Sleepy Sundays

Maybe it’s my church upbringing or just the way my parents always did Sundays, but there is something about this day that makes me want to be snuggled up at home. This could mean doing chores around the house or a new project, today it means baking and football.

So far it’s just been “cheater” muffins (which means out of a box.. but they still smell delicious).

See?

 

Later on I plan on making chocolate chip cookies. I was possessed to buy mini M&M’s in place of chocolate chips this time around, probably from spending too much time on Pintrest honestly. I love the way homemade cookies make the house smell!

Today is a semi-historic day. The 49ers are in the playoffs and are playing the NY Giants today. Now no matter what happens, I want it to be known that our family is actually having a dinner/get together based around this game. And in honor of that I am making chicken wings.

In the latest Food Network Magazine there was a recipe for Baked Buffalo Wings with Bleu Cheese-Yogurt Dip. I tested them out on Tyson last weekend while he was watching the Supercross races and they were met with rave reviews. And I must say.. Even I liked them. This is saying something because I am not a fan of messy foods that I have to eat with my hands, nor am I fan of gnawing on bones to get my food. But these were worth it. Wings are on sale often right now in honor of the upcoming Superbowl so do yourself a favor, pick up a bag and try these out. I used the drummettes only because they have more meat on them and it worked wonderfully.

 

Last week we decided to try making homemade chicken gyros. This was inspired by a trip to Mad Greek that recently opened a location in Vegas. Theirs were delicious but quite pricey. So this left me to figure out how to get my “fix” without spending $25 for “fast food”. I tested out my idea on Tyson (are you sensing a pattern here? I love my guinea pig haha) and we liked it so much I ended up making it again this weekend when a friend came over for dinner. It’s nothing fancy or complicated but somehow it hits the spot.

Chop up green bell pepper, tomatoes and a healthy dose of cucumber.

Cook up your chicken which has been marinating for a few hours. I used an already prepared marinade that was "Herb & Garlic with Lemon", threw in a cut up fresh lemon and let it soak for a good 6 hours.

 

Pick up a bottle of this or something similar. I used it on our "Greek Fries" and also in the yogurt sauce. So good!

 

Here's an ugly shot of the yogurt sauce I made to go on the gyros and also to dip the fries in. It is plain Greek yogurt with chopped up cucumber, Greek seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.

 

For the fries I went the easy route and used frozen crinkle fries sprinkled heavily with the Greek seasoning. It was quick and had satisfying results as far as flavor went. You will also want to heat up you pita bread at this point so that it is more pliable. We filled our pita bread with the chicken and veggies, wrapped it up in foil and let everything warm up together in the oven for a few minutes. 8 minutes is probably ideal but I was piggish and took mine out after 5 minutes, ha!

Here is the end result! We topped ours with lettuce the first time and skipped it the second time. Your pita will be plenty full without it but it is up to you! Top with yogurt sauce and dig in.

 

What I liked about this recipe is that it is quick enough to do during the week but you don’t feel like you are missing out on flavor! I think it would also be a good meal in the heat of summer because the veggies and yogurt sauce offer a light quality to the meal.

 

That’s all I’ve got for now

Until Later.

~Erin

XOXO

 

Happy New Year!

I know I am over a week late on this but! Here’s my New Year post nonetheless.

I said I was going to do better about blogging now that my life is not so.. Meh. A little drama here and there keeps things spicy I guess but when your whole life feels like it’s becoming a soap opera and you’re powerless to stop it it’s not so cute.

We kept it simple and maybe even a little elderly for New Year’s. Going out to eat at our favorite Italian restaurant and sipping sparkling Moscato when we got home. I think we maaaybe watched a movie? All I know for sure is that the lights were out by eleven PM and I did not stir. Not even for fireworks. Which is impressive because I usually wake up if a cat so much as murrrs out in the living room.

It’s been a pretty great couple of weeks what with all the work sanctioned holidays and long weekends. I’m not sure how to handle the idea of a full work week. Let’s just hope it’s gentle I suppose getting back on track with full paychecks is something to look forward to.

We were actually pretty productive with our last long weekend. I cleaned out the linen closet, which sounds weird but TRUST ME it needed to happen. I managed to discard enough crud that I could move all my cookbooks into the closet where they are easily accessible vs. above the stove where they tended to fall out onto people’s head (…or maybe just mine ok).

We also cleaned out the office and put things away. That’s right, after a year of living on our house we finally decided it might be good to start unpacking. So in the spirit of embracing our home we cleaned and organized. We purchased a color printer which was sorely needed because we kept having to go across the street to my parents for various print projects since ours was the black and white printer that came with my computer haha. Also it seemed like maaaaybe we should have a scanner. We ended up getting a shredder too, which feels very business like and official but in reality is really really loud and doesn’t accept you putting very many papers in it at once. Oops. But once I figured it out it works like a charm! We filed our bills and important papers. I re-installed Quicken and have resolved to actually give it a chance this time. We’re revamping our budget so I thought maybe I could use a little help with that. Just a thought.

I made my first ever roast chicken for Sunday dinner over the long weekend as well! Poultry freaks me out when it’s in its full form. Not only the gross out factor but the being sure its done factor as well. This time the recipe did not let me down! It turned out juicy and tender AND done!

Ta Da!

I know it looks a little scary with the burned up veggies below it and the lemon bursting out of its hindquarters but it was actually really really tasty! We had mashed potatoes and salad with it. It felt very classic and Sunday-dinner-ish. The boy enjoyed it and so did I.

Well I’d better get back to my Sunday. Hope everyone is well!

Until Later.

~Erin

XOXO

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Sometimes I let life get in the way. I guess that’s not always a bad thing. I do need to prioritize how I spend my not working hours. But in this case I’ve also dropped some thing that’s I enjoy. Like blogging and really cooking.

I’ve noticed that I haven’t written in here since July. And that’s probably because my life got pretty crazy and I was pretty darn miserable right about that time. Since then a lot has changed. I left the company that I had worked for the past 3 years, the place I thought I would be staying at for a very, very long time. Some of it was about a new opportunity and some of it wasn’t. The main point is that I had become unhappy and had finally decided to do something about it after over a year of being uncomfortable.  Let me just say right now, if you’re ever unhappy about something that you DO have the power to change (and Lord knows there are plenty of situations where we have no choice but to grin and bear it) please, please do so. I had no idea how much I was poisoning my own life. I really didn’t.

So fast forward a few months and here I am. I am working for a new company on a project that is just outside of town. Yes, it is a very long drive some days (ok, most) but there are perks. One is that we only work 4 day work weeks, sure it means I’m there for 10 hours but lets face it… I was at my other job for 9 hours anyway since I rarely left for lunch. It’s a new focus as I’m working for the owner of the project, and that is unlike anything I have ever done before. It’s odd to see the other side of things after being on the side that has to try to please the owner for the past 5 years. I feel like it’s giving me good experience whether it’s my long-term solution or not. And I am trying to give myself a real chance to decide what I think – no more jumping to conclusions or feeling unnecessarily stuck. It’s ok to wait and see and let my feelings evolve as I get my footing.

I’ve met some characters along the way at my new job – and in their own way they’re helping me. I’ve realized that I can make huge changes in my life without completely falling apart. It is possible for me to work in an office where I previously didn’t know anyone and guess what? People actually have talked to me and I haven’t been so hopelessly shy that I couldn’t start to be myself. For the first time in a while, I feel ok in my own skin. At work of all places. Who knew?

It’s too early for me to know if this is where I’ll be staying for the long haul, but I’m grateful to have the option.

Something else I hadn’t talked about on here because well, we hadn’t really told anyone besides our close friends and family. Tyson got laid off in January and continued to be unemployed until October. Through a series of events that have nothing to do with Tyson or his work abilities he was more or less screwed out of opportunities to work within the union. Twice. And that was a pretty big blow to the ol’ ego, I hate when people live up to what you expect sometimes. So once October rolled around we decided we were tired of waiting for the union figure things out so he started looking in other fields. In really no time at all he had landed a job at an auto body shop, and that is where he is still working today. Sure it isn’t his dream career, or what he’s even going to school for but it’s something he can definitely fall back on if he ever needs to again, and he’s good at it. So you know, that helps haha. It’s not perfect, but really what is? We’re thankful that he has a job and is able to get out of the house and work with his hands.

Those two things have pretty much had the starring role in our lives this past year. I’m ready for us to have a quiet, boring year of marriage I think. It seems like ever since we’ve been together there’s just been one storm after another. I suppose that’s both life and marriage, and I am grateful to know that we can stick it out even when stuff sucks beyond what we could have imagined. I think if there’s anything else that has been gained throughout all of this its learning some lessons on what’s important to keep in our life and what is best to just let go of. Because when you’re already having a hard time with the stuff you can’t change, why be unhappy about the small stuff? It’s no worth it to be upset all the time and I hear it’s bad for your health

So here we are. It’s Christmas time and we had a really lovely holiday. Seriously, it was one of the best ever. We did a gift exchange/dinner with Tyson’s family on Friday. Saw his mom for a little while on Saturday. Sunday was Christmas and we spent pretty much the whole day with my family. That’s the benefit to having them across the street haha! If you forget something, no big deal. If you want to go home for a while and just chill or nap or something, you can.

I kind of made out like a bandit again this year. I am very spoiled by both my family and Tyson. They really do a wonderful job of picking out things that I like. I really appreciate them taking the time to find things that are personalized to me – I hope they enjoyed their gifts as much as I enjoyed picking them out.

We ended up doing our own Christmas Eve dinner again this year. Just Tyson and myself. So we went all out on buying a couple of nice steaks and some toppings for that, we made potatoes and salad and finished it off with a sparkling wine. It was simple, but tasty.

Christmas dinner was the kind of meal that really makes eating for the next week kind of unnecessary. It was delicious. Mom made a prime rib, we had mashed potatoes/gravy, salad, green beans, and yorkshire puddings. It was really, really good. Mom followed it up with her apple pie, which is always tasty.

We played this new board game Tyson and I picked up called Logos. Which had some pretty entertaining results even if my brother did somehow end up winning the whole thing. I was happy to find a game that was challenging enough, but that we all seemed to actually like. And it didn’t have a bunch of silly rules or involve any type of charades haha. So I was sold on it from the get go. I think it might actually get played again sometime, which is saying something!

Oh! I almost forgot to mention something that was kind of a mini-milestone for me. We had our very first Christmas party! Here in our little house. It was the only party we’ve had here since our house-warming. It went almost surprisingly well despite me trying to stress myself into a coma by turning into Suzy Homemaker “why yes everything is homemade and yes my house is ALWAYS this clean” for a few hours… But once the cooking and cleaning was done and people started showing up (always a fear of mine.. what if nobody comes??? I’ll be so sad and embarrassed) – it was really really nice. I was very happy with the group we had and it made me realize what great people we have in our life. Even if we don’t see them super often, when we do it’s like no time has passed. There’s plenty of laughing and chatting no matter what. I really love the group of people we have surrounding us and supporting us. Family most certainly does not *always* mean blood related.

Anyway – I should get started on my day. We both actually have today off and I should probably enjoy not having something or another to prep for. I really hope to get back into blogging during this new year. I miss it and I think it’s important for my mental and emotional health. I have a lot of hopes and plans for this coming year and hopefully I’ll be able to bring some of those to life and share them here.

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday!

Until Later.

~Erin

XOXO