Cooking For Two

It's been really difficult to reduce the portions that I cook since we've gotten married. I grew up in a house with a total of 6 people and when I moved out, I lived with 3 girls until I we got hitched. Cooking for a slew of people is just what I do and I'm so sick of throwing out leftovers now that it's just the two of us.


This weekend, I was flipping through a couple of my new cookbooks and flagged some recipes I knew I wanted to try out.

Tonight I tested Korean Beef Kabobs, well, without the kabob. I was too lazy to do all that since it was just us but regardless, it was awesome and I'll definitely make it again!

I'm bad and didn't take a pic of the steaks before I started marinating them, probably because I did it at 7 this morning and you know how I feel about mornings... I don't feel em. NUMB would be a proper word.

So basically, I mixed together my marinade (soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, red wine vinegar, chili paste, then ginger, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper) and slid in some pretty steak pieces. I let those soak all day while I was at work and when I got home, it was just a matter of dicing up some veggies to go on the side.

Pretty veggies. Except the asparagus ... grr...my Food Lion is pretty pathetic when it comes to produce, that's why it's hiding in the back there... Oh well. Chopped up all those and added some olive oil, salt and pepper and that was it!

I threw everything on the grill pan and let it do work son. (Rob and Big anyone?)

---Drooling yet? You should be...--

I had some leftover rice in the fridge so I heated it up and threw the steak and veggies on top. Voila. DINNER WAS SERVED.

 We'll for sure have this meal again, anyone else wanna come over for dinner? Were having ham and cheese stuffed chicken Parmesan tomorrow... or would it be called chicken cordon blue with marinara? Whatever. It's gonna be cheesy so that equals TASTY.

:)

Shopping Day

This weekend's been pretty quiet down here on Homestead Road.

Saturday, the man and I just hung around the house. (That's code for me being a lazy bum in bed watching the Jersey Shore marathon while Kevin works his tail off in the yard.)

After he finished mowing, he came inside and asked if I wanted to go to dinner, and to be honest, I'm pretty sure he only asked me out to get me to take a shower. Whatever, it worked. :)

This morning, he decided he wanted to take a road trip to the promised land

which I only agreed to because the shops at Short Pump were on the way. It's a two hour drive to get to the stores and while we were in the car, I turned on the Step Up soundtrack and the man started dancing. I seriously tried to take a video but I wasn't sneaky enough but he had me in tears it was so hilarious.

After we pulled into the parking lot at the shops I knew I was in heaven. He must have followed me into 5 kitchen stores and at 8 clothing stores. It.was.awesome.

At one point, this conversation happened:

Him "Um, where are we?"
Me "Babe, were in Pottery Barn."
Him (whispering) "Oh. Well, this is where their gonna send me when I go to hell. I'll be in here stocking shelves"
Me (giggling uncontrollably) "Well, it'd be my heaven if only I'd get everything for free"

At that point, I knew it was time to go. I didn't do much damage except for a pasta and steam pot set I've been drooling over. I'd say I held back pretty well and even left the shops slightly disappointed only because I've been dreaming of a blue french oven for ages and have only found them $100 and up.

*** LE SIGH***

Blah.... so it was off to Bass Pro.... and I spent most of my time in there sitting on the bench. Although, I was glad to find Bodie a new Nylabone.

If you are a dog owner, these are the best things EVER. I had one for him that was the small size and it lasted him two years.  At ten bucks, you can't beat it, even if the shape looks...um...inappropriate.

Favorite Fridays

Today's topic on Favorite Fridays is my favorite summer moment and it's gotta be a no brainer for me!

If you read my blog, you'll already know that my husband proposed last June in the Outer Banks and we just got married there at the Roanoke Island aquarium in May. The whole week was fantastic and I tried to soak up the entire experience. Sometimes, I think brides get sucked up in the planning and the "business" aspect of our weddings. Trying to sit back and relax is HARD but looking back, I had a blast from start to finish.

For my destination wedding, we had a total of four beach houses; one for me and my bridesmaids, one for the grooms and his groomsmen, and then two others for each of our parents and family. Let me just say that putting 15 people in one house for one week is definitely interesting. ;) There were a few tears, a lot of laughs and ALOT of drinks!

 First off, I just need to brag for a moment and tell you that I planned the meals for 4 days out of the week and only spent 95 dollars at Costco. I was very proud of myself....Seriously. Do the math. 15 people eating for 4 days? I got enough to make breakfast AND dinner.(..okay so the $95 doesn't count the massive amount of  toilet paper. That was a separate budget!)

Spaghetti night in particular was sure to be a huge hit because my sister (who married an Italian that runs an Italian restaurant) was making homemade meatballs and fresh tomato sauce. Well, it took my wonderful sister ALLLLLL day to make her sauce and there was no doubt about it being delicious, I had to do was make the noodles. So, I found the biggest pot I could find since we were feeding the largest group I knew we'd have all week. We all know the routine; I filled the pot with water, brought it to a boil and dumped in about 4 pounds of pasta.
 
Everyone knows that I love to cook and I like to think that I'm not bad. I mean, there's no way I'd make it on Top Chef but my food is edible and normally it's rather tasty....but on this particular evening, I had enjoyed a couple beers and apparently that hinders my cooking abilities. My only guess is that my spoon wasn't long enough to get to the bottom of the pot to stir the pasta:

Yeaaahhhh, the entire pot of spaghetti had literally smoked. The pasta burned to the bottom of the pot and I just thought that we could still eat the parts that weren't crunchy. Wrong. It tasted like cigarettes. I had 15 people eating nothing but meatballs....I was half drunk and on the verge of tears. Of course I laugh about it now but at the time, it was  not funny. Still, the hungry one's ate a couple plates with noodles and others just got grumpy.

Hahahahahahaha I love you Meesh.

No one went hungry but I had to throw away about $15 worth of ash flavored crap. Oh well, coulda been worse I guess!

The rest of the week went off without a hitch. It was fantastic. I'm so glad we chose the aquarium for our wedding. It was unique, memorable and all of our vendors were amazing.

There's no question that my wedding week has to hold some of my fave summer memories!

we said our vows

we kissed

we laughed

we posed

we ate

we cut cake

I danced with my new husband

and I danced with my Daddy

I tossed my bouquet

and then struck a pose

my man threw his garter

then we danced the night away.

If You Really Knew Me

This week, over at Live What You Love, C Mae talked about the new show on MTV "If You Really Knew Me" in whichhigh school teens opening up from different cliques in their respective groups—the jocks, the nerds, emo's, and so on and so forth...They attempt to break down the typical high school barriers that we experience when you get labeled into a clique.

so I thought I'd share a few wee bits of me...and I'm warning you, you may not want to come over to my house after you read this. Hahaha

If you really knew me...you'd know

• I'm a slob but have OCD...there's crap everywhere, it's just in piles.
  
  
•  I'm secretly glad hubs leaves for work before I wake up because I can't wait to steal his blanket.
  
  
• My family makes the best 4th of July parade floats .... ever, and we won every year when I was a kid.
  
  (me as Nell from Dudly Do-Right)
  
  
•  I've been pulled over a total of SIX times and only got a speeding ticket once.
  
  
• My dad was in the movie Jaws but noone ever believes me.
  
  
  
  (My dad's the kid with the clarinet.)
  
  
•  I have bathroom radar. Not even joking, I know where toilets are no matter where I am.
  
  
• Speaking of bathrooms, I tend to go with the door open and the light off when I'm at home.
  
  
• I wasn't allowed to have gum when I was a kid. My hair was so long it somehow always got stuck.

 

(Check out that long hair.)

• My family is very loud. It's gotten to the point where I get headaches when I'm home.
  
  
• Coke over Pepsi any day of the week. Preferably in a can please.
  
  
  
  
•  I'm self conscious but I like to streak. Not in public, but I've been known to do it while friends are over.
  
  
• I had to go to STOP THIEF class when I was 16 because I stole a Cinderella coin purse. I'm not kidding. That actually happened. *sigh*
  
  
• I dip my Martin's bbq chips in cream cheese. I blame my best friend for that.
  
  
  
  
• And finally, It bothers me that noone I know named Doug has seen the movie The Hangover.

Step Up

I told you before that I drool over Channing Tatum so it should be no surprise to you that I have now watched all the Step Up movies.

The first one was awesome, second was meh, but the third is my favorite so far and I really thought it was gonna suck. I mean, a dance movie in 3d? Well, my friend Lindsey and I took it "2 the streets" (get it, anyone?) for a little date night last night.

We started off with a ridiculous amount of food at Texas Roadhouse. I remember telling her that if I was on death row I wanted their cheese fries as my last meal... not sure what I'd be on death row for but I guess I like fries? After she finished her giant margarita and my belly was hurting from all the carbs, we headed over to Regal Cinemas for our feature presentation.

I mean, it was pretty hard to find seats

and look how sexy sexy them glasses are.

It was actually pretty cool in 3D and it seemed like there was a ton more dancing than in the other two movies which I really like. You'll also see some cameos from some So You Think You Can Dance contestants as well as a few cast members from the first and second movies. 

 

My only suggestion would be to bring a jacket to the theatre. Turns out Linds doesn't like to cuddle and it was hard for me to keep warm. I also wasn't excited that this movie cost 3 extra dollars so no, I will not "kindly recycle my 3d glasses" as they asked me to. I paid 3 bucks for these damn things! 

Verbal Prenup?

Several months before we got married, I asked Kevin if he would think about having a verbal prenup and being a reasonable man, he asked for the terms. Now, I'm  not an overly demanding wife except for the occasional "getting yourself a beer? grab me one too babe."  ;) (I like my corona okay?) So, he knew it couldn't be anything extreme.... oh but now he eats his words.

You see, I asked that if I took cooking, dishes, vacuuming, windows, dusting, and bathrooms would he mind the mowing and the laundry? And to be completely honest, I help with the yard. I like being in the sun, maybe even pulling the tomato's outta the garden but LAUNDRY...it's a dirty word. I can't stand to do laundry. It's foul. I hate the sorting, the loading, moving to the dryer... no wait, this can't be dried, gotta hand it on the line blah...blaahhhh blech.

Well, I had to work about an hour overtime yesterday and when I walked in to a pile of fresh folded laundry it put a little smile on my face, as it usually does. But, when I ventured into the kitchen, I smelled a wonderful aroma. My man had already started on a batch of enchiladas. It may not sound like a huge thing but it's the first time since we got married he's helped with dinner. He knew that I had a hard day and to have him get home before me, take the pup out, check the mail, fold the laundry AND start dinner?

Sweety mcpoo right? And after dinner, he ate a piece of my cake experiment :

(White cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate icing, not bad. A little sweet but not bad. Probably gonna do lemon flavored cake next time.)

Then we snuggled in to watch Sunday nights episode of True Blood. AKA Twilight on crack. I love it. He, does NOT love it. At the end of each episode, he says "Well that was kinda f***ed up."

He's gotta love me.

Back to School

Today was another ridiculously busy day at work. I'll be so glad when classes get under way and things become normal. In the meantime, to welcome back all you school teachers and workers, here are 10 things you're teacher won't tell you but wish they could. This has been posted in our breakroom for about a year and I love it.

Happy New School Year!

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1. My rule for hormonal middle-schoolers: Keep your hands where I can see them.

2. My first year of teaching, a fifth-grader actually threw a chair at me. I saw him recently, and he told me he just graduated from college. That’s what makes it all worthwhile.

3. I have parents who are CEOs of their own companies come in and tell me how to run my classroom. I would never think to go to their office and tell them how to do their jobs.

4. We don’t arrive at school 10 minutes before your child does. And we don’t leave the minute they get back on the bus. Many of us put in extra hours before and after school.

5. We are not the enemy. Parents and teachers really are on the same side.

6. The truth is simple: Your kid will lie to get out of trouble.

7. Encourage your child to keep reading. That’s key to success in the classroom at any age.

8. We can tell the difference between a parent helping their child with homework and doing it for them (especially when they’re clueless in class the next day).

9. Teaching is a calling. There’s not a teacher alive who will say she went into this for the money.

10. Success is not achieved by just making kids memorize flash cards and prepping them for an Ivy League school. Sensible parents know there is a college for every kid, and that responsibility and good citizenship are what really drive success.

Shut the front door!

Yesterday, I was reading my usual blogs and came across Jen's weekly posts where she features her "Pearly Bloggers." On a whim, I shot her a quick email saying that I would love to be featured along with a few short facts about myself.

Well, while I was laying in bed this morning checking my Facebook, hotmail and other addictive things, I saw a sweet little email from Jen saying she'd love to feature me. Lo and behold, I saw my face smilin back at me this afternoon! Yeee! I'm such a fan of hers that I squeeled.

Sooooo, since a few of you readers may have just tuned in, I thought I'd share me and the hub's story.

It was 2006 and I had just started working as a secretary at a small machine shop. The staff totaled 15 and I was the only female but amongst those other 14 was a man named Kevin. He was super sweet and we hit it off right away although we were both dating other people at the time. Nothing came about until me and my boyfriend split. To tell you the truth, looking back, I don't know why Kevin even answered the phone when I called. I was going through a really tough time and it seemed like all I did was cry when I started talking. He became my shoulder to lean on and really helped me through.

A few months passed and Kevin left the machine shop to start working in DC. The money was great and being that he was now recently single, nothing was stopping him. He was making tracks in his career and I fully supported him. After a while, we decided to have dinner and it's basically history from there. We talked all the time and of course at all hours of the night. He helped me move a couple times, we went on vacations together, and eventually we met each other's families.I took to family right away and they invited me on a family vacation to the Outer Banks after our first year of dating. I like to think it was my initiation but regardless, I started to realize that this thing was for real.

His parents vacationed in the Outer Banks twice a year, every year and in 2009, Kevin decided it was time to move forward with our relationship. We had talked about marriage a couple times, but I never pushed the issue....PSSSHHH yeah right. Of course I left hints and bookmarked rings, who am I kidding!

So, June 23, 2009, we had a birthday party for my sister-in-law and after dinner, Kevin asked me to take a walk with him. I thought nothing of it because it was a routine for us at the beach to take sunset strolls. As we walked into the water, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I looked at him and screamed "Are you freaking kidding me?!?!" he pulls out the ring and says "Do I look like I'm kidding?" -- Of course I said yes. At this point, I'm bawling like a baby and look up to see my best friend Katie and my sister-in-law taking pictures from behind a bush!

Those sneaks! Well, after we got engaged, it only seemed logical to have our wedding at the beach too. I like to think it's where we fell in love and on May 2, I married my best friend.

Fast forward almost four months and here we are! Were adjusting to married life and I'm pretty sure he still likes me.   ;)

I'm so glad to have a few new readers! Stick around, we have got a few more home improvements were gonna tackle and I may or may not have a nervous breakdown in the meantime...