Resolutions

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to begin blogging more.
I even set a goal for myself that I would blog at least three times per week.
I thought this seemed like a reasonable goal.

Apparently not.

So I decided that before I get halfway through the year without blogging, I should get a start on that resolution.

On the subject of resolutions, I have also decided to get back on the weight loss kick I was on last summer. I have realized that my life is just far too out of control from January through mid-April to be too hard on myself about losing weight. I'll be happy with maintaining through the craziness that is interview days and file review time. Now that it is summer and my work life is much less crazy, I'll be returning to my weekly weigh-ins in Tuesdays because that seemed to work really well last time. I have hired a trainer at the gym Matt and I joined a few months ago, and I am committed to reducing my portion sizes and focusing on more fruits, vegetables, good proteins, and whole grains. I am trying to shed processed foods, and junk from my diet. I will always have weaknesses (salt for me), but I can learn how to control them.

We enjoyed a fun-filled and very busy weekend. I joined my friend and co-worker Mackenzie for some sushi at the Urban Wine Company and then sat in the THIRD ROW for a performance of Wicked! It was phenomenal! Amazing show, incredible cast - I would have watched it twenty times if I could have!

Saturday we enjoyed a nice trip to the farmer's market for tomatoes, salsa, cottage bacon, and ciabatta roles - YUM! I love, love, love the farmer's market. After we walked around, made our purchases, and enjoyed a gorgeous spring/summer morning, we met up with Pell and Bren for a trip to the Urban Wine Festival (hosted by the Urban Wine Company - are you getting the weekend theme, here?). We were able to taste several different wines and enjoyed more of a gorgeous day. Our day of fun did not end there though - we enjoyed a late lunch at M's Pub (yes, I had to have some lavosh!) and then headed to Lincoln for some Ivanna Cone and to watch my friend Michelle compete in a women's rollerderby match. I can honestly say it was my first rollerderby match - and I am very thankful that they included a demonstration of how it all works prior to the start of the match. Those girls are viscious! There was one girl taken off on a stretcher during the match and Michelle told us that two girls on her team are out with broken legs, and one is out with a separated shoulder - all caused by roller derby! Michelle's team did not win, but it was a unique and interesting event to attend.

We hosted a small gathering at our house last night and had a great night celebrating the beginning of summer with friends and family. Matt made some homemade ice cream (vanilla and maple-grapenut) and we grilled hamburgers, chicken, and sausages and everyone brought something to share! Fun times!

My camera is out of commission at the moment so I don't have any photos of our fun weekend to share :(

Weekend Recovery...

My houseguests have left and I have finally recovered from the weekend and have time to update. I got up early on Friday morning and headed for some pampering and a pedicure. It was absolutely wonderful. I have extremely ticklish feet and some parts of a pedicure are torture for me, but the scrubber that the girl I go to uses is really gentle and doesn't tickle at all. So, it was an hour of pure relaxation and a great way to start my day. Then I headed to HyVee, grabbed a decaf, non-fat iced caramel macchiato, and picked up all the items I needed for my salad and dessert for Friday night. Well - everything except for a yellow pepper, which looked horrible at HyVee so I had Matt pick one up for me at Target.

I spent all of last week craving chocolate pecan pie (which is strange considering that I had never had chocolate pecan pie before) so I decided to give it a try for dessert of Friday. The recipe for the pie was fairly easy, but I wanted to try making homemade pie crust for the first time. I checked several different recipes before finding one I felt comfortable with and gave it a try. I found it to be easier than I expected and will likely never buy pie crust again. The crust turned out flaky, buttery, and really good - and the filling wasn't bad either. I also made lemon bars and Matt made homemade vanilla ice cream. I was really excited about trying a salad recipe I found with lettuce, red pepper, yellow pepper, onions, artichokes, blue cheese, and a really good viniagrette dressing. It turned out really well and I'll definitely keep it on my list to make again. The artichokes and blue cheese made a really interesting flavor combination.

My mom's birthday party was a big success. It was a fairly small party, just my family, the Hoodys and the Witters. Matt's parents decided to not attend so Matt and his brother came over for a little while, but left before we ate. Brenda got her new fridge delivered about 2.5 hours before everyone was scheduled to arrive. Her old one had slowly been losing the ability to keep cold. Brenda felt that the situation was likely aggravated by the fact that they lost power in the storm in June and the fact that their fridge was over 20 years old. I headed over early to help her set up as her afternoon was a little topsy-turvy. We enjoyed great food (including fabulous bruchetta from a local Italian take-out place that I will be visiting soon!), with great friends. I didn't arrive home until almost midnight!

We got up early on Saturday morning and headed to the Farmer's Market with Matt's folks. I don't know what they really thought of it, but I enjoyed it as always. I picked up some fresh sweet basil, fantastic tomatoes, green beans, and we picked up some of the pre-made enchiladas that we love to keep on hand because they are easy to warm up when we don't feel like cooking. We grabbed some breakfast at the Parthenon. I had an elephant ear that was perfect - flaky, sweet, wonderful. I also enjoyed a fantastic cup of homemade root beer.

The farmer's market was really our only excitement during the rest of Matt's parents visit. We cooked them dinner on Saturday night and my parents joined us for dessert. Then we took them to Summer Kitchen Cafe for a great Sunday morning breakfast. They left soon after breakfast and then my mom, Sarah, and I took my grandma to see Momma Mia! It was a cute movie and I think Grandma enjoyed it.

Work has been crazy the past two days. I've received more emails than I can keep up with and I am trying to get everything set for travel this fall. There are just not enough hours in the day. I'm hoping to get completely caught up tomorrow, but I will likely have to shut myself in my office to make that happen.

Matt and I are on a complete ice cream kick - it must be summer on its way! We made homemade ice cream on Mother's Day and it turned out so good that we are making it again tonight so that I can take it to work tomorrow to share with my co-workers. One of our student workers graduated earlier this month and stayed to work for a few weeks so we are celebrating him tomorrow with an ice cream shin-dig in the afternoon. This batch took about twice as long as the first. I guess we will have to try it again so we can figure out the best method...not that I mind - more ice cream for me!!

An ice cream themed post....

I enjoyed a delicious double scoop of Honey Cornbread Ice Cream from Ivanna Cone today. Sounds strange, but it was truly wonderful. Ivanna Cone is a local place that makes their own ice cream in house - all sorts of creative flavors and combinations. Today we could choose from, amongst other things: Mango Chili Sorbet, Lychee Mandarin, Raspberry Creme Fraiche ( I think that is how it is spelled), German Chocolate Cake, Cinnamon, Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, Pink Lemonade Sherbet, Pistachio, etc. I ate mine in a homemade waffle cone - they were making the cones when we were there and the smell was fantastic! Matt enjoyed a scoop of the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake and a scoop of the Cinnamon. We sat outside in the Haymarket and enjoyed our ice cream and watched everyone go by. The Haymarket was full of people tonight - lots of families getting ice cream, couples walking around after dinner, people walking their dogs, all on a beautiful evening in Lincoln.
We are headed to Omaha tomorrow. Matt is playing golf with my dad while my mom, Sarah and I are going to a fundraiser luncheon with my grandma. On Sunday we plan to cook dinner for my mom for Mother's Day and we are going to test our own skills at making homemade ice cream. Matt and I received an ice cream maker as a wedding gift and we have been wanting to try it out. Wish us luck!!

After Matt and I were married at the end of December and he moved into our apartment in Lincoln we started a tradition that I really love. Every Friday night we go out to dinner together. I think it gives us a chance every week to just spend time together and decompress after the busy week. Neither of us is worried about what we have to get done at work the next day, neither of us is thinking about getting to sleep early because of a need to get up early the next morning - we can just sit and talk about our week and really spend some quality time together. I spend the entire week looking forward to it and Matt told me last night that he does as well. While it does cost us money to go out every week I know that those quality hours we spend together are worth the little bit of money that we spend because if we stayed home we would not be spending the time together in the same way. We would probably each be preoccupied witho our own activities at home and we wouldn't have the chance to truly connect the way we do by leaving our apartment, choosing a restaurant together and enjoying a few hours of each other's company. We usually take turns choosing restaurants, which makes it fun.

Last night, however, we made a poor choice. We went down to Southpointe because I wanted to get some cards at Hallmark for various birthdays, anniversaries, wedding showers, and other events that are coming up in the next couple of weeks and the Hallmark at Southpointe is the best card store I have been to in Lincoln. It was also a b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l evening and we were able to walk around a little bit as Southpointe is an outdoor mall. As we were walking back to the car deciding where we wanted to eat Matt spotted a restaurant called Whiskey Creek Wood Fire Grill. Matt suggested we try it and I'm willing to try just about anything so we went. I should have known when we walked in the door and I noticed it was one of those places that lets you eat peanuts at your table and dump the shells on the floor that it probably wasn't going to be a place I would like to eat - but we proceeded in and ordered. Long story short - we both ended up being disappointed with our food - I ordered overpriced, sub-par chicken fajitas. I love fajitas because I love spicy food and I'm all about assembling it myself so that I can kick up the spice. I also the love the tortillas that they serve with fajitas because they come in the little warmers that keep them soft and warm. However, mine were horribly over cooked and half of them were crunchy by the time I went to use them and they totally skimped on the good stuff - the "extras" - cheese, salsa, and sour cream - the stuff I look forward to. I realize that instead of complaining on my blog I should have just complained while I was there, but the truth was that Matt's meal wasn't great either, the atmosphere left MUCH to be desired and I really just wanted to eat and get out.

To make up for our sub-par dinner experience we decided to go to Ivanna Cone for some ice cream, but it turned out it was prom night or formal night and the place was packed. So we moved on to Plan B - Cold Stone Creamery. Matt swears that he has been to a Cold Stone before, but I don't think that he has - I know he has been to a Marble Slab Creamery which in my honest opinion is not nearly as good and decedent as Cold Stone. Matt loves Cinnamon Apple Anything - Pie, Crisp, the list goes on and on - therefore he thoroughly enjoyed the Apple Pie a la Cold Stone made with Cinnamon Ice Cream, Crumbled Graham Crackers, and Apple Pie Filling. I enjoyed a dish of the Mud Pie Mojo - coffee ice cream with - get ready for this - Oreo cookies, fudge, peanut butter, almonds, and whipped cream. It was simply wonderful. So rich and wonderful that we both ate half last night and saved the other half for today. It is an expensive treat, but we thorougly enjoyed splurging a little bit last night - it made our meal seem like not quite such a bad choice :)