our new and improved sunday nights

it's sunday evening and my little family and i just got home from a long weekend at my parent's house in lynchburg. my parents are two of the most generous, warm people i know, and all three of us were totally spoiled and taken care of all weekend.

although my parents love our new "baby," their little shih-tzu max does not. i love little max dearly. he has the sweetest personality (not a mean bone in his body), and although he might not appear to be very tough, is actually quite a trooper. the poor little guy recently lost one of his back legs in a car accident, but you'd never know it. he gets around just fine and is still as playful and happy as he was before--unless izzy is around. after we arrived thursday night, we soon found that max despised izzy's very presence in the house, and responded to each and every one of her attempts to play with a loud and terrifying snarl. my husband had the idea to put them both in izzy's crate, which has a metal divider in it for crate training, so that they could "work things out." unfortunately, the operation was not a success and max's opinion of izzy did not change. it did provide some pretty funny pictures though!

izzy: hi! wanna be my friend?

max: no. you're ruining my life.

while we were in lynchburg, we also got to spend time with some of my close friends who i have really been missing since my move to fairfax. i helped celebrate one of my roommate's upcoming weddings at her bridal shower on saturday, and was also finally able to see my other roommate's engagement bling for the first time! today, we finished moving all of our stuff out of our last "single lady" apartment. crazy, but so, so exciting!--i guess that's what this growing up stuff is all about.

right now, izzy is desperately trying to chew my favorite pillow, and i'm relaxing on the couch. izzy and i are a little appalled as jake's loud (and uncharacteristically angry) madden-playing alter ego emerges. i will never understand why guys play video games that make them mad--but i'm just so happy to be with jake on the reg. that i'm not complaining!

now that we are married and living in the same house, the novelty of not having to say goodbye to each other every sunday night is starting to wear off a little, but i will never forget the long year we spent dating and being engaged long distance. it's hard to believe that for that entire year we alternated making the long--and boringgggg--journey to and from each other on good old route 29 every weekend (i think we only missed two of them!). that is love, folks.

after a year of saying goodbye at the end of every weekend, it was so nice to share that drive home from my parent's house with my husband, knowing that tomorrow we get to say hello to a new week together.

mid-week meal: turkey in july?!

last week i started looking for some easy dinner recipes that used pork and turkey. we eat a lot of chicken in our house, mostly because i'm not a huge fan of red meat, and i realized very quickly in my cooking adventures and meal planning that i need some variety in my meat selection!

i stumbled upon two great recipes, both from real simple. last friday, i tried these slow-cooker pulled-pork tacos. not only was this meal incredibly easy to prepare (anyone can throw a bunch of stuff into a crock pot!), but the pork had that great spicy/sweet flavor that you'd find in a restaurant. i also had a ton of cilantro left over, which i used the next day to make black bean & corn salsa--yum! there was plenty of leftover meat, which we took advantage of for the next few days. i recommend pairing these with leinenkugel's summer shandy--a great summer beer with a hint of lemonade flavor.

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pulled-pork-tacos-00000000008021/index.html

tonight, after my husband and i took our 10 week old puppy izzy for her first run at the park (she did awesome and is totally pooped now--yes!), i made real simple's roasted turkey breast and cheddar-stuffed potatoes. i know most people are throwing salmon, steak, and summer veggies on the grill at this time of year, but who said you can't have a little turkey in july? it's so funny to me how we tend to only eat turkey at thanksgiving, as if it's a culinary rule. last weekend, at my husband's great aunt's 85th surprise birthday party, a family member prepared an entire thanksgiving feast--scandalous! it was amazing and everyone was raving about how great turkey is year round. plus, we aren't allowed to have grills at our condo, so i've gotta be creative.

this meal was a hit. the turkey was tender and flavorful (i used dried thyme and it was still very good!), and the potatoes were delicious. i added about a 1/2 cup of light sour cream to the potato mixture before baking. i also used 3 potatoes rather than 2, and therefore adjusted the ingredient amounts slightly. be careful after you take the potatoes out of the microwave to scoop out the inside--they will be HOT (think: "hot potato"). it all makes sense to me now.

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/roasted-turkey-with-cheddar-stuffed-potatoes-00000000052641/index.html

for dessert, i made martha stewart’s banana bread with sour cream and a brown-sugar glaze (i got the recipe for the glaze from my neighbor at one of my bridal showers). i’m the kind of person who sits around waiting for bananas to get over-ripe just so i can make banana bread, and this recipe proved to be a keeper! the addition of sour cream to a simple banana bread recipe produced some amazing results (way to go, martha!). it smelled so delicious, especially after adding the glaze, that i had to help myself to a slice before jake got home—i usually have much more self control.

http://www.marthastewart.com/312772/banana-bread

recipe for brown sugar glaze*:

6 tbs. brown sugar

2 tbs. cream (i just used lactose-free reduced fat milk, because that’s what i had)

2 tbs. butter

1 tsp. vanilla (i used 1/2 a tsp.)

powdered sugar

in a small saucepan, boil the first three ingredients together for one minute. add the vanilla and the powdered sugar to thicken. spread quickly, as it dries quickly!

*this glaze is intended for banana cake. however, we both found it VERY good on banana bread! it added to the overall moistness of the bread, and it was just good. need i say more? :)

sleepy puppy. well-fed husband. happy wife!

hello again!

two things--seemingly unrelated--that i have REALLY been wanting lately.

1. a blog.

2. an entry way table for my living room.

both, thanks to a little determination and a slight bit of disobedience, have been procured today.

you see, my husband is currently working on a website for us to use in lieu of facebook. we both love to share life through pictures and stories, but he is not a fan of the social disaster that facebook has become, and wants us to have a more personal medium to share our life with our friends and family. while i'm partial to facebook, and will be a little sad to see it go when that time comes, i'm excited at the prospect of a project that jake and i can work on together. i've been told that the possibilities of having a customizable website are endless--a truth i'm sure i'll discover when my sweet husband gets ours up and running.

i love him. but i'm a blogger, and i need to blog! now! so yes, i'm being a little disobedient (i prefer enthusiastic) and starting a temporary blog which i will use only for the time being.

in my blog entries, i plan on covering a multitude of simple but meaningful (to me) topics. i will bore you with hundreds of pictures of my adorable dog (she is really, really cute and you'd love her if you met her), talk about new recipes i've tried, brag about my husband (he's pretty cool), explain why bikram yoga is the only real yoga, share great (and not so great) books i've read, maybe throw in a couple funny married life stories, and post pictures of my favorite home decorating finds.

below are a couple pictures of my newest addition: an entry way table! i wanted a table that would compliment the color scheme in my living room (deep red, cream, dark green, and a little orange), but contrast with the dark wood of my coffee table and tv console. i like how the hint of turquoise in the throw pillow (bottom picture) matches perfectly with my new table.

this was an under $50 project. i got the table (had my eye on it for weeks and it was finally marked down to $28!), frame (on clearance for $3.50), and metal sign ($5) at ross. the lamp was borrowed (stolen) from my parents' house awhile ago. thanks mom & dad!