spicy goodness

if you ask my husband he'll tell you i rarely venture into the realm of cooking. our meals usually consist of something out of a box. (either the at-home kind or the to-go kind.) now with the little one i've been trying to make more of an effort. and with recipes literally at your fingertips it's making it a lot easier. tonight i made spicy thai noodles. a friend posted the recipe on pinterest and as soon as i saw it i knew we would be trying it. and i must say it's the first time i was VERY happy with the end result. and it's also the first time my husband has ever uttered the words, "this could be served in a restaurant."

conveniently being of asian descent i had most of the the ingredients in-house. i did modify the recipe by adding cooked chicken during the tossing of the noodles phase. we also ate it warm which we both preferred. i'm saving the left over sauce and i'm hoping i can cook up some noodles tomorrow and have a ready made lunch.

on my make-shift star scale i would have to give this recipe a 5 out of 5.

edible decor

last year our good friends got us a whirley pop for christmas. it only took us a year to open and use it. and of course, the first thing i decide to do with the popcorn is a christmas craft project. our rotating tree was looking a little sparse when the lights weren't on so i decided to string a popcorn garland to jazz it up. it was pure torture for the dogs, they love popcorn. bosco literally sat underfoot the whole two hours it took me to string it. occasionally scoring a kernel or two.

behold. the finished product.

so far the tree is still standing. i was worried i'd come down to an annihilated tree this morning. we'll see if it makes it the rest of the holiday season. i'm not sure if the dogs realize what and where it is. let's hope they don't figure it out.

"blueberry sorbet...the kind you find..."

last week one of aaron's patients brought him a huge box of blueberries. i'm talking HUGE! we love fresh fruit but we both knew there was no way we were gonna be able to finish them off before spoilage. so i went to my handy-dandy phone and looked up a recipe using the epicurious application. (if you have a smart phone, i highly recommend this free app.) unfortunately aaron's not a big cheesecake fan and i'm not a big pie fan so that nixed about 75% of the recipes. i was able to find a sorbet recipe that used six cups of blueberries, which is about half of what we have. i actually had all of the ingredients in house. score.

i got everything ready and we opened up the ice cream maker. (yes, we actually own an ice cream maker, it's the only thing aaron put on our wedding registry.)

me: i have to put an egg white in there about 3 minutes before it's done so that it can emulsify.
awes: what's emulsify?
me: i'm not sure, i know they do it on "top chef" all the time so it must be some fancy cooking term.
awes: eww, nice

emulsify: combining two liquids together which normally don't mix easily.

30 minutes later we were dining on some fresh sorbet. aaron laughed when i put them our martini glasses and made it look all fancy. i didn't strain the blueberries mixture so it has a bit of a pulpy taste. but it's good otherwise.

pickles and ice cream

well not really the ice cream but pretty close. i was watching unwrapped the other day when they did a little segment on bob's pickle pops. i immediately thought how appropriate considering my current situation. so far i've only consumed one jar of pickles, but i can hardly blame the pregnancy for that. i've pretty much loved pickles my whole life. i am debating if i should purchase a packet. maybe if i get a hardcore craving i'll take the plunge.

hamburrrrrger

i made these little sliders for a super bowl party we went to on sunday. yep, they're cupcakes. i saw them on a crafting site and thought they'd be perfect for the party. after screwing up the first batch (forgot to add water to the mix) they were indeed quite simple to make. one batch of yellow cupcakes, one batch of chocolate, icing, food coloring, a little cutting and assembly and presto you have burgers! they were a hit at the party and a lot of people liked them cause the weren't drowning in icing. i've even eaten a few. here's a little tutorial if you'd like detailed instructions on making them.

nate and fiance

nate and katie came out to see us this past weekend. (hence the lack of posts) the main reason for the visit...to show off katie's new ring! ;)

here are a few pics from their visit. we were able to get some drinking, good food, wii fitting, football, shopping, tubing and basketball in. yep, it was pretty jam packed.

eat at cho's

i'm amazed at what you can find at a asian grocery store these days. you can now get kimchee on the go. and not just one type, but a huge variety. if we lived close by, i think i'd be there weekly, if not daily.

we've had five straight days of rain. and i think we're all getting a little cabin fever. it hasn't rained continuously, but it has daily. planning an outing has been difficult. tomorrow i think we'll brave the forecasted downpours and get a little site-seeing in.

tonight aaron ran in the bear. the race was all uphill and the elevation changes 2000 ft. he finished 377 out of 897. (not sure if that's the correct number of people that participated.) for his first time, he did great. one of the nurses finished 8 minutes behind him and there were about 200 people who finished between them. (gives you a better idea of how the numbers work) not sure if this is gonna be an annual thing with him. i have a feeling it will since he did so well.

throwing the peace

we're home, phew! it always feels like you need a vacation after taking a vacation. especially one jam-packed with a lot of walking and site-seeing. jamie and i hit up chinatown friday. (although pretty much all of vancouver can be considered asiatown. apparently it's a mecca for migrating asians.) we planned on getting bikes but the weather dictated otherwise. we ended up doing a little shopping and looking for a few more caches. i think urban caching is an acquired taste, both aaron and jamie didn't like it too much. but we managed to find a few.

you went all the way to canada and all you bought was japanese candy? yes. i'm a sucker for pocky sticks. i ended up getting strawberry, milk and blueberry flavors. i also got japanese gum, taffy and chocolate. and yes, that's all i bought while on vacation. i did introduce aaron to the kinder egg this trip too. i managed to score a few while waiting at the airport. so we ventured over to the asian and european side of confectionary delight this trip. i can't believe i wrote a whole paragraph about candy! and boy is it making me hungry. :)

saturday aaron and i hit up the capilano suspension bridge. we were a little worried about the weather, but in the end it turned out to be the nicest day of our trip. we were able the navigate using only public transportation and didn't have a single hiccup with our trip. we also hiked through stanley park, and of course, looked for a few more caches. i combined photos from washington and vancouver for your viewing pleasure.

my mom is notorious for throwing the peace sign when taking photos. we ended up doing a homage to her. hence the photos and the title. apparently it's not only a mom thing but an asian thing. we noticed quite a few taking photos and throwing the peace sign. i guess it's no different than me throwing the devil horns and sticking out my tongue. but i had to post, it's just too funny. while i'm at it i'll go ahead and post the cherry blossom photos i took while in d.c. a few weeks ago.

10+

a memento from our first official date. i'm not too big on remembering actual dates. don't ask when our first kiss was or the moment we realized we were meant for each other. let's just make it easy on everyone and say april 15th was the day of everything!

not that we planned a special outing to celebrate the occasion. but we did venture down to hickory to watch a little minor league baseball last night. a little chilly, a very sparse crowd, and tons of cheesy activities to occupy our time. we were definitely entertained during the error-ridden game. the hickory crawdads lost to the lexington legends, 4-6. did i mention it was "all-you-can-eat" night. aaron took full advantage: two hot dogs, a hamburger, nachos, french fries, popcorn and two large sodas. and i was pretty much paying for it later!

this time last year...

pretty much the phrase of the weekend. the whole phrase: "can you believe this time last year we were in jamaica getting married?" jamaica...oh how we miss thee! seriously, we do.

we've officially got a whole year of marriage under our belts.

we thought we'd try and take one of those "spur of the moments" vacations/weekends, but that didn't pan out too well. (i don't think those work unless you live in a city with a major airport.) we even considered reliving the moment in jamaica. poor planning on our part. two nights cost just as much as five days. so that was a bust. instead we decided to have a date weekend. friday night we went out to dinner at one of our favorite "fancy" restaurants, the artisanal. food was fabulous.

saturday we went to the movies and watched dan in real life. a cute, romantic comedy. yes, cute. we don't like spending $16.50 on a movie we know is going to be so-so. we bit the bullet and splurged.

on our official anniversary we went hiking. a big difference from last year. since this was going to be the last nice weekend of the year, we decided to take advantage. we climbed 1000 ft. in a little over a mile. elevation on elk knob: 5520 ft. i thought i was going to die. it was pretty much uphill the whole time. but when we made it to the top it was totally worth the climb! aaron slathered on the zinc sunscreen so his lips are stark white in the pic. but we wanted to commemorate the occasion with a photo. slightly resembles the photo we took last year this time!

it was pretty much a low key anniversary. we shared a few gifts, relaxed, and were probably a little more lovey-dovey than usual. i think we both agreed we'd plan a little better next year. this time next year, i can't believe we'll be in jamaica! ;)

lunchable

i just went to walgreens and bought a lunchable. thought it might be a little bit healthier then driving through somewhere. it had american cheese, turkey, crackers, a reese's peanut butter cup and a capri sun. number of calories=360. which seems kinda high for what little you get. maybe that's normal, but 40% of the daily recommended value of saturated fat is not. and we wonder why kids are getting obese.

i'd probably never eat if i actually read nutrition labels. i'm a total visual consumer. if your box looks pretty and the food looks remotely edible, i'm buying. luckily, we've been getting a steady stream of fresh veggies from aaron's co-workers and i'm not much of a sweets fan. that's probably my own saving grace. that and my i.b.s.

adrian and katie are getting here tomorrow so katie can interview with boone dermatology. it'll be insane if they decide to move here. i'm keeping my fingers crossed. hopefully they'll dig on boone the way we do. they'll be leaving saturday morning and since monday is a holiday and aaron has tuesdays off we're gonna visit the fam. we'll have the dogs in tow, so it should be a really fun ride.

holy cannoli

Keeping busy, if it's not with the house then it's with activities in and around boone.

First, the food. we've pretty much eaten out every meal. We checked out some local digs and hit up a few standbys. Had my first cannoli after visiting a local Italian eatery (joe's). It's the first time I'd ever "save room for dessert." (what the sign said). When the waitress told me it had ricotta cheese I was a little stand-offish. But the picture looked so delish, I just had to try it. It was better than I expected, who knew cheese could taste like ice cream. Mmmmm. We also ate at black cat's (burritos), capone's (pizza), hunan's (Chinese buffet) and last night we went to the mellow mushroom. We originally went there for pizza but it was crowded and we would have had to wait 45 minutes for it to cook. So we ended up getting hoagies instead. Tonight we cooked a meal at home, a welcome change of pace.

After the mellow mushroom we went to Appalachian State (App. state) with jill and Jerome and watched old crow medicine show play to a sold out crowd. (I'll post a more detailed description about the show later, very worthy of it's own post). Came home afterwards, had a few drinks and turned in by midnight. I couldn't keep my eyes open, even when reading a short steven king story. Not typical for me. Today we were up by 7:30, at the farmer's market by 8, dog park at 11:30, art in the park in blowing rock at 2:30. Home at 5. Unpacking and crafting the rest of the evening. Yes, a very, very busy day. I'm waiting for things to slow down.

Unfortunately, I signed up for a swap before we moved and I have to get everything done in the next 2 weeks. It's the sweat shop swap, where I have to make 10 crafted items for 10 different people. Now was probably not the best time to participate, but I'm sure I'll be able to pull through. I've got half done, so it is looking promising.

Now to get some sleep and finish the story I started last night.

and i'm officially licensed in the state of north carolina to operate a motor vehicle. yeah!

stuffed sushi

another night out with the ladies. tonight we hit up pao! ordered 6 rolls, 2 orders of calamari, 5 salads, 1 gourmet pizza, 1 pao chicken, 2 bottles of wine, 8 strawberry mojitos and 3 different desserts. perhaps the best meal ever! i wish would have started "girls night" sooner. less than 2 weeks and i'll be a north carolinian.

where will be the next two weeks?? let me tell you. tomorrow morning we head to stl to meet up with some of aaron's med school buddies for one last harrah. later we'll head over to matt and kristin's for a fam/friend's going away party. sunday, rest. monday morning aaron wants to teach me how to be a histologist, monday night back to stl for the police concert. tuesday, recover. wednesday cards game with the caraways. thursday, last ortho appt. (nope not getting them off before we move! boo!) friday, another going away party thrown by the langeis/semens for us. saturday, another cards game. sunday-tuesday get house ready for movers. wednesday, movers pack up the house. thursday, movers load our stuff and at 2:30 we close on the springfield house. then we're boone bound. damn, i'm getting tired just thinking about it. or it could be the food settling in. mmmmm.