Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque

Skott and I went to Stillwater, MN on Valentine's weekend.  It was super cold that day but we had fun wandering around through all the shops.  For a late lunch we decided to try Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque.

We started off with some amazing oatmeal stout and some corn fritters for an appetizer.  So far, so good!

Then the food came:

Now I will be the first to admit that my taste buds have gotten a bit "soft" since moving away from the Tacoma area.  You just can't find good, authentic SPICY anything inland.  I'm talking the real heat, not Tabasco crap.  Anyways, we ordered our food "hot".  Never ever had a problem saying that in the last 6 years.  Well, the waitress wasn't kidding when she said the spice recipes are authentic.  Lucky Skott, he took the first bite..... and almost choked.  So I was prepared when I dug into my brisket. 

 I thought I was prepared.

  Then I made the mistake of breathing in just a little right before the food touched my tongue!  Oh boy!

The food was DELICIOUS!  Hot (spicy) as hell, but VERY GOOD!  Once we got over the initial shock (either that or we completely fried all our taste buds) we enjoyed our meal very much.  We both love trying new things.  We each had an amazing sweet potato side dish that was to die for.  I had grilled veggies with curry sauce and Skott had shrimp, chicken, and plank fries.  By the time our meal was done, we were both sweating profusely.  Bravo Smalley's! 

We will be back.

Only next time we are ordering the "mild" version.

February Family Dinner

Family dinner was held at Carrie's this month on Valentines Day.  The food was really good and we all had a fun time visitng. 

Carrie had fun spoiling Marley and teaching her to play the piano

Erika and her frosted sugar cookie with a candy heart that says "Bite Me"

Erika, Justine, Marley, and Nic

I didn't get more pictures because the boys (and Skott) were upstairs having a Nerf gun war, and everyone else was in the living room where the light was really bright and our antique camera kept washing out faces.

I can't remember exactly what happened here but Aundray's pants were so big and Skott was demonstrating that fact for us.....

Nerds are Cool

I LOVE BEING A NERD

It allows you to get really fun, unique gifts for Christmas, such as this awesome Chemistry beaker Coffee Mug.

Skott did my stocking this year in a "nerd" theme.  Other cool things I got were:  a staple-less stapler (it really works!), a titanium spork, a Built brand insulated lunch bag, and a mini microscope/field light.

Two great websites to check out for all the nerds in your life:

thinkgeek.com

uncommongoods.com

Kitchen Painting, Part 1

We have been trying to decide what color to paint our kitchen for almost two years now.  Every time we thought we had a color decided on, we would paint a sample swatch and not like it.  We have these great art noveau pictures and decided to try and pull a color from one of them.  It turned out to be exactly what we wanted!  We also chose a color for the walls, but that project will have to wait until spring break.  I was happy to get the trim around the window done, as well as the U-G-L-Y fake oak looking bead board covered up before I went back to school.  Once I got that splash of color in there, we decided we loved it enough to continue on and paint the door off the kitchen (going to the downstairs) the same.  I am not finished with the trim around the door so I will post that later when we do the walls :)

Here are some before and afters:

Window above the kitchen sink:

One of two ugly sections of fake oak bead board: (I had already started priming when I realized I had no photo of the before)

The other section of bead board.  I thought I had a before picture somewhere but can't find it.  The door to the downstairs is at the edge of the picture, on the right.

(Left) This is Izzy, snoozing peacefully while I paint.  (Right) This is Izzy trying to stuff herself in the toybox in the corner of the living room when Skott started putting up the trim with the air compressor.