Recipe of the Week!

Greek Salad Skewers

So can you tell this was my first food photography with my new camera? It makes my food look so much more appetizing. I took these to a Labor Day picnic with the fabulous 5th grade team at my school. I think they are delicious and obviously they are super easy...the hardest part is getting the feta on the skewer without it crumbling to pieces. You can also put any leftovers on some lettuce and there you have a Greek salad. I made my own vinaigrette, but I'm sure you can buy some Greek dressing from the store if you want.

Ingredients:

grape tomatoes
feta cheese, cut into (1/2-inch) cubes

pitted kalamata olives
red or sweet onion, cut into (1/2-inch) pieces
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
wood skewers

Vinaigrette:
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

For the Skewers: Thread the skewers starting with a tomato, then a piece of feta cheese, an olive, a piece of onion and finish with another tomato.

For the Vinaigrette: In a small bowl, mix together the lemon juice, red wine vinegar and oregano. Whisk in the olive oil until the mixture thickens. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Arrange the skewers on a serving platter. Spoon the vinaigrette over the skewers and sprinkle with the chopped oregano.

Remember This?

This reminds me of that first grade teaching objective about yesterday and today. If you have followed my blog since the get go your may recall my occasional mention of the construction I live in the midst of every. single. day. Well it's finally coming to a close. I looked back through my blog and found a few pictures of the progress that I have accidentally documented. I feel like maybe my little blog might be featured in a history book someday of the evolution of the Dunn Loring-Merrifield area. 

From February 2011

May 2011

August 2011

August 2011

The pictures I have a from documenting the occasional weather event (what a snow day in VA looks like, the city garden, and that hurricane that came through last summer) on the blog. I have to say the construction has been ridiculously annoying being that it could be 2am, 7am, or 8pm and it would still be happening, but we will have bars and restaurants in our backyard now. And while this project is finishing up there is still much more going on... thankfully on the other side of the building. Apparently we are getting a grocery store and some other stuff over there. And then at the next intersection down a TARGET! I'm so excited about that one. That project will also be accompanied by more restaurants and some retail I believe. So my conclusion...I will be able to say I live in Merrifield when it only had an H-Mart and a Rite Aid. 

September 2012

September 2012

Recipe of the Week!

No Bake Granola

Here is a very low maintenance recipe. I made a whole bunch of these before we went to Hawaii. My intention for them was to serve as some travel snacks. Well...that worked for the way to the airport. These aren't exactly travel friendly and had I actually thought it all the way through I should have figured that out pre-travel halfway around the world. Anyway, these are pretty good and freeze very well. I would totally make them and eat them for snacks or breakfast at home.

Ingredients (for about 12):

2 large overripe bananas
1 cup oats
1/2 cup crunchy cereal
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp dried cranberries
2 – 4 tsp cocoa powder

Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Mash the bananas. Add wet ingredients and cocoa powder and mix well. Add all other ingredients, mix well then press into prepared muffin tin. Freeze at least 60 minutes before serving. Eat soft or frozen, or somewhere in between!

I'm Alive

Oh, September. You're back. Blogging has been scarce. I would say September has really hit me hard this year. It's always a little tough to get back in the swing of things, but after a whirlwind summer, a fabulous wedding, and a dream vacation, September is even harder. And you know who doesn't care? Public education.

We have been back for two weeks. The first two weeks are like herding kittens. At my day job I currently run, sweat, try not to yell, make sure people eat their lunch. It's glamourous, really. September at least usually comes with the fall air...something unforeseen the first week of school, and football. Well so far football has been slightly painful. There were some redeeming games this weekend, however. So maybe things are looking up.

Things are looking up here on my scarcely updated blog too. I will return with recipes of the week this week. I also have stories to share about my new found pastime...bowling. And I'm sure that I will have a fabulous BES story or two to share as well.

For now, though, I will tell you about my weekend adventure. Yesterday was my birthday. We went to Cirque Du Soleil's TOTEM. It was my first time to a Cirque Du Soleil performance. It was so cool! Those people can't be human. Afterward's we went to 2 Amy's for dinner. I got the margherita pizza which was awesome. Matt and I decided they have the best pizza crust. I thought the whole pizza was fab, though. Which leads me to my next discussion...who has the best pizza in DC? Matt and I had an enthralling conversation on the best pizzas. We LOVE Mad Fox's Fig and Balsamic Blues. And then the 2 Amy's, but what's your favorite?

Tell me what you think, and I will be back this week with a recipe (not pizza, though :)

Hawai'i

View from our balcony.

How is summer over? So unfair. I guess I am trying to hang on to the last bit of it by posting about our honeymoon. Matt and I had a wonderful time on our honeymoon in Hawai'i. I wish there was somewhere like it closer so we could just go anytime we wanted. We had a good mix of adventure and relaxation. We also had some nearly serious mishaps. I lit myself on fire...sustaining only a burn on my arm and some seriously singed hair. Matt had an allergic reaction...to what we still aren't really sure. And I lost the rental car keys, but luckily got them back soon thereafter.

Red Sand Beach on the Road to Hana

On to the more exciting things. We used the guidebook Maui Revealed all the time. I had never used a guidebook really, but this thing was AMAZING. It had tons of hidden spots mapped out, all the best places to eat (that actually ended up being the best), and literally covered everything. I would highly recommend Maui Revealed to everyone. The best meals we ate were local food. Seriously if I could have one thing from Hawaii it would be the food. Everything is so fresh and so delicious. I ate so much Ahi Poke, fresh fish in general, and Hawaiian lunch plates it was borderline out of control. It was hard to go back to cooking most nights when we got back.

Haleakala Summit

Haipau'ena Falls on the Road to Hana

As for adventures we drove to the summit of Haleakala for sunrise and traveled the Road to Hana. Definitely some of the most scenic parts of the trip as well as the most adventurous. We did a small drive around West Maui doing a couple of hikes and a lot of snorkeling. We actually did a lot of snorkeling in general...once with a whole bunch of sea turtles right outside our hotel. That was pretty awesome. They were huge! Of course we had a lot of beach time as well. I'm so sad it's over...I hope we can go back soon :)

Sunrise on Haleakala

August 12, 2012

First look. We chose to see each other before the ceremony. Highly recommend.

Watching guests arrive before the ceremony.

It's really hard to sum up your wedding day in a blog post. I also don't want to go on and on and on. So I will try to keep it simple. Everything went wonderfully! All the minor (maybe even sometimes major) meltdowns beforehand were worth it because everything went so smoothly that weekend. Instead of rehashing the whole day and citing my imfamous timeline (which we actually stayed on, or were ahead of schedule I would like to note), I think I will stick to a THANK YOU post (with a lot of pictures). We have so many people to thank... our parents who helped to and provided to us a celebration that we will remember for a lifetime. Our fabulous bridal party, especially my sister and brother-in-law who held the whole thing together and all of our generous and wonderful guests who travelled to be with us for our special day.

Bridesmaids

There are also a few beyond amazing vendors that made of day truly special. Andy Booth is not only Pittsburgh's best DJ, but also such a super nice guy. Michael Williams and his wife Jennifer of Michael Will Photography who were the coolest photographers ever and helped the day to go extra smoothly. I can't wait to see the pictures. The people at Pittsburgh's Grand Hall at the Priory who thankfully are more type A than me. And then Maryanne Evankovich who literally saved the day with all my dress alterations! And Kelsey Reagan, my favorite cousin-in-law, who stayed up all night making a cake and cupcakes that were beyond what I could have ever imagined as perfect both visually and tastefully :) and Dee's florals who made my crazy hen and chicks love work into a wedding. And the Church Brew Works for hosting our rehearsal dinner and maybe making a few unwanted donations to our bridal party's kitchen cabinets. This is a lot of people now that I'm listing them all. Finally, Father Tom at Christ Church Fox Chapel who took us on and married us after THIS whole ordeal!

Checking out cupcakes!

Cupcakes by Kelsey!

Matt and I are so lucky to have such great people in our lives. We can never thank everyone enough for helping to bring the day of our dreams together. Now if only it didn't have to go so fast and we could do it all over again, it really would be perfect.

Our favors featuring both Pittsburgh and Boston

Reality Check

The wedding is over. The honeymoon is over. As if that's not depressing enough...school starts (for teachers) tomorrow. Even worse yet, because of the chaos that was my August...I have nothing prepared for school. I have a feeling this week will include a lot of late nights at BES. Talk about going from one end of the spectrum to the other...

I promise a wedding post this week as well as a honeymoon one. I am going to upload all my Hawaii pictures to facebook at some point today. And hopefully work on those blog posts as well so they actually do get posted. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. I will try to keep from crying.