New Recipes

I'm sure JD and I use the recipe page on this blog more than anyone else. Since we frequently repeat our meals, it has been very nice to have them all organized in one place.

Recently we've been wanting to re-make recipes and find ourselves either digging through Pinterest or my favorites until I can remember where I saw the recipe. So, in attempt to keep-our-favorite-recipes-in-one-place, here are a few new ones...

Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce

 

This was delicious, I mean to. die. for. The chicken had a crunchy outside and the creamy basil sauce was to amazing too. Recipe here.

Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole

sorry no picture for this one. But again...so good. Recipe here.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Quick and easy and great for a cold winter night. We used almond milk to make it a bit lighter instead of the half-and-half.

Steak Fajitas

This was JD's creation and it was "one of the best meals we've had in a long time." I think he said that at least five times while eating dinner that night.

Ingredients for Marinade

1 cup of brown sugar

3/4 cup sherry

1 cup soy sauce

couple shakes of garlic powder

-Mix all together

Ingredients for Fajitas

steak for marinading (we bought steak cubes) about 1-1/2 pounds

onion

green peper

tortillas 

sour cream (optional)

Recipe

1. Mix marinade 

2. Place steak and marinade in crock pot and simmer on low for 5 hours

3. 15 minutes before eating, chop and saute onion and pepper in a tablespoon of oil olive. Spoon in a couple of spoonfuls of the marinade into vegetable mixture.

4. Serve and Enjoy!!

We love these sites...if you need ideas check them out. 

The Girl who ate Everything

Skinny Taste

it's been awhile

I've been a bad blogger and went on a short hiatus, but it was nice to enjoy the holidays and rest and relax. It's been too long to catch up, so I'll just share what we've been up to lately. 

JD surprised me with an iPhone for Christmas and I finally feel in the loop. I love Instagram and the fact that I can look up a recipe while in the grocery store...just did that yesterday. I'm still getting to know all the apps. What's your favorite? 

So let's catch up via Instagram. If you already follow me, there's not much new here.

and a bit of commentary to further explain...we went antiquing last weekend at an awesome in  spot in Fredrick that I discovered online. It get's me very excited to someday own a home and to fill it with furniture that's just our style. I got a few things that I will hopefully share in another post.

We are still going strong with our Fright night dates. One picture is from a coffee date at Barnes and Noble and the other one is out at dinner.

I made a delicious peanut butter pie that we devoured in just about 3 days, and I'm still juicing. I took a bit of a break over the holidays, but I'm glad to be back in the routine. Mini Migraine update: still getting them weekly and January has not gone very well (not to mention I had to fight my insurance company to continue paying for my medicine), but overall they have become more mild. I think I'm also just adjusting to life as a chronic migraine patient.

I've also been dabbling with my creative side. I made some mini-cards and pillows. It's hard to tell from the picture but these cards are about 2.5 inches long. My next grad class starts this week so I wanted to have some fun before my weekends become filled with grad work again.

Hoping to be back with another post soon. Maybe even tomorrow.

p.s On another note, please pray for JD. He got the stomach flu last night and is sick. sick sick.

p.s.s Are you on instragram? If so, follow me @ mmdouglas1

Christmas Cookie Tradition

Do you remember last year when I vowed to start a Christmas cookie tradition? [Read all about our Christmas traditions here].  My goal is to try making a new Christmas cookie each year.

I'm thrilled I squeezed in some cookie-making time because the 3 weeks leading up to Christmas were very busy. Now, these were very simple, but I needed simple among the craziness. So this year I made Rolo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies.

oh, and please don't mind the minor date mistake. Guess I was so excited for the upcoming year, it should say 2012.

These were great, just follow your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and wrap the dough around a rolo. After you roll the dough around the rolo, place the cookie sheet into the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. It prevents the caramel from oozing out.

I also like to incorporate the wrapping paper we used that year. This year I used the wrapping paper on the name tag and last year the wrapping paper was the back drop.

i can't believe it....i met the peterskis

I'm really excited for two reasons.

#1 I met my favorite bloggers.
#2 It proved yet again how sweet my husband is for waiting with me for 3 hours to meet them. Oh, and I should mention we had to wait outside in the cold.

Last Wednesday we went into Georgetown to meet Young House Love. We actually got there around 4pm and did some shopping and grabbed dinner since the event did not start until 6:30. I've been following them on their book tour so I should have known there was going to be a line. I anticipated a line actually, but not one 2 blocks long.

They were giving away free homemade cookies and hot cider and we made some friends while waiting in line, but three hours is still three hours. We were so excited to finally get inside. Inside they were handing out wine and popcorn. 
We still had to wait in line as we headed upstairs. But at last we finally saw them!

When we got up to meet them, I pretty much just stammered over my words and sounded like a complete fool. They were so kind and energetic even after talking to their fans for over 3 hours.  My photo with them turned out awful (they looked great, but me not so much), so you can just imagine me standing there with them. It was quite the adventure and I'm glad we went.

p.s. I'm still waiting on there book to come as it was sold out everywhere, even on Amazon. Looks like it should finally arrive next week.

November Recap

After a full month of friends and family (we have been gone every weekend), I'm so thankful we live close to the ones we love. Yes, it made for quite the hectic month, but it was well worth it all.

Weekend by weekend, here's what we did.

November 3-4
We went home to Pennsylvania to celebrate Donna's (JD's mom) 60th Birthday. It was really a joint party for Donna, Scott, and JD but turning 60 seems to outweigh turning 28 and 35.

November 10-11
We drove back to Pennsylvania, but this time to West Chester for a college reunion. Love that gang. Walking on campus made us feel old once we realized we graduated almost 6 years ago. As much as I miss my roommates, I miss that city too.  We celebrated Vicki's new baby bump and got an update on the Kang's new food truck business.

November 17-18
We spent the weekend in National Harbor, Maryland celebrating JD's birthday. Everything was a surprise and revealed through a series of 3 poems; the final clue resulting in two surprise visitors, his dad and Audrey. I didn't take a lot of photos but here are a few.

November 24-25
Thanksgiving!! We got to soak in quality time with both families and eat a lot of great food.

Now... there's 4 weeks until Christmas. There's shopping to be done, papers to grade, projects to complete, and Christmas Cheer to be had! Hoping for December to go a bit slower.

Office Sneak Peek

Remember back in the summer when I was on a mission to transform our office (read that post here)? Well I got about 60% done and then school started.  We are hosting our first house guest this week so it got us back in business. JD went through a lot of boxes and reorganized the closet to accommodate a lot more storage. We are almost done. Just need to a few things. So here is a sneak peak.

Hopefully I'll be back with the whole reveal by the end of the week. 

cha-cha-changes

A post all about changes.

Let's start with the prettiest. Today I took a stroll outside and snapped some pics of the fall foliage. 

Next, our side table. I originally wrote about it here, back when my photography skills were awful.  I created this side table with my dad. For some reason it didn't quite feel right. I wasn't sure if it was the shininess, shape, or color. So, one day I took it outside and sanded it down. It now has more of an earthy feel and I love it. Nothing a little sand paper couldn't fix.

Before:

After:

2nd, my world map art. I also wrote about this here, filled with more photos in terrible lighting. I bought a custom frame for it, but hated the color. For awhile I had it up without a frame, but then decided it looked bare. So, I painted the frame with some extra paint I had leftover from our douglas duo sign.
Here it is now...(it's been like this for months now)

Then, I sanded it down to expose some of the darker color.

4th, I dyed my hair...dark. I went this dark to help with maintenance because it fades so quickly and I needed dark hair for my Halloween costume, just kidding I just wanted a change for fall.

Just call me Katie Perry...kidding again.

5th, a small paint makeover. I had this piece of wood left over from making our side table. I was going to throw it away, but JD actually inspired this makeover. 
Before:

After: A coffee table tray.

Meet Triple B

JD and I are beyond excited to have another nephew. Meet triple B, Brady Bryn Black .

After an emergency delivery, he spent 2 days in the NICU. But now, mom and baby are doing great and are settling in at home. Becca is a true champ.

We are now an aunt and uncle to 2 nephews and 4 nieces. We love them all. Someday....we'll give them a cousin ;)