The Big Winner At Trivia Is…

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Jen

Bob’s cousin is in the high school band and for the past couple of years, they have held a trivia night to raise funds to purchase new band equipment. Of course we are suckers for trivia nights (it’s an addiction, I need help) so we drove down to Oakville to exercise our trivia skills. The first trivia night of 2012!

The trivia night was pretty good, there were some difficult categories (catastrophes, potpourri, famous women) and some easy ones (retro toys and nostalgic candy). The creepiest moment of the night happened in the retro toys round:

And for those who care, that’s Pregnant Midge.

But the real excitement for me that night was the silent auction items. I went a bit crazy and bid on quite a few things and surprisingly, I won quite a few things. Whoops! The loot: 2 white rocking chairs (yep, you heard right, I won 2 freakin’ rocking chairs for $55 each, it was bullshit that I had to bid on them separately and would have been mighty upset if I only got one), a photography session for $25 that includes an 11×14 photo (I figured now that I have a kid, I better take some family photos) and the biggest basket of Bath & Bodyworks products (luckily I split that with Bob’s aunt or else people would be getting lotions as gifts for YEARS). Score! Now, I can’t wait until spring so I can have a professional photo session of me sitting in my rocking chair spritzing Ben with the scent of Black Amethyst.

Supper Club: February 2, 2012

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Jen

Entree: Chicken with Citrus Sauce. This is a delicious meal and fairly simple. The only thing is that it does take a while for you to make the sauce. I do enjoy the citrus flavor, it’s very refreshing and flavorful. My suggestion would omit adding the sections of fruit to the dish afterwards, it made it a bit too tart for my taste.

Side Dish: Spinach Gratin. A word of warning: this makes A LOT. I have never had spinach gratin before and for the first time, it wasn’t too bad. I ended up picking off the cheese but you know I’m not one for eating a lot of baked cheese.

Dessert: Homemade Oatmeal Creme Pies. This dessert brought me back to college when I practically lived off of oatmeal creme pies. Then I got so burnt out on them that I hadn’t had any since then (10 years!). Two thumbs up, it tastes just as good as the Little Debbie versions, maybe even better.

The Sandwich Superbowl

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Jen

As you well know, for the past few years, we’ve had a food theme when it comes to Superbowl and this year was sandwiches. Now, at first, I was like, sandwiches? Man, that’s hard, what the hell do I bring? What is everyone else bringing and then, ding! A lightbulb goes off in Bob’s head: pulled pork quesadillas! Mexican sandwiches, genius!

So, along with pulled pork quesadillas, there were muffalettas, short-rib sandwiches, ice cream sandwiches and a cookie cake sandwich. For those who didn’t come up with sandwiches brought along guacamole, buffalo chicken dip, chips, wings and other party foods. One thing about this group of friends, we know our foods and we are always prepared to feed an army.

Sure the game was on and the guys were watching but there was a distraction this year for me. Meet Brian, Yao and Sheena’s new addition to the family.

How adorable is he? 9 weeks old and such a puppy, it made me want one. I know, I have enough on my plate so I guess I’ll just have to make sure I invite myself over to play with him often.

And even though the game had an exciting finish and Madonna almost fell of the stage, one person wasn’t really impressed:

Maybe he’ll be more interested next year.

2011 Year in Review

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Jen

2011 in Review from Cracker and Cheese on Vimeo.

Since we are already a month into 2012, it’s time for us to review what happened in 2011! Totally makes sense, doesn’t it?

Let’s Recap the Holidays, Shall We?

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Jen

As everyone knows, the holidays are rough, you are constantly on the go, no time to breathe and stress and anxiety courses through your veins for 6 weeks until the new year rolls around. What have we been doing for the past month and a half? Why, we’ve been hiding under a rock, waiting for the holidays to roll by before emerging, unscathed. Just kidding, we were in the trenches and have the scars to prove it.

Thanksgiving weekend, the start of the holiday season. I kick it off with the girls’ pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving and I love it. It’s a great way for all of us to gear up for a month of gluttony. It was different this year, we had it in a new house and we did have a guy attend (but he is the exception, he is too young to play poker). Then on Thanksgiving, it was the Ameristar Thanksgiving buffet. Excellent dinner and not too bad with the lines for turkey. That evening, we then went to another Thanksgiving to pick up Ben, who apparently was wiped from all the tryptophan:

Rough life, isn’t it, kid? To be snuggled with and loved on all night.

Saturday night was round two of the turkey-eatin’, Ben-lovin’ extravaganza. There was more food and more baby-holding. We even got to meet the newest addition to the Menkhus clan:

December took off like a bat out of hell. It was go, go, go and we never looked back. You would think that having a child would slow us down, nope. Instead, we are even more exhausted, more cranky and more stressed than ever before. Time management was not on our side. We went out to dinner for Bob’s birthday, celebrated another friend’s birthday, went to the Peimanns’ annual Ugly Sweater Party (with a sweater I found that night), had the Sherron Christmas party to attend and made sure Ben had his first photo with Santa:

And here’s the kicker, we hosted Christmas this year with Bob’s side of the family! Talk about one ball of stress for me! Can you imagine? Cleaning a house for a party? It’s a struggle for me to clean even when I didn’t have a baby. But it all worked out. The Sam’s ham was wonderful, everyone brought a dish, it worked out perfectly. And I think we are going to start a new tradition:

So, in a nutshell, time flew by so quickly and now I just need to take some time and sleep for 3 days straight.