Florida, Part 1: Resort Relaxation

I know, I know.  I promised Florida pictures last week.  Clearly, I had other things to get off my chest.  Also, it turns out that I enjoy the actual taking of the pictures more than the editing of the pictures.  That being said . . . I hope you are ready for a ton of pictures!  I am going to have to break this into several posts due to abundance of said pictures.  Besides, some places were just so magical (hint, hint) that they deserve their own dedicated posts.

As previously mentioned, Nathan & I were lucky enough to escape to Florida for seven wonderful days (nine, if you count our travel days) in the beginning of February.  It was a combined vacation/honeymoon/bucket list sort of trip.  And it was a blast.  It was sunny, warm, responsibility-free, and fantastically amazing.  We had a pretty busy itinerary on this trip, and we were up by 6 AM every morning to start our day.

We stayed at a Disney resort, which was SO convenient.  The Walt Disney World Area (parks & resorts) covers 40 square miles.  The place is HUGE.  I can’t imagine renting your own car and staying offsite and trying to drive all these places.  We had free shuttles to every park (and we never waited more than 5 minutes for a shuttle), free transportation to and from the airport, extra hours at the theme parks, and a lot of other perks that made our trip incredibly easy.  Our resort was the Port Orleans Riverside, and it was beautiful.  It was always pretty quiet (as evidenced by these pictures, taken in the middle of the afternoon).

 

One thing we liked best about the resort was how pretty it was.  Our resort was huge and our building was a 5-10 minute walk from the main building, but the walk was so scenic and enjoyable.  The river running through the resort is man-made and only about five feet deep.  They had outdoor moves every night (kind of like a drive in, except you walk in), which was really cool.  We walked to the movie screening at the Port Orleans French Quarter (resort right next to ours) one night and watched Tangled.

Our building was called the Acadian House.  It had wonderful views and quiet courtyards surrounding it.

Our resort had six pools.  There was one big pool near the main building that had the waterslide and walkup bar, and it was the crowded, noisy one where all the kids and families went during the day.  The rest of the pools were scattered throughout the resort between buildings and were referred to as “quiet” pools.  There were no kids there, and you could just relax on your lounge chair, read a book, and take a nap.  Ahhh, relaxation.  That was where we spent our pool time.

The other awesome part of our resort was the riverboat transportation.  Because we were on the water, we had the option to take boat transportation to Downtown Disney, which is basically a big touristy area with restaurants, shops, and shows.  About a month before our vacation, we made dinner reservations at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney for the fourth night of our stay.  We were lucky enough to get to take the riverboat cruise directly to House of Blues!

 

 

It was such an awesome night, even though the wind picked up and we had to ride the shuttle back when the riverboat closed early.  It was our one sit down dinner out, so we spoiled ourselves with drinks, dinner, and dessert.  House of Blues was a really cool restaurant with incredible food and a great atmosphere.  Downtown Disney had some live music that night, which was pretty cool too.  But the most memorable part of the evening came in the form of some chocolate-y goodness.

This triple chocolate cheesecake is literally the most incredible thing I have ever eaten in my life.  I got so excited when it was placed in front of me that I started eating before I remembered to take a picture.  This cheesecake is so good that I have not been able to stop thinking about it.  And it’s been a month and a half.  I even had a dream about cheesecake.  Seriously.  I may have a problem.  Anyhow, if anyone has a recipe for a triple chocolate cheesecake, please share it with me.  It’s my life mission to recreate the deliciousness.

And that concludes round one of the pictures.  Stay tuned for more!

Thanksgiving Weekend – The Road to Christmas

This year, we had a quiet Thanksgiving at my house with my parents and my brother Dakota.  I was really excited because this meant that the menu was entirely up to us, and I got the chance to make a large part of it.  We had all the usual staples (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing) along with some old favorites (my grandma’s creamed corn) and some new recipes (a delicious apple pomegranate fruit salad discovered on Pinterest).  We even got out our wedding dishes to celebrate Thanksgiving in style.

 

We capped off the evening with some apple pie and the Patriots kicking the Jets’ you-know-what on national TV (Super Bowl, here we come).  Could it get any better than that?  I think not.

 

After recovering from our combined turkey/sugar comas, we did Black Friday in style.  As in, we placed some online orders and went to bed.  We let all the crazies do their shopping overnight, and then we headed out around 5 AM.  In just over an hour, Nathan and I managed to drive to, shop at, and check out from Home Depot, Kohl's, Sears, and Target.  We waited in line at exactly zero of these places, and we left with every “early bird” item that we came to get.  Seriously, no one was there.  I don’t know why anyone would wait in line for hours on Thursday night when they could get a few hours sleep and then go out in the morning.  We were so proud of our amazing shopping skills that we rewarded ourselves with breakfast out and a nap before heading out a few hours later to make our last couple stops.

We were home and done shopping by 1, so after another nap we decided to take advantage of Nathan’s night off work and decorate the house!  With the encouraging words of Clark W. Griswold and Buddy the Elf, we managed to decorate the entire interior of our house (minus the tree, which someone says we can’t get until next weekend).  Now the house is ready for Christmas!

 

Finally, we capped things off with some good old fashioned football on Saturday.  The more team spirited members of the family double layered so that they could wear Ohio State gear over their Oregon State gear.  I wore purple.

 

Everyone was excited about Ohio State’s big win . . . much less so about Oregon State’s big loss.  Oh well.  There is always next year (for both the winning AND losing teams, ironically).

Besides, I was rooting for the Ducks!

Home Cooked Summer

I might have mentioned that with Nathan home this summer, I had to get creative with my cooking and learn some new recipes.  Before his injury, I only cooked dinner for both of us twice a week, he cooked on Monday nights, and the other four nights a week I got eat whatever junk I wanted.  Suddenly there were two of us at home seven nights a week, and my limited repertoire of recipes got really old, really fast.  I want to share some of the delicious, homemade recipes that we have tried recently.

I am particularly proud of a dinner that I made last week. I found this recipe from for spaghetti with sautéed chicken and grape tomatoes on Pinterest.  Due to lack of ingredients in my house, not caring about the calorie count, and frankly sheer laziness when it comes to cooking, I didn’t follow this recipe very well.  But that is exactly why I am so proud!  I took the general concept, changed it to suit my ingredients and cooking abilities, and it still turned out great!  We both loved it, it was super easy, and super filling – the three keys too a successful meal in my house!

I hate working with raw meat and am way too lazy to sauté chicken like the recipe says, so I used the pre-done frozen grilled chicken strips from Costco.  I also used regular spaghetti, because that is what I have (and also because pigs will fly before I purchase low carb pasta).  I also substituted minced garlic and garlic powder for garlic cloves, regular olive oil for extra virgin, and lemon pepper instead of regular black pepper.  Then I decided to sauté the tomatoes with all the seasonings that were supposed to go on the chicken (basil, oregano, salt, and pepper) in addition to the garlic.

   When everything was cooked, I just had to dump the spaghetti and chicken in with the tomatoes and mix, add some fresh basil, and sprinkle on parmesan cheese.

And I ended up with this beautiful bowl of deliciousness:

Of course, there are plenty of unhealthy dessert type things you can make from scratch as well.  And you can bet we dabbled in that!  Nathan decided to conquer homemade desserts for my birthday, and it was a major success!  First, he made me a homemade Funfetti cake.

I can't tell you how he made it, but I can tell you that it was sugary deliciousness.  So much so that you need a glass of milk to eat it.  But on your birthday, you deserve to indulge. 

The other birthday surprise that he made me was just as yummy and delicious.  Not to mention super duper awesome.

Yes folks, that is butterbeer!  In mugs straight from Hogwarts (Thank you, Erika)!  If you do not know what butterbeer is, you need to brush up on your Harry Potter knowledge.  Suffice to say that it is sugar, cream soda, and more sugar.  Yum, yum, and more yum!

As of today, Nathan is officially in a shoe and back to work, so it’s back to cooking just a few nights a week.  However, I really hope we can keep this pattern up (although maybe more on the healthy side and less on the sugar coma dessert side).  We are both at a place where we need to get back into shape and get rid of a few extra pounds, and I think cooking more meals from scratch is going to help us get there.  So bring on the recipes, Pinterest!

Fourth Of July Fun

Yes, I know July 4th was nearly a week ago.  As you may have noticed by my lack of blogging, I am a little behind lately.  Besides, my neighbors are still shooting off fireworks.  So if they insist on doing that, I insist on sharing our 4th of July a few days late.

The past several years, the more ambitious members of my family have started a tradition of running a 10K called the Butte to Butte on the morning of July 4th (the less ambitious members of the family, aka my siblings, have always managed to find a reason to stay in bed).  First it was me and my parents, then Nathan joined in.  This year Nathan had to sit out due to all the broken toes, but my Uncle Rob joined the festivities.

For all you non-runners, a 10K is slightly over 6 miles.  The first mile of this race is all uphill, the second mile is downhill, and the last four are flat.

I love doing this run, but I am setting a disturbing pattern of being in worse and worse shape every year when it rolls around.  I don’t think I had run any farther than 4 miles since LAST July 4th!  This year, I ran the 10K in a little less than an hour, and only ten seconds slower than last year.  Not bad, except that I felt about ten times worse this year.  I felt great through four miles, but miles five and six kicked my butt.  As evidenced by this super flattering photo of my finish.

If it looks like I am running about two miles an hour at this point?  That’s because I probably am.  Nothing like pain to motivate me to actually attempt to be in shape next year.

Luckily for mom and dad, they photograph just as great as me.

The upside of this run is that it is a TON of fun, you totally get your money’s worth out of your entry fee (this year they even had barbecued hot dogs at the finish line!), and you get such a good workout that you feel no guilt whatsoever when you stuff your face later on in the day.  The downside is that you have to get up at the crack of dawn, and it hurts to move for several days after.  But that is a small price to pay for enjoying this later in the afternoon:

Ingredients: 3

Minutes to Prepare: 5

A Beautiful, Delicious Dessert: Priceless!

I would give you my secret recipe, but then I’d have to kill you.

The other great thing about July 4th was that summer finally arrived!  We had one glorious day of comfortable weather, and we enjoyed a fun, relaxing barbecue that afternoon with some great people.

Since then, the temperature has skyrocketed and I am contemplating a move to Alaska.  I am also contemplating using Nathan’s crutches to knock some sense into my apparently unemployed neighbors if they don’t stop setting off fireworks on a nightly basis.  Wish me luck!

Snow Day!

I know, what am I, twelve?  But today was indeed a snow day here in my area of Oregon.  All the schools around here are closed, trees are down, and power is out (thankfully not at my house)!  Our incompetent forecast challenged meteorologists didn’t see that one coming.  I am not sure what it takes to become a weather man (or lady) in the Pacific Northwest, but it seems that the basic qualifications are making a lot of hand gestures, having some weird quirk (like the one guy who always wears bow-ties or the girl who sounds like she is choking when she talks), and when in doubt predicting rain.  I am pretty sure I would be a fantastic weather person, but I’ll have to think of what my weird quirk should be.  I’ll get back to you on that one.

Anyway, it was pouring rain when I went to bed last night, but by the time my husband came home from work at 3:30, the snow was falling and sticking.  Wonderful guy that he is, he had me reset my alarm from 4 to 6, and when he realized the snow was not letting up he went outside in the snow at 5 am to put my studded tires on my car so that I could go to work.  (Thursday was supposed to be my last day at this job, and I was supposed to start training a replacement today).  Unfortunately his thoughtful work was for naught, because I called work before I left the house and discovered the power was out.  There was no point in me driving down there (well over an hour in this weather) because there is not much I can do or show someone without power.  So, my last day will now have to be Friday.  But today, I got to enjoy an old-fashioned snow day!

Since I was already up, I enjoyed an early morning walk to the park.

     

Apparently snow makes my sense of direction worse than usual, because on the walk home (mind you, I had only walked about three blocks from my house), I took a wrong turn and walked down the wrong street for several blocks before realizing it.  I did think the houses looked fancier than I remembered.  But I didn’t figure it out until I attempted to make a right turn onto my street, only to see that my house was not there.

I also had the time to make these fantastic Easter treats that I saw on Pinterest.  They combine my favorite Christmas candy (haystacks) with my favorite Easter candy (Cadbury mini-eggs . . . tiny morsels of goodness).

I am now preparing to gain back the four pounds of winter weight that I managed to lose while stricken with the Supergerm of 2012.

These are quite possibly the easiest things to make.  There are only three ingredients and it took me maybe twenty minutes tops.  You make the haystacks by melting butterscotch chips.  I was taught by my expert candy-making relatives to use a double boiler to melt the chips evenly. (I don’t own a real double boiler, so I use a stainless steel mixing bowl over the top of one of my pots.)  One the chips are melted, just stir in some dry chow mein noodles and scoop onto wax paper.  Then place the Cadbury mini-eggs on top of the haystacks to make an “Easter egg nest”.  Ta-da!  Deliciousness.

It is 2 pm and the snow continues to fall.  Meanwhile, my sister Erika is enjoying 70 degree weather in Aspen.  Does anyone else see the irony in this?  As much as I have enjoyed my snow day off, I really hope it clears up and the power comes back on before tomorrow morning, because I have a lot to do at work before my last day on Friday.  But for now, I am off to finish re-reading the Hunger Games.  Welcome to Spring?

Almost Famous

Yesterday morning, I received an e-mail that changed my life.  Seriously.

The e-mail was from the New England Patriots.  Seriously.

The e-mail stated that with my permission, they would like to post my super bowl cookies to their OFFICIAL PINTEREST PAGE.  SERIOUSLY!!!!!

How many ways can a girl say, “YES!!!!!”? (For the record, my dad and husband think I should have said, “Yes, IF I also get to meet Tom.”) (Also for the record – I would totally settle for a trip to Foxborough and tickets to a game.  Just saying.  You never know who may be reading this.)

I had originally e-mailed this picture of my cookies to the Patriots shortly after the Super Bowl in February, with the far fetched hope that someday, it might make one of the Facebook fan albums:

I honestly expected nothing to ever come of it.  But a few days later, I got a reply back from the Patriots that they loved my cookies and would definitely keep the picture on file.  I was so stoked that they even bothered to write me back.  That reply alone was enough to make my year!  So I was shocked to hear from them again yesterday, and over the moon to hear that I can now follow them on Pinterest as well as Facebook! 

By the time I got home from work that night, my cookies had been pinned.  So far it has two repins – me and my mom!  But I hope all that will change when they have finished setting up their Pinterest page and make it public on Facebook.  In the meantime, visit the pin of my cookies here.  And while you are there, check out the rest of their boards!  They have some rather awesome Patriots-themed wedding ideas, some super-cute Patriots baby ideas, and some flat out fantastic ideas for Patriots décor in your home (Hello, toaster that imprints the Patriot logo on my toast.  Where have you been all my life?).

We’re Still Here!

No, I did not fall into a Patriot jersey lined pit of despair after Sunday’s game.  I am not happy about the loss, but at least it wasn’t a total shock like the Super Bowl after the 2007 season.  What with the Gronkle and the pitiful excuse of a defense, its actually quite the feat that they made it there in the first place, and if they draft well they will be back and better than ever in 2012.  The important thing is, we still managed to have fun and throw the BSBPE. (“!” not included due to lack of actual win by said Patriots team).

In other news, my quest to become a good wife and learn to actually cook something besides spaghetti and enchiladas led me to try not one but TWO new recipes last weekend.  (Also, because I bought a pack of 12 giant chicken breasts at Costco and had to use them on something).  I made the crockpot chicken taco meat that I told you about in my Super Bowl Party Prep post, which turned out fantastic.  I even modified the recipe successfully to make it work with the gigantic chicken (seriously, are the Costco chickens on steroids?) and didn’t screw it up.  I made a million times too much and we have been eating burritos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but that’s ok.

I also tried this recipe for a dish called Chicken Supreme from Gabrielle at her blog chock full of yummy recipes! I took a few liberties with her recipe as well.  I hate mushrooms, so I eliminated the creamy chicken & mushroom soup and just stuck with two cans of cream of chicken; and I used half a pack of Stove Top Chicken Stuffing mix because that is what I had at home already.  This turned out extremely yummy, even though it was a tad soupy (I made only two chicken breasts since it was just two of us, and I think I should have probably cut down to one can of soup). But look how pretty!:



I am especially proud of myself because Nathan loved (or at least claimed to really like) both of these dishes.  When we first started dating 7 (!) years ago, he mentioned how much he loved berry cobbler.  Trying to impress him, I got a cobbler recipe from the Betty Crocker website and spent all evening making him a berry cobbler.  It smelled good, and looked okay.  But it was the most god-awful disgusting thing you have ever tasted!  Poor Nathan tried to be nice at first, to find something positive to say about it, but the fact that it smelled good was its only redeeming quality.  And then I said, “Oh my gosh, this is disgusting!”, and he had to agree and resort to comforting me on the epic fail.  To this day, I do not know what went wrong, but something did, and ever since I have dreamed of the day where I can cook well enough to make up for that stupid cobbler!  So two new meals that both look, smell, and TASTE great in one weekend is pretty good progress for this girl.