A New Journal

A new journal. I had spotted it several months ago at Wal-Mart. I was willing to pay $10 for it because I knew I'd use it to record memories - little moments of my life that I don't want to forget. I left it there at Wal-mart though, knowing that I still had several pages in my "old" composition journal to fill out. Many weeks went by and I spotted the journal again, only this time at Ollies with a price tag of $3. I smiled as I placed it in my basket, just knowing it was a little gift from God. And up until now, it has sat on the floor by the bed, stacked with other books and the previous journal on top ~ me slowly filling in the remaining pages. And every time I set eyes on this empty journal, I could help but thing of the memories that may be recorded in this journal. There is about 3 times as many pages as my typical compositions, which means if I continue to record at the same pace, this book could hold up to five years of my life. I could be in my early 30's when I scribble on the last page of this book. It definitely puts a fresh perspective on time and a life; both being precious gifts from God. 

Awesome No-Cheese Veggie Lasagna

Awesome No-Cheese Veggie Lasagna 
Bob Greene's recipe, with a few tweaks from me :)

Pesto
3/4 cup cashews
1/2 cups walnuts
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup fresh spinach
1 Tbsp dried basil
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup water

Other
Jar of marinara sauce (I like Newman's Own)
6 whole wheat lasagna noodles
2 cups fresh spinach, lightly chopped
2 cups fresh tomatoes, chopped (or canned diced tomatoes)

Coat a 9" square pan or 10" x 8" pan lightly with oil.

Combine pesto ingredients together in food processor and blend until smooth.


Preheat oven to 375°F. Layer lasagna: spread a layer of marinara sauce on the bottom of pan, followed by 3 noodles, half the chopped spinach, diced tomatoes, and pesto. Repeat the layers again, ending with the rest of the pesto. 


Slice a big fresh tomato and layer it on the very top. Sprinkle with italian seasonings. Cover with foil and bake for 50 minutes or until soft all the way through. When it's time to eat, we like to sprinkle ours with some nutritional yeast and ground up cashews. Tastes soooo good!! 

My Write-up for Down Home Magazine

The week leading up to our seventh wedding anniversary, Tony & I were indecisive about how we wanted to celebrate. That Thursday, the oh-so-popular Facebook beckoned us to Mother Earth's tap room. How did it do that, you ask? While scrolling through my news feed I stumbled across these eloquently typed words: "We just put on a very tasty chocolate stout that was done on the 1 barrel system!!!! Hope to see you down here for a pint!" Well, Mother Earth's marketing worked - we went to the tap room, drank a delicious pint of chocolate beer, and discovered that it was brewed with cocoa nibs from Videri Chocolate Factory out of Raleigh, NC. Yes, you read that right, our big city has it's very own chocolate factory. We spent a portion of our time flipping through all the pictures on Videri's Facebook page  - sipping on chocolate and looking at chocolate - and it was then we decided how we would celebrate married-life. 

On Saturday we pulled up to the historic 1912 Depot Station in Raleigh, where Videri is located. In we went to the very modern and quaint factory, where we were warmly greeted by friendly faces, walls of chocolate bars, cozy sitting areas, and chocolate covered wine glasses. Their inviting seating areas and patio are perfect for gathering with friends and they even take reservations for bridal showers, birthday parties, and the like. We got a brief tour of the factory by the head chocolate maker himself and sampled their various flavors of chocolate. If we must choose, our two favorites were the Pink Peppercorn and the 90% Dark Chocolate Bars. Videri's mission is to "create wonderful chocolate, from bean to bar, everyday. [They] are hoping to change the face of fine, hand-crafted, artisian chocolate by being a welcoming chocolate factory that makes people feel happy and at home." I say they're doing a fabulous job at just that!! 

Pink Peppercorn Chocolate ... it was so good!!! 

To make it all the more awesome, the Videri folks highly recommended that we visit The Tasty Beverage Company just two doors down. I'm so glad they did! We opened their door to see shelf after shelf of local, craft, and specialty beers - over 1200 kinds to choose from. They also feature "a selection of wines, high quality sodas, local meats, cheeses and six draft beers for your consumption and subsequent enjoyment." So there we sat toward the back of the store, side by side at the bar sipping on beer and eating some chocolate, while chatting with one of the co-owners. Shout outs to Mother Earth Brewery (www.facebook.com/MotherEarthBrewery), Videri Chocolate Factory (www.facebook.com/viderichocolatefactory), and The Tasty Beverage Company  (facebook.com/tastybeveragecompany) for making our seventh anniversary a super special and memorable one. 

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This appeared in the July / August Issue of Down Home Magazine. The issue is filled with lots of fun articles and yummy recipes using blueberries. See the rest of the magazine online for free by visiting here.

Blueberries :)

Had a great time picking blueberries with my Mommy and Mrs. Kathy!! 

 

National Chocolate Day

Tonight we enjoyed a bar of Videri's 90% Chocolate to celebrate. It didn't disappoint. :)

Date Night at Sumos

Lots of hard mind-numbing work makes a date night all the more desirable and special!! We went to Sumos Japanese Restaurant, thanks to the gift card my parents gave us as part of our anniversary gift. :) We sat side by side; eating our ginger salads, veggie sushi rolls, hibachi, and fried rice; sipping on some merlot. It was relaxing... so relaxing to sit by bestest friend and talk of anything but work. Our minds are at ease as we pull in the driveway. The 400 thread count sheets and a movie welcome us home. :)

Happy July

On this 4th of July we had my parents and a couple friends over for supper. We served portobello mushroom "burgers" topped with guacamole, tomato, lettuce, onions, ketchup, and mustard. They were so good! We also had corn on the cob, baked beans, chips, squash/zucchini, and mommy-made cole slaw. :) for dessert we had grilled bananas stuffed with chocolate chips. Mmmmm!

We sat around the table and played a round of Mucca, a dice game (instructions forthcoming). We then gathered around the laptop and watched an interesting mix of YouTube videos. My favorite is the hamster playing dead. So funny ( and it makes me want to have another hamster ).






True story: We had several hamsters growing up. I know there was a Bob, Teddy Bear, and my sisters twin hamsters named French and Fry. My most memorable was a little gray dwarf hamster named Pebbles. And rightly named because she looked just like a pebble. She got to roll around in her ball quite often and even had her own little "castle" - one of my old doll houses sitting in her cage. I think she was also my longest living hamster clocking in at 4 years. Our hamsters always seemed to die pretty fast, and I would cry every single time.

Tony and I ended the night with the final episode of Downtown Abbey Season 1 and were so ready to press play on Season 2 only to discover that it has not yet been released to Netflix. So patience we are practicing. ;)

Tony got off work at noon today and we went to the beach. :) He surfed while I took a long walk in the sand. Then we laid out in the sunshine for a bit. We stopped by Harris Teeter for a snack of sourdough bread, fresh salsa, a variety of olives, and coconut water. I think we ate enough to suffice for dinner. ;)

Now we're home sweet home, enjoying the privacy of our fenced in backyard. Tony's cleaning the wax from his surfboard, I'm writing a blog post. ;)
Pandora is singing the Tristeza channel to us.

Today

Today I wrapped my hair in a high bun and tackled some cleaning, working out, laying out, reading, laundry, gardening, cooking, and more. Tony got off a couple hours early and I decided to make a big dinner just because. We had eggplant "meatballs" with spaghetti, fresh from the oven bread, salad, and apple strawberry crumble with banana ice cream for dessert. :) It had been a while since I cooked such a big meal for just the two of us. The internet was down for most of the evening, so in lieu of watching the 4th episode of Downton Abbey on Netflix we played a round of Rummikub and read from Gary North's Backward Christian Soldiers.

This will be turned into some yummy salsa :)  

A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen! :) 

The finished product!! 

I won :) 

Down Home Magazine

I made a little appearance in our local Down Home Magazine. I wrote about our recent anniversary trip to the Videri Chocolate Factory and the Tasty Beverage Company in Raleigh. There's also lots of yummy looking blueberry recipes, including my mom's famous Blueberry Buckle and my Amazing Blueberry Pie. The entire magazine can be viewed online here, as well as picked up at businesses in the surrounding area. I encourage you to flip through July's issue and to "like" Down Home Magazine on Facebook where Cindi always has something exciting to share!! :)

Return of the Swallowtail

Chubby caterpillar in my garden about a week ago. Love the contrast of greens and yellows and the starburst fennel flowers. There were 2 of them, but I see them no longer which means they have set up house somewhere to make their mighty transformation into beautiful butterflies. I love seeing them fly around our yard. Big black/blue butterflies with specks of red and yellow. :)