Back in the Branch

Cheers to 2012! (And accomplishing a goal!)

2012-12-31T18:09:00.002-06:00

Unfortunately I'm not one who is too good at keeping resolutions.

But I'm proud to say I actually accomplished one of my goals. My original goal was to read 25 books this year and as of 11:30am, I have read 26 books!

Here's my list:

1- The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

2- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

3- Wonderstruck

4- Fame

5- Twelve Clean Pages

6- The Reading Promise

7- Decision Points

8- True Believer

9- 50 Shades of Grey

10- Shine

11- Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

12- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

13- Faith

14- The Other Woman

15- Into the Darkest Corner

16- Food, Girls and Other Things I Can't Have

17- When She Woke

18- The Book Thief

19- Before I Go To Sleep

20- Little Bee

21- I'd Know You Anywhere

22- What the Dead Know

23- Gone Girl

24- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

25- Ape House

26- Dark Places

http://vgoode.blogspot.com/p/2012-reads.html

Dark Places is by Gillian Flynn, the same author who wrote Gone Girl. And let me tell you, Dark Places was way better! (I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't read it so I'll just leave it at that.)

2013 is about to have a lot going on (hello, wedding!) but I'm going to go ahead and make the 25 book goal again! First up is Sharp Objects - once again by Gillian Flynn. (Obviously I'm on a kick.) So here we go!

Jewelry Board Holder

2012-10-03T14:54:00.000-05:00

When I was moving back in March I got an old cork board from my dad. It had been in his office and there were paper "stains" from where things hung for years. I had grand plans to re-craft it and use it as a jewelry board holder.

I moved. I never updated the board and just hung it so my jewelry had a place to go. Then in September Morgan came over... and some other girls. They all said it was time to update the board. And with Pinterest being so prevalent, there was no reason I couldn't come up with some crafty ideas to update it.

This past Saturday I took all the jewelry off and went over to my parents house so I could use the space and my dad's gigantic paint tarp. But it was raining. And it kept raining. So I just left it all there and went back over Sunday afternoon when it stopped raining. I set up shop in the garage and had at it.

The board before the spray paint

Rust-Oleum "Grape" was used for the metal edges

Don't wanna inhale all the spray paint fumes! :)

I decided after spraying the board to add the "V" since we had a Metallic Silver spray can laying around and the gold just looked boring and brown. And everything is better monogrammed, amIright? I cut the "V" out of a grocery sack. A stencil would've been way better but alas....

After peeling all of the paper off - The cork absorbed the paint just fine. I used Rust Oleum Metallic Gold. The darker spots are where I did some touch ups... this is where I should've done the "slow and steady" spraying instead of just pointing and spraying the touch up spots. They stayed a little darker but I figured once the jewelry was hanging, you wouldn't be able to tell so much. Live and learn, folks.

All my jewelry hanging back up in the bathroom!

Overall I'm pleased. And for my second craft project with spray paint (my first being the bike), I think it turned out just fine! I still have a lot of the Grape color left... what should I spray next?!

The Book Thief

2012-09-16T20:08:00.001-05:00

I finished an amazing book today. It's called The Book Thief by Marcus Zukas. Jonathan and I went over to his twin's house to watch the Cowboy game and my thought was, "Fantastic... I can finish my book!" (Don't get me wrong - I am a Cowboy's fan but we were going over there two hours early.)

As I was on the last few chapters I left the room to finish the book because it was starting to get awkward when I was crying in the living room and on the verge of weeping.

So instead of trying to give you a review of this book, I'll leave it to my mom since she's already written a review.

....As I was thinking about this book and why I became so emotional at the end I came to a conclusion. When I was in Peace Corps I traveled to Munich, Germany alone and took a day trip to Dachau Concentration Camp. That was emotional to say the least. I wandered the camp with my iPod and spent a lot of time reflecting about the human race and the power that we can be entrusted with.

After I left the camp I headed back to Munich and wrote in my journal for a long time. I always intended on sharing those thoughts and maybe one day I will. I've never shared my journal entries from when I was traveling/backpacking. (I spent a lot of time writing when I was traveling through Bosnia and Croatia as well.) Perhaps one day I'll get up the courage to share those thoughts.

Either way, go to my mom's blog and read about The Book Thief. Then read it yourself.

http://vickicgoode.blogspot.com/2011/04/book-thief-by-markus-zusak.html

PS. Jonathan just finished Unbroken. Another great book - you should read that one too! :)

Pinterest fail. Again.

2012-08-21T09:16:00.000-05:00

I used to think I had talent in the kitchen.

I'm starting to think otherwise.

The culprit: Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese "Breakfast Cookies"

Let me start with this is not a food that should be eaten for breakfast. It's more like a mid-afternoon pastry but to each his own. It's not like I've never eaten a cupcake for breakfast before. No judging on my part.

I had the majority of the ingredients for this sweet treat and I thought I'd give it a go. I don't really bake because I live by myself and that would be a very bad decision on my part. But I figured this was simple enough and I could bring whatever leftovers to work. The recipe was easy enough... the only things I was missing (and didn't plan on going to buy) was vanilla, cling wrap and parchment paper. I had foil and foil is a multipurpose tool.

Here's what the original pin looked like:

Oh my gosh. So cute, right? That can't be hard.

Here is what mine looked like:

Look at those corner pieces. WHAT? I guess my foil didn't wrap tight enough? And maybe I should've put more chocolate chips? And maybe I should put more effort into my food picture taking?

I let them cool for a few minutes because I thought, "Well, they're not pretty but I bet they're delicious."

FAIL.

Even Jonathan took a bite, then put it back down. It wasn't bad but it wasn't that good. This is when I thought maybe the vanilla really did count. But I gave up, realized I didn't need to eat them anyway and left them with the intention of tossing them.

BUT THEN. This morning as I was getting my lunch together for work, I decided to just take a bite. They were completely cooled... since they'd been sitting out for eight hours. And ya know what? It tasted way better. So I put them in ziploc bag and kept them instead. (Which I guess it made it a breakfast cookie for me. Oops.)

So I'd consider this a Pinterest semi-fail. How do those people's food always turn out so pretty?!

Either way, the recipe is HERE.

Good luck.

Buy Me! Buy Me!

2012-07-27T16:57:00.003-05:00

I just posted my COACH Signature Carly Handbag (Black) on eBay! It's in perfect condition and comes with the brown fabric protective pouch! It's from a smoke free/pet free home. Seriously, the condition is like new! I've started the bid at $45 so check it out... pass it on! (US Shipping Only!)

LOOK AT IT! BUY IT! CLICK HERE!

Soon to be Mrs. Navarro!

2012-07-25T16:48:00.002-05:00

Y'all.

I'm getting married.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my stars! I can't believe it!

Here is the story:

Jonathan and Valerie got engaged on July 21, 2012!

On that Saturday morning, Jonathan had told Valerie he was playing golf with his twin brother, Jeffrey. Valerie decided to go to Book Club with her mom and spent most of the afternoon with her shopping at the Galleria.

Earlier in the week, Carrie Jo had asked Valerie about going on a double date. She checked with Jonathan and he said Jeffrey and Kristi wanted to go to. They planned to go eat at Gloria's in Rockwall on Saturday night. Valerie went to Jonathan's parent's house around 6pm where they were all meeting to go. She wanted to go upstairs and freshen up. When she walked upstairs, the guys yelled something about needing to go get a table and they just left.

A few minutes later, Valerie, Carrie Jo and Kristi headed out to the restaurant. They had a great dinner and decided to head back to the house so everyone could get their cars.Kristi was dog sitting for her parents and told Valerie they needed to go let Blaze out really quick. The girls stopped by her parents house, got the tour and headed back to the Navarro's house.

Valerie walked up to the door, started to turn the handle and saw purple and white rose petals on the ground. She turned around, looked at Carrie, and kept saying "Carrie" until Carrie told her to go inside! As soon as she walked inside, Straight No Chaser's "Rhythm of Love" started playing through the house. Valerie followed the petals and spotted Jonathan outside.

She walked outside to Jonathan following rose petals and the candles that lined the pool. (There were flowers in the pool too!) He said a lot of sweet things and got down on one knee and asked Valerie to marry him! She said yes! Once they stood up, Jonathan told her that her parents were in the house and everyone came outside. (They'd been hiding and watching through a bedroom window!)
They all headed back in to the house where cupcakes, coconut cream pie and chocolate strawberries were waiting!

After celebrating with the families, Jonathan, Valerie, Carrie Jo, Brian, Jeffrey and Kristi got in their cars without telling Valerie where they were going. They started to head towards Downtown Dallas and once they exited off the highway, Valerie figured out they were going to West End Pub. (Jonathan used to live across the street from the Pub and they used to hang out there often!) When they walked in, 25 of their friends were waiting to greet them!

Jonathan did a great job planning out the proposal and keeping it a secret! Valerie had absolutely no idea it was going to happen that day! Although Jonathan did think she'd figure it out when he finally decided to get a haircut that morning! :)

Perfection!

-----

My future sister-in-law's little sister Kelli was in the backyard taking pictures! Hopefully she got some good ones! Once I get them, I'll give y'all picture overload!

Here's the clip of Straight No Chaser's "Rhythm of Love"

Y'all should love them as much as we do! <3

Photo Book

2012-07-16T15:44:00.001-05:00

It only took me ELEVEN MONTHS to do this but I finally ordered my Shutterfly book of my Backpacking Adventure! Check it out!

I've used Shutterfly and made quite a few books! I made a PC Bulgaria Year 1, PC Bulgaria Year 2, Greek vacation, Turkey vacation and Germany/England vacation! (And they always have free shipping!)

Now I introduce... Backpacking the Balkans!

Click here to view this photo book larger

You'll love Shutterfly's award-winning photo books. Try it today.

Pinterest Pie

2012-07-10T15:30:00.002-05:00

Let's start off with the last post.

Remember when I said the town I was going to for the Fourth of July started with an "E"? So wrong. It was Quitman, Texas. (That's Quitman with a "T", not Quipman. MOM.)

Anyways, I made my Firecracker Pie and it was decadent and delicious. I even managed to take a picture of it becuase I thought it was pretty. (Recipe here. I'd like to point out that Keebler's Rainbow Chip Cookies are not of the red, white and blue variety. There was a lot of orange. Oh well. I had red, white and blue sprinkles.)

Jonathan also pointed out to me that on my one year America anniversary, we'll be in NYC! That's pretty much a party in itself! Guess I'll just go to El Fenix when we get back to Dallas.

Neglect

2012-07-03T14:31:00.004-05:00

I've totally neglected this, huh?

My New Year's Resolution has half failed. I don't take pictures anymore. But I'd venture to say I'm still cooking something new every week. If not every week, it's pretty dang-on close. Example... last night I made Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes. Delish. Plus I left out the brown sugar the recipe called for so I gave myself an "A+" for that. :)

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. It just occurred to me this very second that this is my first one since 2008 to celebrate in America. I'll be celebrating in an East Texas town with Jonathan's family. (The actual name of the town escapes me right now... I think it starts with an "E"). Either way, I'll be taking a Firecracker Pie. I'm sure hoping this doesn't end up as a huge Pinterest fail. Don't let me down Pinterest!

And, um, back in May I went to Hilton Head with Carrie's family and Jonathan. The boys played a lot of golf. I spent time reading/pooling/beaching. It was great. See? This proves it.

Welp... catch y'all in a couple of months.

Maybe less because tomorrow is my 11 months America anniversary which means 04 August, 2012 is the big one year. I might have a party! :)

Slacker

2012-04-11T08:46:00.003-05:00

I've had (poorly taken) pictures on my phone for awhile and just haven't updated this thing.

I'm a slacker.

The apartment is still good and the cooking is going well! (Just not the documentation!)There's been more than just this but I'm going to need to work on my photography skills. And actually use a real camera. Whatevz.

Zucchini Pizza (via Pinterest!)

Chicken Peanut Noodles (via Better Homes and Gardens: The Ultimate Slower Cooker Book - Birthday present from Lyndsey!)

Pepperoni & Sausage pizza with Pillsbury Refrigerated dough. He was so proud of his creation! :)

Other stuff I've made that I didn't take pictures of:

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken - Oh gracious this was so good! Would be perfect for a party!

Slow Cooker Hawaiian Chicken - It was good. I'd probably do it again.

Still on the menu:

French Onion Pork Chop Skillet

King Ranch Mac & Cheese

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Maybe I'll take pictures this go round...?

iPhone Catch Up

2012-04-01T17:51:00.001-05:00

My people! I've moved! Still in The Promised Land (Dallas) but close to downtown. I can walk to the DART train! So far, so good.

Let me introduce you to the new crib...

View from the living room to the dining room. (Minus a kitchen table. I'm working on that. See those TV trays? They're working for now.)

The living room.

Bedroom! (That's a Gustav Klimt portrait above my bed. I saw the real paintings while I was in Vienna.)

Bathroom. (The corkboard will be holding my necklaces and earrings. I had a great pinterst plan to paint it and make it awesome but my dad came over today to setup my wireless and just had him hang it instead. Maybe one day.)

The apartment is awesome. Although I was sweeping the floors (it's all wood except the bedroom) and found a bunch of roly polys by the door. They were... deceased. Weird. At least it's not something worse... like cockroaches. But still, ain't no need for those things!

On the other hand, Time Warner Cable is on my list. The bad one. I wrote them a THREE PAGE letter regarding my (lack of) customer service. I will share it with all of you soon. After I send it to every email, real address, and any person I can find. (Which proves to be much more difficult than expected. You should look at their website and try to find an actual person to contact. Near impossible, my friends.)

Until further notice... every single one of you should GO OUT OF YOUR WAY to AVOID Time Warner Cable. I finally got everything setup but only because I accosted a technician I found in the apartment complex parking lot.

Non house related:

My 27th birthday was on the 26th.

I met up with a few of my favorite ACU ladies (Carrie Jo, Blair and Morgan) at Snuffer's and hung out on the patio. Love.

This pretty little ring is from my man friend. Who doesn't love beautiful jewelry?!

And just think... this was only for age 27! I've got high hopes now! :)

JLN and I at The Melting Pot. It was a birthday dinner date with Jeffrey & Kristi (his twin and wife)... forgot to get a picture of them! Good gracious that place is delicious!

Books, books, books!

2012-03-19T18:52:00.001-05:00

As y'all know, I'm moving into my own place!

AND there is a built in bookshelf in the new apartment. Obviously that means I need to start my own collection of some of the classics.

Oh yes, that is most of the Harry Potter Series, all of The Chronicles of Narnia Series and most of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Series. I bought all of the from Half Price Books and the nice salesman even gave me a 15% discount for buying so many.

I still need #4 HP and #12 Lemony Snicket's... all in hardback. I'm saving these for my future children so I can read them these classics.

What else should I get?! Any suggestions?! :)

(Sidenote: I realize I have become a terrible photographer. I have a good camera but never want to put forth the effort to take a high quality picture. *Sigh*)

On to smaller portions

2012-03-16T12:39:00.002-05:00

Two recipes down this week! But only (bad) pictures for one!

Turkey Taco Cassserole

It was a Weight Watchers recipe and I might've un-Weight Watchered it. But I was using ingredients we already had at the house. It's one I'll probably do again. Crush some chips, throw them on the bottom. Saute onion and garlic. Cook the meat. Add in salsa and taco seasoning. (And green chilies!) Pour it all on the chips, sprinkle some cheese, bake for 30 minutes at 350. Boom... it's done!

THEN I made Cashew Chicken and it was delicious as well. So high five for me. (It also gave us three extra lunches. Good thing I don't mind leftovers.)

Something I'm going to have to work on is cooking smaller portions. Since I'm finally moving out of my parents house! It's been a good eight months since coming back from Bulgaria but it was just time to try to be independent. (I told my parents they were more than welcome to buy my groceries if they wanted to stay involved! Ha!) So now my resolution will be just for me. And JLN if he shows up.

The big move day is next week! So excited!

Food

2012-03-05T13:57:00.002-06:00

I think I'm over my resolution. I'm not doing so well about posting about the food. And I always forget to take pictures until we're about to eat it.

Anyways, thanks to the great Pinterest phenomenon I made another recipe from that. If you can call it a recipe. Let's call it Salsa Chicken and it's pretty much the easiest thing ever.

You need:

- A jar of salsa (I used a 12 oz)

- Packet of enchilada seasoning

- Chicken breast (I had 4 small pieces)

Mix the salsa and seasoning in the crockpot. Toss in the chicken breast. Put the lid on, cook on low for 8 hours.

Done.

It's delicious. And you can shred it with a fork. I made that last Tuesday and we ate the leftovers yesterday (Sunday) and they still tasted good. There ya' go.

I love Crockpots.

For the sisters:

2012-02-27T19:13:00.000-06:00

As requested by the sisters...

I finally went to the eye doctor and got things checked out. Then I decided to buy some glasses. Two pairs in fact. Via Warby Parker. Have y'all ever used this site? It's pretty sweet. You can go on their website, order five different pair (without prescription) to try on for five days. Then you send them back. It costs $0.

Kinda fun.

When I got them, I meant to take pictures of all of them but that didn't happen. I did a little glasses modeling for Jonathan where he said "no" on 4/5. Whatev. It's my face. (Although two of them I definitely thought, "This looks ridiculous.")

Here's what I bought. ($95 flat for each pair. Includes, shipping, prescription, everything.)

Everyday glasses

Jonathan's response to these: "Are you trying to be a hipster?"

My mom's response to these: "I had a pair just like these in the 70's!"

Anyways, taking pictures of yourself is awkward.

So this is my face.

It's impossible to do a regular face.

Food Fail and More

2012-02-22T08:23:00.002-06:00

Week #7 of the year was a fail. That's okay though. I was kinda busy. It was V-Day, I went to a Market Research Study and I went to Abilene!

I made Stuffed Peppers on Monday so I'm good for this week. (They were really good too - I always forget how easy these are to actually make.) There were also two red ones which would've made for a better picture but those were already taken...

This past weekend I went to Abilene with Jonathan. It'd been nearly FOUR YEARS since I'd been back to ACU. I had big plans to walk around campus and check it all out but the rain had other plans. Praise God for the rain but it's high time Abilene gets some kind of drainage system installed. It was awful. But I still went to the updated Campus Center, bought a new sweatshirt and found my old mailbox. Then we walked over to the new Rec Center - GRACIOUS! That thing is fancy. I'm only about five years late. Jonathan and I got back in the car and drove to our old houses. It was so good to be back... I love that place! :)

One of the only pictures from the weekend. Oops.

And just to show y'all he did good on V-Day... He sent these to my office!

Now flashback to Christmas.... My parents gave me a sewing machine. I figured it was finally time to learn. A few weeks ago I took the machine out of the box and promptly realized I had no idea what to do or how to use it. I hit up Google and found a place called "City Craft" in Dallas that does beginner sewing lessons. I signed up and attended the class last night. So much fun! They let me bring my own machine and the teacher showed me how to set it all up. There were only six of us in the class so my constant confusion and hand raising wasn't too much of a problem!

We made a small bag in the class - in progress

Final product:

There's definitely going to be a learning curve but I'm excited about what else I can learn to make. Only time (and Pinterest) will tell...

2012-02-10T12:57:00.003-06:00

It's my lunch break right now and I'm still sitting in my office. (Because I got an office a couple of weeks ago!)

And if I don't do this now, I'm pretty sure it won't happen before the week ends.

Let's go ahead and get this out of the way:

I'm counting my Super Bowl Party cooking as my thing for the week. In no way did I make all of this. There were 20ish people there and enough of the guys brought their girlfriends so we had TONS of food. The thing on the left that's mostly gone in that old school baking dish is Pizza Dip. And I am so proud to say I did not make this... JLN did. All by himself. He didn't want my help at all. So cute.

My dish was Cookie Dough Dip. Delicious. Rich. You should probably only make it once every five years. I mean, it's not Paula Deen but it definitely uses a stick of butter.

Thank you Pinterest.

More importantly...

My Moon & Lola (large purple acrylic) Monogram Necklace came in the mail yesterday! It was worth the six weeks wait to get it. (I'd assume now it would move a little faster since it's not holiday season.) They have so much cute jewelry. And lots of custom monogrammed things! Ah, I love all things monogrammed.

Happy Weekend!

Week Five: Garlic & Brown Sugar Chicken

2012-02-06T13:47:00.000-06:00

I did week five and on time! I just didn't post it for some reason. Hm.

Anyways, I made Garlic & Brown Sugar Chicken. I found the recipe on Pinterest which took me to THIS link I read a lot of the reviews and implemented some of them such as lining the baking dish with foil. It was easy to make and pretty quick. Next time, I'd marinate the chicken for awhile with teriyaki sauce or something of the like...

The recipe as is gives it a nice glaze though. I'll definitely make (a variation) of this one again.

I realize that this is not a very appetizing picture. After JLN and I had started eating he asked, "Weren't you supposed to take a picture?!" Thus... this is it. With his iPhone. (We had mashed potatoes and sauteed squash and zucchini on the side.) The picture on the recipe website looks way better.

Speaking of Pinterest recipes, Carrie Jo hosted a Superbowl party yesterday and I made Cookie Dough Dip (Hello fat fat) and JLN made Pizza Dip. (Seriously, he made it all by himself. I was so proud. He was too. So cute.) Both are/were delicious. I brought the leftovers to work because goodness knows I don't need that stuff lurking in my refrigerator.

I feel like I'm pretty good at spelling but "refrigerator" is one of those words that always takes me two or three times to get right. I always add a "d".

Otherwise, I cut four inches off of my hair last week. And got bangs. I dig it. My new glasses have been shipped and I should be receiving them this week. Maybe there'll finally be a picture of my face.

Until then...

Week Four: Chicken Curry

2012-01-25T20:01:00.001-06:00

Week four.... and done.

Chicken Curry with Couscous and Garlic Green Beans!

I had another jar of curry from Williams-Sonoma and since we're trying to use up the food we have in the house before hitting up the grocery store again this was it!

Obviously I went real fancy here by using a premade jar of curry, microwaveable couscous (this brand is delicious!!) and canned green beans. The most laborious part was cooking the chicken before adding the curry sauce.

Finished product. It was good. And the parents both enjoyed it. I get a little nervous "making" curry since we never grew up eating Indian food and my mom doesn't do spicy so well. This one had a little bit of kick but nothing she couldn't handle!
(@Lyndsey - You could totally do this with veggies instead of chicken. One day I'll do a vegetarian recipe in honor of you... although Dad will need to get his protein somewhere!)

Tonight I went Bulgarian style and made Musaka. (No pics.) This was the first time I tried to make it since I've been back in the States. I was a little disappointed... but then I had the realization that it wasn't how I made it but that the vegetables in the Bulg have far more flavor as compared to what's available here. I kinda miss going out to the backyard to the garden and grabbing veggies there. The Bulgarians did always say they had the best produce!

And for your listening pleasure... Straight No Chaser.
This is my current jam. On repeat again and again. Love.

Oh Snap

2012-01-24T14:14:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I sent JLN an email showing him something I found on Pinterest...

This was his response....

I have no doubt that I'm an absolutely delightful girlfriend so this has never been an issue for us... :)

I had a good laugh from it. I even sent it to one of my sister's who forwarded it to her husband. He found JLN's response very wise.

(Sidenote: What's with all the quotes/saying on Pinterest? Do people print these out or just look at them whenever they're on their Pinterest account?!)

Week Three: Chicken Chipotle Soup

2012-01-19T20:50:00.003-06:00

Last night I made it to week three! Three weeks down, 49 to go!

I made Chicken & Chipotle Soup with Avocado & Lime from the Williams-Sonoma "Soup of the Day" cookbook. It was easy and pretty good. Originally I was going to do something from my Paula Deen "Southern Cooking Bible" but after the announcement of her diabetes, I decided her food probably wasn't what me (or my parents) need to be eating right now! Ha. (BTW, sorry Paula.)

Here's the book....

Here's the completed soup: topped with avocado and lime!

The soup wasn't too difficult to make although when I did my grocery shopping Tuesday night I couldn't find a mint sprig and I had no idea what kind of chile to get. There were about seven different options and there wasn't one labeled "Chipotle Chile in Adobo" sooooo I was confused. I ended up just buying a jalapeno, holding and roasting it over the gas stove, peeling and de-seeding and chopping. Worked well enough. (Plus Vic doesn't do too spicy so I wanted to make sure she could eat it!) There are chickpeas in the soup which added a nice flavor... and we even had some at the house so I didn't have to buy any.

Am I supposed to actually give the recipe on here? Does anyone care?? I guess it's easy enough to google if you want to create your own.

And just for good measure... here's an informal introduction to the man-friend:

And coming this weekend, my first book club with ladies from church. We'll be talking about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. If you click here you can find a stellar review of the book. (I found when I tried to explain it, I did it absolutely no justice!... Then you should bookmark that website.)

Yesterday I started Fame by Karen Kingsbury. I won this set of books from a blog of an old colleague (she's not old, just the job!). Check out her blog here. Thank you Sara! :)

Number of books for 2012: 2 (1 down, 1 in progress)

Week Two: Finished Early

2012-01-10T19:04:00.000-06:00

Monday night I went ahead and made my Week Two recipe: Pork Chops with Caramelized Onions.

It was good. Although I had higher ambitions to actually use the Slow Cooker but when I got home from work my mom said, "Why don't you just do those now?" So being the obliging/gracious/fantastic daughter I am, I gave her the night off. (The recipe has it for both oven and slow cooker so it wasn't an issue!)

Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Slow Cooking

(This is a fantastic cookbook, you should get it!)

The ingredients which were all on hand (Except you're supposed to use two yellow onions but I was using what was available!).

The dish.

I realize this presentation doesn't look as good as it tasted. We also had mashed potatoes and I probably should've taken the picture once I scooped the pork chop and onions onto the potatoes. Live and learn, eh?

At least I'm two for two so far.

(Tonight I made a Chicken Coconut Curry with Couscous. Williams-Sonoma sells a Coconut Curry starter - not the cheapest thing but the taste and ease of cooking is worth the cost! Dinner was pretty good if I do say so myself...)

Now, if the weather would only go back up to 65 degrees and sunny... that'd help resolution number two.

Or I could go to the gym. But I'll sit at my computer and blame my lack of exercise on the weather instead! :)

A not-so-hot start

2012-01-07T17:30:00.002-06:00

Ummm.... about this resolution... we can count Pinterest recipes too, right?

Sure, it's my resolution.

As I realized I nearly failed in my resolution during the first week, my man friend said to count what I made from a recipe via Pinterest this past Sunday. I'm gonna say Pinterest can count because who wants to have not failed the first week of a NY's Resolution?! Plus, it means I actually did something from Pinterest! (Although I don't have a picture because I had this other great plan on what I was going to do but this first week of 2012 didn't start in the most ideal way.)

Anyways, I made this. Or a version thereof.

Picture from here.

Recipe here.

Pizza Casserole!

Delicious. Mine didn't exactly look like this because the 13x9 pan is not in the house. (It got left at my aunt's at T-Give and we haven't gotten around to getting it again! Aunt Suzy, let's meet so mom or I can get this pan back!) I used another dish that made it go up instead of long. Either way. It's good.

I did make some changes to the recipe trying to do it somewhat "healthier". I used turkey pepperoni (tastes the same) and ground turkey instead of sausage. This recipe does make a lot though... I ended up eating it as lunch leftovers four out of five days this week! Even my dad and brother ate some too. I think next time (which there will most definitely be!), I can cut the recipe in half. Thank you Pinterest!

Let's see if I can make week 2....

New Year's Resolution - Starting Early!

2011-12-28T19:15:00.000-06:00

I have a New Year's Resolution.

And it's all thanks to sister the first, Lyndsey! For Christmas, she gave me two new cookbooks. "Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible" and "Milk & Cookies."

The resolution is that once a week I'm going to try out a new recipe. So I started today! Who cares that it's still 2011?! While I was working at Williams-Sonoma I bought a couple of good cookbooks ("Soup of the Day" and "Essentials of Slow Cooking") so I have plenty to check out.

(When I was living in Bulgaria, I cooked from scratch nearly every day. I miss it. I did have much more free time out there though...)

Today I made Ambrosia Chicken Salad from "Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible." It was super easy, we already had all of the ingredients on hand and everyone (myself and the 'rents) liked it. And here we are...

Ingredients: Cookbook, Lime Juice, 20oz. can of Pineapple, Mayo, Shredded Coconut, Salt, Chicken and Almonds.

Completed! I topped it off with Craisins and put it on a bed of lettuce!

One recipe down, 52 to go. Let's see how long I last.... :)

Remember that time I went to the Middle East?

2011-12-27T18:34:00.002-06:00

That one time back in October...? Over two months ago? Yes, well I finally had a day off with no commitments and am finally getting around to it.

(I wrote that yesterday. Why in the world is it taking me so long to do this?!)

Okay, so back in October my friend Spencer and I went to go visit his parents who live in Doha, Qatar. They moved there not long after I arrived in Bulgaria so they've been there since Summer '09. Spencer and I grew up together at church, went to ACU together and I love his parents so why not go visit them in the Middle East!

We drove from Dallas to Houston to catch a direct flight into Doha. Since his parents travel so much they've become friends with the Qatar Airways employees who then hooked Spencer and I up by putting us in the bulkhead seats. So much room! (Travel tip: Always ask for the bulkhead seats when you go to check in at the desk!) And the adventure begins with a 14 hour flight to Doha....

Diet Coke. Duh.

Here is where I learned my love for camels. We went on a quick camel ride with some of the Jackson's friends who also live out there. (This was after four wheeling in the sand dunes!)

Yes.

More Camels!

The Souk // The Market

Museum of Islamic Art

The Pearl (This is the development that Jerry, Spencer's dad, works at!)

The sashimi igloo platter at Magu. Who has ever seen such a display?!

My wonderful hosts! The Jackson family! The scale model behind them is of The Pearl development!

Now I'm in Dubai!

(Doha to Dubai is about a 45 minute flight.)

This is the view from the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world! It was a little sandy but some crazy views from the 124th floor!

The Dubai Aquarium... I got excited about the SHARK TANK... IN THE MALL!

At the Sky View Bar in the Burj Al Arab. Spencer became famous at this bar where a drink was created in honor of him.

View of the Burj Al Arab from Pierchic.

I had so many wonderful pictures from this trip. This is a seriously quick overview. The Jackson's were such great hosts and fantastic tour guides. It was an awesome way to experience the Middle East. I mean, who doesn't love going to the pool at The Ritz in Doha?! This was far different from my other travels... where I couchsurfed, ate as cheap as I could and wandered around. I like this kind of traveling too! :)

The flight home was another... adventure... It took 16 hours, Spencer was sick and the altitude just about did him in! We had our own rows but on the way there we both fell asleep and slept through the whole trip. On the way back... not so much. Then we arrived in Houston, jumped straight in the truck and drove back to Dallas. It was a LONG day to say the least!

If you want to look at pictures, you can check them out HERE.

I realize I didn't write too much about the actual trip... kinda hard to do so many months after it happened.

But know this...

It was awesome.

You should go.