Happy Friday Bloggie Friends!

Happy Friday Bloggie Pals! Wasn't it a long week? Whew! As I'm sitting here in my work clothes (today was the first Friday back to suiting up on Fridays - we get to be business casual in the Summer but only on Friday) I am pooped!

We're going to the Cardinals Game tonight and then dinner tomorrow night with some of out fabulous friends and maybe the Botanicals with my Mom on Sunday.

Here's a song to get your Friday evening started - so excited it's the weekend!

Holy Produce Batman - Trying Out a Produce Coop!

So, over the summer I had came across a Produce Co Op in the St. Louis area called Community Helping Produce. I thought it may be cool, but didn't know much about it. Then on Monday, I was Facebook and one of Jeff's old work buddies posted that she was off to get her produce. Someone had tried it, and actually liked it. So I said what the heck. Let's give it a whirl.

I decided to go for it. Basically every other week, this Coop puts together a basket of goodies for $23. It's pretty much stuff from local farmers. From the photos, I thought it'd be a good deal. So, I left work and went to the Cottleville location. It was at a True Fitness ( I think that's what it was). It was just the drop off point. I got there and the guy asked for my name and then said pick a bag. I gave him $1 to rent the Ikea bag which was insanely heavy. He offered to carry it out, but I said I'd manage. Nope! That dude was heavy!

Here's a photo from the car. That was one big bag! 

So then I got home and sorted everything out. Holy Crap! This has to be a great deal for fruit. I'm going to attempt to do the math on this with average prices on veggies. 

• Strawberries - Currently $4.00 @ Schnucks
• Bananas - 1 Dozen - Let's go with $3.00
• Canteloupe - $2.50
• Apples - 11 - probably $5.00 based on weight
• Package of Romaine Hearts - $2.99
• Cucumbers - 4 - $.69 each ($2.76)
• Zucchini - 2- $1.50 by based on weight
• Squash - 2 - $1.50 based on weight
• Portabella Mushrooms - $2.50 
• Plums - 6 - $3.00
• Sweet Potatoes - 2 ENORMOUS ONES - $3.00 - those are insanely heavy
• Potatoes - 6 - $2.50
• Red Onion - 3 - $4 - these guys are heavy!
• Peaches - 7 - $4.00

Grand estimated total $42.26

So, we'll see how it goes. My goal is to eat more fruits and veggies and I think this will definitely help. They come every 2 weeks and have other products that can purchase too. Check it out and let me know how you like it! Nothing like saving a little money and eating healthy veggies!

St. Louis Wine Festival

Sunday afternoon, I headed out with Melissa, Chelsea and Elena to the St. Louis Wine Festival. Elena, Chelsea and I went last year and had a great time. We were a little concerned that it may rain, but luckily not many people came which made it insanely less crowded. We had a fantastic time. Went guy hunting for Chelsea and met some faaaaaaaaabulous guys to hang out with that wore ladies jeans. Who knew?

Please disregard my awful hair. I was lazy from the day before and it is just not good looking. I had it curly from the trivia night the previous night. No good can come of a big forehead and curls.  All the photos were taken on my Samsung Point & Shoot with the LCD on the front screen, so I don't think everyone looked in the right places. 

All of us to start off the day. 

Finally found someone to take a photo for us. 

Chelsea & Elena 

Melissa decided to show up for the photo op. 

Our best attempt at Duck Face. Or Melissa doing the Fish Face

In the Belgium Beer Garden a bee decided to hang out in my Hoegarden. 

We saved him and he flew away. It was our good deed for the day.

Me and my BFFie. I don't know what I'm looking at though!

Needless to say, it was da bomb! We had such a great time running around and goofing off. Then a trip to taco bell on the way home and 3 bottles of Fiji Water later, I was back in action and hanging out at home for the night with my hubby watching the season premier Brothers & Sisters. I think we'll make this an annual occurrence. 

Recipe - Caramelized Onions in the Oven

2 weeks ago, I went a little onion crazy at the grocery store. I had planned on making some pot roast and soups, and then I didn't. So, I was stuck with about 6 lbs onions with nothing to do with them. The week before I attempted to make caramelized onions on the stove and ended up burning them.  After some searching around on the internet, I found a recipe for doing it in the oven and tweaked it a bit. It takes about 2 1/2 hours, but you get the same result.

Ingredient

• 5-6 lbs of onions
• 1Tbsp of kosher salt
• 1/4 cup Canola Oil
• Few Springs of fresh Thyme (optional - but I had some handy)
• Dutch Oven or heavy bottomed pot

Turn oven to preheat at 400 degrees. Cut your onions to that they are half moons very thinly. Make sure that all onions are the same size so they cook evenly. I had a 5.1 quart dutch oven and used about 6 onions to get to that point.  Add your salt to bring out the water during the cooking process and coat onions with the canola oil. This will help with the onions not sticking.

With the lid on, add to the 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Basically, you'll be checking and stirring the pot every 15 minutes for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours. So, it's good if you are cleaning, watching a movie you've seen before and you can pause. 

This is after 30 minutes. 

After 1 hour

After 1 1/2 hours

 After 2 hours. If after 2 hours there is a lot of water still in the pan, you can bake for 15 mins without the lid to help reduce some of the water out. By this point, there should be no water and just a little oil so that it does not stick to the side.

The key to this is just watching and stirring. I may have gotten mine a little darker in spots, but they turned out great. I used it as an onion spread on a panini with goat cheese, arugula and prosciutto. Yum!

Fall is Here!

I woke up this morning after Miss Riley Sue woke me up letting me know I had slept past my usual time of 7:30. In her defense, it was 8:45. I was so tired because we went to Light the Town Pink Trivia Night. Melissa had called me a couple of weeks ago and asked us if we'd like to do Trivia. Well, being having so much unnecessary info in my noggin, and Jeff is awesome at Sports, we said sure.

So, we met up last night with most of our crew and a few extra and we rocked it. There were lots of silent auctions and 50/50's and fun stuff like that. I made puppy chow and we had a spread at the table that was fit for a Thanksgiving feast!  Here's some pics from the night.

 Me and Jeff Sue - he was still recovering from me giving him strep. He was still run down feeling. 

Chelsea, Ryan and Melissa - All in the family answer in the back - how funny since they're family.

Special Guests - Fredbird! How can you not love that guy!

Kate & Austin

Me and Melissa at the end. I have more photos,  but they weren't so flattering..ha

There was a round call Float or Sink - who knew a 16 lb bag of charcoal floated?!?!

Out of 60 tables, we were in the top 2 for most of the game. Then the last round which which was finish the song, and we got stuck of a few, which then put us in 3rd place. 1st place we would have won 10 tickets to a Blues Game. Oooh well! Overall, we had a blast and we did remarkably well overall. I was proud of the team!