Another Keeper Recipe

Tonight's dinner was a great success. It's a Giada De Laurentiis recipe, so I'm not that surprised (it's probably obvious by now that I love her), but it's still so enjoyable to make a new, delicious recipe.

Photo from www.giadadelaurentiis.com

The recipe is Chicken Milanese with Tomato and Fennel Sauce. I saw her make it on TV, and had some fennel in my CSA share, so that's what got me to try it. I've made another chicken milanese before, and it's just a great way to make chicken extra delicious that doesn't take a ton of hassle. The sauce with this recipe is amazing - there's great flavor from the tomato, garlic, and herbs, but the mascarpone cheese you mix in at the end just sends it over the top!

I will definitely be making this again. For someone who maybe kind of has a problem with constantly trying new recipes, that's saying something!

Gardening Experiment

With some substantial help from hubby's aunt, I got my gardening experiment here at Military Home #2 going recently. I took some pictures this morning (I'm also procrastinating on a paper, so it works out), and I'm going to share those in order to list out what's going on. I also thought pictures would be good for the future to compare the plants now and when they (hopefully) grow more!

This area is next to our shed. Most of these are various heirloom tomatoes that I bought as seedlings from a local farm (where I also get my CSA vegetables). The one on the far right has flowers now! I planted these a little more than one week ago.

I added these three pots last weekend. From left to right: basil seeds/seedlings, strawberry plant, and thyme. 

Thyme close up. 

Strawberry plant. 

Little basil seedlings popping up! Honestly, I think this is really cool and kind of miraculous.  

Flowers on one of the tomato plants. 

The entire plant. 

This is the basil I bought as a seedling. I planted more seeds because I want to make pesto later this summer! 

This is the pot out on the front porch. Sweet potato vines, geranium, and rosemary. 

The starts of some geranium blooms! 

I'm having fun so far. I'm definitely a novice, but I enjoy finding out more and more and I'm just hopeful that I'll be eating some of the herbs and fruits of my efforts in the coming months. As I said before, any gardening advice is welcome! 

Birthday Update

That's right, today is my birthday! (Here's where I wait for you to say Happy Birthday! Okay thanks.)

As I just expressed in my status, I am taking the time today to feel extra blessed. I did have three classes at school, but the day was special for many reasons. I got two free coffees (one from the store, the other from a friend), got tons of Facebook and texting love, had an INCREDIBLE foodie dinner at one of my favorite places here with three of my best friends from here, and even got to talk to hubby on the phone. (He made a point to stay up late there and call. He's such a sweetheart.)

My ONE complaint is that I couldn't physically be with hubby, but what are you going to do. On the positive side, we are on the downhill slope of his current time away. And there's at least some chance that we'll get to spend more time together after he comes back than we've been able to in the past couple of years. Trying to stay positive. But yes, all things considered, it was a great birthday, a great time to take stock of all my blessings.

Life in general... is getting busier. We have our major final writing assignment due Tuesday, already! Everyone is gradually getting more tense trying to make sure to get it done, I think. Luckily I will have basically the whole weekend to polish mine off and get some good solid work done. It definitely requires some good time, but I don't want to stress out in an unproductive way.

Last weekend, I fit in some fun with some schoolwork. It started with a midnight premiere of Hunger Games with a bunch of school friends, which was definitely fun. It was actually my first midnight premiere ever! On Friday, hubby's aunt, uncle, and cousins were coming through town on a vacation and I spent some good time with them. I am lucky in that I adore all of my in-laws, because they are all great. They actually ended up helping me a bit with the yard, specifically with getting some gardening going, which is my fun new project. I am not entirely convinced I can keep all the plants alive, but we'll see what happens! I hope to take some photos pretty soon so I can share progress if this ends up successful. I tried to grow some herbs last year on our apartment patio, but aside from my total lack of knowledge, I think the lack of sun was kind of fatal. There was just no way the plants were getting 6+ hours of sun per day! Now I have a yard that can bathe the plants in sun for a substantial part of the day, so that's more promising. If anyone has gardening tips... please feel free to share!

To continue with the weekend - on Saturday I had a chill day at home and then went into town and did karaoke with some friends - including one dear friend who has the same birthday as me! It was a wonderful time. There's nothing quite like making a fool of yourself with some of your best friends. I do feel like it was a little of a "last hurrah" of fun as the end of the semester is upon us, but one can't constantly be having fun I guess, if one is to be productive and all that.

So last weekend was a good weekend, this birthday was a very nice birthday, and I can't complain!

I'm off to relax a bit more before bed. Tomorrow I don't have to go to school as early as usual, so that is a fortuitous break as well. I also no longer have classes on Fridays, so tomorrow is the last class day of the week. Ah, the life of a student.

Thanks to everyone who reached out and made me feel loved today!

What I've Been Listening To

I don't post about music that much, so I figured I'd catalogue what I've been loving most lately, in part for myself! All links are to Youtube.

1. Not Over You by Gavin DeGraw - I liked Gavin when he came out with his first album (I think I was a senior in high school), and since I've been hearing this new one on the radio I like it more and more.

2. Somebody that I Used to Know by Gotye - This is getting played more and more on the radio right now, and I am loving it. It's hard for me to put into words why I like songs, other than, they are catchy and I love to sing along! That applies to this as much as others.

3. We Are Young by Fun - I first heard this on Glee (full disclosure). Another catchy one I love to sing along to!

4. Fine by Me by Andy Grammer - more on the pop side of things (which I unabashedly love!)

5. Domino by Jessie J. - very much mainstream, but another example of catchy pop that I'm loving.

6. Ghost by Ingrid Michaelson - I get to see Ingrid live with a friend soon, and I'm so excited!

In the next part of the list, I'm going to do you some favors - lesser known (at least nationally) artists that I've seen live recently:

7. Focus by Graham Wilkinson - apparently this video was widely shared and aired on MTV U last year - and rightly so. I can say from my experience seeing him live that Graham has tons of talent.

8. When You Need a Train It Never Comes by Amanda Shires - also saw her live, and the friend I was with already loved her - in fact that is part of why we were at the show to begin with. Amanda plays the fiddle beautifully and I love her voice too.

I feel like there should be more country on the list, but I still love some of my standbys from the past year, including Josh Turner, the Band Perry, and Thompson Square. Maybe some new favorites will pop up soon.

So there's a sample! Anyone else want to share what you've been loving lately?

Yum

Lately my cooking has been dominated mostly by the need to use up CSA veggies, followed by trying to eat generally a lowish calorie, nutritious diet. I have mixed success on both fronts, but at least many recipes fit the bill for both. Overall though, the recipes I've been trying out have been just okay. I guess a lot of time recipes are trial and error, especially when they are not heavy on fat and other luscious things that add calories. What's great though, is that I tried out a recipe tonight that was a winner. I'll definitely be returning to it when I need to use up carrots. (Fun fact - I am allergic to raw carrots, but when they're cooked I can eat them. Go figure.)

It's Coconut Carrot and Ginger Soup, as shared by Jenna at That Wife. It was especially good in comparison to a curried carrot soup I made a few weeks ago that was good, but didn't have me really wanting to come back for more. The key differences include (I think), the punch of ginger, the fact that the carrots get roasted before getting added to the soup, and the creamy coconut milk. The flavor and texture of the soup are wonderful.

Here's a photo - I paired the soup with roasted broccoli (also from my CSA) and dolloped some Greek yogurt on top. It was a yummy dinner full of veggies. (Good and good for you, as Rachael Ray would say.)

I did modify one or two things slightly - I used light coconut milk, added the Greek yogurt, and freshened the soup up with a squeeze of lemon juice when it was done cooking. Nothing drastic, but I figured it couldn't hurt!

Glad to find such a good recipe! I am pretty sure I'll be using it again in the future.

Break (?)

I guess I am in a serious, professional school - my spring break only partially feels like one. I got to go out to the West coast for a wonderful celebration (more on that in a minute), but the rest of the week I've just still had a lot on my to do list. I guess this is what being an adult is. Lame! In addition to "life errands" and appointments and such, the second part of the semester is upon us, meaning I'll be upset with myself if I don't use the break at all for schoolwork. Good times. In the scheme of things, these are small problems indeed. It's just to say, where has this week gone? (Also, I would be concealing the truth if I said I haven't used a couple mornings to sleep late, that I've definitely watched some TV, and that I'm going to our town's big event with a friend tomorrow - some fun is definitely happening among all the to dos.)

But yes! My trip. It was a great total break from school, and wonderful time with family (grandparents and parents at the same time - win!). Of course it was also very special to celebrate my grandparents' 50th anniversary - that's nothing to sniff at!

 I made cheesecake, and my grandparents fed it to each other. I thought it would be cute, and I think I was right. 

 My lovely mama at a winery (we had some time to do things together - most or all of which had something to do with wine or food) 

 A meat and cheese board - yum!

Gorgeous chocolates at a local shop

The plus side of this week going by so fast? That much closer to hubby coming back. I'm through apologizing to myself for counting down. The rest of my life is great. I'm a very lucky person. But as I have been telling a lot of people lately, I'm over my husband being gone. Plain and simple. Hopefully I'll not whine about it too much on my blog between now and summer!

A Constant throughout the Change

Something that hubby posted on the book of faces this morning reminded me of one of the things that amazes me about our relationship - as of July, we will mark 8 years together, and although so much has changed in that time, we have remained constants for each other.

We were 16 when we decided to become boyfriend and girlfriend. We were in the middle of 1.5 years of AP US History in the same class, and we were both in Model UN. It was the summer between sophomore and junior years, and in both of those years we had a bunch of our classes together (along with many of our other high school friends). We lived in a small northeastern town of about 13,000 people (our hometown). I thought I wanted to be in international relations type stuff, and earlier in high school I thought about being an interpreter or translator. One or two of the adults in my life may have told me that they thought I'd be good at law school, but I thought it sounded boring and not for me, at that point. I was still over one year away from visiting (and falling in love with) the school where I went to undergrad. I knew that I had a wonderful friendship with this boy and was smitten with him, but I had no way of knowing that he would become the single love of my life and my husband.

Throughout the rest of our relationship after that until now, we did two more years of high school, graduated, I watched him leave right away for his undergrad experience, I started my own, and we found new friends and new lives at our respective schools. During junior year, I spent nine months in Italy. He got to go to the UK one summer for training. During that same year, we decided to get married, and we made contingency plans, which more or less worked out - in that I did not have to choose between a high caliber law school and living near my husband's duty station. I was also able to defer a year so I could take the year off to go to Military Home #1 with him. As I've documented here, we moved to a brand new place which was Military Home #1, and Military Home #2 (here) is quite far from where we grew up as well. We've moved and traveled so much. We've met so many new people. We've grown from teenagers to twenty-somethings. We have a lot of military friends with children now. There's no way to deny that we are adults.

Hubby described it well in a letter to me once (he's really good at writing letters). It's like as much as the world spins around us and takes us to new places, we are holding onto each other all the time, and our relationship keeps us standing on solid ground. (The solid ground idea might be mine, but I'm not sure.) For many many months of our relationship, we have had to hold onto each other figuratively, not literally, because we're hundreds or thousands of miles apart. And yet somehow, we've done it. We've grown not apart, but together, as we've become adults. I know that's uncommon, and I try never to take it for granted. I'm not sure how this relationship became what it has, but here we are. And I wouldn't change a thing.

Appreciating Professors

In law school, just as much as (if not more than) undergrad, the professor makes a huge difference in what one gets out of a class. I've been really lucky this first year in that I've been assigned some really good professors. I'm reflecting on this now because two of my classes were particularly entertaining today. All year, I've appreciated the professors who keep us laughing while teaching us the law, and we've had a few of them.

Cases in point from today:

1) Our Torts professor is the most adorable (and well-respected as a scholar) little old man, one that I'd just love to have as a grandpa. He mutters little jokes under his breath a lot, and he also brings his guitar to class from time to time to sing us songs he's written relating to the day's lesson. Think I'm kidding? The rest of my 100-person section could definitely back me up - it's true!

2) Our Constitutional Law professor is incredibly intelligent and very accomplished for his young(ish) age - and has a great sense of humor to boot. We finished up our unit on gender discrimination and the Equal Protection Clause today, and he fostered a very amusing (and eye opening) conversation about segregated bathrooms and what they mean in the context of gender discrimination and the EPC. We laughed a ton during class today.

Anyway, just taking the time out to be grateful for this school and these professors. Two of my current three wrote our textbooks, and the school has some really accomplished people working there. I think it's such a talent to not only be scholarly and well-read and intelligent, but to have the charisma and other skills to connect with students when you teach them as well.

That's about all. I'd better get to bed. Two days until a week off of school (which I'll be using to try to catch up on my to do list, after I get back from my weekend trip out West!)

Neglect

There's no denying, I've been neglecting my blog lately! I'm not really sure I can put my finger on why. Sometimes the mood strikes more than others, and I definitely go through phases.

I certainly need to update to share the wonderful time that was last weekend - two of my closest college girlfriends visited and we had a great time together. I was (and am) so grateful that they would make the commitment to come visit me, both with their time and finances. I had a blast sharing our home, and this city where we live now. The visit also allowed me to discover some new things here, and I ended up thinking "I have to come back here with hubby" on multiple occasions. There was a great mix of going out in the city and spending some time here at home (watching the Oscars and the Bachelor!). As someone who really enjoys planning, especially exciting things like these visits, I was relieved and happy that we had so much fun! I definitely felt a sense of responsibility to show my friends the essence of where I live, even if it was a short visit. I was glad both girls stayed until Tuesday, which made the weekend feel not quite as shockingly short - though it did pass by in a flash!

I'm a lucky girl to have maintained some of my best college friendships to this degree. I hope to be able to see these friends (and others) in the near future, but at the very very least, KT's wedding is coming up next June, and I cannot wait!

Here are my lovely friends at two of our delicious meals:

It was such a lovely weekend! It was a bummer to go back to regular life, but what are you going to do? In general, things have been going well in the rest of my life. I have a feeling school is going to pick up soon, so I'm attempting to steel myself for that, but I really can't complain about much of anything. The only thing constantly bringing me down somewhat is waiting for hubby's return! We do talk relatively often by e-mail, but it's obviously just not the same. I'm ready to live life together again when he comes back. More than ready, actually. I am hoping that it works out for us to travel at least a little bit before I start school in the fall - there are a lot of places we'd like to see together, and a vacation is long overdue!

I'm also constantly adjusting and exploring in my ongoing cooking adventures. My current goals are to eat nutritiously and not excessively, to save money using sales and coupons, and to use up regular groceries and CSA produce so as to minimize waste. It's interesting the way those three goals interact with each other, but I definitely enjoy the effort. Hopefully the mood will strike me soon to share some specific recipes here again.

In the near future, I have one week of school before spring break! A week off is definitely welcome at this point in the semester. I'm also lucky enough to be going out to the West Coast the first weekend of my break, to celebrate my grandparents' 50th anniversary, and my parents will be out there too. This occasion is just another reminder that I am lucky enough to have a family filled with wonderful examples of marriage (both hubby and I are, in fact). I know that it's not something to take for granted, and that it probably has helped me develop a solid foundation to make my own marriage successful.

Alright, enough meandering. Off to eat my breakfast - fig bran muffins, a repeat from last weekend. It's a great, guilt-free recipe from Ellie Krieger, and I'll put the link here in case anyone wants to try it out!