willandadri.com

march is full of birthdays.  we’ve got the following on the books:

beth

mom

lori

mike

maris

as a family we all try to get together some time in march to celebrate all of these b-days in regular over the top party fashion.  last year we held this event at barnhill lane, and this year we were off to alabama court.  maris turned 50 this year, so we had lots of celebrating to do!  we had a surprise party for her at the chinese restaurant in roanoke and then had a sunday celebration after granny’s church that allowed for celebration all the way through will’s bday in april!

mom and dad are really settling into their new place and have installed a new driveway, entirely remodeled the basement with an office for dad and a walk in cedar closet for mom, and repainted just about everything in the house!  the place is really coming together!  their latest project entails a complete redo of the front yard to level it out and allow for some rock retaining walls and plant beds to be installed.  can’t wait to see it fully finished!

we spent some good times in “club alabama” formerly known as “the man cave” on the lower level of 71 alabama court.  will worked to get dad’s surround sound working and we all sung our hearts out and lori graced us all with her dancing prowess.  we were in awe at her rendition of “ima be” by the black eyed peas.  if you see her soon, get her to show you what she can do.

lori arrived last thursday and greeted us just in time for a yelp elite event at the busy bee in downtown raleigh.  we had a great time and met some new friends and shared dinner with them.  after dinner i scurried those little party hounds out to the car and they both cried out that they had to have krispy kreme donuts for dessert!  so, off to kk we went!  featured donut of the month was banana, and somehow i let lori talk me into this.  i decided it was just not my thang.  banana and donut = icky.

we were all excited to spend time with ellie on sunday.  most of us had never met her before, so it was a great deal of fun to torture her with flashing cameras and baby talk babble.  i am sure she is permanently scarred for life now.  this family just loves a baby, and it’s been ten years since james was born, so we are all long overdue for some “oochie coochie cooing”.

this posting also contains my newest obsession of photos.  i’ve recently decided that cherry blossoms could be one of the most beautiful things around.  enjoy.

we had quite an adventurous ride home on sunday night since there was a line of severe thunderstorms stretching from charlotte to va, right on the path we were driving.  i offered to drive, and had no idea what i was in for.  i fought to keep the car on the road and ended up taking us on a 1 hour detour of the covered bank drive through off the I-40 ramp in high point to avoid certain disaster.  with constant interruption to the radio to alert us to storms in guilford county, we knew we’d better stay put.  however after our delay, we made it home safe and sound and ready to see another day.

saturday was a perfect day.  stars aligned – waters parted – birds singing kinda day.

we headed out (after an early morning carpet cleaning appointment) to the farmer’s market in down town wake forest and will’s twice monthly haircut.  the farmer’s market was brimming with farm fresh eggs, various jellies and jams, freshly baked breads, assorted types of goat cheeses, and some crafts.  we trotted around the market and zoned in on a basil plant to add to our garden on the back deck and picked up a sampling of three types of goat cheese for our breakfast.

we mosied on down to the coffee shop with our goat cheese in hand to score some bagels and coffee.  we cozied up at the coffee shop and enjoyed the various flavors of curry, paprika garlic, and honey lavender goat cheese on our bagels.  the walls of the coffee shop are lined this week with photographs from Kelly Newton.  She has a very captivating series of portraits that really inspired me to print out my india photos and get that gallery hung up soon.  one day i need to check into seeing what i need to do to get some prints of my own shown in the coffee shop.

after breakfast we headed down to various stores and shopped around to see what was new.  we purchased some candles on sale and then headed up to twisted vine for some wine tasting.  we found a white wine we liked and got three more reds by the time we headed back down the stairs.  after wine we headed to harvest moon, which is an eclectic store in an old house in wake forest.  the exterior is coated with plants and we fell in love with the jasmine on the front porch.  after shopping we headed to blue fins bistro to try out a bite for lunch.  i was craving caprese salad but was too lazy to make my own, so i lucked out with a blt (which is the closest thing you can find to caprese salad in wf).  on our way back out of heritage we stopped at wine 101 for yet another wine tasting of the day.  we lucked out and learned a great deal about sustainable wine making and enjoyed the fruits of other people’s labor!

after lunch we headed to the mall to pick up my new glasses.  they are just a newer version of what sits on my face every day, but they have blue insets in them as opposed to the current version’s green.  we got side tracked at c&b and ended up with new glasses and plates since so much stemware has been swept into the trashcan in the past few weeks.  those glasses were too fragile!  after fighting the mall traffic we headed back home so i could land some photos of the cherry trees at our front entrance to the neighborhood.  they are the complete embodiment of spring.  the bright pink flowers against the bluest blue sky really summed up the entire day.  the weather was perfect and my allergies were not suffering too terribly just yet.  we were foot loose and fancy free.  when we got back home we created a cheers beverage to officially welcome in spring.  we mixed up a made from scratch margarita with freshly squeezed lime and orange juice with some patron and cointreau.  (skinny girl is on to something here.)

after we watched the sunset we just lazily relaxed in our lounge chairs on the back deck while will attempted to read his new book and i browsed several magazines and catalogues.  i found it quite funny that i would not shut up and kept pestering him about every half a page to tell him some story or show him something in the magazines/catalogues.  he played along like a good sport and humored me each time i broke his concentration.  he is too perfectly adorable for putting up with me. 

at about 9pm we decided we were hungry and wanted to venture down town for some ribs at the pit.  we drove all the way down there and found a 1.5 hour wait!  their ribs are great, but we were starving!  we decided to keep on driving and find something else.  racking our brains we ended up at spize cafe.  we’d wanted to try it for sometime and floated in right before they closed at 9:30.  we were in love with this version of asian fondue, it was like two of our favorite things rolled into one!  we really enjoyed all of the food, the service, and i fell in love with the utensil arsenal they give you to fight for your fondue!  too fun!

can’t wait to see what else this spring has in store!  if it is at all like saturday was, bring it on!

it is always great to have life growing before you.  we love spring and the blooms and baby birds that come with it.  it has to be the  most amazing time of year.

we purchased a seed tray two weeks ago to see if we could get back to the good ole days when we used to have a deck covered in plants like we did when we lived in harrisonburg.  seed packets were picked up at lowes and we filled the little seed pods right up to the brim and watered them and put the lid on.  we checked on them the first day and saw no movement, so we went on about our lives.  sun rose and set, and again no action.  husband thought they could use some water, so he watered them last tuesday night.  then, just when you thought nothing was gonna happen, i checked on them thursday evening.  we were amazed to see little seedlings popping out by the dozens!  we quickly covered them back up so as to not disturb this growing process.

the weekend came and we decided it would be a good time to get these little seedlings planted.  to plant we needed pots, so we headed out to home goods.  i found a ton of planters at home goods and carried them all home and lined the deck.  will was able to sit on the deck and help me scoop (cup by cup) the dirt into the planters so that we could get the baby plants into their new homes.  in may we should have a pretty amazing feast of mesclun greens, radishes, red and golden beets, and carrots. 

while we were out we scored another tray for tomatoes.  now we are on a mission to find some decent heirloom seeds so we can grow some fancy little tomatoes and basil and make a summer’s worth of caprese anytime we want!

some wonderful people treated us to dinner at the melting pot on saturday night so that we could try to take our minds of the medical drama going on in our house right now.  below is a photo of us before we headed to dinner.  thanks people – you know who you are, and we really appreciate all you do for us – love you.

this week has been about craving vegetables.  first it was the obsession with the beets, and then it was the longing for raw collards.  not sure where this stuff comes from, but it wells up inside of me and won’t relent until i cave.  husband wasn’t hungry for dinner, so i knew tonight was the perfect night for the thai collard wraps.

we used to go to taste of thai in raleigh anytime i craved thai food.  they had the best tasting thai food i’d ever had.  we’d stop in at least once a week to sit down to a peaceful, quiet, spicy, and delicious dinner.  unfortunately they closed their doors last year and with the closure they took my favorite item on the menu.  its an item i have never seen any place else.  i attempted to replicate it a couple of times, but i think i finally have it down.

thai collard wraps

• 1 bunch collard greens
• 2 whole limes
• 1/2 cup boiled peanuts
• 1/2 cup freshly toasted coconut
• 2 tbs. thai chili sauce
• 2 tbs. ponzu sauce
• 1/8th tsp. ground ginger
• 1/8th tsp. cilantro
• 1/4 tsp. peanut butter

carefully wash and dry collard greens.  cut center stems to remove any tough pieces from the leaves and set prepared wraps aside.  toast coconut over low heat in a dry skillet until lightly golden brown.  wash and dry limes.  chop limes into tiny pieces (skins included).  mix thai chili sauce, ponzu sauce, ginger, cilantro, and peanut butter to combine.  these ingredients form your sauce. 

to prepare a wrap simply take one collard green and fill it with some of each of the peanuts, lime pieces, toasted coconut, and top with the spicy sauce.  wrap collard around ingredients and enjoy!

if you would have told me 5 years ago that i would be craving beets for dinner i would have told you that you were clinically insane.  its not that i don’t like veggies or anything like that, because i most certainly do – except cauliflower – but beets were never my favorite.  i have come to learn that the true problem was that i just did not care for pickled beets as much as an unpickled beet.  we had a salad at church this past weekend and karen used boiled beets, which i really liked.  this peaked my intrigue to try cooking beets at home.  will and i got two huge bunches of organic beets this past weekend at the teeter.  i got them home and was not quite sure what i was going to come up with, but i knew it would be colorful!  i got done work at a regular time tonight and decided it was beet tackle night.  i rolled into the kitchen and pulled those pretty little critters out of their bags.  they were so gorgeous i had to start snapping photos.  the more i did to them, washed them, cleaned them up, peeled them, sliced them, the prettier they became.  i decided i would roast them.  all vegetables are amazing roasted – right?  maybe even cauliflower (maybe i will try it…).  into the oven they went for about 40 minutes on 400 degrees.  they came out earthy, but as sweet as candy!  super delish!  i plated them up on some bib lettuce, orange slices, goat cheese, and a fresh little champagne vinaigrette.  all i can say is yummo!   if you have never tried this before, you better go get your self some beets right now and try this out!