Hibachi Birthday Dinner for Bob

Last night I went out to dinner for Bob's (Amber's boyfriend) birthday at the Kani House. It is a Japanese hibachi style dinner.

 Here is the group of us getting ready to eat. Unfortunately David had a work meeting so he was unable to join us.

 Bob got a large sake and it came in a big teapot, we thought that was interesting.

 No dinner is complete unless you try to catch egg in your mouth from the chef. Here Bob is demonstrating the proper position. Amber got it on the first try, i couldn't catch that photo in time.

Amber and I love teriyaki sauce on our chicken. So we made sure our chef covered our chicken with it, and he obliged. Look at how amazing that looks!

Of course we had them sing happy birthday!

 Here is Bob with his nice decorative umbrella he got to hold during the birthday song.

Here is the lovely couple posing with the umbrella. Shout out to Shelly, our new friend that sat with us at the table who took a lot of these photos for me. Her birthday is on Thursday, but unfortunately I don't have a photo of her.

No birthday for Bob is complete without a fudgy the whale ice cream cake! Amber brought it to the restaurant earlier in the day and they brought it out for us all to enjoy. Apparently he has been waiting for this since his 8th birthday so I'm glad he finally got it! Happy Birthday Bob!

Date Night Out

 On Saturday night we decided to go to dinner at PF Changs for date night.

 

Here is our family portrait. Molly decided to hang out for our pictures, wasn't that nice of her. Take note of one of my new dresses. 

I love it because when I do turns the dress twirls with me as seen here.

 We started out the evening with some warm sake.

For dinner we had the chicken lettuce wraps and spicy chicken. We ate the lettuce wraps too fast to photograph. If you haven't tried them, they are definitely a must! I made my own lettuce wraps that taste pretty close, check them out here.

 After dinner we decided we wanted to go into Darrin and Stacey's (David's brother and sister in law) hot tub. They were out of town for a wedding so we invited ourselves over. Here is David posing on the back deck. Look at all the fun decor. His lights are motion sensored on a dim, so as we walked over it was very nice mood lighting.

So we hung out and had some drinks. It looks like the hot tub has issues, but those are all the frothy bubbles. It was a very relaxing end to our fun date night. Thanks Darrin and Stacey!

Shopping!

David took me shopping this weekend! The deal was that he was going to come dress shopping with me and have to sit through all that. Well it only took one store and 30 minutes, he definitely lucked out. I ended up finding 3 dresses for basically the price of 1 dress anywhere else. They were all about $20. Nordstrom Rack is the best!

 I did make him go to a few other stores since I had giftcards to spend. I love that I can wear these to work and to a dinner!

 Here are a couple of the outfits that I purchased from the Loft.

This is a super cute sweater dress. All in all it was a fun shopping day on saturday. Stay tuned to part 2 tomorrow, date night!

New Career Adventure

Today is Davids last day at his current job. He has been there for 3 years and worked in numerous different states and a few different countries. It was time for a change and a more secure job (we hope). David starts his new job on Monday. It is actually headquartered in Syracuse, NY but they have offices across the united states and he'll be based out of the Atlanta office. He'll be a Resident Engineer/Inspector and it will require some travel, but not as much as his previous job. For people who don't know, David is a Civil Engineer and has been working in water, waste water and on FEMA projects recently. We are excited for the change and I am so proud of David. He is always trying to do whats best for our little family. Love you babe and congratulations!

Yummy Celebration!

What is that you say?

Why, its the gateway arch in St. Louis, Missouri!

Why am I sharing tourist sites from St. Louis? Well, Davids spent the last 3 weeks working out in the St. Louis area. He comes home today and I have missed him! I have made him a special treat to come home to!

These are Lacey's Smore Cookies. I guess this won't be a surprise anymore if he reads the blog, but they are too good not to post.

You can make your own cookie dough or just buy a pack from the store. You slice the cookie dough and put it in the bottom of a muffin pan. Then you just put smore toppings on (mini marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers). Bake them at 350 for 11-13 mins.

Here is what they look like when they come out of the oven. They start to melt a little, but not as much as I thought they would.

After they cool, they do sink down in the middle a little. They are so yummy and easy to make.

Where is Fall?

On the eve of the beginning of fall (some people say its today, but my calendar says tomorrow), we are still in mid summers heat. In Georgia the past week has been 95 degrees. The average for this time of year is 82. I'd love to see that. I have a feeling we are going to skip fall and go right to winter. On this hot tropical day, I thought I'd share some summer time photos of Molly and Maddie.

 This is what Molly would like to be doing probably right about now. She loves her little kiddie pool. She'll just plop down in the water and enjoy herself.

The next one is when her cousin Maddie came to visit this summer. Maddie is trying to run out of the pool, she didn't love it as much.

Aren't they just so cute! We love when cousins come to visit (lets pretend that they made that bed a mess).

I am also getting excited about Halloween! Do you have your costume picked out yet? David and I have our costumes picked out, but its a secret until the reveal date (don't give it away if you already know it). I'd like to pre-thank Leah and Lacey for coming up with our costumes for this year. They just know us too well!

Homemade Egg Rolls!

I was a little intimidated to make my own from scratch, but it was a really fun experience! The recipe comes from Shopper Strategy. Here is what you need:

Ingredients

    * 1 pound ground pork or beef (I used pork)
    * 1 teaspoon ground ginger
    * 2 cloves minced garlic , or 2 tsp. garlic powder
    * 2 cups shredded cabbage
    * 1/2 cup shredded carrots (I just bought the coleslaw mix that was cabbage and carrots combined)
    * 1 package 6 inch square egg roll wrappers (approx. 20)
    * 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
    * 1/4 pound bean sprouts (optional)
    * 1/4 cup water for sealing your wrappers  

I had the hardest time finding these egg roll wraps. I eventually found these in the organic refrigerated section of Krogers. I felt like I won the lottery when I found them.

Sprinkle ground pork or beef with ginger and minced garlic or garlic powder while browning in a skillet or wok. Heat the mixture, stirring occasionally, until meat is cooked through and no longer pink. Drain. Combine the cabbage, carrots and optional bean sprouts with the meat in the skillet and cook on medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. The veggies should be wilted but not completely cooked.

 

Spoon the filling diagonally across the center of an egg roll wrapper.

 

Then fold the lower corner upward over the filling mixture.

 

Fold the left and right sides of the wrapper inward over the filling. Dip your fingers in a cup of water then moisten the edges of the flaps and gently press them in place.

 

Roll the wrapper until it meets the top triangle, using water to fold the top flap in. This is what the egg roll looks like all folded up.

 

I ended up pre-making 16 of them. I made 8 to eat right away and froze the other 8 for a later date. I didn't cook them in the oil before I freezed them, that way I can just thaw them and they will not be mushy.

Heat the vegetable oil (I only used about 2 inches of oil, not the full quart since I only cooked half of them) in another skillet on medium high heat then fry the egg rolls, turning occasionally, until they are golden brown. 

 

Drain them on paper towels or a rack and serve with soy sauce, duck sauce, or spicy mustard.  Hope you enjoy!

I made my own sauce- I feel so Italian & NEW SHOWS!

On Sunday I went over to see Amber and Bob since they just got back from their trip to NY and they are the best! They brought me back all my canned tomatoes that we did with my grandma a few weeks ago!!

I was so excited that I didn't waste anytime. Straight home and to the kitchen I went.

It turned out great. I would give myself an 8-9 on flavor and presentation. 

The sauce wasn't done until about 8pm so I had my second dinner (1st dinner was only a bagel from Brueggers-thanks Amber!). Next I am going to master the meatballs and chicken cutlets. Three course Sunday night family dinners here I come!

Another exciting topic is NEW SHOWS this week!! I know that my sister and I are pumped! TV show watching is our hobby so don't hate. We seriously have about 5 shows each night recording. I'll share with you our lineup. We use nights and weekends to catch up on the dvr. Thursday's are going to be crazy. Don't forget Oprah and the Nate show, they are our day time shows.

Monday- All CBS like normal
8-How I Met Your Mother
830-Rules of Engagement
9- 2 and 1/2 Men
9:30- Mike and Molly
9- 90210

Tuesday-
8-one tree hill (CW)
9-life unexpected (CW)
8-Glee
bravo- flipping out

Wednesday-All ABC
8-The Middle
830- Better with you
9-Modern Family
930-Cougar Town
9-hell cats cw

Thursday-
8- Big Bang Theory
8- community
8;30- 30 rock
8:30- $&#^ My Dad Says
9-The Office
9- Greys
10- private practice
Real Housewives of whatever city

Sunday-
9-Desperate housewives
Fox- 9- family guy
9:30 american dad

Chicken and Broccoli Stuffed Shells with Alfredo Sauce

I decided to finally cook this week and was on a roll. I made a nice big pasta salad for our work picnic today and also these amazing stuffed shells. I got the recipe from www.eatathomecooks.com. This will be my next meal to cook when we have people over for dinner. It makes a lot and is SO good.
Ingredients-

• 3 cups cooked chicken, chopped
• 3-4 cups cooked and salted broccoli
• 2 cups finely shredded mozzarella
• 1 box jumbo shells, cooked according to package directions
• 1-2 jars alfredo sauce (I used classicos sun dried tomato alfredo)

 Chop your broccoli up small enough to fit into the shells, and I microwaved mine with a little water to cook them for 4 mins or so.

 Mix the chicken, broccoli and mozzarella together in a bowl.  Fill the shells with the mixture.

 Spread a small amount of the sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Lay the shells in the dish in a single layer.

 I used half of the shells and froze the other half. To freeze: place the filled shells in a plastic zip top freezer bag. To cook them, thaw the shells in the refrigerator and then fix them as you did the fresh batch.

Pour the sauce over the top.

 Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or till hot and bubbly. Enjoy!

#1 Garden Grower, Late Bloomer and a Pizza Quesadilla

With the summer hopefully being over soon, I wanted to share with you what has grown the best in the garden. This herb is really out of control, in a good way. I have never run out of it and have shared with people numerous times. If you are ever thinking about growing some herbs, you need to add BASIL to your list. It's the gift that keeps on giving and growing.

It is literally 2 feet tall. The cucumber leaves are what looks yellow coming through some of the basil. The oregano you can see to the right is also growing really well.

I had lost hope for any kind of tomato to grow this year, but I was surprised when I went out there the other day to find these! Could these be my little tomatoes starting to grow very late in the season?
I also said I was going to post on apple dumplings that I made, but I have had a little stomach bug and really don't want to look at anything I ate before I started feeling bad so I won't be showing that. You can read the Pioneer Womans recipe since that is where I got it from. It was really simple and good though. For dinner this week the only thing that has sounded good is what I like to call pizza quesadillas.

I started with a wheat tortilla and sprayed my pan with cooking spray. Then you just add sauce and cheese and any pizza toppings you like. I had chicken on mine the night before. Wait for the cheese to melt a bit and then put another tortilla on top and flip it over very carefully. Cook for a few more mins until the bottom is brown.

There ya go. So easy and it only takes about 5 minutes and you have dinner!