Day 21: Job Perks.

From 365 Project: 2013

I've picked up a new job, or hobby, of sorts. I've become an official food writer for a local publication called Maroon Weekly (yaaaaaaaay!). I've been at it for about three weeks and today was my 4th restaurant to review. It just so happened to be a burger and fry place. But not your standard burger and fry place. No. Fries with FRIGGIN Captain Crunch on them! WHAT?! De.li.cious! Lucky me, I got to eat them. And fries with bourbon sauce. And fries with blue cheese, bacon, and mushrooms. And fries covered in twelve cheeses and bbq pork. It was a good thing I ran 3 miles that morning. :) 

Day 7: H is for Cookie!

From 365 Project: 2013

See this lovely picture? My friend Mark Nguyen brought these to me after I told him how much I missed hojarascas from the Valley. We also got into a debate about the price of churros so he brought me some as well. Two of these churros had a vanilla filling in it! I've never experienced anything like it! It wasn't as creamy as a donut filling, but not hard. It was very interesting. Anyways, I LOVE MARK NGUYEN  for bring me hojarascas! I'm going to try and not eat them all by tomorrow!

Day 7: Fire!

From 2012 365 Project

Webster, TX.

We went to a hibachi grill after indoor rehearsal tonight. My favorite part is when they light the onions on fire and then make the choo-choo noise with the remaining smoke.

Day 4: Sausage, Cheese and Crackers.

From 2012 365 Project

Bryan, TX.

A while ago, I had the opportunity to take some photos out at Slovacek Sausage in Snook. They gave us a HUGE box of sausage that I unfortunately have not had the opportunity to eat yet. Today, I FINALLY got to try it. Btw, homemade pimento cheese and crackers makes a great accompaniment to summer sausage!

Day 3: Steak and Potatoes, two ways.

From 2012 365 Project

Bryan, TX.

I'm currently spending a lot of time with a fellow who enjoys spending time with me as well (we're dating, but it still seems weird for me to say that simply because I haven't ever dated anyone really). For Christmas, I gave him a cookbook and he mentioned that he was making steak for dinner tonight, so naturally, I invited myself over. :) But being the good guest that I am, I also brought salad, pototoes, bread and wine. This wine just spoke to me at the store, I mean, after all we were having steak and potatoes, so how could I pass up a wine that was labeled the same?! Turns out, it was pretty dang good! It actually has gotten me back on a red wine kick. Go try it out for yourself!

Jenna. Dec 29. Food Art.

In honor of my third (and final) foot surgery tomorrow, I took the kids and met Alicia and Amanda for lunch at Rosa's today. Rosa's tacos are super yummy. And, they serve tortillas and honey with every order. Colby asked Amanda to use honey and draw a picture of a car on his tortilla. I'd say she gets an A for her Tortilla and Honey Art Project.

Jenna. Dec 25. Christmas Day.

Kennedy took that pic and unfortunately it's the only picture I have from my phone of that day. I know Kevin took some with his camera. We spent the day at various gatherings. Breakfast was just the 5 of us at home; we opened our presents, played with our presents, and ate Butter Braids - yum! (Colby's school fundraiser) Lunch was a Christmas feast at my uncle Philip's house with my dad's extended family, and then dinner was [by request] spaghetti and meatballs at my parents' house with my parents and sisters.

The weather turned a little cooler today, so it was nice to sit by the fire and enjoy Christmas in a sweater instead of in shorts, which was what we had been wearing since last week. Although, it was nice to let the kids go outside and play on the trampoline every day instead of worrying about having to pick up their toys inside. Plus, now they have new toys to play with, since it's Christmas!

Jenna. Dec 22. Repurposing.

What's in those margarine & sour cream containers, you ask?

Well, you might have guessed from reading what I wrote on the top that they hold our snacks for the day. I needed something for the car ride around town. So I eventually found these containers, which were the perfect size for the goldfish and cheez-its.

Might not be revolutionary for some, but I do love reusing and repurposing things I might ordinarily have thrown away.

Jenna. Dec 21. Cookie Decorating.

A friend from church was so kind to invite us over for some Christmas cookie decorating. I know the kids enjoyed playing in the icing, eating the icing, and then dousing the cookies with sprinkles. And I enjoyed eating.

Jenna. Dec 19. Gingerbread Man.

Colby's Kindergarten teacher gave him a copy of The Gingerbread Man on Thursday. He brought it home, read it, and then began asking when we could make gingerbread cookies. So, today was the day. [I'm always happy to oblige when it comes to baking, especially cookies and also especially at Christmastime.]

Here's Colby reading the story while the cookies are in the oven.

Here's Kennedy's finished product - she made a few mini-houses (with the help of a cookie cutter but Carlee tried to rip them apart anyway) and a Gingerbread Girl, complete with bow, that took up 1/2 of the cookie sheet! [We watched the Girl to make sure she didn't run away!]

And, Kennedy is on a picture-taking streak... here's a great one she took of her funny Daddy.

Jenna. Dec 17. Amanda visit + Casserole.

Two very random and completely unrelated things happened today.

[I suppose that's the true definition of random, right?]

Anyway, Amanda came over and borrowed my wireless internet. Don't worry, she gave it back. Then I made the casserole pictured below out of pretty much everything in my freezer. I called it Leftover Casserole. (I wasn't feeling too imaginative.) It had: frozen peas, frozen carrots, cooked pork + carrots, frozen corn, frozen black beans, frozen bell peppers, and frozen orange peppers; layered with tortillas, sour cream & cheese. I thoroughly enjoyed the casserole and it was such a nice way to use up ingredients that I had lingering in my freezer, that would never make a whole recipe of anything else.

Also, Kennedy took this pic of Amanda. Kennedy actually took a couple of pics of Amanda but most were blurry. This was the best one and of course, Amanda's eyes are closed!

Jenna. Dec 16. Colby's Christmas party.

Today Colby's Kindergarten had a party. His teacher gave each of them a small milk carton or a butter box and some icing and graham crackers; it was instant "gingerbread house" - worthy. The girls got to help a little but mostly they wanted to eat all the decorations.

Then, his class had a book swap, which to Kindergarteners means you pick a number and then take the book with the coordinating number on it. I was impressed that all the kids did so well - they were so focused in getting those houses decorated!

Jenna. Dec 7. Daddy's little helpers.

Kevin made a dessert for his company's yearly dessert bake-off. He had 3 sous chefs this year.

Jenna. Dec 6. Swiss chard, part 2.

(I took another pic of swiss chard earlier in the year.)

I cooked all of this in a tiny bit of olive oil and then added some brown sugar and butter. I sauteed the stems separate from the leaves, to make sure the stems weren't still crunchy. It tastes a lot like spinach but not quite so spicy, more like turnip greens. Next time I'll add more sugar and more butter for Kevin's tastes, but I really enjoyed it.

Jenna. Nov 29. Bible reading.

still more on the blog. :)

Jenna. Nov 26. Oh, Christmas Tree!

So pretty! More on the blog.

Jenna. Nov 16. Cake balls.

I helped hostess a baby shower this past weekend and one of the other hostesses made cake balls. I could not get them out of my head - they were so yummy and perfectly made. So, I talked about them with the kids and we agreed we needed to make them together today.

They were a bit of work - the basic recipe isn't difficult, but it is a little labor-intensive. It took all of us baking, mixing, rolling, and cooling to get them done. But they are suuuuper yummy!

Jenna. Nov 6. No more boom(er).

The title of this post has really nothing to do with the picture. Tonight the Aggie football team beat Oklahoma at Kyle Field - 33-19. We went over to my parents' house to watch the game, since we don't get many tv channels at our house.

A rule at Doc & Belle's house is "no food in the living room". So, these steps divide the kitchen from the living room.

Pushing boundaries? Or just a place to sit?

I took it to be the latter.

Jenna. Oct 26. Tea Party #2.

From the tea party this weekend, we have been playing pretend tea party a lot around our house.

You're welcome to join us - would you like tea or coffee?

Jenna. Oct 3. Sunday night dinner.

We got to celebrate Kelsey's 21st birthday tonight - we put candles in the brownies I made and we sang Happy Birthday to her... Carlee Really sang, then blew out the candles! No pics of that from me, but Kevin got a few on his camera.