breeze blog

turkey day (a bit early)!

2011-11-21T22:18:00.001-05:00

while my family was in town for the cruise, i took advantage of having them around close to the holidays and we had thanksgiving (we won't be in AZ this year at all for the holidays)- it was fun! :) it was also my first hosting of thanksgiving all by myself! of course, i had plenty of kitchen help from mom and cassie :) here is my menu and planning with links to everything i made -- i pasted in notes as i found them from either the recipes or reviews of the recipes for easy access :) we liked pretty much everything so i got lucky with the recipes i picked :) nate carved the turkey (i forgot to take a picture before it was carved!). our turkey's name was 'hurkey.' hurkey the turkey :) mom made the pie- it had maple syrup in it and it was really tasty! i need to get the recipe from her so i can make it next year :) it even had little pie crust groundhogs on top (in lieu of any more autumn type cookie cutters which we don't own) :)

Turkey & Gravy

The best way to thaw a frozen turkey is in the refrigerator. A 12-pound turkey takes 2 1/2 to 3 days to thaw. If you run out of time, thaw the bird, wrapped in its original packaging, in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes. Figure 30 minutes per pound, or 6 hours for a 12-pound bird.
It is best to squeeze the oranges as you place them in the cavityAdd extra chicken stock to pan as needed

Herb & Onion Stuffing

Serves 8-10 – probably ½ recipe...
Cut the bread into smaller pieces, use 1.5-2 cups more stock than it calls for
Double herbs, double egg

Noodles(Nate, family recipe)
Mashed Potatoes (by Pioneer Woman of course) :)
Bread

From our local bakery

Maple Pecan Sweet Potatoes
Cranberry Sauce

Cassie was in charge here and I think she left out some things that weren't to her liking- whatever she did, it turned out great!

Citrus Green Beans with Pine Nuts

These were good, but I wouldn't make them again with Thanksgiving dinner- the flavors weren't quite right with all of the other yumminess :)

The day before plan!:

Prepare brine, brine turkey for 24 hours in advance
Shock green beans and chill
Buy bread

Take cranberries out of freezer (it's hard to find fresh cranberries in October!) :)
Chop everything for the stuffing

The results:

our groundhog pumpkin pie.... sweet potatoes (extra marshmallows!)

sonoma salad

2011-11-14T19:53:00.001-05:00

so i've been seriously slacking in the kitchen ever since getting pregnant. big time. the whole first trimester and a good part of the second, i didn't want to eat anything and the narcolepsy also didn't help! but i am slowly getting back on the wagon :) this is a recipe i've been meaning to post for quite a while -- i had a salad (from the airport of all places) and loved it, so i recreated it at home! the dressing is... tangy.. but you can easily adjust by adding more honey :) according to mom & cassie (who had the dressing on a completely different salad), it tastes like chinese hot mustard :) but in this particular combination, the mandarin oranges and gorgonzola work pretty well with that mustard taste :)

Salad:
Baby spinach
Mandarin oranges (drained)
Gorgonzola Cheese, crumbled
Cucumber, diced
Tomatoes, diced
Diced ham or turkey (not pictured above)

Dressing:
1/4 cup (ish) dijon mustard
2 tbl (ish) honey
White wine vingear

Whisk the dijon and honey together until smoothly combined -- I kind of guesstimate and make the dressing to taste. Add the white wine vinegar until the dressing is thin enough to pour, mixing as you go.

Combine all ingredients and enjoy!

ah vacation- especially the cruise variety!

2011-11-14T18:35:00.001-05:00

we recently returned from a cruise with my family and it was wonderful :) it was a first cruise for most of us- i've been on 3 but was always working, nate's been on i think the same number +1 where he was relaxing and i was working but for everyone else, this was a new experience!

i exist!

nate, cassie, cadiem and i shared and a room that adjoined with mom and marty's room so we had plenty of togetherness :) i really enjoyed the ship, it had lots of beautiful places even from inside the ship where you could see the water. notes for next time: even if the kid isn't old enough to be in the kids' clubs, it still matters whether or not the cruise is family oriented! when mom and i were looking at cruises, i knew celebrity wasn't really for the family crowd but i wish there had a been more for cadiem to enjoy! regardless, he had a great time just being 2 and silly and playing with his trucks/trains :) i think this is my favorite picture of cadiem from the trip (hanging down from cassie's bunk eeaaarrllly in the morning) :)

i posted a ton of pictures on our smugmug (in November 2011), the cruise was a 5-night and stopped in both roatan, honduras and cozumel, mexico. cassie and marty did some snorkeling in roatan while the rest of us enjoyed the beautiful beach but other than that, we didn't get into too much :)

in cozumel, we took a ferry over to the mainland near playa del carmen which was rough!! i've never actually gotten seasick but i did on the way over to playa! cadiem also didn't feel great but luckily he never got sick, just nauseous- he slept it off though, and marty carried him through playa :)

the reason we ferried over was totally worth it :) we toured the mayan ruins at tulum. it's a gorgeous setting right on beautiful cliffs and beach. i wish we'd had more time to explore but it was such a neat thing to see! next time i'm bringing my swimsuit :)

once we were back in cozumel, mom & marty headed back to the ship with cadiem and cassie, nate and i stayed to explore with the couple of hours we had left until all aboard. nate asked around for a great taco place and we were directed several blocks away from the main tourist area to a great place!

while at dinner, cassie realized both her seapass and passport were in the diaper bag... which mom had taken with her.... on the ship. it was then we got a bit nervous :) we quickly finished dinner, hopped in a taxi, and made it back to the port! but... getting on the pier was a no go without ID (there was quite a bit of discussion over the walkie talkie about the fact that we were sisters to try convince whoever was on the other end, but still to no avail). we decided nate would be the fastest and sent him off to the ship while we waited at the entrance to the pier (which at this point was looking relatively deserted)! despite the mild panic, we actually had a really nice conversation with the security guards while waiting for nate to return. then, word came through on the radio: we were clear to go (nate had talked to security on the ship and had us cleared)! we headed off to the ship (by this time i think there was maybe 15 minutes until sailing) and had to stop at each security point to re-explain and ask them to radio back to the original guards that had let us pass. finally we got back to the ship, and nate was there, seapass card in hand! whew! thanks to nate, we didn't have to leave cassie in mexico, i think cadiem might have missed her :)

after all that adventure, we had one more relaxing day at sea:

and then arrived back home :) all in all, it was a wonderful vacation and all of us got to spend so much great time together!! i was sad to see everyone head back but luckily i'll at least get to see cassie and mom relatively soon :)

back from the dead?

2011-10-24T22:17:00.004-05:00

wow... i think i've sunk to a new low in the history of this blog when it comes to post frequency! i'm going to indulge in a brief explanation of why and then get on with it :) at first, i was just slacking. then, at the end of june we found out we were expecting a baby (!) and i didn't blog because it was such a big thing and i couldn't even tell people yet! then, i fell asleep for roughly two months so there wasn't any blogging then either. then i ran out of excuses and now it's almost november :) but oh my goodness, there's been a lot going on! mainly two things:

1. we're expecting a baby (after a looooooonnnnnnggggg few years, more on that later) and could NOT be more excited! we found out today she's a girl :) i cannot wait for march 4th!!
2. nate had a dirtbike accident while we in arizona and broke his back, his arm, and his finger. he was out of work for a month and still isn't back to 100%! he's pretty much recovered but has a whole lot of exercises to do at home and still needs to be very careful not to reinjure anything. we also learned nate has a high tolerance for pain ;) while in the ER, he pegged his pain tolerance at a 2-3 on a scale of 1-10. imagine our surprise when the doctor came sprinting back in with the x-ray results to tell us that he broke his back!

the good news is, he'll be good as new by the time the baby shows up so that's fantastic :)

the hot days of summer

2011-06-12T21:29:00.011-05:00

well it's officially hot! and after a bit of a random start to the weekend, we've had a great lazy weekend. good food, plenty of time with friends and with each other, and plenty of time in the a/c which is totally key right now :) we're planning out several trips for the rest of the summer to cooler locales which always helps keep us sane :) hope your summer is about to kickoff with a great start! :) wishing you plenty of watermelon, ice cold beer, a/c, swimming pools, margaritas and the beach :)

(delicious) Roast Chicken!

2011-06-05T19:03:00.001-05:00

This was a new one for me- and I had NO idea how easy it was! I think the idea of the prep scared me, but it wasn't bad at all. And I realized that I rarely cook a dinner that just cooks away in the oven, giving me time to prepare everything else :) I also made a few equipment substitutions... no twine? Cut a strip from a rag! No roasting pan? Put an (all metal) cooling rack on top of a 9x13 casserole dish! :) No meat thermometer? Hope you get lucky (and err on the long side of the cooking times)! :) It is of course, another great recipe from Cooking Light :)

Ingredients

1 (4-pound) whole roasting chicken
2 teaspoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 shallots, peeled and halved
3 fresh thyme sprigs
1 lemon, quartered

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Discard giblets and neck from chicken. Starting at neck cavity, loosen skin from breasts and drumsticks by inserting fingers, gently pushing between skin and meat.
3. Combine butter and next 7 ingredients (through garlic) in a small bowl. Rub mixture under loosened skin, over flesh; rub over top of skin. Tie ends of legs together with twine (or... cut a strip off a rag ;). Lift wing tips up and over back; tuck under chicken. Place chicken, breast side up, on a rack; place rack in roasting pan. Place shallots, thyme sprigs, and lemon in cavity of chicken.
4. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 450° (do not remove chicken); bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until a thermometer inserted in meaty part of leg registers 165°. Remove chicken from pan; let stand 10 minutes. Discard skin. Carve chicken.

the seasons, they're a changin'

2011-05-26T22:10:00.000-05:00

sure, official summer doesn't start until june 21, but summer has arrived! a quick survey showed phoenix above 100 this week, florida's in the 90s, and pennsylvania is supposed to get awful close to 90 this weekend!

we've been busy with our usual influx of spring visitors, and spring travel. we've had a wondeful time with all :) my mom's visit was filled with flowers, birds, wine, and great food :) we even found a gator or two :) can you spot the one in this picture?

(hint, he's in the water and he's only showing his eyes!)

we also had a great time with my gram and aunt peggy - we took them pretty much straight to the beach and enjoyed every moment of it :) it was fun to spend mother's day with the two of them :)

we've also been to portland, or and fayetteville, ar for two beautiful weddings :) it was fun to explore new towns with old friends :) i'm still getting all of the pics on smugmug, but they'll all be there eventually :)

hope the 'summer' is kicking off well for all of you :) now that porch weather is dwindling, i'm aiming to spend some of this great indoor time blogging (among other things) :)

spring! has sprung!

2011-04-13T18:29:00.000-05:00

although we don't experience as dramatic of a spring as other colder places do, i'm still excited to see everything in bloom and looking gorgeous! the trees seem to appear on the trees overnight :) and easter is late this year, but we've had plenty to keep us busy! we just got back from a trip to vegas/portland (the portland part was for a wedding) and tomorrow, my mom arrives! we have plenty of fun planned around town and lots of good food on the menu (both in and out!).

my little easter chicks :) (anita's handiwork in the background!)

a tasty day: from brunch to burgers!

2011-04-03T21:02:00.004-05:00

we had a lovely lazy sunday today. but i did try two new recipes and both were hits! for brunch, sarah was over and we had these tasty little frittatas. i always thought a frittata had to involve bread, but turns out it's true definition is this:

A frittata is a type of italian omelette, either simple or enriched with additional ingredients, such as meats, cheeses, vegetables and even pasta. It may be compared to a crust-less quiche or, in America, "scrambled eggs."

this particular recipe has you bake them in a muffin tin so you get great little individual size breakfasts :) definitely making them the next time we have company! and i'm excited to play around with the fillings.

for dinner, i wasn't sure what to make so nate suggested we try to recreate our favorite arizona hamburger from four peaks brewery, the jalapeño popper burger. we loved them! recipes for both are below :)

Mini Ham & Cheese Frittatas

Ingredients

1 cup finely chopped onion
1 1/3 cup chopped ham (about 4 ounces)
2/3 cup (about 3 ounces) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
7 large egg whites
3 large eggs
Directions

Preheat oven to 350.
Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Add ham; sauté 3 minutes. Remove from heat; cool 5 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Add ham mixture, stirring with a whisk.
Spoon 1/4 cup mixture into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until set.

Nate & Bri's Jalapeño Popper Burgers

Ingredients

4 Hamburger Buns

Butter

Garlic Powder

Ground beef

Worcestershire

Cream Cheese

Jalapeño, thinly sliced

Alexia frozen onion rings (next time, I want to try Pioneer Woman's recipe for onion straws here- yum!)

Directions

Get some willing to grill the burgers that's good at it and will get them perfectly medium (in this case, Nate) :) send them on their way :)
Cook onion rings according to package - throw in a few extra for on the side :) we used 2 per burger.
Melt butter, brush on to hamburger buns, sprinkle with a little garlic powder. Broil until golden brown.
Assemble cooked burger on bun, top with cream cheese, fresh jalapeno slices, and hot onion rings- smush it down so it all melds together into one delicious burger.
Enjoy :) preferably with a good beer!

in like a lamb...

2011-02-27T16:46:00.000-05:00

i cannot believe it's almost march! we've had an action packed couple of months and are looking forward to several more that are just as action packed! we've had a wonderful time with john & nina in florida as well as everyone that came to join them :) this weekend, we decided to keep it local, and even managed to get them to a few places they haven't been yet. last night, we played a great round of hearts - i've never played with a group of people that shoots the moon EVERY hand. highly entertaining and keeps you on your toes :)

now we are relaxing on the porch, enjoying the weather (and the visual fruits of our saturday morning labor cleaning gutters, pulling weeds, and mowing the lawn) :) the guys are playing guitar and nina and i are paging through magazines. lovely lovely lovely.

wasting away again in margaritaville, searching for my lost shaker of salt....

confession

2011-02-23T22:37:00.000-05:00

i finally bought the katy perry album. and i'm kind of excited about it :) but i also bought the new old 97s album to balance it out :)

Spicy Fish and Spicy Coleslaw!

2011-02-16T23:06:00.000-05:00

i've been doing some searching for some throw together type dinners- sometimes i get too ambitious and then we eat dinner at 9:30 pm (aka chili con carne) - oops! last night's attempt at easy and tasty was just okay, but tonight's was a winner! we had jerk spiced fish with spicy coleslaw and sweet potato fries (after multiple attempts, i've given in and buy the frozen alexia ones). the coleslaw was super spicy and definitely my favorite part. here's the recipe:

Ingredients

3 cups cabbage-and-carrot coleslaw mix
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons canola mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons really finely chopped habanero (extra hot!) or serrano (somewhat hot!) pepper
Cooking spray/Olive Oil
4 (6-ounce) catfish fillets (or any whitefish... i used cod)
4 teaspoons Jamaican jerk seasoning (i actually used a jerk marinade that we love- thanks laura and drew!) :) but either way!

Directions

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl; toss well to coat.

2. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray, add a little olive oil. Sprinkle fish evenly with jerk seasoning. Add fish to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove from heat; serve fish with slaw.

I didn't snag my own picture but it should look a little something like this :)

2011-02-15T20:50:00.002-05:00

“When I was a child I wish I’d known the point was to become more and more genuinely my own imperfect, precious unique self.”

-Elizabeth Lesser

mobile blogger?

2011-02-10T22:03:00.000-05:00

so nate is the proud new owner of an iPhone which means i now have his hand me down iPod touch until my phone is up for renewal :) what does that mean? expect more photos on the go now that i have a device that can blog AND post photos ;)

Real time update! I may not be able to post photos this way after all! Off to do some research!

the disney dream!

2011-02-01T21:22:00.000-05:00

we recently had a wonderful opportunity to cruise on the disney dream (disney's newest cruise ship!) i had to work, but nate and his parents were able to come along for fun which was really cool! here are a few pics from our trip -- john took many many more (including some interiors of the room and general goings on), i'll post those once we download them.

exploring the ship right after we got on!

the water slide around the ship (the aquaduck!)

the adult area of the ship with swim up bar!

view from our room (when we were docked at disney's island, castaway cay)

meeting mickey in tropical paradise :)

the disney dream!

donald and daisy :) daisy was flirting with nate! donald was jealous :)

more to come!

home again home again, jiggity jig!

2011-01-17T17:47:00.000-05:00

we are back on land after a wonderful few days on disney's newest ship, the dream :) we had a great time! (although i worked every night all night, i got to hang with everyone during the day which was nice). i'll post pictures once photos of the ship are more commonplace, but it's a gorgeous gorgeous ship and we had wonderful weather!
laura will be arriving this week with fletcher (we'll miss you drew!) and several other family members will be showing up in florida over the next few months. we're looking forwarding to all of the visiting and beaching :)
the cleo calendar has arrived and we'll be shipping out copies this week so expect one soon if you are in the cleo fan club :) this year, our goal is to take the pictures gradually through the year instead of banging 11 of 12 months out all in one day! :) we'll see...

e-i e-i o....

2011-01-09T10:49:00.003-05:00

nate: we'd have been really great farm owners
bri: because we hate manual labor and love sleeping in?
nate: okay.. maybe store owners. we could have owned the general store because we're good at math and could tell people how much their nails cost.
bri:....

I Want by Kim Konopka

2011-01-06T21:24:00.005-05:00

I Want

to shove my clothes
to one side of the closet,
give you the bigger half.
Quietly I’ll hide most of my shoes,
so you won’t know I have this many.

I will
rearrange furniture to add more,
find space on my shelves
for your many books,
nail up the placard that says
poets do it, and redo it, and do it again.

I want
to share a laundry basket,
get our clothes mixed up,
wait for the yelling
when my reds run wild
into your whites
turning them a luscious pink,
your favorite color of me.

I will
move my pillow
to the other side of the bed,
lay yours next to mine,
your scent on the fabric
always near me,
even on nights you’re away.

I will
buy a new bureau to hold your
thousand and one black socks,
find a place for all those work boots,
the ones I refer to as big and ugly.

I want
more pots and pans to wash,
piles of them leaning high
from late night meals
cooked naked and drunk,
red wine pouring into
a sauce of simmering
tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil,
kisses bitten between bites,
and platefuls of our late hours,
stacking up into dawn.

I want
to stock cupboards, closets, and
     pantry,
fill the house with us.
I want to gain weight with you
   because our love,
   our love makes me fat.

well here we are at pismo beach! and all the clams that we can eat!

2011-01-04T22:42:00.001-05:00

the FLY foundation

2011-01-03T23:42:00.000-05:00

A very good friend of mine was recently diagnosed with cancer. She is fighting back (and if you've been following her blog that's linked on the right, Adjusting the Sails, you're well familiar with how inspiring and wonderful she is)! And while she is fighting her own battle, she and her husband have established a foundation for young adults who have also been diagnosed with cancer. From their website:

Young adults, aged 19-39, make up less than 10% of all cancer patients, but this age group is the least likely to survive. Several factors contribute to the low survival rate including delays in diagnosis, a shortage of age-tailored treatments, as well as lack of patient health insurance and financial resources.

Such a great cause, I wanted to share with you all. You can find the website here: http://www.theflyfoundation.org/

new year and new resolutions!

2011-01-03T22:53:00.001-05:00

i've never been a fan of resolutions... but i'm starting to understand them. coming off of a string of holidays where i was entirely too indulgent all around, i'm feeling like a little reorganization is in order :) remember last spring when i blogged about losing weight? well it's BACK! so i'm back on the wagon! it's all veggies from here on out.

okay, maybe not all veggies, but i am definitely going to be eating healthy and exercising! i'd say exercising more but that would be a joke. i haven't experienced sweat due to aerobic activity since last march! but in the name of the new year, nate and i did head out for a bike ride yesterday and it was so so beautiful outside. to quote our neighbor "THIS is why we live in Florida, not these crazy cold snaps we've been having!" stop laughing northeners, it was unseasonably cold here! we lost several plants to the great drop below 32 degrees of 2010!

i also intend to: blog more recipes, locate my masters degree (i suspect it is somewhere in the garage), gather up a bunch of stuff for good will, restart our 1+ night a week of vegetarian meals, and find a really great pair of jeans. i guess that's less of a list of resolutions and more of a to do list, but what do you want from me? i have the attention span of a gnat!

happy new year ;)

merry christmas from nate & bri! (and cleo!)

2010-12-24T12:52:00.000-05:00

christmas at the floriday iveys

2010-12-09T23:45:00.001-05:00

since this is the first year we had an artificial tree ready to go in storage, our christmas decorations went up early this year! the day after we got back from pennsylvania actually :) it's a tiny little tree, and his name his santa. here he is in all his christmas glory :)

cleo never misses the opportunity to be in a picture :)

the entry. nate's nativity set on the right. his church gave one piece away every year as he was growing up... or something like that :) i call it the jesus block party which makes him mad ;) i don't mean it in a bad way, but seriously check out all those people that are present at the birth of jesus!

and now some details :) the christmas tree forest with the bears (i collected them as a kid... bears... not trees...). this year, i included our house in the scene ;)

the adorable cleo advent calendar that anita made for us last year :) and my new entry bench! complete with santa :)

the angel keeps an eye on it all.

the reason for the season!

stocking set #1!

isn't this little dude the cutest?

or maybe this guy- he poops chocolate jelly beans :)

plenty of candy and cookies around at christmas!

and plenty of red, gold, and green! (isn't that a song?)

i bought this weird christmas dog on clearance in blacksburg... good shopping was hard to come by in blacksburg... kinda creepy eh?

stocking set #2! this one courtesy of anita!

And last but not least, ornaments on the tree :) the orange bell on the bottom right is always the first ornament i place on the tree. nate changes it up every year- usually the one he is most excited about. this year, that happened to be the yuengling beer can :) also plenty of guitars and cacti can be found! as well as a few that resemble cleo :) the spaceship on the bottom left was this year's newest addition :)

it's a tradition in my family to exchange ornaments on christmas eve. last year, i gave my mom a set of lollipop ornaments (top row, third in from the left) and after she oohed and ahhed over them, she gently told me that that's what she had given ME the previous year! turns out i had purchased gum drop ornaments months before christmas and then rediscovered the lollipops she had given me and forgotten or gotten confused because they were both candy... and regifted them. if you followed that... then you realize what a ditz i am :) we got it all worked out though ;)

hope you all are having a lovely holiday season! we are :) happy holidays!

cheese.

2010-12-02T18:57:00.001-05:00

i love cheese. if pressed, i could probably live on it. as long as there was wine to go with it ;)

austin the marine

2010-11-15T23:13:00.001-05:00

as i mentioned earlier, my brother austin recently became a marine :) i flew to san diego for his graduation and of course took lots of pictures and video :) this is definitely the best one, right at the end of the ceremony as they receive their dismissal order:

....or... i can't get this video to upload :( sad. i'll keep trying! but for now, pictures!....

can you find waldo? according to ryan and my dad, they could spot austin by the way he was standing. what the what? i couldn't. but he IS in this picture!

it was really cool to see the base and hear all about boot camp. they had a really neat museum and welcome center set up so we could see and hear all about the experience. here's me trying out the backpack they carried (austin said the real one was much heavier!). i am strong like bull!

family photo op! need to photoshop in cassie, nate and cadiem!

los dorks.

leaving the base!

i'm really proud of austin and so glad i got to be there!

let's do sunset!

2010-11-15T20:49:00.001-05:00

(i wrote this in Captiva and am just now posting)

I know it's funny that a post about the beach would come right after a post about fall, but since we were just there: I love living in Florida and being able to head to the beach for the weekend. sure, the summers are miserably hot but that's passed for the year and we've earned the upcoming six months of beautiful weather (plus we catch a
lot of movies in the summer while enjoying the air conditioning!)!

it's become a tradition of ours to play van morrison's into the mystic as we drive into the area. you know that moment when you're headed to the beach and then after a long drive you are close enough that the air is a bit cooler and you can just catch a hint of salt or catch a glimpse of the water? that moment.

I also love:

How Nate is always reading a Michael Connelly book and because the whole back cover is his face it looks as if Nate's body has Michael Connelly's head.
The moment after you've dragged a day's worth of stuff out onto the sand and you sit in your beach chair and think "we are here!"
Floating out in the almost wave-less gulf and being completely and totally relaxed.
How everyone shows up to watch the sunset in Captiva, cocktail in hand.
Going to the grocery store on a beach trip (or any vacation really) and going into full vacation food spree mode- cheese! chips! wine! fruit! crackers!

can't wait to go back ;)

i love fall!

2010-10-24T20:31:00.000-05:00

it got a little bit hotter this week, but overall the weather has been just plain gorgeous! this is by far, my favorite time of year. lots of mornings and evenings on the porch, drinking coffee or drinking wine, wearing sweaters, digging out shoes that were too hot to wear all summer :) and of course, pumpkin everything!

we had a really nice weekend -- one of our few local ones lately :) had several band practices, a really nice evening out to dinner with the conroys, watched the steelers game (they won!), just in general hanging out- it was very relaxing!

i am also super excited that i was able to book a trip to see my brother austin graduate from marine boot camp! :) i'll barely be there (24 hours really...) but i will be there and that's all that matters! i'll also be taking my first red eye flight! i think i fly through atlanta on the way home, i hope to get some sleep but if not, i can sleep it off saturday and then be rested up for the bottlenecks gig later that night! :)

stocking up for winter?

2010-10-12T17:09:00.000-05:00

i bought a year's supply of toothpaste this weekend. why you ask? we were at big lots and i realized they had the toothpaste we like in a flavor they only carry at whole foods - and a few months ago, i realized how much whole foods actually charged for said toothpaste and stopped buying it - but big lots had tons of it! and for $2 a tube! and before you ask, it doesn't expire for several years!

so i bought six tubes. it's the little things in life :) happy wintermint teeth brushing to nate and i!

post nine-hundred.. and one! the bottlenecks!

2010-10-06T21:43:00.003-05:00

can you believe this is post number 901? someone keep me honest to observe post 1000!

but that is not the point. the point is that our very own bottlenecks played at winter garden music fest this weekend. winter garden music fest, for those of you that aren't local, is our local... music fest. all clear? :) but really, it's a great festival where they close down our main street downtown and fill it with great music for three days! the bottlenecks played friday evening around 7 and rocked the house ;) they had a great crowd and played like total rockstars. there is video and audio taken during the concert that i will post later, but for now, just the facts and photos my friends!

first and foremost... my super sexy husband. sorry, but it's true :)

oh right, there are four of them :) meet nate, denny on drums, dave on bass, and ryan barely visible back there on keyboard :) someone get that man a spotlight, stat!

nate and dave, having a little fun with all that stage space

some of the crowd :)

see them on the schedule? go bottlenecks!

cassie, cadiem, nina, matt and john all enjoying the show :)

many of our orlando friends traveled the (long) distance to winter garden to see the show :)

matt and nina :) thanks matt for traveling from savannah! and nate's parents for making the drive from PA! and random dude in the back for showing up to the show!

not all but some of the great friends that came to see the bottlenecks :)

can't wait until the next show :) you guys did a great job and i enjoyed every minute! :)

the occasional blogger

2010-10-06T07:38:00.000-05:00

well i've always gone through phases with this blog (in post frequency) but this is a new low i think! i hope to start posting more :) thank you to everyone for a WONDERFUL birthday, by far my best yet! nate and the bottlenecks gave a fantastic concert at winter garden music fest and nate even dedicated a song to me :) more on that later, hopefully complete with sound or video clip!

off to work for the day, but lots to post about! i'll be back soon ;)

cheese curds anyone?

2010-09-08T22:05:00.001-05:00

we spent this weekend in minneapolis with laura and drew and fletcher and had a great time! minneapolis is a great city - full of lakes and neat houses and beautiful weather and cheese curds ;)

fletcher has gotten so tall! he definitely looks like a little boy now. i also (with some help) kept saying bri over and over again until he learned my name ;) laura said that after we left, he was in our room saying "bri bri bri!" mission accomplished! we are looking forward to when all three of them come to visit in fl :)

we ate a lot of food this weekend (both homemade and out!). a lot. and drank a lot of delicious beer. here are the fried cheese curds (for what it's worth, i prefer them plain without ketchup- so delicious!):

the minnesota state fair was a sign to behold. and super crowded. apparently, they see crows up to 100,000 a day there and after being there- i can believe it!

aforementioned crowd (did you even know this many people even LIVE in minnesota? word!):

their house is of course beautiful, with lots of gorgeous woodwork (both as part of the house and the furniture- marty taught me to appreciate that :)) here's hen enjoying our relaxing morning:

we had a stroke of genius one afternoon and decided the couch in the garage should become patio furniture. that's right, tennessee comes to minnesota!

and it was oh so comfy.

thanks laura, drew, and fletcher for a lovely weekend :) rest of the pictures are here:
http://floridaiveys.smugmug.com/August-2010/Trip-to-Minneapolis

confession

2010-08-21T08:48:00.000-05:00

last week i paid more for milk because the expiration date was my birthday :)

sidenote: what is with the freakishly long expiration date on organic milk? seems the opposite of what you'd expect....

and ps: the house still smells faintly of curry!

Chicken Vindaloo

2010-08-08T21:08:00.001-05:00

so i checked out a jamie oliver cookbook from the library. if you're not familiar with him, he's been working to emphasize how easy it is to cook healthy and delicious meals from scratch- nate's also been reading michael pollan's books on food- essentially reminding us how important it is to eat and make food that looks like food. so, more than ever i am trying to make food from scratch :) i decided to give jamie oliver's vindaloo recipe a shot, down to the from scratch curry paste -- it was delicious! and super super spicy - but you can easily tailor it to your level of spice (both in the paste and the final recipe). i couldn't find the fresh red chillies he calls for so i substituted serranos instead. we had it with garlic naan and jasmine rice.

Vindaloo paste

2 cloves of garlic / a thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger / 4 dried red chillies / 1 tablespoon turmeric / ½ teaspoon sea salt / 3 tablespoons groundnut oil / 2 tablespoons tomato purée / 2 fresh red chillies / a small bunch of fresh coriander
Spices for toasting: 1 teaspoon black peppercorns / 4 cloves / 2 teaspoons coriander seeds / 2 teaspoons fennel seeds / 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

First peel the garlic and ginger • Put a frying pan on a medium to high heat and add the spices for toasting to the dry pan • Lightly toast them for a few minutes until golden brown and smelling delicious, then remove the pan from the heat • Add the toasted spices to a pestle and mortar and grind until fine, or put them into a food processor and whiz to a powder • Either way, when you’ve ground them whiz the toasted spices in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients until you have a smooth paste.

Here it all is in the food processor ready to go:

and after blending- doesn't look that appetizing i suppose, but it's tasty, i promise!!

Vindaloo

2 medium onions
4 gloves of garlic
2 red chilies (or to taste)
thumb size piece of ginger root
small bunch of fresh cilantro
4 ripe tomatoes
peanut or vegetable oil
a pat of butter
4 chicken breasts, diced
1/2 cup vindaloo paste such as Pataks (or above recipe)
sea salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon honey
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

To Prepare:
Peel halve and finely slice onion (i minced mine), peed and slice garlic, finely slice chilie, peel and finely slice ginger (i grated mine). Pick cilantro leaves and finely chop stalks. Cut the tomatoes into quarters.

To Cook:
Get a large casserole type pan on a medium high heat, add a couple of lugs of oil and the butter. Add the onions, garlic, chilie, ginger and cilantro stalks and cook for 10 minutes until softened. Add the chicken and curry paste. Stir well and coat all pieces of chicken. Season with Salt and Pepper. Add the tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, honey and about 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and turn the heat down and simmer for 45 minutes with the lid on. Stir regularly and add more water if necessary.

and the finished product! with a little dollop of yogurt and fresh cilantro.

nate is home!

2010-07-13T21:58:00.000-05:00

nate's been out of town for 2.5 weeks! a combination of work and play in pennsylvania. but now he is home home home! and some exciting news, we'll be working at the same company again! his last day working from home is this friday :) then it's back to carpooling and working in the same building! also means less travel for him which i will really appreciate!

sarah and i had a text message conversation a few months ago that she just e-mailed me so that we never lose it. i'm not entirely sure that it will be as funny to the rest of you as it was to us, but here it is for your enjoyment:

Sarah: Are you bringing a hair dryer to the beach?

Bri: Have we met?

Sarah: Okay cool then I won't bring mine

Bri: You know I meant no, right?

Sarah: Didn't you take one to Mexico?

Bri: No... How drunk were you? I haven't used one in 10 years :)

Sarah: Do you want a roll warmer?

Bri: As in bread?

Bri: Are you drunk now?

happy birthday grandma!!

2010-07-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

love you gram! hope you are having a great time in Indiana!

commercial hilariousness.

2010-06-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

i think this commerical is HILARIOUS but i showed it to nate and he didn't think it was funny at all. if you haven't seen it yet, watch it :)

blog history... and the nate effect.

2010-06-22T20:33:00.002-05:00

check this out:

my posting very clearly shows the impact of meeting nate (lots of blog posts to impress him), then totally declining, then settling into a fairly steady pace after we moved to FL :) and posting of late has been at an all time low in the history of my blog! also fun to note that i've been blogging for almost seven years :)

Spices by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

2010-06-21T22:27:00.000-05:00

coloring

If your man doesn't know cumin
from cardamom, it's time to let him go.
But if he discovers a wetted paintbrush dipped
into turmeric makes a soft yellow line
on your back, spells something like You
are my sun- then keep him and hold on tight.
I like a cupboard packed with jam jars rubbed clean,
full of the sand from the fantasy beaches of me
and my man and a paintbrush I conjured up
just last night- a cupboard where the difference in reds
means danger or victory for my pot of stew.

fragrance

And what about cloves pierced
into a fat orange, strung up with ribbon
at Christmas? Who came up with that,
and what kind of twisted need did they have
for the occasional prick of spikes under
nails? Once when we were leaving
Bombay Palace, my father spooned
caraway and licorice bits into my palm
from the jade bowl no the counter and said,
"This will clean your breath." The owner
twitched his mustache, and nodded.

heat

Pepper is the obvious choice, in its powder form,
I mean- but there's something about the crush
of peppercorns into a salad, over pasta, the twist
and flex of wrist that sends men back for more.
But if you really want to impress, try chili flaked fresh
under a rolling pin and wax paper. Make sure he sees
you doing this labor of love- act as if you do this
at every meal, that this is how it would be every day
if he desired. And after dinner, float some
in his tea, slip some into his slice of cake.
Be careful for the warmth of his mouth.

verdict?

2010-06-20T13:53:00.000-05:00

duvet stays! painting moves to the study where i think we even might see more of it :)

been a lovely lazy weekend. we saw 'the a-team' yesterday- was a great fun summer movie. we also went to world market wine tasting which was awesome as always. i clearly spend way too much time at world market because all the people that work there know me ;) the following are some conversations i've had when visiting world market:

cashier: what?? no wine today???
~*~
cashier (to nate): do you have a member account with us? i know she does.
~*~
cashier: what's your birth date? i know i should have it memorized.
me: i would be embarrassed if you did.
cashier: i have a new goal now.
~*~
cashier 1: only 6 bottles?
cashier 2: that's par for the course for her!
me: i have 8, but 6 are a gift for someone else, i swear!

but speaking of wine, i think my favorite wine from yesterday's tasting was a wine called 'jam jar,' a sweet shiraz -- it's a little sweet which i usually don't like but it was super tasty! yummy and fruity and apparently served cold.

which came first, the chicken or the egg?

2010-06-14T21:11:00.000-05:00

so we've never painted in our bedroom since we've lived here. we bought a cool painting when we were in apalachicola in may and my plan was to decorate the room based on the painting. but then tonight i found a duvet cover i really like, and it DEFINITELY does not go with the duvet (which i didn't realize until i saw them together).

exhibit a:

but i REALLY like both... so should i... keep the duvet? or keep the painting above the bed? the painting can definitely be moved to another room. or would i be better off with a solid duvet and a bright wall color?

help me! duvet??

or painting??

what do you think?

ps: there is a chance, and probably a likely one, that nate will show up and say "that duvet is ugly!" and then i suppose the decision will be made! it's his room too after all...maybe he'll help break the tie :)

since i've been gone for SO LONG

2010-06-13T20:31:00.000-05:00

thought we needed a whole new layout for a fresh start!

boy, summer is here in florida and it is not fooling around! it was hot hot hot this weekend. nate and i combatted the heat with a series of indoor activities. we went to a local brewery (http://www.effinheimerbeer.com/) and had some tasty tasty beer! then we checked out a new place in downtown clermont - well, new to us anyway. it's an irish pub and although nate tends to hate irish pubs before he even gives them a chance, this one was great :)

what else... oh! nate has a new guitar. it's for playing on the beach and travel in general and is a nice small size (apparently a parlor guitar). he wasn't sure if he should buy it so i went and got it for him (the guitar store guy wanted to know if i had a sister- ha!) here he is with it on the beach the day he got it:

also, i'm starting a photography class this week that i'm really excited about. there's an art school in north orlando that also offers some satellite classes very close to our house- starts tuesday! i may post some homework here to share :)

we also recently visited cassie, jeff, and cadiem and had a wonderful time!! i took tons of pictures, of course. here are a few:

very serious. ;)

i got cadiem a 'nate' outfit! how cute is he???

we tried again...

2010-05-09T20:53:00.000-05:00

but oysters just aren't our thing! nate & i were in apalachicola (florida panhandle on the gulf) this weekend for a wedding and it's an area famous for oysters! we've both had them once or twice in the past, and raw- so we got some cooked that were covered in cheese, jalapenos and bacon. still totally gross! the look, the feel, and the taste. definitely not my thing ;) oh well! the shrimp and grouper were DELICIOUS and fresh caught right out of the gulf :) we had a fun time (pictures are uploading as i type!) and the wedding was beautiful!

pictures from my family's visit

2010-05-05T22:41:00.000-05:00

are posted in record time!

http://floridaiveys.smugmug.com/Category/Bri-Family-FL/12082215_dYqCV#858228853_GHocy

a few samples :) first, mr. cadiem:

all of us at the water park (thanks disney photopass!)

nate & i on crush and gusher :)

the ladies in epcot :)

and all the kids playing together :) (well... except cleo of course, she keeps her distance as always)

family in town!

2010-04-27T22:06:00.000-05:00

my family is in town this week and weekend! marty actually flew in for business on monday and we had dinner with him before he headed to tampa for work. he'll be back tomorrow night and then mom, cassie, and cadiem will all arrive friday. if only jeff and grandma were here, we'd be all set :) plans are to do the flower & garden festival at epcot (mom's favorite) and a little beach, and maybe even a little shopping! (shhh.. don't tell nate!)

think that's it for now, work has been busy busy busy lately! we've also been trying our best to get current with 'lost' -- we're finally in the current season and should be totally caught up in time to watch the finale with the conroys :)

oh and we're also dog sitting for our friends :) both colt and nittany, although another friend of ours took nittany for a bit so it's just frenchies at the house! i'll have to post a pic nate took of them when he finally got them to nap near each other on the couch. cleo likes him better than she likes most dogs, but that's still not very much ;)

a smattering of saturday

2010-04-24T13:23:00.000-05:00

i want to start taking more pictures of randomness like i used to. so expect to see a lot more of me and my camera, and a lot more pictures :)

there are several things i've been meaning to take pictures of and post lately, namely some of the really cool stuff anita has sent us, and a lamp that nina & john gave me :)

here are some of the things anita sent us for easter - really cool citrusy/fruit place mats (the grapefruit matched our candy dish perfectly!) the flipside has a different fabric in the same color family for each of those little strips (you can see it better on the carrot below):

ps: those cadbury eggs in that candy dish are the best easter candy EVER.

isn't she talented? shouldn't she sell this stuff??

next, when john and frank drove down from PA they brought a few things that are harder to take by plane. one of those things was a lamp that was previously at the river house in the room that nate and i stay in. i love it! it was previously nate's nana's lamp.

annnd finally, just a few random pics from our saturday. cleo was particularly patient with my photos today.

saturday is also a great time for a nap:

but once i left her alone, she headed straight back to her daddy!

and another random sidenote, april is my favorite month in the cleo calendar :)

my life lately.. in pictures!

2010-04-20T21:50:00.001-05:00

i know, i know. i've been totally neglecting my blog. normally, i don't try to catch up on all that i've missed, but SURPRISE! i bring you... an update in pictures! sorted oldest, to newest :)

first off, mom and i traveled to detroit for courtney's bridal shower (my cousin!). it was movie star themed. we had a WONDERFUL time seeing where she lived and meeting her husband-to-be (no husband!) jimmy, and her friends :) here we are in all our glamour:

next, john and frank arrived for the bottlenecks first paid gig! but first... a lot of practicing, drinking, and sing-a-longs ensued. it was like a pennsylvania music weekend with 1/20 of the people and food :)

here's the aforementioned sing-a-long in full swing:

then, sarah's family was in town and they graciously invited us to join them for an evening at bay lake tower (a new resort that overlooks magic kingdom) - check out the view!

that was followed by a wonderful girls' weekend in siesta key with my VA tech girls, best described by this photo:

and a sunset photo from our trip:

after that, it was easter time! we celebrated with the conroys, and had two signature drinks- a watermelon & cucumber tonic (pictured below) and white sangria :) we also had mini beef wellingtons, mashed potatoes, rolls, and green bean casserole. we had salad... but ended up eating that for dinner instead :)

we had all kinds of egg-related events, including: posing with them, dyeing them, hunting them, and egg fights!

my new favorite photo- i think this is so us:

we hid them for the conroys and they hid them for us. guess who lost?

and most recently, we traveled to mexico for our friends' wedding, chris & kerri. a few pics from our adventure :)

ay! tequila!

and whew! i think that's it for now :) sorry it took so long!

the orange blossoms are back!

2010-03-24T20:04:00.001-05:00

the scent of orange blossoms rivals arizona rain for my favorite smells in the entire world. i LOVE when the orange trees are in bloom and my drive home is filled with the scent of them :) happy spring!

since fletcher is under-represented on the internet...

2010-03-19T21:55:00.000-05:00

i bring you... the fletcher 'crawl'... :) nate recorded fletcher's unique way of getting around the house. he apparently has no interest in having his stomach on the ground :) little monkey!

laura, get blogging! he's too cute to keep from the world at large ;)

movies i've seen lately that i enjoyed

2010-03-16T22:25:00.000-05:00

away we go
secret life of bees
blind side
..

okay short list :)

7 lbs down!

2010-03-16T22:23:00.001-05:00

8 more to go! and only about 30 days left! :)

paradox

2010-03-15T18:37:00.001-05:00

i've been digging through the garage and pulling out old poetry notebooks. this one is from april 2004.

paradox

at first, i'm not sure what

he means when he says, there is a theme

in your life, so i only look at my wine glass,

twist the stem between my thumb

and forefinger.

reminds me of a street fair when i sat

to have my palm read, waiting to hear

something profound only to be told

what i already know as truth. she looked

into my eyes instead of my palm and i

felt cheated.

paradoxical, he says finally. i want to find

the word in the dictionary, trace my fingers

over each word next to it. one exhibiting inexplicable

contradictory aspects.

dst

2010-03-14T18:21:00.002-05:00

yay for daylight savings time! boo for being three hours apart from arizona!

gatorland...

2010-03-08T18:48:00.000-05:00

has a lot of gators! we went a few weeks ago. very florida kitsch. here are some pics of our day :)

i don't know why, but this dude totally reminds me of cleo!

ewwww.

2010-02-20T11:11:00.002-05:00

i just cleaned out our fridge.. and there was stuff that expired in 2007! ewwww... it's all bright and clean and shiny now though :)

jillian michaels is kicking my ass!

2010-02-20T09:04:00.000-05:00

on a daily basis! last week, sarah and i started a 30-day shred. it's a 20 minute workout that you do every day but man, it's an action packed 20 minutes! nate has started doing it as well. for the first few days, i couldn't move! it hurt to stand up, sit down, walk, walk up stairs ... i must not have used my legs before this! but now it's much better :) in fact, i'm calling today a rest day!

it does feel good to finally exercise and having several other people working on the same thing helps too :) and since you're supposed to publicly commit to your goals so you are more motivated to meet them, my goal is to lose 15 pounds by mid-April! it's a little late for a new year's resolution but it's either that, or buy new pants. so i'm going with exercise and eating better :)

nate's (new) favorite chili- con carne!

2010-02-15T21:39:00.003-05:00

so we had a thawed out chuck roast last week that i need to do something with, and even though it didn't sound like a good idea for a weekday but hey, why not? i started at 6 pm on a wednesday and we finally ate dinner at 10 pm - oops! so word to the wise, plan for dinner about 4 hours after you start this business, but according to nate, it's worth it :) it's a cooking light recipe (of course!) but i made a few modifications. the original is here. we had it with jalapeno corn bread, recipe here.

Chili con Carne

8 poblano chiles

3 lb boneless chuck roast cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

3 cups chopped onion

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 cans diced tomatoes, 1 drained, 1 not - I bought the ones with jalapeno chiles

1 cup beef broth

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 chipotle chile, canned in adobo sauce (I used 5-6 -- depends on how hot you want it!)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

6 tablespoons reduced-fat cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat broiler.

2. Place poblanos on a foil-lined baking sheet; broil 8 minutes or until charred, turning after 6 minutes. Place poblanos in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel and cut chiles into 1-inch pieces.

3. Sprinkle beef with salt and black pepper; dredge in flour. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add half of beef to pan; sauté for 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining oil and beef.

4. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion to pan; cook 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

5. Return beef to pan. Stir in tomato, beef broth, oregano, and cumin; bring to a simmer. Cover and cook 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Stir in poblanos; simmer for 45 minutes or until beef is tender, stirring occasionally.

6. Rinse, seed, and chop chipotle (I didn't rinse or seed it and I used 5-6 chipotles). Stir in chipotle(s) and cilantro. Sprinkle with cheese.

a conversation regarding valentine's day

2010-02-14T08:00:00.001-05:00

nate: you caught me off guard!
me: with what? a national holiday?

vegetarian night!

2010-01-30T09:39:00.000-05:00

so we're trying something new this year, we're eating at least one meal a week vegetarian. for a couple of reasons, (1) i keep reading how hard processing meat is on the environment and i feel guilty (2) in general it's healthier (3) in general it's less expensive and (4) we get to try some new things we hadn't before :)

this week we made falafel - a friend of ours gave us the mix and we've had it forever so we finally decided to try it. we loved it! if you've never had it, falafel is ground up chick pea with some yummy spices, then fried into patties (okay, so it doesn't quite fall into the healthy category but who's counting?) :)

here's nate frying them up

while he was doing that, i made tzatziki (super yummy cucumber/yogurt sauce) i used a recipe i found here. i should have seeded the cucumbers and drained them a little longer because mine was a bit thinner than it should be, but it was tasty just the same! i also chopped up a bunch of veggies (what would vegetarian night be without veggies?!)

and then the falafel was all ready to go

and then we wrapped it up in a flatbread! i used these (toufayan whole wheat flatbread), i love them.

i think we're going to try stuffed shells next time :)

cleo calendars have been shipped!

2010-01-25T19:19:00.002-05:00

every year, i swear off even doing the cleo calendar because..let's face it, the dog only has one facial expression. but i think this year is my favorite :) and we already started taking a few photos for next year, so the plan is to do it for at least one more year!

it's not freezing!

2010-01-21T20:03:00.001-05:00

well the weather is finally back to normal around here :) i'm on the porch listening to a thunderstorm and enjoying the breeze :)

exciting things lately? john, nina, laura, and fletcher are all coming to visit next week! we're really excited to have them :) we have big plans for the beach, and eating tacos at taco palenque (if you're local, you MUST go there), drinking copious amounts of orange juice, and plenty of visiting :) also exciting, we're getting a screen door! it should really create a nice breeze through the house so we can really take advantage of the weather :)

cleo's been quite the medical case lately - she's had infections and skin issues and eye infections and whatnot. but she seems to be on the road to recovery :) the bad part is, she seems to have figured out when we hide medicine in cheese or meat and has been eating around the pills and them spitting them out! probably because that just results in more cheese :) she's also been boycotting her meals when we add medicine to them. little brat!

we tried a delicious indian recipe from pioneer woman's website (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/06/chicken-tikka-masala-by-pastor-ryan/) it was SO GOOD! i used two habanero peppers instead of the serranos the recipe calls for and it was ridiculous spicy! but still really delicious :) i highly recommend it :) i usually cheat and buy a premixed jar sauce and add some hot curry paste but this was better :)

off to play some super mario with nate :)

it's freezing!

2010-01-09T18:12:00.000-05:00

quite literally and unusually for orlando! it's a great weekend for curling up on the couch, drinking hot cocoa, red wine, and dark beers :) we had chili for dinner last night and are working our way through all of the seasons of lost. it's quite the endeavor! lucky for us, ryan and sarah like enough to watch many of the episodes twice, so they've been keeping us company while we get up to speed -- we're nearing the end of season 2!

it's been nice to start the new year in a bit of a lazy un-hurried fashion, haven't made a lot of plans or taken any trips so far which has been a nice break from the holidays :)

circa 1992

2010-01-04T21:18:00.000-05:00

while looking for a different book, i came across one of nathan's yearbooks. and i just had to share this picture :) is that really my husband? it looks like a picture shot of some extra actors from a lesser known brat pack movie doesn't it? nate was in a band called 'the ivey league' in high school, and this is them :)

milestones this past decade....

2010-01-02T10:12:00.000-05:00

in no particular order :)
i lived in indiana, louisiana, vermont, virginia and florida.
i graduated college.
i left the country for the first time in my life.
i got a dog.
i became a (joint) house owner.
i got married!
i became an aunt.

i know there are more but that's my list for the time being!

happy new year and welcome 2010!

2010-01-02T10:07:00.000-05:00

we had a great new year's eve, we had a fondue night with ryan & sarah -- we've decided it is the perfect meal for new year's eve -- we managed to spread out the three courses from 6 pm until after midnight :) it was delicious and there was always another course to look forward to :) we started with a yummy beer cheese (dipped apples, bread, cauliflower and carrots), followed by a yummy seasoned broth which we dipped (and cooked!) steak, chicken, shrimp, scallops, zucchini, mushrooms, and potatoes. then last we a had a dark chocolate fondue with bananas, apples, sugar wafers and strawberries :)

nate and i went to see the blind side last night and loved it! i cried a lot. and then cried some more when we left the movie! nate was laughing at me but i think he understood :) it's such an emotional story! it's also the first time in a long time we've been to a full stadium seating theater (we usually go to our little local west orange 5 that has old style theaters and serves beer!). we had a little sticker shock at the $9.50 ticket price but i think we just need to get out more ;) at least to the movies :)

i've posted a bunch of albums on our pics site -- there are updates in november and december from all of the holidays. i'll be posting our new year's eve pictures soon -- and need to get pictures from our point and shoot - that's what nate uses so those are usually the pictures that i show up in :)

i'm excited and optimistic about the new year :) not that last year was bad, but i hope we see some (positive!) changes in the economy this year! :)

all things pride and prejudice

2009-12-15T23:25:00.000-05:00

have been my preoccupation of late. well the past couple of weeks anyway :) it certainly doesn't account for my lack of blogging these past few months, but i tried my first audiobook! we can rent them from our library so i listened to pride and prejudice. it was so much fun! i listened to it in the car whenever i was driving around and it definitely made my commute something to look forward to :) i finished it a few days ago and watched the movie again. now i want to see the longer tv miniseries that was done and i also have two books on the subject in queue: darcy's story (the story told from mr. darcy's point of view in case the title wasn't clear enough) and pride and prejudice and zombies which is apparently the original text with some zombies infused here and there :) i actually just read they'll be making that last one into a movie. should be interesting :)

it's been a busy december, nate's been traveling ALL THE TIME. but hey, i'm glad he's busy and has plenty of work to get done! we're looking forward to spending time together over christmas, we'll both be off for a nice long time! hope everyone's holidays have been happy so far! :)

home from thanksgiving!

2009-12-01T23:57:00.000-05:00

we had a great time in PA (pictures to come!) and are now getting ready for christmas! well, the rest of christmas- we celebrated "ivey-mas" as ross coined it over the thanksgiving holiday :) nate's family moves the holiday whenever everyone can't be in PA for christmas which i love ;) gets all of us a jump start on the holiday! it's late so short post - happy holidays all!

thank you!

2009-11-18T00:24:00.000-05:00

thank you for supporting our relay team! relay for life was this past weekend and went well :) we were all a little worse for the wear on sunday morning, but our team raised over $4,500 and the event overall raised over $100,000!

now that it's cold enough for soup...

2009-11-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

i was looking for a healthier version of our family's potato soup (which is DELICIOUS by the way, i'll post that recipe soon) and i think i found it! this baked potato soup (from cooking light, where else?) was delicious and fed an army:

4 baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 ounces)
6 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1 cup (4 ounces) reduced-fat shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream
3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
Cracked black pepper (optional)

directions

Preheat oven to 400°.
Pierce potatoes with a fork; bake at 400° for 1 hour or until tender. Cool. Peel potatoes; coarsely mash.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour in a large Dutch oven; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes). Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup cheese, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat.
Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). Ladle 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 8 bowls. Sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tablespoon bacon. Garnish with cracked pepper, if desired.

it makes 8 servings (serving size: about 1 1/2 cups soup, 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tablespoon bacon). and 1 serving is 329 calories and 11 g of fat - not bad for a very filling soup!) we had it with salad and rosemary bread. yum yum!

i didn't take a picture of ours, here's cooking light's, and their link.

november? but it's 80+ degrees!

2009-11-09T23:08:00.001-05:00

so it's been a warm fall for us so far! but i figured out something: that's not nearly as bothersome when you're lying on the beach :) we just got back from a fantastic weekend with glen, suzy and family in captiva. it was WONDERFUL. much tennis and beaching was had. and the wildlife! i couldn't believe all the activity on the beach. we saw a great blue heron, which i got some great pictures of when he caught a fish! we also saw a fisherman on the shore catch a shark- twice! the surf was full of fish. how do i know? because they were doing backflips about every 20 seconds while we sat and watched the sunset - it was the coolest thing!

i posted a bunch of pictures on our picture site here: http://floridaiveys.smugmug.com/November-2009

but here are a few of my heron friend :)

can you see that fish's mouth? he knows what's coming.

showboating his catch:

happy november ;)

happy birthday cleo!

2009-10-25T12:03:00.006-05:00

for cleo's birthday, she received a 'pup'cake that sarah and i found at this cute little dog bakery and 2 new bones (one from us, one from aunt sarah & uncle ryan) :) she also got lots of attention from nate and i all day (like that would differentiate the day...) here is the pupcake:

cleo discovering what it is:

loved the frosting!

i think this is where the panic that we might take it away from her set in:

all done and checking for crumbs!

hope you enjoy your next birthday cake as much as cleo enjoyed hers :)

happiness?

2009-10-19T20:28:00.002-05:00

is feeling a brisk breeze blowing through the window, listening to your husband practice guitar, drinking a great glass of wine, and relaxing with a good book :)

i know i haven't blogged much lately but we're still here! i think we can officially declare fall in florida, we had a cold snap this weekend -- we had a game night with friends and we had chili to usher in the cool weather :) i LOVE this time of the year in florida (and i know i'm not alone!) we open the windows, drink orange juice, drink red wine and dark beers, eat cold weather food like chili and potato soup, play tennis, go for bike rides, enjoy the patio, and just be :) makes all those summer months worth it!

nate's band has a gig this weekend! they're playing a benefit concert for relay for life :) i'm really excited, not only because sarah and i have been planning the event, but also to see nate and the band at their first public place! if you're local, stop by next weekend!

also, nate bought a new guitar this weekend, or... what i like to refer to as the precursor to my new camera :) i've been saving up my birthday money and have been eyeing a new camera from canon. i may buy it tomorrow if our local camera shop has it in stock... cross your fingers for me!

go steelers!

2009-10-11T09:09:00.003-05:00

FINALLY today i'll get to watch my first game this season! (i've missed the past 4 games for a variety of reasons)

relay for life!

2009-10-08T22:01:00.004-05:00

so we'll be doing relay for life in november,

Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature activity. It offers everyone in a community an opportunity to participate in the fight against cancer. Teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Relays are an overnight event, up to 18 hours in length.

we have a very energetic team and lots of events and fundraising leading up to the event itself :) if you'd like to help out, you can donate here: my relay fundraising page.

thanks :)

nate and i did this several years ago when we were dating -- we participated with the virginia tech graduate students association and each person dressed in a different color to represent a different type of cancer to fight. all seriousness aside... aren't those pants i'm wearing the least attractive thing you've EVER SEEN? :)

i'm not dead

2009-09-30T22:26:00.003-05:00

just been working a lot :) but i am SO EXCITED -- cassie, jeff, cade, mom and marty are all headed to florida this weekend! expect lots of pictures (of course!) :) we plan to hit up epcot's food and wine festival, do some dinners in, some dinners out and just enjoy the weekend.

we also had the most beautiful day of weather since ... march maybe? usually when i'm driving to work, it's around 80 degrees, but this morning, i was almost all the way to work before i saw the temperature was 69 degrees! i was so excited, i immediately rolled down the window to see if it was true :) and it was! nate and i cleaned off the patio in prep for the beautiful weather that's sure to begin appearing on a regular basis :)

also, nate started growing his beard again :)

fletcher william

2009-09-07T20:19:00.002-05:00

but also... how cute is he??

cadiem rey

2009-08-26T22:34:00.001-05:00

so i know it's out of focus a little, but how CUTE is he???

a nately quote for your evening

2009-08-16T20:13:00.002-05:00

"would you accept 'stanky' as a acceptable scrabble word or would you challenge it? for example... she was stanky. she was real stanky... "

and for the record, no. i don't consider that an acceptable scrabble word and yes, i would have challenged it ;)

in the end, i won because the word "aw" is actually in my dictionary (as an interjection!) but it was a close game :)

excerpt from the book i'm reading, "prep"

2009-08-12T21:34:00.002-05:00

"...we got shuffled and thrust together and shuffled again, and there was always the chance that you might find out one of the pieces of hidden information. This was why I felt excited when life was different from normal, when things happened- snow and fire drills and the times we had chapel at night, evensong, when the sky outside the stained glass windows was black. Depending on circumstances, a wild fact could be revealed to you, or you could fall desperately in love."

i really like this paragraph and totally identify with it :) that when things are totally thrown out of normal is when the exciting stuff happens or at least the air seems charged with something different. like a snow day or hurricane watch or a change of travel plans. good book so far!

wall art!

2009-08-12T21:18:00.005-05:00

nate and i really need to work on getting more art on the walls. for a long time, i've been meaning to do a scrabble dealy in our ... extra room... music room... random room that happens to be filled with guitars? whatever room it is, i'm planning on framing the travel scrabble board that nate proposed on (which is still snapped in place!) in a shadow box with some notes or pictures, surrounded by square frames holding the pictures below. if it looks like hell once i get it all together.... well then i'll try something else!

oops! have a safe trip on the 20th grandma!

2009-08-10T21:25:00.000-05:00

have a safe trip grandma!

2009-08-09T18:52:00.002-05:00

my grandma has spent her summer in indiana, which is a great place to spend it, especially when you live in arizona! here's a picture of her with my aunt willie and aunt peggy (2 of her sisters, she has 4 others!) :) they are the three that visited us in florida last spring which is where they got these shirts :) she's headed home tomorrow. have a safe trip gram!

vacation!... in 2010

2009-08-05T22:14:00.002-05:00

so i FINALLY get 3 weeks of vacation for the first time in my life next year :) nate and i are starting to plan what i like to call: the-honeymoon-i-never-had-unless-you-count-the-24-hours-spent-in-venice-florida ;)

we're looking at visiting glacier national park (and potentially another... banff perhaps?). the plan is to visit next summer and we're in the early planning stages :) nate's been there before which creates a funny dynamic for planning, i can tell when i suggest an activity they didn't do on their previous trip because he looks reluctant to agree (for example, horseback riding). did you know that glacier national park has more bears than anywhere in the continental united states? we have a great book from nina & john that has all kinds of good details, including this gem (mom, take note!):

"if you encounter a bear don't run. back away slowly and assume a non-threatening posture. if a brown or grizzly bear charges, drop into the fetal position, protect your head and neck, and do not move. it's the opposite if you encounter a black bear or mountain lion: act aggressively, throw rocks or sticks, and try to look large by holding up a pack or branches. if attacked, fight back, aiming for the nose."

everyone in this family wants to be a guitar player...

2009-08-04T22:24:00.003-05:00

cleo has a little box of nate's guitar picks in her mouth...she doesn't want to chew on them or anything, in fact they're only halfway in her mouth. she just wants nate to chase her :) which he is. she's hilarious :) they're both running laps around the house, we usually can't catch her without the help of the other!

she stole them while nate was helping me learn guitar ;) i better go help him catch her! goodnight! :)

happy birthday seester!

2009-08-03T22:38:00.002-05:00

guess who's the big 3-0 today??

miss bella boo

2009-07-25T15:45:00.002-05:00

i've taken naps longer than that!

2009-07-24T19:20:00.004-05:00

i think nate said it best at 3:45 am this morning when we got up to get ready for our flight to phoenix! we had a few hour layover in memphis, and made our way to the west coast :) unfortunately, cleo's been having issues with her paw so sarah & ryan have to take her to the vet tomorrow :( hopefully it's a quick fix with some antibiotics :)

dad and anita picked us up and we've spent the day with them and the boys which has been great :) i rented a lens to play with this weekend which turns out to be a lot of lens for me! i'm still figuring it out, but we played around with some senior photos for austin. ryan spent most of the time making austin laugh but most of the time also resulted in making me laugh which makes for blurry pictures :) we got a few we can use but it was HOT so we gave up pretty quickly :)

tonight we're headed up to the cabin with mom & marty for the weekend. should be a nice break from the hot weather we've had lately in florida and in phoenix!

some photos from today :) dad made some delicious stir fry for lunch (and is sporting some stylish new glasses!)
the boys out front :)

aren't they all grown up? this is taken where they both attended elementary school :)

more later! have a great weekend :)

juan valdez.... the explorer?

2009-07-19T20:03:00.002-05:00

the other day nate and i were driving around orlando running errands together and he turned down a road that (i thought) led nowhere. the following conversation ensued:

bri: nate! this is the turn into the hospital, it's not a road!
nate: bri, i'm exploring. i don't know if you knew, but i'm an explorer. like valdez.... juan valdez.
bri: so, you .... discovered coffee?

turns out the parking lot did spill out onto the road we were looking for so his 'exploring' paid off afterall :)

Six Links -- cool new green site :)

2009-07-09T18:15:00.003-05:00

there's a cool new website called Six Links where you can track what you're doing to save the earth and live sustainably as well as get new ideas on how you can do more :) it was actually started by a friend i went to high school with -- check it out! you can join at:

http://www.sixlinks.org/

hummus! round one

2009-06-30T18:24:00.002-05:00

so i eat a lot of hummus. lots. like a costco sized tub :) it's that sabra hummus! if you've never tried it, head to the grocery store immediately and buy some. and some pita chips. then cancel dinner and sit on your couch and enjoy the yumminess :)

as a result of my hummus addiction, i've been trying to make my own. i've yet to come up with a chickpea version that tastes as good as sabra, but this spicy black bean hummus is in it's own league. it's delicious with pita chips or multigrain tostitos. and you can control the spice with how much jalapeno you use. i used a whole one the first time and WHOA! that stuff was hot. nate ate it like candy of course, but it was a bit too hot for me. about half seems to be perfect :) enjoy! and if you have a great hummus recipe, please share! i'm still tweaking the chickpea one. i'll post it once i'm satisfied :)

Spicy Black Bean Hummus

1 garlic clove, peeled
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon tahini (roasted sesame seed paste)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 small jalapeño pepper, chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
Dash of crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Dash of ground red pepper

Place garlic in a food processor; process until finely chopped. Add lemon juice, tahini, cumin, salt, black beans, jalapeño pepper, and crushed red pepper; process until smooth. Spoon bean mixture into a medium bowl, and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with ground red pepper.

(not pictured as hummus isn't all that photogenic) :)

tgif!!

2009-06-26T06:48:00.000-05:00

so glad it's friday!! happy weekend to you all :)

cleo's new friends

2009-06-21T10:12:00.001-05:00

so it was a little difficult to get them to sit still, and i definitely didn't get a group shot, but here are the dogs that cleo's been hanging around with this weekend :)

colt:

and nittany:

better than ezra

2009-06-20T08:38:00.002-05:00

last weekend we went to see better than ezra at house of blues in orlando. it was fantastic! we had a great view of the band and there always tons of fun to see live. i was thinking about the first time i went to see them, and cassie, correct me if i'm wrong here, but i'm pretty sure it was thirteen years ago!

better than ezra was cassie's favorite band and they were playing for $17 a ticket at the electric ballroom in tempe (which has since been torn down). i was fifteen (cassie's friend drove). we staked out a coveted railing spot and the cover band played so long i almost fell asleep! when they finally came on we loved every minute of it. we had to leave sometime at the end (maybe already at the encore? i can't remember) to make curfew.

we've seen them lots of times in betweeen then and now. i'll see them at least once more this year, they're playing at epcot's food and wine festival in october!

dog central!

2009-06-20T08:29:00.002-05:00

we're dogsitting this weekend for 2 dogs plus our usual resident canine, cleo. it's been pretty entertaining! cleo has never seemed to understand how to play with other dogs and she usually ends up growling and making a whole lot of noise that scares them instead of encouraging them to play with her. not so with this bunch! colt is a french bulldog and nittany is a mix of several things (i'll have to post a pic, she looks sort of like a tall fox). but because nittany is used to the frenchie growl, she just plays right along with cleo. right now they are chasing each other in figure eights around the couch. it's nice for cleo to have some entertainment ;)

nate's been out of town TONS lately! which is good that he's busy at work and that lots of that time has been in PA so he's been able to see family and friends. the only downside is that he's not here with me! i' ve been keeping busy though, been working late some and also working on catching up on photos. i also (and this is embarrassing) have been playing a whole lot of the sims2 and some stupid game on facebook that cassie and i have both reluctantly gotten addicted to ;)

this weekend, nate's brother (and lots of others from his company) will be in town for a conference. so we'll be spending time with him which will be fun :) i'm hoping to challenge him to a round of dr. mario! i think the band is getting together sometime today too.

have a great weekend!

oh okay one more :)

2009-06-07T11:43:00.000-05:00

i think this one is my favorite:

attn: fans of fletcher

2009-06-07T10:55:00.002-05:00

i'm working on the photos but since i went a little crazy with the quantity last weekend, it's a lengthy process ;) these things take time people! in the meantime, here's one more of fletcher. i think he's dubious that i will finish these anytime soon... what do you think?

fletcher william

2009-05-30T12:28:00.004-05:00

is adorable of course :) we've been running around with drew, laura and baby this weekend and are having a great time so far :) we've also been doing a mini photo shoot with fletcher, here's one i edited quick and dirty -- more to come!

hotlanta!

2009-05-27T22:18:00.002-05:00

nate and i were in atlanta this past weekend for a good friend's wedding. we used to work with her in florida and it was great to see her again :) the wedding was very cool too :) ever since my own wedding, i appreciate all the small details so much more!

for the rest of the weekend, we spent our time with ashlea who is finishing up soon at georgia tech. she is a fantastic tour guide so we saw plenty of neat areas in atlanta and had a fantastic time :) the most photogenic of which was piedmont park:

we ate, we drank, nate & ashlea played guitar, we shopped, we talked -- all in all, a perfect weekend :) we weren't ready to head home on monday, but i'm sure we'll make another trip before ashlea leaves atlanta for good :)

baby, you were right all along

2009-05-20T21:41:00.002-05:00

i'm laying on the guitar and nate's playing guitar. the chorus involves "baby you were right all along." it's a toss up as to which i find more attractive: the fact that he keeps saying "baby, you were right all along" or that he looks cute when he's singing and playing guitar :)

in other news, i'm about to build an ark! florida has been in a drought this year and boy are we making up for lost time! it's been raining for DAYS. apparently we've gotten a total of around 7 inches, and will get 7 more by saturday. the power flickered at work today too. it's been a very dramatic rain, lots of lightning and thunder and some serious rain!

salmon with maple-lemon glaze

2009-05-18T21:50:00.002-05:00

no picture, but we had this for dinner and really liked it :) it's super easy, takes about 15 minutes!

Salmon with Maple-Lemon Glaze

Ingredients

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon canola oil
4 (6-ounce) skinless salmon fillets
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat broiler.

2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add fish to bag; seal. Refrigerate 10 minutes, turning bag once.

3. Remove fish from bag, reserving marinade. Place marinade in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH 1 minute.

4. Heat a large ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle fish evenly with salt and pepper. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add fish to pan; cook 3 minutes. Turn fish over. Brush marinade evenly over fish. Broil 3 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

mmm.. coconut popsicles

2009-05-18T21:43:00.002-05:00

nate and i bought some edy's coconut popsicles at the grocery store yesterday and they are YUMMY.

i also kind of one to throw one in the blender with some malibu rum. don't judge me.