Two Recipes and A Horse

Most of last week's meals were either repeats or already posted in last week's Menu Wednesday post, but there were two recipes I wanted to share with you today.  

Pasta with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes {Dinner: A Love Story}

DALS is one of my all-time favorite websites and gives me the warm fuzzies about the day when I will have an expanded family to cook for.  Regardless of our DINK status, I am always finding great meal ideas for just the two of us from Jenny and Andy.  This may be one of my favorites from them.  And it is STUPID easy.  I used farfalle instead of penne {it's what we had in the pantry}, dried thyme instead of fresh, and I added the dollop of ricotta at the end. I only used about half the amount of Parmesan called for.  Definitely a new go-to pasta meal.

Stuffed and Grilled Bananas

We didn't use a recipe for this, but I think there are several floating around the interwebs.  We grilled chicken for dinner Friday night and had way too much charcoal going.  M wanted to make the  best of it and we had two bananas sitting in our fruit basket.  We had some graham crackers, shredded coconut, and a Hershey's bar in the pantry.  I crushed up one sheet of graham crackers and mixed with a handful of shredded coconut.  I slit the bananas down their sides, lined each slit with half of a Hershey's bar, and then stuffed in as much of the cracker/coconut mixture as possible.  Then I wrapped each banana individually in foil and we put them on the grill for 15-ish minutes and dug in with spoons. WOW.  Great way to make use of the grill after dinner.  Would be even better stuffed with Nutella...

On Saturday we attended the Virginia Gold Cup with some friends who were visiting.  This was the spread we came up with for 4 people, plus more food in another cooler in the car.  We barely managed to eat half of it, but you better believe we ate every bit of that fried chicken.

While wondering around Member's Hill, we saw a group of people playing something called Bear Pong.  They invited our guys to play.

Which ended in a picture of what appears to be my husband kicking a small child dressed as a pirate. As one does.

I snapped this pic moments before another jockey was thrown from his horse right in front of us. They had to bring the medics out onto the course and it was awhile before he moved, but he was able to walk into the ambulance himself. So scary!

 We NEVER seem to get any photos of the two of us, so I was thrilled to have one to remember such a wonderful day {and to show our grandkids what a stud their granddad was}!

Your LL Bean Boyfriend

Best. Tumblr. Ever. 

“It’s getting to be that time of year,” Walter said, “Let me pull around the pickup truck and we’ll go find the perfect Christmas tree.”

via

The Dude Gift Guide: Christmas

I have no plans to bore you with yet another gift guide for the women in your lives, but true to form, almost all of the Christmas gift guides for men I've seen this year are not for any of the men I know.  That's not to say those gift guides are bad; it's just that I don't find them particularly useful.  Since the last two Dude Guides I've done have been quite popular, I thought I'd take a swing at a Christmas edition.  Let me know if you end up using any of these ideas!

1. I could talk about stocking stuffers for days. Stockings are my favorite part of picking out Christmas gifts. So much potential! M is a condiment fanatic.  Aren't most guys? Add a bottle of his favorite hot sauce or one he's never tried before.

2.  One of my besties is a firm believer that every gift-giving occasion is a chance to, ahem, improve a man's wardrobe.  With that in mind, how's about a lovely cotton-cashmere sweater and dapper button-up?

3. Or a field coat that looks oh-so rugged and sexy?

4. Are there men out there who DON'T like Under Armour?  I've never met any.  The ColdGear compression leggings are great for the runner in your life.

5.  Going off of my friend's theory, I'm a firm believer that Christmas is a time to purchase little luxuries for people that they would never purchase for themselves.  Case in point: this lovely T. Anthony leather business card holder. Very bespoke and a fabulous stocking stuffer.

6.  The cold-weather version of his favorite boat shoes.

7.  Bacon Salt. Is any description necessary?

8.  Another one of those little luxuries: a leather Dopp kit. {True story: M puts his travel toiletries into sandwich baggies.  Eesh.}

9.  For the golfer in your life {doesn't everyone have one?}: Graphic Image's Memorable Golf Rounds book. A scrapbook for those who don't scrapbook.

10., 11., 12. M is REALLY into making breakfast. It's his favorite meal, and truth be told, he's a lot better at making it than I am. If you know anyone who fits that bill, what about a breakfast kit? A quart of theeee best maple syrup, a pound of theee best bacon, and a top-of-the-line waffle maker.

13. Classic suede chukka boots.  They'll never go out of style and they're built to last.  Plus they do a nice job of dressing up any outfit without looking too formal.

14.  Flannel PJ pants.  If you take nothing else away from this list, this is the gift to buy.  My mom got M a pair of these for Christmas last year and, well, he's kind of obsessed.  It is extremely important that you purchase these WITH pockets.

15.  SmartWool socks.  Perhaps a little boring, but everyone loves them and they're always a favorite. And bulky enough to take up some serious space in the stocking!

The Dude Gift Guide: First Anniversary

First Anniversary Dude Gift Guide by gesshoo on Polyvore

In a Father's Day gift guide I posted earlier this year, I discussed the dearth of male gift guides for men like my husband.  Most gift guides are for men who are a hybrid of hipster/prepster/dapper.  M does not fall into any of those categories.  His category is more "Boy Next Door."  He likes beer, bacon, sports, and doing stuff.  Stereotypical heterosexual male.  

As I approached our first anniversary, it was important to me to stick with the traditional first anniversary gift of paper.  But naturally a quick Google search for "traditional first anniversary gifts for husband" came up with some truly horrible suggestions.  So once again, I'm doing the heavy-lifting for you ladies with men in your lives like M.  I present to you The Dude Gift Guide: First Anniversary edition:

1. A certificate for an Orvis fly-fishing school.  This was my original gift to M, but after the engine incident, we had to scale back on our plans {read: spending}.  Hopefully we'll be able to make this happen next year.  I've attended the one in Vermont and they are so much fun! 
2. An autographed picture of his favorite sports hero.  I gave M an autographed picture of his other sports hero, Ray Lewis, as a wedding gift and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to top that gift. He loves it. 
3. An e-Reader.  I thought this was a punny play on the idea of a paper gift.  Plus M is always stealing my Kindle to read whatever I've got on there, so it's about time he gets his own!
4. Your DirecTV bill, showing him that you've paid for a season's worth of NFL Sunday Ticket.  I know it's pricey, but I figure M would be at a bar every Sunday spending at least $50 on wings and beers, so in the end, it's cheaper just to spring for the TV package.
5. Tickets to a pro sporting event.  M got hockey tickets last year for Christmas and he was thrilled. I've found that a lot of guys would rather receive experiences as gifts, rather than things, so this is a great option for the guy who has everything.  Now if the NHL can just work out its issues...
6. The New York Times History of [Insert His Favorite Sports Team Here].  This is what I ended up getting for M and it could not have been a bigger hit.  I got him the History of the Baltimore Orioles, and coming off of their historic postseason run, this was such perfect timing.  It's so fun to go through and read the really old newspaper headlines.
7. A cheeky money clip filled with cash.  If you're in a household like mine where the wife is in charge of the money, sometimes it's hard for me to make M feel like he's not on an "allowance".  I know he would love for me to hand him a big ole wad of cash and tell him to spend it any which way he chooses, no questions asked.

Man Shades

After Tuesday's post, I don't want y'all to think that I'm not trying to fluff up M with some spit and polish; I totally am.  Current victories include exorcising his closet of the A.C. Slater jeans and his old man orthopedic dress shoes; his requesting a pair of Sperrys with no encouragement from me; and the fact that he now owns 4 Brooks Brothers items.  Progress, people.  Progress.

Next on the list are sunglasses.  Here are his current sunglasses:

 

Like, this exact same pair.

I've always thought they were a wee bit Zack Morris {in keeping with the Saved by the Bell analogy}, but I had bigger battles to fight so I kind of let it be.  Then a few weeks ago a few of his buddies were giving him a hard time about them and I saw my window of opportunity.  Because if your heterosexual male friends are ragging on your shades, it's time to step up yo' game.

He has requested no aviators and no Wayfarers.  So here is what I have come up with:

 

Fossil // Orvis // Ray-Ban // Persol

The Orvis ones are my favorite, but methinks M is going to be more into the first pair. I had to include the Ray-Bans because they're the ones Don Draper wears. Rawr.  And the Persols are classics.

What do you think?  Which ones are your favorite?  Any more suggestions?