An Awesome Hannah Story

I've written stories about my niece, Hannah, before. She is awesome. She does and says the funniest things. This past Mother's Day, she gave me fodder for a post that I couldn't resist. (I have more to say and share about Mother's Day, but I wanted to get this post up before I forgot.)

Each year, my mom throws an AMAZING tea on Mother's Day and invites all the ladies of the family. So of course, Ruthie and I went. The theme this year was Alice in Wonderland. At each of our place settings was one of these Izzie drinks, with a note that said "Drink Me." (Isn't my mom so cute?)

Hannah, who never really gets to drink soda, was THOROUGHLY enjoying her orange cream soda. So much so, that once while she was distracted, Sarah moved the soda away from her place and out of reach. When Hannah turned back around and noticed it was missing, she announced loudly to the table, "Hey, where is my beer?"

Apparently, Eric's two or three beers a week has made a real impression on Hannah - or at least the shape of the glass bottle has. 

Isn't This Just the Epitome of a Loaf of Bread?

I was tired of the recipe I had been making for our bread so I tried a new one recently and man, it is GOOD. It makes the most beautiful bread and so yummy. I love how much like a "loaf" this bread looks. Makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch almost feel like a special treat. Almost.

See This?

Our dishwasher is broken. Boo. When I went to unload the dishes on Friday, I found a pool of water in the bottom of the machine. Huge bummer. Of course, when we lived in our little apartment on 2nd Street, we didn't have a dishwasher and didn't really think anything of it (especially me, since Ian is the resident dishwasher in our house.)

And just now, after dinner, he says, "I thought having a dishwasher wasn't actually saving me that much time. But let's go this week and see if we can get a new one." Happy to oblige, my dish-washing husband. Of course, my natural thought is to look on Craigslist, but Ian says he thinks we should get a new one. We did have a repair man come look at it and after $45 and about 10 minutes, he said he thinks it is the pump, which is what the plumber told me (which only cost me $5 because my plumber is the awesomest and he only charged me for his gas). But to replace the pump, it would be around $200 for parts plus at least another $100 for labor, and new dishwashers are only about $400 (at lease the kind we would get).

I did ask the repair man, since he obviously looks at lots of machines, which is the best. And he said, much to my surprise, that they are all basically the same. He said to get anything but a really nice one, since no matter how much you pay, they all pretty much break down in 5-7 years anyway. Huh. Who knew?

So, it's off to Home Depot for me sometime this week. I'm sure my husband would prefer tomorrow over sometime later in this week, so here's hoping I can make it happen.

We Did Not Put Her In the Pose

Isn't that just too cute? Just relaxing in the tub during bath time...

Cinco de Mayo: Our First Guacamole

Yay! Our avacado tree is finally producing! We've had two avocados so far, that we've eaten in salads and on toast. We've also given two away. And then today, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, I made guacamole with an avocado that fell to the ground a few days ago and we ate it with our super nachos.

I am pleased to report that our avocados are green and lush and buttery. Let me know if you want any! Today, we lay on the grass in our backyard and spotted probably 100 more avocados. Ian got out the super long plucker device and cut down six of the biggest (most of the ones we counted were small). I'm conducting a trial now, to see what ripens them faster/better - I put three in a brown paper bag and left three on the counter. Stay tuned for the riveting details!

A Food Post (Shocking, I Know)

As I was titling this post, I realized how very many of my posts are about food. But what can I say? I like cooking and I like eating!

I recently bought a ton of pecans for the cake I made for Ian's grandparents anniversary and you know how I like to use up things before they go to waste. So, I began searching for recipes with pecans. Naturally, I added pecans to my weekly batch of granola, but I after two weeks of that I still had lots left.

Then I remembered a Cooking Light recipe I had cut out a few months ago called Pecan Crusted Trout. As is my usual way, I subbed the trout for tilapia, because that's what I had. But it still turned out great! I also tried my hand at creamed spinach with mushrooms and shallots - also very delicious. Here's a photo of the final product (that's my standard cous-cous with parsley, cranberries, lemon juice and almonds). Very yummy!

Date at the Melting Pot

Several weeks ago, Ian and I took Ruthie to Brea so my parents could watch her while we had a date night. It was a date day, actually. =) In the early afternoon, we went to see Hunger Games at the movie theaters on Birch Street. We went back to their house where I nursed Ruthie and then we headed out again to find a restaurant. We were originally thinking of something low key (and cheap) but then we stumbled upon the Melting Pot and were hooked. We had a little bit of my Christmas bonus left (which I think we blew through on the first course) but boy did we have a good time. If you haven't been to the Melting Pot, you should for sure check it out!

For the first course, we had cheddar cheese with beer and chives melted in, with fresh veggies, fruit and bread. Yum!

Then we had salads, which I didn't take a picture of. But you all know what salads look like. =)

Our main dish was beef, pork, chicken, mushroom dumplings and shrimp. They serve it to you raw with a boiling mixture of broth and wine in your melting pot and you skewer each piece one by one. It's so much fun. One of our favorite things is slow dinners and this is the epitome of a slow dinner - you have to wait for each bite to cook! But so delicious.

Naturally, for our fourth course, we had chocolate fondue. Sadly, I was so excited about the marshmallows, strawberries, vanilla wafers and other goodies that I didn't take a picture of it. But trust me, it was super good.

I tell you, there is not much better than free babysitting and a great time out with my husband!