Goodbye Grandma

Today we will be burying my sweet Grandma Williams.  She has been in ill health for awhile, and I am rejoicing that she is now reunited in heaven with the love of her life and her Savior Christ Jesus.  We will miss you!

Happy Birthday Brooks!

You are 7 today!  You had a great year in Kindergarten and love to learn.  You are excited to start 1st grade in a few weeks.  You and your brother are best of friends.  You have all sorts of adventures together, most of them right here in our house.  You are a budding photographer and love to take pictures with your new camera.  I can remember being the same way when I was your age.  You are very athletic and are excited about doing another triathlon in August.  You are very strong at running, swimming and biking so it's a natural fit for you.  You loved your week at SWAMP and we loved seeing your enthusiasm for music.  You are a very good singer, your pitch is right on.

You had fun celebrating your birthday with your best friends.  We made an Angry Bird pinata, and had a fun obstacle course.  You requested ice cream with lots of toppings.

We are blessed to have you as our son.  We love you with all our hearts.

Friday Fun

Last week we all attended a birthday party at one of the fire stations in Lafayette.  A fun time was had by all.  The firemen were super friendly and seemed to be having as much fun as the kids.  It was a really unique experience and we were happy to share it with our friends.

  

Tasty Thursday

We've been enjoying lots of fresh local veggies this past week.  We love grilled zucchini, and when we were gifted with some zucchini we gave this recipe a try.  It was easy to put together on a very hot day and everyone loved it.  I used sourdough that I had in the freezer instead of the focaccia, and shredded provolone-mozzarella since we were out of feta.  

California Grilled Vegetable Sandwich

1/4 cup mayo
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB lemon juice
1 cup sliced red bell peppers
1 zucchini, sliced
1 onion, sliced
Focaccia bread, sliced horizontally
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. In a bowl, mix the mayo, garlic, and lemon juice.  Set aside in the fridge to mingle.
2. Brush the veggies with olive oil.
3. Cook for about 3 minutes each side.  Remove from grill and set aside.
4. Toast the bread on the grill.  We topped the bread with the cheese and only toasted one side.
5. Assemble your sandwich with the mayo spread and veggies.  Eat!

I've been making these Mocha Frappes for a couple years now.  They are super to have on a hot summer day, but I enjoy them year round.  I usually only have them a couple times a week, as a "recovery" drink after cycle class.  Sometimes I add a couple drops of peppermint extract and it's also good with coconut milk.

Mocha Frappe

Mocha mix
1 cup sugar
1 cup instant coffee
4 TB cocoa
1/2 cup powdered creamer

Mix the ingredients together in a food processor and store in a jar.

To make the frappe:
4 TB mocha mix
1 cup milk
7 ice cubes

Blend together in your blender.

Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday

We had a great week of vacation in Asheville, NC.  Asheville is all about local food, and we ate at some great restaurants.  They are also known as Beer City USA.  There are a lot of breweries, and we sampled beer from quite a few.

Here is where we ate:

West First Pizza
We had a great Roasted Salmon pizza.  The crust was incredible, crunchy yet chewy.

Tupelo Honey
This is "the" place to eat in Asheville.  New South cooking.  Hudson had Shrimp and Grits from the Kids Menu.  Brooks had a side sampler (he really wanted black eyed peas).  I had Mountain Trout and Ryan had Chorizo Crusted Sea Scallops.  Yum!

White Duck Taco Shop
This place was located in the River Arts District.  It's a weird section of Asheville, down by the river.  The art studios are in old industrial buildings, really cool.  It's also where they're building the New Belgium brewery.

So, these tacos were anything but standard.  I had a Jerk Chicken and Fish Taco, Ryan had a Duck Taco and Greek Taco, and the boys had Carnitas tacos (okay, theirs were almost normal).  When we got there 5 minutes after opening, there was already a line outside the restaurant.

Hubba Hubba Smokehouse
Okay, you can't go to NC without having pulled pork, right?  This place was located in a cute little town.  The seating was all outside and it was lovely.  The pork was great and the sides were yummy.  I judge my bbq places on the sides.  If they don't have good sides and good pork I give it a thumbs down.  They had great potato salad and baked beans.  The slaw was really fresh and filled with veggies too.

Flat Rock Village Bakery
This bakery was next door to Hubba Hubba.  It has the same owners of West First, so I knew it had to have great bread.  I picked up a loaf of Triple Cheese Garlic Basil bread to go with our dinner that night.  (We cooked dinner at our house each evening.)  They cook all their breads in a wood fired oven and it was amazing.

Sunny Point Cafe
We traveled over to West Asheville to try this place out.  It was a hipster place with local ingredients.  I had the Huevos Rancheros (served on top of black bean cakes with chorizo!), Ryan had a Chorizo Hash, and the boys had French Toast (homemade bread, real maple syrup, and an amazing fruit salad).  We all shared a blackberry raspberry handpie with homemade ice cream for dessert.

Cabo's Burritos
This place was just down the road from our house, and was next to a Mexican grocery, so I figured it was good.  It was.  We had burritos, with all the toppings of our choosing (they had around 25 different things you could get in your burritos).  Filling, tasty, and cheap!

Umi Sushi

For our last night, Ryan and I got sushi takeout.  We had the Green River Roll (eel, seaweed salad in wasabi mayo, topped w. spicy lobster & jalapeno), the Godzilla Roll, Spicy Yellowtail and Scallion Roll, and a Tempura Asparagus roll.  All the rolls were really good.  It was hard to pick a favorite.  I had never seen an asparagus roll before, and since we love asparagus it was a great choice.

Vacation Recap

Number of hours to get to Asheville, NC = 9
Black Bears seen = 1 (at the WNC Nature Center)
Waterfalls seen = 5 (on our hike in DuPont State Forest)
Epic bike rides = 3 (in Pisgah National Forest)
Trips to Urgent Care = 1
Buddhist Monks = 5 (on our waterfall hike)
Roller Coasters ridden = 4 (at Dollywood)
Breweries tasted = 5
Memories made = countless