Love a Rainy Nite

Spending time with my boys is the best thing in the whole world. Hands. Down.
We enjoyed a special treat today, the hubby stayed home from work due to a migraine, but we had a nice day anyways. Jeremy cooked a great dinner as discussed just before this.  We ate peacefully at the actual dinner table just us as Jacob napped in his crib.  I shockingly suggested we talk and not worry about watching Big Brother yet....I know you love it too! It was a very nice dinner with delicious food and great company.  Then it started raining (yea!!!!), so we grabbed Jacob and Guinness and sat on our back porch.  We have waited ALL summer to spend time outside together! I snapped a couple of pics....of course.

Sweet, sweet rain

Two of my boys

Look. At. That. Face!

Our evening then continued by me washing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen making turtle brownies....the box kind.  I slacked on the homemade this time, already made and ate homemade M&M chocolate chip cookies a few days ago. Anywho, while I was tearing open the box and mixing away Jeremy was spending some quality time with Jacob.  I hear from Jacob room the words to Goodnight Moon...It was one of the sweetest things I've ever heard.  Every time I hear Jeremy playing with, talking or reading to Jacob my heart absolutely melts.  He is the best dad, and Jacob has a great role model to watch as he grows older. Speaking of growing older my little man will be 3 months on Friday....I will post about that obviously! We are now all cuddled up as a family with Guinness laying at our feet watching Big Brother and Royal Pains.  I love my life. Hope everyone's night was as wonderful as mine.

Pasta Shells with Cauliflower...with some additions

Tonite we made a tasty dish of Pasta Shells with Cauliflower...with some additions.  I found the recipe at Williams-Sonoma, and we already have a lot few of their cookbooks and love them.  So when the Williams-Sonoma Back-to-School catalog came the other day with lots of tasty looking food but NO recipes I went on a rampage to figure out how to make the tastiness.  Needless, to say they read my mind and on the last page of the catalog, it said "recipes can be found in the recipe section online".  Yea! I totally forget to look at their site for recipes, and I always find myself using http://foodnetwork.com/ (which is good too don't get me wrong.) Anyways, enough babbling and on to the food!

"The cauliflower can be cooked in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. It’s a good idea to save the cooking water, too, as it will add flavor to the dish. Boil the pasta in the reserved cauliflower water when you are ready to complete this recipe.
Ingredients:

•  Tbs. salt
• 1 cauliflower, cut into florets, then coarsely chopped
• 8 Tbs. olive oil
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 6 to 8 green onions, white and tender green parts, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp. minced fresh marjoram  oregano
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 3 Tbs. minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 3/4 lb. conchigliette or other small pasta shells
• 1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs panko
• WE ADDED (b/c we're meat-a-saurs):
• (4 slices of bacon -trim fat, cut in small pieces)
• (1/4 cup Fontina cheese, finely grated)

Directions:

Cook the cauliflower
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the salt and cauliflower to the boiling water and cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Using a skimmer or slotted spoon, transfer the cauliflower to a colander to drain; set aside. Return the water to a boil.

In a small fry pan over medium heat, cook bacon.  Once cooked, remove bacon, & pour all except 4 Tbs. of fat. Add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring frequently, until golden, about 2 minutes.

Make the sauce
In a large fry pan over medium-low heat, warm 4 Tbs. of the oil. Add the garlic, green onions, marjoram oregano and red pepper flakes and sauté until the onions are wilted, about 4 minutes. Stir in the bacon, cauliflower, parsley and broth. Raise the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the cauliflower is lightly colored and the liquid is slightly reduced, about 12 minutes.

Cook the pasta
Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until al dente, according to the package instructions. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to combine. Add as much of the cooking water as needed to loosen the sauce.

Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the pasta and serve. Serves 4.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Series, Pasta, by Julia della Croce (Oxmoor House, 2006).

And further adapted by the Case fam. =)
It says it's a 30 min meal....maybe if you already have pans heated and water boiling for cauliflower/pasta, otherwise it was close to an hour.  Then of course there's clean up, but we trade that off in our house so that one person isn't in the kitchen for HOURS!
We thoroughly enjoyed it...I may or may not have had 2nds....
We also discussed making a few more changes, like roasted the cauliflower rather than boiling or cutting back a bit on the red pepper.
Hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Birthday Weekend Recap

We had a fantastically busy weekend as I had posted about before...it was definitely as busy as I had anticipated. *struggles to keep eyes open*
Saturday was fantastic fun!
The hubby suggested we skip the farmer's market and hit up breakfast at Wild Fork & shop for a few items for my bday instead....ummm yes please! Jerm had the skillet hash *heart-attack waiting to happen but yet so damn good* thing, I enjoyed the raisin walnut french toast, and Jacob, well he enjoyed his usual. Then it was off to shop! Found lots of fabulous stuff at Ann Taylor Loft, only bought a few things though out of *a) refusing to buy all new tops due to the "mom boobs" b) losing another 20-30 lbs when it's no longer hotter than hell outside c) some cute things didn't fit due to a & b (above)* practicality. Then we headed over the Banana to see if I could find another pair of bottoms of some kind to start off the school year.  I was successful! Found a cute black knit skirt, great for the heat, great for school, great for date nights...perfect!

After our Utica adventures, we headed home for me and Jacob to change clothes because we had a baby shower to get to!  Off we went to celebrate baby Makayla and her mommy, my Kappa sister, Becky.  Jacob was perfect, and we all had a great time talking baby stuff. Then believe it or not we had about 2 hours to get home, get changed again (if necessary due to spit up and sweat from this insane heat), and make our way with Jeremy to my first grade teacher friend, Lyndee's wedding.  It's days like these that I am beyond thankful for an easy going baby and husband! We had a great time hanging out with some of my Grissom family at the wedding, and they loved seeing Jacob, who was well behaved, cute, & cuddly again! *pats self on back*

Sunday came and we decided to watch church the Harry Potter marathon on tv due to the exhaustion from the previous day's escapades. Then it was off again, this time to Jeremy's parents house for lunch with his family to celebrate mine and Aunt Kathy's bdays. We of course has to watch the Women's World Cup final....boo at the loss. It was a great time though!

Then Monday! My actual birthday!!!! It was a pretty typical Monday until hubby called around 2 and said he was coming home early...yes!!!!!! Jacob and Guinness were awesomely behaved, minimal spit up and barking...hey it's the little things right? ;-) My mom, John, mama, and sister Caitlin came up in the late afternoon for dinner at the Wild Fork (yes, I realize I chose somewhere I had already been that weekend...but it was for different meals and still yumminess....). We had a great dinner; hubby got me a cookie cake...yum! Love that man. 

Overall, it was a really nice weekend filled with friends, family, smiles, and laughs....I loved it!  It was great slightly weird turning 29!

Busy *Birthday* Weekend Coming Up

I haven't had a truly busy weekend at home in quite a while. I mean diaper changing and trying to fit in a trip to Target and Grogg's Green Barn in the same Saturday is busy now with a new baby, but this weekend might be a bit much.

Today: aka three days before my birthday...Mom and Mama are coming for a visit, have to run errands to get a baby shower gift, a wedding gift, and an allergy shot. (That's alot considering I don't do more than two errands at once with Jacob.)
Saturday: aka two days before my birthday...Farmer's Market, Utica (Jeremy's taking me shopping for my bday), Becky's (Kappa sister time!) baby shower, and then Lyndee's (Grissom family time!) Wedding.....man will we all sleep good that nite!
Sunday: aka the day before my birthday...Church then lunch with Jeremy's family (Case taco time!)
Monday: aka MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! Yeaaaaa! My Mom, John, Mama, hopefully my sis Cait are coming up for my bday.  We going to go have dinner....this bday kid can't decide where to go.....too many options in this great place. =)

Here's hoping I survive....considering Jacob will be going everywhere with us! Happy Friday everyone!

Funny moments of my day

1. Kids are hilarious.
Homeroom mom at school sent a note to go home with the kiddos today.  It gave a rundown of the things we would need parent volunteers  for the final semester.  One of the items was the class would be giving me a baby shower (YEA!), so as I'm reading this to the kids (b/c they always want me to read notes I send home) most of them start laughing when I say the words "baby shower".  You can imagine the image they had in their heads..."what we are going to give Mrs. Case's baby a SHOWER!?" So then come the questions and comments..."Why would we shower at school?", "How will the baby shower if it's still in you?", and my personal favorite, "That would be soooooo crazy to just have your baby and then give it a shower at school!?" Some of them thought it involved an actual shower, for them, me, the baby, not sure...LOL, some thought I would HAVE the baby at school DURING the shower and that was it's purpose, and a rare few knew what I was talking about.  Those few quickly said, "Noooooo...it's like a PARTY, but for the BABY!!!", "Yeah, it's where you get stuff like presents that the baby needs!" 
I laughed so hard...I love my job.
2. My husband is hilarious.
Prior to going for a walk this evening with Jeremy and Guinness, we had changed clothes and were ready to go all but the running shoes.  Our Guinness is a smart one and is not only aware of what clothes we put on when it's time for a w.a.l.k., but he speaks English (we think he's starting to learn to spell as well...) so we often spells things like w.a.l.k. or h.u.n.g.r.y.  Well Jeremy decided just before we were getting the shoes on (that's the final giveaway for the dog to know what's up), he comes into the kitchen and asks, "Do you have your H.O.E.S.'s?" I just looked at him and said, "My H.O.E.S.'s.  No I don't have my hoes." I tried to say this with a straight face....didn't really happen.  I died laughing and of course so did he after he told me again to get my hoes.
I love my husband.

Random Thoughts on a Tuesday

Random thought #1: I love Charlie Brown.  Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown Voyage on the Mayflower, Charlie Brown Christmas (most fav), etc....

Random thought #2: I can't stop eating sugar.  Well not exactly sugar like out of the bag, but candy. Hard candy, soft candy, chocolate snacks, marshmallows (mmmmmmm....).  I keep thinking I'm eating pretty well and heathly and then I look down, & I'm holding three marshmallows. LOL

Random thought #3: Jeremy was just switching out the light switches in the garage with some you can program and time. Pretty awesome, and glad we knows what he's doing.  But I had to chuckle when I was out helping because a. he's in pj pants and a tshirt for all the neighbors to see and b. he was so tedious about getting the switches juuuuuust right with the face plate, he screwed in the first screw of said face plate only to push too hard and crack the entire top of the face plate. He now has to go to Lowe's and get a new one at a later time TBD.

Random thought #4: God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy. This about sums it up.

Random thought #5: I am so ready for some turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and sparkling apple cider! This baby can eat I'm telling ya!

Random thought #6: No obsessing, no stating...I've gained 5 lbs so far, and I'm ok with that.  Just want to keep exercising so I only gain 15-20 more. Obviously I won't starve myself or baby case, so don't flip out on me and tell me I should eat whatever I feel like. LOL ;-)

Random thought #7: Guinness is the most adorable dog....EVER! He's going to be a great big brother!

Great Sunday!

I have had the best, relaxing Sunday. Did I lay around and do nothing? No but it was awesome. I got to sleep till 10- fantastic! Jeremy and I cleaned up the office, updated our contacts, and I got things situated for my open house Thursday- super productive! Then I coached my wonderful girls at the indoor game- so fun! And from there we finished up Christmas shopping to bring our total to 90% complete- wahoo! And last but not least, chatting at Starbucks over coffee- the best! In a few we're off to dinner w/ his family where I will consume several beverages, so as not to be annoyed w/ the company- perfect!
Main idea of today- I love spending time with my husband- no matter what we r doing. Love it!