A little snippet of life lately

• Relax
• Forget Folger's, this is the best part of waking up.
• My patient made me an Easter egg! Cutest thing ever.
• I spy a jones soda.
• Woody's Pizza cannot be beat. Our favorite place to grab a Boston pie and chat.
• A jaunt about town for date night.
• Craft time.
• 3 cheers for actually doing things you pin on pinterest!
• Fresh Asian noodles and veggies, one of my favorite "go-to" dinners.
• The new yoga position Job learned the other day and came home to show me. Impressed wife here!  (image)
• "I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling"
• You know, just another chair meal.

You know what? Food.

It is a goal of mine to invite people over for Sunday dinner more. I just selfishly think that I don't want to mess with what we have going. It's pretty darn low key and wonderful. It usually involves either

A) picking up the Italian dinner waiting outside our door from our landlord, dividing amongst plates, adding veg, and done.

Or B) Making homemade Mexican food together, lots of taste testing, and eating it from our living room sofa (a dining chair makes a lovely little makeshift table).

I mean, we think it's great, but I don't know if others would go with the whole eating off a chair thing for Sunday dinner. And then I think, "well maybe they {guests} only like sitting on the floor and eating cheerios for their Sunday dinner" and I of course don't want to mess with something great like that.

However!! I shall overcome my love of lazy Sunday afternoons once in a while so we can share a meal with our friends. Because whenever we do I end up loving it too. It's so fun to share a meal with friends!
And local friends reading this, please don't think I'd rather be sitting on the couch eating tacos when we invite you k? We really do love to have people over, promise :)

New goal. I wrote it here, it can't be undone. ;)

Man, I feel like a Woman

Flash Back Friday be darned (just for this week though. Don't darn it for longer than that). I had the greatest Women's Day yesterday and just have to share. Did you know it was women's day yesterday? Cool right?!  Last night before bed I prayed for all the wonderful women in my life and am so grateful for the influence they have had.

So now,

10 reasons why I felt like an awesome woman yesterday: 

1. Had a Doctors appointment in the morning. Taking charge of my womanly health! Go schedule a pap smear ladies.
2. Started a new cleaning schedule and whipped our little home into shape. I love taking care of our little heaven on earth with Job. It feels so good to have a clean home.
3. Ate a killer salad and fruit for lunch. I feel like I got enough vitamins and minerals to last me a week in that thing. I love green food. (it had spinach, feta, tuna, wheat germ, capers, cucumbers, avocado, balsamic and olive oil dressing, etc...) It made me feel recharged and ready for the day.
4. The weather was in the 60's and sunny. Enough said.
5. Took a energizing nap before work.
6. Headed off to work with the sun roof open, windows down, and music blasting.
7. Shortly after arriving at work was given a substantial RAISE out of the blue. Woohoo!
8. Discovered I love blueberry tea.
9. Once I arrived home I was greeted with a kiss and a "Happy Women's Day!" by my sweet Jobito. I didn't even register it was women's day until this point actually.
10. Proceeded to get spoiled like a queen for the next few hours. 

Here's how that went down:

All new natural lavender bath products for me as a gift and part of the night.

Uncommon Goods

My sister Kristin got us a cheese making kit for Christmas from here. 

Making our own mozzarella cheese? Kinda awesome.

Lucky? I think yes.

What I came home to the other night after work:

• My own bag of special Mexican chips which I have been craving
• a gorgeous dinner on the stove (vegetarian even. Be still my heart, he knows I love that)
• and a sweet note.

Hellllooooooooooo!
Best husband ever.

2nd Year Anniversary

It appears I have missed documenting our 2 year anniversary! Wha-wha-what?! I assure you, we didn't forget it. It was December 19th and there was plenty of googly eyes, random hugs, lots of kisses, and little surprises. Of course, that's a pretty normal day for us anyways (I am married to the best man) but I would say the mushy level went up a notch.

'Twas a pretty simple day which was nice. We already had a ton of fun things planned for around Christmas so we decided to keep the day low-key. I went to work that morning and Job's first treat was to drive me there. What a stud :) Of course we had to grab breakfast at our local DD. And of courser we had to take a picture.

Later that evening Job picked me up, we went out for steak, and we talked and talked. I love that. (the goofy salad picture is a little joke between us ;)
Later that night I might have utilized the little something I picked up using my VS rewards card. Wait, what...who said that?...
Throughout the week, before and after, we celebrate in little ways us being married. Two whole years! We couldn't be happier.

Ok, ok I'll stop. Here are a few 2nd Year Stats:

Last day of Pompeii (and of Kristin visiting)

 I had to go back to work the day after Christmas but Job took care of my dear sister, and I got off at 4 everyday so there was still plenty of time to have fun! :) Observe:

We cooked, we went to museums, we laughed, talked, watched movies, went out to eat, relaxed from our busy week prior, took late night donut runs; basically had a lot of fun.

In more detail than you want:

• We could spend forever in the Museum of Science. They had a special exhibit of Pompeii going on which was amazing. Kristin and I also reminisced about our dreams of becoming astronauts. 

• Kristin decided The Greek Corner was one of the best places we took her to eat. That is due to the lamb and beef kabob. Explosion in your mouth people.

• We finally went to Kane's donuts. It was super good. And we stood at the counter for a very long time trying to find the donuts before the guys at the counter decided to show us where they were hidden. They thought we were dumb, but ya know what buddy?! It's a donut shop, show me the donuts.

• I am still finding out slowly fun little things Kristin and Job did while I was gone at work. I am glad they had the chance to get to know each other better :)

Thanks for coming Kristin! We loved having you. And we love you. And donuts.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Twelve

On the twelth date of Christmas, my true love, my sister, and I....

Celebrated a wonderful Christmas day complete with gift and stocking opening, a big breakfast we all cooked together, a beautiful program at church centered around our Savior Jesus Christ, having the missionaries from our church over for a dinner of tamales, google chatting with family, etc... It was delightful.

{by Simon Dewey}

It was a special treat to have Kristin here for our holiday! It was a surprise for me and I loved every minute of having sister time. Job and Kristin got to know each other better which was nice. We also had a fun week-after-Christmas which I will proceed to put all in another blog post.
I had a lot of fun with these 12 dates of Christmas. Maybe this will become yet another holiday tradition.
I love those.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Eleven

On the eleventh date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....

Attended our now traditional Italian Christmas Eve Feast (we went last year too ;).
In case you didn't read last year's post let me paint a picture (since no real pictures exist to document the magic :( )  A 7 course, homemade, Italian seafood meal. Feast of the 7 fishes they call it. I call it amazing.
We fed ourselves silly, sat by the fire, read Luke 2, and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve with friends.

And then invited ourselves back for next year. Can't mess with tradition right?! ;)

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Nine

On the ninth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....


Made a whole bunch of tamales for our friends! And when I say a whole bunch, I mean it ;) We decided to do that as our little treat for friends this year and it was a fun project! We gave a little packet to each one with pork tamales, bean tamales, avocado salsa, and a few sweet pineapple tamales.
I seriously can't believe we didn't get any pictures of the process, but it included lots of masa, lots of corn husks, some interesting conversation, and some Latino dancing in the kitchen!

Que Rico!

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Seven

On the seventh date of Christmas, I had a sister date! :)

Kristin and I got down to business and made some delicious things for our stockings. Our stockings have a sort of old fashioned theme with fruit, nuts, molasses cookies, etc... (of course ours also included some not-so-old-fashioned things like twix and VS eye shadow ;)

Anyways, baking up some homemade cookies with a good friend is just so fun! And molasses cookies are my new favorite, seriously, give them a try!
We also candied some nuts and found a new favorite recipe which I just have to share. So.darn.good.

I present to you:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Toasted Pecans

{via www.simplyscratch.com}

ingredients:
16 ounces Pecans
1 Egg White
2/3 cup White Sugar
1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1-1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 pinch Cayenne Pepper
1 pinch Ground Allspice

preparation:
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. I lined my cookie sheet with a silpat, but you could also grease with butter or coconut oil.

Mix the sugar, cocoa powder and all the spices in a medium bowl and set aside. Whisk the egg white until it is thick and frothy {small peaks} and add in the pecans. Stir to coat. Next, add the cocoa mixture and combine until the nuts are evenly coated.

Scoop the nuts with a slotted spoon onto the prepared pan and place in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove, toss and place back in the oven for twenty more minutes. After the first 40 minutes, check your nuts to see if the cocoa/sugar doesn't crumble off of the nuts. If it does, place it back in the oven for 20 more minutes, otherwise let cool slightly and serve!

The Twelve Dates of Christmas: Date One

This blog does the twelve dates of Christmas, and really, how cute is that! I couldn't help but take a page out of their creative book and do our own version, Salazar Style and all that.

And so....

On the first date of Christmas my true love and I*....

Saw the Holiday Pops concert! Nothing like some Christmas classics played by a world class orchestra to put you in the Christmas spirit. I just might have teared up while they played "It came upon a midnight clear". Scratch that, I definitely did. So beautiful.

We also splurged a little and got hot chocolate and toasted marshmallow ice cream, and a chocolate chip cookie for a treat during the show. So fun!

Amazing Thai food beforehand only helped make this date more fantastic. This is the first day I am really getting in the Christmas mood, so I am excited for all the fun that is to come!

Stay tuned for date two!


*Despite lack of photographic evidence, I really was on this date with Jobito ;)

New York City for Thanksgiving: Part II

Day II-Another gorgeous day, another bagel (so good.)
We started off this day of site seeing with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I love, love, love art and museums are my fave. So art museums? Fabulous. Job was so excited to see the Golden Harpsichord in person (it's a music nerd thing apparently).
Impressionist paintings are some of my favorite so we enjoyed that beautiful section of the museum for the longest. In addition we went and saw the cool Egyptian exhibit they have there. The museum itself is a work of art, some of the rooms are gorgeous!

Next we did some more soulful gazing in Central Park. I just can't get enough of it.

Battery Park to take a look at our lady liberty was next. We didn't have time for a ferry ride over, but she was pretty from afar. I love what she represents.
Battery Park also has some great skyline views of the city.

We took a look at the Brooklyn Bridge and got to see some street performers who's main talent was asking for more and more money. I think they made a clean sweep that day. Maybe Job and I could have a future in street performing?!

Bleecker Street Pizza in the West Village was so yum. Plain cheese was our favorite believe it or not so if you go there make sure to get a slice. Something about the spices they put on it...I'm in love. 

Magnolia Bakery for dessert thankssomuch (Red velvet and German chocolate. Since you asked). We were happy food lovers that day.

The West Village also reminded me of Newbury Street here in Boston. I kept expecting Beyonce and her belly to walk by shopping or something.

So there you have it, our Thanksgiving 2011 trip to NYC. I'm already looking forward to next year :)

New York for Thanksgiving-Part I

Night 1-Job and I took our traditional Thanksgiving trip to New York City last week and had a blast. We got to stay longer this year, 2 nights and 2 days, which was a lot of fun. We started out taking the bus Wednesday night from Boston and got into New York around 11pm. We went on this trip with some friends, who has a friend, who lives in Harlem so we got to stay there which was so nice :) It was a really cool apartment, newly renovated and complete with exposed brick. Thanks Megan!

Day 1-After staying up way too late talking we slept in on Thanksgiving day. No parade for us this year. Which was ok, it was nice to relax and skip the crowds. After rolling out of bed we went to a little deli and got a bagel (me) and muffin (Job) for breakfast, then wandered on over to Central Park for a leisurely stroll. The weather was PERFECT our whole trip there. Seriously, we could not have asked for more beautiful days. The sun was out, it was cool but still warm, ahhhh so lovely.

Then we made our way over to our Thanksgiving host's apartment in the upper West side of Manhattan (she was our friend's aunt. Yup, they had all the connections ;). Aunt Kay was so nice, and the food was awesome. She had a big group over for the meal and let me tell you, it was the most eclectic, interesting group of people. Job and I loved it! Just what you would expect from a group of New Yorkers. They knew the city well, they all had interesting, unique personalities, they were talented, they enjoyed the arts, had interesting style, they had traveled all over the world; such a fun experience talking to everyone.

Night 2-After dinner and games (Charades. Awesomeness.) we headed out to wander the city for a few hours. Rockefeller center, Times square, Radio City Music Hall, 30 Rock, the cute LOVE statue thing (you know the one I mean?), etc, etc... Some street food to finish the night and we were set.

To be continued in part II :)

Gourmet Night-November

More gourmet goodness coming your way. You really should start one of these groups with some friends. A 6-12 course dinner party every month where you just have to cook one little thing? Hellooo, yes! Fancy, fancy.


November's theme: Pinterest. Good life choice. (that last part was my little addition)

My inspiration pin:

 {via}

Pan-Fried Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage 

So, of course I snapped a picture of the ingredients but not the finished product. Let's just say it looked as good as the picture above. <----fib. But it did taste really yummy, and looked decent too ;)

 

  It was a nice and quick recipe. Honest. Betcha didn't know nee-oak-ee are easy to make! I didn't before this. 

 The ladies. In addition to food we enjoy talking. There are always plenty of interesting conversations to be had at gourmet night ;)

A tale of three kites

For those of you without 20/15 vision ;)-we went to castle island, we tried to fly kites, they broke, Job is sweet, we ate hamburgers, I love my husband. The end.

Al Fresco Dining

Having a picnic in the Common was of course on our BBB, so we went out with Jessica and McKay before they moved to try some Sam LaGrassa's sandwiches. The place is just right around the corner from the Common so we trotted on over and parked it in the park. It is a great place to dine because we got a front row seat to watch the "crazy bird lady-man", and also had people in colonial garb walking by every so often, taking people along the freedom trail. A most enjoyable mix of people :)

Those sandwiches are so.darn.delicious by-the-way.

Gourmet Night-I hosted! :)

I thought I'd share a few pictures from the gourmet night last month, which I got to host at our home. It was so fun, there was a great turn-out, and I had the BEST co-host in the world. Jessica, you are a lifesaver. Most of these pics are hers too (thanks for letting me steal use these! ;)

The women all brought amazing dishes! The theme I chose was Apples and Cinnamon, and it turned out DELISH. We had salad with apples, warm braised chicken and apples, a spicy African chicken dish, amazing spiced stuffing, to die for goat cheese, apple and honey tarts, and many more awesome dishes we all got to try. (no pictures of food sadly. We are always too busy eating to think of that! ;)

As a little thank you/party favor I sent the women home with some homemade caramel apples. I dipped them in all sorts of things and they were fun (and messy) to make :) I don't have a picture of the finished product but I wrapped them up with clear cellophane, raffia, and a cute thank you tag.

Jess and I had a ton of fun with the decor as well. We made cinnamon covered candles, apple votive holders, leaf garlands, a leaf chandelier, and pretty fall foliage place settings. 

Can't wait for this month's dinner party! This time someone else gets to host so I just need to find an awesome recipe to try :)

Weeknights can be fun too!

Two izzes, sweet potato chips, a love-seat for cuddling, and a new episode of Chopped on Hulu. That's all we need for a little weeknight date at our home. 

We're pretty simple to please ;)

_______________________________________

Journal mode: Job often gets home late from school so sometimes, especially when I have work the next day, we don't get a lot of time to spend together. Which is fine because we are both working hard at what we are supposed to be doing right now and that is part of this phase of life. It just means we have to make every minute count and be super grateful for the time we do have (which is way more than a lot of people! I can't imagine having Job deployed, gone for weeks at a time for work etc... People do that all the time and I admire them for their strength.) 

So I was a happy wife when Job came home late the other night with a Whole Foods bag, a smile and a kiss, and a "let's just hang out tonight". You don't have to ask me twice!