The afterparty and the aftermath - 08.01 & 08.02.2009

What's the best way to soak up a lot of alcohol after a big birthday party? Papa John's pizza, of course.

Several people came back to our house after Tony's party. After scarfing down some pizza, each of us immediately found a couch, bed, or spot on the floor (mom!) to crash on. Don't drink and drive! Carpool and have a sleepover at a friend's house if you need to! It's fun!



Breakfast the next morning - McDonald's!

Tony's 40th Birthday - 08.01.2009

Happy 40th birthday to Tony Stewart! In celebration, we threw him a party at the recording studio that he and his childhood bff, Bill, own. The studio is conveniently located behind Bill's home, on 2 acres of property. There was plenty of room for people, food, badminton, and fun. (thanks to Olivia Wilson for this most excellent photograph)




Here's the spread. Many thanks to everyone who helped me throw all of this together and a very s pecial thanks to our friend Bill for manning the grill! (thanks to Olivia Wilson for this most excellent photograph)









Beer! This is Tony's favorite beer when his beloved Barley's draft beer is not available, Miller High Life. It's the champagne of beers. How do I know that? Duh... It's written right on the can.






Here's my sister, carefully inspecting a brownie. Right behind her is her husband, happily eating an un-inspected brownie.










I ate this bratwurst. It was yummy.










My brother and his friend totally planned to dress alike for the party. They spent hours texting each other before deciding on the simplicity of a pressed white shirt, khaki shorts, and brown mandals. (mandals is not a typo... get hip! sandals + a dude = mandals)

Party People - 7.31.2009

The kids and I made a Sam's Club run last Friday to get stuff for Tony's birthday party. 7 pounds of cookies, 10 pounds of fruit, 5 pounds of veggies for pasta salad, bushels of potato chips, 5 dozen hot dogs, 3 dozen brats, 8 dozen hot dog buns, buckets of margarita mixer and 7 cases of beer.

BW3 - 7.30.2009

I needed a hot wings fix last Thursday and Rooster's was too far out of the way so the kids and I went to BW3.

Connor was being a punk, as usual.

Ian loves BW3... He calls it "that place with chicken and drawing!"








Everything was all well and fine... Ian was having fun taking pictures.









Our food arrived... Ian had chicken fingers, Connor had medium wings, and I had grilled chicken tenders with Blazin' sauce on the side. Blazin' sauce is the hottest wing sauce available at BW3.










Connor was kind enough to snap a picture of me immediately after I took my first bit of chicken with Blazin' sauce. That is the look of my entire face being engulfed in heat. That stuff is spiiiiiiiccccccccccy!

4 Food Truths About Tony Stewart

Here is dinner from last Sunday - homemade red sauce, penne, romano crusted chicken, cherry tomato and fresh mozzarella salad, and a baby greens salad with tomatoes, bacon, and feta cheese. This is one of Tony's favorite meals in the world. Which brings us to...





4 Food Truths About Tony Stewart:
1. If dining in an Italian restaurant, Tony will only order chicken parmesan
2. If ordering Chinese food, Tony will only order chicken lo mien
3. If dining in a Mexican restaurant, Tony will always order cheese enchiladas. On occasion, he may also get a taco or a steak with his meal but he ALWAYS gets cheese enchiladas
4. Chinese, Mexican, and Italian are the only "ethnic" cuisines that Tony will eat. He will not eat Indian, Japanese, Thia, Vietnamese, Russian, or any other worldly cuisine. It's not that he doesn't like these cuisines, but he just won't try them.

*Tony once ate at Schmidt's Sausage Haus with me but he wasn't happy about it. From what I recall, he ordered a breaded and fried chicken cutlet which was as close to chicken parm as he could get in a German restaurant.*

Excessive amounts of burrito - 07.30.2009

I really wanted Rooster's for lunch today, but that wasn't fated to happen. Chipotle was the next best thing that I could come up with.






Everyone has his or her own special Chipotle combination and the possibilities are almost endless. My favorite combo is chicken, black beans, tomato salsa, corn salsa, and hot salsa in a burrito. I've tried the burrito bol before, in an effort to avoid that 400+ calories in the tortilla wrapper, but it just isn't the same. You need the wrapper to properly heat all of the ingredients together and marry the flavors. I find it best to order the burrito but then open it up and eat the inside with a fork.

*You will notice in this photograph that there is rice in my burrito. I don't like rice in my Chipotle burrito. It's a waste of space that could be used for black beans or chicken. I told the guy "no rice, just black beans and chicken" and he loaded up the rice anyway. I'm a wuss and didn't correct him, so I just ate around it. I am not sure why I felt the need to clarify this, but I feel better now that I did.*

Blog This - From Chris Murphy

Thank you to guest contributor, and my baby bro, Christopher Murphy. He recently dined at Rooster's and ordered 15 hot wings and fries (and a few beers, if the picture is any indication).

Thanks to this picture, I've been daydreaming about Rooster's grilled chicken wings all day. A craving for Rooster's is an itch that must be scratched and I predict that we'll make a family trip there this weekend, if not sooner.

More Fun From the Fair

Tony and Connor prepare to die on The Super Shot

Our favorite ride, The Scrambler

The Franklin County Fair - 7.24.2009

Connor and Ian on the Scrambler

Ian throwing gang signs. The west side is the best side!

$48 in unlimited ride wrist bands.

Tony and Connor on the Super Shot.

The grilled chicken pita that I ordered. I didn't know what to do when the server asked what kind of dressing that I wanted on my pita because they didn't have anything spicy. In a moment of confusion, I asked for Italian dressing. Big mistake. It ruined the whole damn pita. I ate half of it before I gave up and threw the rest away.


Fair fries with extra vinegar and salt. Tony and each had an order of these. Tony actually stood by the condiment table and ate his so that he could re-salt and re-vinegar when he was half way through his fries.






Turkey legs! We didn't eat any turkey legs, but they really deserved to be photographic and posted on the world wide webs for all to see.







Carmel apple









Connor played this game several times on Wednesday when my dad took the kids to the fair. He came close to knocking all of the blocks off of the table with a baseball (the objective) but couldn't quite beat it. We tried again on Friday. I even made the guy stay the blocks in a different order before Connor's second try, just to make sure that the bottom one was weighted or bolted down. No go. Connor still couldn't beat it.

Good Stuff - 7/22 & 7/23

On Tuesday, I was inspired by the Mary Mac's picture that Erin sent me to make some southern food. I had some fresh black eyed peas on hand, so I made Hoppin John. Hoppin John (or at least the recipe that I used) involves sauteed onions and garlic simmered with stock, bacon, cumin, jalapeno and habenero peppers all served over white rice. OMG, this was a delicious meal! I made mac & cheese as well. Yummy.

Tonight I made tortellini and spinach soup. This was pretty much the best thing that I've cooked since... well, since I made Hoppin John on Tuesday. I sauteed garlic and onion in olive oil and added crushed red pepper, fresh basil, sea salt, cracked black pepper, chicken stock, and crushed tomatoes. Then I threw in a pound of cheese tortellini and a pound of fresh spinach, served with a little grated Romano cheese on top.