Homemade Margherita Pizza

Anybody love pizza like I do?! Tonight I have to share a little bit about this yummy homemade Margherita pizza that Trent made a week or so ago. It turned out to be really delicious, and he even used a few veggies from our garden. Here it is pre-baking:

And here it is all done and crispy:

That melty cheese, though.

I made him give me the lowdown on everything he used. Because we all know he's the chef of our household, not me. The crust was a pre-made thin crust, but he made his own sauce. It was just the right amount of sweet and spicy, with fresh ingredients right from the garden.

Here's what he used for the pizza:

-Pre-made crust
-Tomatoes (from the garden)
-Red bell peppers (from the garden)
-Butternut squash (from the garden)
-Garlic (from the garden)
-Salt and pepper
-A bit of crushed red pepper
-Basil leaves
-Fresh Mozzarella

He used the blender to blend the tomatoes and mix in some of the ingredients to make the sauce, and I'm pretty sure he just did it to taste. He doesn't like to follow recipes! He did say he baked it at 425 degrees.

I have to say, I'm ok having to maintain a garden when it comes with perks like yummy pizzas. :)

More Garden Tomatoes

A short garden update today: Tomatoes are growing faster in our veggie garden than we can eat them right now. We picked some more tomatoes this past week, and are still working on eating them. Maybe we should make a salsa or a pasta sauce or something?

We've also picked some sweet corn, but that too has been growing faster than what we can eat. I think we may have planted too much this year. Haha.

Well, if you need me, I'll be working on this here bowl of tomatoes that I only like if they are incorporated into a salad or sandwich or something! :)

First Garden Harvest of 2017

It's been a couple of weeks since I blogged all about our recent Michigan trip, but I'm finally popping in for another post, less about traveling and more back to the domestic life! Don't worry though, there will be another travel related post in the near future, as we went back to Chicago for a Cubs game over the weekend. Trent and I are pretty sure Chicago is our second home now, since we have visited the city multiple times this summer!

Today though, I thought I'd share our very first harvest of this year. It's not very big, but we're excited that our tomatoes are finally turning red, and we have been able to enjoy our first veggies from the garden:

Yes, so far we have a lone ear of corn and a couple of tomatoes! So I got to add a couple of slices of fresh tomatoes to my salad the other day that we grew right here in the garden.

We have plenty more veggies that will be ripe soon, too. I actually need to go out to the garden and see what else is ripe, plus take more recent pictures!

The below photos are all from a few weeks ago, but you can see all of the tomatoes that have been growing. Here are the Romas: 

I'd imagine we have many more turning red now. And here was the corn a few weeks ago:

We also have some garlic that grows back every year. We're not really garlic experts though, so we're not sure when garlic is ripe and ready to pick...this looks close though, right??

It definitely smells like garlic, that's for sure.

Well, that's it for now...I'm sure I'll be back with some new posts this weekend!

Weekend Fun in Iowa City and Davenport

Hello all and happy Monday! Popping in again today, this time sharing a few fun places we've gone in the last couple of weeks.

Father's Day was last weekend, and we spent the day in Iowa City with my family. We went to a pizza place we had never been to before, called Wig and Pen.

My mom and I split a small Chicago-style cheese pizza, and it was really good! Close to Giordano's good. I definitely recommend it!

The atmosphere is pretty cool inside, but even the outside is cool looking. It's kind of like a British pub, complete with a bright red phone booth outside.

We then headed to a pretty popular place in the Iowa City area, Scratch Cupcakery in Coralville. So many pretty and yummy cupcakes!

Trent and I got a box of 4 to go. They were all delicious, but VERY filling. You've been warned! 

Of course when in Coralville, we stopped at the mall for a little shopping. We didn't have enough time to do some really serious shopping though, so Trent and I went up to Davenport this past Saturday and did a little more shopping before our Michigan vacation next week!

We got way too much stuff, but hey, we needed new clothes and shoes for our vacation and a couple of other trips we'll be going on this year!

I totally took a selfie in my new sunnies, too. I didn't get them on Saturday (I actually got them online from lulu's), but it was my first time wearing them. I think I'm in love, and there will probably be more of these on our upcoming Michigan vaca.

Saturday night we ate at Rudy's in the East Village in Davenport. It's been remodeled in the last year or so, and it's so much nicer now. You can even go up to the rooftop and eat, but it was closed for a private party when we went.

But Margaritas and Mexican food... Yes please!

We also had a celebrity sighting while walking out from Rudy's in the Village. The band Rooney was in town for a show there, and we totally saw them walk across the street and right in front of our car. They looked a little out of place so we knew they were someone famous. Like hipsters visiting Iowa for the first time. Haha. One of them was taking video of the East Village from his phone! Anyway, that was pretty exciting. 

Yes, our past couple of weekends have been fun, but I'm looking forward to spending the week of the Fourth in Michigan by the lake! Hoping for nice weather. :)

Weekend in Iowa City

Hello, and happy Saturday! Last weekend was Chelsea's wedding, a good family friend, and it was about an hour and a half away from us in Iowa City. (Just a short drive from the Quad Cities) We stayed there for the night and got to hang out there a little bit over the weekend. Haley and Dan came down from the Chicago area, and Mom and Dad made it out as well but didn't stay the night.

Our hotel was in Coralville, and the wedding and reception were just short drives from there which was nice.

The wedding and reception were both beautiful, and we had a great time. The reception was at Bella Sala. It was so nicely decorated! Chelsea has great taste. :)

The table decor was also super pretty. There was baby's breath at the center of all the tables, and the bridesmaids' bouquets were also baby's breath, and were stunning!

The next day, we decided to explore a few places in the Iowa City area. Haley and Dan went with us to Hurt's Donuts. We'd been wanting to go there, and had heard good things about their donuts. :)

They have donuts there with super creative and fun names, like the "Jesus" donut, and the "Bart Simpson." (That's the one in the back, far left corner in the above pic by the way. It's covered in Butterfinger pieces.) We had to sample some, so we got a 6 pack, and Trent got a Maple bacon donut, too.

It took us almost a full week to finish the donuts we got, but they were pretty good! Just a little too sugary to eat all in one setting. :)

Another place we decided to try was Zombie Burger & Shake Lab, downtown Iowa City. It's another fun restaurant, that's basically like an upscale fast food burger and shake place. You can kind of customize your burger - you choose which style of burger you want, then they have different options, all with zombie-themed names like "28 Days Later" and "Dawn of the Dead."

The food wasn't too bad, but we had to wait a long time to get it. This place is BUSY! The line was almost out the door, and there weren't any actual tables left when we were there, so we sat at a "bar" style table off to the side of the ordering area. It is a popular place, that's for sure.

Since I'm a vegetarian, I got the veggie burger and I just got their classic option, but got it in a Double. It was way too much for me. Haha. I only ate about half of it. I thought the veggie patty was just ok. But the fries were awesome!

We didn't try any shakes, but if we go next time, I'd probably just go to try a shake. They have some pretty cool looking ones that they make with different kinds of cereal.

And of course, when you're in the Iowa City/ Coralville area, you have to do a little shopping. 

We went to Coral Ridge Mall and killed a couple of hours, then went to the Von Maur at River Landing that just opened a few years back. I had never been to this one but had been wanting to go! I tried on some dresses there, since I'm in need of a dress for another wedding in a couple of months, but didn't have much luck. I did like a couple of tops though, that I ended up getting.

I didn't think the dresses I tried on were really "dressy" enough for a wedding, especially when Trent will be wearing a tux. :) I did get the two tops on the right, though. A sweater/cardigan, and a one-shoulder top that will be cute for summer!

So that was our little Iowa City weekend trip. It was fun exploring the area, and we did have pretty good weather when we were there, too, which was nice.

This weekend is more low-key. Trent's going out tonight with a couple of friends for a "guy night," watching some fight (WWE type thing?), Haha. I will most likely be watching movies on Netflix and hanging at home by myself. A little romantic comedy night for me I think. Who's with me?

Life in 2017

It's a nice Sunday today - not too incredibly cold, and no bad weather yet - though it's supposed to be coming! I thought I'd bring you all up to speed on what we've been up to so far this year, and where we're headed.

So far, 2017 has been pretty great, but nothing too terribly exciting. We've been making a few trips up to the cities so far this year. We went shopping last weekend and got new phones. Then this weekend, I had a tire light on in my car and found out I have a tire sensor that needs to be replaced, so I had a car appointment yesterday in the Cities to figure out what was wrong, and we'll have to go back next weekend, to get it fixed. While we were there, we did some shopping, took advantage of the after-Christmas sales still going on, and have gotten to eat out a couple of times.

Last weekend was Texas Roadhouse - Love that place. Then this weekend, we ate at Crust again. Remember those amazing beer-battered cheese curds? Definitely the best cheese curds ever. We got those as appetizers, and were so full after that we could barely eat our pizza! :)

We also tried a couple of beers there. I got a Lionstone Peanut Butter Wheat beer. I tried it one other time before - it's locally brewed in Geneseo, Illinois, and it is delicious! Trent got a Cherry Blond ale from Great River Brewery (also a local brewery), and he liked that, too.

Friday night, Trent got some pizza from the place down the street from us, and Saleen clearly wanted some of it. She couldn't leave Trent alone while he was eating it. It was pretty cute. :)

She can't resist that pepperoni pizza!

Today we've been cleaning - doing laundry, dishes, and mopping the floors with our new Swiffer Wet Jet! We've gotten a few other new things for around the house lately, too. I bought a new wine rack, some new wine glasses, and a bathroom scale with my Target gift cards from Christmas. This is the first scale we've owned in the 6 years we've been in this house! It was pretty exciting. :)

Then yesterday, we got new pillows for the bed from Bed, Bath, and Beyond - here is the link to them online. They are pretty fancy - kind of tempur-pedic, and have a special cooling gel inside. Last night was our first night sleeping on them. Not too bad! My neck has been hurting when I wake up, so I needed a new pillow that was a little better for it. I hope this one helps!

In the way of renovation projects, I think our first one is going to be finishing the hall closet. We put it in when we renovated the hallway, but haven't finished it yet. Here's a look at the closet after we put it in:

It still needs drywall, a floor, and some shelves. It's small, but I think having it finished will help us be a little more organized. Plus, we'll have a nicer space for our vacuum, the Swiffer, and our bath towels.

So that's how our 2017 has been going so far in a nutshell. I'm hoping to start some renovating soon!

Recipe Roundup

Welcome to my Recipe Roundup post! Although I do not really enjoy cooking (Ha!), I do enjoy an easy recipe every now and then. And I also like to share those recipes I do try, with you on my blog. So I've rounded up links to all of the recipes I've shared so far, as a resource for you all. It's an easy way to find them all in one place. Just click on the link or photo below to view the recipe.

I'll be adding this post to my sidebar, and will add to it with each recipe I share. Enjoy!

Strawberry Fluff

Bubble Pizza

Cheesy Corn Casserole

Classic Deviled Eggs

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Pretzel Kisses

Puppy Chow

Date Night at Central Standard

This past Friday night, Trent and I had a little date night. After I got home from work, we went to a restaurant we had never been to before called Central Standard in Bettendorf. It's a newer place, and it has kind of a contemporary, sports bar atmosphere.

We liked it, though it does seem like it gets very busy on weekends. It touts "Burgers, Beer and Stuff," and that's exactly what it is. 

They have 24 beers on tap, including some seasonal selections. I tried the Pumpkick beer from New Belgium. I liked it, but not as well as Leinie's Harvest Patch Shandy. (That's my favorite pumpkin beer.) Trent liked his beer, too, though I don't remember which he got. Something weird, I'm sure!

The food was ok - we got cheese curds for an appetizer, but I wasn't too into my veggie burger. It was a little too different for me, and had a cauliflower taste to it. But it was nice to have a night out to ourselves. 

Next time we go back, I think we'll just go for the milk shakes - apparently they have a Birthday Cake Shake with Rum Chata, and a Sweet and Salty Shake with Kahlua. Those sound amazing!

Have a great day everyone!

Cheesy Corn Casserole Recipe

So, this is perhaps THE most favorite dish in our house right now. And I'm about to share this super easy recipe with you today. For Cheesy Corn Casserole!

I love mac n' cheese and corn, so when you mix the two together, it's pretty much awesome in my book. I make Trent cook this all the time. :)

I've seen a ton of variations online, but Trent likes to experiment with his own, so this is his version. The below recipe makes enough for a small family meal (both of us had enough for 2 helpings plus a little extra). For a bigger group, I would double this.

Ingredients:

1 can cream corn

1 can whole kernel corn

1 cup pasta (rotini or elbow macaroni)

1/2 lb Velveeta cheese

Handful shredded cheddar cheese

Optional: garlic and onion for garnish

Directions:

1. Add cans of cream and whole kernel corn together in a casserole dish, and mix in a cup of pasta. 
2. Add small blocks of Velveeta cheese, spreading evenly around dish.
3. Blend all ingredients together.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour, covered.
5. Take out and spread a layer of shredded cheddar cheese and garnish on top.
6. Bake for another 1/2 hour, uncovered, at same temp.

A couple of notes:

• A lot of variations I've seen use butter in this, too, but we like it just fine without it. 
• We've used elbow macaroni in the past, but last time we used rotini (the spiral noodles), and found it to be just as good!

Hope you enjoy!