Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porter

Brew Week is this week, and the first item on the agenda was to drink some of the famous Willoughby Brewing Co. Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porter before it sells out! Sisters with beers!



Bob & Megan with their Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porters!



Vana and Joe with their Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porters!



Yumi got a taster of the Neil House Brewery Cranberry Cider along with her Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porter and it was SO, SO, SO GOOD!!



Megan got a whole one!



The bartender recommended mixing the two in one glass! I decided to be like Yumi and keep them separate though. That way I could have a sip of either OR a sip of both in my mouth at once! Which really was delicious.



Unicorn Pegasus!



Happy friends drinking beer!



Tom is in town this week, which gives us all mixed emotions. It's bittersweet!! We love having him here, but of course we're all so sad that he'll have to go away again soon. We miss you, Tom!

Pesto Salmon

Today I made pesto with the basil from our deck. It has been growing like CRAZY this summer! Here is my harvest:



It made SIX batches!! Whoa. And I freeze them in 1/4-cup portions so it made twenty-four of those. MMM. We decided to eat one of them fresh tonight, and had Dennis over for dinner. We topped some salmon with the pesto, parmesan and tomatoes. I've never cooked salmon with pesto before and it was AWESOME!! I'll definitely be making this again!

Grilled Pizza

Tonight was the perfect night to grill out and eat outdoors! We had my #1 favorite summertime classic, grilled pizza. Yay. Tomato, goat cheese, and basil from my deck on the left, and then pear with gorgonzola on the right.



With a summery salad topped with fresh peaches! YAY!!

Visit from Claudia

Claudia came to visit yesterday with her boyfriend Kyle! Immediately upon their arrival, we went to Casa for lunch. Then we walked all over uptown and campus, looking at all the things that have changed since college. That made us very thirsty, so we went to Jackie O's to taste some beers!



Kyle had never been to Athens, so we had to show him the Ridges! We walked along the nature trails and then decided to play some putt putt. I was VERY excited to discover that they had added a little stream with a tiny waterfall to the course!!!! I feel like a putt putt course is not up to par (ha ha) unless they have running water on the course.

When I was in middle school, I spent every free second at Putt-On's, the mini golf course that used to be out on Columbus Road. It was AWESOME and they totally had a fish pond and a MOUNTAIN. Eventually, somebody decided to tear that course down and put up a super crappy flat one instead with crappy obstacles and NO WATER. I never went there and of course it went out of business, because it sucked.

ANYWAY. The course up at the Ridges has just been getting better and better now that people are finally taking care of it! And I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the waterfall!!



And it's actually a DOUBLE waterfall because there are falls at each end of the little stream!!



Anyway, we had a lot of fun playing the course. We each got one hole-in-one!



Claudia cracked me up on this hole, because she used a technique I had never seen before. She actually got INSIDE the quilt square box!!



It was a pretty smart idea. Kyle followed suit.



For dinner we went to Purple Chopstix, mmmm. Then this morning it was back to Casa for brunch! What a delicious visit!

I got the seasonal huevos rancheros. There was peach berry salsa under there!! So good.



And we shared a biscuit with soysage gravy.



Unicorn pegasus time!



Yay!



Cuteness!!!

Happy Fourth of July!

We got together at Mom and Dad's tonight to celebrate our independence! Dad grilled up a huge batch of different types of bratwurst.



Look at all those sausages!



Mom got Fourth of July necklaces for everyone and Kate made it her mission to collect all of them.






There she is taking Uncle Bens'!



The weather was gorgeous and perfect!



Mmmm!! Potato salad, baked beans, ratatouille, sausages, peppers & onions!!



Great Lakes Conway's Irish Ale. So bubbly!



YUM!!!



I made a lemon bundt cake for dessert.



It was fresh and delicious!



Happy Fourth of July!

New Bike!!!!!!

I got a new bicycle!!! My old one was almost 20 years old and it was a super heavy, clunky mountain bike. I had no idea how much better it was going to be to ride a new bike until I tried it. WOWEE!!! New helmet, too! My old one was from 1999! Oops!

Tortilla Soup

Since cooking with my new counters is so awesome and fun, we had Mom and Dad over tonight to celebrate! I made tortilla soup, mmm. The recipe was from The Best Light Recipe and it was DELICIOUS!



It is SO MUCH FUN to cook in the kitchen now with the new counters. All I want to do is cook and then clean up my messes because it's so easy!! Whee!

New Counters!

Ben and I got new counters!! Our old counters were only OKAY. When we moved in, the formica was peeling off. Dad fixed it up with some glue, and made these nice wooden edges to hold everything in (thanks, Pa!). That made it absolutely livable for the past two years. But it was hard to clean and just not the BEST. I spend a lot of time cooking in this kitchen, so it was definitely time for an upgrade! Here are the counters before:





And here are the NEW counters! They are Corian and they are THE BEST. They have these little subtle bits of SPARKLE throughout and it makes me soooo happy! It's a subtle, amazing sparkle. You walk through the kitchen, and glittering SPARKLES catch your eye!! And the counters are so satisfying to clean because they LITERALLY SPARKLE.







With a seamless sink! SO EASY TO CLEAN!



Here is a video to show the subtle sparkle. It's hard to capture on film, but you can see them sparkling!

Happy Father's Day!

We had plans to celebrate Father's Day with a burrito feast at our house tonight. After enjoying that Golden Peach Soup with Shrimp & Crab Seviche last night, I knew I had to add it to the menu for tonight. I thought Dad would just love it!! Plus I wanted to eat it again ASAP!! So I went out and picked up more peaches! Yay, round TWO!!



Oh, hi! It was the perfect start to our burrito feast.



Mmm, burrito.



All wrapped up!



Plus an enormous salad.



Mom also made a delicious peach crisp. It was yummy to start and end the night with peaches. I forgot to get a picture of the dessert, though! After dinner we played euchre. It was fun to get to enjoy a delicious dinner in honor of an awesome dad! I love you, Pa!

Cooking Club at Valerie's

Valerie was the host of this month's cooking club. The first thing I saw when I walked into her kitchen was this gorgeous loaf of wine cheese bread!! I was first introduced to this AMAZING BREAD at Nancy's Infused Vodka Cooking Club in January 2010. I think I have probably mentioned it at every single cooking club (and various other social functions, too) since then. So I was OVERJOYED when Valerie said she would be making it again tonight!! Behind it is her other dish for the evening - Tuna, Pasta and Pecan Salad.



I had to have a little moment alone with the wine cheese bread. Look, that one pocket of cheese in the foreground looks like a heart! I think it loves me back!!



I had to tear myself away from the loaf, because it was time to start eating!



Yumi made a deconstructed eggplant parmesan.



It was so much lighter and more summery than traditional eggplant parmesan! There was also a lemony olive oil to drizzle on top.



I was up next, and I served a Golden Peach Soup with Shrimp & Crab Seviche. I wanted to try this recipe because I am OBSESSED with fresh peaches, and also because I love seafood. This recipe ROCKED. Three pounds of peaches!! Here is a link to the recipe, I highly recommend it!



Served with some slices of the dreamy wine cheese bread and I was in HEAVEN.



Emily made a french onion tart! Ooh la la!



We ate the tart along with Valerie's tuna pecan pasta salad and Summer's green bean, quinoa, and crispy shallot salad. This trio went great together!



Mmmmmm!!!



We were pretty full, so we decided to take a little walk. We checked out the garden.



Nancy did a bit of modeling!



Then we ventured back to the house for some fun and games.



Fun and LAUGHING!



We played Balderdash and had dessert. Nancy made TWO KINDS of ice cream sandwiches. Whoa. Chocolate, cherry & pecan cookies with vanilla ice cream, and triple chocolate cookies with vanilla ice cream!!!!



They were so, so, so, so, so, so, SOOOOOOO GOOD.



I was in LOVE.



As we continued the game, my appetite inched slowly back, and I found myself walking out to the dining room several times to slice off "tiny bites" of the wine cheese loaf. Finally, after the millionth tiny bite I said "screw it!" and just grabbed the rest! MMM!!!



It was a fantastic and delicious night and it was magical to be reunited with my favorite wine cheese bread. I can't wait until we cross paths again.