Anniversary Dinner

Today we celebrated 7 years of marriage. It is hard to believe that we have been married 7 years and have known each other over 11 years. Time flies when you are having fun……

Here are some pictures for you to see how hard I cooked today. I managed to make everything that I wanted to make. I ran out of flour (the one store we have on center is not open on week-ends), but my upstairs neighbor and nextdoor neighbor both loaned me some. Also, I looked at the bread I bought last week and found that it had all molded….so I even had to borrow some bread from my upstairs neighbor to make homemade croutons. It really is a great community! Not sure if you are picking up on the “no bread” theme, but I realized (about an hour before dinner) that I didn’t have any breadcrumbs for the fried mozzarella. Caleb made a call, and found some! The store has not had breadcrumbs in months, so I was surprised someone was willing to part with theirs! Again, great place to live!

The only sad thing about our dinner was that after the fried mozzarella and the “close to” Olive Garden salad, I was FULL! I ate maybe two bites of my fettuccine alfredo. The bread that I made was SO easy….my sister-in-law Jill told me to make it once before and we LOVED it then and we LOVED it tonight. It is the easiest type of bread I have ever made and it is so good!

Ben was really great for us and played in his room while we ate. Since he had two naps today (very rare since most days he doesn’t nap), we knew he would be up late. We borrowed Toy Story 3 from a neighbor (GREAT community) and watched it as a family. Halfway through, we were all FINALLY hungry for a little bit of dessert. We just HAD to try the tiramisu cake that I made for the first time. It was pretty good….I was so surprised how good everything turned out.

I cannot help but brag a bit. At home, I would never take the time to cook all of this from scratch….but it did really pay off. Again, the only sad thing was that I could barley eat a thing I was so stuffed. But, at least we have great leftovers waiting for us for tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy the pictures…..and if you ever need me to cater your anniversary dinner when we return to the States…..you will have to pay me A LOT! This was hard work that was worth it…..but I have yet to be converted to the kind of person who LOVES to cook all the time.  Who knows, though, we still have a little over a year here in country…..I could change….there is still time….

(This is a test- this post was made at 10:38pm on PNG Saturday night…..it has yet to post to the blog via our e-mail.)

Olive Garden Style Salad with "close-to" dressing

Appetizers

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

The easiest-to-make and best-tasting bread of all time

Happy but sad I was too full to eat most of it!

Caleb was VERY happy.....he loves new food experiences. He is smiling with his eyes.

Tiramisu Cake with a Strawberry and Cream cake for Ben.....