Tomato Surprise!

Tonight Josh and my brother are going to the Mavericks game against the Utah Jazz. Brother (yes, I call him brother, not Alex) even came over early for dinner and I got him to eat TOMATOES! Neither one of us have ever eaten tomatoes. Seriously, I even have book that my college roommate, Emily, gave to me titled I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato. I display it in my classroom as one of my favorite books!!! It's a texture thing because we both love everything tomato flavored- ketchup, spaghetti sauce, salsa, etc.- just not tomatoes. Anyhow, several weeks ago I was having dinner at my friend Kelly's house and she made pasta with basil and tomatoes. I knew I hated tomatoes but I figured I'd better put on my big girl panties, be a gracious guest and force it down. So I did. And I loved it! I admitted to Kelly half way through the meal how nervous I'd been about dinner because of the tomatoes. I couldn't believe how much I liked them. I had to know what kind of magical tomatoes she had used. Well, they weren't magical as I'm sure you guessed. They were roasted tomatoes. She explained that they are roasted and then stored in olive oil with garlic and spices. Kelly buys her's at Whole Foods but I've discovered they also have them at the fancier Krogers. If your Kroger has an olive bar they probably have the roasted tomatoes too. My Kroger is in the middle of a remodel but I've been told the olive bar is coming soon :).

Anyway, tonight I made California Chicken Spaghetti. It is one of the first recipes my cooking coach, Esther, taught me but I haven't made it in a couple years because it calls for roma tomatoes. With my new found affection for roasted tomatoes I thought I'd give it another try. So I substituted roasted tomatoes for the roma tomatoes and voila, an instant hit. Joshua puts it in his top 5. We've had it twice in the last few weeks. Here's a link to the recipe

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/California-Chicken-Spaghetti

You should give it a try. Remember to try the roasted tomatoes!

Look at all those tomatoes!!

Great Balls of Fire!

Tonight was the 2nd grade program at my school. My kiddos did great! And they looked so cute in their 50's attire!

The S'MORE Pizza

Friday night we had some friends over for dinner. I made broiled steaks, sauteed asparagus, and roasted rosemary new potatoes. I meant to take pictures of dinner but I forgot, oops! The Todd's brought over the most amazing desert! We weren't sure how it would turn out but it's "goodness was indescribable," according to Josh. I introduce you to THE S'MORE PIZZA. It is from Papa Murphy's. They make the pizzas, you just bake them in the oven. We can't wait to have another.

Out of this world!!

Fuel City

Last Thursday we went to one of our favorite spots, Fuel City! It was voted home of the best tacos in Texas back in 2006 by Texas Monthly magazine and it is what Esther calls  a "Dallas Institution". Fuel City is exactly what it sounds like it- it's a gas station. Now, before you dismiss the idea of eating tacos from a gas station hear me out. They really are great! My favorite is the barbacoa! Joshua loves the beef fajita, but it is cooked with onions so that ruins it for me. I've eaten them at least 10 times and I've never been sick, I promise. Plus, they're super cheap- $1.50 a piece. There is a small walk-up window where you place your order and then they call your name. The tacos come with 2 types of salsa and lime wedges. There is also a a giant car wash, a swimming pool, live music and long horn cattle. Yep, it is the most random combination of attractions you've ever seen. Anyhow, the point is, they have really good tacos and you should check it out.

Always packed!

Cash ONLY

Fantastic!

Moo!

Happy Valentine's Day!

On Saturday night we celebrated Valentine's Day because Josh has class tonight. We went to Ruth's Chris Steak House for dinner. It was delicious! Josh has been talking about it for months and it absolutely lived up to all the hype. It was the best steak I've ever had. YUM!!

We both had the filet... A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!

We also went to see Cirque Du Soleil's Ovo. It was incredible! Every person I know that has been to see a Cirque Du Soleil show has raved about how astonishing it is and I have to agree. The costumes were beautiful! The tent setting was so unique! The performances were jaw-dropping! It was like nothing I've ever seen before. Everyone MUST go see it someday.

My sweet valentine

EUREKA!!!

I just found my new favorite store!!! Well, it's not actually a store it's a website for a catalog... i think :) I read about it from another wonderful blog that I read- bowerpowerblog.com. Ok, so it's Land's End Canvas. It's like GAP but a little more modest/traditional in my opinion. Their sale section is
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Just wanted to share with everyone in case you had never heard of them either. Maybe everyone else already knows about it. Maybe I'm the last to know... but I'm very happy I know about it now.

http://canvas.landsend.com

Thursday 2/11/2011

Tonight was date night so I cooked something new! I love allrecipes.com. One of the greatest features is the ingredient search. You can type in what you have and it will spit out all the recipes that contain those ingredients. I made Lemon Pepper Pork Chops and they turned out great! We also had garlic rosemary new potatoes & green beans with almonds. Here's the recipe...

Ingredients

4 pork chops

1 Tbsp Lemon Pepper

8 Tbsp Butter

8 Tbsp Olive Oil

4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2. Tear off a generous square of tin foil for each pork chop, enough to wrap and seal completely. Coat both sides of each pork chop with lemon pepper.

3. Put 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in the middle of each square of tin foil. Put the peppered chops on top of the butter and oil. Put 1 tablespoon olive oil on top of each chop. Add 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce over the top of each chop. Wrap each chop tightly and place on middle rack of oven. Bake for 35 minutes.

Delicious!

Wednesday 2/10/2011

Today we had another snow day! Can you believe it?! We stayed in and watched West Wing episodes. For lunch I made grilled cheese and tomato soup. We've had this a lot over the last few weeks because it has been so stinking cold! I think I've found our perfect recipe. Here it is...

2 cans Campbell's Tomato soup
1 1/2 cups milk
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

YUM!!!

Tuesday 2/8/2011

I've decided it's going to be recipe week!! Tuesday nights are very RUSHED! We try to work out, shower, cook, and clean up before leaving at 6 for bible study. So, I try to make quick meals on Tuesdays. This week I made one of our favorites. I call it Mexican Quinoa! Here's the recipe...
Ingredients
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced (I just use my garlic press)
- 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (I've also used chicken or beef broth... whatever you have will work)
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (I use a 1/2 tsp... we like it SPICY)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels
- 2 (15oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

Directions
1.  Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2.  Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.
3.  Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans.

Easy - Fast - Cheap - Dinner

Snow Day #4! T-shirt Solution

We are snowed in again today. We got about 5 inches of fresh snow overnight. It is beautiful!

We were very productive this morning- Josh wrote two papers, I did laundry, cleaned and watched several videos on how to coupon. While putting away laundry I decided that I would share Josh's t-shirt drawer. I had a conversation recently with a friend about all of her husband's college shirts and I was trying to explain how I tamed Josh's but just couldn't quite explain. So here are some pictures that will hopefully help.

The final product!

In order to achieve this I fold all the shirts the same way so that when they are put in the drawer the front logo can be seen. So, here's how I fold the shirts...

Start with the shirt face down.

Fold the collar up so that it lines up with the bottom of the shirt.

Grab the shirt about 2 inches from the collar on the top and at the fold.

Flip over the shirt while still holding.

Grab the folded sleeve and fold over the other sleeve leaving
about 2 inches from the other side of the collar

It should look like this.

Now, grab the folded shirt on both sides and lift.

Tucking the bottom part under.

Finished! Place shirts in the drawer vertically with the collars down.

Fresh Snow!! 2:00am

We're still up and it's snowing!!

We're sleepy and cold!

brrr!

Mischievous!

3 inches and it's still coming down!

Today was snow day #3! This morning I made the hubby breakfast tacos with venison sausage, eggs, potato and cheese.

Yummy!

We watched West Wing episodes all afternoon, made it through the biceps and back P90X work out and then I cooked dinner- lemon pepper chicken quarters with salad and corn.

Now we're back to watching West Wing episodes. Josh is reading Bush's memoirs... he seriously can't get enough!

Austin Trip

We took a quick weekend trip to Austin to celebrate Josh's 29th birthday. We had so much fun and ate SO much food! We love trying the places that Adam has visited on Man vs. Food (it's a show on the travel channel). We also visited the Texas State Capitol because my history buff husband loves that sort of stuff.

View from our hotel room

View from our hotel room at sunset

1st stop (Friday pm) Hut's Hamburgers- delicious!
Thanks for the recommendation Matt!

Sic 'Em Bears!

Joshua's birthday dinner. He love, love, loved his buffalo burger with tomatoes, onions, guacamole,
jalapenos and cheese! It's called the Richie Valens burger in case you want to try it.

2nd stop (Friday pm) Amy's Ice Creams on 6th street

Best ice cream creations ever!

3rd stop (Saturday am) Juan in a Million's breakfast tacos

The famous "Don Juan" breakfast taco- yummy!

Inside the dome at the Texas Capitol 

Joshua's favorite Governor

Lady Liberty on top of the capitol

Chairs for the Representatives. We were impressed that they are in such good shape.

House of Representatives room

This is a shot of the floor directly beneath the dome.
It shows the six flags of the six sovereign nations that have ruled over Texas.

General Santa Anna's desk

4th stop (Saturday am) BIG TOP Candy Shop on S. Congress- Sara's favorite!

Amazing old-fashioned candy store and soda shop!!

Yep!

In case you didn't know... I L-O-V-E bacon!

Here is our mid-mourning snack. Soda fountain dublin Dr. Pepper and chocolate covered bacon-
loved the Dr. Pepper! the bacon, not so much.

5th stop (Saturday afternoon) Fran's Hamburgers on S. Congress-
not our favorite but we loved their jalapeno sourdough buns

sweet graffiti for a change

6th stop (Saturday pm) The Saltlick- this is a shot of the "meat pit"

Totally Joshua's favorite!!

7th stop (Sunday am)- Round Rock Donuts...

home of the biggest donut in Texas

We chose glazed :)

This is all that was left when we could not eat one more bite.