Comfort Food & Christmas

Broccoli and Cheese soup, anyone?

I made this soup in the crockpot this weekend and we loved it. It's pretty easy to make, tastes fresh and has WAY less sodium/preservatives than the stuff in cans ;) This recipe is from A Year of Slow Cooking blog. She used her crock pot every day in 2008 and has some seriously good recipes for the crock pot! She's written a few books since then too...

Ingredients:

--1 qt chicken broth (or vegetable)

--2 cups milk (I used 2%)

--2 10 oz bags of frozen broccoli florets

--1/2 diced white onion

--1/2 t black pepper

--1/2 t kosher salt

--1/2 t ground nutmeg

--3 cups shredded cheese; I used a 4-cheese mix and cheddar

I didn't want HUGE chunks of broccoli so I chopped mine

Directions:

Mince the onion into really small pieces. I used my Pampered Chef chopper for this. The onions are going to soften in the milk and the broth, and need to be small so you don't crunch on onion pieces in your soup.

Add the onion to your crockpot, and top with the milk, broth, and spices. Stir in the two frozen bags of broccoli.

Cook on low for 7-9 hours, or on high for 4-6. The broth is done when the onion is cooked nicely.

20 minutes or so before serving, shred all the cheese you are going to use, and stir it in.

Photo adding the cheese before I stirred it. Then let it cook for 20 mins. We loved this soup! The texture wasn't a blended texture like many super creamy broccoli/cheese soups, but the flavor was amazing and I'll definitely make this soup again.

Next up... dessert... Fudge Revel Bars!!!

These bars are a happy marriage of an oatmeal cookie bar and fudge. Can't stop eating them. Seriously. The recipe from a guest post at Or So She Says (you've got to check out her mouth watering pictures of a batch she made - they sold me to give the recipe a try!).

Cookie Bar
1 c. Butter
2 Eggs
2 c. Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 1/2 c. Flour
2 tsp. Vanilla
3 c. Quick Oats

Cream together the butter, brown sugar, and eggs. Add the vanilla. Add the salt, baking soda, and flour. Mix. Add oats and mix well.

Press 2/3 of the dough into a greased cookie sheet (or use parchment paper like I did - SO easy to clean up!).


Fudgey Goodness
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 pkg (1 1/2 c.) Milk Chocolate Chips
1 Tbsp. Butter
1/2 tsp Salt

Put all into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute and stir. Keep cooking at 30 second increments and stirring until melted. Pour over the dough and spread out. Sprinkle the rest of the dough over the fudge. Bake at 350 for 20 min.

Before baking:

And after:

These are SO good. I'm taking them to a Christmas cookie/treat exchange at work next week and had to try out the recipe this weekend to see how it went. It's a definite keeper!

CHRISTMAS! My fav :) I wanted to share some of the ornaments on our tree, some Nick made when he was a little guy. I'm not one to only put up the store-bought ornaments, bring on the weird home made ones! haha Our tree has character and I love it :)

Old sugar cookies, anyone?! Just kidding.. :)

I found this one this year and LOVE it! It must be from Diane's tree...

The award I won last year ;)

I've started collecting ornaments of places we visit - this one is from our honeymoon and will always be a special ornament to hang!

My view from the kitchen :) I love the huge mirror there to reflect all of the lights on the tree too.

View from the living room... loveliness!

P.S. Today's high in DFW.. was... 75 degrees!! It was amazing to feel that fresh warmth on my skin. Our "cold front" (I say that because it's nothing compared to what we had in MN or the midwest) comes back tomorrow I hear, so we've got to be thankful for today! :)

Testing 1-2 1-2

A few photos from our date this weekend and our tree, posted from my new phone :)

Dinner and wine in downtown Fort Worth before seeing The Nutcracker. This night out together was our Christmas gift to each other.

The awesome lighted tree path at my building! I never see it at night (thankfully, ha!) so we had to stop by and check it out and were surprised to find many cars in the parking lot with people wanting to walk the pretty path.

Our tree :) More to come about some of our unique ornaments...

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Some Old and Some New

Part 1 of this post I've been meaning to get up for a few weeks now and Part 2 is new...

Part 1
Rachel, Jared and Judah's visit to Texas (check out Rachel's blog and great mommy stories here). It was seriously great having friends in town and people to explore with. Not to mention seeing all of Judah's sweet baby smiles, quality time with Rach as well as Nick and Jared having some "guy" time together. Fun was had by all and we wish we could see them more often!

Of course, we had to take them to the Stockyards, just like we've done with my parents' visit in October and when my dad, aunts and uncle visited in August. It's just a great, timeless area in Fort Worth to check out!

Judah loved it :)

Billy Bob's - we were fortunate enough to slip in between the daily admission time and the nightly admission time so got to check it out again for free!

We also checked out the Nasher Sculpture Center in downtown Dallas on a beautiful fall day

And made Judah smile, because his smiles are SO cute!

Enjoyed Weeping Willow trees...

And crazy sculptures. By the way, I did NOT digitally enhance this photo at all, this is how my camera took it, in normal mode and it looks the same in a few photos I took of it. It looks like crazy bright blue and stark white which looks awesome! My camera has a mind of it's own and I'm impressed.

Rach and I outside the Sculpture Center - love her!

We found a great fall-ish photo op outside of the Dallas Museum of Art - love him :)

And Judah caught some Zzz's

My handsome hub with a cool water wall at the Art Center

Part 2
Decorating for CHRISTMAS!!! And a great snack recipe.

Breaking in my new candy cane candles! I couldn't wait to light them to smell the wonderful smells of the holiday season!

I put out some of our Christmas decor this past week, which I LOVE so much. This is my favorite time of the year! We have some items from Nick's family and grandparents and some from mine and it was so nice to bring them all out again and appreciate these gifts from people we love.

I love the great nativity set my mom gave us a few years ago. I set mini Christmas lights around it to let it glow at night and remind us of the Reason for this season.

I also love this little nativity scene Nick's cousin Erica got for us in Costa Rica.

Our wreath is on the door, the tree is up, next step is getting up the ornaments and I'll put up some photos of that too :)

I also tried this great recipe for Black Peppered-Sugared Almonds over the weekend for the NE/OU game... sad outcome of the game, but GOOD snack! That always helps, right? :) I can't stop eating them and seriously think I'll never have to buy those flavored almond cans again - I can make it myself now! This recipe is from Sara B's Consulting site/blog - one of my favorites.

Ingredients:
1 lb raw almonds
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp course ground black pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1 egg white
1 tsp water

Directions:
Mix sugar and spices in large bowl, set aside. Whisk egg white in second large bowl and add water, whipping until frothy. Add almonds and coat with egg white mixture then pour them into the sugar/spice bowl, coating the almonds well.

Line a large baking sheet or jelly roll pan with foil + Pam or I used parchment paper and that was great. Spread almonds on pan in single layer. Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring after about 1/2 hour. Once out of the oven, stir almonds to keep from sticking and let them cool.

They're SO easy to make , have many "good for you" ingredients and are seriously addicting. You could really experiment with this recipe and try other variations - I wonder about minced ginger instead of garlic? Either way, YUM. Enjoy!

Vacation in Nebraska

Ok, it wasn't just a vacation. It was celebrating Thanksgiving with Nick's family and his sister, Amber's, wedding! It worked out perfectly for us to be able to come back in one trip and have both big occasions.

We had fun on the road - we had to, it's 11-12 hours... but we had podcasts with us and enjoyed many sing-alongs with songs on the radio to keep ourselves entertained.

The beautiful landscape of fall colors kept us entertained too!

We stopped in Norman, Oklahoma for a break from the interstate and rode down Main Street and saw the Sooner Theatre. It was a cute and quaint main street although I hope the Oklahoma Sooners LOSE to Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship Game this weekend! ;)

A rural scene in Norman, OK.

The Bride and Groom to-be lookin' sharp at their rehearsal dinner

The proud big brother and his sister :)

Amber getting her hair done for the wedding - she's always beautiful and looked extra stunning on her wedding day.

ALL dressed up! I love the flower girl in this one, admiring and imitating Amber :) Isn't she the cutest in her little dress matching Amber's?! She absolutely loves Amber and will miss her when they move to the St. Louis area this week.

Catching a breather between the ceremony and reception. We didn't get any ceremony photos since we were in the wedding but it was a beautiful ceremony. Amber and Zach didn't see each other before she walked down the aisle and it was a priceless moment to witness them gaze at each other for the first time on their wedding day.

Father-Daughter dance

The parents of the bride and groom had a special dance. They've been long time friends and I love this one of them laughing together on the dance floor.

The cakes! Cupcakes (amazing flavors!), Norwegian Wedding Cakes (which Diane also made for my wedding, SO good!), and the raspberry swirl groom's cake.

We also got to catch up with great friends, Bart and Maria.

Dollar dance with the beautiful mother of the bride (Diane)

Well done, Charlie and Diane :)

I got a dip at the end of my dance :) love that girl!

It was a beautiful day (although a bit chillier than our 70 degree Texas weather right now... :)) full of love and laughter. The dance floor was the place to be all night and it was a great ending to a wonderful weekend of celebrations. Congrats to Amber and Zach and on a wonderfully planned wedding!

We made the trek back yesterday and now we prepare for our work week tomorrow (a 3 day work week for me... yes!) and laugh looking back at fun/funny memories from the week we enjoyed with friends and family in Nebraska.