A whole new world...

"A whole new world...that's where we'll be." Although I did recently watch Disney's Aladdin on my last weekend get away with the Amys, this time I'm referring to mine and Tom's "whole new world." We are expecting Baby Luke in May, and we can already see that life will be completely different. We, of course, felt different from the moment we knew. Telling our parents and the rest of our family and friends was certainly a new experience for us as well. Now that the masses know, there's no avoiding the fact that changes are coming. Some are already here, in fact. We've started work on the nursery. So far, we've got a crib and a glider, but I envision a colorful and creative mural on the wall soon :-)

(Proud Dad reading the instruction manual)

(Daisy was very helpful...)

(Isn't it gorgeous?! We love it!)

I can't poke my head out of the house without someone asking me how I'm feeling. A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of falling off a treadmill at the gym, and boy, did that cause a big to-do. To say the least, it has taken some getting used to to adjust to life as a pregnant lady.

(Baby Bump - 28 weeks)

As I begin the last trimester, I know things are going to kick into high gear. I have a few things that I feel I must check off my to-do list before the baby gets here though - clean out the garage (while I can still bend over!), de-clutter and organize the house better, fix all the little dings in the walls from the past two years, and reach that magic number I've been shooting for in our bank account. That's not too much to hope for, right?

I know this is a wonderful journey we're embarking on. I'm very thankful for this and all the many blessings God has given us. And so, life's still a moving target - buckle up because here comes another new section of the race!

P.S. Here's a few things we've eaten lately. I haven't been cooking as much as normal - my poor husband has been fixing us dinner while I lay on the couch useless. Hopefully, I'll get back into the cooking swing after Baby Luke's arrival.

(We got on a kick of making homemade pizza for a while - we use our pizza stone, and it works great. We started using the thin crust pizza dough in a can, and we like it a lot.)

 (Homemade honey mustard - just mustard and brown sugar, but it is the best sauce EVER!!!)

(Chicken tenderloins were on sale at Publix so I HAD to make my mom's homemade fried chicken fingers - of course, they weren't as good as hers, but they were pretty awesome. In a bowl, whisk together milk and an egg. In a pie plate, combine flour with salt and pepper. Dip chicken fingers in milk mixture then coat with flour mixture. Fry them in a large skillet in oil - make sure the oil is hot before you put them in. My mom says to drip a little water in it, and if it sizzles, the oil is ready. I just used regular vegetable oil. Always remember when frying, the first batch takes the longest. The rest are always quicker! Cook until desired brownness then flip. Put on papertowels to drain after removed from skillet. Enjoy!)

FOOD!

Wow, I can't believe it's been 3 months since I last posted! That's terrible... I have to do better. In my defense, it's been pretty busy with work, family stuff, holidays, visitors, etc. But to make up for absence, I will make this post all about what we've been cooking and eating with minimal chatter from me :-) If there's anything you want the recipe for, let me know. Bon appetit!

You may remember from a few months ago, I talked about a ham and broccoli quiche we made that was divine! And so easy! Here it is again for your viewing pleasure.

 

For Tom's brother, David's, birthday, we made stuffed peppers - hamburger meat, rice, and onions in green peppers with beef broth (made from water and beef granules) in the bottom of the pan. They turned out really well! Cooking the ketchup on them for the last few minutes like my dad does really makes them delish!

Pork tenderloin has become one of my favorites in the last few years, and I especially like to get the already flavored ones. I usually go for terriyaki, but lately, I've branched out to new flavors like honey mustard and apple bourbon (seen below). It's an easy way to have a nice meal if you just pair it with a few quick sides. This time, I made an arugula salad and sauteed some carrots, onions, and mushrooms together with some sherry (I love to cook with sherry!).

My boss shares my love of creative cooking and likes to branch out into different kinds of meat. Thankfully, Tom and I get to benefit from that because he usually gets me some of whatever he buys. It's a really nice perk :-) Below, I paired early peas and stuffing with veal cutlets. I'd never had veal, and I was pretty against the idea of eating baby anything, but who was I to turn down his generous gift? So we cooked it in a frying pan with salt, pepper, olive oil, and a little (you guessed it!) sherry. It was very good and every bit as tender as people say.

Recently, he went on a trip to Guatemala and brought us back some macadamia nuts. We chopped them up and made a white chocolate and macadamia nut pie! Wow!

But I think the best thing he's given us is fresh swordfish steaks. I had never heard of such, but they were amazing! I just seasoned them (salt, pepper, and some cajun spices I had) and cooked them in a frying pan on the stove. Wow. You have to try them. He ordered them from Kroger. We had creamed corn (admittedly, from a can) and green bean almondine (french style green beans, salt, pepper, garlic powder, lemon juice, and sliced almonds).

Tom and I have been trying to branch out into grilling. This is something neither of us know anything about but would very much like to learn (especially if someone would come clean the grill for us when we're done!). Kabobs were on sale at Publix so we decided to give it a whirl. I marinated the whole kabob (on the stick) in a mixture of salt, pepper, Dale's, and this Greek vinaigrette (that was very disappointing as a salad dressing but turned out to be spectacular as a marinade!). They were to die for! We also attempted some veggies in the foil pouch you see. Not the intended affect, but we're working on it.

Our next grilling adventure was even better. Publix had steaks on sale (are you seeing a trend here about how I buy groceries?), and this time we put the red peppers directly on the grill. Yum!

The last stop on our grilling run was steaks for the in-laws. Tom's family came to visit for the weekend so we had to show off our new grilling prowess, and my boss had given us a frozen boneless ribeye we had been waiting since Christmas for the right time to cook. Let me just tell you that I was terrified of that thing. It was a giant hunk of frozen meat, and I was totally overwhelmed as to what I should do with the thing. The process went shockingly well, however. I was able to butcher the slab into 8 fairly evenly sized steaks with ease using a bread knife of all things. We marinated it the same way I mentioned before, and Tom's mom said it was the best steak she'd ever eaten in her life :-) This time, we paired it with grilled asparagus (Tom's fave!) and homemade mashed potatoes.

One thing I've really wanted to get into cooking is soups. I found this amazing recipe for pork and zucchini soup so I had to try it. It really turned out to be a winner. We loved it! You chop up pork chops into cubes, toss them in flour, and cook them in a skillet. Then you add that to all the chopped veggies (onions, red peppers, zucchini, sundried tomatoes, etc.) and cook together for about 15 minutes. We served it with my homemade cheddar and jalapeno cornbread and sprinkled it with Parmesan cheese! This is a dish I will definitely be making again soon!



Lastly, this past week, we made an old favorite - Rosemary Chicken. You cut up chicken breasts into cubes (take my advice, use scissors instead of cutting it with a knife like I did the first time!), season with salt, pepper, rosemary, lemon juice, and chicken broth. Bake and serve over rice (I got the BEST baked rice recipe EVER from Amy! You'll love it!). I also added sauteed zucchini and onions, just cause we love it, and I had a zucchini left over from the soup :-)

 Okay, I lied. This will be the last one - Tom's work hosted a cupcake war this past week. So much fun, and people really went all out! If you never try another recipe from me, try this one! Peach Bellini Cupcakes. To. Die. For. Seriously.

I have to close with something about Daisy :-) Lately, Daisy's had a new friend to play with, Lucky Zero. They have been having the best time playing together! Look how cute they are...

Until next time! Hopefully, it won't be 3 months away :-)

Savannah!

A few weeks ago marked another first for Tom and me. We went on a vacation with another couple, our dear friends Ken and Jennifer, affectionately referred to as Kennifer. Jennifer and I have been talking about going to Savannah for years - neither of us had ever been, we'd heard a lot about it, and we love to eat so it seemed like the place to go. You never quite know how you'll get along with people when you spend a lot of time together even if you're the best of friends, but this trip worked out great!

Jennifer and I are equally anal about organizing and planning things so we set off to do research about what we wanted to do. I developed a list of things I was interested in, and Jennifer looked up reviews about each one. Tom and Ken (in true Tom and Ken laid-back fashion) went along for the ride. We all took off work on Friday and left early so that we could make it to Savannah by lunch time. You see, the whole trip was really about the food. Seriously - we ate the whole time. I gained 3.5 pounds!
The first thing I noticed about Savannah were the gorgeous trees! Them, combined with the beautiful architecture, made the city so warm and inviting. Of course, Tom is allergic to oak trees, and the city is FILLED with live oaks. Small flaw in our research there, but oh well. He survived :-)

We ate lunch on Friday at Mrs. Wilkes. This is basically a whole in the wall place in the basement of a townhome. It's family owned and has been for decades. The food is served family style - heaping bowls of 2 meats and 22 sides. Yes, you read that right - no typos there. It was amazing. Part of the ambiance or rite of passage you might call it is the waiting in line - the line stretches all the way down the block. We waited for about an hour and a half, and I'd say the experience was worth it. Of course, Jennifer insisted that we bring water to stay hydrated in the line, but she forgot the bottles when we dropped them off to go park the car. I remembered to bring them thankfully because we were glad we had them. If you know Jennifer and me, you'll think this story is pretty par for the course. :-)

Next, we went to check into our hotels - Kennifer stayed at the Hilton while Tom and I opted to stay at a bed and breakfast called the East Bay Inn. Obviously, this trip was meant to be because Jennifer and I picked these places independently only to find out they were next door to each other in a great section of town! God's always looking out for us!






We found a great deal in Oglethorpe Trolley tours - you pay $20 per person for a two day pass. It starts with a 90 minute tour of Savannah to get acquainted with the layout and history of the town. We did this Friday afternoon, and it was a really good and interesting tour. Then, it includes pick up/drop off service on demand all over the city. Needless to say, we really got our money's worth out of it.

That night we went to The Lady and Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant. The food was good and mostly the same items as we had at Mrs. Wilkes. We compared each and ended up with a draw - some things were better, some weren't as good. The restaurant itself was very nice though and actually takes up 3 floors of a building - 2 for seating and one for the kitchen!

The next day, we started with a food tour called Savor Savannah by Savvy Savannah Tours. I had never heard of a food tour, but now, I will certainly look one up everywhere I go from now on! It was awesome - we walked around to six different restaurants (off the beaten tourist path) and got to sample a signature dish at each. What a neat way to experience the city! I'd have to say my favorite was this place called Low Country Gourmet - the owner makes his own balsamic vinegars and olive oils, and he infuses them with all these crazy flavors like peach, lemon, and even chocolate! You get to wander around and taste all of them - it was really neat.
 

That afternoon, we explored the city a little more. We had delicious gelato at Gelatohh (we had ice cream at the famous Leopold's the afternoon before)! We walked along the river and saw the big boats with their hundreds of containers. We saw the amazingly ornate Catholic Church. Wow.

 

Also, SCAD (the Savannah College of Art and Design) was holding a festival where all of the students got to decorate a square of sidewalk at Forsyth Park with chalk. Those people are really talented, and it was completely unbelievable that some of them were done with chalk on cement.

That night was our fancy dinner so we got gussied up and went to The Olde Pink House, right around the corner from our hotels. The food was delish and not nearly as pricey as I was expecting, and the restaurant was gorgeous.

Sunday morning, Tom and I got up early to go eat breakfast with my 90 year old great aunt and uncle who live just outside of Savannah. I hadn't seen them in 15 years, and I didn't think I remembered much about them. I was wrong. It was really neat to see them and notice how family spans the test of time and distance. We had a really nice visit, and I hope to go back and see them soon. They told us about an oak tree - one of the oldest in Savannah - in a neighborhood called Majestic Oaks that we just had to go see. The thing takes up most of a block by itself - they weren't lying - it was a sight!













We headed back to town, picked up Kennifer, and went to eat lunch at a place called Papillote, kind of a fast-food French restaurant. Fancy french pastries and sandwiches served on styrofoam plates but it worked. The food was really good, and the chocolate mousse was wonderful! After that we had to make a second trip to Low Country Gourmet before hitting the road and happened to stumble onto one stop I wanted to make that we had been unable to find - the Savannah Bee Company! I was so excited! I had read about it and all the different types of honey and how you got to taste them all - I'm so glad we found it.

We then started our trek back. It is notable that we all get along in another way - we love music. We spent most of the way there listening and singing our hearts out to Disney songs. On the way back, we each took turns picking a song (which we mostly streamed via our smart phones - what a world we live in...). I'm still singing Burn by Usher... thanks a lot, Ken.

We really had a fabulous trip, and everything that I mentioned here I would definitely recommend to anybody planning a trip! Great food, great friends, great songs, and a really fun trip. Needless to say, Jennifer and I have already made a list of top places to visit next. Stay tuned! :-)

The Daisy Chronicles!

Yes, I'm going to be one of those obnoxious people who treats and talks about my dog like she's a child and takes a million pictures of her and shows them to everyone. Deal with it :-) No, really - a puppy is so much more like a baby than I ever realized. I will show you through Daisy's life in pictures! (A lot of these are phone pictures so please bear with me)

On Wednesday, March 16th, 2011, I got a call from my mom to tell me my aunt, Kathy, wouldn't be at choir practice. I thought this was the call I had been waiting for since my cousin, Kim, was supposed to be giving birth soon. However, Kathy's absence was due to a different entrance into the world - my aunt and uncle's dog, affectionately referred to as Little Girl, gave birth to seven beautiful puppies. I LOVE puppies, and we haven't had any in the family for far too long so it was all I could do to make myself go to choir practice instead of going to see them immediately. After work the next day though, I picked Tom up and dragged him straight over there to meet them.

I just love newborn puppies - the way they fit in your hands, the way they grunt and sniff when they move around, how warm and soft they are. I was smitten to say the least. Tom being a cat person all his life (bless his heart!) was not well-acquainted with dogs of any age, but he couldn't resist the pups either. We went to see the puppies pretty regularly after that.

We had been talking about what we would do about pets - Tom wanted a cat. I wanted a dog. We had decided we would get a puppy and a kitten at the same time so that they could grow up together and get along. Since we were in the midst of building a house and had just gotten married, we decided we would wait a while so that we would be more settled and ready to care for the animals. But as usual, God's timing was totally different and totally better than ours.

(this is the night we brought her home - after a trip to Petco, trying on her collar and leash for the first time, and having her first bath, she was tuckered to say the least)

Believe it or not, Tom is actually the one that suggested we take one of the puppies. I was shocked and elated. We felt like this was a great opportunity we couldn't pass up, and I'm so glad we did. Daisy has been such a joy to both of us. We have spent hours just watching her play. Now, don't get me wrong - sometimes, I want to choke her! Like when she insists on chewing on my hands instead of her toy or how she runs from me when I try to put her in her crate, but all the while, she is so unbelievably cute, I can't stay mad at her too long.

Crazy Daisy definitely keeps things interesting for us and lives up to her nickname. I have had and known many dogs in my life, and I am well-aware that they all have their quirks and personalities. But Daisy does some of the weirdest things I've ever seen a dog do.

1. She routinely eats half her food - as in like someone drew a line straight down the middle of her bowl. If you shake it to reallocate the kernals, she'll eat half again. ???
2. She won't go in her dog house, but she likes to sit on top of it.
3. She LOVES socks - I mean, she'll root through a stack of clothes, clean or dirty, and pull out socks. She has also learned how to open my sock drawer to help herself whenever she thinks I'm not watching.
4. She LOVES napkins - as in, she'd rather eat napkins than food. True story - several times, she's gotten on the table and gone after our napkins instead of our food!
5. Lastly, she burps like a 300 pound sailor. I think she gets this from her Uncle David. At least it's cute when she does it :-)

She's also really smart, but I will cut to the pictures - I know that's what you're here for anyway!

 

 

 (also, if you spill her food, she HAS to clean it all up - she's a little OCD)

(Isn't she beautiful?)