Jeff's Birthday!

Jeff's Birthday fell on Labor Day this year, which meant that I had to work.  Working on Labor Day is a good thing, though, because we get paid time & half.  Plus I only worked for half the day since I had to prepare for Jeff's French-Themed Party.  I had been planning the menu for a month or so (ever since Jeff watched Julie & Julia for the first time & asked me to cook something French for him).  The only recipe in the entire book that would feed a large party was something called Braised Goose with Meat & Chestnut Stuffing.  I had to special order a 9.6lb goose from one of the grocery stores & I stuffed the thing with ground veal & pork & roasted chestnuts.  For the sides, I made braised chestnuts in a fantastic glaze & braised leeks. 

For the dessert, I made a strawberry tart.  We started cooking for this feast 3 days ahead.  Saturday we made the tart crust, which took awhile but was a lot easier than I had first anticipated.  The recipe to make a tart crust in 10 pages long & illustrated & Julia even admits that it is difficult because of all of the sugar in the dough (cracks easily & is hard to roll out).  But I did it & was very proud of the fact that the finished product looked like the picture!  Saturday I also made the custard filling for the tart.  Custards are extremely temperamental & it is very difficult to keep the bottom of the pan from burning.  But its OK if it does burn, as long as you smell it in time to keep the custard from getting a burnt taste.  This is what I have learned.  So the custard came out fine, even if the bottom of the pan was a little burnt.  Sunday we made the stuffing for the goose, which was pretty easy. 

Monday, I went to work in the morning & Jeff cleaned all day & put the goose in the oven for me.  He did a good job, following all of the instructions Julia & I laid out for him.  The only difficulty was that I had assumed that the goose did not come with its liver (assumed this was something to buy separately & I decided to just skip that step).  Well when Jeff opened up the bird, he found the liver, heart, gizzard, neck, etc.  So he was a little confused & just fried everything up together as the recipe stated, including the liver which was supposed to be reserved for the stuffing.  Oh well, we survived.

I got home at around 3:30pm & had about an hour before I needed to get started on the other dishes.  So I cleaned myself up & changed for the party & by the time I was ready to start cooking, the skies opened up & let down a downpour that I can describe as akin to a complete white-out.  We had a river outside of our house.  At that point, I realized no one that lived more than 5 minutes away was going to make it to our house.  Who wants to drive in that kind of storm?  So I wasn't surprised that no one from my work came & some of our other expected guests didn't arrive either.  And most people didn't arrive until 7pm (instead of the original 6pm start time).  But we did end up with about 15 people at our house, which is probably max capacity for us. 

The goose was eaten very quickly & it was good.  No one had ever tried goose before so we were all comparing notes.  It is red meat so it is very dark.  It was good but my favorite was the stuffing.  So tender & flavorful!  And the chestnuts were very good too, as were the leeks.  Everything was very flavorful & yummy.  And of course the tart was to die for!  Everyone left at around 9pm, which wasn't surprising as everyone had to work or go to school the next day.  I was grateful because I had to work at 7:30am Tuesday morning.  I think everyone had a good time & I'm fairly certain everyone enjoyed the food  :)

This year Jeff wanted a new suit for his (hopefully!) upcoming interviews this fall.  After shopping around & discovering that Jeff is a size 34 (largely unmade by most companies), we finally settled on a clearanced number at Macys.  Its a very nice suit & it looks great on Jeff!

Tuesday I cooked up a meal that I have not had since I moved from AZ.  My Dad is laughing as he reads this because the idea came to me when I was on the phone with him & I randomly asked for his bean recipe.  Dad was shocked because who doesn't know how to cook beans?  Get beans, add water, done, right?!  This was evidence that I have been away from the west coast for wayyy too long!  We eat black eyed peas here, not pinto beans.  So I nagged Dad to give him his "recipe" which is essentially what I wrote above plus a few spices.  I put everything in the crock pot Tuesday before work.  When we came home, the house smelled heavenly.  There is truly nothing better than home cooked beans in my opinion.  The taste is so much better than the canned variety.  I will definitely have to remember this in the future :)

This weekend I am going to attempt to make Osso Bucco, which veal shank.  I am excited, it looks really good!  :)

Today is my day off & it looks like so Tammy & I have been lazing around the house.  Reading, watching TV, playing on the PC, sleeping, etc.  Tammy of course wants a walk & is begging me whie I write this but I just don't have the energy after a long week at work (6 days straights).  We will probably end up at the dog park shortly.  And next week, the whole Muehlbauer clan here in NC will be traveling to Lake Tahoe for a wedding!  I am very excited as it is a much needed vacation.  Now is the time to travel since before we know it the Holidays will be here & no time off will be allowed.  This will be my 10th Holiday Season in retail.  I guess I'm a survivor by now  :) 

Tubing!

This summer, Jeff & I have taken up a new hobby.  Tubing!  We got our tubes at Wal-Mart & started small with a mile long tube on the Eno River.  Our small adventure ended up being several hours due to the slowness of the river, which taught us a lesson in planning our next trips.  We went with our friends Brian & Molly & had a lot of fun!  Below are some pics from that first trip in July.

 Our next adventure was on the Neuse River with a new Graduate student, Matt Fuller.  The Neuse was much faster & this time we opted for a longer trip, totaling miles on the river.  It took us 5 hours to do the entire trip but we had a great day of sunning & swimming!  The last mile of the float had a Class I rapid, which was really really fun to go over in the tubes!  At one point during the float, I fell asleep listening to Matt's iPod & was rudely woken up by the 2 guys yelling my name.  They were wayyy ahead of me down the river!

 
Our next river adventure, was a canoeing trip along the Dan River near Greensboro, NC.  It was a 4 hour canoe, roughly 10 miles along the river.  It was a slow moving river but we did get to see a lot of wildlife.  Cows, herons, turtles, foxes, & an otter!  We had a lot of fun canoeing together & relaxing on the peaceful river.

 Finally, we did the Neuse again but this time only spent 2 hours along the river, about 1.5 miles.  We really enjoyed those rapids though!  Sadly, no pictures this time ;)  But we had a great time hanging out with Kimberly & Matt on the river! 

In the cooking world, I have been channeling my inner Julia Child.  It started with ratatouille & the cookbook has not seemed to be put back, yet.  Jeff made me poached eggs with hollandaise one morning.  Last night, I made mousakka.  And coming soon I will be braising a 9-lb goose!  I am stuffing the goose with pork, veal, & chestnuts & serving braised chestnuts & leeks on the side.  For dessert, I will be making a strawberry tart.  And honestly, the tart is what frightens me the most...it looks so complicated!!  All of this cooking, is for Jeff's 27th Birthday which falls on Labor Day this year.  Wednesday I will be attempting Duck L'Orange because our CSA is slaughtering their ducks on Tuesday & we are planning on picking one up to eat!  I'm excited about this  :) 

In other news, Jeff is continuing to apply to jobs in various locations.  The most recent is a faculty position at the University of Maine.  I have been put on the Executive track at work & am hoping to get signed off for that promotion early next year.  My Grandma is finally out of the hospital & is doing really well.  My Grandpa & her moved back up to Colorado for the rest of the summer to beat the Phoenix heat.  We are looking forward to a lovely fall here in NC & towards our next vacation to Lake Tahoe in the middle of September!

A Magical Vacation

Jeff & I decided to go to Orlando, FL this year for vacation.  Being as it is our last summer in NC, it seemed like the time to take advantage of our close proximity to go to Disney World.  When we first moved, I said that I wanted to visit NYC & Disney World during our time here.  So now we have succeeded in that goal!

We had a GREAT time & really loved Orlando.  The weather was wonderful with afternoon showers every day.  It rained on us pretty good at Epcot, which we really appreciated!  We spent 2 days at Canaveral National Seashore swimming in the ocean & generally enjoying relaxing beach time.

I think my favorite part of the vacation was our day at Universal Islands of Adventure.  I was awe-struck by Hogwarts & Hogsmeade.  I mean its one thing to see a fantasy world on the movie screen & it is quite another to actually walk around it!  Universal did a great job, I was really impressed!!  The portraits in Hogwarts actually moved & talked just like they do in the movies/books.  Hermoine actually casts a spell on you & it starts snowing on your head!  Hogsmeade has every shop & the butter beer is pretty tasty (and pretty cheap too!).  The rides were fun but they have never really been my thing, Jeff enjoyed himself.

Jeff's favorite part was probably Kennedy Space Center but he was pretty excited by Epcot.  Kennedy was pretty boring for me & I got tired & information overloaded pretty quickly.  I was reminded by Mom's mental state when we toured Washington DC in high school.  I'm pretty sure she felt the same way by all of the museums we visited! BUT, I did get launched into space by going on the Launch Simulator that they have there & ya'll should be impressed.  We learned a lot about NASA's change of direction for the future & the decision to stop the shuttle program.  We saw they new launch pads & launch towers that will be used for private space missions.  It was pretty cool.

After touring Kennedy, we took a wildlife drive on the swampland owned by NASA nearby.  We saw an alligator & some very pretty scenery.  Then, we went to the manatee viewing area & saw manatees playing with each other!  It was like watching dolfins, so cool!  They are huge & ugly but I was so excited to see them.  I've never seen one in the wild before & I was awed.

Jeff the ecologist really wanted to scope out some local springs that they have around Orlando.  We toured 2 on Tuesday.  They are unique because the water is so clear.  In some places it is 30ft deep & you can see all the way to the bottom.  One of Jeff's conferences will be in Jacksonville next year & we are contemplating vacationing again to check out more of these places.

Our last day was spent at Epcot.  Now after an entire week of running around, driving, & being tossed by thrill rides I was exhausted to say the least.  My back, hips, & legs were starting to cramp & bother me.  Epcot was all for me because I have always wanted to go through the Global Showcase.  So it was a little disheartening for Jeff to see me so withered & trying so hard to be excited.  I really did have a good time, I just wish we did Epcot first instead of last.  We had dinner at the Cafe de Paris & met Chef Remi from Ratatouille, which was cute & fun.  $100 meal at Disney is definitely not the same quality as outside of Disney, though but it was worth it for a nice place to sit & cool down. 

Food?  While we were in Florida, we had a kitchenette so we cooked grilled pizza, pasta, & sausage with peppers.  We ate out for seafood one night & had the best shrimp I have ever tasted.  It was Florida Red Shrimp & they were sweet & tasty!  I inhaled my dozen & wanted more :)  Yesterday, I really caught up on cooking with salsa, peach biscuits, corn chowder, triggerfish with sweet potato cakes, & peach icecream.  My tutoring student has a peach tree & we were given free access to their tree while they were on vacation & we must have picked 3-4 bushels!  I made 3 pies & the leftovers I made into icecream & biscuits.  I can't wait to cook up a pie soon!

In other news, my Grandmother is back in AZ after a very scary spinal surgery in CO.  She had everyone pretty worked up & worried but as most of you know she is a fighter & pulled through & seems to be doing fine.  She is in physical therapy & we hope that will help her to build her strength back up.

Love & miss you all!!

Annual Girls Trip 2012

My Mom came out to visit me last week!  I had been counting own the days since she first bought her plane ticket, I was so excited!!  She flew in Thursday & I managed to get off work at 3pm so that I could spend the evening with her & Jeff (I normally close Thursday nights).  Jeff grilled us up some steaks from our local CSA & Mom put together salads.  I made a pear tart for dessert.  Everything was pretty tasty :)  Friday Mom & I drove out to Southport, NC.  I won a 2-night stay at the Hampton Inn there.  What a neat little town!  Friday we walked around the main street & went to a really nice wine tasting.  For NC wines, they were really good, not the normal muscadine grape varieties that I normally see.  We had a nice seafood dinner that night too.  Saturday we took the ferry over to Bald Head Island, which appeared to be a golfers paradise.  Lots of golf courses & no cars allowed on the island so everyone drives a golf cart!  Mom & I visited the oldest lighthouse in NC (Old Baldy) & then walked around the shops.  When we finished it was the afternoon & we had planned to chill out on the beach, when this real estate agent picked us up on the side of the road!  She insisted that we rent a golf cart & see more of the island.  So we did.  We spent a few hours touring the island, seeing the $15-million homes & beautiful beach areas.  I'm impressed with Bald Head Island, I think it's my next beach destination.  We did get some beach time in the evening before dinner, which was a great way to end our day walking & touring around.  Sunday we drove back to Chapel Hill, after touring the aquarium on Ft. Fisher & checking out Belamy Mansion in historic Wilmington.  Monday I took Mom to see Old Salem....only to find out that it's closed Mondays!!  So we couldn't see any of the museum or visitors center or artwork :(  Nor could we see the local people dressed up in their old timey clothes :((  But we did get to visit the bakery where they make Moravian Cookies (yum!) & we saw the outsides of all the buildings.  Mom said she really enjoyed it.  After touring Old Salem, we checked out the outlets & had fun picking out outfits for each other (although to be honest, I'm no good).  Mom left on Tuesday.  She dropped me off at work after we spent the morning getting pedicures, shopping at A Southern Season, & walking around the Botanical Gardens.  I hope Mom had a good time visiting & I, of course, already miss her!!

Side Note:  During all of this fun vacation girl time...Jeff got stung by a wasp.  When we returned, his leg had tripled in size & we were arguing about whether or not Jeff needed to see a doctor.  Thank god my Mom was here because on Tuesday she finally convinced him to go.  And it's a good thing because the doctor thinks he is highly allergic (I've been saying this for years) & now Jeff gets to join the group of people that have to have an epi-pen at all times on the their person.

I am back to work now & back to the hustle & bustle of life here in Ole NC.  But not for long.  Jeff & I leave for Orlando, FL in 2 weeks!!  That will be a well deserved week long vacation for both of us.  I'm so excited!!  And I'm still trolling for petty cash, if anybody would like to help us out ;)

Last night, I also got the scary news that my Grandmother is back in ICU.  She had back surgery while I was at the beach with my Mom & the doctors had to stop the surgery early because her hemoglobin levels were dropping.  She is resting now & the doctors expect her to leave the hospital on Saturday.  These 2 hospital episodes recently have really scared us, so please continue to keep her in your thoughts!

Grilling & Apple Pie

My Grandma called me yesterday to ask why I wasn't in CO to help make apple pie  :)  When I was out last, my Grandma & I shredded zucchini & peeled apples from their "farm" to make zucchini breads & pies.  It was fun!  I did the dirty work & attempted to keep the kitchen clean & Grandma did the dough & filling & put the pies together.  We made a good team!  It's the little things that you miss most when you move away from your family.

This weekend, our good friend Joel Sholtes is in town to visit.  That means parties to go to every night!  Last night we met at a local park to grill up some fish, lettuce, & shrooms.  It was good.  Have any of you ever had grilled lettuce?  Not bad!  I provided sugar free root beer floats (some of you may find this lame but when you don't eat sugar, you make do with what's out there).  We had a pretty good time talking & making up for lost time (Joel & his wife Kari moved from NC 3 years ago).  Now, that we are getting ready to move in the next year, Joel is really hoping for us to move out to their neck of the woods: Ft. Collins, CO.  I'm a little nervous about moving to CO because of the snow.  I really actually don't miss snow at all.  But ALL of our friends live in the Denver area now so it would be really good to reconnect with them.  We'll see.  Logan, UT is another possibility that comes very close to my heart.

Today we went tubing down the Eno River with our good friends Brian & Molly.  It was slow going but really fun!  I hope we can get together with them again soon  :)  After tubing, we went to another barbeque with some friends.  We had a great time hanging out & eating meat!  I brought pasta salad, black & blue burgers, peanut brittle, & a cake.  None of that was homemade. 

Recipes?  I made a raspberry streusel with almond flour & xylitol that was pretty tasty.  I also made a very good carrot cake with sugar free vanilla icing & raisins, carrots, & walnuts.  The fish tacos I made were really really good.  The homemade guacamole with marinated shallots was to die for!  The salsa was also very good.  The flavors all combined together to make a tasty taco  :)  The next recipe I want to try is dijon marinated chicken kebaps.

Wednesday I start my 9-day stretch.  I asked to work 9 days straight so that I could have a Friday & Saturday off.  So it goes.  I needed those days off though because MY MOM IS COMING TO VISIT!!!  I'm just a little excited ;)  My Mom & I are going to head to the beach at Southport, NC for a few days & then we might take a trip to Winston Salem. 

Tammy's First Swim

So, yes, I am officially the new Guest Services Team Leader at Target!  :)  They've retroacted my pay so we are all good.  I've started my new position by implementing some new fun games that the cashiers really seem to enjoy  :) 

Jeff has returned from his conference in Kentucky.  He had a good time but is exhausted from all the talks that he went to.  He got to go on a steamboat ride, as well as as see the Slugger stadium.  While he was gone, I worked, caught up on my tv shows, tried to make homemade mac & cheese, and caught up on sleep. 

Last Sunday was Jeff & I's 5th Anniversary.  I closed the store the night before & was woken up at 5:55am with a pretty scary phone call.  My grandmother was taken to the hospital.  Turns out she had too much ammonia in her blood & that was wreaking havoc on her brain.  A day of being really scared but she pulled out of it & is resting at home now.  We are so relieved that everything came out OK & that the doctor's caught her condition in time. 

This weekend Jeff wanted to go swimming.  We thought briefly about going to a water park but at $35/person, we thought we'd save our money & go to Raven Rock State Park for free instead.  The Cape Fear River runs through Raven Rock & we took Tammy there for a swim.  Tammy has been to creeks, lakes, rivers, etc. before but she really only ever goes in to maybe her tummy line, she doesn't swim.  The water kind of freaks her out.  Well this time Jeff first attempted to just set her on a rock in the water that wasn't very deep, she wasn't impressed & gave Jeff dirty looks for that.  Then we left her on the beach while we went swimming which made her a nervous wreck because her job is to protect us & we watched as she went up & down the beach testing the water to find a safe place to come out to us.  It didn't work.  So Jeff picked her up & carried her to this very large rock in the middle of the river.  And we left her again.  This time she got enough courage to walk out a little ways trying to get to us but again nervous wreck dog.  When we swam back to her, she went ballistic.  She really thought we would leave her there on that rock in the middle of the river.  Dogs...  Instead of carrying her back to land, Jeff made her go across by herself.  She likes jumping rocks across rivers but when the rocks run out she is at a loss.  Jeff gave her a push & I called her to me on the beach.  The look on her face was priceless.  As she's swimming she looks pretty pleased until the current starts to take her away from her goal, which is me, then she starts to panic.  She made it, though, and that was Tammy's first swim  :)

Jeff & I are trying to get away on a vacation this summer.  The problem is that everywhere is really expensive!  We want to go to Disney World since we're only 10 hours away & we will be moving next year.  Just to go to Epcot, not even the other 3 Disney Parks, is $80 per person per day.  So we are saving our money to go.  And since we aren't going to be going to AZ for Christmas this year, anyone that would like to help us get to Disney World instead of shipping packages to AZ.....

Well I think that's all we have going on for right now.  My mac & cheese was very good but I need to use bigger noodles, not elbows next time.  Tonight I am making fish tacos, which I am very excited about!  :)

So even though it hasn't been officially announced yet, I am the new Guest Services Team Leader at Target  :) I just finished working 6 days straight, 4 of them nights & I am exhausted!  I go back to work tomorrow, though.  Back to 40 hours a week & 2 days off per week.  It'll be an adjustment!  But I am hoping that with the more hours & pay raise, we will have enough money to take a vacation to Disney World! 

Last night we watched Midnight in Paris.  I have to say it was weird.  Funny but weird.  I can see why Jeff liked it.  We also saw The Avengers in IMAX 3D last week.  Soo good & definitely recommend seeing it on the IMAX!  I went to the bathroom halfway through the movie & came back to Jeff with the biggest grin on his face.  So yea, go see it! 

New recipes:  I made homemade cheesecake.  It was really different to make but oh my god the best cheesecake ever!  I poured the fluffy filling into a springform pan & baked it in the oven in a water bath.  The consistency, taste, & texture were all perfect!  Insert drooling here  :)  I also attempted a sugar free german chocolate cake.  Jeff loves it but I think it tastes off somehow. 

This week is more working.  On Saturday we are celebrating Mothers Day since Jeff's parents were in CA this past week.  Sunday is Jeff & I's 5th Wedding Anniversary but Jeff is leaving Saturday for a conference.  So I get to spend this big anniversary by myself & working.  Pitty party for me.