Recipe Update

The other day I posted 4 new recipes I was going to try this week. I really enjoyed the onion burgers and will definitely be making them again. I mentioned a few things I'd try differently next time here.

The bbq chicken was.. ok. Nothing amazing and not terrible either! We ended up shredding it and making sandwiches out of it and I'm still working on leftovers for lunch! I do love a recipe that we can eat on for a couple of days - it's just hard not getting sick of it! Last year I made a shredded chicken recipe that had ginger ale and I think I preferred those. Regardless, a good reminder that bbq chicken/ pork is easy to do in the crockpot and will be in regular rotation at our house!

The korean beef tacos were pretty good! Not loving Mexican food I never make tacos so it was fun to have tacos with a different flavor profile! You really could get a Korean feel from the flavor! A little spicy, a little sweet! As with most crock pot meals it made a ton. I tried to pawn some off on my neighbors but they weren't interested! Mom suggested I freeze some so that's what I did! We'll see how it tastes in a couple of weeks to a month!

Last night I made the chicken marsala recipe. At a restaurant chicken marsala used to always be my go to! Sometimes it still is - I love the sweet wine sauce and sauteed mushrooms! This was the first time I've ever made marsala! It was actually really tasty and pretty easy! I chopped all the mushrooms about an hour before Mike came home and combined the chicken stock with the marsala and sherry in a small bowl so I could just dump that in! The recipe is not super duper healthy since you fry the chicken in oil.. but it was yummy and Mike said "Oh! This is really good!" - I love hearing that! The only change would be to try to thicken the sauce next time. This recipe is a keeper!!

It has been great having a plan and everything on hand. I like it! Today Mike's mom comes to visit! We are both so excited to have our second visitor! Mike has his 7 days off from work Friday-Friday so it will be nice to just spend time together and show her around the QC area! I picked out a new pork chop recipe and also plan to have Mike grill ranch burgers! Otherwise we'll likely go out to eat so we can show her a few of our favorite spots!!

Happy weekend!

Happy Things

1) I went to Hobby Lobby to buy yarn for project #3 and met a lady named Julie. She was also in the yarn aisle and seemed to know what she was doing so I asked what "worsted weight" yarn meant. She explained and we started chatting and she brought up the Fireside Knitters group that meets weekly at the library. I told her that I almost went this past week but chickened out! Anyway long story short I met a knitting friend and she convinced me to go to the knitting group this coming up week! I'm excited!

2) Found this at the grocery store and then convinced the cashier that it is the best stuff ever and he must try it! Forget Whitey's! Did you know that you can go here and put in your zip code and it will tell you if any stores nearby sell Graeter's! That's my secret.

3) After some other errands (finally got sheets for the guest bed!) I went to Starbucks and treated myself to my first ever Green Tea Frappuccino. Super delicious!

image source

4) This song is my favorite right now. Especially fun in the car.
A good night indeed!

Feeling Domestic

Having a beautiful home with appropriate kitchen and storage space makes me realize I can be domestic and not resent it! It feels so wonderful having a clean kitchen (not that it's always clean..)! Not only do I do dishes on a regular basis but I'm also cleaning the counter tops and stove tops and all those other clean kitchen chores that in the past didn't happen very often! Go me. What can I say, I'm finally becoming a real adult.

This morning while play around on pinterest I came across a link where this lady plans out meals for dinner for the entire month. This is just crazy to me! Talk about organization! I can kinda wrap my head around planning week to week - but a month! Wowza. I've never planned an entire week of dinners ahead of time, and as a result we typically eat out far too often!

Today I planned out dinners for the next few nights! Granted Saturday night I wrote down nothing as we will be going out to celebrate Cinco de Mayo... baby steps!

In addition to having Skyline one night I'm trying these 4 new recipes!

-Stuffed French Onion Soup Sliders - I will be making regular size burgers because I couldn't find tiny buns!
-Crockpot BBQ Chicken
-Slow Cooker Korean Beef Tacos
-Chicken Marsala

Looks good right?! I'll let you know how they turn out!

Day 3 + local food

Day 3 in Iowa and I'm pretty sure we're in love. Iowa, I apologize for prematurely judging you and thinking you were filled with country and Walmart and nothing else. So not true!!! Actually I don't even think I've seen a Walmart! Based on recommendations from the realtor and Mike's future coworker (we had dinner with his family! so fun to meet people!) we've been eating our way around Iowa!

Saturday night we crossed the river to Rock Island, IL and went to Blue Cat Brewpub for dinner. Good beer, laid back atmosphere! We even saw a guy with a green mohawk! I never knew I could be so excited by this!! Culture! We also saw an advertisement for a GLBT movie night! Good sign for an open minded area! It was super easy to cross the river - like 10 minutes, maybe. Easy. And there are other cute looking places that we'd like to go back to!

Yesterday we had lunch at Hungry Hobo - a local Subway type place. It was delicious and we'd definitely go back, and likely take you there for lunch when you come visit. You are going to come visit us, riiight? :)

Last night we had dinner with Mike's future coworker and his wife and daughter. They took us to Front Street Brewery in downtown Davenport. A great family place and good beer again!

This morning we went to the favorite local breakfast joint called Village Inn for a late brunch. After brunch we drove by what I hope is our future house and drove around the subdivision and stopped in the library near by. All positive! Then tonight after going back to the house to do a more thorough inspection with the realtor, Mike and I went to Moline, IL for an appetizer and beer at Bent River Brewing Company! All of these local breweries! It's awesome!! We did a sampler and tried their 8 beers - including a strawberry and a jalapeno beer!

L to R:  Dry Hopped Pale Ale, Jalapeno Ale, Strawberry Ale, Uncommon Stout, Oatmeal Stout, American Wheat, Pale Ale, Mississippi Blonde

We ended the night at the best rated sushi place (called Osaka) according to Best of Quad Cities. It was very tasty! Another pleasant surprise! And now I'm officially stuffed and thankful for pjs!

Back to Cincinnati tomorrow! It's been a great few days! Life changing even. I guess there have been a lot of those recently!