fish tacos

Yum.

I'd never deep fried anything before so I'm proud of these. I had a craving for them earlier in the day and tackled them this evening. Success. I combined a few recipes I found on Tastespotting. We use this site a lot for food inspiration and it's worth checking out. If you're not up to making them yourself, hit up Taqueria Del Sol in Atlanta for a mean fish taco and the best fried chicken taco I've had the pleasure of tasting. Props to the Green's for introducing us to Taqueria Del Sol. It's now a favorite of ours.

The next post will not be food related...well...not completely food related - I promise.

Happy New Year!!

the best skittle...

...is the purple Skittle.

Or maybe the red Skittle. Tough call.

recipe sunday no. 2 | beer cheese soup

Okay dish number two:Beer Cheese Soup. Can you tell we're soup people? Overall this was good, but I think we decided that we'd prefer it without all the accessories (carrots, potatoes, etc.) with a smoother consistency. Also, I'm not sure all the beer was cooked out because I was tipsy afterward. Ha. Just kidding, but really, it was pretty potent and probably could have cooked longer. 

recipe sunday no. 1 | onion soup gratinee

I have to admit that, although I really love cooking, I've done little of it since we got married. Not getting home until 6:30 or 7 most nights means that, if I do cook, we don't eat until 8:30, and by the time we're done cleaning up, it's 10pm and that's just exhausting to do every night. We'll get into a good routine, but for now, we're going to start with Recipe Sundays.

Here's the first dish: Onion Soup Gratinee. It was a hit for our taste buds and budget. I used gruyere instead of provolone, & swapped out 2 of the yellow onions for a red and some scallions. I also added some red wine to the mix.

car love.

Aw.

a year ago today...

...Sara and I got engaged - unexpectedly.

I had been trying to plan a way to propose to Sara in January but hadn't quite figured it out. And then this happened:



The video is kind of embarrassing to watch but it's pretty cool too. Sara super surprised me. Last night she said to me, "a year ago, I was keeping a secret"{smiles all around}. She gathered everyone together and raised money to get me a brand new drum set. She did this at a time when I really needed it, as I was contemplating putting my sticks down for good. Everyone came together and showed me support and love. For that, I am truly thankful. For Sara, I am truly thankful {tear}.

Happy birthday Sara. I love you.

happy birthday pete

Today we celebrated Pete's 25th birthday. Good times were had. Here's us enjoying some of Pete's hilarious jokes. What a kidder!
And here's Pete helping Sara decorate the tree. These siblings are always helping each other out!
Happy birthday Pete!

honeymooning continued: pärnu

Sara recently taught me a few of her tricks in Photoshop. Now I'm a little less dependent on her to get pictures sized and edited to look dope. Hooray.

We updated a little from Riga but we never finished sharing Pärnu.

Pärnu is a beach town in Estonia located right of Pärnu Bay in the Baltic Sea. One day it was nice, sunny and windy, the next, it was cold and extremely calm. Check out what the wind did to these trees:

 The water was so calm this day:

In Pärnu we had time to relax and enjoy each other's company. It was very pleasant. We spent most of our days there in coffee shops, at the beach, or resting. There was a local market a block away and since we had a kitchen, we did a lot of cooking ourselves. The market had loads of fresh (and not so fresh) fish and was also well equipped with different meats and sausages, fresh produce, fresh eggs, pickled goods, and cheap clothes. The food was cheap and the atmosphere was fun. Shame I didn't get any pictures of the market, but I have plenty from the Central Market in Riga.

Not too much, not too little. Perfect size.

Just some fun pics:

Sara is working on some really cool design stuff right now. It's keeping her super busy but it is some of her best work yet. I'm blown away every time I see her screen. REALLY good.

Next up: our trip to Riga

furniture re-furb : dining room table

So you might be asking yourself, 

at what sort of table does this couple dine?

Well maybe not, but here it is. Like pretty much everything else in our apartment, it's a hand-me-down to which we added our own little touch. We got the table from Pete + Glo. It was the right size for our dining room and I liked the architecture of it, but the finish was a little icky. 

After using a heat gun to strip off the waxy coating, the wood wasn't in great shape to just do a stain, so we decided to paint it. KC came up with the idea for the place settings, and I painted the sort of reverse-stencil tediously, with help from my mom of course. 

bread machines are for sissies

this weekend i made some dope (crusty on outside chewy on the inside) bread. i'm a sucker for good fresh bread and i was pretty pumped i was able to pull this off. you can too. i did the two day recipe but i plan on experimenting some more.

i enjoyed the loaf with my brother Corey (who i would link to but he's lame and doesn't have anything i can link...or does he??). he brought over some homemade ham balls and we chowed down while discussing movies, computers, and comic books. i don't know how i managed to stay engaged in a comic book discussion....it was probably the wine.

in other news, Sara got new boots, i got a cardigan, the Estonians are awesome (music soon), honeymoon pictures and stories are on their way. also, if your day needs cheering, check out these puppies.