This is such a good reminder

(click on picture to enlarge)

Fall decorations

OK, so here is how the Pottery Barn-inspired decorations turned out.

Modge Podge pumpkins on a pedestal with a fall berry candle ring I got on sale a few years ago


Cute pumpkin from Wimberley


More Modge Podge pumpkins, squash bowl that I got from my registry, and an apothecary jar filled with acorns

More Sleep-talking

On Wednesday night, I asked Daniel if he was asleep. He answered, "I'm farming and air bubbles and it's not enough to collect a needle." Um...yeah...he was asleep. ;)

Late Night Hugs

Funny story from a few nights ago. In the middle of the night, I am awakened by a poke in the eye. Of course, I roll over and yell, "Ow! What the he**, Daniel?!" My husband responds, "I just wanted to give you a hug," while still trying to hug me. At this point I realize he must be sleep-talking, so I tell him to go to sleep. The next morning he has no recollection of the incident. I have decided some night I'm going to sleep-poke him in the eyeball and see how he likes it. ;)

Fabulous Fall Festival!

Well, it's not really a festival, but I figured we needed a Fall celebration at home since it's finally cold for a change and feeling like it's not summer anymore. This evening while Daniel watched college football (Baylor v. OU, Texas v. Colorado and Florida v. LSU), I did this:

Yes, that is ModgePodge, an Arthur paper plate and tiny pumpkins. They are going to be part of my lovely Fall decorations. :)

I also made these pumpkin cookies. I changed the recipe up a little (of course). I added 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon in place of the 2 tsp. of cinnamon. I only used 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips and used 1/2 cup of pecans instead of walnuts. I also increased the oven temp. to 365 and cooking time to 12 minutes. They were scrumptious!

The pumpkin mixture

Mixing the wet and dry ingredients

Waiting to be put in the oven

The oh-so-yummy finished product

Christmas decorations?

I swear, retailers are tempting me earlier and earlier each year. And Pier 1 has been especially good at sending me previews of their Christmas decorations. I think this candle will have to be added to the collection:

I mean, how cute is that?

Thanks Easter Bunny...bock, bock...

I tried my hand at making chicken noodle soup today. I used 2 quarts of low-sodium chicken broth, 1 quart of vegetable broth, 1 rotisserie chicken (original flavor, all of the breast meat, 1 thigh and 1 leg), 1 big carrot (sliced), 1 cup of chopped celery and 1/2 package Reames egg noodles. I brought the broth to a boil and added the noodles and boiled for 20 minutes. While the noodles cooked, I sauteed the carrot and celery and a bit of garlic in 1 tsp. of olive oil until almost tender. I shredded the chicken while the noodles cooked, too. Once the noodles were done, I added the carrot-celery mixture and the chicken. I added a pinch of rosemary, pinch of thyme, pinch of sage and some freshly ground pepper and I simmered the ingredients for 10 more minutes. Homemade goodness!

Pumpkin pancakes!

Oh hooray! We made this deliciousness for dinner. (Non-fat Bisquick, added a little extra pumpkin and left out the oil. Of course I used soy milk, too.) We also had some preservative and nitrite-free bacon with the pancakes. It's the perfect way to celebrate Fall being here! If only the weather would cooperate...

Fall Decor

Oh, Pottery Barn...I could spend all my hard-earned money on your fabulous wares...

Homemade Pho

Alton Brown has a fabulous recipe for ramen shrimp pouches, which end up tasting like homemade pho. I found some GINORMOUS shrimp at Whole Foods (note to self: use smaller shrimp next time) and I added extra veggies (because we all need more veggies!) and used a triple-foil layer. The results were amazingly delicious.

Before:


Pouches ready to go into the oven:


Pouches out of the oven:


Yum!

No-boil goat cheese lasagna

I made lasagna for the first time ever! Here is the recipe. I subbed goat cheese for ricotta and pecorino-romano for the mozzarella and parmesan. It was delicious and cow-milk free. :) I forgot to take a picture on the day it was cooked, so here is a pic of the leftovers. Fancy!

How to keep a German husband happy

'Nuff said.

Hatch Chile Season

Yessss. I love this time of year. Hatch Chiles are in the grocery store, which means I can make this yummy corn chowder. Of course, I sub soy milk for milk and leave out the cheese and devil weed (aka cilantro).

My pre-dinner snack: (Lots of chopping - it's hard work!)


The roasted chiles:


Got to use my soup mixer for the first time:


Finished product!


It was delicious. :9


Next month - heirloom tomatoes! I can't wait for all the fun recipes!

Colorful

Yesterday, Daniel told me I looked "colorful (in a good way)" because of the blush I had on. I'll take the compliments any way I get them! :)

New Blog Name

I'm sure you've noticed but I have a new blog name and a new picture for the header. Since many of my posts are going to revolve around the hubs and me, I figured I would revamp a bit and spice things up. Well...maybe not super spice but at least a dash of nutmeg. I'm also going to try to be better at posting some of my culinary adventures. I love to cook but have to modify a lot of recipes due to my dairy allergy. I'll let you know what turns out well and what ends up being a disaster. :)

While You Were Sleeping

In the midst of cooking this lovely Greek recipe on Friday (with the addition of some cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom. Salt and pepper as the only seasoning in a Greek dish? PUH-LEESE.), my stomach decided that it was going to cramp up. HARD. Like, doubled-over-in-pain hard. My uber-kind husband decided that he would stay home from the much-anticipated Greek dinner with his semi-incapacitated wife instead of going to the festivities alone. So we tried to make the best of things. We ended up watching "While You Were Sleeping" (love Sandra Bullock!) and the hubs actually liked it! Of course, seeing it made me wish it was Christmas and that I could decorate the house...but that's for another post. Anyway, moral of the story is - I've got to keep encouraging the chick flick/rom-com watching since D's been OK with the ones we've watched so far. :)

Paris...

I'm missing a few things about Paris:
1. Being able to walk downstairs and buy a fresh baguette every morning
2. This amazing pineapple sorbet
3. Being thisclose to amazing historical and cultural sites
4. The Metro (why don't we have one of these?!)
5. Giant meringues that I could also buy in the bakery
6. Great photo ops around every corner
7. French chocolate

Things I'm thankful for in the U.S.:
1. Air conditioning
2. Spacious bathrooms (and showers)
3. Reasonably-priced restaurants and items at the grocery store
4. My house with a yard and lots of green all around
5. That a good number of people actually pick up after their dogs (seriously, dog poop all over the sidewalks there)
6. And, of course, my doggies

Ooh!

Must stop finding cute things like EVERYTHING in this store on Etsy.

The Limited is online!

Which is awesome. And this cute dress that was featured in either O or Real Simple (read both on the plane last weekend and I can't remember which it was) is on sale! AND the nice gray color will be perfect for a couple of weddings I'm attending this fall. :) Man, I love online shopping.

Why I *heart* Anthropologie

How cute is this tea set?!

Meet our newest family member

The Hubs and I decided that Quincy, our doxie, needed a friend. So we applied with All Texas Dachshund Rescue to adopt another dachshund. We would like to introduce our newest family member, Dack! (Pronounced "Doc.") Short for Dackel, which means "dachshund" in German. We got super creative in the naming department. Anywho, he seems to be fitting in quite well around here! Here is a picture of the car ride home from Brenham:


And here is how we've spent most of Sunday afternoon. Dack, with his scar of unknown origin, asleep on the small quilt (best find ever at Marshall's) and Quincy hoping to catch a glimpse of a bird from the couch.


Here's hoping they'll be best buds!

Sisters

I was able to get some lengthy, much-needed sister time yesterday, even if it was just on the phone. Sisters do the heart good. G, wish you were closer.

Grieving

My heart is heavy right now for a close friend and some close family friends. Life brings hurts we don't understand and outcomes that aren't what we would have hoped for. I know we must trust in the Lord with all our heart and not lean on our own understanding, but that's so very hard when I can only imagine the pain they are all in right now. My prayers are lifted up. My arms are outstretched to hug. My words can perhaps bring momentary comfort. Until the hurt and anguish subside, I will share their tears.

Why I Need My Sleep

I was extremely tired the other night. Loopy-tired. And this is what happens when I am not caught up on my sleep:



Yes, that would be my eye moisturizer that I placed on the charger for my toothbrush instead of in the basket which holds my cosmetics and face products. DH told me I had to take a picture to make sure everyone knows this is why he makes sure I get to sleep in on Saturdays.

Slowly getting sucked in...

It's no secret that my husband and dog have had to adjust to living in the same house together. My ferocious, little (but not in his mind!) dog has had to learn that he is not my protector and my sweet, caring husband has had to learn that adding another "pack leader" after 9 years is not always easy.

Yesterday Daniel came home and Quincy was lying on the couch in pain with very sad ears and eyes. I think DK finally understands why I love this little dog. Or at least how I can be SO worried about his well-being.

Could you resist a face like this?

I need a do-over

Let's see...today started out with a visitor, an aunt. All the ladies know which aunt I'm talking about. Let's just say that I almost had to go home because of the visit. I am completely frustrated because all these domain transfers that I was doing at work didn't go through. They said they had the wrong code. So I had to go back in and enter THE EXACT SAME CODE AS BEFORE for each one. But first I had to verify it was the right code. I had a fight with my husband and I've yelled at my dog. And the day is not over yet. However, I think I am done with today. I would like to crawl under the blankets and just check out until tomorrow. Unless I can have a re-do for a guaranteed happier today...

More observations from married life

1. Chemists and paralegals (or possibly Germans and Americans) don't always communicate on the same level. Evidently "ground meat" and "hamburger" don't mean the same thing to two different people. An "are you kidding me?" conversation ensues.

2. Men need their wives to remind them that it is OK to purchase basic staples like new undershirts. :) (Throw in an offer to wash them and it's even better!)

3. Communicating about when each person will be home is essential. Otherwise, the dog may be left in the dark, crossing his legs.

4. Allergies are not fun. They make me snore, which wakes up Daniel. However, when I felt AWFUL on Sunday (think head wanting to explode), my husband made me breakfast. Eggs, toast and waffles. Eating definitely made things better. Not having to cook what I was eating made it a hundred times more so!

5. I have another funny story, but I believe I have mixed company reading this blog. So if you want to know what it is, you have to email me. :)

6. Week 4 and I am still cranky in the mornings. I don't foresee that changing anytime soon.

Observations from married life - week 1

So, being a newlywed, I thought I would enlighten all of you who are single (or who are so married you've forgotten what it's like to be a newlywed) on what married life is really like. Hope you enjoy!

1. Opening wedding presents is fun! Woohoo! Our Rabbit corkscrew! A place setting of china!

2. Trying to determine what to do with 10 million pounds of boxes, bubble wrap and tissue paper and how to dispose of said items in an environmentally-conscious fashion is not fun.

3. Reheating french bread on top of the toaster = not such a good idea.

4. Weenie dogs are very adaptable and will gladly choose a pile of pillows and soft blankets on the floor over sleeping in the "big bed" with their people. Whew!

5. I don't like to talk in the morning. Daniel does. Hilarity ensues. (Mostly me grunting and saying things like, "Tiiiiiiired.")

6. Guys take approximately 2.5 minutes to get ready in the morning, which makes me feel guilty for the 45 minutes to an hour that I spend.

7. Builders should take this into account and have separate cubby bathrooms for women and men. Please - make our lives a little easier!

8. Daniel got to experience life with a PMSing wife this week. And he was a champ. Really - he hugged me and rubbed my back as I cried, oh, about 27 times.

9. Dryers like to malfunction just as you are getting back from your honeymoon and have LOADS of laundry to wash.

10. Learning to live with someone is stressful but fun! :)

That's all for this week! Stay tuned as I'm sure I will be posting more of my newlywed adventures.