January Catch Up

Well we are already half way through January and this is the first opportunity I have had to post a few things in a while. They say time flies when you are having fun... apparently time also flies when you are working all the time!

Here are a few highlights from the past couple of weeks:

Drew and I went to San Francisco in 2007; we went for a wedding but spent a few days touring the area and went to Napa Valley as well. One of the wineries we toured was Viansa Winery. We bought a few bottles of wine and had them shipped to us (one of which we have saved for the past 5 years). We finally decided that we would open it and try it out to see if it had actually improved with age. I had wrapped the bottle up several years ago so that we didn't accidentally open it (and it worked!). What didn't work however was the cork. Dang it! Half way through opening the bottle it broke off so we just went at it with a knife 'til we made a hole big enough to pour through.  I think the flavor got a little more 'smokey' with time in addition to the small shards of cork it wasn't half bad!

Viansa Winery in 2007

Zifandel bottled in 2005

My poor Annabelle had to have dental surgery last week. I was petrified.  Actually, I think petrified isn't a realistic description of exactly how scared I was for her. Fortunately everything turned out fine and my sweet little baby is feeling much better (less 12 teeth). She is however disappointed that her mouth is healing up and she isn't getting hot dogs for dinner anymore! 

Annabelle doing what she does best..

Leaving Dr. Ford's office.. Poor baby was still doped up. 

Drew and I decided to do something really low key for New Years versus years past. We actually didn't nail down any concrete plans until New Years Eve. We ended up heading over to two of our good friend's house (Gaines and Kathryn) and met up with a few other friends there. We enjoyed spending time with friends and we were actually back home and in the bed around 12:30! Win! 

Happy New Years! 

I had full intentions of getting a group shot at Christmas of my family and Drew's family, I even pulled my tripod out and got it set up. I decided before everyone got there to put the tripod and camera in the side bedroom so that it would not get knocked over in the madness. Well... I forgot all about it and never got a picture.:(  Drew and I did get a family photo earlier in the day:

Christmas Eve 2012

The shop is coming along nicely! I am optimistic that it will be completed in the next two weeks. I will add a separate blog post later this week with pictures and a full update. Drew is very excited about the progress on his "Man Shop".

Last week Blythe Elementary School called up to our office and asked if we had any volunteers that wanted to come and read for Book Day or Reading Day (something like that). Of course Lori and I jumped at the opportunity to go! I read a book called the Stray Dog to a group of 3rd graders. The book started out sad but ended happy! After finishing the story all the kids had to tell me stories about their pets including a few traumatic incidents... yikes! 

Reading is F-U-N

We nailed down final trip details for our Las Vegas getaway next month! We have the flights and hotel booked now and we are really excited to go! Drew's parents are accompanying us on this trip and we are really excited to get away with them on a real vacation (it is much overdue). We are staying a Caesars Palace again this time. Yippie! 

2009

Today is also Justin's 29th birthday! I can't believe he is only a year away from 30.. which means I'm getting a lot closer to 30 too. Eeek! ;) 

Happy Birthday! 

Weekend Highlights

I love 3 day weekends! I have attempted in the past  to convince C4 that we need to move to a 4 day work week but no one else seems to be on board - go figure! I especially love weekends where Drew and I get to hang around the house and do as we please!

I got a little bit of baking done; highlights: cheesecake, cookies and some breakfast scramblers that Drew and I like to take for breakfast.

I LOVE CHEESECAKE!

Oatmeal cookies - not my prettiest work, but they were pretty darn tasty.

2 yolks from 1 egg -- that has to be good luck!

Drew and I also did some outdoor activities that included carrying heavy items through the woods, getting into briars, putting up a new deer stand and riding around on the Ranger. 

Carrying heavy stuff, view from the new stand, riding ranger (no clue where that Huddle House cup came from, we definitely did not eat there! wink wink).

I also got a jump on Christmas decorating, hopefully this will be enough to hold me over 'til after Thanksgiving.

I love Christmas! 

Outage Week 1

The fall outage officially started back last weekend; poor Drew-baby is having to work 12 hour shifts everyday with the exception of Tuesdays. He leaves the house at 6am and has been getting home a little after 8. What is the worst part about the outage you ask (in my opinion of course)? I have to cook dinner every night and it is HORRIBLE. Since I have a lot of free time on my hands, especially on weekends while Drew is working, one would think that I would be doing something constructive and productive (like writing papers for school) but no, I'm just hanging out and doing semi-fun stuff! Here are some highlights from the past week or so:

I made Sweet and Sour Chicken (a recipe Kristin found on Pinterest). It was amazing but I made such a mess in the process! Here is the recipe for anyone interested: http://madeitateitlovedit.blogspot.com/2012/03/sweet-and-sour-chicken.html
I used Splenda instead of sugar and it still turned out great.

                                          Finished product!                  What a messy process though!

My fun-filled Friday night involved cleaning windows while I waited on Drew to get home. Drew snapped this lovely picture of my weird cleaning habits and my monochromatic outfit when he got home. We tried to watch a movie this night, but we both ended up falling asleep!

Drew sent flowers to work on on Tuesday for no special reason (or he may have been guilted into it; I got flowers and that is all matters!) ;) Tuesday night me and mama met Kim and Parker at the Mexican restaurant in Louisville but I forgot to take a picture. :(

Pretty!

I washed Drew's NASTY truck on Sunday. It took me almost 2 hours just to clean the outside! I did not even attempt to start on the inside. I'm convinced that was the first time it was washed since he bought it 2 years ago! Shameful!

I also baked Drew-baby cookies on Sunday. 

I have finished stocking up on deco-mesh for Christmas... Yes, I over did it.. go figure..

Last night I met Kristin and West for dinner at Burke Perk and got Drew something to-go so I did not have to cook anything! Win!

July 4th - On the 3rd

We were fortunate enough to celebrate Independence Day with some of our closest friends this year. We had everyone over Tuesday evening, since almost everyone had Wednesday off to recover! It rained on us for a little bit but turned out to be a mild evening after that. Here are some of the treats from the party (mostly inspired by pinterest)!

Peach Sangria - SO TASTY!

Special thanks to Kim and Ansley for your help!

Catch-up

Looks, like I have dropped the ball again in regards to keeping this blog up-to-date. So here are a few things I have been meaning to post about...




I baked daddy a lemon cake for father's day... I forgot to take a picture of the complete cake but it was gigantic and barely fit in the cake carrier!

Did you know that you can buy pre made frosting and beat it fluffy in a stand mixer? It makes it look so much fluffier! - Thanks again Pinterest!

After:

Drew and I received an espresso machine for a wedding gift but we have never had an opportunity to try it out until 2 weekends ago. I made a few espresso shots and a couple cappuccinos with it and I must say, it was fantastic!! Plus, several espresso shots later I had all of our closets cleaned out and reorganized. It is quiet labor intensive to make a cappuccino with this machine and it has to be cleaned after every use - so we will just store it away and only use it for special occasions (or slow weekends!). Here was my first attempt at a cappuccino:

I ordered Reagan a new bagel bed a couple weeks ago and she is NOT happy about this new bed, although it is almost identical to the old bed. She is so unhappy about it she would rather pout in the living room than sleep in the same room with us!

Enjoying old bed:

 Sulking in living room:

Annabelle thouroughly enjoying Reagans new bed.  

Japanese Steakhouse Inspired Zucchini and Onions

A couple of weeks ago I was at Bi-Lo in Waynesboro and I purchased a bottle of Makoto Ginger Dressing; not really sure of what I was going to do with it at the time. Last night Drew and I ventured out for a golf cart ride and picked a few (giant) zucchinis out of my parent's garden. That was when the thought hit me to saute the zucchini in the Makoto sauce!

  First, I cut the zucchini into long thin strips and diced 2 Vidalia onions. I'm not sure how much I ended up with, but it was a lot for just 2 people. Then I tossed them in a large bowl with kosher salt, black pepper and the ginger dressing (probably 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of dressing). I let the veggies marinade in the ginger dressing for appx 30 minutes before cooking.

I cooked the veggies in a wok with a little bit of EVOO on medium-high heat. It took about 10 minutes to get the zucchini tender. I added a little bit of corn starch at the end to thicken the sauce up.



The zucchini and onions turned out a lot better than I was expecting them too and I am looking forward to getting home and finishing them off! :)

Pesto Chicken

We tried a new chicken dish last night that I saw on Food Network. It is called pesto chicken and it was  delicious and really simple to make. This recipe is being added to the 'will have to make again' list. The only complain I had would be the difficulty of finding pre-made pesto sauce at my local grocery stores (and by local I mean Waynesboro and Louisville). I did however find it in the refrigerated section at Costco in Augusta for only a few dollars.


Ingredients: 

• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves
• 1/3 cup refrigerated Pesto with Basil
• 3 plum tomatoes, sliced
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Line baking sheet with heavy-duty foil.2. Place chicken and pesto in medium bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet.3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center. (I covered the chicken with tinfoil for the first 10 minutes).  Remove from oven; top with tomatoes and cheese. Bake for an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.                

 

If the breasts would have been thinner this would have made a delicious panini!

*picture quality is not-so-great; I need to learn to stop using my cell phone camera!

Bruschetta Chicken

A couple weeks ago when Drew and I were planting trees and flowers around the house I decided to buy a few fresh herbs to use throughout the summer. I have not had an opportunity to cook with any of these herbs until last night. I found a KRAFT recipe on Pinterest for bruschetta chicken and decided to give it a try…

 Ingredients:

3-4 Chicken breast halves
1 Bottle of Bruschetta-style salad dressing (I used Wishbone) or you could use Sun Dried Tomato dressing (KRAFT).
1 Tomato, finely chopped
½ Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
¼ Cup chopped fresh basil
Olive oil

Directions:
*the original directions call for the chicken to be grilled. I seared the chicken on the stove top then finished cooking in the oven.

1. Marinade chicken. I put the chicken breast in a large zip-lock bag and marinated all day with the dressing while at work.
2. Heat skillet to medium heat, add olive oil to slightly coat skillet (I used cast iron so that I did not have to dirty a baking dish). Place breasts in skillet and seer both sides (appx 4-5 minutes per side).
3. While the chicken is in skillet combine the tomato, basil, mozzarella and a couple splashes of the left over salad dressing. Top chicken with the tomato mixture.

4. Loosely cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees until breasts are cooked throughout. (appx 20 minutes). I took the foil off for the last 5 minutes to make sure the tomatoes were cooked thoroughly.
5. Serve warm (I added a splash of balsamic vinegar to the chicken once it was finished baking). Delicious! 

This recipe was another hit and will be added to my growing pile of recipes that I will make time and time again! I think next time I cook it I will pound the chicken breast out a little thinner so that is cooks faster.

Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding

Drew and I had a relatively slow weekend and we were able to get a lot accomplished around the house. I even got to try a couple new recipes over the weekend, one of which being Paula Deen's 'Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding!' I have always liked banana pudding, but I LOVED this recipe! Drew and I have been working on finishing it off for the past few days and I may have even had some for breakfast this morning too!

Ingredients: 

2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies 

6 to 8 bananas, sliced 

2 cups of whole milk 

1 (5-ounce) box instant Vanilla pudding 

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened 

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 

1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions: 

Line the bottom of dish with crushed cookies and layer sliced bananas on top.

Crushed cookie base - starting the banana layer.

 

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the first layer of cookies and bananas. 

Starting to add the bananas on the 2nd layer.

Repeat the layers until dish is full. Top with remaining cookies (I crushed them again). Refrigerate until ready to serve. ---AMAZING! 

This recipe required a little more work than a traditional banana pudding recipe but it was WELL worth it. I will definitely make this again, and again... 

Zucchini Gratin

Ingredients:
 4 medium zucchini, sliced in 1/4-inch thick rounds
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I also used fancy shredded Parm)
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:
Butter a 10-inch round pan (I used glass, but a pie plate or quiche pan would work too). Put the sliced zucchini in a medium pot and cover with water.

Bring to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes; drain and rinse with cold water. Arrange the zucchini in dish in an overlapping circular pattern. Season with salt and pepper between the layers. Top with the Parmesan cheese and drizzle with the melted butter.

Bake at 400º for 25 minutes, then bake at 475º for another 10 minutes until golden brown, I also turned the broiler on to get the cheese extra crunchy!

This dish turned out great! It was pretty good warmed up the next day too!