Happy Birthday Keeley!

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY KEELEY!!!

We just want to say Happy 16th Birthday to my sister Keeley! She passed her drivers test this afternoon, so watch out everyone! If you see this cute yellow bug driving down the road, look out! Haha!

We love you Keeley and are sorry we can't be there to celebrate with you!

Mid-Week Update

The week is half way over! Yay :) This week has been pretty relaxed for us so far. We have just been working, studying, and running in preparation for the race this weekend. I am getting really nervous but I know that eventually I will cross the finish line. Ha! Besides the race, we are really looking forward to spending some time in St. Louis and getting to see Taylor's family. It's always nice when we get to spend time with our families, but always really hard to leave them!

I do have one recipe that I wanted to share with you guys! This is my sweet friend Daniella's bruschetta recipe! It is sooo delicious and simple.

Daniella’s Bruschetta

• 1 loaf sour dough or French bread (sliced ¾-1” thick)
  
• ½ cup olive oil
  
• 8 oz. Ricotta cheese
• 6 oz. Basil pesto
• 4 Roma tomatoes (chopped fine)

Directions per slice:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350
• 2. Brush or dip both sides of bread in olive oil
• 3. Place on baking sheet, bake at 350 for 8 minutes (may turn once)
• 4. Spread with 1 tbsp. Ricotta cheese
• 5. Top cheese with ½ teaspoon basil pesto
• 6. Finally top all with a few pieces of chopped tomatoes
• 7. Pop back in oven for 2 minutes until warm

I do have a prayer request that I would like y'all to remember. This past weekend, in Sand Springs, there was a really horrible wreck near my parents neighborhood. 4 teenage girls, my sister's age, were involved and 2 of them have passed away. My parents know the family of one of the girls who passed away and I was actually the flower girl in their wedding. Everything about the situation is terribly sad so I would love if you could keep these families in your prayers. With Keeley about to start driving, it makes me nervous and reminds me how important it is to be a cautious and responsible driver.

We hope you all have a great rest of the week!

PS: Just for my records... I just beat Taylor 3 to 1 in Wheel-of-Fortune! That never happens!!

5 Months

So today we have been married for 5 months! It feels like so much longer :) So much has happened in only 5 months, I can hardly believe it. Taylor and I have never been good at remembering anniversaries so I was impressed when we realized yesterday that today was the 22nd. We decided to go try out a new restaurant tonight called The Great Impasta. It was pretty good and I'm sure we will be going back to try out some of their other options! After dinner we went and got ice cream to celebrate and now we are at home relaxing and watching a movie!

Well, not much else to say tonight but we hope y'all have a wonderful weekend and we love you!

Recipes

So the past few nights we have had some yummy dinners so I thought I would share the recipes with y'all! On Tuesday night Taylor has a night class so this means we either eat out or I make something that is easy to take up to the lab! This week we decided to make Chicken Parm Pizza but since I needed to take it up to the lab, I put it on a loaf of Parmesan cheese bread and it was sooo good. I have posted the recipe for this before, but it was on pizza dough. Putting it on a loaf of bread was a lot easier and I feel like it made more this way!

CHICKEN PARM PIZZA RECIPE

• 1 loaf of french bread (buy a loaf that is soft since you will be cooking it more)
  
• 1 lb of cooked chicken (cubed or sliced)
  
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Pinch of parsley, red pepper flakes and dried oregano
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven 425
2. Heat deep skillet over medium/high heat with olive oil (I used about a tbsp.)
3. Brown chicken then add garlic, onion, salt, and pepper (cook together for 6 min)
4. Then add parsley, red pepper flakes, oregano, and tomato sauce (heat sauce through)
5. Apply meat sauce to pizza dough, then arrange cheeses on top of pizza.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes


Tonight we had Chicken Spaghetti! I really like casserole type recipes because you can bake them in two dishes and freeze half of it to eat later. When you're cooking for two people, this really helps us not waste as much food. Taylor isn't big on leftovers, so when we cook we try and make sure there won't be much leftover so it doesn't just get thrown away. I made the chicken spaghetti last night and cooked half of it in a Pyrex dish and the other half in an aluminum foil pan so I could freeze it. It was so nice this evening to be able to just come home and put the Pyrex dish in the oven and 20 minutes later dinner was ready!

Easy Chicken Spaghetti (this is Susan's recipe!)

• 4 cups cooked chicken, cubed
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 can (4 oz.) sliced mushrooms, drained
• 2 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 lb. Velveeta, grated
• 7 oz. vermicelli, cooked
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Tabasco to taste

Cook chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces. Saute onion, celery and green pepper in butter. Mix soup with milk and add to sauteed ingredients. Add mushrooms. Add cheese and stir until melted. Add chicken, vermicelli, salt, pepper, and Tabasco. Pour into a buttered casserole dish and bake, uncovered, 35 minutes at 350 degrees.


And finally, this is my new favorite seasoning! Laine uses it all the time, and her food is always really good, so I thought we should buy some. It is really good to sprinkle on top of bread or Laine sprinkles it over her lasagna/pasta dishes! You can find it next to the dressings at Walmart :)

Have a happy Friday tomorrow!

Weekend Recap

Well, we made it through Monday. Only four days left until Friday! This past weekend was our first weekend in a long time where we had nothing planned! It was so nice to be able to sleep in Saturday. All we had going on that day was watching the Arkansas game at Laine and Andrew's house! We had a lot of fun hanging out with them and grilling out, but the game was another story. All I have to say to Auburn is that it's easy to be undefeated when the officials give you points! Ha. I know, I shouldn't be a sore loser. That game was just one of the longest emotional roller coasters I have ever been on.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church, then had lunch over at Laine and Andrews! She had made chicken spaghetti and it was so yummy! After lunch we went on a short run (only a couple weeks until the race!), went to Walmart, and then I made a little trip to the mall while Taylor was studying. All the stores are having some great sales right now and I never realized how small my professional wardrobe was until I started working! We don't have much planned this week but this coming weekend is the U of I Homecoming game so we will be going to the stations tailgate! I am not sure yet if we are planning on attending the game.

One a completely different topic, Taylor and I tried to make sushi this past week. It did not turn out well! Luckily, we had a frozen pizza in the fridge so we just heated that up. Ha. Taylor had been so excited about trying to make sushi and his friend Can, who is Chinese, had even bought us some seaweed and the bamboo mat you roll the sushi on. Sadly, it was just not good. We decided that we need to invite Can over and have him show us or just go get sushi from the pros at the restaurant! Ha.

This is before Taylor rolled it up!

And here is the final product. It looks a lot better than it tasted! Ha.

But last week we did have one very successful meal, spaghetti and meatballs! My parents meatball recipe is my favorite and I was so excited to make it for Taylor! He ended up loving them so I'm sure we will be making this again soon.



Meatball Recipe
1 lb hamburger
1/2 cup bread crumbs (we used crushed saltines)
1/2 cup dried parsley
1 clove minced garlic
1 egg
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Mix together, make into balls, place on cookie sheet, bake for approx 30 min @ 350 deg F, until done. May need to turn if getting to done on one side.

Have a great Tuesday y'all!!

A Fall Favorite

Now that I started working, Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the week. I always feel like after Wednesday is over Friday is here before I know it! Taylor's favorite day is Thursday because that is when all his homework is due and he can finally relax for a night.

Today it has been beautiful here :) All the leaves are starting to fall off the trees and they are such pretty colors. Tonight we went for a walk/run since the weather was so perfect and because we are running a 10k race in St. Louis on Oct. 30th with Taylor's family! Yes, I said October 30th, as in like 2 weeks away! Ha. Taylor will have no problem going out and running an 8 min pace even though he hasn't ran in a very long time, I am a different story. I have told myself that one way or another, no matter how long it takes me, I will cross the finish line! I have not trained for a race in over a year and it just doesn't come naturally to me, unlike Taylor. But it will be fun and the weather is just so nice, we love being outside!

We also had one of our favorite fall treats this evening, apple cider with red hots! It is so delicious. I have noticed that Walmart has had the gallons of cider recently but just haven't picked one up. So tonight Taylor had to run to Walmart for a couple things and when he came back he had apple cider and red hots! If you have never tried this before I highly suggest you do. We usually only put it in 4 or 5 red hots but it all depends on how hot you like it :)

Hope you all have a great and speedy rest of the week! Love you guys.

Living on Tulsa Time...

First of all, I think this may be the most clever title I have ever given a post! Ha. But anyways, last weekend we headed to Tulsa for my best friend Jessica's wedding shower! I left work early on Friday and we headed to Springfield to spend the evening with Taylor's parents. They were there for a meeting his dad had and it worked out well to break up the 9 1/2 hour drive. We got up early Saturday morning and drove the rest of the way to Tulsa.

I was really excited that we were able to make it to the shower! Even though we spent about 18 hours in the car, I would have been so upset if I had to miss Jess's shower. This is such a special time in her life and I am thankful to be a part of it. The shower was a lot of fun and Jess got a lot of really good stuff! We played this game where you had to dress up someone as a bride with toilet paper. Ha. Keeley volunteered to be our bride and this is the "dress" my mom and I made for her!


Here is the pretty bride-to-be! We have been friends since 2nd or 3rd grade and I am so blessed to have her in my life. She is getting married on 12/11/10 (how cool is that?!) and I am soooo excited for her! She was my maid of honor and now I am her matron of honor.


After the shower, my mom, Keeley, and I went to Dillard's to return some stuff I had ordered and then we headed home to eat dinner. We had pizza from Minuteman (of course!) and watched the Arkansas game with Taylor and my dad. We had so many friends that we would have liked to have seen while we were in town, but there just wasn't enough time :( I had not seen my family in about 2 1/2 months so I was happy to be able to spend time with them. We got up Sunday morning and had breakfast then were on the road by 9:30am! We arrived back in Illinois about 7pm, including stopping 45 mins for lunch and taking two bathroom stops, so we made really good time!

Laine texted us when we got home and asked if we wanted to go get ice cream for 10/10/10! Even though we were tired, of course we went to get ice cream :) It is always fun to hang out with them and Laine brought us some homemade cinnamon rolls. So our breakfast this morning was yummy!

Today has been a pretty good day. I have been a little homesick after spending time with our family, but we will see them all again soon! Tonight we made jalapeno cornbread for dinner, which is one of Taylor's favorite things. Susan (Taylor's mom) makes it and it is always so delicious but mine didn't turn out quite like hers; Taylor still said it was good though. Ha!


Jalapeno Cornbread
Ingredients
2 cups yellow corn meal
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cup grated cheddar
1/2 cup cream style corn
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
2 diced jalapenos

Directions
Mix all ingredients. Heat a little oil in an iron skillet. Pour cornbread mixture into the very hot oil. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Hope you all had a great weekend and happy Monday!

Almost Famous

Ok, so we probably won't be famous but we did get to do something pretty cool this weekend which I'll explain in a second! This weekend has been very eventful! Friday night we went out to eat with Laine, Andrew, and Keith at Papa Del's (a yummy local pizza place!) and then went to see The Social Network. We all really enjoyed the movie and it was cool to see how Facebook was developed. Did you know that the inventor of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is only 25 years old and has a net worth of 4 BILLION dollars?! Wow. Friday night we went to bed pretty early because we had to get up early Saturday and head to the station's tailgate tent to help setup.


Saturday was a really fun day for many reasons. One, Taylor and I got free tickets to the Illinois vs. Ohio State football game because I signed up to help setup the tent. Two, we helped our new U-Rock 107.9 station film a television commercial during the tailgate. Ha! Yes, I said we filmed a commercial, as in something that will be shown on TV! I will post the commercial when I get a copy and just send me your mailing address if you would like an autograph! Just kidding :) And three, the football game was actually a really good game and not the blow out we had been expecting. It was fun to watch the #2 team in the country play! But we did realize that the Big 10 just isn't as fun to watch as the SEC or Big 12 when we were watching the Red River Shootout and Florida vs. Alabama that night!


They spelled out Illini! Isn't that cool? :)


This was right before we scored the first touchdown of the game!

Saturday night we just spent the evening relaxing at home. I think that waking up at 6am that morning caught up with me about 7:30pm because I took a 3 hour nap that night and then went to bed at 11pm! Ha. This morning we got up and went to church and then went to eat lunch with Laine, Andrew, and Keith at El Toro, which is a good Mexican restaurant that we found here! This afternoon we spent time cleaning the apartment and making dinner for L, A, and K who are over right now so the boys can work on homework. We made poppy seed chicken for them and they loved it! I pulled out my fiestaware baking dishes to bake in which made me very happy :)


One another note, I hung up our first decoration for Fall this afternoon! This is a cute Welcome sign that Taylor's Moggie got me. I just love it!

Hope you all have a great week!