Juicy Lucys

Jeremy and I made our own Juicy Lucys tonight for dinner with some farmers market sweet corn. Don't know what a Juicy Lucy is? Well, your not alone...we saw the Juicy Lucy on the T.V. show, Man vs. Food on travel channel. It is a hamburger patty with the cheese in the middle originating at a restaurant in Minneapolis. We also topped our Juicy Lucy's with some leftover roasted Hatch chili peppers. Here is the recipe if you would like to make your own Juicy Lucy:



Homemade Juicy Lucy's with Hatch green chilies: Serves 2

1 lb of ground beef
A handful of your favorite cheese, we used cheddar cheese.


Heat up your grill. Quarter your ground beef. Take one quarter and pat the meat out into a patty but make a little bowl for the cheese. Place a handful of cheese in the bowl you made in the patty. Top your patty with cheese with another patted out quarter of meat. Pinch the two patties together to make sure the cheese is all inside the hamburger patty and that your meat is pinched together enough so it won't fall apart on the grill. Repeat. Grill your hamburger patties until well done. Serve with toasted buns and your favorite hamburger toppings. We topped them with roasted Hatch green chilies and about set our mouths on fire.

Foodie

I've been thinking about adding my love of all things food to the blog. We have been trying to eat healthier around here, and are dining in ALOT more than we did pre-baby so I have gone back to my cook books for some variety. So, with my love of Top Chef, Food Network, foodie blogs, recipe books and the art of cooking and baking I figure I could share some of my loved and hated recipes with the rest of you to try out on your own. Some will be healthy some not so much, but we have to indulge every once and a while.

Here is one of our favorite baked italian dishes (an indulgence).

Cheesy Baked Tortellini - serves 4-6
by Giada De Laurentiis-Everyday Pasta

2 cups marinara sauce (another day I will share our homemade marinara recipe)
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh italian parsley (or 2 tbsp dried)
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)
1 lb purchased cheese tortellini
2 oz thinly sliced smoked mozzarella
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a square baking dish or casserole dish with cooking spray. Whisk the marinara, marscapone and herbs till blended. Cook tortellini until al dente. Add tortellini to sauce and toss to coat. Transfer to baking dish, top with mozzarella and parmesan. Cover dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered until sauce bubbles and cheeses on top melt, about 10 more minutes.

Notes: This is super easy and we have modified in a couple of ways. First we usually eliminate the "toss to coat" step and just lay the tortellini in the dish and pour the sauce over top, it all gets mixed together pretty easily. We have used ricotta cheese instead of mascarpone and its still good, the Teeter is kind of hit or miss on whether they have mascarpone in stock or not.

You could liven it up by adding fresh sliced mushrooms to the sauce or some cooked italian ham (prosciutto or pancetta).

Also, regular mozzarella works just as well as smoked if you can't find smoked.

Bumps on a Log

We went camping this weekend, just a short trip after work Friday and back Sunday morning. We were only about 50 miles south of Charlotte. Once we got all set up on Friday until we had to pack back up on Sunday, Jeremy and I did absolutely nothing. It was nice. No running around, no cleaning, no going out. Just sat in our camping chairs with our friend coors light and a good book.

We were at a SC state park and our camp site backed up to the fishing lake and dock. Its was picturesque, of course we forgot to take a photo. Holden enjoyed the cool morning but spent most of the afternoon in the air conditioned camper. South Carolina in mid August is not the coolest of places, it kind of feels like you are at the screen door to hell in the afternoon. But like I said, Jeremy and I had a supply of frosty beverages.

Our productive activities: a 2.5 mile hike around the lake, Holden took his morning snooze in the moby wrap during the walk and Malachi got to go for a little swim in the lake.

Like I said we did nothing. It. Was. Awesome.

Jeremy's new addition to the camper, the Owl Lights.

Hanging out

So Much to Do, So Little Time

We have had so many visitors and weekends away from home in the last month, the house has started to feel neglected. So, as the master of making lists, we had a long one this weekend. Somehow, the majority of the list still seemed to be all things Holden. Holden has outgrown all of his 3 month outfits and the dresser was a mess of clothes that didn't fit and clothes that did. So I got all of his too small outfits packed away, and we have already filled 2 large tupperware of baby clothes, diapers and gear and he is only 5 months old! We also had a marathon of baby food making on Saturday. Holden is going to have a smorgasbord of scrumptious fruits and veggies to try in the next month and beyond. We cooked and pureed the following goodies and froze them in either baby cubes or ice cube trays for individual servings:

1. Acorn Squash
2. Butternut Squash
3. Sweet Potato
4. Carrots
5. Avocado
6. Peaches
7. Banana

We still have some papaya and nectarines that are ripening. It isn't that hard of a project either you basically let the food processor do all of the work. I think we will be able to have him on homemade food for the majority of his meals and just jarred food when we are out and about, which is great.

We did manage to fit some play time into our weekend. Holden hosted a play date and I got a chance to catch up with the other moms. Its been awhile since we have all gotten together so it was nice to catch up. Two of Holden's friends have gotten their bottom 2 teeth already, and he got to hang out with his buddy Cameron before she went on vacation for 2 weeks.

We will be headed on our second camping trip for the summer next weekend so hopefully I remember to take pictures since I didn't get any from the beach trip last weekend.

Just For Fun

For the Grandmas

Getting ready for college football, wearing out all of my lesser teams colors before donning my Big Red Colors

Courtesy of the Godparents, showing my pride for the best pizza joint in Columbia, MO
Jumping!

Great Friends and Great Memories

Jeremy and I had our closest friends visit us over a long weekend. We met Scott and Carolina while I was in grad school and they just completed their PhDs in July and came to take it easy before joining the real world working for Big Oil. We had such a great time, ate too much food and maybe drank a little too much. Jeremy and Scott planned the next trip to meet half way between our two cities, and Carolina and I worked on her wedding plans. Carolina ordered some amazing food for all of us at the local Colombian restaurant (hence we ate way too much) and they had the best fried pickles in Charlotte at The Penguin (again we ate too much-kind of the theme of the weekend). A close friend was kind enough to watch Holden for us one evening so we could all go out on the town. And of course, Carolina and I found a way to fit in some shopping.

Carolina also tried to spoil Holden as much as one person could in 4 days. Holden took a liking to Carolina's spanish so we might have to get his some spanish baby music, but it won't be the same as Carolina's sweet voice. We couldn't quite get either of them to change diapers, we were trying to let them get some practice in for when they get ready to have babies, but they weren't taking the bait. There will probably be plenty of Skyping with Holden once they get settled in their new home.

Scott and Carolina are Holden's godparents, so we also had his christening while they were here. Holden was baptized yesterday in the Catholic Church, and was previously baptized in the Nazarene Church. We aren't sure which faith he will gravitate towards as he gets older, but we plan on having a duel faith household so we felt that for our family having two baptisms was fitting. And as much as I have struggled with my own Catholic faith, the baptism was really special and meant more to me than I had expected. It kind of took me aback a little bit during the sacrament.

We hope eventually the four of us will be in closer proximity so we can see each other more than once a year.

5 Months!

Holden is five months old today, we can't believe it. His personality is starting to become more defined. He has started to fight nap time (at home anyway), he doesn't want to miss anything. He's had many visitors this month and had his Catholic Baptism today. We will do a separate post with photos in the next couple of days. We don't have any stats this month, but think he is around 14-15 lbs now. He has started eating some solid food but his palate is limited to rice cereal and sweet potatoes right now, we will be tasting new veggies and fruits in the months to come.

Holden's accomplishments this month:

• He has started babbling and screeching when he is excited
• He is grabbing toys and such and everything goes straight to his mouth
• He has been practicing sitting up but we haven't mastered it yet
• He has expanded his menu to include rice cereal and sweet potato
• He has figured out how to make the jumperoo play music by bouncing
• He follows everyone around the room including the dog and cat

What Holden has done for the first time in July:

• First camping trip and first 4th of July
• Met his grandpa and aunts for the first time and had a great time learning the ways of the world from grandpa
• Met his godparents, Carolina and Scott, got spoiled rotten and had his christening
• Started solid foods

We love you Holden and are having so much fun watching you grow and explore your environment.

My little peanut

Scott and Carolina in spoil modeHow many things can I put in my mouth at one time?