Valentine's Day at The Cooperage Inn & Eric and Patti's Engagement Party

Tom and I had a very nice Valentine's Day.  I started my day at school with roses waiting on my desk and a sweet card from Tom.  I had a fun day with my kindergartners and the parents were so generous that I got boxes and boxes of chocolate. I said aloud, "I got enough chocolate that I could eat if for a year and I still wouldn't run out."  One of my lovely students looked up at me and said, "Well it is better than if you eat it all in one day, otherwise you will get really, really fat."  I also was treated to a rendition of "Let it Go" from Frozen sung by all the girls in my class at recess.  It was so funny how well they knew all of the words and hand movements.  I felt very  loved by my Kindergartners and it was a pleasure to share part of my day with them.

At night Tom stopped by my father-in-law's house where he was watching our nephews.  They were so cute and the older one was amazed at how I could cut out a perfect heart from a piece of paper.  I was glad to get some nephew love before Tom and I headed out for our Valentine's dinner.








If you have never been to the Cooperage Inn in Baiting Hollow, you are surely missing out.  And if you have been there, you will agree that it is AMAZING!  Tom and I first went there the night we got engaged.  It is so nicely decorated and it has such a homey, yet fancy feel to it.  Good thing Tom made a reservation because it was packed!  We were seated at a cute little table for two nestled into a corner.   We decided to go all out and have numerous courses for our meal.  We started with a tomato and mozzarella appetizer.  Then, Tom ordered the stuffed shrimp and I had the brown sugar rubbed rib-eye.  We ended our meals with a chocolate chip, heart shaped, brownie dessert with a scoop of raspberry ice-cream.  It was an absolutely delicious meal from start to finish.  I genuinely enjoy eating dinner with my husband.  Even though we eat together practically every single night of our lives, we never seem to run out of things to talk about.  We enjoyed talking about all of our hopes and dreams for our new house and I think we both still can't believe its ours.  If you have never been to the Cooperage Inn, I strongly suggest you try it!  And next time you go, feel free to stop by our house, we are lucky enough to have it right around the corner.

Going right along with my love theme of this post, I wanted to mention that this past weekend was my brother Eric and his fiancee Patti's engagement party.  I couldn't be happier for the two of them and can't wait for their wedding this October.  I am so happy and honored that they asked both Tom and I to be in the wedding party.  Their engagement party was truly a celebration.  I am so happy that they found each other.  Eric and Patti just seem to get each other.  I love how Patti compliments my brother's personality.  He can be so logical and he's so smart, so I am happy that he found someone who can enjoy him and bring out the best in him.  I have seen such a different side of my big brother since Patti came on the scene.  She brings out a softer, sweeter side of him that I feel like has really made us closer these past few years.  A couple of days ago, I went with Patti and her other bridesmaids to get our bridesmaid dresses.  She really has wonderful friends and I know it is because she is wonderful herself.  After shopping, Tom and I went out to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner with them (another new restaurant near my new home).  I really enjoyed hanging out with them and I hope the four of us will make many memories as family and friends in the years to come.

Overall, Valentine's Weekend 2014 was a great one.  Here is a link to the Cooperage Inn, in case you want to give it a try http://www.cooperageinn.com/

Home cooked meals

My  new kitchen is officially set up!  We still have so much unpacking to do, but getting the kitchen functional was really important to me.  Eating out was really starting to get old, and I have been eager to try out some new recipes.  Here are the first 3 I tried:

1)  Broiled Tilapia Parmesan- this recipe is one of the ones I cut out of a All Recipes magazine.  I have never cooked fish before, so this was a new challenge for me.  I was also a bit hesitant because growing up we always had a gas stove.  My apartment and our house both have electric stoves.  I miss my gas stove because I am always making everything boil over on the electric cook tops.  Hopefully, I'll get used to it, but I would love to someday get a gas line and go back to the type of stove I grew up on.  The reason I am mentioning this difference is I recently learned that the broiler on a gas stove is quite different from an electric one.  Our broiler at home was in the drawer at the bottom of the stove.  However, on an electric oven it is at the top of the oven, on top of your top rack!  Who knew?  Thank goodness for my sister-in-law who showed me how it's done.   So, back to the fish.  It was actually super easy to do and it came out so moist and flaky!  This is a recipe I will definitely make for us again.


1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 TBSP lemon juice
3 TBSP mayo
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp celery salt
2 pounds tilapia filets

1. Preheat the broiler.  Grease a broiler pan or line with foil.
2.  In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, butter, mayo and lemon juice.  Season with basil, pepper, onion powder, and celery salt.  Mix well and set aside.
3. Arrange fillets in a single layer on the prepared pan.  Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes.  Flip them over and broil for a couple more minutes.  Remove from the oven and cover with cheese mixture on the top side.  Broil for 2 more minutes or until the topping is browned and the fish flakes easily.

Overall, we really enjoyed my first attempt at homemade seafood!  And now, as an added bonus,  I know how to use the broiler.

2) Pasta Primavera- This meal was also pretty easy to make.  I changed up the original recipe and used tri-color tortellini, instead of the suggested fusilli.



2 packages of tricolor tortellini
4 cups of broccoli florets
3 carrots sliced thinly
1 red bell pepper cut into strips
4 TBSP cold, unsalted butter
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup of chicken broth
salt
pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 TBSP parsley
juice of 1/2 lemon

1. Cook the pasta as directed.  Add broccoli, carrots, and bell pepper during the last 3 minutes of the pasta cooking.
2.  Make the sauce while the pasta cooks: Heat 2 TBSP butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic and cook, stirring until it begins to soften.  Add the broth, salt and pepper.  Bring it to a simmer and cook until slightly reduced, about 3 minutes.  Whisk in remaining butter, until melted and the sauce thickens, about 1 more minute.
3.  Pour the sauce over the pasta and vegetables.  Add the cheese, parsley, and lemon juice.  Cook over low heat, stirring until the cheese melts about 1 minute.  Season with salt and pepper and top with more cheese.

We liked this a lot!  It was fun to have a pasta that was different from my usual tomato sauce!

3) Chicken with Peaches & Orzo- This recipe was from Better Homes & Gardens.  It claims to cost only $3.29 a serving, which sounds good to me!


8oz orzo
1 lb of chicken
peaches cut into wedges
2 TBSP olive oil
4 oz of feta cheese

1.  Cook orzo as directed.
2.  Lightly brush chicken and peaches with the oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  You can either grill it for 4 to 6 minutes or fry it in a pan.  I fried it in a pan since it was snowing out (just like everyday lately), and I used my meat thermometer to make sure it was cooked thoroughly.
3.  In a large bowl, combine the orzo, chicken, and peaches.  Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle the feta cheese on top.

The peaches and feta had such a unique taste together.  The sweetness of the peaches combined with the saltiness of the feta created a really nice combination.

So I asked Tom to please rate my new recipes from 1 to 5 stars so my blog readers could decide if they were worth trying.  He says all three recipes deserved 5 stars.  Even with repeated prompting to be honest, he's still claiming they all deserve a five.  So you will have to decide for yourselves!  That is why I love cooking for Tom so much, he always eats everything happily!  And my dad went home with some of the leftovers today, and he too is a great eater of anything I make!

Our New House

42 Donna Drive...42 Donna Drive has consumed our hopes and dreams for the past seven months. Tom and I have been working hard and saving since we've been married towards our first house.  I enjoyed our first two years of being newlyweds in our apartment, but I know we both wanted something more.  Tom was never really an apartment kind of guy.  He hated the common parking lot and was dying for a backyard.  I had visions of holiday family dinners around a dining room table, and bedrooms filled with future children.

So we started checking out areas our first summer in the apartment.  We knew we wanted to live further out East because we love the country and we wanted a big piece of property.  We put an offer in last April on a little starter ranch in Manorville.  We really thought that house was "the one" and we were devastated when we were out bid.  It only had 1 bathroom, lacked my dining room, and it didn't have all the items on our "wish list" but we thought that was the best we could do.  Tom had his eye on 42 Donna Drive soon after that house didn't work out, but we thought it was outside of what we were capable of making happen.  We asked our Realtor in July if we could just "go see it."  We figured what could it hurt and maybe she would know of similar properties that were more doable.  She took us to see it that very same day, and our hearts
and minds were made up.

42 Donna Drive exceed the wish list.  It had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dining room, a living room, a full basement, a two car garage, and a bonus loft space.  The property is about 3/4 of an acre and there are no houses behind it, so it looks out into the wilderness.  This house was a short sale and while we knew they can take longer, we thought it was worth the wait.  I won't put my blog readers through the six months of torturous waiting that we endured, but it was a roller coaster ride.  We almost got outbid by a cash offer, then they miraculously dropped out.  Then, it took forever for us to get "in contract" with the homeowner, because she was an older woman and fairly immobile.  We were officially in contract in August, and hoped for smooth sailing. Our lease was ending October 28th, but we felt we had plenty of time.  While waiting for final bank approval, we collected and submitted pages and pages of documents to our mortgage company.  I had a battle at work over the wording in my employment verification because my school had underpaid me.  Tom sold one of his trucks and had to have the paperwork involving that worded just right.  We tried to play by all of the mortgage brokers rules and we got approved for our mortgage.  Then, the bank finally answered us late November (we took a three month lease extension), and the answer was yes, but they wanted a lot more money.   Our lawyer and the seller's lawyer went to bat for us, and by going up a little in price, we finally had bank approval.  Our new lease end date was January 28th and quickly approaching.  On top of that, Tom started a new job the week of the closing, which long term we think will be great for us, but it complicated our mortgage to have this change so close to the finish line.  Then, the snowy winter almost delayed things further, but finally on January 23rd, we closed and got the keys to our new home!  We can not express enough our gratitude to everyone who supported us, helped us, prayed for us, and loved us along the way.  This truly is the house that we intend to be in forever!

So as I sit near Tom on our couches in our new living room, surrounded by boxes, I couldn't be happier.  I can't believe our dream came true!  We can't wait to finish unpacking and start some projects to make it our own.  I am trying to clean and unpack as much as possible, and Tom's first project is working on our loft.  He is re-doing the taping and spackle, then we are going to paint.  After that we want to re-carpet it and put some fun furniture up there.  We love the loft because it is cozy and overlooks our yard.  Our nephews love having it as their secret hideaway and we know we are all going to have some fun up there.  Here are some before pictures of our dream come true... can't wait to blog along the way as we make our house seem more like Tom and Jamie.

 Covered in snow

 Garage/Back Yard

 Our new neighborhood

 The Loft

 Our little piece of the country (our backyard)

 Master bathroom

 Bedroom 1

 Bedroom 2

 Bedroom 3

 Basement

 Bathroom 2

 Kitchen

 Bay window in the kitchen

 I guess Tom is showing how rough the floor is in this "before" shot

 Other side of the kitchen

 Dining Room

 Carpets (can't wait to replace these!)  I guess another "before" shot

 Tom working on the loft