Weather appropriate

OBVIOUS SIGNS OF CHANGE

This happened:

I bought these (for cheap):

I did this outside:

I wore these:

I saw this:

Why, hello, Spring! It is SO nice to feel you again!

The last Spring Break

Today marks the first day of my very last spring break EVER.

I am feeling excited and sad about it at the same time. Excited because it means I'm almost done with school! I never thought that I would still be in school at this point in my life, but that's what I get for taking a year off after high school and two years off between getting my associate's and starting my bachelor's. Actually, I never intended to get a bachelor's degree. I am glad that I changed my mind, as I have learned many things and was finally "mature" enough to enjoy being at school and having my knowledge expanded. And now, in just 9 short weeks, I will wear that cap and gown for the last time. (I think)

Sad, however, because it means that I will no longer have 7-straight for-sure days free from all cares and worries that involve deadlines. Although, these 7 days will likely be spent working on projects to keep up with all those deadlines. At least I won't have to wake up early.

To celebrate my last spring break, I decided to make myself some delicious breakfast. Oh how I love sunny-side up eggs with a perfect yolk for dipping toast. It was a great way to start a great day!

Celebration Bread

I have been working on perfecting my bread-making skills. I have always LOVED the smell of homemade bread in the oven, and hope to have it be a somewhat regular happenstance in the Koenig kitchen - assuming life never gets too crazy. (ha)

During the massive cold front that whipped through Colorado a few weeks ago, I was flipping through my cookbooks (killer cold always makes me want to bake) and found a recipe called Celebration Bread. It looked fancy, and yet easy enough to do. As luck would have it, life DID get too busy for a little while, and I never found time to make it until this past Sunday.

This is how it turned out:

I wouldn't call it perfect-looking, but it was delicious! I will definitely be making it again.

Another year has gone by...

I had a birthday!

It was on February 22nd, and it was wonderful. Ryan and I wanted to spend that evening with my parents and brother (we ended up celebrating it on the following Friday with my sister and her husband). My poor father had been suffering from influenza for the previous 2 weeks, so we decided to order some seriously delicious Chinese food instead of going out. I mean, come on, it's hard to beat a birthday crab rangoon!

After dinner, I opened my gifts. I got really great things! One pictured is a big blanket that my Grandmother crocheted for me. It's beautiful and really cozy! I'm grateful she's such a talented woman! The other is a cookbook that my mom got me to experiment with Crohn's Disease friendly recipes for her! I love cookbooks, and look forward to trying out some stuff that she can have too.

After presents we played Cranium, at which my team lost. But don't worry, it was a close game.

Then cake and ice cream!

When we got back home, Ryan gave me a card with our plans for the weekend. It said that we would spend the day shopping at Flat Irons and then go to Rodizio Grill for dinner! I was so excited! Shopping was a blast, and Dairy Queen even helped us celebrate my birthday with a cute teddy bear (not actually sure what it was for, but kind of a fun coincidence).

Rodizio Grill was quite delicious, and quite filling, but totally worth it. I had only been there once before, and loved getting to experience the uniqueness of it again. I even ate a chicken heart.

Last year was filled with fun surprises and life-changing events, and I'm excited to see what this next year will bring!

Valentine's Day 2011

This year Valentine's Day was extra special.

#1. Our first V-day as a married couple

#2. It was also our 6-monthversary of being married

#3. Ryan planned it like 4 months in advance

Dinner was AWESOME. We went to Via Toscana, a great Italian place in Louisville that was having a special 5-course dinner for the holiday. The food was, simply put, amazing. It rivaled what we had on the cruise ship during our honeymoon!

On the way to the game, we picked up our nephews, Ethan and Jared - we had a couple extra tickets and thought that they would have fun!

The game was pretty fun...for the first 18 seconds, after which the Avs got somewhat clobbered. Ending score: 9-1. We all enjoyed being there, but wished that we had been rooting for the Flames instead!

We had a fun Valentine's Day and I'm so glad that I get to spend that holiday with such a stud every year!

Breathe Easier

A few Saturdays ago, the weather was fantastical, and Ryan and I decided that it did not merit sitting around the house. So out we went!

Our journeyings led us to Fort Collins Nursery. Of plants. We thought our home needed a little sprucing up, and figured a couple of house plants would take care of that for us.

We bought one cute little plant for Ryan's cubicle at work. That way he could feel like he had a little bit of nature with him even though he can't see the light of day from where he sits.

We also got a couple other beauties, including a money tree. It has an adorable braided "trunk", and it loves us!

See all those somewhat lighter green leaves on the top? Those are all new since we bought it! I feel so proud. However, it may have to move its living locale soon because it is going to cover up our wedding picture, and that is not OK.

Brain Food

I have recently made a goal to not use a recipe for the majority of my cooking. I still like to peruse my cookbooks for ideas, but try not to actually look at a recipe while I'm making dinner. I like to call these dishes my "Brain Food". It is something that I really enjoy doing, and know that if I want to be good at it, I need to practice and use the knowledge that I gained at culinary school. It's been four years since I graduated from it, and stuff is starting to fade, which I hate because I read recipes and realize that I have forgotten that I know how to do something (i.e. blanch and shock).

Another motivation for cooking this way is that 90% of the time Ryan enjoys dinner more when I don't use a recipe. I'm hoping that I can continue to keep that percentage!

The only "bad" part about not using a recipe is that it makes it a lot harder to share my concoctions with you because I never measure anything. On Tuesday I made something I called Tomato Basil Chicken. Ryan raved about it, and insisted that I write down the recipe. So I did! The measurements of the spices are guesstimates, but everything else is pretty accurate.

Let me know if you try it, I'm curious to hear if you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Tomato Basil Chicken

Ingredient list:

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

2 garlic cloves, minced

Olive oil

5 whole white mushrooms, sliced

1 large tomato, blanched and shocked*, diced

1/3 C chicken broth

1-15 oz bottle of light Alfredo sauce, divided

1 tsp dried basil

1 T dried minced onion

Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté garlic and chicken strips in olive oil. Meanwhile, in a separate sauté pan, cook mushrooms over medium heat in small amount of olive oil, adding minced onion and chicken broth after 2 minutes. Allow to simmer. Add tomatoes and Alfredo sauce, bring to a slow simmer. Add basil to cooked chicken; stir to incorporate. Season both sauce and chicken with salt and pepper. Serve sauce over chicken.

Yield: 3-4 servings

*Blanched and shocked: cut out the leafy top of the tomato and slice an "x" into the bottom of the tomato. Plunge the tomato into boiling water for 30-60 seconds, or until the skin begins to break. Remove from the water and immediately put into an ice bath. This allows the skin to easily be removed and brightens the color of the tomato.