Football? It's all about the ads!

Super Bowl ads. Are they worth all the hype? I’m undecided about that, it seems like some years it is and others not so much. There are a few companies that consistently pull together memorable ads. In my mind, the Budweiser Clydesdales are a classic. I will never forget the ad from 2004 with the donkey that so desperately wanted to be a Clydesdale. It’s probably my all-time favorite commercial, I can remember the exact setting when I watched it my senior year of college with Jamie, Erika and Kim. I love that the donkey gets hair extensions. Check it out:

Or the one where a Dalmatian helps a Clydesdale train to make the hitch team and the two high five at the end. Dogs and horses high fiving? Yeah, that’s pretty memorable.

I’m excited to see what is in store this year. I read a teaser that Best Buy teamed up Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne for a thirty second commercial in the third quarter of the game. I’m intrigued; with such an odd juxtaposition of musicians it seems promising (and this coming from someone without Bieber fever). I’ll be watching for it, and hoping for a few good Budweiser Clydesdale ads. Oh, and cheering for the Steelers!

Guilty pleasure | The Bachelor

I don't think I'm only when I admit that I watch some seriously bad TV. Totally my guilty pleasure (that and sweets). Who's with me?

The Bachelor

In the words of Chris Harrison, Ladies, Brad, this is the final rose. When you're ready...

I blame my sister for this addiction. I didn't watch the first few seasons but I haven't missed a season since Andrew Firestone was on. His season aired in 2003. Can you believe it? 8 years later and I'm still watching. That's slightly embarrassing! If you're interested in seeing a rundown of all the seasons, hit up the Wikipedia page, there's a nice chart that lays out all the Bachelors, the winners, runners up and what happened to each relationship.

Are you watching the latest season with Brad Womack? I am, and so is Matt because I like to drag him in and the show is so addicting that he gets sucked in--thankfully! because I totally need someone to watch it with and since my sister lives 500 miles away, she's not an option. It's still early, but for the record, I really like Ashley from the North Carolina and Emily. I'm also rooting for the two girls from the Seattle-area since they're Washingtonians, they must be cool!

One last thought about the Bachelor before I wrap up. Have you ever visited the website, Reality Steve? Somehow he's got connections in "the inside" and blogs about each season. I gave in and read his blog during one season and could hardly believe it, but he was spot on. So if you don't mind spoilers, go check it out. If you want to be surprised about who Brad choose then don't click the link!

Vegan Mac N "Cheese"

If you read my old blog then you know that Matt and I love mac n' cheese. One day I stumbled upon a Mac N Cheese of the Month Club and realized all the possible varieties we could try. Rather than pay way too much for the club, I periodically try a new recipe. I'm hoping that one day we can meld together our favorite recipes to create our own signature Hoag Mac n Cheese.


So when I came across a a vegan recipe I thought, heck, why not!? I'm a very curious person and this was such an interesting concept that I couldn't resist whipping it up! Plus I'm lactose intolerant (though I still eat cheese and take my chances with an upset stomach, it is just to good to give up!) so a vegan recipe also means a non-dairy recipe!

I felt fairly skeptical that a recipe without any cheese couldn't possibly taste like cheese. I even promised Matt that I'd got get takeout of his choosing if it was gross. I think he had already figured out where to go and what to order before I even got started with the recipe! But I forged ahead and about halfway through the steps I was in total awe. I frantically called Matt into the kitchen to take a look. I blended all the ingredients together to make the "cheese" sauce and as soon as I pulled the blender lid off I got a whiff of "cheese" and it sure looked the right orangish-yellow color! Amazing. And for the record, Matt agreed.

Here it is before adding breadcrumbs and before baking. Looks cheesy, right?

After baking and eating some. Yum!

And all served up.

I keep telling people about the amazing vegan mac n cheese, hopefully I'm not singing it's praises too high. But it really is good! And the leftovers were good too. And again, for the record, Matt agrees!

You can follow the recipe over at Veg News or take these steps with my (picky eater) variations noted:
Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 8 ounces macaroni (I used the small noodles but actually prefer the big elbows)
• 4 slices of bread, grated into bread crumbs or torn into pieces
• 2 tablespoons + 1/3 cup non-hydrogenated margarine (since we aren't vegan, I just used the butter we had on hand)
• 2 tablespoons shallots, peeled and chopped (we aren't fans so I omitted)
• 1 cup red potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1/3 cup onion, peeled and chopped (we aren't fans so I omitted)
• 1 cup reserved cooking water
• 1/4 cup raw cashews
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

Directions

1. Cook macaroni al dente following the box directions. Drain pasta and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
2. In a food processor make breadcrumbs by pulverizing the bread and 2 tablespoons margarine to a medium-fine texture. In our case, we used a cheese grater and then added the margarine afterwards,
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, add shallots, potatoes, carrots, onion, and water, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until vegetables are very soft.
4. In a blender, process the cashews, salt, garlic, 1/3 cup margarine, mustard, lemon juice, black pepper, and cayenne. Add softened vegetables and cooking water to the blender and process until perfectly smooth.
5. In a large bowl, toss the pasta and cheese sauce until coated. Spread mixture into a 9 x 12 casserole dish, sprinkle with prepared breadcrumbs, and dust with paprika. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese sauce is bubbling and the top has turned golden brown.
6. Enjoy!

Calling all bookworms!

Matt and I love books. We probably have our parents to thank considering we both had many books in the house growing up. And what a wonderful thing to pass down the family, right? I sure hope we pass on the same hankering for literature to our (unborn) children.

With the new year, and a new kindle for me (thanks Matt!), what better time to draft a reading list? So bring it on my fellow bookworms, what books should we plan to read in 2011?

And to return the favor, here are a few books we read in the last year or two that we think you'd enjoy: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Breakfast with Budha, The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo (and Matt read the sequels too), Middlesex and our very top pick, The Help. We actually listened to The Help in the car so I might actually read it myself this year. But you must must must read or listen to this book. The audio version is very well done, I recommend it and am happy to loan it out -- just ask!

And books already on our shelf and/or kindle that we hope to read this year: Book Thief, My Horizontal Life, Stones into Schools, Water for Elephants and the rest of the Dragon Tattoo series (for me).

Eating Old Cake Part II

Before our one year anniversary I blogged about the tradition of eating the top tier of your wedding cake. I've been meaning to blog about the whole experience for awhile but somehow it took me nearly two months to get to it!

So if you didn't read part one, Mike and Mary saved our top tier of cake for us and shipped it overnight so we could enjoy year old cake for our anniversary. Sweet, right? I didn't realize just how excited I would be to take part in the tradition. And I have good news to report, the cake actually tasted good!

Now it didn't exactly look good.

But really, can you blame it? The poor thing went sat out at the wedding reception for like 6 hours, then traveled with Mike and Mary across the state of Washington, hung out in their freezer for a year, shipped overnight to Sacramento and then rode with Matt and I to Napa.

Other than the yummy old cake, we had an amazing trip to wine country. We arrived late on Friday night and had a lazy Saturday morning and had lunch at the hotel. When we finally got out to wine tasting it was around one. We made our way to three wine tastings and managed to bring a few bottles home! The first stop at V. Sattui Winery was at the busiest of all the tastings we went to, and we spent the most time there. It was a fun social setting and while we really liked the wine, we didn't get any in depth information about the wines.

 

The next stop was Peju Province Winery. It had a very different feel, with small tasting rooms that they call small groups into. The staff took their time to explain each wine and we really got to appreciate what we were tasting.

 

 

Then it got to the point where many of the countryside wineries were closing, but we found one still open, Stonehedge in downtown Napa (look for their black label carried at Trader Joe's). So we wrapped up our tastings there. It was pretty quiet and we got to hear a lot about the wines while we slowly appreciate each variety.

Then we to Cole's Chop House and enjoyed one of the best meals I've ever had, including melt-in-your-mouth brussel sprouts (yep, you read that right, it included butter and bacon if that gives you a better idea). That's when we came back to the room to enjoy champagne (in the same glasses we used at our wedding) and eat cake in our PJs.

While we toasted a wonderful first year of marriage, we wanted to include our whole family so Bounce came along! Napa is a pretty dog friendly place with a long list of dog-friendly wineries so Bounce was received with welcome arms everywhere we went! A few people even asked to take his picture, and others complimented us on our well-behaved dog (we fooled them!).

 (How stinkin' cute are my boys!)

One last thing! Napa is only an hour drive from our home in Sacramento. There are many more wineries we want to try (either with or without Bounce) so feel free to come visit and we'll go check them out! Seriously. Visitors more than welcome!

When nice people do good things

This is a story of a lady named Belinda, two named Cara, a lost wallet and social media.

On a rainy Thursday afternoon I got a voicemail on my cell phone from someone in Knoxville named Belinda. Seeing a missed call from Knoxville isn't that odd considering I lived there just six months ago. Bt the message was odd. Belinda found a wallet in the middle of a highway and was trying to find the owner, whose name also happens to be Cara. But Cara with a different last name than me. 

Sweet Belinda was doing everything in her power to track down the wallet's owner. She asked her coworkers, one who happened to be on a rec soccer team I played on. He didn't know my last name but had my phone number so Belinda figured she'd give it a try. It was a long shot, but she went for it.

 I called Belinda to let her know it wasn't me and wish her the best of luck. We hung up the phone and my curiosity got to me. Why wouldn't she just mail the wallet to the address on the driver's license? So I texted her this suggestion. She replied that the driver's license and the checkbook addresses don't match so she didn't want to take the risk mailing it to either.

So what do I turn to next? Google of course! Sure enough, I found this other Cara's LinkedIn profile and quickly sent a her a message explaining the random situation and providing Belinda's number. Just a few minutes later I got another text from Belinda. They found her! And you know how? By searching for her on Facebook. Belinda sent a message via Facebook and returned the other Cara with her wallet. What a great use of social media!

We need more people like Belinda in this world! I'm so glad our paths crossed and that she was the one to find Cara's wallet so this story can end with: And they lived happily ever after.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots to be thankful this year! Matt and I are both so happy to be back on the West coast. We feel extremely blessed to have great jobs that challenge and fulfill us, and give us the funds to live a very comfortable life. We are missing all our wonderful family and friends, especially since this is our first year to have Thanksgiving just the two of us. But there is also something very special about celebrating the holiday as a couple.

This morning we took part in the 17th Annual 5K Run to Feed the Hungry, along with about 30,000 other people. We had so much fun and hope to make it a tradition every year we are in Sacramento for Thanksgiving. So if you want to come visit us for Turkey day, bring your tennis shoes! The starting line was about eight blocks from our house so it really couldn't be more convenient for us. The course runs through the neighborhoods near our house and people hung out in their front yards to cheer people on. Some houses had bonfires, others had bands playing for the runners. Lots of people walked with their kids, pushed strollers, etc. so it was a very casual walk/run. We should have started with the timed 5K but started with the Fun Run group so we spent a lot of the time weaving in and out of walkers. I bet we ran an extra quarter mile from all the weaving we had to do! While we were grateful to burn a few extra calories before we consume a ton, the event was actually focused on raising money to help those less fortunate in our community. What's not to love about that!

Now, on to food! Fortunately making a big feast for two is really pretty easy. Last night I got the orange cranberry sauce, pumpkin ice cream pie and fruit salad out of the way. Now the turkey is in the oven, the green bean casserole is in crock pot and the sweet potato casserole is waiting to go in the oven. The table is set and we're sipping on cold beers, watching football.

And the dogs are keeping each other busy. Yes, you read that right, dogS. We are puppy sitting Cali, my coworker Jessica's dog. She and Bounce are about a month apart in age and very similar in size. They played together a few weekends ago and really couldn't get along any better. Don't be fooled by the picture, they are a lot of energy and can't figure out how to calm down while the other one is around. Hopefully they figure it out soon, as Cali is staying with us until Saturday afternoon!

So that's our Thanksgiving so far! Hopefully all the food turns out. (You never know with me, I have plenty of failed attempts at cooking...just last weekend I butchered pecan pie and had to throw the whole thing away. But I gave it a second try and got it right.)

We are thankful for all the loved ones in our life (That's you!).