Sweet Potato Pancakes with Maple Whipped Cream

So after an entire spring of working on getting the backyard put together, getting the garden done and growing, we ran into another problem... weeds and bugs were everywhere! We had truly created a nightmare there in our little garden. Every day Charisse would go out and check it, and find some new plant that some new bug ate or have to pick out some new weed that popped up and grew 3,856 feet tall overnight. "You're no help" was the response from Charisse when Eric replied to her cry for help taming the garden was "I build just build it. Besides, you like doing this kinda stuff right?". Turns out Eric did get to tackle the weed issues, by "building" the pebble bed around the stepping stones. Apparently hauling thirty 50 pound bags of rocks from the cart to the car and from the car to the garden counts as "building", which serves him right. She also got some seriously good advice from our friend Christina over at Dessert for Two (Charisse says thanks again!) we were able to sort out what was doing the nibbling and get some solid bug control going on in a pet and people friendly way. So after a hard day of working, what could be better than breakfast for dinner? Yeah not much, especially when breakfast is pancakes made with sweet potatoes. And homemade whipped cream. YUM. 

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Russian Leek and Cheese Bread

We're back! Well, okay we didn't actually go anywhere but Blogger did last week for a few days. Posts vanished, comments died, who knows what else broke over in Google land, but its tough to complain about a free service. Anyways, Bloggers back, we're back, lets get back to work, starting with Russian Leek Bread, and a Mother's day recap. First off: Mother's Day was the other weekend and we hosted a surf and turf brunch of both families. Nothing beats lobster, tri-tip and mimosas at noon on a Sunday. Even the cat liked the menu. Or the menu liked the cat. We're still not sure about that one.
What we are sure about is that somewhere along the line Charisse decided that Russians all like Leeks. Confused? So was Eric but by the time he was done taking photos what Russians like didn't matter, what mattered was how quickly he could stuff this slice in his mouth. For those of you wondering, the answer is very quickly. Really though, Eric was sold as soon as he got the shopping list:

we need cream cheese 1 carton
goat cheese 1 log
sour cream get light 1 tub
ricotta cheese get 2% 1 tub


Seriously how could someone not get excited knowing that all of that will somehow combine with leeks and bread? 


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Blueberry Cornbread

It seems like every time we dig down deep and pull out the cast iron skillet, theres cornbread involved, this time cornbread invited it's good friend blueberry to the party and what a party that makes. For anyone who's ever had blueberry pancakes on a Sunday morning and gone through the rest of the day feeling happy and full of good feelings should be prepared to have that experience at the dinner bell. With every bite you hit a pocket of blueberry goodness and it makes the world seem that much better. Especially on days when the time leading up to that bite has been a little rough. Like on Monday when Eric decided he would bring the dog to the office. What an adventure. By adventure we mean disaster. We got Koda all set up in the morning: bowls for food and water, some toys a bag of treats and a blanket to sit on. After a quick stop at the Vet (reminder, don't introduce your dog to a new environment right after a visit to the Vet) it was off to work. After some introductions and a quick tour Eric settled in and Koda... didn't. She was very chatty with everyone so Eric decided to exercise her with a laser pointer in the middle of the office. It was quite entertaining until she hit the breaks and with everyone watching, did her business and once again proved that she is a great farm dog, not a city dog. Heres a short video of Eric's co-worker turning around and discovering a dog on his desk.

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Honey Roasted Beet and Carrot Salad

When we first got married, there was a standing death threat hanging over Eric's head (and it was a good thing): "eat your vegetables, or else". That's right, "or else" and everyone knows what that means. Growing up, Eric never really had to eat veggies and living on his own provided no external cause for him to change. Turns out the external change was more of an internal change that he had to make before anyone could really push him into loving veggies. Turns out getting into food and cooking as really forced this on him as nearly everything exposes both of us to new foods and new ways of making food. Take mixing beets and carrots. If you'd have asked Eric five years ago what a beet and carrot was like, he would probably have answered "uhm, kinda orange and red-ish? Aren't beets the red ones?" He may or may not have gotten the color of the beets right. Now, he's scarfing things like this honey roasted beet and carrot salad and looking for more. Charisse came across this one and decided that she wanted to go for it, creating one of our best tasting dishes yet. The beets are sweet and crunchy but without being candyish. The carrots really carry the honey flavor. You could even dress it up a bit and serve it as a main course. Yup, it's safe to say that Eric's growing love of veggies has really helped our marriage stay strong. Charisse hasn't had to threaten him about eating it in a long, long time. Doing the laundry when it's his day? "ERIC!!"

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Beat Detroit Hot Wings

Because hockey playoffs haven't taken over our house enough, when Charisse wasn't looking Eric let the sneak into the kitchen. Actually it was less sneaking and more along the lines of "Hey, lets make hot wings!" "Why do you want hot wings all of a sudden, you don't even like them that much?" "Because we're playing the Detroit Red Wings! get it? And then I can chomp on one and yell something like "take that Datsyuk!" "You scare me sometimes". And so it was that Eric broke out the hot sauce, the ground ghost pepper and the grill. While she tried to keep us on track and the obsessive hockey nut that is her husband in check, Charisse threw up her hands and went to watch TV once the infamous Sharks Gnome made an appearance. As big as hockey watching was, the real big event was Charisse's Birthday BBQ. Since her birthday was last Friday, we decided to throw a bit of a party and boy, you've never seen a house go from super clean to super messy that fast. It was very much worth it though, especially having family and friends around all day, grilling up burgers and playing croquette. Add two Sharks wins and stir for the perfect weekend. #beatdetroit

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WINNER!

We've got a winner! Thanks to a randomly selected comment, Danielle over at A day in the life wins the gift card! Contact us Danielle so we can get your address!