jennandjeremy.com

Well, it's that time of year again! My birthday was early last week, Christmas was this past weekend, and New Years is fast approaching!

For my birthday I had to work during the day but Jeremy sent flowers to my office with a cute little bear hugging the vase. The bear is currently guarding my monitors from the evil cleaning people who like to trash my desk (don't worry, I'm as confused about it as you are). After I got home from work I got to open my presents! Jeremy's parents sent a deep dish pie plate from Pampered Chef that I've had my eye on and Jeremy got me a lovely ring from Tiffany & Co! For dinner, we headed over to the Chicago Diner. After dinner we came home, put on our pajamas, laid on the couch and ate carrot cake from the Diner and played video games until it was time for sleep. Other than the having to work part, the whole day was exactly what I wanted :)

Unfortunately we couldn't be on two sides of the state at once for Christmas, so we decided to head to my parents place for Christmas this year. Since we wouldn't be able to be with them during Christmas, Jeremy's parents sent us our gifts about a week and a half ago. Now, I would like to say that we were good and put the gifts under the tree and waited until Christmas to open them... but temptation got the best of us and we ended up opening them as soon as they got here ;) Not only did they spoil us with a ton of stuff from Pampered Chef but I also got 2 cookbooks that I've been wanting for months! Vegan Brunch and Vegan Yum Yum. Both cookbooks are awesome and we've already made a few recipes out of Vegan Yum Yum! I think Jeremy's favorite thing that we received was the Garlic Peeler & Slicer Set which works amazingly! To peel the garlic you just put it in the peeler, roll it around in your hands for about 4 seconds and you have perfectly peeled garlic! The slicer is equally as easy to use, just put the peeled cloves of garlic in the slicer, turn, and you have perfectly sliced garlic.

Before heading to Iowa, Jeremy and I exchanged our gifts. One of the things we picked out together were matching robes from Brookstone. Now, I'm not normally a robe person, actually I think I've only worn a robe twice before in my life, but these are by far the softest and most comfortable things I have ever had the pleasure of lounging around in. In addition to some smaller items, the one gift I'm most proud of getting for Jeremy - a knife skills lesson at the Chopping Block cooking school here in Chicago. The class looks like it should be a lot of fun and informative. They'll teach us how to cut up all sorts of different vegetables properly, how to pick out knives, and all about how to properly care for knives. Some of the neat things Jeremy got me were a Magic Mouse for use with my laptop when I'm working at home, a book that I'm excited to get started on, and donut pans! Of course, after receiving said donut pans, I promptly made a batch of cake donuts the next morning. I've got to tell you, having donut pans is as dangerous as it sounds!

On Thursday the snow finally changed to rain and we were able to make the drive to Iowa. The roads weren't too bad for the most part but a little icy in some spots. When we got to my parents' house, our niece was there so we got to play with her for a few hours and give her her gifts. One of the things we gave her was a little kitten that you pet it's back and it purrs and kneads it's paws. It came with a little purse to carry the kitten in ala Paris Hilton style which she loved. Friday morning we opened presents and the big thing we got was a toaster oven which I have been wanting for years! We gave my parents a digital picture frame with about 250 pictures (150 of which I spent a whole day scanning a few days before) which they loved. For my brother we decided to go with things that were more practical and got him new dishes, silverware, glasses, towels, candles, etc for his apartment which he appreciated.

After all of the gifts were opened, we spent the better part of the next 48 hours playing cards, napping, and watching movies. I think my dad described it best when he said, "It felt like a 2 day party!" I taught everyone how to play a variation of the game Oh Hell which we ended up playing for hours. After everyone had had enough Oh Hell, we switched to playing Texas Hold'em. The first night everyone was pretty much even but the second night I went on a winning streak. I got first, second, second, first, second, first, second, first and ended up coming out about a dollar ahead after 2 days (we were only playing for a quarter each game). On Sunday, after our 2 day party, we finally headed back to Chicago.

All in all, I honestly couldn't have hoped for a better holiday season. This was, by far, my favorite Christmas/Birthday I've had in years thanks to my amazing husband and all of our wonderful family. :)

Posted by Jenn on Tue, 12/29/2009 - 12:40. | Permalink | Add new comment

Things have continued to be busy pretty much constantly all summer. Here is a brief list of the things that have happened since the last blog post:

• I got a new job! Well I changed positions at my company and now instead of being a Systems Administrator, which really wasn't a good fit for me, I am now a Software Engineer which I LOVE! The people are great, the work is interesting, and I honestly couldn't be happier. The only 'downside' is that I have been working lots of extra hours because I enjoy it so much.
• Mike came to visit towards the end of July. While he as here we tried to head down to the Sears (yes the SEARS... *I'm looking at you Mike*) Tower to see the new Ledge they put in but there was a 2 hour wait. So instead of of playing tourists we decided to check out a bar & grill by our place for lunch and a few beers. The Falafel & Hummus wrap was delicious! As was the Shiner Bock which they conveniently had on tap :) While we were eating Jeremy provided us entertainment by managing to not only drop his glass of beer, spilling it all over himself, but somehow managing to catch it mid-air as it bounced back up saving half of his beer and the glass in the process! I'd say that I'd like to see him do it again, but at $5/beer I'm not sure if it'd be worth it ;)
• We went to a Cubs game on July 27th which turned out to be an awesome game and night all around (even though we did get rained on before the game started). The Cubs won in the bottom of the 13th inning with a Grand Slam! (pics to come)
• A few days later Jeremy's family came to Chicago and stayed with us for a few days. While they were here we made a delicious batch of cinnamon rolls, finally got to see the Ledge at the Sears Tower (pics to come), and had dinner at the Chicago Diner.
• A few days after that we headed back to Iowa for the weekend to attend my Grandfathers funeral. While we were there, in true Dubuque style, we headed down to the casino with my parents. This was actually the first time I was in a casino and honestly I don't really see the draw. I could have the same amount of fun at home for about $10 in beer and a video game instead. Oh and I also won $100 at roulette (which I, of course, donated back)!
• We went to Lollapalooza! Well, Jeremy went on Friday when it was raining (I decided staying at home with the cat instead of standing in the rain for 9 hours was more my style). On Saturday we saw Coheed & Cambria, Rise Against, and Tool. All three were great shows but Coheed was by far my favorite. On Sunday we decided that 90 with a heat index of 99 and 75% humidity was unacceptable and spent a much needed day just hanging out on the couch together :)
• Last weekend we made yummy homemade bread, falafel, and tahini dressing for the first time. While everything tasted delicious, the falafel was refusing to stick together in the frying pan for some reason. I've got some ideas on how to make it stick together better next time though (basically just adding additional flour).
• I finally sold my car! As many of you may or may not know, we have been talking about selling that thing pretty much since I moved to the city last March but never got around to it until yesterday. We are officially a one car family! The next step is to sell the Volkswagon, aka the bane of Jeremy and my's existence for the last year, and get a new car (which we are planning on doing this week). Lets just say that we will be very happy once the Volkswagon is gone :D

So there you have it, the last 6 weeks in a nutshell!

Posted by Jenn on Mon, 08/17/2009 - 15:41. | Permalink | Add new comment

My parents and brother were in Chicago last weekend which gave Jeremy and I a chance to play tourist. We spent most of the day Saturday trekking around town hitting up the Sears Tower, Grant Park, the Art Institute of Chicago's garden, Millennium Park, the Field Museum, Wrigley Field, and the Chicago Diner. To complete the weekend in true Jenn & Jeremy style, we prepared several yummy food items including chocolate chip cookies, hashbrowns with soy crumbles for breakfast on Saturday, and homemade pizza and breadsticks on Sunday. While we didn't get as many pictures as we would have liked to, make sure you check out the ones we did get here.

Oh and while I'm mentioning pictures... I added a bunch of new pictures to the Random - 2009 and Foods! albums, so make sure you check those out too!

Posted by Jenn on Tue, 06/23/2009 - 20:18. | Permalink | Add new comment

Jeremy and I do a lot of cooking and while the majority of the recipes we use come from various vegan cookbooks, some come from the internet. For the last 6 months or so, I have been keeping a running list of recipes both that we've tried and those that we would like to try and now I'm posting it here so you can try some of the recipes too! You can find the new Recipes page on the left hand menu or by clicking here.

In addition to the recipes page itself, I would also like to start posting more of our own recipes. I'll start with the Pizza Bites we made the other day...

Pizza Bites
Dough:
- about 2c flour
- about 1c water
- pinch of salt

Filling:
- 1 package of Boca Ground Crumbles
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2-1 jar of your favorite pizza sauce (we make our own with tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic salt, oregano, black pepper, and sugar)

Directions:
* Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
* In a medium sized frying pan, add the Boca Ground Crumbles, onion, and olive oil. Cook over medium heat stirring frequently for about 10 minutes until the crumbles are thawed and the onion is cooked.
* Using a stand mixer with a dough hook (or kneed by hand), add flour, water, and salt and mix until well combined (about 5 minutes).
* On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until about 1/8-1/16" thick.
* In a large bowl, place the crumble and onion mixture. Slowly add the pizza sauce until the desired consistency is reached.
* Cut the dough into 2"x2" pieces.
* In the center of each dough square, place a large spoonful of the crumble mixture. Then take the four corners of the square and bring them up to the middle sealing the 'pizza bite'.
* Place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet.
* Repeat until you are out of dough and filling (about 36 bites).
* Bake for 20 minutes.

Posted by Jenn on Sat, 06/06/2009 - 15:55. | Permalink | Add new comment

We got the keys to our new place last Thursday and have barely stopped moving since. Thursday night after work, we spent the evening hanging curtain rods and curtains (<3 Ikea) at the new place. On Friday, we had AT&T come to setup the phone and DSL, put together the new tv stand, itso shelves, some wire shelving, and our new Ikea chair. After getting everything assembled, we spent the rest of Friday moving all of the kitchen stuff and other miscellaneous things that we decided not to try to pack.

On Saturday, the movers showed up around 1:30 to get started. It took five and a half hours, 3 movers, Jeremy, Brandon, Nick, Erin, and myself to finally get all of the furniture and boxes moved. After everything was unloaded, we made a quick trip to Subway for some food and proceeded to spend the better part of the next 36 hours unpacking the entire place. We were actually both pleasantly surprised when we realized that we had moved and unpacked our entire condo in less than 5 days. The only thing we have left to do now is put stuff on the walls.

It's been cloudy/rainy here the last week so we haven't been able to get many decent pictures, but make sure you check out the ones we were able to get! (More to come later when it's sunny outside and/or we finally get stuff up on the walls).

Posted by Jenn on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 20:17. | Permalink | Add new comment