so romantic!

My Hubby came home from work Monday night, surprisingly chipper. He got home before I did and I was greeted with a big smile and a proud declaration: "I am so romantic! I made plans for a date night!" And he waved a piece of paper in front of me.

There it was - two tickets to a showing of "White Christmas" at the Crest Theatre (an old-fashioned style theater in Sacramento). I was so touched! And this is totally lame but both of us knew I would be even more blessed: he got it a groupon for it - two tickets for just $11!!! And he made sure I knew that. I'd like to think I am just a very conservative spender but to my Hubby's standards, I can be a tightwad. Anyway, I was just thrilled! We are both Christmas nuts - the traditional type, not necessarily the consumer-mentality holiday observers. This is just awesome and I cannot wait!!! Hubby has been heaping lots and lots of love on me. I thank the Lord for blessing me with this man.

hearty barley soup

Last Monday we made another 6 lbs of chipotle sausage. There was about a 1/2 lb that we didn't put in the casings - just because of how the sausage stuffer works. So I decided to make some soup with the bulk sausage.

I chopped up whatever veggies we had in the fridge: zucchini, red and yellow pepper, tomatoes and some canned corn. We also had some leftover roast chicken from Sunday. I cooked the sausage first, added the shredded chicken and then added the veggies and barley along with some tomato sauce. I simmered everything for a while. I also made a batch of corn bread to go with the soup.

Tonight we're having the last of it! I've had to add more tomato sauce whenever we reheated it because it got too thick. This is the third time we're having it for dinner and it's one of those things that tastes even better as leftovers! It's started to rain again so perfect for soup. We had a long day of brewing and now it's time to relax.

biscuits, sausage & gravy

Today is rainy, windy and grey and the thought of homemade biscuits, sausage and gravy got me out of bed!!! I used our homemade breakfast sausage and made the gravy with whole milk and a couple of tablespoons of flour to thicken it up. Fresh ground pepper is key and a bit of a heavy hand with the salt.

I need to practice making biscuits. These were alright. These are dangerous to keep making - I love warm biscuits with butter and preserves. And I still had some homemade strawberry ones! The eggs of course are from our chickens. Which are sadly now down to two hens...we lost one earlier this week. She went quick - a respiratory issue of sorts. She was sick for barely two days.

A great Saturday breakfast though!

first time: popovers!

Hubby and I are avid Triple D fans and we are always trying out recipes from the show. The latest are these cheesy popovers from a restaurant in Texas I think (great name: Foreign and Domestic). The ingredients are basic (eggs, milk, flour, cheese, black pepper). The key is to have the muffin tin hot and the milk warmed to the right temp. I made only a half batch (9 muffins). I think I may have stirred it too much - it was too light and hollow inside. Still fabulous but I'll try a lighter hand next time. The popovers were paired with my super-easy orange/rosemary roast chicken and a quick spring salad.

I should mention that we also smoked a couple of tri-tips and made 5 lbs each of Italian sausage and breakfast sausage. It was a very productive culinary Sunday!

cheers from the past!

I have been enjoying watching back episodes of The Office while on the treadmill. I'm now in the middle of Season 2 and thought I needed a break from all the office dysfunction. So I started browsing Netflix and to my heart's great delight, I saw Cheers on the instant queue list! Wow! Jackpot!

I became a Cheers fan back in college. And I became obsessed with it. I just loved the camaraderie and the community. And the humor! I didn't realize I hadn't seen the pilot episode and it was awesome. It was just pure joy watching it. I laughed great, big, belly-laughs. I loved the Coach's innocence and Carla's toughness. I was never a fan of Sam's womanizing and I loved Rebecca Howe more than I did Diane (she annoyed the crap out of me). But the chemistry in that cast was just amazing. I was so jazzed watching it I ended up doing the fastest sprint I ever did on that treadmill! I felt like I could just fly!

And I loved the theme song and it was even more poignant as my Hubby and I are in the middle of opening our own brewpub. I feel so humbled. I am so excited at the possibility of living out my own Cheers season in life! The Lord is so good.

I pray our own place would be so welcoming to others. Where everybody knows your name. Which is going to be hilarious because Hubby has a hard time remembering people's names.