First Post

So here is my first post! If you are reading... thank you! I have been reading a handful of food blogs daily for the past two and a half years and I am really excited to take this step to becoming an "active" member of the community now. I also hope that by starting to actually comment on some blogs that it opens my eyes to knew blogs to read that I have not known about because I know there are so many out there.

My Saturday started with a quick bowl of TJ's O's with skim milk. Then I spent about two hours working on this blog followed by some indoor exercise since the weather wasn't so great. I try and do outside activities on the weekend with my fiance, Derek, but unfortunately the weather wasn't conducive. We decided to do the P90x dvd Chest, Shoulders, & Tri's. We don't follow the actual 90 day program for P90x because it is a little intense and time consuming, and like I said I prefer outdoor activities on the weekends when the weather is nice. But we do like the workouts and use them regularly. I feel like you have your own personal trainer with the P90x dvd's.

We had an appointment with the cake place to discuss and order our cake for our engagement party which will be on June 26th, so we showered and had a quick lunch of an Amy's tomato and pesto pizza. I ate half.

We then made our way to Sweet Craft Bake Shop in Glen Rock, NJ to
 order our cake.

The main baker was laughing because Derek and I couldn't decide on a filling. I guess we need to get used to this comprising since we have a lot of planning ahead of us! She was very sweet and offered to do a dual filling so that half of the cake was the filling I wanted (Dark Chocolate) and the other half was what he wanted (Hazelnut). She is a terrific baker and will be decorating the cake to match our engagement party invitations. I actually used her to make a cake for my best friend's bridal shower last week and it came out fabulous! They are having a beach theme wedding and he actually proposed on the beach, the cake imitated how he proposed. Here is a picture...

Once our indecisive cake consultation was through, we made our way up to my mom and step dad's house in Mahwah for a World Cup U.S. vs England BBQ! My mom always outdoes herself when she has people over, but that's good for us! She has a wonderful backyard that we will actually be having our engagement party here.

She grilled up some clams, corn, hotdogs, salmon, burgers, and asparagus. She also made her famous rice & beans.

I actually don't eat clams, but they were a big hit. Wine is always flowing in my family but I stuck to Pellegrino with lime & lemon. Here is my plate.

Rice & beans, kale with garlic and evoo, asparagus, and corn that was rubbed with butter and paprika before it was grilled. It was great. When we were in Italy two summers ago we stayed at this villa in Tuscany on this vineyard that made this wine. Tonight we opened it to celebrate the fact that we are going back to Italy this summer. I had a small sip as I prefer white wine.

The night ended with a trip to Van Dykes Homeade Iice cream in Ridgewood, NJ. I got the strawberry cheesecake flavor but was very disappointed in the lack of actual strawberries in the ice cream. The cheesecake flavor was spot on but due to the lack of strawberries I only ate about 1/4 of what you see here.

I usually use my Sundays to get myself set up for the week. I need to do a big food shop and get organized for this party in two weeks, so hopefully I use today to be productive! I will probably be posting at the end of everyday or the morning after as do daily recaps only because it might be hard for me to do three times a day posts, but we will see. Hope you enjoyed my first post!