oh boy am I THANKFUL Derek took this vow seriously! I haven't blogged in a while because my new acquaintance Tracheitis came unexpectedly to stay for a week long visit. He arrived on Tuesday and tried his best to stick around forever but I bid him adieu (mostly) on Sunday.
It turns out Tracheitis comes with a very sore throat, a deep cough, a fever that did not go under 100 degrees for four days and I couldn't even stand up on Thursday and Friday enough to be in the shower - but I had to be in the shower to let the steam in and my amazing husband helped me every step of the way with everything!
Derek could have very easily just let me take care of myself. Instead he totally stepped up to the plate, by forcing me to let him take care of me. He got my medicine for me and kept the three prescriptions straight as to when I was supposed to take what. He tried coming up with food suggestions (even though I had no appetite) and while he was at work everyday he was constantly checking up on me.
Finally by Sunday I was able to breathe...now i'm just stuck with the cough that was left behind to remind me of what was.
Sometimes when I get really sick like that - as pathetic as it is - I tend to really want my mom around. At one point I asked Derek if he would ask my mom to come down (I couldn't talk on the phone) and he said "no - it's you and me now babe - don't you think I take good enough care of you?" of COURSE I think you take great care of me! How could I be so rude to ask for somebody else!? So it really made me think that it really IS him and I now, we're a team and we're going to work through ALL of our vows together...and that is exciting! Sometimes I look at him and say can you believe you are my HUSBAND?! I still think that is crazy. (in a good way - duh!)
Showing posts with label newlywed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label newlywed. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
What goes up...must come down?
I began the week yesterday with a few rough happenings. The week after our honeymoon I was on SUCH a high, and everything seemed to be falling into place - I remember thinking this all seems too perfect, and I wonder what will be the thing to break this wonderful time. Is it bad that we naturally seem to assume something will inevitably "go wrong"? I think it goes along with that whole "What goes up - must come down theory" although I think that saying has something to do with gravity as well. Have we just had enough things always fall wayside that we have just become accustomed to planning for it?
Apparently I have at least, I figured something would get a little out of line - and I was right. That happened yesterday and has been growing for a week or so. Luckily now though when I do have bad days I have an amazing husband and bulldog to come home to!
Last night, after that day - I needed some cooking therapy. I've been searching for a Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe for a while. I finally picked one of the many I found yesterday and decided I could modify as I wanted.
I'm not even going to be shy - this recipe was AMAZING!!! It literally tasted like the stuff you get at a Chinese restaurant - MINUS the deep fat fried chicken! yea!!!
Here's the recipe: (what i did anyhow!)
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients:
3/4 cup white sugar
(could use a sugar alternative to lighten it up!)
1/3 cup white vinegar
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce (i used reduced sodium version)
1 tbs ketchup
2 tbs cornstarch
Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil and stir continuously until the mixture has thickened.
Chicken:
I marinated the chicken for about 20 minutes in soy sauce. Then I cut the chicken into the size squares I wanted to serve, and coated them in flour. I put this into a frying pan with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Leave them until you can see they are cooked about half way through (flipping them too much will dry them out). Once the chicken was finished I put in mushrooms (you could add any vegetables you wanted - i might even add some cashews next time) and let them simmer.
Finally - pour most of the sauce over the chicken/mushrooms, stir - making sure all chicken is covered, and let simmer for at least 5 minutes.
I actually poured all of the sauce ingredients in the saucepan and did not turn the heat on, then I got the chicken cooking and once I flipped the chicken I turned the sauce on. You have to constantly stir it to make sure it doesn't burn.
Make some rice (we used the uncle ben's brown rice to health it up a bit) and we also added some cheater egg rolls (which were delicious!) And ta daaaaa! You have dinner...This whole process took me about 20 minutes!
Apparently I have at least, I figured something would get a little out of line - and I was right. That happened yesterday and has been growing for a week or so. Luckily now though when I do have bad days I have an amazing husband and bulldog to come home to!
Last night, after that day - I needed some cooking therapy. I've been searching for a Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe for a while. I finally picked one of the many I found yesterday and decided I could modify as I wanted.
I'm not even going to be shy - this recipe was AMAZING!!! It literally tasted like the stuff you get at a Chinese restaurant - MINUS the deep fat fried chicken! yea!!!
Here's the recipe: (what i did anyhow!)
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients:
3/4 cup white sugar
(could use a sugar alternative to lighten it up!)
1/3 cup white vinegar
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce (i used reduced sodium version)
1 tbs ketchup
2 tbs cornstarch
Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil and stir continuously until the mixture has thickened.
Chicken:
I marinated the chicken for about 20 minutes in soy sauce. Then I cut the chicken into the size squares I wanted to serve, and coated them in flour. I put this into a frying pan with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Leave them until you can see they are cooked about half way through (flipping them too much will dry them out). Once the chicken was finished I put in mushrooms (you could add any vegetables you wanted - i might even add some cashews next time) and let them simmer.
Finally - pour most of the sauce over the chicken/mushrooms, stir - making sure all chicken is covered, and let simmer for at least 5 minutes.
I actually poured all of the sauce ingredients in the saucepan and did not turn the heat on, then I got the chicken cooking and once I flipped the chicken I turned the sauce on. You have to constantly stir it to make sure it doesn't burn.
Make some rice (we used the uncle ben's brown rice to health it up a bit) and we also added some cheater egg rolls (which were delicious!) And ta daaaaa! You have dinner...This whole process took me about 20 minutes!
p.s. this meal was cooked partially thanks to our "challenge" - I've had some people asking how it's going. So far so good - but I'm saving the final details for the end!
Please feel free to comment if you plan to / do try this!
It's great to hear feedback!
Friday, January 21, 2011
You're gonna catch a cold...
You will find that I tend to be the girl who listens to songs and makes it a hobby to try and figure out the true meaning and message the songwriter was trying to convey.
I LOVE this song: Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. I think the song is actually a man hatin' song, but it has a line in it that I've taken upon myself to interperet in a way that related to my week better. If you listen she says "you're gonna catch a cold, from the ice inside your soul".
This is the premise to my rant on mean people. I am very over mean people. I seem to keep getting slapped in the face not literally thankfully! this week by mean people. The worst of it is - I'm realizing that actual "mean people" are not just people who get upset about one thing, or do one specific mean action. The people I am tired of are the day in and day out mean people - the people who - after time - it becomes painfully evident after you've spent months making excuses in your head for them they are mean ON PURPOSE! That is the worst kind of mean...
i.e. - "you're gonna catch a cold - from the ice inside your soul" A word to the permanantly mean people - you better start carrying around an unlimited refill prescription for z-packs.
I know it sounds a little Miss America - but do wish people were more accepting of the day to day behavior of others. Imagine a world thank you John Lenon where everybody treated everybody else with respect at the minimum but also genuine friendliness.
I am going to make an effort to be nicer to people, I am not going to make dirty faces to people who cut me off on the road ok-make that I'm not going to give people the bird, If somebody around me seems to be struggling with something - I'm going to try not to think in my head I'm too busy to help them, I hope they don't ask me. I'm going to offer help and a friendly face, I'm going to say Good Morning! to people at my office yes - even on Mondays to brighten the mood.
My point is, I believe being mean is probably more exhausting and I am glad to know already I am not somebody who evidently enjoys being mean, but I believe there are still plenty of ways I can improve myself.
I'm going to even apply this to my marriage or try to. If Derek gets home late I'm going to try to think positively not completely annoyed about how it's ruining my day. I'm going to keep focus on the small things and be nice in small ways. It's easy for a lot of people to not cheat on their spouses which obviously would be considered in the "mean" category" But I bet it's a lot less easy to remember to say sweet nice things - and act on those. Actions speak louder than words and I'm going to act nice!
Is that too much to ask out of everybody else?? So go out of your way to be a little nicer today. I bet you will feel better and maybe it will be contagious!
Who's with me??
I LOVE this song: Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. I think the song is actually a man hatin' song, but it has a line in it that I've taken upon myself to interperet in a way that related to my week better. If you listen she says "you're gonna catch a cold, from the ice inside your soul".
This is the premise to my rant on mean people. I am very over mean people. I seem to keep getting slapped in the face not literally thankfully! this week by mean people. The worst of it is - I'm realizing that actual "mean people" are not just people who get upset about one thing, or do one specific mean action. The people I am tired of are the day in and day out mean people - the people who - after time - it becomes painfully evident after you've spent months making excuses in your head for them they are mean ON PURPOSE! That is the worst kind of mean...
i.e. - "you're gonna catch a cold - from the ice inside your soul" A word to the permanantly mean people - you better start carrying around an unlimited refill prescription for z-packs.
I know it sounds a little Miss America - but do wish people were more accepting of the day to day behavior of others. Imagine a world thank you John Lenon where everybody treated everybody else with respect at the minimum but also genuine friendliness.
I am going to make an effort to be nicer to people, I am not going to make dirty faces to people who cut me off on the road ok-make that I'm not going to give people the bird, If somebody around me seems to be struggling with something - I'm going to try not to think in my head I'm too busy to help them, I hope they don't ask me. I'm going to offer help and a friendly face, I'm going to say Good Morning! to people at my office yes - even on Mondays to brighten the mood.
My point is, I believe being mean is probably more exhausting and I am glad to know already I am not somebody who evidently enjoys being mean, but I believe there are still plenty of ways I can improve myself.
I'm going to even apply this to my marriage or try to. If Derek gets home late I'm going to try to think positively not completely annoyed about how it's ruining my day. I'm going to keep focus on the small things and be nice in small ways. It's easy for a lot of people to not cheat on their spouses which obviously would be considered in the "mean" category" But I bet it's a lot less easy to remember to say sweet nice things - and act on those. Actions speak louder than words and I'm going to act nice!
Is that too much to ask out of everybody else?? So go out of your way to be a little nicer today. I bet you will feel better and maybe it will be contagious!
Who's with me??
Monday, January 17, 2011
a moment to breathe...
Sometimes there is nothing better in life than when I have nothing to do. I used to go CRAZY when I had one free minute of unscheduled time. After all things wedding planning the last few months I was excited for a break.
I realized in all of my uncomplicated, unscheduled bliss of a honeymoon - how much I was looking forward to being home and being married to and spending some quality time with my wonderful new husband. This past weekend gave me that exact time I'd been looking for - and I turned out to be right. The less things scheduled - the BETTER right now!
Luckily we did have one VERY fun event scheduled though. Our friend Andy turned 40 and our other friends Jenny and Keith were sweet enough to throw him a party! In my efforts to be a wonderful wife I wanted to be a fabulous party guest and show up with some delicious contributions.
Derek and I LOVE to cook together - we registered at Williams Sonoma and received lots of amazing new kitchen gadgets from the wedding. I picked out a couple of new tools to try and decided on Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms.
I of course did not want to make just regular chocolate covered strawberries - so I did some googling seriously what did people do before google?! and found a wonderful idea to infuse the dipped strawberries with riesling. Ah HA! This would be an excellent opportunity to try out my new "injector". Also, I came up with the idea to do some strawberries with sprinkles, and some with almonds too. (not my idea - it was stolen from one of the 5200 wedding brochures I've looked through the past nine months.) but hey - some of the best idea's are stolen right?!
So here are my finished strawberries...our new "injector" works wonders - and I tried a double broiler for the first time word to the wise - melting chocolate in a double broiler in comparison to in the microwave for dipping is NIGHT AND DAY difference. I will never go back to the microwave!
Ingredients:
I realized in all of my uncomplicated, unscheduled bliss of a honeymoon - how much I was looking forward to being home and being married to and spending some quality time with my wonderful new husband. This past weekend gave me that exact time I'd been looking for - and I turned out to be right. The less things scheduled - the BETTER right now!
Luckily we did have one VERY fun event scheduled though. Our friend Andy turned 40 and our other friends Jenny and Keith were sweet enough to throw him a party! In my efforts to be a wonderful wife I wanted to be a fabulous party guest and show up with some delicious contributions.
Derek and I LOVE to cook together - we registered at Williams Sonoma and received lots of amazing new kitchen gadgets from the wedding. I picked out a couple of new tools to try and decided on Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms.
I of course did not want to make just regular chocolate covered strawberries - so I did some googling seriously what did people do before google?! and found a wonderful idea to infuse the dipped strawberries with riesling. Ah HA! This would be an excellent opportunity to try out my new "injector". Also, I came up with the idea to do some strawberries with sprinkles, and some with almonds too. (not my idea - it was stolen from one of the 5200 wedding brochures I've looked through the past nine months.) but hey - some of the best idea's are stolen right?!
So here are my finished strawberries...our new "injector" works wonders - and I tried a double broiler for the first time word to the wise - melting chocolate in a double broiler in comparison to in the microwave for dipping is NIGHT AND DAY difference. I will never go back to the microwave!
Next up - with the strawberries set it was onto the mushrooms.
My FAVORITE type of recipe are the kind that make you look fancy but in reality is was super easy. I'm pretty into looking fancy and proper, but I don't always feel like I have a lot of time. So the recipe I found for Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms was just the ticket!
Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
40 medium sized mushrooms
1 cup Boursin cheese
melted butter
Directions:
Wash mushrooms and remove stems.
Fill mushrooms with Boursin cheese.
Brush the mushroom caps with melted butter.
Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 for 30 minutes. I put parsley on them as well when they were baked about half way through. They made the house smell AMAZING! I think they were a total hit with our friends! Hey - anything that makes you feel and look fancy but didn't take all the time that fancy usually requires - is AWESOME in my book!
Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 for 30 minutes. I put parsley on them as well when they were baked about half way through. They made the house smell AMAZING! I think they were a total hit with our friends! Hey - anything that makes you feel and look fancy but didn't take all the time that fancy usually requires - is AWESOME in my book!
Anybody else have any secret "looks fancy but wasn't" tricks??
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