the fruits of my labor

Since I am not counting basil or mint as "fruits", my harvest has been incredibly small. One tomato. uno. But -  it was very pretty and tasty! I'm trying to stay positive and be thankful that the grasshoppers didn't kill every single solitary thing in my garden.  After all, I should be proud of what I grow whether it be large or small...or as whatahusband puts it "atleast you didn't plant anything upside-down this time!"

Plant something upside down one time and you never hear the end of it. ;)

oh the times they are a changin

One of the things that made the day we got engaged so incredible was what we talked about. Being on the A&M campus brought up so many memories for whatahusband and his college days, and likewise it caused me to remember my college days and what my life was like back in Kansas.  We talked for hours, reminiscing about days gone by, and we both remembered times we hadn't thought about in years...the day bonfire fell...the day my Grammy died. What an incredible way to spend the day with the one you love. Everything about our conversation that day was and is so very precious to me because, I must confess, I had always found it a little bittersweet that God didn't have us meet sooner.  Don't get me wrong, I know that He had a perfect plan that I am SO SO grateful for and I would never want any of it to change.  I also know that there are years of stories, inside jokes, family events, and life that I will only ever know in pictures and stories. For a woman who cherishes memories and sentiment, I hoard those stories and save every picture - burning the memory into my mind.  It seemed, at times, that we missed so much of eachother's lives that we'd never catch up. 

And that brings me to these gems.  We found them when we recently decided to organize our closet and combine all our photos into one big tub.  There were ALOT of years to see...so many photos of each of us by ourselves...in college, at our sisters weddings, at work functions, Christmas photos, birthdays - we were each always the party of 1.  As we sat there together and it was pretty neat to try and figure out what were were both doing at the same point in time, and amazing to see how God knew we would catch up to eachother one day.

This is whatahusband a little over 10 years ago standing in the trunk of the charger.  I would have been in my final year of college in 2002 at KState when this was taken.  In 2004 I moved from Kansas to Texas, about 10 miles from his house, and now I live here.

Me in my printmaking studio at UNT 5 years ago. This was taken about 3 months before whatahusbands accident.  I would have been teaching the Drawing 1 freshman course when he was in a coma.

Isn't it amazing how much can change in 10 years? (thank goodness my hair changed too.)

I thank Him, becuase "He has made everything beautiful in its time." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Doggie Water Fountain

Studio

I have loved having a studio again.  The perfect little room with all my arts and craft supplies - it's just a little slice of heaven.


The sweetest little guardian sleeps near the door and makes sure whatahusband doesn't store any car parts in here again.

Norms will turn 8 next month, and his gray muzzle reminds me he is well on his way to his golden years.   

You might be a stone....

If you keep finding footprints on the many surfaces of your home and wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that he only wants to buy heavy, sturdy furniture... 

you might be a Stone.

looks like I'm guilty too :)

 

 

Summer Scratch

When we first got married, I really had the desire to be a better cook. Maybe I had something to prove to myself after all those those years of being single and making easy meals for one. Which was mac n' cheese. or Mexican. Whatahusband had his single meals too.  Bachelor pizza
(you know the one that comes in a frozen box) or Meat. Just meat. No sides. For every meal.

When we started eating every meal together, we discovered we needed a new menu and fast. Whatahusband is a team player when it comes to meals, and he cooks alot but...there's only so many days a gal can eat steak before she is craving a side...any side will do...I NEED something I can put cheese on!

So, we set a goal to cook healthy meals every night, from scratch, and gather a new batch of recipes we both loved to eat. All meals had to satisfy both of our dietary wants and needs.  After we started cooking this way, a few unexpected things happened...we both started to get excited to try new flavors and combinations of food, we lost weight, we spend time together before the meal talking to eachother and checking on the food, and the sweetest satisfaction of all - whatahusband started requesting our food instead of take-out.  Girls, I'm all about being a modern woman, but when it's friday night and we're craving pizza, and he asks me "do you have any homemade dough ready? I really want your pizza" something inside me feels so womanly, and so completely satisfied.


So, I thought I'd share one of our favorite easy summer recipes. Homemade pizza with salad and fresh salad dressing. The cookbook (You can trust a Skinny Cook by Allison Fishman) I got this recipe from says "there's something biblical and sexy about kneading your own pizza dough", and it's totally true! Make a homemade meal, look good doing it.

This meal is super easy, tastes better than your would ever think, and is healthy.

SCRATCH PIZZA

Here's how you make the pizza:

•  1 package active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
•  3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 Tb plus 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cup mozzarella made with skim milk
• 1 cup fresh basil (or dried herbs, it's good both ways. We have a heavy hand with the Italian dried herbs mix from the grocery store spice section)

1. Combine the yeast and water, and wait about 10 minutes. 2. Mound the flour into a large bowl and slowly pour 1 cup of the yeast mixture into it. Mix with a fork until you have shaggy dough. Add 2 Tb of olive oil and salt; start kneading. You want to dough to have the stickiness of a link roller so add the rest of the yeast water if needed.  3. Knead the dough until it gets to be as smooth as a baby's head, about 5 minutes.  4. Lift up the dough out of the bowl, drizzle 1 tsp olive oil into the bowl, lightly coating the sides, put the dough back into the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap leaving room for it to rise.  Let is rest in a warm spot to rise (I use the laundry room) until it doubles in size, about 1 1/2 hours. (Note: After I make the dough and it has risen, I wrap 1/2 of it up and freeze it immediately. The remaining directions are used with 1/2 of the dough recipe from above.)  5. Place cookie sheets (I use one large one and one small one side by side) into the over. Pre-heat to 500 degrees. 6. Divide the dough up into thirds which will make 3 thin crust small/medium pizza's.  We divide it into 1/3 and 2/3 parts and make the 1/3 for me (pictured above) and the 2/3 into a large pizza for whatahusband. 7. Roll the dough out, then take out the hot pans (make sure the oven is completely pre-heated before you do this) and place the dough on the pans. 8.  We sprinkle garlic powder on the dough, then top it however we want!  Work fast, you don't want to leave it out of the oven for longer than you need too. 9. Put the topped pizzas back into the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly brown. Enjoy!

SCRATCH SALAD DRESSING

Our homemade dressing flavors as of late are Basil Vinaigrette, Balsamic Vinaigrette, and Ginger.


Basil:  http://localfoods.about.com/od/saladdressings/r/basilvinaigrette.htm

Balsamic:  I put about 1:1 (maybe 2:1) oil and balsamic vinegar, squeeze in a few turns around the jar of Dijon mustard and pancake syrup. This one has TONS of variations and it's all dependent on your taste, so try using different combinations of oils, syrups, and mustard's for different flavors. We love this dressing, and it will keep in the fridge forever.

Ginger:  http://www.food.com/recipe/japanese-steakhouse-ginger-salad-dressing-copycat-shogun-steak-111829


All of these dressing will change flavors and get better with time (especially the balsamic) so make them to your liking!  I am seriously obsessed with the ginger dressing, which tastes EXACTLY like the restaurant ginger dressing.

TABLE WATER

Mint water is so easy to make. Bruise the leaves of a handful of fresh mint, and immerse them into a pitcher of water. Place in the refrigerator and presto! You have an incredible summer drink that goes with almost every meal.