Have you missed me?

I started a new job and then fell off the face of the Earth.  I'm still here.  Just working much longer days which doesn't leave time for myself or my blog.  :(  I will try to do better, but it probably won't be much more frequent until my husband lifts the hiring freeze on the full-time position of housewife.  Until that day comes, I'll try to keep up with short posts and a few pics on the Life in the City & the Sticks facebook page.

A lot has happened in the past 2 months.

We went to St. Louis for Thanksgiving and hung out with some of my fam.

cutest cakeballs ever

my cousin caught a fish from the stream? in the backyard

drank quite a few beers including the local O'Fallon Gold

teaching the youngin

devouring chili cheese late night

Freese cup!

Intercontinental Freese Cup Runners-up

My hubby finally met my Grandpa.  

We played cards and had Imo's pizza which is #4 on my fave pizza list.  I think that was just because it had been so long since I had it.  I definitely got my fix over the weekend.  I think I had it 4 separate times.  That alone should push it into top 3.

I loved watching OSU football this season at Stillwater Bar.  T. Boone Pickens even hung out there with us one night.  And we got to watch the Pokes play in the Garden (unfortunately iphoto just deleted those pics).

We had some friends from Kentucky visit, but somehow I don't have any pictures?!  They brought some awesome bourbon.  That's a trade for housing anytime!

December 21st we celebrated our first anniversary.  I can't believe how fast the year flew by!  I've loved every minute of it and glad I get to spend the rest of my days with him.  We went to the top of the Marriott hotel to have dinner.  This was our view...

No, we didn't trade tables 3 times, the restaurant rotated!  One revolution took about an hour.  I really enjoyed the food, view, and of course spending time with this cutie...

It was a rainy night so we postponed the carriage ride and headed home to pop some champagne.

 If taking down the Christmas tree doesn't wear me out, I'll continue the updates tomorrow!

Homemade Pizza

Our last meal together was quite a delicacy.  There aren't words to describe how good this pizza was.  Papa B made us pizza from scratch.  It blew anything I ever thought was pizza before out of the water. 

He threw a little of this and a little of that together to make the dough.  Here he is stretching it out in the pan.

Added a little olive oil and some homemade sauce we had leftover from when we had homemade pasta a couple of nights before.  Cut up some FRESH mozzarella...

I didn't even know fresh mozzarella would melt like that.  I'm used to the junk Kraft sells already shredded.  Never again.  Added some chopped up onion and pepper...

And fresh basil...

Then he sliced up a couple of the leftover homemade meatballs...

And topped it all off with some Parmesan...

The Master Chef with his artwork.

 How did he do that without a brick oven?!

That is PERFECTION!

Hear that nice crisp crust?

And we had a really nice wine to accompany it.  What a meal!!!

And to think he could create that in a little kitchen that didn't even have a pizza cutter.  ha!  I have to re-arrange my top pizza list now.

1.  Papa B's
2/2a.  Lombardi's/Hideaway
4.  Imo's

5/5a.  Papa John's/Oxford Cafe

7.  Gino's East

I'm such a lucky girl.  I have the best in-laws ever.  Thank you for visiting!!

More KitchenAid cooking

The KitchenAid mixer has still been getting plenty of use.  (Husbands, if you wish your wives would cook more often, simply supply them with awesome kitchen gadgets like this!)  The latest recipes have included meat and sweets (but not together)...  more meatballs, mini meatloaf, chocolate chip cookies, and Mountain Dew cupcakes.

The meatballs are a secret family recipe that I've vowed not to share, but this Cooking Light recipe is a low fat version of meatloaf that I think sometimes tastes like a McDonald's quarter pounder... it's gotta be all of the onions and ketchup/mustard sauce.

  

I'm not sure if I'll keep making my signature Toll House cookies in the mixer.  I think mixing by hand is part of the trick to making them puffy.  They turned out a little flatter than what I'm used to and got drier quicker, but they still tasted pretty awesome.  The look on my husband's face proved he wasn't lying.

The Mountain Dew cupcakes really tasted like the caffeinated citrus beverage, but the icing was very soft and runny.  I have a feeling I didn't add enough powedered sugar, but after my hand starting cramping from sifting I was done.

KitchenAid cooking

I'm still enjoying our new toy.  I can't get enough of it.  I just want to keep mixing things.  So, I recently made s'mores cookies.  I saw a couple of different recipes on pinterest that I sort of combined.  I'm not really sure why they said to refrigerate the dough before baking.  In my opinion, it just made it harder to scoop and form.  You bake the dough on top of the graham crackers.  Here they are going into the oven...

Here they are comin' out of the oven...

They are gooey and stick to your teeth like real campfire s'mores, but I was disappointed.  They didn't rival my popular chocolate chip cookies.  When I pulled them out of the oven they still looked doughy inside.  So I baked them longer.  And they still looked doughy.  So I baked them longer.  And... they were still doughy in the middle.  So I gave up and assumed they bake more like brownies than cookies.

Even though my husband was busy making us breakfast, I wanted to mix some more (not s'more) stuff.  So I pulled out the ingredients for pancakes and threw 'em into the mixer.  Sunday morning I repaid him and made him 8 month chocolate chip anniversary pancakes...

My new initial...

Supposed to be a 21 (for the date), but I ran out of batter...

It was also two special friends' birthdays.  Happy (belated) birthday to the cutest five-year-old I know & to a five-year old at heart?  :)  That's a nice way of not mentioning age, right?

And to finish the night off, we once again made homemade pasta.  This time we tried the "middle-class" recipe (in between the poor man's pasta and rich man's version - basically an adjustment on the amount of eggs in the dough) and cut it into fettuccine.  How is it possible that we never have any left?  I guess it's that good.  We'll put it to the true taste test when my in-laws are in town Labor Day weekend and we make it again.  ...or maybe I can convince my husband we need to "practice" one more time.

Rolo McFlurry

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that correctly.  McDonald's now offers a new flavor on the McFlurry menu, but hurry, it's only for a limited time!  It is pretty random that I even knew this existed because I hardly ever step foot in a McDonald's or place a tire in it's drive-thru.  But, we happened to stop by one day and this heavenly jewel was staring back at us from the menu board.  We had to try it, and it did not disappoint.  But, how could it?  When you mix soft serve vanilla ice cream with Rolo pieces, and a weird plastic spoon with a big hollow stem, it's gotta be good.  I'm just glad they offer it in snack size because my husband is now addicted, and we're making more regular stops for this tasty treat.

He thinks the Rolo is one of the most underrated candies on the market (is it even still on the market?).  It got us discussing overlooked candy and other treats we would like to see chopped up in a McFlurry.  Like Junior Mints.  Or York Peppermint Patties.  And Three Musketeers.  Feel free to comment and add to the list.