Weekend Rundown

Who else agrees that Super Bowl weekend needs to be a minimum of three days?!

Despite the lack of three days, I made two work just fine. Today is definitely a Monday though, whew!

Some friends and I started with weekend off early with Happy Hour right after work on Friday. We headed over to Serranos for their HH. $2.50 margs and nacho bar, score! I told Scott before we started that I wasn't going to be out late and his response was "sure." Haha Needless to say, we were out until 12(that's late for me). Lots of laughing, dancing and singing for us.

Excuse my extremely red face, I was a little toasty on account of alcohol. oops!

Courtney and I got in on some impromtu karaoke fun. We saw an open mic and knew what we had to do.

After such a fun night Friday, I took it easy on Saturday. So did Melvin. That silly dog LOVES his kennel.

 While Scott was out running errands, he came home with some pink boxing gloves! Can't wait to try them out later this week.

Scott and I did some major house cleaning and finally "remodeled" our bathroom. I put it in quotes because all we did was change out the mirror/medicine cabinets and change out the light fixtures. $200 well spent, I tell you! I posted before pictures in this post, but sadly forgot to take another picture before swapping them out. But here is the finished product. SO happy with these improvements.

Sunday was spent doing lots and lots of errands and prepping for our Super Bowl get together party. A small get together, turned party. I was happy though, there was a great turn out. But maybe next year we will attend one instead?!

Super Bowl means good eat, treats and football! Wasn't that game awesome?! I really wasn't sure who the winner was going to be. Glad it was in the Ravens favor :)

 Happy Monday!

Mini Football Rice Krispies Treats

Guys, get ready to hit the pin button, or write a note in your iPhone. This is a recipe you don't want to miss out on. I mean who doesn't like the chocolate/peanut butter combo?! I don't! OK, so I don't really like peanut butter and chocolate mixed, it's too rich for me. But these rice krispies are just the right amount of both and not over the top!!!

You need:
3 tbsp butter
1 10oz package regular marshmallows
4 cups mini marshmallows.
1/2 cup peanut butter
6 cups rice krispies
6 cups cocoa krispies  

How to:
Melt butter over low heat. Add all of the marshmallows. Once completely melted, remove from heat and mix in peanut butter. Pour in both kinds of krispies and mix with marshmallow sauce as best you can. I suggest using your hands to mix together(if it has cooled down enough). I also sprayed pam on my hands to prevent the mallow sauce from sticking.

I will say this was the MESSIEST thing I have ever made, but ooooohhhhhhh sooooo worth it! You must try it. 

OH... And the title of this post says football... They were supposed to turn out like this:

via

They are so cute! But lets be honest, ain't nobody got time for all that. So I just kept them in football-esk shape. Mine look more like eggs. Oh well! These bad boys don't need any decoration or cutesy stuff. They are the bomb just as they are!

Blissful Weekend

This weekend was filled with so much goodness! Where oh where do I begin?!

Oh, I know. Babies!
Friday afternoon, after I got off work, I headed over to meet my friends precious 13 day old baby. I'm going to be honest, I used to not be interested in babies, but as I get older, I fall more and more in love with them. Baby Elliott made it easy on me. She was just as peaceful and calm as the pictures. She instantly curled into me and my heart melted right then and there! Newborns are so perfect :)

They just make my heart happy. It sure is fun growing up and seeing your friends pregnant bellies grow and meeting their sweet babies!

Next up, and very much different than babies, is Django Unchained. One word: Intense! That movie was so unreal! And I'm sure it's not far off from what it used to be like in Texas during that time, which is extremely sad. But Quentin Tarantino has a very odd sense of humor and can shed some light on some of the most politically incorrect situations. And of course there was a ton of gory scenes, oozing sounds and guns. My vote would be to go see it.


Saturday, I did a bit of shopping and while I was out, I found my wedding shoes. Very happy with them! They will be perfect for the big day!

Saturday night, we tried out this awesome Chinese BBQ restaurant (Din Ho for you Austinites). The reviews are true! You must go try it out for yourself. Scott had the duck ;)

Sunday was perfect! I joined some friends for church at The Austin Stone. It was the start of a new series that I'm ready to jump into.

 

Afterwards, we went out to Lakeway and picked up this beauty(table). More on that tomorrow.

Mine and Scott's family came over to celebrate my moms Birthday. It was almost like a mini Thanksgiving. We fried a turkey, ate green beans, potato salad, mashed potatoes, and rolls. And of course we watched the Ravens win :) See you at the superbowl, Baltimore.

My thanks go out to Martin Luther King and my state job. I was off on Monday and spent it with my mom and MIL looking for MoB and MoG dresses! They were a hoot! My mom fell in love with the first dress she tried on, and scored an awesome deal on it ! I can't wait to see everyone dolled up on April 20th! Just 87 days away :)

Happy Monday y'all!

CBAC quesadillas

Chicken, Bacon, Avocado, Cheese...Need I say more?

I've made these quesadillas a few times before, but I originally got the recipe off ...you guessed it, pinterest! They are SO easy to make and super delicious! 

I've made them in both burrito size and the soft taco size. Serving size is debatable but it feeds 3 normal people pretty well :) I was able to get 5 out of the burrito size and 6 out of the soft taco size.

Ok, this is what you need:

tortillas (burrito or soft taco)

1 lb chicken 

salt and pepper

1/2 cup scallions

8-9 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped

1 avocado diced

mild cheddar cheese, shredded 

2 tbsp butter

 

First off, cook the bacon. The best way and the cleanest way is to cook the bacon is in the oven. I use a slotted broiler pan, but you could use a drying rack on top a sheet pan just the same. Set the temperature to 400 and cook for 10-15 per side. Keep an eye on them!

While the bacon is cooking, prepare your avocado and dice it up. When the bacon is finished cookings and cooling, slice it up! This is what mine looked like. 

Put the bacon and avocado aside and your next step is to sauté the scallions. You will want to use a tbsp of bacon drippings so don't get rid of it right away. You'll cook for about 2-3 min until soft. Then you'll add in your chicken chunks in a single layer. Cook for about 5 min, flipping once during cooking.

Remove the chicken from the skillet and rinse it out. Add a little butter to the clean skillet over medium heat. When the butter is foamy, add the tortilla and swirl it around. Then you can start adding in all your bacon, avocado, chicken and cheese. Start to fold tortilla and smash all ingredients in. 

Flipping it can be kind of tricky, but if you use tongs it's a bit easier. The other side should look like this:

When it's golden brown and super delicious looking on both sides, then it's ready!!

Enjoy!

Taco Seasoning

The other night was taco night at our house. As I was cooking the meat, it dawned on me that we didn't have the little taco seasoning packet that we always use to season the meat... Well I went and searched google and found a recipe that I wanted to share. Needless to say I won't be using those little packets anymore...

What you need:
1 tbsp chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp flour

These are all things most of us already have in our cabinets. Some minor adjustments I made that you may consider is lessening the sea salt. I used regular salt, and maybe half of what it called for. Also, I used just a sprinkle of crushed red pepper. If you're spice sensitive, use less! Next, mix all the spices together. I also added 1/2 tsp of flour to the mix for thickening.

Once the meat has been cooked and drained of the fat, sprinkle the seasoning over it. I recommend 2 tbsp of seasoning per 1 lb of meat. Add 2/3 cups water and let simmer.

This recipe is delish! You won't want to go back to the prepackaged stuff once you try this!

Blessed Birthday: Part I

Yesterday, I celebrated my Birthday. This year I made ZERO plans for my actual Birthday day, we just decided to go with the flow. I knew we would get some Round Rock donuts, lounge around and watch football.

It was a rainy Sunday, which couldn't have been more perfect for being lazy.

We headed out in the pouring rain to go get a special treat. The best donuts in the world. No joke. Everyone, new or old to the Austin area, knows about Round Rock donuts.

We ate them in the car on the way back home.

We watched Bernie, which was a true story, filmed in Carthage Texas. It was really neat because besides about 3 actors, the rest of the "actors" were real people from the town. So cool!

We went to my parents house around 3 to watch the Cowboys lose. I fully expected to walk in to see my parents, brother and SIL, but instead I was awed with some of my closest friends and family and a house full of decorations. They were all there to celebrate me, and I had no idea about it! I can honestly say that has never happened. Nothing ever gets past me, Scott can tell you that ;)

I walked in with tears in my eyes, shocked! I was so surprised :) I felt so special seeing my friends there to celebrate my Birthday! My mom had my favorite restaurant in Georgetown delivered for the party. Dos Salsas if your curious. It was perfect!

It was such a humbling experience. I couldn't believe my mom put this together and managed to pull this off with out me knowing about it. I was overwhelmed with all the love that was around me. My heart was so happy and I couldn't stop smiling. It is a memory I will never forget.



BTW I think Birthdays=eat what ever you want. I can't wait to tell you what I ate this weekend. I'll post it in my next Birthday recap.

aka I will be hitting the gym hard today...

Giveaways are REAL! Check out our Save the Date too!

Hello and good morning friends!

I'm so happy to see some new faces :)

I finally sent out our Save The Date postcards so I wanted to show y'all how they turned out!

Sorry, it's a bit blurry. iPhone pic.

 The back reads:
"It takes a bit of fate
to find your soul mate.
To celebrate,
Please save the date!"
Scott was very proud of himself for coming up with it. I was too. He's more creative than me in a lot of things, and sometimes better with words.

Speaking of Scott, here he is singing rapping his heart out. We went out for a friends Birthday on Friday to the Highball. It's a vintage bowling alley that also has individual karaoke rooms upstairs. It was 80's dance party night too, so of course after karaoke, we went and joined the party and boogied down.

Snow cones always make things better. Probably my third love.(1st is a drumstick, 2nd is Scott) The flavor is tigers blood, only the best.

Mac being an adorable cuddle bug. He's a big baby!

 Our dinner last night that was TDF! Scott smoked a pork butt for 5 hours yesterday and kept it in the oven slowly cooking for another 3 maybe? It was soo so good...I think better than his brisket and that's saying something! We made pulled pork sandwiches and chowed down. Love a man that can use a grill.

My OOTD today. I've never done my hair like this, thought it was kinda neat. I didn't have one of those big hair clips so I used two little flower pins and it's actually holding up my hair. This hair style reminds me of a librarian. So basically I'm a librarian today.

Look what I got in the mail yesterday from Ashley at Rustic Living! This made me so happy. It was wrapped so adorably. My pillow that I ordered came out lovely! I'm very happy with it. She's really sweet and professional too. Check out her shop if you're in the market for a custom wedding gift. There's a great selection.

Don't forget, there's still a chance to enter into the group giveaway that I'm participating in. Check it out!

Playing Pretend

at parenting...

Scott and I volunteered to babykidsit for some friends of ours a while back and they decided to take us up on our offer last night!

They've got two of the sweetest boys! One being nine and the other being 4 i think

It was a blast. I love seeing Scott interact with these boys. It's adorable. Buuuut he we have a lot of learning to do before we even think about having kids of our own. The best part about kid sitting is that you get them for 5 hours, then give them back! ha

To be honest, babysitting these days isn't that bad! Kids love technology and with the parents gone, time limits on the computer or playing video games goes out the window. It's pretty hard to peel their eyes off the screen, but we were hoping to get them to help out in making dinner. 

It turned out so great! 

Some of my favorite parts about the night:

-Songs made up about Chewbacca--These kids love starwars!

-Reading to the youngest before bed.

-"Can I sleep in y'alls bed?"

-reassuring the youngest that I knew how to brush teeth because I brush Mac's teeth. Then he trusted me to brush his. haha

-"Brooke and Scott I love you"

.....

AW! How sweet is that? There were a lot of sweet moments like that. Gotta love kids!

Penne pasta with prosciutto & vodka sauce

This dish is seriously to die for!!!

I got the recipe years ago from an ex-boyfriend but he originally found it in The Sopranos Family Cookbook under Penne all Vodka. Needless to say, this dish is the bomb! 

It happens to be Scott's favorite dish I make, so I'm excited to share the recipe :)

This is what you need: 

• 1 lb penne pasta
• 1/4 thinly sliced prosciutto ham, chopped
• 28 oz diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup vodka
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbs chopped garlic
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Saute olive oil and garlic. Combine tomatoes, chopped prosciutto, vodka and crushed red pepper. Let simmer for 10 minutes on medium heat. I leave it uncovered. 

While you're combining those things, start boiling water for penne. Cook and drain while ingredients are simmering. 

Add the heavy cream and cook for 2 minutes on LOW heat. 

Mix penne and sauce together, while adding the parmesan cheese throughout. 

Serve and enjoy! 

p.s. I love how Mac always makes an appearance in my pictures. Pretty funny if you ask me.

good times, great company!

I have been waiting all day to come home and read all my blogs as well as write a new post!

GOSH I have been busy...Want to know what I've been up to? Ok, here goes...

On Friday, Scott and I headed up to Round Rock to celebrate a friends Birthday. We met up with Thane and Amy at Quinn's Bar and toured a few others in the downtown area. We ended our tour at this Tavern bar, and we knew it was time to go elsewhere. This bar was just too unreal! It was 8 o'clock and there was a DJ, strobe lights, and it was super dark...just a little weird for our crowd! So we headed back to the Tennison's house for some pizza, wine and lots of talking! It was so great spending time with them. We also got confirmation that Thane with be officiating us! We've asked him other times in drunken states and didn't exactly know if either one of us were being serious or not, but Thane did give us his final answer that he would be more than happy to marry us. I am just thrilled! I love both Thane and Amy, they are a hoot together and  I'm really glad I got to know them through Scott!

Left: me and Amy, Right: Thane and Scott

1. Great spot for a tree, right? 2. Drunken girl talk. 3. Trouble

Saturday we woke up waaaay too early, 6:40 to be exact, made breakfast tacos and lounged around for a few hours before getting to work in the yard. For some odd reason, I love mowing the lawn. I like getting sun, the smell of cut grass, listening to Jack Johnson Pandora station and getting a mini work out all in one!It was great because each one of the house mates took on a chore. Jonathan weed whacked, I mowed, and Scott picked up Mac bombs. We make a good team. Then after that, Scott and I went on an errand run and found these little gems at Target:

They were only $3.50 on clearance! So we bought three. We ended up putting them on the outside patio/deck. I still need to get some chain to hang them from because they are a bit too high right now. And the best thing about the lanterns is that they replaced the icicle lights that were previously hanging there...men...

Sunday, we invited my brother, Brandon, and his girlfriend, April, over to have some BBQ and watch some basketball...Scott makes THE best brisket, and I'm not just biased, I've got people that can vouch for him! He also makes a mean rack of ribs, but I gotta say, they are just too darn spicy for me! They cooked for most of the day and we ate around 8. We had a spread of brisket, ribs, corn bread and beans. Delish!!!

is your mouth watering yet?

Sadly, I didn't get to see either one of my dad's on Father's Day, but I was definitely thinking about them. My dad was also cooking a brisket at this house with his family and my step dad was out of town in San Saba. My parents have a country home out there and he absolutely loves it. So my feelings weren't hurt when he said he was going out of town instead of coming to the BBQ after all... As long as they're happy, I'm happy :)

Here is a picture of my dad and I when I was probably four. It's one of my favorites. The bottom one is of me and my step dad, Bob. We are at "our" graduation party just a few months ago. He and I are so silly together!

This weekend was absolutely wonderful! I caught up on rest, saw family and friends and ate some darn good BBQ... I mean really, does it get any better than that?! Life is sooooo good!!!

Brooke :)