It. Was. Epic.

 

Too Much Pork For Just One Fork was legendary! Need a refresher on the story behind the night? Reread here.

The night started off with two of my favorite food groups:

Dip and Dippers

The dip was actually more of a spread:

Uncle Chuck’s Ricotta Spread

In the mix: Ricotta Salata, olive oil, lemon juice, pepper…love?

Dippers:

Peter Piper picked a peck of delicious peppers:

While we started in on the appetizers, Chuck worked diligently on the main course:

Preview.

Dipped!

Who needs bread when you have a cucumber!?!

Especially when followed up with a delicious glass of red wine!

Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo…I’ll have a glass of all three yo!

The first wine we tried is a contender for the wedding:

Darien Rioja Tempranillo 2008

The first word I came up with for this wine was DRINKABLE. It had a carbonated – or Spritey ;) – finish. It was on the sweeter end but not sugary. Delicious! And I believe, available at Trader Joe’s! The second wine we tried was the:

Oscar Tobia Rioja Tempranillo 2001

I couldn’t get past the smell of this wine! It was SUPER oaky. Distractingly so to me. However, it didn’t taste oaky (thank goodness) it was actually very smooth!

By the time we polished off the appetizers:

and two bottles of wine. It was time.

And I was ready. Actually…I could have used a bigger fork. Because this:

Was fresh from the oven!

And Chuck was ready to carve!

Grab your plate!

Braciole of Niman Ranch Pork Loin stuffed with prosciutto and a medley of rendered local pork belly and spinach with black olives.

Served with a mushroom ragout. (Which may or may not have been cooked in rendered pork belly) :)

Cooked to perfection! Every bite was perfect. Perfect. Did I say perfect?

The prosciutto wrapped on the inside was GENIUS.

I may have cleaned my plate.

 

And as stated previously, I may have wanted to lick it clean.

With dinner we drank from the third bottle:

Barahonda Barrica 2007

I think this wine was my favorite! Smooth and tart. But then again, I was on my third or fourth glass.

In lieu of dessert, I went back for a second helping of pork. Too much. Delicious.

The best part of Too Much Pork For Just One Fork? I’ve heard a rumor that an evening for Part TWO is in the works!!

Maybe you guys could come? :)

************

I hope you have an awesome (and awesomely safe) Memorial Day Weekend!

It’s going to be EPIC

 

Last night’s festivities were…EPIC.

This picture really says it all. If I hadn’t been at the table with Parrish’s family I probably would have licked my plate! :)

I had hoped to get everything loaded up this morning, so I could give you guys a recap before I leave for work today. BUT once I loaded up all the pictures, I struggled to find the best for the blog. All of the pictures are…well, let’s just say that you’re going to want to pick it right off your computer screen!

So tonight! Full recap of Too Much Pork For Just One Fork!

OH! And a few you guys had emailed and asked if this was a local event. Sort of. My soon to be brother in law Chuck and his wife Katie are helping Parrish and I with the wine for our wedding. Since we’re serving BBQ, Chuck wanted to prepare a meal for us and let us taste the wine he’s thinking about pairing for the wedding. And being that Chuck is an amazing cook, we jumped at the chance! A few emails back and forth between Parrish and his two brothers, a name for the event was created: Too Much Pork For Just One Fork! (And I made a little logo, for the love of the blog!)

So for now you’ll just have to be satisfied with pictures from my breakfast this morning…which come to think about it, was pretty EPIC too!

Nom Nom Nom :) Sweet, crunchy on the outside – soft on the inside

Pamela’s Gluten Free Pancake and Baking Mix is da’ bomb!! I had never used this mix before, and I was super excited when Mambo Sprouts sent it to me to try!! I had seen that a few gluteny bloggers were even trying it! (Which in all honesty always makes me chuckle)

Super easy to make, all you need is water, eggs, and oil! I love a recipe that doesn’t call for milk. The likelihood that half the container of milk will go to waste is always pretty high!

Filling and fast! My two favorite words to describe to breakfast!

*************************

Off to work! I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend! See you tonight!

Coming Soon

Full Recap tomorrow! :)

Homeowners Day TWO and a gluteny wedding

 

PHEW!!

When did I last post?? A week ago? Eesh. I’m not going to bore you with a week long post, as it would consist of PACKING –WORKING – PACKING – WORKING -  so let’s do a weekend recap!

Saturday morning Parrish and I woke up bright and early and headed to Wilmington for a wedding! I was on the fence about going to the wedding. I honestly felt SO overwhelmed with the looming move and all the packing that still needed to happen BUT then I remembered who would be at said wedding:

My MOH – Alex! She’s so sweet :) So I went!

The groom went to high school with Parrish, so I’m not a close friend of the bride and groom. For that reason, I was a pretty nervous about the food. And didn’t feel comfortable asking. The ceremony was at 4pm. So we met friends for a late lunch around 1:30. That way I wouldn’t be too hungry at the reception.

Good. Thing. I. Wasn’t.

Absolutely nothing I could eat. Not one morsel aside from baby carrots. In all honesty it was a gluten haters nightmare.

None of the food was labeled.

ALL of the sliced meats were sitting in either broth or gravy.

There was pasta.

Someone dropped pasta not only in the corn but also in the salad! (A part of me thinks gluten was somehow responsible for this.)

The salad was already dressed.

However, I didn’t stress. And that was pretty neat. Almost two years ago, I would have panicked. I would have thrown a private fit for myself and possibly Parrish. But not now! I was prepared:

Think Thin Bar – Chocolate Covered Strawberries (SO GOOD! & 15g Protein!)

So I managed, and was able to still have fun! And hang out with Alex, Parrish, and her boyfriend Carl:

Carl was having so much fun at the wedding that he just couldn’t open his eyes! Too much fun!

And Parrish I partied like it was 2002, when “we were too cool for school”:

And I was able to catch up with old friends!

I’m pretty sure this little victory makes: Marlow – 3 Gluten – 0

And yeah, I probably could have chanced it. And hoped for the best. But then I would have missed out on all the fun!

************

We ended up driving back to Chapel Hill after the wedding. The plan was to wake up early Sunday morning and start packing the moving truck!

And we did!! THANK THE LORD for Parrish’s two brothers! Without them we would have been…well…not moved! And my friend Amber even came over and helped! TEAMWORK :)

So we are MOVED! There’s still some stragglers over at the rental house and lots of cleaning, but the all the boxes have moved…

and are now here! We honestly haven’t done much unpacking. We pretty much spent all day Sunday moving, and then yesterday we were busy bees working on the kitchen! And today we finished the cabinets! Remember BEFORE?

NOW:

PS. Painting ‘Lazy Susan’ doors. Not for the lazy!

So now we are painting the cabinets doors and shelves. I can’t wait to pick out new hardware for the cabinet doors!

(Do I spy MORE cow print? DARN IT!)

I definitely have to get real with myself though! I’m not going to be able to make the kitchen “perfect” (mainly because perfection doesn’t exist) instantly. For example, I LOVE white cabinets. And the previous cabinets were hideous. However, the spiffy new paint job has brought out the… beige in the appliances:

Hello Yellow.

But I’m just going to have to live with that for a while. I had to have a serious conversation with myself! “Self. You can not afford new appliances right away. You are getting married this year. You are paying. Get real.”

But until then, I’m still loving the progress of the kitchen! Parrish and I have been working our butts off. And Max…

well, moving put him behind on naps. But I’m sure he’ll help tomorrow!

****************

Thanks for all your advice on new home owning! My favorite part of blogging is of course you guys!! I much prefer a two sided conversation than just me rambling on to myself :)

Hopefully we’ll have new meals cooked in our kitchen soon. But not until my hands are clean:

And I have KILLED all the COW PRINT!

Off to more painting!!

ch-ch-ch-changes

 

It’s OFFICIAL!

Parrish and I are HOMEOWNERS! We closed at 10am Monday morning :) After signing, and signing, and signing…and then waiting for the deed to get registered, we were handed the keys! And we went directly…

to Lowe’s Hardware!

Let’s just say, our kitchen was original to the house.

Totally 80’s. And NOT in a good way. Two toned “wood” cabinets. Niiiiice.

At Lowe’s we bought a steely gray paint for the walls, primer for the cabinets, and a butt load of white paint.

First we started removing all the doors and cleaning the the surfaces:

And we took down that wooden board in between the shelves over the window. My Super MIL pointed out it’s purpose is to camo the curtain rod. Ehh, we weren’t sold. Removing the board really opened the window up. PLUS it was super homeowner-y to look at the beam and be like “I don’t like that. Let’s remove it.” (and we can cause we own it yo!)

After removing the doors, I set to peeling up miles and miles of cow printed sticky shelf liners.

So. Much. Cow. Print.

Parrish started painting the tallest wall.

We didn’t have a ladder. But no worries.

We own a fridge now too :) Perfect.

By the end of our first day as homeowners, we had applied two coats of paint to the walls and two coats of primer on the top cabinets and doors.

Can you tell we’re excited to be homeowners? And NO that is not an empty Diet Coke bottle.

Have you guys ever done any updating or renovating on your own? Since Parrish and I are getting married in September (and paying for most of the wedding) we don’t have a big budget. Any tips? Success stories?

Once home I was really wishing supper was already made. Luckily the recipe we were trying out wasn’t too hard, and in 30 minutes we had:

Pinapple Glazed Salmon with Veggies

(aka Looks Fancy but It Ain’t Salmon with Veggies)

I used another Cooking Light recipe, found here. The past few weeks I’ve been really satisfied with the Cooking Light recipes we’ve tried! Like this one and this one. When I research the recipes I look for great reviews, and I’ve yet to disagree!

We both really loved the salmon! The glaze wasn’t overly sweet. I did omit the brown sugar and subbed in honey, but that’s just because that’s what I had on hand.

For dessert, I treated myself to my new FAVORITE…MOST DELICIOUS…BESTIE BEST…SCRUMDIDLIYUMCIOUS…dessert:

Glutino Chocolate-Covered Pretzels were another item that Mambo Sprouts sent for me to review, and I’ll admit that I did squeal when I saw them in the box. I honestly feel like GF folks get the MOST excited about food.

I

 

enjoyed

every

 

single

bite!

And may or may not have licked my fingers! :)

I honestly couldn’t get over how delicious these pretzels were! Word on the street is that there are yogurt-covered pretzels too! Can you believe it!?! Can’t wait to try them!

************************

Okay, LOST is on in five. I hope you guys have a great hump day tomorrow!