Easter Weekend 2016

Hello all! A little late, but time for a little recap of our Easter weekend. Friday I had the day off work, and that night we went out to eat at The River House in Moline with our friends, Leo and Kayla. The River House is one of my favorite restaurants - they have so much great food! I can never resist the Ultimate Grilled Cheese Sandwich, though! It's seriously amazing.

After the restaurant we all went to the Mallards hockey game and watched them beat the Evanston Icemen in a really good game. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday night we went to town to get some groceries and things for Easter on Sunday. I got some veggies and snacks and put together a relish tray to take to Trent's family.

I got a 3-in-1 carrier from Wal-Mart that worked really well for the veggies. This was actually the first time I had ever put together a veggie tray, and I have to say it was quite easy! I might do this more often for family get-togethers. No cooking or baking required!

The relish tray was a hit at Trent's family on Easter Sunday, and I had a bunch of veggies leftover that were still in the fridge, so I took it again to the potluck we had at work the next day. I think I got too many veggies, though. I'm STILL snacking on sweet pickles and leftover carrots and celery. :)

Easter at Trent's aunt and uncle's was fun. We didn't go to my family's for Easter this year, since they went up to visit Haley and Dan in Chicago, so we thought we'd just stay here and spend time with Trent's family for a change. We got to watch the kids look for Easter eggs hidden around the house (since it was a little too rainy this year to do it outside). Then the adults had an "adult" Easter egg hunt, and the goodies were all hidden around the house by the kiddos. :) A lot of them were actually quite hard to find!

We had a good time and ate lots of food! Mashed potatoes, corn, deviled eggs, chocolate and banana cream pie, and of course a meat dish for the folks who are not vegetarians! It was a good time all around.

Oh, and I forgot - Sunday night we watched a not-so-appropriate for Easter movie - Steven King's The Shining! It was our first time watching it. Needless to say, we were just a tad scared to turn every corner and needed every light on in the house that night!

On that note, hope everyone had a Happy Easter! :)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, everyone!

Will blog more about my weekend soon. In the mean time, I've had my coffee, and it's now time to get ready for Easter with Trent's family!

Hope your holiday weekend has been wonderful!

Bubble Pizza Recipe

One way that Trent is completely opposite of me: He likes to cook, and he experiments with his own recipes. I don't really get it, but I am intrigued. Because most of the time, he comes up with these recipes, and they actually end up tasting good. I had to share this one, because it sounded good from the beginning, and it looked good as he was making it, too. It's called Bubble Pizza. You might have heard of it before - There are different recipes for it online.

Trent always likes to put his own spin on other recipes and create his own. Here's his recipe. It actually turned out really yummy! (It's vegetarian, too - but you could probably add meat to this also if you'd like.)

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil
• 1 Biscuit roll
• Pizza seasoning
• 1/2 an Avocado
• Black olives
• Fresh spinach leaves
• 1 Can of pizza sauce
• Fresh mozzarella
• Shredded Italian cheese
• 1 Roma tomato

1. Spread vegetable oil onto a casserole dish. Add some pizza seasoning, then break apart a biscuit roll for the "bubbly" crust.

2. Add some avocado (we used 1/2 of one), some black olives, and a little more pizza seasoning.

3. Add some spinach leaves, a can of pizza sauce, some shredded cheese (we used Italian), and some fresh mozzarella. Then add some chopped tomato on top.

4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and cook for about 25 minutes.

Wait, and check on your pizza occasionally...

And voila! Time to enjoy your bubble pizza! This was the first time we've made this kind of pizza. Trent's mom used to make a version of this when he was growing up, and he decided to make one of his own. It turned out super delicious.

I really recommend trying your own version and experiment to your liking. Enjoy!

Crust

We are totally pizza lovers. There was a time when I was in college and we were dating way back when, and we made it a goal to try as many new pizza places as we could. Every time Trent would come up to Davenport to visit me, we would try a new pizza place. Well, last weekend we tried a new place, and they had amazing pizza. It's called "Crust."

We had been wanting to try this place for a while and finally were able to. It's located in Bettendorf, Iowa, and it was super nice inside - a nice, relaxing atmosphere. (Love the ceiling tiles!) They have great woodfire pizza. 

But the appetizers were just as amazing. They were 312 Beer-battered cheese curds - with raspberry jalapeño dipping sauce! So awesome. They were like tiny cheese-filled funnel cakes covered in raspberry sauce.

They also have a huge beer menu and a full bar, though Trent just got a bloody mary and I just got a water. (It was a Sunday afternoon). If we ever go on a Friday or Saturday night though, I would probably have to try one off of their selection.

I highly recommend it if you're ever in the Quad Cities. It's unbelievable all of the great restaurants in the Cities that we've never even tried yet! We still have a lot to explore on the homefront, that's for sure.

Updated Living Room Tour

Since we got the new couch last month, I figured it was time for some more updated living room photos. We stayed home yesterday and spent most of the day cleaning, doing laundry and washing dishes. While I tidied up the living room to take photos, Saleen just hung out on the rug and watched.

 So I had to take my photos with Saleen in the room. :)

Here's the new couch that we're still loving! It's so comfy and we love spending time in here and each having our own section of the couch when we watch TV.

And here's Saleen watching me take pictures. She thinks I'm a weirdo most of the time.

I did catch a couple of cute shots with her, though. Her hair has grown thicker over the winter so she looks extra furry this time of year!

Here's the TV side of the room, which I don't know that I've shared yet since getting the new couch. It looks pretty much the same as before. Not too much has changed in here, decor-wise, other than losing one of the end tables and the storage bench. We moved those upstairs since we don't really have the space in here anymore.

You can tell where my space on the couch is. It's a little sunken in and wrinkly. Haha. I guess I could have straightened that up before taking the photos, huh?

Overall we pretty much still love the new couch. I love the color and the fabric; it seems just so much softer. And there is plenty of room for all of my throw pillows. And that's important.

Saleen loves it, too. Even though she's not allowed on it. :)

So there's the updated living room tour, complete with our pup.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as we do!

Spring is One Step Closer to Summer

This has been an unseasonably mild March so far. A lot of times in the Midwest, there's still snow on the ground in early March, or we get a blizzard. This year, the end of winter has been so nice and springlike! Take the following:

1. We've had 70 degree days and will be getting more next week. 2. We've already been shutting off the heat and opening the windows and doors. 3. The grass is becoming green, and we can hear birds chirping when we wake up. 4. Sunday is daylight savings time, which means more hours of daylight.

I think it's safe to say that spring is already here. Now all that's left is for the trees to start blooming. Spring-cleaning time is about here, guys and gals!

I'm excited about this, because that means we're just a little closer to summer. I'm starting to think about vacations, weekend getaways, and summer sunshine...And boats, concerts, and baseball games!

So many summer memories to cherish. Time for some more!

Vacation Jar Memento: Jamaica

Whenever we visit a beach somewhere, we like to take a little bit of it with us when we go. Not just with photos, but with physical objects, too - like postcards, souvenirs, and of course, shells. I always spend some time walking around on the beach looking for those perfect shells. Living in landlocked Illinois, it's always cool when we get to see a huge lake or ocean and have the chance to experience the beach.

Over the past few years, I've been putting together little vacation jars to commemorate each beach we visit. I fill them with sand, shells, or other beachy things I collect while we're there.

Here I am on the beaches of Corpus Christi and Jamaica, looking for shells!

I've shared a little about my vacation jars in the past. In 2012, we went on a vacation to the East coast. The first jar I made was full of shells from that vacation. In 2013, we visited Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and I made this jar as a memento. Then in 2014, we went to Texas, and I made a jar of shells I collected in Corpus Christi.

This year I finally got around to making a jar with shells from our honeymoon in Jamaica. I used the same kind of jar I used for my Corpus Christi shells. It was $1 from the Dollar Spot at Target a while back. I had picked up two of them, for this purpose. I just peeled off the label it came with and filled it with my shells.

After getting the entire original label off (I had to really scrub it with soap and water), I filled it with my shells from our Jamaica honeymoon, and stuck on a new sticky chalkboard label I wrote on with a chalk paint pen.  I couldn't find anymore of the brown labels, so I figured a chalkboard one would have to do. :)

And voila! Simple as that.

It now joins the rest of the crew, but I need to find a new place for them now that the new couch is here. There just isn't enough room in the living room for them anymore! I'm sure I'll find a place sooner or later...

Now, let's see if we visit a beach again this year. Only time will tell!

Wine Cork Coasters

Christmas Eve 2012. That's when I opened up a present from Trent that was probably one of the coolest things he had ever gotten me. A wine cork coaster kit. What is that, you ask?

This is the box. It comes with 4 empty wooden "coasters" that you fill up with wine corks you've collected. That Christmas I got all of our used wine corks together and started arranging them inside of the boxes. I only really had enough to fill up 2 of the coasters.

Since then, our glass vase in the kitchen has been filling up with more corks, and tonight I decided I probably have enough variety in my cork collection to make the other 2 coasters.

So I went through my corks and put the other two together. I definitely did have enough! I love the look of them when they're finished. And it's really easy to do. You just place different corks inside of the wooden box, and arrange them so that they fit snug inside. You can actually glue them in, but mine are all pretty snug so they stay in position without having to glue them.

These are some of the most original coasters you can get. Each one ends up being different, and they all have a little character to them, with the various designs and brands of wine stamped on each cork.

Of course, when I was finished I had to have a glass of wine to celebrate. :)

A glass of Cupcake wine, and a cupcake, no less. We celebrated my birthday at work yesterday, so I got to bring home some leftover cupcakes today.

Now, excuse me while I continue watching my movie and eating my cupcake. :)

P.S. - I'm not sure where Trent got this coaster kit, but you can find them at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $19.99 at this link. Happy wine drinking!

Another Year Older

Today is my birthday, I'm 28 today. And I'm spending the day at home with Trent watching movies. Well, Trent is putting my new cover on for my car storage tent right now. The old one finally bit the dust and blew apart in the wind a couple of weeks ago. I told him that could be one of my birthday presents, to get the new cover put on. :) He also got me a new hair straightener, since my old straightener also bit the dust this past week!  I guess it happened at the right time!

We did get to spend some of the weekend having fun. Friday night we went out to eat with my parents to an Italian restaurant called Antonella's. It had been a long time since Trent and I had eaten there, but I had been craving Italian food and thought it would be fun to go back there. The food was delicious. We all actually finished our entrees, and we all got dessert and finished those, too! There must be something in their food. :) I also had a cannoli for the first time, and it was pretty tasty.

Last night, Trent and I went out with our friends Justin and Elizabeth to a pizza place called Falbo's. They're open late and right downtown Davenport, and the veggie pizza was amazing. They also have a full bar which is pretty cool.

After Falbo's we headed to a new bar called Endless Brews, right down the street. They just opened, and Trent had been wanting to check it out.

They have 20 different beers on tap, and along with ordering from the bar, they also stock cases of beer that you can buy. The back of the bar is the retail side, and the front is the bar side. For being a bar, it's kind of bright in there and the decor is really sparse. It smells completely new too. I swear you can still smell the drywall and fresh paint! It was definitely a different kind of atmosphere.

We each tried a different brew. Justin and Elizabeth ended up heading out, but Trent and I stayed a little longer and finished our beers. I had the Rogue Hazelnut Brown Ale, and Trent had the Sierra Nevada Chocolate Chili Stout. I actually thought mine was pretty good. Trent's was a little too dark for me, but he liked it. 

We each only had one, but if I were to try another one, I would probably try the "Death by Coconut" beer. That sounds like it might be pretty good.

It was fun trying a couple of new places out that we might go back to again in the future. The local news also crew stopped by Endless Brews, I guess after they got off work, to have a few beers. They sat right next to us, so that was kind of entertaining. I said to Trent, "Isn't she that girl from the news?" Haha. It must be the new local news hangout.

All in all, it's been a good birthday weekend! I think 28 will be a great year. We have lots of fun things planned! :)