Labor Day: Our first BBQ.

What's more All American than a holiday dedicated to the start of the football season, the end of summer, and celebrating working by not working? Celebrating it with a BBQ!

A bit on a whim and very last minute, Gavin and I sent out some text messages to people we thought might be free, took a trip to Home Depot, and bam! BBQ.

Thank you for the BBQ, Jen!

Since it was last minute, we decided to keep it pretty simple for food (and it was our first time using the new bbq!).

Gavin made some delicious potato salad from a recipe his mommy gave us. We've made it before and I always really like it. Although I never realized, until eating it yesterday for lunch without a fork, how oily it is. Still delicious!

We also made some grilled veggies to put on the bratwurst. It was very spicy and probably my least favorite of our days creations but was still good.

Gavin and Chris manned the grill making hamburgers, brats, and veggie burgers.

Meanwhile, I used our new deep fryer to make some homemade fries and onion rings. I didn't really want a deep fryer, but I admit it's pretty fun.
Our timing was a bit off for getting everything completed, but no one seemed to mind. The onion rings were a HUGE hit and I didn't even manage to get a picture after being cooked before they were all eaten!

Bobby: Photo bombing since the 80's

Alyssa made a delicious desert cookie cake and I cheated with store brownies.

There is no more lovely way to spend a free summer afternoon than surrounded by good food and great friends! Happy Labor Day!

Our Honeymoon!

In anticipation of some wedding posts that might be happening soon, I thought I'd put up a quick recap or our honeymoon. Or at least the travel portion of our honeymoon. I think our honeymoon is still going on. :)

Jamaica!

It was about three weeks before the wedding and Gavin and I still hadn't booked our Honeymoon. My original desire to go to the ice hotel didn't mesh well with a July Wedding, and our disappointment with the apparently new management of Paw's Up Resort in Montana left us frustrated and we just kept putting it off. Finally, Gavin took charge, and booked us a trip to Iberostar Grand in Montego Bay. As usual, I wasn't sure of it, but Gavin did such a perfect job with Hawaii, how could I ever doubt him again??

We opted to leave on Monday, which looking back I think was a great idea despite my initial skepticism. Before we left, I insisted all wedding planning paraphernalia had to be stashed. I didn't really care where or in what state, I just didn't want to look at it anymore! We also had a chance to open our gifts and enjoy our first night home as a married couple!

We red-eyed it to South Carolina and then flew into Montego Bay. I wore my awesomely awesome wedding day sweatsuit and Bride shirt Sara had made for me. I got the most comments, not surprisingly, from other brides who shared our wedding date.

The nice thing out Jamaica, is there's pretty much nothing to do. I mean, they have some touristy things, but overall, it's quite easy to just spend your days lounging around the resort or in your room. What better honeymoon activity is there!?

The resort is all inclusive. Meaning it includes twice (or three times?) as much food and ten times as much drink as you would normally consume. Things really went down hill when we realized that room service was also included...

Most evenings it was rainy, but I liked the rain and it didn't even manage to keep us out of the pool!



We did leave the resort a few times. Our favorite trip was to Dunn Falls, a hiking waterfall about an hour away from the resort by bus.

FOR CHCK'N

The trip included a catamaran ride and snorkeling, which was not as much fun as the one in Hawaii, but it was still fun and the falls were amazing (except the rather uncoordinated and out of shape climbing partners we were stuck with).

We also took a trip to the 'shopping district' which was a complete bust, but was across the street from Rose Hall, a restored plantation that is alleged to be haunted by a mistress who killed three husbands in the house before being killed there herself.
The only 'other worldly' presence we sensed was the almost unbearable heat and humidity. I thought Gavin was going to pass out! Whatever else you say about Rose Hall, it does have one heck of a view!


To satisfy the 'active' part of my vacationing (besides the hike of course), we took a parasail ride at the resort. I'll admit the laid back staff and creaking ropes frayed my nerves a bit, but it was awesome and I'm so glad we were able to do it together.

We likely won't be going back to Jamaica, but it was a memorable honeymoon.

What's for dinner?

A blog series about, what else? What we had for dinner!

Monday: Spaghetti at Mom's Nothing beats mom's Spaghetti. Seriously, mom makes some awesome sauce. My home grown tomatoes also made an appearance (not in the sauce) but in the appetizer below.







Tuesday: Strip Steak and Homemade Bloomin' Onion. For our one month anniversary, the ever awesome Gavin made me a delicious steak dinner in the style of (but better than) our old bad habit of Outback Steakhouse after ceramics class It was our first time using the deep fryer and the results were very good!




Wednesday: Vegetarian Pizza with Alyssa Before Class, Alyssa came over and we made a vegetarian Pizza with some supplies she picked up at a farmers market. It was delicious!



Thursday: Some Stuff Literally, I ate some stuff for dinner. I made the decision to try a 5k run. I made it, but didn't have the energy left to cook. So I ate a hard boiled egg and some tomatoes. For everyone's sake, I skipped photos of this, interesting, dinner.

Friday: Steak and Potatoes and Carrot and Orange Soup. My College roommate Sara came to visit so we made her one of our favorite steak recipes.


Saturday: Spaghetti Nests by Amy I thought I could do just as good or better than Rachel Ray Pasta Nests. They came out really quite good.


Sunday: Spicy Asian Noodle Soup. We love this soup. It's a Rachel Ray recipe and it's quick, easy, healthy and tasty. Everything I look for in a recipe!


I am currently planning an entire post about our very first BBQ! So much fun!

What's for dinner?

Monday: Clam Chowder care of Commerce Casino Commerce isn't known the world over for their culinary expertise, but I certainly couldn't have asked for better company than Jen and Heather and even a few minutes with Gavin! They also made a pretty awesome looking peach martini for Heather, although I stuck with the Cab.


Tuesday: Brie and hard cheddar with crackers and Sauvignon Blanc . Okay, in reality this was our dessert, but it was delicious and pretty. :)



Wednesday: Garlic and Rosemary Chicken with sweet Potato. I was pretty proud of this meal. Gavin and I decided we should find out, and eat, what was in our freezer. We had a ton of chicken. I defrosted a piece of chicken with no idea what I was going to do with it. I decided to cut it up and saute it with garlic and rosemary. The whole house smelled amazing! I ended up making another one for Gavin to eat when he got home.



Thursday: Sweet Potato. While my chicken stole the show, I also remembered that I LOVE sweet potato. How do I keep forgetting that?? Five minutes in the microwave=delicious.


Friday: Surfin Souvlaki I had a Greek Breakfast burrito which was quite good. Gavin and I have been trying to scoop out new places to eat and this is on the way to the jewelers (I was on my way to get my ring cleaned 6 down, 94 to go.)

Saturday: Sushi, Green Valley Ranch Sautrday, we drove to Vegas to visit my parents for Gavin's Birthday. We watched the UFC ( tear for BJ) and then ate Sushi.

Sunday: Battista's Hole in the Wall, Las Vegas Sautrday, we drove to Vegas to visit my parents for Gavin's Birthday. We meet up with Dustin and he took us to this cute little resturant at the Strip and Flamingo.

So not only am I late, but I hardly even cooked! This week isn't shaping up to be a spectacular cooking week, as we weren't able to grocery shop over the weekend, but we'll see what we come up with!

Happy Birthday to my Husband!

Happy Birthday to Gavin!

I'm an incredibly lucky lady. There is no one like Gavin, and I get to grow up with him! I love you, Gavin! Happy Birthday!

AND a special 1st Birthday to Gavin's Birthday twin, Emily!

America's Women by Gail Collins

I recently completed a book called America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins.


I decided to read this book after greatly enjoying That's Not in My American History Book by Thomas Ayres, to my very great surprise. I was unaware that there existed writers talented enough to make history interesting (without turning it into fiction or course). I mostly expected to be disappointed, or insulted, or something negative. I have spent a significant amount of time considering the role of women, particularly in American society.

I was pleasantly surprised when the history didn't bore me and the authors personal views didn't alienate me. The historical stories are interesting and in depth, starting with the first settlers to the New World, to the 'bra burners', to, well, basically me. While I didn't do any fact checking myself, it seems to be a very well researched and well written novel. I will fault the author, although only a little, for seeming to whisk past, with only passing mention, some of the less honorable moments of the feminist movement as I understand it and have to wonder if this bias exists for periods with which I am less familiar.

I really enjoyed placing my female relatives in the context of the woman's right movement. My great grandmother was born in 1919 and I enjoyed traveling through the era's and contextualizing what I know of her life, as told by her (although to a very small child), with what was going on with woman's role in the family and society at the time. I did the same for my grandmother and mother and even myself!

I spend most of my current 'feminist' energy on debates about women in poker and women in engineering. This is not surprising, as I spend most of my life in poker or engineering. However, I was surprised by some of the debates I had forgotten are still going on or never knew about in the first place. I had no idea why the Equal Rights Amendment was not passed, and especially that some were still pushing for it's ratification.

**** (this might be a rant, read on at your own risk) ***

I bristled a bit during her discussion of a group of women advocating the rights of housewives (particularly the right of women to be housewives) who revolted against NOW activities by forming an organization called HOW (whose meaning currently escapes me, although I recently finished the book). The basis of the argument is that women had the right to stay at home and be housewives. On the surface this has always been my view. "Woman can do and be anything they want, be it a doctor, a fire fighter, a lawyer, a housewife, an engineer, a laborer, a soldier, etc." Although after thinking about it some more, I suppose my actual view is that "Women can try to be or achieve anything they want to be." A woman can try to be a doctor, but if she fails biology, she'll need to find something else. The same goes for every person and every profession. What I really believe, I think, is better described as Everyone should be able to try to be or achieve anything they want to be. I believe equality should mean that a man should have just as much right to be a househusband as a woman to be a housewife (even our current language usage agrees and we most often use the word homemaker). Perhaps I misunderstood their purpose, but the understanding I had regarding the HOW organization is that women needed to be protected from this scenario. I suppose that if everyone were to carefully choose a life partner (or even if they want a life partner!) based on mutual goals and respect, this would never be an issue as each couple and family could independently chose the lines of dividing domestic and professional responsibilities.

****(end rant)****

Hmm, despite an agreement with myself not to rant, I seem to have started one. While I won't dissect the issue any further, I will punish myself by adding the label rant and denoting it with the ***'s. :) In summary, read the book. And if you wanna discuss womens rights, lets get coffee, or better yet a glass of wine!

What's for dinner?

Monday: Loving Hut Spicy Cha Cha Vegan fast food in Ladera Ranch with Alyssa. Good food considering it's owned by a crazy cult. (not joking!)


Tuesday: Mushroom Risotto by William Sonoma Healthful Cooking. I'd made this recipe before by myself and it came out great, although for the work I swore I'd never do it again. Unfortunately, I bought too much risotto and it tasted SO good... so we decided to make it again. It wasn't as good as last time, but still good. And fresh tomatoes for an appetizer.



Wednesday: Dinner with Jen at a new Sushi Restaurant in Huntington Beach. Was too busy gossiping to take any pictures.

Thursday: Chicken Sandwiches with Arugula and Pears from Rachel Ray and Carrot and Orange Soup from Simple Vegetarian. Gavin was really happy with this recipe. It's something I probably wouldn't make again. The soup, however, is something we've made before that I really like. It's pretty simple and very flavorful. Gavin preferred the last time we made the soup when we strained it. I preferred it this way, it was more substantial.


Friday: Throwback Egg Sandwich from the kitchen of my mom. I love egg sandwiches, in fact Gavin makes one for me almost every morning. This is the nighttime version. The difference is that I mix the eggs with milk and put mayonnaise on the bread. I'm not as good as my mom. not even close. But it was edible.


Saturday: Red Velvet Cake from the kitchen of Courtney's sister and Kelly. I did eat some other dinner, but it was just as unhealthy and not so pretty so I've left it out! :)


Sunday: Amy's Special. In other words, we didn't feel like grocery shopping after last nights fun so I literally took all the vegetables in our house and cooked them! The sauce was garlic, onions, red pepper, jalapenos, spices and home grown tomatoes. I thought it was very good, but it was a bit spicy for Gavin.