Recently Made

I am planning to do a "homemade holiday" this year. Which means I will sew or bake all the gifts. As something to brag about it sounds like a good idea but in practise we shall see. I am also making ornaments for our tree. Unfortunately, it is a dreary day so there are no pictures. Only this one of my newly recovered ironing board. I felt silly when I finally discovered that you can make your own ironing board cover because I had been lamenting the price of store bought for months. In a great bit of irony I did not iron (or wash now that I think about it) the fabric I used.

Game 9 & Game 10

Slow cooked barbecue ribs with lemony spinach and garlic cannellini bean mash. Obviously, the Steelers won.

Last weekend (game 10) we were both busy and out of the house separately so there was no game day meal. The subsequent loss solidified the belief that our meals and the successful making and eating of are the determining factor behind whether the Steelers win or lose. Ridiculous?

game 8

Chicken of the Taverns by Amy Sedaris. We have been eagerly looking forward to this meal. It did not disappoint. So buttery and yummy.

Belated Halloween

We made a jack o' lantern cake for a belated get together last night. It was a burnt sugar cake from Joy (obviously) with cream cheese frosting. The burnt sugar was a huge pain in the ass. It took three tries and two different cooks to get it right and even then it was still a little runny. We (i.e. Brandon. After the caramel I was done with finicky stuff, plus he is an artiste.) only added a little sugar to the icing because the cake was quite sweet already. The combination of deeply sweet cake and almost salty cream cheese frosting was perfect! I would make this again just as a regular cake despite the 45 minute crystallized sugar ordeal.

Games 4 & 6, 7

We tried to make our own pasta for spaghetti and meatballs. I had memories of this being a difficult but ultimately rewarding experience. Not so. We argued. The Steelers played poorly and the noodles were tough and uncooperative with the rest of the meal.

I was stricken with a mystery virus so there are no photos of the tasty nachos from game 5. Beans, salsa, cheese, enormous pile of chips. Oh, and the latest craze in our kitchen: canned pickled jalapenos. For some reason there are carrots in there too but they are too hot for me!

Brandon's pot roast with sweet and regular potatoes. Another lesson learned: don't just sit around drinking beer while it half dries out in the oven. Still, the bottom part that cooked in the beer and mushroom stock was melty and delicious.

Bacon Cheese Fries. At home. There goes my waistline!

Games 2 and 3

Hash Browns, Sausages on soft white buns with Brandon's Family's Sounds-Gross-Until-You-Try-It Peppers and Ketchup sauce.

And Tacos with taco meat which I was always very wary of as a child because it is so dark colored and trashy people seem to really like it. I still prefer beans but for the Steelers I will eat "taco-spiced meat."

A 5K!

We ran the GPLC 5k today. It was the first race I've ever been to and I was relieved to find that I could keep up relatively well. We ran it in 33:30! I was worried I wouldn't even be able to finish, which was ridiculous because I have been running (slowly) for a few months, so I was very happy to run a 10+ minute mile. The next race I hope to do is the Gutbuster on Thanksgiving.

Also, the Steelers won so the whole household is happy today. Below is the first game day meal. More to come.