Door County Birthday Trip

DRS, Magnolia and I took a long weekend in Door County to celebrate my birthday.  We love spending time in Door County in the fall.  The towns are less crowded, the weather is mild and we had all the relaxation time we wanted.  This was Magnolia's first fall trip to Door County with us, and she loved it!  We took her to the beach, played fetch with her in a park and took her on long walks.  She was quite the exhausted puppy by the time the weekend was over!

We also enjoyed some of our favorite eats while visiting.  We had breakfast at Al Johnson's with hot chocolate and their famous pancakes.  We also revisited Mr. Helsinki for dinner.  They have the best Banana Fosters dessert that is a must!

Door County has become one of my favorite places on earth.  I am so lucky to have spent my birthday there with my amazing husband and sweet puppy!

First Snow

We had our first snow of the season!  It was a beautiful snowfall, one that is meant for magazines.  It was pure white and covered the trees like a blanket.  I captured this picture while I was at work yesterday, watching the snowflakes fall.  What a sight!

Spin Milwaukee

DRS and I went on a double date with his brother and sister-in-law downtown Milwaukee over Halloween weekend.  We had a very yummy dinner at Coquette Cafe in the Third Ward.  They have a very cozy atmosphere and very delicious pommes frites.  We then walked to Spin Milwaukee for a fun night of ping pong!  This was the first time DRS and I had been there....but we will be going back.  It was so much fun!  You rent a table by the hour and play as many games as you like.  They have a ball boy walking around picking up balls and refilling your supply.  They also assign a waitress to your table for all of your drink and food needs.  Thank you Susan Surandon for bringing such a fun bar to Milwaukee!

License Plates

We are now officially Wisconsin residents again.  And we have the license plates to prove it!  We opted out for the regular Wisconsin plates and instead choose to show our serious dedication to our favorite sport's teams.  And in case you were wondering, we got to reuse our original MU plates from before the move.  Yes, we saved them!  

Products I Love

I recently started using this leave in conditioner.  With my thick hair I need to use both wash out and leave in conditioner to help detangle my hair.  I found that this is the best leave in conditioner I have used to date!  It smells really good and leaves my hair very easy to comb through.  As a girl, I think it is important to pass on products that really work!  My sister found this for me at Cosmo Prof, but I am sure you can find it other places too.  

Enjoy tangle free hair!  

  

November 6, 2012

HAPPY ELECTION DAY 2012!  

Did you vote today????

Celebratory Dinner

Last week I accepted a new job, hurray!  DRS came home that night and surprised me with dinner reservations to celebrate!  He chose to take me and my parents to Maxie's Southern Comfort in Milwaukee.  It is a southern inspired restaurant that just won Best Restaurant in Milwaukee via On Milwaukee.  We definitely have missed fried chicken, bbq and grits since our move back to Wisconsin, so I knew dinner was going to be a treat!

Warm cornbread was brought to our table along with our menus.  Yum!  We decided on fried green tomatoes, wings and oysters for our appetizers.  For dinner DRS had fried chicken, my mom had chicken fried chicken, my dad had chicken fried steak and I had shrimp and grits.  It was all delicious and made us long for North Carolina.  If you like southern food as much as I do, Maxie's is a must!     

    

Tis the Season

It is officially candy corn season!

October 1st, DRS came home with a surprise for me.....a box of gourmet candy corn to celebrate the season!  What a sweet guy!!!  I love candy corn season, but it is more than just the love of the candy.  It means that fall is in the air.  I love the crisp, cool air, making fall inspired meals, wearing sweaters and boots, apple cider, pumpkins, the color change....I could go on forever.  Fall is also a special time for DRS and me.  We got both engaged and married in the fall!

I hope that both fall and candy corn season doesn't end too soon.  I miss them both so much after they are gone!  Until then, I will eat as much candy corn as my stomach can handle and enjoy the fall weather to the best of my ability!

Happy Candy Corn Season to you!!!

Badger Meter Brewer's Tailgate

My dad has worked at Badger Meter for as long as I can remember.  My grandfather also worked there until he retired a few (many) years ago.  When we were younger, Badger Meter would hold it's company picnic at the Milwaukee Zoo.  It was always a really fun day!  We would have lunch, snacks and then walk around and spend the afternoon with the animals.  I remember having grilled corn on the cob and all you could eat cotton candy.  And let me tell you, I would have my share of cotton candy!  This year, Badger Meter had it's company picnic at the Brewers game.  My dad, mom, sister, brother-in-law, husband and me headed to Miller Park this past Saturday for an afternoon of tailgating and baseball.  We had a great time cheering the team on to a victory!  No cotton candy though.....sad.

Miller Park

DRS and me

My sister and her peanut earring, silly girl!

Graduation Day

As soon as we moved back to Wisconsin, we signed Magnolia up for puppy classes.  She was enrolled in Essential Manners, where she learned basic things like sit, down, stay, come and even a few tricks!  She loves to  give high fives!  Monday night was the last class and graduation.  She received a large bone and a certificate of graduation for all her hard work.  What a proud little puppy!

Packer's Preseason Part 2

After a fun afternoon of exploring before the game, we were ready to head into Lambeau to watch some football!

Lambeau, here we come!

The new scoreboard

Excited spectators!

Aaron Rodgers!!!

I am looking forward to a fun and successful Packer's season!

Packer's Preseason Part 1

My parents have never been to Lambeau field.  :-(  DRS And I thought we would help them change that.  We purchased tickets for the four of us to go to the last preseason game vs the Kansas City Chiefs.  We headed up to Green Bay right after lunch so we would have plenty of time before the game to explore the stadium and some of the other hot spots before the start of the game.

We started out by walking around the atrium and heading into the pro shop for some pre-game shopping.

We then headed to Kroll's for lunch.  Kroll's is a dinner on the west side of Lambeau which is famous for their butter burgers.  DRS was a frequent customer as a child either before a game or on the way to Door County.  I am glad we got to share the Kroll's experience together!

Our last stop was the Tundra Tailgate Zone for a chance to do the Lambeau leap and a refreshing Summer Shandy.  Contrary to what most Packer's games are like, it was hot, hot, hot!  It was over 90 at the start of the game so a Summer Shandy was exactly what we needed!

Golf and Grill

Last Saturday we were invited to Tuckaway Country Club for a golf and grill event by my brother in law and sister in law.  Tuckaway is located in Franklin, WI and has a beautiful golf course, pool, tennis courts and club house.  We spent the afternoon at the pool with our niece and nephews.  By late afternoon DRS and his brother left to start their first 9 holes of golf.  My sister in law and I spent a little more time at the pool alone (after the kids left for the babysitter) then met the guys at the turn.  We played the back 9 with them and had a blast!  After a successful round of golf, we got all dolled up and headed into the clubhouse for dinner.  It was a special pick your meat dinner with a seafood, soup, salad and potato bar.  Everything was amazingly delicious!

We had a wonderful time at Tuckaway with our family!  Events like this make me so happy we are back in Wisconsin!

 

Masskrugstemmen

Last weekend DRS and I joined my cousin Katie, her husband Mark and their daughter Nina at West Bend's Germanfest.  It was a fun evening full of food, beer and music.  During dinner, the band announced they were going to have a Masskrugstemmen contest later that night.  DRS and Mark jumped at the chance to participate!

In case you don't know, Masskrugstemmen is the sport of holding a liter of beer in a large glass mug with your arm extended out in front of you.  If you google it you will find this is a real thing with a national championship and everything!

Mark ended up winning and DRS came in a close second!  It was so much fun to watch them participate and cheer them on in the crowd.  Congrats Mark and DRS!

Farmer's Market Day Three

The last item I bought from the Farmer's Market was pickles.  My cousin recently posted about making our grandma's refrigerator pickles on her blog.  Since hers turned out great, I thought I would take a go at it too!  You can find her post and the recipe here.  

Thanks for the great idea Katie!

Farmer's Market Day Two

The second ingredient that I bought from the West Bend Farmer's Market was blueberries.  I like eating fresh blueberries and I love baking with them!  Sunday morning I made blueberry waffles for DRS and my parents.  I still had some leftover, so Monday morning I made blueberry muffins.  I have made a lot of blueberry muffins in the past with a variety of recipes.  This time I tried a recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow.  I rented her cookbook, My Father's Daughter, from the library a few weeks ago.  The recipe comes from her mother, Blythe.

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line 12 muffin cups with papers.

Whisk the butter, eggs, and milk together in a bowl.  In another bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold in the blueberries.  Divide amount the muffin cups and sprinkle the muffins with a small amount of sugar.  Bake until a toothpick tests clean and the muffins are golden brown, 23-30 minutes.  Best to eat warm!

The recipe was a keeper!

Farmer's Market Day One

I went to the West Bend Farmer's market this past weekend with my cousin Katie.  I came home with some very delicious items including corn on the cob, blueberries, pickles and zucchini.  I have already used up everything that I bought to make some very yummy things!    

Today I am going to share how I used the zucchini.  I bought three medium sized zucchinis which ended up being about 5 cups of shredded zucchini.  The first thing I made was zucchini bread.  This is one of my favorite home made breads!  It made two loaves which is good since the first one is almost gone already.

I used the rest of the zucchini to make a zucchini and goat cheese crustless quiche.  It was amazing!  I forgot to snap a photo but you can find the recipe here.    

What recipes do you use with zucchini?  

Door County

DRS and I were in Door County last week for a week long family get away.  We stay in Ephraim which is a small town between Fish Creek and Sister Bay.  We spent a lot of time outdoors at the beach, going on bike rides, walking to Anderson Dock, playing a kids vs adults game of kick-ball, celebrating a birthday, having breakfast at Al Johnson's and playing in the park.  But the most fun of the week were the memories we made as a family!

I love spending time in Door County!

The beautiful view from our beach.

Alterra on the Lake

We took Magnolia to Alterra on the Lake our first week back.  It is one of DRS and my favorite places to be in Milwaukee.  She loved being by the lake and people watching!  DRS and I loved sipping Alterra drinks!  It is good to be home!

Road Trip

 Here is a short overview of our road trip back to Wisconsin.  Two days and about 18 hours on the road but we finally made it home! 

Pilot Mountain, North Carolina

Big Walker Mountain Tunnel - Appalachian Mountains, Virginia

Magnolia's cozy spot in the van

Chicago, IL - almost home!

Welcome to Wisconsin!!!

Our Last Meal

We put a lot of thought into our last meal in North Carolina.  We decided on The Q Shack, our favorite BBQ restaurant.  My dad was in town to help us move so he was able to join us.  Beef brisket, mac and cheese, salad and hush-puppies with a glass of sweet tea to wash it all down.....yummy!    We then headed to Fosters Market for a piece of home made pie for dessert.  Definitely a meal to remember!