Sunday Fun

This past Sunday My sister and I made popcorn balls. They turned out very good and were fun to make.
Here is the recipe I used:

3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup margarine
2 teaspoons cold water
2 5/8 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup marshmallows
5 quarts plain popped popcorn

In sauce pan over medium heat combine the corn syrup, margarine,
cold water, confectioners sugar and marshmallows.

Heat and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Carefully combine the
hot mixture with the popcorn,

coating each kernel.

Grease hands with shortening and shape the coated popcorn into balls.

Enjoy!

Chicago Trip

I thought I would share some pictures from our Chicago trip. We got to go to the Field Museum and Aquarium. Above are some pictures from the Museum, Navy Pier, and of course the Chicago skyline. We also got to see the Indian mounds that are in Illinois, just on the other side of St. Louis, Missouri. It was a fun spontaneous road trip. My husband had decided that morning to quit his job, and instead of going into work that day, we went up to St. Louis where his brother lives. We spent 2 days there , and then decided to make a big trip out of it. We spent two days in Chicago, and then headed home, via Indiana. My husband use to live in Indiana at one point, so we drove through where he use to live, even stayed the night there. We traveled through a total of 5 states in 6 days. Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. If you count the state we lived in at the time ( Arkansas), then it would be 6 states. It was a great trip and I'm glad we were able to do it!

Above are pictures from the Indian mounds and the Aquarium. In one picture you can see the tail of a dolphin, the other picture is of a baluga whale and its baby.

Our Family

Here are some of my favorite pictures of our animals. The dog's name in Ali Junior (we just call her Junior though), and the cat's name is Ford. Junior is part Catahoula, and part Australian Shepperd. Well her mom was part Catahoula and part Australian Shepperd, Junior is also part sneaky neighbor dog..

Wedding Bells

My Sister is getting married. She has dated/known this guy for 10 or so years, so its about time! I was asked to be her Matron of Honor. I of course said yes! She also asked my husband to give her away. Its going to be fun planning a wedding, getting to to all the things I didn't get to do with my wedding.

Recipes, Ideas, and Lost Camera Parts

**Editors note: I figured out how to get the pictures off my camera without the cord.. The memory card! Duh!**

So I had all these plans of putting up posts about my adventures in the kitchen. Posting recipes and pictures of the things I have been whipping up, but I can't find the cord that plugs my camera into the computer.. Since we moved, finding little things like that has been very difficult. I thought it was placed in the box with all the TV cords and stuff that was on the TV stand. I practically dumped that box and still no camera cord. We really don't have that many boxes needing to be unpacked left. So I guess until I find the cord or a solution to my problem, I guess I can just post without pictures.

So Friday night I made an herb roast chicken with stuffing. I'm not much of a cook, my usual mo is one of those quick and easy box meals. My husband is the real cook in the family, but he better watch out, I'm learning and gonna catch up. My husband had planned on making the chicken earlier in the week, but his work schedule conflicted with that plan, so I took the initiative to make this meal. I wasn't sure how it would turn out since I've never made anything more complecated than mac and cheese. I wish I had the pictures to show you how it turned out.

Dinner was wonderfull. Along with the chicken and stuffing, I made mashed potatoes and served a nice chardonay.

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Here is the recipes for Herb Roast Chicken:

Ingredients:1 roasting chicken (about 4 pounds)

1 (12 ounce) package herbed bread stuffing

1 cup water
3 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, chopped
3/4 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed (optional. I left the spinach out)
2 ounce prosciutto or baked ham, cubed
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried sage
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 tablespoons each heavy cream and lemon juice

* added suggestion by me. Add more sage, garlic, and rosmary to taste. ( I added more for some extra flavor, that and we love garlic and rosemary)

Step 1)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place roasting rack in large roasting pan. Rinse chicken; pat dry with paper towels.

Step 2)
In large bowl, toss stuffing with 1 cup water. In large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, spinach, prosciutto, garlic, sage and rosemary to skillet; saute until tender, about 5 minutes.

Step 3)
Add spinach mixture to stuffing. Stir in heavy cream and lemon juice; mix well

Step 4)
Spoon stuffing loosely into chicken cavity, filling about 3/4 full. Fold skin over opening and close with metal skewers. Tuck wings under chicken. Place on roasting rack.

Step 5)
Roast chicken until an instant-read meat thermometer, inserted in the thigh, not touching bone, registers 180 degrees and chicken is golden, about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

* added suggestion, by me, about 20 to 30 minutes before the chicken is done, take a stick of butter and rub over chicken till glazed.

Enjoy!

My Wedding

We had originally planned on getting married in July. A friend of mine was suppose to be my maid of honor, we had known each other for 7 years and I had told her once that she would be my maid of honor someday. Truth be told, I didn't want her to be my maid of honor. We had kind of drifted apart some and things just were not the same between us. Anyone who knows me knows that I can't hurt peoples feelings and always try to be nice to people, even if I don't like them. So, she was my maid of honor or more correctly, matron of honor. Of course, that didn't last very long. She was never able to go to any bridal shows with me, or go looking for a dress. She always had to work, or something else would come up and she wouldn't be able to get away.

Along with the stress my matron of honor friend was causing me, I had the added stress of planning a wedding. Planning a wedding that would take place in 5 months. For our year anniversary, my husband and I went and stayed in a Lodge on the White River in Cotter Arkansas. I mention this trip because we absolutely loved this lodge and its location. We had inquired with the people who run it, about having our wedding there. It was a small place that could only accommodate a small number of guests. No more than 20 or 30. which was not a problem, at first.

The White River Inn

As I worked on our guest list for our small wedding, our small wedding got bigger and bigger. Since I didn't have the help of my matron of honor, my sister was trying to help, but she was in Texas, and since I was still living in Arkansas at the time, it wasn't really that much help.. I will say she was a ton more help than my matron of honor friend!

After having a long talk with my then fiance, we decided it would be better to elope. Of course my mother had her say in that.. she was trying to talk me out of it. Offered to come out in April to help with the planning, as well as coming out in July for the wedding. Now I love my mother, but 2 visits that close together would just be too much! So we came to a compromise, we have a small wedding, just family, in March. I found a cute little wedding chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It hosted all of the wedding amenity's we needed. The ceremony, a small reception, they even offered honeymoon cottages for two nights. The woman who ran the chapel, we kindly refer to as the "Wedding Nazi". She had a ton of rules for everything. In our honeymoon cottage, there was a sign posted for all the rules of the cottage. We were not allowed to move the radio, turn the heat on the hot tub outside past 100 degrees, use the washclothes to wash the make up off of my face and a ton other crazy rules. I think one of my favorites was, "If your going to lounge on the bed, please revmove the comfortor before lounging". Also the woman had a price list for all the linens and towels, you know in case we washed our face with a washcloth or lounged on the bedspread. It was crazy! She of course was also the person who officiated our wedding. Her husband did the videography and photography. Even though the photograhper made me stand on a few tree stumps, as pictured below, the pictures were really good. Even though we had the "Wedding Nazi", our wedding turned out pretty good. It was a lovely ceremony and it was wonderful to be able to share it with our families.

I had to make a trip to Texas to get my wedding dress.. I also had my bachlorett party there. It would be illegal for me to post any pictures from that party.. ha ha just kidding.. I only have a few, and I'm not sure where they are.. sorry..but I can leave you imaging me wearing a crown of penises and a sash of condoms.

Weekend fun and a new family member

Yea! look at me go! 3 blogs in 3 days!

So I thought I could start blogging about what we do on Sundays. Since We moved to Texas we are only about 45 min away from where my sister lives. So she has been coming over every Sunday. When she gets here we have pancakes and then do something fun. This last week we went to the Ripley's belive it or not place and the wax museum. It was pretty cool. The wax museum was really neat. I of course forgot my camera.. sorry..

The week before my sis and I made halloween cookies. I've been on a baking kick lately. So mostly is was me doing all the baking and my sis sitting there talking to me. It was fun decorating the cookies and I hope this is a tradtion I can carry on with my kids someday.
I can't remeber what we did the week before that..

Did I mention before that we got a cat? Well we adopted a kitten. he is about 6 months old and his name is Ford. Ford is the name they had given him, we have not come up with another name so we're sticking with Ford. He is very friendly and loves to pur. The dog didn't like the cat at first, but they are getting along just fine now. The dog likes to run off with Ford's toys. Oh by the way our dogs name is Ali Junior. She is named after her mother, we just call her junior.
Well thats really all I have for now..

Sickness

So, my husband has been sick for like a week now, not sure with what, but now I have it. My throat was so sore yesterday, its not so bad now but my head is all stuffy and my tummy is all crampy.. anyways I fell like crap so I'm gonna go take a nap now

I'm back!

I know its been a while, but boy do I have a lot to update! Well, we got married in March, in June we went to Oregon for a visit. While we were in Oregon, we found out I was pregnant. Turns out I had what they call a right ovarian ectopic pregnancy, so while in Oregon I had to have a major surgery. I'm all better now though. In September we moved to Texas. I guess there really wasn't all that much to update..
Anyways, I really love our new house and town! I have decided to go back to school. I want to major in History. I'm not sure what I can do with that major, its mostly for personal achievement. Well I guess thats all for now. I promise I will write more often!