spring is almost here!

Except in our part of the state we might be surprised by snow after a couple of weeks of sunny, springtime weather!  Yay!

I planted these seeds merely a few days ago and look what I've got: 

The perfect image for 1 Cor 3:6 - "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow." Amen!  God is awesome indeed.  These are all kinds of lettuce, btw.

I continue to be buried at work so it hasn't been a very creative week for cooking. I whipped up some chicken breast with red peppers and mushrooms, fire-roasted tomatoes, tomato sauce & paste, mixed with some red wine and served with linguine for a quick meal last night.  My husband and I have been de-stressing with some serious projects inside the house:  painting some accent walls and our bannister!  A great alternative from TV watching.

Tonite hubby's at a meeting so I've got some precious time for some serious Bible reading and journaling.

mkng highlights - past week

Blogging regularly is a lot harder that I had anticipated.  Hence the highlights from the past week!

Valentine' Day:  I was inspired to make these cookies after seeing them at a local cookie shop.  But theirs were $5 each!  Granted, slightly bigger and better frosted but I couldn't spend that much on a cookie:

Rather than sugar cookies, I decided to make shortbread and I dipped the bottom in chocolate - my husband looooves chocolate. Sadly that made the cookies way too rich.  The frosting, btw, is pink.  My husband took them to work and that was just hilarious sharing these sweetheart cookies with a bunch of guys:-)

Made a really good red wine and mushroom sauce over steaks for V-Day dinner.  Later that week, we had fish tempura and I also made my first calzone. I get pizza dough from Trader Joe's that is just awesome and easy to use!  For the stuffing I used diced chicken, mushrooms, artichoke tapenade, onions and cooked all of it in some fire-roasted tomatoes and leftover marinara sauce. Perfect for Friday night!

I finally started my seedlings for the vegetable garden.  Three varieties of lettuce, snow peas, green onions, peppers and rosemary.  Hodge-podge I know but I had these seeds in stock and I'm actually starting them at the right time (I hope!).  We are in full-swing with our house projects inside and out and we both love it!  My husband provides the brawn and expertise and I bring a lot of willingness and hard work.  My husband is super-knowledgeable about a lot of things and it is great to learn from him and do these things together.

beautiful Valentine's Day flowers

My dearest husband always showers me with flowers and not just on Valentine's Day!  In fact I still have a fresh bouquet from a few days ago.  But he always goes extra special on Valentine's Day.



I know - you're thinking it's only the 11th.  Here's the story behind that.  I usually have alternating Friday's off and decided to take Monday off too for V-Day, hoping my hubby could do the same.  But he couldn't.

So Thursday night, I asked him:  "Honey, this is not a hint or anything but - did you order anything for me for delivery on Monday?  Because I won't be at work."

He honestly replied:  "Honey, I'm not having anything delivered for you on Monday."

Thursday afternoon while en route to another office, I got a call from the front desk letting me know I've got a flower delivery!  Wow!  He got me again!!!  Didn't see that one coming.  I eagerly picked them up and I just love that they are long stem roses and of all colors.  Just simply beautiful, don't you think?  And the practical in me just loves that he got them delivered before V-day which meant savings:-)

So that's why I'm already posting about my Valentine's Day flowers.  Because my husband is awesome and I am blessed!

packed weekend!

I am home sick today and doing some work here and there.  Can't quite tell if I picked up a bug or it's the consequence of the great Superbowl party we went to this past weekend.

Saturday was spent in Santa Rosa where my husband and I and a good friend waited a few hours in line to enjoy the world's best beer: Russian River Brewery's once-a-year release of Pliny the Younger.  The day was beautifully sunny and the company - a lot of fun. We ended up sitting with a group of young guys from a neighboring town and enjoyed Pliny with them.  My husband's day was made perfect when RR's brewmaster came out and hung out with our group.  We enjoyed some meat-laden pizza and cheesy calzone with the beer (I actually had diet coke).

Sunday was yet another inspiring time at church.  The teacher was humble, funny and insightful and very, very real.  We came away filled and encouraged.  Awaiting us at home was the Superbowl party at our next door neighbor's house.  They're great hosts - the food is always amazing.  From chicken mcnuggets to el pastor tacos with two sauces!  My husband enjoyed the chili...I opted for the pigs in a blanket for my fat & calorie source:-)  We won two of the 5 football pools...really scored this weekend.  Go Packers!

Two days later I am nursing a very tender tummy.  I was kept awake through the night by cramps that had me doubled over.  For lunch I am making some lugaw - it's Filipino rice porridge with chicken and a little bit of ginger and onions.  Definitely a light hand with the ginger.  It's comfort food for Filipinos - our version of the chicken noodle soup.

For dinner tonite I'm making meatballs - enough for sandwiches for dinner and for spaghetti for lunch tomorrow.  I feel weak from this stomach issue but that won't stop me from making dinner:-)

cioppino love

My sweet husband texted me late Wednesday afternoon with “I will make dinner tonite.  I love you.”  Those two sentences actually mean the same to meJ

All day long I had been praying for him, concerned that he was having a tough day given his short emails.  Even though I had taken out some cod that morning to thaw out for dinner, I thought about taking him out to eat instead – somewhere special to make up for his yucky day.  But it turned out he was just really busy.  Whew!

So I came home to a fresh bouquet of flowers from my sweet, sweet husband and all the makings for cioppino!  And how relieved he was that the fish thawing out was cod and not catfish.  Cod would taste better with the cioppino, he tells me.  Which he made flawlessly – filled with lots of chunks of fish, shrimp, squid, mussels and clams and he also added some rice.  We had bought a large jar of cioppino sauce which ended up being excellent (any other time he’d make this from scratch but this jar was pretty good).  To make the soup truly his own, he added some of his home-brewed pale ale for flavor.  Wow!  

He and I love spicy food so we added a healthy squirt of siracha (hot red pepper sauce) and it was a really delicious, filling meal, paired with a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc from Pedroncelli (Sonoma/Dry Creek Valley) and some rosemary/olive bread.  Very smugly, my husband knew I’d blog about his latest creation.

I definitely give him points for patience when it comes to cooking.  He takes the time preparing everything and is very mindful of the time to cook everything perfectly.  Seafood can get rubbery easily and so he cooked everything at just the right time so the fried fish was both flaky and crunchy, the shrimp was tender and the rest of the seafood simply yummy.   A delicious expression of love in my book!

how we eat, pray and love

I am blessed to have every other Friday off and I take the time to indulge taking my time to cook.  But my day ended up filling with errands so I took out the old reliable crock pot.  A couple of pork chops, half a jar each of green chile salsa and picante and set it for 10 hours on slow.  I served the shredded pork with warm tortillas and my version of Mexican rice (leftover rice, chopped red pepper, corn and black beans).

My dear husband humored me Friday night and we watched “eat, pray, love”.  The movie was a disappointment – there was nowhere near enough eating, praying or loving.  We switched to a testosterone-filled Saturday doing two brews during the day and watching the unrated version of Hangover with a dear friend after dinner.  Our Saturday eats were good:  beef and vegetable soup for lunch (using leftover NY strip steak from earlier in the week), paired with grilled herbed turkey and cheese sandwiches.  For dinner, my husband grilled some steaks and I made a very creamy mashed potatoes with parmesan cheese.  We served a side salad with it and a bottle of red wine.  Our “Hangover” friend shared both meals with us and it was awesome!

Besides the food and friends part of Saturday, my husband and I just had a fantastic day, filled with a lot of love in the midst of doing stuff we enjoy.  I helped him brew as usual and in between assisting him, I made a Valentine’s Day wreath for the front door and then started stripping the stain off a sewing center that I got from my mother-in-law.  It’s a beautiful piece of furniture but I don’t like the stain on it. I plan to turn it expresso black.

Sunday was another inspired time at church, followed by an overdue visit with my in-laws.  Dinner was a sad Italian affair at String’s, reminding me and hubby why we haven’t eaten there in over a decade. But the visit was good and welcomed!

 

I enjoyed our own version of eating, praying and loving infinitely better than the Hollywood versionJ