menu posting (guest post)

hey everyone. jared here with another guest blog post. stacy said she received an endless number of compliments and encouraging comments/emails regarding my first guest blog, i must do it more often (yeah, i'm stretching the truth quite a bit there). anyway, here is a menu posting for the week.

monday: we had espresso black bean chili, which was on our menu from last week but we didn't get to it.

tuesday: we're having dinner with our friends, G and L, at G's house. before dinner, we're giving them a tour of costco as they're considering a membership. i bet they get one...who wouldn't want a costco membership?

wednesday: stacy is bartending for the evening, so we'll probably grab something fast before she heads to work...how does jimmy john's sound?

thursday: dripping roast beef sandwiches. a friend at work has a great garden at her house and she has discovered that i'm more than welcome to take her extra produce. she brings me tomatoes, jalapenos, salsa peppers and she most recently brought me banana peppers. looking forward to the hot and sweet taste of the pepper to go with the cheese and beef.

friday: desayuno mexicano para la cena -- a mexican breakfast for dinner. no specific recipe for this one, but we'll cook up some hash browns, onions, peppers, jalapenos, monterrey cheese, green and red salsa and top it off with a fried egg. wouldn't be surprised if we ended up making a margarita with some fresh limes too.

saturday: lemon herb dutch oven chicken. absolutely love when we cook with our dutch oven. feel like we're on a cooking show or something and i love that nearly every recipe we've made using the dutch oven involves sauteing some garlic and onions to get the dish started--such a great smell. anyway, this recipe looks great and might take some time. not sure what our official plans are for the weekend as we are going to see family on sunday, but if we're home on saturday, we'll make this. lots of good football games on this weekend (even thought the hawks are off) and can you think of a better way to spend time at home? watching college football and making a great dish!

since i'm coming up with the menu...does that mean i have to take control of the kitchen and make stacy my sous chef? this guest blogging stuff is pretty fun. look forward to doing it again.

jared

perfect lunch getaway

i got one more thing checked off my summer to do list on friday...not sure if it should count considering it was the first official day of fall. on my lunch break i walked over to meredith to visit their test garden.  the test garden is open to the public every friday from 12-2 may through september. what a beautiful place to sit and read, visit with a friend or have a picnic lunch.

i'm sad i didn't get there sooner, the flowers were absolutely beautiful and it was even the end of the season.  i'm jealous of their expert gardening skills. what an amazing resource to have to take pictures for better homes and garden.  cannot wait to get there next spring and summer!   highly recommend checking it out if you've never been. 

snob alert

went to flour last week for lunch and had a little bit of a mix up.  i was at an event that they catered a couple of months ago and they served this delicious lemon soda that i wanted to try again.  i ordered the pear and blue cheese pizza along with the champagne vinaigrette salad (in case you were curious, both were delicious but they were a little chintzy with the blue cheese.)  i then described what i wanted to drink as "a sparkling lemon soda." he charged my card and then handed me a san pellegrino (sparkling mineral water.)  what?! this isn't what i ordered.  i asked if this is the only flavor they had and he said yes.  considering i probably paid $4.00 for it, i decided not to trade it in for a coke.

as i was walking away from the counter i felt super snooty and wanted to hide.  so it left me with no choice but just to own it.  i figured hey, i love water so this will probably be the best water i've ever had (well at least it better be, considering it cost so much.) i had one sip and wanted to spit it out.  disgusting.

i just couldn't do it.  thankfully j-rod was with me and traded me his free tap water.

found what i was looking for at costco - i knew i loved that place.

pear blue cheese pizza along with the champagne vinaigrette salad.

hakuna matata

last night rach, j-rod and myself hit up lion king 3D at JC theater.  it is one of my favorite disney movies and it was even better on the big screen with the special 3D effects.  zazu stole the show in 3D as he was flying across the screen as the movie started.  as families poured into the theater a couple of thoughts came to mind:

this is probably the first time these kids are seeing lion king and they don't have a clue who JTT is. does BOP magazine even exist anymore?

how can a family of four afford an evening at the movies?  here is a breakdown of the math (carry the two...)

two adults: $26.00
two children: $20.00
one large popcorn and two sodas: $16.50

a whopping total of: $62.50

i feel like i should now say "seeing lion king in 3D, priceless." but i'm not quite sure.  that's a lot of cash to drop on one night at the movies.  i am pretty sure when my parents took me to the lion king during the first release in 1994 the tickets were $3.25. now i sound old.

bus stop

the past two days i've taken the bus to work. j-rod has been asking me to consider it for awhile now and i've been pretty apprehensive because i thought it would be super inconvenient and a huge hassle.  but surprisingly, it was super easy and i can't believe i haven't tried this sooner.  and to make it even better our company pays for it, so it is free.

here are some of the perks. our car has stayed parked in the garage. it is a five minute walk from our house to the bus stop and it drops me off a block from our office. it is stress free because i don't have to ask j-rod to stop tailgating or worry about being taken out in the parking garage. it also makes me feel like i live in a bigger city because i'm taking public transportation.

i'm now trying to bargain an ipad out of the deal.  i figured if we're saving on gas money then i should get an ipad so i have something to play with on the bus. pretty smart, huh? 

cake balls

cake balls or cake pops seem to be all the rage these days.  i volunteered to make them for my sorority's recruitment this week and when i say some i mean 150+.  saturday i headed to iowa city to rach's house (she was gracious enough to volunteer to help.)  we started around 9:00 in the morning and finished up around 7:00 that night.  i did take a break to sit down and watch the second half of the iowa game and for some pizza to celebrate the victory while the cake balls set up in the freezer.  

normally these are very easy to make but when you're making so many it took a lot longer than normal.

here is a step by step process of how you can make them yourself.  enjoy, it's a fun process!

first bake cake, flavor of your choice.  i chose red velvet.  leave cake out overnight to dry.

the most fun part - finely crumble cake.

most recipes call for half a can of frosting or 8 oz. of cream cheese, but i used the full thing.for these i used cream cheese frosting.

mix frosting and cake until all combined.

i use a medium cookie scoop to evenly proportion. 

roll into balls, wash your hands after every 6 or 7.

place cake balls on lined cookie sheet and put into freezer at a minimum of 4 hours or overnight for best results.

melt chocolate almond bark to coat. best tool i found for dipping was a plastic fork, removing the middle two prongs.

i drizzled with red candy melts for a decorative touch.

the final product, all 154 of them.

delish.

menu posting

a little late on posting my menu this week...sorry for slacking. 

monday: quick dinner at jimmy john's -- i spent the evening in indianola and needed a quick meal before i hit the road and as you know they are freakishly fast.

tuesday: pasta with peas & parmesan -- this is a go-to meal at our household, peas and pasta are two things i could eat every day.

wednesday: jethro's -- some of j-rod's family is in town and i am excited to spend the evening with them at one of my favorite restaurants. 

thursday: chicken and cheese enchiladas -- JW and NH are coming over for dinner to prep for our second golf outing of the season.  some might hit the driving range to get ready but instead we'll be watching a classic caddyshack.

friday: croque monsieur mac and cheese -- what is croque monsieur you may ask? it is a hot ham cheese sandwich with gruyere cheese that originated in france.  sounds complicated, huh? but it is actually just baked macaroni and cheese with ham with a fancy name.

saturday: espresso black bean chili -- i think this will be a perfect meal to eat while we're watching the hawks.

sunday: french toast peanut butter and jelly -- i've been craving a pb&j and came across this recipe and thought what a perfect combo.

radio game

spending time in the car can often get tiresome and during football season, we make quite a few road trips to iowa city. to keep things interesting j-rod and i play what we creatively call the "radio game."  the concept is quite simple you see, we scan the channels and whoever can name the artist first gets a point.  whoever has the most points when we arrive to our location wins. 

this morning i was killing him, with a score of 15-3. when we were approaching rach's house, he suggested next point would be all or nothing.  i am always up for a challenge so i agreed.  guess who won?  me with the beach boys, that's right...winner!

how do you waste time in your car?

hawkeye love

 j-rod was telling me about a question on hawkeyereport this evening, who is your all-time favorite hawkeye?  well this took me all of .5 seconds to answer.  i have grown up wearing black and gold my entire life and my love for the hawkeyes goes back to as long as i can remember. for years all i wanted to be for halloween was an iowa cheerleader or batgirl...both involved black and gold i guess.

here is the breakdown of my answer:


1. jess settles -- jess grew up super close to mp, so i was a fan even before he was a hawkeye. he was the keynote speaker at our D.A.R.E. graduation, a picture of him, j-rod and i ended up in our local paper. we even shared the same chiropractor for quite some time, i know...you're jealous.  but my favorite jess story involves the best gift i have ever received. one year for christmas my parents saved a gift for me to open last.  i opened it up and there was a nike shoebox, talk about a letdown. but when i opened it up inside was a teddy bear called a "jess bear."   not sure why this particular bear was named jess but i was ecstatic to have it because at the time i was obsessed with jess settles.  my parents said, you might want to look at the tag a little closer and inside it was autographed "to: stacy from: jess settles #4." i first asked "is this for real?" and after it was confirmed i started crying, then went to screaming and jumping around like a crazy person. my parents had arranged with his mom to get jess the bear to sign and get it back to me all before christmas morning. best. gift. ever.

2. b.j. armstrong -- i was super young when b.j. played for the hawks, but he is the first memory of iowa athletics i have. when i was in 4th grade we had to make a list of things we wanted to accomplish in our lifetime and one of mine was to meet b.j. armstrong. i got the opportunity to meet b.j. when coral ridge mall opened back in 1998.  scheel's hosted him as the guest of honor at the grand opening.  i stood in line for which seemed like days and when i finally met him i was shaking like a leaf and could barely get "hello" out of my mouth. i was happy to check that one off the list, phew. it was also fun following his NBA career.  i was also secretly pulling for him to get the iowa basketball coach job a couple of years ago, but i am happy with how fran is working out so far.

3. ricky stanzi -- "if you don't love it, leave it. USA #1"  does it get any better?  i actually was a huge fan of ricky before his famous orange bowl quote. he understood that as an iowa athlete he represented more than just football. remember the princess jenna and just try and ruin my day stories?  he was mature beyond his years.  i might even have to watch a few kc chiefs games this year.

4. jeff horner -- talk about a CRUSH. yes, it is true i called him at his house, just to chitchat. jeff was a good basketball player but i'm pretty sure the only reason i liked him was because he was super cute.  the day he got the job at valley hs as the basketball coach, my dad called and asked me if i was getting a season ticket?  the answer was no but i wouldn't mind running into him at the grocery store.

win or lose, i will always love the hawkeyes, even if they occasionally break my heart. go hawks!

contagion

i saw contagion this past weekend and really enjoyed the flick.  i loved how it was different than any other movie i've seen, typically i don't care for these types of movies. it kept me very engaged, was very fast-paced and had a ton of star power. but the reason i liked the movie so much is because i could see how a contagious disease like the one featured in the film could take over the world and cause  people to do crazy things (don't worry i'm not giving anything away with that description, i tend to ruin surprises so i am being extra careful.)

unfortunately the movie has turned me into a slight germaphobe. as soon as i walked out of the theater i found myself searching for hand sanitizer. then monday someone sneezed near me while i was warming up my lunch and a look of horror came over my face. i find myself avoiding handrails and doorknobs. i have also tried every hand sanitizer dispenser at work and haven't found a single one that had anything left in it.  i also plan on getting my flu shot early, maybe you should too.  :)

i recommend checking it out but beware it could change your entire thought process on contagious diseases. i'm sure this new phobia of mine will fade with time but for now i will be washing my hands excessively.