Valentine's Day Part 2 (and 3)

 I probably could break this up into a few posts, but I don't want to!

Chris and I decided not to buy each other anything as a gift (plus he had just bought himself parts for his jeep AND his truck).  I decided to make him dinner for my gift and he was going to make me dessert.  I also received a wonderful surprise that was better than anything I could have imagined.  But first I want to brag about the dinner I made :)

I found the recipe here for spicy lemon garlic shrimp.  I have a lot of recipes saved from this website, plus she is kind of silly so it makes me like it even more.  Chris loves shrimp, I'm not a huge fan, so I made sure to remind him of that as I was planning to make this...just to remind him how great of a gift it was from me. :)  I also made cheesy, garlic biscuits which were super easy and turned out really nice.
The shrimp recipe was really easy minus a mishap that had both Chris and I in the kitchen trying to figure out how to move forward.  We don't have a food processor and Chris had suggested to just use our blender we got as a wedding gift...that did not work.  We went through a few techniques before I eventually made him go back into the living room and I made it work (probably in the messiest way possible).  So here it is!

Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp

2 lbs raw shrimp

2 sticks of unsalted butter

1 tsp salt

4 cloves of garlic peeled

1/4 c fresh parsley

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

Juice from 1 whole lemon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse frozen shrimp to separate, then arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. 

In the bowl of a food processor, add cold butter, garlic, lemon juice, salt, parsley, and red pepper. Pulse until combined. Sprinkle cold butter crumbles over the shrimp. (Because we don't have a food processor, we talked later about how if we had melted the butter it would have been a lot easier and we could have just chopped up the other ingredients)

Bake until shrimp is opaque and butter is hot and bubbly, about 25-30 minutes.

We served this over some white rice we already had in the cabinet (making sure to pour some of the yummy juice on top of course).

 Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

2 c Bisquick baking mix

2/3 c milk (we had buttermilk left over from another recipe and used it, but had to use more than 2/3 c. I just kept adding until the dough looked like...well dough)

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 c butter

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp garlic salt

Preheat oven to 450F degrees. In a medium bowl, combine baking mix, milk and cheese. I then used an ice-cream scoop to drop batter about 2 inches apart onto a baking sheet.
Bake 7-9 minutes, or until lightly browned. While baking, melt butter in a small container in microwave. Stir in the garlic powder and garlic salt. When biscuits are done, remove from oven and brush  butter over them.  

The meal turned out much better than I thought it would.  Chris even said that it was a "damn good meal," which made me ecstatic! 

I would like to note that Chris added the garnish to the plates specifically so the pictures would look pretty for the blog. I love him.

For the dessert, Chris made a Funfetti cake out of a box with canned chocolate icing because I had been saying how much I have been craving cake recently.

He decorated it himself :)

For the extra surprise from Chris I woke up to this on Valentine's day morning written on the chalkboard we used for the photobooth at our wedding:

For Valentine's Day last year when we were engaged, I made a list of the reasons I was excited to marry him.  Since then I have subtly hinted that I wanted him to make a list.  So he found a really creative way to make a list for me of the reasons he was happy he married me:

It is in the shape of his old Falcon, the car we took our first date in.

It was really sweet and I definitely cried when I saw it.  My favorite reasons include: that I fart; that I let him  buy action figures, guitars, and parts for his jeep; and that we saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in his Falcon on our first date.  There are super sweet reasons and hilarious ones and I couldn't have imagined a better present.

All in all...Valentine's Day = success.

Valentine's Day Part 1

Yes...there are multiple posts about Valentine's Day coming up.

Chris and I don't usually make a big deal out of Valentine's Day but we actually did a lot of cooking/baking the past few days and I wanted to share (because I'm super proud of myself and want to brag).

On Friday there was a potluck resource meeting at the school scheduled for the entire afternoon so I saw it as a perfect opportunity to try out a recipe for red velvet cookies that I had been sitting on for a while.  I got the recipe from this website.  The recipe was kind of involved and of course I started way too late in the night (mostly because of Jersey Shore...my priorities might be mixed up) but they turned out great.  Note: I altered the original recipe a bit.

Red Velvet Cookies
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs, separated (you will use both egg whites and yolks)
2 teaspoons red food coloring
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons baking cocoa
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 can of your favorite cream cheese frosting

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream the shortening and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and food coloring. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. In another bowl with clean beaters, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; fold into batter.

Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Crumble some of the ugliest cookies and set aside to sprinkle on the finished cookies. Frost remaining cookies; sprinkle with cookie crumbs.

sooooo gooooood

The original recipe calls for chocolate chips and has a recipe to make your own frosting. I personally didn't think chocolate chips would be good in the cookies and the frosting wasn't cream cheese icing and for me, red velvet cake and cream cheese icing go hand-in-hand. Plus I LOVE frosting out of the can (I even asked for it on our wedding cake HA).
The recipe says it yields 7 1/2 dozen, but I don't remember how many I got out of the batch. I definitely made some WAY too big and still ended up with a lot of cookies. I actually ended up giving a lot away to Chris' friends even after the potluck.

Part 2 coming soon!

Day 3 ....

...of being snowed in, iced in, which means being bored out of my mind. 

Snowmageddon/snowpocalypse supposedly hit our home the past few days.  In all reality we barely got any snow, but had enough ice to cancel school for everyone in the area, including Universities.  Husband has actually been off for a couple days with me which means a lot of laying around and eating and eating and eating. 

I found this recipe on a blog I followed while planning our wedding and actually had all the ingredients in our kitchen to make it without having to venture out into the ice...who cares that it requires almost a cup of butter.

Chocolate Chip Gooey Blondie Bars

2/3 C margarine or butter, melted and cooled
1 lb brown sugar (about half the bag I had)
3 eggs
2.5 C flour
2.5 T baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz bag of chocolate chips/chunks (I prefer the chips)

Combine melted butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix. Mix in chocolate chips. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until golden brown (I baked it at 325 for 17 minutes and it had the perfect amount of gooey-ness, but my oven runs very hot). Slide a knife around the edges of the pan as soon as they are out of the oven and cool.

Pre-baking

When they come out of the oven they will be gooey in the center, but this makes it delicious.  These are extremely good, but very rich.  Luckily one of my best friends/neighbors had me over for dinner the other night so I left half of them with her...otherwise Husband and I would have gained about 10 lbs each in 3 days.  Husband doesn't really crave sweets as much as me, but he still has been hitting up the leftovers after every meal. 

Post-baking and after most of it is gone.

3 Weeks Down...

Well I guess I was wrong about being able to enjoy some hobbies more once my clinicals started.  I actually do have more time, I am just so exhausted by the time I get home, I can't even imagine starting a project. 

Clinicals have been very diffiult for me, both emotionally and with the amount of work that I am having to take on.  I love working with the kids, but my experience is definitely not what I was expecting.  I have 9 weeks left at my first site, 12 more at my second, and then I am finally done with school!  It seems so far away right now.

I am being kind of spoiled right now though, we have had 4 snow days in just 3 weeks....and I've loved it.
The most recent snow resulted in a foot of powdery (school-canceling) goodness outside our humble apartment.  I wish I had taken pictures of it, but definitely did not think about it.  Chris was off work as well, so we got to actually enjoy some quiet time together reconnecting.....and watching an insane amount of Netflix while eating ice cream.  Ice cream, Dexter, and the hubby...perfect.

Here's to 9 more weeks of round 1 of clinicals....and hopefully more snow days.

Shut up

Right now I am sitting in our living room watching The Office with my husband.
A year ago today (Dec 31st around 2 am) Chris proposed to me in my tiny apartment in the city.

1 year ago we were playing games on his xbox that I had given him for Christmas.  I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back I told him how I thought his excitement over getting an xbox was equivalent to the excitement I would have if I got an engagement ring (I had been not so subtly hinting for a few months at that point).  This is about how it went:
Chris: Well do you want it now?
Me: Well yeah! But you have to ask me to marry you first.
Chris: Jenny, will you marry me?
Me (in an obnoxious voice because I thought he was definitely joking): Of course I'll marry you!
Then Chris reaches around his back and is fiddling with the curtain.
Me (laughing): What are you going to pull something out from behind the curtain?!
Chris (as he pulls out the ring box and opens it): Jenny, will you marry me?
Me: SHUT UP

I was completely shocked and eventually said yes after composing myself.  About 15 minutes after I finally said yes, I told Chris I was sad that he didn't get down on one knee, so he got down on one knee and asked me for the third time that night and I said yes again.

The ring tied up in the curtain he pulled it out of the night before.

The ring was the exact ring I had fallen in love with back in September when we went to look and he had to special order it, which was why it took so long and made me go insane waiting for over 3 months (poor Chris, I did not keep it quiet).

I was definitely not expecting it (I had let my hair air dry and was in my pajamas) but it was perfect and very us.  Since this time last year, there has been a lot of craziness and I couldn't be happier with the life we have begun to build together.  I look forward to loving him and laughing with him for the rest of our lives.
(mushy I know, but he will make an insanely cute old man, I can't wait)

Christmas: check

 Well we survived our crazy and exhausting first Christmas together!

We did a lot of driving over 2 days and had to jam pack Chris' truck with all the generous gifts we were given, but it was great to see all of our family and for the first time ever, we got to see each other on Christmas.  We are both blessed and spoiled.

Highlight moments:  Seeing how excited our niece was to see us on Christmas Eve, sitting in our living room opening our gifts to each other late on Christmas Eve in our pjs, watching our niece open gifts early Christmas morning, opening our "interesting" gifts she picked out herself for us (wolf figurine, crystal and mirrored horse and carriage), my entire family making fun of how huge my head is, seeing my 4 year old cousin put on a ninja demonstration/country concert for us (they happened simultaneously a few times...amazing), eating tons of food and being spoiled by our generous families.

Husband got me a Fossil watch that I love, I got super comfy boots from the in-laws, Blu-Ray home theater from my parents, and a lot of other things we love. 

I was sad we didn't get to go to the candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve and I have decided one of my resolutions for the new year is to try and find a new church up here...I just don't know if I feel confident enough to go by myself.  We'll see.

Pictures!

Husband opening gifts on Christmas Eve by our mini tree with creepy Santa topper.

A better shot of the disaster that was our living room on Christmas Eve.

The view out of our front door on Christmas morning

Our front door with the wreath I decorated because we were too poor to buy one.

Untouched snow

I LOVE SNOW!!

Christmas!!

So I LOVE Christmas and this is mine and Chris' first Christmas together as husband and wife and our fourth(!) together period.  It's hard to believe we weren't even engaged at this time last year.  While we were dating, we decided that we would spend Christmas with our own respective families until we were married.  I think we always kind of knew we would end up getting married so it was never weird for us to talk about the future and we knew that we would eventually get to spend Christmas together.

This year is going to be kind of nuts (and the rest probably will be until we have children and make the family come to us HA).  After Chris gets off work on Christmas Eve, we will be spending time with his family.  Then coming home and packing up the car as much as possible for the next morning because we will have to rush to get ready after we get the phone call that our 6 year-old niece is awake.  I can't imagine she will be patient (I NEVER was) so we have to hurry over to watch her open gifts and then we will be off on a 2 hour drive to my Grandma's lake house for the Basler Christmas.  Then presents at my parents' with my sister and then Chris leaves me because he has to work the next day and I will be coming up the day after with my parents for the Dillon Christmas.  It will be insane, but worth it to actually get to spend time with all of our family and each other.

We still have a tiny bit of shopping left to do for gifts and need to hit up the grocery store so I can make some buffalo chicken dip for Christmas dinner.  I did not offer to make this, it was requested of me.  It doesn't exactly scream "CHRISTMAS," but it is delicious.

Weird aside:
Chris and I just saw a commercial for OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network)...I think we are a little behind on finding out about this, but it looks ridiculous.

Another weird aside:
I fell down 3 steps yesterday leaving the doctor's office on some left over ice and my butt is killing me and is probably covered in a huge bruise due to the large amount of blood thinners I am taking.