A Food Weekend

Nate and I started off the weekend by eating out with friends at the Firehouse in Harrisburg and then we pretty much turned this weekend into a summer food weekend. It's Sunday evening and I'm definitely full. On Saturday we cooked "fireman's chicken" for dinner accompanied by pasta salad and corn on the cob. For dessert, fresh strawberry sundaes.

Let me explain what I mean by fireman's chicken...at least where I live the local firemen are always having chicken bbq's. They cook the chicken on large bbq pits but it's just as good on the grill. The chicken always has great flavor and is so juicy inside. If you'd like to make your own fireman's chicken here's how:
1. Use chicken halves or chicken breasts with the ribs and bones still in and the skin still on.
2. Season chicken with some of your favorite spices or even Season All works fine.
3. In a sauce pan heat up 1 cup vinegar, 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup of water and salt. After this mixture is heated up, let it cool slightly then pour it into a spray bottle. Mixture will coat about 6-8 pieces of chicken.
4. Put your chicken on the grill on medium heat and spray your chicken with the mixture often, turning too keep it from burning.
5.The chicken will take about 25 minutes to cook but will depend on the size of the chicken pieces. When your chicken is almost done, if desired, brush with some bbq sauce and cook for a few more seconds on each side.
6. Enjoy!

Fireman's Chicken

Tonight, we had baby back ribs, that literally fell right off the bone, with salads, ,baked potatoes, and rice krispie treats for dessert (I know these are for kids, but I love these treats and it's so easy to make!). I think the secret to ribs is making sure you remove the membrane from the back of the ribs before cooking. We season our ribs the night before with meat tenderizer and Sweet Baby Rays then wrap the ribs in tin foil and put in the refrigerator until we are ready to cook. We baked the meat at 300 degrees for about 3 1/2 hours. After this, we take the ribs out and smother with another coat of Sweet Baby Rays and finally put on the meant on the grill for a minute or two, if they aren't falling apart. Tonight, we just stuck the ribs back in the oven for a few more minutes to cook the bbq sauce in. Yum!

Firehouse- Restaurant Review

Nate and I met up with our friends, HA and Jason, for dinner in Harrisburg at the Firehouse. The Firehouse was one of my favorite restaurants when I lived in Harrisburg and it did not disappoint me this time. We had not seen HA and Jason, since Jessie and Rocco's wedding in November so it was fun to catch up with them. HA just returned from the beach and they have a trip to London planned this summer...so jealous.

Now for the restaurant review. I started off with a fruity tutti martini, the others had wine and beer. I must say the martini menu is excellent and the fruity tutti was quite tasty. I also had a woo woo which was just vodka, cranberry, and peach schnapps but tasty nonetheless. For our appetizer Nate and I ordered the crab puffs which were excellent. It was made of a creamy crab dip like filling which was inside a crunchy and flaky won ton. The plate included 6 won tons. HA and Jason had calamari, which I did not try but the portion was generous and it looked tasty. I went to the restaurant with the intention of having sea bass, my favorite fish, but after reading the menu seemed to be in the mood for tuna. Actually, Nate and I both ordered the pepper seared tuna as our main course. The tuna was served with rice and vegetables in with a spicy mango sauce. The tuna was very spicy, but this should be expected as the tuna is "pepper" seared. The rice and vegetables were delicious with just the right combination of flavors. Our tuna was cooked as we ordered and overall we were very pleased. HA ordered the stuffed flounder special and Jason had a pasta with chicken in peppers. They seemed to enjoy both entrees but I did not try either selection. We didn't have room for dessert with the appetizers, salad, tasty bread, and entrees we were stuffed!

The Firehouse is a very quaint restaurant and as you would expect is in fact a converted firehouse, pole and all, but I found it to be quiet noisy, which I believe is the norm. It was even loud when I was there a few months ago for lunch. It's not a restaurant you should choose for a quiet romantic evening. We received excellent service and our table was ready at the time of our reservation. The Firehouse is a great restaurant to enjoy a tasty meal with friends.

Local Strawberries

I love seeing the signs for local strawberries that pop up in June, it's a sure sign that summer is here. There's not much that tastes better than fresh strawberries. My two favorite recipes with strawberries are Strawberry Salad and Strawberry Pie. In case you'd like to try them:

Strawberry Salad
1/2 bag spinach
1/2 bag red lettuce
1 quart strawberries sliced
1/2 cup red onion (I always put less though)
Toss together the above

Dressing for salad:
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 Tsp poppy seeds
Mix above together and refrigerate several hours before serving, pour over salad just before serving.

Other toppings that taste yummy in this as well: grilled chicken, feta cheese, walnuts.

Strawberry Pie
I always use a graham cracker crust because that's what I prefer. I know some in my family prefer an oil crust, which is similar to regular pie crust but more flaky.

Fill pie crust with sliced strawberries
Other ingredients
1 1/3 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs cornstarch
3 oz box strawberry jello (I use sugar free...I think the kind w/ sugar would make this recipe too sweet)
Directions: In saucepan combine sugar, cornstarch and jello. Add water. Bring to a boil stirring constantly until thickened. Pour over strawberries, chill until firm.

What are your favorite strawberry recipes?

3 Years of Work

I just realized it's been 3 years since Nate and I moved into our home. As I look around, I'm pretty impressed, if I do say so myself, by all the work we've done to make our house a home. I'll try to detail some of our projects over the past 3 years but I'm sure I'll miss a few. This is how it all started out...

An empty lotMaking progress

Completed House

The backThe back yard

So I'll start with the changes outside, we've had the driveway paved, added a patio and a deck out back, put in several retaining walls and 2 sets of steps, put in a sidewalk, and added a railing to the porch. We've also done a lot of landscaping including. clearing a bunch of brush out back. I think we are almost done with the outside now it will just be constanly maintaining our landscaping and of course we will always have more brush to clear. Here's how it looks now:

Nate's magnificent retaining wall and our paved driveway.A flower bed out front with a pretty kitty.One of my prized hydrangeas out front.Steps and sidewalk coming up to the frontOur most recent project outside. Steps down to the back and sidewalk. We are still waiting on the grass to grow.Our deck, this we did not do ourselves. S&J Construction built it for us and did a great job.

Decks from the back yard with landscaping around

View from the deck, I don't know if you can tell how much brush we've cleared but we are making progress. You can see one of our 2 flower beds in the back yard too.


Our quaint patio, complete with fire pit.

My newest flower bed as seen from above on the deck. It's right beside our patio.

More brush cleared on the side.

OK, I'll stop with pictures of the outside, and move onto the inside. Inside, we've painted every room in the house with the exception of the upstairs guest bath and one guest room. We've chosen some bold choices such as red, terracotta, and deep blue and we have paired these colors with warm neutrals. We've worked for hours and hours finishing our basement, including a large living area, a "man" room for all of Nate's hunting and fishing things, and a full bathroom. I'm happy to report it's almost done and I'm thrilled with the way it is turning out. The projects in the basement that we still need to finish include: tiling the bathroom shower, putting in a vanity and toilet, building a bar or wet bar, and carpeting the steps. Let's see, what else have we done inside? We've added chair rail and crown molding in the dining room, tiled the kitchen backslash, finished the stair railing, changed door hinges to silver, added cupboards to the laundry room, and put knobs and handles on all of the cupboards. I'm sure I'm missing some things but you get the drift. A few pics of our work inside:

Chair rail and crown molding in the dining room.

The stairway, obviously, at Christmas

Living room in the basement, when we started we had nothing but concrete floors.

Another view

I don't know if you can tell from this pic but I'm trying to show the knee wall under the window.

It's been a great 3 years in our home and I'm very pleased with all we've accomplished. I don't know if we will ever run out of home improvement projects but we've at least crossed some off of the list.

Summer Nights

Over the weekend we got to catch up with Nick and Heather, and their kids Jade and Blake. It had been a while (too long) since we hung out with them and it's always a good time when we get together. Brett and Allison joined us for the evening too. What's better than an evening with good friends, crabs, beer, fireworks, a camp fire and smores? Ahh, I love summer! Hope we can do this again soon:) Some pics from our fun summer evening.

Pittsburgh- The City of Champions

Way to go Pens....from fighting their way into the playoffs to Stanley Cup Champs!

Superbowl Champs and Stanley Cup Champs all in one year it's a good time to be a fan:)

A Tale of Two Cities

Over Memorial Day weekend, Nate and I headed north to Stroudsburg, PA to visit our friends Anthony and Lynn. While visiting we spent a day in the Big Apple. New York City always amazes me; it’s so grand that it makes me feel like I’ve entered a whole new world. NYC is a great place to visit but I could never live there, I feel like the city would just swallow me up.

It was Nate’s first time ever in New York City! We tried to cover as much of the city as possible during our day. We started in Times Square where streets were shut down and vendors were selling all kinds of items and food. We walked through Times Square and then on to Central Park, where many people were hanging out enjoying the beautiful day. We then headed down 5th Avenue stopping a few places along the way. From there, it was on to the Empire State building. Unfortunately, our camera ran out of battery power before we made it to the look-out at the top of the building. After the Empire State building, we took the subway to Ground Zero and from there we headed over to Battery Park and looked across the harbor to see Lady Liberty. By this point we were getting tired and hungry, so we tried to make our way to Little Italy for dinner but somehow the boys misread the map and we ended up in Soho. We still managed to find a nice little Italian restaurant and had a lovely dinner with great wine and a yummy dessert. After refueling, we headed back to Time Square and stopped by Hard Rock and Espn Zone before calling it a day. Thanks for a great weekend Anthony and Lynn, can't wait to see you soon on your wedding day!

A few people were in Times Square as you can see....

Nate and Anthony in Central Park

Tiffanie @ Tiffany's

How do we get there?

This past weekend I headed out to Pittsburgh, home of the Superbowl champs, to stock Willie Parker…oh wait, I mean visit my best friend Summer. It was a great day in the Burgh! We went to an arts festival during the day. This was a great event with tons of vendors and good (unhealthy of course) food. I bought an awesome picture by Robert Sovers and a cool piece of pottery from Ole Fish House Pottery. I loved the Alpha Canvas work and just might visit their website to order “our name.”

We spent the evening in the South Side. I had never been to the South Side before and I LOVED it. There is great shopping and all kinds of bars and restaurants in this area. We had a fun dinner at Hofbrauhaus, a german restaurant. The food here was pretty good, although Summer’s made her feel a little funny. There is a ton of outside seating at the restaurant and it’s right along the water, definitely a great place to hang out on a nice day. After dinner, we went into a few bars and watched the Pens, although disappointed in the game, as Noah said “That’s why it’s a 7 game series!”

The great thing about Pittsburgh is that the people are friendly and you don’t have the “popped collars” and “designer everything” attitudes that you have in some urban areas. "Pittsburghers" are just normal folks, with accents somewhat like my own Fulton County Hick accent, who are making an honest living, cheering hard for their favorite teams, and having fun. Pittsburgh is definitely a place I could live, but it would make for quite a long drive to a beach, so for now I’ll just visit. Thanks for a fun weekend Summer and Noah, come see us soon!

I miss you TCI

The Turks and Caicos, Islands (TCI) has it all including beauty, friendly people, warm weather, and great food. Nate and I have travelled to TCI two times, most recently one year ago. I was thinking about TCI today and how this time last year we would have just been returning from our wonderful trip where we visited North Caicos, Middle Caicos, and Providenciales. We also went to TCI three years ago for our honeymoon.

The main tourist island is Providenciales "Provo." On our first visit we stayed on Provo for the entire trip. We spent time relaxing on Grace Bay beach in front of our resort, exploring beautiful beaches and cayes on the island, snorkeling and enjoying fine dining. While in Prove, we learned that other more remote islands existed with untouched beauty.

On our second trip we stayed on North Caicos and explored this island, as well as Middle Caicos, which was connected by a bridge. We explored both islands for several days and saw absolutely beautiful scenery, went fishing and snorkeling, hung out on beaches where we were the only people around for miles, and experienced great hospitality at our small resort. We then went back to Provo and once again and spent time enjoying incredible food and hanging out on Grace Bay Beach and Malcom Beach.

TCI is a safe country and you are not confined to the resort. You can rent a car and go just about anywhere that the roads, or should I say paths, lead, never knowing what kind of beauty is around the next turn. You can eat at local restaurants and hang out at local hot spots. The locals are friendly people who are proud of their country and always good offer advice on what to do and see. I've never felt so relaxed and at ease away from home as I did in TCI.

I miss you Turks and Caicos, hope to visit you soon:)

A few pictures of paradise.

What's in a Name?

I've decided to start a blog. Lately, I've had the urge to write, although I do not plan to spend hours proofreading and formatting so please excuse any grammatical and/or spelling errors that you come across. I'm not exactly sure what all I'll write about on my blog, but nonetheless here goes my first entry...

It took a while just to figure out a title for my new blog. Finally, I chose the title "Looking Through My Heart." I choose this phrase due to a quote in my favorite book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I've read the book a few times, since purchasing it a couple of years ago, because I find it inspiring. If you haven't read it, it's definitely a must!

The exact passage from the book that I find so inspiring is as follows:

"You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking through your head. You must look through your heart instead. "

The passage in the book is referring to how one can find balance in life, which is certainly something most of us struggle with. Life is quite the balancing act and many of us are trying to achieve balance in all kinds of ways. We try to achieve a balance between our career and our family/friends, a balance between time spent having fun and getting work done, and we try eat a balanced diet. Not to mention, companies prepare balance sheets and balanced budgets, some of us even balance our check books, gymnasts prove their skills on a balance beam, and fitness programs, such as yoga, can help improve your balance. Sometimes we are trying to balance so many things that we feel like jugglers with too many balls in the air.

In order to help achieve this balance, the passage above encourages us to keep our feet on the ground. If we keep our feet on the ground rather than constantly thinking and dreaming about the future we will be forced to live life in the moment. We'll experience what is happening now. I know I'm certainly guilty of spending my days dreaming and planning what I should do or what I would like to do. Dreaming and planning can be beneficial, so long as we don't miss out on experiencing what is happening now.

The final part of the passage encourages us to see through our hearts rather than our heads. Our heads can so easily see things as right or wrong, black or white, yes or no, but just imagine if we all viewed the world through our heart. Rather than finding answers in numbers, calculations, and policies, which sometimes may be appropriate, we can take time to consider implications to real people, real lives, communities, and feelings. Seeing the world through our heart encourages us to focus on our true desires and to place importance on who/what we love. What better way to find balance than focusing on what your heart says matters, rather than what your head thinks?

By living in the moment and seeing life through our hearts, it's easy to understand how one could certainly feel more balanced and ultimately more at peace. Of course, this is much easier said than done, as life takes over and we are required to pay our bills, feed our families, and take care of an endless list of obligations, but it's certainly worth a try!