What's cooking?

Here are a few photos of what I've been making in the kitchen lately...

Peppermint brownies for the holidays

I'm obsessed with brownies

Sea Salt Caramels

Don't even ask how long it took me to wrap them up individually in parchment paper.

Four layer raspberry fudge cake with white chocolate whipped cream filling

It honestly tasted like my favorite layer of our wedding cake.  Divine.

Sorry for the bad photos... our good camera was being borrowed to take pictures of this little nugget.

Sugar cookies with royal icing.

I actually still haven't frosted these.  Flowers and umbrellas?  I don't know why.

My coworkers loved these!

My favorite one :)

I promise you that Andy and I eat real food, too.

Here.  Black bean and salsa soup.

"Souper" easy and delicious!

Black Bean and Salsa Soup
Ingredients:
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1.5 c. vegetable broth
1 c. salsa
1 t. cumin
sour cream, green onion, shredded cheese for garnishing

Directions:
Combine beans, broth, salsa and cumin in a food processor. Blend until fairly smooth. Heat soup in a saucepan over medium heat until thoroughly heated. Put soup in bowls and garnish as desired.
Source: Allrecipes

(I found the recipe on Annie's Eats.)

FREE VALENTINE'S DAY CARD!

Heartstrings Valentine's Day Card

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

I looooove Shutterfly because they are so good to their customers!  Use the code "CARD4U" through Feb. 1st to get one free card.  I decided to make my Valentine for Andy using this, so I only paid $1.01 for s&h and tax.  Cheaper than a card I would have gotten at CVS, anyway, and it's personalized!  And again, if I embed the card I created in my blog and email Shutterfly with a link to my blog, they will email me with a coupon code for $25 off my next order.  Pretty sweet deal, huh? 

So, please excuse my sappy, romantic love letter to my husband and just be excited with me for the coupon  :)

What will 2011 bring?

I feel like it has been awhile since I've really posted on here.  I can't believe it's already January 18, 2011.  I feel like Christmas was ages ago.  I guess a lot has happened since then, too.  Andy and I are getting more prepared to leave Boston and move to Tempe, Arizona as this new year gets under way.  We've settled on the moving date to be somewhere in the first week of June, and we're starting to get things in order...  like ordering a moving pod, thinking about what we'll do with our cars, finishing up our newsletter to send to family and friends...  Something else we can check off our list is attending our church's missionary staff training, which was this past weekend.  It was five full days of teachings and talks that our Arizona team, the Indonesia team, and some other staff attended.  The training got me simultaneously excited and envisioned as well as overwhelmed and sobered.  

Andy and I are leaving Boston--our family, friends, beloved church, great jobs--to plant a church and share the Gospel with lost and searching people of Arizona, in faith that God will start a movement among Arizonians that will ultimately send people out to the four corners of the world so that those who do not know Jesus might come to know him.  WOW.

That is crazy!  I get to do this?!  I can't do this!  I'm not capable!  Oh but for the grace of God, I am.  Thankfully, God does not call the equipped; He equips the called.  So, Andy and I are on a journey of seeing the God be glorified in America's southwest.  I feel humbled and honored to be a part of this call.  Ever since I was a sophomore at BC and attended CFCF's annual missions conference, World Mandate, I caught the "church planting bug".  I knew that I couldn't keep this saving message of the love and grace of God to myself.  I knew that I would one day drop everything and go.  Somewhere, anywhere.  I am just thankful I get to do it with Andy.  Not to mention with some of our closest friends.  The missions movement we belong to always talks about making "lifelong friendships through sacrificial living" and about living life with "marvelous comrades."  God is so sweet that way.  He doesn't call us to do things all by ourselves.  He has given me marvelous comrades to walk life with.  Yes, we have to also say goodbyes throughout life, but I know that the friends I make in Christ will be friends for all eternity.  It's fun!  I will probably be posting more about this journey in these next few months. 

Welcome 2011!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and spent them with family and friends.

We were blessed to have spent good time with both of ours.

I have no pictures from Christmas, sadly, but here are a few pics to recap our December... 



Gramma and Mom over for dinner on Gramma's birthday before Victoria sang in the BC Chorale Xmas concert, Dec. 4th.





Victoria and me at CFCF's Christmas Celebration service, Dec. 13th.





Andy and me in Times Square, Dec. 17th.





Friends (Alyssa, Joy & Ellie, Kristen & Sarah Grace, and Amy) and me in Times Square, Dec. 17th.





Andy and me at the Plaza Hotel, Dec. 18th.





Andy and me at Rockefeller Plaza, Dec. 18th.



Christmas Card Season

I love love love getting and sending Christmas cards!  I am so thankful to my mom for instilling this timeless practice in me (and I hope in my siblings when they also have families of their own).  This year I made cards with two different companies, and I love them both!  One card was made with Shutterfly, who I love for most all of my picture book and photo card needs.  Also, if you post your order on your blog, they send you a coupon for $25 off your next order.  Um, deal!

Here's the card I ordered from Shutterfly this year.  I'm very happy with it! 

Mod Love Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Much to be thankful for...

 "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor. . . . Now, therefore, I do appoint Thursday, the 26th day of November 1789 . . . that we may all unite to render unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection." 

George Washington, establishing the America's first Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Andy and I are in Califon, NJ, where Andy grew up, to celebrate Thanksgiving with his mom and stepdad, Ron.  We're enjoying a few days relaxing and just spending time together.  My family is spending the holiday in Marblehead in the new house.  We wish we could split ourselves in two so we could be with both families, but we'll be up there for Christmas.

Lyn (Andy's mom) and I spent the morning and afternoon cooking and baking, and we sat down to eat around 3:00 today.  It was sort of funny making so much food for only four of us, but everything was delicious!   I made a few recipes from my favorite blogs, Annies Eats and Baked Bree... spinach artichoke dip, green beans almandine (with bacon!), and sweet potato casserole.  I also made a pie from my favorite line of cookbooks, Gooseberry Patch.  Amish Apple Pie... uses a filling based from sour cream and a buttery crumble topping.  It was delicious!  Lyn also made a yummy pecan chocolate tart from Martha Stewart Living.  Here are a few pics from our feast:

Spinach Artichoke Dip before the meal

Green Beans Almandine with bacon and red onions

Sweet Potato Casserole with a praline-like topping

The moist turkey--brined overnight

Amish Apple Pie

My plate full of delish!

Tomorrow we'll be doing some "Black Friday" shopping, but I think we'll be staying clear of the malls.  I'm excited to visit the Lamington General Store, this sweet, old fashioned country store a few towns over.  I love good ole Americana, and there's a ton of it around here!

I also wanted to post some pictures from my half marathon two weeks ago.  I did it!  Thank you, Lord!  It was tough, but I pressed through the pain... aaaand had Andy pushing me from 8 miles and onward.  Hehe.  But I crossed the finish line and have pictures to prove it :)

My friend June and me, ready to run at 7:30am!

Nearing mile 8, whcn Andy jumped in with me.  I love him.

Yay, I'm done! Not sure what's going on with my hands, but I definitely said, "I'm never doing that again!" haha

Andy, me, and June. 

I will end this post with a list of just a few things I am thankful to God for...

that I am saved by grace

my amazing husband

the people God has given to me as friends

my fun family

that I get paid to help make sick kids better 

my church community

forgiveness

my health

Boston

the adventure God has called us to join him on

that we are able to buy groceries every week

freedom

that Victoria lets me borrow her skinny jeans

Happy Birthday to Andy!

October 21st was my sweet husband's birthday.  Because I worked the night before and slept for half the day (sad) on his actual birthday, we sort of celebrated on Saturday the 23rd, instead.  (We DID stop by Not Your Average Joe's to get his free birthday dinner and dessert thursday night, though.)  We had a few friends over, and I made dinner and chocolate cake for dessert.  If you ask Andy, though, his birthday was celebrated over the whole week because I made an extra special effort to cook dinner for him every night... or at least he had a freshly cooked meal or left overs of a freshly cooked meal :)  One of his favorite foods is lasagna, which is seeming to become his annual birthday meal, so I made that for him wednesday night.  I used Ina Garten's recipe for turkey sausage lasagna but used 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground turkey instead.  She adds layers of fresh mozzarella and creamy goat cheese, which added a delicious, sophisticated taste to the meal.  Lasagna has never been a "favorite" of mine, though I don't dislike it.  But if I had a menu of Italian dishes to choose from, I don't think I would ever go for it.  Maybe it's the ricotta cheese?  I don't know.  If I'm going to go for an Italian dish, I want it to be creamy and cheesy.  Anyway, enough about me.  Andy loved this!  The last piece is waiting for him to heat up and devour when he gets home...

You can see the goat cheese oozing out... yum!

Then comes the chocolate cake...  I really wanted the cake to be absolutely delectable and delicious, so I didn't want to just pick any old chocolate cake recipe.  I ended up using the one from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  I figured that it was a classic.  I look forward to the next time I make a chocolate cake.  I want to use a recipe that calls for 1 cup of cold brewed coffee next time.  This one was good, though!  Everyone seemed to love it saturday night, and it really was tasty.  I had to trim some of the layers to make them even enough to frost, and let me tell you... the warm plain cake pieces were highly addictive.  If I didn't have any self-control I might have just made a three layer cake... if you know what I mean :)  I frosted it using both chocolate buttercream and sour cream chocolate frostings.  I LOVE chocolate sour cream frosting.  It has more of a pure chocolatey taste--versus the buttercream, which is obviously very buttery and sweet.  Andy tasted the sour cream frosting as I was icing the cake, and his reaction was a little less than ecstatic, so I whipped up the buttercream to complete the rest of the cake.  (I know, aren't I a good wife?)  I'll post the recipe at the bottom.  Try it as an alternative to buttercream if you're looking for something different! 

I used the new frosting bags and tips I got at BB&B.  So fun!

Four layers!

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

In a large saucepan melt 1 12-ounce package of semisweet chocolate pieces and 1/2 cup of butter over low heat, stirring frequently.  Cool for 5 minutes.  Stir in 1 8-ounce carton of sour cream.  Gradually add 4 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar, beating with an electric mixer until smooth.  This frosts the tops and sides of two or three 8- or 9-inch cake layers.  Halve the recipe to frost just the top of a 13x9x2 inch cake.  Cover and store frosted cake in the refrigerator.  *I did not and am not currently storing my cake in the fridge, and it tastes fine.