Saturday undone

As promised, here is what was done with the foccaccio the other night:

Since the loaves were thin, we decided to make sauteed portobello mushroom sandwiches.

WHAT?!

Yes, sauteed portobello mushroom sandwiches.

Yummy.

I decided to make my own pesto.  

When I'm not following a recipe, I cook like my aunt Melinda-Lou.

Toss in some basil, pour a bit of olive oil in, and a clove of garlic.  

Puree like crazy til it's smooth.

I know it doesn't look like much but pesto is powerful stuff.  You don't need much and since there was only two of us dining that night, this turned out to be about twice the amount that we needed.

Although you may think this is enough for the sandwich, wait my friends.

Here is the best part:

Spreadable brie.

Put a little bit of pesto on one side and a little bit of brie on the other.

Add mushrooms and VOILA!

umm...yeah there should be a picture of the sandwich after it's been put together but neither one of us could contain ourselves. 

Evening Thoughts

Smorgasbord of thoughts tonight:

1. Kaya is all better now as far as her stomach is concerned.  However, after our evening spent in the mountains with Cuz S and J, she's itchy beyond repair!  I believe she came in contact with some allergen (stupid schnauzer skin...which I believe I will refer to from now on as the SSS) and has not stopped scratching!  I know what you are thinking.  "Umm...Caroline, she came in contact with the great outdoors.  How about flea infestation?"  Believe me, after having been around dogs for as long as I have, she would have to be COVERED in fleas to be itching this bad and I would DEFINITELY be able to see them if that was the case.  Plus, with her history of allergies, it's most likely an allergen.  She's going to the groomers tomorrow so hopefully, that will help.
2. Movie of the evening: Finding Bliss.  This is a rated R film and I do not recommend it for all audiences.  If you think you may be interested, ask me first and I'll let you know if I think you'll like it.  I enjoyed it a lot but I've enjoyed almost every film I've seen.  Except for Bug and Birth.  The first: Bug is a terrible film which stars both Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr.  I Love Lady Judd.  I want that to be clear.  I think she's an adorable actress and let's face it: her portrayal of her character in Ya-ya was flawless.  And Mr. Connick Jr can croon his heart out to me any day of the week (plus he's RIPPED in this movie...yum).  However, that's where the positive ends.  Seriously.  It was difficult to watch this movie and as my dear lady friends, Jessie and Hilspa, watched alongside, we all cringed together and tried to decide if we should walk out or not.  I'm embarrassed to say that I was definitely cheering for this movie to start with.  By the mid point of the movie, I had realized what an incredible waste of money it was.  Best line ever: "I AM THE MOTHER BUG".  And that was the peak of the story.  My opinion of Birth: it took every ounce not to gauge out my ear drums with a sharpened pencil because of the disgusting drone of the trilling flute in the background through the whole movie.  Nicole Kidman, really?  The "Poignant" part of the film is when your adult character invites a minor into the bathtub?  Appalling to say the least.  Someone would hope that with her amazing depth of skill she'd be able to choose a better script but this film left me depressed for her.  The whole story line is so sad: woman loses husband, minor male shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her late husband and "knows" all these secrets about their marriage, strange and inappropriate emotional relationship start between woman and boy while woman's fiance begins to unravel because this is just too weird for him and I'm sure he knows the audience is getting lost in the weirdness, suddenly it's revealed that boy has found letters between late husband and his mistress (who, if I remember correctly is the wife of the woman's brother) and that's where he got all of the "secrets" from, and SCENE!  Okay there's a little more to it than that, but that's all you need to know.  If you have seen this movie, please contact me so that you can join the support group that I've started for those victims.  And let me be clear about one thing: I am not opposed to weird movies (those of you who knows me well enough, know that I enjoyed such films as Hard Candy, Teeth, Pan's Labyrinth, etc) and really love films of all kinds.  The previous two movies are the rare gems that I really would NEVER recommend to anyone.  Ever.
3. I'm in the process of reading Scarpetta, one of the Kay Scarpetta novels by Patricia Cornwell.  I think I'm going to have to read teh series from start to finish, because although they can stand alone, I've invested enough time in previous novels to really get to know the characters.  AND I HAVE OBVIOUSLY MISSED SOME HUGE DEVELOPMENTS.
4. I've been a bit under the weather today (low grade temperature and a pestering headache) and fully blame the random thoughts on that.

So on that note, I think I'll end this post of randomness.  Tomorrow, we will hopefully be back to our regular programming.  Good night and good luck.

Where's Marshall?

About two miles from our cute little complex is a shopping center.
Here's the selection in said shopping center:

1. Joann's
2. Old Navy
3. Bed Bath and Beyond
4. Office Depot
5. Marshall's
6. Lowe's
7. Ross
8. Toys R Us Express 

This list encompasses about half of the places in the shopping center.  Here's what is great about it (so far...I feel like there are more reasons to fall in love with it other than what we've learned):

1. This may be shocking to some of you however, after leaving our previous home city, we were accustomed to not really receiving help in a store.  You'd have to scour the aisles looking for someone who worked at the store only to find that they a) didn't know what you were looking for or where to find it or b) would randomly point in a direction and pick a number off the top of their head in reference to which aisle the item could be located on.  When we visited the Lowe's mentioned above for the first time, we were both shocked to be greeted at the door by an employee AND when asked for the location of the item, we were WALKED to the location of the item.  In the short time span that we were in the store (possibly 15 minutes longer) we were asked if we needed assistance not once but THREE times more by various employees and were shown to the location of the items we were searching for by said employees.  LOVE LOVE LUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE.
2. I took mi marido into Joann's today promising that we would be there for a short time and then added the explanation that it would be "less than thirty minutes" (come on, he had to have already KNOWN that would be the case).  I just wanted to look and get my bearings there and get a better idea of what the store had to offer.  First off, BIGGEST Joann's I've ever been in.  Second, guess who actually enjoyed himself?  Yup, that's right.  Especially in the yarn section.  Who knew?  He picked out the yarn for both the socks and scarf that I'm going to crochet/knit for him (haven't decided yet which method).  There were so many things to look at and I'm THRILLED it's so close to us.
3. Marshall's, however, turned out to be the BIGGEST surprise ever.  Again, our old home city, Marshall's was more of a pain to go to.  I could never find anything that I liked, that wasn't stained or torn, that was actually pretty, etc.  My mom has always had INCREDIBLE luck with items from the store so I've always been a bit annoyed with it that I didn't have as great luck with it.  Well, forget that, my friends!  The Marshall's in the neighborhood shopping center is beaucoup amazing!  Immediately after walking in we were greeted by a passing employee (How you doing?!) and I was drawn to the amazing selections of boots (oh Rampage brown slouchies with the cute buckles, I will have you this winter).  Mi mardido wandered off to the men's selection.  MANY minutes later, he caught up with me in the dresses section (Calvin Klein knee length red sleeveless dress with the ballerina neckline AND A BELT!?).  We instantly fell into a conversation about how great the store is and finished out our tour with the houseware area.  Beautiful sepia photograph of trees?  Perfect for the living room!  Another paring knife however it's orange AND has a sheath?!  YAY!  Non-stick pots for less than $20 and THEY ARE GREEN!?  Can I have two?  Oh and the comforter sets?  Cynthia Rowley, 6 piece, 300 thread count comforter set that has not one but THREE matching throw pillows.  And I'm spent!

In conclusion, I think that the next few months will consist of us visiting our neighborhood Marshall's for all of our needs before searching elsewhere.

Baking One Mile High

I love to bake.

Clearly.

Who knew that baking could be so therapeutic and fun?

However, I had an interesting experience the other day while baking for the first time in good ole Colorado.  I decided to bake a batch of foccaccio and pita bread.  It wasn't my first time at the foccaccio rodeo however I had yet to come face to face with the pita.  

PITA

(and now that blogger is stuck on a different font...I swear I'll figure this out one day)

So here's the story of my attempt to make both.  Because the foccaccio has a lot of rising time and the pita does not, it was easy to make the two all in one afternoon.  Yay for wheat products!  And for all you Nellies out there worried about how much bread we may be eating, calm yourself; the pita is whole wheat.  :)  yes that's my rationalization and justification and I'm going with it.

Moving on...

  (back to original font...Blogger, we are going to tangle, my friend)

As you can see, everything was going brilliantly to begin with.  On the right is the foccaccio.  On the left is the yeast and water and sugar for the pita.  I had no worries about this.

YUM!  PITA!

 Here's where the problem was really noticeable.  Above you will notice I have two loaves of foccaccio set into pans.  However, every time in the past, there has been more dough because it rose so much.  I allowed more than enough time for the dough to rise and still, very little action going on.  But I thought, hey it still has some time to rise, maybe it'll magically grow.

 Hmm...Maybe it'll rise in the oven (fingers crossed)?

WOMP WOMP

Nothing.

However, the pita turned out lovely.

Fluffy.  Soft.  A nice brown tint.

I'm very pleased with the pita.  

If only I could figure out what went wrong with the foccaccio.

Later, I will regale you with the photo story of our dinner last night that put to good use the flat foccaccio.

For now, I'm going to blame it on the altitude and not on my amateur status.

Colorado-town

We're finally all moved in!

Yay!

We just dropped mom off at the airport so it's just us and Kaya.  We've both felt like we were just on vacation so now that mom has left, it's starting to feel a little more "real".

Quick shout out to both sets of parents: Thanks so much for helping us with the move.  Definitely could not have done it without you guys!

So, real quick, here are the top five things that I love so far about where we live:

1) Great public transportation system.  Seriously.  I'm looking forward to being able to use public transportation that's reliable.

2) Sushi served on a surf board.  We ate at Hapa last night for J.O.'s big birthday celebration (holla!) and she chose Hapa.  First off, what's not to love about sushi?  Am I right or am I right?  Second, when you order enough sushi that it fits on a miniature surfboard, it just makes dinner a little more delightful.  Third, sushi rolls that are aptly named Foreplay and Multiple Orgasm can bring on a string of juvenile giggling from myself and my dear husband.

3) Hiking about a mile in Boulder yesterday while the sun was shining, there was a GREAT breeze blowing and we got to see the Heart Rock Altar
(I tried to insert a picture here but for whatever reason, blogger is being difficult tonight)
It was such a perfect hike so we're probably going to go back and do it again tomorrow or Monday.

4) Cherry Creek Mall: This part gets its own list:

1. For those of you men folk who detest shopping with your leading lady, there is a big screen TV and chairs to sit in.  Also for the techies who cannot live without their laptop for a minute, many of these chairs also have a desk portion for you to rest your laptop on.
2. There is a Louis Vuitton and Coach store right next to each other.  (insert high pitch squeal)
3. There is a Neiman Marcus and Saks there as well.  (insert high pitch squeals with 15-year old jump and down)
4. Saturday mornings, from May to October, there is a FANTASTIC farmer's market.  FANTASTIC.

5)  The view is breathtaking every time.