Memorial Weekend Recap

I hope that everyone had a fun, safe and memorable Memorial Day weekend! It certainly wouldn't be appropriate if I didn't recognize those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving for our country. I'm so thankful for their service and all the freedoms that it brings us.

We enjoyed a very low-key weekend, and pretty much stayed in our little corner of Austin. After running in the rain on Saturday morning and eating breakfast tacos with friends, we didn't do a single thing but lay on the couch and be lazy. We were long over due for doing nothing, and soaked up every minute! Sunday was a little bit more of the same, though we did take Brees to Petsmart to sign her up for Puppy Basics class, and also to hit the local farmer's market. But we hit the pool in the afternoon so that we could rest from our excursions.

Sunday night we went to the The Oasis to watch The Brew play. They're a local latin/jazz band and I never get tired of seeing them. There was a huge crowd with a ton of great people watching, so that kept us pretty entertained for the evening. It's a shame that such an amazing venue doesn't have better food. Every time we end up eating there, we always wish we didn't. There's nothing creative or good about their menu! Our other regret was that we didn't get up to participate in the free salsa class that took place while the band was on a break. Next time....

On Monday we went on an hour long trail hike/jog on the trail system in our neighborhood. We have so much green space, and never really take advantage of it. With the recent rain, it was a little bit muddy. But it also meant that the creeks were full and running. It was just beautiful, and I'm looking forward to hiking on more of them. It was nice to get out and do something active, and I we really enjoyed all of the quality time that we got to spend together.

We rounded out the weekend with a delicious (and healthy!) dinner at my parent's house. The weather was just nice enough for us to sit outside and enjoy their pretty yard. My mom had come across a new food blog called Iowa Girl Eats that had some really great looking recipes, including a section with 20 Great Memorial Day Recipes. So our menu included Key West Lime Chicken with Mango Salsa, and Cauliflower Rice. Yes- you read that right. Cauliflower rice. This low carb girl was loving it, and it really tasted great! Since we're now eliminating rice from our diet, this will definitely become a weekly staple. Hank and I took ingredients to make an easy Grilled Mexican Corn side dish, and then we rounded out the meal with strawberry shortcake skewers and a yummy yogurt/cream cheese cheese dip.

Grilled Mexican Corn

Key West Lime Chicken and Cauliflower Rice

Fun outdoor table setting.

Red, white and blue dessert!

Puppy Love

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all! I know the holiday isn't for everyone, but it's always been a fun one for me. My mom always made a big deal about it growing up, and every year I looked forward to making my Valentine's Box (or bag) at school to collect all the cards from my classmates. Even when I was a teacher, I loved making the day special for my students. It's not all about mushy love for just one specific person, but sharing love to all those you care about. Cheesy? Yes! Likely made up by a greeting card company? Sure. But I still think it's fun to find ways to show people you care about them.

Of course, I do happen to have one very special person in my life. He shows how much he loves me any day of the year, but I appreciate the fact that he's willing also to indulge me on a holiday that I love. Last year he surprised me at work with chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite- and way better than flowers!) And this year he did it again, a tradition that I hope will continue throughout the years. He also included a really sweet card that had the absolute perfect message for this time in our lives. On the inside it says "I can't wait for our happily-ever-after!", and I couldn't agree more. It was sweet and thoughtful, and very much appreciated.

Tonight we will forgo the circus that is the Valentine restaurant crowd, and instead we're catching a chick-flick and dinner at the Moviehouse Eatery I've blogged about before. Yes, Hank is pretending to like Nicholas Sparks just long enough to watch his latest book-turned-movie, Safe Haven. I read it on our trip, and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie tonight.

XOXO to all my friends!

December Holidays 2012

So much happened towards the end of the year, and all of it was fun. Rather than giving a drawn out recap of everything I did, I'll just share some of my favorite pictures.

Trail of Lights returned from a 2 year hiatus. We met my sister and her husband and took turns pulling my niece around the trail. It was cold, and it was awesome!

Joint brother/sister birthday celebration at Matt's El Rancho, followed by cookie decorating the next morning. It was Hank's first year to join and I have to say I'm impressed by his efforts.

Georgia was so excited to get her face painted. 

Blake turned 30 this year, and I'm creeping closer and closer to 40.

Wearing my awesome new scarf from brother and sis-in-law.

An assortment of cookies.

A friend got us "Ninjabread" cookie cutters- and they ended up being my favorite!

Christmas rolled around, and we celebrated with my family in Austin before packing up the car and heading to Oklahoma for a few days with Hank's family.

Christmas Eve service with my parents at Riverbend Church

Georgia rounding the corner at my parent's house on Christmas morning. She was only grumpy until she saw her first big gift.....

A Barbie Cruise Ship!!! Complete with a swimming pool with dolphin fountain. She loved it!

It's tradition for me to make my brother's birthday cake for Christmas night- this year I made an oil derrick cake in honor of a recent job transition.

Katie realized something was up, and was not too happy that we left her alone for 4 days. 

Sleepy pups on the drive up to OKC.

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We woke up on Thursday morning to snow. It was beautiful.

Marley was like a new dog playing around in the snow.

A few generations of Holland boys, engrossed in a chick flick.

Engagement night at Stellas.

 We finished off the year by celebrating with a few friends on New Year's Eve, and are now looking forward to a relaxing beach vacation in just a few weeks. Happy 2013!

Holiday Entertaining

I say it every year- December is my favorite month! The hum of festivities for a whole month is always so fun to me, and I love the opportunities December brings to get together with friends and family. We hosted a little get together this past Sunday as a chance to see some friends we don't get to see often enough, and while it was a lot of work getting ready for it, we had a great time! Hank was a huge help in getting the entire house cleaned and the "bar" set up. We made our first trip to Costco to get the food, and then I spent a day and a half in the kitchen baking (seriously one of my favorite things to do.) I made 3 sweet treats, and the rest of the food just had to be warmed and/or assembled. I thought everything turned out great, and was glad that friends came and went throughout the 4 hours on Sunday afternoon. It was nice to toast the holidays with everyone!

The menu:

Cheese tray
Veggie tray with dill dip
Cranberry Meatballs
Spanakopita Triangles (from Costco)
Hot Corn Dip (our neighbor brought this amazing dip, and said she found the recipe on Pinterest. Not sure if this is the right one, but it was so ridiculously good!)

Sweets: Red Velvet Peppermint Brownies, Lemon Cookies, and Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
Drinks: Beer, Wine, Prosecco with Cranberry Juice, and a non-alcoholic Sparkling Pomegranate Juice

Simple evergreens and tulips made for a pretty little flower addition to the table.

Big thanks to my mom for letting me borrow so much of her entertaining dishes!

Christmas cheese tree idea from Pinterest! So easy to do, and it looked so pretty.

View of the sweets and veggie tray.

Girlfriends!!!

Below are a few of the treats that I made this year. They turned out great and are pretty enough to share if you like to give away baked goods as gifts. I didn't get a good picture of them, but the Red Velvet Peppermint Swirl Brownies that I made for the party were a huge hit!! You have to be careful not to over bake them, and I used peppermint oil (found at a bake shop) instead of extract. They are so, so delicious!! I also made Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Hot Chocolate Frosting (I doubled the amount of hot chocolate to get a richer frosting). I had a hard time finding the itty-bitty marshmallows, so I just used a few of the small sized ones.

For my cookie exchange, I made Sparkly Lemon Cookies (the edible glitter was also purchased at the bake shop I frequent), and Chocolate Crinkle Kiss Cookies. I found the candy cane Hershey kisses at Target, and I thought they were a perfect touch for these.


                                      

                                      

Unfortunately, Hank and I were too busy talking to everyone, replenishing food, etc- that we didn't get any pictures of us together, or any of our guests. I wish we had been able to, but I was just glad we had so many people who took the time out of their day to come and visit with us!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Too bad it doesn't feel like it yet. The temps this week have been in the upper 70s/lower 80s, and it's all I can do to not break out the flip flops again!  But the house looks beautiful, and I couldn't love all our decorations any more. If only it would cool off enough to build a fire.

Moving into a new house meant combining (and cleaning out) a bunch of Christmas decorations, along with the chance to start a new "look". I love combining silver and gold, and had my eye on a beautiful sparkly wreath from Crate and Barrel. So I had the broad vision of what I wanted in mind, and just needed help making that happen. That's where my mom and sister usually come in.

Hank was out in Sacramento, punishing himself in monsoon-like conditions for the California International Marathon. So I invited my parents to come over for dinner, and help with the decorations. I had taken the day off work and was able to meet my mom at Z Gallerie to buy a few more things that I knew we would want. And the final result is just beautiful. It's a sparkly mix of nature, gold and silver. I really don't quite know what to call it, but it works!

Gifts are wrapped, stockings are hung...now I'm ready to enjoy the month of December!

A Pumpkin Carving Tradition

Every year for about as long as I can remember, my mom hosts a family Halloween party. It's been difficult as the "kids" have gotten older- especially being in 3 different cities. But now that my 3 year old niece is old enough to participate and enjoy it, the party is back in full swing. My family has always been pretty competitive, and pumpkin carving is no exception. We go to great lengths to make them look good!

My parent's hosted the annual party on Sunday evening, and we were able to attend and enjoy a perfect fall evening. The temperature was great, and we enjoyed being outside eating, drinking and carving. I wish I had taken pictures of the pretty buffet and table she had set-up, but I had a one track mind, and that was winning the pumpkin carving contest.

To my shock and near horror, I learned that Hank had NEVER carved a pumpkin before. I don't even know how that's possible. I didn't really believe him until his mom later confirmed- it was just something they had never done before. So Sonny gave him a quick lesson on carving out the top and scooping out the insides. He did just fine with that. But then it came time to picking out a stencil from the kit that I got at Target, and that might have been where things went a little wrong. 

I got wrapped up in the overall vision for the pumpkins in front of our house, and might have led him into picking out probably the hardest design in the bunch. And then maybe I also gave him the tool that wasn't the best one to use for punching out the design before actually cutting it. I swear it wasn't intentional, but I nearly set him up for total failure. Thankfully, we prevailed, and ended up carving (in my humble opinion) the two best pumpkins of the night. Overall we had a great time, dinner was delicious, and it was fun spending time with family (even if my brother and sis-in-law couldn't make it.)

Hard at work prepping the pumpkins.

The finished product. Ours are the front two on the right.

Hoppy Easter!

Is this thing still on? Glad Blogger doesn't shut it down after a period of inactivity. The good news is...I'm back!!! They say Easter is a day of renewal, and after 6 weeks of eating plants/beans/grains, I definitely feel renewed (and more ready than ever to eat some cheese!!!) I learned a lot during our Lent-inspired Plant Based Eating, and look forward to keeping up a healthier diet. But moderation is key, and I cannot wait to at least resume a more social schedule that includes the occasional delicious meal.

Hunk and I ended our "Jesus fast" (as a good friend jokingly referred to it) Friday night with pizza from Home Slice- possibly my favorite pizza place in Austin. We didn't have meat on it, but we did have some gooey, stringy cheese with roasted red peppers and spinach. It was amazing, at least at that moment. On Saturday morning, when we were both doing our respective long runs, it didn't feel quite so good. Lesson learned. But over the course of the weekend as we celebrated with family, we indulged in a variety of tasty food, and my stomach seemed to come out mostly unscathed.

It was a beautiful weekend and a great two days spent with my wonderful family. We made the traditional bunny cake (my niece Georgia did her best to help- mostly by consuming all the extra candy we used to decorate.) My mom fixed appetizers and dinner that we enjoyed on the patio Saturday night, and then Church/Brunch/Egg Hunting on Sunday. Hunk joked with my mom that I'm going to have to do some training next year prior to the egg hunt. He was thoroughly disappointed in my ability to find the good eggs. My brother ended up the big winner this year, finding both of the big prize eggs. It all went by way too fast, but everyone had a good time.

My mom saw this idea on Pinterest, and executed it even better than the original.

G says "Happy Easter!"

Table set for brunch.

Amy and Hunk

"Hunting" for eggs.

Another highlight of the weekend- getting my Fantasy Football trophy with my team name engraved on the side.

These next few weeks are busy with house-sitting, garage sailing and evening my first trip to Oklahoma (to meet Hunk's family). But I'm hoping to make time to blog once or twice a week while still finding time to enjoy all the fun things there are to do in Austin this time of year.

My Cheesy Valentine

My mom always made a big deal out of Valentine's Day growing up, and I guess that's part of why I love the holiday so much. It's not all about cheesy romance, but it's a day to do something special. I realize that not everyone shares that sentiment. Especially those of you who think you should show your love every day. I don't disagree. I just don't see what's so wrong about being a little extra-special on this particular day.

Hunk isn't the biggest fan of the holiday, but I appreciate the fact that he was willing to indulge me just a little bit. Right before lunchtime on Tuesday, I got a text saying to go outside my building. When I opened the door, he was standing there with a half-dozen chocolate covered strawberries from Amy's Ice Cream. I had mentioned last week how much I loved them when I heard a commercial, and was so glad he remembered. I loved being surprised like that! (And I LOVE chocolate covered strawberries.)

As much as I love the holiday, I don't believe it means that you have to go out for fancy romantic dinners. Much like New Year's Eve, I think it's so much more fun to stay home and do something special. Lucky for me, Hunk didn't mind that plan, either. In fact, he made it extra special and fixed one of my most favorite meals- fondue!! I had my running group after work, and was able to go home afterwards and eat to my heart's content without even lifting a finger. We had the most delicious fondue with sausage, bread, asparagus, brussels sprouts and cherry tomatoes. It was amazing. For dessert- we made s'mores out of some chocolate we had tasted at Central Market the weekend before. It was such a great, cheesy meal, and absolutely perfect for a special Valentine's dinner.

Looking for love in all the wrong places?

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Austin Culture Map is giving you access to some of Austin's best relationship bloggers and their advice. Just so happens that yours truly was included. While I'm no longer officially in the relationship advice giving world, it was still fun to be recognized. Check out the article when you get the chance.

Meet Austin's top dating/relationship bloggers.

I actually feel a little bad that Valentine's Day is already here, and I have provided no advice for how to make it a special holiday. I think it's a fun day to celebrate anyone special in your life (friends and family included). Usually I'm the one making the plans, but this year I'm happy to sit back and let Hunk do all the work. Though he's not a big fan of the holiday, he is indulging me by making one of my favorite foods- fondue!! It's one of a string of last indulgences before we venture into the world of plant-based eating next week (stay tuned.) If you're still looking for some last minute ideas for what to get that someone special, you can always refer to last year's post.

And if for whatever reason you find yourself home alone, indulge in something special for dinner, pour yourself a glass of wine, and maybe pop in a funny movie or curl up with a book. There's nothing wrong with making the most of some quality "me" time.