Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day dad!  One of the ways that my parents really show their love to us through food.  When my sisters and I would visit my dad he would make sure to have certain meals for us.  The top three dinner specialties were steak, spaghetti and homemade meat sauce and deep dish pizza.  (none of which I have replicated yet)

 

Saturday mornings would start with buttermilk pancakes that my sisters and I would always try to compete to see who could eat the most.

Summer lunches at our grandmother’s(dad’s mom) beach house would always be complete with a pimento cheese sandwich.  MMM…(of course, my grandmother would make that and not dad, but eating pimento sandwiches always makes me think of dad!

I’m sorry that I’m not going to see him today, I’m actually spending the day traveling to Philadelphia to see me mom.  My grandmother (moms mom) died last week, and so I am flying east to meet up with my mom and sister for the funeral. 

After my family leaves, I am taking the Bolt Bus to Boston where I am meeting up with Dan (we had this trip planned in advance) We are headed into Canada (via Boston) and spending two days at Coteau du lac, Quebec for one of Dan’s races.  On Sunday we drive back to Boston to see our friends Paul and Gail and then on Monday I get to show Dan my college campus and visit with one of my old college friends.  Then we fly home. Phew! I’m tired just thinking about the travel!

 

So it’ll be great to see my family and friends, I’m just sad about the reason for the extended part of the trip.

 

What are the classic dishes dad makes for you?

Happy Mother’s Day!

I love living in the West, but on holidays and special occasions I miss being near my family.  Mother’s Day is definitely one of those days.  If you think about it, it’s unfortunate that the years you live with your parents you don’t really know how to celebrate them, and by the time you know how, you’re two time zones away.  Sorry I’m not there mom!

We are a big foodie family.  My mom has always celebrated our homecomings/holidays with big family meals.  And here are some that have been highlighted since starting the blog.

Fist off, Jersey subs.  My parents are both from Jersey, and no summer was complete without these delicious sandwiches, no matter where we were!

When Dan and I went home for Christmas, my mom made sure to make us some delicious meals.  First, she made veal chops with mushroom sauce

She also takes a lot of time on sweets since we love our desserts, and Dan was excited when the first dessert she made was chocolate cheesecake.  All of his favorite things!

She even made my favorite cake for our anniversary.  Yellow cake with white icing.

look at how much nicer that looks than the one Dan and I made!  This is an entire piece, just in pieces.

Although, after an evening in the fridge, our cake turned into this

much better!

Even better than the food, my mom is a very talented women, she is a family and consumer science teacher.  Not only did she make the snowflakes that topped our cake.

She made the napkin that I use as my profile picture. It’s her tradition to make napkins for our weddings.  They are very popular with our family and friends.  Unfortunately, this means that we don’t have a complete set, one even caught on fire!  I’m not quite sure how, but we did have an endless supply of beer and wine so I’m sure that played a role.
And this year for my birthday, she surprised me with a complete set of napkins!
Happy mother’s day mom!  I love you!

Christmas Weight Gain

I haven’t yet posted about the dreaded holiday weight gain.  I gloated a little after Thanksgiving.  That totally bit my in the butt.  Christmas was all about the leftovers, decadent foods, convenience meals and of course, chocolate.  I think I gained a pound just looking at those pictures!  Needless to say I was nervous to step on the scale.  I did it anyway.  I stepped on the scale.  At first it said that I gained 7 pounds.  yikes!  On Tuesday the scale said I had only gained 4.  Wednesday it was only a gain of 3. Let’s hope this trend continues!

 

It’s amazing what water weight does!  I can feel a little difference, I’m feeling better now that we are getting back into our rhythm.  I miss my all bran bran buds!  Soon!  We grabbed some bagels and so that is what I’m eating for breakfast.

We also got some Clementine's that I have been faithfully snacking on all through work.

Lunch on Monday and Tuesday was a PB&J on Arnold’s Sandwich thins

And some chocolate.

Dinner wasn’t ready until late on Tuesday so I snacked on some cupcakes and some ants on a log.  Yum!

Dinner was pasta and totally hit the spot.  I was smelling our neighbor’s garlicky concoction and craving some pasta and garlic. 

 

Is anyone else as impressionable as I am?  I catch a glimpse or a sniff of a food and that’s enough to set me off!  I heard a coworker open a bag of potato chips and all I could think about that afternoon were chips.  I have to agree with anyone that says that people can be addicted to food.  I’m working to overcome this addiction, but it is hard avoiding something so necessary to existence. 

 

Do any scents or sounds set you off?  How did you do with the holiday weight gain?

New Years Eve

Bright and early the morning after our trip to Maggiano’s we headed on our way west to Indiana.  Dan’s brother braved the heavy snow fall to drop us off at the airport.  We saw a few scary accidents but made it in one piece.

 

Once we got to the airport Dan and I went to his favorite restaurant, the Silver Diner.  I was really surprised when he skipped his signature milk shake.  I was even more surprised when the guy at the table next to us got one (it was 6am!) 

 

I went more traditional and got the buttermilk pancakes and eggs.  I have to admit that I have no idea how to order eggs.  They never come out like I like them.  How do you order your eggs?  This time I said sunny side up.  They were ok but too runny.  Better luck next time!(p.s. I shared the bacon with Dan and gave him one of the pancakes)

We arrived in Chicago a little late, but still too early for lunch so we got on the road for the 2 hour drive to Indiana.  We stopped at a rest stop on the way and unfortunately all they had was McDonalds.  Ick.  I went for the snack wraps thinking they’d have vegetables and be lower calorie.  I should have checked the Droid Calorie Counter App first.  340 calories for EACH.  They were so teeny.  I ate one and threw away the second.  I am feeling less bad about throwing away bad for me food.

 

We rested a bit when we got to the hotel and then got ready for the New Years Eve party that Rachel’s (the bride) parents were throwing.  Rachel and I lived together for three years in college. Before heading out we ventured to subway to finally get some vegetables (sorta) in for the day.

I also had some sun chips.  I didn’t finish either.  The bread was too much for me.

We arrived at the party and got to spend a little casual time with the bride and groom(Rachel and Mateo). 

Melissa, Roger, Dan and I got to spend some great quality time catching up!  I don’t think I’ve had quality time with Melissa since my bridal shower!  Rachel’s exchange student Francesco was in town too!  We keep running into each other when I’m visiting Rach.  So much fun.

(l-r Francesco, Rachel, Roger, Melissa, me)

(l-r Mateo, Rachel, Roger, Melissa, Francesco, Dan)

 

Dan and I weren’t all that hungry after dinner so we grazed a bit on chips and crackers.

We then started a mean game of Mexican Train.  Rachel’s sisters Sarah(left) and Julia (middle) taught us how to play by their rules. 

I lost.  Badly.  It was my protest to their rules:)  The way my family plays is better!  They finally ended the game and put me out of my misery.  Then it was dessert time!  I couldn’t resist a cookie…

Or homemade caramels(I had two or three…oops)

I also was required to try Francesco’s tiramisu.  yum!

And to be healthy we added some fruit to our plate.

Since Dan and I woke up at 5:30 that morning we turned into pumpkins right after the stroke of midnight.  It was so great to get a chance to spend time with the Rachel’s family before the crazy-ness of the next few days!

 

How did you spend New Years Eve?  Happy 2010!

The Christmas Chocolate

I have to admit that every December I get totally addicted to falalala lifetime and other super cheesy Christmas movies.  All of them seem to be The Christmas _______(fill in the blank) or A (blank) for Christmas.  There are Christmas shoes, trees, miracles and people get Dad’s, boyfriends, grandparents and whatnot.  I have not seen a single candy oriented christmas movie.  I know that a Candy theme is not very romantic, but it is pretty darn true to life.

 

Now that we’re splitting Christmas between two families we get twice the stocking stuffers which means this year alone we received

• Lindt Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Bar (2.5 servings)
• Lindt Mint Dark Chocolate Bar (2.5 servings)
• Terry’s Milk Chocolate Orange (4 servings)
• Terry’s Dark Chocolate Orange (4 servings)
• 2 Boxes of Animal Crackers (4 servings)
• 1 box Godiva chocolate (8 pieces)
• 1 box Lindt truffles (16 truffles)
• 2 sandwich bags miscellaneous holiday chocolates

 

I looked at all of this chocolate and was figuring out how to pack it in our luggage so it would be ok.  I should have known that this wasn’t a problem.  Dan had finished one box of animal crackers and a bag of holiday chocolates before we finished opening gifts. 

 

The other bag of chocolates and box of animal crackers were devoured on our drive from Rockville to Pittsburgh. (I only had three pieces of chocolates and the head off of each of the animal crackers) 

 

I bet you can guess where this story is going.  It is exactly one week from Christmas and the only chocolate we have left is a quarter of the milk chocolate orange.

 

I’m proud to say that I have not had very much of our chocolate stash.  Dan claims that he was rescuing me from chocolate jumping into my mouth.  What a gentleman!

 

What is your favorite stocking stuffer treat?  Do you save it or devour it immediately?

Our Anniversary in Food

I can’t believe we’ve been married for a year!  It seems so long ago and at the same time, just like yesterday.  Getting married over the holidays means that you will be celebrating your anniversary with family.  My mom definitely made sure that we had a good time. 

 

The day started with pancakes.  My mom made whole wheat chocolate chip banana pancakes.

I had another cup of the starbucks via instant coffee.  This stuff has been great throughout our trip.  Delicious and strong enough to hold off any headache.

We had another fancy dinner that night.

Mom made veal chops with mushroom sauce and lemony green beans for dinner.  I’ve never had the veal chops before, but they were so tasty! 

Mom made my favorite cake for dessert. 

Yellow cake with vanilla frosting.  I’ll definitely share the recipe when we get home.

So delicious.

Overall it was a fun anniversary celebration!  I also realized that we had twice the anniversary celebrations since we did one on our own and then again with my family.  Yum.

 

Which cake is your favorite?  Dan preferred the chocolate cheesecake, but I love vanilla icing on white cake. mmmm

Holiday eating

Why is it that there is more butter used during the holidays than during the rest of the year combined?  Why does every meal become a landmine?  I’m happy to report that this morning I had cereal and coffee for breakfast.  It was a higher calorie cereal than normal, but it was nice to have a light breakfast again!  This isn’t saying that I haven’t loved every meal we’ve had since coming home.  This is just me being concerned about what the scale will say to me when I get back to Denver.  That is one bonus of not being home.  No scales.  Maybe I’ll get in a few runs before venturing onto the scale.  That would probably be the wisest move!

 

I still have some days to catch you up on….So lets rewind to Saturday.  I guess this was another small breakfast day.  We didn’t really have one.  My mom and sister ran out early to go shopping.  I find crowds to be painful so my sisters boyfriend, Dan and I stuck around the house.  I skipped breakfast because  I was pretty full from the amazing Christmas eve and Christmas meals and knew that we were going to Primanti Brothers. 

Any Pittsburgher knows about this place, and just recently it was featured on an episode of Man vs.. Food.  They are special because they serve the coleslaw and the fries inside the sandwich. 

We split some cheese fries

The boys each ordered the pastrami sandwich.  My mom, sister and I split the Cheese steak

and the pastrami.

The cheese steak wasn’t all that good, So I gave Dan about half my quarter.  But, this was definitely not a low calorie meal!  Primanti’s is the type of place you have to take visitors since it’s one of the more famous landmarks in my fair city.

 

After a lunch like this we had leftovers from the Christmas dinner. I must say that the roasted brussels sprouts were much better than the ones Dan and I made a few months ago.  I’ll post the super duper easy recipe when we get back home.

 

What is your must-do thing in your hometown?

A little Christmas Catch-up

I’m so slow catching up!  Christmas morning started with an 8 am exchanging of gifts with the MacKenzie’s.  Dan’s dad made us scrambled eggs, bacon and toast.  Breakfast of champions!

Right after breakfast we got on the road to Pittsburgh.  We arrived in time for a quick lunch.  Mom made us some black bean soup

 

and cheese and crackers.

 

Then we got started on dinner. 

Mom made some beef wellington.

Pomegranate salad

Roasted Brussels sprouts

And some Jacques Pepin potatoes.

All together.

For dessert my mom made the most delicious chocolate cheesecake.  Dan was in heaven.

Cheers!

We opened gifts with some champagne and a lot of laughter.

What a fun holiday!  It was really great to see everyone in one day!