Not your momma's mac n' cheese!

So this story starts way back, join me if you will - when a young girl started her 4 years of college. It is you typical boy meets girl story - just played out over 6 years.
Six years after meeting, boy asks girl out. One and a half years later boy asks girl to marry him. Eight months after that boy marries girl. A few months after that they receive their wedding gift from a good friend and an avid connoisseur of food. His gift you ask...a gift card to his new favorite restaurant...Boka! Another few months pass, and boy and girl finally find occasion to use the gift card.
If you hadn't guessed already, this is a story about Andrew and I. But enough about us, back to our experience at Boka. We had a lot of VERY good food there - including the BEST fish I have ever had - so fresh, so unbelievably good! Another item we decided to try was one that brings two of my favorite foods together - mac and cheese with edamame. It was beyond any mac and cheese I had ever had.
Now fast forward to Monday - I came home from work craving this mac and cheese. Andrew seemed on board with making it - the problem...how do we make it when we don't know any of the ingredients. Andrew suggested that the recipe might be online. I thought that is impossible, why would a famous chef give away his secret?
Well as soon as we got home, Andrew proved his Google skills, finding this little gem...Boka's Mac And Cheese With Edamame Recipe! I could hardly believe my eyes! After jotting down the ingredients - I had no idea what panko crumbs were - we headed down to our local Whole Foods. We assumed they would be more likely to have white truffle oil - and panko crumbs - whatever they were - then Jewel Osco. I was a little concerned the items might take a while to find, but in my second surprise of the night, common sense helped us find all the ingredients with in 15 minutes. Believe it or not the only item we had to ask for assistance finding was the edamame. Turns out they didn't have any fresh edamame so we had to get frozen.
And so now I leave you with the photo journal of the process:
Noodles and edamame in strainer


Me stirring the cheese
Andrew shredded the cheese
Final product with panko crumbs browned in white truffle oil

On a somewhat related note - white truffle oil is really tasty!

Get ready for a blog-full...

One of the perks of being a tax accountant is that you get April 16th off as a paid holiday. As it happens the 16th fell on a Thursday this year - the same day that NPR tapes their news show "Wait wait...don't tell me!" For those of you not familiar with the show, it come on right after Car Talk on Saturday morning, and it is more or less a news quiz - with a little humor thrown in. In order to add a real laugh track, the show is taped in front of a live audience, at none other than the Chase Auditorium in lovely downtown Chicago. So - we got tickets - and after a long day of Spring Cleaning - sat back and enjoyed some laughs.
We got a mug as a little memento, you can never have too many mugs right?
We also hung around after the show and got a few autographs...it was kind of like being a kid again. Andrew also got a picture with Carl on his phone.

And the cast of possible panelists...there are three in every show - I was hoping Mo Rocca would be there, but he apparently had the night off - guess we will have to go back!

Unfortunately, because the 16th was on a Thursday, I had to return to work for Friday. As chance would have it, Friday turned out to be a gorgeous day, and lets be honest, after tax day, there isn't much pressing work - so I took off at noon. Andrew and I enjoyed the afternoon and into the evening. We had the pleasure of seeing Andrew's Uncle Robert that night.

He was kind enough to take us out, and to snap one of the rare photos of Andrew and I, and managed to escape being in a picture himself.

We then rounded out the weekend with a visit to Indiana, to see my family. Ryan and Lindsay introduced Andrew and I to Geocaching. If you have never heard of this before I encourage you to check it out. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend time with family.

I was the one to find the first hunt we went on - though I was informed multiple times that it was an "easy one." Easy or not it was enough to get me hooked! We didn't have great luck with the second one - despite a few of us drawing blood during the hunt.

This however did not divert my interest in the sport. We would continue to hunt and find two more treasures that day - and have one more allude us. The following are pictures from the hunt!

I also found this one:

As you can tell - this is really an adventure that takes you all over. It is a great lesson in getting out there and paying attention to things you might otherwise not notice. Definitely my kind of fun...now I just have to convince Andrew we need a GPS.

Some other highlights were getting to spend some time with my family, seeing my niece's face light up, and hearing her say my name.

So how are our plants?

I am glad you asked...our blackberry bush should be bearing fruit in no time!

Here is the blueberry bush and the blackberry bush:

And a close up - I think they are doing so well because of all the natural sunlight they get.

This was our Sunday meal...Almond Crusted Tilapia - and almond green beans. SO GOOD!

For those who requested it - the shrimp recipe:

Shrimp Etoufee

(serves: 5)

1/4 c. butter

1/2 onion chopped
1 1/2 stalk celery, chopped (left out for Andrew)
1 clove garlic, pressed (I chopped)
1 T flour (I used 2)

2 1/4 t. paprika (I just gave a little sprinkle)

1 1/4 lbs shrimp, peeled, deveined, & chopped (I used 2 lbs - that was what was in the bag I bought and really what would I do with 3/4 lb leftover shrimp?)

1/4 c. mushrooms (YUCK!)

salt, pepper, & crushed pepper to taste (this is where I got in trouble - I went by color not taste!)

In a large skillet, melt butter & saute onions, celery & garlic, 45 mins. or until cooked down. Stir in flour & cook briefly, do not brown. Stir in chopped shrimp & cook for 20 mins. (I used frozen precooked shrimp and it didn't take that long to cook.) Pour in 3/4 cup water & mushrooms (skipped this step - didn't even add water.) Stir in paprika & season with salt, pepper & crushed red pepper. Cook for 30 mins. or until thick like gravy. Serve over rice. Enjoy!

Also, for those wondering Fran is doing well. This was my attempt at taking her picture when she was sitting like a person. She does it so she can lick her belly, and she looks like a fur ball when she does it, it is pretty funny. But she moved when she saw the camera come out.

We did however capture a little bit of Fran's "playtime." She always seems to be more active in the evenings. This is a regular occurrence in the Waggoner household...I would say at least once a night we play the "Comforter Creature" game...she falls for it every time.

Summer is around the corner...right?

It may still be snowing here, but I got a little taste for summer.

This...

plus this...
plus this...

Equals, yummy strawberry shortcake!!! Come on summer!!!
Monday night I made strawberry shortcake - and it is TASTY!

Tonight for dinner we fixed a shrimp dish - it looked pretty, but I think I got a little too much hot seasoning!

We didn't quiet make it through the whole bowl, before our mouth started burning!

But it was good while it lasted.