A Super Fabulous 4th of July

I'm not sure it would have been possible to have a better 4th of July celebration then the one we had! Sure it rained and our outdoor barbecue turned into an indoor fiesta but that was the only, and might I say very small, drawback to the entire day. We got together with some of the most awesome people, I mean seriously we are very lucky to call this group not only our neighbors but our friends!



Of course we had so much food that would could have fed most of Central Florida but what can you do when you get so many people together who like to both cook and eat haha! Mike made probably the best ribs I have ever tasted in my life - I can't share the recipe because very simply there wasn't one he just made it up as he went and wow he did an excellent job, he also made barbecue chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs. I added potato salad to the mix, I had never made potato salad before but I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly. I used several potato salad recipes as guidelines but adding my own touches here and there and nothing was really measured. I used red potatoes, sour cream, mayo, chives, bacon and cheddar cheese - I was going for that baked potato vibe! I also made coleslaw for the first time - I made Tyler Florence's Savoy, Lime and Cilantro Coleslaw though I didn't use savoy cabbage I did everything else the same, you can find the recipe here. Wow it came so yummy, even Mike liked it and he's not real big on coleslaw! I was so proud of these dishes but probably my favorite thing I made for the 4th of July feast were these delicious lemon cookies I found in a Rachael Ray magazine - you can find the recipe here. Oh my gosh they were super easy to make and so so so so good! They will be added to my regular cookie rotation I assure you. So that sounds like quite a lot of food already doesn't it? Then we had spicy beans brought by Mara, chicken and fantastic pasta salad brought by Cynthia and Marie, cupcakes from Kathy and Nikko and cookies from Sheryl! And I know I'm leaving out some dishes!! We were eating leftovers for DAYS! And that is so not a complaint!!



It was just so nice having our neighbors here, it was laid back, we laughed a lot and chatted and really got to know one another. Hooper loved having so many people to play with especially Lacey who he absolutely adores - but then again who doesn't I should only be so lucky to have a daughter like her someday! It was fun playing cards with Cynthia and Marie and then to top off the evening we went outside and Mike shot off fireworks! Of course it was raining but we still managed to have fun and what a way to end the night snacking with gals! The next day we took some leftovers over to Claire who I am so happy to be spending more time with these days. I can't say enough how lucky we are to have the neighbors we do, to have these awesome holiday parties with, to hang out by the pool with and just to know we have great people around that we can turn to - it is very comforting. So needless to say our 4th of July was a blast and I see many more fabulous gatherings in our future!



*note - 4th of July embellishments added to the photos are from House of 3*

More Then Meets the Eye

Before Mike and I got together I would have never figured I would not only go to a Transformers convention but go willingly and actually enjoy it!!! Those of you who know Mike, know that he collects Transformers, he's seen every episode of every one of the cartoons, he has the animated and live action movies, he knows everything there is to know about all the characters which is both cute and a bit scary! And those of you who have been to our apartment know that he has a huge wall lined with shelves filled with figures - he has over 300 figures and more then half of them are on display in our office - so when Mike told me that the BotCon was going to be in Orlando - and not only in Orlando but at the Dolphin Resort just ten little minutes from the house I knew we had to go!




Leading up to the convention I seemed way more excited about going then Mike was but once we got there Mike went from booth to booth telling me where each character came from, how much the figures were worth, which figures he had as a kid or still has (I find it kinda hard to tell one from the other) and which figures he was hoping to pick up. I loved listening to him talk about this and I was trying hard to do math in my head to see how much I could get for his collection haha!






It was a great day, taking silly pictures and just spending time with Mike doing something he loves - goodness knows I drag him to enough Danielle things.

want!

The Great Grilling Summer

Five years ago we moved into this apartment complex and right from the start Mike wanted to head outside and grill using one of the complex grills. I don't know why I fought him on this but fought him I did, I thought - "ew everyone uses those grills, how will we know they're clean?" or I whined, "ugh then we have to bring the food in and out, in and out, sounds like too much work" and we had this discussion over and over again over the years until Memorial Day 2010 when our awesome neighbors planned an impromptu barbecue and I saw Mike's eyes light up at the thought of *gasp* grilling! So I caved, Mike marinated chicken, grabbed his case of grilling tools and we headed out side for an afternoon around the grill and the craziest thing happened - I had a blast! Now maybe it was because our friends/neighbors are just that awesome (which they totally are) or that all the food was so delicious (which it absolutely was) or it could be the obvious fun Mike was having while manning the grill, I didn't hear him complain that he was hot, even though sweat was pouring down the poor guy's face. He just loaded plates with perfectly grilled food and we all ate and enjoyed the afternoon. So since that afternoon I deemed the grills perfectly acceptable to use!




The use of the grills opened a whole new world of recipes for me, ones that I had overlooked or pushed to the bottom of the stack until that day we had access to a worhty grill and now that day was finally here so one day I headed to the store early and got the fixins' for some grilled chicken for dinner Grilled Buttermilk Chicken to be exact - I found the recipe on RealSimple.com and you can find it here. And since we were going to be grilling new and exciting dishes I had to find new and exciting sides so I caved and made Giada's Italian Caesar Salad with Polenta Croutons - I had the recipe in one of her cookbooks but you can find it here. Now I will warn you that salad is a lot of work - not the dressing part that's a dream but the polenta croutons was an all day affair and I realized quickly why Mike does all the frying in this house! But it turned out delicious and the extra effort was worth it!!



Right after this grilled chicken dinner we turned around had a Friday night grill night with our friend Leslie - another fantastic evening with friends and another load of deliciously grilled food and I've gotta tell you when the weekend rolls around now and Mike looks at me and says "well we can throw stuff on the grill" I no longer cringe, wince, sigh or moan but instead smile and say "sure why not!"

cheers to Friday!

King of the Grill

Mike doing some grilling

Count 'em 1,2,3

Three! That's the number of recipes I have to share with you today on my poor neglected blog.

The first we made on the night of the Lost series finale - which I absolutely loved by the way! For dinner that night Mike and I decided to make something new and fun so we made Buffalo Club Sandwiches, this is a recipe I pulled from a Rachael Ray magazine but you can also find it here. We just made two small changes, one we used regular bacon and not peppered bacon and two we used sour cream instead of creme fraiche. This sandwich was delicious though messy, it was one of those sandwiches that once you pick up and start eating it's pretty hard to put it down.



The next two recipes are for delicious baked items! I don't know what happened this weekend but I suddenly got the big time urge to bake! So Sunday evening I whipped up Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake - I found this recipe here - on Rachael Ray's website. These were super easy to make and super yummy to eat. We enjoyed them out by the pool with some friends.



Then Monday morning I made the best blueberry muffins I have ever tasted (if I do say so myself) I made them to bring to our little Memorial Day barbecue we had with our friends/neighbors and then Mike brought the rest to work and he said they were a big hit. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com and you can find them here.



I am still coming down off a very successful Layout a Day workshop - I will recap that in another post! For now enjoy the recipes and Happy Summer!!