lots of food...

yipes ... i've been really slacking. i'm trying, i promise.

february 7: So this is SORT OF cheating. I had two different pictures I wanted to use for february 6, but that's cheating. So February 6 was the superbowl and last year we held the superbowl party and chose to do so again, despite hating the fact that Pats were not in it. We planned a menu and I cooked all weekend. It was finally the day and all our friends from church came over, including a couple steelers fans (we still let them eat). It was a fun night with great people. Our menu featured buffalo chicken wing dip, chipotle lime crab crisps, caramel corn, seven layer dip, bacon wrapped smokies, proscuitto and spinach stuffed bread, and peanut butter banana cupcakes (I'm counting this for the seventh because you should have seen the pile of dishes waiting for me as I woke up on Monday morning):

february 8: So we were exhausted on Monday morning and rolled out of bed and to work, which meant I had to make the bed at lunch. I'm a sucker for getting into a made bed at night - another thing Ry has taught me to enjoy, along with black beans, puppies and Guatemala. :) HOWEVER, making the bed has been a near impossible task since Beans came into our life. Without fail, any time I try to make the bed, Beans finds it necessary to get his bone and jump up and sit right in the middle. What a crazy pup:

february 9/10: Here I go again with the cheating...we made a TON of caramel popcorn for the superbowl. IT WAS A DELISH recipe!!!!!!! Found here:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000420375

Anyways - there was so much left that we've been eating it all week...and it is ADDICTIVE! I highly suggest making this tasty, low-calorie, treat! (ps - how do i make my links not so ugly...anyone know???) Oh and cousin...notice the jar??:

february 11: So three people at Gordon that I know of have been diagnosed with pneumonia and another handful have been out sick. YUCK. Everyone in the office seems to be sniffling and coughing and it finally caught up with me on Friday. Ugh. Sitting at my desk that morning was TERRIBLE. So I fed myself soup (from a can...I hope I don't get disowned by my Lembo family) and crawled right into bed. Not cool:

february 12: aaahhh what a LOVELY day this turned out to be. I had a friend keep me company while I watched movies and then was able to serve with some wonderful people at church at the local food pantry. and THEN Ryan and I went on our much anticipated date!!! We had decided earlier in the week to make a reservation and tried to do so at our favorite restaurant...to be told they only had an 8:30 seating left. So we searched around and settled on a restaurant someone from church had recommended: http://www.zabaglioneristorante.com/

MY OH MY. it was AMAZING. We could only get an 8:15 seating (funny that we didn't just take the 8:30 at our fav...but I'm SO glad we didn't). We showed up and found ourselves in this tiny little restaurant with an open kitchen (the best kind, in my opinion). It was such a wonderful experience. We sat, we got a glass of wine, we slowly ate our appetizer and enjoyed each other while waiting for a meal. The meal came and we LOVED it...and all of a sudden it was 10:30! WHAT?! We weren't rushed through like other restaurants these days, but instead were welcome to enjoy the whole dining experience. It was SO nice!! And to top it off...the evening started with these beautiful roses from ry:

february 13: CROCK POT SUCCESS!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOO!!! So I decided that pulled pork would be a great choice for the week because we can do so much with it (pulled pork sandwiches, bbq pulled pork quesadillas, pulled pork burritos), so I turned to my crock pot after getting one of my Martha Stewart emails. Oh Martha, you rarely steer me astray. This pulled pork was SO GOOD!! It was so tender and had such yummy flavor!! I'm so excited to have my first crock pot success (recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pulled-pork-sandwiches-easy-tasty?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/slow-cooker-recipes#slide_6):