09.16.2010

Today my not so little brother turns 17.

I still remember the day back in 1993 when my mother told Carly and I that we were going to be big sisters.
We were mortified.
How could our 33 year old mother be giving birth again?
Back in the day it seemed everyone had babies in their 20's, a far cry from the world we live in today.
Or maybe we were just being complete idiots (more likely the case).

Turns out it was one of the best gifts our mother could have ever given us.
She gave birth to a tan & chubby little ball of joy who we of course dressed in girls clothing from time to time.

With ease I remember my brother's torturous terrible 2's.
His tantrums usually took place at Wal-Mart.
If you are where I'm from you know that EVERYONE is always at Wal-Mart.
I was terrified someone from school would witness my little brother screaming bloody murder while hiding under a clothes rack.
I actually thought that if anyone saw, my life was going to be over.
Funny the things we worry about as children, huh?

Over the next few years I remember most spending time at the ball field watching my little bro', a true athlete.

Then about 10 years ago, right around this time, I left for college.
I was so very anxious to escape my small town and experience more.
What I wasn't prepared for was how bad I'd miss my family.

Luckily a few years later sister joined me and together we missed our mother and brother.
I have a hole in my heart that is only filled when the 4 of us are together.
Those moments are rare today with life happening around us, but when they do happen, they are perfect, they are comfortable, they are just plain RIGHT.

I shed tears when I think about all the years I missed watching my brother grow up.
But I take comfort in knowing he had the love and full attention of a wonderful mother who has played a huge part in the amazing person he is today.
I know that someday we will make up for the time we've all spent apart.
I know that the world has some really awesome things in store for my smart, talented and of course handsome little bro'.

*Bubby, I love you dearly. I truly could not be a prouder sister. Keep up the hard work.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

**Picture taken last week after my brother helped his high school football team win a game 15-13 and he was awarded MVP.

Our Wedding

This coming Saturday will mark the 11th month my sweet hubby and I have been married.
We'll be in Blacksburg, VA cheering on our Hokies (hopefully to their first win of the season).
As most of you know, Mr. P and I met in Blacksburg some 9 years ago.
I first laid eyes on my hubs in Rivermill where he bartended while in college and this is where I'm sure we'll be spending a lot of time come Saturday.

When we planned this trip we didn't even have this in mind, but how perfect it's turned out.

Check our wedding out in Charleston Weddings Magazine.
Barnes and Noble carries this magazine, but we've yet to find a copy.
Until we do I'll continue to visit their online site daily because it puts the biggest smile on my face.

Happy hump day loves.

yikes.

I disappeared. Again.
I'm sorry, I truly am.

This is going to be one of those posts where I catch you up on recent happenings in one fell swoop...bear with me.

Labor Day Weekend
Packed up the 'The Dood', outfitted him with a Hokie Flag and headed to Leesburg, Va.
That drive is breathtaking....mountains & farms, green everywhere you look.
We stayed with our wonderful friends Brian and Jill Diemar (who have a little one on the way).
Saturday they made us an AMAZING dinner of ribs, grilled chicken, cajun mac n' cheese and veggies...it was glorious.
Sunday we visited a beautiful Virginia Vineyard, Fire Works Pizza (words cannot describe my love for this place) and later a surprise birthday/hokie bash.
Monday with plenty of coolers in tow we boarded a charter bus and headed to Fed Ex Field in Maryland.
We tailgated, we had a ton of fun, we lost.
We freaking lost with 1:09 to go.
It was heartbreaking.
It stung for about a week.

We headed back home for what was a short two day work week for me.
Thursday I joined my wonderful co-workers for appetizers, wine and Mary Poppins at the gorgeous Blumenthal Theatre.

Friday I had breakfast with my sweetie, a doctor's appt. where I spent $50 to be told "it's a freckle", went to the farmer's market and cleaned our house from head to toe (almost).
That evening our dear friend's who we've coined "The Chorman's" came in town from Raleigh to spend the weekend watching football with us.
It was the weekend I've needed...even though we stayed busy it was still relaxing.
HOWEVER, we lost. We lost AGAIN. To J freaking M U!
Disappointing to say the least.

So that's about the past two weeks of my life in a nutshell.

Why do you not get lots of pictures to accompany this post?
Because like the bad blogger I've been recently, I've had my camera battery charging for a week and a half. I'm so scatterbrained recently that I keep forgetting to put it back in the camera.

So you'll have to settle for these camera phone photos I took at the VT vs. Boise State game.
My apologies friends.





See you back here tomorrow. I give you my word.

xo

zucchini boats

Sunday I headed home after a very short but even sweeter trip to my first home, Norton, VA.
I came back armed with goodies from my mother (because she's wonderful like that) that included rosebud salve, homemade lavender laundry detergent, jalapeno peppers and fresh herbs.
I stopped off on my way back to H-Ville to pick up more items so I could make my sweet hubby a good din din.
As you may or may not remember we are on a lovely high protein low carb diet which is somewhat limiting when you want to create a masterpiece.
Luckily I remembered coming across a recipe for stuffed zucchini and thought that would be the perfect healthy yet satisfying meal for our Sunday evening.


and satisfying it was my friends.

Recipe:

zucchini
99% lean ground turkey
olive oil
1/2 a medium sized onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 T. chicken broth
1 can of petite diced tomatoes (I opted for tomatoes + green chilis for a little extra heat)
fresh basil
fresh rosemary
fresh thyme
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
1 egg
fresh mozzerella
marinara

*Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving shells about 1/4 inch thick. Reserve about half of the insides.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over med/high heat.
Add garlic and onion and saute for 2 minuntes.
Add reserved zucchini and continue cooking for 2 more minutes.
Transfer onion mixture to a plate.

Add 1 more tablespoon of olive oil to skillet and brown turkey.
After turkey is cooked through add back in the onion mixture.
Add chicken broth (or white wine if you so desire).
Then add the petite diced tomatoes and the fresh herbs, cook 2 minutes longer.
Remove from heat and set mixture aside.

Once it has cooled add one egg, lightly beaten, cheese and salt & pepper to taste.
Fill zucchini shells with mixture. Fill a baking pan with 1/4 inch of water. Place filled zucchini halves in pan and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, until golden brown.
Top with fresh mozzerella and place zucchini halves on a plate of your favorite marinara.

Enjoy!

a list.

Once upon I time I went to work. I came home. I made dinner. We watched tv and we maybe went to the gym.
Lately between work, social functions, workouts, and trips out of town I barely have time for my darling blog.
This week in particular is jam packed with obligations and I can't tell you how happy I'm going to be come Friday evening.

Here are a few things helping me get through this week:

Try these and you'll understand.
They are so good that I had to go out on my lunch break today to pick up a new pack.
I even plan to send Planter's an appreciation letter and if you think I'm kidding, let me assure you, I'm not (I mentally wrote the whole thing on the way back from the grocery store this afternoon)!


As you probably know I love music, but this morning nothing quite fit my mood.
That is until I popped in the Eat, Pray, Love soundtrack my sweet husband so kindly downloaded for me.
After seeing the movie this past weekend with my mama san I now hear the songs and imagine I'm strolling down cobblestone streets in some small Italian village with my love.


This coming weekend we leave for the first Hokie game of the season and it's a big one folks! This game is being played at FedEx field in Maryland which means we get to spend the whole weekend with some of our favorite DC area folks.



Having these fellas to come home to is always the best part of any day.



I'll be back soon my few beloved blog readers. Promise!
xo

food.

Is anyone watching Master Chef?
It's quite possibly my new favorite show on tv.
Home cooks are competing for the title of 'Master Chef', a quarter of a million dollars and their own freakin' cook book.
So cool.
The show is very inspiring.
There have only been 4 episodes thus far. I've cried during each one.
You see, I love food. I really, really do.
I love watching people create amazing dishes...thus the reason I could watch Food Network 24/7.

I haven't always been this way though.
As a child you could say food was my enemy.
I ate chicken. A lot of chicken.
In fact my mother used to say I was going to turn into a chicken nugget.
I resisted trying new food for some reason.
I turned down many offers to just take a bite of a bologna sandwich...although many wouldn't blame me for that one.
I also remember a time when I sat staring at a piece of meatloaf.
My parents were not allowing me to leave the table until I ate my dinner.
I have no idea who won that battle. All I remember was the disgusting 'meat cake' sitting on a plate growing cold.
Funny, because now I'd love to make a meatloaf as perfect as my mothers.

When I went away to college I was lucky enough to live across from the best food hall on campus.
There was a wrap station that I was amazed by. I'd never seen chicken and cheese, two of my very favorite things, in anything other than two pieces of bread.
I was hooked and therefore easily gained my freshman 15.
The rest of my college years I lived off campus and indulged in cereal, chicken a la George Forman and turkey and cheese sandwiches.
Ask my husband. That's really all I ate for quite some time.

Then slowly but surely I started trying new foods.
I had my first burger only 7 years ago and now I think there isn't much better.

I'll never forget the first time I had a burrito. It opened the door to this whole world of Tex Mex I had no idea existed.

My first bolognese. Oh my word. It was in Chapel Hill, NC. We sat in a little Italian restaurant with best buddies, The Cheds. I'd heard of this dish, but wasn't quite sure what it was. I think Chelsea convinced me to order it and I swear to you I still think of that dish.

I don't know where or how my inner foodie emerged, but it has and I'm ever so certain that Mr. P and I will own a restaurant someday.
There is lots to learn, but I love nothing more than trying a new dish and being in the kitchen.
I LOVE looking up a restaurant I hear or read about regardless of it's location because I'm fascinated with menus.
My handsome hubby is also quite handy in the kitchen, in fact he's taught me quite a bit.
Plus we both love people...who wouldn't want to come to our restaurant? :)

So somehow my post about a new tv show turned into this.
I could talk about food for hours. I really could.
It's a wonderful feeling finally finding the thing I'm most passion about.
I know my knowledge and love of food will only continue to grow and that makes me very, very happy.

xo

saturday & happiness

Last week my hubby cancelled a trip to visit his sister in Raleigh so that I could attend the Zac Brown Band concert.
Later in the week, after a sweet & thoughtful text from Mike (bro-in-law), we decided to head to Raleigh on Saturday to surprise Tarina (my WONDERFUL sis-in-law) after all.
We drove up and spotted Tarina mowing the lawn.
Thankfully we were driving The Dood, which she didn't recognize.
We parked and casually strolled down the sidewalk until she spotted us.

It's in those first 30 seconds of being there that I knew without a doubt I made the right choice in skipping the concert.
Family is so very, very important.
I'm lucky, incredibly lucky, to have amazing family.
Neither of us have a particulary large family that we regulary keep in touch with, but the ones that we do mean the world to us.

We spent the entire evening and afternoon just hanging out and enjoying each other's company.
We had a lovely dinner of grilled chicken, artichokes, veggies and corn-my favorite.
My only wish is that we could have stayed longer.


As we drove home that next afternoon I felt overwhelmed with happiness.
Life just felt perfect.
I have many of those moments.
They come when I'm arriving home after work to my husband and my 4 legged son.
They come when I'm surrounded by friends or family.
It's a feeling of pure happiness, that all is right in my life, that I'm where I'm supposed to be and with a man who couldn't be more perfect for me.

I hope you all get this feeling from time to time.
Every time that I do I remind myself to never take any of it for granted and that I can always improve on my already amazing life by being an even better person.

Sorry for going and getting all sappy today.
I couldn't help it.
xo