Cooking Club At My House

Tuesday night was Cooking Club.  I hosted.  Here's how we do things: 

Once a month-ish we pick a night that all works with our schedules.  It might be a Thursday or a Monday, but it always changes.  We usually meet late-7:30, which means dinner is at 8 or later. It works out best this way.  Whoever is hosting, picks the theme.  There are 8 of us, so we have several courses:

Appetizer

Salad

2 Main Dishes

2 Sides

Dessert

Drinks.  The host is in charge of the drinks seeing as it's hard to transport beverages.

It's all really fancy and a ton of food and we kind of get dressed up-or at least put on a fresh coat of makeup.  

Last night was no exception.  The food was great, our talk was fun, and we just focused on our common bond of food.  For our theme, I picked Local.  We could make anything, but at least one ingredient had to be local-from our garden or purchased locally.  

We had eggplant from someone's garden, local honey, local bacon (for the brownies, yep bacon in the brownies), cheese from a local farm, etc.  It was all very fun.  Andy VERY YUMMY.

One of the fun parts of the night for me was the hour that I had to get ready.  John and Burl left the house for a calzone at our favorite, LOCAL, pizzeria, so I was alone. In the house. By myself.  The house was clean, the drinks were made, so I focused on the important things like candle lighting, dancing around, and setting the table.  Girly things, oh how I love you!

I even busted out my Emily Post Etiquette book to figure out where the salad plate went and remind myself for the 400th time which way the knife blade faces.  Important things, I tell you.

Things that I remember:

BMW: From left to right, the order is Bread-Meal-Water.  Bread (or salad plate) on the left-Meal in the center-and Water (and other drinks) on the right-not pictured.

Silverware is set up working from the outside-in.  We had soup first, so I included a soup spoon on the far right.  We had salad next, so it's further away from the center (aka the dinner plate).

The knife blade faces the food because that's what it does-it likes to cut food.

And I'm pretty sure that the napkin can go wherever it wants to.  Traditionally, it went under the forks.  Then, we got fly in the 80s and turned it into random things like ducks, then the 90s hit we had to bundle it up in a napkin ring-the creative the better, and now we're keeping it real in the 21st century.  We like it casually laid down.  I slapped mine right on the plate.

All girly things.  All fun, girly things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things but are fun to do when we have the house to ourselves.  Plus, it's always good practice, because we never know when the President is going to show up for dinner.

After the table was set, candles lit, and music on, the girls started to arrive and I got busy talking and didn't pick up my camera again.  The white plates were decorated by mother nature's finest: a rainbow of colors, textures and flavors that kept us eating until we were stuffed.  It was fun.

Flurry of Activity

A flurry of activity is what I'm calling this little stage in our lives.  We're not quite at "snowing" and I definitely can't call this a "blizzard."  Flurry sounds about right.

With #2 quickly approaching, we are quickly trying to get things accomplished.  Also, Burl has dropped his first nap for the most part, so there is more awake time to spend with him-or sometimes figure out how to occupy him.  A trip to Home Depot becomes an adventure where Burl gets to sit on the riding lawn mowers and play.  Making drinks for cooking club becomes Burl gets to cook time.  And so on and so on, 

Because more than most times, he's right there with us, helping us.

Since my taste and desire to decorate doesn't quite match our budget, we find ourselves in the world of DIY.  Do It Yourself.  In preparing the nursery, we have to clean out a room-relocate our office area, so naturally I get John to build a desk and my brother to build a bookshelf.  

It's how we roll. 

We're also learning to roll with the punches.  Burl draws on the wall, and we laugh, take pictures and get excited because now we have our "remember that time he drew on the walls" story.  One day, we can put it with the "he gave himself a haircut" story." Seriously, joke's over now.  That spot has grown.  Burl has turned a one-time-oops into a regular go-to spot whenever he gets a pencil or crayon in his hands.  

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  Fool me several times in the past week, well, that's just sad.

For all the work we're doing, I'm trying to match it with fun adventures for Burl.  We revisited the duck pond.  The one from my childhood.  The one that now has a Walmart across from it.  

Things didn't go too well this time.  We stepped in way too much duck poo and found the wildlife to be a bit aggressive.  

I showed up with our regular dose of bread to feed them, and they got way too close for comfort.  Eventually, we packed it up and left.  There's something uncomfortable about being surrounded by Walmart-ducks trying to fight for the next piece of bread-only to find myself holding Burl and quacking back while continually stepping on a ripe pile of crap.  Literally.  

Not cool, mother nature. 

One day we had Burl's cousins over for a bit which is the same thing as Burl Heaven.  He was stoked.  We went to a new playground just two blocks from our house where we found a slide perfect for Burl to do solo.  Wild, static hair and all.  

For the record, we walked there.  Me + 2 toddlers + 2 kids + one single stroller = adventure.

My Bob Revolution held up nicely.  It could handle all four, but did best with just two toddlers and just one kid.  I can only imagine the sight we were walking down the street.  It was the most exciting two blocks of my life.

Group shot.  I told them to do silly faces and this is what I got.  Doesn't it look like an album cover?  Or maybe they are about to pop into song and dance and a big yellow bird is going to jump out from behind the tree and tell the what words start with the letter "m."

Now, it's Burl's nap time, so I better get back to work on project #8590231.  Wait, is that my lower back talking to me?  Guess I'll have to rest for a bit instead...

Free Printables

I love when I get a text that says, "go to my stationary pinterest board and look at what I just posted."  Well, I did, and here is what I found:



Before you go there, brace yourself:
Turn on the printer.
Load the card stock.
Get ready.

There are 101 free downloads of cute things to print.  From cards, to stickers, to bookmarks, to wrapping supplies, to envelope liners, it's amazing.  I skimmed through and picked out a few of my favorites.  I've linked every picture to the original website, so feel free to click on the picture to take you to it's birthplace of cuteness.

My absolute favorite are the camper note cards.  Adorbs, right?  That's how cool people say adorable...or is it how valley girls say it?  Either way, I'm throwing it out there.

I use to dislike fill-in-the-blank invitations, but they've really grown on me.  I think it's cool to do for something casual, like a girls' night in or something.  It's a combination of everything I like: parties, paper, mail, and writing stuff with a pen.

I love these stickers and I've got a million and one ways floating in my head on how they can be used.  John's going to come home one day and see everything labeled with cute little round stickers.  And I mean, everything.  From the linen closet, to spices, to our children.  If it has a name, I want to label it.

Tutorial for envelope liners are a bit much, but too cute to pass up!

Bird tags - so hot right now.

Since I love to wrap things cutely, a whole download of stuff is the bees.knees.

Not sure how I would use the vintage post cards, but I'm sure I can find something to do with them.  They combine two great things: vintage with mailing supplies.

Cute bookplates are so fun.  Wanna know what a bookplate is?  They're so important that Wikipedia has defined them.  They are "usually a small print or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the inside front cover, to indicate its owner."  They are usually hanging next to the pocket protectors.  Nerd and cool all wrapped up into one.

Last but not least, a little gift tag/bookmark that resembles Orla Kiely.  Lurv it.

Again, I linked the website for each to the picture.  Click the picture and it will take ya straight to its home.  Then, the printing is yours!  Enjoy.

This Week's Menu

Every Friday is grocery day.  Sometimes it becomes Saturday.  Sometimes it even bleeds over to Monday.  Before I get groceries, I have to make my list.  Before I make my list, I make a meal plan.  Every Sunday night, I post it on my blog.  Just for fun.  Just for a record.  Just so I can go back and see what I've made, as well as have a place for links to online recipes.  Here goes nothin'

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Grilled burgers & tots.  Impressive, I know.

Homemade pizza
Tilapia with lemon caper reduction, brown rice, asparagus

Rigatoni with red sauce