Thoughts From a Dumas...

worse pain than labor?!

2012-02-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

aren't my new bracelets pretty?!

you see, around 9 pm on Wednesday night I got this throbbing pain in the right side of my back. it came out of nowhere. bizarre, right? my back had been sore, so i figured it was just a muscle thing. i tried to relax and deal with it, but around 11 it had just gotten worse. we called the midwife and she suggested tylenol and thought it could be back spasms the way i was describing the pain. lovely, no tylenol in the house and not a single store open. so i decided to be stubborn and deal with it. bad idea - i only lasted about two and a half more hours before i had to call back the midwife since the pain kept making me throw up (goodbye every ounce of fluid, hello dehydration). she told me the best thing to do was to come in...so at 2:30 my father in law drove us the hour to the hospital (bad roads = better drive with snow tires...we don't have snow tires). what a good father-in-law because not only did he bring us at 2:30 in the morning, he then went and worked a 12 hour shift at 7 am.

anyways, i stumbled into the ER doubled over because the pain was so bad and they quickly brought me up to the labor & delivery floor. i laid down and in walks the midwife, an ob doc, my nurse and a student (UVM is a teaching hospital - students everywhere!). they took one look at me and all had the same thought: kidney stone. it took about a half an hour to get paperwork through (it felt like an eternity), but they finally gave me pain meds. oooooh the joy of pain meds. it made me just sleepy enough to be able to manage the pain. and then they gave me my magic button that i could press every six minutes. every six minutes i pressed it and in came the pain meds. best. invention. ever.

sometime in the morning they took me for an ultrasound to look for the stone. they couldn't find it. strange. they said my kidney was inflamed and there were other signs consistent with a stone, so that's what they're going with. i kept hitting my magic button every six minutes until all of a sudden around 2:30 i stopped needing to use it. it was like someone had hit the off switch on the pain! it was crazy. i finally saw a doctor around five and he determined that the stone probably dissolved and that i could go home.

so i'm home now. the pain has returned, but to a lesser degree. the midwife thinks that it could be part of the stone still in there and that the kidney is still inflamed so she's giving me some narcotics for the pain. victory. pain management at home and not in a hospital! so as long as i keep up my fluids and take my drugs, i should be all set. though, they'll want to see me if it doesn't get better...hopefully this isn't the case!

and don't worry, baby jacob is just fine in there. we heard his heartbeat a couple times and it's beating at the same rate it has been. and, since i was in the hospital, he received all the fluids he could have ever wanted! the nurses reassured us that this wouldn't affect him at all and that kidney stones are fairly common during pregnancy. the doctor even told us that they are even more common in the right kidney due to all the crazy things going on in the body. go figure!

i must say, that was possibly the worst pain i've ever been in in my entire life. they do say having a kidney stone is worse than having a kid. i guess my body just wanted to practice the whole pain thing for a little while...

pure joy.

2012-01-25T15:06:00.000-08:00

yesterday was one of the most exciting days of our lives. i feel like i haven't stopped smiling for 24 hours straight. in fact, i was smiling so much, my cheeks hurt like they did on our wedding day.

yesterday we got to see our little baby for a whole hour while they took measurement after measurement during the ultrasound. i felt like a child in there as i sat with my mouth hanging open watching that little miracle on the screen. what a crazy, crazy feeling.

frank, the sonographer, was great at explaining every measurement he was taking. he showed us all the little bones growing in there and it was AMAZING. watching and hearing the heart beat at the same time has to be one of the coolest things in the entire world. it's amazing how God is knitting that little one together piece by piece.

so after an hour or so, frank asked us if we wanted to know what baby was...and we did not hesitate:

it's a boy!!!!!! we are thrilled. i feel like my heart is going to burst just thinking about little jacob jay in there. i can't even imagine what it's going to be like when we welcome him into the world in 4 1/2 months. we love him so much already! (and yes, he's got a name. we've had jacob jay picked out since as long as we both can remember...perhaps even before we were married! and no, we did not have any names if it were a girl, so that saved us a little bit of trouble!)

and you know what is making us feel even more overjoyed? sharing this with all our friends and family. i can't believe the outpouring of excitement, joy and support that people are sharing with us. it's amazing and we are so thankful to share with all of you. our hearts are so, so full. thank you for sharing in our joy with us - you make it all that much more fun!!

(sorry for the blurry picture, it's a picture of a picture as i have yet to scan in the actual pictures. and sorry for the overuse of exclamation points, clearly i'm excited!!)

19 weeks and a present or two.

2012-01-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

i was going to save this picture for tomorrow, but i suppose tomorrow's big appointment will deserve it's own post, so i'm treating you all to a bump picture today. i went "shopping" with my mom last week. she lives in baltimore and i'm in vt, so while we enjoy doing our shopping in person, shopping trips usually have to happen as follows (and they're almost as fun!):

+email from mom: let's go shopping at lunch - look at these websites

+call mom at lunch and look at the websites at the same time

+pick out lovely items

and now i have another new shirt for my quickly expanding baby bump! THANKS, MOM!! you're my favorite shopping partner...this was a good pick, you think?:

and not only did i come home to a shirt in the mail from our shopping trip...but also a "happy day you find out if baby is a boy or girl" present from aunt erin!! aunt erin and uncle aaron, baby dumas LOVES it!!! how did you know soccer is already baby's favorite sport?! ;)

don't worry, baby dumas will be celebrating a US gold medal in the London games...baby is smart, making an appearance just in time for such incredible events.

coming soon: is baby dumas a boy or a girl??

18 weeks.

2012-01-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

well, since people have been asking, i figured i better post a picture of my little baby bump. i finally started really showing last week (as in it looks a little more like baby and not just like some extra winter pounds put on since moving to vt!). i'll try to post these once a week, but since i work at home in my sweatpants every day, i often don't look so great in the bump pictures. i'll see what i can do, though :)

week 18 facts:

+baby is the size of a mango

+baby's legs and arms are proportionate now

+i should start feeling baby moving within the next couple weeks

some extra notes:

+spent the weekend with our pigeon cove chapel family - update coming soon

+a week from today we should know if baby is a boy or girl

a rather random update about nothing.

2012-01-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

+ we haven't been doing too much around here these days. i'm still not feeling all that great, so we keep outings short, especially since the roads around here make me quite nauseous, even if i am the one driving.

+ baby bump pictures will be coming shortly. a couple weeks ago you could actually start to tell i was pregnant, now there's no denying it. there's definitely a baby in there :)

+ january 24th is a big day in the dumas house. it's the day of the big ultrasound...the one where they do a bajillion different measurements to make sure everything is growing as it should. oh it also happens to be the one where they can usually tell if baby is a boy or girl. i used to not so secretly want only boys...but i really just don't care anymore. boy or girl is fine with me!

+ i am seriously missing cooking. i love planning out the meals for the week and grocery shopping. since moving and being pregnant, i've not done that once. part of this is because we are 30 minutes from the closest grocery store, but the other part is that it is rather hard to plan a menu when nothing sounds appealing to me besides eggo waffles with peanut butter and granola bars.

+ we're about to hit tax season, in fact, next week is the first full week of six day work weeks. i'm already counting down the days until one of my favorite days of the year: april 15.

+ usually tax season starts a week earlier, which is a bummer, because the pigeon cove chapel retreat usually falls on the first weekend of tax season. but not this year! we're off to NH this weekend to spend time with our pcc family. we're excited!

+ i was in massachusetts last week for work. it was nice to be there, especially since two friends got engaged and i was able to hug and congratulate everyone in person...yay :) i also got my fill of hugs that'll last me to this weekend. not having many friends in vt means a serious lack of hugs in my life. not okay.

+ and i'll leave you with this last bullet point (aren't bulleted lists the best??) one of my goals this year is to learn how to use my camera properly before baby comes along. i started playing with shutter speed and i'm working on learning other things. here's a couple shots:

sharing our news.

2011-12-18T07:07:00.000-08:00

last weekend i had the privilege of going back to massachusetts (i keep wanting to say home instead of massachusetts. it's funny how a place became home after a few short years there...but that's a blog post for another day). there were many reasons for my trip back, most of which revolved around sharing our news with everyone. i needed to tell work and we wanted to share the news in person with our friends. unfortunately, ry was unable to make the trip with me due to not having any vacation time, so i made sure to tape a bunch of reactions for him.

the first reaction we have is the soccer team. this one is a bit long, but i just couldn't cut out the ending of two of my players looking at the picture. at the end of the season, i had the opportunity to share with the girls how the Lord worked in our lives and moved us to vermont. i asked coach if i could continue my story with a little bit of an update at the banquet on sunday night, to which he gladly said yes (when i told coach i was moving he asked me if i'd be looking for work, or working on my family...he must have known something i didn't know!). so i started by explaining how the Lord had been working all things out and then broke the news by pulling out the gift the girls gave me at the banquet last year: a baby t shirt (again...they must have known something i didn't know!) Here's their reaction:

the next reaction is when our pastor, patrick, shared the news with our pigeon cove chapel family. i stopped over to see patrick and sarah when i got into town on saturday night so i could share the news with them. somehow we decided it'd be fun to display the ultrasound picture up on the screen and tell people that way during announcements. it was so fun being there to share this news!! here's how it went down:

and finally: our friends. this video cracks me up every time. it's perfect. i almost ruined it because i couldn't figure out how to video on my camera, so lauren asked me if i was pregnant before i actually revealed the news. i can't remember how i got out of it, but i made everyone just say hi to ryan. then i convinced dolan that i needed to show her something. Please note the reactions around the room:

so there you have it. i'm so so so glad these videos are recorded. it was so fun sharing our news with everyone and i have never felt so covered with love...again. my goodness we left so many people that we love in massachusetts. the good news is that we know that, because of our shared faith in Christ, we will always have family in massachusetts. i wish i had caught some reactions from work, too, because those were fantastic as well! it's so fun knowing how much baby dumas is loved already. thank you, everyone, for sharing in our joy. we are so thankful for all of you.

a little about the discovery of baby dumas.

2011-12-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

so there you have it: the reason i have not blogged much since moving to vermont. you try blogging while you are holding back a secret that is changing your life one day at a time. it's brutal!

let me take you back in time a minute so i can explain how this all happened. warning: this has God's hand all over it, so be prepared for amazingness.

remember back when we decided to move to vermont? yep, that happened approximately one week and four days before we learned of baby d's existence. in deciding to not buy the house and move to vermont we actually took a pregnancy test to make sure we weren't embarking on a grand new adventure (house or moving) with another grand new adventure on the way. it was negative. the timing was such that if we were having a baby, it should be positive...or so we thought. so off to vermont it is, we decide.

fast forward one week and four days. it's saturday after i've announced at work that we will be moving to vermont and i'm slightly convinced i'm pregnant, so into the bathroom i sneak while ry is still sleeping, only to emerge with this:

yikes. clearly the Lord wanted us to make the decision to move before we learned about baby dumas. i'm not going to lie, i may or may not have started freaking out due to the timing of this, but ryan was able to talk some sense into me as he became more and more excited. the next two weeks were a blur as ~~we packed~~ ry packed us up to move while i laid around sick in bed for our last bit of time in massachusetts, all while mostly holding in our secret. come on, we had to tell a few people, we were bursting at the seams.

this is where the crazy part comes in. you see, the sickness started gradual, but as soon as we got to vermont it hit hard. talk about perfect timing to begin ~~working from home~~ working from my bed. there were weeks when i literally just could not get out of bed. if i had to be working in the office, i would have called in sick for three weeks straight. the Lord had a plan.

and then there's the insurance thing. since ry was going to be a new employee, he wasn't eligible for insurance until december 1. we were on his insurance at his old job and since he finished up on october 28, we were going to be uninsured for the month of november. being newly pregnant and uninsured really did not sit well with me. in fact, it scared me. but, because God is so good to us, it just so happened that i was able to keep my full time job at gordon and therefore this pregnant mama to be was eligible for insurance. so, not only did i get to keep the job i love, working for a place i love, it allows me to stay healthy, too. and without insurance, i'm not sure i would have survived. i was so sick they put me on medicine to keep food in my stomach so baby d could be fed. it's a medicine that costs an arm and a leg without insurance, so being insured happened to be rather important. so again, the Lord had a plan.

and then there's the in-laws. they have been great. again, i'm not sure we would have survived had we not been living with them. ry is currently clothed and fed, thanks to my mother-in-law. all our cars got registered and fixed and oil has been changed thanks to them, too. these are all tasks that i have been way too sick to accomplish by myself. and with ryan's long commute to and from work, there wouldn't be time for things like laundry and groceries and cleaning without help. so again, the Lord had a plan.

it's really been amazing to see the Lord work all these things out in His perfect timing. it's never been more apparent to us than it has over the past month and a half how the Lord really does provide. we are so thankful.

so there you have it. a snippet of what life has been like since we've been in vermont. i had a great trip to massachusetts this past weekend to share the news with tons of people and i happened to video tape a good portion of those, so i'll be posting about that soon. in the meantime, enjoy a scanned picture of the ultrasound - that's our baby!!! YAY!!!

and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

take a look at this picture.

2011-12-14T14:00:00.000-08:00

some pictures to tide you.

2011-12-03T14:21:00.001-08:00

it's been a long while since my last post, so i figured i was due for writing an update. i just loaded about 200 pictures on my computer from our last days in massachusetts to our first days in vermont. i'll be writing a post on how the Lord has completely provided for us in this transition someday soon, but that post requires thoughtful words, because it will absolutely blow your mind at how good God is, and i'm just a little too sleepy for that right now. until then, enjoy some pictures...

these first couple of pictures are from our last walk down to the water. we had the privilege of living a quarter mile from the ocean during our first two years of marriage and we made a habit of walking down there a couple days a week...beans loved that walk!

how could you not love these two???

we loved the days we could see the sun set over boston...

now we're in veetee. one of the first things we did was buy a vitamix. i'm not sure why, but ry makes a smoothie at least once a day and has started drinking green smoothies for breakfast. we are in the green mountain state, i guess.

november is the start of a month long vacation for my father in law due to hunting season. his first day in the woods in vermont he came home with this gem. venison for the winter! yum!

we were excited to learn that ry didn't have to wait to use his vacation time, so we took full advantage and escaped to rochester for thanksgiving. there is nothing like a lembo family holiday.

when we came home from rochester, ry's sister had some news. she was getting a goldendoodle puppy! isn't he cute?? his name was sawyer, but it's since been changed to cooper. what a ball of fluff.

ry bought cooper his new favorite toy. obviously every good puppy has a soccer ball. it was beans' favorite toy as a pup, too.

beans thought it would be fun to snuggle with cooper. either that, or he spotted the soccer ball in the corner and wanted to get it!

is our pup not the most handsome boy you've ever seen?

i just love his face.

look at those two!

and then it snowed! big giant flakes and it was pretty!!

and proof that ryan is everyone's favorite:

filled up with love and sent on our way.

2011-11-09T14:08:00.000-08:00

wow. i'm writing this from my new home in vermont. what? vermont?

hello, new home, you haven't really sunk in yet. i'm wondering how long it'll take. maybe i'll live in this state of denial for a bit longer where we'll just commute to pigeon cove chapel every sunday (i wish!) and i'll still work for gordon (oh wait, I DO!).

anyways, the point of this post is to tell you how we were completely surrounded by so many people we love and who poured out love onto us over our last couple of weeks we were in massachusetts. from the moment we told people we were moving to the moment we drove off to vermont, we were covered in love and it made it nearly impossible to leave. people fed us. people cleaned our apartment with us. people loaded up the uhaul with us. people cried with us. people hugged us. people told us they loved us.

i wish i could put into words how grateful we are for all of you. we are grateful for your helping hands and your open hearts. how wonderful it was to have dinner delivered and that meal shared on our hardwood floors with people we absolutely love. how amazing to have great friends spend their entire saturday morning packing our apartment and loading our life piece by piece into the uhaul (all while i slipped out to coach in my final soccer game). how overwhelming generous it was for the church to throw us such a wonderful goodbye party filled with some of the most amazing people we have ever met. the list goes on and on and on.

you have no idea how you all have impacted our lives. to co-workers at gordon, co-workers at ryan&coscia, my soccer players, and our pigeon cove chapel family - we are deeply grateful for all of you.

and we miss you, darn it. a lot. so we'll be back soon. hopefully in ten days ;)

the rumors are true.

2011-10-17T17:46:00.000-07:00

you might have noticed that i haven't been blogging away on here lately. you see, our life has been a bit hectic since we're moving to Vermont in ... ooooohhhh.... 12 days.

yes, you read that correctly: we're moving to Vermont. in 12 days.

Here's the story:

ryan threw out his resume to three firms in vermont in an attempt to move closer to family (we applied in roc, too, but to no avail). three firms. that's not very many in this economy. we didn't hear anything for about a month until we found ourselves stopping at a Mobil in VT getting maple creemees when ry noticed an email on his phone from one of the firms. this was great since we were in vermont, minus the whole not having any sort of interview clothes. so off to brooks brothers we went to buy some pants and a polo (yes, he interviewed in khakis and a polo) while knowing that only God could work out this timing. of course we were in vermont when we received the email. anyways, the first interview went well and we thought they'd be offering him a job. we headed back to massachusetts wondering what was to come and then he received a call for a second interview...so up he went. the second interview went well and in early july he received an offer from them.

at this point in the summer we were absolutely loving our life. we have, hands down, the best church family in the entire world and the thought of leaving that was just too hard. not to mention we were in the midst of church softball season and we couldn't leave the team hanging ;) i also was in the middle of crazy time at gordon college since the new fiscal year was kicking off. so...we turned it down.

then they called again in august and told ry that his name continually comes up when they talk about the still-open position. we turned them down as i was loving my job and we thought it best to have two jobs thanks to our education at gordon college that we are working on paying off (moving to vt = no immediate job for nicole).

so on we went with life here in massachusetts. it was going so well that we even put an offer in on a house at the beginning of september that we loved. a total fixer upper, but a house we loved none the less. the offer got accepted and on the same day the job called again. since we had just had an offer accepted on a house we turned it down again. we went through the process of signing papers, getting an inspection and getting estimates for plumbing and electric...when we found out the electric was going to cost two arms and two legs to update. it made it unaffordable. so the night we deemed the house unaffordable, we decided to call back the job in vermont.

the next morning, ry called the firm and the rest is history. both of us are excited about this decision and it's clear that the Lord was working over the past couple of months. He has guided this whole journey along and has opened both our hearts to moving up to vt. i gave my notice at work last thursday and ry gave his notice today. it's going to be incredibly hard to leave here. the people we know here are way too wonderful and it breaks our hearts to leave them. we've been so blessed over the past two years of marriage and we know that the Lord is continuing to bless our path as He leads us to vermont.

and yes, i know you're all wondering, beans is very excited to go hiking in the mountains and swimming in the rivers.

and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

fruit of the spirit: an art project.

2011-10-10T18:17:00.000-07:00

so i saw this print awhile ago on Olive Manna and wanted to buy it.

of course the 16x20 print is $65. yikes. too many dollah bills for the dumas family budget. after said print sighting, we happened to be at michael's and noticed canvas' were on sale so we bought a five pack with some ambitious thoughts flowing through our heads. think: a picture of a cherry blossom tree stretching across three canvas' with scripture written underneath. then reality hit. we're not artists. bummer. so ry had the idea to recreate the print i had shown him. i didn't photograph the process, but let me tell you, the cherry blossom might have been easier. we had to print out the letters and make them fit. this process alone took us cutting out the same letters over and over and over and over again. we then had to trace them and paint blue around them, twice. we then painted the letters white...three times. it took about three weeks off and on to finally finish. BUT...i'm a fan of the final product and thankful for the bright color it brings to the blah "dining room."

but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... - galatians 5:22-23

Dumas Family Favorites: Buffalo Chicken Dip

2011-10-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

i've had a few failures in the kitchen lately, which is probably why you haven't seen me on here in about a week. due to the amount of failures, i knew i needed to turn to a trusty old favorite for the pats game today: buffalo chicken dip. this dumas family favorite could almost be labeled THE dumas family favorite. it's the recipe that everyone asks for after they eat it. everyone. it's that good. this is a recipe we've memorized because we've made it so many times. it's that good. now, i cannot take credit for finding this recipe. in fact, like most delicious food in life, it came to me through a lembo family party. ~~aunt cyndi~~ AC made this one day and since then it makes an appearance at almost every major family party. like i said, it's that good. here's the recipe so you too can enjoy the deliciousness that is buffalo chicken dip:

buffalo chicken dip

adapted from kraft, courtesy of AC

INGREDIENTS

1 package cream cheese, softened (we use 1/3 less than fat)

1/2 cup blue cheese dressing (you can use ranch if you desire, we don't)

1/2 cup franks hot sauce

1.5 cups cooked chicken (we like it shredded and we usually use two chicken breasts and today Ry decided to try grilling the chicken so it had more flavor...GREAT IDEA!)

DIRECTIONS

1. preheat oven to 350 F degrees

2. in mixing bowl, mix cream cheese, blue cheese and franks with electric mixer

3. mix in chicken

4. spread in 2 qt baking dish (or whatever else you have to cook things in - sometimes we use the 8x8 or the loaf pan, depending on what dishes are in use) and bake for 20 minutes. Mixture should be bubbly on the edges.

5. enjoy with a bag of santitas.

a penny saved is a penny earned. literally.

2011-09-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

we had quite a day on saturday. you see, on thursday we learned that we had to replace all four tires on ry's car. tires are definitely not cheap, so we were not so excited for our saturday adventure to firestone. however, before our adventure, we decided to cash in our "house fund" (yes, that is a sneak peak of what's to come...). our "house fund" is a gallon maple syrup jar that ry has faithfully been funding for over three years. he works in salem, which has parking meters that people conveniently drop their extra change by. every day at lunch he goes for a walk and talks on the phone with me, his parents or just enjoys a nice day while picking up pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

so off to td bank we went to cash in our coins. we both guessed as to what we thought might be in there. ry guessed somewhere around $45 and i guessed $57 based on the guy who went before us on the coin counter. look at how fun this is:

so we pour in all our coins and wait patiently while it counts. we thought we might have underestimated a little bit based on how the coins kept pouring out of the jar, but we didn't know for sure. and then the total came up on the screen and our jaws dropped and we laughed while the receipt printed out...

i'd say we underestimated. needless to say, someday we will teach our children the valuable lesson of: a penny saved is a penny earned.

Dumas Family Favorites: Butternut and Apple Harvest Soup

2011-09-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

fall is such a wonderful time of year because the excitement of soup returns in full force to the dumas house. soups are delightful because they take the work out of dinner since they last for a couple of days. usually we'll throw a soup together on a sunday night and then we have it for the week and mix up our side dishes. perfect. this past sunday we had the privilege of sharing our sunday soup with the bayreuther family - hannah included! isn't baby b precious?!

anyways, we thought it best to use a tried and true recipe to share with pete and jen, so naturally we turned to butternut and apple harvest soup. we had plenty of apples on hand due to last weeks apple picking, so we served it alongside turkey sausage, apple and cheddar stuffed bread and a spinach salad. perfect! we had a lovely time with the bayreuthers chatting, oogling over hannah and filling our bellies with tasty soup...thanks pete and jen for letting us crash your sunday evening! i forgot to take a picture of the soup in bowls, so here's our big pot...whoops!

Butternut and Apple Harvest Soup

adapted from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, chopped

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed

2 cups cubed butternut squash

1 cup diced carrots

1 apple, peeled, cored, and sliced

1 quart vegetable stock

1/4 apple cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. stir in onions, and cook until the onion softens and turns translucent, about five minutes. add potato, squash, carrots, apple, and chicken stock. bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 20 minutes.

2. carefully puree the soup in batches in a blender, or use a stick blender (BUY ONE OF THESE - THEY ARE THE BEST INVENTIONS EVER!!!) to puree the soup right in the pot. once the soup has been pureed, return it to the pot and stir in the vinegar. season with nutmeg, salt, and epper; simmer gently for five minutes.

3. enjoy (preferably with friends and family...and baby b's!)

four seasons: fall.

2011-09-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

one of the glorious things about new england is that we fully experience all four seasons...and fall is unleashing it's beauty on us right now. to celebrate, we attended the gordon college alumni apple picking day at russell orchards. we had never been before (we used to be slacker alumni) and didn't know what to expect. it was great! there were free cider donuts and apple cider and so many wonderful alumni and my co-workers wandering around. there are so many wonderful people within the gordon family and it's a joy to be a part of it. and, beyond the tasty treats and wonderful people, there were apples! there is nothing like a fresh apple. ry and i had a great time exploring the orchard and tasting which apples would be best to pick. we filled up our ten pound bag and pondered on the different apple-y treats we could make. here are a few pictures from the day, followed by a recipe for the most delicious cinnamon-apple cake we made last night with some of our pickings (it's totally easy and completely delicious and 100% worth making - i might even make it again next weekend...):

cinnamon-apple cake

cooking light

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 cups sugar, divided

6 oz block style 1/3 less than fat cream cheese

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 cups chopped peeled apples (about 3-4 apples)

cooking spray

STEPS

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, cream cheese, butter, and vanilla at medium speed of a mixer until well blended. add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition; set aside.

3. lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. add flour mixture to creamed mixture, and beat at low speeduntil blended. combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. combine 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon mixture and apple in a bowl; stir apple mixture into batter. pour batter into an 8 inch spring form pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.

4. bake at 350 for 55 minutes or until cake pulls away from the sides of pan. cool cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.

Dumas Family Favorites: Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes

2011-09-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

we usually don't get through the week without using a favorite recipe and since they're favorites, I figured it's best to share them with the world. i've entitled this series of recipes: dumas family favorites. creative, I know. this will be your signal that these recipes are really good. or at least it will be your signal that we think these recipes are really good. good enough to go into the recipe binder and use over and over again.

our first dumas family favorite comes from none other than martha stewart. the grams (pictured below) signed me up for everyday food magazine a couple of years and it's always packed full of wonderful and easy recipes. one of her columns is healthy starts, breakfast ideas that are both tasty and healthy. perfect. i pulled this one over a year ago and we've made it many times since. they're filling and delicious. they're the pancakes that ry always asks for whenever i suggest we have pancakes. no more boring pancakes in the dumas household, but it's okay, because these are worth eating over and over!

the grams (and the pops):

cinnamon-oat pancakes

martha stewart

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups old-fashioned oats

2 cups milk

2 large eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

STEPS

1. In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and 1 cup oats. Pulse a few times to coarsely grind oats. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and oil. Add dry ingredients and 1 cup oats and whisk until just moistened.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium. Drop batter (we use a soup ladle) onto skillet and cook until bubbles burst, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip and cook until browned on underside.

3. Serve with real vermont maple syrup. (okay, you caught me, this step isn't 100% necessary, but it will ensure tasty pancakes!)

about that bread pudding.

2011-09-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

i feel like bread pudding is one of those things that you either love or you hate. i don't know why anyone would be so silly to be grouped in the latter, though. i mean, let's be serious, it's one of life's greatest treats. and this particular bread pudding, well, let's just say if i could eat it every day of my life i'd be happy. i really don't think i could get sick of it. we even believed that this recipe was worthy of sharing with my father.

i cannot claim that we found this recipe on our own, though. it all started one cold day in february after church. at pigeon cove chapel we always have a wonderful time of fellowship following the service. what makes this so great is that everyone stays because we all thoroughly enjoy spending time with each other. fellowship time is enhanced by food (not that we need it to enjoy ourselves), and anyone at church will tell you that the josephson's are masters of fellowship time. the spread they put out is unreal. you never think it can get better, but then it does. and this cold day they completely outdid themselves. they introduced me to nutella banana bread pudding. my life hasn't been the same since.

nutella banana bread pudding

foodnetwork.com

INGREDIENTS

Cooking Spray

1 Container Nutella

1 Baguette, sliced

8 Eggs

2 Cups Heavy Cream

2 Cups Milk

2 Cups Sugar

1 TBS Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Almond Extract

3 Ripe Bananas

DIRECTIONS

1. Spray 13 x 9 Baking Pan

2. Spread nutella on all bread slices. Then put together slices to make sandwiches. Cut each sandwich into one inch cubes and toss into a large bowl.

3. Crack eggs into another bowl and whisk in cream, milk, sugar, vanilla and almond extracts. Pour mixture over sandwich cubes.

4. Mash bananas and stir into bread cube mixture. Pour into prepared baking dish and refrigerate for at least two hours, pressing the bread down occasionally.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake until set in the middle, about 45-50 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve warm.

a visit with family.

2011-09-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

ry and i just recently reevaluated our life. we do this often. one of the "to do's" we put on the list was to see family at least once a month, if possible. we realize this will be difficult come winter time, but hey, we can dream big. anyways, my dad and pat came to visit last weekend (thank you for starting off our quest to see family more often a bit easier, father and pat-ricia) for two days and it was delightful. i snapped a few shots and you'll notice they're mostly of food. whoops. well, we know how to make my dad happy when he comes to visit: feed his belly with tasty treats.

grilled pizza with prosciutto, nectarines and mozzarella.

nutella banana bread pudding (recipe coming soon - it's a winner).

scategories and over dessert.

cinnamon oatmeal pancakes on the porch (recipe also coming soon - it's a winner too!).

and Beans got extra lovin' from grandma and grandpa and a trip to his favorite spot: gordon college.

a $7 (or so) project.

2011-09-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

last week found us running around like crazy trying to keep our heads on straight. somewhere amidst the crazy we realized that in order to function without losing our sanity in our one bedroom apartment, we needed to organize and do so quickly. so our fabulous friday night plans included a trip to target to pick up some necessities for the major organization project. while at target we found some cork board panels that we thought would be nice to hang over our "office" area. the "office" is located in our bedroom since it's the only room that every square inch wasn't being used when ry started grad school. we returned home with our purchases and quickly hung the cork boards:

BORING!

so they were boring looking. BUMMER. don't worry, for some reason ry thought it would be a fantastic idea to paint the cork. i said, why not? so he threw up a coat of white paint on them. while the paint dried he thought it'd be a great idea to paint stripes onto the boards (well, he wanted to go with a plaid pattern, but we'll get to that). So we got to work taping off the stripes:

all that tape took about two hours since my wonderful husband precisely measured the distance between each piece of tape so that the angles of the stripes were correct. we ry picked our colors with inspiration from a cooler we got from his parents for our birthdays - red, blue and brown. we have brown curtains in the bedroom, so this works nicely. off to painting we went:

we finished painting, let it dry for about 15 minutes (we were not very patient), and then it was time to pull the tape off:

THE FINAL PRODUCT!!

we're leaving these with just stripes. we think that if we try to do the plaid pattern it will just end in disaster. thoughts?

bye bye class #2.

2011-09-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

ry finished up his second class of grad school last weekend (with a score of 100 to continue his 4.0 run at SNHU), which means we have more time to enjoy each other. one of the things we enjoy doing together is cooking (obvi). this combined with the abundance of nectarines and plums lying on our counter led to a search for a delicious way to use said items. we ended up with a recipe for plum-nectarine buckle. yum!

plum-nectarine buckle

martha stewart

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Salt
1 large egg
2/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 pound plums, halved, pitted, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges (2 cups)
3/4 pound nectarines, halved, pitted, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges (2 cups)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
crumb topping*

*we used the topping found here since i had made the muffins a while back and had an abundance of the topping left over...perfect!

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square cake pan or 10-inch cast iron skillet with 2 tablesppons butter; set aside. Whisk together flour, 3/4 cup sugar, the baking powder, allspice, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

2. Whisk together egg, milk, vanilla, and remaining 4 tablesppons butter in another medium bowl. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir to combine. Spread batter evenly into buttered pan.

3. Toss plums, nectarines, lemon juice, remaining 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Spread fruit mixture evenly over batter. Sprinkle with topping. Bake until a cake tester instereted into center comes out with moist crumbs, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 1 hour before serving.

the hurricane that (thankfully) wasn't.

2011-08-31T16:00:00.001-07:00

all week last week anything anyone talked about was the impending hurricane. naturally we were expecting terrible wind and rain. thankfully all we saw here on the north shore was some wind and some rain. however, due to the forecasting that occurred, we made sure we were nice and prepared to go without power for a couple of days (which would have been useful had we lost power for a week like some people on the south shore did). Despite the rains that tagged along with irene, we had a delightful weekend:

it started off with ry experimenting in the kitchen. somehow he got in his head that he was going to make a pancake or crepe casserole. i looked up a recipe for him, but it was not exactly what he had in mind, so he made one up. and it was amazing. he layered crepes with real vermont maple syrup and a butter, brown sugar, flour mixture. can we please say delicious?! yet another reason why i married this wonderful man:

after delicious crepe casserole, we thought it would be best to head to target for $5 movies to last us until the power went out, if it went out. look at these gems:

we of course needed a pizza to get us through, should the power go out, so we whipped up a little meatball, pepper, onion and ricotta delight since what's better to have to eat if needing to rescue food out of the fridge?!:

so then it was sunday and we woke up expecting crazy wind and rain, only to find a slight breeze. our pastor thought it best to not cancel church, so off we went. most people didn't come out, so it was a small group, but lovely none the less (when isn't pigeon cove chapel lovely?!). Then it was back home to bunker down...or go for a walk. that's when it hit. we got down to the water and the wind started whipping and the rain was pelting us so hard it hurt. we brought beans out so he could say he'd been out in a hurricane (i don't think he liked it):

we then headed to check out the scene at singing beach. there were people actually in the water. look at the waves compared to them!

and then, as if nothing happened, life was back to normal on monday:

then sings my soul.

2011-08-28T13:12:00.001-07:00

i meant to post about this adventure a while ago. we recently went up to new hampshire (i know, i know, it's a curse word in our house, too) to hike mount chocorua.

it was a beautiful hike that was almost eight miles round trip. about three miles up, we stumbled upon this little cabin that you can sleep in if you are brave enough:

i guess it gets a little windy up up there, so the roof needed to be held down by these chains:

the beast we know as beans came with us and conquered the mountain as well. and by conquer, i mean he had to be passed down the top of the mountain so he didn't fall and he kept sitting down for a rest when we were in the home stretch. we were proud of our little mountain climber and were thankful that peter is such a good team player:

anyways, here are a few more shots from the hike:

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander

And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.

When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur

And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art, How great Thou art.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

and the popcorn.

2011-08-27T10:24:00.001-07:00

i've made this recipe for two occasions: our superbowl party last year, as well as when i had the soccer girls over last Sunday. it's ADDICTING and i need to remind myself to make double batches when i make it because it disappears about five minutes after setting it out. the caramel part only takes about 5 minutes to make and then you stir in the popcorn (which i pop using my air popper that we picked up for $2 on a yard sale one year. best. purchase. ever.). i have to have ry mix the popcorn because he's GREAT at making every piece covered in caramel goodness. i'll leave you with recipe to enjoy while we run off to prepare for the hurricane by taking beans to run around and get out all his energy! hopefully i won't be posting about hurricane crazy in the next couple of days...

caramel corn

cooking light

INGREDIENTS:

Cooking spray
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup light-colored corn syrup
1/3 cup butter
1 tablespoon light molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 cups popcorn (popped without salt or fat)

STEPS:

1. Preheat oven to 250°.
2. Coat a large jelly roll pan with cooking spray.
3. Combine sugar, corn syrup, butter, and molasses in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook 5 minutes, stirring once. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Place popcorn in a large bowl; pour sugar mixture over popcorn in a steady stream, stirring to coat.
4. Spread popcorn mixture into prepared pan. Bake at 250° for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
5. Remove from oven; stir to break up any large clumps. Cool 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

a serious cookie problem.

2011-08-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

i have a serious cookie problem.

it's bad.

if there are cookies...i will eat one.

or ten.

it doesn't matter what the kind.

homemade or storebought.

i love them all.

the one that currently has my heart:

my goodness are these delicious.

i literally can't have just one.

it is not possible.

if you like mint and chocolate...i dare you to try just one.

i bet you can't do it.

in light of my cookie loving, here's the recipe for the oatmeal cranberry cookies i made the other day for the soccer girls. this is definitely a winning recipe. they're so tasty! and make sure you leave time to refrigerate the dough for about two hours before you're ready to bake...

oatmeal cranberry cookies

marthastewart.com

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
2 large eggs
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup dried cranberries
Directions
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the vanilla, milk, and eggs. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars, and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low, gradually add milk mixture, and beat well. Add the flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Remove bowl from the electric mixer, and stir in the oats and cranberries. Place dough in the refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. Shape 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball; place on one of the prepared sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough, placing 3 inches apart. Press with the bottom of a glass to flatten dough into 2-inch-diameter rounds.

3. Bake until golden but still soft in center, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating halfway through. Remove from oven; transfer with parchment to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

an evening of desserts.

2011-08-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

there a few things to comment about on here:

1. i have an amazing husband.

2. the gordon college women's soccer team is full of wonderful people.

3. baking is therapeutic.

1. my husband. obviously he's amazing. that goes without saying. as i often feel the need to remind my friend Adrianne - i love him, dearly. one of the reasons i love him dearly is because i say things like: hunnies, is it okay if i have the soccer team over sunday night for dessert? and he replies: sure, you should make a fruit tart and that delicious caramel corn. SO not only does he let me have over a group of 15 girls over on a Sunday night (his favorite night to relax and get ready for the upcoming week), he suggests the perfect feast for them as well! splendid.

2. gocowoso. coaching soccer brings my heart joy. lots and lots of joy. i swear there are little soccer balls pulsing through my veins and to be able to be a part of it at gordon college, a place that i love so dearly, makes my heart happy. and not only is it soccer, but it's soccer with a group of girls who are truly phenomenal people. each one of them brings something so unique to the team and it is so apparent that the Lord is sovereign in all things when He orchestrates bringing groups of people like this together. i'm so thankful to be a part of gordon soccer again this year.

3. baking is therapy. in preparation for the girls to come over i made the aforementioned desserts and threw in some oatmeal cranberry cookies, too. i baked and cleaned all sunday afternoon. ry got to rest and enjoy a quiet sunday and i was able to listen to hymns and bake all day. perfection. all three of the recipes are delish, but because i don't want to overwhelm you with deliciousness, i'll start with just the tart. The caramel corn and cookies will come at a later date. without further ado, the tart (booooo to forgetting to take a picture of the tart in it's entirety!):

white chocolate fruit tart

allrecipes.com

Ingredients
crust:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
filling:
1 package white chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup heaving whipping cream
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 container fresh strawberries, sliced
1 container blueberries

1. In a small mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add flower; mix well. Press into an ungreased 11-in. tart pan with removable bottom or 12-in. pizza pan with sides. Bake at 300 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.

2. For filling, in a small mixing bowl, beat melted chips and cream. Add cream cheese and beat until smooth. Spread over crust. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Arrange strawberries and blueberries over filling. Refrigerate until serving.

community worship.

2011-08-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

there are thousands of reasons i love working at gordon college. it's a place that had such a huge impact on my life and continues to do so every day that i work there. the people i get to interact with on a daily basis are just plain awesome. they're some of the people in my life that make philippians 1:3 a reality*.

anyways, we had the privilege of gathering together as faculty and staff to worship God as one body before the students returned to campus. i love this tradition because it brings us right back to the reason why we do what we do. we work at Gordon to serve the Lord and glorify His name and do so in a place that encourages students to do the same thing.

it was a fantastic time of worship. i always love hearing so many voices sing praises to God. it's one of the most beautiful sounds. be thou my vision was sung by the faculty staff choir and that is on the top three hymns list, for sure:

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

What a great hymn to sing as we enter into another school year.

*i just listened to a john macarthur sermon on aspects of joy and he was explaining how in philippians 1:3 paul was saying how he would think back on the people who brought him joy when he was facing hardship. i've heard the verse a million times but never really thought of it in this way. i liked it. (and in my paraphrase, i butchered what macarthur said. you can listen to it here.)

a couple favorites from a low key weekend.

2011-08-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason we love Beans is because some of his favorite things are some of our favorite things! Examples: church softball, our friends, playing frisbee...and Gordon College! We took an adventure to Gull Pond in the woods at Gordon this weekend. Beans loves it there:

thanks for being so cute, Beans!

tex mex stuffed yellow squash with a side of baked zucchini chips

2011-08-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

i love that life is slowing down. love. love. love. i finally feel like we're not racing around checking things off the to do list. this leaves time for playing fetch with beans, spending quality time together, and flipping through recipes on marthastewart.com. (martha = awesome). all this time also allows us to adequately prepare a menu for the week causing much less stress when coming home after working all day. i like choosing recipes that use similar ingredients for the week so i don't overspend my budget (my meal planning tends to do this...i'm TRYING, i promise).

Anyways, tonight was tex mex stuffed yellow squash (a new recipe) served with baked zucchini chips (an old fav). You'll notice the summer squash repeat from here. The tex mex squash was YUM! and the baked zucchini chips were YUM YUM YUM!! A definite fav in the Dumas household. Both are a bit time consuming, but you can prepare the zucchini chips while the squash are baking. Since the temp for them is a little higher, I put them in with 10 minutes to go on the squash, took them out, flipped and put them in again when the foil was removed from the squash at 450.

stuffed tex mex yellow squash

marthastewart.com

4 yellow squashes (8 ounces each)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red bell pepper (ribs and seeds removed), cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 scallions, thinly sliced, white and green parts separated (didn't have these - used a little regular onion instead)
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon mild chili powder
1/2 pound ground beef chuck
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees, with rack set in the top third. Halve each squash lengthwise; slice a sliver from the rounded part of each half so it sits flat. Leaving a 1/4-inch border, scoop out halves with a small spoon; roughly chop flesh, and reserve. Place squash halves, skin side down, in a shallow baking dish. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add reserved chopped squash, bell pepper, scallion whites, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until bell pepper begins to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Add tomato paste and chili powder; cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 minute. Add beef; cook until no longer pink, breaking up meat with a spoon, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in corn and 1/4 cup Parmesan; season with salt and pepper.
Dividing evenly, spoon mixture into squash halves. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake until squash is tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Uncover, and bake until top is browned, 7 to 10 minutes more. Garnish with scallion greens.
baked zucchini chips
allrecipes.com

2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 egg whites

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).

2. In one small bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, pepper and Parmesan cheese. Place the egg whites in a separate bowl. Dip zucchini slices into the egg whites, then coat the breadcrumb mixture. Place on a greased baking sheet.

3. Bake for 5 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn over and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, until browned and crispy.

roasted vegetable and ricotta pizza.

2011-08-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

well, i promised another post about either a Pigeons win or roasted vegetable and ricotta pizza. unfortunately this is about the pizza. this means the Pigeons suffered a season ending defeat on Saturday in the church league quarterfinals. we made a game of it, though. we lost 7-6 to a team of 25 year old men who could absolutely wreck the ball...not too shabby, I'd say. AND we were again surrounded by our church family cheering us on. church softball is most definitely on the favorites list and our pigeon cove chapel family is way up there on the favorites list. what an amazing group of people bonded together by our shared faith in Christ. i just love it.

anyways...we had a low key friday night because we both were feeling exhausted after the week, so obviously pizza and wine was the dinner of choice. i've been re-inspired to start making scrumptious recipes again. I blame cousin for this. Anyways - here's the recipe for the pizza we made...i highly recommend.

roasted vegetable and ricotta pizza

myrecipes.com - cooking light

1 pound refrigerated fresh pizza dough (we used whole wheat)
1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices zucchini (we used two zucchini)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 medium yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 medium red onion, cut into thick slices
5 1/2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup tomato sauce
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (skipped this ingredient on accident - didn't notice anything was missing)
1/3 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons small fresh basil leaves
1. Position an oven rack in the lowest setting; place a pizza stone on rack. Preheat oven to 500°.
2. Remove dough from refrigerator. Let stand, covered, for 30 minutes.
3. Combine zucchini and next 3 ingredients (through onion) in a large bowl; drizzle with 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Toss. Arrange vegetables on a jelly-roll pan. Bake at 500° for 15 minutes.
4. Punch dough down. Sprinkle a lightly floured baking sheet with cornmeal; roll dough out to 15-inch circle on prepared baking sheet. Brush dough with 1 teaspoon oil. Spread sauce over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella over sauce; top with vegetables. Sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella and red pepper over zucchini mixture. Dollop with ricotta. Slide pizza onto preheated pizza stone. Bake at 500° for 11 minutes or until crust is golden. Sprinkle with basil.

around the world in sixty days.

2011-08-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

so life's been a SLIGHT bit of a blur. let's discuss:

may 21-may 30: staycation. FANTASTIC. best week we've had together in quite some time. we decided that since we live in a vacation land, we might as well enjoy it ourselves. so we did. we slept in. we made coffee. we relaxed on our porch. we went for walks with beans. we had a picnic at ocean lawn (location of where ryan asked me to marry him). it was awesome. we even ended with a good ole fashioned memorial day bbq with our friends! fantastic, i tell you. here are my boys having fun at ravenswood park:

so the second vacation ended, i hopped on a plane to Nashville for a conference for work. there are many wonderful things about this...you see, after spending ten straight days together, I did not want to leave. sad. BUT, since the Lord is awesome and provides in all ways, shapes and sizes...the conference was in Nashville where two REALLY good friends of mine live. Of course the conference was in Nashville this year, just where it needed it to be. I saw my old college rooms, whom I love dearly...and an old urban friend, whom I also love dearly. Both are those kind of friends where you pick up where you left off. PERFECT. Here's me and rooms' dog, Claire:

So I get back from Nashville, work one full week...and then it's time for a three day week and we're off to VT! We've recently been told that we live a life of two seasons: tax season and vacation season. I think that's completely accurate. We went up for Ry's bday and Father's day. It was a relaxing weekend and we were able to go for a gorgeous hike up Stowe pinnacle:

so then it was back to MA for the last two weeks of June. We both worked two full weeks...can you imagine that?! After that was a four day week due to the fabulous fourth of July holiday (and another bbq with friends)...and then we had another week off together! We were originally supposed to leave for NY on Tuesday, but decided that we don't go to NY all that often and we should leave on Saturday instead. That gave us seven full days in Roc to have fun. We saw our wonderful family, we celebrated two years together, watched the women's world cup in Abby Wambach's home city, we went golfing, we went to the public market, we went to wegmans, and we even got to see Andrew and Allison get married! It was just such a great week at home:

and finally...we came back for three days of work and then headed off to California. Ry had to do an audit out there, so I tagged along. Why not, right? We have good friends out there and I have a ton of vacation time and traveling alone is lame. So off we went. It required 14 hours of travel with us checking into the hotel at 6am EST. Whoops. It was rather tiring, but it was all good because we got to see Mark and Kara in Pasadena! Pasadena is such a cool town. I love having friends all across the country. And did I mention?! We cruised around in this beauty:

so that's where we've been. sorry i've been MIA. life is completely calming down, so i'll be on here more. in fact, we made a delicious pizza last night that'll i'll be sharing about in the next few days. not to mention our church softball team is in the quarterfinals tomorrow morning - hopefully i'll have good news to share about that... GO PIGEONS!

a quick post as i start playing with picnik!

2011-05-26T12:38:00.001-07:00

We're on day six of our vacation. It has been FANTASTIC. And I'm not joking (minus the fact that Ry is in our bedroom taking a nap because he's not feeling well). We've spent so much great time together and done things we've always wanted to do here on the North Shore. And let's just say this is a little bit of what we're dealing with for weather:

TonightMay 26

Fri27

Sat28

Sun29

Mon30


Mostly Cloudy	Isolated T-Storms	Mostly Cloudy	AM Clouds / PM Sun	Mostly Sunny
--	83°	72°	77°	83°
High	High	High	High	High
63°	59°	60°	63°	68°
Low	Low	Low	Low	Low
Chance of Precip: 20%	Chance of Rain: 30%	Chance of Precip: 20%	Chance of Precip: 20%	Chance of Precip: 10%

rough life, i know. it's been gorgeous here. you know, the kind of weather that makes you realize why living two feet from the ocean is probably one of the coolest things one can experience in life. anyways, i'll do some more updating on our happenings at a later date, but today has been a quiet day, perfect for:

still learning how to work with picnik...but we'll get used to it :)

fondue addicts.

2011-05-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

remember that tax season staycation we had where we redid the porch? well, in the midst of the porch makeover, we needed a nice night out and found ourselves at the melting pot. i had heard of this place a while back and was dying to go and snatched up a buy with me coupon that allowed us to go for 50% off. FAB, since one meal out at that place can cost you $100. Anyways, the food was alright, but it certainly piqued our interest in the fondue world. you see, the process of eating all courses via fondue was SO intriguing and fun to us that we had to try it at home...so we decided to test out our fondue pot that ry bought me for my birthday last year:

our menu:

course 1: cheddar fondue

1 cup beer

two blocks cheddar (shredded)

1 TBS flour (plus some more to thicken later)

2 TBS brown mustard

few drops hot sauce

few drops worcestershire sauce

dippers

whole wheat bread

carrots

broccoli

apples

add beer and cook for a bit til it bubbles. add cheese/flour mixture and melt. stir in mustard, hot sauce and worcestershire sauce. turn pot on low and enjoy your dippers with the deliciousness.

course 2: broth fondue

three cans beef broth

one can water

2 bay leaves

some basil

some oregano

some fresh ground pepper

2 cloves garlic

onion chunks

1/2 cup red wine

dippers

uncooked chicken

uncooked steak tips

sauces

homemade honey mustard

homemade buffalo blue cheese

teriyaki sauce

bbq sauce

combine broth, water, spices and onion chunks in pot. bring to boil. add wine and bring to a boil for a few minutes. yes, we played it by ear. as long as it's hot enough, it'll cook the meat. Meat takes approximately 2 minutes per chunk. We use flavored steak tips from our favorite butcher. The maple bourbon cooked this way is DELISH. We also pair the meat with the side sauces for different flavors.

course 3: chocolate fondue

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 TBS unsalted butter

12 oz chocolate (we use 1/2 milk, 1/2 dark)

dippers

strawberries

bananas

rice krispie treats

marshmallows

graham crackers

add ingredients into pot. stir while melting the chocolate. keep pot on low and love every bite.

we've now done this meal twice. once when ry's sister lester (pictured below) and the other when chris and allison came over for dinner. both times have been extremely successful and we're sold on fondue. it's a fun way to eat and makes dinner completely social. two thumbs up from the dumas fam, for sure. and yes, we did enjoy all of this from the comfort of our newly redone porch if you were wondering :)

playing on repeat

2011-05-08T17:59:00.000-07:00

I can't stop playing this song on repeat these days:

thy mercy - caedmon's call

Thy mercy my God is the theme of my song

the joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue

Thy free grace alone from the first to the last

hath won my affection and bound my soul fast

without Thy sweet mercy i could not live here

sin would reduce me to utter despair

but through Thy free goodness my spirits revive

and He who first made me still keeps me alive

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart

which wonders to feel its own hardness depart

dissolved by Thy goodness i fall to the ground

and weep for the praise of the mercy i've found

great Father of mercy, Thy goodness i own

and the covenant love of Thy crucified Son

all praise to the Spirit whose whisper divine

seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine!

staycation: the porch makeover

2011-05-04T13:57:00.001-07:00

So it was Friday of our post-tax-season staycation (thank you grad school for stealing our vacation money) and we had planned on going to the aquarium when we wandered out onto our storage shed that we like to call a porch (picture was taken mid removal of stuff - i almost forgot to document!).

Now, our porch is FABULOUS, especially in the summer months with the breeze blowing through the screens. However, in the winter, it becomes home to way too much clutter and Ry has been dying to do something about it...so we did. So we quickly removed all objects from the porch to see what we had to work with.

We took some measurements and quickly found out that our porch was on a slant, which would make it difficult to do too much with the limited tools we have (all ry's cool tools are living in VT since there is no room for them here). We drew up plans and then decided we needed a piece to base the room off of. Off to White Elephant we went in search of a window. JACK. POT. We found this beauty...and it was unmarked, which means the guy gave us a decent deal on the thing.

Now we had a theme and could move forward. We decided on building a table/bench type thing to optimize seating (four seats does not cut it during the summer months when we're bbq-ing and ladder balling). So off to home depot we went, grabbed some lumber and came back to start building! What a process, but it was totally worth it.

we love irwin quick grips!

We also remembered that we had picked up a trunk from yard sale (for $15!) that would work perfectly as a coffee table and pair nicely with our rustic window. We're still deciding if we're going to redo the trunk, what do you think? I've included a picture of a trunk that ry has already redone...

So then over the next week we scrambled to finish up the seating as Ry's sister was coming and we wanted to make sure everything was finished up for when she got here. Check out the benches/table all put together:

Defintely not a fan of the wires coming through the windows, but we're trying to figure out a solution for that. Also - i'll be sewing some pilows for the benches. On top of the table are two vases filled with sea glass that match the colors of the window. We also wanted to decorate with lanterns, but they're expensive, so we did this instead:

I'm hoping to find a lantern or two to hang over the trunk that we can use and we've strung up white lights around the perimeter of the porch. It is a hard space to fully capture, but once it's completely done, i'll repost. We still need to stain the benches/table and I need to sew those pillows. I also found this wicked cool piece of driftwood that I'm trying to figure out what to do with - any suggestions?

So there it is...the mostly made over porch. Any suggestions for some final touches would be greatly welcomed. (and thanks to Jen Migonis and the Bayreuther's for their home maker over posts on their blogs for helping to inspire us to get our butts into gear!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEANS!!

2011-05-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a look at Beans' first year...

This is the picture that won our hearts...what a precious pup:

This was the day we picked him up in NY and brought him back to my dad's:

We quickly taught him the family sport:

He started to grow up quick...notice how his face is starting to lighten:

He will never outgrow being carried around like this:

This is right after his first haircut...not much brown left:

What a good little snuggler we turned him into:

Beans first trip to VT:

He LOVES his red frisbee:

First time in the snow for Christmas in VT:

Beans learned to LOVE the water and the playing with his friends at the beach:

We thought about not letting him on the bed. He's too cute, he gets to go everywhere in the house, especially wherever he can best snuggle:

He LOVES playing fetch out in the back yard:

And this is mister today, super excited for his new birthday toy!!

We love this "little" guy to pieces - can ya tell!?

Until April 19th...

2011-04-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

I have to take a break from the pictures. I have things that I could be snapping every day, like our spur of the moment date night to Hale St. tonight (thanks to the fabulous Lisa Logan), or our adventure to Laser Tag on Friday night with the teens from church, or the snow that fell on us on March 31st. I have all those pictures, but I don't have the time or energy in which to load them onto the computer. Pathetic? Maybe.

The thing is, last week came and saw life take off. Ry started his grad class on the 28th while in the midst of the tax season crunch. And while Ry is busy with 60 hour, six day weeks with each night filled with reading about Business Law, I'm juggling three soccer teams and my job (which is nothing short of crazy right now). Gordon spring soccer is up and running, my 12 year old team kicks off this week and I'm still playing every Thursday night. Not awesome timing, but I think we are learning valuable lessons through all of this.

We are certainly learning to appreciate the moments of time that we get to spend together. But even more, I think we're learning about the promises in God's Word. I'm reading a book called Desiring God by John Piper. I'm not joking when I say that it might be my new favorite book. Everyone should read it. Every sentence I read makes my eyes grow wider at the promises of God and the joy we have in Him. I just read this quote:

I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how might I serve the Lord, how might I glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished...I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditate on it.

- George Muller of Bristol

I have never found a quote that so accurately portrays where I'm at in life. While we try to tackle all of these tasks ahead of us (which probably seem miniscule to most of you), it has never been more apparent in life that we find our nourishment in Scripture. I literally find myself craving the Word in the middle of the day because it's truths are what we can hold onto through the day as we fight to keep our heads above the water.

So it's time for a break from the pictures until April 19th so that we can make it through the end of tax season with some of our sanity left. Pray for Ry as he ventures down this grad school road, and especially for his endurance as he finishes up this tax season strong and that we may both fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

I leave you with these verses from Psalm 19,

which I have grown to love over the past couple of weeks:

The law of the Lord is perfect,

refreshing the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,

making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right,

giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant,

giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure,

enduring forever.

The ordinances of the Lord are sure,

and all of them are righteous.

They are more precious than gold,

than much pure gold,

they are sweeter than honey,

than honey from the honeycomb.

-pslam 19:7-10

an assortment of things

2011-03-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

march 23: I'm not sure, but I think this MIGHT be a sign that we eat way too much pizza in the Dumas house. Ry was taking our pizza out of the oven on Wednesday night and set in on the oven and it cracked into pieces!! WHAT?! Not cool. That is one loved kitchen item, so it was a sad day in our house:

march 24: So this day's schedule looked like this. Alarm clock: 6am. Get Ry ready and off to work: 6:30. Get myself out the door and to work: 8am. Work until: 4:30 pm. Spring soccer meeting: 4:30 to 5:30. SWSAC advisor meeting: 5:30 to 6:15. Leave for Soccer game: 7pm. Soccer game: 8pm. Return home: 10 pm. YIPES...it was a long day. Clearly I needed a very delicious dinner to get through it....and peanut butter and fluff won, obvi. Just look at this gooey goodness:

march 25: I forgot to take a picture this day...but we made a scrumptious dinner. Black Bean tacos! YUM!! We put the filling in a soft taco with rice and put a little zesty ranch in there. YUM!

march 26: Ry was rather discouraged since it has been nearly impossible to get an ipad2 around here. He's wanted one so that he can do his reading for school on it, but we've been able to even come close to one. We went to the mall and popped in the apple store Saturday night and they informed us that they hadn't sold out until noon. This caused a bit of frustration since I could have gotten one during the day. But don't worry, we randomly decided to stop in at best buy because we had a $10 gift card and wanted to pick up a movie. At the front of the store there was a sign that said: We have ipad2s. WHAT?! We ran in and asked the first person we saw. She said to us, "who told you that??" We told her about the sign and she asked a fellow employee, who then asked another guy. This third employee brought us to a locked case and showed us that there were two 16 gig ipad2's left for the day. AWESOME!!! We didn't hesitate, we snatched one of those suckers right up. And let me tell you, it's really cool. I didn't think I'd be that impressed, but I am. My favorite app is the bible app - we're reading through the bible together it makes it so we can bookmark, highlight and write notes. SWEET! Anyways - look how happy he is:

march 27: Ryan had a genius idea before church the other day while I was on the computer: give Beans a mohawk. OH BOY. At first I was opposed, but darn it, it's SO PRECIOUS!! Every time he walks around the corner I can't help but giggle:

march 28: Ry's grad school started on Monday - he's taking business law. I'm so proud of my grad student! Look at him go:

2011-03-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

march 19: We decided it'd be great to make a pot of sauce this weekend and since we are on a bit of a saving kick (thank you grad school), we had to find a recipe that didn't use meat in it (please don't disown me, Lembo family). I found a recipe on foodnetwork. Ry also suggested I make meatballs so we could double up...spaghetti and meatballs one night, meatball subs another. I swear my husband is just a genius sometimes. I really don't know what I'd do without him. Because we had some turkey in the feezer, we decided on these turkey meatballs. They were delish...and the sauce is okay. It's no daddy lembo sauce, but I'll never achieve such greatness. Anyways here's the end product:

march 20: So every Saturday during tax season I've been trying to get Ry a little present. The season is long and tires him out, so I figure a little fun every week will help get him through. I've gotten things like coffee gift certificates, baked cookies, written love notes...blah blah blah. This week, though, I was really excited. Ry has wanted a mini basketball hoop for a long time and he just won't buy it for himself, so I finally had to. He LOVES it and plays against Beans every night. He always wins, but I think he has a slight advantage over our lovable pup. And, really, what makes a bedroom more romantic than a mini hoop??

march 21: whoops! completely spaced out on taking a picture this day and I even had something to take! I was home at lunch time when the UPS man was greeted by Beans barking like a wild animal. He threw a package on the porch, yelling, "UPS!", and ran away quickly. I don't blame him. I scooped it up and quickly opened it. What a fun surprise - a picnic in a backpack courtesy of my mom with a note saying, "thought this would be fun for after tax season!" We can't wait to use it. This isn't the exact one, but it's something similar:

march 22: We in the Dumas household are absolutely loving this whole being light outside at six pm when we get home from work thing. It means more time in the yard with our handsome pup. We took him out tonight to throw the frisbee around...Ry wanted me to include two pics. One that we think he looks adorable in, and the other that makes me pee my pants laughing.

"Beans wants to show you something"

2011-03-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

march 16: It is never a good thing when you walk in the house to your husband saying, "hi hunnies, Beans has something to show you." You see, we had been leaving Beans out in the kitchen for the whole week while we were at work. We figured he'd been such a good pup with his short stints in the kitchen that he deserved whole days. I guess too much freedom is never a good thing for a ten month old puppy, which we often forget as our 52 pound monster looks nothing like a puppy anymore. Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, rounding the corner into the kitchen to see the kitchen rug TORN apart. Bummer. As I stood there in disbelief, ry also said, "a lot of it is missing," meaning it was digested by our cute little pup. And by digested, I mean partially digested and puked up at 3:45 the next morning. Poor little guy. Perhaps he learned his lesson:

march 17: so this is what tax season looks like: Monday morning - 6 am alarm clock. work all day. gym. come home. eat dinner. relax for a couple hours. sleep. This schedule remains the same through Thursday and by Thursday we are both exhausted from long weeks (Ry more so than mine) and cannot wait for Sunday. Needless to say, dinner usually consists of scraping something together at the last second and trying to keep our eyes open to make it through Grey's (luckily they've been all repeats, so it's to bed by 9 the past couple of weeks...except when I have soccer games that start at ELEVEN!) Anyways...here's a typical Thursday night meal... I'm not sure if this constitues winning or failing because the pizza bagels might be one of the world's greatest inventions, but should hardly constitute a decent meal:

march 18: Let me just say that I work with some pretty fantastic people. It's true. They're all really great. What a blessing to work with such amazing people and on Friday afternoon we all got to spend some quality time together pitching in to help with Tuition Freedom Day. We all sat around a table making little packets for student mailboxes. It was such a relaxing way to spend a Friday afternoon after a crazy week. We all just sat, laughed and enjoyed each others company:

dolepipes.

2011-03-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

March 15: This picture contains two wonderful things that happened in my life yesterday. Frosty's and Jamie Dolan. I hadn't seen Dolan (also affectionately known as dolepipes) for some good quality time in I couldn't tell you how long and I promise to never go that long without dolepipes quality time again. You see, my friend Jamie happened to be with me as I went on the most craziest and transformative time in my life in San Francisco. That semester changed my life and there was a group of us called the safe space that walked through it and had our lives changed together. Dolan went to Gordon but I didn't meet her until we met at the Metro Hotel (with her awesome sister em dawg) to stay before we could get into the Urban House and start the most amazing semester of our lives. No words can actually describe everything that happened and how we changed, but it formed one of those kinds of friendships that will always be there. I love my dole pipes and am so blessed to have such a wonderful and amazing friend. She is one of the most caring, compassionate and loving people I've ever met. So dolepipes, thanks for the date last night. You're the best and I'm so thankful for you. :)

a low key weekend.

2011-03-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

march 10: The goose has landed! Hehe. That's the code we use when we send packages back and forth to Vermont...and this time the goose landed in Massachusetts! YAY! Lester (Ry's sister, Leslie) sent us a package and it was VERY exciting. There's nothing like getting real mail. Email just isn't the same as getting something in the real mail. And this was no exception. We got a box filled with books, thin mints, toll house cookie bars and home made cards! Look at these cards that Les made. They are works are of art!!

march 11: Remember how I said real mail was oh so exciting and fun? Well, the fun didn't stop on Friday. One of my favorite parts of the month is receiving my monthly installment of Everyday Food from Martha Stewart (my hero) and it always ends up surprising me whenever it comes! So, needless to say, I was so excited when I pulled my monthly Everyday food out of the mail box (though, there were not a ton of good recipes to pull out of this one).

march 12: I had a relaxing day full of random and planned visits from friends followed by a nice evening out with my husband. One of the activities of the day was taking Beans to the beach since it was absolutely gorgeous outside. HOWEVER, the second he came home he thought it best to jump, sand and all, right into the bed. Argh. Time to wash the sheets. So I threw them in, gave Beans a bath to get all the sand off of him, and went off to meet Ry. When we came home from our little date night we had to make the bed. Remember how I told you how hard it is to make the bed? Tonight was no different, except he really snuggled in:

march 13: One of the best parts of date night on Saturday night was that we had a groupon for The Upper Crust in Salem, right next to Ry's work. So the beauty of the groupon was that we could order a large enough pizza so that we didn't have to make dinner on Sunday when we're in between church and bible study! FANTASTIC! Leftover pizza is my favorite...especially leftover buffalo chicken pizza from the upper crust (by far the best pizza i've found on the north shore...though it's still no Mark's Pizza):

March 14: Oh. Boy. I was going to blog about one of our favorite meals and share the recipe that we made tonight, however today's dentist experience most definitely wins out. So I had to find a new dentist because of the switch to Ry's insurance when we got married (yes, it has been 1.5 years since I'd gone to the dentist). So I randomly picked one on the approved list. Bad decision. I pulled up to this old house with a sign that said "ring bell. walk in." So I followed the directions and walked in to what looked like someone's house. There was a door straight ahead that said "walk in," so in I walked. I was so confused. When I tell you it was straight from the seventies, I'm not lying. There the "receptionist" sat with her big hair behind STACKS of paper. No computer. Yipes. I should have turned and ran out, but I stayed, filled out my paperwork and went into the room. I think the equipment was just as much from the seventies as the wood paneling on the walls. They probably lost the cupboard door that was missing back in the seventies, too. Then the dentist was cleaning my teeth and telling me how nice my teeth were and how people like me keep him from getting his boat. Sorry, mister, but I'm sure you make plenty to have a boat, but I do not make enough to constantly pay for filling cavities. Anyways, he finished up by telling me that my husband married me because I had such nice teeth. Lovely. Thank you, sir. So out I go to pay my co-pay, which the "receptionist" had no idea how much I owed because her list was outdated and I ask if they take credit card. Of course not. Why would they accept such a modern way of payment? And who has cash or check on them these days?! NOT me. She handed me an envelope and sent me on my way telling me to send in a check. I'll be finding a new dentist for my next visit, sorry Dr. Skolnick...

fine, you caught me, i love food.

2011-03-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

march 7: So we usually make most of our meals from scratch. It's how we were both brought up. None of this sauce from a jar, soup from a can, microwavable nonsense. There is, however, one meal that we simply cannot give up that comes out of a box. This meal might even crack the top three meals list. Now that I have you all in suspense, I suppose I'll tell you what said meal is...GORDITAS!!!! Oh my gosh. We have to restrain ourselves from eating these too often. They're so good and so easy, but mostly just good. I can't help but pile my plate with gordita goodness every time we have them. This night, though, they were especially good since I was able to pile on a heaping portion of avocado. YUM:

march 8: This is for all of my Gordon friends. And yes, it's about food, but it's more about a memory or two. So today (like most days), all I wanted in life was a chocolate chip cookie. When I say chocolate chip cookies are my favorite in life, I'm not lying. I love a good chocolate chip cookie. There's something about the chewy, chocolatey goodness that makes me so happy. Milk, no milk, crispy, chewy, I'll take it. Anyways, I found myself at work on Tuesday really wanting a chocolate chip cookie, but not knowing what on earth to do about it. AND THEN I remembered I worked at Gordon. AND THEN I remembered how much I love Gordon cookies. These are not normal cookies. These are cookies baked to perfection. Perfect doneness around the edges, perfect un-doneness in the middle. I'd eat one every day if I wouldn't blow up to a size 40. Anyways - I ran over to Lane and low and behold, there it was...a chocolate chip cookie. And when I say it was cooked to perfection, I am not lying - amazing. I love Lane cookies.

march 9: Oh, what have we here? More food? Why, of course. But again, this isn't so much about the food as it is the experience. The Chipotle experience. So Chipotle has been in our neck of the woods for quite some time, and the extent of our Chipotle experience has included walking in, looking at the prices and walking out. We thought it was just another fast food place. BUT, our dear friends linds & warren and jake & erin have tried convincing us otherwise and we finally decided to try it out. I'm. In. Love. So much fresh and tasty goodness. Not to mention the fact that I'm already obsessed with burritos (another wonderful thing that my wonderful husband introduced to me). I LOVED IT. We probably won't join the cult like following and eat there multiple times a week, but we will add it to our list of approved eateries (food snobs, i know). Look at this thing...it was so good that I ate it all in one sitting. WHOOPS!

a new addiction or two.

2011-03-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

march 3: There's not much to say about this picture. Instead all it does is cause me to shake my head. We thought we had Beans trained up pretty well, in fact, I've been thinking that we will be able to let him be in the house by himself soon. He then, however, does things like this (frequently):

march 4: What a busy week for both of us. Seems like that's the story of our lives these days, but by Friday night we are spent. Earlier in the week my wonderful friend Linds sent a recipe for 15 minute creamy avocado pasta, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. You see, avacados are one of my newest addictions. I love them. In sandwiches, in guac, in salads...and now in a pasta sauce!

Ingredients:

1 medium sized ripe Avocado, pitted

1/2 lemon, juiced + lemon zest to garnish

1-2 garlic cloves, to taste

1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

1/4 cup Fresh Basil, (probably optional)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 servings/6 oz of your choice of pasta

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Bring several cups of water to a boil in a medium sized pot. Add in your pasta, reduce heat to medium, and cook until Al Dente, about 8-10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, make the sauce by placing the garlic cloves, lemon juice, and olive oil into a food processor. Process until smooth. Now add in the pitted avocado, basil, and salt. Process until smooth and creamy.

3. When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse in a strainer and place pasta into a large bowl. Pour on sauce and toss until fully combined. Garnish with lemon zest and black pepper. Serve immediately. Makes 2 servings.

Please note: This dish does not reheat well due to the avocado in the sauce. Please serve immediately.

march 5: So the goal of the day was to get a lot accomplished, however many things happened to derail all of my plans. Such is life. One of the things on my list was to make pan seared salmon with avocado puree (darn that avocado addiction) for dinner. I just didn't have it in me, so when Ry suggested we go to Borders and then use our Groupon for Hale Street (another current addiction) that we had, I didn't even flinch. What a smart man he is. So off to Borders we went (it's closing and we thought we'd find some deals) and ended up walking out with a CS Lewis box set and an expansion pack for Catan (yet another addiction) and headed off to Hale Street. As we were walking down the street our good friend Lauren (featured in this post) stuck her head out her apartment window to say hi as we walked by. We said hi and continued on, only to find out that we had an hour and a half wait. Gross. We put our names in and went back to hang out with Lauren. I called over to check in our reservation a half hour later only to find that they had passed our name on the list. Bummer, off we went back to the restaurant in hopes of getting a table soon. A half hour passed and Ry had the GENIUS idea of ordering take out and going back to Lauren's to join in the Community (season 1) watching. Wow, I thought his idea of Borders and going out to dinner was fantastic, this idea was even more fantastic. So we ordered, using all $50 of our Groupon and headed back to Laur's for the rest of the evening. It was PERFECT. Not to mention, while waiting for our take out, the one and only J Hubbs walked in the door. What an unexpectedly great night.

march 6: So while we were hanging out with Lauren last night we noticed that she has a fantastic collection of tv shows on dvd. She has the Office, the OC (an old addiction of ours) and Glee. Lauren convinced us we would love Glee and that we should borrow it. We would have done so last night, but we got sucked in to the community marathon, which we were 100% okay with. Anyways, we were sitting around today needing a quiet and restful day, so we decided to take Lauren up on the borrowing Glee offer. One episode and we were hooked. We're currently sitting here watching episode #5. What a great Sunday afternoon :)

crock pot love and crying over spilled milk (plus espresso)

2011-03-02T16:24:00.000-08:00

february 28: hello last day of February, so glad to finally see you. I think February is the worst month of the year. It's so cold and windy and yicky. Okay, I'm done complaining about the year's worst month. So life has been going at warp speed lately. My work has been rather busy and Ry's schedule is just nuts, as always during tax season and I have therefore fully embraced the crock pot. I broke it out again on Monday. It's hard timing it because we are gone much longer than eight hours so I usually throw it on at lunch time, which worked out perfect on Monday. I pre-chopped everything before leaving for work, which was great since I had one meeting run over and got pulled into another leaving me with only 15 minutes to put dinner together, let Beans out and grab lunch before flying back to Gordon. ANYWAYS, I picked out a corn chowder and took a shot at it. I wouldn't say it's the best chowder in the world...I think there is something to say for cooking the bacon (we used that instead of ham) and then sauteeing the onions int eh bacon grease and slow cooking it on the stove, adding things as needed. BUT all in all, the crock pot came to the rescue yet again:

march 1: Cue another insane day at work. So I had emailed my boss a question to which she replied: is anyone going to starbucks today? I said no, but quickly volunteered to stop in on my way back from lunch. I mean, who doesn't need an excuse to stop at Starbucks to get a SKVL (read: skinny vanilla latte - my current addiction)? I could use a SKVL just about any day these days. SO good. So I stopped, got our coffee and headed back to the office. There was no parking, of course, and I ended up having to park in the back of physical plant causing me to walk over an icy patch in which I imagined myself completely eating it and wiping out with our coffee. Don't worry, I made it across safely. So I headed into the building and up the stairs...and then it happened. My clumsy self caught the toe of my boot on the stair and flew forward. It was like life was in slow motion. One of the drinks went flying and the lid landed and the coffee sloshed everywhere and I didn't know which one had spilled. Then the smell hit my nostrils. It was my latte lying ALL over the stairs. Bummer. I was half relieved that Sandy's Americano stayed in tact, but I could have sat there and cried over my spilled latte. My friend compared it to holding a five dollar bill in your hand and lighting it on fire. I feel as though this is an accurate analogy. Here's the remainder of my latte spilled all over the side of my cup:

march 2: So I was walking into work this morning mourning the loss of my latte as I walked past the coffee stained stairs (I wiped as much of it up as I could, but figured physical plant would need to come through with a mop) and headed for my cube. As I turned the corner, the most welcomed sight I've ever seen greeted my eyes...an SKVL from Sandy (read: best boss ever!). It was FABULOUS: