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!

Nutricious

I'm all about the snow these days. I'm still hoping for so much snow that it's a clean white sheet on the ground, but I was perfectly happy with a half a foot of snow. We went back to the same forest.

 You may be asking why I'm wearing rain boots in the snow. You see, I had a dilemma that morning. Should I keep my feet warm or dry? I'm still not sure which would've been the best decision. My little toesies were pretty cold in those rain boots, but they were dry!

Even the river has ice floating on it! It stayed below 10 degrees for a while that day through Sunday.

Can you see that tree in the water stuck behind the bridge? That's been there since the flood. I keep thinking I'll look and it will have floated off, but apparently, it likes the brick. If I were that tree, I think I'd venture off to see what the river sees farther downstream.

Well, I have good news for all you who follow this blog. I now have a job!! I'm excited to start working. Hopefully I will bring joy to the people I care for and the people I work with.
So what is the job? I was telling people that I'm going to be working in a nursing home. Apparently that gives off bad vibes. So I started saying long-term care facility. It's all about the connotations.
But really, I'm so happy that I'll be working in a nursing home. Working with geriatrics is in my top three choices of a career in nursing. Did you know that the word nurse comes from the Latin word nutricious meaning nourishing? That is what I hope to be: nourishing. A comfort. A joy. With help from Christ, I know I can accomplish this.

P.S. My sister, Emily, sent this recipe to me and we loved it! She's currently doing the Daniel fast which means eating only fruits, veggies, and whole grains. I'm a fan of spaghetti squash, but I usually just make spaghetti with it. This recipe gave it the flavors of the Southwest that we love most! Doesn't it just look so good and healthy?? http://bevcooks.com/2011/10/southwestern-stuffed-spaghetti-squash/

Much love, Em. I hope Phil survives the fast!

Wonder

There's no question why the call it a winter wonderland.
It's because there is so much wonder.

Isn't it hard to fathom the fact that every single snowflake it different?? There have been billions of quadrillions of snow flakes since they were created and still, each one is unique. That is one creative mind you have there, God.

Photo courtesy of my talented husband. :) Isn't it beautiful?? I had such a marvelous time walking through the woods. We could see tracks from someone else walking their dog, but it still felt like we were the only ones out there. So peaceful. I'm blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

You know what else there have been billions of, each created differently?

People!!
Out of all the tons of people created, every single one has had their own personality, their own appearance, their own backgrounds. We are excited by different things. We have different callings. We love differently. Different things irk us. We are so different. But we all have at least one thing in common: One Great Creator.

Different is beautiful.

Brussels...unfortunately not Belgium

I guess this is what comes of getting a puzzle from a thrift store. Can you see the missing piece in the mountain?

Haha. Oh well. It was still fun. But what do you do with a puzzle with a missing piece? I can only think to recycle it.

So what did we have for our first Meatless Monday? Oh please don't ask. You see, Monday, January 2nd was a holiday. Ergo, it felt like a Saturday. AKA--we totally forgot it was Meatless Monday and had pizza for dinner. Haha...oops. But we don't count that one.
So what did we have for our second Meatless Monday? Oh, thanks for asking!! We had minestrone soup and our favorite quick dinner rolls. I will admit that I did not make the soup from scratch. Have you heard of the Bear Creek soup mixes? They are wonderful. I would endorse them. But the rolls were homemade. MMMM!!

In other food stories...
I've been wanting to try Brussels sprouts for a while now since I can't remember having them. So when The Pioneer Woman made them on her Christmas special show, I knew I'd found my recipe. They were so simple. I didn't get a good pic, so I'll just let you travel to her website for them. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/12/brussels-sprouts-with-balsamic-and-cranberries/ So what did I think of the sprouts? Well, I'm certainly not going to eat them till I bloat, but they were good. If you like cabbage, you'd love these. I do like cabbage, but mostly as cold cole slaw. Would I make them again? Yes...in a few months. What's the best part about this?? Matt said he would make them again. Score!
Word from the wisened: While boiling the balsamic vinegar, please do not lean over the pot and take a big whiff. I think I singed quite a few nose hairs doing that very thing. Who knew hot balsamic was so strong?? It took a while for my olfactory sensors to recover from that one. 
Don't say I didn't warn you.

So now I'm trying to come up with more new things to cook this week. I might as well go all out while I have so much time on my hands. Any ideas??