Recipe: Turnip Greens

Posted on | December 31, 2009 | 1 Comment

I’m not a fan of bland food and since I met my hubby I’ve been introduced to eating more greens: turnip and collard greens, kale, etc. When he was growing up they’d have greens with vinegar. Well, that’s not quite my cup of tea (I like vinegar in a recipe but not for soaking/dipping — although I do like wine vinegar + olive oil for salad dressing) and so every time I cook greens I try to flavor it up a bit more. Except for our first new year together I haven’t seen vinegar on top of our dinner table.

From what I heard the Southern Turnip Greens are cooked with ham hock but I found this recipe by Alton Brown that uses smoked turkey. I tested this turnip greens out last night on my Southern in-laws and they LOVED it. Even though the vinegar was on the table nobody used it. The best part: Super easy!!

Since I met hubby he also told me that greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread’s a new year’s tradition. So, in case greens is part of your new year’s tradition and you want to try out a new and really good dish (it’s really tasty, the smoked turkey gives the dish the whole flavor) I thought I’d share.

Now, we didn’t eat our greens last night with peas or cornbread. We ate our greens with this pork chops stuffed with sun dried tomatoes and spinach by Giadia. VERY good!!! My only tip: Get a good SHARP knife! If not you’d be miserable cutting through them pork chops.

I have no pics to share from last night but my pork chops wasn’t far from Food Network’s photo:

My Awesome 2009

Posted on | December 31, 2009 | 5 Comments

I hope your 2009 was as great as mine. This year was special because:

Jovie!! Nothing else can beat our new addition. I feel like the luckiest mom in the whole world! Two healthy and gorgeous girls. LOVE them!!
Moving to the UK! Ok we’re not there yet but getting the news soon after Jovie was born could not have been more perfect.
M starting kindergarten.
Still together as a happy family, priceless!
Getting more into something that I once thought I sucked at: photography… ok maybe I still suck at it but at least now I’m more passionate about photo taking and have three awesome models.
Being able to still share a little piece of my life with you all. This blog used to be just me, myself, and I and somehow I now have you, blog friends and followers!

There were a lot of little special moments here and there but those above were the most memorable ones for this year. We’re very much looking forward to 2010 because we feel like it’s the next phase of our lives. New home, new friends, new school, new job(s), new adventures, new new new. So so exciting and we cannot wait!

I also want to thank all of you for visiting… some are regulars too (you must not have anything else better to do, ha ha!!). I don’t know you all and many still choose to remain anonymous but that’s ok. I am anonymous to many of the blogs I follow. For those who comments regularly, thanks so much! I appreciate each and every one of them. I try to return the visit and love but since Jovie came around it has been a tad bit tough but when I do get the time I always love each visit. You all have so much to offer whether it’s craft or something else (I actually love reading a lot of the none crafty stuff that you post)! I can’t wait to settle and be able to just grab a cup of coffee, have Jovie sit on her high chair, and while we both eat breakfast I can also browse and comment. Soon, soon, 2010!

In 2010 my stamping goal is to stamp more. I want to do more background stamping. I get lazy and have been spoiled with so many pattern papers. I’m still going to use lots of pretty papers but I do want to stamp more too. This month is also my last month as a Stampin’ Up! demo. I’ve been too busy to do any workshop and the move isn’t going to make it easier either. I’ll still be buying SU stuff here and there and I’ll be using the many stamps that I have but no more demoship for me.

So, here’s my last card for 2009. Again I used Dani Mogstad’s digital paper with some PTI goodies. Love her kit! The below is kind of me warming up to the idea of stamping more…

Have a safe new year’s eve folks! I’m still not sure what I’m going to do…

Whatcha Doin’ for New Year?

Posted on | December 30, 2009 | 10 Comments

The hubby is trying to get me to go out but I’m not sure. We have the MIL and SIL but Jovie gets extra anxious at night and a lot of times even hubby couldn’t get her to calm down. So I’m not sure. He REALLY wants to go out though, especially since we’ll be apart for a little bit during our move. Even if I do go out I’m not sure if I’ll have a good time. M was less anxious when she was this age. Yes she’d be upset but she’ll eventually calm down. Jovie is stubborn and she can go on and on and on. My MIL loves holding Jovie when Jovie lets her but she also gets flustered when Jovie screams her head off. Decisions decisions!

Here’s a little card that I did based on Laura’s sketch #42. I used Dani Mogstad’s kit again: All You Need is Love.

Well, I’m going to go to the city to do some shopping. I’m wanting to hit the outlet malls!

Jovia’s First Christmas

Posted on | December 29, 2009 | 9 Comments

I just want to share a little page of our little angel on Christmas day. Santa’s hat and Christmas jammies. I used more stuff from the ‘08 Scarlet Lime kit, Prima paper from Studio Calico (‘08 kit) and my stash of AC alphas. I have a goal of using my ‘08 stuff before digging into more of the ‘09 kits. I’m telling you, I’ve got enough scrapbook schtuff to last me for years but I keep buying. Terrible habit!!! Very against green living and tight-wadness. But I guess everybody’s got an Achilles heel.

We’re spending time with my in-laws now. We haven’t seen hubby’s sister in years and so it’s nice to visit before our move across the big pond. Laters folks! Jovie’s trying to take over my keyboard. She LOVES sitting here with me while I type. Have a great Tuesday!

Some of My Favorite Things

Posted on | December 28, 2009 | 9 Comments

What do you like to do during your break? I like to read and cook besides craft. My current reading is: Louis and Antoinette, Julia Child Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Online Instruction, and In Defense of Food. Yeah yeah, I can’t stick to one book. The 1st I’m mid-way through it, Julia and Defense I just started and the Online one I’m done with but I’m still working on my course material for this spring semester.

I’ve been cooking lots too. Yesterday I made potato ham soup and sweet rolls. The soup was soooo easy and VERY good! The only thing I did different was double up the onions. The rolls were great too and it was my first time making bread! M and hubby lived on bread yesterday. They couldn’t stop! I used the second tip because I don’t have a breadmaker and using that tip my bread turned out just fine. I did adjust the sugar. The recipe requires 1/3 cup and the tip mixed the water, yeast and 1Tbs of sugar first. So what I did was poured 1/3 cup of sugar into my measuring cup and then subtract 1Tbs. I didn’t want super sweet rolls.

Then I made a card. I used Dani Mogstad’s papers, All You Need is Love, for this from Sweet Shoppe:

It’s for hubby. He’s been doing lots and lots of work around the house, including cleaning and putting laundry away while I mess around or hang out with the girls. If you want to know the asterix story you can read it here. But it’s basically what we use to write to each other before any of us had the guts to say more than like {::SMILES}. I set the background paper in Word, typed the sentiment, and print. The birds I trimmed out from one of the pattern paper and adhered with some dimenstionals.