Updates

It's been a while since I've updated...my job is causing me to neglect things I enjoy! UGH. As much as I may not like my job, it's very nice to finally have 2 incomes :-) We're making a lot of progress & should be saving for a down payment to save for a house in no time! Last week at work wasn't anything special...but it did mark the completion of my first month there. I definitely don't feel like I've been there a month. I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing a lot of the time I'm there. The "training" is crap...it's pretty much like...here, figure this out. I had a few good days & a few bad. This definitely isn't something I want to do long term. It just isn't for me, it's super repetitive & I get bored easy. I'm discovering that I really don't like people. I mean, I like people. Maybe it's better to say I don't like the public. I'm still looking for an FDA position. I really wish I had experience...there are almost always openings for the higher positions. It's really frustrating :-/ I finally got my schedule for October. I won't be working the same shift all month like I did this month. I will change shifts each week & I'll have to work 1 Saturday. I'm not thrilled about that, especially since we were closed on Saturdays when I interviewed.

This weekend Josh's mom, stepdad & nephew came. Josh had Friday off work so they came in Thursday night. Friday while I was at work, Josh took them downtown to the Inner Harbor & Fell's Point. I didn't mind since I've been tons of times. Josh said there were tons of jellyfish in the harbor so I am a little bummed I didn't get to see that. It's no biggie though.

Saturday was a great day. We watched the first half of the State game then left to take the family to DC. I'm so excited for my Wolfpack! They're finally living up to their potential! We're 4-0 for the first time in way too long. Why couldn't this happen while I was still there? haha.

Anyway, DC was busy & crowded as always but it was still a lot of fun. On the way there we did see a woman getting WAY too close to a man in front of two children who couldn't have been any older than 4. She could have been arrested for what she was doing in public. She was so drugged up on something she couldn't even hold her eyes open. It was really disturbing. DC always reminds me that I don't like the public. I love the Smithsonians...there is SO much to see & they are HUGE! They are also super crowded. This time we went to the Natural History museum for a little bit. Josh & I went to the Air & Space museum for a bit but I didn't enjoy it so much. I'm not super interested in that type of thing & it was even more crowded than the others. I just get so irritated when I'm trying to read something & someone who isn't watching where they're going bumps into me. On top of that...there are ALWAYS unruly children running around. I just don't get it. You're in a museum...why is your child running around like they're at the park, yelling & touching things they aren't supposed to be touching? I don't blame the children, I blame the parents who don't know what discipline is. It's really irritating.

Aside from that, we had a great time! We really enjoy American history so we went to that museum for a while. After that everyone wanted to look around a bit so we just walked around. We went to Chinatown but Josh's parents didn't really like it so we left & found something to eat. We ended up going to Austin's Grill, a Tex-Mex restaurant. It was really good. I got red snapper tacos & they were delicious! Josh got a "hangover burger" that was also delicious. It was a little different. It had typical condiments on it...chili, bacon, cheese...but it also had fried egg. I liked it. I didn't really take many pictures so I don't have much to show.

I did take some pictures of some pretty flowers. I love flowers :-)

I'm pretty sure these are Zinnias...I love these because they remind me of Dahlias. So pretty!

Hibiscus...one of my favorite flowers EVER!

I can't believe September is almost over! October is going to be so busy & exciting! Next weekend we have a wedding to go to. The following weekend we're going to Raleigh to visit friends & go to the State vs BC game...I'm SO excited for that weekend since we'll get to see our best friends. The weekend after that my dad, sister & niece will be visiting :-). The weekend after that I'll be working :-(...and finally...the last weekend of October is my birthday weekend! Whew.

Apartment Pics

This weekend was great! Saturday we watched football & relaxed most of the day. I ran a few errands later in the evening. Yesterday was very productive but somehow still relaxing at the same time. We still watched a lot of football but we got a lot done around the apartment. We even went for a run last night after the Texans beat the Skins :-D

We picked out a rug & got a little bit of decorating done. We decided to go with a brown rug. We got a green one too but we decided against it. It didn't quite match the pillows or curtains. I also like the idea of a neutral rug because we can just change out the pillows & curtains & it will make a big difference :-) I still need to take pictures of some of the apartment but I'll post what I have for now.

When we first moved in we knew we wanted to have accent walls in our apartment. We had the hardest time deciding on the color. Josh wanted green or brown & I wanted green or yellow. We never found a green we both liked, I didn't like Josh's brown & he didn't like my yellow. We finally decided to go with a yellow...but not the yellow I wanted. It was our attempt at a compromise & it was horrible! I didn't like it at all. I thought I would get used to it but I never did. I hated it! Here is the icky yellow wall just before I painted over it.

These are a fraction of the colors we considered before finally deciding on one.

This is our living room yesterday :-) We painted a few weeks ago but I'm just getting around to taking pictures. Josh wanted to go with a darker brown but I was worried it would be too dark. After seeing a picture I think it would have been fine to go a little darker (about the shade of the rug) but this is fine.

The area over in the corner is Josh's office. We looked at an apartment with a bedroom & a "den". We were planning on using the den as an office & spare room. When I think of den, I think of a relatively large room. This den was only a little larger than our walk in closet. Considering the size of the room, the price difference with & without the den wasn't reasonable at all.

Apparently, when the dry erase board is out past the couch (like in the pic below), Josh's office door is closed. haha. I love him!

You can't really tell in this pic but the pillows on the love seat have the same green in them as the pillows on the couch & the curtains (along with teal & yellow).

This is the area above the kitchen sink. It's the perfect place for us to hang our wine glasses but the space below it just needed something.

I saw this idea on Crap I've Made & I fell in love with it!

I made this over the weekend. It was pretty easy. You just get silverware, an 8x10 frame, spray paint & some fabric. Remove the glass & paint the frame & the silverware. Cover the cardboard insert in your fabric of choice, put it back in the frame & hot glue the silverware to the fabric. I love how it turned out. I realized after I picked the fabric & got it home that I don't have any other polka dot items in the kitchen. I do have several black items so it still looks nice.

I love the way it turned out. Notice the textured wall. I love our apartment for the most part...I do NOT love the textured walls. I didn't even notice them when we came to look at the place but they are a PAIN to paint.

Here are our dishes. I LOVE them. I'm not quite sure why I took a picture of them, I guess because the match my new decor...haha. They're red & square, what more could you ask for?

We finally got around to hanging some pictures & a few other things. I'll try to get more pictures posted by the end of the week.

Patience

This is something I do not have! When we moved in to our new apartment I was ready to decorate ASAP. I rushed into picking out things that I liked if we couldn't find something I loved. We found a kitchen table I liked at Ikea so we grabbed it up because I wanted to have one right away. We found one a few weeks later that I liked better & would have been MUCH easier to clean (ours has a glass top) for cheaper! Pillows...I bought & returned so many pillows for the couches because I hated them once I got them home. I like the ones we have but I found ones I LOVE last night at Bed Bath & Beyond! I REALLY want to go back & buy them but we've only had the ones we already have for like 2 weeks. If I would have just been patient I would have pillows that I absolutely love right now! Bedding. I wanted new bedding so our apartment looked like ours & not mine. I've only had my old bedding for a year before we got married but it was just mine. It didn't reflect Josh at all. Bedding is one thing we agreed on for the most part. We knew what we were looking for but we couldn't really find it. We ended up getting some that I like just OK but Josh loves it. I found some last night that I LOVE! UGH.

I really want some wall decor but I'm having trouble finding what I want. I know what I want for our dining room wall...I just can't find it at an affordable price. I found a painting that is exactly what I want but it's way out of our price range. We can't decide what we want on the living room wall so that's been really challenging. We're also trying to choose a rug to go in the living room. I REALLY want to get one soon...I'm tired of the plain boring carpet. I found the perfect one last night...but the colors don't really match ours & the print doesn't match the print of our pillows the least bit. We're trying a few out today to see how they look...I won't settle!

I hope I've learned my lesson now.

It's kind of funny...

...how things work out. Josh and I were supposed to be getting married today! I'm not really sure why, but this was the wedding date we chose. I always pictured a summer wedding when I thought about my wedding day when I was growing up...I don't know how we got September out of that!

Lucky for us, one of our vendors screwed up & booked our original date. If we wouldn't have been emotionally attached we would have chose another vendor & stuck with the wedding date. I don't think I've ever been so happy about someone screwing up in my life...of course I was nowhere near happy when it first happened. We decided to move the date up rather than back for several reasons. We were both going to be graduating & potentially moving out of NC in May...that would have made it a bit harder to plan a wedding in Raleigh, we had already been dating for almost 9 years & been engaged for almost a year at that point...we were just ready to get married! We moved our wedding date to June 5 almost exactly a year ago.

Thanks to that little screw up, I've been married to the most amazing man in the world for over 3 months now! I can't believe how fast time is flying. I wouldn't trade what we have for anything. I didn't think things could get any better but the past 3 months have been the happiest of my life so far! There really aren't many big differences. We dated for so long before we got married we were pretty much set in our ways already. The only real difference is that we didn't live together before we got married. It's amazing having a wonderful husband as a roommate. He's the best roommate ever! (Aside from having to pick up stray socks ;-) ) He loads the dishwasher the way I like it (everybody has a little bit of OCD right?), if I do something to piss him off he'll just tell me & we'll fix it right away, no BS-ing around or drama...it's amazing!

A few weeks after the wedding, when I asked Josh if it was weird that things didn't feel super different since we got married he looked at me like I was crazy. He said, "we've been married for a long time baby" :-) I guess in a weird way we kind of have, just not legally of course. Not long after our wedding I was trying to think of a way to describe marriage to a friend who would be getting married soon...here's what I came up with:

It's like having a permanent sleepover with your best friend.

It really is...and it's the best sleepover ever!

Crab Cakes!

I LOVE crab cakes! I've had several "crab cakes" before but I definitely never had a real one until we moved to MD. I've had some that are better than others but I haven't had a bad one yet :-) I was talking to my manager about them a few days ago & she said what makes MD crab cakes better than all the others is Old Bay & blue crab. I'll have to agree with that! There's also an enormous amount of crab in them. The crab cakes I've had before I moved up here had way too much bread in them. I said when we first moved up here that I would learn how to make crab cakes before we left. Josh and I had an at home date night last night & we decided to make crab cakes. They were AMAZING! I got the recipe that I used last night from a local cook book I found in the library. It had tons of regional recipes that I want to try. I made a few little tweaks...we used lump crab meat instead of backfin. We got the crab meat at Costco & they only had lump or jumbo lump. We didn't feel like going to another store just to get backfin. We used bread crumbs instead of saltines (a lot of crab cakes use bread crumbs). We didn't have any dry mustard so we used a combo of honey mustard & spicy mustard. YUM!

Gertie's Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

1 egg

2 T Mayonnaise

1 t Old Bay

1 t dry mustard

1/2 t pepper

Dash of Tobasco

2 t Worcestershire

1/3 saltine crumbs

1 lb backfin crab meat

Directions:

Step 1: mix egg, mayo, Old Bay, mustard, pepper, tobasco & worcestershire until frothy

Step 2: Place crab in a bowl & sprinkle with crumbs. Pour on egg mixture & fold together

Step 3: Form crab cakes with ice cream scoop. Don't pack too much. They should be as loose as possible while still holding shape

Step 4: Place on wax paper & refrigerate 1 hour before cooking

Step 5: broil for 4-5 mins one each side.

They can also be fried or sauted in clarified butter. I like them broiled but I think we may try them fried next time. I didn't pack them quite tight enough. I had to re-form some of them after turning them over.

I served them with a baked potato, squash & a yeast roll. We had 5 crab cakes (we froze 4 extra before we cooked them for another night). We each had 2 & I used the extra one as part of the filling for the baked potatoes. They had crab, bacon, sour cream & cheese. Best baked potato ever!

We had this with some yummy wine then we watched a movie. The movie was only mediocre but it was a great at home date night. It was just one of those nights we just felt like hanging around at home. I feel like I'm getting old sometimes now because we used to be on the go all the time. Now I really cherish those lazy nights at home together :-)

Beef Bourguignon

Last night we had an AMAZING Beef Bourguignon for dinner. The recipe is from Food Network & there's not much at all I changed. I did use a rum that I've had for a while in place of the Cognac. Cognac was too expensive & I read that you can use Whiskey as a substitute. This particular Rum tastes just like Whiskey (ICK! This is why I've had it for so long). It calls for 2 fresh onions & a bag of frozen onions. I just used all fresh onions. I threw a few extra in for the last 10 mins or so (that's when you're supposed to put the frozen ones in). The recipe also says to cook it in the oven for 1 1/4 hours. I just left it on the stove top pretty much all day...I think it cooked for about 7 hours. I wanted the meat to be SUPER tender & it was! I made mashed potatoes to go with it & served it with a dinner roll. It was SO good! It's a bit of a labor intensive recipe, lots of chopping, but it's definitely worth it in the end. I'll definitely be making this again when it gets colder. This is a perfect recipe for a snow day :-)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon good olive oil
• 8 ounces dry cured center cut applewood smoked bacon, diced
• 2 1/2 pounds chuck beef cut into 1-inch cubes
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound carrots, sliced diagonally into 1-inch chunks
• 2 yellow onions, sliced
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic (2 cloves)
• 1/2 cup Cognac
• 1 (750 ml.) bottle good dry red wine such as Cote du Rhone or Pinot Noir
• 1 can (2 cups) beef broth
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, divided
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 pound frozen whole onions
• 1 pound fresh mushrooms stems discarded, caps thickly sliced

For serving:

• Country bread or Sour Dough, toasted or grilled and rubbed with garlic clove
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, optional

Here are all the ingredients (post chopping)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the bacon and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is lightly browned. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a large plate.

This part smelled SO good!

Dry the beef cubes with paper towels and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper. In batches in single layers, sear the beef in the hot oil for 3 to 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove the seared cubes to the plate with the bacon and continue searing until all the beef is browned. Set aside.

Toss the carrots, and onions, 1 tablespoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of pepper in the fat in the pan and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the Cognac, stand back, and ignite with a match to burn off the alcohol. Put the meat and bacon back into the pot with the juices. Add the bottle of wine plus enough beef broth to almost cover the meat. Add the tomato paste and thyme. Bring to a simmer, cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and place it in the oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until the meat and vegetables are very tender when pierced with a fork.

The burning! I was a little nervous about this part but it was super easy.

Just after all the ingredients have been added.

Combine 2 tablespoons of butter and the flour with a fork and stir into the stew. Add the frozen onions. Saute the mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter for 10 minutes until lightly browned and then add to the stew. Bring the stew to a boil on top of the stove, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste.

To serve, toast the bread in the toaster or oven. Rub each slice on 1 side with a cut clove of garlic. For each serving, spoon the stew over a slice of bread and sprinkle with parsley.

YUM!

Football & Food!

I LOVE Saturdays! I love them even more during football season! NC State football is definitely my favorite thing about fall :-) I really miss tailgating so I try to make good food to make up for it :-/ This week I made burger sliders, twice baked potatoes & breaded zucchini. Everything turned out SO good! I'm not a huge burger fan but these were really good. They're definitely the best I've ever made.

This Saturday was awesome! My Wolfpack won again :-D I got to catch up with my best friend & Josh got to catch up with his, we've scheduled a trip to visit them in October when they go to Raleigh. I can't wait! We didn't expect to go to Raleigh again until homecoming in November & we didn't expect to get to visit with Anna & John until December. We'll probably try to go to the Boston College game while we're there :-)

Smoky Beer Burgers with Creamy Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 pounds lean ground sirloin
• 1/3 pound smoked Gouda cheese, diced into 1/4 to 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 medium onion or 1/2 large onion
• 2 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika, 2/3 palm full
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/3 palm full
• Grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning)
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
• Generous handful finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 (12-ounce) bottle beer
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 1/2 cup spicy brown mustard
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill
• 4 crusty Kaiser rolls, split and lightly toasted
• Green or red leaf lettuce, for topping
• Sliced sweet bread and butter pickles, for topping

Directions

Preheat grill over medium-high heat.

Place the meat in a bowl and add the cheese. Peel the onion and halve it, if using the medium onion. Grate about 3 to 4 tablespoons of onion directly over the meat into the bowl. Finely chop the remaining onion and reserve for topping. Add spices to meat: paprika, cumin and about 1 tablespoon of grill seasoning and/or some salt and pepper. Add garlic, parsley and Worcestershire and beer then form 4 large patties making them a little thinner at the center than at edges. Burgers plump when you cook them so this will prevent burger bulge. Drizzle a little olive oil over the burgers then grill about 4 minutes on each side for medium rare, 5 minutes on each side for medium and 6 to 7 minutes on each side for well done.

Mix mustard and sour cream with dill.

Serve patties on bun bottoms and top with lettuce, pickles, chopped raw onion. Slather bun tops with sauce and serve.

Breaded Zucchini

I just breaded some zucchini slices & served them with tomato basil sauce...so yummy!

Twice Baked Potatoes

Twice baked potatoes are some of my favorites & they're so easy to make. You just bake the potatoes, let them cool & cut them in half. Scoop out the potato. Mash the potato & add cheddar cheese, sour cream & diced, cooked bacon. Re-fill the potatoes & bake for an additional 20 minutes. I don't really use a recipe, I just add the ingredients to taste. I like to dip them in sour cream.

We Finally Have End Tables!

We haven't done as much decorating as I would have liked so far but we're slowly making progress. We wanted to get a few end tables for the bedroom & living room but I haven't been able to find any I liked for a decent price. We don't really want to spend a lot of money on decorations since we only plan on living here for a few years. I found some simple, unfinished ones at Michael's for around $30. I used a coupon & got them for less than $20 each! This is what they look like unfinished.

We bought 2 to go beside our bed. I put one in the corner of the living room just to get it out of the way & we both liked the way it looked there. We decided to put one there too. We still need to go back & get one for the other side of the bed. We stained the one that will go in the living room a dark color & put some polyurethane over it to protect the finish & give it a little bit of a shine. This is what it looks like now. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. We already had the stain & polyurethane so it was less than $20 total. I've seen a similar one at Target for $50!

Our bed is a natural color so we're just going to put polyurethane over the ones that will go in the bedroom. I like the dark wood better so when we get new bedroom furniture we can just sand them down a little & stain them to match.

Slow Chicken Marsala

This is another recipe from my new cookbook. It calls for dry white wine but I used dry Vermouth because we had some that we never use. It was SO good.

Ingredients

3 med. onions, cut into thin wedges

6 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 in pieces

4 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 in pieces

2 6-oz jars sliced mushrooms, drained

3 t quick-cooking tapioca, crushed

9 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 t salt

1 t dried thyme

1/2 t dried oregano

1/2 t black pepper

2/3 c dry Marsala or dry white wine

1/2 c chicken broth

I didn't use celery because I don't like it. I substituted flour for the tapioca because I wasn't able to find it & it's just supposed to thicken the sauce a little. This recipe makes enough to make another dish (Creamy chicken pastry shells).

Directions

Step 1: Stir together onion, carrot, celery & mushrooms; sprinkle with tapioca. Add chicken; sprinlke with salt, thyme, oregano, & pepper. Add wine & broth.

Step 2: Cover & cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 3 1/2-4 hours

I served it with rice (cooked with chicken broth instead of water for more flavor) & it was really good.

Beefy Tostada Pie

I love using my slow cooker & I love mexican food. This recipe is both & it's amazing!

Ingredients:

2 t olive oil

1 1/2 c chopped onion

2 lb ground beef

1 t chili powder

1 t ground cumin

1 t salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

1 c black olives

8 flour tortillas

4 c shredded cheese

sour cream, salsa, guacamole for topping

I ommitted the black olives because I don't like them. I used corn tortillas rather than flour becasue that's what I had on hand & I love the flavor.

Directions

Step 1: Heat oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion & cook until tender. Add ground beef, chili powder, cumin, salt & garlic; cook until browned. Stir in tomato sauce; heat through. Stir in black olives

Step 2: Make foil handles using 3 18x2 in strips of heavy foil. Place in slow cooker; crisscross foil to form spoke design. Lay 1 tortilla on foil strips. Spread with meat sauce & layer of cheese. Top with another tortilla, meat sauce & cheese. Repeat layers, ending with cheese. Cover & cook on high 1 1/2 hours.

I only used 2 handles. I don't recommend this. When I took it out the bottom started to fall apart. This probably wouldn't have happened if I would have used 3.

Step 3: To serve, lift out of slow cooker using foil handles & transfer to serving platter. Discard foil. Cut into wedges. Serve with desired toppings.

This was REALLY good but it's a little messy.

From one of my favorite slow cooker recipe books.

Guacamole

I used to hate guacamole. I didn't think it tasted bad...it just looked nasty. I finally opened up & tried it a few times. Now I love it! It's so easy to make too! Here is one of my favorite guacamole recipes, it's from Alton Brown.

Ingredients
3 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions
In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat. Drain, and reserve the lime juice, after all of the avocados have been coated. Using a potato masher add the salt, cumin, and cayenne and mash. Then, fold in the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved lime juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve.

The last time I made this I halved the recipe since it was just Josh and I. I forgot to pick up cilantro so it tasted like it was missing a little something but it was still very good. Guacamole, tortilla chips & salsa...mmmmm!