Mugs & Muffins

I hope y'all are having a wonderful Saturday. It is really cold here right now, but suppose to warm up to 70 by later in the afternoon! Mitch worked yesterday and is at work again today, so I have been trying to get some stuff done around the house. This week I have been able to work at home, but come Monday I won't have the luxury anymore :) So I am trying to prepare myself for my first full week of work!

This morning, I was suppose to teach tennis, but our church has a women's ministry called Mugs & Muffins and women of the church come together and bring their own mug and enjoy coffee, muffins, and each others company. Then after everyones done eating, we have a speaker. I have heard a lot about this particular speaker from friends and I have been following her story for a while now on her blog, so I really wanted to go and hear her speak. 

Since I have been reading her blog, I know her story, but I had never read her book, which goes into more detail. I knew I didn't have time to read it before, but after I heard her speak today, I am going to get it this afternoon! I don't want to go into detail on her whole story, because we would be here forever, but if you have never heard about it, it is a blessing! Here is the promo for when she came to speak... It will give you a little taste of what we experienced today...

Mugs & Muffins- Angie Smith

I honestly didn't think I would get a lot out of it because I am not a mom yet, but it touched me in so many ways, I am still in shock. I honestly couldn't imagine being there and being pregnant or a mom. By following along with her blog, I felt I knew a lot about what she was going to talk about, but she went so much deeper than she talks about on her blog/book. She would even say a lot, I don't mention this on my blog, or I haven't ever told this story before, because they are just to hard to talk about. 

You could tell she is a woman of God and even though I am not a mom yet, she spoke straight to me and challenged me in so many ways. 

Most of you that know me... know I am not an emotional person. I have always had my friends give me a hard time because I never cry when I hear sad stories, etc. I can honestly say I have never cried in a movie or a book in my life. Well today was different ha! Before she spoke all the ladies would talk about how they have tried to prepare themselves and bought their tissues and stuff like that, but I honestly thought it wouldn't have that kind of impact on me... I mean I have never cried in this type of situation before... but just being their with her in a small atmosphere hearing her talk about her life and share her story, I can say I was moved and yes I did cry!

She read Psalm 116 and even though I have read it before, I look at it totally different now, along with a lot of other things! I am sorry I just rambled on about this, but this morning was such a blessing and I wanted to share it with you! If you ever get the chance to hear her speak, go!! But at least read her book, I promise you will be blessed... and keep a box of tissue near by... I can promise you WILL need them! 

Have a wonderful Saturday!! 

Friends, work and HOGS Basketball!!

Happy Wednesday!! I hope y'all are having a great week! This week was my first week of work and it is going wonderful, but more on that later.

This past weekend, we had a lot of fun! We had a very relaxing weekend since it was my last weekend before work. Mitch worked on Saturday, and I had my tennis class in the morning.
Later that day I went shopping. I have always liked dressing up, so I have a good amount of professional clothes for work, but there is something about starting a new job with new clothes!

I also made a little trip to Bath and Body Works! They just put all their new spring scents out so I had to get some soaps and of course candles!
When Mitch got home, we relaxed and caught up on all out tv shows.

Sunday, was a really good day! We went to church and also sunday school! We went to the newly married sunday school class when we first moved here, but thought we might look around at different sunday schools/bible studies. We hadn't found anything and just when Mitch and I were talking about trying it again, we had a friend tell us to come back! So we thought we would try it again and we loved it. We now know more people in the class too. I am really excited to be a part of a good bible study and I am so happy I am finally meeting some people!
After church, we were asked to go to lunch with Ana and Nathan, another couple from our sunday school class. We went to Dink's BBQ and Mitch and I both enjoyed going out with another couple! It was a lot of fun!
After lunch, w spent the majority of our afternoon watching movies and taking a nap. It was raining and overcast, so we couldn't pass up a good nap!
Later that night, we went over to our friends, Jenna and Byran's house for dinner! She made spinach artichoke mac and cheese and it was sooo good! They also had another couple over, Richard and Sam, that just recently got married and are new to the area. After dinner, the boys played video games and us girls sat around and talked! It is so nice to finally be meeting some girls my age! I really enjoyed it! Later that night we played monopoly, which was a lot of fun, but lasted 3 hours!!

Jenna also made mini peanut butter pies for all of us! They were so cute and not to mention delicious!!

Mitch and I both really enjoyed hanging out with other married couples and we look forward to hanging out with them more!

Well Monday was my first day of work!! I had to be there at 7, so it is a very early morning, but I was excited! I spend a lot of the morning learning about the care they provide, such as information on the spine... I have learned more about the spine in a couple hours than in my whole life ha! It was so interesting and they also showed me all the phases of degeneration and how to read it on the x-rays. It is pretty cool and I am really interested in it! It is cool to work with people who have such a passion for what they do.
There wasn't a lot for me to do Monday, so I spend a lot of time filling out paper work, and they are big on every member of the team knowing the patients. So I spend the day getting to know all the patients that came in. A lot of them are kids, so it was a lot of fun! They have so many patients and see sooo many of them in one day, so it is going to take me awhile to remember who they are. Just on Monday, in about a 4 hour period, they saw over 100 patients. It is crazy!
The doctors went on vacation, so the office is closed all this week. I went in for a few hours yesterday, just to get some little things done, but I get to work form home the rest of the week... which is so nice!!
So come Monday, I guess I will officially start!
Some more exciting news about my job is that in March, they are flying me to Denver for a 3 day marketing conference!! I am really excited about this!

Tuesday night, Mitch had another church league b-ball game, which was very interesting! Our team only had the minimum of 5 players and only 2 fans Ha! The other team was huge and literally I think brought their whole church.

 And yes, they were completely covered in blue body paint... it was a little ridiculous! 

And yes, they had a coach and all... they were pretty intense, but they funny thing was our boys beat them!! It was a fun game to watch!

Probably the most exciting news of the night... the HOGS beat Kentucky!! We were given two tickets to the Arkansas vs. Kentucky basketball game tonight and we had nothing else to do, so we thought we would go. We have been keeping up with Arkansas basketball and they are doing horrible this year! We were not expecting to even hang with them, much less win! It was such a fun game and the atmosphere in the arena was crazy!! It was such a close game the whole time and it even went into overtime! I was doing so good this past month on not biting my fingernails, and well now they are all gone. Ha! 

 HOGS win by one!!! 

This is me when we got home from the game!! I was so excited they won!! We are hoping to go to more games this season! 

More exciting news tonight... Mitch's valentines present finally came in!!! It actually came yesterday, but we were not home when it was delivered, so I had to go to the post office today and pick it up.

The first thing he did when we got home was put it on.. and he still has it on!

To say that Mitch was excited would be an understatement! 

Mitch is off tomorrow and I am excited to spend the day with him! We have been busy lately, so  am hoping to just stay in and relax before I officially start work next week! 

Have a wonderful rest of the week and a great weekend!! 

Quick update and EXCITING news!!!

Happy Friday!! I hope y'all have enjoyed your week! Mitch and I have had an exciting couple of days! 

Over the past month, I have been interviewing for a marketing position at a chiropractors office and I was officially offered the job yesterday!!!! 

I have been looking for a job for several months now and have been through so many interviews and nothing seemed to be working out. Out of all the jobs I interviewed for, I think there was maybe one I was excited about. It has been so hard to find a job that I know I will really love. I am fortunate enough that I didn't have to take the first job that came along. I know some people probably thought I was crazy not taking certain opportunities (even I thought that at times), but I just knew God had the perfect job out there for me. 

Over the past few months, I have learned a lot, especially patience, and I had to fully rely on God. Moving here was a little hard, but I am so thankful I have had these months to settle in and I had to learn that I was to wait on God's timing for the job. Looking back now it all makes sense and it's just another reminder that He had a plan all along.

So more about my new job... I will be the marketing coordinator for Generations Chiropractic and Wellness Center. It is a small family practice, which I really like! The doctors are husband and wife and really young. They also have a patient education coordinator and a receptionist, but thats it. 

I had to go through a pretty intense interview process... I interviewed with them four times and one was a working interview. I actually had to go out and meet with clients for half a day. I was nervous going into the working interview, but I thought it was a great idea for not only them to be able to find out who is good at the job, but for me to see if I enjoyed it.

Not only do they do chiropractic care, but they specialize in wellness and healthy lifestyle. One of the doctors specializes in pediatrics and pregnancy, and the other in wellness. They do nutrition plans for their clients, along with exercise programs. It is a lot more than just back adjustments. I am a very active person and love healthy/organic foods, which they are very focused on, so I feel like I will fit right in! 

I start Monday and am so excited to get started! I haven't officially been told my hours. The office has weird hours.. they open at 7 and don't leave until 7, and work half days on Wednesday's and they are closed fridays!! I will be working different hours, but I think I will really like not being on a 8-5 schedule every week!! 

So that's about all that as being going on around here. We went out to celebrate yesterday at Red Lobster... Yum!!! Were were going to go play golf, but my allergies have been horrible, so Mitch went and I just stayed home. I am so excited the course is back open and I am sure we will be going out very soon :)

Today Mitch worked, so I just hung around the house, but it was so beautiful I spent a lot of the day outside. I went on a run and was able to wear shorts and a tank top! It was perfect! I think I am going to have to switch out my closets to my spring clothes and sandals very soon!!! I also made a trip to wal-mart and I was so excited when I saw the girl scouts selling COOKIES!! I love girl scout cookies, so I had to get some! When Mitch got home he said he had a surprise for me and he had bought girl scout cookies as well Ha! These are our favorite kinds!

Tonight we cooked a pork tenderloin and biscuits. And while I am talking about food... I have a website to share. It is one of my favorite websites and I always forget to post it. It has such good recipes and I love trying new things from it. I got the biscuit recipe that I made for dinner tonight from it. They were homemade cream biscuits, and they turned out delicious.

They also made a bunch, so I was able to put them in the freezer and I can just pop them in the oven whenever we want! 

Here's the website... Smitten Kitchen I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this beautiful weather!! 

Valentines Day :)

Happy Wednesday! I hope y'all are enjoying your week... it's half over! Mitch and I have enjoyed these past couple of days. He was off Monday and Tuesday, but he is back at work today.

Monday, was of course Valentines day! I know it isn't a big holiday, but I have always loved Valentines Day! I couldn't believe this was our 5th Valentines day together.. time has flown by!!
Since Mitch was off, I was excited to get to spend the day with him. This will probably be our last Valentines day that we both have the day off, so we took advantage of it!  I wasn't expecting much, but Mitch knows how I love Valentines and always somehow surprises me. That morning I had to go to Fayetteville and take some tests for the job I  have been interviewing for. So when I got back, we had some lunch and I wanted to make a dessert for us to have after dinner.

Mitch wanted to help, so we made a peanut butter pie. We got the recipe from our friend Jenna's Blog. Thank you for sharing.. it is our new favorite dessert and it is super easy!! We always enjoy cooking together, so it was the perfect way to start out our Valentines Day.

This is a picture of the final product.. we couldn't wait to try it, so we put it in the freezer and yes we did have a piece before we went to dinner ha!

After we made our pie, Mitch wanted to exchange presents. I kept saying lets wait until we go to dinner, but he insisted we do it then. So I gave him his, or what I had of his...ha! I got him a Clay Matthew's Jersey.. it is his favorite Green Bay player, but I wanted to wait and order it after they won the super bowl, so I could get the super bowl jersey. I ordered it last monday, and of course it still wasn't here. But I told him what it was and he is pretty excited! So since it wasn't here for me to give him, I bought him a season of Modern Family and of course lots of candy!

He then brought out some little things and candy for me and said the rest of my present is something we are going to go do. I had no idea what he was planning, but never put this kind of stuff past Mitch, he is so good at surprising me.
He took me to the mall and told me we were going shopping. Most people would think this isn't very sentimental or unique, but if you know me.. I loved this!! We normally don't do stuff like this, and I defiantly wasn't expecting it. He told me I could go get some new stuff for our date tonight! It was like my dream date! We spend the afternoon at the mall and we both had a lot of fun!! I ended up getting some new clothes, earrings, a new pair of heels, and the coach wristlet I had been wanting!

When we got home, he had red roses delivered to our house along with a box of chocolates!  He always plans a wonderful Valentines, and finds new ways to make it special and memorable, even thought he does way too much. He didn't have to do any of this, I was just excited he got the day off and I was going to get to spend the day with him.

For dinner, he had made reservations at a place in Fayetteville.. and once again it was a surprise to me. I had no idea where we were going until we got there. He ended up taking me to a restaurant called Savor.

We go to Fayetteville a lot and I always see it and it is always packed! And now I know why.. It was delicious! It was such a cool atmosphere inside.. and it was all decorated for Valentines Day.

It was an Italian restaurant and everything looked so good. We decided to get an appetizer and we chose calamari and shrimp.. it was a good choice! They had pastas and steak, but we both went with the pasta. Mitch got veal ravioli and I got crab and lobster ravioli. It was by far the best pasta I have ever had!! And it looked really cool too... ha!

We skipped out on dessert, since we had pie at home! But they did bring us some chocolate and a long stem red rose for me! It was the perfect Valentines day!

Yesterday, we were very productive! We had to go get the new Arkansas license plate for my car. I have only lived here 8 months, and have already had two AR plates.. ha! That took about 3 hours! The dmv is a place I always avoid going, but we knew it had to be done!
I was also called back for a 4th interview! I have never been through such an interview process. It has been a lot of work, and I just hope it pays off! Thank you all for the prayers.. I know God is in control, and if it is his plan for me, it will work out.

Have a good rest of the week!

Trip to Tulsa!

Well we survived all this crazy snow! The finally count was 21 inches!! It was absolutely crazy and I have never seen it snow that much in such a short amount of time. Mitch actually got stuck at work and had to stay at the hospital. I hope that doesn't happen again! All day he kept saying I should have called in. Ha!
Here are a few pictures of our neighborhood after the snow...

This doesn't show much snow, but it is a beautiful sunset... I miss Oklahoma sunsets!

You can't really tell from the picture, but all of the snow piled up a the end of our driveway and we had a huge ramp to go over to get into our driveway!

This house is at the end of our street and check out the icicles!! Mitch took this and thought it was crazy! Some of them are almost down to the ground!

This is the house across the street... They rented a backhoe to clear their driveway because there was just too much snow! We thought it was pretty funny.

Hope you enjoyed those! Friday we made the drive to Tulsa. We weren't sure if we were going to get to go, but the roads we in good enough shape for us to make it. We have been trying to go for the past couple weeks, so it was nice to finally get to go. I always love going back to Tulsa. Every time I go back  it reminds me how much I love the city! I have always liked Tulsa, but when I moved away for school, I realized how much I missed living there. I know, I live in Arkansas now, but Tulsa will always be my home! 

Friday night when we got into town, we went to dinner at an old fashion burger place called Arnold's. It is so old and a little hole in the wall, but when I was younger and even now it is one of my favorite burger places! Mitch has heard me talk about a lot, so we finally took him there! It has a 50's diner theme and it sooo good! 

One of my favorite things there are their milkshakes!! I am pretty sure that everyone from Tulsa has probably been, but if you haven't.. you should try it!

Every Valentines, my family always has a big Valentines day dinner. My mom always makes a dessert and this year she was going to make some pies. I have never made a pie, so I decided I would help her and hopefully even learn a little! So she gave me a easy pie crust recipe that is really good!! I will post it at the end!

You make the pie crust the day before and let it set overnight. We made it Friday night and so on Saturday, my mom wasn't home, so my dad, brother, Mitch and I decided to make the filling and finish the pie. I must admit, I was a little skeptical, but they turned out great! We made a chocolate and a coconut! I only got a picture of the chocolate...

We have a tradition in my family, and my mom always gets us something little for Valentines day, and this year she got Mitch Buffalo Wild Wings sauces and a gift card. We love going to bww, but also love to cook with their sauces! She got me a Scentsy gift card! I have been wanting one sooo bad! My mom has one and it smells so good! So I was able to pick a vase and 3 scents! 

It came with this kit filled with all the different scents... there were so many, it was hard to pick just three. I picked a red vase, to use in my living room and kitchen, but they have a Razorback one I am getting next to put in our office! I can't wait for it to come in! 

We came back to b'ville this evening and are relaxing and watching the grammys! I heard back from the job I had the second interview with and I am taking some test for them tomorrow!! So I am still just keeping my fingers crossed. I know if this is the job God has for me it will fall into place! 

This was a very short trip, and so we didn't get to see many friends. We hope to be back soon! I hope y'all had a great weekend and have a very happy Valentines day!!! 

Easy Pie Crust

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. sugar

1 1/4 cup shortening

1 egg slightly beaten

2 tbsp. cold water

1 tbsp. vinegar 

* 1. In a bowl, combine th flour, sugar and salt.

2. Cut the shortening into the flour mixture, using a fork, until crumbly. 

3. Beat the egg, add water and vinegar to egg.

4. Blend the mixture into the flour mixture until all the flour is moist.

5. Let dough rest 10 min. *but overnight is best* in refrigerator  before rolling out the crust.

Packers, Super Bowl and more SNOW!

Happy Wednesday! We have had a great weekend and the most exciting thing was Green Bay won the Super Bowl!!! Go Pack Go!

We were suppose to go to Tulsa, but this crazy snow wasn't going to let us! So we stayed and had a relaxing weekend at home. There was still snow all over the roads, so we didn't get out much. Mitch had to work Saturday, so I hung out at home. It was the first time I was actually starting to get bored.  Although I don't have a job yet, I can still get out and go do things... But with all this snow I have been stuck in for a week. Yesterday the roads were finally starting to clear and it was okay to drive, but not anymore!
Before we went to bed last night, we watched the news and they said to expect 3-5 inches. Mitch was scheduled to work today, so he got up and looked outside and told me it was snowing really hard and he thinks we might be getting more than expected so he was going to have his dad drive him to work early.
So after he left, I turned on the news and it said we were going to get 12-16 in. After I heard from Mitch and he made it to work, I went back to sleep. I woke up around 8 and turned on the news again, and they said they really underestimated the storm and we should expect 18-24 inches!!

I could not believe it. I don't understand how they can miss that large of a storm!! I turned on the weather channel and watched it the majority of the day and they were talking about how 2 feet of snow isn't normal for anywhere, but especially in the south! They said even if the north was to get this much, it would be a mess because even though they get snow more frequently, on a regular basis they usually don't get that much at one time... It is a very rare circumstance for anywhere and doesn't happen often! I was so thankful I wasn't in Tulsa last week when they got hit hard, but now we have more than them!
Here are a few pictures of our yard... and this was taken about 11 this morning, and that was still in the beginning stages of the storm!

This picture was actually from last week when we got the "big" storm. You can look at the deck and compare it to these next pictures. 

That was from this morning, it is now about covered!

So much snow!!

This was our neighbors across the street at around 9 this morning....

This is him about 30 minutes later trying to clear his driveway... and yes it was snowing the whole time.. He actually would clear it then go back to the end and clear it again, and again. You get the picture. I think after round 4 he finally figured out he wasn't going to get it cleared while it was still snowing so hard Ha! But he did keep me entertained all morning!

I still can't believe we got this much! But the good news is.. the sun is coming out and I am actually seeing people driving on the roads! I talked to Mitch just about an hour ago and he says he can see 540 out the window and people are driving on it. 540 was closed earlier today! It is also suppose to get in the 50's this weekend, so hopefully it will melt it all! I have never been more ready for warm weather!

Other than this crazy unexpected storm, not much has been going on here. Mitch has been working a lot and I have had an exciting couple weeks with some leads on jobs. I have heard from 3 new companies and have a few interviews. Yesterday I was called back in for a second interview with one company and it went really well, so lets just keep our fingers crossed!!

Since we couldn't make it to Tulsa for the Super Bowl, we went to a super bowl party at a friends house with some people from our church. There were a ton of people there and a ton of food. It was a lot of fun! Mitch was pretty tame, since we were around so many people, but I know he was going crazy inside! He of course took his hard hat and wore it on "tough" times! Ha! He was so excited they won!

I hope you all are enjoying yet another snow day and keeping warm!!

How we spent our snow days...

I know what your thinking... this is their third time to blog this week... well, we are going on day 3 of this crazy snow and there is not much to do. Ha! I have lots of recipes to share with you, so I hope that you can try some of them while your stuck inside as well!
The sun is actually out today, so I am hoping it starts to melt, but with these temperatures in the negatives, I think it might take awhile. We did actually get out on Tuesday. The really cold air had not got to us yet and it was still snowing pretty hard. It snowed all day long and we thought we would get out and go sledding!

It was a lot of fun, but there was actually too much snow to sled. It wasn't all packed down yet and it was just loose, so you would go and then catch all that loose snow and it would stop you. But is was really fun to get out and not to mention the hill was packed with people!

After pretty much pushing yourself all the way down, walking up that huge hill was not fun! It was definitely our workout for the day!

The roads were horrible when we got out Tuesday and that was only the beginning of the storm. So over these past couple days they have only got worse.

Since we have been stuck inside the past few days.. we have done a lot of cooking! It has been fun and I have some good recipes to share!!

Monday Mitch had to work, and since it was raining all day, I stayed in and tried some new recipes!
The first one I am going to share with you, you might think is a little strange, but I promise if you try it you will love it! It is a recipe to make sweet pickles! My grandma makes these all the time and Mitch's first time to try them was this summer, and he fell in love with them. She knows how much he likes them so she always makes us a batch when we are in Tulsa, or sends them to us. So I thought I should probably learn how to make theses!

You start out with a 32oz jar of Kosher Dill Pickles. ( We couldn't find 32oz so we used a 46oz and just altered the recipe a little bit).
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cinnamon stick (crushed)
1 1/2 tsp. Pickling Spice

Next, you rinse the pickles in a colander, and take out any bad or smashed pickles.

Then, let them drain and pat them dry. Cut the tips off each pickle and then cut them into 1'' pieces .

In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar, crushed cinnamon stick and pickling spice together.

Next, rinse out the original jar the pickles came in and make layers of pickles in the jar. Sprinkle the mix over the layer. Continue making layers of pickles sprinkling the mix over each layer. Repeat until the jar is full.

Now for the last part, screw the lid on tight and turn upside down on counter. The next day turn the jar right side up. The third day repeat. On the fourth day taste and enjoy! Refrigerate.
I made these on Monday, so we get to enjoy them today! The waiting part is always so hard for us, but they turned out great and now we get to eat them!

For dinner on Monday, I tried a new chicken recipe. It is Chicken Breast and Garlic Balsamic Vinegar and it turned out so good! I will be making it again. I highly suggest you try it.. you will not be disappointed! Here is the link...  Awesome Chicken Recipe!

We also made bruschetta for an appetizer, but since when we went to Wal-Mart to get all our ingredients was the day before the snow storm... they were out of everything... Including sour dough bread loaves. The only thing they had was a mini loaf, so we had to make it work! So we made mini bruschetta, it was just as good!

Tuesday Mitch was off, so what did we do? We tried some more new recipes. Ha! But I guess Tuesday wasn't our day. Nothing we made seemed to turn out like we wanted!
Our first attempt was to make snow ice cream. Seemed like a good idea right? Well we looked up a recipe online and it didn't turn out!

So since it doesn't call for many ingredients, and well were weren't going to run out of snow anytime soon, we looked up a different recipe and tried it again. Once again, it didn't turn out! Ha! We gave up after that! Ha!

So for dinner, Mitch wanted to pick out something from one of our new cook books. He says we don't use them enough! So he picked out chicken pot pie.

I had an easy chicken pot pie recipe, but he really wanted to try the one out of the book (even though it called for twice the ingredients and most of them were stuff we didn't have). But we made it and well you guessed it... it didn't turn out quite like we expected! Ha!

It was really good, but just really runny. It was more like chicken pot pie soup! But I will admit the flavor was amazing! It called for puff pastry sheets and I liked it so much better! And it made two, so one is in the freezer and we can just pop in in the oven whenever we need to! I will post the recipe at the end.
That night we decided to make brownies and yes, they did turn out! Mitch loves peanut butter and chocolate so I tried a new recipe, Peanut Butter Brownie Cups! They are super easy..
1 pkg. fudge brownie mix
15 mini reeses peanut butter cups
Mix the brownie mix according to the box, and fill the muffin pan or muffin cups with the mix.

Next, press the candy down in the batter and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Last, let them cool and enjoy with a glass of milk!!! They turned out really good and I think Mitch really liked them because they are about gone!

Wednesday, we had a little better day with our recipes! Since we were suck in, what better do to than make a big pot of soup. We made french onion soup and let it cook in the crock pot all day. It made our house smell wonderful! We started it around 12 and it had to cook for 8 hours, so since we couldn't eat until late that night, we decided to make a little snack.
We have a fryer, but haven't used it much, so Mitch thought we should experiment with it. We both love fried mushrooms, so we thought we should try and make them.

We found a batter and tried it out on a couple first and it they turned out so good! So we were excited and I am sure we will be making those often!!

So last night we wanted to try and get out and see how the roads were.. one because we were tired of being inside and two because Mitch had to work today so he wanted to see if he could drive on them. So since our snow ice cream didn't work out, we made a little trip to Braums.

These two things aren't recipes, but I thought I would share, because they are really easy and really good!
The first is Chicken Salad... I love making homemade chicken salad, but since I have tried this I haven't made my own. It is so good and makes great sandwiches.

We get it at Sam's and have yet to find it anywhere else. But if you like chicken salad.. try it!
Next is one of my favorite snacks!! For those of you who know me, I eat this... possibly once a day!
I love edamame!! I usually have to buy a large bag, but at Sam's you can buy a large bag of smaller individual bags.

They are the perfect size and so easy! I season mine with sea salt and pepper and dip in a little soy sauce, but if you want to be healthier, they are good just plain as well!

Today Mitch made it to work and I am at home trying to get a lot of stuff done around the house. We are suppose to be going to Tulsa this weekend, but the streets there are still really bad, so we will see on Saturday! My parents are having a super bowl party and I am really looking forward to seeing all my friends, so I am hoping it all works out!

Also, Jenna... I wanted to thank you for posting those recipes on your blog! They look so good and I can't wait to try the spaghetti squash! And, I have been searching for a new dessert to make for Mitch on Valentines day and I am going to try your peanut butter pie! He loves anything peanut butter and it sounds delicious!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Chicken Pot Pie- sorry for the length of this recipe! Its pretty detailed, but its really good! I just have to figure out how to make it less runny!
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups diced yellow open
1 cup peeled, sliced carrots
1 cup diced celery
2 cups peeled, diced gold potatoes
2 cups mushrooms
3 cups chicken stock
1 tsp chopped sage
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp chopped celery leaf
Kosher salt and pepper
2 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
*Preheat oven to 400. Dice chicken breast and set aside.
Heat olive oil in med sauce pan over med heat. Add onions, carrots and celery. Saute for 4-5 min. Add potatoes and mushrooms, saute another 5 min. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to med-low and add the chicken pieces. Bring to a gentle simmer. Use a large metal spoon and scoop off any fat the rises to the top. Add sage, thyme, celery leaf, 2tsp salt, and pepper. Simmer for 10 min.
Meanwhile, make a roux, by melting butter of low heat in a small sauce pan. Add the flour and stir constantly with wooden spoon to mix thoroughly. Cook stirring constantly for 5 min. Do not allow the roux to brown. Add the cream and stir until thickens. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir the roux into the chicken/veggie mixture and simmer for 5 min. The chicken mixture should thicken and not look runny. Remove from heat. The dish can be prepared to this point up to 1 day in advance, refrigerate and brought back to room temp before baking.
Divide the chicken/veggie mixture evenly between the two pie pan leaving 1/2 inch space at the top so the pastry will not become soggy. Let the mixture cool. Remove the puff pastry form the freezer 10 min before using. Cut a 9in round from each sheet of pastry. Cover each pie with the pastry round, pinching the edges of the pastry over the edge of the dish to secure pastry to the dish. Make several incisions in the center of the pastry puff to allow steam to escape.
Place the pies on a baking sheet anf bake until pastry puff is golden brown, about 15-20 min. Let cool for 5 min before serving.