Beer Drinkin' Par-tay, Fatty Meat Fest & Rock the VOTE!

Weekend adventures when we're almost to the next weekend. The husband had a 4-day weekend and we didn't travel! Perhaps a small miracle in itself! We did, however, enjoy two bike rides, one concert, a party with lots of beer, two times using our new Weber, and just rested.

The Wilsons threw another House Party! Nothing like 60 free beers and awesome swag for my friends just to promote a great product! After our Bud tour a few weeks ago, we were slightly underwhelmed until we had this party. It was a massive hit with 21 of our friends there to eat brats and drink beer. I went to the store and bought all these beverages the other day. I found it quite entertaining and wondered if the cashier was curious if I was thirsty. Hah.

Two friends kicking off the BBQ. Tommy looks hilarious here. There really are an endless supply of Tommy photos I could post, but I'll leave that to his wife.

Happy Husband & friends drinking Budweiser in their new coozies!

These two photos provide me nothing but laughs. Tommy took the photos and for the first one, we all just smiled.

Then Tommy said, "Okay, now the fun one!" Well, apparently I'm the only one who heard that. And also, I blinked because the camera wouldn't take the picture right away. Special Brandy. Special.

We experienced our first Ribfest here in the 'burbs. It's basically a large park covered in various carnival rides and lots of BBQ vendors interested in selling their slabs of really fatty meat. Mmm. It's festivals like these that secure my spot in vegetarian land forever.

First stop, beef brisket from Two Fat Guys. Of course I took a photo. Except... not pictured is the second chunk of animal on bread my husband consumed, pulled chicken. Also, the pizza I had from the single vendor that decided to cater to me and the cornbread we shared.

We rode our bikes to the event so we didn't have to deal with parking or traffic. And, we live exactly 3 miles from the park that Montgomery Gentry was playing at! We were about 30 feet away from the stage. Other than inhaling at least an entire pack of cigarettes, we had a great time.

After too much meat consumption, my husband always allows me to insert a few veggie-friendly meals. He feels the need for a detox and I gladly oblige. We made veggie kabobs and a lemon-parmesan pasta for the starch using my favorite pasta. Anyone else love this stuff?

 More food. But of course.

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And now here's for a plug. One of the first resources I found online after losing Andrew in December was a non-profit website called Faces of Loss, Faces of Hope. There's a button on the right side of my blog from their site. The woman who started it is a young mom of a daughter, Stevie. Stevie was born in 2010 at 25 weeks due to blood clotting disorders. Because of this, Kristen started her own non-profit online as a place for women to be heard. Women who lost babies that they wanted so desperately to keep. Women who lost babies to stillbirth, miscarriage, SIDS, infant loss, or loss of a child in any way. It is there so others would be able to read their stories and see their faces. It is there so women won't feel so alone. It's there so women, like me, are shown to the public as normal women with devastating circumstances out of their control. We're not women who abuse drugs while pregnant or women who lack prenatal care. We're women who gave our all to these babies we carried but their fate was determined to be fatal.

Now, because FOL is a non-profit, they are trying to win a $25,000 grant from Pepsi. I love this resource. It connected me to so many women that I still talk with--some everyday. They are people who absolutely understand my loss and struggle. Because of this, I am hoping you'll vote. It won't cost you a thing and you can connect to your facebook account! Here are the deets:

To vote:
1) Follow this link: http://pep.si/kzOEpR
2) Click the button that says ‘vote for this idea’
3) You’ll be prompted to either login or sign up for a new voting account (this just takes a few minutes and a valid email address, or you can even login using your facebook account!)
4) Click VOTE after it logs you in!
5) Repeat once a day, every day!



Thanks so much! :)

Hosting in the New Casa

This weekend was a busy one! On Saturday, two events were taking place concurrently-- a friend and colleague of Ray's from Germany came into town for business. We were entertaining for the weekend. As Ray was picking Sascha up from the airport after his 1.5 hours spent in the immigration line (ugh!), I was hosting a baby shower for someone we met a few months ago at church, Julie. She's due next month with a surprise baby and about 16 women came to celebrate the new little one. Thanks to House Party, I was sent a prize package of goods to throw a Sauza tequila "girl's night out" party. It was a girl's party... but not quite night when we had the function. Here are the cocktails getting mixed together... if only I could've taken part in the actual drinking: 1 can tequila (um, yeah, woah), 1 light beer, 1 can limeade, 1 can water. Stir and drink. I heard they were massively strong, so for the second batch it was a bit weaker.

Here are some new friends. Left to right (Jessie, Alli, Liz, Kim).

Julie is in the center (I'm sure the belly gave that one away)!

Here are the key lime cupcakes I made. Though I cheated a bit and used lemon cake mix, I added quite a few ingredients (including orange juice!) and made the frosting myself. It was so incredibly cream-cheesy and delicious. I bought some new Wilton pipings at Target for about $7 and was able to make the swirl I've been eyeing all over the internet lately. They turned out quite well.

Here's the brie I replicated from my days at Kincaid's. Because I knew the ingredients so well, I was able to figure it all out... with the help of my friend Tes who provided me the tip of freezing the brie before coating/baking so it keeps form. It turned out incredible. The balsamic reduction was even a success and I didn't burn it! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
Plain brie cheese wedge, frozen
Panko bread crumbs
Olive oil or an egg to hold the coating
Honey
Balsamic vinegar
Crushed nuts (I used cashews, though macadamia nuts, peanuts, pistachios... all good options)

Directions:
1. Prepare breading: crush nuts and mix with panko crumbs-- use mostly bread crumbs. Pour this mixture onto plate or in a sprayed metal pie tin.
2. Coat frozen brie with egg wash or olive oil
3. Cover with as much panko/nut mixture as possible on all sides. Pile more on top when all sides are coated.
4. Line sprayed pie tin with some panko crumbs, place brie in center, and pour a bit more crumbs and nut mixture on top.
5. Bake at 350 degrees until it begins to "puff" and ooze slightly at the end. Place in broiler to brown a bit for a few minutes.
6. While baking, drizzle honey onto a plate and create balsamic reduction (boil 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar on stove, stirring constantly, until it turns into a glaze) and drizzle onto plate.
7. Once brie is ready, place onto plate and add more nuts if desired. Serve with warm bread, crackers, sliced apples, or whatever sounds good!

After the successful shower, I headed out to dinner with Ray & Sascha. We tried Ted's Montana by recommendation from our friend Derrick and it was great! Then we dropped Sascha off at the Hilton and headed home...

... this came next: When balloons are left at my house, two things happen: my husband experiments with the density of helium and oxygen (a little geeky) and then becomes silly by trying on his new hat. I love him.

Fast forward to the next day-- we wanted to give Sascha the experience of a typical Sunday afternoon in the US, so we took him to Costco, the outlets, Chipotle (though Mexican food isn't popular in Germany, Sascha seemed to enjoy his burrito quite well and even commented that he plans to get the spiciest salsa next time!), and dinner with another colleague and his wife. Between lunch and dinner, the guys played THREE games of Settlers of Catan. Sometimes they used the German rules and sometimes the American rules. It was great fun to watch this competition. This game has become a new obsession between Ray and some friends here in IL. It being a German board game, Ray and Sascha were both familiar and had a great time.

Good weekend and we're extending it to tonight! We're heading to Wrigley Field tonight for hot dogs and Cubs v. Padres baseball. Since the Cubs don't have a fighting chance (let's be honest) and I'm from California, I'll be sporting a Cubs shirt but rooting for the Padres.