Twofooterowhouse

Dinner Party Saturday

This saturday ben and I took a little time to prepare a fine meal for us and jon and angela.  It was really nice to sit on our deck and grill some good food and enjoy their company.

Our menu included:

A caprese salad with rosemary from our own herb garden

Grilled chicken and sausage with mixed vegetables

Home Made Ice Cream Cake

Below is the recipe from our grilled chicken, it was really good and ben and I just threw it together.  It also included rosemary from our own herb garden.  I was also really pleased with our menu because it was pretty mediteranean, something else i’m obsessed with these days.

Grilled Chicken and Vegetables.
1 lb chicken tenderloins
some left over sausage from the morning (optional)
2/3 yellow onion
8 oz button mushrooms
1/2 lb red potatoes (the little ones),
4 cloves of garlic
4 sprigs of rosemary
salt n pepper
olive oil
foil

- chop the potatoes and mushrooms into quarters, chopped the onions.  put into large bowl, add olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and mix
- prepare foil to go into the grill
- season chicken with salt n pepper
- put chicken on the foil first, bottom layer
- spread the sprigs of rosemary over those
- add sausage
- top with vegetable mix
- wrap with remaining foil so that food will not fall out when grilled.
- grill for a long time until finished, remove sprigs from rosemary before eating.

*adding peppers or zucchini/squash or any other of your favorite summer vegetables would be good to.

Beer Bread Saturday

For the first weekend ever, Ben and I actually had nothing really planned, so much so that we came up with new activities!! Ben saw some podcast that made beer bread, and we though ‘Hey!! We can do that!’. Well at least we thought we did.
We first made a skillet bread, that had oats, caraway seed, and a stout in it. It smelled good, it looked good, and at first we even thought it tasted good, but we soon realized - it did not taste good!!

So seeing as how we had so much spare time on our hands, we went for round 2. This one was a ’sweet beer bread’. It was just flour sugar, baking powder and the stout. This was baked traditionally, and it turned out tasting awful too!!

So we decided it was a combination of several thing:  1.  our baking powder was too old, and 2.  the stout we were using may have been a bad idea.

On Sunday we needed to redeem ourselves and try and make something good.  This time we went with a cheesy bread, what doesn’t go better together than beer, bread, and cheese!  We bought new baking powder and went with a traditional Miller Lite.  This didn’t turn out any better.

All over the internet it said how easy and good beer bread was, but for some reason we just couldn’t do it.  Next time we’ll stick to the premade mix from pampered chef!!

Pics of our baking experience will be coming soon - too lazy to take them off the camera today.

May Flowers…

Ben and I have been busy trying to perfect our green thumbs, we still don’t have it totally figured out but at least this year we have some things that are blooming!

Check out our pics of our back patio and what is coming up!!

Puzzle Puzzle Toil and Trouble

Well for about the past 4 + months I have been working on an extremely difficult 000 Piece Jelly Bean and Gum Drop Puzzle!!! Now this hasn’t entirely consumed my life or anything.  Basically I started the weekend after New Years when I had a really bad cold.  Since then I have done little bits here and there, but it was officially completed on Wednesday, April 22!  Now there are a lot of people I have to thank, because I did not complete this puzzle on my own:  Matt Romero was a big help when he was around.  Travis, Emily, and Priya, I could not have finished without their determination the weekend they came down. Brewster also, I have to thank him for making it even more challenging by chewing on one of the pieces so it was cut in half.

Enjoy the pictures of my wasted time and effort!!

Presto! Its not messy anymore!

So, if you’ve ever visited the twofooterowhouse in persone, you’ve probably walked in and seen our “makeshift” entertainment center. That is, a Walmart tv dinner tray with wires and whatnot running all over the place, which can be seen, pictured here:

Old entertainment center

We finally decided to break down and cast out this old mess. It was a very long selectiong process that had Sara and I going back and forth for weeks and months. I wanted a taller entertainment center that would fill the space between the floor and the TV that hangs on the wall. She wanted something wider and shorter. And style? We both wanted something different as well. We would email eachother back and forth with ideas, and they’d all get shot down. Occasionally we’d go out and actually look at stores. Never finding anything of course.

So, we decided that we’d go out, and just buy what we both decided on that day. We were tired of our house looking like a wiring explosion (at least I was.) We finalized on an entertainment center from Ikea. I know what you’re thinking, but this is going somewhere. We have 2 endtables in our living room that don’t match, and now this new entertainment center that doesn’t match either. So the plan going forward is, I am going to stain/paint all 3 of them in an antique style finish that will hopefully bring the room together. I read an article about it in Fine Woodworking Magazine, and it doesn’t seem overly difficult. You layer stain and 2 types of paint with some hide glue, and it makes the finish appear all cracky and antique. Its gonna be great.

But for now…here’s a picture of the entertainment center as it sits today:

New entertainment center

We will of course update again once we get the staining and whatnot finished. Someday, it will all look nice.

PS - Sorry for the crappy cellphone pics. I’m lazy.

2nd Anniversary of the Irish Stout Stew!

So, this year marks the 2nd consecutive year that Sara and I have made Irish Stout Stew on St. Patties Day! I would link back to the post we made last year, but as you all probably know, our website was hacked and we lost all of our old posts.

Irish Stout Stew!

Anyways, this year we used O’hara’s Irish Stout rather than Guiness just to switch it up. And we used red wine rather than prunes as the sweetner. We also subbed in some carrots and celery just because those always taste great in a stew. I have to say that it came out truly delicious. My only (and Sara corroborates this) critique is that it could probably use one prune in there just to sweeten it up, but the red wine taste was just fine.

I recommend that if you haven’t had a chance to make something like this, you should definitely try making it. It takes about an hour and a half once you start cooking, but the smell drifting around the house is just amazing! Happy St. Patties day from the twofooterowhouse!

In like a lion??

March has started off kind of crazy here.  It was frigedly cold out and it even snowed a few inches (maybe that was the end of February).  We probably got like 3-4 inches of snow here and Brewster loved it.  He would not pose for any pictures, but he loved jumping the in the very deep drifts and was jumping like a snow bunny.  He played with a dog bigger than him, and got his butt kicked!  He was soo covered with snow that it was all matted in his hair, he had snow-dredlocks.  Once he felt cold though, it wasn’t fun any more.

We haven’t done too many things recently, just kickin’ back easy.  Jon and Angela’s Pizza Birthday Party was a success, but i didn’t take any pictures so you’ll just have to trust me!!

I recently saw He’s just not that into you. It was filmed in baltimore.  I saw one scene being filmed in canton square but i’m not sure if it made it into the movie, i thought i recognized like 10 different scenes so I’m not really sure.  I do know that I was not in any of the scenes.

For valentines day we went to pittsburgh, so ben and I haven’t celebrated that romantic holiday, we took a raincheck on the day and are planning on celebrating it at Red Lobster, whenever we get a chance (we have a coupon, and we LOVE cheddar biscuits).

This weekend we are going to Lancaster, PA for a wedding, very exciting, hopefully we have some fun pictures from that.

On a completely different note, I just heard an awesome cover song, well i think it is awesome, Ben didn’t seem too impressed.  It is Let’s Dance, originally by David Bowie, the cover is performed by M. Ward.  Check it out, it is a sexy soultry version I think:  Let’s Dance.

But that made me start thinking of other really cool cover songs, personally I LOVE cover songs, they take a song that i already like and make it totally different (or not).  Don’t get me wrong there are bad covers, but then there are totally sweet covers.  Some of my personal favorites are:

1.  Travis - Hit Me Baby One More Time (Britney Spears)

2.  Fiona Apple - Across the Universe (Beatles)

3.  Rob Thomas - Borderline (Madonna)

4.  Save Ferris - Come On Eileen (Dexy Midnight Runners)

5.  White Stripes - I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself

Anyone else have any favorites??

Fine dining during restaurant week

So last weekend Sara and I went to a new restaurant in Canton called Meridian 54 with our friends Kyle and Amanda. It’s located where the famous Red Fish used to be. (I say famous because it looks really cool from the street, although I’ve never been inside before.)

The nice bar at Meridian 54

For being restaurant week here in Baltimore (where a 3 course meal only costs you 30 bucks) it wasn’t too crowded. We had a short wait for our reservations, but once we were seated, the waiter was prompt. The food took awhile to come out, but that is to be expected on a busy Saturday night.

The menu had a really interesting seleciton of things to eat, despite being a new place. Sara had a crazy appetizer that featured a soft pretzel and sausage. I had a beef biscuit which was amazing. The biscuit was sooo tender and moist. The mains were plentiful in portion, but our dessert (tiramisu) took awhile to come out, and we ended up being borderline late to our movie. I would definitely go back though, as the full menu had a lot more that I want to try. Highly recommended, although I would suggest eating early, or going on a weeknight until the initial buzz dies down.

So the next time you’re in Baltimore, head over there, and then sleep at our house!

A cold month in Baltimore…

So to the lay-person, it looks like Sara and I may have been lazy this month. I would say it has been quite the contrary. Sara was sick the weekend after New Years. She was knocked out and layed on the couch most of the weekend while Brewster and I took care of her. She had some nasty cold that I hadn’t previously heard of anyone getting, but she works in a hospital…I suppose thats where colds come from.

We got a nice weekend to ourselves to just hang out and enjoy the house. It was nice. Then, the next weekend, Steve & Tina (our friends from college) came to visit on their way to watch the innaguration. It was awesome seeing them, especially here, because we don’t get to Pittsburgh too often. We went out to a nice restaurant and had some classy food and drinks (although the service was terrible because our waiter was on PCP.) It was a great weekend…but by Tuesday night, Steve & Tina were exhausted (as expected.)

The next weekend, we went to Pittsburgh to visit our friend Emily for her Birthday! It was a really fun time (Brewster got to stay with Kyle, Amanda, and Bella instead of making the trek.) I developed a cold while there, but I didn’t let it slow us down. Emily took us to see some local live bands, we ate and drank everything that Pittsburgh had to offer. It was all topped off by a visit to a really nice restaurant downtown called 6 Penn. Of course, Robin and his girlfriend Pria came out and hung out…what a great time. I haven’t seen Robin for awhile. We were able to catch eachother up on what music is good and what music is sucky. Also, Emily has two parakeets that keep her company in her big apartment, Birdy and Carl. They really livened the place up with their chattering…I miss having birds around.

This weekend we have plans to go out to Meridian 54 with Kyle and Amanda, as well as watch the Super Bowl at their place on Sunday. But now, Sara seems to be coming under the weather again! Sickness abounds! I’m feeling better, but at this rate, who knows how long I’m going to be healthy. Anyways…not lazy, just busy or sick!

New Year - New Food

In our new year Ben and I have branched out with a couple of new recipes.  And even though I am a dietitian and should eat healthy with each meal, occasionally we get a little off track.  One of my resolutions this year is to try to get in more fruits and vegetables to my daily diet.  I wanted to share a couple of quick and easy recipes that are fairly healthy dishes.  All of these are plagerized and taken from other sources, but that’s ok.

1.  Muffeletta

Makes 1 Italian Loaf Sandwich with 4 servings

Sandwich

1 large loaf Italian bread

1/3 lb hard salami, very thinly sliced

1/3 lb ham, very thinly sliced

1/3 lb provolone

Olive Salad

2/3 cup green olives, pitted coarsely chopped

2/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 fillet anchovy, mashed (we used anchovy paste so we didn’t have to touch an anchovy)

1/3 c finely chopped parsley

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 c olive oil

Directions:

Olive Salad

Mix together all ingredients.  Let marinate at least 12 hours.

Sandwich

Slice loaf in half, horizontally, and slightly scoop out insides.  Layer on salami, ham, and provolone.  Spread on Olive spread at least 3/4 inch thick.  Replace top half of loaf and eat.

2.  Mushroom and Sausage Strudel

1/2 lb hot sausage

1 lb chopped mushrooms

1/2 chopped white onion

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 pkg crescent rolls

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Place rack n upper third of oven.

2.  In a medium skillet cook and crumble sausage.  Drain off fat. Add mushrooms, onions, and thyme, saute over high heat until all liuid as evaporated.  Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.

3.  Remove half pkg of rolls, and place on lightly floured board.  Press together all perforations to seal the dough together.  Turn over and press together perforations on the other side.  Roll lightly into an approximately 15 by 4 rectagle.

4.  Spoon half the filling into a log down center of pastry.  Fold pastry over and roll up.  Crimp ends.

5.  Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet, seam side down.  Repeat with remaining filling and rolls.

6.  Bake for 14-18 minutes, or until golden.

7.  Transfer to cutting board and slice into 1-inch peices.

**This could be made with breakfast sausage with peppers and spinach too, replace sour cream with beaten eggs.

3.  Chicken Primavera

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 c milk

3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 bag (16 oz) Frozen Mixed veggies (cauliflower, carrots, broccoli)

2 cups cooked cubed chicken

*optional spaghetti

Directions

Mix soup, milk, cheese, garlic, and vegetables in sauce pan.  Heat to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and cook until veggies are crisp.  Add chicken and heat through.  Serve over spaghetti.

Well I hope you can give some of these a try, they’re are pretty tastey!  Choi