A gluten weekend (and glutton...)

As most of you know, last fall we discovered that Justin has a gluten allergy. Ever since we've been trying to find new recipes and adapt the ones we have. It's been challenging but in a fun way. Unfortunately at the time we figured this out, there had been many Sams club runs to stock our freezers; none of which Justin can now eat. I got into a purge mode this week and decided to try and eat up as much gluten filled foods as I could. Spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread, eggs rolls, breaded cheesy bites, pizza, cheese squares, and Amish bread was all consumed. Thanks to John, Kristen, Jenny, Cari & all the Staubus' for helping me out! Happy to say I have 2 freezers gluten-free and only one left to go. Yea!

In addition to cleaning my house of gluten, I was also given the task of making a gluten-free Black Forest Cherry Cake for the Staubus Sauerkraut and Kapostie [no idea how to spell that but it's a German potato pancake] Dinner. I took the original recipe and just substituted a gluten-free flour mix. It turned out really well. My mom made the regular version and we compared the two. The gluten-free was a little denser and sticker but tasted just as good. I think it could easily pass for the real thing.

The gluten free cake.


Mom & I next to our cakes.


Frying up the Kapostsies with Grammy directing.


Close up. Fried in lots of bacon grease. Makes your heart stop looking at it.

I'd rather be...

I look around and all I see are empty cubes and the sun shining brightly through my window. I do not feel like I should be stuck at work while everyone else is gone. Here's what I'd rather be doing (assuming it was nice out too) In no particular order...

Maybe not doing the marathon again but I am so itching to get on my blades.


The perfect Euchre hand. Spades alone, put your hand down.


Kickball which is hopefully starting again soon!


Ahh red wine. There's nothing better.


Wearing my reef flip flops. There is nothing more comfortable than that!


Happy Weekend!

It's good to be a student

Guess what I am going to see tonight? Rent!! Abbie and her old student ID are hooking us up with student rush tickets. Only $20 a ticket. Such a deal. Hopefully we get good seats. I've seen Rent 2 or 3 times but it's one of my all time favorite performances. I can't wait! Thanks Abs for hooking us up. :)

An experiment

Justin and I had so much fun with our garden last year that this year we've decided to expand it and start a 2nd one. We also thought it would be fun to try and make our own plants from seeds instead of buying all the premade plants. Justin was deemed our expert since he had to take Ag in high school - which I have to say floored me because I swear that wasn't even offered at Woodbury more or less having it be a required class. Anyways we did a little bit of research and went out to get what was needed. Seed + water + warmth + sun = plant. It didn't seem like it'd be too hard.

This small project has started to go a little over board. Justin bought just about every type of veggie pack in the store. Then we decided if we're going to do veggies, we might as well try to do our flowers too! Last weekend we started out planting half of our veggies and all of the herbs and flowers. We filled 2 flats with seeds, wanting to see how they took off before planting the 3rd flat with the rest of the veggies.

One of the flats.


All of the veggies packets.


Now I know the instructions said to only put 2 or 3 seeds put cell, but some of those seeds were so darn tiny it just didn't seem possible that 2 or 3 would create a plant. In those cases it was decided that sprinkling the whole bunch of seeds in the cell would be a good idea. Less than a week later we have 10-15 little plants popping out of 1 cell. OOPS! Guess following the instructions would've been smart. That's why this is all an experiment. :)

You can see the multiple plants on the back flat and in one of the rows on the front one.


Also, a lot of the packets didn't mention starting the plant indoors but we decided that you should be able to start anything inside. Our squash got so big that it already had to be replanted...I have a feeling we might get a lot of this coming up. Once again maybe should listened to the packet. :)


If anyone has done this sort of thing at home I would gladly take advice. Clearly I have no idea what I'm doing and am flying by the seat of my pants. It's so fun though! Hopefully we'll get enough plants to make it all worth while. If this does work we bought all of our veggies and flowers for the price of 2 large tomato plants. What a deal!!

St. Patti's Day

Angie invited me to join her in the suite for the Wild game last night. Since it was St. Patti's Day our group decided we should get all decked out for the occasion. I am a TINY bit Irish but not enough that really counts. I can't even tell you how many comments we got. It started as soon as we put our wigs on in the car and got a "WOOOOO" from a car full of guys. Our goal was to make it on the big screen at the game but no such luck. Maybe next year!

Stadium Seats

Every morning as I walk from my bus stop to my building I take a glimpse to see how the new stadium is coming along. I usually don't notice many differences but last week it caught my eye. There was color - maroon and gold popping out from the stands!! I only had my camera phone so the pictures isn't the greatest. You can see "M I N" starting to be spelled out. Pretty sweet! Can't wait to see it when the whole name is there.

Restaurant Week

I figured since I was so excited about The Best of the Best Restaurant Week I better do a follow up post with the restaurants I chose. The first one was...



I have wanted to try this restaurant for years now but have heard how expensive it was. This was the perfect opportunity. We started off with our choice of any cheese fondue. We selected the WI trio which was delicious. For the main course you could choose any of the broth/oil options. I've always done the traditional oil fondue and wanted to switch it up so we went with the Coq au Vin which was a red wine, mushrooms, and spices broth. LOVED the broth. I am so trying that at home next time. For dessert he told us we could pick 2 of the chocolates. This had to be the hardest decision of the night!! We went with the Original which was chocolate and peanut butter and the Turtle. Overall I thought the meal was really good and fun to do. However I thought the price we paid was about right and I'm not sure I would go back and pay full price. I think I could do it cheaper and better at home.

The second restaurant I chose was...



This is another one that Justin and I have been talking about going to for FOREVER. We had heard many raving reviews. Justin had been there for drinks before and I had never stepped foot in it. This restaurant also has a Gluten Free menu and is part of the Celiac network. Another plus for my gluten free honey. The waitress made a point of telling Justin everything on the specials menu that was gluten free and even substituted their chocolate flourless cake for the dessert option. This menu included a salad, cesar or house, a good selection of entrees, I had filet mignon and Justin had the prime rib, and then 2 dessert options, I had the chocolate cream pie. Everything was really really good. The best part of the night was the wine flights! Not included on the special menu but I thought still a great deal. 4 wines (about 2 glasses worth) for $11-$14 depending on what you chose. Plus very fun to try a few different ones.

I wish restaurant week came around more often. I really wanted to hit up a couple mores places but I guess I will have to save them for next year.

March blahs

As I sit here and look out the window at the falling snow and hear my house rattle from the gusty winds I can't help dream of spring. March has got to be the hardest month of the year for me. I love winter, snow and all of that but come March I am sooooo ready for it all to be over. I am ready to see the buds on the plants, get my garden going, rollerblade around the lakes, feel warm sun on my skin, and break out the convertible! (Sonic is waiting for me)

Yesterday after work I came home and was throwing the ball for Conner - our typical routine when it's nice outside. As I'm standing there one of my neighbors comes over with his 2 kids. A few minutes later another neighbor and her kids came home and joined us. It was so nice to see them all and have that spontaneous time even though I shivered through most of it. I can't wait for the day when that becomes the nightly routine!

Anyone have any advice for getting through this time? Otherwise I will have to close my eyes and dream of this:



Can't forget summer ice cream. mmmmmm

Welcome to 2009

I keep having these moments where I want to take a picture of someone but I know it would be very obviously rude. It happened again over the weekend at Target. We were checking out and I see the cashier with huge curly 80s hair and thick, dark makeup. It was so good that she looked trendy and I was thinking she could be on a runway with how the styles are right now. From far away I really couldn't tell if she was young and hip or old and soooo stuck in the 80s. As it's our turn in line I check out her name tag. Can you guess the name...Tiffany. The named summed it all up. Case solved!

Birthday Follow Up

Last birthday post until next year (when I turn 29 again). Before I blog about what fun sat night was I have to tell a story. Cran came over early on Sat to help with some of the prep work. We were chatting as I was opening my birthday cards and I get to one from my aunt (who I consider to be my closest aunt. We see each other on a regular basis and email in between. Just saw her last weekend in fact.) I open the card, don't pay attention to the front, and start to read the inside. Cran looks at my card and tells me to look at the front again. I do and what's on it... 30. Nothing else, just the numbers 3-0. Justin is paying attention now and we all burst out laughing, Cran exclaiming, "SHE THINKS YOUR 30!!!" Wow. Come on auntie, save it for next year! Don't make me think about that yet.

Anyways Sat night was a ton of fun. I had some of my dearest friends over for a fondue dinner. Even though I planned the party and was thinking I'd do most of the work for it, Justin took it all over. I hardly had to do anything.!! He even had the house almost all cleaned when I woke up that morning. It was so great. Such a guy he is. We served 3 courses: cheese, meat, and chocolate. All were so so delicious and everyone loved it. I haven't been very good at taking pics lately but here a couple.

Best Morning Ever?

I came into work today and had a voicemail from a number I didn't recognize. I'm usually weary of those because it's never anyone I want to talk to. Turns out I won in a drawing that I had entered last week. I got a free pound of coffee from Starbucks any kind that I wanted. Woo Hoo!!! (of course I found the most expensive pound) Now if only that came with a chocolate croissant it'd be even better. :)

Thanks Starbucks!!!

My Love...

This is the one and only reason I love March.