Some Good Ol' Chicken

I got a beautiful Dutch oven for Christmas from my mom. I have been dreaming about lovely things to make in it. Today, I made its inaugural meal, and it didn't disappoint. I was inspired by "lemon rosemary chicken" by http://franziskasfood.wordpress.com, but I made it my own. It's easy and very tasty, but you have to have an hour to spare, because that's how long it took to cook in my oven. 

Here's what I used:
10 very small red potatoes (you could easily cut large ones in half)
1 lemon, halved
4 small shallots, peeled
dried rosemary, to taste. I probably used about 2 Tbsp.
tsp. chili powder
1/2 Tbsp honey
1 cup white wine
4 fresh chicken thighs, bone-in, with skin
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
4 Tbsp. olive oil
juice of one lemon

Preheat your oven to 400 and after washing the dirt off the potatoes, put them in a pot and cover them with water. Set the burner to high heat and once the water is boiling, let them simmer for about 9 minutes. You don't want them really soft- you're just cooking them enough so they won't be hard after roasting.

If you have time to do this earlier, then marinate the chicken longer. I, however, had like, 10 minutes and it was fine. Combine olive oil, honey, chili powder, some salt and cracked pepper, and lemon juice and marinate the chicken thighs.

When you've drained the potatoes, place them on the bottom of the roasting tin (or in this case, the Dutch oven. I'll bet a roasting tin would make everything nice and crispy, but the oven worked well too!). Stick the lemon halves and shallots in with them, too. Add 1/2 of the rosemary. Pour the wine over the potatoes, and add some salt and cracked pepper.

Arrange the chicken thighs, skin-side up, on top of the potatoes. Cover with any residual marinade. Add the last of the rosemary. Cook for one hour in a Dutch oven (maybe 45 minutes in a roasting pan). Make sure the juice runs clear when you pierce the chicken.

Remove the skin from the chicken (healthier!) and serve with the potatoes, cut open. Spoon a little of the juice from the bottom of the pan onto the chicken and potatoes.

I found this recipe to be easy and very good. It was pretty healthy, too, as long as I didn't gobble up too much of the wine/oil juice. The original recipe called for thickening the juice with milk and cornstarch, but I felt I'd rather spend the calories elsewhere. There was an almost buttery taste, yet no butter was used. The wine flavor cooks out, of course, and the lemon/rosemary/shallots were not overpowering. Plus, it made my house smell amazing. Are there any other rosemary fans out there?!

This served Mike and me, with some potatoes left over that I couldn't eat. You could easily have added more potatoes and more thighs to fit in the Dutch oven and serve more people.  

Try this out soon! You won't be disappointed! Next time I might use my roasting pan!

xoxo, A

Ebenezers... Again.

I've written about ebenezers before. You know, the piles of stones the Israelites would erect as a testament of God's faithfulness? I'm a firm believer that recognizing and remembering ebenezers is something that grows  faith tremendously. Unless we choose to take notice of Gods faithfulness in our lives, we miss opportunities to change and grow.

I keep forgetting to do this- or to add to what I've started- but a great way to take notice is by writing little things that remind us of God's faithfulness on smooth stones (bought at Michael's), and then putting them in a tall glass vase. Then not only can you remove them and review God's faithfulness in your life, but just seeing the sheer number of stones will remind you, even in passing.

Something I'm more committed to is journaling. I don't do that as often as I should either, but every couple of weeks I like to write down ways that God has continued to show his faithfulness in my life.

Why do this? Because when hard times come and I feel alone and far from God? I can remind myself of what is true. God was faithful and good in the past. God is currently faithful and good. and God will continue to be faithful and good in the future.

I write this because recently, God met a need of ours in a very tangible way. A decreased paycheck, new car payment, and increased cost of insurance left us in a bad way for the month of January. But God knew, and God provided, and we want to always remember that God provides what we need, when we need it.

Then I had this thought: think about the joy we experience when God meets a physical need of ours. Now imagine our joy in eternity, when we fully realize the joy of God meeting our eternal spiritual needs! Won't that be incredible?!

So wherever you're at right now- whatever need you have at the moment- take a moment to review God's faithfulness in your life, and remember that God is faithful and good. He will meet your needs in the right way at just the right time.

xoxo, A

A Year and Some Change...

By "change," I mean a couple of weeks... not a major life change. Though I'll be honest. I think Mike and I are ready for a couple life changes: namely, a house and a baby. But we're waiting, which seems to be what we do in life, isn't it? Wait? That could be why my life verse (acquired while waiting for a husband) is Psalm 27:13-14.

But a couple weeks ago, Mike and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. It's crazy to think an entire year has passed since we stood before our families, our friends, and the Lord and promised ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives. What a precious day that was. In fact, it was my most favorite day ever. You can read about it here.
It's been a wild ride. We survived and enjoyed every holiday, every awful Monday, and lots of little struggles and joys in between. 

So for our anniversary, Mike got us a room at the same hotel where we spent our wedding night-- the Intercontinental, in Tampa. It's a great hotel, and we got a free upgrade to a junior suite. Let's just say that's a little better than our room on our wedding night-- it was an adjoining room with a loud gaggle of girls next door. Hahahaha! Not this time!

Glass elevators... we are easily amused.

This is an attempted panorama of much of our room. That black part in the middle is the partial wall between the living and bedroom area. The windows spanned the whole wall.

Because of our anniversary, we got a free buffet breakfast at Shula's, and they made my my very own special omelet. Why is Mike smiling so, you might ask? Because he spotted Frank from "American Pickers," also enjoying the buffet.  We were going to say hello after he finished eating, but a couple of people finally recognized him and we didn't want to be obnoxious. Instead, Mike made this face. What a cutie.

See? There he is. I know, I know-- you can't see his face. This is all Mike would let me do. He was chatting with the concierge. Nice guy.

We walked across the street to enjoy some shopping. And weird posing with gelato that was under par.

Mike also made a reservation at the same place we had our reception: Maggiano's-- also conveniently located across the street from the hotel. 

We may or may not have gorged ourselves on fried mozzarella, 4-cheese ravioli in a pesto cream sauce, and some kind of way-too-rich peanut butter chocolate dessert. This event in our anniversary weekend was very important, since Mike hasn't let me forget that at our reception, we didn't get to eat anything because we were either dancing or taking pictures. I argue that we did eat this ravioli... hours later, in our hotel room, without silverware, holding them like Hot Pockets.

Our waiter brought us something to toast with-- some non-alcoholic peach thing, which was fantastic!

And now my favorite part: on the left, you have a piece of our wedding cake, preserved carefully by my mom, and kept in our freezer for a year. You know, it wasn't bad! Way to go, Publix! In the back are the toasting glasses my mother-in-law gave us. Then there's our toasting beverage of choice: sparkling white grape juice. I promise, we're both over 21. We just don't like the taste of alcohol! Under that is one of our anniversary presents to the other. Guess who this one is from? Instead of buying gifts, we decided that every year we would write each other a letter. I think that's a tradition I'll really enjoy.

On the day we had to leave, we wept. Not really, but boy was it nice to not have any responsibilities for a couple days! This was our sit and veg until late checkout day.

Our final meal: Chipotle. Can you think of any better way to end a fantastic anniversary weekend? I think not.

On year down, 50+ to go. Hahaha. But really, I'm so thankful to be married to Mike. He's my best friend and it's been a privilege to stand by his side, serve him, and watch him grow. I'll enjoy every year I get with him.  

xoxo, A

What I Should Have Said...

I previously wrote a post venting my frustration with "kids these days." While I am indeed frustrated, I want to make it clear that I think the reason I am so frustrated is because I care for these kids. I care for them and I want to see them succeed and become caring, intelligent, valuable members of society. They all have so much potential, and it saddens me when I see them fall short of that.

But I'm sure I sadden my Creator when I fall short of the goal, too. Like when I vent just a little too much.

I was also angry, because my mom had cancer, and my youth pastor died of cancer, so it's very personal to me. I recognize it simply isn't a reality in many of these kids' lives, and while I can pray for empathy and caring, I can't force them to care; it's not fair to expect them to understand something they haven't experienced themselves.

And I still say there are many kids who are a daily joy. But regarding the others, even if I'm disappointed in the choices they make, it doesn't mean I don't love them. It doesn't mean there aren't parents at home trying. It doesn't mean we teachers aren't working our butts off to help them, and it doesn't mean they will always make poor decisions.

I allowed momentary anger and frustration to say more than I should have, so to set the record straight: I love my students. They might not believe me, because I give them homework, but honestly. I wouldn't still be teaching at a Christian school if my motives were ever anything other than hoping to train kids to become godly, intelligent, and successful young adults. Even the ones who sometimes or lots of times make poor decisions. Every day is a new day, and an opportunity for them to grow and for me to grow too.

I apologize if my earlier rant offended any. I've always struggled with both my temper and control over my words. I pray that with time, I will have more successes than failures with that, and I pray the same for my students.

xoxo, A

Food Review!

I did a WHOLE lot of cooking on and around Christmas, and oh, do I ever have some recipes to share with you!  I planned a lot of this out, time-wise, and it paid off.  I had everything ready in just the right time, and never felt rushed or stressed.  Even a small oven fire did not tarnish these delightful dishes!  Here are my favorites from the Christmas season, all homemade(click on the title for a link to the recipe):

Beatty's chocolate cake: I don't know who Beatty is, so don't ask.  I made this especially for my father-in-law, who is a chocolate fiend.  I wanted something rich but not ganache-y, if that makes sense.  Leave it to Ina Garten to come up with the perfect chocolate cake.  The cake was perfect and I couldn't taste the coffee (thank goodness), and it had a depth to it that the boxed stuff just doesn't have.  I wasn't a huge fan of the frosting, but I don't like frosting anyway unless it's cream cheese... wait a minute... I have an idea...

Pumpkin cheesecake: this was my favorite.  I used crushed Biscoff cookies for the crust, which actually made a big difference.  I may have forgotten to put a pan under the springform, resulting in spillage that may or may not have caused the aforementioned small oven fire.  This came out perfectly, and didn't even split on top until I put it in the fridge. :(  I should have let it get to room temp. first, though I kept it in the cooled oven for two hours!!  It was smooth, creamy, dense but not too dense, and flavorful!  My mom loved it, and even my husband, who's not a huge cheesecake fan, told me mine was better than The Lucky Dill's!

Breakfast boats: these were remarkably easy, and extremely tasty.  Plus, they make a good appeance.  I bought small demi-baguettes at Target, and that worked well, but you could probably make your own long loaf of artisan bread and it would be even cheaper.  I made the filling in advance and just stirred it up before putting it into the bread and baking.

Cinnabon cinnamon rolls: I had never made cinnamon rolls from scratch before.  Ever.  I was scared.  And skeptical (because Pillsbury claims to taste like Cinnabon, but let's be real.  THEY DON'T).  Skeptical and scared, was I.  But I attempted them, and while messy, they were quite honestly, the real deal.  Maybe it was the cream cheese icing, maybe it was the buns-- I don't know and I don't care, because now I can make Cinnabon cinnamon rolls at home!  I made them the day before I baked them, and the insides kind of leaked out a little.  It was still good though.  I did make the mistake of placing them too closely in the pan, however, and the middle ones didn't cook (I had to finish them in the microwave... still good!).  Next time I'll leave an inch or so around each one.

Buttermilk Blackberry cake: OK, I cheated-- this wasn't during Christmastime.  I made this last night.  But it's so good, I had to share.  I had leftover buttermilk from my Christmas baking, and I happened to buy blackberries (my favorite berry) on sale at Aldi.  So I did a Pinterest search and found a recipe for this cake.  I had no idea how it would turn out, but it was fantastic!  It was buttery, and the edges were glorious.  I baked mine 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for, and also used some corn starch with my flour to make it more like pastry flour, but it turned out spectacular. 

xoxo, A

At This Time Last Year:

At this time last year, I was very nervous.  Not nervous because I wasn't sure if what I was about to do was right, but because you can't change your life forever and not be a little nervous.  On this day last year, I had a stupid meltdown at our rehearsal because we didn't have the music.  One meltdown for the whole wedding experience?  Pretty good, I'd say, considering it's me we're talking about here.  On this day last year, I sat in the car with my fiance and we prayed about what would happen the next day and for the rest of our lives.  On this day last year, I went to bed, surrounded by my best friends, and slept the sound sleep of one who knows God has led her to this man, this time, this occasion.

This day last year was the day before my wedding.  As much as I loved Mike then, little did I realize how much more I'd love him a year later.  Little did I know the struggles and the joys we'd encounter in our first year together.

This day last year was the eve of my very favorite day ever... to be reviewed tomorrow. :)

xoxo, A

Year One: a love note

I love how adorable he looks as he sleeps in the morning.

I love how he plays with our puppy.

I love that when he wants to show me he loves me, he puts away laundry and lights nice-smelling candles.

I love how he has become so mindful of being a good steward of our money, and how no matter what financial obstacles we encounter, the Lord still gets our firstfruits.

I love that he never complains about my cooking, even when I sneak in turkey bacon.

I love how much he seems to enjoy my baking.

I love his silliness and how I never quite know what he'll do or say next.

I love the feel of his stubble on my chin and my hands.

I love to hate how he just cannot seem to separate his dirty clothes into our three-bin hamper.

I love the little funny laugh sound he makes when he realizes he's being ridiculous.

I love that he can tackle any kind of computer problem and win.

I love how we are on the same wavelength most of the time.

Twelve things I love about my husband-- one thing for each month we've been married.

Twelve months.  One year.  My goodness, how it flies!!  This weekend we celebrate our first anniversary.  We're going to spend the weekend in Tampa, and I'm so excited.  We just got married and just went on our honeymoon, didn't we?  I've truly enjoyed being a newlywed.  Even in its challenges, it marriage is a wonderful, God-given gift, and I'm so thankful to have this blessing in my life.  It's a blessing I didn't think I'd see for a long time, but God is faithful and his timing is perfect.

And now I have the years before me to enjoy being married to my best friend and the one my soul loves.  Oh, we have plans and dreams, but for right now, I'm content to live in our little apartment with our puppy, paying off debt and working in ministry together.  What a great first year!  Here's to the next 50+!

More anniversary posts to come...


xoxo, A

My Most Embarrassing Moment

Would you like to hear a funny story?  Of course you would.  This is the story of what I consider my "most embarrassing moment," even though enough time has passed that I'm no longer embarrassed (hence my public re-telling).  It now is simply one of the funniest stories of my life.  Could be that it's a "had to be there" situation, but regardless, you'll probably at least appreciate the embarrassment factor.

I happened to think of this story during a lovely dinner with my friend Nicole.  We used to go to college together and even were R.A.s together for two years (along with Bestie, Ashley, and Ilene... hi guys! :) ).  We were reminiscing about how much we loved college, and this story came to mind.  So, for your reading pleasure, I give you "Amanda's Most Embarrassing Moment:"

We were up in Wisconsin, maybe?  It was R.A. retreat, about a week or so before the rest of the students arrived on campus.  We R.A.s traveled up to a cute little camp on a lake and bonded, as well as prepared for the rigors of R.A.-hood when we returned to Chicago.  R.A. retreat was always a blast.  My particularly favorite activity was when 2nd year R.A.s pretended to break all sorts of rules and the 1st years had to confront them on it.  Awesome.  Well, the girls in my small group decided we'd go out on the "banana boat"-- a big inflatable monstrosity that was pulled behind a speed boat.  It was the shape of a banana, with handles along the middle only, fitting maybe five in a line.  The driver of this boat was notorious for getting out into the middle of the lake, and when everyone was comfortably speeding along behind him, he would yell "SWITCH!" and while the boat is still flying over the water, the passengers on the banana boat had to maneuver themselves into another position.  Keep in mind, it was a banana shape.  There was no room on the sides.  I'm guessing most people just did a back flip over everyone and landed perfectly in another spot, because otherwise, HOW THE HECK DID PEOPLE DO THAT?!  I got on this banana boat with one stipulation: I would NOT be switching when he yelled me to do so.  I simply wouldn't.  I didn't care if he stopped the boat.  I didn't care if I was seen as a spoilsport.  I would NOT be switching.  Why?  Because if I switched, I'd land promptly in the water and wouldn't be able to get back on the banana boat.  I just knew it.  

So we donned our life jackets and off we sped.  I love boats, so it was quite invigorating and fun... until the driver yelled "SWITCH!"  
"No.  I'm not doing it," I yelled over the roar of the motor and the spray of the lake.
"Come on!  Do it!" my girlfriends yelled as they were already switching, somehow miraculously NOT falling into the water.  
Then suddenly, I was switching.  I grabbed onto the one handle in front of my and attempted to do who knows what-- I just needed to get to another spot and FAST.  

But then it happened.  I slipped, and fell into the water.  Only I didn't let go of the handle.  So there I was, hanging onto the handle of the banana boat, going full speed around the lake, my body slapping against the water again and again like a rag doll.  Of course the water was going against my body, which gave me the most lovely water wedgie as it shoved my bathing suit up my booty.  I offered a full moon to anyone who was watching... including but not limited to the MALE R.A. in the boat.

This kept up for quite some time, or at least it felt that way, until one of my friends on the banana boat got the  driver to stop the boat.  At that point, laughing hysterically, my friends attempted to pull me by my life jacket back onto the banana.  What happens when you are laughing hysterically?  You have no strength.  Imagine just how successful the pulling was, what with the silent laughter and all.  Finally they pulled me up, I picked my wedgie, and we made our way back. 

I think I didn't stop laughing about this incident for a good two weeks.  I was mortified, but I was able to make a lot of people laugh, so it was worth it, right?  Right?!

xoxo, A