Gardening

I planted some herbs.

I grew up in a house with a large yard. Our backyard had a peach tree, two apricot trees, a nectarine tree (my favorite), a navel orange tree, a blood orange tree, a mandarin orange tree (my 2nd favorite), a fig tree (the dog's favorite), three plum trees, a pear tree (sans partridge), grape vines, and berry bushes. Such a large yard required a lot of upkeep--at least two hours worth each Saturday. Our front yard had about 18 different rosebushes, which were my responsibility. I pruned and weeded for $3 an hour--which even after I successfully argued for a dollar raise was still a measly amount. At the time I heartily disliked the intrusion on my weekends. Maybe it was the pay scale, or perhaps the summers I had to spread chicken manure in the rose beds. Of course, after I moved out and started living in itty-bitty student apartments, I really missed having a yard and even gardening! When we lived in our basement apartment I never bothered with attempting to grow anything because I was sure it would die from lack of sunlight, but ever since we've moved I've been excited to try. So, despite a small fear that I might still manage to kill them anyways, I planted some seeds a few weeks ago. And they are growing! I'm sure that one day we'll have a big yard and I'll perpetuate the cycle of chores. For now I am just happy with my herbs.

What I Made For Dinner

About twice a month (usually in the middle and towards the end) when the cupboards are getting spotty and the fridge is nearly empty, I enjoy putting off going to the grocery store as long as possible by getting creative with the remaining ingredients. Partially because I think it's fun to experiment, and partially because I get a small sense of satisfaction out of my 'resourcefulness'. Last night's invention turned out particularly well, so I thought that I'd share.

Stuffed Chicken Breast
Three boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 8oz package of blue cheese
4 small apples (firmer variety would be best)

Cut a slit into each chicken breast, being careful not to slice all the way through. Slice up the the cheese and half of one of the apple into thin slices. Stuff the chicken breasts with the slices; set aside any remaining cheese. Cut the remaining apples into large chunks and scatter on the bottom of a 9x13.  Place the chicken breasts on top of the apples. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes. About halfway through the cooking time, place extra pieces of cheese on top of the chicken to melt.

Dreams

It's a little uncanny how your dreams can reflect what's on your mind. The other day I dreamed that we got a dog. It was a Pomeranian-Golden Retriever-Chihuahua mix. (I'm not exactly sure how the logistics of that breeding would work out outside of the dream world). Last night I had a nice dream where Dave surprised me with a trip to Disney World  and we just happened to run into all of our friends and family. In the dream Disney World was a water park, which was convenient because it was a beautiful sunny day.
I told Dave about my dreams this morning while we were procrastinating getting out of bed. His response: "Lately all I dream about is different scenarios, and then I apply the law to them."

Chili Cook-Off

On Wednesday our ward had the annual Halloween/trunk-or-treat party. For the dinner beforehand they organized a chili cook-off, and I won second place for best chili! I enjoyed the chance to try out a recipe that my mom used to make. It was the first time I've made it myself, and I tweaked it a bit to add some more spice. I didn't exactly use exact measurements when I was cooking, but I'll share the original recipe and try to describe my additions.

White Chicken Chili
2 Medium cans white navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 cube butter
1/4 c. flour
3/4 c. chicken broth
2 c. milk
1 tsp Tabasco
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
salt  and pepper to taste
2 roasted pasilla chilies or 2 4oz cans of green chilies
3 cups cooked chicken--shredded or cubed
1 1/2 c. Monterrey jack cheese
1/2 c. sour cream

Cook onion and garlic in two tablespoons of butter until softened, but not browned. In large pot melt remaining butter over low heat and whisk in flour. Keep whisking for about 3 minutes--do not brown. Stir in onions and garlic. Gradually add broth and milk, still whisking. Bring to a boil and then simmer. While stirring, simmer for 5 minutes or until thickened. Stir in beans and remaining ingredients (except sour cream) and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Stir often. Lastly stir in the sour cream.



I used one can of canelli, one can of great northern beans, and one can of garbanzo beans. I couldn't find Pasilla chilies at the grocery store, so I just decided to grab a few of whatever looked good. I ended up with one pablano, two Cubanilles, and one Anaheim chili, all of which I seeded and deveined before adding them to a crock pot with the onions, chickens, beans, and stock. After letting that cook while I was at work, I rushed home and created a roux in a big pot. I added the milk and cheese until it was thickened, and then dumped in the contents of the crock pot. With Dave as my taste tester, I added garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, and some sour cream. I liked it a lot more spicy than the original recipe called for (especially since all the milk and cheese and sour cream really cuts the hear anyways). I just hope I'll actually be able to duplicate it when I start to crave it again!

Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! We celebrated the holiday with some friends from the law school on Saturday. Dave was a leprechaun and I was a skeleton (both costumes were reprises from past Halloweens). The party was so fun that today actually feels a little anti-climatic--the only festive thing I've done today is allowed myself to snitch a few more pieces out of the candy dish at work than I usually do. Isn't it funny how holidays kind of get that way when you are older?

Not that they still aren't fun or silly of course. Just maybe a little less...magical.
Still Halloween has made me realize that the Holiday season has officially started. They always say that the Holiday season makes you a little more homesick and it came as a surprise to me that even Halloween made me a little nostalgic for some of our friends and family.

 Pictures from Halloweens Past

Anyways, I thought I'd include a picture of the appetizer I made for the party.

All you need to do is add some parsley, sliced up pimento stuffed olives, and paprika to your favorite deviled egg recipe and you have bloody alien eyeballs!

First Foray into DIY--Complete!

The table and chairs are done! (And have been done for awhile, but it took me much longer to remember to buy new batteries for the camera so that I could show off the finished product).

I am so pleased with how it's turned out, and slightly torn on what to do next--sand, paint, and get new hardware for our dressers, paint our bookshelves so that they aren't all different colors anymore, or reclaim the old seat cushions for our chairs by sewing a cover for them and turning them into a doggy bed (not that we have a dog yet, but that would bring us one step closer, right?). I've also considered doing a variation on this: Possible Next Project.

A Somewhat Lazy and Sickly Saturday and Sunday

Lately it seems like there is a bug going around all of Gainesville. Me, Dave, all of the lawyers at work, half of the little kids in nursery, and various other friends and acquaintances have all gotten sick in the past few weeks. Hopefully we're all just passing the same thing around and once we get better that will be the end of it. With all the people getting sick it's been hard to pinpoint who exactly gave it to me, but Dave's been sick since Monday or so and I've been sick since Wednesday. We both bravely slugged it out until the weekends, since neither of us could really spare time away from work or school.
Dave is already halfway through his first semester and finals are steadily approaching (gasp!). He is buckling down and working on his outlines in addition to all of his other homework. Yesterday he had to drag himself out of bed to go to 8AM mock jury duty on a murder trial (I wonder which is worse--real jury duty or mock jury duty. I bet if it was real jury duty they would have let him off for being sick).
I've been pretty busy with work myself. Just in the last few weeks, I've helped to launch a smart phone App, write, edit and shoot new commercials, and handle a bunch of new criminal clients. I like that it's busy though, since it makes time go by quickly, I get to learn lots of new things, and it means that the firm is doing well. This past week the Office Manager and the paralegal in the criminal department started a very long vacation, which has left me and the secretary (who is also a recent hire) to take care of things while she is gone. So far things are going well, and even if it is a little stressful, I like the variety and dealing with all of our interesting clients.
Still, with work and school and being sick I definitely wasn't super motivated to do much this weekend besides drink lots of OJ and take advantage of the fact the Netflix now has the series Wonder Years on instant play. I won't embarrass myself by saying how far into the 2nd season I already am, but suffice it to say, it's just as good as I remember it being as a kid.