this is a long one

this weekend was so fun!! friday morning i cleaned cleaned cleaned. from 7:30 till 12!!! then aunt betty came over and i helped her with some resume stuff. well at 2:30 i had to start cooking, because i was making chicken and dumplings for when david and faith came over for dinner that night. i made that stuff from SCRATCH!! it took 4 1/2 hours!!!! holy cow. so i start off by cutting up the veggies which takes me longer than it takes hubby. then i start the chicken... i take most of the skin off and then... i accidentally look inside... and there was something ORGAN-LIKE AND BLOOD-RED IN THERE!!!! i screamed, but luckily aunt betty was still here and is not grossed out by that junk, so she finished cutting up the chicken for me. so i learned something about myself that day, i hate birds- dead or alive. i'll eat it, and that's as far as it goes. come thanksgiving, matt will be the turkey-handler. that's all folks. well anyways, so i make the chicken stock, and as it was cooking it just didn't smell very good. so then i start to get nervous, because if we already went through all of that and it tastes like doo-doo, i'm going to have to kick someone. well then matt came home and we separated the stock from the veggies and chicken, he took out the bones, and we finished it all up. then he made the dumplings and let me tell you, it turned out AMAZING. it was totally worth spending 4 1/2 hours start to finish on it. plus i think knowing that there was that much work involved made it taste even better. so then after we all ate, we played some yahtzee and it was really fun. i don't know why we have been liking yahtzee lately, but we do. so here's the recipe:

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

prep time: 20 minutes

start to finish: 3 hours 5 minutes (let's try 4 and a half hours, people!)

4 servings (i couldn't believe this. there is soooo much!!)

Ingredients:

-1 cut-up whole chicken (3 to 3 1/2 pounds) or chicken pieces with bones

-2 medium stalks celery, with leaves, cut up

-2 medium carrots, sliced

-1 small onion (well, we used 1/2)

-1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley or 2 tsp parsley flakes

-1 tsp salt

-1/8 tsp pepper

-5 cups water

-2 1/2 cups original bisquick mix

-2/3 cup milk

Directions:

1. remove and discard excess fat and guts from chicken. you want to keep the bones in for now because you are making a chicken stock. in 4-quart dutch oven (or a large pot, like we used), place chicken, celery, carrot, onion, parsley, salt, pepper and water. cover and heat to boiling; reduce heat. simmer about 2 hours or until juice of chicken is clear when thickest part is cut to bone (170*F for breasts; 180*F for thighs and legs).

2. remove chicken and vegetables from pot. remove bones from chicken. it's difficult to get every single bone, so when you are eating, be careful. skim 1/2 cup fat from broth if you can get that much. reserve. transfer broth to large bowl; reserve 4 cups (you can reserve the remaining broth for another use)

3. in dutch oven, heat reserved 1/2 cup fat, or butter, over low heat. stir in 1/2 cup of the bisquick mix. cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. stir in reserved 4 cups broth. heat to boiling, stirring constantly. boil and stir 1 minute. add chicken and vegetables; reduce heat to low. heat about 20 minutes or until hot. during this time, i tried to shred the chicken to smaller pieces.

4. in medium bowl, stir remaining 2 cups bisquick and themilk with wire whisk or fork until soft dough forms. drop dough by spoonfuls onto hot chicken mixture. do not drop directly into the liquid. cook uncovered over low heat 10 minutes. cover and cook 10 minutes longer... well, it actually took us about 30 minutes, and we had to flip the dumplings over eventually. just watch them, because you want the dough to be cooked, not raw, but it's ok if it gets soggy.

now one of the best parts of this recipe is that it came with the nutrition information. keep in mind that this is FOUR servings, and if you don't eat 1/4th of this, you won't be consuming this much anyway.

calories: 680

calories from fat: 270

total fat: 30 g

sodium: 1680 mg

carbohydrate: 55 g

fiber: 3 g

sugars: 6 g

protein: 47 g

so then saturday we went on a date to the fort worth fuzzy's (the one by tcu), which was very crowded and loud and had bad service. don't go there. and we also went to the modern museum of art. that was cool, but i realized that after about an hour of art, i'm done. we also made tres leches. i had it once at taco diner, and it was very good. this recipe was just as good in my opinion, but the colder it is, the better it tastes. it might even taste best if it was frozen and then you let it thaw for a short time. also, we were making it for a movie night, so we couldn't taste the cake after it was completely done before we left, so i tasted the batter (amazing), i tasted the three milks mixed together (phenomenal), and i tasted the whipped cream (heavenly). i knew it would be good all together! here's the recipe:

Tres Leches (Milk Cake)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup white sugar

5 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups whole milk

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour one 9X13 inch baking pan. You need a larger pan, because the milks will be poured in later, and you don't want it to overflow.

2. sift flour and baking powder together and set aside.

3. cream butter or margarine and the 1 cup sugar together until fluffy. add eggs and the 1/2 tsp vanilla extract; beat well.

4. add the flour mixture to the butter mixture 2 tbsp at a time; mix until well blended. pour batter into prepared pan.

5. baking at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. pierce cake several times with a fork when it is done. let the cake cool completely.

6. combine the whole milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk together. pour over the top of the cooled cake. place in refrigerator.

7. whip whipping cream, the remaining 1 cup of sugar, and the remaining 1 tsp vanilla together until thick and soft peaks form. spread over the top of cake. be sure and keep cake refrigerated, because like i said, it is best served cold. mmm.

we made this cake, because justin and jenny hosted a black and white movie night. we watched the 1940's flick, the night has eyes. it was cheesy, but i loved it! we had so much great food and then we played this fun game that luke brought up.

i'll do my best to explain it. so everyone sits in a circle, and i'm going to pretend there are 12 people playing. so each person needs 12 pieces of paper, and on the first page, at the top, write your name very small. this is your stack. each person writes a phrase on that piece of paper. any phrase- from "disney world" to "the night has eyes" to "michael jordan flies over the moon on his unicorn" to "chuppacabra". when everyone has their phrase, pass your stacks of paper to the left. now you have a new stack of paper. read the phrase, put that paper at the back of the stack, and draw a picture to go along with the phrase. when everyone is done with their picture, pass the stack to the left. (you can be passing to the right, but pass to the right the whole game.) now you have a new stack of paper. look at the picture, put that paper at the back of the stack, and now write a phrase to go along with the picture. when everyone is done, pass the stacks to the left. continue with this pattern until you wind up with your stack of paper. however, before you give the original stacks back to the original people, put your last thing at the back so that they see their phrase to begin with. don't look at what everyone did yet! each person shares with the group, and that should be the first time you see what is in your stack- when you are sharing it with the group. it is so fun and you will laugh your behind off.

we didn't leave their house until like 12:30 which is really late for us! then sunday i went to brunch with amanda, and that was really fun. we went to ashley furniture and world market, where i saw so much cute kitchen stuff, but i don't NEED any of it. sad day. i came home and took a nap, and then we went to church at 7. we ran into luke and amanda, justin, and david and faith, and it was so wonderful. we were literally surrounded by our closest friends while praising the Lord and it was just remarkable. that moment took my breath away. the Lord is so good and perfect and awe-inspiring, and to be able to revel in that with close friends and your spouse is such a gift from Him.

monday we woke up and matt stayed home, because we were going to get my car fixed. we thought it was the compressor and that was going to be 700-800 dollars to fix. my car is worth 1000 dollars. so it made more sense to buy a new car, which we are hopefully going to do in the next year anyway. so we start looking at cars online and get a quote from the insurance company and all; well come to find out MATT can fix my car and it's going to be like 100 dollars or something. i know i should be thankful for that, because we aren't having to spend a lot of money on a car now, but at the same time, i was really excited about finally getting a new car! bummer. then allison came over and we decorated her school binder like a scrapbook-it's adorable- and we played singstar-fun and hilarious- and watched the end of I Love You Man, because she hadn't seen the end.

well monday night, david and faith, justin and jenny, and craig and angela came over for a game and pizza night. we played luke's game again, and ate pizza, and i made these delicious lemon blossoms from paula deen's show. they were a hit! it was funny, because when i watched the show, paula said that every time she takes them somewhere, they are a hit! she was right. they are like little lemon cake doughnuts. i also made "heavenly muffins". simple- mix some chocolate chip cookie dough, put it in mini muffin tins. cook it according to the directions of the cookies. when it comes out, put a mini reese's peanut butter cup in it. delish. here is paula deen's recipe of the lemon blossoms:

Lemon Blossoms by Paula Deen

Ingredients:

-18 1/2 ounce package yellow cake mix

-1 1/2 ounce package instant lemon pudding mix

-4 large eggs

-3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

-4 cups confectioners' sugar

-1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (i just used it from the bottle)

-1 lemon, zested

-3 tbsp vegetable oil

-3 tbsp water

Directions:

preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

spray mini muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. bake for 12 minutes. turn out into a tea towel.

to make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tbsp water. mix with a spoon until smooth.

with fingers (or a fork, piercing the bottom of the cakes, not the top so they can still look pretty!), dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they are still warm (i waited until they cooled a bit), covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. place on wire racks with wax paper or foil underneath to catch any drips (and there will be a lot!). let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

deliciousness in your mouth!

anyway, that was a super fun night, but i'm excited to rest today. have a fabulous tuesday, peoples!

thursday bursday

this morning i went to renew my subbing application or whatever you'd call it... i wanted to look cute-ish, and it was raining, and my air conditioner in my car doesn't work... yeah that was not good. i didn't look so cute by the time i got home. oh well. today i made a collage for allison. i'm not sure if i want to just give that to her or put a picture in the middle of it... that's pretty much all i did today. i am so lame. i almost hung out with jenny but then she had to work, so we're going to hang out tomorrow morning. that will be fun. ok i don't even know why i am writing a post right now. i have nothing to say!

house wife-ing!

hola! so today i decided to brave the no-air-conditioned-car and pick up some groceries and start a project. groceries- boring. project- yay! i printed out some pictures from our camera that we have been accumulating. they have been looking really good so i wanted to display them somehow. we have an awesome cork board in our kitchen that i made out of wine corks, but i don't want to put pictures on that because it is so pretty. anyways, i printed out the pics and i got some black picture frames of all different styles and we are going to hang them over our dresser in our bedroom. they are all pictures of us and i think it looks really good. i am going to test out putting a picture on this blog now:

ok i did it. cool. anyway, i think it will look really cool. i saw it in the ikea catalogue, and we have been wanting to do this for a while. we have some really good pictures in there. matt took the ones of me and i took the ones of him, obviously.

so tomorrow i am going to go up to the substitute office to renew being a sub for this year. i've already mentioned my thoughts on it, but at least i will feel like i am doing something, ya know? then friday night david and faith are coming over and we are going to eat some chicken and dumplins. i have never made it before, but i think it will be good. matt got the recipe online. if it's good, i'll let you know... if i remember. ;) saturday night after church we are going to the JJs' for a black and white movie night. i'm excited. everyone is supposed to bring something for dinner, and matt is going to make tres leches cake. i hope it's good. i had it one time at taco diner... mmmm... if this is anywhere near as good as that was, we'll be good to go! i might also bring tuna noodle casserole- super easy: box of mac and cheese, can of cream of mushroom, can of tuna. today i made some chocolate chip cookies for matt for a surprise. i can write this now, because he is leaving work in two minutes, and i know he won't read this. i use the recipe out of the joy of cooking... usually i would use about a tablespoon of dough per cookie, and they would turn out delicious, but today i decided to really follow the directions and use a teaspoon of dough. they are so thin, but still gooey and soft and delicious. they are thinner than the chocolate chips in them! it's weird, but delicious.

sunday i am going to main street bistro to eat brunch with amanda. i'm excited. we have this new tradition where every couple months or so we go to brunch and catch up. if she isn't reading this blog, she will be surprised to hear we got cable. we were in the "no cable" club, but they got it and then we got it... so i guess now we're in the "yes cable" club? hmm... anyway, brunch is a fun tradition for us.

so today i watched an episode of "i didn't know i was pregnant". omg. that show CREEPED me out!! i can't imagine not knowing and then having a child to take care of. you have no time to prepare; neither by buying things and getting ready for the baby, nor by mentally being ready for a CHILD. the other day i was looking through old pictures and i found some of allison when she was pregnant with reese. it's pretty weird that a BABY was in her in those pictures, and especially weird that that baby was reese. he's so big now. i love him. he's probably the cutest baby i've ever seen too. he's hilarious also. i miss him now. thanks.

i really wish matt would come home so he could help me hang these pictures. i am just so excited about them! ok my friends, it is time for me to go back to doing nothing. no just kidding- i might read. i love jodi.

ok this is how it turned out. i love it.

no name

ok so today has been rather annoying... i called at&t home entertainment to upgrade our cable package, because the basic one has like 1/2 the channels of time warner's basic package. believe me, we would have time warner if we could, but our complex only offers at&t's service. blows. well it has taken like 3 hours to finally get the channels working, and that is after calling three times and having to speak to three super rude, miserable women. booo.

i've decided to talk about teaching now. i am going to make a list of my thoughts, because i really think there is only one other person who completely gets it all.

-i feel like i am wasting money. i paid for my degree; i paid for my two certifications; i paid for a bunch of teaching materials i was trying to collect before i got a job so that once i got one, spending wouldn't be so crazy.

-i am wasting my passion and talent.

-in a year, i will have to go through all of this again, because your applications are only good for a year, and obviously principals won't keep your emails from the year before. looking for a job super sucks, but knowing it's going to happen again in a set timeline really stinks.

-in a year, if i even get interviews, principals will wonder why i didn't have a job this year. what was wrong with me? and i'll have to answer, "it was the economy." i HATE the word economy and i hate that excuse. i am so tired of it. it all started with greed in the first place.

-i know God gave me this passion and talent, and He has a plan for me. if he clothes the wheat and feeds the birds, He's going to take care of me in this. even though i know this and i remind myself of this, and He reminds me, it's still hard to trust Him. i know what i want, but obviously it isn't what He wants for me.

-subbing is the only other option that makes sense, because at least i will be in a public school environment. at least i would be teaching, and sometimes i'll get to teach kids i know! however, this is a huge blow to my ego. i am way qualified, passionate, talented, and connectable with the kids, but i have to stoop to filling in for the other teachers. most of the time they won't even give me real lesson plans. however, God doesn't care about my ego. if anything, He wants to strip it completely away so that i will completely rely on Him.

-this is a very sucky time and i'm afraid of getting depressed.

ok. i think i feel a little better. tonight we are having cheese-stuffed manicotti. i am excited, because matt will make his homemade pizza sauce for it and it's just super delish. i don't really know what else will happen today. i have some errands to run but my air won't get fixed till saturday, and i really can't bear to drive in the nasty heat unless it's absolutely necessary. now YOU have a superfab day.

hola! como estas?

ok i'm going to try and start over with blogging. i had a wordpress blog, and i decided i didn't want that one. i tried to delete it and it told me that i could not keep the same name, which is MY name... well at blogspot you can keep the same name. so here i am. and when i got here, i realized that i had already had a blog here!!! haha!! :) i talked about a day that deanna and i walked around the park in denton and ate a picnic and then went swimming. i don't really remember that day, but it sounded fun.

so today was the first day of school- the first day of school i have ever missed. i'm sad, but it was still a good day. actually ever since friday the days have been super great! i will list them out for you, because i love lists:

friday- well actually friday was pretty terrible lol. it started off by being clearly rejected by a potential- get that- potential- job. i mean i wasn't even given the chance to interview! then my air conditioner stopped working- in the south- in august. i had decided it would be fun to go see a movie for the last day of summer, and i had an incredibly embarrassing moment there dealing with lady things, and we all got stomach aches from the stinkin' hot dogs we ate! on top of all that, at precisely 4:00 that afternoon, i was officially unemployed thanks to the end of summer. however, i did not cry about having to leave the children, and we also had a fun dinner with matt's manager. those two reasons made it an OK day.

saturday- wow! super great day!!! i felt like a kid with how excited i was at the end of this day. hubby decided to take me on a denton date so we could reminisce at all our old spots. first we went to the little chapel in the woods where we got married. there were weddings going on, of course, because it was saturday, but we walked around and took pictures and stuff. next we ate at fuzzy's and then beth marie's, which we ate at the courthouse where we got engaged. afterwards we went to the in-laws' house and had a nice time! i got a little crafty there, but i don't want to say what i was doing in case anyone in particular reads this... it's a secret. but i was really having fun with that. then beau and jill came over and we went to texas roadhouse... yummm... and they came back to our apartment and we all hung out and talked. i love them so much and i wish we could see them more. we always have so much fun with them and it's so easy to hang out. after they left, i got on facebook, and luke had tweeted that they were all over at the smiths', so we went too. it was really fun. i ate the most amazing cake and icing i ever had. it was good, too, because i only had 3 bites- two of which i shoved in my mouth all at the same time because hubby was trying to get the rest lol.

sunday- we went to church, and Bleecker was leading worship. wow! i guess they are trying to move worship to after the sermon, but we didn't leave for like 15 minutes because i was crying so hard. the Holy Spirit just rocked me and although i was VIBRATING because i was crying so hard, it was a really intense and awesome moment. it actually really went along with the whole sermon, because matt was next to me, but i was completely focused on the Lord. later we ran some errands and what not, and then we went to see my family. that was fun. we played yahtzee. my mom made lobster bisque, but she put the lobster eggs in there so it was hard to eat. that is just so disgusting. i tried not to think about it, but when you know, you know.

today i have just been hanging out, emailing schools unfruitfully, and trying to get back into subbing. to me that's the best option when i don't have a regular teaching job. i'm trying to not talk too much about that, because i will get so sad. but then i went running and did the eliptical a little bit and i watched a bit of TV. it's so great having TV!! then sister bear came over and we went to costco where her new love interest works (ew). afterwards we went to CVS to buy make up and she got a milkshake at steak and shake. also i must say that my hair looks super cute and different today. so i feel good.

tonight we are going to drop dinner off at some kids from our old home group because they just had a baby. i made pot roast and it's going to be amazing! here's what you do:

Natalie's Awesome Amazing Super Fantastic Pot Roast

you'll need:

a roast

a bag of baby carrots

2 stalks of celery

1/4 a yellow onion or more if you'd like

3 cubes of beef bouillon

1/2 cup water

some mashed potatoes

cut up the veggies (not potatoes though) and put them on the bottom of the crock pot. put your roast on, and lay the three cubes of beef boillon randomly on top of the roast. dump in the water and let it cook on high for 4-6 hours or low for 8-10 hours. put your roast and veggies on top of your mashed potatoes, and try NOT to devour it.

i love cooking, and i am so blessed to be given the opportunity to use the gift God gave me.

well i have a lot more i could write about, but i'm done. maybe tomorrow i'll make a list of all the things i love in life.