Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Grilled Wine Country Beef with Arugula

Nate and I have been eating healthier lately (think fresh veggies, lean meats, and whole grains) and so far, this has been our favorite recipe hands down! it's easily halved for two :) you can marinate the beef up to 24 hours ahead of time, which i recommend :)

Ingredients:
  • 4 6-ounce boneless beef sirloin steaks, cut 1 inch thick
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or more!) :)
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 6 cups torn arugula leaves
  • 1 cup thinly sliced celery
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan or Asiago cheese
  1. Trim fat from steaks. Season steaks with kosher salt and black pepper. Place in a large self-sealing plastic bag and set in a shallow dish.
  2. For marinade, in a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, 1 tablespoon of the mint, the rosemary, and crushed red pepper. Pour over steaks. Seal bag; turn to coat steaks. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 to 24 hours, turning bag occasionally.
  3. For dressing, in a screw-top jar, combine lemon juice, red wine vinegar, and remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Cover and shake well. Season to taste with additional kosher salt and black pepper. Set aside.
  4. Drain steaks, discarding marinade. For a charcoal grill, place steaks on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium coals. Grill for 14 to 18 minutes for medium-rare doneness (145°F) or 18 to 22 minutes for medium doneness (160°F), turning once halfway through grilling. (For a gas grill, preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium. Place steaks on grill rack over heat. Cover and grill as above.)
  5. Remove steaks from grill. Cover with foil and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Slice meat across the grain.
  6. In a large bowl combine arugula, celery, tomatoes, and the remaining 1 tablespoon mint. Drizzle with the dressing; toss to coat.
  7. To serve, divide arugula mixture among four dinner plates; top with meat slices. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
We had it with toasted whole wheat pita bread brushed with garlic and olive oil. It's delicious, trust me! It also makes for beautiful presentation!

cleo and her party hat

if you haven't been to nate's blog to see his post about cleo and how she reacts to her party hat (i don't know the technical name, but the big cone collar they put on dogs so they can't mess with themselves) -- go watch the video! it's not action packed at all, but i've never seen that dog stand so still. as soon as we put it on her, she freezes and seems to only be able to go in reverse. poor thing! we only put it on her when she won't quit licking though, don't worry!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

allergic to florida?


cleo has been super itchy and scratchy lately so nate took her to the vet this morning. apparently she could be allergic to dust... grass...her toys...we don't even know what! apparently the longer we live in florida, the worse it will get. we're supposed to spray her paws twice a day with some allergy stuff, give her benadryl, weekly baths, etc. hopefully she feels better soon!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

our new baby!


omg i can't believe we bought a car :) is it the cutest or what? after six years, i said adieu to my lovely corolla and nate and i are the proud new owners of a rav4! kept it in the toyota family though ;) nate says the subaru still has more cargo space but i don't know if i believe him!

Monday, February 9, 2009

the weather is gorgeous!

i love this time of year in florida :) we're headed over to our local pub to play some trivia, it's been quite awhile since we've been! and ivey extravaganza is fast approaching: nate's birthday, valentine's day, and our wedding anniversary are all within a week :) we always change up the celebrations a bit, some evenings in, some evenings out. we're still figuring out what to do with ourselves this year!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

i think cleo likes the band

nate and some friends have started a band, they practiced on friday night. cleo was particularly interested in the sound when they trilled on the keyboard ;)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

trying something new...

it may change shortly :) we'll see!

so, GO STEELERS! i have to admit, every time the cardinals scored or showed a chance of making it, i was a little excited for them. but i was super excited at the outcome (as was all of beef o'bradys and all of our PA company that's in town this week!) we had a great time watching the game all together :)

today, we also went to see the manatees at blue springs state park, and found a great place to eat on the river called Swamp River Grille. definitely adding it to our list of great places to enjoy the beautiful winter florida weather!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

ivey arrivals tomorrow!

and the next day too! john and nina will be here tomorrow, followed by laura on friday :) they'll be here for an extended weekend and we're very excited to have them :)

Sunday, January 25, 2009

virginia is cold!

but surprisingly... not that much colder than florida was when i left :) add "waiting for the plane to defrost" to the list of the many travel delays i've experienced in life! the plane was scheduled to leave at 7 a.m. before the sunrise, so they explained that since we had a hard freeze the previous night, we had to wait for the sun to come up and melt the ice! it took about an hour and fifteen minutes of sitting in the sun and readjusting the plane, but finally, we were cleared for takeoff. i've been having a great time, cassie's friend hosted an absolutely fantastic shower for her with amazing food (and drink!) :) today, mom headed back to charlotte to catch her flight and cassie and i are putting the baby furniture together. jeff's at work but will be home tonight to hang out with us :)

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

pittsburgh's going' to the superbowl (and so are the cardinals!)

pittsburgh and arizona in the superbowl! how cool is that? back when they both made it to the playoffs, i was hoping it would end up that way, although i didn't really think it would :)

i'm cheering for the steelers though, i was never really even a football fan until nate and i got married ;) i am really excited to see the cardinals in it though, my dad has been a lifelong cardinals fan!

in other news, i'm headed to blacksburg this weekend for cassie's baby shower so i'm very excited for that! oh and of course, i'm way behind on pictures, but i'll catch up in february sometime when our weekends slow down :)

Thursday, January 15, 2009

i won grandma!

go steelers!

if you don't follow football closely, the steelers are in the playoffs :) they beat the chargers last week and we were at our usual place to watch the game, beef o' bradys :) here's a shot of the group in front of the bar. it is, obviously, a steelers bar ;) nate and i are on the bottom right!


still kickin'!

just been busy :) we've opened the ivey bed and breakfast for the season ;) the weather has been beautiful too, so it's a great time to be in florida!

last week, nate's good friend from punxsy and his wife (who now live in d.c.) were here to visit. we had a great time :) and they have 2 dogs, 1 of whom is a frenchie and although they didn't make it to FL, they enjoyed cleo and she REALLY enjoyed them :) she spent the week happily getting her belly rubbed and being doted on.

this week the ghoons are here and it's been great so far :) unfortunately the weather's been a bit cold but hopefully it will warm up a bit this weekend so we can go pick some citrus!

next week is cassie's baby shower so my mom and i will both be in VA for that and i'm really excited to be there. nate'll be home in FL with cleo, i think he has all kinds of activities planned for himself :)

Saturday, January 3, 2009

god help us all...

our new camera has a video feature! (thanks john and nina :) ) here's the first video i took (well.. technically not the first. the first was the same thing but with nate complaining that i was taking a video and he made me retake it)


Saturday, December 20, 2008

merry nate & bri christmas!

so nate and i celebrated our christmas this morning :)  (much like the pennsylvania 'thanksmas,' we move the holiday to where it's convenient!)  we played scrabble on 'christmas eve' lastnight.  i thought our santa table decoration coordinated rather well with the scrabble bag.  doesn't it look like his bag of toys?

 
it was a tough board!  we were mostly confined to the lower corner due to some bad start out words (ahem... nate)  and my letters were atrocious!  at one point, i swear i had all i's.  and this rack, which totally made me want to spell hee-haw (but i doubt that's an acceptable scrabble word!)

then nate spelled 'pinna,' which i challenged, and lost.  apparently pinna is a long forgotten botany word.  i don't think he knew that though, i think he just got lucky!  :)
 
after christmas eve, we were excited for christmas morning to arrive!  we got up early(ish) and started with stockings!  (ours are new this year, i finally found some i really liked :)  cleo's has been around for a few years though)
 
then we had the dogs pose by the tree.  for those of you who don't know, benny is a dog we've been dogsitting for the past month and a half (his owner was injured and can't walk him at the moment).  he went home today, but not before he and cleo got their picture together.  you may remember that cleo doesn't like to sit too near other dogs. 

can you believe that pile of gifts in the back is all for us?  nate went a bit overboard this year :)  he even had a few adressed to himself.... from santa.  including this one, a book on tennis skills:
 
santa was all about tennis this year.  he also got nate and i a costco size supply of tennis balls, and a ball hopper!  i got all kinds of goodies including a new camera bag to hold all my gear, a really cool calendar of paris, cool photography books, a new outift, etc.  :)
after 'christmas morning' we had what nate affectionately calls 'mexican breakfast':  refried beans, fried potatoes, and tortillas.  it was super tasty if i do say so myself :)  
and the best part is?  christmas isn't even over yet!  lots more family time to come :)  hope your holidays are happy!

Friday, December 19, 2008

some new photos

finally posted ;) there are some new in october and november - and more to come!

included in the new are a bunch from our weekend in captiva with glen & family -- i took TONS of the sunset. and i posted less than half of what i took so... you're welcome! it's still a lot to wade through but we happened to catch a really pretty sunset. and i was drinking cocktails which tends to increase my 'number of photos taken' metric ;)

enjoy!