Our first dinner party

Steve and I love food, and consider ourselves adventurous eaters. We are constantly trying new recipes, and when we go out to eat, one of us is likely to choose something simply because it is new and unchartered food territory. 


As we were building our new house, we were envisioning ourselves hosting various kinds of parties in which we'd be able to share our adventurous tastes with our circle of friends. Last weekend, the first (of hopefully many) dinner parties at The Ward Residence took place.

The Menu
(written on our nifty black dry-erase board)

Our appetizers: 

Caprese Skewers

Tomatoes and basil and mozzarella, oh my! We love caprese salad, and it's a classic, so naturally we wanted to serve it at our party. 

Seared Scallops on Parmigiano crips

One of our guests was a vegetarian, who's only exception was scallops. Once we learned that, we were more than happy to add this to our repertoire. One of our favorite scallop dishes are bacon-wrapped scallops from a favorite restaurant, AND we had scallops at our wedding reception. This dish was especially fun, because it was my first time making parmigiano crisps.

Beef Carpaccio

Who doesn't like raw meat?  Well OK, a lot of people don't, but we do! Fillet sliced ultra thin on a toasted baguette slice, topped with a shaving of parmigiano cheese, white truffle oil and chives. Steve put this together, and it turned out great!

Can't forget the cheese plate!

From the top-left of the board going clockwise: double cream Mirabo with walnuts, cheddar with Guinness, plum fruit paste, goat cheese Gouda, and maple-smoked cheddar. Along the right side from the top: crispy prosciutto, candied walnuts, and whole wheat crackers.

The Main Course(s)

Grilled Tuna w/ White Bean Puree, Olive Tapenade and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
(with a sprig of rosemary and a pair of blood orange supremes, just for kicks)

This dish turned out fantastic! What I like about this recipe, is the olive tapenade brings a salty component to the seared fish that is very similar to what is found in a sushi & soy sauce pairing. Steve added some chopped roasted red peppers to the beans that added a nice touch.

Gnocchi w/ Wild Mushroom Ragu
topped with mascarpone cheese and mint

Steve found this recipe and we thought it was perfect for the vegetarians coming to eat with us. When we test-drove this recipe earlier in the week, we forgot the mascarpone cheese that topped it off. I have it on good authority that the cheese adds a very tasty aspect to the dish. I'm sad I missed out!

A combo plate, for those who are indecisive (or want to try everything).

There are two parts of the meal I forgot to take pictures of. We also made a melon gazpacho shooter.  The inspiration for this came from a meal Steve and I had in Atlanta on our first Valentine's Day. We were served an amuse-bouche in the form of a soup, in a shooter glass. Ever since, I found the idea of soup shooters to be fascinating. I'm so glad the melon gazpacho turned out well, and equally excited there are leftovers!


To end the meal, Steve made Chocolate Raspberry Creme Brulee. Over the last couple of years, Steve has combined two different creme brulee recipes and tweaked them just right, and has created Steve's Chocolate Raspberry Creme Brulee. We topped the creme brulee with slightly sweetened whipped cream (whipped from scratch, of course!) and a sprig of mint. One of our guests liked it so much, she said she'd drive all they way to our house just for that one dish! Now that's a compliment!

We also tried a raspberry lime tea, in case people didn't want alcohol or soda. This recipe was a fantastic discovery!

In my opinion, good food shared with good friends is always a recipe for good times. Overall, I would say the night was a success! Thank you to our guests who drove all the way out to the country so we could indulge ourselves in this little dinner party. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

The wildlife adventures continue!

As the weather warms and I've spent more and more time outside, I've been privy to a few more interesting sightings on the wild side. I say "interesting" because most have been fun, but one has been, well, not fun.

Bubastis is mesmerized by this
strange new creature she's found.

Will the caterpillar turn
into a beautiful butterfly?

This last weekend was so beautiful and I was lucky to spend several hours of it outside. Hours of sunshine without a cloud in the sky, the country wind blowing the tops of the Georgia Pines, the birds (and the bees, the flowers, and the trees!) and luckily very few cars on the road. It made for a fantastic weekend. By the end of the day, I was pretty tuckered out, but I wanted to let the dogs out back and let them enjoy the beautiful weather a bit more before the sun went down. Just for kicks, I let the cat out on the back porch with me, so she wouldn't feel left out of the fun. Well, she found something that caught her interest.

It's a little hard to see, but there ARE
pink flowers on those back shrubs.

With the warmer weather, the some of the shrubs are blooming. There is also a bush with little white flowers on it that smells amazing! I love walking outside and being greeted with the perfume of that shrub.

Ribbit!

There haven't been any more turkey sightings lately, but I did have a strange encounter with a dead rodent. It all happened after I fed the dogs their dinner, and I let them out for one last time. I saw a frog on the steps to the porch, and I ran back inside to grab my camera. I was so distracted by trying to get a good picture of the frog, that I didn't notice what the dogs were up to until Keely let out a rare (for her) growl-bark-howl noise. That's when I looked over to find both canines with their noses to the ground. I had a feeling whatever they were sniffing, was a dead animal.  Indeed, it was. I managed to get them both away from it and back in the house. It was hard for me to make out what it was in the dark with only the floodlights for light. All I could make out was that it was a rodent, possibly the size of a large squirrel, belly up with it's feet in the air. I feel like taking care of dead wild animals is, as my friend Angelyn would say "a boy job". Since my husband is still out of town, I was hoping that during the night, a bird of prey would take care of the situation for me. I wasn't so lucky, unfortunately.

I got a much better look at it in the daylight. It was bigger than I originally thought, and definitely not a squirrel. After talking with my parents, we've decided that it was a small opossum. I noticed there were no signs of trauma to the opossum. That begs the question: HOW DID IT GET THERE? I did not take a picture of the deceased animal. I was grossed out enough as it was, thankyouverymuch.

 Stay tuned for more (hopefully alive!) wildlife adventures!

Let the (wildlife) games begin!

Now that spring is springing, signs of wildlife are showing themselves. This is very exciting for me. I've been looking forward to this ever since we've moved in.  Sure, I've seen a few deer along the roads, but other than a few birds and squirrels, there hasn't been much to get excited about at the house.  Until now :-)


Last weekend my brother and sister in law came for a short visit. As we were saying our goodbyes in the driveway, a turkey swooped down from a nearby tree and landed in the side yard, and then proceeded to run across the neighbor's backyard in to the woods. That was pretty fun, considering we were so close to the action. Also, running birds have always made me laugh. I think it's the waddle.


A few days ago, when my parents took the dogs for a walk in our subdivision, they saw deer tracks. I know there are deer around, I just haven't seen any yet. So now I have proof they're around, just not around MY house, yet.

Gobble gobble!

Today, I saw more turkeys! I just happened to notice one of my dogs was very fixated on something she was seeing outside, so I looked. In the backyard, beyond the fence, were four turkeys! Four turkeys, just moseying along, pecking at the ground. I managed to get a picture, but two of them had already made their way in to the woods.


The ladybugs were in full force on my back porch. Not surprising, considering it was such a warm day.  I did find something else of interest on my screened-in porch, a butterfly. It was unlike any butterfly I've ever seen before.

  
I'm eager and excited to see what other wildlife adventures the rest of spring and summer holds for us!

Adventures in Lawn Maintenance

Spring is starting to spring here, and the seeded areas of the lawn are perking up. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the sod yet, but I can have patience with that.


While the grass is not yet fully grown in (yet), there are quite a few areas that are long enough that I felt they needed to be mowed. I figured I could handle this, since most of those areas are in the back, which is smaller than our previous back yard. The front yard is quite large, but it is ~90% sod, and like I said, not growing yet.


At some point before we met, Steve bought an old-fashioned type manual lawn mower.  Not a push-mower. A manual mower. That was my tool of choice today, and I have to say, I like it! Well, I liked it for my task today, which was a "spot-mow" of sorts.  We'll see how things pan out when the rest of the grass comes in.


There is a lesson learned: Must walk the yard and clear of sticks, dog poo and other objects before mowing.  I can imagine most people would think this is a no-brainer.  In hindsight, I agree.  But in my hastiness to get that chore checked off my chore list, I just went out there, guns blazing, ready to mow! I'll remember that for next time, for sure.

New Adventures in Home Maintenance

My Calendar 'O Important Stuff told me to change the air filters in the house today. No big deal, right?  Not quite.


The air filter for the first floor was no big deal. The intake is on the wall across from the great room. I got that one taken care of in a matter of minutes.


The intake for the second floor is an entirely different story. That one is on the ceiling. The nine-foot high ceiling. I grab the step stool, thinking (*ahem* hoping) I was tall enough to get the job done with that. After I realized I was standing precariously on my tippy toes... on a step stool... at the top of the stairs... I decided that this probably wasn't a good idea. After entertaining a few other options in my head, I decided that, yes, I would have to get the ladder from the garage.


So I trot myself to the garage and get the 6-foot ladder, and haul it upstairs. Whaddyaknow, I got that air filter replaced in a few short minutes.


I kept wondering how Steve managed to replace the filter so easily the last time.  And then I remembered that Steve is a good seven inches taller than me.


I'm hoping that while Steve is home, he'll graciously change that second floor filter for me.

Checklists and appointments, and meetings, oh my!

Hi friends,


Upon completion of the house, the builder and I had  "walk-through" checklist to make sure everything was A-OK. Steve and I are to complete the same checklist for defects 60 days after the purchase of our house, and at 11 months after purchase of our house.  The 60 day checklist was due to the builder back in January, and since then, its been a flurry of phone calls to set up the appointments so that the subcontractors can come back and correct /address the defect.  Most of the things we found for this 60 day checklist were relatively benign... a couple of doors don't latch, the water in the fridge doesn't work, an outdoor floodlight needed to be replaced (the lens fell off the bulb, so weird), etc.  The most major defect would be that the soil around the septic tank has been sinking in, in my opinion.  

HRH Bubastis, looking down on her minions.

The strangest thing we had addressed would have to be the "top" to the oven cabinetry  we had put on.  Most of you are aware of the fiasco we experienced back in early January with our feline. A little back-story for the rest of you: She likes to perch herself on the top of the kitchen cabinetry and look down on us while we're in the kitchen.  I suspect she does this because it feeds her attitude of being an all-knowing goddess. Well, one day I get a phone call from Steve while I was at work, to tell me the cat had fallen down behind the oven cabinetry. He had already spent quite a bit of time trying to get the cat out.  Not such an easy task, considering the cabinetry for the double ovens basically extends from the floor to the top of the upper cabinets. Steve had already tried all the ideas I was coming up with, but I eventually did think of something new to try. Well, that didn't work either.

Double ovens + cabinetry = floor to (almost) ceiling.

Let me just say, for the record, I believe this was an accident. I think lost her balance. I have hard time believing she intentionally jumped down in to the dark small space that is behind the ovens.


We eventually got her out, but not before several hours of trying different ideas to get her out: things for her to climb out on, baskets with treats in it to pull her up in, etc. 

No more kitty shenanigans!

For the interim, we found a big piece of plywood to put up there so it wouldn't happen again. The cabinet people were nice enough to construct us something fitted, and they came by earlier this week to install it. So this is now taken care of, thank goodness. 


Bryan from Herbert Homes came by yesterday to check on the status of our checklist. He took care of a few things himself, and had some contacts for a few of the other things that need addressing. So, there are a few appointments that are still in works, but all in all, this checklist is getting checked off.

Who wants to see pictures?

Hi friends,


As promised, below are some pictures of the inside with our new furniture. 

Living Room set.

I love the leafy chair.

This is our cats litter-box cubby hole. The panel on the left slides on, and keeps the litter box out of sight!

Our kitchen set. I love the triangular shape.

Dining Room table

China cabinet

Zebra chair! There are two of these, we've put them in the office.

That's all for now, folks.  As soon as the Master bedroom fireplace/TV stand gets in, and the barstools for the kitchen bar come in, I'll be sure to post pictures of those too.

Oh, shenanigans!

In the spirit of building a new house, Steve and I are trying to really tailor this home to our liking. We've bought a lot of new furniture to fit our new spaces just right. One of those purchases (a novelty purchase, I admit) was an electric fireplace/TV stand for our master bedroom. 


The inspiration for this was largely from my dislike for having a TV in the bedroom. My compromise is that I'd be OK with it if we were able to "put it away" when not in use.  For example, to have the TV in an armoire that we could then put it behind closed doors.


Steve went perusing for such a piece of furniture, and he found a stand-alone electric fireplace that holds a flat-screen TV behind it. When we want to watch the TV, it rises up out of its hiding place, and then when we're done, it goes back. AND there's the bonus of having a fireplace in the bedroom. Pretty nifty, eh?


So we made the purchase, and I had to schedule the delivery. I decided to schedule it for the same day I had the heating/AC people coming out (more on that in a bit), since I had already planned to take the day off work.  The information I had emailed to me, said this was a "white glove" delivery, and two men were supposed to be in tow, they were supposed to bring it in and set it up for me before I signed for it. Well, the truck comes, there's only one guy, and he's insisting he's not supposed to set it up. 


I go back in the house to double check my info. I'm right. I show it to him, and he acknowledges the mistake. He says he can't do it by himself.  No duh. The thing weighs >400 lbs. There's no way I'm offering to help, 'cause the thing weighs so much (not that I should have to anyway, but it did cross my mind momentarily just for the sake of getting the job done).  


I clear some space in the garage and have him put it there. I didn't want it in the house only to be put in a random spot, where it would take up space and tick me off every time I saw it or had to walk around it. There wasn't any way I was going to be able to get it upstairs and set it up any time soon, so therefore, in the garage it went.

Anyone want to come over and haul this up my stairs for me?

Then there's stuff I have to sign, naturally.  Oh, guess what? Both pieces of paperwork I signed had the same instructions on it I had!  It was right there, in black and white: "White Glove Delivery, 2 person service required, bring inside to client-specified location, unpack, and remove dunnage unless otherwise directed."


The delivery guy apologizes - thank you. He tells me he's going to report it to someone on his end of things - thank you again. He calls back a little while after he leaves offer to come back and try to get it up the stairs for me. I tell him I think that's a bad idea. He goes on about trying to make the customer happy - thank you, but I still think it's a bad idea. He calls his supervisor, who states that they "aren't allowed" to move things up stairs, even with a two-person delivery.


As it stands now, this guy's supervisor is going to get in touch with the manufacturer (about the delivery issues, I guess), and also try to "work something out" as far as getting it in the bedroom upstairs.  


ALSO, the heating/AC people were supposed to come out today and address some things. "First call" I was told. Finally ~1:30pm I find their number and call them up. I was down for tomorrow. The lady on the phone remembers our conversation a week ago, and remembers it is supposed to be today, but she put me on their calendar for tomorrow. She apologizes -thank you. She said she was going to see if there was anyone available to come out this afternoon, and call me back. I didn't get a return call for over an hour. We're having to re-schedule, which is... undesirable.


I feel like this day hasn't been a total waste... I've been catching up on some finances, some laundry, some cleaning... but the fact that the two reasons why I took the day off work in the first place are BOTH falling though isn't sitting too well with me at the moment.


Oh, the shenanigans.

It's a New Year, in a new home.

Greetings everyone!


Here I am again, weeks and weeks from my last posting.  The holidays were great. Steve got home on December 22nd, just in time for Christmas!  This was a really special Christmas for us, because it was our first in our new home. Steve saw the house for the first time when he got home on the 22nd. He is really pleased with how the house turned out. We are both really pleased with how our choices for lighting, paint color, and new furniture have turned out. I have a tendency to  second-guess my sense of style, so it is really satisfying to see that it all turned out well.  Don't get me wrong, we had a lot of help. I like to give credit where credit is due.  Mrs. Herbert (the builders wife) helped us coordinate our flooring, carpet, cabinetry, brick, vinyl siding, and paint. Our lighting consultant Shearell from Southern Lighting helped us with our lights and ceiling fans. I am certain that if we did not have this wonderful help, there would have been something that we would have looked at and thought "what were we thinking?".  There were a lot of times when people complimented us on our color and style choices. I'd like to think it was genuine, and that people were not just sucking up to us. In fact, we had our 15 minutes of fame a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, we didn't pick up a copy of the book before it went off the magazine stands. A big "thank-you" goes out to our Realtor Michelle Lockhart for sending us this laminated copy of the cover.

We made it on the front cover of The Real Estate Book for our area!

We're mostly settled in now, thanks to Steve. He really took the bull by the horns and made serious progress with the remaining unpacking that needed to be done while he was home.  After some delay, our fence for the backyard is built. For some reason, instead of taking three business days, it took seven. I guess the up-side of that was, the dogs were taken on a lot of walks during that time. I have to admit, walking is limited to the weekends now. However, I'm going to partially blame that on the short days and cold temperatures :-)


Speaking of cold temperatures, as I'm sure everyone remembers, we had quite a snow & ice storm a few weeks ago. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the house all covered in the pretty white stuff.

Let it snow!

You can't tell from the picture, but it was sooo cold! At least it was sunny!

Steve left to return to his deployment that weekend of the snow and ice storm. I happened to be out of town to see my family for our Christmas celebration when he left. It was difficult to come home from that trip to his absence. The good news is, we were able to talk on the phone for several days while he was traveling to his final destination.  I'm hoping this stretch of deployment will be an easier one for both of us. 

I do have a few pictures of the inside, those and more, are to come later. Stay tuned! 

Here's to a happy and healthy 2011, cheers!