Without further adieu

Pioneer Woman's Pantry Pasta

I told you it was coming. Our family has been fighting a "stomach bug", so I waited until Andrew felt like eating again. So I loved this dish...I'm in love with olives that probably helps. I think I followed this recipe as exact as I do most recipes. I subbed red onions for sweet onions, because that's what I usually keep on hand.  Also, not a huge fan of linguini (it's just too thick for me), so I used spaghetti.

When making my brussel sprouts, I was inspired by a recipe I found on How Sweet It Is. She hates vegetables and loves bacon (who doesn't?) and made her brussell sprouts in bacon grease. I finished cooking the chicken and threw the veggies in their to cook. Then added some fresh garlic, couple dashes of soy sauce, and a few tablespoons of water. Then you simply treat it like a stir fry. Best brussell sprouts!

P.S. Do you see, that's five pieces of chicken in the pan. That's a lot of food for 2 people. Andrew eats a lot, but also it's left overs. Also, I had to look up how to spell adieu. Did you know how to spell it?

Afternoon snack...hang with me I'll explain.

For the past several days, I've been coming home and making myself a non-alcoholic Bloody Mary. Andrew thinks this is disgusting, as he hates tomato juice.  My father-in-law told me a simple (delish) recipe:

Bloody Mary

short juice glass (my preference)

2-3 cubes of ice

2-3 drops of tabasco (seriously this stuff is hot)

3-4 shakes of Worcestershire

1/4 tsp celery seed

1 tsp (or squeeze) of lime/lemon juice

fill with tomato juice and stir

oh yeah and vodka (but I hate vodka so I leave it out)

I have a confession.

Ok, this is embarrassing. Last night I took advantage of shutterfly's 101 free prints; it ended yesterday. Do you know what pictures I had printed? Wedding pictures, and not because I have some that are just my favorite and I wanted extra copies. No, this is the first time I've printed wedding pictures. With the exception of about 4 photos that we printed and put up in our house, we have not printed one picture. I know it's horrible! But it was exciting, because I love some of the pics of my bridesmaids. Especially my sister and I have a few good ones and we are horrible about taking pictures together.  Anyway if you want to bash me, I'll understand. All this to be said...yay I'm so excited to get pictures. And I got another promotion for 75 more so yay!

 Just because I loved our cake and flowers!

Money in my pocket...

Ok, have you ever put on a coat and reached in the pocket to find that you had money in it? Well me either, but I can imagine the joy of forgotten money. So my forgotton money is that I just remembered The Pioneer Woman's blog ! It's probably been several months since I last "visited" her site. I looked at her blog for two seconds and already have tons of recipes I want to try. If you've never checked out her blog; NOW IS THE TIME. The all caps was intense, I apologize. So in the next little while you should be seeing a post about at least the pantry pasta and I'm really thinking about the cherry cake.

Donna says...

My mom's name is Donna. If you spend any time with me you will probably hear me brag about her. I recently have posted a couple things on money/finances/budgeting. So here's a post to keep me balanced. A while back after I read The Complete Financial Guide for Young Couples, I was telling my mom about it and what I learned. She said," Remember, money is just a tool." I think this is profound. Money is here so that we can buy food, clothing, shelter, but it's easy to become obsessed.

I try to keep track of our spending throughout the month, but when I'm not keeping track I put it out of my mind. There are plenty of wonderful things to dwell on. Money is NOT one of them. Last night Andrew and I were preparing for Bible study tonight and we read the creation story. This morning I sat at the breakfast table and thought with wonder...wow God really made that tree...that grass...the materials to build this house. Mostly I forget these things. I'd like to spend more time in wonder of all that God has made and done.

Our Potato Soup

I want to say that this was the best soup I've ever made. But not all of my attempts have been overwhelmingly awesome. Here are my "tweeks": I halved the entire recipe except the onion, boil potatoes in just enough water to cover them, adding salt and pepper to the water, fry bacon, use part bacon grease part butter to make the roux. I drained a little of the liquid off the potatoes, but it was so thick from the potatoe breakdown that I just dumped it in. I used half the amount of sour cream, but then garnished with a dollup. I added 1-2 teaspoons garlic powder (good for a milder garlic flavor vs fresh garlic which will make stronger garlic taste). I stirred half the bacon in the last 5 minutes and used half to keep for garnishing. I would just make less and just garnish, because I don't like mushy bacon. Even though I fried it first it still started to get less crunchy. That's simply how I like it.

Dinner.....

I've been craving some of Fatz's potatoe soup. Instead of going there and spending what it takes to make a pot on one serving...I'm going to make some.  Mmmmm.....dreaming about supper time. I'm going to make this recipe, with the exception that I'm not microwaving the potatoes. I'll let you know how it turns out, although I'm not really worried because it has butter, milk, sour cream, and cheese...really what could go wrong.  I love modern cooking...I have a craving, I google a recipe, look through them until it's what I think sounds right, and then make it.  I guess I really don't need cook books, but they're still nice to have.

Yum!

Snow - Day 4!

These pictures were taken Thursday evening. I feel like we still had a ton of snow.

 Can you tell that the snow melted out from under the ice?

 Yay...I have my yard back (sort of, Gage says)

Back yard....completely covered in snow and ice (that's the sheen you see). 

I'm posting this on Saturday and the backyard is unchanged!

Snow - Day 1!

I like these first two pics I took b/c they show such a neat contrast between ice and fire! 

I apologize for the graininess in the next photo, but look at the precious bird on the branch and about 4-5 on the bird feeder below.  We filled up our feeders and literally we had tons of birds...it was neat to watch.

 These next 3 are from around the pond on the trail I run. Gage looks so happy, and she was until the ice came and made it impossible for her to walk(or potty) without falling.

 This one was probably my favorite pic that I snapped (up).

 Sweet Little Clark family!

 Sweet little Clark home!

 That's four inches in the front yard...more in the back but we didn't measure.

 Our pond is a little dehydrated and also slushy in this pic.

But isn't the water the neatest color?

I think this one is funny b/c it's a big cactus

(like in the desert?) but there is snow! Ok maybe it's just me.

Christmas!

Well I never posted these things, because I wasn't around a computer. Here's one of my favorite Christmas presents....I know I'm not really looking my best (oh well). Yes, I got a Starbucks' gift card. Also, a cool lunch box, Southern Living Subscription, food processor, some cool hoodies (actually they're quite warm), and a beautiful crystal bowl (from my Mama). Wow, I'm an adult!

 I snapped this one as we were undecorating the tree. I was so sad to see our tree come down.  So this post is my way of remembering the Christmas cheer (it has nothing to do with my slack blogging :) ). This is one of my favorite ornaments. I like it b/c the ducklings look like they could actually be standing on a branch.

Here's our Christmas snow pics...again sorry I never posted this stuff.

That's Sadie, Andrew's parents' dog...Gage was off running somewhere!

Goals for a new year....

I shared with you about financial evaluation and the inspirations that followed. I guess I wanted to say that I think setting goals for a new year is something you do when you grow. So the fact that I set goals means I'm actually growing up and realizing I have much to improve upon.  Here are some of my goals for the new year.  You might say these are a little late; however, I'm kind of growing ideas with this year...nothing is like a sudden idea. Things are rooting in me and taking their time.


To quote my Sunday School Teacher, Tom Mason, "your resolutions are God's resolutions." Please don't take that out of context; simply know that God wants to build his character into us each year, each moment.


Goals for 2011: 

• Spiritually Fruitful year: developing my dependence on God, reading/savoring scripture daily, grow as Bible study leader
• Stick to our family budget
• Eat healthier, plan meals better
• Lose ?-? pounds, BUT MOST importantly exercise 3-5 times per week
• Be able to run 6 miles 
• Enjoy life and all the precious little ones to be born this year: Baby Liles, Jardin Babies, Baby Biviano, Baby Locke, Baby Elsken, Baby Scogin, and Baby McWilliams

Yes literally everyone is pregnant except me( said with an attitude of excitement for everyone around us not jealousy or expectancy) praying for healthy Mamas and babies! Yay for 2011 and all that you hold!

I'd love to know what you're hoping for with this new year and how I can pray for you!