We are back, and better than ever!

To say we have had a busy year is an understatement. Mark was traveling overseas, we became engaged and were married all in the last 6 months. I would never recommend having such a busy year, but after seeing a piece of our wedding pictures and enjoying such a memorable time. Now that we are home and settled we have lots of new tools to play with.

When we started to register for wedding gifts we never knew how generous people would be. It makes me rethink how I purchase wedding gifts in the future (not that mine have not been nice in the past, I just have a new found appreciation for thought in a gift). We have many new tools that we are excited to use and share. Today we start with the ice cream maker. Not a necessity, but luckily my aunt found it just as interesting as we did! I will be posting more, as we acclimate into our new married life and hopefully sharing many adventures with you as we explore our kitchen and entertain the many people that have made our wedding so memorable!

Our Anniversary

I love duck breast. I have never even thought to attempt making it myself, and that is the one thing I will always order when I go out for a nice dinner. Mark and I took a visit to Eckerlin's meats at Findley Market for our usual stop. They have wonderful meat and items like Kobe beef steaks (they are pricey but worth it if you want a treat) and have great beef options. We were looking at a few steaks when I spotted the duck breast. I was ready to give it our first try at home. Now I say, I gave it a try, but I actually sat on the couch while Mark made this dish.

It was our anniversary (end of three years, beginning four) so we decided to make a great dinner at home. As Mark prepared the duck, I was a little nervous. When you crisp the outside skin of the duck, it seems a little gamey. The smell was overwhelming. It was way too strong for me. As he put it into the oven to roast I thought of a few different ways to bail out on dinner. As I waited patiently a new aroma entered the house. Wild Mushroom risotto.

I love risotto. Even though its not on the diet plan, I can splurge for the good event. The smell was wonderful. We purchased a wild mushroom mix from Madison's at Findley Market and Mark rehydrated them in a small bowl with water. Mark made his risotto (as you would normally prepare risotto) then he added just the juice from the mushrooms to the stock. This smelled like heaven.

As time went on i couldn't wait. The duck was perfect. Crispy skin and beautiful juicy finished breast. The Risotto was perfect. I could eat it everyday. Here are the photos. I cant even describe how great this was. If it was good for me, I would be skinny.

And I wonder why I am having trouble loosing weight.

If any of you have talked to me lately, you know I am on a huge workout and diet plan right now. I am working out 3-5 days a week and its keeping me pretty busy. I have been working on portion control and with food like we have had lately, its making it hard.
Last weekend Mark made Roasted Pork Tenderloin with roasted fennel. He sauteed it and braised it in homemade chicken stock and finished it with a little butter, white wine, and lemon juice. It was wonderful. The pork tenderloin was cooked to perfection rubbed in a few spices and fennel seed. Its a great dish and I hope we make it soon. Here are some pictures.

The roasted Fennel

The pork added.

Weekend Market experience

We made our weekly trip to Findley Market this weekend. We are getting into the deep winter dishes of stews and braised meat with a few roasted chickens thrown in to lighten it up. We stopped by Kroeger Bros. meat counter only to see a new item... CAMEL meat. Yes, you heard me right, we bought two camel sausages to try. I can tell you one thing, I am extremely nervous about eating things I consider weird. This is definitely one of those meats. We plan to cook this on Wednesday so I am certain to have pictures and stories posted. I plan to catch up on the pictures and let you know what else we have been up to in the way of cooking this week. I have a few posts to throw on including the Rookwood Pub, Bella Luna, Arthurs, and of course a few of our meals we have been making at home.

Until then....

Christmas food

Is anyone else sick of eating holiday food. While we still have New Years Eve, I can say I am over holiday food. I am done with cookies, cheesecake, popcorn, breads, cheese, and lots of heavy dishes. I did really well this holiday season, but I can say the diet will go much better without all of that crap. I thought I would post some of the dishes we made for the holidays. Mark has a few more of the pictures I need to steal, but here is a start.

Its Christmas Time!

What can I say. Its Christmas time! I love this time of year and hate all the temptation that comes with food in the office. We have had cakes, cookies, toffee, popcorn, treat contests, nuts, candies, lunches and lots of other goodies. I do appreciate when we have the fruit baskets, although they arent always the best items this time of year.

Today we went to the Vaught Christmas. It was a great time of food and family including a great sweet potato casserole from Andrea and Luke. We had a great time visiting this side of the family, and love the very thoughtful gifts that I received.

We do not typically exchange gifts on this side of the family. My grandma Peg usually sends us he choices for gifts and she typically gets plenty of gift certificates to go out to eat and buy items like books and home items. This year she turned the tables on us and gave us a wonderful gift. We all opened a family history binder she made of us that traces our entire history back 6 generations on both sides. It is amazing that she put this much time and effort into organizing this book and I was truly blessed that she even included me in this gift. I could sit and read this forever. The marriage and death records are included and some typically even told what the cause of death was. I found traces of breast cancer in my family all the way back to 1939 before they had typical treatments that they do today.

I really appreciate this time of year, to remember those who are with us and love us, and those who are not. Its great to get together with family without the premise of gifts and high priced ticket items, and also get to see how the year has treated us. I sit tonight and look at the Christmas tree after a wonderful dinner with Mark and a wonderful time with my family and thank God for everything and the wonderful life I currently have.

Weekend in review 12-15-08

Well, after a lovely weekend of Christmas parties and interesting food, I decided to write a new post. Tis the season of Christmas parties, and odd food schedules always seem to follow. Friday night Mark had a company Christmas party and I attended a HYPE happy hour. We both decided to meet in Mt. Lookout after our separate events and have dinner. Since there were many friends at my happy hour event, we gathered a group for some RuThai. If you know me, I LOVE Ruthai. I will never pass this up. We grabbed our group of 12 and headed over. Knowing we would have to wait a while, we grabbed a couple of bottles of wine at UDF (its bring your own) and waited patiently for a table.

If you have never been to Ruthai, its definately worth the trip. The staff is wonderful and the food is even better. They were wonderful with our group of 12 and our end count of 6 bottles of wine and some beer, keeping everyone in order and the food coming fast and delicious. Mark had a wonderful seafood curry which came in a great presentation.
I stuck with the wonderful house salad with peanut dressing (I ate too fast to get a picture) and the hot and sour mushroom soup. YUM! Everyone seemed to enjoy their night and plenty of full bellies left.

Here are the photos from the night!