Nostalgia for the holidays

This is what I am aching to sit in front of. I am aching to see my friends from a long time ago....and to bake holiday goodies and be with family and have no agenda, nothing that HAS to be done, no deadlines...just relaxation and love. I am so ready for the Holidays to get here...I'm saving up my vacation days so I can have a more significant break to spend in O'fallon. It's cold and dark and rainy today, and I'm wishing that I could turn off all the overhead lighting in my office (I hate fluorescent lighting anyway...I had only lamps in my office at Ole Miss) and turn the heat on and put on Christmas carols and drink tea. I think I could still be productive that way, and everyone would just be happier when they came in my office. I agree that it's a LITTLE early for Christmas carols...you have to at least wait until the day after Thanksgiving, but I will be ready for that day when it comes!

I've been browsing the Thanksgiving and Christmas decor on Pottery Barn's website...we still have some store credit that we need to spend in the next month or so. I'm tempted to buy some of the things I'm seeing!

for example, these lovely vases (could easily go from Thanksgiving to Christmas decor!)

I'm ordering some small poinsettias for the apartment...since we don't have room for a Christmas tree, I'm thinking I'll order some small ones and replace my silk arrangements with the live flowers for the Holidays....maybe make a display of some of our favorite ornaments on some kind of garland or something. It's bumming me out that we don't have room for a tree or anything, but we're spending Christmas either at my parents' or in Oxford, so we won't be there for Christmas day anyway...and we don't HAVE a tree, but I want one. We found one with lights already on it that is the perfect size for an apartment for $65 dollars at Lowes...maybe it will go on sale and we'll grow a few extra square feet? Possible? Who knows. For now, here's a pic of the poinsettias I'm ordering:



Doesn't it just put you in the mood for reading books and wearing sweaters and sitting by the fire? And apple cider...mmmmmmm....

no good idea for a title...

I finally got around to making that apple-stuffed squash. yummy. tasted like apple pie. i tried not to remind brad that we were eating a vegetable for dessert!

In other news, it's pretty chilly outside...and it's been raining for the last 3 days. But I don't mind that so much...I kind of like it. It makes me want to be inside and productive...and CLEAN things. I'm really enjoying teaching, although this week is a little nutty. Lots of catch-up and make-up lessons right before juries, lots of extra rehearsals. Tomorrow I'm having my students all sing for each other to practice singing in front of SOMEONE... and I'm bringing them rice krispy treats to assuage their nerves (another excuse to "bake").

I'm not sure now that I will even be able to go to the race for the cure, and I'm pretty sad about it. Also, not going to the race means not getting to go to the annual foodie festival. this disappoints me a lot. there are just some circumstances that would make it BETTER for me not to go...brad has rehearsal and work, i don't want to drive there by myself, we REALLY can't afford the entry fee or the parking fee, it's supposed to be 37 degrees...but mostly the fact that we can't really spare an extra 50 dollars. which also means that we can't really afford for me to buy those boots as a reward to myself anyway.

aren't they cute though? they're by the same company that makes all my other heels that i own and wear all day long, so they have to be comfortable....but pricey. and there's no way. not right now. so i'll wait.

october has been a hard month for us. a blessed one, but a hard one. there have been some financial issues that have crept up that are normal occurrences, but still frustrating. someone let the air out of brad's tires. not very funny. his rehearsal schedule and work schedule make him really busy, and we don't like not seeing each other except in passing. we're just busy, and we're busy with good things. we just have to keep reminding each other that it won't be this way forever, and we just have to wait out the hard parts.

I go to pick up my headshots today. I hope they look good, I'm nervous about them. I'm also nervous about putting this application in the mail...that means I actually have to go do it.

i have no idea what to get brad for his birthday.

new stuff!

this weekend was truly a marathon weekend, but it was worth it. brad and i drove all the way to fort worth and back in two days to pick up all our new hand-made bedroom furniture. it was quite the trip, but we had a great time with each other and spending time with some of brad's family. the furniture was made by brad's uncle trey, and it is the most beautiful furniture that i have ever seen.

here is our new bed:



isn't it beautiful?


and our new bedside tables: (brad has one that's identical on the other side)


lovely. and yes, i am reading twilight again.


and here is my favorite piece...our dresser. this is a massive piece of furniture, but it is beautiful. brad picked out and installed all the hardware on this piece and the bedside tables today. it was a big job, but obviously he did a lovely job!




we are so blessed to have such a wonderful family.


this week i am sending in my application to opera theater st. louis and i'm a little apprehensive about the whole prospect of auditions again and getting back into the swing of things. the other day, brad graciously took some new headshots for me (we can't afford a professional photographer, so we tried to match some of the things the big guys are doing in their headshots...this is what we came up with) and i think i have chosen this one to print and send:


this one turned out to be the most natural one we could get. if you saw this picture would you hire me? i hope so.

i'm missing some girl time tonight. i love that i'm in searcy, but i only have one girl friend here and she is busy with grad school (which i totally understand...i was there last year), and i'm really aching for some good girl time and retail therapy. maybe it's time to plan another trip to oxford? we'll see if the pocketbook can handle that after this month...it's been a bit of a rough month! this month we learned that life happens whether you're ready for it or not. application fees, picture printing fees, postage, flat tires, rental trucks, you name it.

in other news, the race is in less than a week. i'm not sure if i'm 100% ready, but i'm going to go and give it my best shot. i'm rewarding myself by attending the annual foodie festival right afterward. it's like a larger-than-life farmer's market, and i cannot WAIT to explore it! hopefully i'll be able to upload some pictures from next weekend too!

forks, washington

that's what it looks like outside. all you twilight readers will know exactly what i'm talking about. i don't mind so much right now though. this weekend was beautiful. i spent a good portion of the day on saturday outside exercising and enjoying the weather, and then sunday it turned gray and rainy and cold...just in time for me to spend the day in the kitchen!

this weekend (after fulfilling my quest for canned pumpkin), brad and i baked pumpkin bread and loved it so much that we made pumpkin muffins too! i was also in charge of making the marinara sauce for our small group sunday night. since we had about 25 people last sunday, i prepared accordingly and created a huge pot of wonderfully bubbly goodness and took it to small group...where there were seven people present. needless to say, we have A LOT of leftovers.



so, in my attempt to cut down on the grocery bill for the week and use what's already in the fridge and pantry and STILL use some of the fall produce bounty that is available to us at our local kroger, i have found some very interesting recipes that are getting some RAVE reviews, and i can't wait to try them! first on the prep list is fall vegetable lasagna. it sounds a little weird, but it's pumpkin and eggplant and spinach all layered in with lasagna and homemade marinara (how fortunate that i have a gallon of that in my fridge!) and cheese. i'm not really sure about the pumpkin and marinara combo, but the reviews are saying it's a great flavor combo...so i'm giving it a try. i'm cooking a big pork loin this week and will have stuffed acorn squash with it one night and make sandwiches the next day and make sweet potato salad to go with it....sweet potatoes are on special this week at kroger...HUGE ones.

we'll see how the cooking for the week goes. in other news, i am in the middle of filling out all sorts of applications for auditions for the summer and next year...it's making me a little nervous, but i'm trying to take it one small step at a time. there are a couple deadlines coming up in the next week or so...and once i turn in my application, i have to SERIOUSLY practice. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!! i haven't done that enough, i guess hoping that if i don't practice, all this stress will just GO AWAY. but that's really not how it works at all.

one step at a time.

impulsive baking

i am an impulsive baker. i love to cook, to prepare meals, but i've never really been much of a baker. (this has turned out to be a pretty good thing because otherwise our small apartment would be overrun with cakes and cookies and cupcakes and muffins and loaves of bread and....you get the picture)

However, some days I do get the urge to bake things. Today, the projects on my mind are:




chocolate chip meringues....yum!


and


pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese icing.

divine? i think so. i need an occasion to bake so that i can get rid of a lot of them at once and not have them sitting around the house. except the meringues. i could eat those all by myself. that would be fine with me!

Fall and all the wonderful things that come with it

I love fall. I love crisp mornings. I love wearing sweaters. I love cushy socks. I love seeing the "mum man" across from College Church displaying his fall wares.



I love going shopping for pumpkins and all sorts of squash...and I love eating pumpkins and squash!




On the menu for the week:

Butternut squash soup, roasted stuffed acorn squash, and other fall goodies. Can't wait. Brad is willing to be adventurous this week, with the promise of some good old-fashioned home-cooked asian food at the end of the week (sweet and sour stir fry!).

I am SO EXCITED about trying out all my fall recipes and going shopping for fall accessories this week. I bought a pumpkin spice candle just for fun to set the fall atmosphere at home :)

To me, fall equals blessings and bounty, and it is a great time to remember God's faithfulness to us.

rachael ray, you do not disappoint

So while on the treadmill on Tuesday night, in an effort to get my mind off of the awful running feeling, I turned my attention to the food network. Subsequently, I LOVE watching the food network while I work out. I'm not sure what it is, but I just find that channel in particular helps take my focus off the i-don't-wannas. Anyway, Rachael Ray was on, and, although I'm not her biggest fan, I think that she comes up with some really interesting dishes that are generally quick, and watching her make them on tv makes me think, "hey, I can do that...easy!"

So, Tuesday, she was making a budget-friendly soup that looked so good...and come to find out I had everything I needed for that soup (minus a couple cans of beans that are super cheap at Kroger), so I decided I would give it a try. I printed off the recipe at home and gave it the old college try last night. The verdict: amazing. Brad loved it. It was hearty, flavorful, and healthy. Oh, and very easy on the pocketbook, which is paramount for us this week. So I thought I'd share the recipe!

I'm not even sure what she called the soup, but I'll call it the magic bowl of happiness for now.

I started with browning up some kielbasa sausage in the bottom of a big pot with a little olive oil (tiny bit)
Then I added a chopped carrot, 3 stalks of chopped celery, 1 chopped onion, and 3 cloves of garlic and let that all cook down till it was nice and wonderful-smelling. I also added some salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme in there for good measure.

After that, I added 2 cans of drained cannellini (white kidney) beans, 2 c. of reduced sodium, fat free chicken stock, and 2 c. of water. I covered it and kicked the heat up to high to get it to boil. After it boiled, I dumped a cup or two of spinach and tomato pasta (the green and red kinds) down into the pot, reduced the heat, recovered, and simmered the soup until the pasta was fully cooked. There at the end, I added a little white wine and cayenne pepper for a bit of a flavor amp-up.

Brad was a little late coming home, but I thought the soup was a little watery, so I let it continue to simmer uncovered till he got home, which let some of the liquid boil off. By the time he got home, it was the perfect consistency. I topped it with a little sprinkle of parmesan, and we were good to go. Delish. It made enough for last night and for each of us to have another serving or two for lunches! Next time I'm getting some ciabatta bread to toast with garlic and olive oil.



I love cooking. I really do.