4-Year Anniversary

Ryan and I celebrated our 4 year anniverseyr yesterday. It started out beautifully... woke up to pancakes, sausage and blueberry muffins made. He also grabbed 3 roses and a really sweet card.

We spent the afternoon running errands (story of our lives) and setting up a 10 gal fish tank I got to replace 3 gal one. Apparently 1 gal=1 fish and I'm not trying to have only 3 fish in a tank.

So the tank is working on filtering the water through before we add the fish.

Then Ryan cooked dinner all by himself - we had salad, flank steak with blue cheese, cheddar broccoli rice and grilled corn. Everything was delicious. He even bought my 2nd fave type of wine (Annabella) ---> $15

We watched some episodes of Spartacus (LOVE THAT SHOW) when I noticed Ryan disappeared for ~15 mins. Went to check on him and he is puking up a storm! Wtf. So this boy never ever gets sick and definitely never vomits. I immediately assume its food poisoning since he had had 2 beers to drink. Try my best to take care of him, call his mama, he refuses to go to hospital. After wrestling him up from passing out on bathroom floor I get him in bed.

As I'm getting ready for bed - I get that *oh shit* wave of nausea.

Then I start.

And don't stop till 6:30am.

Thankfully Sarah Upton sacrificed her last few hours of sleep before her 12 hour shift at 911 call center to come over and bring a thermometer, diet coke, and support.

How these odd occurrences of bad luck hit my life at the oddest time I'll never know.

We think it was the salad greens that made us sick - it was a 50/50 bag of baby lettuce and SPINACH. Evil green.

Back to laying in bed with Ryan and drinking Gatorade.

Berry Compote

(made this in garde manger class today and it was a HUGE hit)

Yield: 1 Pt

Ingredients:

• 1 pt. Berries, fresh or frozen
• 4 oz. Granulated sugar
• 2 Oranges
• 3 fl. oz Honey
• 1 Cinnamon Stick
• 3 Tbsp. Brandy
• Ice cream - as needed for garnish
• Poundcake - as needed for garnish
• Whipped cream - optional

Directions:

Select an assortment of fresh or frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and cherries).

Place the fruits and sguar in a nonreactive saucepan. Finely grate the zest from one orange and set aside. Add the juice from the 2 oranges to the saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat; cook until the fruits are soft but still intact.

Strain the mixture, saving both the fruits and the liquid. Return the liquid to the saucepan. Add the finely grated zest from one orange and tehh oney, cinnamon and brandy.

Bring to a boil and reduce until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Remove the cinnamon stick. Gently stir the reserved fruits into the sauce, cover and chill. Serve with ice cream or poundcake and whipped cream (optional).

Verde Snakey

After attempting to save the injured gartered snakes... I got that itching to get another reptile. I love my iguana but I have a certain place in my heart for snakes. Checked Petco and instead of getting garters/ribbons in today they had a green snake. Meh - boring. Brushed it off.

Went to look at bamboo shrimp - must have one when out of quarantine. They have 6? fan-like hands they pick up sludge from bottom of fish tank and nom it. Let me know when I can buy 4 for my house cleaning, please.

Moving on - found reptile lady (Jenn - who is amazing) and started talking to her about different snakes, what I was looking for, def. couldn't have them eating mice/rats etc etc.

Asked her to show me the green snake JUST FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES.

Well if you could pour a green highlighter into a beaker and mix some snake extract in - you would get this snake.

------------------------>

Immediately fell in love. Very vibrant. Full of energy. Extremely long and skinny. Cute teenie little head. Not sure what I'm going to name him/her yet but I am open to suggestions.

O.O

Fall Seasonal Brews

Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/354/6101

A+ - very pumpkin pie and nutmeg

Jack's Pumpkin

Spice Ale

http://beera

dvocate.com/beer/profile/29/26234

A - delicious

Saranac Pumpk

in Ale

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/25608

B+ - more like pumpkin pie

America's Original Pumpkin Ale

Buffalo Bill's Brewery

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/205/643

B- more spices, no real pumpkin flavor

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/seasonal-brews/punkin-ale.htm

B - more beer flavor

Ichabod

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/335/1567

C- ... too much beer - gross (the boys liked it)

Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/45844

Brooklyn Brewery's Post Road Pumpkin Ale

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45/74/

B- ... very bitter

Asian Raspberry Lettuce Wraps with Tempeh and Sautéed Veggies

This was a thrown together dinner from things in the refrigerator that needed to be eaten before they rotted. This actually turned out very flavorful, I always seem to lean towards Asian cuisine but the addition of the Raspberry flavoring gave it a special kick. Make lettuce wraps as opposed to rice paper or tortillas was also a nice change of scenery.

Ingredients:

Lettuce Wraps:

• 1 pkg Organic Tempeh, crumbled
• 2 Tbs Teriyaki Marinade
• 2 Tbs Honey Ginger Marinade
• 1 Tbs Raspberry Flavoring Mix (liquid)
• 2 Tbs EVOO
• 1 Tbs Oyster sauce
• 2 Tbs Low Sodium Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp Lemon pepper
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tbs garlic
• 1/2 head Boston Lettuce
• Optional condiments: low fat sour cream, 2% milk cheese, srirachi and peanut sauce

Sautéed potatoes, onions and carrots:

• 4 Russet potatoes, chopped into medium size chunks
• 1 Carrot, skinned and julienned
• 1 cup sugar snap peas
• 1/2 Red Onion, small dice
• 1 Tbs Lemon Pepper
• 1 Tbs Whole Butter
• 2 Tbs EVOO
• 1 Tbs Garlic
• TT Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Wraps: Heat oil and garlic in sauté pan over medium-heat until you can smell the garlic. Add the tempeh, marinades, oyster sauce, and soy sauce while continuing to stir. Cook for ~7-10 minutes then add the raspberry liquid.

Veggies: Heat oil and garlic again in sauté pan over medium-high heat. Sauté potatoes for 15 minutes or until almost cooked. Add onions, sugar snap and carrots and continue stirring until they are tender. Add salt, pepper and lemon pepper at the end.

Making the wraps: Peel a large leaf of Boston Lettuce off and place a line of tempeh in the middle. Top with some of the sautéed veggies. You can add cheese, sour cream, srirachi or peanut sauce - depending on your personal preference. Roll the lettuce wraps tightly. We also ate the rest of the veggies on the side since they all wouldn't fit in the wraps!

Note--> I also made some frozen biscuits in the oven quickly because the boys were craving them.

Guy's Flank Steak

(This is a family secret recipe so I am blessed to have received it)

Ingredients:

• Flank cut steak
• Kikkoman Teriyaki marinade & sauce (Pour till steak is fully soaked in zip lock)
• McCormick grill mates: Montreal Steak seasoning
• Green onion (minced)
• Blue cheese or Feta

Directions:
Put all ingredients into a zip lock bag and leave in fridge for at least 5 hours.

Make sure the steak is constantly soaking in the marinade (so you may need to flip the bag every other hour).

Grill until medium well and top with blue cheese or feta.

Wrap with tin foil and let sit for 5 minutes until serving.

Reptile Triage

Gracie has injured yet another garter snake in the front yard (same exact place too - odd?)

The last one I tried to save died 2 days ago. Didn't know if it was too much of an injury to heal from or I didn't use liquid bandage... who knows

This one seems to be doing fairly better. He is more active than the last (poor snake was in shock)

I think he has eaten a a couple mini mealworms - hasn't eaten goldfish in bowl yet. Put some rocks under his heating lamp to help heat them up so he can lounge on those. Also dampened a washcloth to put under heat lamp to create a delicious moist environment for him to slither around in. I grabbed a quite generous portion of an overgrown shrub in our yard and he likes to shrivel around in that.

Ryan and I are on way to store to purchase a cheap aquarium and some feeder goldfish. Hopefully they will live more than 24 hours. Going to get some newspaper as well to shred for a deeper substrate for him to wiggle through.

Here's a couple pics of the darling: