Jen Caputo

My Babies

The snow will not stop coming down in Chicagoland. But nothing warms the heart more than seeing all of my babies still nestled in bed together.

This is how we torture our cats

It's Christmas time, meaning we need to stuff our cats in these t-shirts from the $1 aisle at Target as has become tradition.

Don't let their faces or stiff bodies fool you - they love these shirts!

Well first, we put a santa hat on Kitty

But then out came the t-shirts, which sent Mr. Meowmers running for the hills

but the t-shirts pretty much paralyze them so they could only get so far before Adam corralled them in the new bay window

Are you not cracking up already at the look on Mr. Meowmers face right now?  Or his cleavage?

There's got to be some kind of way out of here.....

Please please please let us out of here

why do you hate us?

you let him go.... how about me?

Thanks for dropping him back off on top of me

Do you see how their t-shirts proclaim them to be "Santa's Little Helpers"?  LOL!

I wish I may I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight!

An escape is ever so near

Look at his fat booty!!!  He's sooo big! (I discovered this weekend while making chicken noodle soup, that he can actually stand on the ground and reach the countertops with his paws - what cat can do that?!?!)

But he's so pretty, n'est pas?

This one might be my favorite.

So, do you guts torture your pets during the holidays?  Do you have pictures to show to make my cats feel better?

Fall Nesting

I think they refer to this as fall nesting... this weekend my house was taken over by pumpkins.

First came the decorative pumpkins, picked them up at the farmer's market for $2. Saturday was the last day of the Farmer's Market for the whole season :(

The small pumpkins and gourds (on my cute new green table!)

The woven pumpkins

 

The glass pumpkins

and then, the baking pumpkins

which got sliced

and baked

and pureed  (this is what I did while passing out halloween candy. I had to wash pumpkin off my hands about 87 times)

and bagged

and turned into Pumpkin Five Spice Sweet rolls.

Ok, seriously... I didn't take a picture of these :(  They were so good!  I made 3 pans and gave one to my neighbors. One is still in the fridge. Maybe I'll take a picture when I bake that batch.

and turned into Pumpkin Butter

which is even better when smeared on crusty toasted bread with a little regular butter

and then there are pumpkin seeds...

which dried overnight on their baking sheets

and then were seasoned and baked this morning. Salted, Salted & Chinese Five Spice (Ground Cinnamon, Ginger, Anise, Star Anise, cloves), Lime & Chile

And I probably have enough pumpkin left over in the freezer now to make pumpkin flavored desserts for the next year.

Tonight, I decided to tackle Julia Childs' Boeuf Bourguignon. Apparently it was my goal to spend as much time as possible in the kitchen this weekend as I started that recipe 3 hours ago and it's still got at least 2 more before it's ready. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm serving these Buttered Rosemary Rolls alongside it. I've been watching the rolls rise for a few hours now and I cannot wait to see them all golden and rosemary topped!

Somebody loves me!!!!

So you may remember me speaking of Calamondin's before. The only place I've been able to find them is down at my parents place on Hutchinson Island. They're almost my favorite part of going down there.. So I bought a tree and tried to grow them myself.  Back in the spring, my tree looked like this:

Now it's dead....

I don't know what happened... I think it got too much water (not from me, from the Illinois rain of about a month or two ago).

I instantly plunged into a deep depression.

But today, a box arrived, and look what it was full of...

Oh those are Calamondins!! A whole box full!!!!

The box was labeled "Trick or Treat". 

Oh man was it a treat.  I literally jumped up and down.  LITERALLY!

Wanna know what the first thing I did was?

Got out a glass and filled it with Perfect Ice Cubes , and then the juice of 5 calamondins.  They are tiny little guys but they are 100% juice. just cut them in half and squeeze them between your fingers and all of their juice just oozes out.  I probably only needed 3 calamondin's in this drink. They are very concentrated. But I was soooo excited I kept squeezing.

Next, I added Vodka.  And promptly realized that by drinking out of this jar which has markings for every 4 ounces I was easily able to see just how much vodka was going into my drink...  well, we have a few shows to watch tonight (like Flash Forward!) so no problem!

Then, I just topped with Club Soda.

Did anyone else notice Calamondin's disappear between the last 2 pictures?

Dammit Adam, that is my stash!!!!

Thank you soooooooooooo much Mom and Dad!!! You have no idea how happy you made me tonight!  3 hours later I'm still drinking my Calamondin Cocktail.  Well.... it may have gotten refilled once..... ;)

Best drink ever!

I definitely owe the grand finale kitchen renovation pictures but we're still loading up the cabinets and such so I'm going to wait a few days until we're totally done. 

Expect some sneak peaks in the next few days.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Thieves

Well that's it... I'm officially done driving my car to concerts in downtown Chicago.

For the second time in 16 months I've had my car window smashed in while enjoying a concert in the city.

As we're looking for a parking spot, Adam drops Erin and I off on the corner. At the last second, we decide we don't want our jackets or purses in the Sweat-ro where we were seeing The Gossip. So we open the car back up, toss in our stuff, and by some stroke of genius, I think to pick up our coats and drop them on top of the purses. When Adam parks the car, he thinks enough to take the GPS down and put it in his jacket pocket, which he then also tosses in the back seat on top of our coats.

Yes, we are brilliant! No thief will ever think there is anything valuable hiding under those jackets!!

Low and behold, we get back to the car to find the window smashed in, the glove box and center console both ripped open and their contents strewn everywhere.

What did they take?

• The GPS charger
• The GPS suction cup
• My car's user manual.

That's it.

Seriously.

No jackets, no purses, no GPS, no power inverter, neither of the two phone chargers that were right next to the GPS charger. Not even any of the money in the center console that was wide open!

Seriously.

Worst. Thieves. Ever.

I'm just dying to know what they're planning on doing with that users manual...

 

In case you are curious, we didn't bother filing a police report or calling the insurance company as we learned the first time this happened in Chicago... nobody really cares. And getting the window fixed is cheaper than my $250 deductible.

 

Oh and you know what else is awesome? Driving home on the highway at 1am when it's 40 degrees outside and you are missing one whole window. And having to wear sunglasses because you are afraid a piece of glass may fly loose.

A break from the kitchen reno!

I thought I'd take a brief break from the kitchen renovation to talk about our super fun weekend!

We started off by heading up to Pontiac, MI to see Sufjan Stevens at The Crofoot. He hasn't toured in 2 years and wasn't playing here in Chicago so that concert was the basis of our whole Michigan trip this weekend.

 

As always, Sufjan was amazing! He even played Majesty Snowbird which is my fave unreleased Sufjan song ever!

We had to wake up bright and early on Saturday morning (in the 5:00am hour) to head over to Ann Arbor to start tailgating for the Michigan vs. Indiana game!

And wouldn't you know it - we won!!!

That's 4 straight games so far this season. 1 more than the entire last season. 100% less losses than last season too! 

Speaking of last season, when we got home from the game, I was checking my email and up popped this one from Scrapbook Trends.  See that scrapbook page? It's mine!!!

The page is called "The Worst" and it's about the Michigan vs. Purdue game we went to last season. Both teams had the worst ratings in the Big 10 at the time and we took an early lead which made us start chanting "We're not the Worst!" over and over. 

But then we lost... so we were, indeed, the Worst...

At least it got me published in Scrapbook Trends!  Look for that layout in the October issue :)

By the way, it's a hybrid layout that uses one of my templates from Sketch Collection #26

2009 CBS Picnic

The annual Chicago Beer Society picnic is something we look forward to all year. For just $5 you get all the fabulous microbrew you can drink, and you get to sample the very best ribs, salsa, chilis, and desserts the Chicago beer community can cook up.

In previous years, Adam has won 3rd best salsa, and 1st best dessert.

This year he decided to enter the salsa, dessert, and chili competition (having never made chili before in his life!)

He started at the farmer's market to get fresh tomatoes for the salsa and fresh sweet corn from the farmer's market.

Then he headed out to our garden and finally picked this super ripe Jalapeno that has been on the vine for about 3 months now.

While he was out in the garden he realized our hops were finally flowering!

Yum!

The tomatoes got roasted

as did the peppers and garlic

It all got blended together and was fabulous but it didn't win any awards. Adam blames me. When people asked us what number our salsa was I kept telling them we were 18. We were 19... Salsa #18 placed third.  Oops. And you're welcome #18!

For the chili, Adam smoked 3 chickens the night before. We shredded them in the morning, added chicken broth, beans, the fresh sweet corn and spices..

He served it with fresh chopped cilantro, lime wedges, sour cream, and jack cheese.

It took 2nd place!!! (Out of 20 chilis!) Not bad for someone who has never even made chili before.

For dessert, he cooked up his famous (and 2008 1st place winning) Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies.  This year they took 3rd.

Unfortunately they gave out the awards in the final seconds of the Michigan/Notre Dame game (we'd brought a TV out to the picnic so we wouldn't miss it).  Adam ran as fast as he could when he heard his name and only left because it was a commercial.

Congrats Adam!!

Friend and 2008 chili winner, Thomas, took home the big honors again this year for best chili!

 

A few pictures of Charlie, Adam's brother's girlfriends dog. He's like a big bear. He got to enjoy many of the delicious ribs :)

Now to start planning our entries for the 2010 picnic!

Best Birthday Party Ever!

Today is my birthday but we celebrated on Saturday with a big backyard party!  My parents and grandma came to town and with about 25 others we partied hard.  Adam and I decided to give everyone a heart attack at the party by serving a bacon explosion. We followed that up by firing up the deep fryer and cooking beer battered fish, chicken, and potato chips. We also made Adam's award winning guac and couscous salad. Everything we put out disappeared seconds later so I'm guessing that means everyone liked it!

I thought I'd share a bit about the Bacon Explosion. We started out by making some handmade italian sausage. We stuffed 8lbs of sausage into casings and left 2lbs for the bacon explosion.

You begin by creating a lattice out of raw bacon (10 pieces in a 5x5 grid). You then spread out a layer of Italian sausage and then cover that layer with a bunch of fried bacon.  Wrap it all up and throw it on the smoker for 2 hours.

Adam likes to serve a slice of it on a bun with BBQ sauce.  I couldn't handle more than a bite but it was pretty darn delicious!!

Our beer battered fish was by far the most popular though, it was the best thing ever!

We finished the party off with a nice campfire and then some hot tubbing.  It was pretty much my favorite birthday party ever.  Next year it's the big 3-0 though so maybe that one will be even better!

Well that happened....

It's been well over 7 years so I was definitely thinking this may happen someday soon, but I was certainly not expecting it at the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison this weekend (that would be our favorite beer festival)

But as we posed in front of the capital for a picture, Adam dropped to one knee (and I instantly moved to stand right in front of the capital so it's not in any of these pictures...)

And just like that, I'm engaged!

And now I know why Adam was pissed when I told him I didn't want to bring my SLR to the festival... hehe Sure makes me wish I would have planned my outfit better, or dealt with my frizz ball of a head of hair (it rained all morning and then instantly became 90 degrees so I was nice and sweaty at this point)

My ring:

Michigan Sunsets

Gotta love a good Michigan sunset to start out a wonderful weekend with friends and family.  Bummed I had to come back to Illinois so soon.

Care to see us in action?

In our natural habitat... a beer event...

This was filmed the first weekend in May.  Which was also the Kentucky Derby...  And National Scrapbooking Day. How can they put so many fun things on one day?

Big Brew Day is basically a day where all beer brewing folks (or folk who like to drink other peoples beer brewing ... like us...) gather and brew beer together, share beer, and eat a lot of amazing food.

Look for us at the 1:40 mark.  Then keep watching to see the amazing Bacon Explosions!!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Yesterday was Adam's 30th birthday!!!  Obviously a big day :)  This is the card I made him.

and the inside

I'd been wanting to try a yellow/gray card for a while and I thought this adorable robot from My Cute Stamps' "Space Ships & Robots" set would work perfectly.  I love how he can wear that cute little hat!

To celebrate Adam's birthday we went to see the Detroit Tigers (our hometown team) play the White Sox.

We (the Tigers) lost.  It was a double header and the Tigers actually won the early game but not the one we went to unfortunately.  Oh well, it was still a great time!  Here's our group of 10!

We were amazed at our ability to pose for this picture with barely any obstructed heads in 2 seconds flat!

Sausages

This year, for our Memorial Day BBQ we hand made our sausages!!!  It was so cool and they were sooooo delicious. We made brats, Italian Sausage, and Chicken/Spinach/Feta sausages.  We smoked some and we grilled some.  These ones above are on the grill.

These are on the smoker

Those are some good looking sausages aren't they?  :)

We went over to Adam's boss's house who taught us to make them and let us use his stuffer.  We're definitely going to have to get one now since these were so good and so easy to make!

Greetings from Seattle

We flew out to Seattle on Thursday night and our headed home in the morning.  I haven't been here since middle school. This city is awesome :)

Thought I'd share my Mother's Day cards.

The inside:

Supplies
Stamps: Life, Mother - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Spring Moss, Melon Berry
Paper: Stampers Select White, Spring Moss, Melon Berry
Ribbon: Melon Berry Satin
Other: Labels 1 Nestabilities

Far Out!

I haven't posted in almost a week so this will be a catch up post.

I'll start with a quick card I made tonight using the Space Ships & Robots set from My Cute Stamps. I always wanted to be astronaut when I was a kid so this set is so totally me!

The patterned papers are from Scenic Route, the cardstock is Bazzil, the Ink is Palette. Ribbon from my stock, a Nestabilities star die, and a new EK Success border punch!

 

So I have a new obsession - couponing :)  Adam thinks I'm being ridiculous, but come on - who couldn't use a few extra bucks in their pockets these days?

Basically you don't buy stuff unless you have a coupon, and it's on sale.  That sounds like a lot of work keeping up with that kind of stuff doesn't it?  Well not so - there are legions of blogs out there dedicated to mashing up coupons and sales and telling you what to buy and where to buy it.

Some of my favorites

• It's Hip 2 Save
• Mashup Mom
• Bargain Briana
• Frugal Coupon Living
• The Bargain Jargon

And so on...

Anyway, I thought I'd show you my latest take.  In honor of Earth Day, Walgreens was offering 15% off your entire purchase (20% off walgreens brand items)

Here's what I bought:

• Walgreens re-usable bag - FREE (Earth Day Special)
• Skintimate Shaving Cream - $3 - 15%off = $2.54
  But you get $3 back in Register Rewards (money you can spend on your next trip).
  $.46 profit!
• 2 Glade Soy Candles: 5.99 each - 15% off = 5.09 each
  $2/Easy Saver Coupon in the booklet at Walgreens each
  $4/off each - printable here
  FREE (w/overage)!
• Energizer Batteries - 3 packs of 16 (2 AA, 1AAA) On Sale for 8.99 each - 15% off = $7.64
  - $1 coupon off each - printable here
  Plus, the batteries each had a Gillette Quattro Platinum razor in them (no idea why)
  Plus, it generated a $2 Register Reward
  Total: About $6 each with bonus razors!
• Nature's Bounty Vitamins (Fish Oil (9.34 after 15% discount) & Melatonin (7.22 after discount)) -
  Buy One Get One Free Walgreens sale
  2 - $2 off coupons printable here
  $5.34 Total for both jars of vitamins (regular price - over $20!)
• Plasticware - 2/$.80 when you scan the coupon in the Walgreens flyer (I forgot to do this... arg... so I paid $.79 each but they would have been that price for both if I remembered the coupon
• Paperplates - $.80 when you scan the coupon in the flyer (again, I forgot to do this so I paid $1.43)
• 2 Glade Plugin Refills - on sale 2 for $5 (15% off = 4.25)
  Plugin Oil Heater - 3.99 (3.22 with sale)
  $1 off of 2 refills from a coupon in last Sunday's paper
  Free oil heater when you buy any refill from a coupon in last Sunday's paper
  Plus, this generates a $1 Rebate Reward
  Total Cost: $2.15 for 2 refills + the nightlight oil heater

All in all, my final total including our crazy high sales tax was $37.40.  I saved $11.58 because of the 15% off sale and $42.87 in coupons and Walgreens sales!

And I have $6 in Register Rewards to spend time I go.

Seriously, how fun is that?

My receipt:

 

Ok, last thing.  A recent pic of me for my mom.  I've lost 19.5 lbs in the last 12 weeks and I got a haircut after I saw her last over Christmas so she wanted a new photo.

Picture taken this weekend at Rockfest!

Sorry Adam, this is what you get for making faces at the camera all the time.

 

Turning the River Green

Yesterday we headed downtown to watch the Chicago Plumbers Union turn our river green.  If you've never seen this before it's quite incredible. 

Hundreds of thousands lined the river to watch, this is what it looked like when we arrived and were looking for a good spot.

They started just after 11 - here you can see the green wake as they make their first pass

A few passes later... the dye is actually orange, when it hits the river water it turns this lovely shade of green!

Not quite all mixed up yet

And done...pretty crazy huh?

Afterwards we went over to Millenium Park for a bit since it was such a beautiful day (50 degrees is beautiful in a Chicago March!) Here we are in the bean

Foodie Weekend + New Craft Room pics!

Friday we took the day off work to go downtown and have lunch.  It was the last day of Chicago Restaurant week  so we headed down to David Burke's Primehouse for one of the most delicious lunches ever!  We started out with appetizers.  Lobster Bisque with a Lobster Spring Roll for me and East & West Coast oysters for Adam. Followed by a dry aged New York Sirloin for me and a 28 day aged boneless Delmonico Steak for Adam.  Dessert was Apple Cheddar Pie for me (granny smith apples, aged cheddar, salted caramel ice cream - INCREDIBLE) and Slice of Prime for Adam (layers of rich chocolate mousse, cake and fudge, s’mores ice cream).  Yup, taking the day of work just to go out to a fancy lunch was SOOOOOOO worth it :)

To continue a weekend of fabulous food, last night we went to the Mitsuwa Marketplace and picked up $50 worth of sashimi to make our own sushi.

On this trey is:

• Seaweed Salad
• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Unagi (eel - the cooked fish in front)
• Toro (tuna)
• Chutoro (the incredibly delicious fatty underbelly of the tuna, most expensive thing on the board, we ate in raw instead of in rolls)
• Real Wasabi Root - this is the first time we'd ever seen it in a store.  It's EXTREMELY rare and when you can find it, it goes for $100/lb.  We got about 2-3oz of it

Yum Yum Yum!!!

Tonight we are making Mussels in wheat beer.

As hard as it may be to believe we did do other things than just eat this weekend. I'd been wanting to hang a pegboard in my craft room for quite some time and I finally got around to going out and getting the stuff.  I'm so thrilled with it!

Also, I don't think I ever showed you guys this desktop organizer thing I got.  I picked it up around Christmas time from JC Penny's - it was on mega clearance for about $70 or something (originally $300) and it was the exact size to fit my desk.  I totally love it, all of my essentials are right in front of me (black, white, kraft, and glossy cardstock, PTI stamps, coloring utensils, etc.)

A closer view of the pegboard

 

We screwed a curtain rod to the top of the pegboard to hold my punches (I didn't think it would fill up so fast...)

The main reason I wanted the pegboard was to hang up all my flat things like alphas and stickers and rub-ons.  I previously had them on one of those Clip-It-Up things but I was just not a fan, this will make it much easier to page through my goodies. I haven't decided what will go in the wire basket I fastened to the board yet.

Let me know if you have any questions about anything :)

Technorati Tags: Craft Room,Peg Board,Sushi

Where I disappeared to

We had Martin Luther King Jr day off so we decided a mini-vacation was in order.  As my Aunt & Uncle just built a house out there we decided to go visit Arizona (I'd never been).

I have to tell you, I didn't really expect too much from Arizona, it just didn't seem that interesting to me.  Boy was I wrong. We had a blast! Everything was so beautiful and there was so much to do!!!

So, the rest of this is just a lot of pictures!

This is my uncle and I overlooking their golf course and their mountain (Superstition Mountain).  Uncle Bill insisted the golf course be in the background :) heheh

Uncle Bill & Aunt Lucy's adorable dog, Charlie

One of the days we were there, my aunt and uncle took us on a scenic drive around Apache Trail which was on the other side of that mountain you see from their yard.

Look - there are lakes there!

a one lane bridge heading to Tortilla Flats

And I thought this was crazy. Apparently it rained the week and the rain is still coming down the mountain and flooded the road.

Adam and I made Margaritas to go out and watch the sunset one night

And our view of the sun setting over Silly Mountain

After 2 days we left Aunt Lucy and Uncle Bill's and went to stay at the Hyatt - Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale.  (no pictures of that yet but it was incredible!)

From there, we drove up to Sedona - incredible! We started by checking out some of many wineries in Page Springs.

This is the backyard of one of them

Once we got up to Sedona we took the Broken Arrow Pink Jeep tour - so awesome, highly recommended!  The red rocks of Sedona were breathtaking!

 

If you want to see more of my pictures from Arizona (like I didn't share enough here)

click here:

 

Highly Recommended Arizona places:

• Pink Jeep Tours of Sedona - we did the Broken Arrow tour. It's a 2 hour off roading adventure with some of the most stunning views ever
• Filly's of Apache Junction -  I consider myself quite the aficionado of ranch dressing and theirs was killer.  Plus their broasted chicken was like nothing I'd had before.  Mouth watering awesome.
• Papago Brewing Company - Best beer bar in Arizona, hands down. A really cool place with a great atmosphere and a heap of games to play while you enjoy your brews (not just theirs, but about 25 other taps and a giant coolers full of bottles)
• The Hyatt at Gainey Ranch - as long as you can get the rooms for much less than the $450/night going rate.  Try priceline, we got an insane deal.

Ringing in 2009 and wrapping up the Florida trip

Can you believe we are already 5 days into 2009? I sure can't. With a new year comes lots of resolutions in my house. Eat healthier, exercise more, floss daily, etc. Lots of boring things. I figured I needed a fun resolution to go along with the boring ones though so this year, I am participating in Project 365! For those who are unfamiliar, Project 365 is basically just a challenge to take a photo every single day for the whole year! To help me display all of my photos, I created a new template set so I can scrap all of my pictures.

This set includes 12 double page templates so you can scrap all 365 pictures you take this year! Heck, even if you don't want to take a picture a day it would still be an awesome way to do a month in review layout. These templates are Shutterfly ready and I plan on ordering my book at the end of the project.

You can pick up the templates right here. The normal price is $12 but I currently have them marked down to $8 so grab 'em fast!

I wanted to share a few more pics from Florida. On our last full day there my dad took Adam and I out to try and catch Spanish Mackerel. We failed miserably so instead we went to the beach and on the way back home we came across this pod of dolphins.  It was crazy, they were everywhere!  Totally awesome.

This picture kinda sucks but you can see a ton of fins.

ditto

They were swimming all around the boats

and I love this one of the 2 dolphins together, I imagine they are out on some sort of date :)

I'm ready to go back :)

Meet Diesel

Look at that adorable little face!  This is my brothers new puppy, Diesel. He's 4 months old, a pit bull/bull  mastiff mix.  He's going to be a big boy.  He's the absolute sweetest best dog ever! 

I took a bunch of pictures of him while we were down in Florida (we flew back to Detroit yesterday and will drive home to Chicago tonight or tomorrow).  Here are some of my faves.

He was not supposed to be on the furniture.  oops.

 

He's quite the poser huh? 

We took him out for his first boat ride ever and he did great!

hehehe

but on the way back the water was a little rough and he got a tad bit scared

I love this dog. I miss him already.

I leave you with a picture of the whole family on Christmas

Betsy (Jimmy's fiance), my mom, my brother Jimmy, my dad, Adam, and me