Ringing in the New Year!

2011 is in the rear view mirror and to it I say good riddance! 2012 will be the year of the Zerizefs! We are determined to make this year the best yet. While 2011 was not our favorite, we do have a lot of great memories to take away.

In March 2011 we welcomed a new addition to the family. We love our little Z.

In April 2011 we headed down to FL to celebrate my cousin Katherine and Aaron's wedding. What a great day.

...and you can't really beat that backdrop! It was a great sunny break from the Oregon spring rain. More photos of the Trotter/Schwartz wedding can be seen here.

In May 2011, Nabil's sister Nora married Freddie Lamb. I still think she is the most beautiful bride I have ever seen. We love her! To see more photos of the Lamb wedding, click here.

In June 2011, Nabil and I met my step-dad, Bill, in Spokane (which is where Sydney lives). This photo pretty much sums up the visits when the three of us get together. Lots of fun.

We brought Zizou with us, and my step-dad brought his dog Buddy. Zizou had lots of fun annoying Buddy.

The summer of 2011, was also filled with Timber's games. This family shows unconditional love for the Timbers. Some of us by choice, and some of us have no other choice.

Go Timbers!

In August 2011, our good friends Brooke and Luke got married. We had a girls' day wine tasting a few days before. What a gorgeous time to go check out the vineyards!

 Brooke and Luke were married at Bridal Veil Lakes in the Gorge. This was one of my favorite weddings I have ever been to. Brooke decorated everything, and it was all very "country-chic". So perfect.

My dad got married in September 2011. I'm so glad that we were able to be there. It was on a bridge in the Wyoming country-side and a gorgeous fall day. I've never seen my dad so happy.

And this was the beautiful bride.

Another wine tasting adventure in October 2011. This was right before crush, so the grapes were plump for pickin'.

The Occupy movement was in full force in October. To see more photos that I took at a rally, click here

Thanksgiving 2011 - my favorite holiday.

The day after Thanksgiving tradition: snowshoeing on Mt. Hood. This year, our friends Brooke and Luke joined us.

We took our Christmas card photo while up on the mountain.

My mom came to P-town for Christmas break this year, so we went all out an decorated the whole house. We had a great time with her for the holiday and enjoyed showing her around our city.

We are also dog-sitting Olive while her parents are taking a late honeymoon in Thailand. She is much calmer than Zizou, so she puts up with us dressing her in Santa's hat.

We hope you all had a great past year, but a better year to come. Happy New Year everyone. We'll see you next year!

Until next time...

Christmas Eve with the Zerizefs

It's Christmas eve here in P-town, and we have finally settled down and are anxiously awaiting Santa's arrival. We had a fun-filled day hoping around Portland. My mom got in town early this morning, and we've been going non-stop ever since. We took her around the city, but then came home for a bit before heading back out to an x-mas eve service.

The table is all ready and set for x-mas eve dinner.

The great thing about these place mats is that they can be used for every holiday. Very versatile. ...and yes, I promise, I will put up the how to soon. I ran out of time between Thanksgiving and now.

Centerpieces

The stockings are hung by the ...window with care.

Olive is staying with us for a few weeks, and Zizou couldn't be more excited.

My mom and I started a little craft project.

They are little appetizer skewers. Aren't they cute? I think they'd make great gifts.

Cute little Zizou dressed up and ready for papa elf.

Olive is much better about letting me put a Santa hat on her to take a picture. Isn't she so cute!?

It's going to be a great Christmas at the Zerizefs! We wish you all the best Christmas day as well, with love from our family to yours.

Until next time...

Weekend Breakfast

Growing up, my favorite meal ever was french toast. In fact, I loved it so much, I ordered french toast every restaurant that I went (if it was on the menu). Since then, I have broadened my taste when dining out, but I still greatly appreciate a good french toast. I found this recipe in the book "A Homemade Life" by Molly Wizenberg, but you can also find it here.

Molly would argue that the trick to good french toast is to use oil instead of butter when frying, I would agree, but I think that using a larger ratio of milk to eggs also helps to give the toast a more custardy inside. It is best to use a thick bread like Texas toast or french bread. The bread needs to be day or two old so that it is just a little stale. I used french rolls so the sizes were a little smaller, like french toast sliders.

1 cup milk (the recipe calls for whole, but I use almond milk)

3 large eggs (beaten)

1.5 T sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 t salt

Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

Light oil, like canola or safflower

3 loaves of french rolls cut into 1 inch thick slices

Pure maple syrup, for serving

Side note: Did you know that this is what nutmeg looks like? I used to only use ground nutmeg from the store until I discovered how easy it was to get the whole seed and freshly grate it when needed.

Whisk together the first six ingredients. This is the batter to soak the bread slices. Each side needs to soak for about two minutes. Place each slice on a hot skillet with a pool of oil. It may sound a little weird, but it's important that there is a lot of oil. Not just coating the bottom of the pan, but enough to boil around the bottom of the bread. You'll know that the oil is hot enough if you flick a bit of the batter in the oil and it starts to bubble.

You can soak the second round of slices when the first is sizzling.  Flip after about 1 minute. Cook until each side is done. Drizzle with pure maple syrup, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Yummy!

Until next time...

Nabilly Bob's Birthday

Wednesday was the hubby's birthday. Since his big day was in the middle of the week, and he still had to get up at 6:00am the next morning, we kept things pretty low key. Nabil got a new orbital sander from his awesome wife to help him finish all those home improvement projects, and a delicious homemade 26th birthday dinner. Nabil loves garlic mashed potatoes and seared scallops, so that is what we ate.

Steamed scallops for an appetizer. I steamed them in a red wine and garlic sauce. Delicious.

Seared scallops are also one of my favorite foods, so we make them for many of our "fancy" meals. This time, I tried something a little different. Usually I sautee the scallops in a white white and garlic sauce. This time I used a sauce that consisted of red wine, brown sugar, homemade roasted garlic paste, and a pad of butter. I also wrapped the scallops in prosciutto. I think this works better than bacon. It cooks and tastes better than bacon.

Yum!

Cooked to perfection

...until next time.

Christmas in Oregon 2011 begins

This Christmas season has been busy busy busy. Since we are spending the holiday at our house this year, and Mama Schilling is flying in, we have a lot to get ready for. Shopping, decorating, cooking, etc. The time is flying by, and there is barely any time left for important things like blogging or catching up on Pan Am with my home girl Brooke.

This weekend we had to get the tree. Can't have Christmas without a tree, right?! The past three years we have used our dinky little fake tree, but this year, since we are spending Christmas at the house, we decided to get a real, Oregon-grown tree. We even went out to the farm where we were able to cut it ourselves. 

How do you ever choose. There were so many trees!

...but then we found her. A Grand Fir beaut!

What a sweet manly man, cutting his wife down an x-mas tree.

seven years old?

Here she is at home, and all lit up. More pictures to come once all the decorations are finally up. ...but not until I finish the Christmas card.

Until next time...

Thanksgiving Leftover Soup

I absolutely love having leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, I buy a turkey that is way bigger than I know we could possibly eat, because I want leftover for sandwiches and soup, ...and I know everyone else will want leftovers too. It's the best part! Last year, I found a recipe for white bean turkey soup on Epicurious. I changed a few things, to make it my own, and it has definitely become a post-turkey day staple. I tend to even make it a few other times in the winter with chicken instead of turkey. In my opinion, it is ten times better than your traditional chicken noodle soup.

Below are the ingredients that I used for the soup. Not pictured is the turkey leftovers, and turkey broth made from scratch. 

1 package dried white beans (whatever kind you choose)

2-3 whole carrots

2-3 celery stalks

one whole yellow onion

2 15oz cans diced tomatoes

leftover turkey, cut or torn into bite-sized pieces

homemade turkey broth, you will have to eye the amount to use, aprox. 10 cups total

about 4 servings of Orzo pasta

To make turkey broth, I boil the carcass (picked through), the leftover turkey drippings, and water. I do this with all the meat I buy when I have leftover bone/carcass. It's free broth, and it tastes way better than the store bought. When filling the pan, you want the carcass to be about two-thirds to three-fourths covered with liquid, so after adding the dripping, add water for the rest. I let this boil for about half an hour. Then I bring it down to a simmer and let it sit for hours. This year it probably simmered for about 5 hours. You wanna get all the turkey flavor you can. If you have a big enough crock-pot, it is probably easier. After you feel the broth is complete, use a mesh strainer to separate out all the pieces. Place the broth into containers and set in the fridge. Once it is completely cooled you can remove the fat layer which will have separated to the top. The second time I made turkey broth, I thought I messed it up somehow because it was very thick and gelatin-like. Since then, I have learned that if it is thick, that means you did it right. It looks weird, and you will need to add some water when using it for soup, but a concentrated broth, makes the soup taste much better. Yet another cooking tip you can only learn from experience.

Back to the soup. In the morning, place dried beans in crock pot. Cover with broth. If broth is very thick, add equal amounts of water to thin (approximately 5-7 cups together). Chop carrots celery, and onion and add to the pot. Cook on low for approximately eight hours. Side note; the turkey that I make is very garlicy. The broth is also very garlicy. If it wasn't, I would add 4-5 chopped cloves at this point too.

Once the beans are soft (or in my case, when I get home from work), I transfer everything to a large soup pot, only because my crock pot is too small. I can literally hear my mom's voice in my ears "I told you so, I knew you would need a bigger crock pot". Ugh! Whatevs mom. Anyway, once the soup is in a big enough pot, I add the tomatoes (not drained), and the turkey (or chicken) pieces. Simmer for another hour. The soup will need to have quite a bit more broth than you think because the orzo will soak it all up. Add the orzo and continue to simmer for another 30-45 min. Next, divide and serve!

Add parm and basil to garnish. Yum!

Until next time...

Snowshoeing after Thanksgiving

Last year, Nabil and I wanted to start a new family tradition. We decided that we would try our hand at snowshoeing. Thanksgiving day can make you feel a bit bloated, so we thought snowshoeing would be the perfect day-after activity. Last year it was just Nabil, Sydney, and me. We had so much fun that we kept the tradition alive this year, but we had a few more join.

This was the crew, minus me and Brooke who were busy taking pictures.

Pretty sweet view huh!?

We went hiking at White River which is just south of Mt Hood Meadows. Both this year and last the area has gotten a lot of snow, and as you can see, you really can't beat the view, especially on a day like last Friday. It was about forty degrees so we really didn't even need gloves, and it was an unusually clear day.

Olive and Zizou lead the pack. I'm pretty sure Zizou never thought he would have so much fun.

The young lovebirds

Jacob was teasing Zizou with the chuck-it, so Sydney socked him in the back.

...but then they made up.

Zizou kept chasing the ball but then it got covered in snow, so it looked like a big snowball. :)

PDA

Brooke looking out into the great abyss.

Such a perfect day.

What a cute little sister she is!

Mr Jacob making snowballs.

Olive making snow angels and Zizou running and running and never stopping the running.

Sisters

Until next time...