Happy Anniversary!

Hello!

The Oscars are tonight! Which means it's our Anniversary!

Today Dan and I celebrate 2 years since our very first date - which was me texting him after the Oscars to take a walk with Hannah down to the Chill Box in Moscow, ID for an ice cream cone...It's funny because neither of us watched the Oscars that night, at the time I just knew it was the Oscars because I was watching a slide show of all the celebrity dresses (the best part of the Oscars I think) that evening...for some reason I got a craving for ice cream and decided to go for gold by asking Dan out at the same time - I suppose the whole ordeal is a point for girls who make the first move!

So now we have the luxury of being reminded of our anniversary by the spectacle that is Oscar night - we make sure to eat ice cream on this day to commemorate what initially brought us together that lovely Sunday evening 2 years ago - not a bad tradition!

We celebrated last night by dining out at one of Tuscaloosa's newest restaurants, Five. It took over this great little space in Downtown Tuscaloosa and has great ambience. Lots of old chandeliers AND tasty food! The name "Five" comes from a rotating menu of five entrees, five appetizers, five red and white wines, and five beers. In addition there is a daily entree special. I assume this simplicity isn't just a kitschy idea, but also helpful in keeping costs down, making the dining experience a little easier perhaps...I had the fried chicken entree which came with two delightful deviled eggs, a mac n cheese studded with bell peppers and red onion, and a great side salad with baby greens, shredded apple, dried cranberries, slivered almonds, dabs of goat cheese, and orange zest sprinkled on for good measure. Most likely the best salad I've had in T-Town - no iceberg lettuce anywhere on the plate - that's amazing for the south! Dan had the Pork Pad Thai which was a generous helping of what Dan deemed "the South's version of pad thai"..it was tasty with a nice squeeze of Siracha hot sauce and also came with the same side salad (I got to eat his salad's goat cheese chunks -yum!)..

We ended the night with a couple drinks at the Alcove. Our beer choices happened to blow each keg so we got them for free - not bad!! All in all a great day...

Gooooo Oscars!!!

xo

.....

Yippee!

Boo :(

Warts and all, this is where we live....

Pictures!!

FINALLY!

Updates!

Sorry, no pics, but soon I promise!

1) Been working on the yard some, excited to start planting soon!  We have been prepping the yard for various patches of fruit and vegetable bearing plants.  We've also had some fun making paths with the Coweeta rocks... I just bought 4 Cascade Hop Rhizomes!  They should produce enough for a batch of beer by the end of the growing season!!  I spent the day yesterday making a flimsy bird feeder to draw in more birds closer to the house, and also "plumbed" the garden hose from the Nelson parental units to the backyard (the backyard has no working faucet - which was very lame).  I have a "grand plan" sketched out in my mind of what the back yard will eventually look like - it involves building a deck over the eyesore-cellar door, a firepit, a chicken coop (with laying chickens!), and plants that will feed us to no end!  One step at a time...one step at a time...

2) Last weekend Dan, Hannah and I went to Oak Ridge Mountain State Park which is near Birmingham (and also close to our local Brew Store, AlaBrew!), it was surprisingly nice once you got past a few details - a couple of man-made lakes, a brown golf course, a couple animal rehabilitation centers...BUT the gem was the miles of hiking trails and the clear tiny streams (and even a waterfall!) that criss-cross through the 9000+ acre park!  This is the closest we've gotten to a natural area that you can get lost in, which we miss dearly from out West!...Hannah had a blast and was quite tuckered out by the end of the trip.  We also went to Jim n' Nicks BBQ which is a southern chain and pretty delish.  It reminded us of a Cheesecake Factory with a southern twist - not quite that "downhome" feeling you get at most BBQ joints around here, but everything is made from scratch so who really cares?  The best part of the mean were surprisingly the collard greens!  The greens melted in your mouth with large chunks of smoked pork nestled throughout - Alabama Alchemy at its finest...

3) Although economic times are tough around the US, you wouldn't know it from all the new construction going on around Tuscaloosa.  Aside from the new federal building going up downtown that is said to be a new FBI headquarters, There are numerous city construction projects in the works.  One that I am especially excited about is the new Tuscaloosa Farmer's Market going up a mile north of our house.  It's gotten mixed reviews, but all in all I'm fairly excited that this will be complete within the year!  Associated with that project is a continuation of the Riverwalk which will connect a 2 mile path along the river.  Over the hot hot summer Dan and I took a bike ride along the path and were surprised by its abrupt stop after a scant half mile.  The path should be finished by early summer - all in all I'm excited about any new construction in the South that encourages biking and walking and does not involve building condos that will be swept downriver in the next 100 year flood (this is such a poorly-planned idea).

4) Again associated with new construction, the new Tuscaloosa Amphitheater is finished and the first show is April 1st - Band of Horses is opening up for the Avett Brothers and Dan and I (along with a gaggle of other grad students) have tickets!  We are uber excited to have nice weather and be able to walk down to the amphitheater for some music that is right up our alley.  Earlier reports had Kenny Chesney opening up the season and that got us slightly depressed that the new 7,500 person venue would cater soley to the country audience.  Thankfully, Kenny had to postpone later in the year and now we get to see Band of Horses!  I am totally addicted to their cover of Cee-Lo Green's "Georgia" (only $0.99 on the Band of Horses website!)

The backstory on the song, which I find precious since it is football related, ahh the South and their football:

Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses recalls the genesis of the "Georgia" single: "This began as a very random idea I had on my dad's patio after we watched our beloved Georgia Bulldog football team get robbed of a win at the hands of the referees and LSU last year. I knew I wanted to pay homage to my favorite team in song but didn't have any idea how to begin. Once I heard Cee Lo's 'Georgia,' I was immediately smitten and figured that's as good as any tribute to any state I've ever heard. It wasn't until I heard his cover of our song though that it occurred to me: Duh, we should return the favor. Incorporating the Redcoat marching band was just the icing on the cake! This song is so nostalgic to me as my parents grew up in Atlanta and have so many family members in the great state of Georgia. It's always been a second home of sorts. We've played some great shows there as well, including our run of annual New Year's Eve shows in Atlanta from 2007-2009."

....as a neat aside, the Georgia Bulldogs Marching Band now plays the song at their football games...I will melt when they play is live on April 1st - no foolin' (so cheesy I know)

5)  Dan and I have been tasting our beer throughout this maturation process, it's been fun to hear more and more carbonation form (when we crack open the bottles) and taste the difference - it's definitely an IPA and it's definitely got alcohol...it hasn't made us go blind yet so far - that means a success in my book thus far, we'll still have to wait a full two weeks for the "best" flavor..

6)  I tried my hand at making cinnamon raisin bagels this morning from Dan's Healthy Artisan Bread in 5 minute book - they are NOT pretty, but they were pretty tasty...which is the important part I guess

Hopefully I'll have time soon to post pictures of the above events...as for now, I gotta go to work!

xo!

Bottling Day!

Hello!

Yesterday (Feb. 11 2011) marked the end of our very first beer brewing experience, as yesterday was bottling day. Now all we have to do is wait approximately 5 days for the yeast to convert some of the sugars into CO2 (and a little more alcohol), then drink. Chau and I actually enjoyed a bottle of our beer yesterday. We filled the last bottle but did not cap it. It had a strange flavor due to the lack of carbonation and the priming sugar we had just added, but we could tell that after the sugar is converted into waste products by the yeast, we will have a tasty IPA.

Today was also a very exciting day around the ole homestead. Today, we received 3 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies! Thanks Maddie!!

Here's a few pictures of both days and some extra stuff to boot.

Happy Groundhog Day!!

February already! Yikes!

Well tomorrow is the Vietnamese New Year, the year of the rabbit apparently...Today is my second sick day of this Alabama winter. It's been pretty rainy here, but a few gorgeous days scattered in between. There's a video at the bottom of this post that shows you what I do when I'm home sick...I basically harass Hannah because I can...

Last weekend I went up to Coweeta again to sample - it was quite icy up the mountain and we had to use a Coweeta Lab truck with chains and 4wd to make it up to our sites as the dirt roads at the Coweeta Station don't get de-iced or plowed really. It was nice to see the streams in a wintery landscape - snow covered most of the ground and trekking to our sites were fun since we have less than 70m to walk to get to any of our 5 sites. It's not quite the epic journey Dan has to make in Iceland, and that's pretty ok with me...

Here are a couple of food-related pics of late...

My sick day amusements, first one is about a minute, the second one is about 3 minutes long...

A rainy Alabama day...

Hi! It's a very wet Alabama morning, which is great because the yard needs a good soaking. We dumped out our compost pile into our bed-in-the-making...the bottom was rich in black gold, the top half still a mix of coherent egg shells and vegetable peels, but I think it'll do just fine finishing up in the raised bed and be ready for some hard work come spring.

I just put together an apple cake that I made earlier in the Fall from this adorable blog called Working Class Foodies...The inspiration being it is Ellen's Bday and she in fact made this recipe a few days ago...granted Ellen is 2000 miles away in Idaho and will not be able to taste said cake, but I think remote birthday celebrations are a good thing nonetheless...

This is the recipe that is featured in the blog as I've transcribed it (I'm not a professional transcriber):

2-3 tart apples, cored and cut into chunks (peeled or not peeled, your preference, I'm too lazy to peel), 3 cups total

Mix with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon

In another bowl, mix 2 cups AP flour, 2 cups white sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 2.5 teaspoons vanilla,1 cup vegetable oil, and 4 eggs.

Add in your apples

Dump into a buttered cake pan

Bake for 65 minutes at 350 degrees

Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Super easy and delicious...Unfortunately, I only had one apple in the fridge (Dan can't read my mind yet so he took one apple for lunch this morning), so I made a half recipe and supplemented with raisins. It is currently baking away and it makes the house smell warm with baking cinnamon - just what I need on a rainy day, sigh

Tomorrow I leave for a Coweeta sampling trip. The dirt road up the mountain is supposedly pretty icy so we'll need to 4wd it with chains...should be an exciting adventure...

In other T-Town news, we've successfully "racked" our IPA into a glass carboy, which means we transferred it from the bucket to another container to remove it from the yeast which should be done doing its thing. If not removed, the yeast will impart a flavor onto the beer which is probably not a good flavor. I know very little of this process as you can tell. See pics of the randomness that is our life here.

Also, the Nelson parental units surprised us with a Wii Fit! I happen to have little coordination as you can see here, but all in all we are having fun improving our balance. I would have included a clip of Dan on the Wii, but all of them include him cursing at the end of it, so until I find out how to edit the clip (or give up and post it), you'll have to enjoy my lack of rhythm here:

xo