Farmer's Market Fancy Feast

 

We had the honor of hosting a fancy meal for our friend's birthday this past weekend. Started it out by flipping through a fancy cookbook she got for Christmas followed with a rainy meandering through the farmer's market to get the goods.

We all spent the afternoon chopping, washing, sautéing- really all the cooking words. It all came together into a beautiful table full of color. Everyone smashed around our table made for 4 and our friend's son hung out on the floor playing with his socks. It was cozy and one of the best ways to spend a Sunday I can possibly think of.

It was fun to celebrate our friend's birthday by all creating something together.

Capped off the evening with some dark & stormies and a confusing game of Munchkin. We also had ice cream sandwiches with very tall candles questionably balanced on a plate, worked out.

 

I think this weekend may need to involve more physical activity because Saturday was also full of food. We had a few people over for brunch in which we consumed chorizo frittata, apple butter & biscuits, fruit, mimosas. Finally worked ourselves up into a walk which only lasted a few blocks. We got distracted by the idea of splitting a pitcher of sangria and eating mushroom toast. I'm pretty sure we just took a nap after that and later a few of us reconvened for some turkey chili and a rewatching of Star Wars.

 

Weekend full of friends and food- winter weekend champions!

Seeking the snow

Joshua has been wanting to snowshoe Artist's Point for awhile. In the summer there is a parking lot right next to it which means hoards of people and no quiet place to stare off and really enjoy it. The weekend look like it was supposed to be clear and beautiful so we set the alarm for 4:30am, made the 3 hour drive and trekked into the giant mounds of perfect powdery snow. The sun was just finishing rising when we arrived and casting warm pinky hues behind the mountains.

I love snowshoeing because even just a few hundred feet in you feel like you were dropped into a wonderland, the trees droop in very Dr. Seussish shapes and some of the mountains look like cuddly snowpiles and some use the snow to expose their texture and rugged outlines.

 

It's only a 4 mile round trip hike but we were there early enough that we didn't run into many people. We got to spend some time alone wandering around the top. The quiet stillness you feel while making the first footprint in the snow surrounded by jutting mountains is one of my favorite feelings.

 

We tried to stop in the snow and eat some sandwiches and the birds found us and attempted some dive bombs. Then we headed down which always includes funny running attempts down hills. Snow shoes make you look like a duck.

Then we headed home, read some Harry Potter on the drive, and laid around on the couch all day because gosh darn it - we earned it.

Besides that we went out to drinks with some friends the night before, Joshua made me bike there and of course I ended up enjoying the ride. On Sunday we headed to downtown, grabbed some fancy biscuits with friends, explored the map store and later went to see a movie and had a late dinner with some other friends. Full weekend, very very fun and hoping this weekend will include at least one nap, minimum!

A very Cincy Christmas

 

We had a great trip home! We landed Christmas Eve morning and the first few days were a blur but it evened itself out. My madre hand made us all matching pj camping fleece pants. Which is impressive, mostly impressive the whole crew agreed to put them on! Hung out with lots of families and made Joshua festive with a handsome tinsel beard.

 

Agin family outing this year include ice skating. I have a feeling this will never be the Agin family outing again :) a few hard falls and few hurt feet but we gave it our best shot. I really really wanted to play fishbowl (mix of taboo, charades, and one word to guess what people wrote on slips of paper) and luckily it happened. They all started with the letter "p" and some were quite complex but we powered through.

 

Took a fun side trip to visit our friends that moved back to Grand Rapids, MI. They showed us all over town to cute breweries, walk along the water, duck nachos, euchre, darts, and even a little bit of snow all included. It's about a 5 hour drive so we also got in a lot of Harry Potter reading :)

 

For New Year's we all rallied at our friend's house and played a bunch of sequence, hammerschlagen, euchre and pandemic. They fried a bunch of food on the deck, made some questionable tasting mixed drinks and stayed out til 4am. Crushed it New Years! 

 On one of our last outings we had some Indian food with Josh's mom and wandered around our ol campus, UC. Wanted to see the new stadium addition and the take advantage of the fact that the sun was FINALLY out!

 

We also had a fun White Elephant party with Josh's high school friends, wandered around Findlay market with some others, had tons of Asian food and did a puzzle with friends, had a lot of brunches, dinner, lunches, climbing, shopping, and snuck in 1 nap. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed going home and bummed about all the things I couldn't fit in or people I didn't get a chance to see. That feeling is always quickly replaced with feeling so blessed that there are so many people in Cincinnati that we love and love us that we can't fit it all in. Very nice to no longer be sleeping on an air mattress but also it gets harder to leave every time.

2015 in Baked Goods

 

This year was also an exciting baking year!

 

-I was able to make 5 commissioned cakes & I was even paid for 2 of them!

Star Wars cake

Dino Baby shower cake

Wes Anderson Cake

Halloween birthday cake

Gingerbread House

-For some reason I was fixated on playing with meringues and really appreciate how easy they are but very impressive.

-Made some goodies from wild huckleberries and blueberries we picked on the mountains

 

 

Really looking forward to what I'll get the opportunity to create!

Maybe 2016 will be the year for macaroons?

and my goal is to get paid for at least half of my commissioned cakes.

 

2014 baking review

2013 baking review

21015 in review

This year I think we would label as a year of adventure!

-we went on a 2 week trip to Paris-Porto-Lisbon-Morocco-Seville-Madrid-Barcelona
-the summer started early in Seattle and we were able to go on around 22 hikes
including a week long trip with my parents to Glacier
and hiking the Enchantments
-we had 5 visitors: Nick, James, Whitney & Allison, Andy & Lauren
-we were in around 11 states this year, some being: met up for a girls weekend in Chicago, spent time in FL for a wedding, Ohio for another wedding, spend Thanksgiving in Bend
-we both turned 27 and can no longer say we aren't in our late 20's
-I am on reading the 6th Harry Potter book to Joshua and hope to finish them all this year, held 4 Harry Potter parties to force my friend to see the movies
-& celebrated our 4 year anniversary!

We can honestly say we have no idea what is in store for this year.

That is scary, exciting, and hopeful.

Thanks for a great 2015 & CHEERS to 2016!


2014 review
2013 review
2012 review
2011 review