New York Day #2

With all of our luggage packed neatly away in our hotel room we were finally able to hit the streets and see some of the city.

Obstacle #1, convincing Gavin that a coat, gloves and hat were necessary in 24 degree weather. This AZ baby did not want to wear any of them. A few times we let him go without the gloves, when his hands turned purple we made him put them on again.

Look familiar? We thought it was just cook street art, but it was originally designed as a Christmas Card for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964. We've seen it on TV and movies so we had to take our picture with the LOVE sculpture.

*{APPLE}*

Our home away from home. We are Apple lovers through and through. Visiting the very cool Apple Store on 5th Ave. was awesome. As you can see from the first picture the store is actually underground, it's just a glass structure above ground. It was JAM packed, the stroller was a very bad idea, but we made it work.

We spent the afternoon wandering around looking at famous NY buildings, and landmarks. In the afternoon we actually met up with family. No, we don't have any that live in NYC, but ironically we happened to have some visiting at the same time. Congratulations to Ryan & Mandi who got engaged Friday night. We were so happy we were able to be there to celebrate your wonderful news. They are getting married next summer in Paris.

Gavin loves hotel beds - what a nut. He rolled around each day enjoying the blankets and pillows. He had his own portable crib that he slept in each night (well most nights, he snuck in with us a night or two), but he loved playing on this bed.

Leftovers

We don't often blog about food or recipes, but when we do it's because we feel they are VERY worthy. Cooking is something our family LOVES to do together. New recipes is a tradition we attempt to do each week. We are going to start sharing some of our success on the blog, and photos! Realizing food photos are a fun way to practice with the camera, so we're doing 2 things we love.

Most everyone dreads leftovers, but during the holidays we love it. A giant turkey means 3, 4, or 5 more meals I don't have to cook. For Christmas we actually made 2 turkeys so we would definitely have leftovers. We put our second one in the oven as we were sitting down to eat. It was a great idea, plus 2 smaller turkeys cook much faster than one huge one. One thing I should mention, is we always use fresh ingredients when possible and try to make homemade. So you can take any of our recipes and substitute canned/frozen/dried, etc.

Turkey Tostadas with spicy Cranberry-ChipolteSauce

(cut out of Southern Living magazine November issue, but also found at MyRecipes.com)

Makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS
1 large onion, sliced
1 poblano pepper, seeded and sliced
1 large red bell pepper, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups shredded roasted turkey
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt to taste
8 tostada shells
1 cup refried black beans (see recipe below)
Spicy Cranberry-Chipotle Sauce (see recipe below)
1 cup crumbled queso fresco (fresh Mexican cheese)
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
8 lime wedges
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 400°. Sauté first 3 ingredients in hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat 6 to 8 minutes or until onion is golden. Stir in turkey and garlic; cook 2 to 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Season with salt to taste.

2. Bake tostada shells on a baking sheet at 400° for 3 minutes. Spread shells with refried beans; top with turkey mixture. Drizzle with a small amount of Spicy Cranberry-Chipotle Sauce. Sprinkle with queso fresco.

3. Bake at 400° for 10 to 12 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve with fresh cilantro, lime wedges, and remaining sauce.

The Chef

The Ingredients

The Finished Product.
SO GOOD, worth making even if you don't have leftovers.

Refried Beans

(from the Food Network)
INGREDIENTS
One 15 1/2 oz can pinto or black beans, drained & rinsed (we made our own beans)

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2/3 to 1 cup chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
DIRECTIONS
Reserve about a third of the beans. Mash the rest of the beans in a medium bowl with a large fork. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, and cook until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring, until lightly browned. Add the spices and cook until fragrant about 1 minute.
Add the mashed beans and half the broth; cook, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Ad the reserved beans and enough of the remaining broth to loosen up the beans. Simmer until the beans are thick but not pasty, about 2 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the fresh coriander, if desired, and serve.

Spicy Cranberry-Chipolte Sauce

(utilizing leftover cranberry sauce)

Makes about 1 1/3 cup

Microwave 1 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce; 1/3 cup taco sauce; 1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (just 1 pepper, not 1 can) minced; 1 tsp chili powder; 1/2 tsp ground cumin at high for 2-3 minutes or until thickened, sitrring halfway through.

New York Day #1

Our New York Trip was wonderful. We have lots of pictures to share so we'll split them up into different posts.

The first day wasn't exactly spectacular. The plane ride was pretty good, Gavin took a short nap between flights (of course he wouldn't sleep on the plane) and kept most everyone on the plane entertained.

Once we arrived at Laguardia, that's when the real trouble started. Our driver was no where to be found, which ended up being fine because we couldn't find one of our bags...specifically Gavin's bag with diapers, blankets, stuffed animals, food - all the essentials of course. Once we finally found our driver we were headed to Marriott Marquis in Time Square. Right in the middle of the action - awesome.

Gavin's favorite - Elmo on the streets of NYC.

We got settled and headed on foot to Rockefeller Center in hopes to run into some family. Jason's cousin also happened to be there with his family; he was proposing to his girlfriend (she said yes!). It was so romantic and beautiful...well from what we heard. It was so, so, so crowded we never could find them. We were able to meet up with them the next day and hear all about it.

Stranded at the airport waiting for luggage...that never came. It was delivered to our hotel around 3 or 4 am the next day.

Neighborhood Cookie Exchange

This evening Barb is going to a neighborhood cookie exchange. Always a wonderful idea for the holidays. Take a couple dozen...come home with a large variety of delicious sweets. We baked this past weekend and used a new cookie cutter set (early Xmas gift from Renee...thank you) from Williams Sonoma that spells out holiday sayings. It was so cute! Below are the pictures of the cookies we made. Click on the link for the recipes if you like.

Almond Biscotti

Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons

Pine Nut Drops

Williams Sonoma Seasonal

(Christmas cutters are no longer available, but they have a different set for that includes a heart, star, and rectangle)

Talk & Walk

Anytime a phone rings Gavin calls out "Daddy, Daddy" because he assumes Jason is on the phone. If Jason is home and the phone rings then Gavin shouts "Hello, Hello". He loves the telephone and these days if you catch him at the right time he will have a several minute conversation (that sounds Chinese) with you. He has seen Barb on the phone enough that he too knows how to turn on the iPhone (if you have one you understand that it's pretty sophisticated for a 17 month old).

Ow-side, Ow-side, Ow-side. He'll say it over and over and over until he actually gets to go outside. Little man loves the outside, and really loves to walk! As stated in an earlier post he truly is Mr. Independent. He is getting so big, and so vocal it's amazing.

Saturday Holiday Dinner

Last Saturday we had the Links over for dinner - YEAH! We've gone too long since our last dinner date. Either way we always have a great time when we are together. We also seem to always find a camera and take pictures. Gavin got to open his present early, it was a good indicator into what Christmas Day will bring - a baby that really likes paper and boxes :-)

Finally, a great picture of the 3 of us. Usually one of us is behind the camera and we can never get us all together. Thank you Uncle D!!

"Gavin look...paper, paper, paper!! It's so exciting!"

The Socktopus; made from recycled sweaters and so adorable!

Big man of the house chilling on the couch with the grown ups.

Tree Trimming

I don't know how, but this little guy knew what to do with these strands of beaded garland. Well not exactly what to do, he wasn't hanging it on the tree - but he sure played cute with them so I could take some fun photos. Jason wasn't too up on the fact his son was stringing beads around his next, but I thought it was cute. We had fun hanging all of our ornaments! It's always fun to walk down memory lane with the ornaments in the box. Luckily we put our tree up fairly early this year so we've been able to enjoy it. And Gavin hasn't messed with it at all!

I can do it myself!!

Gavin is getting more and more independent each day. This meal he decided he wanted to feed himself. The pictures say it all.

A Day at the Farm

Today we went to Mother Nature's Farm in Gilbert, AZ. It was our first time there, and next year I think we'll be sure to go in October so we can pick our pumpkins. Today was SNOW DAY! They build a big mound of hay and cover it with snow for the kids to play in. It was almost 80 degrees today so there was a LOT of mud; we decided to skip playing in the snow and save that until February in Colorado!! We saw lots of other things and had a some fun family time!

And we're off....

Gavin is all boy, he loved the big tractors. He kept calling them a bus??

Bonked his head inside this so it wasn't really that fun.

A really great hay maze.

Goats that he tried to kiss

What does a cow say Gavin? "Moooooo"

Baby pigs, they were very muddy and stinky!

It was a fun day, we look forward to going back next year!

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

How can this not put a smile on your face? Thanks Lisa for sending it!!

Happy Holidays!!