turkey, blind dating and beating M in cards

I have successfully made a Thanksgiving dinner for 21 people this past Thursday. I use the word dinner loosely because well, it wasn't like the feast your Grandmother's put on the table every year. I thought I could skim the surface and have no one notice but sure enough, as the dishes were being passed I heard someone say, "Wait? Is there stuffing?"
Daaaang!
Every two weeks, the young staff gets together and has their training time~ and the staff women make and bring lunch and dinner so that the family that hosts isn't responsible for feeding 20 plus staff which most times includes men who feast mainly on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and so are malnourished and feel that they should stock up on good healthy food during the training time. When else are they going to get home cooking when they're far from their families and are single?
Which by the way, I remember there always being a large plethora of single amazing godly women out there? (And I still know of some) But seriously, midwestern girls, get your behinds out to California! There are some good lookin' men who love Jesus and want a wife.
Email me.
Anyway, I made dinner for said men and their female staff teammates and asked Mikey if he would help me tackle "thanksgiving" style since it was the thursday before.
He said yes.
So we made turkey, mashed potatoes (homemade, please I can't eat boxed. It's against everything my Grandma Eunice stands for!) corn bread (uh, those were boxed cause I'm snobby but also lazy) apple cranberry sauce (homemade), salad (bagged, oops) and pumpkin dessert which is the best dessert I have ever made and will be making it two more times this next week! It's ah-mazing!
Anyway, needless to say, I am really enjoying cooking. I can't stand the dishes but I can get through them alright if I just take a deep breath and remember how loving it is to serve those I am with.
Does anyone love doing the dishes? Seriously? Anyone out there?
I think my Dad might.
Edwardo? Dishes? Yes?

Anyway, what does this have to do with life? Nothing too revealing! I am just updating you on how fantastically normal my life is at this moment.
Also, question... are you writing down all the ones to respond to when you comment? Here's a review:
single and ready to mingle?
love to do dishes?
and the third and final.....

is it bad if I am addicted to this game and I love playing with husband and so I beg and beg and beg him to play only to totally dominate and beat him to a pulp. I mean, I'm not trying. It's just that I know he plays because he loves me but the whole time he keeps saying, "Why bother? Why should I try?"
And I just keep giggling...
is this bad?
Okay so that's my life at this moment....
P.S. in other news, the one day Pioneer Woman comes to LA is the ONE DAY this whole week I have plans I can't break. She is going to NY for two signings but LA only once? Who came up with her schedule? I would like to make a complaint!

Thankful

We had a housewarming party last night and invited a small group of friends over. It was one of my favorite nights and I'm so thankful we could have our house "warmed" by such great people.
Thank you to everyone who brought food and to everyone who came.
We love our friends!
We're so blessed.I was reminded of things to be thankful for as I sat at the patio doorway looking out at everyone. I just felt so blessed to be surrounded by such kind and awesome people.
I love that a lot of these friendships, I married into. It's so great to know your husband has awesome people in his life as well.

The dangerous dessert table!!

I am so thankful for:
a husband who is generous to me and to his friends.
friends who make time to come over and party.
the little things in life like frosted cookies and spicy smelling candles.
friends who came over ahead of time to help me in the cooking chaos.
our home.

What are some things you are thankful for this year?

Creamy Tomato Basil

Have you ever found a recipe you could just make over and over and over again? Recently, I've had a couple of those recipes but nothing, oh! no! nothing! can quite compare to this amazing tomato basil soup recipe I found and then formed to fit our taste buds.
If you remember, I have somewhat of an odd obsession with tomato sip, stemming from this post way back in September.
I think it's a bit odd since I was four days away from my wedding and all I could write about on my blog was my cravings for tomato soup.
I'm such a strange child sometimes.

Anyway, here, my lovelies is the best recipe for tomato soup. It's fairly easy and amazingly delicious. I couldn't imagine my recipe book (or life for that matter) without it.

2 T Unsalted Butter
2 T olive oil
1 large onion (while I was cutting this, I was crying so hard Mikey was concerned. Crazy!)
1 T all-purpose flour
1 6oz. jar of tomato paste
1 T minced garlic (although I use 2 because Mikey LOVES garlic~ 2 is not too overpowering)
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 c skim milk (or whatever you have in the refridgerator)
3 1/2 lbs. ripe tomatoes (cored and chopped coarsely)
salt
pepper
2 bunches of basil

**Melt the butter in the olive oil in a saucepan over low heat. Add the onion, cook til tender, sprinkle the flour over the onion and stir, add garlic and cook, stirring constantly. (about 2 min) Add tomatoes, basil, paste, and broth. Raise heat to med-low and simmer, COVERED until soup has thickened (30 minutes). Season with salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cool slightly. Puree in either a blender or food processor in small batches. Stir in milk.
Just before serving warm through but do not boil!**

Eat and Enjoy!

Ohhh perhaps a little too close for comfort.... foggy lense!

Veteran's Day

I can remember a conversation I had with my brother as he prepared to head over to the Middle East after 9/11. It was his decision to go, no one was forcing him to go, and he had already finished one tour in the ME. But Jordan calmly told me, "How can I stay here when all my friends are going? This is what I've been trained to do."
It really spoke to me of his sense of duty and loyalty.

One of my favorite speakers in the Navigators, Jim Rinella, talked about he will stop soldiers in the airport and thank them for fighting overseas. He tells this story of how man replied, "We do it for you, sir."

Instead of thanking soldiers for their sense of duty and loyalty to fighting real life, physical evil in this world, we often give them our opinion about the war and their part in it.
But have we ever stopped to think about why these men are fighting?
"We do it for you, sir."
No matter who you are or what your opinion is of this war, lets be thankful today for the men and women who have fought for the freedom we have today.
I know I'm thankful for my Granddaddy and my brother!
Happy Veterans Day!

when does it reach... ya know, that level?

When does a friendship started on a blog, kept up on a blog and basically for 99.9% of it is one-sided become "not healthy"?
Let me explain.
Since Abbie K (located here) had a link on the side of her blog titled, "Sites I thoroughly enjoy" and I decided to check one of them out so I clicked on the blog entitled "Pioneer Woman".

Since that click, I have spent countless hours scouring through her recipes and reading her love story which made me laugh so hard.

I've tried the green beans, the orange spicy chicken, her amazing moist pumpkin spice muffins, her delicious blueberry pie that I made about five times in a row last winter/spring cause it was that good! I've danced with her chicken strips, delighted many a guests with her peanut butter pie (sooo rich). Her crash potatoes are a staple side dish in this house and wedding guests stuff themselves with yummy french breakfast pastries I made.
All from Pioneer Woman

There was also this infamous cinnamon roll comment that was made that made me laugh so hard I texted Jennifer (while we were both in Japan) and demanded she start reading this site. It became a crazy obsession. (The comment on her cinnamon rolls was later removed because I wonder if someone warned her, it was borderline inappropriate! But soooo funny!)
Anyway!
It was an obsession at first, waiting for the updates of her love story and her recipes. But then it cooled, like any love affair.

Call me, naive, if you will, but I seriously thought Pioneer Woman had a small gathering...
I know! Naive!
Then she wrote this cookbook, which is doing so well and her blog gathers thousands of commenters and her personality is just so fun and sparkly that she has become somewhat of a star!
Lines and lines and LINES of men, women and children are gathering to have her sign her cookbook for them. And while I try to stay away from this sort of thing.... I can't help but really really want to meet her and have her sign my cookbook which I have yet to buy.

I watched her on the Bonnie Hunt show (click here)
and am now waiting with anticipation for her book tour to swing through LA.
Click here to see if she comes to a city near you.

Well, whether this makes me weird or not, I am still a fan of Pioneer Woman's!
I seriously think, anyone, male or female, who enjoys cooking, enjoys a good story, enjoys the country (or just funny stories about people in the country doing weird things like checking pregnancies in cows~ yikes!) I ardently suggest you test Pioneer Woman's site out.
You won't be disappointed.

Now... if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go look up ticket prices for Kelli to come out to have her cookbook signed as well!

What Pioneer Woman recipe/blog entry do you enjoy the most?

daily.bread

Jesus said, "I am the bread of life"And when the disciples said, "Lord teach us to pray"
Jesus included this sentence, "And give us our daily bread"
And before that... the Israelites in the desert, wandering hungry asking for food and they received manna... which arrived every morning and only allowed for a daily supply of food.

It's so great how subtle Jesus was and yet, how not subtle at all. Over and over he reminds us that He is the only thing that can satisfy us.
Drink this water and you will never thirst.
I am the bread of life.
I am the way.
I am the Truth.
Recently, I was wondering how I could extend my time with Jesus... wandering how I could bring him more into my day to day.
Instead of just going to church on Sunday or just reading the bible for 5 minutes in the morning, I've been challenged to be more conscious of Jesus throughout the day.

But how?
And then it occurred to me.
Experiencing more of God can be as easy when I am doing my daily love of baking. As I knead the bread and form it to take shape, I can thank God that He is all I will ever need.
My daily bread.

What are some ways you've been experiencing God?

making it a home

A wise woman once told me, "When you live in Southern California you have to consider your patio (outside space) another room in your house." And with that said, she and her husband gifted Mikey and I with a patio furniture set. Yet, she left the decorating up to us.

Here is the beautiful patio set our friends gave us. It gets bright sunshine in the morning as the sun comes up over that back corner in the morning and makes its way diagonally across the patio. So in the evening, this back corner is lit. I think this is the only area that gets sunlight all day.

This is in front of the table and chairs (I'm standing at the doorway). The window you can catch a slight peek of is our kitchen window. We're hoping to raise the herb garden you see on the ground here, up one day to the window level. Right now I can't see the herbs just looking out of the kitchen, I have to look down~ but if we raise the herbs we could not only see the herbs but open our window and take them to cook with. Convenient!

Mikey and I took some advice and went with it. We knew we wanted to enjoy and develop the beautiful back patio area God had given us, yet, we're both new to this whole "groundskeeping" side of our marriage.
But we had a lot of fun looking at different plants and flowers, asking ourselves, "Is this what we want?" It was actually a lot of fun to be thinking about our back patio area and to finally get some "life" on it.

This is probably my favorite corner... someday we're hoping to get a little table and chair or two there but for now stealing one of the patio chairs that came with the table works just as well. I love sitting here in the morning underneath a tall tree (not pictured) that provides amble amount of shade while letting some sunlight through. It's perfect to sit here and drink coffee!!

Here is our back door, which is actually the door our guests and selves use the most. :)

In the corner, by my little coffee nook is this tree. It's a Japanese Camellia and I love it. We chose one that hadn't bloomed yet but as you can tell, it's about to real soon. The flowers are a gorgeous dark pink and I am so excited to see it bloom I head out every morning to check to see if anything has opened. I'll be sure to keep you posted. :)

You all know the Lime-Lemon, our little unknown!

And this my beautiful friends is the start of a hydrangea...
the blooms start this green color

and eventually start turning colors... green to white-ish

to pale pink!

this is another section of our herb garden. This large leaf is a strawberry leaf. We're experimenting with whether or not we can actually grow strawberries.

Herb Garden side 2... mint, basil, tomato plant and rosemary!

Our hanging basket of loveliness

Please come and enjoy coffee/tea/hot cocoa sometime. Mikey and I fixed this up so we could entertain... so come on over! The patio is open year round here in So Cal!