So last night we meet the Richarson’s out in W. Springfield at On the Boarder for some excellent mexican food!! They wanted to meet so that they could give us our House warming gift… we were of course very excited and especially more excited when we opened it. I can now cross off number 6 off my list of things we need. IT WAS A Wii!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!! We were playing it all last night. I kicked kevs butt in tennis and baseball and bowling. It was awesome- So thank you!

so thanks to eric and one of his recent posts I have been obsessed with a website called Notebook Babies. This guy who is a 5th grade teacher creates all these great little animations for his class. I love them! Make sure to check them all out at his website. But here are a few..

so we have started a count down on our dry erase board till we get into the house. 27 days and counting… I cant believe how long we’ve waited- we got the house in march. Well we have no furniture or well anything to move in with. The apt. we are in now was furnished when we moved in. These are the must haves…
BBQ
Patio furniture (haha a bbq and patio furniture is what i want first cause i just want to cook and eat and hang out with friends out in the backyard all summer- I dont need furniture on the inside yet)
Dining room table
Couch
TV
Wii (Yep we still want one so bad!!!)
bed

I am so excited to have a studio though- we can have our screen printing press all set up and finally have a spot for the letterpress and then just a place for my junk and everything. Its so exciting.

we are going to have a big bbq party- everyone can come and just bring a chair (haha i wont have a place for you to sit otherwise)

So I love Fondue but I dont love lots and lots of cheese so I found a white wine fondue instead that I would assume is healthier and Very Tastey…

White Wine Fondue

1 bottle of white wine (if its more that 2 people or you can spare 2 bottles for just 2 of you- its better because it evaporates fast)
1 (2 inch) cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp ground coriander
10 black peppercorns, crushed
4 whole cloves
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp garlic salt

Pour wine into a saucepan and season with cinnamon stick, coriander, pepper, cloves, sugar, salt, celery salt, and garlic salt. Let it sit for 1 hour (the longer it sits the better) then bring to a boil. Filter thru a fine sieve or strainer with cheese cloth ( or i just pour right into the fondue pot. Bring to a boil in fondue pot ( i have an electric one).

Best Cooked with chicken, rabbit or veal. (Kev uses chicken, I use tofu)
Veggies: zucchini, summer squash, carrots, Bell peppers, Cauliflower
cut up and boil some potatoes to then finish cooking in the fondue pot.

DESSERT!!!!

Nutella Fondue
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Nutella (can be found in the peanut butter asile at the grocery store)
2 or 3 tbsp Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur)
1/2 cup very finey chopped hazelnuts or almonds
strawberries
poundcake
rasberries
banana
apple
etc.

In fondue put or saucepan bring heavy cream to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and add in Nutella in 3 to 4 aditions, whisking until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in Frangelico
and nuts- if you are not using a fondue pot transfer to a heavy bowl that will retain the heat. Dip away!!!

Vegan Chili Stew with Chocolate (so good!!!)

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced ( I use orange and yellow though- i dont like green)
2 tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch diced, OR 1 16-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 15-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained rinsed
2 15-ounce cans of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups vegetable broth
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate (some has milk some doesnt)

In a pot over medium heat cook the oil, garlic, onion, and peppers (i find they got to soggy when you put them in now- i just put them in like 10 mins peper i eat it- I like undercooked veggies though?) Cook until softened- stirring occasionally for about 5 mins. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, kidney beans, veg. broth, cumin and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened 30 mins- I found it doesnt really thicken all that much and its better eaten more as a stew. Before serving stir in chocolate and cook until melt thru.

awesome with multigrain tostito’s

Leftovers reheat great- makes a good lunch the next day!

so this has been the first offical week of training for the marathon. I went on a run yesterday on the rail trail that was beyond weird…
I 1. got hissed at and chased by two very protective canadian geese.
2. got 2 see 4 baby geese all yellow and fluffy munching on the grass on the side of the trail
3. ate about 6 bugs. I would be breathing and then all the sudden I would choke cause it flew right into my mouth and hit the back of my thorat. ugh!! It would make me gag…
4. got scared to the point where it made me make a noise out loud by being startled by a bunny. haha yep a bunny
5. got laughed at by a family of 5 who witnessed the whole thing
6. got stuck in a downpour 2 miles into the trail with no where to go except to keep running- it rained the entire way back to the car. I was soaked.

I hope today is better…

so I love my parents house in the spring and summer, princeton is a good town! – not that i dont love it in winter and fall but it was such a beautiful day on sunday- me and kev were having so much fun swinging, going for a walk, playing catch, kicking those giant rubber balls around, bbqing, playing with pirate and gully and of couse celebrating mothers day. It was a good good day. My mom even made her signature rum slush- haha

my mom and dads house

my mom

kevs mom

our walk to our rope swing and down the tracks

running for the ball

im not good at baseball

the slushes

i just actually watched the you tube videos i had posted and they are such terribel quality- you can hardly tell what the pictures are actually of. Sorry.
Stupid you tube

Hey there everyone
so when we moved home from hawaii last summer some very nice people threw us a welcome home surprise party in which kev made me this great video of our time in hawaii. I realized the other day that if you were at the party you never saw the video he made for me. So here it is- I had to break it into 2 parts because I didnt realize that youtube only lets your videos be 10 mins long. So enjoy! We miss hawaii very much- it was a great great place to live and we made some amazing friends out there. We couldnt think of a better way to spend the first year being married.