Tag Archives: abattylife

A Meal to Remember

Posted in Liz's Life by

This weekend Luke and I took off for Reno to have a little “getaway.” We got a hotel room, reservations at a nice steakhouse, tickets to the Adam Carolla comedy show and set aside a little money to play some casino games.

After checking into the hotel and taking a tour of the casino, we sat down for dinner. We were sitting in one of those half booths where you’re more side-by-side than across from each other.

Directly across from our table sat an older man (80 yrs old) who was dining alone. I first noticed him when the waitress came by to take his order and he talked so loudly it was like he was yelling.

Old Man: WHAT IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE THING ON THE MENU?!

Waitress: That would be our fresh-water lobster, sir for $70.

Old Man: OK – GIVE ME TWO OF THOSE. WAIT- HOW WILL I KNOW IT’S REALLY FRESH-WATER AND YOU’RE NOT DUPING ME!?

Waitress: Ummm…

I didn’t think too much about this conversation- he probably had hearing issues and what 80 yr old isn’t a little picky about his food?

Shortly after our appetizers arrived, we heard another shout- this one directed at us.

Old Man: YOU THERE! WHAT ARE YOU EATING?

Luke: it’s the venison appetizer.

Old Man: ANY GOOD?!

Luke: Yeah it’s great.

This initial conversation opened the flood gates for the old man to basically join our dinner. Throughout the night he would talk to us about once every five minutes and when he wasn’t talking to us, he’d stare intently at our table.

He started off sweet:

Old Man: YOU KIDS ARE A GREAT-LOOKING COUPLE.

Me: Aww thanks.

Old Man: YOU REMIND ME OF WHEN I WAS YOUNG AND MARRIED. I’D PROBABLY PAY A MILLION DOLLARS TO SWITCH PLACES WITH YOU.

This is where it went downhill into depression-mode.

Old Man continues: MY WIFE IS DEAD. (He motions to the seat across from him) THIS IS WHERE SHE SHOULD BE SITTING, BUT I GUESS SHE’S LOOKING DOWN ON ME….OR MAYBE I’M LOOKING DOWN ON HER (imitates looking down on hell)

Me: Ummm….haha

Old Man: WELL THAT ALSO DEPENDS ON WHICH WIFE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT….

Me: Right.

Old Man: I GOT TWO KIDS AND TWO GRANDKIDS THOUGH. I MEAN THE GRANDKIDS ARE ADOPTED, BUT I GUESS THEY STILL COUNT.

Yeah we decided to let that strain of conversation end at that. Sure enough though, five minutes later he bellowed out:

Old Man: HEY YOU! (looking at me)

Me: Yes?

Old Man: DOES HE BEAT YOU!?

Me: Not that I know of!

Old Man: OH OKAY- THAT’S GOOD. I WAS JUST WONDERING HOW HE SNAGGED YOU. THOUGHT MAYBE HE BEAT YOU.

DON’T EVER LET HIM LAY A HAND ON YOU!!!!!

Me: Yeah- no beating, don’t worry.

And another five – ten minutes later.

Old Man: HEY KIDS. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY YOU’RE YOUNG.

Luke: Yeah we are.

Old Man: GOOD. BECA– USE IT REALLY STINKS BEING OLD- ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUR WIFE  DIES AND YOU’RE ALONE- BECA– USE THAT WILL HAPPEN EVENTUALLY.

Luke thought this old guy was pretty entertaining, but all the talk about how terrible it was to be old  and alone had me utterly depressed. I felt so bad for this man and had scary flashes of the future.

Was this what my life was going to be like someday? Sitting alone, drunk in a Reno, NV casino yelling like a crazy person at a young couple about how I wished I was them?

Just as I was about to get really depressed, the old man bellowed out that in honor of the great company we’d provided him, he was going to buy us a “CREME BRU-BRUBLEE” for dessert.

I was touched that he wanted to treat us to dessert and realized that we really had helped make his night better just by talking with him a little and letting him feel a part of our night.

I ended up even wondering if I thought this cantankerous old man was a little charming? Well, maybe charming wasn’t the right word.

All in all, sure it wasn’t the romantic, intimate meal I had in mind, but thanks to this crazy old man, it ended up being one of the more interesting dining experiences I’ve ever had!

Dumpster Diving with Grandpa

Posted in Liz's Life by

This week is the one year anniversary of the passing of my Grandma Germaine and the two year anniversary of the passing of Luke’s Grandpa Roy.

We’ve been thinking and talking about our lost grandparents with each other and with our families. There’s a comfort in sharing stories about someone who has passed – knowing that they live on in your memories.

There’s one story that Luke told me I thought was pretty funny. He agreed to write it up to share with all of you:

As a 9 year old, nothing was more important to me than money. Well, not money exactly, but what it could buy – specifically baseball cards. Socking away a portion of my weekly $5 allowance for other essentials (such as new baseballs, baseball mitts, baseball cleats, baseball bats, baseball batting gloves, etc.), I could only reasonably afford to buy about 8 packs a week.

That just wasn’t going to cut it if I was ever going to pay for my entire college education in baseball cards.

After inquiring why MI 10 was stamped on every pop (yes, pop) can and being informed that the state of Michigan pays out 10 cents for every recycled can, it didn’t take long for me to connect the dots. There was gold in them thar dumpsters at the golf course next to my house where aluminum cans were being tossed by the hundreds daily.

My grandpa stepped up to the plate and volunteered to help me collect aluminum cans, no doubt because he also saw the huge payoff down the road of a free college education via wise investments in baseball cards (or perhaps he because he wanted to spend time with me).

Whenever possible, he would come pick me up in his golf cart and take me to the golf course dumpsters, where he would pick me up so I could climb into the dumpsters and start tossing out the cans.   Although it smelled disgusting and there were a lot of unknown liquids that would get on me, but I didn’t mind because baseball cards were that important.

By the end of the summer, grandpa’s entire basement was filled with garbage bags full of cans.

He began listening to the radio daily waiting for the highest daily aluminum price so we could maximize our value. The day finally came when aluminum reached the grand price of what must have been about 7 cents a ton.

We loaded up the dump truck, hauled the cans to the recycling center, and walked away with the spectacular sum of $137.50. A summer of hard work dumpster diving in the sun and the big payoff was in hand.

To thank my grandpa, I took him to the finest restaurant in all of Plymouth, Indiana – Pizza Hut. Even after that extravagance, I still had enough cash leftover to buy what was surely two college educations worth of baseball cards.

College is over, and the baseball cards remain in my parents’ basement (taking  up about as much space as all those cans did once upon a time). Every time I see them I think back to that summer and all the time my grandpa spent with me.

Luke and Grandpa Roy

Mint Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe

Posted in Sunday Supper Series by

This Friday a friend of mine invited us over for a dinner party. We’re all about meeting and making new friends, so we excitedly accepted. I offered to bring dessert and reverted back to my favorite – cheesecake!

As you can probably tell from the many blog posts about cheesecake, I’m a bit of a fanatic.

This time, I adapted a new recipe from a great cookbook “I Love Cheesecake” by Mary Crownover called Marbled Grasshopper Cheesecake. It’s a yummy mixture of creme de menthe and chocolate.

Chocolate Mint Cheesecake

This is a delicious cheesecake, with lots of rich, dark chocolate flavor and a hint of mint. It would be perfect for St. Patrick’s day, which is right around the corner.

Marbled Grasshopper Cheesecake Recipe:

Crust Ingredients:

– 18 chocolate mint sandwich cookies

– 5 tablespoons butter

Chocolate Mint Filling Ingredients:

– 32 ounces cream cheese

– 1/2 cup sugar

– 4 large eggs

– 1/4 cup sour cream

– 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

– 2 tablespoons corn starch

– 2 tablespoons cocoa

– 2 tablespoons sugar

– 1/4 cup creme de menthe

– 1 teaspoon mint extract

– a few drops of green food coloring

Chocolate Sour Cream Topping Ingredients:

– 5 ounces chocolate chips

– 1/3 cup sour cream

– Tablespoon creme de menthe

– 1 tablespoon sugar

First, make sure ALL your ingredients are at room temperature- the eggs, sour cream, cream cheese etc. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

To make the crust, put 18 cookies in a plastic baggy and enlist the strength of someone with strong forearms to crush the cookies into crumbs.

Combine the cookie crumbs with the butter and using your fingers, press onto the bottom of a well-greased spring-form pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.

Cheesecake cookie crust

Set the crust aside and start on the best part- the chocolate mint filling! Beat together the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar until completely smooth. Make sure there aren’t any cream cheese clumps floating around.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each one. Then stir in the sour cream, lemon extract and cornstarch.

Remove one cup of the filling and put it in a bowl. Stir in the cocoa and 2 tablespoons sugar.

Go back to the rest of the filling and mix in the creme de menthe, mint extract and green food coloring until you have a yummy, minty flavor and light green color. You can add more extract if you want a stronger mint flavor.

Here’s what creme de Menthe looks like. You can buy it in the specialty liquor section of your grocery store.

Now your filling is done! Pour half of the mint filling into your pan and smooth the top. Then spoon on half of the chocolate filling in the middle. Pour the rest of the mint over it and top again with the rest of the chocolate.

This is where the fun begins! Take a knife and without disturbing the crust, run it through the mixture to create a pretty marbling effect.

Bake the cheesecake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 200 and bake for another 2 hours or until the center no longer looks wet.

Turn the oven off and remove the cake and run a serrated knife around the edge to unhinge it from the pan. Place the cake BACK into the turned off oven to cool for 2 hours. Then refrigerate overnight.

When you’re ready to serve, whip up the topping. This is really the finale of the dessert and will also help it look really pretty.

I forgot to take photos of the process, but it’s really easy. Just mix together the chocolate chips, sour cream, creme de menthe and sugar in a sauce pot over low heat.

Pour the melted mixture on top of the cake and spread around with a spatula to the edge. I decorated the edge of mine with chocolate chips to add a little crunch to each slice.

Scrumdiddlyumptious! This cheesecake was literally gobbled up before I could get any more glamour shots. A definite crowd-pleaser.

The New & Improved ABattyLife!

Posted in Daily Musings, Liz's Life by

All my talk about “shaking things up” has motivated me to FINALLY launch the redesign of my blog I mentioned way back in August on my one-year blogging anniversary.

TA-DA! Here it is!

I chose this design because of it’s ability to let me post much larger photos than my old design. Like this crazy-pretty sunset from last week.

I love taking photos and always felt a little sad when they were shrunk to a small size in my old posts.

This design also lets me distinguish categories for my posts so you guys can search for what you want easier. I still get a lot of friends in Chicago asking me how they can find all my wedding advice, so now it’s all available in the “wedding resources” tab above. Same thing with my food and gift/party posts.

The header is a little cheesy, I know, but couldn’t help myself when the option to get a cartoon graphic made of Luke and I popped up! My pal Kieran, the same guy who did our wedding invites,  did that image for me.

So what do you think? Are you digging the new look & feel of my blog? Bear with me while I work out the kinks.