This week feels like it is lasting forever! Lots of stuff going on... but to distract myself from all that, here is a little weekend recap... better late than never!
I went to my former co-worker's wedding on Saturday - I love winter weddings, especially when they are very close to my house! Carla and Jack's wedding was so awesome - they had fried chicken for their main course (LOVE IT!), their vows were personalized and touching (I always admire people who can do that - I was way too nervous as it was with my non-personalized vows!), and the whole thing was just so classy and beautiful. This is not surprising, given the fact that both bride and groom are very creative. Their house was even just featured on Apartment Therapy! We might be stealing some ideas from them for our upstairs...
I only had my point-and-shoot so the photo quality isn't great, but here are a few pics from the wedding. As a side note, I want a new point-and-shoot. Mine is really starting to anger me. It's only 3.5 years old, but that's a lifetime in camera years. Plus, when I can get this bad boy for 1/2 the price of what mine cost 3.5 years ago, it's real tempting!!
Food!! Carla was quick to point out that there WAS NOT supposed to be gravy with the main course :)
All my former co-workers! (Plus Ben. and Meredith, Neal's gf)
Carla is an art director, so for Jack's last bday, she created this animation for him. It was so cute and almost made me cry! (ALMOST) This is them in their cubes, because they met at work. In fact, Jack's vows began "Carla, when I first saw you, I felt things that should never be felt in a corporate environment" :)
All dressed up and with our respective favorite beers :)
On Sunday, I met the Hennepin House girls for our monthly girls brunch, this time at Red Stag (Becky's choice - she has the 1 month old, she gets to choose!). We already reviewed it for We Got Served, but I wanted to share that the brunch there is awesome! I liked it even better than dinner. The green eggs and ham were yummy (although I thought the muffins should have been larger to absorb all that delicious hollandaise and yolk) and this is the kicker - FREE MIMOSAS. I'll be back!
Adelaide was a good little babe and slept the entire 2 hours we were there :) She ALMOST opened her eyes right as I was taking this shot, but couldn't quite get there. Rough life!
Please read this note that my good friend Jamie just sent me and help out if you can. My heart breaks for them! :(
********************************
Hello everyone,
I have a friend, Ghadah Makoshi that had a baby 3 months ago. He now needs a heart transplant, but their insurance will not cover it and they have been denied admission to heart hospitals until they can secure a proper payment. Please read his story http://laithdougherty.info/.
If you can donate any amount it would be tremendously appreciated by the family.
They have also been on the news in Portland. See the link below as well.
I am way behind on my food blogging! It has been quite a busy week... I just sent in a paper and am glad to have that done! Less than 3 weeks until I have no papers forevermore. We made reservations for La Belle Vie for the Saturday after my class ends - I can't WAIT!
My mom loves homemade bread (really, who doesn't??) so when they came over a few weeks ago I wanted to make her a loaf to take home. I chose this Buttermilk Honey Bread that I saw on Annie's Eats because it looked so beautiful, and because it made 2 loaves so I'd have one for myself :)
My braiding wasn't exactly perfect, but oh well :)
Still turned out quite nice though!
When menu planning for that week, we knew we wanted to do another crockpot meal one day. I thought a hearty soup would be the perfect match for this bread, so I picked Pasta e Fagioli from Crockpot 365, but then actually used the recipe from Annie's Eats because it sounded better to me :) It worked great in the crockpot! We put it on low for 8 hours and then when I got home I put the pasta in (a little more than it called for, oops) and turned it back on for one more hour on low. As Annie states in her blog, this makes a LOT. I think we had 8 servings. This is a great recipe to freeze though, so you can eat half right away and freeze half.
I saw this little survey on one of my favorite blogs, dooce, so I decided to copy her. If you don't read her blog regularly, check it out. She's hilarious. I also don't really write about my lovely husband very often. Since he is so awesome, this post is devoted to him :)
What are your middle names?
Mine are Kristine and my maiden name which also starts with a K. Ben's is Albert, so his initials are BAR, which is very appropriate for him :)
How long have you been together? We started dating on New Years of 2001, so we have been together a little over 8 years, and married for 3.5. Which is very weird to think about. This is not including when Ben broke up with me for 6 months during our sophomore year of college to "play the field" (Fail).
(If I had a scanner, I would put a photo of us from that night in here. Alas, I do not. I was wearing a blue and black sort of zebra stripe tube top and pleather pants so really, it's probably best that remains out of the digital world)
How long did you know each other before you started dating?
We met sometime in the fall of Freshman year of college, when my friend Megan picked me up from a house party. She also had Ben with her, who she worked with in high school. From there, we started chatting on IM (nerds!) and hanging out a little more as friends. After I broke up with my "boyfriend" (and I use that term extremely loosely) at the time we started dating.
Who asked whom out?
I don't remember there really being any "asking out" - our first kiss was at midnight at New Years Eve, at Nicki's parents house in Apple Valley :) After that romantic evening, we began dating.
How old are each of you?
I am 27, he is 6 months younger and 26.
Whose siblings do you see the most? Ben has so many siblings (4 plus one in-law) that if you count up time spent with each of them individually, I suppose it would be more than time spent with my lone sister Liz. All of our siblings live in the Twin Cities metro so luckily we can see both sets often.
Ben's siblings
After looking through every set I could think of on flickr, I have discovered there is not a single photo of Ben, Liz, and I. We will have to remedy that soon.
Do you have any children together?
Nope, much to my father's dismay :) (Hi Dad!!)
Pets?
No. We are the one of the only couples that we hang out with that does not have any pets at all. If we do ever get a pet, it would have to be a dog due to our shared cat allergy and it would almost assuredly by a boxer.
Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Nothing is really coming to mind. Driving in traffic every day as we carpool to work can be trying at times though :)
Did you go to the same school?
Yes, we are both Golden Gophers. No way would we have actually met there if we didn't have mutual friends though - I majored in Journalism and he was in Computer Science.
Are you from the same home town?
Pretty close - Ben grew up in South Minneapolis and Lakeville, and I grew up in Burnsville and Apple Valley.
Who is smarter?
I have thought about this a lot, and I'm not sure I could make a determination. I think we are probably equally smart, but in very different ways. We took a few classes in college together, biology and a psychology class, and it filled me with rage that Ben could seemingly do NOTHING in a class and still get an A. He is certainly smarter than me in math and sciences. I think I am smarter at communicating (written and verbal) but that's all so wishy washy, so who knows :)
Who is the most sensitive? Probably me, but just barely.
Where do you eat out most as a couple? We haven't done any repeats lately, but our favorite bar is Maxwell's. Since we have our blog, whenever we go out to eat, we try to hit up a new place on our list.
Our most recent visit to Maxwell's, for my 27th birthday.
Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Germany for our honeymoon.
OK, this is actually in Salzburg, but close enough.
Who has the craziest exes? Simply from the act of HAVING exes, I win this one. When you start dating at 18, you don't have much to work with.
Who has the worst temper? Again, this is a toss up. Ben gets irrationally angry at very stupid things, such as dumb things in traffic, or someone putting their dirty glasses on our table at a bar. I also get angry at dumb things such as having to do the dishes (one reason I so desperately want a dishwasher someday). Luckily, both of us can keep it together pretty well and don't have much of a temper. When we "fight" it's more like bickering and we're on to the next topic in 10 minutes.
Who does the cooking?
Pretty much up until I started this blog, it was always Ben. I literally NEVER cooked. Now, as you can see if you are a regular reader, I do a fair amount of the cooking, but Ben still cooks at least once a week (Sundays, when I volunteer from 4-8) and sometimes more. He also usually is responsible for the meat preparation.
Who is the neat-freak?
Unfortunately, neither of us. He does like to get the dishes done immediately after dinner, which bothers me, so he might beat me. Neither of us is particularly neat, much to the chagrin of my mother (Hi Mom!!).
Who is more stubborn?
Me. We are both stubborn, but Ben tends to give in more. Typically because I am right :)
Who hogs the bed?
Me and actually THIS might be our "hardest situation" in the question above. I am a horrible sleeper. Conditions need to be pretty close to perfect for me to be able to actually sleep. This bothers Ben because the space on the bed is not equally distributed and he likes to make a huge deal out of it 5 out of 7 nights a week. Since he can sleep in any position, I don't think he should get much say! I am extremely frightened for what will happen when we have a baby that gets up every hour, since it usually takes me about an hour to actually fall asleep...
Who wakes up earlier? Me, almost always. He gets up about 15 minutes before we have to leave.
Where was your first date?
I have no idea... it might have been Perkins in Apple Valley :)
Who is more jealous? Neither of us is ever jealous when it comes to each other talking or hanging out with members of the opposite sex. Ben does get jealous when I am ignoring him in favor of my BFF, the internet.
How long did it take to get serious?
Well, we were only 18 when we started dating, so it took awhile. After our 6 month hiatus, I pretty much knew this was it. I think Ben figured that out when we were 21, when I was studying abroad in London.
Look at all that hair! :)
Who eats more?
Ben, no question. He is at his happiest at an all you can eat meat buffet, such as at Fogo de Chao.
Who does the laundry?
Usually Ben, just because he doesn't have as many undergarments as I do :)
Who's better with the computer? Ha. Ben, obviously. I'm not half bad myself, but I don't sit around all day writing code.
Who drives when you are together?
Ben again! His car is much nicer than mine, and it is a stick shift which I don't want to learn to drive. Thus, he always has to drive. It's a great system, especially when we are going out to a bar or a party at someone's house :)
Thus ends my tribute to my Little Bun :) If you do this survey too, please leave a comment so I can go check it out!
Like many others, Ben and I decided to just stay home on Valentine's Day and make a delicious meal instead of going out. We actually usually do go out, the only other time I can remember us staying in was 4 years ago - Ben was living in an icky house with a lot of wallpaper in Northeast and he bought place mats and cloth napkins special for the occasion :)
We decided awhile ago that we'd have 2 of the filets that I got Ben from Oliver Ranch for Christmas. Mark Bittman conveniently posted this recipe for Steak Diane last week, and it sounded delicious so that was that. The side dish had to be twice baked potatoes, which my in-laws know is my favorite preparation of the blessed spud. I also steamed some green beans to add some semblance of health to the meal :)
This steak was definitely the best that I've ever had that wasn't in a restaurant, and would be a close 2nd only to the steak we had at Murray's. This is probably because I haven't ever had filet mignon outside of a restaurant, now that I think about it more. The steaks and burgers we got from Oliver Ranch are SO good - I would highly recommend them! They have excellent customer service as well.
For dessert, Ben requested an Oreo Cheesecake. I wasn't really finding any recipes online that sounded perfect, so I kind of made one up. I used this oreo crust, and this cheesecake recipeagain, and just mixed in mashed up oreos instead of brownies. I made homemade whipped cream for the first time, using this as a guide. So easy, and much better than cool whip (although that has it's place too!).
I was so full of wine and food that night, so I couldn't even really enjoy it, but the next 2 nights confirmed that this cheesecake is awesome! We had an excellent Valentines Day - definitely the best yet :)
As many who read our restaurant blog know, Ben is a huge fan of Surly Furious, and beer in general. He occasionally brews his own beer (in fact, he's planning on brewing this afternoon) so it was surprising to me that it took him this long to go to a tour of the Surly Brewing Company.
This Christmas, Ben brought over a 4 pack of Furious to share with his family. His dad tried it, and was hooked. In fact, we realized that he had also tried it when we were in Ely as well, but apparently that experience didn't stick with him :) Since Christmas, Ben's dad has sent him several photo texts of all of the Surlys he has drank (probably about a dozen or so) and also calls to let us know whenever they are mentioned in the Star Tribune. It was clear that we needed to plan a Surly themed evening for him.
Proof that Ben's dad had already tried Furious. Perhaps the problem was the bottle converter he used to drink out of the can......
Surly does tours every Friday, but you have to sign up in advance and they typically fill up. We decided to go last Friday, and then to go to dinner at Cafe Twenty Eight, which is co-owned by the Surly brewer. A review of that will be up on We Got Served by next weekend, but here's a preview - it was great!
The tour was really fun and very laid back. The owner (? I think that is what his "title" would be) Omar talked through his journey from home brewing in his garage to when he started the brewery. In case anyone is curious how they came up with the name Surly, it was the answer to the question "how do you feel when you go into a bar and there is no good beer?" Surly: The anger fueled by the inability to find good beer.
Even this Miller Lite lover found beers that I enjoyed at Surly. I really hate hoppy beers, so obviously I can't stand Furious, but I liked Bender, Cynic and Mild quite a bit. We also got to try their brand new third anniversary beer, cleverly called "three" - verdict? No thanks. We liked it better than two (which we tried and reviewed for Brew 52 last year) but still probably wouldn't order it again.
I took many photos during the tour. Here is a small sampling. For all that I took, click here. I used Pioneer Woman's free photoshopactions to edit these - thanks again Pioneer Woman!
I live in St. Paul, Minnesota with my husband Ben and my daughter Annie (born 1/31/10). We have been married since September 24, 2005 and live in a small house built in 1920 that is in constant need of fixing up. I love to take pictures, travel, eat good food, and spend time with family and friends.
Feel free to contact me at erinkkr at gmail dot com with any questions!
