Summer Yum

Orzo Caprese Salad

My sister made this for the family when we were both in Waco a few years back and it has since become a staple in our house….It’s simple, fresh, filling, and fairly healthy too.  When she made it, she served it with a great grilled chick breast that had been marninated in a lemon rosemary marinade.  Sadly, Rell does not eat Rosemary or  chicken cooked in Lemon, so I do not get to serve it alongside that…..but, this goes great with just about everything.  I made it this afternoon for tonight…we’re having grilled garlic herb chicken sausage and I thought this would go great.  It’s also a nice alternative to your typical pasta salad.  I brought it to a BBQ a couple of weeks ago and it got rave reviews.

 

Approx 1 cup uncooked Orzo, cooked, drained and cooled

1 pint grape tomatoes cut in half

1 ball mozzarella cheese cut into cubes

3/4 c – 1 c pine nuts, toasted

Several leaves of fresh basil, chopped

One bottle of balsamic vinagrette.

Combine pasta, tomatoes, and cheese in a bowl.  Add balsamic vinagrette.  How much you add is really going to depend on how you like it.  As the pasta sits, it will absorb more dressing so if you’re going to make this a few days in advance, you might want to add more.  Mix well.  Add basil and pine nuts. 

Variations – I like to make my own balsamic vinagrette (using my hand held imersion blender my friend Kerry gave me for my wedding shower)  Im not one for formal recipies, so basically I put about 1-2T of brown sugar (I use splenda brown sugar sometimes) in the bottom of a bowl or large mixing cup.  Add a couple of squirts of spicy brown mustard.  Add some garlic and salt and pepper, and if you happen to have it around, some diced shallot.  Add about 1/2 tp 3/4 c balsamic vinager…while mixing drizzle in olive oil to your desired consistency….usually around 1 c.  I like mine more balsamic-ey so I tend to go heavy on the balsamic vinegar.  Remember to add your oil to the vinegar and not the other way around or else it is really hard to mix well!

Instead of Mozzarella, I often use feta and it is soooo good!!  I’ve tried it with blue cheese before, because we really like blue cheese….not very sucessful…in fact, yuck.  Also, we’re not big tomato people, so sometimes I leave those out.  I’ve blanched asparagus and chopped it into inch long pieces instead of tomatoes, and that was yum.  we have also tried blanched broccoli….not so yum. 

The Strawberry Muddler

I say this recipe in Bon Appetite Magazine last weekend and fell in love with it!!!  It sounded like such a great summer cocktail, so refreshing….

Prosecco

Simple Syrup

Strawberries

Lemon Slices

Ice

In the bottom of a glass, muddle a few strawberries with about 1T simple syrup (I bought premade syrup at trader joes, but really, you just have to boil some sugar and water together to make it)  Top (cover) with a lemon slice.  Fill glass with ice.  Fill with Prosecco.  Enjoy!  (oh, and you will!!!)

The funny thing about both of the summer staple recipies is that both of them have near impossible for me to find ingredients…however, I am sure those of you that live in more metropolitian areas…which is ALL of you….won’t have a hard time finding them at all….Orzo and Prosecco.  Now, I have tried the salad with other pasta than Orzo…and it’s just not the same…iit really needs to be Orzo.  But the drink, I am sure would be just as refreshing and yummy with Champagne if you have a hard time finding Prosecco….I finally found it at the Liquor Store and they had one kind, and only like 2 bottles of it!!!!  Also, I was thinking the Strawberry Muddler would pretty much be great with all  kinds of berries….blue, black, raspberry…or some combination of berries!

 

Cheers!

Miss Maggie Mae

This is Maggie Mae:

She’s half lab half poodle…and she’s a bit of a strange one.  First of all, she loves to sit like this…this is kind of how I imagine a cat would sit, if I liked cats and therefor paid attention to how they sat.  She winds up in a little ball and locks herself into place by putting her head on her back like this.  She chases her tail…on command…I have it on video.  It’s hilarious.  I will have to see if I can get that video on here somehow.  She also poops and pees on command…her command is “Get Grass” which worked well and made sense in the old house since we had so much grass….not so much at this house since there isn’t a blade to be seen in our yard.  Our neighbors think we’re nuts telling our dog to “Get Grass” when there obviously isnt any grass to be had!  Maggie Mae also likes to sit like a person in the back seat of the car.  If I so desired, I could reach back there and seat buckle her into place because of where and how she sits. 

However, it is not all good times with Miss Maggie Mae….she has caused quite a bit of frustration around our house, usually having to do with her propensity to eat stuff she is not supposed to.  Along with the frustration comes vet bills too, but those, I can handle. (Thank you pet insurance)

Stuff Maggie Mae has eaten and/or chewed to pieces (that I can remember off the top of my head….this is NOT a comprehensive list!):

-Countless Magazines

-One pair of fairly expensive Coach shoes

-one pair of not so expensive flip flops

-one potted plant from Ikea

-tinfoil

-countless tongs/spatulas and assorted grilling tools

-gorilla glue (most expensive vet bill too date)

-beer bottle

-juice glass

-the book Marley and Me carefully pulled from the book shelf (no other books were destroyed in that eating)

-one hallway wall of drywall

-One Home Depot Do It yourself home improvement book

-A book on labs

-4 wooden drawer pulls from the TV Cabinet

-one chair leg

-three dog beds

-one giant pillow that I had had since college (Im still sad about this one)

-one foot stool that looked like a (lifesized) dog from Rells grandmother (she ate the face off this one….this is the main reason we can’t get another dog…too scared that she would eat the face off of it too)

-one cell phone (I was ok with this…I wanted a new phone anyways)

 

But, she’s pretty cute…so I will forgive her….except for the Coach shoes and the giant pillow that I loved….I’m still holding a grudge over those. ….

America’s Pastime

Rell and I are sitting here watching baseball……I grew up watching football…and then maybe basketball…and then maybe soccer or golf…but never really watching baseball..and Rell is a DIEHARD Rangers fan…and a baseball fan in general.  And we have just gotten into a little argument over baseball.  As someone who has never really watched baseball, can someone PLEASE explain to me why a swing at a ball is a strike the first two times a batter swings at it, but is NOT a stike the third, forth, or eighth time a batter swings at it….I just dont get it!!!!  It’s sort of an argument between us…..

 

also…random point…I LOVE LOVE LOVE our privacy fence…I watered the plants this morning in my robe…could not have done that with our chain link fence….well, I could have, but it would have not been pretty….

Photos that go with previous post

hanging with will reading the WSJ...ok, ok it's a book about ducks....but he is so smart I am sure that is what he will be reading next

Will playing hide and seek with the couch and fern

Will's new truck from Mack

Cousins hangin'

See how cute out outfits are??

Hanging with Robert

New BFFs Cooper and Will in their coordinating outfits

Meeting for the first time

Birthday Princess chowing on her very own cake!

Not quite into what's going on yet

Cooper!

Lilly and her new suit..she kept trying to pull it down to cover her belly!

Ava hanging with her daddy

Princess cookies for Ava

Ava gets her very own cake to destroy

Chair that Aunt Favorite...I mean Aunt Meg..painted for Ava

Will, hanging out after Swimming in an outfit MY dad wore when he was a baby (some 62ish years ago!) Way to preserve Mom!!

Attack Cat....mice, be afraid....be very afraid...

Cutest Golf bag ever....and it's all mine!

Potpourri….A random gathering of thoughts….

For any of you reading this that are familiar with Waco……actually there are probably zero people that read this that are familiar with Waco……there is a community Magazine called The Wacoan….it’s mostly advertisements.  But there are some columns about “goings on” around town too.  There is this one guy who write a column called “Random Thoughts While Driving Through Waco” and as I was driving home today from working out, determined to put up a new blog post, I thought about how that is what my blog could be called…..except that I don’t live in Waco ….so I would have to call it Random thoughts while driving through Northern Arizona.  I always have the best ideas while driving…whether it be about something to write on this blog, so craft project, a present for someone, what to have for dinner….you get the idea….but almost without fail, when I get to wherever I am going, the thought has flown out of my head and out the window, only to be remembered next time I am driving somewhere.  Rell and I ALWAYS see people pulled over on the side of the road just hanging out…I wonder if that’s what they’re doing…writing down their great ideas?  We typically make fun of them simply because of where they choose to pull over….I am all for pulling over to talk on the phone or root through your purse, but there is this one part of the shoulder of the highway right by the turn off to our community and people are ALWAYS on that shoulder, just taking care of business….what gets me is that there is a gas station literally 200 yards down the road.  To me, it make more sense to pull into the gas station to make your call, text, blow your nose…whatever…..then, not only do you have a safer way to enter onto the highway again….you can also get a tasty snack and a giant coke!

 

Congratulations to the eleventy billion people I know that are going to have kiddos in the next nine months or so!  I don’t know what it is, but there is a crazy baby boom going on.  You know, I have heard talks on the news stations and in magazines saying that during this economic downturn people are tightening their budgets and their belts, and one of the ways that there doing so is by not having children right now….I tell you what CNN, you need to meet by circle of friends and family…..I can disprove your theory in an instant.  But I am very excited for all of my friends and family that have recently had a baby or will have one in (or two!) in 09.  And extra special kudos to those of you that will have you kiddo right before the end of the year….tax advantage! J

 

I’ve taken up golf…and I LIKE it!  I have wanted to take it up for years and years…like, since High School…honestly, the only reason I probably wanted to take it up then was so that I could be on the golf team…I remember there was something I liked about the golf team…I cant remember what (old age setting in)…did they have a cute coach?  Did they get to miss school more than normal?  I can’t remember…but the desire has stuck.  And it’s strengthened the last few years because Rell really enjoys playing golf. ..And we basically have a golf course in our backyard, so why not take advantage of that?  And I would love for us to have a hobby that we can enjoy together….but the only way I am going to enjoy it is if I’m good…okay, at least decent.  So enter the golf instructor.  I’m taking a few lessons.  Rell has talked about trying to teach me….but I am betting anyone else feels this same way…no one really wants her husband bossing her around, on the golf course or otherwise…so  I am paying to have someone else’s husband boss me around.  Believe me, it works better that way! I seem to be doing pretty good in my lessons…there just never seems like there is enough time to practice.  But really, where is there ever enough time to do anything these days?

 

We went to Vegas the other weekend.  It was sort of a birthday trip…sort of a business anniversary trip.  Can you believe we have owned this business a year already???  Neither can I!  Time flies when you’re in over your head! J  (not really…just really really busy and sometimes overwhelmed)  So we drove out to Vegas.  There still constructing this crazy huge new bridge that will bypass the Hoover Damn and it is amazing!  And Kind of scary!  We actually have a customer that is doing the hand rail for the bridge and we’re supplying the materials…so I like to say that Yavapai Steel has a hand(rail) in building this new bridge.  I’ll have to see if I have a picture of it that I can post because it’s not some random little bridge….I think it’s going to be one of those important bridges…..as important as bridges can be, I guess.  Anyways…Vegas!  We stayed at the MGM..I liked….we ate at Emerils…I liked (even though it was a fish grill)..we saw Love..I LOVED (more on that later)….we had pooltime with Pina Coladas..I liked…we lost a bunch of money…I disliked….but all in all we had a fabulous time.  It was nice to briefly get away, just the two of us, and do nothing!  As I mentioned we saw the show Love (thanks to Sherry for her high recommendation of the show…I don’t think we would have seen it had she not sung its praises so highly!) and it was amazing.  Rell has seen several Vegas shows and he said it is the best one he has ever seen.  I had only seen one show before this, and it was a comedy show, so totally different…but this was probably the most Amazing thing I have ever seen.  There was so much going on…so worth the ticket price…so worth the $15 drink I had….my jaw was dropped the entire show….the show ended and if Rell would have let me, I would have turned around and bought another ticket…..he liked it so much, that had I asked to do so, he probably would have been on board with it.  If you’re in Vegas, go see this show.

 

I went to Texas the other weekend too….Little Miss Ava Marie Brooks turned One.  Cause for a party!  I headed to Texas and met up with Melissa and Will….ohh cutie cutie cutie Will….it was so good to see him in person…I had not seen him since Thanksgiving.  We had a party for Ava on Saturday…and surprise surprise surprise, Jodi and The Coopster came down to surprise me!  It was so nice to see them both.  We had a great time.  The part was fun too…there were 8 trillion kiddos there….people kept asking when I was going to have a kid, and my standard answer was “why…there are so may here, I’ll just borrow one of these” (Ugh, and don’t get me started on why people think it is ok to ask when you’re going to have kids….hello very personal question…I think I have decided that it is worse that the “So when are you two kiddos getting married?” question..believe me, after being with Rell for seven years, two of those married, we have had our fair share of both of those!)  I digress……

So the party was fun…..I will post some pictures…In fact, I think the pictures are going to have to be a post in and of themselves…..I think between my camera, Melissa’s camera, my moms, and stephs cameral, we probably have about 1000 pictures from that weekend…don’t worry I wont post them all!

 

What else????  Hmm….we got a cat at work….and while I don’t like cats, and am actually allergic, I dislike mouse poop in my office more….we tried mouse bait, poison etc, but then they would die inside the walls and the whole place would STINK for days…..and horrific smells don’t really motivate me to come into work…and I need to go into work!  So, we got a cat…his name is Cat….he tries to sneak into the office all the time.  We try to keep him in the warehouse mostly….the other day I did let him come into my office to rub up on the furniture to spread his scary cat smell around….intended to scare off mice…but apparently it scared my nose too because it started running!  (get it, running…because it was scared?  Okay, give me a break…Im old now…I make old people jokes)  Anyways, Cat is actually pretty cool….we have all these giant racks in the warehouse to store lengths of steel and he just jumps around them like we built them especially for him…his own giant Cat jungle gym….he also sleeps in boxed of plastic pipe caps….which doesn’t seem like it would be comfortable….but since he chooses to sleep there, it must be.  So because of where Cat sleeps and plays, he is the dirtiest animal I have ever seen…he is literally a greasball…can you give a cat a bath???

 

What else?  What else?  I am sure there are other things I was supposed to write about….but I cant remember them…they’ll come to me…while I’m driving…