Home Theater

It's a stormy Labor Day (glad for the rain!) and Barry is laboring hard in the basement, building our own theater.  When we bought the house, one of the things we looked for was a room (in the basement, preferably) where we could build a theater of our own.  Our shared love of movies and games is the inspiration for the room.  In the beginning, it was a plain, unfinished room and now it's still mostly unfinished, but Barry has put up most of the wall studs and now he's studding the tray ceilings.

We've gone back and forth about ideas for the theater, but here's where we are.  See very simple (and not to scale) diagram below, we will have 4 theater-style leather seats, which all recline and feature stainless steel cup holders for each viewer.  The second row of seats will be raised about 6" for stadium-style seating.  In the back of the room will be a bar with bar stool seating. The bar will feature granite countertops, custom cabinetry, a sink, refrigerator, plenty of counter space and cabinet space, old-time popcorn maker and kegerator.   There will also be a built-in bookcase which will house all of our DVDs and games as well as the A/V equipment.  There will be a 90-100" front projection screen with projector mounted from the ceiling.  We're excited about this!



Barry is doing a great job - I'm off to take him a well-deserved frosty beverage. :)

What's For Dinner: Roasted Pork Loin with Rosemary Potatoes & Onions

We enjoyed tonight's dinner while watching the season opener for UGA against Boise State.  Go Dawgs!  We had a Roasted Boneless Pork Loin with Rosemary Potatoes & Onions - this is a great, easy meal which is great as we begin transitioning into Fall.  Recipes below:

Roasted Pork Loin
1 2-lb boneless pork loin
1 1/2 tsp each, oregano, basil, rosemary
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 375°.  Mix the above ingredients to form a paste.  Rinse the pork loin and pat dry.  Spread the mixture on all sides of the pork and place in a gallon-size bag to marinate for an hour or so.  (I really like to use Ziploc vacuum bags as they keep the marinade right where I want it, on the meat).  Preheat 2 tbsp olive oil over med-high heat (I use a cast iron grill pan, but use any pan which can go straight to the oven) and brown the pork (2-4 minutes) on each side.  Put in oven and roast for about an hour until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat reads 150°.  A handy tool here is a thermometer which stays in the meat while it cooks in the oven, an alarm will sound when the pork reaches the desired temperature.

Remove from the oven, cover with foil and let sit 15 minutes before slicing.

Rosemary Potatoes & Onions
2-3 lbs small red potatoes
1 or 2 sweet onions
vegetable oil (not olive oil as it tends to burn, canola works well)
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425°.  After washing and drying thoroughly, cut the potatoes into fourths.  Slice the onions lengthwise into 1/2" slices, then cut into thirds - you should onion strips.  Roughly chop the fresh rosemary.  Place onions and potatoes in a large bowl, add salt, pepper and rosemary - then add just enough vegetable oil to coat potatoes - toss together with your hands.  Place into a cast iron skillet and roast for 45 minutes - 1 hour, until potatoes are soft.

Celebrating Barry's 30th, Part II

On the day of Barry's birthday, the 24th, we both took the day off work.  We handled some errands that we needed to do, and Barry was able to get time to work on building our theater.  The end of the day we had dinner with Barry's dad and Kathy -  Benihana for sushi.  Dinner was great!  Except that our car was broken into... my makeup bag was stolen, but we were able to replace everything.  All in all, I think he had a great birthday!

Barry's 30th Birthday, Part I

I've been looking forward to celebrating Barry's 30th for a long time.  We originally planned to have a big party at a local brewery restaurant, but decided against that.  Instead, I bought Barry something he's wanted as long as I've known him.... an Omega watch.  I am the absolute worst about waiting to give presents, especially when I'm as excited about it as I was!  So on Friday night (only 5 days before his birthday....haha) I gave him the gift.  He was so thrilled!  I'm so happy to be able to give him something he loves so much, he's worked hard for it!  Below are a few pictures.  His actual birthday is the 24th, and we have several other celebrations planned!  We're looking forward to dinner on the night of the 24th and the following Sunday, the 28th with family.  Part II to come..... :)

Jen's Birthday!

I had a wonderful birthday!  We began celebrating the weekend prior with dinner with my parents and brother, then on my birthday Barry and I went to The Vortex for burgers.  My absolute favorite is the Yokahoma Mama burger - pineapple, provolone and teryaki, how can you go wrong! 

We saved the major celebration for a non-work night, so last night (Saturday) we went to The Oceanaire Seafood Room in Midtown.  I've been looking forward to going there for a long time and it was worth the wait!  We had a lovely dinner - the service was great (thanks Daniel!), food was amazing and a free dessert!  Barry tried their award-winning clam chowder and seared Hawaiian Ahi Tuna.  I had a sundried tomato and basil pesto with fresh mozzarella as an appetizer (we shared) and the Bronze Spiced Costa Rican snapper - we split the gratin potatoes for our side.  Our server even brought us a free baked alaska!  Their menu changes daily based on the fresh fish that is flown in daily. 

Looking forward to continuing the birthday celebration for Barry's 30th birthday on Wednesday and dinner with the family on Sunday.

 

Baked Alaska :)

 

What's For Dinner: BBQ Meatloaf and Gourmet Burgers with Cabernet Reduction

Yum!  That's what I thought when I saw these recipes*, my sweet husband wasn't so sure, however...  He's never been a fan of meatloaf and wine on a burger isn't something he could imagine.  But, this story has a happy ending - he loved both and even said that I could add the recipes to my "tried & true" recipe book.

I keep a notebook style recipe book, a cute one from Hallmark, where I write all our favorite recipes.  Now that I'm feeling a lot better regularly, I'm trying to get back into cooking more often.  Lately we've been eating out so much, it's nice to have home-cooked food!

I made the Cabernet Burgers on Tuesday night - both of these recipes will be available on the cooking page (link above).  They really were wonderful, and easy to make!  The cabernet sauce added a unique dimension to the flavor and using white cheddar cheese rather than the usual orange made a world of difference.  Combined with the rosemary butter, these burgers really were amazing.

Last night, we had the Barbecued Meatloaf.  I've had a taste for meatloaf for several weeks and have never made it before.  When I found this recipe, it sounded great.  I think the best part is that it was cooked on the grill.  I love to cook anything I can on the grill - plus Barry is my own grill master.

*Both recipes adapted from Weber's Way to Grill cookbook.