The run down..

So here's the run down of tonight's dinner at Jujube and I'm writing this in the afterglow of 5 glasses of wine. Should be fun...

Warm salad of calamari and Asian pear with pumpkin-citrus coulis

-Las Brisas Rueda 2007 ( Spain ) Verdejo, Sauv Blanc, Viura

• Umm... the pears were good but I prefer my calamari battered and fried
• This was my favorite wine
  

Steamed mahi-mahi with lemon-scallion nage

-Terra Andina Chardonnay 2007 ( Chile )

• We decided "nage" was french for water or perhaps ramen. It's been a really long times since we've had fully cooked tuna but it was pretty good.
  

Grilled fennel sausage with white bean and kale ragout

-Avignonesi Rosso 2005 ( Italy )

• When I read this I anticipated something along the lines if sliced Italian sausage but what we got was a huge sausage patty the size of a decent hamburger on a bed of beans and kale. The sausage was made in house and pretty delicious - this was probably my favorite course. Had I know that it was going to be my favorite I would have had more of it and not saved as much room for the other two courses.
  

Hoisin-braised beef with carrot pudding

-Torremoron Ribera del Duero 2006 ( Spain )

• Not nearly what I expected. The beef was very tender and a little sweet. The carrot pudding was not exactly what I expected... it was worse! I was expecting carrot puree but what we had was carrot shavings in more of a baked square... Have I mentioned how much I don't like cooked carrots?
• Eron on the other hand thought the carrots "really added to the beef."
  
• This was Eron's favorite wine.
  

Honey-walnut cake with jujube preserves

-Quinta Do Noval Tawny NV ( Portugal )

• Tasty but not as sweet as I expected... probably healthier. :)
• Port wine... hmmm... not my favorite. Really, really sweet.

All in all it was a really nice evening. Eron and I were seated with a nice couple from England (I think) who for the most part kept to themselves but we very nice and had a good sense of humor. Aside enjoying the evening with close friends or family we couldn't have asked for better dining companions.

Jujube

I'll be thinking of the wonderful dinner I'll be enjoying tonight all day long. Take a look:

Warm salad of calamari and Asian pear with pumpkin-citrus coulis

-Las Brisas Rueda 2007 ( Spain ) Verdejo, Sauv Blanc, Viura

Steamed mahi-mahi with lemon-scallion nage

-Terra Andina Chardonnay 2007 ( Chile )

Grilled fennel sausage with white bean and kale ragout

-Avignonesi Rosso 2005 ( Italy )

Hoisin-braised beef with carrot pudding

-Torremoron Ribera del Duero 2006 ( Spain )

Honey-walnut cake with jujube preserves

-Quinta Do Noval Tawny NV ( Portugal )

Jujube - a restaurant in Chapel Hill is hosting what they call a Recession dinner. Five courses paired with different wines. I might have to pass on the carrot pudding though... eww! I have come to realize that I HATE cooked carrots. Though I'm not exactly sure what nage is... might have to google that before we go. Have a good day!

Where have you been?

Is it wrong that my I pulled out my vacuum for the sole purpose of cleaning my roomba? :) Yeah... but my roomba runs so much nicer now!

Let's see... what has been going on over the past few weeks? I joined a gym!!! I bought a new mattress. Eron put in a new headliner in his Volvo 740 while I cleaned up an old grill and gave it a new coat or two of paint. We've just been running around a bit over the past couple of weeks. Had dinner with friends and drinks with a few more. I'm gearing up for the holiday season now... I had great plans to get my holiday shopping done early this year but I don't see that happening as we all know I like to procrastinate.

I must say, I have enjoyed this long holiday weekend very much! Thursday morning was spent watching Dexter, Thursday afternoon Eron and I made stuffing and salad (thank you Kroger for staying open til 6) to bring over to Anthony and Heather's (Eron's cousin and his wife) for Thanksgiving dinner. After a delicious dinner we opted to play Sorry - there was the option of playing Scrabble but because of an unfortunate dictionary debacle I'm not allowed to play any more. Friday was spent hiding from all the crazed shoppers and watching more Dexter -- we're half way through season two now. I did send Eron out for yeast to make pizza but we were otherwise successful with hiding from the crazed crowds. We did get out of the house on Saturday to do some shopping and see the new Bond movie. I highly recommend seeing it.

I did snap this most adorable picture of Eron and Chloe.

I think that's all for now. No... I haven't introduced you to Leo and Leah!! I bought two lizards the other weekend and they hang very nicely over my couch. Chloe was a little curious at first but she has come around. They were a fun purchase but I kind of think they need to be hanging on a different color wall.

Okay. Now I'm done. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I Can Has Puppy?

This is just too cute not to share.

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If you don't see puppies playing check back later... They're adorable.

Can I please sit still?

Oy... Can I please sit still? I think we've been running non-stop for the past month!! Road tripping, a birthday, a party and even though we didn't do a thing this past weekend we did drive to Greensboro for a concert on Monday. Monday night Nine Inch Nails played at the Greensboro Coliseum... I was a little wary and a little excited. I couldn't tell you what they played but I can tell you it was pretty freakin awesome. The sound, (no, not noise) the bass pulsating through your bones, reverberating in your chest, the ridiculous effects on the multiple transparent screens... I can't even do it justice. Like in this video that Eron took - where static parts is actually where Trent is on stage. The screens can sense where he is in relation to the screen and responds appropriately. This article actually explains it in greater detail.

This was actually the first concert I've been to since Counting Crows & John Mayer (yikes). I'll tell ya what, the crowds are just a little different and I haven't been to a concert with this much energy since the HFStival in high school. I miss that teenage inhibition. The moshing, the jumping, the crowd surfing - though concrete floors are not as friendly as grass fields. I did get a huge chuckle out of all the head bobbing and the guy who threw the sign for "I love you" rather then the "rock out" sign. Gotta tuck that thumb, Buddy. I'm a big fan being in the crowd during a concert. Not even Jumping Buddy-Boy, Mr. and Miss. Inappropriate, Captain Behemoth or the couple I yelled at because they kept backing in to me regardless of the fact that I had my hand solidly in the guy's back letting him know I was there so I resorted to using my knuckle because he just wasn't getting the point... could ruin the night :) But hey, at least didn’t grab a guy by the collar and yell at him until security came and got him.

Is it Friday yet? Night kiddies.

Taco Flavored Kisses

It had been a ridiculously long time since I had asked Dave and Lindsey to dinner at my place so we made plans and I made dinner. Enchiladas!!!

It was never going to be simple... I was working from home on Thursday so I started prepping the meat at 3:30 (no worries Tim - I didn't start the enchilada process til after I logged off at 5.)

Phase 1: Beef

Phase 2: Chicken

9 Enchiladas for 4 people? Makes sense to me!!

The finished products!

This is entitled "Satisfaction"

I'm not sure. Did Dave enjoy his dinner?

4-ish enchiladas leftover - I'll call that a success.

This is me having fun with Picasa tools...

I've decided from this picture that I really need to do something about that really bare wall above my couch. I never notice it because, well... I'm usually sitting on the couch not looking at my bare wall. Oh well. Any way... it was a great night. Good company, good wine, and good food (if I don't say so myself)!

54:26:27

I am horrifically addicted to sudoku. If I could I’d play all day – in fact I’ve come pretty close on lazy Sundays. I bought a sudoku –a-day calendar in 2007 to kill a little time at the office… unfortunately (or fortunately – depending on how you look at it) 2008 is nearing an end and I still haven’t finished it! I never had the time (or never took the time) to finish one during the day so I’d break off chunks of puzzles and bring them with me on road trips or plane trips and still… haven’t finished them. *sigh* right now I’m hopelessly drawn to playing sudoku on the web. www.websudoku.com has become one of my favorite sites.

I didn’t go for my walk on Monday… or Tuesday… but I did go today. :) Yea! Go Liz! 4 frickin miles. Celebrate small victories.

I saw this and immediately thought of me and my brother.
I'm the one in the box.

That’s all I got for ya today kiddies, I’m tired and turning in early. Maybe I’ll have something more exciting to write about later.

Care Bear!

It's tradition at the end of each softball season to celebrate or commiserate another season past. We were 8-5 this season and finished 4th in our league -- not too bad considering we hardly had a full team for each game. Automatic outs are not our friends. Regardless the season ended and we needed a party. So we loaded up on the necessary foods - hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, steak chips, dips, a Chic Fil A nugget tray and just because we needed a little something healthy I made some couscous with actual real vegetables. And then came the alcohol - you name it we had it in double. But... after several months of planning the My Little Pony was unveiled!Yep! You're seeing that correctly. That is an airplane bottle of vodka taped to a Capri Sun. Pure and utter genius.

I do believe that fun was had by all. A little ping-pong action, Wii tennis, Vickie read some tarot cards and there was a ton of folks in the hot tub.

I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. I told my self last night that I'd go out for a nice long walk today and burn off some of the garbage I ate last night... didn't happen. I spent the day cleaning my apartment, doing some laundry and catching up on about 2 weeks worth shows that I DVR'ed. I'll go walking tomorrow :)

Aight kiddies. I've blogged and now I need some dinner. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

No More Cowbell...

Last Friday Eron lucked into 4 tickets to games 6 and 7 of the ALCS! Road trip!! Four of us piled into Eron's car at 6:30am Saturday and drive 9.5 hours to St. Petersburg. Making fantastic time we were able to stop at the hotel to de-funkdefy and decompress and then grab some grub at the Cracker Barrel - Eron's first ever experience at a Cracker Barrel. I don't think it really lived up to all the hype. My chicken and rice had a ridiculous amount of gross yellow grease pooled beneath it. Ew. Then off to game 6!!

Eron, Me, Chris (Mo) & Amanda. Go Sox!

Game 6 was pretty awesome! Surprisingly we were pretty well surrounded by some Sox fans. We even had Peter Gammons of ESPN sitting right behind us. I had no idea who he was but everyone else did and wanted to shake his hand and get their picture taken with him - Eron included. Had I written this blog sooner I may have been able able to provide some snipits of the actual game but...well... I honestly forget :) The Sox won 4-2!!

We slept in on Sunday. We needed it. Then had breakfast at IHOP. It was delicious. Since we had a few hours to kill before game 7 we took a little trip the the Salvador Dali museum. The museum in St. Petersburg actually houses the largest Dali collection in the world -- outside of Spain. I wasn't sure what I expected outside of the melty clock things that everyone has seen. Some of his early work was really neat. "Neat" really isn't the right word to use... beautiful... amazing... mind boggling and yeah... just a little weird.

So, after the museum we had to go to the stadium to watch batting practice... duh. So... we were at the stadium 2 hours early so we (and by we I mean Eron) could take some pictures of some of our favorites.

Pedroia, Youkilis (Yoooooouuuk), Big Papi, and Varitek


Papelbon & Cal Ripken

I about lost it when I saw Cal Ripkin walk by... growing up with the Orioles Cal "Iron Man" Ripken is a household name... and he's not too bad to look at either. Game 7, while a good game to watch, was depressing. The Sox lost 3-1. Pedroia scored the only run on a solo homerun in the first inning. We walked out of the stadium defeated and deflated. Oh well... you can't win them all...

Ugh... 10 hours in the car back to NC to go immediately to a 9pm softball game. It was the Lucky Strike's first and last play-off game of the season. Oh well... You can't win them all. Softball party on Saturday. Can't wait!

A Perfect Weekend in Asheville

Eron and I took a little trip to Asheville, NC a few weeks back. It was amazing and I really couldn't have asked for a better weekend. We rented a cabin in Black Mountain which was absolutely beautiful. The picture is a little deceptive because it makes it look like the cabin is out in the open but in actuality it's at the top of the frickin mountain surrounded by trees and had a spectacular view. I spent a couple mornings on the porch swing enjoying my coffee.

Having never been to Asheville we did the standard must-dos. We took a tour of the Biltmore house, went to a wine tasting at their winery and walked around the gardens. Eron took a million and one pictures... of everything. I was highly amused by the hanging cucumbers. At the end of the day we spent about an hour at the top of the drive to get the absolute perfect shot of the house. It looks something like this: We spent another day at Chimney Rock, climbing stairs (yes, stairs) and riding elevators (yeah, elevators too) to enjoy the great outdoors. How ironic. I can't forget to mention the grilling we did that weekend. Steaks... pork loin... Seriously a perfect weekend. If any one wants to visit Asheville and not stay in a hum-drum hotel I highly recommend Grey Beard Realty.

Homework: A++

Nearly as soon as I sat down at my desk Monday morning at work I received an IM from Lindsey - it read something along the lines of "I've decided you need to write a blog." No "good morning", no "How was your weekend? Did you have a nice birthday?" Nope, straight into write a blog. Lindsey even went so far as to assign me homework - start my blog. Come Tuesday morning I hadn't written a blog and Lindsey gave me an "F". What would I write about any way? It's not like I have a super exciting life... So here I sit, on the couch, watching game 4 of the ALCS and I'm writing my blog (because Lindsey just sent me a text asking if I had done my homework). It's the top of the 5th and the Sox are down 6-1. Bummer. Note to the Sox management: Bat girl needs larger pants. So what do I really have to write about? How about my birthday and the super hot boots I got for my birthday from Eron? I love them. I also got beads from my mom to make something pretty for myself, an electric toothbrush from my dad and Jackie, and a new book from the Ingrams :) All in all I had a great birthday - breakfast at IHOP, lunch at the Fed with co-workers and then the day wrapped up with a fantastic dinner at Bonne Soiree... and the Sox game... I am a good girlfriend. Yeah, I'll end on that note: I am a good girlfriend :)