A New Blog Addition!! Happy Eating!!

A new blog addition, introducing Happy Eating! David and I make some pretty awesome food together and we thought we would share with you all what we are up to in the kitchen. I also was a little envious about Ann (David's sister) and her new blog feature "Caturday" about her new cats, having no pets to blog about I will talk about yummy food instead.

Last Saturday David and I went to the farmers market and purchased some pretty cool stuff. For dinner Saturday night (photo above) we grilled a huge T-bone steak which we split, made smashed purple Peruvian potatoes with horseradish imported from Shawano. For the veg we cooked a French apple sausage in some olive oil and then tossed a ton of yellow swiss chard is the sausage. The bread is from Le Petit, and the wine is Elizabeth Spencer Cab.

In this months bon appetit magazine they gave Thomas Keller's fried chicken recipe form his restaurant ad hoc in napa. The restaurant was our favorite when we lived in napa last year, and we adored the fried chicken, so we just had to make some for ourselves. Sunday we had fried chicken with the left over purple potatoes and chard. Served with a delicious Big Sky IPA beer it was quite a meal.

In addition David has been a pickle making machine this past week! He has made bread and butters, harbin dills (a spicy dill pickle), spicy pickled carrots called firecrackers, and curry pickled cauliflower. The last two are refrigerator pickles so we are already enjoying the pickled carrots.

Hope all is well with everyone and happy eating this week!

love
Abby

Abby's New Job

What a view, right? So as this beautiful picture suggests that dark cloud that surrounded my employment has lifted and I found a new happy job. I am working at a bakery in Missoula about 5 minutes from our house. Its a really fun job and I'm learning a ton about bread baking. The website for the bakery is www.lepetitoutre.com. I'm working the same hours (ish) as David so we are both soo much happier. My boss said I was doing an awesome job.

In other news, my mom and dad came to Missoula last weekend. Dad and David braved the heat wave and went white water rafting, while Mom and I shopped the Missoula boutiques and had a delicious Mexican lunch. We had a blast and it was sad to see them go on Sunday.

I hope all is well with everyone!
xoxoxo
Abby

Lots to catch up on!

Well, we've been hearing that people still check our blog and want us to keep posting, so here goes. (We're not at all sure that we're interesting enough to keep blogging, so read at your own risk.)

After the wedding, which was pretty much the most fun we've ever had, we had to face reality and find jobs. I (David) posted my resume online and found a job with Big Sky Brewing in Missoula, MT. We packed up our stuff again and drove to Missoula, and I started work one week after the day they offered me the job. I'm really enjoying my job; it's a great group of people and I get to make about 3300 gallons of beer every day.

Abby found seasonal work at a luxury camping resort outside of town, but is still looking for another job for when this one ends. She's got promising leads with a local bakery and another restaurant here in town.

We spent our first week living in a hotel room while we were looking for somewhere to live. We found a great apartment on the south side of town and were able to move in after a week. Here are some photos.

First, our kitchen with a bit of our dining table visible at the bottom.

This is a view of our living room with the other side of the dining table visible.

This is our couch and coffee table. I included this photo because I'd like to point out the incredible tiling job that Abby did on this table. We got it without any insert for $5 at a thrift store, and Abby tiled and grouted it herself. It is my favorite piece of furniture in the house.

Next is the master bedroom and spare bedroom/office space.

Here is a shot of our porch and the view from the porch. We have chairs, a table, and our grill out here.

Finally, for house pictures, here is the autographed lyrics of Take the Money and Run from Steve Miller that I got from Wade and Ali for my birthday last year. I'm thrilled to have it displayed in the house.


Today, Abby and I decided to hike up to the M. Up the side of Mt. Sentinel, adjacent to the U of Montana campus, there is a huge concrete M. Evidently, these letters are common in towns across the western US. It is probably the most popular hike in Missoula and was voted the best view in the Missoula Independent newspaper. We were huffing and puffing due to our low level of physical activity lately, but we had a great time and enjoyed the spectacular view.

Here is a photo looking down the M to the campus and city below. Abby is standing at the bottom of the M. She's really there, I promise.


Here's one of me hiking down from the top of the M. Yes, I'm wearing my khaki kilt and I really appreciated the breeze on a hot, sunny day.

This is both of us at the bottom of the M.


And finally, here is a bonus photo. This is from our trip home down Route 66. This is a famous truck trailer in a small town in Illinois. I believe that it is from the Cambell Trucking Company. It may be the greatest slogan I've ever seen and it has launched me into a search for a t-shirt. I made Abby get out of the car in the rain to take this photo of me.


Hope you enjoyed, and we'll try to keep up with the blog.
David and Abby