Christmas Party

Adam and I had a Christmas party on Sat Dec 13th. It was a very last minute idea and we were just happy that people came! It was a lot of fun to see everyone before we all went our separate ways for the holidays.
Our friends David and Tiffany and thier 4 month old son, Noah.Our friend Nathan. He doesn't really stand like this or have a purple jacket.


Me with Lindsey, Nathan's wife.

Our friend Steve.

Our friend Matt sitting with Nathan and Lindsey's daughter Bella. She really enjoyed playing with (read: terrorizing) our cat with the cat toy she's holding. But it was really hilarious to watch.

Our friend Joel keeping his distance from the baby ;).

It was pretty low-key but we all had a good time catching up with everyone. We will definitely have to do it again in the new year!

Finally! Our Europe Post

Friday Oct 24th - Arrive in Frankfort, drive to Cologne, nap, meet at the apt, go out to dinner.
Sat Oct 25th - Hang out in Cologne, train to Munich, walk all over looking for food and eat Italian for dinner
Sun Oct 26th - Bus tour of Munich, lots of walking, our to dinner at Paulaner Brauhaus - Yum!
Mon Oct 27th - More walking around and touring, out to dinner at Schumann's - Yum!
Tue Oct 28th - Fly to Rome, get to the hotel, private wine tour and dinner, get drenched in the rain
Wed Oct 29th - Private tour of the Coliseum and Forum, out to dinner at the best Italian seafood place - Yum!
Thurs Oct 30th - Walk to the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, Sistene Chappel, get totally drenched again, out to dinner at a nearby Italian place for a traditional meal.
Friday Oct 31st - Fly to Cologne, out to Mexican for dinner
Sat Nov 1st - Plan on shopping but it was a holiday so everything is closed, walk to the Dom and climb many stairs.
Sun Nov 2nd - Fly back to San Fran.

The first night at the Gross's apt.

The Dom Cathedral in Cologne.

Out to dinner in Munich at Paulaner.

In a park in Munich.

Out to dinner on our first day in Rome.

It rained a lot in Rome. Here we are drenched on our first night.

The Coliseum. It was amazing!

With our tour guide in the Coliseum.

All dressed up in the hotel to go out to dinner in Rome.

Our food. My favorite meal! I still lust after it!

The Trevi Fountain. Just beautiful. We tossed a coin in so we will be back :)

The Pantheon. The hole is open and it there was a torrential downpour the night before so part of the inside was blocked off.


The Vatican.

Back in Cologne. We climbed the 509 steps to the top of the Dom Cathedral!

View of Cologne from the top. The Rhine River.

Jordan and Laurie's Wedding

So we are pretty late with this (2 1/2 months to be exact), but we wanted to post some pictures of Jordan and Laurie's wedding. It was such a fun weekend and was so great to see everyone. It was the first time in a very long time that all of us cousins on the Gross side were together. We didn't end up taking a ton of pictures, but we still got some good ones.

Court and I after the ceremony:

All of the cousins together:

The whole family all together:

On the dance floor:

Was wir machen in unserer Freizeit

(What we are doing in our free time). Germany has been so much fun so far! We have so many great pictures, but the highlight has unexpectedly been the food! We have been to Cologne and Munich in Germany and are leaving for Rome early tomorrow, but German food has been quite the pleasant surprise.

Deutschland!

We are heading to Germany tomorrow morning and are so pumped! We will be back in a week and a half with lots of pictures.

Risotto

Thanks for all the dinner suggestions! I have yet to make one but I will! The crock-pot lasagna sounds great cause I can cook it while at work. The salmon is good! I have already done that many times. And I want to try the enchilada casserole soon.
But in my searching for new food to try the last couple weeks I can across 2 very good risotto recipes. I had never made it nor am I sure that I have ever really eaten it before. But I went for it and in Adam's words it was "something you would eat at a really expensive restaurant."

The first is from Rachel Ray Click here for link. It was somewhat time consuming but worth it. I did not have pine nuts and it still tasted great.

Popeye Risotto with Beefy Balsamic Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 1 quart chicken or vegetable stock (use vegetable to make this meal vegetarian)
• 2 cups water
• 2 pounds spinach, stems removed
• 1/2 cup (about a handful) pine nuts, toasted
• A few grates fresh nutmeg
• 1 cup (about 2 handfuls) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, divided, plus additional for passing at the table
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided
• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated, plus 1 clove cracked
• 2 cups arborio rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 5 large or 6 small portabello mushroom caps, brushed clean of dirt and sliced
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (eyeball it)

Yields: 4 servings

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Preparation

Bring the water and stock to a boil, then reduce heat to low to keep warm.

While the liquids are heating up, add the spinach, pine nuts, a few grates of nutmeg and a handful of Parmigiano-Reggiano to a food processor. Pulse a few times to get everything chopped up. Add a ladleful of the hot stock and water and about 1 tablespoon EVOO. Run the machine to puree and reserve.

Place a large skillet with high sides over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 turn of the pan of EVOO. Add the onions and chopped or grated garlic, and saute until the onions begin to get tender, 4-5 minutes.

Add the arborio rice and toast it in the pan, stirring constantly, for 2-3 minutes. Add the wine and cook until all the liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Ladle about half of the stock or broth into the pan with the rice and bring it up to a bubble, stirring constantly. Simmer the mixture, stirring frequently, until all the liquid is absorbed, 4-5 minutes. Ladle in about half of the remaining liquid and continue stirring the rice until that liquid has fully absorbed, 4-5 minutes. Ladle in the remaining stock and cook the risotto until most of the remaining liquid has been absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 7 minutes. Season the risotto with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Once you get the risotto going, place another skillet over medium-high heat with the remaining tablespoons of butter and EVOO. Add the mushrooms and cracked clove of garlic into the other pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are golden brown and tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, and add the balsamic. Cook about 1 minute to glaze the mushrooms then remove from heat and discard the garlic clove. Keep the mushrooms warm until the risotto is finished.

Once the risotto and mushrooms have finished cooking, add the spinach puree and remaining 1/2 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano to the risotto and give it a good stir. Spoon the risotto out onto a serving dish and top it with the glazed mushrooms. Pass additional Parmigiano-Reggiano at the table.

(Pictures and recipe from www.rachelrayshow.com)


I made another risotto last night and found the recipe on Smitten Kitchen which is a great food blog. Click here for link.

Tomato and Sausage Risotto
Martha Stewart Everyday Food

Serves 4

1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed
1 small onion, finely chopped
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 bunch flat-leaf spinach (10 to 14 ounces), washed well, tough stems removed, chopped (about 7 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving (optional)
2 tablespoons butter

1. In a small saucepan, combine tomatoes (with their juice) and 3 cups water. Bring just to a simmer; keep warm over low heat.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add sausage and onion; season with salt and pepper. Cook, breaking up sausage with a spoon, until sausage is opaque and onion has softened, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add rice; cook, stirring until well coated, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine; cook, stirring until absorbed, about 1 minute.
4. Add about 2 cups hot tomato mixture to rice; simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until absorbed, 4 to 5 minutes. Continue adding tomato mixture, 1 cup at a time, waiting for one cup to be absorbed before adding the next, stirring occasionally, until rice is creamy and just tender, about 25 minutes total (you may not have to use all the liquid).
5. Remove pan from heat. Stir in spinach, Parmesan, and butter; season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately (risotto will thicken as it cools), and sprinkle with additional Parmesan, if desired.

(recipe from Smitten Kitchen which might be from Martha Stewart)


Both recipes made enough for dinner (main course) and then lunch for both Adam and I.

What's for dinner??

If there is one thing I hate about Sunday night/ Monday morning, it's planning meals and making a grocery list for the week. I have completely run out of food ideas (and Adam is no help- he eats anything and has almost no opinion). So please help me! What are you making this week? Thanks!

The Great Lakes State

After the wonderful wedding in San Diego, Adam and I were off again! We flew into Chicago late Sunday night and stayed in a (awful!!!) hotel. Monday morning we took a cab to Adam's parent's condo to see his mom quick and pick up the car. And we were off! It took up a good 5+ hours to get to Caseville but it was a fun drive. We were loving the lack of traffic but disliking the amount of trucks. For whatever reason, there are about 0 truck on the expressways here. My dad made grilled vegs and steaks for dinner!

We stayed two nights. Tuesday it rained on and off so we spent most of the day inside and downtown. It cleared up and we were able to have a nice beach fire.

Wednessday we were off again!

Again on our drive to Mac Island, Adam and I loved the open road. No traffic and beautiful sights! We took the Star Line ferry to the Island. It was the best deal (free overnight gaurded parking). We stayed at the Island House (do NOT recommend!). We ate fudge (but never bought any :) ). And then went to the most amazing resturant ever!! It was Woods on the Stonecliff property but owned by the Grand Hotel. It was so much fun to get dressed up (not too fancy) and take the horse taxi into the island to get to Woods. It seemed to be an old building but it was recently redone to look like (to me) a old hunting club of someone really wealthy. It was just plain cool. The service and the food were amazing! And in true Mac Island form, there were some fudgies there in their shorts and t-shirts and then some others in full out dresses with sequins.

Due to our not so nice hotel experience, Adam was up very early the next day and took some beautiful pictures just after sunrise.

After a crappy night's sleep we decided not to ride bikes around the Island and instead took a carriage tour. It was a lot of fun!

Thursday afternoon we left the Island and drove to Petoskey. As soon as we checked in to the Perry we went to the beach! Oh how I LOVE Petoskey State Park!

We ate at the hotel bar that night and were able to sit outside on the patio. We had Oberon! Beer that cannot be found in Cali.

Sunset from our room balconey.Friday we were off again! We made a short trip to Harbor Springs to look at the boats and get a cookie from Tom's Mom's. Then we drove through Bay Harbor (beautiful developement where the water is deep and the houses and boats are huge!) on our way south when we decided that this will be our boat as soon as the market goes back up :)

It started to pour not long after this picture and we ran back to the car and started out drive to Elk Rapids for the Ericksen family reunion. It was awesome to see everyone! We ate lots, swam, kayaked, and went boating. Saturday most cousins and my dad went on a long boat ride to "the sandbar" where we jumped off and swam. The water was amazing!

We left Elk Rapids on Saunday and drove back to Chicago. We got there for dinner with Adam's parents. We went to a great Italian place. Monday Adam, Michelle, and I shopped for a few hours before having to get back to the airport. At this point in the trip I guess I forgot about the camera and here is the only proof that we were in Chicago... Navy Pier.