Kitchen Adventures: Secret Steak

Full Title: Secret Steak & Chips with Garlicky Green Beans = YUM!

Ingredients: Baking Potatoes, Olive Oil, Rosemary, Button Mushrooms, Onion, Heavy Cream, Dijon Mustard, Frozen Green Beans, Flank Steak

We tend to shy away from any recipe that has a cream sauce... Cream sauce never sounds good and is usually unhealthy. This bucks that trend! It is another recipe from Jamie Oliver but this time it is from the Save with Jamie cookbook. It's not that hard to make... bake the "chips" with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. Make the cream sauce with diced onion, only 3 tablespoons of heavy cream and the dijon mustard. Cook up the green beans with some olive oil and garlic. Season the steak with salt and pepper then cook it with a little olive oil and rosemary. Super yummy. A large portion will cost you about 549 calories. Pretty good in my book!

TableTop Fun: Istanbul

A bustling bazaar of fun!

From BoardGameGeek:

There's hustle and bustle at Istanbul's grand bazaar as merchants and their assistants rush through the narrow alleys in their attempt to be more successful than their competitors. Everything must be well organized: wheelbarrows must be filled with goods at the warehouses, then swiftly transported by the assistants to various destinations. Your goal? Be the first merchant to collect a certain number of rubies.

I wasn't sure about this one but it was on Ian's wishlist. You have a stack of tokens representing you and your assistants.. You move them around I would say in a "mancala" style way - dropping them off at different stalls and eventually going back to collect them. The goal is to get to 6 rubies in a 3 player game. I like it. I worry about replayablity <-- not a word but sounds better than "replay value". The setup is random as the tiles get set out in a different order each time.. but you're always using the SAME tiles. I think it would have been better if they added a few more tiles and just limited how many get put down. Still a good game though.

Emma was SUPER cute for this one.

Post Swimming Faces

The Countdown to going back to work has begun.. and I'm starting to acknowledge it! As difficult to wrangle as Emma is, I'm really going to miss our swim classes. She's worn out and happy after them. :')

Reading Time with Emma

I try to capture the times Ian sits down to read with Emma. It's so sweet how she sits cuddled up against him (usually) and is totally engaged in the book... unless it's Curious George. Curiously, she hated that one! :P

This has got to be one of the best times though. Emma had a food incident right before bed. They decided to read books before getting into PJs. Cute!

I'm not sure if Emma was doing it here... but I think Ian passed on his "teapot stance" to her.

Christmas With My Family

It's never too late to write about how Christmas went, is it? :) Before my family came up, my mom shipped gifts to us ahead of time. Ian passed on his "psycho elf" trait to Emma. She made sure we didn't open the boxes without getting confirmation from G-Ma. :P

When G-Ma arrived, Emma and I surprised her at the airport. (I'll skip over the part where Emma and I spent 3+ hours wandering around the arrivals section while G-Ma's plane was delayed!)

Lots of gifts! Santa was good to us this year... the boys were excited. :) 

I made Rice Krispies. Multiple times. There was controversy with the first batch as I added vanilla - apparently not ok with some people. So... because my family is.. my family.. We did a taste test! One batch had vanilla.. one did not. Hey guess what? THE ONE WITH VANILLA WON!!! 

Max helping Uncle Ian play his game.

Speaking of Max... I wonder if this is the reason the Seahawks lost..... :\

We visited the Moose (Moose Winooski's). Cooper tried on the hat!

I couldn't pick just one.. so here are 3 very cute pictures of Emma.

There are more pictures but unfortunately I didn't get them from my sister yet. Christmas 2015 is in Virginia. Can't wait! 

TableTop Fun: The Manhattan Project

That's right... We're mining minerals and building explosives! Wooo!

From BoardGameGeek:

The Manhattan Project makes you the leader of a great nation's atomic weapons program in a deadly race to build bigger and better bombs. You must assign your workers to multiple projects: building your bomb-making infrastructure, expending your military to protect it, or sending your spies to steal your rival's hard work!

I love this game! Yes, the theme is... controversial? But it's presented really well. I don't usually post pictures of components but this game is really nice.

I'm a sucker for nice components and The Manhattan Project is fantastic. Extremely thick cardboard pieces representing your workers. Awesome graphics that put a softer edge to the topic of building bombs. I don't think I've mastered the game play yet but I've had a ton of fun playing it. There's air strikes, espionage, bomb tests... LOVE it! 

Sadly, this was played around the time that Emma had the bed falling incident.. her nose is a little rough. :P

A Little Canadian

Ian picked out this outfit for Emma awhile back. I think she rocked it. Especially with the wannabe Uggs. :P

I Want A New Phone!

I know.. I know... I shouldn't whine about the phone I have... but come on! The camera on my phone sucks... how good would this picture have been if I had a better phone! *grumble* 

Time Flies

I can't believe these pictures and video were taken in mid-November. Seems like yesterday. Crazy!

TableTop Fun: Rampage

Now known as "Terror in Meeple City" - I like Rampage better. :P

From BoardGameGeek:

In Terror in Meeple City (formerly known as Rampage), you arrive in Meeple City as a gigantic, famished, scaly-skinned monster! Your goal: Dig your claws and dirty paws into the asphalt, destroy buildings, and devour innocent meeples – in short: sow terror while having fun. The monster who has caused the most damage after the carnage finally ends wins the game.

This was our first dexterity game. Simply put - you take your wooden monster, hold it straight out, and drop it onto buildings made of cardboard floors and meeples (see below). You then count up the meeples your monster "ate"... any meeples that fell off the board make you lose teeth. AWESOME. It's silly and fun, with some strategy mixed in. The goal is to collect sets of colored meeples and any other goal from your character card.

Emma was ready to Rampage.