Summer... what says summer to you?

First off - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

This is summer to us....
Lunch on Saturday - a tomato sandwich on toasted gluten free bread with mayo, salt and pepper - lead to a conversation about "what is summer?"

This is our Saturday night dinner compilation from Tracy and Kim...

tomato sandwiches
fireflies
sandals
craft fairs
picking John's toys out of the creek
Farmers Market
festivals
walks
exploring the rocks at St. Margaret's
blueberries
shorts
chilled Rose
grilling Out
dinner on the Porch
candlelight
peaches
last day of school
Clifton St. Theater outside
HOT HOT HOT
green
afternoon thunderstorms
outdoor concerts
hide-n-seek
double dog dares
swimming
baseball
picnics
roasting marshmallows
the scent and feel of alcohol in your ears after swimming
summer vacations
long days
no jackets
barefoot
river baths with Ivory soap (it really does float)
campfire songs and stories
canoeing
riding bikes
building castles in the sand
burying dad in the sand
washing plates in the river
sounds of the ocean
neon dolphin sign... always means we are almost there!
beautiful days that seemed like they never end
playing outside till dark
YMCA
rainy day crafts
popsicles
ice cream
"going" in the woods
lilacs
slip-n-slide
ant beds
ice cream truck
mosquitos!!!

update: the 'perfect' way to blow away gnats. there is a technique to it!!

correction: the 'neon dolphin' is really a 'neon sailfish' :)

What says SUMMER to you? Let us know....

Ode to the Food Network

Those who know us, know our addiction to the Food Network. And yes, I admit. It is an addiction... but I like to think it is a healthy one! Imagine my surprise when TWC moved the channel on me. I did make panicked phone calls to TWC and several friends until I found it!! :) shew. bad TWC. bad.

Oh how I enjoyed those precious moments of waking up, sipping our morning coffee, and sitting together on the couch watching our favorite shows. I certainly didn't want to lose those special moments once we grew weary of the Saturday morning HGTV shows and the Sunday morning political talk shows. Thankfully, somehow (and I don't even remember how) we found the FOOD NETWORK! How great is this! An entire channel dedicated to FOOD and with great chefs to show you how!

I believe it was in late summer/early fall 2005 when we discovered the Food Network. It also happened to be our first year of staying home for Thanksgiving. We thought it would be really cool to cook our own Thanksgiving dinner! We planned for weeks - watching the shows, talking about what recipes looked good, printing them from the Food Network website. How fun!

When it actually came around to Thanksgiving, we had even more fun cooking. Our menu consisted of lots of recipes from the show Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis. Giada is great and we love her recipes.

Here was our Menu for Thanksgiving 2005:
Turkey Cutlets (ok - so we were a little intimidated by cooking an entire turkey)
Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta
Polenta with Gorgonzola Cheese
Raffy's Turkey Sausage and Chestnut Stuffing

We really had a great Thanksgiving. We played in the kitchen. We laughed. We talked. We cooked. We dreamed. We drank a special bottle of Chateauneuf de Pape.

Then, we ate a fantastic meal - just the two of us, our first. For dessert, we shared a pie and an after dinner drink with our friends Debra and Skully, who had their first Thanksgiving, too.

We missed sharing that time with family, but we did really enjoy creating our own traditions. And some of those traditions have found their way into our family traditions in years since. We now have created the Stuffing and the Brussels Sprouts at Thanksgiving gatherings and Christmas gatherings. The Brussels Sprouts (pictured above) were so good and easy, they found their way onto the table at everyday meals, not just holidays.

The Food Network is responsible for our newfound love of cooking and of food. We have more confidence in the kitchen and a larger arsenal of ideas for meals. You know the feeling... we all get it... about 3:30 in the afternoon... the dreaded question. "What is for dinner?" Now, all I have to do is go to the Food Network, browse around there and come up with plenty of ideas. Today, I created a weekly menu with the fresh veggies we got this weekend and meats that we had frozen. how cool! no Whole Foods trip this week!!

Now that we are eating Gluten-Free, we have the confidence and know-how to be able to come up with more than apples and salads. We can eat wonderful foods and not feel deprived. With fresh veggies now in season at the Farmers Market, I'm even more excited about the possibilities of great cuisine coming out of our kitchen.

Thanks Food Network, and thanks Giada, Alton, Rachael, Tyler, Bobby, Ina, Michael, Paula. You are household names - first name only - and you have changed our lives. Keep up the good recipes. We'll keep watching.

A good movie....

Our definition of a good movie is likely to be very different than other people's definition of a good movie. It's not a chic flick. It's not a big action movie. It is powerful. It does make us think. I know we've seen a great movie if we talk about it the entire way home and as we take our evening walk. It's a movie that stirs the heart, that isn't so predictable you see everything falling into place like a puzzle for a kid. Our puzzle is difficult - it has double-sided pieces with no edges.

The whole movie-going experience is fun. Our favorite theaters are The Rialto and Colony. They serve beer and wine and they have incredibly good, fresh popcorn. You walk into these theaters and you are walking back in time. Colony has 70s psychedelic shag carpeting on the walls. Rialto is a really old theater that has a stage down front. (and on Friday's at midnight, you can catch Rocky Horror Picture Show here. man do I feel old when I walk out of a late movie on a Friday night.) But, they play our kinds of movies and have friendly people who remember us. We love these places.

We saw one of those movies tonight. It was called After the Wedding. It was a Danish film and in subtitles. It definitely was a good movie -- very well filmed, very well acted, and very worth seeing. It was complicated. I won't give it away, in case you wanted to go.

Most people have never heard of our movies. We're OK with that. We never have to worry about tickets being sold out. We can just experience our movie, have our wine, eat our popcorn with the other people who like our movies.

Sometimes a movie comes along that you just have to tell others to see. And when it does, I'm happy to talk about our movies.... to educate about a good movie. Plus, it keeps our theatres around. In the meantime, we'll just take all the great films we can get... and we'll stay away from those mainstream kids puzzles.

Discoveries of warm weather

One of the joys of warm weather is spending time outside.... sitting on the deck, watching the birds explore for worms, listening to the wind wrestling the leaves - discovering the new sounds and sights of the season.

Our deck is so high, we feel like we are in a tree house. Some nights, I wish we had a hammock and could sleep out there. Then when I'm nice and snuggled in my bed, I'm really happy that we don't. It's kinda like camping. Who knew that the woods could be so loud? "Birds, bugs, and babies," Kim says... but that is another adventure for another day.

One of our new joys is our new grill. YAY!! One of the discoveries of our new grill is the lack of dishes to wash in the kitchen. How great is that? We've used our grill lots since we got it this past weekend. It's not gourmet, but it sure was good. :)

First Grilling, Sunday afternoon lunch -- Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Chicken Breast, simply seasoned with salt and pepper. After cooking, we diced the chicken into small bits, added diced water chestnuts, shredded carrots and seasoned with Rice Vinegar, Wheat-Free Soy Sauce, and Sesame Oil. Then we heated it all up. It only took a few minutes. I discovered through our Living Gluten-Free for Dummies book how to get the lettuce all nice and crisp. You soak it in ice water for a few hours. Amazing! Next time, we'll probably use less rice vinegar and add honey. You can make this a million different ways - just do something that you like.

Second Grilling -- Sunday evening dinner
Tonight's meal was ENTIRELY done on the grill. We had ham steaks with a molasses/dijon glaze with grilled asparagus and skillet potatoes. It was really nice to do the entire thing right on the grill - even the skillet potatoes... on the grill in a skillet. Super cool --- and very delicious.

Tonight -- Hamburgers
Nothing super exciting, just really yummy hamburgers with cheese ooozing off the patty. Of course, our gluten-free buns weren't anything to write home about. Maybe one day we can figure out how to make our own! :)

Grilling seems to have become a right of passage for summer. I can't wait to spend loads of time out on our awesome deck with our awesome grill and sharing it all with friends. Although, spring is really nice this year and I'd like summer to take it's time getting here. Kim noticed the first bugs of the year tonight, so I'm sure that summer is not far off.

Until then, though, I'm certainly enjoying the breeze, the serenade of chirps, and the green leaves.

Memories....

Hockey... ah that time of year.

As Ottawa goes up 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Final Series against the Buffalo Sabres, my mind turns to this time last year. Our beloved Carolina Hurricanes were in the same spot, also playing Buffalo. Man, what a ride that was. Happily, we went on to the Stanley Cup Finals and won the prized Stanley Cup.

The excitement in the air was palpable and there was a buzz around the entire town. The camaraderie among the fans was amazing and the friends we made during those playoffs are still friends today.

We had a Stanley Cup run in 2002. We made it to the finals that time, too, but every W we tallied seemed to be a fluke. After the back-breaking 3 OT loss against the Red Wings in game 2 of the finals, our Canes just couldn't pull it out.

This time around, though, things were different.

We had the team... we had the spirit... we had the drive. And you could feel it.

I remember each series and each game with certain memories. But regardless of the memory, it is always accompanied by a smile. Tailgating, the Hockey Night in Carolina sign, finding the CBC camera men, the anthems, the game, the feeling in the air, all of it.

We sat with the same folks each game. Getting to know the people around you was great. We even developed a HIGH FIVE routine - from this person behind me, to the person beside me, to this person across the aisle - with every goal scored.

During that final period of Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Edmonton Oilers, I don't think I took a breath. OMG - what a stressful 20-minutes. When Justin Williams scored that empty netter, I finally relaxed and the thought finally entered my mind - we could actually win this thing!!!!

Then came the excitement.

WE WON THE STANLEY CUP! THE CAROLINA HURRICANES WON THE STANLEY CUP!

WOW! The RBC Center went MAD. Glenwood South, too. People everywhere. Streets closed. The spirit was amazing and something that I'll never forget.

In a way, I'm a little happy that we didn't make the playoffs this year. How could this run be anything like last year? It can't and it will never be again. That moment in time is etched in my mind and I'm not quite ready to let go of it.

GO SENS!