Happiness is...

Having a niece and nephew + cupcakes....

Vampire teeth have never looked cuter!

Mini dozen from Kara's. 

The cupcakes have been spotted!!

Just his size.

Organize!

An organizational post in January, how original! :) Our spices are kept in two little cabinets above the stove and there have been a handful of times where I have mis-reached for something only to have it a.) fall into the dish I'm making or b.) narrowly miss my feet. Both of which results in some lovely language. I picked up two little graduated shelves at The Container Store* to solve my problems.

BEFORE

 The more spice-y bunch. 

 The more bake-y bunch.

AFTER

 

Look, I can't believe I'm showing you my spice rack either, but hopefully this can help just one person!

*the most amazing store ever!

The state of my backyard

 I have been staring at this mess of a project for a week now. That means one week of chain saws, wood chippers, Cleo scared under the deck 24/7 and me about to pull my hair out. Someone send help!

Gather

One of my fave presents this year was a gift certificate to Gather, a restaurant in Berkeley focused on sustainability and seasonal food. Even though I was pretty sick this weekend, I dragged myself out of bed (and away from The Hunger Games) determined to get one of their seasonal bloody marys.

Real belts!

Verdict? What it lacked in the garnish, it made up for in the content. One of the best yet, and I don't even think all my taste buds were working. 

Jon got the pulled pork sammy. 

And I got the avocado salad. There were chunks of grapefruit and the avocado was dusted with chili powder, so so good! I can't wait to go back and try their brunch and dinner.

Ad Hoc: Chicken Pot Pie

So I ended up getting Ad Hoc at Home for Christmas. I made a little foodie resolution to try one new recipe a month (at least). This month was the chicken pot pie! I have a feeling all the recipes are going to be this involved, create this many dishes and be this delicious. Some notes: I wish I put the egg wash all over the pie crust and not just the edge, like the recipe asked. Also, the pie crusts were store bought. In the beginning of the book, Thomas Keller advises when making something new with lots of steps, don't try too many new things all at once. And the only time I've made pie crust, I failed miserably. I will try that another time.

Have any of you cooked great recipes from this book? I definitely want to try the buttermilk fried chicken. Even though I haven't made any fried food in my life...!

The Hunger Games

OMG. So I am not even upset that I got horribly sick and was in bed on NYE well before midnight, because I spent all of Near Year's Day in bed reading this book. And finished it. I cannot remember the last time I read a book in one day. I could not stop myself! I even uttered "kiss him!" out loud while reading it....haha.  To all that told me to read this to which I responded "eh, I'm not into SciFi", I was wrong and I get it now. I am going to run out and get the other two books now!

2011, you will be hard to beat...

 

In March our family grew and we welcomed baby Avery. 

In May, Jon and I ran in the 100th year of the Bay to Breakers race.  

 Also in May, Jon and I took our engagement photos.

Pete kept us entertained all year long. 

In June, I was thrown the sweetest bridal shower ever. 

In July, I celebrated my birthday and bachelorette party in Las Vegas. 

 In August, we got hitched!

In September we had a really hard time leaving Hawaii. 

The year was filled with birthdays, good food, camping, wine tasting, wedding planning, general craziness, celebrations and so much love. This one will go down in the records for sure. 

Here's hoping 2012 brings us even more happiness.

Holiday Scenes

Christmas Eve breakfast for one. Morning Star veggie patties rule.

The cutest little stocking for my sweet niece. 

Check out her stylish pants!

Let's not forget this stylish dude, too. 

Woah!

Happy babies make Christmas dinner better. 

This crazy house in my parent's development. It's been like this ever since I was a kid, with the last maybe 5 years being more extravagant than ever. And I almost don't want to post the next door neighbor's house because I actually love all these lights, the creativity and the effort, but...

Lame!

What I Wore: Christmas Eve

Dress: Lulu's. Necklace: Vintage. Prescription glasses: Lookmatic.

a little wedding video

 

Here is a little wedding video a dear friend of ours made for us. Rob is super talented and this was only his second wedding, simply amazing. He interviewed us before and wove in the stories of how we met, our first date and the proposal with the wedding. If you have 7 minutes, I hope you will enjoy.

Some thoughts while I was watching:

-this was the first time seeing my maids walk down the aisle. i told them to look happy and seeing every one of their huge smiles brought me to tears. (who am i kidding, i cried throughout most of this)

-i have a huge lopsided bun in the interview

-the sweet face my MIL makes when i reach the top of the aisle

-why am i refering to LAKE MICHIGAN as "a river"?

-you will see i cannot get jon's ring on. we knew this ahead of time but decided to just go with it. well, it didn't go on and after much struggle at 6:36 i announce "its on" haha. love this.

-this was simply the best day of my life

By Robert Batzloff 

robertbatzloff@gmail.com