Triple the Thankfulness

This year, I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with three, yes, three families. Considering I only have one big combined family, it was definitely a change. All the families had picked different dates as well which allowed us to spend more time with each since we didn't have to hurry off to a different place.  Since Eric and I had a rather short dating experience, there weren't many opportunities to get to be with extended family so it was great to get to spend more time getting to know everyone.

Last Sunday, we went out with Eric's dad's side of the family and we went to Bravo (the food there is so good!).  Even some of Eric's family came from out of town!  It was my first official outing with the Green family as a Green and I definitely felt like part of the family.

Thursday, we saw my family.  Because of the wedding, our family from Texas didn't make it up and they were definitely missed.  The football game was much smaller too, but don't you worry, it still happened!  Eric and I sat with my cousins and it was fun sitting with the other young, married couple as a married couple (we were the fifth couple married in five years!).  They are expecting in January and I'm so excited for them!

Saturday, we went to have Thanksgiving with Eric's mom's side.  We played games after dinner and thanks to a certain cousin, I won big in Scrabble which is something that never happens! (Seriously, she spotted that I had the letters to spell spouse and get a triple word score! I was going to spell "jobs." haha!) I then taught them how to play speed Clue.

So this year, I am triple the thankful thanks to the two new families God has brought into my life!

Blessed

This year, I married my best friend. And the day was blessed.  Seriously blessed. Like, undeniably, this was what we were supposed to do blessed.

• Beautiful weather surrounded by two days of poor weather. 
• One Thing Remains (the wedding processional song) playing on the radio the instant it was turned on when we got in the car to go for breakfast.
• A friend from college who I'd lost contact with coming back into my life and then stepping in to put together a string quartet to play for the ceremony (and another college friend being part of the quartet). 
• My mom being the best "partner-in-shopping" to get so many amazing pieces of our day put together. She seriously treated me like a princess and made this the most special time in my life.  I felt so pampered and blessed.  I think I could put up an argument that I seriously was the most blessed bride-to-be ever.
• Amazing family and friends who put together the last minute details on our wedding weekend.
• Our incredible, amazing friends who we were blessed to have stand with us and support us on our special day.
• Fun pre-wedding celebrations from so many people who just poured on the excitement and love and well-wishes.
• Vendors who simply blew away our expectations and made every detail so perfect and our day flow so well.
• A never worn beautiful white wedding dress from the thrift store for $50 that had a price tag that read $1,395. And a second dress off the rack from the wedding store that was all "Pride and Prejudice" and exactly what I wanted even when I didn't know it before I put it on.  And an aunt who can do anything with anything who made the dresses "mine."
• The outpouring of love and support from everyone - family, friends, co-workers, our parent's friends - from beginning to end.

For everyone who made not just our day but the entire experience amazing, 

THANK YOU!

There is now more family in my life.  We celebrated with one side of Eric's family on Sunday at Bravo. We will celebrate with my side today. We will celebrate with more of Eric's family on Saturday.

My husband cooks. And hunts. Last night, he whipped up a yummy stir-fry with venison, broccoli, onion and rice.  He then informs me he "made up the sauce." Since I'm a recipe follower, I've always found people who can do that impressive.  You've impressed me, love.

There's so much more...this is what comes to me now though, so I'm leaving it at this...

Easy Cheese Crackers

I discovered the 100 Days or Real Food blog via Pinterest and really enjoy reading it.  I feel a little convicted, a little inspired and more then a little bit of there's no way I could ever really doing this. I like her creative (and often simple) recipes though and this easy cheese cracker recipe caught my attention a while back.  I decided it was finally time to give it a shot.  They were simple, quick and tasty!

Easy Cheese Crackers

Original Pin     Recipe: 100 Days of Real Food

This was the first time I used our new food processor/immersion blender.  Unfortunately, the ingredients did not fit well and was working a little too hard.  Next time I make these, I'll probably put in all of the butter but half of the cheese and flour to get the butter all integrated.  After, I'll move the mixture to my Kitchen Aid and add the rest of the ingredients to make the "ball."

Because it wasn't all well incorporated, It didn't roll very well and ended up a little crumbly.  I was excited to get to use my silicone sheet for the first time.   So much tidier than using the kitchen counter.

I ended up leaving the roll in the fridge for almost a week.  I think the combination of not getting the full result from the food processor and leaving it in the fridge for so long resulted in some crumbliness.  They were still tasty though!  One recommendation that was made was the sharper the cheese, the better the cheese taste.  Next time, I'll try sharp cheddar cheese instead of mild.  Because there will be a next time!

Simple Cream Cheese Danish

I made this easy cheese danish dish for breakfast and it was seriously easy.  Took hardly any time to complete!

Simple Cream Cheese Danish

Original Pin  Recipe: Food Lush

So simple, this recipe starts with packaged crescent rolls.  The filling and icing both took just a few minutes to make.  The slowest part was waiting for them to finish baking!

(Does anyone else see the face in the icing?  Kinda ghostly?)

Hints:

• It took me 3 Tablespoons of milk to get the icing to be soft enough to drizzle.  Otherwise, it was an icing that would have barely spread.  However, start with the recommended 1T and slowly add additional milk.  This was the hint I found online and it saved the icing for me!

Eric loved them and between the two of us, they disappeared in no-time flat!  I'm pretty sure some were enjoyed in the middle of the night :)

Surprise Bedroom Makeover

Monday night I ran by Target to get a few things and decided to pick up some lampshades, which is something I've been wanting to do for a while.  The ones in the bedroom were from high school and had remnants of hot glue from the flowers that used to be on them.  I wandered around for a bit as I enjoy doing and happened to notice a sale on some bedding.  I wanted to get some new bedding before Eric moved in, but wasn't able to.  This led to a couple of busy hours to create a bedroom surprise for Eric before he got home from work. (Sorry in advance for some of the poor lighting, it was late when I got started)

Before

After

Above the bed is the photo frame we had out for guests to sign at the wedding, two photos I took of flowers Eric gave me while we were dating and the vows we used on our wedding day. I changed out the old shade (that I've used since high school and used to have flowers glued to it) with a rectangular one.

On the dresser is now my wedding bouquet and a rectangular lampshade.

I had an idea a while back to frame our vows, my purity ring and a necklace that Eric wore until our wedding day so this was the perfect opportunity to complete this project.  At Target, I bought linen napkins and then used thread to make corners for the vows.  I attached Eric's necklace to his vows and my purity ring to mine.  I also drew and hand-stitched a heart on both of them.

Eric was pleasantly surprised when he got home and saw the finished result.  It was worth the work!  And now the bedroom feels just a little more like ours.

Marinated Baked Chicken

Daylight savings is great!  However, I woke up at 6:30am since I'd had seven hours of sleep.  What to do?  Well, I'll create a blog post!

When Mr. and I were dating, (okay, that's really fun to say!!!  He's my Mr. now! :) love it! okay, back on topic) I was terrible at taking pictures and documenting things we did.  I just didn't think about it I guess. So now that we're married, I'm trying to be better about documenting our lives together.  We're using a notebook from one of the showers to write down memories that we may forget otherwise.  For example, I filled three pages with things from the wedding day like the fact "One Thing Remains" played on the radio when we were headed to breakfast (we used that song for our groomsmen & bridesmaids to walk down the aisle to).  They are things that even next year, we might not remember but were special to us that day.  We also wrote things down from the honeymoon.  On Friday, I was called "The 'Lady of the Night'" by one of the servers because he said my dress was so beautiful.  How awesome is that?!

In continuation of that, we've been writing down "firsts." The first time I was called "Mrs. G" by someone who wasn't at the wedding, our first time taking communion together, the first meal we had together, etc.  It's made me more aware of the little special moments.

With that in mind, I'm going to share with you the first homemade meal we had! 

Marinated Baked Chicken

Gather:

2 c. Italian Salad Dressing

2 c. soy sauce

6 bone-in chicken breast halves

1/8 t. onion salt

1/8 t. garlic salt

Make:

• In a measuring cup, combine salad dressing and soy sauce.  Pour 3/4 c. into a large resealable plastic bag; add chicken.  Seal the bag and turn to coat; refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight, turning several times.  Refrigerate remaining marinade for basting
• Drain chicken, discarding marinade.  
• Place chicken, skin side up, on a rack in roasting pan.  Sprinkle with salts.
• Bake, uncovered at 350 for 45-60 min or until juices run clean (170<), brushing occasionally with marinade.

I made Rice Pilaf and crescent rolls to go with the chicken.  The chicken was really good!  It's a recipe my mom has used for as long as I can remember and I've made it once before.  However, I forgot that I normally bake it and I put it into a glass dish instead so the chicken turned out pretty soft.  I was not impressed at all with the rice pilaf so I doused it in soy sauce.  However, it is partially my fault as the recipe calls for brown rice and I had the minute version so it was a bit soggy.  The flavor wasn't all that great though so even if the rice was firmer I still won't make it again.

Edit: Turns out, my mom made up this recipe.  I'm now even more impressed with her amazing cooking skills.

Now a Mrs!!!

I'm married!  And I'm loving it!!!!

It was so nice to take a break from everything and just focus on the wedding.  It got a little crazy as it probably does for every bride to be so I was glad that I wasn't trying to juggle a bunch of projects.  Now though, we're back and (mostly) settled in.  I've got a few projects (okay, a lot of projects) that I'm itching to start, including getting back to blogging.  I have a feeling being married and new wife will give me lots of new things to share...