Birthdays

It's a well known fact that love birthdays. All birthdays. My birthday, your birthday, dog birthdays... you name it. I particularly like to streeeeetch my own birthday celebration out over as many days as possible. I had an early birthday celebration with the Huebel's last weekend. It was perfect. It started with snapper topped with lump crab meat and ended with boston creme pie. There was a couple bottles of wine and some presents in between. Mom Huebel (ooops and Dad Huebel) gave me one of my favorite "scents", Miss Cherie by Dior...

Next time you are walking through the perfume section at the mall, give this one a sniff. You might find yourself a new scent :)

My parents sent me a box in the mail and I opened it over Gmail Video. I got some beautiful new earrings from Holly Yashi, one of my favorite jewelry makers. 

The earrings are called the "Elizabeth" earrings. How fitting is that? I actually had these on my birthday list that I gave to Ross, which Mom didn't even have... crazy, I know.

On that note, I'm going to be taking a "Blogg'in Break" for a week. Don't forget about me!

0

Cook with Steph and Liz #10

YEP, time for another round of "Cook with Steph and Liz" with little dose of Ross and Robbie... We had homemade bolognese sauce with homemade pasta. You can call us full fledged Italians for now (well steph really is)... We also had rosemary yeast rolls, caesar salad-- dressing made with love from scratch, and anchovies. We had Dorie's peach tart for dessert. Behold...

1

This recipe for Lemon-Splashed Shrimp salad was in the September issue of Cooking Light...

Ross had to spice it up with some cayenne pepper. 

This dish was loaded with fresh vegetables and lots of color. Shrimp, avocado, cherry tomatoes, celery, and poblano peppers in a cilantro lemon vinaigrette. It was a really quick meal. The shrimp were actually cooked with the pasta in a pot of boiling water. However, I wanted more flavor out of the sauce; it wasn't strong enough and there wasn't enough of it. We added some supplemental spice :)

Roma enjoyed some Eukanuba...

0

What's a Mum?

Part of our "To Do" List in preparation for the upcoming move, has been to go through all our junk stuff. Knowing that we are going to be moving to a smaller house, far far away, in the middle of winter is forcing us to be a tad more selective than we might otherwise be (in a good way).

Side Story: Pretty much as soon as I got my own apartment after college, Mom unloaded a couple boxes of my things, back on ME??!! *gasp* I was so mad when the parents drove the Suburban over to my place and forced those boxes upon me. The loss of precious space!... Now what? Well, I got married to a guy with an empty house, so naturally I just lumped 'em in an empty bedroom closet upstairs. Problem, solved.

Two years later and on the verge of a move, the time to dust off the cobwebs and go through those boxes had arrived. I found barbies, trolls, ponies, trophies, awards, stickers, old book reports, diaries (3 to be exact), love notes, trinkets,  pictures, and this...

A homecoming Mum from highschool! It had "Liz", "Matt", "Volleyball", "Go Falcons",  "Homecoming 2001", etc written down the ribbons. So funny! This thing had little bells hanging from it and Roma thought it was some kind of new toy for her. I remember when I moved to Texas and I had no idea what a Mum was. Here's a little article that tries to explain this Southern tradition!!

Needless to say, the Mum isn't going to Alaska. It got the boot. Bye Bye.

0

Apple Nut Muffin Cake

Ross came home from an early morning hunt with 6 birds and it was time to celebrate with a hearty breakfast. It had been awhile since I'd opened my Dorie cookbook, but the page for Apple Nut Muffin Cake was earmarked. The time had come.

The humble beginning (very tasty!)

Warm and hot!

The apple chunks, raisins, oats, pecans, and cinnamon were in perfect harmony making this breakfast bread/cake/muffin irresistible to the hard working hunter man, just returned from the wilderness, with sustenance to provide for his family during the upcoming winter freeze...

Ok, so we're not living much of a "Little House on the Prairie" story here in Houston, but Alaska may be a different story... :)

0

Polar Bears

We got an EXTRA special delivery in the mail! I opened the oversized envelope to find this...

The Front.

The Back.

HOW FUNNY IS THAT!!!??! This note caught me totally off guard (in the best way possible). When I opened it, I was thinking "What is the World?"-- GRAMPIE!!!! What a thoughtful note!

I think Grampie really nailed it with this picture. We look the same way on the couch right now, except we're not Polar Bears... just yet. 

The Fridge.

It's looking like we'll be in Alaska by Christmas!

1

Duck and Cabbage Salad

Roma ate the internet, yep she finished it. But the Comcast fellow brought it back to life. We have re-established connection. I'm happy. So is Roma...

We had this dish the other night... Duck and Cabbage salad.

To be honest, I didn't have very high expectations for this meal, but it was so full of flavor and color. It's a super healthy meal, with no added oil. The bold flavors come from fish sauce (yes, fish sauce is an Asian secret weapon) and rice vinegar. Cilantro, carrots, cabbage, and red onions round it out. If you enjoy asian flavors and need a quick week night meal-- this one's for you!

Enjoy!!!

0

Mexican Mole

Ross made an AWESOME Rick Bayless Mexican meal last week. Chipotle style rice with three birds (chicken, quail, and cornish hen), a mole, and jicama slaw. It was a fabulous meal.

There are many different kinds of mole, and neither of us had ever made one before. It is my understanding that traditional mole always starts with a type of chile pepper and lots and lots of other ingredients (garlic, tomatoes, nuts, seeds, spices, etc). I couldn't find the exact recipe Ross used, but this one is similar. It was so delicious-- worth the effort!

The rice, Arroz Rojo in Spainish, was full of it's own flavor and stood up well next to the complex flavor of the mole.

The rice.

The mole. (ready to be smothered on the meat)

Jicima Citrus Slaw

Who would of thought to pair radishes, cilantro, jicama, oranges, cucumbers, and chile pepper??  Here's the recipe for the jicama salad. I will definitely make this one again too!

0

The Score

Roma- 3
Ross & Liz- 1

So, this will be a short post. The story...

I came home from a fun day of hanging out with Natalie and there was a grey dog covered in mud waiting for me on the driveway when I pulled up to the house. Hmm, that's odd. I seem to remember leaving Roma in the backyard before church and now she's in the front yard. She was also clean. Hmmm, very odd indeed. I went around to the side of the house to see where she breached security. Roma was so excited, "Mommy come look what I did while you were gone!" There was a hole, dug NEXT to the spot that she had previously damaged on the fence door (the same fence door that Ross spend his Saturday fixing). (At least she didn't mess op the fence door, otherwise she would've had to deal with Ross's wrath.) She discovered that there was no damaged board to squeeze through so she decided to dig a new one. Oh my. I called Ross and he picked up stuff to put the electric fence back up.

After this ordeal, we realized that our cable and internet weren't working. Hmmm that's interesting, because it was working before Roma dug a giant hole at the fence line. Oddly enough,  that hole had wires in the bottom... I wonder...

Yes.

Comcast is supposed to come on Tuesday...

1

Jailbreak

A couple days ago I got a call from the neighbor saying that Roma was just sitting on our front porch looking a bit confused during a torrential downpour (aka Hurricane Hermoine). Ross went home to get her and sure enough, Roma had put a hole in our fence and was sitting out the rain storm on the front porch. Roma was an inside dog the next day (Mommy went home during lunch to let her out for a pee pee) and Ross put a board over the hole as a quick fix until the weekend. We left her outside thinking everything would go back to normal. 

Ha. Roma had other plans.

This afternoon I got a call from Steph... she said Roma was lying on her kitchen floor. Apparently Roma escaped again, but this time she decided she wanted to go see her friends Haribo and Maple. So Roma was waiting outside Robbie and Steph's front door and the little girl next door saw this, and rang their doorbell.  We went to pick Roma up after work and she was pretty worn out from her adventures. This is what we found when we pulled up to our house...

Ross did some more heavy duty fence reinforcement this evening. We had a stern talk with Roma about the consequences of another jailbreak.  (I'm laughing as I write this because Roma is curled up on the couch in between Ross and I right now...) We're hoping, hoping, hoping that we come home from work tomorrow and find Miss Roma in the backyard like a good girl.

1

2 Aldrich Favorites

Do you remember when I mentioned that I like to raid my mom's recipes whenever I visit her? Yes, well these two recipes come straight from the "Sallie Aldrich Vault". They're definite keepers and I go back to them, over and over. I MUST share them with you too...

Apple, Grape, and Celery Salad

¼ c coarsely chopped pecans

2 celery stalks, thiny sliced on diagonal, leaves for garnish

1 granny smith apple, cored, halved, & thinly sliced

1c seedless red grapes, halved

1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

1 Tbsp olive oil

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1. preheat oven to 350. bake pecans 4-6 min
2. Combine everything in a bowl and chill. Yum!

And another...

Stuffed Tex-Mex Yellow Squash Boats

Ingredients

4 yellow squash (8oz each)

coarse salt and pepper

2 T. olive oil

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 green onions, green part for garnish, white chopped for squash mixture

1 garlic clove, minced

2 T. tomato paste

1 tsp mild chili powder

1/2 pound ground beef (ground venison or veggie crumbles work too)

1 C. frozen corn kernels, thawed

1/4 C. grated parmesan cheese

Directions

Pre-heat oven  to 400 degrees. Rack set to top third.

Halve each squash lengthwise. Scoop out leaving 1/4" shell. Chop the squash flesh and reserve. Place the shells in shallow baking pan, salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high. Add chopped squash, bell pepper, onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Cook until bell pepper begins to soften, 3-4 minutes. Add tomato paste and chili powder, stir and cook until fragrant. Add beef, cook until not pink. Remove from heat. Stir in corn and the parmesan cheese, season with salt and pepper.

Dividing evenly, spoon misture into squash halves. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Cover with aluminum foil, and bake until squash is tender, 30-35 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is browned. 7-10 minutes more. Garnish with green onions.

0

A Huebel Family Wedding

We went to Austin to celebrate the union of Ross's second cousin, Lacey, and her longtime partner, Julia. It was a beautiful day outside, which made for some great photos...

From Left: Amy, Julia, Lacey, with parents David (Dad H's cousin), & wife Patty

Maid of Honor, Amy, with brides.

Family

Ross and I.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Cupcakes 'N' Cookies.

The Reception.

Congratulations!

0

Roma's Boyfriend

We took a roadtrip to Nederland, TX to visit Scotty, Paige, and Smash. We watched the Texas vs Rice game from the comfort of the living room (rather than Reliant stadium) because Scotty had to have his appendix out earlier this week.  I may have been the only one wearing the burnt orange... but Texas pulled through :) Roma had a pretty spectacular weekend playing with her boyfriend.

Puppy SnoCones (aka crushed ice covered with beef stock)

Tag, you're it.

Look at Roma and look at Smash.. haha.

Those ears.

Follow the leader.

S.I.T

Floppy Ears are my favorite.

After a day of being chased around by a puppy with seemingly endless energy, Roma is pooped out. She's been sleeping all weekend. She's finally getting a taste of her own medicine. 

0

Friends+Pasta+Vino

Ross was gone for Guy Weekend at the ranch so I had Girl Weekend at the house. Jessica and Britany came over and we had a great time. We hung out at the pool then came home to cook dinner and chat over some vino. We made shrimp scampi linguini with tomatoes and zucchini...

For as colorful and enticing as this pasta was, I wanted it to be even better. I think the ratio of sauce to pasta may have been slightly off. The food wasn't perfect, but the company was... and that's what matters!!

0