Cute and Cuddly Overload!

Yesterday Nick and I traveled up to Sheffield to pick out our brand new little bundle of joy - a German Shorthaired Pointer puppy!  We've been looking into getting a dog for a long time now, going to shelters, doing internet research - and it's finally happened!  I was disappointed that we couldn't get a shelter dog because I always loved volunteering at The Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago, but we just couldn't find what we were looking for in the shelters here.

So yesterday we went to the breeder's home, a lovely newlywed couple, and we were the third to pick from a litter of seven.  That made the task VERY difficult.  Five adorable puppies and we had to choose just one?!

The parents were both family pets so we got to meet both mom and dad.  The mother was a very gentle and sweet girl - absolutely beautiful dog, while the dad was a bit boisterous - but considering the fact that seven puppies with sharp puppy teeth were mistaking his wiener for a an extra nipple... we couldn't really blame him.

We finally narrowed it down to two medium tempered puppies, one boy and one girl, and we decided to go with the girl based on the fact that the breeders said they were generally easier.  Since this is Nick's first dog, and my first dog without parental supervision, we thought this was best.

Isn't she the cutest thing ever?

I don't know what it is about puppies but they just make me want to talk in an annoying high pitched cooing voice and squeeze them.  They're so much cuter than human babies.  I look like an evil puppy stealer in this picture - I just want to take her home!

Nick likes all kinds of small furry animals.  He always wants to put them on his head for some reason....  I told him this was strange and they wouldn't let us have her if he did that.

Luckily he managed to restrain himself and we are taking her home on January 13th.  We are very excited to be puppy parents.  Right now the breeders are calling her Marlene - but we're not really a fan of this.  Since she's a German Shorthaired Pointer we wanted to give her a German name.  I think we're going to call her Heidi.  What do you think?

Goodbye 2009... Hello 2010

By golly, 2009 went by fast!  This has been a hectic but fantastic year for me so I thought I'd share some of the more fabulous moments of 2009 with you...

I graduated in May from Loyola University of Chicago, and thanks to a year of studying abroad I kicked my GPA up so high I graduated with magna cum laude honors - check out those cords.  Thank you Deakin University.  And thank you parents for funding my wildest dreams.

I was also super busy planning what many referred to as "the social event of the summer" - thats right the Vollman/DeCourcy Wedding.  After 8 years of internet dating and obscene amounts of money spent on phone bills and airfare Nick and I got married July 17th.

After the wedding we moved to London and we got married again.... Actually we never really got married the first time!  HA tricked you!  It was all pretend because of the immigration stuff.  Here we are signing the legal papers.  It was a bit of an anti-climax after the first one.

Since moving to London I have been steadily improving my housewife skills with cooking and decorating.  I also learned how to knit - an achievement I suppose.  I applied to lots of jobs and I got one, but it sucked and I don't have it any more.  We just got back from a two week visit to Cincinnati and we had lots of fun there.  It's been a great year....

But of course today is January 1st and what would January 1st be without a few goals?  So here are a few for 2010.

1. Get experience for vet school
2. Do more and stop thinking about doing more
3. Be proactive about establishing myself in London
4. Be active and healthy and quit yo-yo dieting (cliche I know)
5. Make a really good new English friend

Happy New Year Everyone!

Nada - Too Much Hype?

Last night my family and I went to Nada, in downtown Cincinnati for dinner.  I was pretty excited as I have only heard good things about this trendy little place.  The decor was bright oranges and reds - really fun and exciting.  My sister, Lizzie, and I got there first and we started off with some drinks.  I had the fuzzy margarita which had peach puree in it - it was quite delicious.  Lizzie had a non-alcoholic pink grapefruit margarita which was also tasty.  They brought us some chips, salsa, and guacamole to munch on while we were waiting for everyone else.  The chips were salty and fresh and the guacamole was chunky, with the perfect touch of citrus.  It was so good we went through two rounds before everyone managed to get there and we ordered appetizers.

For starters the meat eaters ordered the Nada sliders and the ceviche.  According to Lizzie, the ceviche was presented well in a martini glass, and it was fruity and citrusy.  Lizzie also says, "the sliders had a nice golden buttery bun with a good kick of spice."  I had the mexican mac and cheese, which was served in a cute little pot.  The mac and cheese was super creamy and had poblano peppers mixed in which I found very innovative and really brought the whole flavor medley up a few notches.  It was my fave dish of the evening.

After the great drinks, delish chips and guac, and starters I had high hopes for my main dish.  There was only really one vegetarian main on the menu, the vegetarian soft tacos, so that's what I got.  The tacos came and were stuffed with a puree of black beans, mushrooms, and cheese.  And there's not much else I can say about them.  I felt completely let down.  Nothing tasted bad, but for a classy mexican restaurant the flavors were extremely bland.  I know that some chefs don't feel that inspired by vegetarian food - but why bother putting something on your menu that doesn't live up to every other item your producing?  It seemed the chef put no effort whatsoever into that dish - there was nothing creative or exciting about it.  To be perfectly honest, I can get better soft tacos at Chipotle for less than half the price.

The bottom line : What's Nada got to offer for us vegetarians?  Notta!

Fondue Party 2009

My family's fondue party tradition started when I was pretty young.  My mom would usually invite the neighbors around for a small, intimate gathering sometime around Christmas.  However, they started happening less regularly and my sister and I decided that we loved fondue parties so much that we needed to make sure they kept happening.  We had our first non-parent organized party last year and it was a big hit, so we planned another for this year.  We chose to have it at my sisters house, and wanted it to have a "Classy to Trashy" theme.  Meaning we planned on starting off with good food and drinks and maybe get slightly intoxicated as the night went on.

Because of my mad housewifing skills, I took care of most the food items, while my sister (who has more college drinking skills than me) took care of the beverage items.

We used two of my vodka infusions jars from the wedding to make mixed drinks in.  One was a pomegranate vodka drink made with pomegranate liquor, vodka, pomegranate juice and 7 up.  I thought this tasted a bit like medicine, but it was empty by the end of the night.  The other was filled with vodka, cinnamon sticks, and apples and left to soak overnight - we then topped it up with apple cider the next day.  This was certainly my drink of choice for the evening.

Judging by the inebriated state of many individuals at the party... these were a BIG hit.

I also made and decorated Christmas sugar cookies (I used the recipe for sugar cookies from the Joy of Cooking).  Quite festive - wouldn't you say?

I figured we needed something that was kinda healthy / green to really complete the food options so I made Christmas Guacamole.  I used two bags of avacados, about a handful of red grapes (cut into quarters), one lemon, and one pomegranate.  This was super tasty...

The main event was the Fondue of course, and for this I used eight pounds of cheese, mostly emental and some other cheaper swisses.  I basically followed the Joy of Cooking recipe for this too.  For the wine I used a big bottle of Yellow Tail and we added some of my great uncles homemade kirsch.  Fondue is pretty much fool proof, and this one didn't disappoint.

Here are some classy people enjoying the fruits of my labor...

My sister was pretty confused about the effort I put into the food, she kept saying she didn't think I realized what kind of party this was going to be.  I soon understood what she meant because not long after this picture was taken the night took a quick turn for trashy.  Let's just say it was a lot more drunken college shenanigans and shot taking than Martha Stewart-esque cultured and well organized dinner party.

Personally, I may or may not have ended up at Ramundo's Pizzeria around 3:30 am with no ride home.  It's also possible I ate 3 slices (but who's counting) of pizza while walking home in the sleeting rain with my husband and a boy who may have been carrying a large metal pot stolen from my sisters kitchen to be used as a barf bucket.  I can honestly say the night ended a bit more trashy than I anticipated.  Was it a success?  I'll let you be the judge.

A Day At Findlay Market

Since I'm in Cincinnati now I've been doing all sorts of nati-type things.  You know like eating a large variety of regional food, trolling large suburban malls, and bonding with the fam.  My sisters and I are planning a fondue party for Saturday night so my Aunt Suzy offered to take me to Findlay Market to stock up on cheese.  (More on the fondue party later)

I'm ashamed to say it, but I've never actually been to Findlay before this visit.  For those of you who are not Cincinnatians, Findlay Market is a food market in Over-the-Rhine, and according to wikipedia is Ohio's "oldest, continuously operated public market."

Suzy is definitely a good Findlay Market tour guide so I'll let you know where she went to stock up.  One of our first stops was a sausage stall, Kroeger and Sons Sausage.  This stall had a huge variety of weiners - all shapes and sizes - but mostly German.  Now of course I don't eat this stuff, but if I did it would look pretty enticing.  See.....

Man, talk about a sausage fest!

Next up was Colonel De Ray's spices.  Apparently he, "takes the common and makes it uncommon."  And he sure had a wide range of spices.  My mom instructed me to pick up herbs de provence and south western spice for her, but when I asked for southwestern spice they asked me which type.  Apparently they have 3 different kinds!  So of course I called my mom and told her asssistant to interrupt her meeting due to this "life and death situation."  She needed Debbies Southwestern spice - CRISIS AVERTED!

Last but not least we went got to the big cheese, literally.  I mean I bought over 8 pounds of cheese.  The woman behind the counter at Silverglades was very helpful, and we came up with an assortment of mostly emmental, and some other baby swiss cheeses (which mostly help to cut the cost - fondue isn't cheap!)

We finished off the day with two tasty crepes and some good conversation.  Findlay Market is such a neat little Cincinnati treasure I'm shocked I haven't been sooner.