Bruschetta Grilled Chesse

I can honestly say that tonight's grilled cheese was the best I have ever had. Mozzarella cheese, fresh bruschetta, and homemade bread.


Andrew is away for the week so I decided to follow Erin's lead and try to go vegetarian for the week. I thought it would help me feel more refreshed and energetic..but really its just helping me think up more creative cheese-based dishes.


Andrew was home for a couple hours last night - just long enough for him to leave his dirty socks on the floor:-)..and hopes to come again on Thursday night. It is going to be a long week, but luckily, Sheila is a sweetheart.

The Best Birthday Ever and Andrew's First Bike Crash

Yup...Andrew had his first bike crash today. Luckily, Andrew came away with just a bloody knee, bloody toe, scraped up palm, and sore body. Other than that he and the bike are both in working order. I wish there was a great story to go with it but the truth is he crashed because he hit a large bump while talking to me on the cell phone. Yes, talking on the cell phone while riding a bike in NYC is obviously a bad idea...but I'll admit, I do it every once in a while too..and I'm still debating whether or not to cut the habit completely since I haven't really had a chance to use my hard earned health insurance.

As you can imagine, there isn't really anything funny about the bike crash story, except that I was on the other end of the phone..and got to hear the crash without realizing it was a crash. At the time I didn't know what it was, but in retrospect that is a very strange and funny thing to hear over the phone:-)

All in all I think we will be wearing our helmets with a greater resolve for the next little while.

This year I had the greatest birthday ever with a visit from the Family, some nice time off of work and extra down time with Andrew. I am afraid the family may never want to come back because we over stuffed them with good food...but what can I say, we were excited to entertain so we pulled out all the stops:-).

This week I've been making an effort to empty out our refrigerator and pantry before going food shopping. So far we have had "Breakfast Burritos" (great way to get rid of a bunch of almost rotten veggies) and "Mystery Cream of Tomato Pasta"....who knows what we will have tomorrow because we have..cream of mushroom soup, chick peas, and refried beans to dispose of:-):-)

Tonight's dinner consisted of Caesar salad, popovers, Sakai salmon, and lemon risotto..with fresh spinach for garnish. I did my best to make it a special dinner as it is Andrew last night home before heading to Old Orchard Beach. I figure if nothing else, I can lure him back with good cooking:-)

Work has been incredibly busy this week. I consistently feel like I am two days behind. Luckily I was able to convince my boss to take Friday off, so I am hoping to be able to catch up a bit before the weekend.

Things continue along as usual on the NY front...Andrew and I spent last Saturday driving to south jersey and back for a wedding gig I had with the "Optimus Quartet." Unfortunately through a series of unexpected transportation events, I ended up not making any money..In fact, I think I ended up paying about $15 to go to a random wedding and play the cello..I also came home with large blisters on the bottom of my feet which made the whole experience seem that much worse.

Cautionary words from the experienced: Don't rent a car until you are 25. The Hackensack train station is not 3 blocks from Budget car rental..its 1.5 miles. Sorry Erin, but cheap shoes from Ross are not worth it.

The First of Three

Two weekends ago, I went to Virginia to celebrate Ruby's birthday. While there I received a sporadic call from Andrew letting me know that whole chickens were on a very good sale at the supermarket and he had gone ahead bought the individual limit - three. Tonight we created a little extra room in our freezer by undertaking the first of the three chickens.

The culinary highlight of the evening was Andrew's swift skinning of the chicken. I mentally could not bring myself to remove the chicken skin, but Andrew not only completed the task in record time, but he did so with great vitality.

I also took my first stab at a gariepy favorite - Creamy Pearl Onions..and it tasted like thanksgiving.

you are what you eat..

Although I find the word blog to be irksome for various reasons, I have finally caved and created one of my own. My philosophy in creating this blog is that while Andrew and I are often too busy to call each one of you on a daily basis, I can at least keep you updated on what we've made for dinner:-)

As dad would say, "you are what you eat"..so this should help you get to know us better.