Summery Foods

Ben and I had a very summery food day today. For lunch, we made these killer turkey sandwiches with TONS of fresh, crunchy veggies! It's a veggie rainbow!



Then for dinner, our favorite. Grilled pizzas!



This time we did one with fresh heirloom tomatoes, goat cheese, and basil.



And another with pesto, shrimp, goat cheese, red pepper and red onion.



YUM! I love summertime!

Euchre Tournament

Summer and J hosted a Euchre Tournament tonight! This is the scoring system we came up with, possibly inspired by the World Cup? Random partners for each game. I would go into more details about the scoring, but I didn't really understand it 100% and just trusted the sportier people to keep track.



Lori and I were having a conversation about being forgetful, and then we started talking about movies. We talked about how we had seen Memento a long time ago, and how we'd both like to see it again. Then we realized that we'd probably forget about this conversation, so we wrote it down and took a picture of it. Kind of fitting, no?



SCOUT! And Dupree!



Megan added a little something to our note. Such little faith!



The hardcore super winners duking it out until the bitter end. I left before they were finished!

Happy Birthday, Cheryl!

We had a potluck tonight to celebrate Cheryl's birthday! Ben and Dad were on balloon patrol.



Mom made an amazing fresh tomato and basil pasta.



Vana made a tofu and rice salad!



I made an orange cardamom cake.



Dad and Ben geeked out for awhile on their iPhones.



I made some sweet potato black bean burritos, too. Kayla brought guacamole!



Time for cake!



Cheryl, you're supposed to make a wish, not pick your nose!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHERYL!

Citrusy Cooking Club

Nancy hosted cooking club this month, and the theme was citrus! She had also attended a cheese-making workshop recently, so we got to sample her homemade mozzarella. It was AWESOME! I was impressed!



Yumi made a citrus and spinach salad with spiced shrimp.



YUM!



Emily made a spicy Thai soup with lots of lime and lemongrass. Kicky!



I was planning to make grilled pizzas, but we could not get Nancy's gas tank open!! Three of us tried as hard as we could, with a multitude of serious tools, and could not get that sucker to open! (Where's Mr. Studlyhunk when you really need him?)



So I cooked the pizzas in the oven instead! Everyone was great in helping me with this quick change of plans. The pizzas ended up being super delicious this way, so it was a good thing. Lemon and piave pizza with red onion and rosemary:






The pizza, Nancy's salmon with grapefruit sauce and Valerie's citrus pesto pasta. What a great plate of food.



And for dessert, Summer's Seven Layer Lemon Cake! The poor cake fell over in her fridge. So instead it ended up being a Bowl of Cake. It just made it that much easier to put into my mouth! It was incredible.



We ended up the citrusy night with some delicious limoncello straight from Italy. YUM.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow, There Is Beer

Tonight it was time to cross some more beers off our Brew Week list! We headed to The Pub to try the Rocky River Brewing Co. Oompa Loompa Chocolate Stout. It was great! Megan got the Blueberry Trails Blueberry Ale, which came served with fresh blueberries floating inside. Nice touch!



For dinner, I got the Yuengling beer-battered fish sandwich and the black & tan onion rings. Mmm.



Next we went to the Cat's Den to sample the Marietta Brewing Company beers. Megan and Bob got a sampler platter to share.



And I got samples of my two favorites! McLaren's Scotch Ale (rich and malty with toasted caramel notes) and Kelly's Red Ale (rich amber ale with a light caramel palate). They were AWESOME. Kelly's Red might possibly be my favorite YET this year! I put my hand in this shot to try and show actual size of these beers but they still look sort of huge. I swear, they're little!



When we headed outside after drinking these delicious beverages, we stepped into a bizarre weather situation! The break in the rain had left an eerie yellow glow in the sky.



Then we turned around to find a RAINBOW!! La, la la la!!!! Brew Week is most definitely a magical experience.

5th Annual Ohio Brew Week!

Tonight was Ohio Brew Week Kickoff Night! A few of us met up at Jackie O's to start sampling the delicious beers.

I was especially excited, because my favorite Jackie O's beer of all time, Sweet Chocolate Love, was going to be making an appearance. This beer originated this past winter, and is supposed to be one of their wintertime beers only, but for brew week they brewed a special batch. IN A BOURBON BARREL. Whoa!! Bourbon - another of my favorite things! It has been a long, lonely stretch of months without this beer in my life, so needless to say I was excited to taste this new version of it!

Here I am with two delicious goblets of the delicious Bourbon Barrel Sweet Chocolate Love. One for me, and one to share.



It was delicious, OF COURSE!!! Quite different than the original, but I could totally taste it in there. The bourbon was a nice touch. It's simple math, really. Take something awesome, put it inside of something awesome, and you get something double awesome!

Here is Summer with her assortment of sample-sized beers. Doesn't she look like a mother duck protecting her brood of little baby ducklings? Peep peep peep!



Yumi smelling the beer like a true pro.



After awhile, we moved outside. I ordered one of my standby favorites from Brew Weeks past, the Cornerstone Brewery Angry Gorilla Hefeweizen. Delicious as always!



CHEERS!

Heart Chunks

I recently bought this new flavor of ice cream, Kroger Deluxe Churned Blueberry Pomegranate Chocolate Chunk. Notice that it doesn't indicate that there is anything special about the chunks, nor is the chunk featured on the front of the carton anything but a regular old chunk-shaped chunk.



But then, we dish it up, and lo and behold! Heart-shaped chunks!! How cute is that?!? And how odd that they don't feature them on the box!? You'd think they would want to capitalize on that cuteness! Anyway both the ice cream and the chunks are delicious. I recommend.

Poolyball

Another hot day, another HOT afternoon of Poolyball at Summer and J's! Mr. Studlyhunk got things off to a great start by fixing up a round of drinks for everyone.



He makes a mean strawberry daquiri. He also just happens to be the new spokesmodel for Blendtec blenders — keep your eyes peeled for their sexy upcoming ad campaign.



You can always tell Ralph's had a few too many when he starts wearing the Smirnoff cap as a hat.



Brad and Carl brought a cooler of Bud Light Lime to share.



It really hits the spot on a hot day!



Emily and Carl.



Time for Poolyball!












Emily checking out the goods.



We spent the rest of the afternoon just floating around. Those boys sure know how to make floating around look good!



Ah, summertime.