recent recipes

Here are a few things I have made over the past few weeks which I got from the internet. (Psh! I am NOT typing out a recipe)

From Food Network:

Giada's Garbonza Bean and Zucchini Salad.
Yum! First off I looooove zucchini, hence my attraction to this recipe. But I do not love zucchini raw, so I cooked it in a tad bit of butter in a pan with a little bit of S & P. I also did not have any red onion so I just cut up a bit of yellow onion really small. I thought it was fabulous and Jerry even said, "This is good, for a salad."

Sunny's Picnic Potato Chicken Salad Cups
This recipe is GOLDEN! The paprika, bacon, and mustard totally make this recipe. I have to admit we did not cupify this recipe, but I am sure the addition of lettuce would make this more fun! Jerry really liked this.

Robin's Chicken Piccata
This did not live up to my expectations. It has tons of my favorite ingredients: artichokes, capers, lemon.. but I must have missed something because it was not too spectacular. Jerry said that he liked that it tasted more light and different that what I usually make. I took the leftovers to school the next day, and they seemed to improve with time, or maybe I was just super hungry.

Melissa's Chicken a l'Orange
This recipe would normally never appeal to me, but one of Jerry's all time favorite meals is orange chicken, so I thought I would give this a try. I used boneless skinless chicken breasts, and since they didn't have skin like the recipe calls for, they did not get crisp. The sauce was Super easy (it has 2 ingredients!) and pretty tasty! Overall it was really good, and since it really only has one ingredient that I normally don't stock, I have a feeling it will be a go to meal from now on.
UPDATE: I forgot to say that after I used the sauce as a glaze for the chicken, then I added some chicken broth and flour to make it a little milder to top the cooked chicken and rice with.

From Our Best Bites:

First off, if you do not know about this site and cook in any shape, way, or form, you need to visit it RIGHT now. Not only do they have simple, practical recipes, but they also have good tutorials on how to do stuff like .. make tortillas(which I almost successfully did).

Stuffed Pizza Rolls
Okay, despite my raving about this site, this recipe (or at least the way I made it) did not turn out very well. I stuffed mine with sausage and cheese, but all the cheese disolved into the bread making it a harder texture.. and then there was no ooey gooey cheese when you bit into them(which is the best part, you know). I still think this is a great idea though, maybe I should try a different crust.

From Recipe Zaar:

This is a great site to explore. I like to just type in 'chicken' or 'banana' and then sort the results by ratings. I have made MANY things from this site

Creamy Cajun Chicken
I really liked this, although I think the only ingredients I actually HAD were chicken and sun dried tomatoes. I had to make my own cajun seasoning, and I had to use milk and butter as a substitute for cream(which of course, is not as good as the real stuff), used a white onion for the green onion, and used whole grain spaghetti instead of linguine. But despite all of that, all 3 of us liked it! Even Daxson! (well at least he was a good pretender). The tomatoes made the sauce way good, but I'm sure when I make it with cream it will be even better!

Italian Soup
I was running low on food supplies last night, but I had italian sausage and some soupy vegetables so I just typed in 'italian soup', and this recipe seemed to have positive feedback. I substituted celery for zucchini(but I woul prefer the later) and did half sausage and half ground turkey to make it a little lighter. I ended up cooking some macaroni noodles separate so that when we reheated the leftovers the noodles wouldn't overcook and get puffy.


If you just read all that, you're crazy.

winter semeter '10

.. is going to be a challenge!

I am pretty much taking all the same classes, just one level higher (music theory, sight singing, dictation, piano, music civ, Singers, voice lessons). So far, it has already been a challenge for me, and it has only been 7 days of classes. But, I just had my first voice lesson for the semester, and I am super excited for my repertoire this semester!! (can anyone say Carmen aria!??) I even get to sing a music theatre piece, so I am going to sing I'm Not Afraid of Anything from my new Songs for a New World book that Jerry got me for Christmas.

I am very thankful for our electric blanket that was a wedding gift. We only have a window unit in our apartment that is in our family room and takes a long time to warm up all the way to our bedroom. But this morning in my half-awake, half-sleeping state I got nausous/ freaked out by the wireing in it.
.. just thought you would want to know.

Things that made me happy in the past 24 hours
- coming home to a perfectly clean home (yes, Jerry is wonderful)
- I Am Aldolfo from The Drowsy Chaperone
- lifting 3 lb. weights
- crappy ABC family shows
- DD's video of Henry
- groceries
- singing in devotional
- my SOFT, WARM robe. i just love it!
- a canceled class

Christmas Break 2009

Wow, break seemed to last forever! in the best of ways!

Highlights include:

Getting our car fixed(but not the money that it cost)
Meeting Tobin and Trista's new arrival, Kalan
Getting to make music with all of my Hale in-law siblings
Having at least one super lazy day with Jerry
Driving to and from Arizona with no radio
Driving in snow for 7 hours and seeing hundreds of cars off the road, but not being one of them!
Getting to see Devin, Emily, and Creed
Jerry's new guitar! Thanks, Devin!
Spending all of our time with my parents, who I missed (hiking, eating out, movies, games)
Spending 2 days with all the Hales(minus the Tobin clan) for New Years
Cleaning our apartment and decorating! (it still looks pretty sad, but hey, not as bad as before!)

For the next month Jerry is putting all of his effort into applying for the BYU MPA program. It is one of the best in the nation, and getting a job afterwards is pretty easy , plus it will really help Jerry so he can have a career he will love! What's better than that? If you know me, you know my philosophy is to never expect anything so that I am never dissapointed. I am going to try to live by this for the next few months, but it so hard to not get my hopes up.

Love, 1 year (and a day) later

One year ago yesterday Jeremiah officially proposed to me! Of course we already had the temple booked and such, but it was the night I got my very special ring and knew that if Jeremiah was willing to spend X amount of dollars on me, that he wasn't kidding when he said he wanted to marry me and be with ME for eternity!

(happy)

I think the more interesting part of the story is when Jerry asked my father for my hand. I was told the exact words that came out of my dad's mouth were "Why would you want to marry her? She is so crazy!" Wow, thanks for the support, dad. Basically my parents like my husband more than me, but I'm not complaining. I would too if I were them.

stop the demands!

I have had about 10 complaints in the last month about needing to update my blog. so here you go.

every once in a while I think of something I could potentially write a post on i.e. ducks, Singers, my hatred for music theory classes. But all of those posts would be pretty much horrible for anyone to read, so I will try and stick with happy subject matter.

To pay for December rent Jeremiah and I had to write out separate checks, depleting both of our savings accounts to SINGLE digits. We have been talking about money a lot and trying to come up with solutions, and there are plenty, but our biggest concern is just having enough cash to pay for January's rent.(well, this is sounding like a depressing post, huh?). It has definitely been something we both have been praying about. Today at work Ken called me into his office and told me to shut the door(which always makes me suspect bad news). He then told me that he was going to give me a small raise, and that it was going to be retroactive from September! So basically I am getting a little Christmas bonus! It won't be very much, but it will still help contribute to my bank account and next month's rent!

Little miracles make me happy!

A conversation over burnt chocolate chip pancakes

D: I feel so bad for the girls in then 14-15 yr. old group at EFY, they are all so cute and all the boys that they are with look like they are 10.

J: Yeah, I feel bad for them too.

D: I remember at that age it seems like only a few boys actually want to have girls as friends, but every girls wants to have guy friends.

J: I don't even remember that period of my life.

D: what, because you had so many...

J: No, because I had no friends.

Evil Baby, Drunk Men

About once a week I sit down, ready to write another post, but I can't think of anything to write! Yesterday, I recounted a dream to my co-workers, and got the idea that I should post my wacky dreams! I totally understand if you don't read them, I think it will just be fun for me to be able to go back and read them.

So here's the dream:

I had a baby boy, but wasn't quite sure how he got here since I didn't remember being pregnant. He had to go away for a few weeks. The weeks past and I was able to see my baby again. The people who cared for my baby during the weeks told, "You are going to have to put your baby to sleep." I was appalled because you can't put babies to sleep! They are so innocent and precious. The people went on to tell me, "Your baby is going to grow up to be a serial killer, so he needs to be put to sleep." I refused to believe the people and took my baby back. As I am looking at my baby, he get the evilest look on his face, opens his mouth crazy-big, and ATTACKS ME! He was trying to kill me. And I agreed, that my baby was evil.
Then I woke up.



On another note: I went selling with Jeremiah on Memorial Day(this is sadly not a dream). Quickly I realized that I am not cut out for sales, because I am a push-over, and I wanted it to be over as soon as possible. I walked up to a house with its' garage door open, and with the family inside the garage having a Memorial Day celebration(with beer). Grandpa was sitting in the corner singing country/folk songs. I started pitching to the owner, but he was in a contract, so I started to leave and said to Grandpa, "I will miss your singing! It made my day."
"What do you even know about singin, little girl?" sassily says Gramps
"Actually, I am music major, so I think I know a little, and I think you are awesome!"
"Well, I am a professional," lies Grandpa.. he was horrible.
"I believe it!!" I lie.
So after some prodding, he convinces me to sing for him and the others. Usually I would just say no, but I was just buying time so that I didn't have to go knock more houses, so I sang for them. All the while they were cussing under their breaths and grandpa insisted on standing 7 inches from my face and staring right at me.
To make a long story short, I made $40 that day. And not from selling phone service.
That's right. I am a PAID singer.