December fun

We had some friends visit this past weekend and had fun-filled weekend!

We went to a tacky Christmas sweater/favorite Christmas movie character party.

And we went to the Carolina Panthers - Houston Texans football game. One of the husband's coworkers hooked us up with pre-game on field passes and post-game passes. I apologize in advance for the ridiculous number of pictures but it was so fun being on the field - I felt like a kid!

Kealoha Pilares warming up

Jeremy Shockey warming up

One of a hundred pictures I took of Steve Smith

Red arrow - Cam Newton; Yellow arrow - Steve Smith

I did take a few pictures of the Texans but since I don't follow the Texans, I only new a few players.

Jake Delhomme

Matt Schaub

Post pictures were not as fun b/c we missed most of the team. But we did get one of Cam.

Not the friendliest guy in the world.

In the holiday spirit

It seems we got into the holiday spirit a bit earlier this year, although not quite in the way we usually do. For instance, I have done no baking - yes, completely out of character for me. Unfortunately too many other, much less fun things have been occupying my time. But we did decorate the house and tree. Of course, I didn't quite get it together to post pictures of all of the decorations so for now, you get mostly outside with a hint of the inside decorations! 

The front yard - we pruned the bushes in the front a lot this year which is why they look a little thin - oh well!

This is how fall in December looks - its pretty!

Our tree (sans skirt b/c I didn't have time to make it)

NOT a fan of the antlers!

The dogs

We recently discovered a cool and very unexpected benefit of taking Gracie & Shadow to doggie daycare at Demi's Dog House. One of the staff is a photographer on the side and takes pictures each day she works. The result is a ton of dog pics and some fun ones of our little doggies. You can check them out here. The site is a fun way to waste some time if you happen to like looking at dogs.

Here are a few of our dogs from the site!

All pictures by Megan at I Take Pictures of Dogs.

Busy bee

I have a ton of things to update about but unfortunately not enough time to get some posts together. However, (while taking a break from work) I saw a post today that I thought I would share. Erin, from the Elements of Style Blog, has her husband write a bit and his post today expresses my exact sentiments about the holidays. Check it out here!

Thanksgiving recap

Oh well for being a little tardy on the Thanksgiving recap but here it is anyway!

Although we didn't spend Thanksgiving with family, we had a really nice morning just the two of us, and then a fun afternoon and evening celebrating with two friends and their son. It was a nice relaxing way to spend a Thanksgiving!

Of course I'm going to recap the food for you. We split the duties this year. The husband and I tackled the turkey, dressings (two this year), gravy, and corn pudding, while Jennifer and Brett made a squash casserole, brussels sprouts, yeast rolls, and a pumpkin cheesecake.

The Turkey

We did a combo approach to the turkey and it turned out quite well. It was brined over night in a honey-water concoction and then baked in the oven with vegetables and herbs stuffed inside and surrounding it. The husband also mixed butter and herbs and rubbed that on the outside of the turkey and under the skin.

The Gravy

My family isn't big on gravy so I don't have a ton of experience with it. I looked over a few recipes and was honestly kind of grossed out by giblet gravy. So I went with a Caramelized Onion Balsamic Gravy that turned out quite well.

The Dressings

Last year was the first year we had Thanksgiving with just the two of us so we decided to make one dish from each of our respective family Thanksgivings. The husband's dish was his grandmother's dressing, which is now his mother's dressing. He made it again this year, and as usual, it was quite tasty.

After seeing articles in Real Simple and Bon Appetite featuring tons of types of dressings, I found myself really wanting to try something different. So I decided to make an Andouille Sausage and Cornbread Dressing. I modified this recipe quite a bit, using my own homemade cornbread as the base, and cutting down on the amount of sausage. It turned out really well and I would recommend it for a different approach to a traditional Thanksgiving dressing.

The Corn Pudding

Corn pudding is something I grew up with at Thanksgiving and so is my family's addition to our Thanksgiving. I made it again this year from this recipe, but used fresh corn and less sugar.

All of the other dishes were quite tasty as well! The recipes for those are linked below:

Paul Deen's Squash Casserole
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Garlic & Shallots
Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake

I hope you're Thanksgiving was wonderful!!

Thanksgiving is for

Turkey!

Well, that, and a general reminder to be thankful for those things that we sometimes forget. So as a reminder to myself to be more thankful, here is a short list of some of the things for which I'm thankful.

1. Our dogs, even the one that tends to be a little snooty at times
2. Living in a place where the highs are still in the 70's and 80's in November (and December probably too)
3. The katrillion opportunities I've had, especially as it relates to education and work experiences
4. The grace, beauty, intelligence, ferocity and most of all patience (b/c I am TERRIBLE at keeping in touch) of the women I call friends
5. The women I met through my masters and doc programs - they have all touched my life in meaningful ways and I absolutely love seeing how they continue to be shining examples of humanity in a world where there seems to be less and less
6. Memories - I often remember laughs, I think because they can be one of the most genuine expressions and I love having a memory of a laugh from a dear friend or family member - it surely brings a smile on any day
7. Children, especially all of the new little ones that will soon starting calling dear friends 'mama' or 'dada'
8. My parents - thank you for talking with me, listening to me, and always being there for me
9. Change
10. My sweet husband, who is both supportive and challenging (although I am not always thankful for this in the moment, generally it works out for the best, you know, so that we don't have a chicken coop in our backyard or insert any other hairbrained idea of mine - sometimes I don't think all the way through my wonderful ideas) (an aside to this aside, we are not allowed chicken coops in our neighborhood which is the only reason why his challenge on this front is helpful)

I could do this for awhile because I am grateful for so many things but I won't bore you any further. Enjoy your family and friends on this holiday!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

More visits!

We had another visitor this past weekend, although this time it was a surprise. My BFF Jenny came down for the weekend. We had a great time hanging out, shopping and eating (lots of eating). We slacked on taking pictures again. Oh well. We did manage to get a few of our dinner the first two nights (Friday we had lobster because the local grocery store had an amazing sale on them) and of us prior to dinner Saturday at Feast, a local head to tail restaurant - yummy!! 

Fish with a light salsa - dinner Thursday night thanks to the husband

Jenny and dinner Friday night

Visits

Our good friends Betsy and Jose visited this past weekend. We had a great time relaxing and doing a little bit of touristy stuff. I wasn't great about taking pictures but we did take a few during our tour of Minute Maid park. Enjoy!

Foul pole

Behind the old scoreboard, which is still used during the games.

One of the columns in the Lexus club - only $80,000 per couple to join.

Hijacked - For A Good Reason!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful bride!

Fall cooking

Although the daytime temperatures are still in the 70's (and sometimes 80's), I've enjoyed some recent fall cooking.

A few weekends ago I took an afternoon to make two squash-based recipes that were both easy and super yummy. I've been into soups lately so when I saw the recipe for a roasted squash soup with Indian flavors I thought it would be a perfect way to try a new recipe and incorporate fall staples like acorn and butternut squash.

Roasted squash soup with greek yogurt & honey topping.

This Indian-spiced roasted squash soup is hearty and so tasty. Plus, its healthy and easy to make. You can't really beat that.

The other recipe is sans picture but was also quite tasty and made for a great fall meal. For the quinoa stuffed squash I used acorn squash and again, it made for an easy, tasty and healthy meal. I only wish I had doubled it!

Birthday parties = tons of food

We had a few friends over to celebrate the husband's birthday this past weekend. I happened to be in need of a little cooking therapy so I took the opportunity to both bake and cook up a storm. I managed to only take pictures of the cake (which was a teensy bit lopsided).

Here's the menu - I went with a comfort food theme.

And now for the run down of the food.

Appetizers

All of the appetizers are things we've made a number of times and all well worth the minimal prep time. The pimento cheese (from Frank Stitt's Southern Table) is especially tasty! You can find a copy of the recipe here.

Main Dishes

As for the main dishes, the Buffalo meatloaf, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and greens, were made from Bon Appetite recipes and the traditional meatloaf from a Gourmet recipe, which can all be found on the epicurious site (best site ever). I altered all of them a bit, using some of the comments on epicurious and some personal preferences as the basis for the changes.

Everything turned out pretty well as far as the main dishes went. I would HIGHLY recommend the mac and cheese - so tasty.  The mashed potato recipe was a dud - totally not worth the time it took, but the homemade ranch was tasty. And the greens were super yummy but pretty time consuming. The meatloafs were terrific and I love that the buffalo meatloaf is leaner but still quite tasty. I might add that all of these foods make fantastic leftovers.

Cake!

The dessert was most definitely different but quite tasty. I completely forgot to include almonds in the layers and some of the bites are a bit salty b/c of the sea salt but overall a very tasty unique cake. Would totally make it again.

Oh wait

Today is my husband's birthday! :)

Happy birthday husband!

I love you for so many wonderful and silly and ridiculous and annoying reasons!  And I am so grateful to have you standing by my side. Without you there, things would be just bad, you know, kinda grey and ugly and maybe even hairy. :) Hopefully you're picking up what I'm laying down! Anywho, thanks for being you and for being the perfect match for me.

Halloween crafts

I managed to fit in a teensy bit of crafting over the past three weeks - just enough that we had all of our Halloween decorations up for 3 whole days!  At least they will be ready to go next year and you better believe I'm going to put them out October 1!

I wanted to be a bit more festive this year so I made a Boo sign, paper pumpkins, and paper bats. Since I shopped so late in October, I also snagged a cheapo faux spider web. I think it all turned out pretty well and was all accomplished over a few nights in front of the tv.

 

The husband found a stencil on the Baltimore Ravens website and carved the pumpkin. Afterward he said he understood why I didn't want to carve a pumpkin! :)

The bats were based on a good old Martha tutorial and were a big pain to make because I did not buy large enough paper. You almost need poster board to get the really big ones. Oh well.

The Boo sign was based on this idea but I modified it by spraying the letters with leftover black spray paint and I mixed some orange paint to flick over the letters. I also picked up discounted ghosts and spiders and painted these before gluing them to the letters. Add a little string and done. Really quite easy.

The pumpkins were based on this tutorial and were also easy. I'm not a huge holiday decoration kinda gal but I wanted a little something to add around the house and I think these did the trick.

I got a little lazy on tying bows so I knotted the ends of some - you can't tell from further away and it was way easier! :)