Door County in pictures

I miss my own cooking

I'm serious. Things have been busy lately, which leaves me no time to cook yummy dinners like these enchiladas verdes I made for my mom (pictured below helping me skin some roasted poblano peppers) and my sister a couple of weeks ago.

Tomatillos are awesome and I love to take the skin off and stick 'em in a food processor...you'll get the best sauce around.

My thanks to Sandra, who inspired this recipe with her amazing chicken tostadas for lunch while I was on my staycation. Few things are better than talking with a friend in the kitchen getting a meal together, is there?

On a side note, so much for staycation this summer. In a couple of days I'm headed up to Door County, Wisconsin with the family. I've heard that the cheese curds are not to be missed and that there are some lovely lighthouses to be found around Lake Michigan. I've never been to this part of the country, so if you have any suggestions about what to see and do I am all ears!

Sister Trip 2010 - Memphis

Every year we Canessa sisters like to get away for a weekend and spend time together. This year we needed something close and chose Memphis, Tennesee, since none of us has actually visited before. And although we see eachother every few days, there is something special about leaving town for the weekend to be goofy! Our first stop on our way south was for dinner at Lambert's. They are the "home of the throwed rolls", and grammatical errors aside, it's one fun and delicious place.


Leanne is our baby sister. We look for opportunities whenever we can to reinforce this idea.

This is just one of the many rolls that were handed to us. No throwing at our table. My family suffers from performance anxiety and every time the roll throwing guy came around we averted our eyes. You know, like in high school when you didn't want your name called!

The next morning we woke up bright and early to make our way to the historic Elmwood Cemetery.

Just make your way to this totally adorable house to rent an audio tour - it's $10 and totally worth it. The cemetery was stunning, sweet and peaceful.

And full of Crape Murtles, which is our favorite tree (our childhood home was chock full of them).

After our cemetery tour, we made our way to the National Civil Rights Museum which is attatched to the Lorraine Hotel, the hotel where Dr. Martin Luthor King was assassinated.

It was a somber place, but so full of amazing, interactive exhibits - it is a must if you ever visit Memphis.

After the museum, we had lunch and then made our way toward Beal street - meh. We aren't a drinking and carousing sort of folk, so we opted for a trolley tour of the riverfront to walking around with huge plastic beer containers.

After taking in the sights we were ready for dinner and tried to go to Rendezvous Ribs, a place the Travel Channel had assured us was the best place in town for BBQ. Apparently they told a bunch of other people too because the wait was over an hour to be seated.

So we ended up at Texas de Brazil .

As you can see we were super sad about it.

The next morning we caught the Peabody Ducks - it's quite the quirkey Memphis tradition and we had a ton of fun shopping in the lobby. Because that's what sister trips are about, you know.

Our next and last stop was the Victorian Village and the Woodruff-Fontaine house - this photo is from their website. It was a super cute house built on Millionaire's row in downtown Memphis in 1870.

Our tour was hosted by one of the ladies who belonged to the Association for the Preservation of Tennesee Antiquities. Which just sounds super Southern, right?!

The home has been furnished by donations from various members and are all original to the time period. The Association was currently exhibiting their collection of period wedding dresses. Totally neat and totally creepy at the same time. I asked our tour guide how the ghosts felt about having visitors tromping through the house and she calmly told me that she had never seen or felt any ghosts. Well, I'm sure they are too well mannered to bother anyone anyway.

On a side note, you too could have your name placed on the back of this wreath! All you have to do is donate some of your hair. Yes, it is made ENTIRELY OF HAIR.

After our tour we made our way to Neely's BBQ - of Down Home with the Neely's on Food Network fame! It lived up to the hype and we had some delicious BBQ sandwiches.

After lunch we were back on the road home. The trip was uneventful until we ran in to a huge storm and we all started discussing the relative advantages and disadvantages of getting out of the car and in a ditch when the tornado inevitably came in our direction.

Thankfully, we never had to face that decision. Aili was at the wheel and like all first borns, was calm, cool, collected and got us safely home. Next year, I'm thinking Chicago!

the 4th with the Fam