Sunday, May 30, 2010

Memorial Day Weekend 2010


Art and Tweedy's backyard

Every Memorial Day the family heads down to Art and Tweedy's house on Lake Freeman in Monticello, Indiana. Yesterday, we did just that and we had a gorgeous day! On the way, however, Rob and I decided (well, I decided) to stop at a pet shop called Hungry Hounds for an ice cream social. Francis "chose" peanut butter and honey ice cream and boy, did she love it!

Francis in the car, enjoying the sights with a full belly of ice cream

Ben, Elizabeth, and Andrew spent the day swimming, fishing, tadpole hunting, and catching minnows by the sand bank. The men (Art, John, Donald, Eric, Nick, and Rob) were usually down by the water with the kids while the ladies (Debbie, Tweedy, Sam, Chis, and I) typically stayed closer to the house where it was cooler. Us girls spent the day chatting and loving on Daphne and Delilah, Sam and Eric's adorable twin girls (5 months).

Me and Daphne

Eric with Daphne and Sam with Delilah

Aunt Jamie and Uncle Rob with Daphne and Delilah

John enjoying the hammock

We had a yummy lunch with chicken and lots of snacks and then a dinner with a fantastic pork tenderloin! I was so full by the time we left there! We did a lot of relaxing and spending time together yesterday. We all enjoy going to Art and Tweedy's - it's like a little mini one-day vacation, away from everything! We can't wait to go back around July 4th and Labor Day!

Daphne's foot :c )

Mom getting Delilah to sleep

Sam and Eric with Daphne in her adorable hat!

Art and John hanging out while workin' on that tenderloin! mmm!

Dama Debbie with Daphne

Delilah - asleep on Mommy

Francis being a very patient and good girl while I held Daphne

Getting Daphne to sleep

And before I end, let's not forget why we have Memorial Day. I have a few friends who are Marines and have been to Iraq to fight for our freedom. They, among others, have risked (and many sacrificed) their lives for ours. Without our troops and those brave men and women throughout our country's history, we wouldn't be able to have such a wonderful weekend by the lake.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Our Kitchen!

WOW! Two posts today - and it's only 9 am! I just had to add in about our awesome kitchen! Rob, with the extra efforts of his dad, John and brother-in-law, Nick, put in the kitchen floor! It looks FANTASTIC! We started re-vamping the kitchen about 8 months ago, or so. We painted the walls yellow - I love the color. We didn't want to do too much because we loved the countertops and the cabinets are in pretty good shape. So next, we re-did the backsplash and even added it to a few other walls in the kitchen. It's like a small brick pattern. I love it! Then we changed out the light fixtures (and took out the ceiling fan) and added handles to all of the cabinets and drawers (that small change made a huge difference). Finally, last week, Rob put in the kitchen floor and it looks so beautiful! I LOVE OUR NEW KITCHEN! Good work! John, thanks for your help! And Nick - you are awesome for giving up your entire day to help Rob. You guys did fantastic work!

Isn't it beautiful?!

Just another side of the kitchen - showing the new light fixture and some more of the backsplash and handles.

Turducken Day!

So my friend Maria and I have been discussing the idea of making a turducken for about 3 years now. Well, as Maria says, "Some people dream about life, others live it." And that's exactly what we did! We put together a small "dinner party" where everyone was responsible for a side, salad, or dessert and Maria and I took a "STAB" at this bird beast. I am sure you are all aware of what a turducken is, but if not, let me explain. A turducken is a large turkey that is stuffed with a duck and then with a chicken, all with layers of stuffing in between (and you KNOW we used gluten-free cornbread stuffing!). Hmm...I guess that makes this project even more impressive...not only did we make a turducken, but we made a gluten-free turducken! Nice!
We had a lot of trouble finding a butcher who was willing to prepare all of the meat for us, but in the end, we found someone for the job! We asked for a de-boned turkey with only the wings and leg bones in and then to make it a little easier, we got duck and chicken breasts.

The birds!

So we were feeling confident and got started at about 1:00 and made the stuffing. While that was cooking, we decided to open up the turkey to see what we were working with (by the way, we watched some Paula Deen videos before we got busy!). WELL, WELL, WELL.....we opened up that turkey and did it look like the turkey Paula had? NO! It was cut completely different AND they left the back bone in!!!!! What were we going to do? Well....it's a good thing I have mad knife skills...I went to work.

Knife skills at work...just call me, Surgeon Jamie

We eventually got the darn bone out and we were good to go! We began layering with seasoning, stuffing, duck, seasoning, stuffing, chicken, seasoning, and stuffing! We had to improvise a bit to close it because of the way it was cut open - but no problem for us - we were pros by now! We closed it up, tied the legs and wings together and closed up the bottom end...using wood skewers! That's all we had! But hey, it worked!

Maria putting the last layer in - pretty FOWL, huh? :c )

At this point, it was about 2:30 and we put some seasoning and butter under the skin. We put it in the oven at 500 degrees for 15 minutes and then 325 degrees for 4 more hours. It was a long wait...but SO worth it! There were 6 of us for dinner, one more came later to enjoy the wonderful-ness! We were starving by dinner time but once we tasted it...oh my gosh! Delish!

YUMMY!

Rob "carving" our masterpiece!

I can't even explain how awesome this bird was. The skin was crispy and the meat literally fell off the bones...you didn't even need a knife to cut the meat, it just fell apart. I have to say, if you are brave enough to attempt this...you WON'T be sorry! And we all agreed, the duck was probably the best part of the entire thing!
We had a fantastic evening. It was so much fun! I am SO proud of Maria and myself. We were nervous at first but it came together and I love feeding people good food (hey, I'm Italian, what can I say!). And the best part of all, we made some pretty awesome memories yesterday!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Finally gettin' it!

Aunt Mell and Uncle Joe

Francis Eloise


Well, well, well! I'm finally getting the hang of this blogging thing! I finally posted a picture of Rob and I for our profile picture. That picture was taken in Denver when we went in April. We had the best time out there, visiting my Aunt Mell and Uncle Joe. We can't wait to go back. We went to Boulder, Estes Park, The Red Rocks, Mount Evans, Roxbourough Park, just to name a few! It is so beautiful out there! I am also going to include a picture of a very important part of our family - our puppy, Francis Eloise. She just turned three on May 7. I can't believe she is three ALREADY! We love her so so much!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Our first blog!


Well, this is our very first blog! We decided to create a blog to keep family and friends close to us even if we can't physically be with each other as often as we'd like. And considering we got this AWESOME new macbook from Rob's parents for our wedding gift, blogging couldn't be easier! We want to use this to tell our story, The Healy Story, even if it's little updates on what we've been doing. We'll post pictures as much as we can, too.
Today is Mother's Day and we had an awesome day. We started with brunch and John and Debbie's house. It was fantastic with VERY delicious food! Then later on, we went to dinner at the Princess Cafe with my parents and grandparents - again, yummy food! We got the mommas flowers and I made homemade body scrubs. I hope they turned out okay! I'll try and upload a picture of the cute jar later this week.
Well, that's all for now! Nighty night!