Lend me a hand.....

I'm am in a total rut regarding dinner.  When I get home from work, I don't want to cook but get sick of eating cheese and crackers or going out to grab a schwarma.  I usually love cooking but not when I'm in a rush or am hungry or tired after work.  Whatever.  I know, tough life.

Please give me some ideas.  We go to the grocery store a lot....and we get stuff.....but then I get home and don't know if I bought anything....ever happen to you?!

Anyway, I would really welcome your dinner suggestions. 

Love,
A girl who wishes she had all day to cook and that was her day job, but it's not, so help me.

Eid Mubarak.....

So Ramadan has ended and now it is the Eid celebration!  It's been fun as the hospital has close friends and so we go around visiting different families....some long time friends and others from the Ruling Family of the Emirates and their cousins, etc.  (Some of the palaces are like small cities.)  Anyway, it's been good...and we hope that we continue to build on these relationships throughout the year and not just at Eid time.  Some homes were so so welcoming.  They all give you juice and fruit and dried fruit and coffee and coffee and more coffee.  Some gave us a traditional Ramadan food which is a meat dish with potatoes and veggies with bread in or on it.  It's pretty good actually.  Anyway, we've been busy all weekend doing that.  Trey goes to see the big people--Sheikh Mohammed who is the Crown Prince and some other Shiekh's.   It's good for them to see us and for us to chat about the hospital....but building the relationship is the part that feels important to me, so I'm excited to get to know some of these women that we can visit time and again and hopefully become friends with. 

It's an interesting life we live here......in many ways.  Boy, B-town was pretty different but I loved Ramadan and Eid there.  I miss it.

So you saw the clocks before on my blog...but now I got the words and we pasted them on.  

We did three cities--Boston, Bethlehem and here....since we've lived in all those places.  We could have put PA or NC but I love Boston so that's all.

I'm wondering if it looks as good in the picture as it does in real life. I love the font that was chosen by the woman who made them.  If you're interested, let me know!  I found her on Etsy.com.

We also got one of the decals for over our guest bedroom bed.  These big ones were harder to hang. 

But we made it through and used a little blow dryer action to get some bubbles out. 

We also got one for over our bed.....I sort of wish it was bigger now, but it's not so I can't complain.  If my room was neater, I would show you the whole room, but it's not, so YOU CAN'T SEE IT!  Anyway, this looks crooked but it's not.  I think it was the angle at which I took the photo.

And then we got this other guy on Etsy.com (can you tell I love it) to make this canvas with all the places we loved going in New England.  Can you tell that I still love New England?  Our college, the beach, little towns I like to shop in, our favorite restaurant and on and on.  I love how it turned out.

We also hung real pictures but those are boring, so I won't show them. 

If you're interested in the decals, let me know and I'll be happy to put you in contact with the seller. She was super quick and reliable!

Make this before the summer ends....

 PEACH AND BLUEBERRY CRUMBLES by the Barefoot Contessa

Summer is not over yet. So you should try to make this recipe while there is still time and you can still get peaches and blueberries.  The crumb topping is heavenly.  My dad made these about 3 times while we were home and boy are they good.  It recommends making them in ramekins.  They turned out great that way. If not, you could probably make it in an 8 x 8, I guess.

Ingredients

For the fruit:

nocoupons

• 2 pounds firm, ripe peaches (6 to 8 peaches)
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup fresh blueberries (1/2 pint)

For the crumble:

nocoupons

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Immerse the peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until their skins peel off easily. Place them immediately in cold water. Peel the peaches, slice them into thick wedges, and place them in a large bowl. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, granulated sugar, and flour. Toss well. Gently mix in the blueberries. Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes. Spoon the mixture into ramekins or custard cups.
For the topping, combine the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the butter is the size of peas. Rub the mixture with your fingertips until it's in big crumbles, then sprinkle evenly over the fruit. Place the ramekins on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the tops are browned and crisp and the juices are bubbly. Serve warm or at room temperature.
If you want to make these early, store the unbaked crumbles in the refrigerator and bake before dinner.

We are family.....

A) Happy Labor Day to everyone at home.

B) Here are some shots of the Hulsey Family Photo Shoot while we were home. 

This was the full family. It included Trey's Aunt Louyse who came to visit and Marisol and Miguel (who is Jessica, Trey's sisters in-laws). 

The Hulsey clan

The original kiddos

Then you add the in-laws and you have 6

Trey's brother, Jared is now a SENIOR!  I can't believe it. Before Trey and I were dating, Jared came to the house where my sister and I were living in Beverly and hung out one day--I still have a picture of it.  He did a car wash in our driveway and people really stopped.  It was hilarious.  I just found the picture the other day. He was 10 then....now's he a senior in high school.

And here he is again.  He started his senior year football season while we were home.  He's their kicker.  I hope they have a winning season.  Go Putnam!

America, America.......

Okay, Part 3 of vacation.  What else did we do?

 We went bike riding and walking at a park/pond near the house

It was a nice view for exercising.

Bike helmets are always so flattering.....

We sat by the pond and watched the fish....my Pop-Pop loves doing that.

We had some of this White Sangria....mmmm.....nothing

like good Sangria on a hot summer day.

Trey keeping his hobby alive.....really he's getting better each time he plays.

I played Domino's with my Pop-Pop--this man is 92 and still sharp as ever.

Here are Nana and Pop-- 85 and 92--they loved posing for me:)

  Some cigar smoking to be had....Trey got his dad this cool pipe thing. 

I can't explain how it works exactly but sort of like a pipe......I promise, it's tobacco.

And we took a day trip to Princeton, NJ to shop and then to this very odd sculpture garden. We only stayed long enough to get this picture--the rest of the time we spent giggling about the fact that we were there.  We left and went to another little town then.

Trey saw his cat Benny.  Benny was thrilled to see Trey, too. Can you tell?!

We gather together......

I feel like it's Thanksgiving with that song title!

So what else did we do on vacation?

This was our 6th Annual G-Crew Reunion.

You ask What is G-Crew?  Well, I'll be happy to tell you because I think you all should do it, too.

Each summer for one weekend, we get together with some of our greatest college buds. 

Each year we grow and grow and grow.  Spouses and kids keep comin' on board.

With these people we don't even need to do anything.....we enjoy just catching up on the last year. 

We were at our friend Tim's parents cabin for the day on Saturday but slept at a hotel this year.

Again, we're growing so it's hard to find a place for 12-14 adults and about 8 kids....we added triplets to the mix this year, but the family wasn't able to travel this year. Hopefully next year!

And here we are.  We're not all here. Sometimes we can't all make it but we do it no matter what. 

It's a priority and important or it would be too easy to let the years go by without seeing one another.  So here is our 6 annual G-Crew group.