New Blog!!

Check it out! www.gimmesomeoven.com. :)

118. Les blondes

Especially after a long, t-t-t-tiring day, these girls make me smile. As do their hilarious girly stories (ahem). And their love for our friends. And their shared shock about last week's Oprah.

117. The phaaaaaaaaaaaaaan-tom-of-the-o-per-a-is-therrrrrre...

...downtown at the Music Hall!!

Hooray! Spent a fabulous Friday night with Amy, celebrating our (seemingly rare in KC) love of music theater!! After seeing "Wicked" last year with my family, we were able to continue the tradition and see "Phantom" with her family this year! Needless to say, it was fantastic. :)

And, I'm super-excited to say, I had the honor of introducing Amy to Vietnamese food beforehand as well! Rare treat for me. Mmmmmmm...pho... :D

114. Blushing bride

Cutie. :)

After a fun dinner at Grinder's with friends, headed up to Nebraska (the Northland) for some veil-making adventures with Sarah. Ha...and found a new career path in the process...clarifying terrible instructions on sewing patterns!! Goodness, even for two girls who love to sew, it took us a little awhile to figure out what in the world we're doing. But we emerged victorious. :)

112. After a weekend full of THREE Easter services at COR...

I'd worked up an appetite! :D Thankfully the services all went incredibly well. I was so proud of all my singers -- they did such a fantastic job!

Anyway, afterwards I came home and tried out a recipe from my new How To Eat Supper cookbook -- "Hollow Pasta With Greek-Cinnamon Tomato Sauce". It ended up being fantastic! Very subtle flavors, but quite yummy and satisfying. And quite simple too! For anyone interested, here it is...

HOLLOW PASTA WITH GREEK-CINNAMON TOMATO SAUCE

-Serves 4 as a main dish.
-Sauce can be made several days ahead and kept in the refrigerator.
-5 quarts of salted water in a 6-quart pot

Sauce:
Good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 tightly packed cup of flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
6 large garlic cloves, minced
1-1/4 teaspoons dried oregano (Greek oregano preferred)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Aleppo chilie, or other medium-hot chilie, or 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1/2 cup dry white or red wine
2 pounds ripe summer tomatoes, or a 28-ounce can whole tomatoes
1-1/2 to 2 cups diced cooked roast chicken or lamb (optional) (organic if possible)

Pasta:
1 pound imported long hollow pasta like ziti, broken into more or less 2-inch pieces
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) fresh goat cheese, crumbled (*Alison note - I used feta*)

Have the salted water boiling.

Generously film the bottom of a straight-sided 12-inch saute pan with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion, parsley and generous sprinklings of salt and pepper. Saute the onion to golden brown, then stir in the tomato paste, garlic, oregano, cinnamon, sugar and Aleppo pepper or other hot pepper. Turn heat down to medium and saute 1 minute. Add the wine and cook 1 minute.

If using fresh tomatoes, grate them on a grater over a bowl and add the pulp with its juices to the pan. For canned tomatoes, crush them as they go into the pot. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook the sauce for 8 minutes, or until thick. Taste for seasoning, remove the pan from the heat and, if using chicken or lamb, stir it in. Cover the pan.

Drop the pasta into the boiling water. Boil, stirring often, for 8 minutes or until the pasta is tender, but still has a little bite. As the pasta cooks, reheat the sauce over medium-high heat. Once the pasta is done, drain it in a colander and add to the sauce. Toss over heat for a minute or more to help the sauce permeate the noodles. Turn half of it into a serving bowl and dot with half the cheese. Add the rest of the pasta and top with the remaining cheese.

111. Improvising

Accidentally left the pup's leash in Ta-Town, so did a little improvising with some yarn. :) Worked like a charm!

110. River walkin'

After watching "The Boy In The Striped Pajamas" together (you should definitely check it out), the 'rents and I headed downtown to walk along the river to see the new Keeper of the Plains Plaza at night. Hard to describe if you're not a Wichitan, but basically we've had this enormous statue for years, and they recently moved it to a new location on the Arkansas (pronounced "Ar-KANSAS" in Wichita...true story) River, and surrounded it with an incredible walk bridge, and then this great area full of misting-sidewalks and huge firepots that flare up at night.

Then afterwards, we paid a visit to the chain that I'm still shocked has not come to KC, but TOTALLY should. (Would love for them to remind Ben & Jerrys, et al., that fantastic ice cream does NOT need to cost $5 a cone.)

Indeed...Braums. :)

109. Flower power

After arriving home from our little afternoon jaunt down to Winfield for lunch with the Wilke's (for lunch at Neives' -- wahooooo!!!), Mom and I decided to try our hand at creating some little frosting flowers to go on some baked goods for Sarah's reception. Ha...suffice it to say, those little guys are NOT as easy to make as they may look!!! We found a few you-tube videos that gave some advice, but still had only limited success. I'm determined to conquer them, though, so have no fear that we will press on!! :)

118. Siesta-ing

This was one of the rare moments during our three days in Wichita when the pup was NOT chasing/harrassing/biting/pouncing-on/sniffing my parents' dog, Lucky. Mmmmm....yeah. Turn out he was "that" dog.

Back to Cesar to find out what to do about this craziness...

107. Guess who else is taking an interest in "The Dog Whisperer"?

Ha...thought this would be a fun way to pass the time on the 3-hr drive to Wichita. But it turns out, someone else was more fascinated by the episodes than me! :)

(And NO, I no longer watch dvds on my dash. This was conveniently in the passenger seat, where I could listen and occasionally steal a glance. :-))

106. Coming along...

The bookcases are now installed! All that's left is the mantle. (And then...painting painting...)

105. Check it out!!

Minutes after I arrived home from work tonight, Ryan pulled up with my NEW mantel and one of the new bookcases in tow!! And they look FANTASTIC!!!!! He did an incredible job - I'm so excited! He's returning with the other bookcase tomorrow, and is planning to finish installation in a few hours. Can't wait!!

104. A colorful trip to the City Market this morning

I heart, heart, heart. :)

103. Celebrating the return of...

...ice cream pie season!! :) Kicked things off this year with a yummy mint-chocolate-chip creation for our discussion group tonight. YUM!

102. Crash and burn...

...down the stairs 15 minutes ago. Foot, ankle, knee still growing...ugh. Did that seriously just happen?!

101. "The lamest caesar salad EVER"

On Monday morning, $5-off coupons for Bravo's mysteriously appeared on all of our desks at work. So today Janelle and I put them to use and buzzed over for lunch.

And while I ordered this utterly fantastic lobster bisque to come before my pasta, Janelle received this little creation. Apparently it tasted ok, but did they put an ounce of thought into presentation?! We think not. Odd for such a lovely place.

Thankfully our pasta that we ordered was also utterly fantastic. And our checks were only $5. Thank you random coupon fairy. :)

100. "It's a C, for Cass!"

We made the drive tonight allllllll the way up north to Joe's for a night studying Hosea, and celebrating the incredible, edible egg. :) Made two yummy homemade quiches together, along with yummy biscuits and coffee, and then topped it all of with fresh-baked molasses cookies and spumoni (sp?) ice cream. Yum!

Then, while discussing Hosea (and home refinancing...and rollercoasters...and the wrath of God...and a few other zillion tangents), the group humored me and we totally dyed Easter eggs!! :) Now my little egg tree in the breakfast nook is adorned with egg-celent artwork.

99. Of all the places to curl up...?!?

It seems my bathroom has quickly become Henry's favorite room of the house. Just a few weeks ago, he developed a serious fascination for my walk-in shower (and on one surprise occasion just strolled right on in while I was mid-shampoo - ahhh!). And tonight, found him napping here, dreaming I'm sure of someday growing big enough to reach down and lap up some of that toilet water he's been trying so desperately to reach lately.

Ah...el baño. :)

98. Double take!

Allow me to introduce you to...Niko! Henry's brother! :)

Had a fun surprise today receiving an email (forwarded on by Henry's breeder) from the woman who adopted Henry's brother. Ha...I almost feel like the mom watching her adopted kid reconnect with his long-lost brother! It's been a fun trading back emails hearing about little Niko, and finding out that he and Henry share a bunch of the same quirks. And...of course, their stunningly good looks. ;)

97. A day of showers

Kicked off my Saturday morning rising and shining at 6am finishing up all of the preparations for Sarah's bridal shower. And then drove on out to Blue Springs to meet up with Erin and my folks (who drove in a day early because of the snowstorm in Wichita!) at my aunt's house, and bake the coffeecake, quiche, monkey bread, muffins, and egg souflee that we had prepared. Yum!

The shower ended up being a lot of fun. A number of guests ended up not being able to make it because of the weather, but we had a great time spending the morning with lots of family and many of Sarah's friends and choir members, and sharing an abundance of great stories and laughs. :)

And then....the other shower began. Holy cow. As I was leaving the shower, the heavy rain had just turned to sleet and was coming down hard and fast. I think my drive down to work in my little lightweight Civic that has ZERO traction on ice/snow defined "white-knuckle" driving. I'm usually never one to let the weather worry me about driving or keep me home, but after passing by a ridiculous number of cars in the ditch, and watching the car behind me skid across the highway and wreck into a semi, I was definitely relieved to finally arrive safely back home at night. Whew...

96. Cupcakes, cupcakes, and more cupcakes...

Beginning the bake-a-thon for Sarah's bridal shower. (Behold, her wedding colors...)

93. Brookside by sunset

Ahhh, I'm spending just about every free second outside soaking up this beautiful weather, and am being reminded once again just how much I LOVE my neighborhood!! :)

Ended up leaving my car at home in favor of taking the 20-minute walk down Oak tonight to meet the small group crew at Governor Stumpy's - a fantastic little hole-in-the-wall restaurant down in Waldo - and was so glad I did! The evening could not have been more beautiful, and it was so fun greeting everyone who was out walking and enjoying the sunset together. Then had a great time just hanging out and catching up over some yummy food with the crew. Definitely my idea of a great night!!

92. When one has overripe bananas...

...it's definitely time to make banana bread!! :)

Actually ended up tweaking one of my favorite recipes tonight, with great success!!! Instead of using regular vanilla yogrut, I ended up throwing in a little tub of the "banana cream pie" yogurt that caught my eye at the store....and I'm convinced it totally took these to the next level! Highly, highly recommend this easy little substitution to all of my banana bread bakers out there. Soooo yummy!

75. MORE fun with parchment!

...and good friends. :)

Since I had the evening off from teaching music lessons (hallelujah for spring break!), ended up spontaneously having Andrew, Jeter, Steve over for dinner with Cass and I. And...once more, we had some fun playing with creating fish and chicken steamed with fresh veggies and seasonings in parchment. Everyone's creations were b-e-a-utiful! And then we wrapped up the night with some homemade blondie brownies, and this fantastic mango and strawberry sorbet that Andrew brought along.

As if the friends and food weren't delightful enough, we ended up enjoying the evening together in our dining room with the windows open....and the 70 degree breeze blowing through....watching the spring sunset out of our front window....

I'll say it for the 100th time.....I'M SO EXCITED FOR SPRING!!! :)

74. I can't believe it's...

...really butter! :D

Ok, so I have to confess that this post is not coming on the correct day. But I have to share my little success story! My little butter experiment totally worked! I read on a blog the other day that all you have to do is put heavy whipping cream in a food processor, and set it on high for a few minutes. And then after it passes through the sloshy, then frothy, then whipped cream, then more sloshy stages...suddenly the glob of yellowish butter totally separates from the milky buttermilk...and voila! Butter! You then have to give it a quick "water bath" to help drain all of the buttermilk, and then add extra ingredients if you'd like. (I lightly salted half of mine, and then turned the other half into garlic-lime butter.)

Next time...honey butter. :) Too fun!!

73. "Whhhhhew, good workout!"

LOVE that it's warm enough to start walking more outside...especially with my new exercise partner! ;)

71. All things new

"But a certain sign of grace is this. From the broken earth, flowers come up. Pushing through the earth." -David Crowder, "Wholly Yours"

70. "En papillote"

The fancy word for playing with parchment paper in the oven! :) Cass and I had a fun time tonight creating our own unique little packs for dinner. Mine had tilapia, asparagus, onions, mushrooms, lemon (yikes - we had a strong one tonight!), and lots of yummy seasonings. Super tasty, and super healthy! (I think Spark would approve!)

Ha...and then for old time's sake, we spontaneously pulled out an old "Friends" episode to watch during dinner. :) I was the lucky one to choose, so we had a grand time watching "The One With The Rumor", the Thanksgiving episode where Brad Pitt comes to dinner. Fantastic episode - still makes me laugh every time. :)

69. 40 days...

of no soda and only water and tea was beginning to get a little boring. So thankfully (again, credit goes to Sarah Were), I rediscovered the joy of Crystal Light! Or...as the off-brands call it, "raspberry drink". :) Had completely forgotten how tasty this stuff is!

68. My favorite way to end a day

Falling asleep to the sound of a spring thunderstorm. :) Yes, I'm declaring that it's spring. We're saving daylight, the water falling from the sky is not frozen, we're able to go on walks without five layers of clothing, and best of all...I'm sitting here snuggled up with an adorable puppy watching and listening to a glorious thunderstorm. (Love when Henry's little ears perk up when he's listening!)

Yes, without a doubt, my favorite way to end the day. :)

67. The "end result"

Our dining room is now a-fluttering with butterflies. Feels fabulously like spring now. :)