All the little chicks with their crimson lips go "Cleveland rocks!", "Cleveland rocks!" ~The Drew Cary Show

What do you do when a girlfriend’s having a relationship crisis 600 miles away? You call up another girlfriend, buy plane tickets and catch a flight to Cleveland!

We arrived in Cleveland last Friday afternoon. Beth picked us up and presented us with the options of a Backstreet Boys concert or an Indian’s baseball game. As tempting as a concert was, we opted to watch a sport we all knew little about for a chance to eat junk food and talk girl talk.

After the game Beth took us to one of the hot-spots in downtown Cleveland. We very quickly learned that “a restaurant is only as good as its patio” in this city. Beth explained that it’s so cold for so much of the year that everyone spends as much time as possible outside during the summer. We ate at a Mexican restaurant for dinner and for dessert went to a place call Chocolate Bar. Kacie and I decided to split a S’mores plate. We had our own mini “campfire” and everything!

 

The next day Beth took us to a place called Melt that specialized in grilled cheese! They also had a wide selection of creamed sodas, root beers and other fun flavored bottled drinks. However, the most awesome addition… a leg lamp! Who knew A Christmas Story was filmed in Cleveland?

Next on the agenda: naps, walking the dogs and off to the movies. Kacie’s birthday had been earlier in the week and Beth picked up a bottle of wine for her. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t have enough free time in our packed schedule to share it, so what do three brilliant women in a time crunch do? Pack it in a large purse with plastic cups and take it to the movies. 

After watching Eat Pray Love we headed to a section of Cleveland called “little Italy.” After watching a movie where 1/3 of it revolves around food Italian was the perfect idea! The patio here was awesome. Red Christmas lights were strung up outside and on the balcony of the restaurant there where two guys playing piano and saxophone. During dinner the owner came and talked with us, and after a little wooing with our charming southern accents he ordered tiramisu with fresh strawberries for us. YUM!

 

After dinner we went home to pack. Our girl’s weekend in Cleveland was coming to an end and although Kacie and I were excited about getting back to babies and Bennetts we sure were going to miss Beth and Cleveland.

“Hey good lookin’. What ya’ got cooking? How’s about cooking something up with me?” ~Hank Williams

Any young southern wife will tell you, its tough living up to the expectations many husbands have when it comes to food. By the time a young man gets married, typically, he has known little home cooking other than what his mother or grandmother have prepared for him. Thankfully, I have a wonderful mother-in-law who will very willingly share some of her most delicious recipes and then let me call her for help before, during, and after the process.

I have to admit, trying to recreate one of Jeffery’s favorite dishes that Carol has made for years is an intimidating task. What if it’s horrible? Even worse, what if it’s horrible, but your husband tells you it’s good and you share it with others?!

Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about any of that. Thanks to Carol’s instructions I now know I can make one mean chocolate pound cake with cream cheese icing!

I started early this afternoon as the cake takes an hour and a half to bake. We did have a minor setback; the cake expands (as Carol said it would) and because I didn’t have a pan to catch any of the overflow, batter ended up all over the bottom of my oven. Burnt of course! After the volcano like incident Jeffery gave me a bit of help on the icing, made simply of cream cheese, margarine, vanilla and powdered sugar (yum!!!).

After letting the cake cool it was time to work on the frosting. I of course ended up eating about as much as I actually put on the cake, but who could blame me?  Although the icing was a bit runny it tasted amazing! (Not to worry, Carol gave me some advice to make it thicker for next time.) Even Bennett was able to give us some feedback on the icing.

Once it was all put together Jeffery and I both agreed it was DELICIOUS! Mom mentioned a “sad spot” that sometimes appears in pound cakes, but I couldn’t see a thing sad about it. The only thing sad about this situation is what the scale at Weight Watchers is going to tell me next week!

Celebrate Good Times (come on!)

Wow! Time sure does fly when you’re having fun. It’s been so long since I’ve done a blog update, so once again I’ll be squeezing more info than you probably want into this blog. (Just grin and bear it!)

The last weekend in June, we decided to visit Statesville since we hadn’t seen the Hunters or sweet Anna Redding in a while. Our visit was so relaxing (as it always is). We were able to hang out in the pool (Bennett too!) and I had my first experience with Port-a-Pit BBQ. According to Our State, who just did an article on “100 foods you must eat in 100 counties” Port-a-Pit could not be missed in Iredell County. Although it was delicious, I think I’ll need to make sure I have it again before I make a final ruling. Jeffery was also able to meet Ms. Anna Redding for the first time. She really took to him, as most children do, but I don’t know that he has the baby bug just yet (a true disappointment to Debbie Bell)!

After our relaxing weekend in Statesville it was time to get back to Raleigh and put our noses to the grind stone, which included Meredith too! Yep, my sweet sister was babysitting for two weeks so we were lucky enough to have her stay with us off and on during that time. However, I don’t know if I felt so lucky to have Cowboy stay. Cute puppies grow into very hyper larger puppies (for those of you that weren’t aware of that!). For once Bennett was the well behaved one!

July 4th weekend was wonderful with the Bell and Burns clans visiting in Laurinburg. Of course none of us could leave our dogs, so all the beautiful puppies dressed to the nines in their red, white and blue bandannas celebrated as well. A new favorite tradition is to drive out to the field near the high school and watch the fireworks from the back of Brad’s truck. This year we added in glow necklaces! Ooohh… aaahhhh.

The following weekend Meredith, Catie and I had an amazing girl’s night out on Friday night. Our date for the evening? None other than the sexy Michael Buble’! If you like Harry Connic Jr. or “crooning” type music you are sure to love him. Typically I prefer a show or movie, but his concerts are amazing and he’s actually pretty funny.

After saying our goodbyes to Michael Meredith headed back to Goldsboro and I left Saturday morning for Kitch’s shower in Laurinburg. My job was the diaper cake which I’d never made before, but with Meredith’s help I’d say it turned out excellent! The shower was just in time too. The following Friday Kitch had her baby. Looks like she got those diapers just in time!

Finally, time to breath!

After a nice long break which included, graduation, vacation, family gatherings, wedding and birthday's I'm finally back.  Honestly, the idea of writing has become very overwhelming because I feel like I have a lot to catch up on.  So much fun stuff has happened since the goat farm!

The biggest celebration was the Bell-Gurley wedding.  Although there were some tears and elevated voices during the year leading up to it, the weekend itself was wonderful.  All the wedding weekend celebrations where just what they should have been, relaxing and fun.  All leading up to this moment...

After the wedding they took off on their honeymoon and the rest of us got back to life as normal, for me that was school, mostly.  Another fun wedding was right around the corner!  Our friends Lindsey and Stephen were married about a month later in Winston-Salem.  Being in Meredith's wedding of course made the wedding weekend very fun for me, but I don't know that any reception will EVER be able to top Lindsey and Stephen's.  This comment is due to the fact that the bride and best man had a worm off.  Seeing as how the bride did the worm in her dress, she of course was the victor!

Following the Ritter-Chan wedding was First Sunday in May.  Only my favorite family get-together of the year.  We all meet at Black River for worship (some of us are better at getting to church than others) and fellowship, and then head back to Aunt Pug's for more food with the family.  This time we had a few new additions to the family, and as much as mom would love for these additions to be grandchildren they were the next best thing... PUPPIES!

The following week I wrapped up all my classes, exams and presentations so I headed back to the eastern part of the state for a little R&R at the beach house.  Although Bennett had to miss out on First Sunday (three dogs would be a bit much at Aunt Pugs) I was not about to let her miss out on her first beach experience!  I knew she wasn't a water dog, so I wasn't expecting much, but boy did she LOVE her walks.  Mom and I could tell she liked the new sights, sounds and of course smells!  Unfortunately, we learned that at no point could she be off her leash.  I made the mistake of letting her run free one time and she shot right over the sand dunes to a dead seagull that she found earlier.

After this I was ready for the next step... GRADUATION!  Finally, after taking a class a semester for about 5 years I was getting my Masters...

however, the celebration didn't last long because after the ceremony and meeting mom and Meemaw for lunch I had to rush off to a wedding in Statesville where Jeffery was the best man.  That Monday was mom and dad's 30th anniversary, Kacie had her baby, Tuesday was our nephew Davis's birthday, Wednesday was Brad's birthday and Sunday was my birthday.  The week was clearly very busy, but we topped it off with a wonderful family birthday celebration at Maggiano's Little Italy.  At this point, that's about it, weddings, birthdays, graduations, celebrations and new family members. It's been quite the spring.  I'm looking forward to some rest and to continue the blog now that I have more free time.

Farms are Fun

After a few weeks off I'm back.  Life has been a bit crazy with bachelorette weekends, doing taxes, class, writing papers, and studying for mid-terms.  However, Bennett and Leia are great at keeping me company while I have to do homework. This past weekend was the first time I was home over the weekend in two weeks, well kind of; I certainly didn't stay put long.

Saturday afternoon I rode with Meredith to Pinehurst to help her with her wedding portraits.  We couldn't have asked for better weather and of course Meredith looked beautiful!  It ended up being quite the family affair with me working on her makeup, dad bringing the dress and veil, and mom of course was there because that's just what mom's do.  As much as I would love to post pictures, unfortunatly Meredith has deemed them off limits for anyone to see until after the wedding!

However, I can share our pictures of Sunday's adventure!  As many of you know I'm taking a class on French Gastronomy.  We have to write a paper on a topic of our choosing about a French gastronomic experience.  After looking over the menus of French restaurants Jeffery and I decided that we needed to look for a more economical option.  What did I choose?  Celebrity Goat farm in Siler City, NC!  When we first arrived we found that they raise their own free-range chickens.  Apparently I'm quite the chicken whisperer.  That's right, all those chickens ran up to the fence from their chicken coop.  Like I said, chicken whisperer!  After chatting it up with the chickens Jeffery and I decided it was time to find what we came for, goats.  Seeing as how it was a goat farm that wasn't too difficult.  We headed back around the Inn and found goats everywhere! The baby goat that I'm holding below was actually less than a week old.  Apparently they take them from their momma around two or three days. The goat farmer we met said that was easier on the mommas that way. 

This goat farmer was "playing" with the baby goats; most of them only about a month old. Really they were just chewing on his fingers and trying to eat his shirt. They kind of reminded me of puppies, only not quite as cute and the sound they make, sounds like a baby crying. After further snooping we found a adult goat pen in the back of the farm.  This goat was climbing the fence to eat twigs off a tree.  I made Jeffery stand near him for the picture... you can see how excited he is about that.  After getting our fill of goats we headed back to the inn to buy some goodies from the farm.  I purchased a delicious goat cheese with onion flakes, parsley, basil and chives along with some eggs from my new chicken friends.  Jeffery picked up some persimmon pudding, a fried apple pie and some kind of jelly perserve mixture.  Most of you know I stay away from any kind of cooked fruit, but Jeffery seemed to think all of his treasures were good. 

After returning home, and a short nap, we wrapped up the day with one of Bennetts favorite outtings, a trip to the dog park!  Since we couldn't take her to play with goats it was the least I could do. :)  This is her playing frisbee with her new friend Stella (a five month old puppy).  Bassett friend Melody and Jack Russell friend Pixie can be seen in the background.  All in all I think we'd agree that we had a wonderful weekend!

I'm gonna make you a cupcake you can't refuse.

As all good things must come to an end, then I guess Valentine's weekend must as well.  Growing up I hated Valentine's Day.  Mainly because I was one of the only people walking around the halls of my high school with no roses, mylar balloon, oversized card, stuffed bear... you get the idea.  However, Jeffery has always managed to make it great no matter what we're doing.

This year we decided to "keep it small."  Jeffery was so proud of himself; instead of roses he went for a baby rose bush... get it?  "Keep it small." ha!  He also picked up a box of Whitman's Sampler, there is a bite missing from all of them, and since Food Lion had red velvet cake and icing on sale I grabbed that coming home from work one night.  Snow rolled in on Friday evening and Saturday morning Bennett had a winter wonderland to play in.  Jeffery's parents were in town for the day so we went to buy our couch, a gift from the Hunters, and then on to have hot wings for lunch for Jeffery's belated birthday lunch.  After hanging out at the house and watching the miserable UNC vs. NCSU basketball game they headed home and I headed back up to my room for more school work (blah).

We've finished off the weekend with Japanese Steak House for lunch, watching gangster movies (Goodfellas & The Godfather) all day (while I read applications) and our evening activity... CUPCAKES!  Jeffery of course jumped into help when he could break the eggs and use the blender and then came back to decorate.  He even let Bennett get in on the action!

Over all, it's been a great weekend and was exactly what Valentines is supposed to be about, spending time with the people you love... and the food you love!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Winds-day

Gopher: If I was you, I'd think about skedaddlin' out of here.
Winnie the Pooh: Why?
Gopher: 'Cause it's "Winds-day."
~Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day


After two days of rain, wind and ridiculously cold weather I decided I needed some down home comfort. I of course knew that talking mom into traveling to Raleigh to make me her homemade vegetable soup would not be an option, so I womaned up and made it myself!

Now lets get something straight, I'm not talking about opening a can of Campbell's finest. I made good ol', made from scratch, vegetable beef soup. This may sound simple to some, but this was the first time I've ever made something that didn't start out as a powder or from a can. Now, to tell the truth I didn't chop up tomatoes (those did come from a can), but the broth was homemade. So, for those who are interested...
1. Boil a soup bone (I cooked one and Bennett had one), some celery stalks, and two bullion cubes in about 6 cups of water. Cook until "goo" falls off the bone.
2. Strain liquid into a bowl or crock pot.
3. Add one can of tomato soup, 24 oz can of crushed tomatoes and all the veggies you want. In addition you can throw in left over steak, hamburger meat, etc.
4. Cook for several hours, add salt, pepper, spices to taste and enjoy

Like I said, I know this sounds simple, but there is something special about being able to make a meal from scratch like your mother or grandmother. To be able to create a meal by simply throwing some things together. Sure, there are some recipes that mom has shared over the years, but those are easy and no different than reading them from a cookbook. No, there is definitely a grown up feel that comes from making a meal just like your mom with no real recipe involved. So bring it on "Winds-days," bring on your wind and sub-zero temperatures. I'll be ready for you next time and looking forward to a nice hot bowl of mom's vegetable soup!