Hubby rocks!!!

Wednesday night I had to work late and what does Hubby do? He gets a haircut, buys fixings for a fabulous salmon and pasta dinner, empties the dishwasher and cleans the kitchen!!!! Wow! I was totally blessed. We were able to sit down, enjoy a leisurely dinner and promptly tackle our latest endeavor: sausage-making:-)

This a Chipotle Peppercorn Romano sausage. Originally called just chipotle sausage, Hubby thought we should add peppercorn so people wouldn't be surprised by the really coarsely ground peppercorns. This one has got some good heat! It also had a cup of Romano cheese - nice touch.

I'm showing the whole set up so you can see the red stool I had to use so I can reach the grinder properly. I did the grinding and Hubby did the stuffing and that statement just sounds terrible:-) It was hard work but we enjoyed it thoroughly.

We are really loving making all this homemade stuff. The clean up was incredible! Causing Hubby to comment: "this is why we have grocery stores."

The next night? We're tackling three different sausages: Bratwurst, Spicy Italian and one we made up: Savory Cranberry. Time to bless folks with great sausages!!!

full weekend!

Hubby finally got to brew yesterday, after three weekends in a row that we had to cancel because the weather was too too hot for brewing. He was so excited, he kept telling me all morning: "I'm so excited!" This was also a good opportunity for him to apply some new things he learned while at a brewing school a couple of weeks ago. His nephew and girlfriend came over to help so we had a good time visiting. A couple of neighbors stopped by. We served some pulled BBQ pork which Hubby had smoked last week and I finished off on the stove simmering in BBQ sauce for 3 hours. We ended up brewing two batches so it was a very productive day.

We hung out at a neighbor's house for dinner, enjoying some really good steaks and corn on the cob while trying out her new patio furniture. It was a beautiful evening. Hubby had a chance to serve, fixing our neighbor's sagging gate. Took him 10 minutes and now it is no longer scraping the sidewalk.

Sunday was a blessed time at church. God spoke His Word faithfully and we were encouraged to break up our hardened hearts, for God's seed to grow and bear fruit (Mark 4). It was convicting, enlightening and inspiring.

The most special time was when we drove through midtown, trying to find possible retail places for our brewpub. This is probably the most real we've gotten about our dream of opening a brewpub. It was exciting and sobering at the same time. The Lord's will be done.

When we got home we took a few minutes to bring over some homemade chocolate chip cookies to our new neighbors. They moved in a week ago and we've tried twice already to come over but they weren't home. I told Hubby I'm eating the cookies if we failed our third attempt! But we finally got to meet them and they seemed like good people. We were happy to welcome them to our court.

For lunch we tried our first ever pastrami. The flavor was good but we didn't use the right cut of beef. Still excellent for a first attempt. Afterwards we worked on putting netting over our grapevines to protect them from the birds. The vines are laden heavy with fruit...it should be a good harvest! Hubby made me another post for the hummingbird feeder while I trimmed the roses and planted some annuals. I was bummed to do the latter because I had tried to grow some annuals from seed. But the seedlings aren't thriving and my flower baskets are looking thin. I had to post this picture of us sharing a bomber of Namaste...a great beer for a summer day. Light and fruity.

To end the day Hubby's decided to smoke some jalapenos for our first ever chipotle! We really are impressing lots of people with all our homemade stuff:-) It IS superfun and something we both enjoy. And we get to share with others which blesses us tremendously.

four fantastic years!

Hubby and I are celebrating four blessed years of being married! It feels like it should be longer...it is hard to recall life before this wonderful man came into my life! He has made my life richer in every way. He brings laughter to my heart - lots and lots of laughter. And every day we seem to find more and more things to share together.

This year we exchanged funny cards. He got me my bouquet of roses and very expensive tickets to see Neil Diamond!!! Woo hoo! I framed his brewing course certificate and got him a Bruery oak-aged ale. We had a fun dinner at our favorite sushi place. We lingered longer and had a relaxing meal. We got to rejoice with our sushi chef's recent engagement. A beautiful blessed day all around! I love you, Hubby!

hubby responds to my s.o.s.

It was an insane day at work. It's the end of the fiscal year so I'm having to wrap up a lot of things and also prepare for the next fiscal year. I spent no more than 20 minutes at my desk because I had new copiers delivered and installed this morning and then a full afternoon of training. The old copiers got de-installed too and there were other fires that needed to be put out.

I emailed my Hubby that it was going to be a margarita night. My brain was just mush and I needed to chill. He stopped at the store, got some frozen strawberries and tequila (we were out!) but we've already got a mix at home.

We went over each other's day while enjoying these delicious drinks. My Hubby rocks! (I should mention he gave me my beautiful bouquet of long stemmed red roses early for our anniversary - that would be its own post).

Friday night plans

This is definitely a first! Our charcuterie venture starts tonight with this pickling spice for the pastrami. Hubby exclaims a quotable: "We're going to smoke the crap out of these tomorrow." He took out chicken breasts, pork chops and a pork roast to smoke tomorrow, in addition to brining the beef tonight for the pastrami.

Tomorrow was originally scheduled as a brewing day but the temperature is supposed to hit 103 degrees - horrible forecast for brewing. So we plan on smoking all sorts of meat and then hanging out at our neighbor's pool to cool off. The pork roast should be ready to share.

We are bidding on ebay for a meat grinder and sausage stuffer. The sausage casing came in the mail earlier today. We are going full bore on this hobby! Sweet!

almost a dozen!

Our four chickens are getting along well. We were victorious last night - watched them go back to their coop for the night without any treats! Woo hoo! They took their own sweet time but that meant we just got to chill longer outside. Thankfully it had cooled down some so it was a beautiful night.

The girls delivered three eggs today. We're eating some for breakfast tomorrow so I don't think I'll see a full dozen. Oh well. Hubby says to skip having eggs for breakfast but that is just unfathomable to me.

first remodel!

Hubby and I already had to remodel the Chicken Condo:-) The girls aren't delivering the amount of eggs we need for us and to share so we need to get them roommates. Therefore, the need for expansion. We extended the run and installed a less intrusive and more space-saving water source. The remodel was nowhere near the perfection we usually aim for but it's functional for now. We plan to get the roommates by mid-week so Velma and Daphne have a few days to live it up!

We were really pleased with finding almost an exact match for the stain. I should share though that we discovered these chickens are hardly skittish and love people! There were practically next to us while we built the run. One of them was dumb enough to peck the foam brush I was using to apply the stain! She stabbed at it so fast I didn't have time to react and shoo her away! Hubby had to wipe off her beak which is now slightly orange.

Hubby lamented that we seem to be stuck with dumb pets. Our girls (a dog and two chickens) really love people! I think they're smart in their own way...I hope!

a promising harvest

Hubby and I are excited about our little vineyard of 21 wine grapevines! They've got a lot of fruit this year. We credit that to the maturity of the vines and our confident pruning this season. Tomorrow the project is to put netting around the vines to protect them from the birds. Last year we harvested prematurely, in reaction to the blasted birds getting to the grapes! Unfortunately, we yielded less fruit that were nowhere near the ripeness needed for pressing. We still made our first batch of wine, enjoyed the process though we have prepared ourselves for a crappy bottle! We ended up with 14 bottles and they look very cool:-) The color and smell are right but the taste is very acidic and lacking oakiness. It is also very thin. We are hoping that it would improve some after some aging. But the 2012 vintage should be way better!

next stop: charcuterie!

It goes without saying that with the new pellet smoker, we would soon venture into the world of charcuterie! Our chosen first stab at it is pastrami. Hubby has ordered all the necessary ingredients and Costco has provided the huge hunk of beef. We both love pastrami and it seems easy enough. Let's hope it turns out well so we can share with others. We love pastrami but 5 lbs might make us not love it as much at the end. We'll start the brine in a couple of days, in time to smoke it next weekend.

worth the wait

My Hubby has been raving about his famous stuffed artichokes but in the 5+ years I've known him, I've never tasted it! He's been promising to make some for me and he finally delivered! And it was worth the wait.

He made the stuffing the night before: Italian sausage, portabella, mushrooms, red pepper, scallions and all sorts of seasonings. We had bought two huge artichokes and last night, he stuffed each one chock-ful of the stuffing, adding bread crumbs, grated Italian cheese including my homemade mozzarella and drizzled both with olive oil. He then steamed them for over an hour.

The picture says it all. Like all bonafide chefs, he wasn't quite satisfied with it - he felt like the artichokes needed to steam longer. I finished all of mine! It was everything he said it would be!

last night's culinary collaboration

We are back to beautiful weather so that means we are also back to having dinner outside on the patio. It is incredible to have such a place to relax and chill after spending a whole day inside, in a cubicle no less.

Hubby and I went grocery shopping and to our great delight found Chilean sea bass at a great price. That's his favorite fish and this is only the 2nd time we've bought it. So he was in charge of cooking the fish and I made the side dish. Hubby broiled the fish with his secret seasoning. I made whole wheat spaghetti with zucchini, yellow squash, capers, garlic and shrimp. After rinsing the pasta in tap water and draining it, I mixed in some EVOO and sprinkled some truffle salt. Then I spooned the shrimp and veggies on top, which I had finished with some white wine sauce. It was an excellent dinner all around!

in remembrance of our dear Tony

This is the first bloom I've cut from the hydrangea that Tony gave us last year. It is beautiful. I didn't know him for very long but my husband loves him dearly. He was a great friend. And I'm glad we have a living remembrance of him. Enjoy heaven, Tony! We'll see you there soon enough!