I had such a fun weekend. Tony’s nephew and his wife and two kids stopped by on Saturday for a visit. They were visiting from Tennessee and I am just so happy that they carved out some time to meet me – because it’s the first time meeting their daughter and only the second time I’ve met their son.
It’s nice that Tony’s extended family hasn’t forgotten about me now that he’s passed away. Although Tony used to joke that if we ever got divorced he said that all his friends and family would stay on my side after the divorce! Can you get over those baby lips, tiny toes and that smile? The dogs did great. I was bit worried and had them in the bedroom with the door shut. I wasn’t worried about the dogs so much, but I wasn’t sure how their son was around dogs, and being that they were both little, I thought it might be a bit scary for him, but he loved them. Even had to get away a couple times when Roman wanted to lick his ears when he was on the floor! And Roman was also very interested in the baby – it was all so cute. It was a great afternoon spent catching up and I hope to plan a road trip down to the Nashville area when it gets nicer out, so I’ll be the one to come visit. Izzy and I could do some damage in her kitchen!
Saturday night also marked the second annual Ruth’s Chris birthday dinner for Jacob. He turned 24 yesterday. While Jacob and I both woke up dreaming about their awesome beef, Hannah was a bit apprehensive. Last year she got a salad and onion rings, and while the onion rings were outstanding, the salad was just okay for her. But it’s the equivalent of ordering lasagna in an Irish pub! I was so proud that she actually ordered a shrimp dish, and declared it the best shrimp she’s ever tasted. Jacob got the 22 ounce bone-in Cowboy ribeye, and I got the petite ribeye, which wasn’t even that petite at 16 ounces. I brought over half of it home. But I took one bite of Jacob’s beef and declared it would have been worth the extra $8 to get the 22 ounce ribeye.
Hannah and I need to find a recipe for their cremini mushrooms – the sauce maybe has cognac in it? All I know is that we were all fighting over those mushrooms. It was a fun evening out.
The only bad part of having your birthday on Easter is that a lot of places were closed for the day. He originally wanted to have a Chinese fest, but the two best Chinese restaurants were closed for the day. I knew it wasn’t going to be too bad weather wise outside, and asked if there was anything he wanted to have for dinner that was grilled. Ribs! Jacob’s Mom picked up country ribs and came over and popped those in my oven, while I made pork spare ribs – mainly because Hannah is picky about ribs and I knew she’d like the “skinnier” ribs. I made a batch of my Rudy’s copycat BBQ sauce, and we baked our ribs for three hours in the oven at 250 degrees, and I finished them off on the Weber. I had a hell of a time starting the coals because it was raining by the time I started to grill, but I got it to work.
I love my copper colored Weber grill I got last year. And I love how Jacob’s Mom cooks like I do – buying enough food for 10 people, even though we were only cooking for five! And Roman was trying to sway my Mom into giving any leftovers off her plate, you know, just in case she didn’t want it anymore.
I am up early today because I am actually headed downtown for the State finals for a High School Culinary Competition at Kendall College. I was there back in early February when I was a guest judge and spending that day around chefs, and the cooking college – it basically was the turning point in me deciding that I didn’t want to work at my job anymore. And here we are and I’ve been off of work for a month, I spent 11 days of that month in Austin, and I get to do things like being a judge at a culinary competition without having to worry about work, or if someone else requested the day off, etc. I am thankful every day that my husband and I were smart enough to buy life insurance – I urge anyone who’s married, even if you are young, to buy it, because you just don’t know if and when you’ll ever need it.
You can follow me along on Instagram (mybizzykitchen) until my next post on Wednesday. Time to go catch the train to Chicago – hope you had an amazing weekend. Make it a great day!
Looks like a great weekend! Happy belated birthday to Jacob.
I don’t know how much money you got from the insurance but I just checked it here and it’s really expensive if you want to have a lot of money. We do have insurance on our mortgage. If one of us passes away most of the mortgage is cancelled so the other one can still live in the house without paying too much mortgage.
We paid a premium of $109 a month for 9 years for a $100,000 policy. We paid cash for everything, didn’t have any credit card debt, and I refinanced our mortgage when Tony was sick and out of work, so my monthly mortgage payment is only $337 a month. Add in real estate taxes and homeowners insurance, it’s $727 out the door. I couldn’t even find a one bedroom apartment for that amount of money! That’s an awesome insurance to have with your mortgage though!
This ($727) is about what we pay on the mortgage only. At the end of this year we have to renew the interest rate which is half of what we pay now so that will give us some extra money that we are going to use to pay off part of the mortgage.
Hi I have been wondering for a while, as you are diabetic, shouldn’t Hannah try to address her weight? Clearly both she and Jacob are too big , it must be limiting for them and I worry about their longer term health.
I know it’s not my business so hope you are not offended. My mother was diabetic so it’s always at the back of my mind that I need to try and keep my weight stable, I am about 30 lbs overweight but trying to get it down to normal.
I worry about diabetes not only for Hannah, but also my brother and sister since I have it. But Hannah and Jacob are 24 years old. They are adults. I provide healthy food for them, and if it’s their wish to go to Starbuck’s and eat lemon loaf for breakfast, that is their choice. I at least know they eat a healthy for dinner with me every night, but again, it’s their life, and they are the ones who have to live it.
Mmmmmmm, MEAT! Sometimes it just sounds fabulous, and it looks like your weekend of meat was a hit! I still haven’t been to Ruth’s Chris, but someday. 🙂
That is one delicious-looking baby.
OMG, that last line of your comment killed me and made me laugh out loud! 😀
Biz, Curious, didn’t your job offer you and your spouse life insurance? What company did you ultimately go with? Just trying to figure things out…….Thanks!
Hey! The law firm I worked at was too small to offer life insurance, dental or optical insurance.
We bought our own life insurance through State Farm probably 9 years before Tony passed away and before he had his first health scare, but because he was already in his 40’s and overweight, it was pretty pricey, and even when it hurt sometimes writing that monthly check, it obviously was worth it since that’s what I am living off of now. I know Tony would be happy with my decision to find work that I am passionate about 😀
I just love little Roman’s face peeking up. A bad habit I would have to break but a cutie. The pile of meat on the grill looks fabulous! I ruined our Easter ham. I guess cooking wasn’t in the cards for me yesterday. Thanks again for the quick reply and I apologize for asking on Easter. 🙁 Have fun as a judge.
Oh no, what happened to your ham?! You can text me anytime, no worries! We will have to do some cooking together once we finally meet 😀
In what world is a pound of meat petite? Goodness! Have fun judging 😀
I know, Lori, isn’t that insane?! It’s easily 4 servings 😛
What, no ham for Easter? Although you did have pork…
Enjoy your time at the competition. Maybe this sort of networking will lead you to your dream job.
Yep, I can’t believe I didn’t eat at ham either, but since it was Jacob’s birthday too, we went with his choice for dinner 😀
Every time I do an event like this, I feel it is just another step in the right direction on where I want to be 😀 Makes me happy!