Thursday, August 25, 2011

le cook book

 This year for my sister's birthday, I decided to make a cook book. Let me tell you... hard hard work. Typing up recipes and formatting everything up in InDesign. But after getting past all the fonts and finding all of the cute vintage images, it was well worth all of the hard work. Even Gus pitched in and helped with the wrapping.


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

our one year anniversary

 This past Saturday Matt and I celebrated our one year dating anniversary. Technically, we never dated one year, but we wanted to celebrate anyways. We had planned on maybe going to San Francisco for the day but decided to have a nice, quiet meal to ourselves instead. It was a great choice. Matt had dinner planned out and worked so hard the day before, prepping and working away in his office. We both wanted it to be a surprise so I made sure to steer clear of his way and kept from sneaking a single peek. So the day of, I got up early and did my end of the cooking and made some ciabatta bread for Matt's bruschetta and a banana cream pie for dessert.




 After I was done cooking, we stopped by at our neighbor's apartment to drop some coffee cake and bread off that I had made and chit chatted for an hour or two (what a sweetheart she is btw!). After, Matt gave me the boot, and sent me off to the library. I then went to Safeway (since the library closed at 5) and watched Throwdown with Bobby Flay. I was beginning to lose my patience though; a pregnant woman is a hungry woman. I needed food! Probably didn't help that I was in a grocery store... But an hour later, I finally got the call to come home so I could get ready before we ate. I grabbed a bottle apple cider and some dusty pink roses as a surprise (Matt had already gotten cider and roses though, but now we have extra). Around two hours later Matt was finally ready to go. We both had worn matching colors, which was unplanned, and made things even more special. I closed my eyes and he walked me into our kitchen where I found the most beautiful dinner setting awaiting me...













He even made menus for our dinner!



 Everything was delicious! We had a wonderful evening. I got teary eyed a couple of times because I felt so special and loved. If only the next day went as well... I had an accident at home and took a spill and dislocated my shoulder... AGAIN! Nothing like a trip to the hospital to bring you out of anniversary bliss.


 I'm just glad the baby was okay and didn't get injured in the fall. Plus the hospital staff was super sweet and loved my sense of humor. I told them I wanted a tour of the hospital that I would be delivering at, so I intentionally popped my shoulder out of place to do just that. (Below is a picture of me at the hospital last year in July. I had dislocated my shoulder for the first time on a trampoline)


 How was your weekend?

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Saturday, August 13, 2011

goodwill: bang for our worthless buck

 Well as the title suggests, I've been doing a little shopping at the goodwill these days. I use to frown upon our local goodwill store. On previous trips, it always seemed like I could never find anything. But recently I struck gold at our store the other day while I was looking for some baking equipment. I've been reading a book by Jim Lahey, called  "My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method" and fell in love with his method of slow rising dough. In one of his recipes, he calls for a Romertopf clay baker (something I don't have nor want to purchase for $40 dollars). So I set out to goodwill to solve my baking needs, and improvise with something else. And guess what I found?


Oh yes! Clay baker for $5 bucks!


 and then guess what I did?


I baked myself some delicious ciabatta bread. 


 The recipe was a little complex and the dough was hard to work with after an 18 hour rise, but it was well worth the hard work. This bread is great with a balsamic vinegar dip, sandwiches, and bruschetta. Can't wait to have some more tonight with dinner. I also got a mason milk jug for a buck (as pictured above) so I suggest you get to the goodwill, because you'll never know what treasure you'll find there.