Mara Visits Murphysboro

Remember Mara from Florida? She is Joey's girlfriend and helped orchestrate the proposal. Well, she and Joey made the drive up here to visit. With just one day to explore, we took her out on the wine trail. Our first stop was Kite Hill Vineyards. Their wine slushy is the best. One of these days I'll buy the mix. Since I am now a wine cork collector, these birdhouses caught my eye:

Our next stop was Pomona Winery, still my favorite winery to visit, hands down. While, you do have to pay a $2 tasting fee, you really get your moneys worth. You get to taste all the wines and get to learn as you go. Plus, Becky is always there and she is still the best. I bought a bottle of Kir to take home. Our next stop was Von Jakob. We always order food here. Brandon and I shared the BBQ pizza. It was just ok, but hey it came with a side salad. I love their Red Oak Port Vinaigrette Dressing. Our friend, Christian, is the wedding coordinator there. She pulled out some of her wedding magazines and we looked through them. She has offered her wedding planning services, wherever we have the wedding :)

Next up was Kie's choice, Owl Creek. His birthday is coming up in the next week so we decided to celebrate early. The girls made him a tasty cake.

Kie turns 26

The final winery of the day was Blue Sky. We ordered a pitcher of sangria and it was delish. I like it better than Rustle Hill's. The winery was packed, including a Mardi Gras themed birthday party. As they were leaving they gave us their masks. We looked like Misteriosos!

Joey and Brandon

And finally we ended our journey at 17th Street. Because really, what trip to Murphysboro would it be without that. Order the 17th Street potato. WOW.

Well, we won't have to wait long for our next winery visit. This upcoming Friday is the second Teresa Herring benefit at The Bluff's, $5 cover. 

Support Big Brothers Big Sisters!

Well, its been over a year that I've lived here now. Meaning what was new is old again. Case in point: I will be Bolwing for Kid's Sake again with the Kiwanis Club of Murphysboro. Please visit our page: here.

The Bowl-a-thon will be held in Carterville this year at SI Bowl on February 11. All funds raised will support the Big Brothers Big Sisters Clubs of Jackson and Perry Counties.

PS: I have a nasty cold. Bad enough to keep me up all last night. I tried working today and had to go home. Know any good home remedies?

Sergio's

Ever since I moved here I have been dying to go to Sergio's. The restaurant is in Murphysboro just off of Rt. 13. It is a cute yellow building with lots of string lights - seriously adorable.

Since we were dining with a SI Daily Deal and needed to spend $25 we really enjoyed ourselves. We started with drinks - I had a little margarita -- they also offer a 44 oz one!! Brandon had Modelo.

Chips and salsa were complimentary. We ordered also ordered queso. For the entree, I ordered the taco salad with fajita steak.

All the toppings were under the lettuce (guac included!). Brandon had the steak fajitas.They came out a sizzlin! We ate a lot!

But that didn't stop us from ordering dessert.

Deep Fried Cheesecake

Best decision of the night. It came with 2 pieces of cheesecake wrapped in tortilla and fried with a ball of "fried" (cornflake crusted) ice cream and tons of strawerries! Wow. Only $4.

Very friendly service and cute atmosphere. The restaurant had pictures up of people celebrating their birthday. Coincidentally, it was someone's birthday that night. The employees came out and sang in Spanish. $1 beers on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays. Go there!

Quote of the Day

"How did you end up with a River Rat from Murphysboro?"


- a patient asked me

Good question.

Christmastime is Here

Check out our first Christmas tree:

We didn't have one last year because Brandon moved back to Illinois right before Christmas. This year, we inherited Brandon's grandma's tree. It was simple to put together and it was fun to hang the few ornaments that we've collected over the years. I wish all these presents were under it:

Actually, I took this photo this morning at the Murphysboro Key Club Toy, Coat and Food Drive this morning. Brandon was excited to share this awesome event with me. There were around 400 food orders this year - packages included ham, canned veggies, a loaf of bread, apples and oranges, saltines, vanilla wafers cake mix and frosting, etc. Brandon and I made several deliveries to very appreciative recipients. Later in the afternoon, the kids delivered the presents and coats.

Back to the tree, I love my William & Mary ornament. We are still looking for an SIU ornament, know of any good ones? We want our college ornaments to match if possible, but we've only found this one so far, meh.

Our favorite ornaments:

Mine

His

Nancy had us come over and look through some Christmas stuff to see what we wanted. I saw the nativity scene and knew I had to have it. Notice anything strange?

Jesus has two mommies!

Two mother Marys and no Joseph to be found, how progressive! Haha. Actually Brandon and I hypothesized that his Mom had two sets and either he and his brother must have broken both Josephs or she just packed them up wrong.

Dumpling Maker

Today was the Kiwanis/Knights of Columbus Chicken & Dumpling Dinner. It was a fundraiser for our Kiwanis Club. Brandon and I volunteered for the morning shift which meant making dumplings:

Assembly line

Brandon hard at work!

Bestill my Southern Illinois lovin' heart! My job was feeding the dough through the pasta roller. Guess who wants a KitchenAid Stand Mixer?! The pasta roller was an attachment to the mixer. Fun!

Finished product

In addition to Chicken & Dumplings were coleslaw, mashed potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls and a buffet of amazing desserts made by Dana Ritcheson.

Happy customers

I had a lot of fun. I hope we raised a lot of money!!!

PS: This has me cracking up like no other:

Source

Chicken & Dumpling Dinner

The Murphysboro Kiwanis Club and the Murphysboro Knights of Columbus would like to invite everyone to their 2nd Annual Chicken & Dumpling Dinner on November 5th, Saturday 11:00 - 7:00.  Dinner will be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 606 Plum Street in Murphysboro. 

Tickets are $8.00 in advance for adults and children under 12 years are $4.00; (adults are $9.00 at door).  Carry-outs are welcome. 

Help us support the youth of our community in need and the world with The Kiwanis and Knights of Columbus "Karing For Kids" dinner. 

Please contact me for advance tickets to this event.  I will be happy to get them to you.  

Weekend Update

Last Friday, Brandon took me to the Jerry Clover memorial fundraiser at the Murphysboro Elks Lodge. Jackson Junction played some rockin country tunes. (Living here has made me crazy for country!) Over $5,000 was raised for the family. I also bumped into my Anatomy teacher who said "you can't use this as blackmail" Darn. Hehe. My Saturday looked a lot like the one two weeks ago.

Murphysboro Soccer

SIU Football

We lost :( The weather was gorgeous :)

And random... Brandon was so excited to show me that he programed his radio to the only two stations he listens to... haha

New Honda

Brandon bought a new car this weekend!

It's a 2007 Honda Accord EX in Charcoal. It comes with some bells and whistles like a GPS, sunroof and heated seats. Definitely an upgrade! Turns out the salesman knew me from taking care of his parents at the eye center so he gave Brandon a good deal. Now that's karma baby!

In other news, I managed to do something other than a ponytail:

So excited now that October is here. Birthday month! Brandon and I have decided to throw a Halloween party on his Bday. Get excited people!

Scenes from the Apple Festival

Appletime Stage

Fair Food

5K

Apple Festival Parade

 

Boys in Uniform

 

60th Apple Festival

The 60th annual Murphysboro Apple Festival was last weekend. This thing is Murphysboro's claim to fame. They love the darn thing! It's basically a carnival that takes over downtown Murphysboro for 5 days. There are a plethora of apple-related events such as apple pie eating contests and pageants.

Brandon was chair of the Kiwanis Appletime Stand this year. Our Kiwanis club sells apple-themed treats to raise money for community projects. Let me tell you, stocking, managing, opening and closing this thing for 5 days takes a LOT of work! This mean I filled in a lot as a volunteer at the stand. We sold candy apples, apple dumplings, apple butter, etc.

I thought Brandon looked adorable carting the boxes of fresh apples around. We sold local apples from Mileur Orchards in Murphysboro. There were 3 types: red delicious, golden delicious and Jonathan. But by far our best sellers were the frozen drinks. We had an apple cider slushie and an apple pie smoothie:

Have a look behind the scenes:

We had a really nice set-up. Check out the cooler trailer:

Brandon did an awesome job. We made thousands for charity!

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Yesterday Brandon and I got up for an early start to our morning. He was a referee for the first Murphysboro Soccer games of the season. He was reffing the 3rd and 4th graders - too cute. This is the first year Murphysboro has had it's own soccer league and they had record breaking registration numbers of 225 kids. I watched for a couple minutes but then I headed downtown for an event with Kiwanis.

The Murphysboro Kiwanis Club arranged for a Saturday Morning Cartoons event at the historic Liberty Theater.

What a beautiful place. It definitely reminds me of the Kimball Theatre in Williamsburg, VA. We had a slow start but people trickled in. We ended up with about 35 children and parents. We gave out free popcorn and orange drink donated by McDonalds.

At the end of the event we handed out pencils as a parting gift. I loved the event and hope that we decide to do it again sometime.  

This afternoon I'm working on an article summary for microbiology on bacterial infection. Research was done indicating that donor stool transplants (administered through nasogastric tube) helped, yeesh.

Friday Night Lights

On Friday, Brandon and I went to the Murphysboro vs. Carbondale football game.This is the most popular game of the year even though the schools are not in the same division. The game alternates between the schools each year and this year the game was in Murphy. We got there a bit late around 6:45pm and had to park way out on the road leading into the school. Luckily, we met some friends there who saved us seats in the bleachers.

The Red Devils and the Terriers put on a good game. Carbondale dominated the first half. The most excitement was an injury to one of the Carbondale players. He was carted off the field on a stretcher.

The weather was perfect and the crowd was really into it. It was fun to look around and recognize so many people. I guess I've become a townie!

The final score was 14 to 24. Carbondale won ... womp womp.

Going to check out the DuQuoin State Fair tonight. Hope everyone back home made it through the hurricane safe and sound.

Cummare's

Although Friday is our usual date night (Steak 'n Shake with coupons in tow... we're classy like that), Brandon and I went out on Tuesday to celebrate our anniversary. Five years people!

This is a picture from my first time in Carbondale in October 2006:

Yep, this is the pic I used for my blog header

To celebrate, I chose Cummare's in Murphysboro. It's my favorite restaurant in Murphy (sorry 17th Street). Mom, you would love this place! Homemade Italian food in a classy atmosphere. It's definitely a place to go when you want a 3 course meal. Although, there isn't a Delmonico steak on the menu - sorry Darius.

First of all, check out the cute storefront. If you look closely you will see a "1896" on the top cornerstone. We started with the Toasted Ravioli appetizer. I informed Brandon that toasted ravioli is a regional dish native to St. Louis. He was surprised, having grown up with it all his life.

Next up was salad and garlic bread. Their house dressing - balsamic vinaigrette is delish!

.

And finally the entrees arrived. Brandon had the Shrimp Alfredo:

And I went with the Tortellini:

Tons of food = lots of leftovers. Unfortunately, we were too full for desert but I'd like to try their tiramisu. And I'm sure we'll be back to try the pizza. Both times I've been here the owner was there working in the kitchen. This time we saw him taking a drink with a customer. Now that's a sweet gig!

PS: Cummare means best friend in Italian