sonoma salad

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!

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?

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

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!

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'

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!

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!

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

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. 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.
3. 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

1. 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 :)
2. Cook onion rings according to package - throw in a few extra for on the side :)  we used 2 per burger.
3. Melt butter, brush on to hamburger buns, sprinkle with a little garlic powder.  Broil until golden brown.
4. 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.
5. Enjoy :)  preferably with a good beer!

in like a lamb...

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

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!

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 :)

“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?

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!

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!

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....

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

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!

the FLY foundation

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!

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 ;)