Day Forty-four---a couple of days later

Sorry I've missed posting the last couple of days. I'm picking back up today as day forty-four because it's my blog and I can do what I want. =) Friday we spent the day at Hershey Park. It was a long day. It was a fun day. Food-wise we did alright. We didn't get home until close to 8:30 and we decided to order a pizza from a "new" place. It was new to us. It's actually within walking distance of our house and the pizza was delicious. The only excuse I have for Saturday is that I didn't have any food in the house and I didn't have my menu made out. It took me a long time to get those darn menus done too. Have I mentioned that I don't really like making menus out. I don't. Part of my problem is that I feel like I have to keep things new and fun for the blogs sake. In the past we had a few meals that we just rotated through each week. It's been fun trying new things, but it's not fun trying to figure out what to do. I did get my menu done, but not in time for dinner on Saturday night. I had a plan though. I wanted to go out to the farm and see if they had the meat that I needed before I went to the grocery store on Sunday. We have our freezer full of beef, but I needed chicken and sausage this week. I am getting it at the farm now because they are selling meat from another local farm and it's pasture raised and near organic meat. So, we went out to the farm and I got all the meat that I need for this week. Then we went to Wegmans and ended up just getting subs for dinner. We had two nights of eating dinner at like 9 pm. Oh well.

We are back on track today. We had a back yard bbq for the neighborhood. Everyone pretty much brought their own protein to grill and they also brought a dish to share. I made couscous salad again. I also tried a new recipe for green beans that rocked! They will be back again later this week. Well, here's the picture:

Cheeseburgers with chipolte steak fries, green beans and couscous salad

The burgers were very good. I mixed some chopped onions and garlic in the beef. I also added some HP sauce and Worcestershire sauce, an egg and a handful of breadcrumbs. Tim grilled them up and he melted some amazing cheddar cheese on the top. I made the sesame seed buns and these buns were better than my last batch. I need to keep that recipe.

It was a little hectic this afternoon. Thankfully, I was organized. I went out did errands and did the rest of the grocery shopping this morning. I got home at noon and immediately had to start the dough for the rolls. Once that was done and rising, I made the couscous salad. When that was done and chilling in the fridge, I made 2 dozen cupcakes. While those were baking, I separated the dough into 12 buns and let them rest for a bit. Then I made buttercream frosting for the cupcakes. Tim frosted the cupcakes for me while I egg washed the buns and sprinkled seeds on them. They baked and I got potatoes ready to boil lightly before they got dressed with olive oil and a chipolte rub. When those were done, I mixed the beef mixture to get ready for Tim to make them into patties. Finally I got the green beans ready and cooked. It all came together by 4 pm and our neighbors started showing up and I was ready to crack open the Magic Hat summer brew.

A nice evening was had by all. I am tired and ready for bed. Until tomorrow, happy cooking!

Day Thirty-eight--Friends over for dinner

What an amazing dinner we had last night. I'm sorry I'm posting later than usual but I'm slow moving today. Our good friends came over yesterday to spend the day. We spent a couple of hours wandering around looking at various artistic endeavors on display out our Fine Arts Fiesta. We had fun explaining to our boys the point behind "punch bug" punching...it's NOT just picking a color of a car and then punching, but when you see a VW. We came back to the house and I got a couple of loaves of bread rising so that we could have fresh bread with dinner.

Around 4 pm we started getting things ready to roll. I had made a big batch of couscous salad earlier and the bread was baking. Tim got the steaks all ready and then he and the boys head out to the grill. Carrie and I set the patio table and I got the asparagus all dressed with olive oil, salt, pepper and minced garlic. For once, everything was done all at the same time. It couldn't have worked out any easier.

Steak, Couscous salad and roasted asparagus

We ate outside and enjoyed a beautiful bottle of wine. Then we enjoyed an amazing port wine. Then we enjoyed some of Tim's favorite whiskey. Then we enjoyed some tequila. Yes, it was one of those nights. The kids entertained themselves and let us adults have some "play" time. We stayed out until it was dark the mosquitoes were swarming. It really was a perfect evening shared between good friends and we all enjoyed some great food. Who needs anything more than that?

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. It's time for me to now figure out what will be on next week's menu and figure out when I want to get out of my pajamas and go to Wegmans. That might be tomorrow. Until later, happy cooking!