Girlie Weekend: Part 2, Miscellaneous

Because it's Friday and my mind is mush, here are just a few snapshots of the weekend.

The guest of honor and her goodies.

 Giving the belly some love.

 Just being a helpful friend to Jazzy on her way down the slide.

 Our traditional purchase of nail polish (mine's in front...a lovely lavender).

 And the sad, sad farewells...

Happy weekend, friends!

News/Changes/Announcement/Etc.

Several weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to give you some "big news."  Several weeks have come and gone, and I assumed everyone forgot.  Apparently, a few people remembered and are interested.  Allow me to elaborate!  And, just to make things interesting, allow my elaboration to be in the form of a timeline.

Let's get started.

March 2010: teaching job offered and accepted

May 2010:  college graduation (after only 5 short years...)

June 2010:  wedding (yipee! what a fun day!!)

August 2010:  begin teaching (thinking about those first few weeks is making me a bit nauseated...not the best mems)

August 2010-May 2011:  survive first year (check!)

August 2011:  begin second year (after a rejuvenating and reinvigorating summer)

September-November 2011:  genuinely enjoy job...enough to buy a house in the community

November 2011:  feeling restless at job, but not sure why (at this point, I'm still not admitting to myself that I'm vocationally dissatisfied)

January 2012:  finally admit (out loud!) that joy is missing from my vocation. Pray: God, please drop an opportunity in my lap.  I don't care what it is, but I can't keep doing what I'm doing.  I don't know why I'm unhappy, but something needs to change.

February 2012:  a colleague mentions the possibility of switching to special education (I'm certified in 6-12 English and 6-12 special education).  Huzzie's ear is talked off over the course of several weeks.  The powers that be are talked to regarding a potential switch.  Still no opening in the SPED department, so merely a possibility...

March-April2012 (here's where it gets exciting...so exciting that it deserves a bulleted list instead of only one sentence!)

• Spring break:  prayers that I will figure out what I dislike about my job.  Answer:  it's overstimulating ALL THE TIME and I apparently can't handle that.  It's exhausting standing in front of 30 people when only 5 are listening.  Love the planning, dislike the implementing.  Want to help the 5% who are not getting it, but must keep rolling through due to time constraints and class size.  Inability to relationally connect due to large class size.  
• Monday after spring break:  prayers that a certain teacher will dislike the idea of coming back from spring break so much that she decides to retire
• Thursday after spring break:  colleague (and friend) stops by my room to let me know that said teacher was so bummed to have to come back after spring break that she decided to retire (!!!!!)
• Friday after spring break:  e-mail from SPED principal announcing the opening
• Friday after spring break:  e-mail TO human resources declaring interest in the position
• Following Monday:  e-mail FROM human resources declaring that the job is mine (!!!!!!!!!)
• Next Tuesday:  paperwork signed, job officially mine, English department told, welcomed into SPED department

So that's my news.

I will be co-teaching 3 hours of sophomore English  with one of my favorite persons, 1 hour of reading, and 1 hour of interrelated English. To say I'm elated is an understatement.  I'm humbled by God's grace in this entire situation, and I'm convinced that next year will be better than this yer.

Long story, I know, but some of you asked. :)

There are more examples of how God is ridiculously awesome at orchestrating all the miniscule details in our lives, but this has gone on long enough.

Yay for a new chapter.  Yay for a change.  Yay for a new classroom.  Yay for teaching with a friend.  Yay for a smart board in my new room.  YAY for smaller class sizes.  Yay for administrative paperwork (you think I'm kidding...but I'm not...I love this kind of thing).  And yay for less grading.

Happiness all around.

Girlie Weekend: Part 1, The Food

So 4 of my gurlz came to my casa last weekend.  And, believe it or not, this is our 4th annual weekend!  We's getting cray-cray old.  To be honest, the idea of posting about this weekend had me mildly stressed...because it was so awesome and because I have so much to say (per the usual).  So in an effort to minimize my stress and to categorize my thoughts, I will be splitting up the weekend into several smaller (go with the Heidi definition of "smaller") posts.  Today we will begin with the second most important part of the weekend [second only to our conversation (cue: awwwww)].

Food.

Naturally.

We ate lots.  And it was all delish.  But before you go any further, you may want to visit a recap of last year's weekend in OKC. 

Welcome back.

Anywho, we began Friday eve with an assortment of appies (appetizers).  (Disclaimer: as has been pointed out in the past, I have no skill in taking pics of food.  That is fine.  I know this.  Maybe someday I'll desire to be better.  Now I only desire to eat...not learn new cam-cam skillz.) (Disclaimer #2: apparently I have few pics of the actual food, thank goodness, but I do have recipes!)

Tornadoes almost threatened our existence.  Fortunately, we have a basement (complete with Christmas trees "covered" in trash bags...) in which to take shelter.  And you know we couldn't leave the food upstairs! (PS - don't judge our basement. Thanks.)

 How cute is this little mommy!?

 We were only afraid of losing our food in the storm.  Or losing Katherine, who was still on her way to our house! 

 Thankfully it passed, Katherine made it safely to our home, and we were able to carry on with our weekend.  Friday night we enjoyed my most favorite cold meals of all time.  All time, people.  Sister-in-law Tammy graced my palette with this first, and my life has been forever changed.  Make it tonight and eat it tomorrow.  You will thank me.

Cold Chicken Pasta

Cook box of pasta, cool.

Add chopped raw veggies (onions, tomatoes, carrots, green pepper, etc.)

Marinate chicken: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/2 t ground ginger, 3/4 t garlic powder, 2 T honey or brown sugar, 2 T white vinegar, little bit of oil

Grill or bake chicken.  Cut and cool.  (Cold is best)

Poppy Seed Dressing: 1 1/2 cup sugar, 2 t salt, 3 T grated onion, 3 T poppy seeds, 2 t dry mustard, 2/3 cup vinegar, 2 cups salad oil (canola)

Go, and be blessed by this deliciousness.  We also had some yummy fruit and super yummy drinks (courtesy of the B-ster).

 Sunday morning brought us brunch on the patio.  So quaint.

 PS - I bought those 4 chairs from Craigslist and painted them yellow and the table was given to us by other sister-in-law Kelly and I painted the legs with some leftover sample paint. 

 We enjoyed banana bread French toast, bacon (who doesn't love bacon??), and leftover fruit salad.  Make the bread tonight, stick it in the fridge, and turn it into French toast Saturday morning.  Whoever you live with will love you forever, I promise. (The recipe is from a wonderful website called .eat8020.com/.  It may also change your life. I'm all about life change...or maybe I read too much Pioneer Woman and her dramatic ways have rubbed off on me...or maybe I'm just naturally dramatic...don't respond to that...especially if you hate ellipses.............)

Banana Bread French Toast

Serves 8

BREAD

4 ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 tsp butter, softened

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Pour batter evenly into two bread pans (lies - it only makes one pan, unless I'm royally screwing something up) that have been prepared lightly with cooking spray.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly, then gently remove from pans and cool fully on a wire rack.

FRENCH TOAST

3 egg whites

1 whole egg

2 Tbsp skim milk

3 Tbsp orange juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk all ingredients in a large shallow dish.

Cut each loaf of bread into 8 even 1" slices. Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Soak banana bread slices, two at a time, in batter for one minute, flipping halfway through soaking. Place slices onto skillet and cook for ~3 minutes each side, until golden brown.

Serve lightly dusted with powdered sugar or with maple syrup.

Nutrition Info per 2 slices: 196 calories, 2 g fat, 6 g protein, 39 g carbohydrates, 2.5 g fiber

And it's healthy!!

After a wonderful shopping trip, we came home for a little baby shower. :)  And we had more appies and zerts.

 And we got Sonic happy hour drinks and poured them in fun glasses.  I'm telling you, hosting a shower with only 5 people is the best thing ever. 

 Treats from Billy Vanilly in T-town.  We each picked out our own fava flaves.  How fun is that!?

 After dinner out (no pics, super sorry), we finished our whirlwind weekend with brunch on Sunday. 

 And we ate, dare I say, the most delectable quiche I have ever had.  It was truly a team effort.  One of the best parts of a weekend in a home with 4 other girlies is having 4 other sets of hands to help in the kitchen.  So fun.  Final self-timer shot:

We also indulged in fruit and yogurt parfaits (as easy as it gets) and cinnamon rolls brought by Cheri (um, so yum...Cheri, I wish you would have left more).

Without further adieu, here's the recipe that's going to make you wish it were brunch-time all the time.

Quiche

½ lb. bacon
10 oz. package spinach
1 c. sour cream (I use light)
salt and pepper to taste
2 unbaked pie crusts
1 onion, minced
½ lb. diced mushrooms
2 c. diced ham
16 oz. Colby Jack or sharp cheddar cheese
4 oz. Parmesan cheese
8 eggs
1 c. half and half (I use fat-free)
1 Tbsp. parsley 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown bacon, drain, crumble, and set aside. Saute spinach in bacon drippings. Drain. Saute onions. Add mushrooms. Stir in ham and bacon. Combine spinach, sour cream, salt, and pepper. Add meat mixture. Mix in cheese. Divide into each pie crust.

Mix eggs, half and half, and parsley. Pour over pies. Place pies in oven and bake 45-50 minutes or until tops are puffed and golden brown. Let stand 5-10 minutes. Each pie serves 8.

It rocked my world.  But what rocked my world even more was the precious time spent with the besties.  

 To be continued...

Domestic Day: Round 2

Remember our first "Domestic Day"?  And then remember when I finally shared the recipes?  And remember when I told you that I would tell you about our second domestic day?  Please say you followed all those links....

Weeeeeeeellllllllllll.  We had another domestic day.  And it was epic. Epicly awesome.  (Purpose of domestic day = bake lots, talk lots, be together lots, eat lots, etc. lots)

It was my turn to travel, so I converged (with all my baking gadgets) upon Cheri's sweet kitchen.

The pan we were using may or may not have been too big for the oven, so Cheri may or may not have been keeping the oven door sealed with her backside.  Like I said...may or may not.

 Baking is just happy work.  Everything is yellow, but yellow is a happy color. 

 Yellow is the color of only good things: butter, cookies, bread, sunshine, flowers, and......other stuff.

 We tried a few new recipes, but mainly stuck with the tried and true ones from last time. (If you didn't follow the link to the recipes, do that NOW.  You won't regret it.)

 Cheri knocked out 8 loaves of bread while I hammered out dozens of cookies and breakfast bars.

 Um, yum.

 Okay, so we tried a new method with our pizza crusts.  And it worked like a charm.  Seriously.  We allowed the dough to go through it's whole slow and steady rising time.  Then we baked it for 5 minutes, let it cool, wrapped it, and froze it.  I used mine a few weeks ago, and I was wowed at the deliciousness of the frozen crust.  (PS - I believe I have the best recipe for pizza crust EVER.  See below.)

 Cinnamon roll time.  We used Pioneer Woman's recipe, but added white and brown sugar to the innards as well as walnuts.  We also used white whole wheat for the dough and added flax seed to give it, as Cheri says, "girth" in the morning.

 Mmmmmm.  Butter.

 Mmmmmmm. Sugar.  And nuts.

 If this doesn't make you immediately salivate, I don't know what will.  (Maybe a less-yellow picture?  Sorry, I only take yellow-infiltrated pics whilst baking.)

 Our loot!

 And our genius packing system:  wrap 2 cinnamon rolls in plastic and place in freezer bag.  On the weekends, I've been pulling out a pair and defrosting instead of having to defrost an entire 9 x 13.  Genius, I tell you. Well, Cher's the genius in our friendship. I'm fairly confident she has more baking brain cells than I

 Done, and done.

I would love to say that our day(s) ended happily.  But I can't.  While helping me carry my billion bags of stuff to my car, Cheri slipped on a leaf (on the stairs!!) and hit the back of her head something fierce.  I encouraged her to sue her apartment for negligence.  But Cheri ain't like that.  She's a real gem.  (Update:  she has since recovered, but she reported that the rest of that near-fatal day was a bit foggy.)

And, as promised, here is the faithful pizza crust recipe:

Pan Pizza (makes 2 9 inch pizzas)
1/2 c. olive oil
3/4 c. plus 2 T. milk, warmed to 110
2 t. sugar (or honey)
2 1/3 c. all-purpose flour (sometimes I use whole wheat to jazz it up...you'll just need more liquid if you do that)
1 package instant yeast
1/2 t. salt

Heat oven to 200.  When the oven reaches 200, turn it off. Lightly grease large bowl with cooking spray.  Coat each of the 2 9-inch cake pans with 3 T. oil.  Mix milk, sugar, and remaining 2 T. oil in measuring cup.  Mix flour, yeast, and salt in standing mixer fitted with dough hook.  Turn maching to low and slowly add milk mixture.  After dough comes together, increase speed to medium-low and mix until dough is shiny and smooth (give it time with this step).  Turn dough onto lightly floured counter, gently shape into ball, and place in greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in warm oven until doubled in size (30 minutes...or 20, if you're impatient like me).

Transfer dough to lightly floured counter, divide in half, and lightly roll each half into a ball.  Working with 1 dough ball at a time, roll, shape, and press dough in pan.  Cover with plastic and set in warm spot (not oven) until puffy and slightly risen (20 minutes).  Top with awesome things and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

Make pizza now.  This one will knock your socks off.  Yum.  Happy domesticity!

Cass Roll

Yes, casserole.  I love me a good casserole.  And when I say "love," I mean "I could eat casserole for every meal of every day until I am called to my final resting place" kind of love.  The gooeyness (sp??) of all the ingredients melting together into one delectable concoction, the ease of having a one-dish dinner, and the nostalgia that is immediately brought up at the sound of the word (say it, you'll know what I mean: casserole) is just too delightful to pass up.

Problem: huzzy doesn't like casserole.
Solution: make dang casseroles until I find one he likes.
His reaction: negative to date.
Plan of attack: new recipe tonight.
Hope: likability.
Probable outcome: thrown into the pile of "never make agains."
New solution: purchase of huzzy's favorite treats should do the trick:

 (the donuts, not the flowers...)

And please notice 2 things: the computer in the background that I am currently working and paused mid-blogedge to upload some pics and the ground beef (for tonight's cass roll) sizzling in the background.  Bliss.

 To be fair, the donut was initially purchased as a "thank you" to huzzy for working like a mad man last night to fix our truck.  I suppose the treat can have dual purposes.  Hence the state of our garage.

And to end this post on a ridiculous note, this is the doorbell in our garage.  Silly lizard.

I'll let you know how the rolling of the cass goes.  Prayers, please.

Update:  bad news.  He gagged.  Operation cass roll:  foiled.  

Birthday?

How about a little bday fun?  And fun it was.

Moms came to see me over my lovely spring break.  

 Then we headed to Omaha for the actual day.

Beer tasting began our weekend of loveliness. 

 My comments.  I just had to take notes.  It's in my blood.


And we bought mini bundts.  So adorable, I know.

 And we cheered on the KU.

 And this is what we looked like mid-game.  Yes, huzz read a magazine the entire time.

And that was that.  A wonderful time.  So thankful for the special people in my life.

And because every post is better with a babe, get a look at these:

 (Obviously, I am smitten with this babe...and his brothers.)

Happy Spring, friends.

Changes are happening at the Carlson casa...and I'll share them with you soon.  GREAT things.

Smile

I ordered this pic last night from Shutterfly (FREE 11X14, boom).  And it made me smile.

It's one of my faves.  Unruh Photography is truly wonderful.

I have more exciting news to share with you all.  But give me 2 weeks.  Yay!  Come on back...