Shout out to our Grandmas

I would like to inform you all of my successful first attempt at making chicken-fried steak.

Woohoo! Matt took control of the frying process. As you can see, he is very talented. These turned out beautifully.

Matt's grandmother, GG, gave me The Pioneer Woman's cookbook for Christmas and I have been making recipes from it like crazy. (Thanks, GG!!) When I saw her recipe (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/02/chicken-fried-steak/) for chicken-fried steak, I thought it looked pretty similar to my grandmother's recipe. Mamaw, these turned out almost as good as yours!! And the gravy was good too!! However, there is one thing on which I need y'all's advice. Mashed potatoes.
Matt and I are still not quite pleased with our mashed potatoes. Are we missing something? This last time, we just added milk, butter, salt, and pepper. Should we be adding something else??
Anyway, I was so excited that my favorite meal on the planet turned out well on the first go-round. It's not the healthiest meal, but like you say, Mamaw, "We don't have it everyday, so..."
Thanks to our grandmothers for the help and inspiration. Mamaw, I will always love your chicken-fried steak the best! Can't wait till the next time I see you!
Love,
Britt

A Lovely Weekend

Last weekend, our sister, Ali, came up for a visit! We had a blast! You might have seen my Instagram photo via Facebook here: http://instagr.am/p/HJtApqN2Dv/. Matt and I have been wanting to visit Ithaca, NY for a while and so we all went to check it out. What we found was that Cornell University is beautiful. I would love to tour all the old, gorgeous buildings on that campus. We also discovered that Ithaca has a fun downtown district with bunches of cute shops! We (read: Ali and I) had fun shopping around. And I love that there are so many waterfalls around us!! We don't see many of those where I'm from.

We had fun cooking together over the weekend! We made a pizza which was delicious. This was one of our best pizza doughs yet. We blended all-purpose and bread flour and it was perfect.

And cinnamon roll waffles for breakfast from this website: http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/11/cinnamon-roll-waffles.html. Yum!!

Holla.
Ali, thank you for doing so many of our dishes! We had so much fun with you! Hope you can visit again soon!
Oh, and we also started a game of Axis & Allies. 

...It is still going.
...Matt and I might not finish it for a good, long while.
...Oh boy.

In a Quiet Place...with Chocolate.

Two days ago, I came home from work to the only gift I wanted--chocolate!!!!!!

Isn't he the greatest?? I'm telling you, these chocolates are gourmet. They're from a local chocolate shop in town. Oh my. So good.

I finally finished Matt's pajama pants!!! They were meant for a Christmas gift...whoops. Happy Valentine's Day, Matt!! :)

Sorry for the grainy pic. It was taken with my phone. Unfortunately, you can't tell by the picture how baggy these are. It's quite hilarious. Just think parachute pants. Haha. I might have to take them in a little. Also, the non-matching lines are funny. But they're comfy-cozy right, Babe?
I made banana muffins yesterday and they were soo good! I just love muffins. It was a really simple recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-muffins-ii/detail.aspx. I love simple recipes. I got a couple new books from the library yesterday. Have you seen Martha Stewart's new pies and pastries cookbook? I rented it and I love it!! I think I'm going to have to make a few recipes from it and probably copy a few down. Well done, Martha!
It's a rainy day today, so I think I'll make myself some spiced tea, drive to the park, and sit in my car in the rain with a good book. I might take one of those chocolates with me. :) Doesn't that sound marvelous?? I hope you all find peace in a quiet place today.

Nutty

Goodness me.
It has been a while, hasn't it?
Update on my new job: I'm loving it. The residents at the home are wonderful! I love caring for them. And the nurses have all been kind and very helpful through my orientation.
I've been working evenings, so any chance I get to spend with Matt, I soak it all in. I had the night off yesterday, so we cooked dinner together. Let me tell you--it was good. I saw a recipe for nutty chicken stir fry in my Taste of Home magazine (thanks for the subscription, Mamaw!!) and I've been wanting to make it for a while. I'm glad we did because it is going in the recipe box and coming out whenever we feel like Thai food. Here's the link on their website: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Nutty-Chicken-Stir-Fry. My favorite thing about it is that it's made with ingredients that we normally have on hand--either in the pantry or in the freezer. I still have never bought curry of my own accord because I'm not sure I would cook with it often enough. We also attempted to make egg drop soup. I say attempted because the end product was unlike any egg drop soup we'd ever had before. Here's why: Little Brittany measured the chicken broth wrong and only added half of what was needed. Then Matt decided that the eggs are the best part of the soup (true) and added an extra one. Can you see where this is going? As it's cooking, we're thinking something's not right. We finally realized we needed to add more broth, but it was too late. Basically it looked like half creamy/half thin soup, but it still tasted fine. What it really needed was some chopped chives. Mmm. Our creation looks nothing like the picture in the magazine, but I liked it quite a lot.

See what I mean? It was a good first attempt, though. Did it inspire you to make Thai food??

Hope you all are doing well!