Oh, and there’s really not a show called The Real Chickens of Affton City, I made that up.

* Family Circle’s website was being a stinker and crazy slow, but you can google Family Circle’s Cherry Raspberry Pie and easily find it when the website decides to work properly. :)

August 16th, 2011

Here it is, the first day of school.  Lauren will begin her educational career as a full day student.  I’m sad she’ll be gone for so much of the day (bus pickup at 8:04 am and drop-off at 3:50 pm), but she is ready and excited to be a big time first grader.  Sydney’s preschool schedule will not change, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:45-11:45.  That I can do.  As I anticipated, I had to wake up 2 very sleepy girls to get them where they needed to be on time.  Trent decided to go to work later to see the girls off to their first day.

 

This is the lunchbox that Lauren picked out.  Lauren and I sat down and internet shopped for a lunch box, containers, and water bottle.  Lauren picked out “Navy birds” at Pottery Barn Kids.  She is very excited to have lunch at school and will buy her lunch one day a week and bring a lunch the other days.  She picks what day’s menu sounds the best that week.  So far, it’s working out great.

The girls watching for their bus stop friends crossing the street.  Both of their backpacks are from last year.  Lauren’s backpack was a gift from Michelle for her 5th birthday and Sydney’s backpack was a gift from Julie when Lauren started preschool, so it’s going on vintage. 

Our massive sunflowers.  I can’t resist a sunflower photo op.

Lauren’s separation anxiety in overdrive.  I mean seriously, does she have to look that happy to leave me?

Then Trent and I both got in our cars and went to Lauren’s elementary school to take pictures of her getting off the bus and walking in her classroom.

Lauren was not amused.  She thought we already said our goodbyes for the day.

“Listen girls, so sorry about my weirdo parents, let’s just pretend they aren’t there and they’ll go on with their lives.”

She let me take this one picture in front of her classroom if I promised to let her go into her classroom by herself (I wanted a picture of her in front of her desk, but conceded). 

Sydney didn’t mind the pictures, I think she was excited to get all the attention from Trent and I.

And there is was, 2 little ladies in their classrooms. 

I picked up Sydney at 11:45 and took her to Happy Joe’s Pizza for lunch and we talked about her fun first day of school.

I am hoping for a good school year for both girls.  I am also hoping flu season is kind, winter is short, the Oscar movie season is a good one, the girls make happy memories, and they never tire of me having a camera in front of my face to document.

Oh, and learn stuff too, lots of stuff. :)