Falling for Fall

We've survived the summer and all of it's wedding madness and have been so happy to feel our lives slowing to something comfortable and simple. I have been reveling in the quiet nights of reading and warm baths, rather than hot gluing my fingers to various DIY wedding projects. The wedding, in spite of the stress that accompanied it, was completely and totally perfect. It was a beautiful late summer day, sunny and warm, and by far the most joyful day of my life so far. The wedding took place at a local winery on the last weekend before their harvest so the grapes were in beautiful form, hanging full and heavy on the vines. I was a tangled ball of nerves in the bridal suite, bordering on panic in the minutes before I made my debut down the aisle. Thank goodness for the love and light that my friends and family surrounded me with that day. I could never thank our amazing parents and other family members, as well as all of our dearest friends, and our fabulous coordinator and friend Quinn for all that they did to make that day flawless for us!

 Bryson and Tricia

Steve and Meg

Lizz, Haley, Janice, Kristine and Jessie - Best bridesmaids EVER.

My wonderful bridesmaids held my hands, helped me breathe and then turned up the music for an impromptu dance party to shake out all the nerves before I took the walk. One of the moments I remember most clearly about the wedding is when I made it to the beginning of the aisle with my dad. I was certain I'd faint and was shaking like a leaf, gripping his arm and my bouquet for dear life. Suddenly, I looked up and my eyes locked with John's. He smiled, I smiled and in that silent language that only the closest of lovers and friends speak, I felt love and peace in every fiber of my being. Walking towards him, I became suddenly calm and felt only joy. Saying my vows to him was by far the most fulfilling experience I have ever had. Even now, just over three weeks married, I'm still reeling from the gravity of those moments.

You may kiss the bride.

Next came Mexico. We spent a sunny and very humid 7 days in Mexico for our honeymoon. It was simply gorgeous and very romantic. We ate the best Mexican food I've ever had, wandered on the beach, played in the waves and took in some sight-seeing. In spite of a mild illness that we both succumbed to during the last 2-3 days of our trip, it was still a beautiful week that we'll never forget.

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away....

The decision to have an all-out wedding and honeymoon is a decision that we will never regret. We will remember it for the rest of our lives and being surrounded by so much love and support as we got married was an amazing experience. After 16 months of planning and stress, it feels great to be starting a new chapter...

Isn't there just something about the fall? I've been thinking for days of the words that could describe the feelings that fall inspires, but I'm coming up short. Alas, I'll muddle through and do my best.

Here in Boise, fall is in full swing. Jack Frost made his first visit to us earlier this week and has continued each morning since, and the leaves are turning to that quintessential fall-golden color. The air has a bite to it and my sweaters have awakened from a long summer's nap. Fall always makes me want to drink something hot, eat soup, take long walks and buy school supplies. School supply shopping, I'm sure, will take on a new meaning for me once I have children, but for now it's a memory of new beginnings - clean lined paper full of possibilities and the smell of freshly sharpened pencils. Does anyone still use real pencils? The kind that require the sharpener? For that matter, I wonder if pencil sharpeners still exist. The kind with the hand crank on the side. I wonder if my children will ever know the impossible infuriation that ensues when the lead breaks off of your pencil in the sharpener. I can only hope. These are the things I think about...

But I digress.

I woke up today inspired by a heart full of fall, so I decided to do what I always do when I feel inspired. Write... and bake. Baking is one of my all time favorite things no matter the season, but in fall and winter especially. As my husband slept before his long night shift tonight, the house was quiet and I had time to myself to pop in a good movie (You've Got Mail, my go-to fall movie) and preheat the oven. First stop: my famous chocolate chip cookies. The recipe and it's secrets are carefully guarded, although  I'm asked on a regular basis. Out of sheer, cookie-induced bliss, even my husband has asked me what my secret is to which my response is always, "Love, of course!" While I won't be releasing this particular recipe, I'll give you a photo! The recipe makes a big batch of even bigger cookies and soaks my house in that fresh-baked scent. *sniffs* Mmmmmm.... :)

Sorry, but these are not scratch-and-sniff photos! :) 

Today, as with most fall days, is the perfect day for something warm and hearty to fill our tummies, the stick-to-your-ribs, down home comfort food. Today's warm-and-hearty fix will come from a husband favorite, my ham and potato chowder, accompanied by a new recipe - homemade jalapeno cheddar bread! The chowder also comes out in a huge batch, which is perfect for hubby to take to work all week long. Add the cheesy zing of the bread and you've got yourself a winning combination.

We're newly-weds on a budget, so I use a soup mix to get my chowder started. I prefer Bear Creek. They're a high-quality soup line and are really delicious. I don't have precise proportions for this recipe, I just go by taste and instinct, so do what you prefer. Start with some diced potato and onion, along with some sliced celery (I used three medium-smallish Idaho russet potatoes, one medium yellow onion and three stalks of celery). Boil them until they're just under cooked.

Transfer them to a dish and cover. Prepare the soup as directed on the package. Heat the soup as directed, stirring occasionally. In the meantime, prepare your ham. I get mine at the deli at my grocery store - two 3/4" thick slices of black forest ham. I remove the tough outer edge and then dice the meat in comparable size to the potatoes.

Finally, add the cooked vegetables that you set aside, the ham, a small can of sweet corn and some frozen peas and carrots. You could always boil fresh carrots when you boil the potatoes, onions and celery, and sometimes I do, but this time I happened to have a bag of frozen peas and carrots in the freezer, so I decided to use it up (I used about 1/3-1/2 of a standard sized bag). Cook until heated through and vegetables are cooked to your liking, stirring occasionally, and season with salt, pepper, a touch of lemon pepper and a touch of garlic salt to taste. Add another cup or two of water or milk (I used 1 c. of milk) if it seems too thick.

Done! Delicious and relatively little work involved. It makes a huge batch so be prepared for that. In my single days, I would keep some for myself and then take containers of it to friends to warm their fall as well.

Then comes the bread.... Mmmm! Warm, spicy, cheesy, fresh-baked love in a loaf pan. That is what this bread is. I found this recipe on Pinterest (what would I do without Pinterest?). The recipe itself originates from the blog Homemade by Holman, and when I saw it I knew immediately that I had to make it with my chowder. Many thanks to the Holman blogger for sharing this recipe with the world! I agree that it's too good not to share!

First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 8"x4" loaf pan. In a large bowl, combine 2 c. flour, 2 tsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper and 1 c. grated cheddar cheese (I used closer to 1 1/4 c. of cheese).

 Loving the color contrast between the green bell peppers and the roasted red peppers. 

Mix it together and make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together 1 egg, 1 c. milk and 1/3 c. oil. Pour the mixture into the well in the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add 1/2 c, diced green bell pepper, 1/2 c. diced roasted red pepper and 3 diced jalapenos (no seeds - I used half  of a 4 oz. can of jalapenos). Mix until just combined. The batter will be lumpy, so don't worry about that. Pour it all into the loaf pan and bake that baby for 45 minutes or until golden and the top springs back when lightly pressed. Let it cool for about 10 minutes in the pan and then remove from pan by turning it upside down with a plate and cool completely. This bread smelled divine while baking, was dense and moist inside and cut easily - all things that are important to me in a quick bread! Not to mention, it was simply lovely! The colors from the peppers and the cheese made the bread look so festive! It would be a great bread to gift, especially for the holidays.

The perfect way to warm up on this chilly fall day!

What a wonderful day of fall baking and cooking! Next on my fall baking list are Banana Pumpkin Muffins, Gooey Butter Cream Cheese Cookies and whatever else catches my whim. Care to join me? Stay tuned!

Oh wait... my blog!

I should be banned from the blog universe for my prolonged absence from my own. Simply unacceptable. Months....MONTHS have passed since my last post. Shame on me [slaps own wrist]. Bad girl, bad!

While I'm not making excuses, this absence is evidence of how ridiculously busy I've been this year.

Work has me going off the deep end... the right side of my brain (Q, as I believe I've referred to her before) found another job. Wonderful for her, no doubt about that. I'm ridiculously happy for her, and only a smidgen jealous. ;) Anticipating the fallout from her leave, I decided to fill her position and my own myself. Well...as the saying goes, you can't ride two horses with one ass. And it's so true. I'm buried, and it feels as unpleasant as it sounds. It's a sick kind of self-sacrifice for a company that I basically loath. My inner over-achieving perfectionist will not allow me to get off of the horse....err....horses. It's all I can do to keep up.

The rest of my time has been dedicated to the wedding. My anxiety is increasing in general, peppered with sharp spikes of panic that make me feel as if I'm completely out of control and as if I haven't spent the past 14 months planning and organizing. Last week I met with Miss Q, who just so happens to also be our wedding coordinator. We scoured our to-do lists, making notes and hashing out details and responsibilities. In the conclusion of this conversation, Q set her pen down and said, "We really don't have anything to do! We're basically done!" This was a sentence I couldn't relate to on any level. But in truth, we really are basically done. Caterer: check. DJ: check. Photography: check. Cake: check. Rentals: check. Dress: check. Tuxedos: check. Bridal parties: check. Check check check check check check check. My life is covered in check marks. Really all we have left to do is pick music, make favors, finish making decorations and write our vows.

I'm deeply troubled by my vows. Actually...scratch that. I'm deeply troubled by my LACK of vows and all things vow-writing ability. I've tried and tried and there's nothing to show for it. How on Earth and I supposed to fit into ONE measly little minute all that I vow and feel for my beloved? How does anyone do that?? I want it to be funny but serious. Sweet but real. I only get to say this once. I want to say it right. I suppose one way or another, once I'm standing up there, I'll have to say something. I mean...something will come out... won't it?? Unless I freeze...no, no, no... I can't even think of that.

I'm just holding my breath for Mexico. I think of it every day. The warmth, the sun, the waves, the sand, the complete and utter lack of cell phone reception. I am going to spend every single day relishing in the peace, quiet and love. I'm going to stare at my handsome new husband and soak up the silence inside my head in the space that was so recently inhabited by flowers, toasts and up-do's. I'm going to come back from Mexico, blissfully in love and ready for an olympian dive into the holiday season.

One way or another, I'm telling myself, as is everyone else around me who has to deal with my incoherent wedding babbling, that I'll survive. As much as it sounds like I'm drowning in this process, I really am enjoying every piece of it. Even in all this stress, I know that it is an experience that I will never forget. I am grateful for all of the people who are making this experience possible. Even in the stress of it all, I am loving it. It really is something I've always dreamed of...and something I'm only planning on doing once.

For now, I'm soothing my soul by staying up far past my bedtime with one one of my favorite movies of all time... You've Got Mail. :)

Visit our new website!!

One more thing...

One of my brilliant bridesmaids, L, volunteered to manage our wedding website and got it up and running!! Be sure to stop by, read our story, check out our photo album and sign our guest book!!

http://johnandbrianna.ourwedding.com

Love,

B

Welcome 2012!!

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! I feel kind of bad about that... but I've been so hectic lately that I find it also reasonable. When we last left each other, I was talking about getting ready for Christmas and holiday baking was in full swing. I have much to catch up on, so let's start from the beginning, shall we?

The baking of what seemed like hundreds of sweet treats went fabulously. The first were Buckeyes. Weeks ago one of my best friends in the world, H, had declared jokingly that all she wanted for Christmas were Buckeyes. I had no idea what they were, so I turned to Google, who taught me that Buckeyes are confections made to resemble the state nut of Ohio. I didn't even know Ohio had a state nut! Of all the random pieces of information...
Anyway... I was determined to deliver on this request, however random it may have been... I located a recipe and got started! They turned out beautifully. They're most definitely not diet friendly, as they're made from peanut butter, powdered sugar and melted chocolate, but I pretended not to realize that as I "taste tested" half a dozen... What??? It's the holidays!! Everyone knows that diets fly south for the winter during the holidays... it's common knowledge. Back to the Buckeyes... here they are:

After combining the peanut butter and powdered sugar and forming into balls, you let them chill and then dip them in melted chocolate. For this, I poked a toothpick into each one to make the chocolate-dipping easier. Simply fabulous. H was so excited to open a box full of these little babies! Next came fudge for my dad! This recipe is something that I can't share. It's been in the family for generations and I have yet to find a fudge recipe that I enjoy more... My dad loves this fudge and I immediately knew that it needed to be a part of his gifts because he wasn't able to visit family for the holidays... so I figured I'd send some family tradition to him! 

Ooey gooey chocolate-y goodness abounds... my mouth waters to think of it!! It was my first time making the fudge without my mom's assistance and I was thrilled when it came out exactly like it was supposed to!! I'll get the hang of this cooking thing, I swear!! My final piece of holiday baking was a batch of cookies...but not just any cookies. Peanut butter button cookies. That's right... also known as edible adorableness. They were SO SIMPLE!! All it took was a package of peanut butter cookie mix, prepared as directed but not baked, straws cut into pieces and the lid of a Coke bottle - washed (20 ounce, 1 liter or 2 liter will be fine)...

Roll the peanut butter dough into 1-inch balls and bake as directed, but do not flatten with the tines of a fork, as you would normally. Simply bake. Once they're out of the oven, use the bottle cap to make a shallow impression in the cookie, so that they look like this: 

Finally, use the pieces of straws to poke four holes in the impression you made, and they come out looking like this....

See?? Adorable!! They were such a hit with friends that received them as a gift. I'll definitely be repeating these next year. 

My final Christmas project did not involve baking, but it was most definitely jolly. I decided to make candy-cane flavored vodka. Seems like it would be sweet and minty, just like the candy, right? Not so much. It was not sweet, but it was still good. It was what I later referred to as "put-hair-on-your-a**" strong. However, I was later told by one of the five recipients that it was delicious when mixed with Dr. Pepper. It couldn't have been simpler to make. I bought pint canning jars 50% off at Hobby Lobby, so they ended up costing me about $.50 each. Then I purchased some inexpensive vodka and hit up the dollar store for old fashioned peppermint sticks. I chopped up the peppermint sticks into 1/2 inch to 1 inch lengths and put about 1 cup of these in each jar. Then I filled each jar with vodka and let them stew for a couple of days. The vodka turned stop-light red, which I thought was a fantastic touch. I designed custom labels and printed them, and then matted the printed paper on two styles of scrapbooking paper. I tied the jars into Christmas-themed cellophane candy bags from the dollar store with dollar store curling ribbon. I tied a couple of mini candy canes on along with the tag, and voila!! You have "Reindeer Fuel"!! 

Before we knew it, Christmas was here...we managed to get our tree up and completely decorated close to the last minute (we seem to procrastinate at this Christmas-tree thing...) but the tree looked great. We bought a new one this year, 7.5 feet and pre-lit with multi-colored lights. Last year we had one that was 6.5 feet and pre-lit with white lights. It was pretty, but it just didn't have that normal Christmas-y feel, as we were both raised with multi-colored lights. I didn't think that something like that could make that big of a different in the festivity of the house, but it really can...

We also managed to get the front of the house decorated for Christmas... Icicle lights hung from the gutters, white lights were in the windows, light-up snowmen were in the yard, along with 3-foot high candy canes...

However, as you can see, we didn't have any snow. In fact, we didn't have any snow until this week... but we'll get to that later.

Our next fun holiday activity was to go to Winter Garden-A-Glow at the Boise Botanical Gardens. Every year, the Botanical Gardens take advantage of the barren branches by decorating with Christmas lights. While this may sound like a simple concept, people come from miles around - literally - to see this display. They have a Santa and an actual reindeer. They also have, as I discovered this year, the best hot chocolate in Boise... well, the best hot chocolate that I've ever had. It was especially beautiful this year because the gardens were using new lights that were LED....stunning.

See? I told you so.

Next came Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with J's mom, stepdad and brother. It was very low key, but very nice. J, unfortunately, had to go back to the night shift on Christmas Day, so I found my way into Eagle to visit a bridesmaid and her family. Luckily, I have an extensive support system here. I was honestly concerned about spending Christmas alone, because it's such a big deal in my family, but I made it through just fine. :) I'm lucky to be blessed with such great friends. It was nice to be able to relax on a holiday that is usually very stressful and busy... while J was at work, the rest of our family headed to bed at a very reasonable time, even the cat...

To wrap up the holidays, we drove to Idaho Falls to see my mom for New Years to celebrate our Christmas with her late. It was so great to spend a whole weekend lounging around her comfy home, watching friends and visiting. No matter what I do, I never leave her place feeling like I got enough time with her. I wish that we lived closer together. We finished out the weekend by driving home through Arco, stopping in to see my grandparents on our way through. I was so happy that we got to spend time with so much family in one week!!!

The weekend following New Years was the weekend of The Boise Wedding Show. I went with my friend and coordinator, Q, and a friend of hers. We had a blast!! I signed up for every possible raffle, and visited more vendors than I can remember. It was a great way to jump-start myself back into wedding planning for the year now that the holidays are finally over. I even came away from the day with some winnings!! One of my favorite vendors at the show was a stationery company called Dear Ampersand. They were handing out coupons for 20% off of a wedding stationery purchase by February, and were also advertising a giveaway they were doing on their Facebook page. I entered the Facebook contest and won an additional $50 off of my purchase! It made deciding who was going to do our wedding invitations a piece of cake!! :) One less thing to research!! I also came away from that day with 10% off of wedding flowers from J. Michaels Florist! My next step to utilizing that discount will be scheduling a consultation within the next couple of weeks. I'm admittedly clueless when it comes to flowers. I don't know the names and I don't know what I want, so hopefully the consultation will provide me with a bit of clarity.

The past couple of weeks have not been any calmer than the holidays were, unfortunately. We've been going full-steam ahead on wedding planning. Our Save-the-Dates will be finished this weekend and in the mail next week - I'll be sure to post pictures!! We began researching DJs and made a visit to the event rental company we'll be getting the rest of our tables, chairs and linens from. Last weekend, I returned to Arco to meet with my mom, grandma, brother, grandpa and great-grandma to celebrate my great-grandma's 89th birthday!! She's had such a fascinating life, and I think that I'll write a blog on her next... she's one of my heroes. I came back to Boise early Sunday afternoon to meet with three of my bridesmaids as they were being sized for their dresses. Here are the girls that had their dresses sized, obviously not at a dress fitting here, they're sipping margaritas a couple of days prior... 

They looked so beautiful in the dress styles and I can't wait to see them all matching and looking gorgeous on J and I's wedding day!!! Afterwards, I had four of my bridesmaids over for appetizers, wine and wedding-chatting as we watched Bridesmaids - such a hilarious movie!!!

And finally, we got snow!!!

It should be noted about the photo above that I am not taking a picture while driving in that weather. I was stopped at that light behind that car, and the light turned green precisely when I took the photo... what timing I have!!! Everyone who has seen that picture has said "You probably shouldn't have been playing with your camera while driving in weather like that!!!" You don't say!! What an idea. :) Living in Idaho Falls taught me better than that. The most dangerous part about driving in weather like this in Boise is the other drivers. In Boise, on the day of the first big snow dump, everyone realizes that they've forgotten how to drive in the snow and everything slows to 15mph. People run stop signs, intersections and red lights left and right because they're terrified of the brake pedal. But once they're stopped, they spin out of control because they can't get their foot out of the gas. Idaho residents like to pride themselves on their involvement in the great outdoors, but in my opinion, you can't consider yourself a true Idaho driver until you can drive safely and courteously in the snow.

Unfortunately for the snow-lovers like myself, it rained for over 24 hours straight after the snow stopped. Almost all of the snow is gone, and what's left has a dirty tint to it, hinting at the slush it will shortly become. My work week is coming to an end tonight, and I spent the evening with my wonderful bridesmaid, H, having dinner at Red Robin. After dinner, amongst our chatter, H decided that my engagement ring looked like a crown and determined that the best way to exemplify this was to make a little person out of her thumb to wear said crown...

Every day brings something new, in my world. That's one of the things that makes it so wonderful! :)

It's getting late now, so I'll be adding more soon. Hope you all had as magical of a holiday season as we enjoyed, and are enjoying the beginning of this new, beautiful year. 

<3

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like....November??

Hello, everyone!! Hope your holidays are going well... Ours have been going beautifully. This may be a lengthy update, but that's mostly because this is the first time that I've found a moment to update the blog in weeks...

Thanksgiving went wonderfully!! For being my first hosted major holiday, I don't think I did too badly. My future mother-in-law lent me her turkey roaster, which made things much easier by freeing up my oven for all the other cooking we did. Everything turned out deliciously!! It was so nice to have my mom, brother and grandparents here! Mom and Grandma were super helpful to me. I made it through the entire holiday and only cried once. Given that I'm the girl that cries at pretty much everything, I think that's a huge success. I would love to post pictures of the food we made and of the family, but I managed to lose my phone while grocery shopping a couple of weeks ago (go me!) and I lost all of my pictures.

The thing that seems to be on everyone's mind is snow. We haven't had any this year, which is very unusual for this area!! Normally, Boise gets about 1.55" of precipitation in December. So far, we've had zip! Nada! Nothing!! Needless to say, being the avid snowmobiler that J is, he's more than a little disappointed. By now, I've completely given up hope for a 'white Christmas'. I may be the only one who feels this way, but Christmas just doesn't feel the same without snow... However, our Christmas decorations are cheering me up and keeping me in the festive mood. We ran icicle lights around the gutters of our home - and when I say "we", I mean that J did it while I stood on the yard under him and passed up the strings of lights. We managed to pick the windiest day of winter to do this, and were chilled to the bone by the time we finished. J bought me a string of little snowmen that are on stakes for our yard. They light up and are completely precious. We bought a new Christmas tree this year! It's 7.5', pre-lit with multi-colored lights and already has a random spattering of family Christmas ornaments, ornaments we bought this year and red and gold balls in matte and glitter. It's definitely festive. I've been working steadily on my homemade Christmas presents and baking, and things have been coming along beautifully. I started out with chocolate holiday bark in three varieties, thanks largely to my mom. When she was here for Thanksgiving, we took some mom-daughter time to go shopping and make some sweet treats. She came up with the idea for and helped my set up my Christmas centerpiece - a small Christmas tree, pre-lit with clear lights and red and sliver ornaments. She also helped me pick more Christmas lawn ornaments - large plastic, swirly candy canes!! So adorable!! She also taught me to make bark and all I can do is wish that I'd known how to make it sooner!! So simple! We made white chocolate with cran-cherries, dark chocolate with cran-cherries and chopped almonds and peppermint bark. Sooo yummy!! I decided these barks (is that the right way to say that??) would be perfect in the boxes of Christmas treats I make for friends each year. In addition to this candy, I made two types of cookies and another candy... The first cookie I made was candy-cane sugar cookies. Basically a simple sugar cookie with a 1/2 cup of crushed candy cane mixed in, pressed with fork tines as you would with peanut butter cookies... Here's before and after baking photos:

 Recipe courtesy of RecipeGirl

They are very yummy and light. The interesting thing with these, which I could have anticipated if I'd thought of it, was what would happen to the bigger bits of candy cane after spending 10 minutes in a 375 degree oven... It came out in the consistency of taffy and rapidly hardened. It didn't make a difference in the end to the quality of cookies, but I ended up having to break strings of candy cane-flavored strings off of the cookies from when I transferred them from the baking sheet to the cooling rack. The second variety of cookies I baked for the boxes was a basic chocolate spritz drizzled with white chocolate. I love spritz cookies, regardless of the time of the year!! Last year I treated myself to a cookie press and I was instantly in love. It's a fun and easy way to get cookies into interesting shapes that you wouldn't be able to achieve otherwise. Spritz cookies are, as I like to describe them, dumbed-down sugar cookies. They're not as sweet as sugar cookies, but the recipe is very basic, made with things that you have normally in your pantry. In fact, I wasn't planning on these cookies until I realized that I needed a little something else in the boxes and realized I had the stuff in the pantry for them... They turned out beautifully and taste like Oreos!! I'll definitely be making these again...very festive!! I've officially dubbed them "zebra cookies". You can see why...

For my second type of candy, I opted for an easy one that my family usually makes around Christmas... cinnamon Santas' dipped in white chocolate. I added sprinkles of red sugar for fun. I found both the white chocolate and the candies in the bulk section at my local grocery store, which saved me a ton. They always turn out so adorable... :)

As you can see, it's not hard to make a LOT of these little guys... A good go-to Christmas candy for gifts, that's for sure.

My next cooking project that I took on was more on the savory side. I love keeping easy breakfast items around the house, and in the winter time cereal doesn't always cut it. I much prefer a warm breakfast (specifically the kind that doesn't require dirtying dishes). Normally I make breakfast sandwiches using english muffins, eggs, cheese and sausage, but I was getting a little bored with it. I remembered that my mom and grandma used to make breakfast burritos for my dad, grandpa and the rest of the family for our family trips to the cabin for hunting in the winter time. Everyone always loved them and they seemed so easy!! I used 1 pound of ground breakfast sausage, one yellow onion, one green bell pepper, 12 eggs, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 lbs of Golden Yukon potatoes, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, spices and seasoned salt, about 2 cups of cheddar cheese and 22 burrito-sized flour tortillas. I combined the eggs and milk in a shallow pan, cooking until the eggs were scrambled. In the meantime, I diced the potatoes into 1"x1" cubes and tossed with the oil, spices and salt. Then I browned the sausage, adding the onion and green pepper when it was almost done. While that was cooking, I roasted the potatoes in an aluminum-lined cookie sheet at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring once during cooking. When that the cooking was done, I put a little of the sausage mixture, eggs, potatoes and cheese in each tortilla and folded it like a burrito. Here's a picture of all of my yummy ingredients (minus the cheese and tortillas):

Once all of the burritos were wrapped up, I wrapped them in plastic wrap and then wrapped them again in Press-and-Seal (which is amazing, if you've never used it), and then threw them all in the freezer! Just 1 minute and 45 seconds in the microwave in the morning gives me a warm breakfast that I can eat on the way to work! I even had ingredients leftover to make a couple that were vegetarian! They were just as delicious as the ones that have meat, which is a nice option to have if you're like me and dabble in vegetarian meals now and again. This recipe is so versatile!! You could add all kinds of veggies, or play with different kinds of meats. It would be great with spicy sausage or bacon! However, BE WARNED: this recipe makes a lot of food! 22 burritos may not seem like a huge amount, but the burritos are actually good-sized. This was also very cost-effective! I would definitely encourage you to try it... I know I'll be doing it again for sure!

That brings us basically up to last week! I would love to post pictures of the Christmas gifts I've been making, but I don't want to spoil any surprises for anyone! I'll be posting more pictures after Christmas. Last week/this weekend has been an awesome intro for Christmas... I spend Wednesday night volunteering at Winter Garden-a-Glow for the Idaho Botanical Gardens here in Boise. I was working in a kiosk selling admission tickets to visitors and had a fabulous time seeing so many people come out to enjoy a beautiful place in our community! There were so many little kids coming to the gardens that night, and it was so fun to see them so excited, huddling with their parents in the cold and racing towards the beautiful light displays. Take a look at what the gardens have offer this year by clicking HERE. Simply beautiful. J, his mom, his step-dad, his brother and I will be visiting the gardens this Thursday and I'm so excited to see all of the LED light installations that are new this year! Thursday night we headed over to J's mom's house to help her assemble cookie trays that she gives out to her friends. I've never seen anyone own Christmas like she does! She makes somewhere in the neighborhood of 32 varieties of Christmas cookies each year, which explains why she asked us to help her put them all into trays. It was a great time just laughing and spending time in the kitchen. I always enjoy spending time with his family. Friday night we headed to the home of a long-time friend of mine to celebrate her graduation from Boise State University!! I'm so proud of her so it was nice to gather with her other friends and family and congratulate her on this huge achievement. Saturday night we headed back to J's mom's house for her Christmas party. About 80 people stopped by as we ate off of her huge buffet of appetizers and cookies, sipped our wine and cocktails and signed up for the door prizes she had waiting under the enormous Christmas tree. It was a really great time! And finally, today, J and I took the time to relax together. We slept in and then napped on the couches in front of the TV before he had to head off to work. As he got ready for work, I whipped him up some yummy stuff to take to work with him. Firstly, I made Chocolate cupcakes with Peppermint frosting. I had found this Pillsbury frosting at the grocery store last week (it was the last container of it!) and I simply couldn't leave without it. I already had a boxed milk chocolate cake mix in my pantry that I was trying to get rid of, as well as a half-empty box of candy canes... That resulted in these little babies:

I got about 20 cupcakes out of the batch. I topped them with the white, peppermint-flavored icing. The icing tasted differently than I was expecting. It's more of a vanilla-with-a-hint-of-peppermint than outright peppermint. I finely crushed the candy canes by putting them in a Ziploc sandwich bag, putting the bag between two pieces of aluminum foil and using my wooden rolling pin to smash them to bits!! It was pretty fun. :) Next I added about a tablespoon of red sugar to the crushed candy canes and sprinkled this mixture over the frosted cupcakes. They were delicious! The peppermint is definitely the commanding flavor in these - the chocolate is more of an afterthought. For dinner, I whipped up my mom's amazing oven-fried chicken, as well as some mashed potatoes, brown gravy (my favorite!) and buttermilk biscuits!! Needless to say, it's been a great day for cooking! Hopefully my culinary luck will continue through the end of the holidays!

That's all the updating I have time for now, but I hope you all have a very beautiful Christmas and a joyful New Years!!

The Big Picture...

Tonight, while unwinding after a long and hectic day, I sat on the couch surfing around the internet, a common evening activity for me. I ended up on the MSN homepage after logging out of my email account. I saw an ad for an article updating the status of the woman who was attacked by a chimp in 2009. I remembered her story and decided to read the article. The article turned out to be a video of an interview with the woman, whose name is Charla. She is completely blind, but has been fitted with prosthetic eyes, and has recently been given a face transplant. I didn't know such a thing was possible! She had lost her face during the attack, and has been living without one since then, forcing her to wear a veil when she goes in public so as to not frighten people who see her. I can't imagine that kind of emotional pain and torture. She also lost her hands in the attack. During the face transplant, they also conducted a hand transplant to give her hands, but the new hands lost circulation and had to be removed just days after the surgery. It was related in the video that shortly after her surgery, she was walking down the street and a little girl came up to her and said "hello". She related that it was then that she realized that she wasn't scaring people anymore with her face. She said that there aren't enough words for her to express her gratitude for the family of the face donor. Due to her blindness, she stated that she has no concept of her face, and can't feel certain parts of it even when touched due to nerve damage. But she stated that since her face transplant, people have told her that she was beautiful, and that she'd never been told that before. Her doctors say that she won't resemble the woman whose face she received, and that the skin of the face will conform to her bone structure to create a totally new face.

By the end of the video, I was fighting back tears. It seems extremely appropriate that I would see this video during the week of Thanksgiving. More often than I would like, I find myself stressing out about small things, wishing I had more of one certain thing or another, or nit-picking at small things that are absolutely insignificant in the bigger picture. While I make sure that I never take my life or my blessings for granted, I have my moments of short-sightedness. This video was an extremely effective reminder of just how blessed my life truly is. Aside from the physical things I have in my life, I can honestly say that my life is very, very full of love. Not a day goes by that I do not feel loved, appreciated or supported. How many others can say that? How many others can say that they feel happy every single day? I won't pretend that I feel happy all day every day, but I definitely feel happy on a daily basis. More than any other thing in my life, I am thankful for the people in my life that make it as beautiful as it is... my amazing mom, my ever-supportive and loving dad, my awesome brother and grandparents, my truly sweet and loving future-family-in-law, my incredible friends, and of course, my too-wonderful-for-words fiance. I have more things to be thankful for on this coming day of thanks than I could begin to list... and that is absolutely something to be thankful for.

My advice for each of you this week: Count your blessings. Seriously. I know that sounds totally cliche, but do yourself a favor and do it. Take 10 quiet minutes to yourself and think about the things in your life that you are lucky to have or that make you happy. I guarantee, no amount of turkey, Black Friday savings or pie can come close to the head change it gives!! Trust me!! I know as well as anyone the kind of pressures, stresses and emotions that the holidays can bring, but lets all agree to try to keep things in perspective this year - I would be willing to bet that no matter what you're during these holidays, someone else out there would count you pretty damn lucky!! Let's try to remember that!! It's what really matters, after all.

Watch the above-mentioned, completely inspiring video HERE. 

I've Got a Fever...

...and no, it's not the temperature kind. It's the kind of fever related to small, pink, delicate, adorable things with two legs, two arms, booties and the inability to express themselves through words. We're talking babies, people.

That's right!! BABY. FEVER. That's me. Guilty as charged.

I know, I know. I'm not the first to sing this tune. I also know that I have no idea of the real ramifications of having a baby. I'm not saying I want to have a baby now. I'm just saying that recent events have my mind choosing nursery colors. Last weekend, a couple that J and I are friends with got married. They have been together for years and have two beautiful daughters together, the youngest of whom is just a couple of months old. Due to a mis-communication between J and the groom, we arrived at the reception an hour early. The bride happened to be at the reception site and invited us to come wait at their house while they got ready for the reception (they had been married earlier in the day by civil ceremony). When we arrived at their house, the groom and J wandered off, lost in man-talk, and I offered to help the bride get ready (getting ready for your wedding reception while watching after two little ones sounded like a daunting task). I ended up being assigned to baby duty, and sat on the couch with the little one in my arms, watching her fight off sleep while she drank a bottle of formula. My heart fluttered as I thought about eventually doing the same thing with J and I's baby...someday.

Fast forward to today, I arrive at work late (which I will explain momentarily) and see that a client has brought in her infant daughter with her. She is beautiful as can be, sitting on the floor playing with a pillow that has a mirror-ish piece of plastic in it. She seems entranced by her reflection, big blue eyes watching big blue eyes. Against my better judgement (I know fully well how quickly I get baby fever when I'm around babies), I put down my things and sit on the floor with her, indulging in some baby-talk and making funny faces. She was eventually scooped up by mommy, off to her appointment, and I could only walk back to my office and sit quietly as the waves of baby fever washed over me.

Again, I'll say that I have absolutely no intention of having a baby any time soon. I definitely want to be married for at least some measurable amount of time before J and I have the baby talk in any degree of seriousness (we've had the baby talk before, but it was always in the "someday" tense). But I simply can't help it. It's like gravity - a force of nature. J knows all about my tendencies with baby fever and is always very patient with me for it. He doesn't pretend to understand how I feel, but he lets me feel what I need to feel and talk about it if I want to. Mostly situations like this make me think about when it will happen. My mother always says, "There's never a 'good' time to have a baby... It will never be convenient."  I agree. I know I'll never be as emotionally, mentally and physically prepared to get pregnant and have a baby as I will wish I was about 3 nights into a sleepless week, but I do think I can still prepare myself any way that I can. I recognize what a serious undertaking a baby is, but that doesn't make me shy away from it. Granted I don't have this fever all the time. It's just during and for a couple hours after being around little babies. But that makes me wonder... How intense will the fever be by the time we are ready for "the talk"?

Much else has been going on since I last posted. Halloween came and went, and I took that opportunity to decorate a little bit, complete with fake spider webs on the outside of the house with creepy plastic spiders, window clings that looked like pumpkins and ghosts, lawn decorations (four little reflective Halloween shapes on metal rods that you push into the yard) along the sidewalk, a life-sized cardboard vampire hanging on the front door and pumpkins carved by J and I!

It wasn't much, but I wanted to do a little something. We bought an immense amount of candy, having no idea what the trick-or-treating in our neighborhood was like, and were left with almost all of it. I probably handed candy out to 5-6 groups of trick-or-treaters, and I was generous with the candy. Having all the excess sugar laying around the house has been bad for my diet, and I've considered just throwing it away or sending it to work with J on more than one occasion. What can I say?? I've never been good at resisting temptation...

Last weekend, I finally broke down and started buying craft supplies to start making homemade gifts. I've started with Christmas ornaments, and this weekend I will be continuing my efforts, as well as making homemade gift tags. It's going well so far!! I've also finished making our return labels for our Christmas cards, which turned out really, really cute. The envelopes are red, and our labels are ivory with holly and berries in the corner. I'll have to post up a picture later... :)

Today has been hectic already, thanks to my usual Master of Messes... Huck!! Only this time it's not really his fault, or anyone's fault for that matter. As I've mentioned before, I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year. In an effort to start preparing for that in advance, on Tuesday I decided to bathe the dog so I didn't have to worry about it as we got closer to the holidays. J and I had picked up some new doggy shampoo that was advertised to be organic and anti-shedding. I bathed him as usual, using the hand-held shower nozzle to wet him down and then rinse him off, toweling him off with some junk towels that we keep in the garage. Everything went perfectly normally. About half an hour into his drying process, as he was tearing around the house, I noticed that the fur on the back of his neck and shoulders looked a little funny... I touched it and realized that it had formed into a giant mat! Ohhh nooooo......I thought to myself. I knew what this meant. Huck is an American Eskimo. His fur is beautiful, but very long and comes with a heavy undercoat. I knew untangling this mess would be extremely difficult and messy. I decided to let him dry off more before I attempted to brush it out (wet dog hair is more difficult to untangle), and as he continued to dry, more mats appeared. I was starting to panic. I wasn't sure anymore if I'd be able to brush them out because they were getting so big and there were so many of them! After he dried off a bit more, I realized that all of his fur - that's right, all of it - was matted. Most was in small mats that would be simple to brush out, but the hair around his neck and along his back were in clumps so large that they would have to be cut apart before I'd even consider brushing them...

I tried. I really did. I tried so hard that I ended up covered in fur, and stopped when the brushing started to hurt Huck. I made no progress in brushing out the mats, and started to worry what that might mean. When J got home from work in the morning, he too attempted to brush Huck out, and failed as miserably and messily as I had. He woke me up and asked that I research groomers at work that day...which is where Huck is now. When I dropped him off at the groomer we chose, Dirty Paws, he was terrified. As I explained the situation to the groomer, she felt his mats and told me that she probably wasn't going to be able to get them out. She'd probably have to shave him. I decided that he would look too ridiculous if she only shaved the mats off... it would look like chunks of his hair had fallen off!! I told her that if that was the case, she should just shave him all over to one even length. I feel so bad for him, he's going to be so cold!! And right before the snow starts... poor thing...

Maybe I'll get him a sweater... :)