Family in Town

My brother Dain (see below) is getting married next weekend. In Minnesota. Where it is still SNOWING despite the fact that it is now May. 

(This is what happens if you hand Dain some cookies and say "try and fit these all in your mouth!". He's a team player that way)

Since my parents didn't relish the thought of driving straight from New York to Minnesota, they stopped in Michigan to visit Chris and I for a few days before we all trek west. 

I wanted to treat my parents to some fun while they were in town, but since they lived here for 20 some odd years, its hard to find new things to do. I was able to come up with a few. Here they are:

Stop #1: "Family" Dinner at RyeBelles in St. Joe 

(from Left to Right: Dad, Mom, biological brother Chris, adopted brothers Mike and Will. DJ not pictured because he was late)

My brother Chris always travels with an entourage. If I'm meeting him for drinks, I always count on him bringing at least 2 extra people. Believe it or not, after that picture was taken, another dude showed up. Still, family is family! 

[Sidenote: we totally scared that couple behind us away with our shenanigans  After that, the restaurant didn't seat anyone within 3 tables of us]

Stop #2: Greenbush Brewing Company in Sawyer

My mother went off to a Ladies Tea at the church that my father, brother and I had no interest in attending. Since it was nice out I thought it would be fun to check out a local brewery. 

Greenbush has an excellent Maple Brown Ale that I really like, but that sucker is like 8.9% so you must sip slowly and eat lots of Pub Cheese. Trust me.  

After that, we stopped in at the Sawyer Garden Center just because its an awesome place to walk around. Oh, and maybe they were having a small wine tasting? And maybe I ran into a few friends from my old wine class? It was awesome. I bought a Rose that I'm excited try. Just for the record, I think Rose gets a bad rap. Seriously, red wine drinkers! Its a red you can drink in the summer! Win Win! 

Stop #3: Salt of the Earth in Fennville. 

Since Mother's Day is next Sunday and we'll be in the midst of post-wedding madness, we celebrated a week early at one of my favorite restaurants. I have never had bad food at Salt of the Earth and this trip was no exception. We had fried risotto and pierogies as appetizers and then I got the hanger steak. This picture is terrible, but the steak was incredible. It was a really nice family outing!

I think the moral of the story is you can always find new and fun things to do in your local area, even if you've lived there for 20 something years.

Happy Monday! 

Next Stop: Dain's Wedding! 

Let the Madness Begin

WEDDING SEASON APPROACHETH!

 

 I literally just spent the last twenty minutes of my life checking registries and RSVPing to showers, bachelorette parties and wedding ceremonies.

Does anyone think its weird that you have to RSVP to a wedding you're IN? I did that today. It felt weird. 

Last week, we hit the One Month Mark before my brother Dain's wedding which will be out in Minnesota. In lieu of wedding cake, they are asking people to bring home made pies. They asked me to make some blueberry pies, but since blueberries aren't in season yet, I made a few of my personal favorite, Dutch Apple*. 

I found this recipe on Brown Eyed Baker and whipped up two of these babies Saturday evening. Here are my thoughts/confessions/regrets. 

1. I made two of these pies and used 10 apples. 5 Granny Smith and 5 Gala. This is way less than what a doubled version of the recipe would call for, but in the past, I always end up with extra fruit so I took a risk. It turned out perfectly! 

2. This recipe really called to me because after you cook the apples you reduce the drained apple juice with heavy cream and then pouring it over the pie. What? Yes. 

3. Instead of just doubling the recipe like a normal person, I baked two pies, side by side, completely separately because when push comes to shove, I can never distribute things evenly at the end of a recipe.

4. My second favorite part of this recipe was using melted butter for the crumble topping instead of cutting in cold butter. This method resulted in beautiful crumbles that were really easy to distribute over the pies. 

5. I sincerely regret not making three of these because I didn't get to try a slice! Rookie mistake. I might make myself one this weekend just so I can try a piece. My kitchen smelled like a heavenly combination of apple, butter and cinnamon and I was drooling. 

6. I chickened out and didn't make my own pie crust. I used store bought. I hope I will be forgiven, but sometimes you just don't have it in you, you know? 

These are now hanging out in my freezer, waiting for the big day! I'm hoping they're as delicious as they looked and smelled. 

Happy Tuesday! 

*Don't worry. I will still be making the requested blueberry pies for the wedding, but I'm waiting until I'm actually in Minnesota since that pie is much better fresh than frozen-then-thawed. 

Things Have Happened

You guys, its been an insane couple of weeks. 

Last week  2 weeks ago (curse my inability to post on time!) was Holy Week, which is always a busy week/really big deal for me. Here is a rough break down of things that happened. 

1. I gave up booze! I thought it would help me stay focused through the week, but mostly it just made me focus on how much I needed wanted a drink. Still, it was probably the right thing to do.

2. My friend Monica had her baby! And she is awesome, even if she did steal my miraculous day. 

3. Celebrated my brother's birthday. I bought him a Home Brewing Starter Kit. I hope he loves it and shares some of his beer with me. Maybe it'll even pop up on his podcast. Who knows.

4. I sang in 4 church services. I headed up and lead my church's Good Friday service, sang in our 8:30 Easter service, lead the 9:45 Easter Service and sang in the 11:00 Easter service. I pretty much do this every year, but THIS YEAR there was a power outage in my town and my alarm didn't go off. I woke up at 8:05 and made a mad dash to church and barely got my unshowered/barely made up self into my robe and seat on time. It was stressful stuff, you guys. 

5. I made a very wholesome and traditional Easter Dinner for Chris and Mike...NOT! 

6. I rejoined the masses on Facebook and Twitter! Giving it up for Lent was definitely a positive experience. I've been back on it for 5 days and I definitely don't feel as compelled to waste time there as I did pre-Lent. Still, I did make a running list of things I wanted to tweet about during my 40 Days of Exile but couldn't. Perhaps I'll share them here some day. 

I hope your Easter was great and you're not buried in snow like my poor parents in Syracuse. 

Happy Monday! 

Miracles!

As a person of a Certain Generation, I don't get a lot of mail. Not even my bills come in the mail because I'm too irresponsible to pay them on time so I have everything on Auto Pay. Seriously. 

Roommate Jen, however, is a person of a Different Generation and gets all her bills (and magazine subscriptions! that one kills me) via the US Postal Service. 

Needless to say, I don't get the mail...ever? And when its all piled up on our dining room table, I never even glance at it. But today, TODAY there were 3 envelopes with my name on them. This is unprecedented!

Do you ever go to showers where you address the envelope for your own thank you card? I mean, it makes sense but its always weird to get a card with your own handwriting on the envelope thanking you for attending that baby shower a month ago or whatever (that is the Monkey Card, in case you were wondering).

The Easter card was from my "parents" (aka my mom. Thanks for the Target Gift Card!) and the coffee mug card was from my awesome friend Erika, just dropping a line. How awesome is that? Erika loves writing letters and I got one from her last year on this excellent cartoon dinosaur stationary. Its the simple things, really. 

Getting mail is awesome. 

Happy Thursday! 

___________________________________________________________________

****UPDATE**** My friend Monica (of the baby shower Monkey Card) decided to steal my Miracle Card Day Thunder by having a freaking baby on the same day. Some people, man. So rude.

I'll forgive her because the baby is so stinking cute. 

Miracles?

You guys, my TV died on Sunday.

My brother Chris and our friend Mike were over Sunday afternoon, as always, to eat after church. This week was slightly different since we were celebrating Chris' birthday (a few days early) and therefore he got to choose what movie we were going to watch. So naturally we watched Laserblast! Well, we watched the MST3K version of Laserblast. Spoiler Alert! Its a bad movie. Even with the gang making fun of it, its hardly worth watching.

(Tangent Alert! Something worth watching: Chris and Mike in the most recent installment of Chris' podcast, The Talking Head,  eating Mountain Dew Pamcakes.)

Anyway, we finished up Laserblast and my TV dramatically swooned and died. DIED! Just shut off and wouldn't turn back on. It was horrible and I pointed the finger of blame at Chris and his stupid Laserblasting. I truly believed we had watched a movie so bad that it caused my TV to commit TV suicide. 

And its upsetting how upset I was at the though of not having TV for a few days. I have a super busy schedule right now with rehearsals almost every night so its not like I would even have much time to watch, but man, I was MAD at being PRE-INCONVENIENCED by lack of TV. 

Question: when you have a problem, how long does it take for you to find someone to complain to? Usually it takes me approximately 30 seconds. Which makes you look like an idiot when your TV starts working again 20 minutes later. 

First, to my father. Notice the time stamps. And the heresy. 

Next, to my TV KILLING BROTHER. Have I mentioned we LOVE the IT Crowd*? 

The point of the story is twofold: 

1. Don't watch Laserblast! (Watch Future Wars)

2. Don't complain to a bunch of people before you know for sure you have something to complain about. 

Happy Holy Week! 

*The British one with Chris O'Dowd. Not the scary US remake with my beloved Joel McHale (sorry, Joel)

A Decadent Weekend of Decadence

This was maybe the most decadent weekend I've ever let myself have. 

Lets run it down:

Friday

When my friends Jim and Lorie got me a ticket to see La Boheme for Christmas, I don't think I knew what I was in for. We got to see the amazing soprano Anna Netrebko who will break your heart into a thousand pieces with her voice. She and tenor Joseph Calleja had amazing chemistry on stage, which is something that was definitely lacking in some of the other operas I've seen. Its a game changer when your performers are great actors as well as great vocalists. 

Aside from all the excitement on stage, we had private box seats which is the WAY TO GO. Honestly, since I only get to see about 1 opera per year, I would definitely spring for this. It is the most amazing way to see a show. You have a clear view of the stage. You have space for your legs and arms. You have a private cloak room!? You know, for your cloaks. Do it, you guys. Don't think about the money. Just do it. 

After the show, we dried our tears and headed over to Chicago Q to toast poor, doomed Mimi. 

Exciting things about Chicago Q:

1. Its in the neighborhood where I lived during my Chicago Semester back in 2005!

2. Unlimited House Made Chips and Pickles. They will never let you get to the bottom of the bowl before replacing it with a new one. 

(Sorry its blurry. Clearly I was quivering with excitement!)

3. Kobe. Beef. Brisket. You guys, this meat is so tender you don't even have to chew it. It just melts away on your tongue. Plus, brioche rolls. Gah! And don't even get me started on the sauces. Their spicy mustard rocked my world. 

4. I was able to score an Avery Brew! I got to tour the Avery Brewery when I was in Boulder to visit my friend Jenna last summer! It was the perfect meal. 

Saturday

Saturday Roommate Jen and I went shopping with Ex-Roommate and Bride-to-Be Megs down in South Bend. Megs is on pre-wedding Paleo Diet AND she gave up booze for Lent (she's a good person) and Roommate Jen is also booze free right now so it was up to me to be extra indulgent to make up for it. 

Since I wasn't shopping for anything in particular, I hit the shopping JACKPOT! I got shoes. I got a headband. I got a few tops on clearance (that never happens for me). I also broke down and bought one of these Clinique Chubby Sticks because even though I loathe the word "chubby", even I can't resist lip gloss that looks like a giant crayon. Plus, its an awesome color. 

We had dinner at Granite City where I got a nice glass of Malbec to go with my absolutely gigantic Bruchetta Chicken Salad. 

I will endorse any salad that comes with an entire loaf of bread. And olives. And blue cheese...oh man. I'm drooling all over again. 

For desert I got a mini Key Lime Shooter and it was perfect. 

And now its back to work and back to the gym, which is sad, but necessary. Everyone should have weekends like this where you take the opportunities you're given and enjoy them to the fullest! 

Happy Wednesday!

Sandwich Cookies

Back in December I was having drinks with Beth and Marcus, a couple I met through the Symphony Chorus I sing with. We were discussing my new iPhone 5 and Marcus was asking if it had a high quality camera. While he was messing with the phone he asked if he could flip through my photo album to see how some of the pictures turned out and I kind of...hesitated. 

The hesitation led to awkward panic on Marcus' part because, well I made it seem like my phone was full of naked pictures when REALLY its just full of food pictures*.

So yes, I catalog my food pretty faithfully on my iPhone. I swear I only Instagram like, 1/3 of it. 

I was flipping through my pictures yesterday and I noticed a theme...sandwich cookies! I have made 3 different types of sandwich cookies in the past 3 weeks. Who knew!? I certainly didn't realize it.

 First up were these heart shaped cookies for Valentine's Day. I am ashamed to say that I did go out and buy a heart shaped cookie cutter and therefore now I OWN a heart shaped cookie cutter (3, actually...they came in a 3 pack). However, I am NOT ashamed to say I tried really hard to make a few cookies that were hearts jaggedly cut in half, but it didn't work. Only happy cookies for V Day! 

Result: They taste like oreos in the best possible way. The recipe makes a TON of frosting, so you can be super generous with each cookie. 

Next up were these red velvet sandwich cookies. I had leftover cream cheese frosting and a spare box of red velvet cake mix from making cake bites for a friend's baby shower and these seemed like a win!

Result: They really weren't very good. I don't know if I never got the baking time right or what, but they were really dried out and hard. The frosting helped.

Last up were these Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies that I made for my brother and his fiance after they had a rough week on the job hunt. There is nothing quite like nailing an interview only to get the impersonal letter of rejection. If we're being completely honest...not all of these made it into the mail...they were just toooooo good. 

Result: These are one of those cookies that are even better the next day. I will definitely make them again. Plus, they're so cute! 

I hope cookies cure all your ills this week! Happy Wednesday! 

*Ok, and romance novel book covers since its a hobby of mine to browse the Top Free 100 Books on Amazon daily and send the worst/best covers to my friend Erika.