Rushing to Catch up

Since the cookbook club is getting ready to move forward with the new book I wanted to get as many recipes done from the current one before moving on; taking a month break put me a bit behind. For dinner last night I made the BBQ chicken, fingerling potatoes and the croissant bread pudding. All together this was a super fast meal to make. I was nervous to make my own BBQ sauce because I had never done that before but it really wasn’t hard. I will say, when Ina says there are a lot of ingredients, take her word for it! The upside to the many ingredients was that they were all generally things that I already had (with the exception of hoisin sauce, which was totally new to me). I think in the future I will use a little less vinegar so it’s less tangy. I had never heard of fingerling potatoes before, but I think I have a new favorite potato! This was my kind of recipe: put it on the stove and leave it! This required very few ingredients and little of my time. I used organic ruby crescent fingerling potatoes and they were delicious and creamy.

BBQ Chicken, BBQ Sauce and Fingerling Potatoes page 120 & 159

Following dinner I served the croissant bread pudding. To be honest I have never liked bread pudding in my life until I tried some at the first Barefoot Contessa Cookbook meeting. Someone made it and it was delicious. We are having another meeting so I decided to bring this dish, but I wanted to practice before I offered it to the public (a personal rule). Not being the biggest raisin fans, I omitted those but I agree with whoever recommended substituting them with chocolate chips (or even butterscotch chips) and will try that next time. I sprinkled a little bit of powdered sugar on top and it was delicious- even better this morning for breakfast ;-)

Croissant Bread Pudding page 192

Hiatus

My exploratory cooking hiatus is over. I’m back from the traditional recipes of the season and I’m looking forward to trying some new recipes. In light of new years, we’re back on a super healthy kick (hopefully this will last longer than it did last year hehe). I was given a lot of new cookbooks for Christmas (people seem to know me pretty well) and I have been anxious to dive into those recipes and make them my own. In addition, the cookbook club I am in is about to venture to a new book and potentially a new chef to follow, so I’m at the perfect place to start sample from other books. However, since I have become very fond of Mrs Garten these new recipes are also by Ina but from her Back to Basics cookbook. I made the Coq au vin (a French chicken stew) and the garlic ciabatta bread. Since we are expecting an arctic blast in the next few days I figured what better way to snuggle up with my hubby than with a warm bowl of stew?

Coq au vin and garlic ciabatta bread with a baked potatoAdmittedly, yes I do still have all my Christmas stuff out; I just hate to take it down! But so that I don’t burn the place down I assure you that it’s all coming down this weekend and my January décor that I was working on before Christmas will go up. I promise!

Happy New Year

May you have a blessed new year! Phil and I are looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2010!

Me in front of the tree getting ready to ring in the new year

Happy New Year from the Hawleys!

Christmas with the Griswolds… I mean Hawleys

If you know of the movies with the Griswolds, you’re familiar with how Clark (the dad) plans for an event/vacation and no matter how much preparation went towards the vacation there is always something that doesn’t quite goes as planned. Well this was how our vacation started. The original plan was to fly into Baltimore visit with some friends, and then rent a car and drive to Richmond the next day to be with my family before driving back north to Pittsburgh to be with Phil’s family. Well apparently God had a different plan for us. Instead, when we flew into B-more (via Southwest Airlines, which by the way really do love your bags and Phil for the first time ever had enough leg room!) we realized that the reason there was so much mid-day traffic in B-more was because the east coast was expecting a blizzard (not “snow storm,” but “blizzard”). Since many times the east coast meteorologists are way off, we decided to go on with our plan and go to our friend Katie’s house. We had a great evening at the Baltimore Aquarium, had dinner out, and visited with some friends from college in Towson, but around 1am the snow started. When we woke up at 8am, there was already 8 inches of snow on the ground and we could tell that there was more to come. We raced around Katie’s house throwing stuff in the car so that we could hit the road and try to beat the storm to Richmond; thank goodness Katie filled our car with snack because little did we know how much we would need it. We said a prayer and started driving our rented Lincoln Towncar (which is a story all in itself, but basically it was quickly obvious that Phil couldn’t fit into an HHR) towards Richmond. Thank God Phil is really familiar with how to drive in the snow especially with a rear-wheeled drive car without chains or spikes! I was so scared and praying the entire time that God would get us home safely and give Phil the wisdom he needed to get us home. We had to stop every 10 miles or so to knock the ice off of the windshield wipers, and every time we stopped I was scared that we wouldn’t be able to start back up. For a while we were counting the cars that were fishtailing, spinning out, and wrecking, until the snow go so dense that we couldn’t even see but a few feet in front of us. The white out was so dense that we couldn’t even read the signs on the side of the road to see where we were. The snow was about 16 inches deep at this point and we decided that after 4 hours trying to get to DC (only 50 miles) that we should probably stop but because of the white out we couldn’t even see if there were buildings on the side of the road for a hotel. We couldn’t take most exit ramps because either they hadn’t been plowed yet or they were uphill (there was no way our boat car could go up hill without spinning out). But it was getting really bad, so we prayed that the next exit that we came to would be the one for us. When we got to the next ramp it was a plowed flat exit ramp; praise the Lord! When we drove up to a stop light we realized that we were at Tysons Corner, a big shopping area near DC, which would have to have some hotels. We tried to go straight through the light but our car wouldn’t go an inch further. It was as if God was saying, Ok Hawleys, this is as far as I want you to go. We could vaguely see a building to the right of us but didn’t know what it was. When we got inside we realized it was the Ritz Carlton Luxury Hotel. Phil and I looked at each other and immediately thought: there is no way in this storm that they have a room available, let alone a room that we could afford. Well again, God was watching out for us because not only did they have a room but because of the situation they gave us a $800/night room, for $150 plus free parking!!! In addition, which we couldn’t see because of the white out, the hotel was attached to the D.C. Galleria so we got to finish our Christmas shopping and get some exercise! Praise the Lord for taking care of us!!! In our affordable and luxurious hotel room we got to do what I think is the best activity for snowy weather: observe its beauty from the inside! Next to the fireplace we had a lovely lunch and watched Christmas movies that we had been too busy to watch in the weeks leading up to the vacation. While our plans don’t always unravel as we had expected, sometimes God has something better in mind for us, and I have to say I did not mind spending my 25th birthday locked up by the fireplace at the Ritz Carlton with lots of shopping; no complaints from me!

The next day the 20 inches of snow had been cleared for the most part and we continued our journey to Richmond. The rest of the vacation was smooth sailing! In Richmond we visited with family, had birthday and Christmas celebrations, visited Ashland (the center of the universe & probably my most favorite place on earth), and finally got to meet beautiful Lexi (born in August). Two days later we were back on the road driving north through the gorgeous mountains to West Virginia. For Christmas we spent time sledding, watching “A Christmas Story” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and playing with our nieces and nephews. The funniest gifts we got were from Micah, our nephew, and Kellyn, my sister. Micah got Phil a rope so that he could “lasso the cows in Texas.” And Kellyn said that of everyone she has given this to as a “gag gift” I could actually pull it off because I live in Texas; sadly, I think she might be right. Kellyn got me a set of Bump-its hahaha! https://www.bumpits.com/?MID=538365

In our Christmas letter I mentioned that we were wishing for snow over the break. This became a running joke throughout the vacation because of how good at making wishes I am. In the future when I make a wish I will be sure to be more specific (i.e. wish for 1-3 inches of snow instead of 1-3 feet and not on days when we’re traveling). But to bring this all together, no matter how many curve balls were thrown, the Griswold family enjoyed their time together; the same was true for us. No matter how many things went totally against “our plan” it was awesome to be going against the grain together. I love being with my family and there never seems to be enough time during the holidays. We’re getting ready to face the long stretch until we see our families again so that will be tough. Though your plans may have deviated a bit, I hope everyone had as wonderful and exciting Christmas as ours!

Our room at the Ritz

Watching the snow come down outside and then looking through a glass door to see the accumulation.

Finally, home-sweet-home in Richmond

Me goofing off in front of the tree & with santa (clearly I'm never serious for too long).

The snow in WV and Phil ready to go sledding.

A Quarter of a Century

Yes the rumors are true, we are now both a quarter of a century old….and from all the cake, now we are on a serious diet (thank goodness that we didn’t slip into a diabetic coma from all the cake and us being so old and all). Someone told us that we sleep for 25% of our lives and if we live to be 100, then we have done all the sleeping we need for a lifetime and now it’s like we’re being born again…..I like that perspective much more than being “a quarter of a century old”

For my birthday my mom or my sister always bake my favorite pumpkin pie!

Phil and I blowing out the candles on our birthday cake at my mom's house.

Phil cutting his birthday cake

"Here We Go"

While home in Pittsburgh, Phil and I went to the Steelers-Ravens game. In case you didn’t know, we’re huge Steelers fan (i.e. wear only yellow and black on game day, only purchase Heinz products, etc). Phil typically considers my cheering …(how do I say it?)….. “embarrassing;” I, on the other hand, simply consider myself to be “passionate” :-) Anyways, we had great seats and had an awesome view of not only the field but also of the city. The weather really cooperated with us and it wasn’t too cold. While this wasn’t my first NFL game, it was my first game in Steeler Nation and it was definitely an experience I won’t forget and can’t wait for the next game. Go Steelers!

*Sidebar- our good friends delivered their first baby girl on this day. It was a very very good day! Congrats Elams!

Anniversary

Over the holidays we celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary! We’ve accomplished so much in these short 2 years and I’m so proud of us. I can honestly say that I’m even more in love than the day we got married. Love you Phil!

Us Dec 29, 2007…

and us December 29, 2009.

Phil showing the snow from our wedding…

…and me showing the snow from this year.

Time to celebrate!

Last week we were really starting to celebrate Christmas and enjoy all the wonderful blessings of the season. I am one of those people that gets overly excited about their birthday. I think even when I’m super old, I will still get excited about it. However for the past few years, I have had to over look my birthday because other things have been more important. Since we will be traveling again this year on my birthday, I decided that instead of overlooking my birthday I was just going to move my birthday to December 10th so that I could still celebrate it. A bit early, but I didn’t care. Phil planned an awesome birthday evening for me and before we left he surprised me with a gorgeous new dress. It was the perfect size and everything!

Isn’t is gorgeous!?

Friday night was Phil’s company Christmas party. I love the Christmas parties that his company throws; they are so much fun. I love getting all dressed up and going dancing with Phil. This year I was super excited to get dressed up in my new dress that Phil gave me for my birthday. Before the party we hosted a smaller, almost “pre-party” at our house for all the people that directly work for Phil. We had a wonderful time.

The ballroom at the Westin

On Saturday we had a smaller dinner party with some friends that we went to college with. We had them over for dinner (I got to use my new stockpot yippee!) and then took them to the Christmas pageant at our church. Aside from the almost-camel-disaster, the performance was awesome; superb musical talent! I loved the way they told the Christmas story. After the performance we came home for coffee and spicey cinnamon cake.

At church, before the pageant started.

All of the choirs.

When the Magi entered

Spicey cinnamon cake- with sugar on top;-)

Phil and I always have a mini Christmas with ourselves before going home for the holidays. It’s nice to celebrate it together, plus it’s less weight in our suitcases if we leave our gifts for each other in Houston. So Sunday we had our mini Christmas and swapped gifts; we made a complete mess of the wrapping paper under the Christmas tree. It was so much fun!

This picture illustrates how well we dove into the gifts :-)

In early November Phil and I got our photographs taken (thank you Hills!) and I have had the hardest time keeping it a secret. But since our Christmas cards are out now, I posted a couple of our favorites from our awesome photo shoot to the right side.

Well that’s about it for the Hawleys for a while. We are flying back to the coast to visit with family and friends. Over this break we will celebrate my real birthday, Christmas, our anniversary, and Phil’s birthday; we’ve got a lot of celebrating to do! So I’m signing off for a few weeks as we travel home, see you soon! Have a safe and blessed holiday!

It's a snowy season, even in Houston!

The weekend started off wonderful! The meteorologist had been saying all week that we were going to get snow for the weekend; being in Houston of course I didn’t believe him! But as I was getting ready for work on Friday, I was proven wrong! There were large fluffy flakes falling from the sky. The ground was too warm for it to stick but it was still pretty. It snowed from like 6 am until about 5pm, none of it stuck on the roads, but everyone got a half day at work and school was canceled anyway! The snow totally set the mood for the cookie exchange that I hosted on Friday night. As the day went, I kept checking the snow outside and taking pictures. I worked a half day and then came home to start cooking and put the finishing touches on my Christmas decorations. This was the first year that I made my own Christmas wreaths. Normally I don’t because I find them either too difficult to make or way too gaudy for me. But I saw a simple wreath in the background of one of the pictures in my Martha magazine and I thought, “Hey I can do that!” Here are my wreaths and the set-up for the cookie exchange.

This is wear it all we did the swapping

Mini quiches, 7-layer chip dip, Tzatziki sauce

with veges, Jarlsberg dip, smoked salmon &

crab dip, cheese platter, and assorted nuts.

I didn't realize until everyone had left that

I totally forgot to get a picture of all

of the delicious cookies, so I had to

take a picture of the cookies that I got.

Saturday night was the Christmas party for our Sunday school class. There was tons of food and a white elephant gift exchange. Apparently in Houston for a white elephant gift exchange you’re supposed to bring something tacky or unwanted to exchange. Where I’m from this is called a Polyanna gift exchange. Since where I am from a white elephant gift exchange is where you swap a gift for under $10 we made and brought a City Dwellers S’mores kit (skewers, tea lights, mallo, graham, and Hershey’s). So I’m not sure the gift we brought fit well with others (i.e. a gallon can of expired red beans, an unworkable hairdryer, a clock in the shape of a cat, a dog snuggie…). Phil let me pick the gifts for us. My first gift pick was a remote control helicopter which quickly got stolen, so I got some picture frames which were later stolen from me so I stole the helicopter back. Phil had a lot of fun playing with that once we got home!

All the yummy food! Swapping giftsThe helicopter looked more like a flying saucer

We knew that the party was in the same gated community and on the same street as George Bush Senior so when we were leaving, I was on the look-out for them. Right before we were getting into our car to leave, guess who drove right by us?! That’s right George and Barbara! Sorry no pictures for that one, apparently my camera skills are too slow when I’m “star struck”.

Last week was busy with presentations, writing papers, grading papers, and of course getting ready for the festivities; but we loved every minute of it. This week is going to be another fun week (and a lot less busy since our classes are done, thanks goodness). We don’t have any deadlines this week but are looking forward to the always fun Christmas party that Phil’s company hosts, my birthday celebration and the Christmas pageant at church on Saturday. Have a great week!