Third Dancing Anniversary

Three years of dancing together.  Lindy, blues, even sometimes the occasional bit of balboa, west or east coast.  Regardless of type, it has been a pleasure to hit the floor with my love.  Hard to believe it’s been a whole so long.  In honor, we had a date at Orange Leaf for some froyo.

Then we headed to the dance so we could take our traditional photo.  You can see last year’s here.

2013

It is crazy to see how much we’ve changed since first meeting each other at this blues exchange in 2010.  On another note, Google came through today.  There are times I really am thankful for all those brilliant minds that work for the search engine.  They really know how to read your mind.

Knew exactly what I wanted.  I was looking for the teratogenic effects of hydrocodone in pregnancy and there it was.  The class C ranking is sadly not incredibly helpful though it is the standard rating system and a fair guess by Google as so exactly what I wanted.  I needed to continue to comb through results but a nice first line presentation.  Go Google.

Question: When has Google come through for you?

WIA[A]W

Today’s WIAW is going to be a big recap of all sorts of foods because of my lack of posting due to lack of time lately.  This new rotation I’m in is kind of kicking my booty in terms of time management.  So let’s call this post a What I Ate All Week, a WIAAW, if you will.

So, without further ado, get ready to drool.  I’ll separate it by meal type I think and save the best for last, the desserts.  Let’s hope to it!

Breakfasts:

1) Brunch at a local place just a block and a half from my apartment.  I had some of the best sausage gravy ever smothering an incredibly fluffy biscuit.  Had a side of “Anna’s potatoes” too with gruyere cheese…ridiculously awesome.  And that big red disc you see, I kid you not, that’s a red velvet pancake and potentially one of the greatest things on the face of this earth.  Those pumpkin pie pancakes in the back (not mine, I may be a piggy but not that much!) might have given the red velvet a run for their money.
2) Breakfast cake like always with walnut butter, maple syrup, and chia seeds like always.  Oldie but a goodie.

Lunches:

1) Chunky veggie krab slaw with homemade coleslaw dressing. Delicious!
2) Harvest turkey cranberry salad from Panera Bread.
3) Football game date lunch: Buffalo chicken nachos.
4) Football game date lunch: Loaded Texan burger with fried onion, cheese, bacon, and BBQ and a Philly sandwich.  We went halfsies and had both straight and curly fries.  I love the spirals!
5) Sweet potato cauliflower goat cheese bisque. Homemade and super.  Based on this recipe with some obvious changes (hence the goat cheese in the name).

Dinners (and Drinks):

1) Dinner and a movie date: Pumpkin pie martini.  Oh yea, like liquid pie greatness.
2) Dinner and a movie date: Halfsies of a chicken, pineapple, peanut sauce, sesame slaw sandwich and a bacon bleu burger.  Waffle fries for me!
3) Dinner and a movie date: cranberry cosmo for me and a boozy peanut butter chocolate milkshake for him, well, me too. As if I wouldn’t sip that!
4) The sweet potato cauliflower bisque made originally at Jack’s apartment on Saturday night before I made my own version yesterday.  He stuck much closer to the recipe than I did.  Both were good.
5) Traditional dinner plate of chicken/apple sausage with BBQ sauce, steamed broccoli with mustard, and some curry blend seasoned roasted butternut squash.  Oh me, oh my –> so yummy, must make again NOW!
6) Heaping, overflowing salad made for tonight.  Topped with hot leftover curry roasted butternut squash and spicy French dressing.

Desserts:

1) Dinner and a movie date: Cinni mini dessert. Tasted like hot molten gingerbread.
2) One of the most insane looking peanut butter milkshakes ever.  We all about jumped the counter watching it be made.  Wowza.
3) Andes mint pie a la mode.  Seriously delish.  I could have eaten the whole entire pie, easily.  I wouldn’t have even felt bad about it.  I would have been too blissed out to care.  Probably would have been a bit sad in the morning though…

With that my dears I hope I have made you salivate.  I know I enjoyed it all while I was eating it!  I’m going to leave you with two cute pictures from the dance Jack and I attended on Saturday.  It had been a long time since we’d gotten to move on the floor so we had a great time.  And dips are a must…after giggles of course.

Questions: What is your drink of choice when you go out?
Favorite flavor of milkshake?

September Wedding Weekend #3

Ladies and gentlemen, we have officially concluded the great three wedding run of Sept 2012.  Our final event was the wedding of Jack’s good friend Jhan to his lovely bride Rachel.  This time it was Jack’s turn to be in the wedding (I had my turn last time, remember?) which meant that I got to hang out all day by myself while he was doing wedding business.  I passed the time by trying on dresses, figuring out my makeup, working out, studying, and giving myself a French manicure.

Seriously, I’m getting better at these.  I don’t think I’ll ever pay for one again…  Anyways, by the time four o’clock rolled around I headed out to the farm where the wedding was taking place.  I’m not sure my choice of shoes was the greatest for stomping around in fields but what’s a girl to do?

The ceremony started just a bit behind schedule though nothing to write a letter to the editor about, which was appreciated, especially with it being outside in the breezy 58* weather.

The bridal party all lined up and awaited the bride’s entrance.

And what an entrance it was!!!

That’s right, there was a horse and carriage.  How super neat was that?  I was terribly impressed.  The ceremony was short, sweet, and against a drop-dead gorgeous backdrop. They are both theater major people (met in the theater department in college actually) so the “sermon” was on this being opening night of life’s biggest play, etc. Very nice and very personal to the couple.

Then there were rings and statements of encircling each other was love forever.

And kisses were shared.

Finally, the new couple danced down the aisle and rode off into the sunset.

Then, my friends, it was time to party.  I arrived at the reception alone (bridal party was taking pictures and such) and was greeted by a chalkboard telling me how to find my table. 

When I got to my table I put the stick into my cute pot thus designating what I was to have for dinner.  I had ordered the mushroom option a while back when the invitation arrived and I thought this was a very cute way of helping out the wait-staff.

It was a lovely cocktail hour was three passed options and some buffet options as well.  The passed items included a puff pastry “pizza”, homemade pita with tofu sesame dip, and a grilled bruschetta of pesto zucchini.  I tried all three and they were great.  On the buffet side of things there was a variety of cheeses, veggies, and dips.  The tofu sesame was frakkin’ amazing.  I want the recipe so badly!

The couple also had a table of cupcakes set out. They were the vegan friendly option of the night.  There was a raspberry vanilla, a banana peanut butter, and a German chocolate option.

On the other side of the room, next to the photo booth (which was a blast) there was a candy bar with a chalkboard proclaiming that “Love is sweet.”  Oh yes it was.  I may have single-handedly-mouthedly eaten a whole bag over the course of the night.  Haha.

Anyways, eventually the bridal party arrived and things got hopping.  Our plated dinner started off with a salad and a breadbasket.  Nothing super special but the nutty, seedy roll that I had was nicely rustic and hearty.

Then came the entrée and boy, what the salad lacked in greatness, the entrée made up for in spades.  This mushroom was fabulous.  It was stuffed with spinach, tomato, and some sort of cheesy-pesto goodness on top.  It was on a bed of pesto noodles and had two veggies on the side: green beans and some sautéed greens (collard??).

I devoured this plate and took no prisoners.

Also, my love was kind enough to bring me a piece of his fish for which I exchanged a hunk of mushroom.  His dish was also delicious.  Soon after the meal, people started raiding the cupcake table so we followed suit.  Jack and I split a banana peanut butter and a German chocolate.

To my surprise, my favorite was the banana peanut butter.  It just had more flavor all around than the chocolate one though both were stellar.  There was also a variety of cookies and chocolate covered strawberries to munch on.

What cute little tuxes and dresses the strawberries had on!!  As if that dessert wasn’t enough, it was cake cutting time!!

Very cute couple, very nice cake.  It was a carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting.  And from what I heard it was made by one or both of the moms, from scratch, with eggs from their farm, in one day.  Damn!  I applaud their work ethic!

Obviously by this point they had turned the lights wayyyy down because it was time for the formal dances.  The couple did a choreographed number to “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri and the bride danced with her father to “I Loved Her First”, a classic choice.

Forgive the bright light, I obviously wasn’t in the best spot to be taking these pictures.  Oh well.  As expected, I cried my way through these two songs.  Seriously, I’m an awful wedding crier.  Every time, seriously, every time.  I don’t even want to imagine what kind of a wreck I’m going to be on my own wedding day in the future!  After the formal dances, the rest of the crowd danced the night away and before we knew it, it was time to wrap it all up.  Jack and I stayed, along with most of the wedding party and such, to tear down the space.  We also snagged some silly pictures once they brought the lights up again and we could actually be seen.

The awkward prom shot.  We were really giggling about this.

The kissy face shot.

And the “let’s just smile like normal people” shot.

Seriously great wedding.  We had a blast.  And now, with that, I’m off to study some embryology and watch my Redskins play some football today.  Let’s do this!  Hope your Sunday is wonderful.  =D

Questions: Would you trust your parents to make your wedding cake?
Do you like the idea of a photo booth at your wedding?