Lent Begins

Ash Wednesday is today, and hopefully, we are all taking time to reflect and give something that means a lot to us up. Or for some, start doing something new. This also means no meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays for the Catholics out there. For Brian and I, we get excited because this means Captain D's. We never eat there any other time of the year except for Lent. I did find a recipe he will be happy with, for sure! I plan on making this more than one Friday, since the main ingredient is always in our house. Brian's favorite thing to eat is Cap'n Crunch, so this will surely get him excited! Enjoy Lent, and enjoy this interesting recipe that was featured on the Today show this morning.

Cap’n Crunch Seared Tuna

Why must cereal only be for breakfast? This might sound crazy, but there’s just something about the sweet crunchy outside and the tangy little mix you make for it.
Ingredients
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 2 cups regular Cap’n Crunch
• Olive oil
• 1 pound fresh tuna, ideally cut in 2 long rectangular blocks
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• Asian chili sauce
• 5 green onions, finely diced

Directions
• Mix mayo and mustard — set aside.
• Put the cereal in a large plastic zip bag and crush it really well, you want it like dust
• Lightly oil the tuna, season it with salt and pepper, then press down into the cereal, making sure it’s covered on all sides.
• Heat a nonstick pan really well first and then add about a tablespoon of oil.
• When it just starts to smoke, add the tuna and sear quickly on all sides until lightly browned — if it’s hot enough, probably no more than about 15 seconds a side.
• Remove and slice into 1/2-inch pieces.
• I serve it by spreading the mayo mix on a plate, topping that with the sliced tuna and drizzling a bit of the chili paste around it.
• Top with green onions and make sure you get some of everything in each bite.
*****
ENJOY!

Laissez Bon Temps Rouler!

Happy Fat Tuesday! Brian and I spent our weekend down in New Orleans to celebrate carnival time. We spent the weekend with Georgia college friends Taylor and Erin, Art, Blair, Kate, James, Karen, Kyle, Myra and Van, Kelly, and Matt... hopefully, I didn't leave anyone out. Taylor and Erin were gracious hosts and their house is beautiful. It is just off Magazine Street, and in close walking distance to parades, stores, and restaurants. This was my first experience at Mardi Gras, and was very glad to participate in a tame version. We kept away from the French Quarter and enjoyed the Uptown parades.

Our trip started off on an interesting note. We left Memphis bound for NOLA around lunchtime Friday, quickly making great time. We got a GPS system from my parents for Christmas, and with satellite radio, my Blackberry, and iPod, we felt like pretty saavy travelers. As we descended into NOLA, we knew we needed to stop at the exit before Lake Ponchartrain, since there are no gas stations for a while. After getting back on the road and onto the long, narrow bridge over the lake, we could finally see the lights of the city in front of us. All of the sudden, we came to an abrupt stop on I-10. In the car next to us, a group of frat boys from Texas began getting out of their cars to check it out. We heard them freaking out, so we rolled down the window and asked what they saw. Sure enough, there is a car completely engulfed in flames about 150 yards in front of us. Stuck on this small bridge, we were in quite a predicament. We could only sit and wait for help to arrive. After two hours of entertainment (the frat boys shotgunning beers on the interstate, all the people walking to the scene of the fire just to stare, and the countless number of wierdos hanging out of their cars), we finally got away from the fire and onto Mardi Gras. This is a picture of us hanging out in the car waiting for the flames to die down:

Friday night we spent time catching up with friends. Saturday morning we got up bright and early, and headed to Taylor's parents house off St. Charles. We watched the Tucks parade (where we ran into Robyn and John Michael - crazy!), and then went back to his parents house for lunch (which was delicious!). Then we made our way to Mid City for Endymion. This parade has the nicest and most elaborate floats that we saw and is a night parade. It was really a spectacle. Sunday we went to Van's dad's store on Magazine, where we watched one more parade and drank Bloody Mary's and mimosas. We had lunch back at Taylor and Erin's, and WOW can Erin cook! We had all kinds of New Orleans fare. Brian and I were pretty happy that out of two king cakes this weekend, we got both the babies! After lunch we made our way back to Memphis. I love this picture of the girls with their beads!

What a great weekend. I am hoping we can make it a tradition. It's funny how people stereotype Mardi Gras as a crazy, shirt-lifting, dirty event, but really, it was so fun, and I was suprised by the number of kids and families at the parades. Staying out of the French Quarter was a good decision. But the best part of the weekend, of course, was catching up with old friends and enjoying our time together. We have the greatest friends anyone could ask for!

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Valentine's Day

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Speaking of Valentine's day, I am not sure if any of you have caught the new movie "He's Just Not That Into You" - I went with a couple girlfriend's and was expecting a light-hearted comedy. First of all, I cried more than I laughed and second of all, was pretty uncomfortable with how the movie viewed marriage. I hate when people are down on marriage, and that was pretty much the theme of this movie. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend it.

So, to continue Brian's birthday, we went out with some friends this weekend to Dan McGuiness. We had a great time catching up and talking. I love that Brian's friends have become my friends too, and I am still thankful for his best friend Robert, who introduced us. Such a great group of friends.


Our Valentine's Day was great! I had to work an event Saturday night, so we celebrated a little differently. We got up Sunday morning and went to Mass at the St. Mary's, the church where we got married. Then we walked down to Beale Street and went to the Peabody, where we had reservations for their champagne brunch. It was so tasty and the scrambled eggs were some of the best I had ever had! We had a lot of fun celebrating, and were shot for the rest of the day after eating so much. :)

Brian tried to take a picture of us on Beale, but cut my head off! Thanks! The sun was shining pretty bad in our eyes.

Toasting with mimosas! We had a great day, and I am glad we got to spend some quality time together.

Happy Birthday, Brian!

We celebrated Brian's 26th birthday yesterday with a dinner at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, and cake afterwards at our house. My family and Brian's family went together. The food was great, and he had a nice birthday.

Brian and I at dinner.

With the family at dinner - somehow I cut Debbie's head off! Going around the table, Debbie, Brittany, Mallory, Robby, Mark, Brooke, Dad and Mom!

Brian's 26th birthday cake - let me explain! This was my first cake I ever made from scratch. Brian wanted a chocolate cake with strawberry filling and strawberry icing. I cooked, he did the decorations! Here is an easy cake recipe (stolen from Paula Deen) that I used to make Brian's cake. I left it in the fridge overnight and I made everything taste so good. Here it is:

2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 stick of butter (8 Tbs)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar, salt, and flour in a large mixing bowl. In a saucepan, bring to boil water, vegetable oil, butter, and cocoa. Add to flour mixture. Beat eggs, baking soda, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients. Pour into greased 13 x 9 pan and bake for 24 minutes. Because I did layers, I baked them in two round cake pans. Then bought the strawberry filling and icing. YUMMY!

Super Bowl... and we made a whole chicken!

What a great Super Bowl! It was so fun to watch. I really wanted the Cardinals to win, but was glad it was a close game. We had a few folks over and it was a lot of fun. We ate so much good food - even Bro got a sampling.

Some of the group eagerly waiting for the 3D commercials.



By the way, we made a whole chicken! I say "we" because we both contributed to the cooking of the bird - it turned out to be a semi-two person job. I guess I was always intimidated about cooking a whole chicken. Would I buy the right kind of chicken? How do I know when it's cooked all the way? How do I cut it up the right way? Well, I found a great recipe in Cooking Light magazine for Drunken Chicken. My parents have made this in the past and usually make it on a grill. This recipe called for it to be made in the oven, which was nice for a cold day - it warmed our house and we didn't have to pull out the grill! Here is the recipe:


1 3.5 lb chicken
3 Tbs ketchup
3 Tbs chili sauce
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1 12-oz beer
3 Tbs liquid smoke


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.


I made the rub for the chicken first - combine ketchup and next seven ingredients in a bowl and wisk. Put the bowl in the fridge.


Get your chicken ready. This sounds gross, but it's not - take the insides of the chicken out. Just clean him out, until he's hollow. Trim any excess fat. Now you're ready for your rub. Take the rub out of the fridge, wisk once more. Using your hands, rub the mix all over the chicken, inside and out. Make sure you get under his wings and in all the creveces.


Once you feel like you have got him good and rubbed down, wash your hands, and drink half of your beer. Leave half the beer in the can, pour the liquid smoke and any excess rub in the beer can with the beer. Then you'll just slide the chicken onto the beer can. Put the chicken and beer can in a roasting pan (or brownie pan - anything with sides) and put him in the oven. He'll look like this:

Cook him for about 45 minutes to an hour. We have a new oven, so it was done pretty quickly. I have a meat thermometer, so I made sure he was at 170-180 degrees before we cut him open. When you take him out of the oven, make sure to wait about 15 minutes. The beer can is sooo hot, so you might want to use gloves or tongs when you pull the beer can out.

Remove skin from the chicken; discard. Carve the chicken and serve! I ate this with bbq sauce on a hamburger bun, then used some to make chicken salad, and still had some left over. We had a great time making it, and were pretty proud of ourselves when we were done. Hope you give it a try!

My Sweet Hubs

As we get ready to celebrate my husband's 26th birthday, I thought I would write a quick update about how things are with him. Brian is the hardest worker I know. He is always thinking about our future, our security, and about taking care of one another. Brian is one of the most loyal people I know. He has maintained friendships from preschool, and has such a large group of friends who know they can call him anytime with whatever they are going through. He is always so good about telling me how great he thinks I am (even though most of the time I don't think I deserve him). Brian can also make me laugh like no one else can. Whether I am laughing at him, or with him, he can brighten my day in ways he doesn't even know. I don't think Brian knows, but there are so many moments, not doing anything particular, when I look at him and my heart fills up so full I want to cry. I can't imagine my life without him, and feel like a hit the jackpot. Working at a children's hospital, I think a lot about what it will be like one day when we are parents - what trials and difficulties we may have to go through. I know one day we will face hardships, and I am so glad that it will be Brian who will face them with me.

Brian also has the ability to always be thankful. Almost every night before we go to bed, we talk about how blessed and fortunate we are to have a loving marriage, a house, nice things, loving families and friends, our jobs, and good memories. This first year of marriage has made us learn a lot about each other. We thought we knew everything, but have been pleasantly surprised by how much we have learned about each other in eight months.

That's enough gushing over Brian. He will probably be embarassed when he reads this. Oh well, I think he needs to hear it :)

The picture below is great for so many reasons. We were in Tuscaloosa for the UGA vs. Bama football game in 2007. We had a great time tailgating and spending time with friends. Our seats were in the Georgia section, behind the band - particularly, the tubists. Long story short, Georgia won in overtime, and Brian got, well, overcome with emotion :)

Bro the Wonder Dog

Brian called me at work today to tell us our dog, Brother, had accomplished yet another miraculous feat. Brother has been known to do some pretty amazing things - open cabinet doors, open bedroom doors, and counter surf like no other - to name a few. When we come home, we never know what we are going to find. Usually, when Brian and I walk into our house, the first thing we check is the living room. If he has gotten into anything (mail, silverware, plates, coke cans, clothing, my cowboy boots that he shredded, loaves of bread), he leaves the remnants on the living room floor. Being a lab, he gets bored easily and LOVES to chew and explore. "Keep him in the kitchen! Lock him up when you're at work!" you say. Tried it - he ate through the door frame.

To preface, Brian usually comes home everyday for lunch. His office is only a couple miles from our house, so it's more convenient to go home. Brian came home today and heard sounds in the living room. He walked in and noticed the TV and DVD were turned ON (both have to be turned on separately) and the DVD Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Top Ten was playing on the TV. Yes, Triumph. Our DVD player has a 6-DVD changer. We had 5 DVDs in the other sleeves. Our dog chose Triumph. Brother turned on the TV, DVD player, and chose the DVD. Brian found him quietly sitting in the living room.


For the record, I would not trade my dog for ANYTHING in the world.