Monday Morning Mix-Up 1/16/2012 – Another Fun Weekend in Pictures

Good morning everyone, what did you do fun this weekend?  I'll show you what we did with a few pictures, and if you really couldn't care less, skip on down to the links I've got for you this week.  🙂

Saturday we went to Rockford's 3rd annual ice festival with our friends that I mention here all the time, Bob, Sonia and the kids.  It wasn't too exciting, but nice to walk around downtown on a pretty winter day.  (We finally got snow here in Michigan late last week.)  What was exciting, though, was peeking in the windows of the Promenade (which our friend, Robert, designed) at the soon-to-open wine tasting room, Rogue River Winery!  (I can't find a link.)  I've never been wine tasting and can't wait to finally experience it right here in our little town – plus it looks really neat in there.  Kent enjoys wine, too, but he and Bob were mostly interested in the also soon-to-open, Rockford Brewing Company.  Here they are like sad little puppy dogs, looking in the windows, wondering when they'll get to use their new RBC mugs that they both got for Christmas.

Later that day I went shopping, and thanks to my friend, Kimmi, I found this new bedding set for the boys' room.  (Right now they have a hodge-podge of the last few themes we've had in there:  Nascar, Red Wings, and fire trucks.)  Isn't this cute?  I like the lamp I found, too, don't you?

Saturday night we went out to dinner with our friends, Robert & Natalie, to Bistro Bella Vita.  (Have you seen my other Bistro posts?  A dreamy dinner out with duck fat appetizers and a chat with the chef on cooking oils and Chick night at Bistro.)  The quinoa salad that we all shared as an appetizer was amazing.  It had roasted carrots, parsnips, beets, spinach, pistachios, parsley and a brown butter vinaigrette.  For dinner, Kent and I split a filet (so so sooooo good) and a pasta dish that was just okay.  For dessert I had this lemon bar on a yummy crust with a raspberry sorbet that complimented the lemon perfectly.

Sunday we went to our great-niece's first birthday party and I got some pictures that I thought you'd like to see.  Plus I thought they were Pinterest-worthy, and I don't know how to post something to there if it's not first ON a website…  So even though I found out recently that it's not exactly cool to pin your own stuff, I'm doing it anyway because these shots are so fun!

First, check out what a little cutie she is, here's one year old, Hailee:

Her Grandma on the other side, Leanne, is quite the party thrower, and learned a lot from Pinterest she tells me.  Check out these party pictures:

Can you believe how cute all these decorations and desserts are?  I had an oreo cake ball on a stick thing that she made and it was reaaaaally worth it, know what I mean?  I think you do.  🙂

Let's move on to this week's links:

• My favorite stainless steel electric pan has free shipping 'til the end of January!  Read more about why I love it sooo much at this post, “Bye Bye Teflon.”  (Look how big it is!)

• Have you seen this from John's Food Clubs and Co-ops site?  Obama says, ‘No raw milk for you‘.  “Last week, the Obama administration gave its official response of “No!” to the 6,078 signors of a petition on WhiteHouse.gov who requested federal-level legalization of all raw milk sales.”

• Here's the entire official response:  White House's flawed “scientific response” to We the People raw milk petition.  “This Administration believes that food safety policy should be based on science. In this case, we support pasteurization to protect the safety of the milk supply because the health risks associated with raw milk are well documented.”  The rest of it sounds like this, “Blah blah blah blah blah blah.”  Let's all scream together, do you wanna?

• Local readers, don't forget that our first meeting of 2012 for our local Weston A. Price chapter is tomorrow night in downtown Grand Rapids, and we'll learn about the top ten superfoods!  All the logistics are on our Meetup page.  Let me know if you're coming and be sure to say hi.  🙂

• Did you hear that the Burzynski Movie we were voting on a couple weeks ago WON the audience award for “Best Doc of 2011”?!  You all did it!!!  (The next airing of “Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business” is on The Documentary Channel on January 13, at 5:30PM Eastern time / Dish 197 & Direct TV 267.  If you don't have the Documentary Channel, watch the entire film for free right here.)

• Speaking of cancer, here's a great article:  Real Proof of Cancer Cures Comes from Cured Patients, Not Scientific Documents.  (Thank you, Deb, for sharing it.) “Mainstream medicine disregards cured patients’ stories as anecdotal, meaning it isn’t “proven scientifically.” This is total bunk. Any of them can be proven scientifically, and many of these anecdotal cures are clinically documented. The cancer industry, which include fund raisers, research universities, and Big Pharma, has too much to lose if alternative cures are acknowledged.”  What do you think?  DOES anecdotal documentation carry as much weight as “scientifically proven” evidence?!

• What do Real Foodies feed their pets?  Read about it in this article from Kimberly Hartke, Raw food diet benefits pets!  “How a natural diet saved our cat's life.”

• Here's a great article from my friend, Stan, that I thought you'd like, Aging in Reverse with Real Food — Then and Now.  “I saw some old pictures of me before real food and did a post about it, then and now.  It is really humbling to realize how much a difference food actually makes.“

Have a great week!