Recently

Recently...we have been busy. I got a job, working with mommies and babies again. This time at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. People refer to this place as "The U." I woke up entirely too early this week to attend orientation that feels never ending. I have several more weeks of day shift then I'm going back to the dark side. In at 11p out at 7a. This is a contact through the end of the year, so if I hate it there will be an end in sight. I'm going to miss snuggling my honey at night. Brings back memories when we were first married, trying to figure out how to be a wife, yet asleep all day. It made the time I was at home even more special.

Gabe is in production week of Cosi Fan Tutti. He is covering a role, so he is able to sit and enjoy the performances, but has to be ready at any moment to go on. I'm going to see the show this weekend. The rest of our weekend will be spent watching General Conference, cooking, baking, relaxing, with a little bit of exercise thrown in somewhere. What are you doing this weekend??

On an unrelated note...

The other day we were in my most favorite place of all, Target, when Gabe stumbled upon the xbox. I perused for awhile, came back to see him and started chatting with him about buying a TV. Shortly after he said, "Honey, I know you're wanting to talk to me right now, but I'm trying to find Darth Vader."

He was totally serious. So I stopped to take a picture so that I could give him a hard time later then went and got a refill of diet coke. I think we both ended up happy.

reminisce

I realize now that one year ago I had a love affair with Louisville, KY. I think about that place a lot. I loved walking around downtown everyday. I was sewing and reading, we were making friends and seeing new sites. Let's reminisce shall we....

See what I mean? Pretty awesome.

photo shoot

Last night Gabe was part of a photo shoot for the world premiere of Silent Night,  The opera is about the WWI armistice on Christmas Day. The photographer brought us to this really cool part of the city in the mill district right next to the river. It was the site of an old mill that they have kept around for historical purposes, and for photo shoots of course. :) It will be on the cover of Minneapolis Monthly, a local magazine. Hopefully we'll get a copy so I can share the final pics with you.

Since we were down there I took a few shots of him, for possible headshots. I wasn't thrilled with them, but I learned a little bit about shooting at dusk. I'd love to take a bunch more. This was one of the better ones, but still a little out of focus.

This picture reminded me of another pic I love of him, taken 5 years and 9 months ago.

What a sexy dude. Over and out.

a giant

Earlier this week we made the decision to get some produce from the farmers market downtown on Thursday. I have a great recipe for stuffed zucchini and I was excited to make it again. Thursday morning Gabe went to work and soon after came home with a GIANT zucchini from his coworker's garden. GIANT. ENORMOUS.

(that is one of the largest cookbooks I have)

My first reaction was WOW, then um...what am I going to to with this thing. The recipe calls for 4 medium zucchinis. This whole thing was way bigger then 4 zucchinis. Maybe 6. Gabe basically challenged me to make it work since it was huge and free. Boiling it was a joke. I had to keep rotating it, then flip it to make sure the whole thing would soften. Overall though, it turned out pretty good. I just had to double the filling.

 I mean, for real. HUGE.

Here's the yummy recipe

4 med zucchini, about 2 lbs.

salt

pepper

3 tb EVOO

1 med onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 c freshly grated pecorino romano

2 tsp minced thyme or oregano

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 tb bread crumbs

1.Bring several quarts of water to a boil in large saucepan. Simmer zucchini until they offer just a little resistance when pierced (about 6 min). Drain and cool. Trim the ends and slice zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and some surrounding flesh. The zucchini should still be about a 1/2 inch thick in most places.

2.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat 2 tb olive oil in pan. Add onion and sautee for 5 min. Stir in garlic and cook additional 2 min.

3. In a seperate bowl place onion mixture, ricotta and pecorino cheeses, thyme, egg, salt and pepper to taste. Mix together. Divide filling among hollowed out zucchini.

4. Add remaining olive oil to a baking dish. Arrange in a single layer. Sprinkle bread crumbs over filling.

5. Bake 40-50 min. Then, you're done!

We did still make it to the farmers market. Here are some pretty flowers we picked up for $5. I was able to split it and make two arrangements. Flowers definitely made our place more homey. 

A sports town

The first week we were here our hosts, the Wilson's, took us to our first ever Minnesota Twins game. We all devoured the stadium food. Sooooo yummy. The Twins lost unfortunately but it was still a blast. Target Field was amazing! It's practically brand new. I forgot my camera so the phone pics will have to do. We hope we get a chance to go again before it gets too cold.

He was just a little bit excited!

Then when I went to Orlando Gabe scored a great deal on pre-season Minnesota Vikings tickets. He was on the third row and payed $17!! He was PUMPED!!! The best part, they played the Houston Texans! Gabe became a huge fan when we lived there. He even wore his Texan's jersey and he said the six other Texans fans there came up to him and talked like they were buddies. He was able to see Christian Ponder (former FSU QB) play three quarters of the game, but Matt Shaub didn't play for the Texans so he was kind of bummed about that. Overrall you could call that one heck of a week for Gabe. Two pro athlete games in his first week in Minnesota!

Pics from inside the Metrodome. He walked there from our apt. (Fireworks for every TD!)

Showered with Love

My Aunt Carol is getting married in December. I was home just recently and was able to attend her shower. My Aunts know how to throw a party for sure! All the details were so sweet and meticulous!

(Shower games by Casey and Aunt Marie)

(Opening gifts)

Congratulations Aunt Ca and Dennis!

Our digs

Just a few pics of our place and our view. We're liking the downtown lifestyle so far! Reminds us a lot of living in Lousville, KY but on a much bigger scale! And...if you remember our digs, they are much improved from Louisville, although we're still in a loft space. It's a lot less to clean for sure. The kitchen laminate floor is like a 2x5 space. Last night I was like "oh how about I clean the kitchen floor. ok, done."

Yippee

...and the choirs of angels sang when I walked into a multi-level Target four blocks from where we live.

Busy week!

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of updates. We finally found a place in Minneapolis and a few hours after we moved in I flew back home for the weekend. I was supposed to come home for my hs reunion which has been postponed (insert eye roll here) but luckily it happened to be the same weekend as my Aunt Carol's wedding shower. So, the visit has been great but I still feel exhausted from the last two weeks. Gabe has been so sweet to organize our new place while I've been away. As soon as I get home and we get the internet figured out I'll post more pics. Love to you all!

I attached a picture of our view of Minneapolis. We're in a loft on the 26th floor.