September, 2008 Archives

So true…

September 30th, 2008

Classic. Spot on.

Funniest thing I’ve seen in at least 6 hours.

Pita chips are way expensive. So we don’t buy them.

This week we made them. It takes 3 ingredients. Olive oil. Kosher (or sea) salt. And:

My most very favorite kind of bread. Pita.

Don’t let Darek drive the pita! (pigeon…bus…reference)

First you lightly brush with olive oil.

Then cut, and sprinkle with Kosher or Sea salt.

Oven them for 5-10 minutes.

Yum!

You can find the recipe HERE. There’s also a recipe for a black bean dip to go with them that I’d like to try; but we already had hummus to eat up so I didn’t add to our dipping supply. I give these 5 stars. Darek also gave his approval and fought me for the last one.

Well. Not really.

Cooking: week 3

September 19th, 2008

This week we picked an easy recipe: Grilled Bruschetta Chicken.

Any meal that involves picking fresh basil from our garden sounds good to me:

Though I did feel a bit like we were cheating when we got to this step:

The topping (tomatoes, basil, mozzarella). Mmmm.

The chickens workin’ the grill:

And the final product:

Yummers! Quick, super easy, and no indoor cooking required. Perfect for summer. Tastes great too – and it was still good reheated for lunch the next day. Win – win – win. Click here for the recipe.

Cooking: week 2

September 15th, 2008

This week (which was actually last week, at this point) we tried a new marinade for our New Recipe of the Week. It was called Grilled Chipotle Marinated Chicken and I thought it sounded promising. I didn’t take many pictures, because it wasn’t terribly photogenic. In fact, it looked pretty nasty the whole way through.

The ingredients (onion and garlic are in the containers on the left):

And when they started going together in the blended they looked like this:

As I measured out the paprika, I became alarmed. Suddenly it dawned on me that we were making enough marinade to feed a family of 14.

The outcome:

The verdict:

I have to agree with Cashew. I was a little disappointed. It wasn’t bad, but it isn’t something to add to our repertoire of frequent recipes. Next time we make it, we’ll divide the recipe by 1/4.

We gave it 3 1/2 stars (out of 5). Maybe 4. Cashew agrees.

The Bathroom

September 6th, 2008

So…my friend Crispy ditched me and moved away last summer, so she hasn’t been around for our so-far year-long bathroom remodel project. She’s been after me for months to post pictures of the progress, which she could have seen in person if she hadn’t abandoned me in texas.

But anyway, here are some of the pictures I’ve taken throughout the process. You can thank her for pestering me into finally sharing them. : )

To refresh your memory, here’s what the bathroom looked like when we started:

Back in December: First we took the mirror down.

Then removed the old vanity. The cats are excellent helpers (or at least they think so).

Always breaking out our awesome helpful book:

Christmas Eve: Stacie tears down a wall.

OK, actually Darek did all the work.

You just never know what you might find inside an old wall…

Woo hoo!!!

Darek conquered the wall.

The status after clean-up:

February: The carpet comes up.

Carpet gone:

March: The vanity comes out of the box!!! (It had been sitting in our bedroom for 4 months…)

And it’s in! (kind of…it came out again quickly…problems.)

Consulting the book:

April: We textured and painted the wall:

June: We put in the tile floor (which we bought in January or something).

It was really hard work.

The view from inside the bathroom:

August: When I came home from vacation, Darek had magically installed the vanity and toilet. : )

And today:

We have a door! Not quite a wall yet, but…we’re getting there.