Shameless Plug

TO ME!!!

I'm a big birthday fan. More on the celebration week later!

Wedding Weekend Recap

We had an absolute blast in Illinois for Andrew & Alexis's wedding!! I knew going into it that the time there would fly by, but I'm still sad about how fast our trip seemed to go! It's already been a week since I had my bag packed and was praying for the last 24 hrs before my flight to go by in the blink of an eye!

Speaking of flights, we had some interesting ones. We started our trip 1.5 hrs later than planned to begin with, which really wasn't too bad. Once we got through security, Justin realized he left his 'personal' cell phone in the car...I was nervous that he'd be bummed all weekend because Justin treats his cell phones like lovers, but he quickly recovered and decided he could do with just his work phone. Whew :) (you know I love you honey!).

Did you know that they actually do give out hot towels in first class? Well they do, and they also provide entire meals, free drinks, warm cookies, blankets and anything you feel you should need during your flight. Why am I telling you this...well, I was lucky enough to land a first class ticket for both the to and from flights! We used some points that were graciously given to us and that combined with whatever Justin did while making the reservations ended up in a first class ticket in my name and a coach ticket in JT's name :( I offered to trade, but being the awesome hubby JT is, he insisted that I keep first class ticket for both flights. More on the second exciting flight below...

We headed to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Lou's house after we landed to see the fam - it was a great reunion full of hundreds of hugs - I hadn't seen anyone in so long! Back at "Hotel Chyterbok" we stayed up gabbing for a few hours and the boys stayed up even later than the girls! Saturday morning greeted us early!

Oh yeah -- we say Mike Tyson at O'Hare!! Ha!

I'll just provide a quick overview of the weekend, because if you're anything like me, the pictures are more exciting than text!

Friday:
• Coffee and baby-playing time with Sarah, Benjamin and baby Hayden Rabe at Hotel Chyterbok
• Breakfast with Mags, Drew and Joe at a new cafe in Palatine
• Maggie & Chris = pedicures with the bridal party
• Boys went to Cabelas and drove back and forth from Crystal Lake to Palatine about 3 times
• Wedding party members went to rehearsal & dinner, others went to dinner in Crystal Lake at a great Italian restaurant
• Joined the wedding party at Finn McCool's for some pre-wedding fun
• Back to Hotel Chyterbok for wedding night beauty sleep

Pedicure time
While some peeps went to rehearsal, we went to our own dinner! Left: Laura, Noni, Patsy, Uncle Don, Aunt Barbara, Uncle Robert, Aunt Carol. (Rounding the table at the end, coming up the right): Dad, Mary Jane, Mom, Francie, Jill, me, Justin. (Picture taker: Rob - Laura's fiance!)

Mom and dad

Rob & Laura (they're getting married in May!)

Joe and Brandon

Groom Andrew and me

Saturday:
• Brekkie with some of the wedding party at Around the Clock in Crystal Lake
• Got ready for the big day at the Rabes: curled little girls hair, did some last minute ironing, cut up salami and cheese for post-wedding snacks, etc
• 3:30 pm = Wedding time! Ceremony at Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church
• Check into the hotel in Buffalo Grove
• Headed to reception at Seasons of Long Grove
• Boogied into the night
• Watched my little cousins shake it on the dance floor like professional dancers - they have some moves! Go Syd & Lexi!
• Attended after party at the tavern down the street

Married! It was a gorgeous ceremony!

The first dance as Mr. & Mrs. Rabe!

The fam bam!
I just love Miss Maggie
Dance DanceCLASSIC - Justin was so overcome with well wishes for the newlyweds he couldn't keep his eyes
open
Team Thompson

Sunday:
• Got to the airport SUPER early
• Got on the plane, fell asleep before take off
• Woke up to hear the pilot saying there was a malfunction and we were turning around (eek!)
Got off the airplane, boarded another one (turns out there was a problem with the slats on the wings)
• Landed safely in CA, stopped at Jack in the Box on the way home, crashed for the night!

Special thanks to Mary Jane and Julie for sending around some of pictures - I used some in this post, as I'm sure you noticed!

Chicago bound

Justin and I are headed to Chicago tomorrow afternoon for Rabe-Nelson wedding festivities! Cousin Andrew is marrying Alexis on Saturday and I'm so excited for the trip and wedding I can hardly stand it. This week is creeping by and I still have 24 hours before we head out to the airport.

We've been busy with long work days, but last Saturday we headed down to Watsonville to go to Gizdich Ranch and do some possible pumpkin picking. Gizdich Ranch provides berries and heirloom apples to the market I work for and they also run a apple picking, apple pressing and pie eating operation during the fall. While apple picking isn't exactly something I'd call fun (you wouldn't either if you grew up in an apple orchard - it's more like work than an adventure), we bought some apples and fresh pressed juice, ate a slice of delicious homemade pie and met Farmer Vince.

Sunday we went to church and then met up with a couple in San Carlos for the 13th Annual Art & Wine Faire. The boys smoked cigars while the ladies enjoyed frozen yogurt with the most amazing assortment of toppings around! We're glad it didn't rain on Sunday like it did yesterday (Tuesday)!

It doesn't rain too much down on the peninsula. In fact, the slogan for the city in which I work is, "Climate Best by Government Test!" Turns out though that when the weather man says there is a tropical typhoon headed our way, they really do mean typhoon. I didn't believe it until it hit...not even the email from the city about free sandbags made me believe the strongest October storm since 1962 was headed our way. I've seen it rain hard in Seattle, but the I've never seen it rain like this. The only other place where it came down so hard was in Australia, where you'd think the ground was shooting rain up while it was also pouring out of the sky! The storm has lightened up today, but many places are dealing with flooding and leaks!

Pumpkins as far as the eye can see

Last Saturday we opted to get some fresh air instead of watching more Dexter. Ok, ok...we already finished both seasons 1 & 2 and are waiting for 3 to arrive. So instead of waiting for the mail to come, we hopped in the car and drove to Half Moon Bay for a hike.

Half Moon Bay is a gorgeous little coastal town that's really only accessible via Hwy 92 or Hwy 1. Half way there I remembered someone had told me not to drive over there in October, but I didn't have to say anything because by then it was obvious...traffic was moving about 13 miles an hour all the way to Half Moon Bay.

The area is well known for it's agriculture, particularly pumpkins and flowers. Almost everybody living on the outskirts of town runs a pumpkin patch with pony rides and corn mazes...and it seems everyone in northern California believes HMB is the place to be in October. What would normally take us about 40 mins took closer to 2 hours.
We finally made it to the Burleigh H. Murray Ranch state park for hiking. It was cool and windy because we were so close to the ocean, but the sun was out and it was a gorgeous day! The Burleigh Murray trail is on a historic ranch property that was once a huge dairy and farmland with orchards and a cheese factory. The barn we hiked to is a unique style similar to what was used in England back in the day. It was built so the back butted up to a hill so it was easier to get hay into the loft - the horses would pull the wagon up the hill to reach the 2nd story of the barn. Genius ;)

front of the barn

side of the barn, looking up the "road" in the side of the hill

Up on the "second level" of the barn where they would load hay into the loft

Go Hounds!

I can't say it was the most exciting hike we've been on, but I did find an awesome walking stick.

Kann ich ein Bier haben?

We cheated big time on Friday...but I guess you could say knowing what was happening Friday was a reason we did salad week.

We went to Oktoberfest by the Bay in San Francisco! My boss invited Justin and me as his guests on the Spaten-sponsored bus with our store sales rep. We were all given Spaten beer mugs on the bus and got special access to the Spaten VIP area once we were inside the event arena.

It wasn't only the special Oktober brews we were given for free with our VIP pass, but Spaten had an entire buffet for us, complete with schnitzel, sausages, sauerkraut, ribs, salads, rolls and strudel! Ohhh man. Talk about a treat after salad week. This is a fuzzy picture, but you can just see how happy JT was with mug o' brew and a plate full of schnitzel. You know he's happy when his eyes are just about closed!

JT at SF's Oktoberfest (please excuse Miss well-endowed in the background)

After dinner, we walked the grounds to take in the sights. There were balloon artists making hats that looked like foaming mugs of brew, plenty of participants wearing traditional lederhosen and tracht, a German-style brass band and, of course, Polka dancers! I'm not sure John Denver conjures up sweet memories of Oktoberfests past, but I think they sang, "Take me home, country roads" at least 3 times - could be because we all know the words to that one! Can't quite figure out the connection.

We had a great time and it was nice to hang out with some co-workers outside the biz.

Salad Week: Day 4

We're back on track now! Last night I tried a more fall-focused salad, compliments again of Rachael Ray's magazine. Justin said he actually like this one, but I think it's because I served his with a side of leftover soup :) Well, I think it was more or less the cupcake I picked up for him at Sprinkles Cupcakes on my way home yesterday. Justin had a bad day at work so I wanted to cheer him up...I think it was knowing there was a yummy cupcake for dessert that prompted him to say he really did like this salad ;)

While the recipe doesn't indicate whether or not to use raw pumpkin seeds, I opted for the roasted/salted, just so we'd get a little more flavor with this dish. Otherwise, I stuck to this recipe and even used Braeburn apples.

Autumn Greens and Apple Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2 shallot, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 3 ribs celery, thinly sliced on an angle
• 2 crisp apples, such as Braeburn or gala, unpeeled and thinly sliced
• 1 small head red leaf lettuce, torn into small pieces (about 8 cups)
• 1/2 small head green leaf lettuce, torn into small pieces (about 4 cups)
• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted

Smart move
Add the lettuce at the last minute so it doesn't get soggy.

Directions:

1. In a large salad bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, shallot, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add the celery and apples and toss. Add the lettuces and toss again. Top with the seeds.

Salad Week: Day 3

Ok, we already cheated...instead of salad we had a soup yesterday. It's getting colder here and there's nothing better to warm up than a soup. I tried one I've been pimpin' at work all summer that a customer sent in to the store: Summertime Minestrone.

Let's just say Justin was excited about the soup until he watched me put in a HUGE pile of Swiss chard...I believe he thought it was a pile of lettuce for a side salad. Oh how I wish you could have seen his face...it was like he was a little kid and I had just popped his balloon or broke his favorite toy.

The soup was fantastic, though. I had my doubts at first, simply because I'd never heard of or had cranberry beans before. Justin helped me shell the beans on Monday - they were so cool! Turns out cranberry beans are equivalent to Romano beans, also called Borlotti in Italy. Here's a picture I got from another blog:

Here's the minestrone recipe. I put in a little garlic powder (I would have used minced garlic, but I realized I wanted to add it after I sauted the veggies) and I also removed the red bell pepper because I'm allergic to them. As a replacement filler, I put in a little celery because I had it on hand...You should try it!

Summer Minestrone

(aka, summer-in-a-bowl)

• 1 lb fresh cranberry beans, (shelled about 2 cups)
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 2 ounces pancetta, chopped
• 1 tsp dried thyme (or 2 tbsp fresh)
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 bunch Swiss chard, trimmed and chopped (about 8 cups)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• handful of fresh basil, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot and add the onion, carrot and pancetta. Cook, stirring, until vegetables soften, about 3 minutes. Add the shelled beans, thyme and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Add chard and pepper with a good pinch of salt, cover again and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until beans are done (squeeze to test). Turn off heat and add basil; let soup sit for 5-10 minutes. Salt to taste, ladle into bowls.

A nice touch is to drizzle with a very good olive oil and sprinkle with grated parmesan.