Spring has Sprung

Is it just me or in the spring does everything seem like new? David and I both have been feeling more than a little stressed out with taxes (this year we were a little complicated...$425 to an accountant complicated...ick) and credit card bills (who knew moving was expensive...did I mention that one or both of us have done it 4 times in the last two years? double yikes!)

But friends and family we are pleased to an announce that the fog has lifted, and we are once again the happy kids you have grown to know and love. We are sorry this winter we were such downers, but the credit cards have been consolidated and we are making huge dents in them every month. Our goal is to be debt free in a year and then start saving! We are finally feeling good about being here... enough with the yucky financial stuff and on to the fun stuff!!!

Abby's Business

In my business news, David and I have been looking at commercial kitchen spaces for me to rent. The idea is that I could rent a kitchen space, and then make meals in this rented space, and then deliver the meals to people's homes. Lots of ladies in the Missoula Businsss Women's Network said they would love to have the meals delivered. We have looked at one kitchen, and hope to have another meeting with another kitchen this week. In the mean time I have had some more bites in my personal chef service. Another reason things are looking up for us.

Hike in kilt

Our weather has been decidedly springy lately, so we went for a hike on Friday morning. One of my co-workers told me about a trail that goes up into the hills around town, so we went to check it out. David wore the kilt that he made this winter, and may I say, he looked quite dashing. We had a great time on a beautiful day and we really wish we had had time to hike further on the trail. Here are some photos of us.



Barbara's agent weekend

And in non-us news, Barbara went to Madison the weekend before last to shop out the manuscript for her book to some agents. She met with several, all of whom were interested. She's taken some suggestions on the manuscript and is doing some work before she sends it out. We're both really proud of her and we know that there will be a publisher in her future sometime soon!

Happy Eating

We haven't posted much of our food lately, but we have been eating--I promise. The only thing we've remembered to take photos of lately is this...

It's Thai green curry pork with a nice salad and peanut dressing. We made the green curry paste from scratch and cooked boneless pork ribs in it low and slow. It was really good!

We've also made our own mustard from scratch and grown our own mung bean sprouts, but sorry, no pictures. They both were delicious, though!

We hope everyone is enjoying spring!

Love,
Abby and David

Happy Eating Times Two

Hi All! Sorry it's been so long since we've posted to the blog. Abby has been cooking twice a week for her first client and we're both working hard to find a commercial kitchen space for her to rent. Her client absolutely loves the food, and I'm really, really proud of her for starting her own business.

For happy eating number one, here's our dinner from last weekend.


Since it was finally warming up, we fired up the grill and cooked two ribeyes. We also made a caesar salad, twice baked potatoes, and roasted asparagus and yellow bell peppers. We were two happy eaters!

Our second happy eating is a late St. Paddy's day dinner. We decided to brine our own corned beef like we did last year. Unfortunately, we forgot that it takes TEN DAYS to brine a corned beef! So on Saturday this weekend, we put our brisket in the crock pot with some carrots and celery. We roasted some potatoes in the oven and braised some red cabbage. It was delicious, but we neglected to take a photo.

Sunday morning, however, we made corned beef hash from the leftovers. And we remembered to snap a photo.



I think the red cabbage really adds something to the hash, don't you? It was an awesome breakfast, and we had just enough corned beef left over to make delicious reuben sandwiches for lunch today. If you've never corned your own brisket, I highly recommend it. (We use Alton Brown's recipe from Food TV.)

We'll try to be better about blogging. Hope everyone is well.

Love,
Abby and David

Wednesday, Feb 25th, 2009

Valentine’s Day and What’s for Dinner
David and I had an amazing Valentine’s Day as a married couple. We made each other a delicious dinner of honey soy salmon, ginger risotto with peas, and roasted brussels sprouts. David made an awesome double chocolate malted tart for dessert.



We ate at the dinning room table with candles. We couldn’t figure out what wine to pair with our dinner so we made cosmos (cranberry juice, vodka, triple sec, lime juice) but swapped the cranberry juice for blueberry pomegranate juice. We also exchanged gifts. We had a $0 limit, so I was really excited to see what David would come up with. I made him an illustrated fairy tale of how we met, and he wrote me a beautiful hand written love letter. It was perfect.

In totally unrelated news I have decided to change my business plan. The good people of Missoula MT want their meals delivered, and who am I to deny them? So I am looking into renting commercial kitchen space, to make meals, and deliver them to the good people of Missoula. In this financial market I feel like the least I can do is be flexible! Lots of the women in the Missoula Businesswomen’s Network (MBN) have said that they would love to have meals delivered. This network, which I am a member of, has 300 members and is a great group of busy working women.

I also have a personal chef client who is interested in starting in March!! I am really excited about having my first client!!

I hope that everyone is having a good week, and a good Ash Wednesday!

Lots of Love
Abby

It's a Kilt!

Well, I finished my kilt yesterday before work, but I didn't have time to take photos before I had to go. Here's the finished product--front, back, and pleats:

I really love it! Of course, it will be a few months before it's warm enough to wear around here, but I think I can wait. It's been at least 15 years since I've done any sewing, but I think I did pretty well and my new used sewing machine worked like a champ--even through six or more layers of fabric. I can't wait to start my next one.

David

Happy Eating Plus a Craft Project

We’ve had some pretty good weeks since we last posted. We’ve been making it up to our local ski hill, Snowbowl a few times a week and we’ve been eating especially well. Our first photos are from Snowbowl. First, the view of Missoula from one of the runs.

Second, here’s a photo of Abby in the middle of a nice glade run we were skiing last week.

And now on to the food! First up is a photo of our Superbowl feast. We made Velveeta salsa dip in the crock pot, hot wings in a Korean-style sauce, and a big pot of chili (not pictured). Add a few bottles of quality Big Sky Brewing Co. beer and it was quite the spread.

Next up is our meal from last Saturday. We made Moroccan lamb tagine with a lamb shoulder from this summer’s farmers’ market. On the side we had couscous with almonds and dried apricots and some homemade naan with a delicious flavored dipping oil.


For the crafting portion of our evening, I’ve been working on making myself a kilt. I’ve been wanting a Utilikilt, but they start at $150 and go up, so that’s not in the budget. (If you've never seen a Utilikilt, you can see them at www.utilikilts.com) I found a set of instructions online and I used some Christmas money to buy a used sewing machine and the materials I need to make a contemporary kilt. Here are some progress photos. First, this is the piece of fabric I started with. It’s 57 inches by 2.25 yards.

This is the fabric after I cut it in half and sewed it into a piece 4.5 yards long.

Here it is after sewing in all the pleat edges.

And finally, here is a shot of the pleats all bar tacked down.

Since this photo, I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to taper the waist and have it sit straight. I think I’ve got it pinned down how it needs to be. So what’s left is to sew down the tops of the pleats, tack the aprons in place, and apply the waistband. Then I’ll have my kilt!

Hope all are well.

Love,
David and Abby

Happy Eating Returns!

It's been a long time since we've posted a happy eating entry, so here goes. (By the way, we have been eating, we just haven't been taking photos.)

Last weekend, we both had two days off in a row. We really enjoyed the time together, and we made some really good food. Here's a dinner in honor of the lunar new year:


It's a pork chop with a Korean marinade cooked on the grill. We served it with brown rice and some stir-fried vegetables. To drink we had a French farmhouse-style beer called a biere de garde. It was a pretty good way to ring in the year of the ox. And there was dessert, too...

Abby made this caramel peach upside-down cornmeal cake. She caramelized some sugar and poured it into the cake pan before adding some farmers market peaches from this summer. The batter, with a little cornmeal, went on top. This cake was amazing!

And finally, David made some crystallized ginger this week. He didn't really have a strong need for it, but he saw it on Good Eats on the Food Network and wanted to try it. It was a really neat process. You cook the peeled, sliced ginger in water until it's tender, drain it, and then cook it in sugar and water. The water boils away until the sugar recrystallizes almost instantly. It was a really cool process and the end product is quite tasty! Here's a photo:


We hope everyone is well, and wish you a happy year of the ox!

Love,
Abby and David

Christmas and Whistler

Hello Everyone!
First off an apology for not writing in forever! First off Christmas! My mom and dad flew out to spend a few days with us. It was so great to see them and we had a great time, and ate way way too much, in true Zander style. We stayed in our PJ's all day on Christmas (even Mom and Dad!!!), which is in true Abby/David style. We also had the chance to celebrate my mom's birthday together.

Photo 1: Our Christmas tree and way to many gifts
Photo 2: David and I in our cool "What's for Dinner" retro bowling shirts, and hats that Barbara made us. My hat is a ski slope hat, white with evergreen trees, David's is a reef hat, blue with seaweed and fishes. They are both too cute!!
Photo 3: My mom opening her birthday present. We got her moose poop incense, which mom and I saw at the farmer's market in Missoula last summer and she thought it was hilarious. She kept talking about why there would be a pile of moose poop on a table next to vegetables and jams. Turns out it was very nice smelling incense made from dried moose poop.


After a quick New Years trip to Big Sky Montana to go skiing with Chris and Stacey Kent, we were home to pack for Whistler. We left on the 10th, and met my family at the airport in Vancouver BC to head up the Whistler together.

Our Whistler trip, as always, was filled with lots of skiing, eating, Dad's birthday celebration, and lots of family fun. One new part of our Whistler trip was a new lift, a gondola that goes from the peak of Whistler to the peak of Blackcomb. Its 2.73 miles long, and 1427 feet high in the middle, and take 11 minutes. It was pretty crazy being that high with just a cable holding you up. We had a great time being with my family. It was so great to be together! Here are some of our photos.
Photo 1: The peak to peak gondola
Photo 2: David and I
Photo 3: David and I at the tube park. Who can resist painted plywood with holes cut out for your head?
Photo 4: David and I on a chair lift. Its the photo we take every ski trip we go on.



We hope everyone had a happy holiday season! Lots of love from Montana!!
xoxoxoxoxo
Abby