Staining the deck and Caracas--all night pictures

We've had a few good weeks here--absolutely amazing weather. Last Sunday (we had to wait until Sunday because of Atlanta's water restriction) we powerwashed the deck and our steps. Now, I know you aren't "supposed" to powerwash the deck, but it had a thick layer of greenish blackish murk on it and I think the wood will be fine. So, in the evenings, after work, I've been staining until its too dark to see. Here are the rails and spindles:

...and here is the completed deck.

We'll get some daylight pictures this weekend ;) Meanwhile, Gustavo dusted off his suit and is headed to...

Caracas, Venezuela! He's there for a couple days--just a quick trip for work. If all goes well, though, we may have an opportunity to go down together in the future. He got in at 2 am, so here are just a few quick photos he shot last night.



(the floor!!! I love the crazy floor!!)




More to come.

70's and sunny

It's getting warmer down here--granted, its probably temporary....but hey, any time I can have my windows and doors flung open in February, I'll take it! Here is my lovely husband and the gladiolas from Valentines..

..a simple snack of pimento cheese and saltines...

..and a blurry photo of some veggie tacos. Don't worry, I made steak ones for Gustavo. (He ate the broccoli on his own accord!)

This song just came on the radio and how cool is it?! I hadn't heard the acoustic version before. Colin Hay from Men at Work.



May as well round it out--here's another Men at Work song. They were fairly recently fined quite a large amount over this song--apparently the flute riff was from "Kookaburra sits by the old gum tree." I don't know--personally, I think they changed it up enough. What do you think?

Some new art

Kind of hard to see, its the photo on the left. Will upload a better pic soon!

Valentine's Day at home

Just a side note--has anyone else noticed Blogger's photo upload has been wonky recently? The ordering is all skewed..

So, onward! We decided to just chill at home for Valentine's and have about the most basic dinner ever, spaghetti and a salad. Yet, something about the radio, the candles, the gorgeous flowers--it really turned out to be a fantastic night.

Gustavo grabbed a bunch of my favorite flowers (gladiolas! they make me glad) and I whipped up a quick red sauce with shrimp.

Modelos and the radio rounded out the meal. Crazy enough, the radio played "our song" as we were just finishing cooking the food. So we dropped everything and danced. (subsequently, the shrimp were a bit overcooked)



A quick word about it--this version is just Wilco, but the true song that we love is Billy Bragg and Wilco. California Stars is an old Woody Guthrie tune.


Salad turned out shockingly well--pink grapefruit, edamame and mixed greens with a sesame tahini dressing that is my new favorite dressing of all time!! It's from Dreena Burton's Vive Le Vegan cookbook. Recipe for salad dressing can be found here.

I dressed up in my sexiest pajamas..


And here we are by candlelight ;)

Hope all of you had a fantastic Valentine's.

staining fences

Multiple good things have happened this weekend, and its only Saturday! I went ahead and sloshed a layer of stain on the fence over at our little orange house, and will do the second layer tomorrow. Thankful for Atlanta and these random weekend pockets of 50 degree, dry weather (can you believe it snowed here a week ago?)



We all hung out and played loud, passionate (eh, sans proper chords..) music and Gustavo put together a video of our efforts. Disclosure: None of us are trained musicians, and we know it--this is just for fun. The folk-art of music.



Happy Saturday night to you and yours :)

2nd Annual Love Show

All photos from Thom and Jamarie Milkovic via Tagged by (TM) Creative Photography booth from the 2nd Annual Love Show on Feb. 5th.











All photos from Thom Milkovic

Burger boutiques

Hello guys! As you may be able to guess, I haven't been making any new dishes lately. Still cooking, more so than usual, but its all the same old. Here's one new recipe that is perfect for winter and will likely go into our regular rotation. (sorry--still phone pics until we fix camera)

Gigantes in Tomato Sauce. I based my recipe on Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska's just changing regular dried lima beans for gigantes, and subbing peppers in adobo for the aleppo & tomato paste. Served over sourdough toast w/ cheese.

We've also been partaking in the rash of burger boutiques that have popped up in Atlanta. We both liked Decatur's Farm Burger though it was not our favorite. (and I forgot to take pictures!!) Pros: large burgers, decent fries, good beer selection and I like the quinoa based veggie burger. Neat texture, if still a bit mushy. Cons: Gustavo's burger was a hair overcooked and its kind of far from our house. So, if you're in the Decatur area, this is definitely a good place to go!

Gustavo's favorite? Yeah! Burger. He is a huge fan of the bison burger and the gluten free bun. I like that you can get an order of half onion rings and half fries, as I am the onion ring fan in this relationship ;) And yes, the onion rings are top notch.

Inexpensive beer and a nice patio are bonuses too. I had a bad experience with my veggie burger, but we're going to go back and try again. It's made from local red peas, so that is an exciting new ingredient.


My favorite? Wonderful World Burgers near Emory. They don't have a page right now, but what a cool little place. First--their burgers are much smaller than their counterparts. The menu is smaller and they don't focus on organic quite as much. BUT I really liked it :) $2.75 burger, $3 craft beer? I'm on it.


So that's pretty much what we've been eating lately, with the regular soups, salads and beans in rotation.

Hope everyone is having a great February!