Easter 2016

Disclaimer: Easter is not my favorite holiday. But, alas, we celebrate spring and this year, we also celebrated a reunion with Nana and Grandpa Chadwick who just returned from their 6 week adventure in Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia. It was great to be together again. So glad they had a wonderful trip and grateful to have them back! Of course, I failed to get a single picture with the kids and them together! Just imagine a lot of smiles.

As far as Easter celebrations go, they started with a visit to our Pulaski cousins (James' cousin's family) to dye eggs again. Not sure if our eggs or our hands ended up more colorful!

The Easter Bunny was good to the kids. Care Bears, soccer balls, super hero capes, and of course, chocolate!

On Sunday, we had almost 20 people over for Easter dinner which included a lot of food and, of course, another egg hunt!

 

It was a great day. But, by the end of it, we were all wiped out! Happy Spring!

Scenes from Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Birthday James!

Today is James' 29th Birthday. Unfortunately, he's spending it flying to Georgia to work with Caterpillar this week. He's helping them design and make fuel injection nozzles for their heavy earth moving machines. Sexy, huh? I told him to tell them it was his birthday, maybe they'll send him home with a backhoe or something...not that we need another one or anything!

We did get to enjoy breakfast together this morning and made some time this past weekend for birthday dinners, lunches and family time. I made some yummy low sugar red velvet cupcakes and surprised him with a new geeked-out gadget, because let's face it, that's just how we roll.

James had been expressing interest in exploring the stars since we moved in and realized the position of the house and the amount of the windows make the night's sky amazingly accessible from several rooms in the house. So I did a little research and decided to get James the Astromaster for his birthday. I just like saying the name...the ASTROMASTER! I can't get it out of my head. In fact, I've been walking around the house spouting out "THE ASTROMASTER" in my best deep space voice for the past three days (I gave him the tele on Friday b/c I couldn't wait). It's just fun to say I guess...try it.

This telescope is cool. The moon looks so amazing through it. You can explore all of the craters on it and we could even see Jupiter and Venus. The telescope has a special mount to attach my DSLR to it. I took a few pictures of the moon but they only came out so-so. I need to practice a little more but you get the idea.

It looks kind of ginormous from this angle. Sorry for the blurry iPhone pic.

We also enjoyed some time with both sides of the family to celebrate James' birthday and Easter. I'm heading off to Las Vegas this week and weekend with my parents for a family wedding. Unfortunately, due to work schedules and limited vacation time, James and my brother's family won't be able to join us so the Easter bunny had to make an early appearance.

Next week I'll have a Las Vegas recap and a sneak peek at photos from the wedding. My cousin is getting married and asked me to be her photographer (say, what?!). Oh and she's a wedding photographer herself (no pressure or anything). I guess the fact that I mostly take pictures of dogs and trees didn't dissuade her from thinking it would be a good idea for my first wedding shoot to be hers. Keep your fingers crossed for me, I might need a lot of luck!

Time to Eat

One thing we missed last year during the height of the building project was good food. I'm not talking about five star restaurant food. I'm talking about home cooked goodness. On an average night we wouldn't make it back to our apartment until 9:30 or 10 at night and let's face it, at that point, we weren't going to bust out a quality home cooked meal. Most of the time, we ate leftovers from the local pizza place or grilled cheese and canned tomato soup. Yum.

It's been so great to have time to explore new recipes and cook meals at home again. We're slowing getting used to cooking with our crazy gas stove. It's like a super machine! But, I love it. Loooove it. Here's a few super yummy new recipes that we tried out this past weekend. The soup was good and hearty but the sweet potato fritters were SO awesome. They will definitely be making it into our usual rotation. Give them a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Creamy Vegetable Tortilla Soup
(photo and original recipe here. Slight variations below).

Ingredients:
4 chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can chopped chiles
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 can black beans
1 can red beans
2 tbsp olive oil
2 14 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
2 14 ounce cans vegetable broth
1/2 cup corn kernels (frozen is ok)
1 8 ounce brick of cream cheese
corn tortillas cut into 2 inch slices
1-2 tablespoons taco seasoning
salt, pepper to taste and other spices (I added cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika)
Garnish with fresh cilantro, sour cream, shredded cheese and avocado

• Saute onions, garlic, pepper and green chilis in olive oil until soft
• Add tomatoes, beans and veggie broth
• Add corn, simmer for 25 minutes
• Add cream cheese, stir to melt
• Add seasonings, simmer 10 more minutes
• Add sliced tortillas and garnish just before serving
  

Sweet Potato Fritters
(photo and original recipe here. No variations below).


Ingredients:
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch slices
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp light brown sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/8 tsp garlic salt
10 grinds black pepper

• boil sweet potato slices in salted water for 12-15 minutes until soft
• cool potato slices on cooling rack for 10 minutes
• mix spices together in a mixing bowl
• mix butter and olive oil in small bowl
• gently smash sweet potatoes with a fork, cover with butter/oil mixture and sprinkle with spices, place on lightly oiled baking sheet (I also put foil down b/c it gets messy) spiced side down
  
• smash top of sweet potato, cover with butter/oil mixture and sprinkle with spices
• repeat for the rest of the potato slices
• roast at 375 for 20 minutes, carefully flip each potato and roast for 10 minutes more. Serve hot.
  

Summer Favorites

Last week was a scorcher here in the Northeast (and almost everywhere else). This called for as little kitchen cooking as possible. Below are three of my favorite recipes that I found this summer. Great for grilling days and ones where you want to limit the amount of time cooking over a stove or oven. Enjoy!

Grilled Pizza

Ingredients:

• Pizza dough (I used fresh dough bought at our local grocery store)
• Olive oil
• Your favorite toppings (for us that's tomato/basil/mozzarella over pesto pizza - yum!)
• flour or corn meal for dusting pizza peel

Method:
Prepare the grill for high direct heat. Lightly grease clean grill grates with olive oil. Shape the pizza dough on lightly floured pizza peel (or rimless cookie sheet). Slide dough off peel directly onto hot grill grates. Close lid and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes. Once the pizza has browned lightly, use your pizza peel or cookie sheet to remove it and then flip it so that the uncooked side is now against the grill. Add your toppings, cover and cook until pizza is done. Slice and serve!


15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 ripe avocados, pitted (depends on how "creamy" you want your pasta)
• 1 lemon, juiced also save peel for zest to garnish
• 2-3 garlic cloves (add more or less depending on how much you like garlic)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
• 6-8 ounces of your favorite pasta
• fresh ground pepper, to taste
• a sprinkle of fresh Parmesan cheese
  

Method:
Bring water to boil, add pasta and cook until Al Dente. Meanwhile, place garlic cloves, lemon juice and olive oil in food processor and process until smooth. Add pitted avocados, basil and salt. Process until smooth. When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse. Combine pasta with avocado sauce. Garnish with lemon zest, black pepper and fresh Parmesan. Serve immediately and finish your plate, this recipe does not reheat well due to the nature of avocados!


Best of Everything Veggie Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
• 1 cup water
• 2 (16 ounce) cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 green bell pepper, halved and seeded
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 TBSP chili powder
• 1 TBSP ground cumin
• 1TBSP garlic salt
• 1 TSP hot sauce
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs - or as needed

Method:
Cook brown rice over medium-low heat until rice is tender and all the liquid is absorbed. Preheat outdoor grill for high heat. Lightly oil sheet of aluminum foil. Mash beans in a large bowl with fork until think and pasty and set aside. Place the bell pepper, onion, mushrooms and garlic in food processor and chop finely. Stir the bell pepper mixture into the mashed black beans. Place the brown rice and mozzarella cheese in the food processor and process until combined. Stir mixture into the black beans. Whisk together eggs, chili powder, cumin, garlic salt and hot sauce. Stir mixture into black beans. Finally, add in the bread crumbs until mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide into large patties. Place on prepared foil and grill until browned and heated through, about 8 minutes on each side.

Happy Easter!

This is what our Easter dinner spread looked like:

I had nothing to do with the cooking (that was all James' mom, Renee) but it did taste yummy! Think pierogis, veggie casseroles, salads, potatoes, ham, kielbasa, oh my!

And, of course I couldn't help taking pictures of the cutest kiddos on the planet, our nieces Aubrey and Ava and our nephew, Andrew.

And other news to celebrate - we FINALLY broke ground (for real this time) on the house project. More details and photos coming as soon as I get my act together (soon - promise!).