True Friend

These past couple of months I’ve really been looking at MY life, MY relationships, MY goals, MY focuses and all the other MY’s =) yeah I really just wrote all that…haha  But none of these compare to my sister=)

What’s a true friend? I know all the normal things someone will rattle off in response to this question. Ummmm a true friend is always there. A true friend makes you laugh. A true friend will answer the phone as early or as late when you call. (and I could go on and on)

But seriously is that a true friend. This is my definition of a true friend? Someone who isn’t afraid to tell you when they think (know) your wrong. Someone you don’t have to say a word too and you’ve both spoken volumes. This is the kind of friend I have in my sister.

She turns 23 today!!! She’s as beautiful inside as she is on the outside.

Dear Christina,
In childhood we did not understand the gift wrapped up in a greater plan. Time has taught us about the bond of love, and through that love we have chosen friendship. We have learned together, sharing the good times and the bad, and no matter what, there has always been love. You are my sister always, my friend forever.
Love you to the moon and back=)
Your sis <3

SUNDAY: enchiladas

I’m a creative person by nature. I’m an artistic type in love with creating anything for my own or someone else happiness and enjoyment. Happiness is defined differently by each person and some may think my definition of the word is boring and lonely, but I don’t. I LOVE my life and I enjoy the way I live it. Yeah at times, being in our kitchen by myself for hours on end can be at times a little bit lonely…but I’ve never, ever, not even once, felt lonely out in the middle of a hayfield with just my camera or picking berries in the quiet of hot July day with just the birds to keep me company. What others think of me isn’t important, because “those who do not hear the music think the dancer is mad.”

I was quite the artist in grade school. I drew mainly birds and a bit of anything else that captured my attention (and that I had the confidence to try my hand at drawing).  I was really into pen art, which is such a fun easy medium for me. I created many pictures…for mainly personal enjoyment and some art contest. (which I was strongly encouraged to enter, by none other than my artistic mom) Then it happened. My dad bought the family a digital camera and my life was forever changed. I was completely  intrigued with it. I mean I could capture beautiful pictures in seconds…every beautiful flower, adorable animal and crystal stream was mine in a second to have for years. So in high school I traded the pencil and paper, for the little point and shoot family camera. And the rest of this story is still unfolding.

As an adult I’ve somewhat combined my love of creating photos and writing with my new found love for cooking.

I just enjoy every. single. aspect. of food preparation…

This was the first time I made tortillas (btw: the Chef in Training is my new favorite resource for recipes, whenever I need a new one…at the moment, I start here) Isaac used the left over tortillas for quesadillas…I taught him how to make them, on his own. He still puts WAY too much of everything inside his…making more of an “all American” male version of a quesadilla. Just imagine cheese and chicken squeezing out the sides=) hahaI used this recipe for the enchilada sauce…making this is actually quite a process, I had no idea it was this complicated to make. But it turned out perfect.You can never have too much cheese…’am I right?!?!?My mom took these…and I promise I don’t always wear camouflage=)The lovely finished product!!! and even though it wasn’t perfect (according to my perfectionism) my family finished off both pans in one day=) And I took that as a compliment!

It’s hard for me to describe or explain the feeling I get when I begin creating something in the form of food. I look forward to walking into our wonderful kitchen every weekend. Some of my best days, in any given week. are the days I can make bread at 4:30 in the morning…I’m serious=) I don’t get to cook as often, now that I have a second job…but I still try to make/find time for this one enjoyment I have in life.

I love having flour on my hands. I love the stove top lined with simmering pots. I love cutting up tons of colorful veggies. I love the sound and smell of sizzling meat. I love having sticky sweetener and butter coated measuring cups all over my countertop. I love looking in the light lite oven to see if whatever I’m making is “turning out.” I love the sound of the timer, letting me know my food is DONE. I love the smell when I open the oven. I love washing up all my measuring spoons, bowls and pans. I love watching my siblings and parents faces as they try my latest and greatest.

What else can I say….I LOVE cooking=)

What is something that you love doing?

Happy Friday!!!

 

my love<3

When I can’t deal with the stress of the busy corporate world I just escape to a place that’s familiar to me. Filled with quiet and love. A place where I know God is. Because here I can feel and hear Him.

The freezing wind biting at my nose. The cold, wet snow fogging my camera lens. And me soaking in the most beautiful of sceneries, with numb fingers and toes. Totally happy…because I’m here;

alone.

Alone in the world that make complete sense, where life is only about instinct. Not rules.

"Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle ... a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.  And the anticipation nurtures our dream."
-  Barbara Winkler

“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.” -
Martin Luther

“The earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.” – Psalm 24:1

“In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.”
 -Charles A. Lindbergh

”Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.” -George Washington Carver

I’m only two months into the year…2015 looked so promising at the beginning. And so far hasn’t let my expectations for it, down.

Just since the start of the year, God has been opening doors…resulting in me having to make some huge life decisions…I mean crazy big ones! But even though it’s been a tough emotional roller coaster, for me, the last few weeks, I’m happy to say I’m through the bulk of it and now strictly onto finalizing each one of them.  What I planned for myself the beginning of the year isn’t all holding together…like maybe jumping ahead a few years…I have to be okay with it. God’s plans are better anyway=) “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer. 29:11 Being flexible and resting in the knowledge that God knows what He’s doing. I can’t wait to share more details about these things but I need to wait until everything is completely set in stone.

Happy Friday!!!

Source:  99 outdoor quotes

SUNDAY: stuffed peppers for dinner…

So last Sunday I made stuffed peppers out of this Italian guy’s cook book. He plays racquetball with my dad and when he finished this huge book, he told my dad - who promptly bought a copy. (check out a picture of it here…very last photo of the week) I’ve been waiting to make something out of this book for a lonnnng time and finally just broke down and did it. As a true Italian all the recipes are full of garlic and wine…and a lot of red pepper, haha. I love the way he writes out his recipes, so easy to follow and understand=)

I also made these garlic biscuits to go with my peppers. But I made mine with ww flour…and they were still good. My dad I think liked these better than the “hot” stuffed peppers=) I substituted the veal in this recipe for just totally sausage and my family loved them=)  They were so lovely=) If I do say so myself. All the stores around me have hard parmesan cheese on recall, for some reason, so I got the “freshly” shredded parmesan to put in these, I know it wasn’t quite the same - but hey what do you do?!?!?For dessert I made these delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. They were a bit on the heavy side due to the honey I added instead of sugar…but they were good=) and I could have eased up a bit on the carob chips, I added way too many!

Every Sunday I’m trying to make something completely new and foreign to my families taste buds. Gives me a chance to experiment and my mom gets a break from the kitchen…I still need to post about my enchiladas, they were a huge success!

Happy Friday!!!!!

and I hope you’re weekend is as fun as mine is going to be…I leave this morning for Tennessee to celebrate my brother’s 20th birthday=)

cranberry pie with thick pecan crumble

Mom had this bag of cranberries in the fridge, a few weeks ago that were beginning to spoil. And she mentioned to the wrong person (myself…haha) that she didn’t have time to do anything with them. So that Saturday evening when most of my family was at one of Isaac’s basketball game I decided to give it a go…

…and I actually did it, I made cranberry pie!!!!! (I used this recipe) I made the pie crust! and it turned out wonderful, (in that my dad actually liked it=) I did the entire cold butter and water method…And this time instead of cutting off the extra around the edge I folded it back in over itself just like the recipe encouraged. And the visual effects of following this tip, after it baked, were so rewarding. Of course I substituted some of the ingredients…sugar with honey (the typical Atherton practice) But mostly I it was made according to the recipe used=) And my family loved the slightly tart, yet sweet taste of it.Only Victoria and Christina were home when I made this pie…so having the rest of the kids guess what kind of berry it was was so fun=) Mainly they thought it was cherry and dad was the only one who said after awhile of guessing, “it’s not cranberry, no it can’t be cranberry pie”….haha that was so worth it! So they all agreed it tasted more like cherry pie…I loved the pecan crumble on top. So that’s the part I ate of my piece, gave the rest to Isaac…haha poor guy, he really has a hard time in a house full of girls. My mom – just walked into my room and sitting on my sister’s bed proceeded to watch as I put this post together…she commented again on how good this pie was. While walking out my door, just a moment ago she said, “you should really make that pie again, sometime….soon.”

Happy Monday! I hope your week is wonderful!

my favorite Christmas songs…..

I’m a big Christmas celebrator! And I listen to Christmas music year round, but December makes it legal right?!?!?  and believe me I jump at this opportunity to turn it up at work. So I decided to put together a list of some of my favorite Christmas songs…I hope you enjoy them. And please comment below and share your favorites….I’d love to listen to them=)

Ava Maria - Celion Dion I could like listen to this song over and over again.

Angels We Have Heard On High - David Archuleta Oh My Goodness!!! this boy can sing and this song, well just listen to it=)

Let It Be Christmas – Alan Jackson This is such a sweet song

Mary Did You Know – Rascal Flatts They are my favorite band of all times…and they completely killed this song=)

A Different Kind of Christmas – Lyann Rimes I’m still coming to terms with Christmas as an adult.

Where Are You Christmas – Faith Hill In the same note…as the previous song, I love this song too.

Jingle Bells Rock – Rascal Flatts These guys should make a Christmas album. If for no one else, just me=)

All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey This song always makes me want to dance…haha, doesn’t it you as well??

Ideally I would be sipping on a cup of hot co-co, watching the snow fall out of my living room window, as I write this. But no, I’m sitting on the floor in my bed room, the clock just sung out it’s ten o'clock tune and I’m listening to the rain fall outside my closed window. Why can’t the December weather just cooperate with the way I feel inside?!?!?

Holiday meal staples….

For as long as I can remember egg noodles have always been a part of every big meal, this time of year. And normally that’s the only time we make or eat them. We always made a certain recipe…they were normal egg noodles, just made differently. We cut them out with a knife (talk about A LOT of slow tedious work!) and then lay them out, still wet, on a cookie sheet. Then they were transferred to the freezer and from there to bags. you get the idea… And the spreading them out on the cookie sheets was always my job. To say I hated it, would be an understatement.

This past summer an Amish family let me help them make their summer supply of noodles (now you’d have to know the way Amish are, to really understand how many we made…they eat noodle at least every other day). It went so fast with the pasta maker…and so many hands=) The week of Thanksgiving, Mom mentioned we needed these noodles made… I was quick to volunteer! Now if I’d known I would have to do it single handedly and that it would take me till one,in the morning, on a week night, I might not have been so quick.

But they turned out wonderful and everyone loved them. My mom snapped these pictures of me, before she too, went off to bed...haha!  I have to admit she’s getting very good behind my camera=) Side note: I borrowed this noodle maker from my bosses wife.

I first made the batter. Let it sit for like 10 minutes covered tightly in a warm place (I put them in the oven…it was turned off BTW=) Then rolled out pieces to get them ready to be flatted in the noodle maker. After running them through and they were as thin as I wanted, I hung them on the rack to dry (we didn’t have one of these either so I borrowed our Amish neighbors laundry rack) With the oven on warm and opened below them, they hung drying for about an hour. When they had reached my desired dryness…I took them once again through the noodle maker.  And ta-dah! DONE!

So professional right…I just spread them out on a towel on the kitchen table to dry for a few days=)I made one batch…should have made two but…I guess I’ll have to make more before Christmas dinner…

Please let me know if you’ve very tried to make these…or better yet have you ever had the chance to taste them…Amish restaurant maybe?!?!?!?