Friday, January 31, 2014

Date 114 - Death By Chocolate!

Date: Saturday, January 25, 2014 
Type: At Home, Creative
Cost: $$
Planned By: Dani

Sometimes, Adam and I like to have creative dinner dates at home. This is one of the more well thought out dinners we've had together. We had a three course meal and each course had to have chocolate as an ingredient. It took a lot of planning and research to do.

Appetizer:
We had homemade cinnamon sugar tortilla chips with strawberry-apple chocolate salsa. It was very easy to make and tasted pretty good. To make the tortilla chips you need flour tortillas, butter, cinnamon and sugar. You coat one side of the tortilla with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Then bake until golden brown. The salsa was made by cutting up strawberries and apples and pouring chocolate syrup on top.

Entree: 
For the main course we had Chili Con Cocoa. Yes, that is chili with chocolate in it. No, it was not delicious. It wasn't horrible either. Here is the recipe. I thought the chocolate taste was going to be a bit more subtle, but it wasn't. There was both cocoa powder and dark chocolate chunks in the chili and it was over powering. I don't really recommend making this dish. We both had a bowl and lived though.

Dessert:
I made a really simple Chocolate Mousse pie. I used this recipe. It was so easy and so good. Only problem is that it did not come out of the pan looking like a pie. I think I may have put too much whipped cream in it. It was good and I would make it again anyway.
Drink:
We got a bottle of Chocolate Rouge wine. It tasted mostly like chocolate alcohol, and not much like wine. It was pretty good! :)
Then we started working on a puzzle that we've had for years. Obi helped. :)

Overall, this date was interesting. If we ever do it again I will definitely find a different entree, and maybe add in a movie like Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. No matter what, chocolate always makes me happy so it was a good date.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Date 113 - Ice Rolling.

Date: Saturday, January 18, 2014
Type: At Home, Out On The Town
Cost: $
Planned By: Both

So we combined two fun things to technically go "ice skating". This is a bit strange, but we didn't want to go ice skating because its so cold so here's the next best thing.

1. We made milkshakes out of ice cream, cookies, and milk. Yup that's the ice part of the date. They were delicious! Mint cookie milk shakes in the comfort of our own home. Yum.
2. We went skating! Yes, roller skating. Don't act like you all didn't grow up going to the skating rink every weekend. Oh the memories on a Friday night with all our friends at the skating rink. Good times. Anyway... we got a Groupon for United Skates of America in Willoughby. It covered the cost of our entry, skates, a piece of pizza and drink each. It was a pretty good deal because if I had to pay regular prices for all of those things I wouldn't have gone. It seems very over priced. We had a good time, but didn't stay long because there were like ten different kids birthday parties there and we were afraid of skating over small children. I still love skating, but its definitely not something we will be doing all the time.
That's it. It was fun.. now go reminisce about all those Friday nights at the skating rink! :)

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Date 112 - Sonic Boom!

Date: Sunday, January 12, 2014
Type: At Home, Creative, Easy
Cost: $
Planned By: Dani

This date was super easy and didn't take very much time or effort! It is very easy for anyone to recreate.

The theme word is Sonic.

First, we got lunch at the nearby Sonic. Adam has never been there before and I had only be to a Sonic one time previously. We were a little nervous about the phones and ordering and everything, but we went inside and there were no phones. So we just went up to the counter and ordered. I got a burger meal with a Lemonberry Real Fruit slush. Adam got the chicken tender meal with an Oreo Sonic Blast. Both meals were pretty good! We both definitely liked out drinks the best.
During the other part of the date we played Sonic The Hedgehog. The old school version. Well, we didn't hook up our Sega (yes, we have a Sega), but we downloaded the old sonic game through the Wii shopping channel. We were both really bad! Next time maybe we'll set up the Sega and play with the correct controllers and the other fun Sonic games we have (Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3D, etc.).
This date was fun and relaxing. If you have a sonic near you and an old love for Sonic The Hedgehog try it out! :)

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Date 111 - Jingle All The Way.

Date: Christmas 2013
Type: Family/Friends
Cost: $$$
Planned By: All

December 21st:
First, we went over to the Davey's house to see my aunts and uncle. We had some beer and snacks. We had fun talking about our houses and the upcoming weddings, and got some nice gifts!

Then we had the Neubauer Family Christmas Party at Adam's parents house. We all had a great time with our potluck dinner and drinks. The 8 little kids loved their presents and watched the Polar Express after meeting Santa! The adults had a secret santa gift exchange. We got a cute little collapsible colander and some coasters which we are very happy with!
December 24th:
First, we had to work in the morning. Before we left for Conneaut we took some Christmas photos of ourselves.
We went over to the Plosila's for our annual Christmas Eve Pizza Party. The pizza and other snacks were delicious. We had a great time hanging out with my family for a few hours.

Then we went over to Adam's parent's house to exchange gifts with his parents, Hayley, Josh and our niece and nephew. Everyone liked all their gifts, and the kids had to get back home to go to bed before Santa came.

December 25th:
We started out by going to Hayley's to watch the kids open presents from Santa. They got some really cool gifts this year. And now that they are getting older they are super fast at opening everything.
Then we went over to my mom's for breakfast and to hang out for a little bit. We got to have my mom's traditional quiche breakfast unlike the rest of the family because we were the only ones there. It was good!

Then we went back over to Adam's parents for Christmas Dinner with his mom's side of the family. We had lots of good food and got some really nice presents from the family! Sadly, we had to go back home that night to work the next day.

December 28th:
Feliz Navidad! Adam and I hosted a Mexican Christmas Party at our house for my mom, Rob, Grandma, Michelle, Jim, Amanda and Zak. Michelle did a great job make most of the food. We had Sangria, jello shots and (of course) margaritas! We exchanged gifts and everyone was happy with their new stuff. Then we exchanged our gag gift secret santa presents and we had lots of fun laughing at what we all got. I got a Team Gale mug.. and if you know me at all this is the exact opposite of what I would want so it was quite funny. Don't worry, I'm just going to cross it out and write Peeta. :) We also had a photobooth in our spare bedroom. We used props that Amanda Word designed for me. They were awesome and we got a lot of great photos, and had lots of fun!

Other Holiday Events:
1. I made lots of cookies.

2. Cooper and Lorena visited us for dinner and Cards Against Humanity

3. Allyson and Hannah visited on New Years Eve

Overall, this holiday season was exhausting but definitely worth it!