Thursday, October 29, 2009

BBQ chicken pizza

sorry, no pictures. If you have to imagine, imagine delicious
1 packet of just-add-water pizza dough
1 cooked and shredded chicken breast (if you have raw chicken, just broil the breast for 12-17 minutes on a broiling pan)
1 slice of red onion, diced
1 green onion, cut up
3-4 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped
1 (or so) cup mozarella
1/2 cup barbecue , divided

Steps:
Prepare pizza crust as instructed on package; bake crust for 5 mins at 475. I use a rolling pin to get the crust thin enough.
Top with 1/4 cup barbecue sauce; cover sauce with cheese
mix shredded chicken with other 1/4 cup barbecue sauce and put on pizza
Add herbs and onion, and top with a light sprinkling of more cheese.
Bake pizza for 10 mins more.

We had this for dinner tonight and it was so. freaking. good. And the whole thing was probably like $2-$3 for both of us. And it's really easy. you're welcome.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Fall

Finally the weather in Dallas is dropping into the 60's and (gasp!) 50's and it's starting to feel like fall! Fall is becoming my favorite season for several reasons:
1. I like using gourds as decoration for my doorstep.


2. Oktoberfest! And the delicious Oktoberfest beers and pumpkin ales that go along with Oktoberfest.


3. Pumpkin Carving parties: These fine specimens are from the FUMC/Urbanlife party we went to on Wednesday. My pumpkin is carved as a fat kid.


4. Excuse to make harvesty foods including squash and pumpkin pie.


5. I met and fell in love with Ethan at this time last year :)


6. Halloween Costumes. I did NOT get to dress up last year because I had to work! I am going to make up for it this year, trust me.


7. I can go walking and possibly running without suffering heat exhaustion. And I am going to go do that right now.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Pizza Party!

On Saturday Ethan and I had a dinner date with our friends Brittany and Ray. Brittany and Ray go to our Sunday school class and they have a 7-month-old daughter who is cute as a button!


Brittany has a blog of her own
and designed my new fancy blog header for me!

Since we all like to cook and they have an infant, we decided it would be easier and more fun to make our own pizza. We made one with chicken and pesto (which Brittany, Mrs. Crafty Lady, made herself using basil that she grew on her back porch!) And one with peppers, pepperoni, and cheese.



Of course almost as soon as I took out my camera, it died on me, so I didn't get any pictures of either myself or Brittany holding our delicious pizzas. Here's a picture of me and Ethan instead:



And my new kitchen improvement: matching ceramic spice jars from IKEA; we filled them with spices bought by weight at Central Market (which jar and spice ends up being about the same cost as buying a glass jar full of spices). I labeled them with a grease pencil so we can easily change the labels if our spice collection rotates.


Other news: I have eleven interviews (listed in order):
UTSW in Dallas
Scott and White in Temple
UTMB in Austin
Baylor in Dallas
Methodist in Dallas
Kaiser Santa Clara in Santa Clara, CA
Exempla Saint Joseph in Denver, Colorado
University of Colorado Denver
Methodist in Houston
LBJ in Houston
Baylor in Houston

I am going to be one busy lady in November and December!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Wedding Announcements

In honor of our original wedding day, which was October 3 (and which was moved up nearly two months due to the international relocation of our Reverend, Kathryn Ransdell), I'm posting about our wedding announcements. Because we decided to move our wedding forward with three weeks notice, We didn't end up sending invitations; instead, we sent announcements after the fact. I used basically the exact same design but changed some text. Here's how they were designed:

1; I made a paper-cutting of an oak tree with our initials carved into it, and took a picture of said paper cutting with my camera. The paper cutting is now living on a wall in our kitchen above a picture of Ethan's mom from high school dressed as a majorette.



2; I used Picasa to tweak the image so that the brown was richer and the ivory was creamier. I also added the necessary text.


3; I uploaded the image (with Picasa text added) to vistaprint.com and waited until they sent me a coupon for 10 free announcements before I ordered them.

4; I didn't like the envelopes offered by vistaprint so I went to paper source and got some shiny brown ones and lined them with a coordinating envelope liner that probably no one but me will notice, as the envelope is usually ripped open and then thrown away.


I also crocheted a bouquet wrap and ring-bearer pillow. The bouquet wrap was used, but we didn't have a ring bearer or any attendants for that matter. If you're in the market for a light green crocheted ring-bearer pillow, let me know because I have an extra. The bouquet wrap is now living a second life as a wash cloth.

So there you have it! my crafty little wedding announcements.

In other news, I had the swine flu last week and it was really not that bad. I just felt weak and needed a lot of naps for a week, and spiked a fever only on the first day. NOT THAT BAD. Honestly, the scariest thing about this flu is its publicity. People just need to chillax.