Royal Perfection

I was going to do a super wordy post about how much I loved the wedding, her dress, the couple, blah blah blah. If you somehow were under a rock, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I'll just say I laughed, I cried, I cheered, and I drank sparkling cider.

Two alarms set to ensure I wouldn't miss a beat.

At the first commercial break I opened the Sparkling cider to enjoy something bubbly during the wedding. (unfortunately I had to be at work as soon as the kiss was over, so no mimosas or Pimms for me)

 The Guests... (from aol.com)

The Groom (From Huffington Post)

The Maid of Honor (from aol.com)

The Bride and her GORGEOUS dress (from aol.com)

 The Ceremony (from aol.com)

The sly looks from the groom. He loves his new wife. (From Huffington Post)

The Kiss at Buckingham Palace (from aol.com)

The getaway car (from aol.com)

All in all, sheer perfection. I loved every second of it. My next wedding will be exactly like this one (British public and all)

*First two pictures are my own.

He loves my cooking so much he bought me flowers

True story. I came home from work last Friday and there was a bouquet sitting on the counter. Then I started to look around and he had cleaned the whole condo too!!! What a man. The note with the flowers said he's enjoyed my new found love for cooking so much that he wanted to say Thank You. I'll take that any day!!!

So I have been cooking a lot more recently. I borrowed The Hungry Girl 1-2-3 Cookbook from a friend and starting making up every recipe I could. They are all super low in points, SUPER easy to make, and delicious to boot!!!! I loved them so much that I sprung for her 300 under 300 Cookbook as well. Our three favorite recipes so far have been her Yumbo Gumbo, Exploding Chicken Taquitos, and Slow-Cooking BBQ Chicken. Like the bad little blogger I am, I haven't taken any pictures. As soon as it's done cooking, I'm ready to dig in!

One of my favorite parts of her cookbooks is that once you stock up on some basics, you can make almost anything. You get the spices for a couple recipes and then you can mix and match for most of the others. She has a lot of chicken recipes, so as long as I take a quick look at the beginning of the week, I can grab all of the supplemental ingredients in one stop at the grocery store.

Let's start with the first recipe that made us say "Holy cow, this is amazeballs". We had it just with a salad and a vegetable, but this would be amazing as pulled chicken bbq sandwiches and would be a definite crowd pleaser. I made this one night when my mom came over for dinner and was nervous about serving crock pot bbq chicken, but this blew our socks off. (I have made a much simpler version of just pouring bbq sauce over chicken in the crock pot, but this is SO much better and I'll never go back.)



slow-cookin' bbq chicken (From The Hungry Girl 1-2-3 Cookbook)
1 serving (1/2 Cup) = 3 PointsPlus*

Ingredients: 1 cup canned tomato sauce, 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of both brown sugar and cider vinegar, 2 teaspoons garlic powder, 1 1/2 lbs raw boneless skinless lean chicken breasts, halved, optional: crushed red pepper

Directions: Mix all ingredients except chicken in a crock pot. Stir until well mixed. Add chicken and coat well. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 7-8 hours. About 10-15 mins before serving, shred chicken with two forks and stir into sauce.

Next up....Taquitos!!!!!!!

*PointsPlus calculated by me based on nutritional information provided by Hungry Girl.
**This is not a sponsored post, Hungry Girl has no idea who I am, just sharing some amazing recipes that I've enjoyed.

Busy with The List

We've crossed off three more from my 101 in 1001 list in the past couple of weeks! I've completed 30 goals so far and with a little under a year left, better get working on the rest!!!

#79: We bought a king sized bed a couple weeks ago after a few too many sleepless nights on our old crappy mattress. It was fun trying out all the beds and we were happy to both agree on our favorite. So I hit the interwebs and several brick and mortar stores to outfit our new bed. I got a duvet from overstock.com, the sheets from Home Goods, and a bed skirt from Target. I got two pillows from Etsy and then we were done! We have been LOVING our good night's rest for the past couple of weeks and I can honestly say getting a new mattress really has made a world of difference. I'm sleeping through the night and waking up feeling rested and refreshed. Here is what it looks like when everything gets made up, which is maybe twice a week. The headboard I made for the queen sized bed doesn't even look so out of place. I had made it a little big to begin with, so it's just a teensy bit short for the king size.

#56 We also completed our visits of 5 different states with our trip to Chicago. Like I said in our trip recap post, we have a blast exploring new places and this has been fun to see so many different parts of our country. I know we'll continue to make travel a priority and are already day dreaming about our next trip.

#94 I also blew the Open Table points out of the water. Our anniversary dinner would have been our 20th reservation and put my points at the 2,000 goal, however, that reservation was worth 1,000 points by itself!!! Getting to 10,000 to cash in for the $100 gift card doesn't seem so impossible if we book a couple more 1,000 point reservations!

Are you working on a list of goals? How are you doing on yours?

Adventures in the Windy City

This year Hubs and I took off to Chicago for our Anniversary. We love exploring new places and love big cities. Last year it was NYC, then on to Chicago, maybe next year I'll find some place warm to go since heading north isn't generally a good idea in March.

We only had 2 1/2 days there, so we had to squeeze as much in as we could. On Saturday after checking in at The Drake

and taking a quick power nap, we headed to the Hancock Building. There is a bar/lounge on the 96th floor. We headed up to grab some cocktails and watch the sunset over the city. 

From there we headed out for none other than Chicago Deep Dish. We had seen the Food Network's challenge of Chicago vs. New York pizza. We knew we would probably be squarely on the New York side, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be delicious! We headed to Giodorno's. Half an hour into our hour wait we had to order so our pizza would be ready shortly after our table was ready. 

I thought it was delish. You can't compare it to NY Style pizza. They are so different. Deep dish was more of a pasta dish than pizza to me, I had to use a fork and knife to eat it. They are good at what they do though, good enough for us to decide we needed to try Lou Malnati's later in the trip. 

The next day we woke up, enjoyed brunch, booked a tour for the next day, then headed out on foot to explore the city. We walked down the Magnificent Mile but didn't stop to do any shopping. Our first stop was at Millennium Park. It is such a cool place next to the skyscrapers and historical buildings. Of course we had to get some pictures at The Bean:

We then walked up to the top of the Art Museam for some more pictures until my camera died. (Note to self: check that camera is charged before vacations). We hiked from there over to the Navy Pier. It was pretty empty, but it was also in the 30's. Not a ton of people out enjoying the icy wind like we were!

For lunch we went to try out Al's Italian Beef. Hubs had seen something about it on Man Vs. Food, but I didn't know anything. When they asked me if I wanted my sandwich "dipped" I had no idea what the right answer would be. It turns out, even if you say No, it'll still probably get dipped. We were not impressed with Al's, so with that, we headed back to the hotel to nap before dinner.

That night we went to Rosebud for dinner, I had no idea when I was booking the reservations, but it was on the same block as the hotel, that worked out nicely!!!! We had a fantastic steak dinner and then headed down a couple blocks to Jilly's, a piano bar I had found on Yelp. 

The description said this place would be a hit for fans of The Rat Pack. It did not disappoint. We had a blast at Jilly's. 

On Monday we had booked a tour with The Untouchables to see all the Gangster and Mob historical places around the city. We saw bullet holes left over from one killing at a cathedral (Sorry, I didn't take any notes and lost the handouts they gave us)

They took us through Capone's history along with several others. The guys leading the tour were SUPER cheesy, but it was fun and a good way to see much more of the city. (We also drove by Harpo Studios, too bad we couldn't get in for one of Oprah's final shows)

Then it was back to the hotel for another nap (we love sleeping) and to get ready for our big anniversary dinner! We had brought wine from the vineyard where we got married and stopped at Sprinkles for a red velvet cupcake to share. 

Dinner that night was a Cafe Spiaggia, again I managed to book a dinner right across the street from our hotel. Dinner was amazing. We were in our own little world, lingering over each course, just chatting and enjoying our evening. From there we went back to The Drake to have a night cap in their bar.

Tuesday was a relaxing morning of breakfast and packing and then we wandered over to Portillo's for hot dogs. These dogs are LOADED. Hubs got a traditional dog that is served with everything including tomatoes and pickles. I got a chili cheese dog. Both were amazing.

From there it was back to the hotel to collect our bags, hop in a cab, and wave adios to a spectacular city. It was another successful trip and an amazing anniversary. I can't believe it's been two years already! Seems like just yesterday I was running down the aisle to marry my man! And what kind of anniversary post would it be without gratuitous wedding pics??? Here you go!!!!!!

Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: Part Two

Holy Cow, I'm actually posting past the first section of the book club questions! I usually get too far ahead and can't remember the specifics of what that week's discussion is about, or too far behind and don't want any spoilers.

So this week is Part Two of Pioneer Woman's Black Heels to Tractor Wheel. Questions from the book clubbers and my responses below:

From Samantha:

What did you think of Marlboro Man's proposal? How would you feel if you were proposed to like that? I love that it was so casual and how off guard she was caught. We he called to say he was at her house, I knew it was coming. I thought it was perfect for their relationship. With anyone else, she probably would have known it was coming, suspected it, or saw signs. With Marlboro Man, she was always on her toes, she never knew what to expect.

She wrote a lot about never riding in a pickup truck before and how she used to judge girls who rode in the middle. After being with Marlboro Man she felt differently and actually wanted to ride in the middle. How do you feel about that? Have you ever judged somebody and then after learning more, regret that you had judged them? I think there are a lot of things you can judge until you're in the situation. Not knowing where that couple comes from or their background, you don't understand everything they do. Once you're in the situation yourself, you can form your own opinion. I think there are a lot of people who would judge "country folk" for one thing or another, but then try it themselves. Like Nascar? Who could ever watch cars go in a circle for 4 hours? Go to a race, then you understand. It's super exciting and just plain old FUN.

From mcbracey:

After their first fight, did it make you question if Marlboro man was the one to give up everything for, or was Ree willing to do it because it was easy when everything else seemed hard? I think as Ree said, she didn't know what to do, Marlboro Man had always taken the lead. I think she had to work that out herself, how to respond. I love that by the time she figured out what needed to be done, Marlboro Man had already moved past it. That first fight is always awkward and is never as bad the next day as it seems at the moment.

Do you wonder what Ree is doing all day? How is she financially making it? Is she really just waiting around all day to meet up with Marlboro man at night? I just assumed that her parents were taking care of most of her finances, plus she probably had money saved up for her move to Chicago, once that plan was canceled, she could dip into that fund.

Would you let your now husband duck out of your reception to watch a football game? NO. Never. I also would have planned the wedding around sporting events. My husband is a football and hockey fan. We got married in March where the main sporting event is the NCAA Tournament. I don't even think there were any major games going on the night of our wedding. I still check the Steeler's schedule before I RSVP anytime anyone invites us to an event September - December.

From Erin:

So many embarrassing things have happened to Ree in front of Marlboro Man. What is the most embarrassing story that comes to mind when you think of embarrassing things that have happened to you in front of a significant other? I think my most embarrassing things have happened when inebriated. I have sworn him to never speak of those events again.

How would you have reacted to being around for the prairie fire? I think it would have been exciting, but scary. I would have stayed as far away as possible, while still being able to keep an eye on Marlboro Man. After seeing it, I think I would have reacted the same way she did "You can't go fight fires anymore, they're DANGEROUS!!!!!!" Anyone else read the chapter about the prairie fire the same day there was one in real life on her ranch? She was blogging/tweeting about it and I was thinking "I just read about the first one you saw"

From Rachel:

There have been so many funny little stories along the way in the book. What has been your favorite? Any favorite lines? I just love the way she tells stories altogether. I ate her book up, every single page. I love when she posts more than just recipes on her blog, however, even the way she writes up a recipe post is entertaining as well. I want her to write more!!!! More Pioneer Woman!!!!!

Do dreams have meanings?

I have some CRAZY intense vivid dreams all the time. I have thought several times of keeping a record of them, some of them are so vivid I feel like I could write screenplays from them. I've never really read into my dreams, thinking they mean anything. I had one last night that seemed pretty symbolic, so I started Googling meanings of certain things, and I don't agree with any of them.

I dreamt that I was driving a car full of friends to a friend's wedding out of town. Right before we got to where the wedding would be, there was a HUGE bridge. It was super tall and super steep to go up and over. My little car barely made it to the top and going back down was like a roller coaster where you couldn't see the bottom of the hill. I tried twice to get to the bottom of the bridge and both times the car didn't make it, it was too steep. We would end up safely on the ground, but off course.

I thought for sure the bridge had some meaning, but when I Googled it, every result said that bridges represent a decision that you are having trouble to make*. I can't think of what the decision could possibly be. I am so at peace with our home situation at the moment and am no longer anxious to move. There aren't any huge decisions to be made at work. I can't think of what it could possibly be.

I also looked up the meaning of cars in dreams, again, can't figure out what it could mean. What I've read** is that the car is representative of what your psyche is experiencing of your waking life. What is going on in the car or what happens to the car is representation of what is going on in your life. Who is driving could show who you feel is in control of your life. If there is a crash, how you crash is apparently symbolic. Were you hit by someone else? Water or ice send the car out of control? In my dream, I was driving, and when the car went off the road, it was my fault, but no one was hurt. So apparently I feel in control of my life, but when my life wrecks, it's my fault? Again, hard to agree with these meanings.

Sometimes my dreams are just vivid stories, nothing symbolic like bridges or car crashes. I don't think anything of them. I'll dream about something going on at work or something that hubs and I saw on TV.

Do you look into the meanings or symbolism of your dreams or do you just take them as entertainment the next morning as you remember everything?

*Bridge interpretations found here.


**Car interpretations found here.

Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

This month we are reading Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond, also known as The Pioneer Woman. She is one of my absolute favorite bloggers. I LOVE her sense of humor and her recipes are AMAZING. Every single thing I've made of hers turns out phenomenal. This is her story of how she met and married her husband. I am loving every single page and can't stop myself from reading ahead! I love her voice when she writes and feel like I already know so much about her from her blog. There are several questions submitted from the girls in the book club this week, I'll just pick a couple to respond to.

While reading Part I of Black Heels, did you find yourself comparing your own love life/story to Ree's? I haven't so much been comparing Ree's story to my own, I am just lost in her world and love reading about how her Marlboro Man courted her and how they fell in love. Knowing how happily married she is and how obsessed she is with her husband and kids, it's great getting to see how they got there. It's almost like being able to pull back the curtains of her blog and getting all of the juicy details. Maybe it's just the nosy side of me, but I love reading about the details of their dating.

 Have you ever felt an instant connection with someone? How did it turn out? I had met Hubs a couple times before we actually started dating when I was bartending. The first time we hung out away from the bar, I knew there was more to it. We were with a group of people, but I couldn't tell you who was there. We were in our own little world just concerned about getting to know each other. At the end of the night, he put his arms around me and said "we fit". And here we are today, a week away from our two year wedding anniversary and 5 1/2 years after that night. 


If you were Ree and started to question your life plan (leaving Cali, moving to Chicago, being independent for a while)...how would you feel when this sudden romance came into your life at the 'wrong' time? I couldn't believe she canceled her move to Chicago for this guy she had been dating for only a couple of weeks. Of course, if she only had an apartment lined up and no job waiting, it wouldn't be as hard to put it off and see where things went with her new flame. However, it was still a HUGE leap of faith for her to cancel her move and see where things went with Marlboro Man. Thank goodness she did or else we wouldn't have The Pioneer Woman!!!!

I love all the details of Ree's cooking for Marlboro Man in the early stages of their relationship. Have you ever made anything for the guy in your life that was just an utter disaster? Did he choke it down anyway? I absolutely love hearing about their early cooking adventures. Just from reading her blog, I knew a couple things, like what the first dish she had made for him. I can't believe she went from vegetarian to eating steak with him. I never in a million years would have guessed she didn't always eat meat from all of her cooking posts. I have definitely had some disasters. Luckily Hubs has been forgiving and I think only one dish I've made went uneaten after the first bites. So far I've taken it pretty easy in the kitchen, trying mainly dishes that would be categorized as easy, but we're moving along and I love making something new that he loves and stashing that recipe away for another day.

 How much of Ree's book do you think is truth or fiction? How much did she embellish? Do you think she omitted or added anything? Obviously she couldn't get EVERYTHING that happened during this period of her life in the book, but I kept wondering what was left out and if some of the stuff she was writing was built up just a teensy tiny bit I really REALLY want to believe that it is pretty true to life. There have to be some embellishments, but I want to believe that they really did have this amazing of a romance. I certainly don't think MY life could be made into a book, but I'm glad hers was, I'm enjoying every minute of it. One day I'll have to meet her and find out how much was true and what was embellished.


If you haven't read this book yet, I can't say enough how much I love it.  If you aren't following Ree's blog already, go do yourself a favor. Give yourself some time to get lost in the recipes and have your printer ready to go, you'll want them all. I am so happy we picked this book and can't wait to keep reading!!!!