Risotto... Make it for the one you LOVE!

Hello Everyone! Happy belated Valentine's Day! I had a wonderful day with my guys yesterday, The Son gave me a beautiful potted red tulip plant and The Husband gave me a book on "SuperFoods." We had a low-key day as far as gifts are concerned but Valentine's Day isn't about gifts, is it? I should add that it was the 17th anniversary of my engagement to The Husband... can you believe he kept me that long? Through thick and through thin... literally!

I have been INTO making risotto lately, I think it's because of the cold weather and snow we've been experiencing as well as the fact that risotto is delicious! DELICIOUS! Now, as a nutritionist, I will admit that risotto isn't the most healthy thing you can eat but there are plenty of ways to work it into your diet (diet meaning the food you eat, not a plan you can't live with) and the fact that if you make it at home, with out a pre-packaged mix, it's all natural, not processed and it tastes so fresh! It also takes a bit of time to make so that helps me limit it to once per week, therefore, we're not eating too much of it.

I really enjoy the process of making risotto, it's soothing, stirring in cup after cup of broth as the smells of garlic or shallots or mushrooms waft up and as your hearty, delicious dish thickens and gets tastier by the minute. I always tell The Husband that it's a dish you make for the one you love because it takes time and dedication to do it right... just like marriage!

I've been scoping my favorite recipe Internet sites for various risotto recipes and of course, the best ones I find are on Cooking Light and Eating Well, two of my favorites. I had a guest photographer yesterday who took pictures of me as I cooked, The guest photographer is also known as The Son and I think he did a pretty good job!

Here is a cooking tip for you and yes, I am totally and completely serious... I wear swim goggles when I cut onions, or in this case shallots. I know it helps that I am a swim instructor so of course I have goggles but you can buy a cheap pair at any Wal-Mart or Target as soon as summer gets here if you don't already have some. My eyes are sensitive and I cannot stand the way they feel when the fumes burn them. I know I look ridiculous but honestly, it's the only thing that works...

Plus, it makes The Son laugh...

I also like making risotto because usually it calls for a half a cup of wine or so and that means that I can have a little glass of wine while I'm cooking, it makes the stirring and stirring and stirring just a bit more entertaining.

So, I am not going to post the recipes here that I've tried, I'll supply you with a link and my opinion and you can give it a try yourself if you want to make them.

The first one I tried was from Cooking Light and was Porcini Mushroom Risotto with Marscarpone cheese . This one was by far, my favorite. I cut a little bit of the fat by using half the olive oil and replacing it with non-stick spray which is something I do with just about every recipe I ever make. At times, I don't even use the olive oil but in this case, I want a bit of that EVOO flavor. I made this recipe twice and the second time my grocery store was out of dried porcini mushrooms, I used oyster mushrooms and the were not as flavorful but still quite good, if you don't like a really strong mushroom flavor, they would be a good option for you. I preferred the porcinis as did The Husband.

Last night, I made Eating Well's Winter Squash Risotto, the nice thing about this one was that by adding the Butternut squash, you lower the calories per 1 cup serving. The Husband had requested this one and it too was very yummy. My tip for this one is, if you can, buy the squash already peeled and seeded. Doing that saved me loads of time, this recipe calls for optional saffron which I was unfortunately unable to find at my grocery store. It was good without the saffron but I think it would have been even better with. I added a few fresh enoki mushrooms along with the fresh shitakes that this recipe called for just because I think they're cute and yummy. Here's the risotto in the pot...


And, on the plate with some roasted asparagus and a petite filet... a yummy, hearty, healthy meal for just a bit more than 500 calories!


And see... he loves me!


And... so does he! I'm a lucky girl!


Thanks to The Son for taking most of these pictures, please don't mind the few dark spots on some of them, that's where his finger was over a portion of the flash, he tries so hard, I don't have the heart to correct him.

Have a great President's Day, we're meeting friends at the Y which I'm really looking forward to. They're calling for more snow tonight and I'm hoping it's just a dusting and won't affect whether or not The Son has school tomorrow the child needs to go back... Bye for now!

Fifteen Years ago today...

is the day that I became Mrs. The Husband's last name. ;) If you want to read about how we met, click here for the post that I wrote last year. Today, to celebrate my 15 years of wedded bliss, (most of the time) I'm going to tell you all some of the reasons that I love The Husband. These are in no particular order...

1. He's Smart!
The Husband is a smart guy. He's well-educated and well-rounded and just generally an interesting person to talk to. He pretty much always wins at Trivial Pursuit. The times that I've managed to beat him, I walk around feeling like a genius for days! He knows a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff and I am definitely attracted to his brains, smart guys rock!

2. He's Kind!
Sometimes, this can be a downfall because The Husband is definitely what you would call a Really. Nice. Guy. He's the kind of guy that will give you the shirt off his back but the downfall is that sometimes he's SO nice that he forgets to worry about himself too. I love him for that though because his sweetness and earnestness just make you know that he's genuine and really cares about people.

3. He's Cute!
Duh. Of course I would think that, I'm his wife, but The Husband IS a really cute guy. Kind of like that sweet cuddly teddy bear that you've always loved.

4. He Likes Stuff I Like.
The Husband is especially great as a husband because although he LOVES "guy" stuff like the Red Sox, the movie "Hoosiers" and Rugby, he also likes things that I like. We met doing musical theatre and still like to attend shows and performances on a regular basis. He watches show like "So You Think you Can Dance" with me and even goes shopping with me. If he's pretending to like those things, that's fine, he does a really good job of pretending and does it with me anyway, that's all I ask for.

5. He's a Hard Worker and Takes Care of Us.
I don't like it that The Husband works as much as he does but I know it's not his fault and he's working hard so that I am able to (pretty much) stay home and raise our child. It's also really, really important to me that The Husband is the kind of guy who helps around the house and cooks on occassion. I hear from friends of mine that their husbands do NOTHING to take care of household duties or child care at all and I simply cannot imagine. The Husband is great about putting The Son to bed at night, cooking a few times a week be it breakfast or dinner and generally being a helpful guy. I know that if I ask him to do something to help me out, he'll do it with out too much complaining. He's just very considerate that way, it's one of the little things that make me realize how much he loves me.

6. He's Supportive.
The Husband is just over all, a very supportive guy. He's been very supportive of my weight loss but never made me feel as if I needed to lose weight, if that makes any sense. When people ask him how he feels about it, he tells them he's proud of me but that he was proud of me and loved me just the same before. I know he means it because he's always been that way. If I want to do something, he'll help support me so that we can find a way for me to do it.

and the most important thing of all...

7. He is a Wonderful Daddy!
I could not ask for a better man to be the father of my child. (and canine children too) He is patient and loving, creative and affectionate and The Son loves him more than anything. It warms my heart when I see my two guys together hanging out, watching "Man Cave" on HGTV playing silly kid games, drawing together, etc. The love between them is obvious and I know that The Son is a very lucky little boy to have a Daddy who loves him so unconditionally.

So on this day Sweet Husband, I want to wish you a Happy Anniversary, I love you very much and look forward to many more happy years with you. Now COME HOME! Your business trip has lasted far too long. Today is the first July 23rd since 1994 that I've woken up with out you!

Have a great day everyone!

Why did the chickens cross the road?

To make The Husband late for work!


The Husband took this picture with his iphone on his way to work yesterday... told you we were in the country now! Lately he's been seeing one or two as he drives on this road. The road, incidentally is called Guernsey Road which in and of itself is "country." On Tuesday he saw this whole flock, gaggle, group (?) of chickens and had to snap this picture. This was definitely not something we saw in The City very often. Or ever, although there was that one time we saw a Chicken at the vet... her owner was feeding her Tastykakes, butterscotch krimpets if I remember correctly. Weird stuff.

Anyway, one last riddle for you, The Son loves this one:

Why did the chicken cross the playground?

To get to the other slide!

Have a great day everyone and stay tuned for some holiday posts...I just have a lot to do today so I thought I'd just give you a little quickie, that's OK once in a while, right?

Some funnies from The Son...

The child never ceases to keep me laughing, that's for sure. We had a few doozies this week that I must share with you:

The Son: Momma, you're beautiful. 

Me: Thank you Honey, you're so sweet. 

The Son: I think you're the most beautiful girl in the whole world. 

Me: Wow, you sure know how to make a Momma feel good. 

The Son: Yep, the prettiest Momma ever... even when you're naked! 

Me: WHAT? 

(I have no idea what he meant by it but it was hilarious.)

The Son: Momma, that's a cute top, have you worn that before?

Me: No, it's new.

The Son: When did you get it?

Me: I guess a couple weeks ago or so. 

The Son: Well, I like it, you look beautiful.

Me: Thank you Sweetie, you're so good to me. 

The Son: You know what you should be for Halloween Momma?

Me: No Honey, what?

The Son: A model because you are as beautiful as a model and I love you Momma.

Me: speechless but hugging a sweet boy. 

(He might be delusional but he sure can make a Mom feel good.)

And lastly, this exchange took place between The Husband and The Son last night while The Husband was trying to watch his beloved Red Sox. 

The Son: Daddy, I want to watch "Prehistoric Planet."

The Husband: Not right now Honey, Daddy is watching The Red Sox, come watch the Red Sox with me. 

The Son: But I NEED to watch "Prehistoric Planet" NOW! I want to be a paleontologist you know. 

The Husband: Well the Red Sox are in the play-offs so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to watch Prehistoric Planet. Mommy will read you a dinosaur book, that will help you be a paleontologist. 

The Son: NO! I need to feel like a paleontologist and reading won't make me feel like a paleontologist. 

The Husband: Well, I need to feel like a Red Sox fan! 

The Son: (frustrated) Daddy! You're so mean! 

The Husband: I know, I'm the Worst Daddy Ever. 

The Son: (crying)  No, you're not but you should let me watch "Prehistoric Planet." 

This went on for a little while longer with The Son getting more and more frustrated until we all finally decided it was time for bed. He got over it and woke up happily and of course, got to watch "Prehistoric Planet!" He is now officially feeling like a paleontologist! Thank Goodness! Oh, and the Red Sox lost. Sorry Husband. 

I finally saw it!

I finally got to see the movie "Sex and the City" last night and of course, I loved it. The Husband even watched it with me and seemed to enjoy it, at least on the level that a man can enjoy and understand it. He likes Chris Noth from "Law and Order" so at least it had an actor in it that he liked. 

I stayed up WAY too late for a girl who has to get up at 5:45, but I guess it was worth it. I went through a lot of tissues, but I have been known to cry at  "The Simpsons" so that should be no big surprise. 

However, my blogging has suffered the consequences and I am not able to think or type coherently at the moment. (What's my excuse on the other days then you ask? Very funny.) 

I have just about all of my Halloween decorations up and they look super cute. We had a little party on Saturday night for The Husband's 44th birthday and people seemed to like everything I did. I'm going to try to post them tomorrow or maybe I'll wait until Wednesday for the first day of October, either way, they'll be posted this week. 

Have a good Monday night everyone! 

Of Thee I Sing Baby...

Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring Baby... 

Today, The Husband and I are celebrating fourteen years of wedded bliss. I thought this would be a great time to write down the story of How We Met. It's pretty cute...at least in my opinion. 

The Husband and I have always been involved in "the Theatre". He was usually more of a straight play actor, I was always in musicals, never a straight play. I have had the opportunity to play some really fun roles in fact. My favorite being Kathy Selden in "Singin' In the Rain", a show I did right before I met The Husband. 

As that show ended, my director asked me if I'd be interested in being the dance captain for  "Of Thee I Sing", a Gershwin musical he was choreographing. The show would be a collaboration of various theatre groups and would be rehearsed and performed in Philadelphia's City Hall. I had to think about it for a while because although I was teaching elementary school in The City, I still lived at home with my parents in the suburbs about 40 minutes outside of Philly. I talked to my mom about it and she said, "Go ahead and do it, maybe you'll meet a nice lawyer in City Hall." We laughed at the time but never realized how prophetic that statement would actually be. 

Auditions started in the beginning of September, I think they were actually on the second day of school, and it was my first year as a teacher. (I was twenty-two.) It was my job to teach a simple dance combination to all of the actors who were auditioning. I vaguely remember The Husband coming through to audition but I definitely remember his friend Mike coming through and I think they came together...I'll have to check with The Husband on this one! They were a part of the Philadelphia Bar Association's theatre group and their group was one of the collaborators. 

Rehearsals followed soon after, I played a beauty contestant in the show and The Husband and some of the other younger guys were dancers at various points in the show when male dancers were needed. As dance captain, I was responsible for helping the "slower learners" pick up the steps so I must have worked with The Husband a lot (hee hee Honey, are you laughing?) ...he wasn't really on my radar yet though...

We often had Saturday rehearsals and would all end up going out to eat at Reading Terminal Market together. I started to notice that The Husband was a nice guy and I also noticed that other girls in the show were noticing that The Husband was a nice guy. After he made white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for rehearsal one weekend, one girl commented that "He's so sweet, someone really should snatch him up." I started to think about it but wasn't too keen on the fact that The Husband had a beard or that he was shorter than I am. I was also a bit intimidated that he was an attorney and I was "just" a school teacher. (remember, I WAS only 22 and still a bit immature) Nonetheless, he started to grow on me the more I got to know him and I realized that him being a lawyer wasn't intimidating at all. 

During all this, I was also dating another guy but it was very casual and although he was nice, there wasn't much of a spark. I tried to make it known to other members of the cast that I was interested in The Husband. The Husband now tells me that people mentioned this to him but he didn't really believe them and that he knew I was dating someone else. One weekend during the rehearsals, The Husband had a party at his house and we were all invited. I went and was very jealous of another girl who was there talking to The Husband a lot. They both had a love of the show "Northern Exposure" and I had never watched it so I thought he liked her and not me! LMAO! The party was fun and I was really starting to like him after it so I continued to spread the word. 

He never got the message. I finally got sick of waiting for him to ask me out so I got up the nerve to do it myself. I think the show had started its run or was about to start so it was late October at this point. One night when we were trying to leave to go home for the night we found out we were locked in the parking garage. Actually, there was no one in the booth to take our money and it seemed like we waited a really long time for someone to get there. I decided then that I would ask him if he wanted to meet for dinner the next night. Obviously, he said "yes"! We agreed that we would meet in front of City Hall and find somewhere to eat.

He took me to a nice little Italian place not far from City Hall called Girasole (sunflower in Italian) I was expecting that we'd just grab a quick sandwich or something like that but he picked Girasole and I certainly wasn't disappointed. I was also expecting to pay since I was the one who asked him out but of course, he paid too. So sweet... Our date couldn't last that long since we had a show to do that night, we walked back to City Hall and did the show. (It's funny to add in here that our dressing room for the show was in Philadelphia's City Council caucus room and when I say "our" dressing room. I mean everyone's. dressing. room.  We all got changed and in and out of costumes in the same place. Pretty normal for theatre but still a bit weird as soon as you start liking someone in the show with you! )

The next night, he gave me a little card saying that he had a good time on our dinner date. I was smitten and SO happy. We continued a whirlwind romance after that first date. The boy I was dating called me during the run of the show and I told him I had met someone else. I even remember telling him, "I think I'm going to marry this guy" and he told me I was crazy. Not so crazy now huh? 

We spent as much time together as possible and got engaged on Valentine's Day a mere three and a half months later! I know my parents were a bit worried that it was fast but he asked them before he proposed to me and they gave him their blessing. We planned a long engagement and were married a year and a half later on July 23, 1994...fourteen years ago today! Asking The Husband to meet me for dinner was one of the best things I ever did, that's for sure! 

Here's a picture of us around that time, we are SO young (and skinny) it's unreal. We worked on The Spirit of Philadelphia as singing/dancing waiters to earn money to help pay for our wedding. This picture was taken during a special employee party we had there. I loved that job, he hated it but that's another whole post! 

I know I've written before about what a great guy he is and I know I will always feel that way. He's smart, handsome, funny and a great father which is the most important thing I would ever want in a man. 

Thank you for being such a great husband My Bug! I love you so much! 

So, here's what I got...

I was very surprised this evening when The Husband told me he had my anniversary present. I wasn't really expecting much, only because I didn't really think we were making a big deal this year.  My guy sure did a great job to surprise me. I cannot wait to use this present. Tomorrow for sure when we have "Parent's Night Out". The Son will go to the Y from 6-9 and we will go out on a date. I sure will be looking cute with my present...

So, you want to see it? 

Here's the bag, I got excited when I saw this.

Pretty! 

Shiny!

Special!

Voila! Isn't it sharp? Didn't The Husband do a good job of picking it out? I was also impressed that he said, "I got it because I thought it could go with a lot and was really cute for summer." What a guy! I have cute bronzey shoes (courtesy of my friend Amy, that's a whole other post though) that it will look darling with. 

I'm a lucky, lucky girl! He's so good to me AND he has good taste. I think I'll keep him for another fourteen years...at least. 

Thank you Bug, I love you! 

The Husband

I don't really know what to post about today and I need to do a quickie since I have to get The Son off to school and myself ready for working out and work later this afternoon. I had to make sure to post something though so I thought about The Husband. 

I know that I am a very lucky woman. I read a lot of blogs and know a lot of girls through the Internet. Many of them have great, understanding and caring husbands like I do but many of them put up with crap and nonsense that I cannot believe even happens. Some have husbands (or ex-husbands) who don't even want to see or spend time with their kids and that is just SO sad to me. I don't understand who a parent doesn't want to be with their child as much as they can. My husband LIVES for the time he gets to spend with The Son (and with me too I suppose.) 

For the record, The Sister also has a fantastic husband. We are two lucky girls. Sure, we bitch and complain about them from time to time. My Husband, for example, doesn't listen very well to the daily minutia that I find important...things like which sandals to put on The Son when he brings him to school and why certain Gymboree outfits don't "go" together even though they match. I'm sure those are the exact same things that irritate him about me and that's fine, it's all normal I suppose. The Sister's husband also has listening issues and has trouble controlling himself around Oreos but they seem to get through all that as well. 

So, I just want to list a few things about my husband that make me happy, proud and make me know that he loves me and our Son so very much. 

1. He spent the entire weekend playing with and taking care of The Son so that I could work on the gifts for the preschool teachers. He did this all willingly, just because they wanted to spend time together, evidently they had a great time without me! ha ha! 

2. He is going to the craft store today to pick up more refills for my tape runner. I think he actually listened to the specifics and will end up with the right thing. (TOMBO permanent refills Honey, in case you see this.) 

3. He makes me coffee and breakfast EVERY morning.

4. He takes the dogs out EVERY morning and EVERY evening. 

5. He irons when I ask him to. 

6. He's cute. 

7. He's understanding that I go through more mood swings than usual since my mother's death. I know it's been really hard on him too. 

8. He's a hard worker and has ambition to keep succeeding in his career. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg that is The Husband but I think it gives a good little snippet of how great he really is to me and The Son. I know I don't say it enough but I really do appreciate it and feel very, very fortunate. If you read this Honey, know that we love you very much! Now make sure you get the PERMANENT refills...