Grilled Pork Chops & Birthday Goodies

Where do I start with these pork chops? They are probably the best pork chops I have ever eaten! I have to give some credit to Nathan who grilled them for me because they were cooked perfectly. The marinade made the chops so flavorful and the dollop of garlic butter put them over the top. We will definately be making these again!

On Saturday, we celebrated Anya's 5th birthday. I wanted to share two pictures with you; one of the cake and one of a butterfly cookie I made. Every year I make sugar cookies for Anya's party. I always make a number for her age and then one other shape that goes along with the theme of the party. So this year we had 5's and butterflies. I am quite proud of how they turned out and the guests (and, more importantly, Anya) loved them!

Enjoy!

Grilled Pork Chops

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup soy sauce

Zest of 1 lemon

1 TBSP pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 bone in pork chops

Mix marinade ingredients in ziploc bag; add chops. Marinate at least 2 hours.

Remove chops from marinade and grill until done.

Serve with garlic butter.

*For garlic butter, I mash 1-2 cloves of garlic in with about 4 TBSP butter. You could add more garlic according to your tastes.

Merry Christmas!!!

From my family to yours.... Have a very merry Christmas! I am off to bake some more cookies for Santa! :)

Rome

I thought I would share a few pictures from our whirlwind 2 days in Rome. I am hoping to get some recipes posted soon, but things have been hectic around here. Nathan is currently on leave (30 days vacation!!!), so we have been doing a lot of family stuff. I will continue to keep up with TWD and SMS, but probably won't be back in full posting/commenting mode until July. I hope you will continue to stop by and I will do my best to stop by your corner of the blogosphere, too!


Now for some quick highlights from our trip. We took a ton of pictures, so I hope these show a little! :)

Me and Nathan getting ready to start day 1

Colosseum

Cross inside colosseum

Trevi Fountain

St Peter's Basilica

View from top of St Peter's Basilica

Me and Nathan at the top of St Peter's Basilica

Eric's Birthday Party (Plus a FANTASTIC chocolate frosting recipe!)

My baby boy turned one on Friday! We celebrated his birthday on Saturday and it was so much fun that I had to share. Eric is the only boy in our group of friends and has spent his first year surrounded by girls. Because of this, Nathan came up with the great idea of having a "James Bond" party for Eric. We bought a tuxedo for Eric and all his girlfriends (plus his sister!) wore pretty dresses.

We had finger sandwiches (Cucumber, BLT, Tuna, and PB&J), veggies, cheese and crackers, and punch (Sherbet, 7-UP, and Hawaiian Punch). I also made chocolate cake with the BEST chocolate frosting ever. I got the recipe from Joy the Baker and LOVED it. (Recipe is at the bottom of post.) I also made tuxedo strawberries to top the cake. They were so cute and so delicious!

I have to thank my wonderful friend, Erica, for the pictures you see here. Also, thanks to Monica and Britteny for taking so many other great pics. Love you guys!

Hope you all enjoy the pictures!

The Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Recipe from Joy the Baker

1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup Ovaltine

Cream together butter, cocoa powder and salt. Butter mixture will be very thick. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add powdered sugar. Turn mixer on low and mix in powdered sugar while adding milk and vanilla extract. As the sugar incorporates, raise the speed of the mixer to beat the frosting. Beat until smooth. In a 2 cup measuring glass, stir together heavy cream and Ovaltine. Turn mixer speed to medium and pour cream mixture into frosting in a slow, steady stream, until you’ve reached your desired consistency. You may not need the full amount of Ovaltine and cream.

Nathan is home!!!

No food today, but I thought I would share some pics and video from Nathan's welcome home ceremony yesterday.

I can't even begin to explain how it feels to have my best friend back home with me. It is AMAZING! The kids are beyond excited about having Daddy home. All the screaming freaked Eric out at the ceremony, but once we got out of the gym, he was fine. It is so awesome to see Eric taking to Nathan so quickly. He knows who his Daddy is and that makes me smile. :) Anya is a HUGE Daddy's girl and is glued to Nathan's side. They have such a sweet relationship.

I will get back to blogging and comments tomorrow. Nathan is working half days until block leave starts in June, so I have time to kill in the mornings. Thanks for all the excitement surrounding his return! We are SO glad to have him home!!!!

Me and the kids with Monica, Trav, and their kids. Thanks for

coming, guys!!! (And for the pics/video!)

Waiting.....

They are here!!!

Reuniting

Daddy's girl

Together again!

Fry Bread and Anya's Party

I'm going to start with the recipe for today in case you are here just for the food. :) HEE HEE!

I love fry bread. It is so quick and easy and very delicious. The best part to me is that with fry bread you can have dinner and dessert all in one. My favorite way to eat fry bread is to top it like a tostada. Refried beans, cheese, tomatoes, olives, sour cream, spinach (or any lettuce you like). YUM! It is also great topped with cinnamon-sugar and honey!



Fry Bread

5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP baking powder
1 TBSP butter, melted
2 cups milk
Vegetable oil for frying

Sift 4 cups of flour with salt and baking powder. Mix milk and butter; add to dry ingredients. Work into a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured surface, kneading and working in remaining flour. Divide dough into 6 equal balls (can do more if you want the bread smaller). Flatten to about 1/8" thickness. Drop into hot oil and brown on both sides.

Top however you please! :)

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Now on to some really fun stuff! A lot of people have been asking me about Anya's party, so I thought I would share a bit.

4 years ago today my baby girl was born. She took a LONG time to get here, but it was worth it! I went in to have her on the night of the 4th (I was induced due to pre-eclampsia; Anya was 3 weeks early) and her birthday was supposed to be 5-5-05. She had different plans. 36 hours later my beautiful daughter was born and the last 4 years have been so wonderful. She is such a joy and I love being her mom!

Currently Anya is obsessed with My Little Pony's. I'm talking OBSESSED! So, in addition to a surprise party, we did a bit of a pony theme. Anya requested 4 cakes and Nathan had the great idea to put the symbols from some of her favorite ponies on the cakes. Anya was so excited to see her cakes! She was incredibly surprised and it was exciting to see her face. The picture I included of her coming in says it all to me. She stuck her hands straight out and started shaking them. It took her a minute or two before she realized what was going on and then she started jumping up and down. It was a great day!

I want to publicly thank my AWESOME friends for all their help with the party. I don't know what I would do without these girls. They are truly a blessing and I love them so much! So, thank you, Monica, for taking Anya for the afternoon, getting her dressed for the party, and bringing her over. Thank you, Britteny, for getting the balloons blown up for me! Thank you, Erica, for taking AMAZING pictures (and for the yummy fruit salad!). Thank you for all you do, guys!

Here are some pics from the day. Enjoy!

Rainbow Dash and Starsong cakes

Sweetie Belle and Pinkie Pie cakes

Number 4 and Rainbow Cookies

The set-up

Anya in complete shock

Me and my princess

Waiting so patiently

Getting ready to dig in!

Anya's loot

My favorite picture of the day!

Update

Just wanted to give y'all a quick update on what is going on here. Nathan headed back to Iraq yesterday and the kids and I are just trying to get back into our routine. We had so much fun over the last 18 days and we are looking forward to when Nathan can come home for good.

I have a few pictures that need posts written for them. :) I want to get some posts up soon and I will try to get that going. I have a few things I need to finish first (over 200 pictures from Nathan's visit to sort through!) and then I can get this blog back up and running.

I am heading to Arizona at the end of January and will be there for a month. I hope to be able to post a little while I am there and, at the very least, I will keep up with my TWD posts.

Thank you so much to all of you who have stopped by recently. I know I haven't posted much, but it means a lot to me to know that you are still checking in! Even if it takes me a few days to get posts going again, I will be stopping by other blogs to catch up on comments! I can't wait to see what you have all been up to!

Happy eating! :)

Greens and Beans

Hello out there in blogland!!! The kids are sleeping and Nathan made a run to the store so I thought I would pop out a quick post! We are having such a wonderful time as a family and are just soaking up every last second with Nathan. We had family pictures taken earlier in the week and while I don't have all of them in yet, our photographer posted this one on her blog and I HAD to share! Anya is such a Daddy's girl and this picture melts my heart! It was 19 degrees outside while we were shooting and boy were we FREEZING! But, our photographer (Shauna Maness) was AMAZING and it was a great session!



Here is a quick, easy, and delicious recipe that I made a few weeks back! Enjoy!

Greens & Beans

Parents Magazine Nov 2008

1 TBSP oil

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 (15 oz) cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained

1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup water

2 TBSP parmesan cheese

Heat oil in large skillet. Add red pepper and garlic; saute about 4 minutes. Add beans, spinach, broth, and water. Boil for 3-4 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Serve topped with parmesan cheese.

Nathan is home!!! Oh, and some food!

Sorry I have been MIA the last few days. Nathan arrived home Saturday morning. I spent Friday night at Monica's house so that the kids could sleep while I headed to the airport. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Frankfurt and Nathan's flight arrived at 5am. I was so excited that I think I only slept about 2 hours on Friday night! It was absolute TORTURE waiting at the airport, but when he finally walked out of customs it was all worth it! The last 2 days have been amazing and it is so nice having him home.

Anya has been attached to his side since he got home. I don't think she has stopped smiling since he walked in the door at Monica's. Eric hasn't wanted to be away from Nathan, either. He went right to him and only wants me when he's hungry! Of course, Nathan is soaking up every second with the kids and he has been on cloud nine since being home.

We have had a lot of good food over the last two days, too! On Saturday we celebrated Nathan's birthday with not one but two cakes! I wanted to try a new cake recipe (Paul Prudhomme's Spiced Pecan cake), but I wanted Nathan to still have his German chocolate cake. So, I made two mini's! YUM, YUM, YUM!!!

Sunday was our Christmas and I made a delicious Christmas dinner. We had ham, mashed potatoes, bacon wrapped asparagus, and pumpkin dinner rolls. For dessert we had an apple-cranberry crisp with eggnog sauce. OH MY WOW! I didn't want to go to the commissary, so I finally made my own eggnog and it was phenomenal! The recipe I used called for orange and lemon zest, so it was more citrus-y than I am used to, but I will definately use the recipe again.

Now for some pictures and the recipes for the eggnog and the crisp. I hope to be able to stop by some blogs and comment soon. Thanks for still checkin' in here!

Seeing Daddy for the first time

Together again

Nathan and Eric on Christmas

Do you know how IMPOSSIBLE it is to get both kids to smile at the same time??? :)

Nathan's birthday cakes

Apple-Cranberry Crisp with Eggnog Sauce

Sauce:

2 containers (3.5-4oz each) refrigerated vanilla pudding

1 cup eggnog

Fruit Mixture:

5 cups sliced peeled apples

2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 TBSP flour

Topping:

2/3 cup flour

1 cup quick oats

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

Place pudding and eggnog in bowl; whisk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate.

Heat oven to 375. In large bowl, combine fruit mixture. Spread evenly into 2 qt baking dish.

In medium bowl, combine topping ingredients until crumbly. Spoon evenly over fruit.

Bake 35-40 minutes or until deep golden brown and bubbly. Serve warm with chilled sauce.

Homemade Eggnog

Recipe from Williams-Sonoma American Christmas

12 large egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg plus more for garnish

Grated zest of 1 orange

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 - 3/4 cup dark rum, cognac, or bourbon (optional) - I just added a little rum extract

In a large saucepan whisk together egg yolks, sugar, nutmeg, and citrus zests. Stir in the milk and cream. Place over low heat and cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, just until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (160 degrees).

Immediately remove from heat and strain through a sieve into a pitcher. Cover and refrigerate to chill thouroughly, about 1 hour.

Serve alone or topped with whipped cream and nutmeg.

Run, run as fast as you can!

Happy Christmas Eve! Well, it isn't officially Christmas Eve for us since we will be waiting for Nathan, but it is Christmas Eve nonetheless! We will be heading over to a friends house this afternoon for dinner and pre-Christmas gifts and then tomorrow we will be going back over there for Christmas day.

I'm pretty sure that most are done with their Christmas baking or at least are done adding things to their lists! But, just in case you aren't, here is a WONDERFUL gingerbread recipe. It requires no chill time, which is great for these busy December days! I got the recipe from Prudy of Prudence Pennywise and I love it! We are actually making another batch for Santa today!

I baked them for only about 7 minutes because I prefer softer cookies and, I'm telling you, these are ADDICTING!

Anya loved decorating the gingerbread boy and girl with chocolate chips and I think she did a great job! She gave some of them 3 eyes so that they could see better and the gingerbread girl with all the chips on her dress Anya made for her best friend, Alexis. I love my little sous chef!

Hope everyone is able to take some time today to relax and enjoy time with family and friends. Lots of love and well wishes being sent your way for a very merry holiday season!

This little girl LOVES baking! (Or is it eating? HEE HEE!)

Eric wants to make sure you can see him, too!

Gingerbread Boy and Girl

Anya's beautiful creations!

Gingerbread Dough for Houses or Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
4 and 1/2 cups flour, plus more for rolling
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over meidum heat. Stir in sugar and molasses over low heat, stirring until dissolved. Remove from heat.

Add remaining ingredients, stirring until smooth. Add another 1/2 cup flour and remove ball of dough to counter. Knead a few times until smooth. At this point you can refrigerate the dough, or flour your surface and begin to cut out.

Bake at 350. Cookies will take as few as 8-10 minutes, while house pieces may need up to 15 minutes. Remove warm finished cookies or house pieces from cookie sheets after a few minutes.