Chickens & Vets

Yum, yum... this will be our dinner tonight! (Once Alan gets home). I found this recipe on this blog. Hopefully it's good.. I've never cooked an entire chicken before, lol.

Also, this morning the cats and I took a trip to their favorite place, the vet. The poor vet almost got his hand bitten by our little Hobbes when he tried to give Hobbes a pill to swallow. But everyone involved is fine. :) Here are the cats resting from all the vaccinations (both pictures taken just now):

Southern (& Hispanic) Hospitality

This week my work schedule is Monday, Thursday, Sunday.. which gave me more time (3 days) during the week to do my own thing. So what else to do than try some new(ish) recipes for me and have people over?!

Last Sunday night we had Alan's side of the family over for dinner. I made them a Mexican dinner to represent my Hispanic side to all of those white folk ;) My Grandma on my dad's side makes WONDERFUL tamales.. she actually used to sell them. That is one of the main things I remember about her & about visiting my grandparents in Arizona when I was growing up, so that's what I decided to make. This was my first attempt at Tamales, but I think they all got eaten, which is a good sign.

The Menu was:

Green Chili Tamales (For the record, these are the easiest kind of Tamales to make, which makes them a great place to start)

Mexican Rice

Black Beans (Alan's mom kindly made this for us.)

Chips & Guacamole

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Tonight we had over my parents, brother & sister-in-law for our weekly Friday night dinner. :) (My mom usually hosts it since Virginia & I are usually working Fridays). I decided to make Chicken & Dumplings, because my Grandma (on my mom's side) used to make this for us all the time when we visited!

The Menu:

Chicken & Dumplings
Corn on the Cob
Salad
Tamales (Extras I had frozen - I wanted to see what my family thought of them)

Dessert:
Blackberry Cobbler with Ice Cream

I love having people over and cooking meals for them, even though I am very much a work in progress when it comes to cooking.

The other thing I made this week that I would really recommend is a Homemade Pizza. This was my first attempt at making it, and it was delicious. I froze half the dough, so next week I should be making a second pizza, yay :) My schedule next week is crazy.. but hopefully having the dough already done should make that an easy meal.

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As you can see, I get a lot of my recipes online. The internet is awesome :) I really recomment www.mex-recipes.com -- it is the best site I've found for Mexican food, the rice & guacamole recipes are very tasty.

I have special spots for my laptop in our kitchen, because it is almost always up with a recipe when I am cooking. Here's the laptop on the island, lol: (This is soon after we moved in.. there are different decorations now above the cabinets)

New Year - 2009

Economy dampens celebrations for New Year's Eve

Fireworks, good cheer, but long shadows as world hails 2009

Most of the New Year's headlines were negative towards 2008 as being one of the worst economic years the country and the world has seen in decades. 

While this is true, 2008 was probably the best year of my life (and the most full of life-changing events). Here is a brief overview:

For the first 4 1/2 months of the year, I was engaged to a wonderful man <3

(One of our engagement pictures taken January, 2008 by Kami Flavin)

I was also finishing up Nursing School, which I graduated from on May 8, 2008. I was so glad to be done with college forever!! (Unless something possesses me to go back.) I went to the Pinning Ceremony instead of the Graduation Ceremony. The speakers played a short clip I had recorded thanking everyone for helping me get to that point. My parents pinned a Nursing pin on my on stage. It was really nice. 

(My future in-laws, my future husband, me and my parents at my Pinning Ceremony)

6 days later, on May 14, 2008 I got married to the best man ever. The wedding was beautiful and I loved sharing it with my closest friends & family. I was most excited about spending the rest of my life with Alan <3 

For our honeymoon we went up to Wyoming near The Yellowstone National Park. :) It was beautiful.

After the honeymoon, we started our life together in our apartment. We had most of our stuff set up before the wedding.

I had 3 weeks to be a housewife before I started my first "real" job as a Graduate Nurse at a Neonatal ICU. So I enjoyed setting up/decorating the kitchen and the rest of the apartment.  And of course spoiling my new husband with homemade meals when he got home. I had waited a long time to be a wife and have my own apartment, and it definitely lived up to my expectations ;)

(The first meal I made Alan after we got married. Isn't he adorable? <3)

On June 9th, I started my new job. I wasn't an RN yet though.. I still had to pass the licensing test.  So I stressed/studied over that until I took the test a few weeks later. When I finally took it, It was the worst experience of my life. I was sure I had failed it, and I knew the computer knew if I passed or not.. but I had to wait DAYS for the results.  I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling of dread I had waiting for those results.. but I PASSED. Thankfully! I became an official Registered Nurse on July 1, 2008! I was in orientation in the NICU until about 6 weeks ago.. and I have been on my own since then. I still love my job. I love helping the smallest and sickest babies "finish cooking" and getting them ready to go home with their families. 

Also in June, we adopted our two kitties, Hobbes and Lucy. Lucy is cuddling with me in my lap right now & being a sweetheart.  (As I was writing that, Hobbes got in my lap too, haha) No human babies in 2008 though ;)

(Me, our babies, and a book. I still have my work scrubs on. I thought I could stay awake long enough to get some reading in.. but I was wrong, lol)

(Lucy and Hobbes (younger) taking a nap on the couch... It's a hard life)

In October we went to Jamaica with Daniel & Virginia. Our first Feast together as a married couple.

(The four of us on the snorkel cruise)

All in all, it's been a great year filled with a lot of blessings. I am looking forward to what 2009 will bring. Unfortunately, Alan and I slept right through New Years this year because we are an old married couple ;) And because I had to be up at 5:20 for work! I did get my New Year's kiss later though ;)

***Correction*** Alan brought to my attention that he did wake me up at midnight to give me a kiss. I must have been out of it. So we didn't entirely sleep through New Year's after all ;)

Here's to everyone having a great 2009!

Mystery Dinner Party

So for those of you who haven't heard of a Mystery Dinner Party, it is actually a game you buy with a murder mystery plot weaved into it. You send out invitations, assign each guest a character/suspect to play (which the guest dresses up as), and make a nice dinner (recipes included in the game) and try to figure out who the "killer" is during the evening. Each guest has a character booklet which tells them about their character, and what they can disclose to the other "suspects". It really is a lot of fun. Getting ready for it was not the smoothest experience though...

I cooked all day in preparation for the game. Cornish game hens, herb seasoned orzo, parmesan and montery jack cheese crackers, chocolate biscotti, salad and bread. We had the table set nicely, and had set the cornish game hens around when my husband started to build a fire in the fireplace. We thought it would add a nice ambiance to the evening. Well, he lit the fire, and the apartment started filling with smoke soon after. He tried to reposition the handle that opens and closes the vent to the fireplace, but nothing was working, and the smoke was getting worse. Then, the fire grew and covered the handle so we couldn't even try a different potition to open it if we wanted to. I got the fire extinguisher from under the sink, and Alan was able to extinguish about half the fire before the thing went dry. So we started filling up water bottles to extinguish the rest of the fire. The smoke was so bad by this point that it hurt to breathe inside, and we had to open the door to get any air. (which took me about 30 seconds to open, because it had just been painted, and the door was stuck closed). We finally got put the fire out, and we set up fans and opened the windows and kept the door open to vent out the smoke. By this time it was 8:00, which was the time everyone was supposed to be there. That's when we notied our entire living room was covered with a layer of soot. (including the plates and wine glasses that were already set up!).  My brother and sister-in-law were th efirst to show up, and they helped us rinse off the dishes. The smoke smell gradually diminished throughout the evening, and we still managed to enjoy the game. It was definitely a memorable experience!

Top Row: Daniel as Otto Von Schnapps, Jeremy as Papa Vito, Alan as Ralph Rottingrape

Bottom Row: Virginia as Marilyn Merlot, Sherry as  Hedy Shablee”, Krystal (me) as Tiny Bubbles

You can see the charred fireplace in the background.
Jeremy & Sherry's daughter Sophia trying out her hand at Papa Vito.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

When I was growing up, my parents always fixed us/we helped them fix a nice Saturday morning breakfeast every week. It always made Saturday special, and gave us a nice meal to anticipate.

I wanted to do the same thing for Alan when we got married, so every Saturday I've been cooking a nice-ish breakfast. (It's the only day that I fix anything for breakfast actually.)

This morning it was an alvocado & cheese omelet, turkey-o-sausages (Alan's personal favorite), oranges and waffles.


Alan pretending he doesn't like it:

Still not quite a smile, but he said he liked it :)