It Smells Gooood In Here!

Company should be arriving within the next half hour. And I'm READY!

I had this afternoon off. I made a final trip to the grocery store and then made the guest bed. My parents arrived at 2 and we baked a pumpkin pie, peeled and cut up 10 pounds of potatoes, prepped all the stuffing stuff, made a jello and decided on timing for tomorow.

Now I'm laying on the couch and am going to flip through all the catalogs that came in the mail.

Updates to come...hopefully there are no disasterous turkey stories!

Happy Thanksgiving! Eat lots!

And this should keep you all busy until I return...

Wedding Cake??

UPDATE: Thanks to Marshall for this funny link! :)

So, I found this today and we've decided that we totally should have had this cake at our wedding...

http://www.fresh99.com/meat-cake.htm

You know, it honestly doesn't sound half bad!

Counting Down to Turkey

We had a busy weekend preparing for Thanksgiving and all of our company! We did manage to sneak in some fun too...

Friday night we had Fondue Night with the Schmidts and Literskis (the same friends we did the progressive dinner with). Literskis hosted and were in charge of the cheese course. They had two types of cheese fondue with bread, crackers, veggies. YUM! Ryan and I brought the main course. Hot oil with chicken, beef, peppers, and mushrooms. Another YUM! Then Schmidts brought the dessert. Two types of chocolate fondue with cookies, GF brownies, angelfood cake, strawberries, marshmallows, pineapple and bananas to dip. YUM YUM! Needless to say, we ate well!














Saturday we got an early start - up at 7:30 to pack up stuff for Goodwill. We filled most of the car! It felt great to get rid of that much stuff! Then we went to Whole Foods, Costco, Super Target. We actually made a round through Target, hauled it to the car and made another round. Hopefully we've got everything we need for Thanksgiving and having company around the rest of the weekend. We cleaned like crazy when we got home - dusting, vacuuming, bathrooms, laundry.




Saturday afternoon Ryan went to the Iowa/MN football game. Iowa creamed the Gophers! While he was gone I met up with Harmony for dinner at Big Bowl. Mmmmm!

Sunday was church, more cleaning and then I ironed for 3 hours! It's like I have a whole new wardrobe! That afternoon our friends Steve and Sarah came over to cook dinner. We flipped through cookbooks and settled on spicy peanut chicken. We had a few potentially disasterous moments but in the end it was great! And really fun to hang out!

Ryan won Wild tickets at work today so he's at the game with some coworkers. I just got home from Step-n-Tone (flashback to 1990 anyone?!)

We're counting down until our company arrives - they should all be here Wednesday afternoon/evening. YAY! I have that afternoon off to bake a couple pies and peel potatoes. And you better believe that I'll be rocking out to Christmas music! :)

Cheers to New Food Options!

After my excitement about the crockpot last week I was looking on my friend Emily's blog and discovered a link to A Year of Crockpotting. This woman decided to make a new crockpot recipe every day for a year. I only got through looking at about half of them but they look great and she gives the recipe and then a verdict on whether it's worth making. There are a ton I want to try. I never knew you could bake in a crockpot! There was one for french toast - you start it when you go to bed and you wake up to a hot breakfast. That one is definitely on my list to try. But I haven't even mentioned the best part yet. All the recipes are gluten free! :) She even uses the same bread mixes as I do. Discovering that has been the highlight of my week! Anytime I find a new gluten free website is cause for celebration!

And I also discovered some new lunch options to take to work. I had been taking frozen lunches on the days that we didn't have leftovers. But the gluten free options are limited and/or expensive. While shopping last weekend I was in the frozen veggie aisle and found these.

They have a little olive oil and seasoning and are so good! I just make a big batch of rice and throw the veggies on top. YUM! Lunch has been much less boring this week. We even cooked two packages, sauteed some chicken and had a healthy dinner last night.

Anyone have any other good lunch or crockpot suggestions?!

Slacker

I'll be the first to admit it...I've been slacking at my blog updates! I don't know where the days go...

Let's see...

We had a productive and relaxing weekend - a good combo!

Friday night Ryan picked me up from the bus and we went to Chipotle for dinner. We decided against going to a movie and headed home. Somewhere between Whale Wars and whatever sports game was on I fell asleep.

Saturday Ryan was up at 6:45 with a stuffy nose and unable to sleep. Being the attentive wife that I am, I gave him some Sudafed and went back to bed. :) Once I got up we went to Inta Juice for a smoothie and then headed to Mall of America. Nordstrom Rack was having their Big Size Shoe Sale - a perfect shopping opportunity for my size 15 footed husband! He was unsuccessful in the shoe department but did leave with some jeans.

Upon arriving home just in time for the Iowa game Ryan settled in on the couch and I attacked the mess in our office. We'd been tossing papers in a "to file" pile on the floor. I got them all organized and into the file cabinet and then cleaned the closet, moved some drawers and the office looks much better.

The next big project was our closet. Somehow it had gotten a little out of hand...neither of us seemed to be folding anything and it was like clothes vomit coming from all the shelves. But we re-folded, sorted and put away. We even got rid of two garbage bags full of clothes. And here's the end result:

Saturday night Ryan had his friend Aaron over to watch sports and I met my good friend Ashley to see Changeling. It was heavy and a bit creepy but really good. She came back to the house for a while after the movie and it was good to catch up.

Sunday was Young Couples class and then the contemporary service. Our church has a new branch and so we actually watched the sermon via video as our pastor was at the other site. We're studying Romans and it's been great! The afternoon included watching the Vikings game (for Ryan) and a nap (for me!). Are you noticing a theme here? Sports and sleeping! :)

Ryan got up on the roof and blew out the gutters while I cooked rice for my lunches this week and made a batch of Rice Chex treats (just like rice crispie treats but using rice chex (gluten free!) instead). We met up with our friends Ben and Katie to see the new James Bond movie. Katie's dad rents out the private room at the back of the theater. It has 20 ultra comfy recliners and there was pizza and cookies. A great way to end the weekend (even if the movie wasn't great).

Last night I tried out the Step-n-Tone class at the community center. It was my first time doing step and I'm sure it was very entertaining for those around me. I was the only first-timer at class and during certain steps I was just so lost I stood there until the next sequence. Oh well...a good workout nonetheless. Maybe next time I'll catch on a little faster.

And here we are at Tuesday night already! Laundry is in, Ryan just got home from the gym and I'm trying to decide on dinner.

Here's to a happy week for all of you!

P.S. Look what we bought on Sunday night...it'll be here before we know it!

P.P.S. Look what came in the mail on Friday - once they are in the frames I'll take some more pictures. I can't wait!

Mmmmmm!!

We had a delicious pot roast for dinner. I put it in the crock-pot before leaving for work. A chuck roast, a whole onion, a bag of carrots, a little minced garlic and some water. 8.5 hours of low, slow cooking and we had a tasty dinner just waiting for us after work. I think the crock-pot has just become my new best friend! Anyone have any crock-pot recipe ideas that they like?

On another note, we joined the Eden Prairie Community Center tonight and then stayed to work out. They recently renovated and the fitness facility is really nice! Plus, it's a much better deal than any gym. And I get a $20 reimbursement from my insurance if I go 8x/month. Now we've just got to motivate each other to go!

And more fun news...my cousin Katie had a healthy baby boy this afternoon! I've got a new first cousin once removed - Nathan James. Welcome baby!

Happy Monday!

Weekend Update

It was a low key weekend in MN...

Friday night we went on a little date. We had dinner at Big Bowl (GF Kung Pao Chicken = YUM!) and then we wandered around Pottery Barn and the mall for a bit before calling it an early night.

Ryan worked on Saturday so when he left I rolled over and slept til 9. I had stashed all the essentials close at hand the night before so I spent the morning curled up in bed with my new magazines, a GF almond scone and some tea. I finally ventured out of bed at 11! A perfectly relaxing lazy start to my day! I got dressed and ran a couple errands and then Ryan and I toured the Eden Prairie Community Center. We are thinking of getting a membership and wanted to check the place out - it's really nice! When we got home Ryan cheered the Iowa Hawkeyes to victory and I took a nap (as if I needed more sleep after my lazy morning!). Our evening consisted of grocery shopping and watching Made of Honor. Yup, Ryan was nice enough to watch a chick flick with me. I didn't think it was very good...oh well.

From Ryan: I don't know about anyone else, but I was as giddy as a school girl watching Iowa upset Penn State on Saturday!! I was pacing around my living room during the entire 4th quarter, I couldn't sit down. It is so cool watching home town kid Mitch King on the defensive line dominate the Big 10!! Hopefully we continue this streak and go bowling in January. See everyone at the Iowa/Minnesota game up here, GO HAWKS! Thats all I have, now back to my beautiful wife....

Today we went to church at Faith Baptist because our friend Joel was leading worship. We know a lot of people there and it was fun to see everyone. Plus it was a great message about Revelation 7:1-8. We rushed home from church since we had invited a bunch of friends over to watch the Vikings/Packers game. We had quite a turnout - there were 15 of us! Luckily people were willing to pull up chairs all over as we don't have that much seating. It was a great game and lots of good food. We ordered pizzas, had cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, chips and dip, cookies, and pumpkin pie.

When the crew left we tackled the last portion of our yard that was still covered in leaves. Between Ryan raking, me vacuuming with the blower and then both of us scooping up armfuls, we made fast work of it.

Now we are sitting inside, enjoying hot chocolate and watching football. I'm trying to work up some motivation to decide where to hang some of our art and get it up on the walls.

Oh yeah, back to Saturday...we ordered a bunch of old family pictures to frame and hang up in the basement. We've been collecting a variety of frames and I can't wait to get it finished - pictures to come!



The gang



Another shot


Working away in the yard


I'm great with power tools!

Niece and Nephew News

Brenna can stand up on her own!! I guess she goes from sitting, to butt up in the air, to full standing all by herself! I'm guessing she'll be walking by the time they visit at Thanksgiving! We're waiting for video proof...

For your cuteness fill for today, check out Brenna in her Halloween costume. What a cute little lion!

And Quinton has been going crazy in his jumperoo - http://www.theweerude.blogspot.com/. He was so wiggly when he was here last weekend that we're just waiting to hear news on crawling. You can tell he wants to be on the move.

Happy November Weekend

Saturday was a great day! We slept in after the Halloween party and the Ryan suggested a trip to the gluten-free bakery. Who was I to disagree!? After a stop at Madwoman Bakery, where I got sticky buns, lemon poppyseed muffins, an apple cinnamon scone and some pretzels, we trekked to Isles Bun and Coffee so Ryan could get some puppy dog tails (cinnamon twist donuts). We also made a stop at Whole Foods for some frozen almond scones. I love having them around for when I need a baked good! :)



The rest of the day we spent cleaning, watching football, and napping. Ryan had to stop into work for a while on Saturday evening so I tagged along and then we made a stop at Super Target for some groceries. It was an early night.

Sunday we attended our first Young Couples Sunday school class. It was world misions week so we had speakers from Ghana and Campus Crusade. Then we went to the contemporary service. We treated ourselves to lunch at Chipotle on the way home.

My friend Ashley came over on Sunday afternoon for a baking extravaganza. We both love to bake and its much more fun to do it together. We tried two new recipes - both winners! After finishing baking we took a long walk - the weather was unbelievably perfect yesterday - 60's and sunny! We were both hot by the time we got back to the house.

Ryan spent his afternoon blowing, raking and bagging all the leaves in the front yard. We have one stubborn tree that refuses to drop its leaves so there will be at least one more raking weekend before the snow flies.


Deliciousness!!!


Pumpkin Cornmeal Muffins
1/2 Cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 Cup light brown sugar
1/2 Cup milk
4 eggs
1 15-ounce can solid pumpkin
1 1/2 Cups whole wheat flour (I substituted my GF flour blend)
1 Cup yellow cornmeal
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (I actually forgot this - oops!)
1/4 tsp ground cloves (we replaced the cinnamon and cloves with a pumpkin pie spice blend)

Heat oven to 350* F. Spray muffin tin or use paper liners. In a large bowl, with an electic mixer on Med/High, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low, add the remaining ingredients, and beat for 3 minutes or just until smooth. Spoon batter into muffin tins. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. (the recipe says it yields 12 muffins but we got 17)


Banana Apricot Muffins
3 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1/4 Cup honey
2 eggs, beaten
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 Cups almond flour
3/4 Cup walnuts, chopped
3/4 Cup chopped dried apricots (we left these out)


Preheat oven to 325*. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or butter the muffin tin thoroughly. Mix butter, honey, eggs, and bananas together in a large bowl. Stir in baking soda and salt. Stir in almond flour, walnuts and apricots until just combined. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake 25-35 minutes, until muffins are firm and a toothpick comes out clean.

Halloween Party

Friday night we went to a party at our friend Tony's house. There was a great turnout and it was fun to see everyone! The night consisted of American Idol on Playstation (like karaoke but you get scored), great food, and a costume contest.

And I've been pestered that people are waiting for pictures...so ENJOY!


Black Cat and Hans (or was it Franz!?)


Hans and Franz - "We're here to pump.......you.......up!"


Us

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - they went ALL OUT!

Parties always end up with girls in one room and boys in the other.

The costume contest winner - our friend Chad as Ohio State coach, Jim Tressel