Ryan and Liz’s Weekend Eats

You’ve already heard about our delicious dinner at Erin’s restaurant… but I thought you might like to see a few more pictures from our childless weekend. 

After I taught Zumba Thursday night, we met for a late dinner at The Red Bowl.  I couldn’t decide what to get, but ended up with sushi and Pad Thai Noodles…

On Saturday, I got up early to watch the Today Show.  My sister and her husband and some of their friends were in New York and they were going to attempt to get on TV outside NBC.  They were successful!  My sister’s friend Ellen was even selected to ask Hoda and kelly Pickler (guest host standing in for Kathy Lee) a question! 

 

Ellen is in the front on the left (green and blue stripes) and you can see half of my sister Meredith—in black and white stripes.  After the Today show aired on Friday, Today posted this pic via Instagram!  So fun!

(By the way, if you are on Instagram, you can follow me-- “couchpotatoliz” to see what I am up to each day!  Many of the pics you see in this post are Instagram pics.)

The weather was beautiful, so we enjoyed shopping at some local outdoor spots.  We also stopped by and traded in Ryan’s Blackberry for an iPhone.  It’s so funny how… just a few years ago… Blackberries were a very “cutting-edge” technology.  And now… not so much.  The hubby is having fun learning how to use it and find apps that he likes. 

On Saturday morning, I headed to Charlotte for a quick workshop on Cueing and Breakdown of Zumba moves.  Thios is one of the most challenging parts of being a Zumba instructor.  You have to be able to not only KNOW the routines backwards and forwards, but you also need to  be able to cue every move ahead of time, and break down the moves so that anyone can follow them.  Sound hard?  Well, it is.  Our company works hard to try and make sure all our instructors are able to do these things really well. 

After the workshop, Ryan came to meet me and we grabbed lunch at Lebowski’s. 

Fried pickles…

and a Jerk-Style burger.

YUM.

We decided to keep it low-key for dinner.  We ended up at another Asian Bistro, Liu Liu’s.  We couldn’t decide what we felt like, so we had appetizers for dinner:

lettuce wraps, calamari, California roll, and a Crunchy Tuna Roll.

And a cocktail.  :) Cosmopolitan.

So… we weren’t productive at all on our long weekend, but as you can see, we ATE really well and we enjoyed the time together. 

Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

Oh my goodness.  I have such exciting news to share.  I have been waiting almost 2 weeks to share this news with you. 

On Friday, my sister Adrienne got up and went to work, not knowing it would be the most memorable day of her life to this point.  In the middle of the day, her boyfriend Paul surprised her by proposing to her!  I am telling you… it was like something out of a movie.  Her students held up signs that said, “Mrs. W, will you marry me?”  Of course, she said yes and was soooo excited!  I am so excited for them. 

We had a little celebration party for them on Friday night.

Food and Champagne

Adrienne loves Skinnygirl Margaritas… so my other sister Meredith and her husband designed this cute label.

Adrienne’s reaction at her little surprise celebration… she didn’t know Ryan, Sadie, and I would be there… or my parents!

I cannot wait to see when and where they decide to get married.  I can’t believe my youngest sister will be married soon! 

Don’t they make a cute couple? 

So everything else about this weekend seems kind of boring now.  But… memorial Day weekend always brings the opening of pools everywhere… so that’s where we spent our day today. 

(ok… just me being weird.  But it’s so cute how little girls walk around with “baby wedgies” isn’t it?)

Last summer, it took Sadie about 1 1/2 months to get up enough courage to go down this blue slide, but today she ran right up the steps and went right down!  She played for 3 hours straight… and I mean NON stop.  She cried when it was time to leave.  I remember how going to the pool was the absolute best thing in the world.  I still kind of feel that way!  Summer is so much fun.

Tonight we decided to have breakfast for dinner.  Sadie helped me prepare this meal. 

She loves helping in the kitchen.  I think it’s so important to get kids involved in the kitchen.  Once I saw an episode of a show with Jamie Oliver, a chef.  I think it was called “Food Revolution.”  He was in a town that had a very high level of obesity, diabetes, etc.  He was in a school and was holding up different fruits and veggies, and asking the kids if they knew what each one was.  I will never forget that episode.  I couldn’t believe the kids couldn’t identify things like potatoes, cucumbers… how sad.  It was mainly because they had never seen those foods being prepared or in their natural state.

Speaking of natural… I’m so excited.  I’ve got a loaf of bread baking right now and this house smells heavenly.  I always wanted a bread machine, and a few weeks ago, I found one in my grandparents’ basement.  I brought it home to try it out.  This is my first bread recipe.  I can’t wait to taste it!

Ok… so a little teaser.  I’ve got a summer blog project that I think I will really enjoy… and I hope you will too.  The project will be revealed tomorrow… but here’s a little preview photo. 

Can you guess my summer blog project???  Leave a comment if you think you know! 

POM Dinner Party Recap # 2: Cocktails, Mocktails, Drinks, and Appetizers!

If you're just joining me, I'm recapping my POM Wonderful Dinner Party! Click here to view my previous post about preparations and decorations!

Now... on to appetizers and drinks!

Don't you love appetizers?  It's one of my favorite parts of a dinner party.  Fun drinks run a close second! :)

For my POM Dinner Party, I decided to make two pomegranate-starring appetizers:

• Creamy Goat Cheese and Pom-Stuffed Celery
• Pom Salsa with Baked Tortilla Chips

Both of these recipes are from the POM Wonderful web site.  Originally, I had planned for one more pom appetizer, but then I decided that two were enough.  I knew we had a LOT of food coming, and I wanted to make sure we would still be hungry for dinner!

I LOVED the stuffed celery.  Click here to view this recipe.  I changed it just slightly.  I used 2 oz. of goat cheese and mixed that with a block of light cream cheese.  This made the texture a little creamier and just slightly sweeter.  The little pomegranate arils on top were perfect with the cheese mixture.  It added a pop of tangy but sweet flavor in each bite.

The Pom Salsa recipe also came from the POM Wonderful web site.  Click here to view this recipe.  I wasn't sure about this recipe when I made it.  I was thinking, "How sweet will this salsa be?  Will I LIKE sweet salsa?"  The answer is YES.  I LOVED it.  It wasn't over-the-top sweet, like fruit salsas sometimes are.  It was tangy, sweet, and it had just a little heat from the chopped jalapeno peppers.  And how beautiful is this salsa?  So colorful!

Now... on to the drinks!

We had one cocktail, one "mocktail," and Pomegranate Lemonade!

Our cocktail was a pomegranate martini.  How can you go wrong with that?  I didn't measure these out exactly.  I used lemon-infused vodka, Pomegranate juice, and a splash of orange juice.  Delish!

Our "mocktail" was a "Fizzy Pom." 

Originally, I planned to make this a shot, but then realized I would need a lot of little shot glasses (which I don't have... think I threw those out when I cleaned out my dorm room... LOL) so... it became a mocktail!  All I did for this was mix ginger ale with a splash of pomegranate juice.  I think this would be great with champagne in lieu of the ginger ale, too.  Next time I will try that!

I also decided to make fresh-squeezed pomegranate lemonade. 

To make the lemonade, use the 1-cup method:
1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Start by making a simple syrup.  Add the sugar to boiling water.  Stir until it is dissolved.  Then add the lemon juice.  This is your concentrate.  To that, just add 4 more cups of cold water.  Now you've got perfect lemonade.  Then add 8 oz. of pomegranate juice to turn it into pomegranate lemonade.  That's all there is to it! 

Now... on to the main course! Stay tuned...