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

christmas at the floriday iveys

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.

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

austin the marine

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!

(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!

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?

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!

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

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?

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

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

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!

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!!

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

commercial hilariousness.

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.

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

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?

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?

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 :)