chimesblog

A week later, but oh well.

Last weekend Mark and I trekked to western Illinois to a beautiful little town called Galena. I’d been there several times before and we were really just looking to find somewhere nice to go and get away from things.  It was his birthday on Saturday so we planned a couple of things, but really, we just wanted to chillax.

We stayed at the Captain Harris Guest House in the Honeymoon Cottage. And yes, everybody thought we had just gotten married. But really, it was just the one we found in our price range out of all the Galena B&Bs that had all the things we wanted. A lot of B&Bs didn’t even serve breakfast … which is weird. Are they just considered Beds?

Anyway, the house we chose was apparently the 2nd oldest home in Galena and the oldest continuously lived-in home. The inside had been refurbished in the craftsman style in the ’20s and there were some lovely Frank Lloyd Wright windows.  But, we actually stayed in what used to be the pigeon coop. Which, obviously, had also been refurbished and furnished with a fireplace and a hot tub. It was cozy.

We spent a lot of time watching movies, playing games and just hanging out in our room. We didn’t choose Galena because of the stuff to do there. We chose it because it was close to my hometown and I had to find somebody to watch my doggie (ie. dropped him off at “grandma’s”) and I’d been a lot of times, so I knew what the area was going to be like.

Here are some adorable photos.

Our room …

Adorable ribbon embroidered pillow

A view of the parlor in the house

the gorgeous bay window view from the table

here’s a closeup of the label of the fabulous wine that I picked. honestly — I picked it for the label, which is usually a bust. But it was gorgeous. And it had sciencey drawings on it, so it was perfect for Mark’s b-day.

Friday night we ate at what we were hoping would be a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Durty Gurt’s … not so much. It was good, but it wasn’t the dive we were hoping for. It was more like a Friday’s.

Did I mention that there was a classic roadster convention going on that weekend? which worked out nicely. Mark loves cars, but isn’t really into classics — this is kind of where we overlap. I love classic cars.

we spent a good chunk of time playing chicken foot — which is a reallly fun domino game.

Saturday night we ate at Fried Green Tomatoes … which was good, but I wish we would have done Vinny Vanucci’s instead because Fried Green wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary — except for their prices. This is the namesake dish. Yes. There are tomatoes under that cheese.

All in all, it was a pretty great trip. We spent a few hours in the hot tub both days we were there … I went for a run and ran up an epically steep hill … we ate a lot of naughty but delicious foods … finished off 2 bottles of wine … smoked a stogie … and had a great time!

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I got a brilliant idea for Mark’s birthday cake from Real Simple.  Of course, I had to modify the recipe, but the main idea is based on this recipe.

I asked Mark what kind of cake he wanted, and we talked a little about ice cream cakes and Better than Sex cake (for those of you who don’t know what that is, Google it!).  But I remembered flagging a page in Real Simple a couple months back with a way to make vanilla ice cream not so boring by adding layers of peanut butter cups and pretzels. I also remembered that Mark’s been bugging me to try Chubby Hubby by Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, and I think that pretzels in ice cream sounds gross.

So, I decided to create an ice cream cake of my own.

I used a pyrex bread pan and lined the bottom with a half inch of vanilla ice cream. The next layer was peanut butter pretzel sandwiches, then an inch of ice cream, then crumbled peanut butter cups, then more ice cream, a layer of chocolate/peanut butter ganache and more pretzels.

It was GLORIOUS. It’s not technically his birthday until tomorrow, but since we knew we were going to be out of town this weekend, we decided to cut into it a bit early …

Look at that giant hunk of chocolate at the top. om. nom. NOM.

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After Mark’s trek to the Des Moines Farmers Market last week, he came up with an amazingly awesome idea for dinner. He’d picked up a batch of garlic focaccia bread (and I wish I knew where he bought it from, because I’d love to credit them — not to mention, get MORE). I had some steak in the fridge from grilling a few nights previous. Thus, his idea was born.

Grilled Steak and Blue Cheese Sammies on Garlic Focaccia Bread

1 large chuck steak, grilled to taste (I like medium rare), sliced thin
1 loaf garlic focaccia bread, sliced into 4 quarters, then sliced lengthwise for sandwiches
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T butter
1 avacado
1/2 c blue cheese crumbles
baby leaf lettuce
steak sauce or hot sauce

Heat a small skillet over medium. Butter and spread garlic on the bread. Toast bread until brown and crispy. Repeat with all slices. Set aside. To assemble sandwiches, place steak, avacado, blue cheese, lettuce and choice of sauce on the sandwich. Serve warm. Makes 4 sandwiches.

Sorry I’m a terrible recipe-writer, but that’s pretty much what we did. It was amazing. Check out the photos. They’re totally drool-worthy.

Focaccia, pre-grilling

Mark grilling the bread

Of course, Mark added more garlic to his bread after toasting.

Sandwiches, almost ready to go — sans lettuce

And the finished product … almost too big for me to eat.

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Mark was challenged last weekend. The task: make dinner without going to the grocery store.  He could only use what I had in the apartment.

Could he do it?

Was there really any question? This kid knows his stuff. He pulled through. And in a fancy way.

I’m not including a recipe this time because we’re going to refine it with all the changes we talked about during dinner, but it was still amazingly delicious. The list of ingredients included: lasagne noodles, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fontina cheese, basil, italian chicken sausage, garlic … I think that might have been it. Not sure what order. He made a sauce of some sort out of the cheeses and rolled the lasagne noodles around the sausage. I added the basil towards the end (I LOVE BASIL. Especially fresh basil).

My addition to dinner was the garlic toast. I actually used rye bread instead of my normal wheat. I will share a recipe for that (so you don’t walk away feeling cheated!)

Calee’s Garlic Toast

(recipe is per slice of bread — because I may or may not just make one piece occasionally)
1 slice bread (I like Sarah Lee 45 Calories and delightful)
1.5 T olive oil
italian spices
1/2 t minced garlic (or less if you’re into that)
2 T parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400°.  Mix all ingredients except the bread.  Pour or spread onto the slice of bread. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until toasted.

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I’ve decided to steal a pun we came up with at work and use it on my blog. Wonder-Bred.  It makes sense.

Anyway, it’s another installment of Wonder-Bred Italian Boy ™ Cooks. Again — he came up with the idea and I executed.  It was my turn to cook since he made an awesome pizza a few days before and since he made an awesome brunch, which I will blog about tomorrow in my Sunday Brunch post.

I was making chicken fajitas and Mark came  up with the idea of adding a side of rice and “Mexi-fying” it.  I was pretty skeptical. I don’t like corn in things, but he was adamant about adding it.

So. I. Did.

It was awesome!

Without further ado, here’s the recipe.

Mark’s “Mexify-ed” Rice

1 15 oz can Rotel Tomatoes with chilies
1 15 oz can sweet corn
1 c brown rice
1/2 t cumin
1 t butter

In a medium-sized sauce pan, combine all the ingredients (do not drain tomatoes or corn). Stir, while bringing to a rolling boil over medium/high heat.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes, or until rice has absorbed all of the liquid and is tender. Serve warm with cheese, salsa and sour cream, or as a side dish.

In case you’re curious, I may or may not have made dinner wearing my Ziggy Stardust t-shirt and my awesome custom-made Megadeth apron (the Dave Must-apron).

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