Yummy Recipes from Last Night

  I'm working on redoing how I put recipes on my blog, so it will be easier to print out; please bear with me as I decide how I want to do this! Update: I finally figured out a way to do it, hence the late update! Hooray!! Last night (August 23), Kate and Allison came over and we enjoyed a delicious dinner! I had an amazing time with these ladies; they are such great company!! We accompanied our dinner with a couple of bottles of Chianti (yum!) and visited for several hours.

  I was impressed with myself as I had prepared most of the food before they even arrived (pretty rare as I always think it will take me less time to cook than it does). If you only try to make one of these recipes, I would highly suggest the homemade yeast rolls. OH MY GOODNESS!! They were delicious! I mean, three girls devoured 6 of them!! :) And, I had two with my leftovers tonight! However, the poppyseed chicken rocks too!! Actually, on the other hand, I think you should just recreate this dinner because it was pretty spectacular.

  I've made the Poppyseed Chicken Casserole before for Patrick and we both thought it was delicious. I decided to make it again since I was a little wary of the recent e. coli outbreak in beef across Kroger and Publix. I don't think I served it over rice the last time, but neither Pat nor I could remember. Last night, I did serve it over rice (like the recipe suggested) and it was great.

  The majority of my "cooking" time was waiting for my homemade yeast rolls to rise. But, man, oh, man, these suckers are worth every minute!! I am ecstatic to find a roll recipe that is simple and so perfect! These pretty much taste just like Sister Shubert's yeast rolls and they are bigger!! Thank you, America! Since Pat missed out on these, I do believe I will have to buy some more bread flour and bake them again on Sunday.
  Allison brought over ingredients for salad and we made a Caesar salad with the delectable Weight Watcher's Caesar salad dressing that Erin and Stephen introduced me to. I also sauteed some green beans in a little EVOO and minced garlic with some grape tomatoes to add a little color to the plate.
  Lastly, Kate brought over a pie that she had made and it was deliciously rich! By the way, Kate, please send me the recipe so I can showcase it here! Nom, nom!! Enjoy!!

Printable Recipes:
Yeast rolls
Poppyseed chicken casserole
Sauteed green beans
Kate's dessert

Too Cute

Hilarious. Too tired to finish my post with the recipes from last night, so it will come later. Just a little something to keep you entertained.


  My mom sent me this picture of my uncle with all their pups. I love it!! I thought it was too cute not to share! How many pups do you spy?

Tonight's Menu

On the dinner table tonight:
-Salad with Caesar dressing
-Poppyseed chicken casserole served over rice
-Green beans sautéed with tomatoes and garlic
-Homemade yeast rolls
-Pie made by Kate

I will return tomorrow with pictures and recipes!!

Nurses Reunite

  As I talked about last Thursday, all of my friends from nursing school came into town. Allison drove in from Nashville and Jenny, Mindy, and Natalie came over from Birmingham (Kelly lives here). Alli got here around 9 and the others followed at 10ish on Friday night. Thankfully, we hung out at Kelly's beautiful house all weekend and the girls only stopped into my messy house Saturday afternoon so Jenny could take a peek.

  We really enjoyed just being able to catch up with each other since we really hadn't been all together in about 3 years. Ridiculous, girls! Let's not make that mistake again!! We got up late on Saturday (*some of them stayed up until 3am*ahem) and ran over to IKEA then to Atlantic Station to do a little shopping. We grabbed some ice cream at the fudge shop and then headed over to Ballard's. (How did I completely miss that Ballard's has a showroom thingie in Atlanta??) I found some fleur-de-lis glasses that I would love to add to my collection if I only had more room in my kitchen! I'm now trying to sell my sister on them.

  By the time we had finished our shopping, we went back to Kelly's and tried to decide on a restaurant for dinner. Verde, it was! We didn't have to wait terribly long and were able to get a few pictures taken while we did wait for a table. For as long as I have eaten at Verde, I've never tried the grilled veggie taco and I must say, you should definitely try it! It was very good! After stuffing ourselves, we went back to Kelly's where we sat around, talked, and then played Pass the Pigs and Mad Gab. We also enjoyed diving into Kelly's fantastic homemade peanut butter and chocolate cake with glasses of milk. Yum!

  Sunday morning came all too quickly and we met at The Flying Biscuit for brunch. Sadly, all the girls had to leave after that, but it was a wonderful relaxing weekend. It was so nice to catch up with all my girls and see where everyone is three years out from nursing school. We have begun planning a trip to Nashville in the spring and I already cannot wait!!

  I can't wait until next year! (Of course, it will be even more lovely if we get to see each other before then too, but at least we have some sort of date planned already! Nashville or bust!)

Weekend Festivities

 Tomorrow, these girls are coming into town!!

  I haven't seen my nursing girls in way too long and we definitely went through a lot for two years in school. I'll be back Monday with a little recap! Kelly and I really haven't planned anything, but we have some ideas, so we shall see what happens! I hope you have a great weekend!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

  Today has been a very busy day. I mowed the yard (harder than you think, I thought it would be a great idea to buy a bladed push mower) and raked up all the clippings. Then I decided that I would weed some of the beds and picked up some of the leaves on the driveway. Pat and I then grabbed some lunch at Subway (eat fresh!) and ran to T.J. Maxx to try to find a white jean skirt or white skinny jeans (didn't happen) and Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a shower gift. 

  After our little trips, we ran to the store to pick up a few items and then finally came back home. I searched on Pinterest (newest obsession) while Pat watched True Grit. I made some chocolate chip cookies for work tomorrow and also started to make a recipe I found on Pinterest for Olive Garden bread. Yum! I'll post the recipe tomorrow. Since I cut the grass so nicely, I just had to take the roo out to do a little agility. Check it out!!

Wedding Bliss

  Last weekend, we dropped Wrigley off at the vet (so sad that Cheryl and Johnny have moved!) and we drove up to Athens to celebrate Stephanie's nuptials to Will. Steph and Pat were good friends in college and ran cross country and track together. I have only been to Athens once (for a game) and Patrick has never been (poor boy, Oxford is much too far for a game) and while I was hoping to run around downtown a little bit, that didn't happen. We stayed in a hotel right off downtown and I took a short power nap. Pat walked down to get us an afternoon snack from Pita Pit, which I haven't eaten at since college, and then we hurried to get ready for the wedding.

  Steph and Pat lived together in a cute, little house during college and even though she lives in Atlanta (OTP), we hadn't seen her in ages. We finally got to meet Will and we are holding y'all to dinner on July 30 before the big move!! Now that it's written, we have to get together, okay, Steph??

  Steph and Will got married in a quaint chapel in the Botanical Gardens and the ceremony was very sweet. I loved the string quartet that played and of course, Stephanie looked gorgeous!! She was just glowing and I was so excited to finally meet Will! After the ceremony, we walked down the path to the conservatory and snacked on some hors d'oeuvres while we waited for the newly married couple to finish taking pictures. Another one of Pat's good friends, Carolyn, was a bridesmaid and it was wonderful to be able to hang out with her (though we missed her husband, Preston). We ate, drank, and danced until we finally had to send Steph and Will off around 11pm.

  After the reception, we decided to go out in Athens with some of the other wedding guests from Atlanta. We walked from the hotel downtown and ended up a bar called 8es with Jacque, Ben, Addie, Heather, and her date. After we saw Santa Claus (no lie, he was even wearing red, but I failed to get a picture), we decided to hop on over to another bar called Allgood's. We only stayed there for a little bit before deciding we were too hungry and tired to stay out any longer. There was a little place similar to Moe's across from the bar and we ran in to grab a bite before walking to our hotels.

  The next morning, Patrick had to go downstairs and eat breakfast at the hotel before we left. He tried to get me to do so, but I would have much rather just slept, so we got on the road and headed back home. I was impressed with how easy the drive was and wish that Auburn or Jackson were that close! Oh well! It was a great weekend and I wish Steph and Will the best in their new adventures together!!!