The next ten days

If you happen to ever peek on over at our cooking blog, last night we made (with an awful lot of help) a roast chicken.

It went from this:


to this:


then this:


It was spectacular.  You can read the full account with recipe over here.

Paul and I have the next two weeks off.  Fair warning, the next ten days will be a plethora of pictures involving food, drink, merriment, and Samson the dog. 

Cheers to Christmas vacation!

Locals first - Art of the Table

I have previously written about our friends Amy and Steve Ruis.  And their amazing store in Grand Rapids, Art of the Table.  Amy opened in 2003 and we have been shopping there ever since.  

Wine.  Chocolate.  Tablecloths.  Candles. Goat cheese. Coffee.  Wine.  Did I mention magnificent wine?

I can shop for wine and the finer accoutrements anywhere.  What I can't do anywhere is call Amy or facebook her, tell her what we are having for dinner, and ask her to have a few wines ready for us. 

Really, I call the store and say this, "we are having flank steak with rosemary.  What wine should we have?"  And then she pulls a rabbit out of her hat - or more likely, a bottle from the bin - and we joyfully skip out of the store, breathless with anticipation for what's to come in our wine glasses.  The very wine glasses purchased at the store. 

I just love going into that store.  I love everything about it.  And with everything else they have going on, they make amazing gift baskets for holiday gift giving.

Check them out.  Local deliciousness.

Decorations

Slowly but surely, they are going up. 

From Lamb Stew

Soon enough, the house will look festive. I love Christmas lights. That is the one area where I will splurge a little. The lights frame our entrance way, a few windows, and our fireplace. I love that they are on timers; I can come home to a house filled with lovely Christmas color.

Later this month we will put up our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It's a cute little tree we purchased at Ikea years ago. It looks very much like Charlie's little tree. I love it. And I don't have to worry about falling needles.

We are closing in on December.  We have no snow, but I imagine it's coming soon enough.  Happy Monday.  

Christmas Cards

We did ours. They are in the mail. Christmas cards are something that Paul enjoys - and I help - especially since the invention of labels. We merged, formatted, printed, signed, sealed, stamped and mailed our cards. They aren't bad cards but they aren't anything like the card below. The card I wait all year for.

I have a friend who sends me annually the best card ever. They are such awesome, amazing and beautiful cards that I keep them. And each year remind me of what cheesy cards Rite Aid, Sam's Club and Walgreen's sell. His card is my annual hall of shame.

This year, there was a super, cool, groovy insert. So not only did I get a cool card this year, but I got this awesome folding tree globe.   Even Samson had to check it out.   

So thank you William.  Next year,  no more commercial cards.  It's Snapfish  for us with some super, cool, groovy pictures of a certain GSD - which for us non-statisticians means German shepherd dog -  the Handsome One chillaxin' just East of the Equator.  

Home for the holidays!

Yesterday during the work day, I stopped by WMRL to meet Roscoe. WMRL has a terrific program for training first responders in basic first aid for their dogs; WMRL rescues dogs from the local Humane Society and then promises to find homes for the rescued pups. That's how we found Samson. :) And the promise to find homes for these dogs is no small feat in this economy.

Roscoe is a vivacious fellow with a warm, rambunctious spirit. I went to meet him to try and help spread the word. I took my little camera to get a few happy snaps. He is a wonderful dog - handsome, sweet and just wanting a good walk. Sounds like someone else we know. ;)

Before I could get the email written and pictures formatted, Allison of WMRL let me know that Roscoe found a home! Hooray for Roscoe. Home for the holidays!

New Year's Eve

It will be a short one. We were without internet connectivity for the better part of 24 hours. With some quick thinking, we showed up at the Comcast service center (any part of service and Comcast is always a misnomer) and got a new modem. Installed it ourselves. We are back online.

Paul is making a wonderful meal to celebrate our 22 years of wedded bliss. Yup, all bliss. :) And Mr Handsome had a day at doggie day care, got a coif and is exhausted beyond words.

So Happy New Year's Eve all. Much more to share but for the rest of the evening, I am celebrating with my wonderful man and wonderful dog.

Most remarkable weekend

Time flies. I don't know how it happens but it's true.

Friday night, Paul decided to make one of his favorite meals of all time, cous cous and lamb. I am always adventurous when it comes to Paul's cooking since he has never let me down. And this meal was no exception. Like every time he makes something new, we evaluate the meal and jot down ideas to make it better. This meal was a home run. We have a couple of things to tweak but it is going to make it into our Sunday night rotation, giving me lunch for the week. :) Full recipe and recap over at the Cafe.

Saturday night was the wedding of some good friends. Paul and I volunteered to take the wedding pictures, not only did we take a lot of pictures, we had an awful lot of fun. We wish Dave and AJ a lifetime of happiness.

Sunday night, we visited with our friends, Abi, Steve, Jon and Grace and the cutest 18 month old on the planet, Noah. With four exceptional cooks (and shoppers), the meal was off the charts - no surprise. I was particularly enamored with the crab appetizers, the bourbon slushes and the tomatoes with Parmesan cheese, put under the broiler. If I can cajole these wonderful people to share these recipes, we can post them in the cafe. (Yes, I said bourbon slushes - scooped up like ice cream and ....oh my goodness....YUM).

Today, we had the joy of a few hours of sunshine. Mr. Handsome took full advantage of the weather, hanging out with Paul and hunting in the backyard. It was a gorgeous day until about 2pm, when the clouds rolled in and the winds picked up.

We have a busy week. Samson needs a coif, I need a book, we need to replenish a bare cupboard and celebrate a couple of great dates - New Year's Eve and our anniversary. We have so much for which to be thankful and are grateful for such a wonderful time off to reflect and rejuvenate. Enjoy your evening!

The day after

We had a remarkable Christmas. Christmas Eve was a joyful experience with our friends Bud and Barbara. Barbara made us dinner and we had a lovely tenderloin, mashed potatoes, lightly whipped horseradish sauce and creamed spinach (I LOVE creamed spinach - weird I know).

Barbara is Jewish and shared with us the Hanukkah traditions of lighting the Menorah. We read the prayers for the fourth night of Hanukkah and then had a lovely meal. Bud had us rolling on the floor with tales of his Christmases growing up. It was the perfect way to spend our evening.

Christmas morning, we were up early. Bud and Barbara were heading to Chicago to see Barbara's daughter Karen. They were going to take a cab to the train station but with such awful weather - snow, sleet, rain and ice, we insisted on driving them in our tank. Besides, Samson gets us up at a painfully early time anyway, so we were up! The rest of the morning was in automatic - services, a fire in the fireplace, (I kid you not) Star Trek marathon on the SciFi channel and some pretty neat gifts. Paul and I are pretty low keyed about gifts. I like gift cards so I can shop for what I really need after the holiday, when all the sales are on. ;) Paul got a couple of new sweaters and a fleece.

We also went visiting in the afternoon. Called on some friends, delivered gifts and had some fun. For dinner, Paul made another delicious brined turkey. Truly, there is no other way to make a turkey. Full report on the cafe.

It was an okay day for Samson. With the rain that fell on the snow, a layer of ice has formed, making it all but impossible to run through the snow. When he tries to run, he ends up bounding like a springbok. It's hilarious but he looks annoyed. ;) And it is NO FUN for us trying to stomp through the ice-covered snow.

Today is a busy day. I have a couple of items to buy - need a second battery for my Nikon. Also have a couple Bed, Bath & Beyond gift cards burning a hole in my pocket. We have a wedding Saturday night for which I am the photographer and I need to get my stuff in order. We have a busy weekend - wedding, dinner with friends and a ton of errands as we get ready to celebrate New Years Eve! Enjoy the day.

Tuesday

Can it get any more exciting? I don't think so. Work has been busy but really making news is our weather. We have four (4) feet of snow and counting. Normally around this time of year, we have about 13 inches. That folks, is CRAZY.

Paul has this week off to handle all the pre Christmas errands and menus. We had a busy time, friends over Sunday and Monday, dinner with friends on Christmas Eve and time with friends on Christmas day.

But mostly, we just love this time of year. Merry Christmas!

With deep gratitude

It has been a busy couple of days. Sadly, I wasn't feeling too great on Monday and Tuesday. Monday night, I was fixed on the television with Dancing with the Stars; Tuesday night was the final dance-off and I was in bed. :( I was just not feeling very well. To my great surprise, I woke up Wednesday morning still feeling yucky but in a total protonic reversal (see Calvin & Hobbes), as the day wore on, I felt much, much better. So as a good Calvinist, I finished the work day.

In the vocation front, I must sadly close out my weather station pipe dreams with the CoCoRaHS group. The precipitation collector that I purchased already broke (POS) and I am not feeling too excited about spending another $22 to buy a new one. Srsly, we had one snow and it broke. Get better equipment and I will gladly help. I am going to drop the group a note, along with the maker and see if something can be worked out. Otherwise, I will say goodbye to my weather station.

Thanksgiving is one of my very favorite holidays; Paul and I are grateful to be home with each other while other military families endure the hardship of separation. We have been there and understand, we pray deeply for those deployed and those in harm's way, especially during the holidays. So when we sit down for dinner, our first toast will be to those men and women deployed around the world, their families and loved ones; a toast to all of you who work and sacrifice to keep us safe. Deep gratitude.

Paul took a half day of vacation and has the turkey soaking in brine. It smelled SO delicious and I can't wait to taste it. Our holiday will look something like this. Perhaps on just one day, Mr. Samson will let us sleep in. If he doesn't, he may be free to a good home. (Just kidding). I love a good fire, some hot chocolate and the parades. We will watch the football games, check on a friend's dogs, bother our neighbors for some holiday cheer and have dinner, about 7ish or whenever Paul says the turkey is done.

We have a really busy weekend. We are getting a private tour of the Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex (SWEET -thanks Henry), fun with friends and dogs and some serious chillaxin' with both Mr. Handsomes. :)

With deep gratitude. We are grateful for our abundance of love, family, friends, neighbors, great jobs, a full table and Mr. Handsome. Thank you for being a part of it. Happy Thanksgiving.