Are The Bubs alive?

Wow, it really has been a long time since I've blogged. Of course we are still eating and doing all of the fun food things we enjoy. Life has been crazy. With both of us working full time and myself in Grad School, life has gone back to full speed. Funny enough, though life has been crazy and non-stop we have made it a point to find time in our lives for the little things we enjoy.

This year we have our first ever actual garden. We are growing crookneck squash, pumpkins, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and a few failed attempts with corn and strawberries. Our garden allows us to check out of the hectic Silicon Valley and bond with the world we love. So I do truely apologize for the lack of entries. Hopefully we can find time to finish out this summer with many of the wonderful things we have been growing, cooking and eating.

Welcome Chance!

I wanted to formally welcome our newest family member, Chance. He is a male read eared slider (RES) who I've known for about 3-4 years. We rescued him from my work. He was living in a classroom that seemed to have lost interest in him. RES's are a lot of work!

I first met Chance when I worked in his classroom. I was his care provider for quite sometime. He's who inspired me to get Molly. I moved on and he stayed behind. With the building of the pond it was time to move him into a better situation. So, on April 30, 2009 he moved into our life. I introduce the world to Chance Perotti.

Chance is a lot smaller and a bit more unsociable than Molly. He has very large claws, different markings, and a pointed face. It's nice to be able to tell them apart. I'd be a horrible mother of twins! After being with for a few weeks he is doing quite well. I even caught him basking with Molly one day.

Awww look it's there first meeting. I turned off the pump so I could see how they reacted to each other. She's HUGE compared to him. I think that Molly McButterPants remains queen of the pond. The look on Molly's face is priceless.

Whip Cream Adventures

Hey sicko's first off get your minds out of the gutters. Maybe I should have titled it stabilized whip cream adventures. Enough of that, let's get our minds on food! A couple of weeks ago was Mario's 35th birthday. We had a great weekend of celebrating in a beautiful hotel on the California coast. Unfortunately, the big day actually fell on Monday.

Being the loving wife I am, I had to make sure he got to blow out his candles. I ran to our local grocery store to whip up a box of cake mix. On the way I called my mom and told her all about what I was going to make. I told her how Bub had said that his favorite cake was chocolate cake with whip cream frosting. And how the "I can do that" light went off in my head. As we talked about my plan, and she said the statement that sent my brain into a tale spin, "are you going to stabilize it?" I had no clue what the hell she was talking about.

The more we talked I realized she did know what she was talking about. Mom filled me in on how by not stabilizing my whip cream that it would not be stiff and it would be a watery mess by the second day. In a panic I asked her what I needed to do? She informed me to get the ingredients I was already going to get and to pick up some gelatin. As soon as I got home I hit the computer to make sure mom wasn't crazy . And wow she wasn't, I found that there is a pretty standard method of how to stabilize whip cream.

I was able to take this standard recipe and go from this:

To this beauty:

It was perfect and lasted for a good 3-4 days tasting just as good as it had the first night I made it. I have to say that 1. this will be my go to whip cream recipe for umm probably the rest of our lives and 2. Mom you were right (she likes to hear that)!

The final product for Mario's birthday baked treats were cupcakes and I also had tried making cupcakes in cones (which Bub loved). Adorable and perfect for kids. But not so great the second day, the moisture of the cupcake destroys the cone.

Fresh Finds: Pork Medallions with Grapes in Pomegranate Sauce

The other week we found ourselves in a conversation about our cookbooks and the need to try more new recipes. It started out as a conversation about stepping out of our comfort zone and dipping into the different flavor combos out there. So we decided that we would cook at least one new recipe a week. We decided that there are few rules, the two rules being it has to be new and not our own recipe!

We were so fired up about this idea we dove right into it! I thought it'd be great to take a picture of the cookbook and a pic of the final product. I know it's silly but I really wanted to see how closely we could get our dish to look like the dish in the book. I'm aware that not all books have pics but I thought it'd be fun for the ones that do.

Our first dish is brought to you from Jacque Papan's More Fast Food My Way 2008 book. I grew up watching this man on PBS and was so excited to get this book. We settled on a Pork Medallions with Grapes in Pomegranate Sauce. I think we were both a bit apprehensive to try this dish at first. Eventually it sunk in that pork and fruit tend to go together quite well.

Overall we agreed that the combination of flavors were yummy and the texture of the grapes were really enjoyable. I had expected the sauce to be a little thicker but then again I'm a gravy loving girl. Mario overall expected the dish to have a lot stronger flavor.

In the end it was a little disappointing dish. I think we expected some amazing flavors to pop due to the ingredient list and they were just very subtle. Now don't get me wrong we did enjoy this dish, it just probably won't get made again. I had it for lunch the next day and I think the sitting over night did it some justice. But we all know things taste better the second day.

*drum roll please* The Kitchen

I figured since I wrote about the pond it was time to keep the ball rolling and finally get to the post about our new kitchen.

As any cook knows the kitchen is what makes up a big part of one’s cooking experience. In our old kitchen we had minimal room, white grout counter tops, white porcelain sink, a gas stove, horrible cabinetry and a standard refrigerator. For 5+ years we made the best of our situation. We learned to make this kitchen work and complained about it every step of the way.

Well when picking a house we knew we knew what we wanted in our new house. When we first stepped foot into our house it seemed cool then we entered the kitchen. Our eyes grew very big in excitement. To be honest between the endless possibilities of the backyard and the beauty of the kitchen we were sold. So I present our new kitchen!

Complete with granite counter tops, a gas stove, cabinets a plenty, a lazy Susan for whatever we want, a refrigerator with french doors, a deep stainless steel sink. And man look at the lighting! I also have to say that for the amount we cook and move around in the kitchen the mass amount of space is refreshing.

I think our fridge is one of the best purchases we have made so far. See the little white board to the left of the refrigerator? That's our weekly menu. It is nice to not feel cramped in the kitchen. We even have a window that allows us to watch the world around us go by.

Of course I can't forget our ever growing cookbook collection! We still need a better dinning room table, but that will come eventually! I dunno, I adore our kitchen and wanted to share it with anyone who happened to take a peek at our little blog!

The Bubs will be choosing Earth!

Next Saturday night we have decided to take part in this very interesting event. I encourage everyone to take one hour, just 60 minutes out of their life to support the world! Which side are you on, the earth's or global warming? Make your vote count switch off your lights.

To learn more go to Earth Hour for more information and tips. The website sums it all up, so no need for me to!

A new home for Molly McButterPants

This weekend was a big weekend for our pet turtle Molly. Yes her name is Molly McButterPants. She is our 2 year old Red Eared Slider. Over the course of 2 years Molly has grown to be a lot larger than we ever expected. She went from a 29 gallon indoor fish tank to a 110 gallon pond in just under two years.

In the scope of things we felt like building Molly's new habitat was a top priority and a quality of life issue for her. Since moving to the outdoors Molly hanging out in large Rubbermaid container with a filter. These were not ideal conditions but we knew it was a temporary fix for our massive turtle. Enough about Molly on to the pond!

The morning started off at about 7:30 a.m. at our local Home Depot store. We grabbed a pre-formed pond and headed home to deal with the deed at hand. When we moved in to our house there was this slab with rocks and wood. We assumed it was for a hot tub. Well we really aren't hot tub people so this seemed to be the perfect spot for Molly.

After a lot of shoveling rock and getting ride of the wood frame we finally hit actual ground. The natural next step was to figure out how we wanted the pond situated and to start digging. We ended up sinking the pond in the ground about a foot or so. Once it was perfectly into the ground we were off to Home Depot again!

We had to make trip number two to pick up the cement blocks. I'm sure they have a proper name but I'm just going to say the heavy cement blocks. We loaded up 20 blocks and headed back home knowing that as much as we did not want to we had to do a 3rd trip to Depot. Did I mention that we are lucky enough to have a Home Depot RIGHT around the corner? So like I was saying we headed back for a 3rd time to good ol' Home Depot. All in all we needed about 40 blocks to get the look we wanted.

After our shape was fixed we had to support the blocks and pond with the dirt we had pulled out. So, back in the dirt went.

Mario found a great use for the flag stone we had been tearing up in the yard. He put some stones into the ground surrounding the pond. Once the winter passes and we clean them up they will be a lot more visible. We filled up the pond, de-chlorinated the water and let it circulate for awhile.

Next came Mario's favorite the fencing (not really it was a big pain in the butt). One might ask "why the fencing" well folks our turtle is like most other turtles an escape artist. She has the option of land but not the option of running away. Good thing Mario had the brute force to get those suckers in the ground!

At around 6:30 p.m. we grabbed up Molly and let her check out her new home, while The Bubs grabbed a beer. Molly appears to be happy and we love how it looks, so a good situation all around. Now the next step in this project is to get some plants in there. Phew one project down a billion more to go. I couldn't forget the lady of the hour Miss Molly McButterPants!