GET IN MY MOUTH: heart-stopping creamy cheesy chicken jalapeno enchiladas

I think things are getting better for me. I haven't been able to make dinner since I was impregnated. I neverknew when just stepping into the kitchen would make me hurl. But tonight, I did it. Without throwing up. So yay!

One of my favorite things about being a grown up is that I can make whatever food I want and I don't have to put things (LIKE ONIONS, BLEH) in food if I don't want. I LOVE white chicken enchiladas, but they always have onions in them and that kinda ruins it for me cause I'm basically a child. Anyway today I wanted chicken enchiladas so I made this recipe up and they ended up being really good they even have Tayl's approval. So here. Feel free to tweak it anyway you want. I'll probably top with sliced jalapenos next time.

3 cups shredded cheese (I used mexican blend)
1 8 oz block Cream Cheese
2 lb chicken breasts
1 can diced Jalepenos
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tbs sour cream
1 cup whipping cream
1 can green enchilada sauce
10 medium flour tortillas

preheat oven to 375 degrees. cook chicken (I like to boil mine) shred, mix with block of cream cheese, 1 cup shredded cheese, jalapenos, and tablespoon of sour cream. Lightly spray 9x13 glass pan. stuff with mixture and roll tortillas and place in pan seam side down.  set aside. pour whipping cream, sour cream, and enchilada sauce in a bowl, mix with an electric mixer until mixture is a slightly thicker. Pour over rolled tortillas. Then top with 2 cups cheese. Bake for about 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Shovel into yo mouth, enjoy.

GET IN MY MOUTH: Low Country Boil

So lately, I've been missing Georgia. Sometimes it literally makes my heart hurt because I miss it so bad. Which luckily, is not because I am totally miserable in Idaho, because I'm surprisingly not (yet). But, ANYWAY, I decided that there was one thing that could help curb my Georgia yearning; some good old southern food.

So, I pulled out Aunt Martha's cookbook (which if you are ever going to buy a cookbook, let that be your next one because Martha is amahzing. She's used to help write Paula Deen's cookbooks. She basically a Savannah celebrity!) and after looking through it, decided to invite some of our peeps over for :

LOW COUNTRY BOIL
Adapted from "Savannah Celebrations" by Martha Nesbit

Thanks to Sassy YGBG for the photo

Here's what you need:

Serves 8

2 pounds kielbasa Polish sausage, sliced into 1 inch pieces.

20 red potatoes, halved or quartered, depending on size.

4 to 6 ears of corn broken into halves or thirds

3 pounds large shrimp 

1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning (this is optional but I HIGHLY recommend using it, and being generous with it!)

Allow 1 hour to heat water in a 20 gallon pot*, filled about one-third full. Add the Old Bay seasoning if using (which you better be). 45 minutes before serving, add sausage. 20 minutes before serving, add red potatoes. 15 minutes before serving, add corn. 5 minutes before serving, add shrimp. When shrimp are pink and cooked through (about 5 minutes or less - you can tell because they curl up like they're prepping for an earthquake drill.). Drain and serve hot.

*Alright so, if you're anything like me, you don't have a 20 gallon pot and when you saw that you were like, Whaaaaaaaaaaat? But don't worry, it's a little bit of work but it's still possible. What I have is just two 5.5 quart pots. So, to make the full recipe (which you can half it, or even quarter it if you're cooking for less people) I had to split it up into 4 different rounds (so two for each pot for me). So I did MATH (which I suck at, but I did it) and split the ingredients up into fours. And then you follow the recipe the same (except that you don't have to wait an hour for the water to heat up). 

The best way to serve this is to just lay out some news paper (or craft paper or a plastic table cloth) on your table and dump it right on to the paper (but if you wanna be civilized you can leave it in a bowl, sometimes that's a good idea too) and serve with: Soft Butter, Sour Cream, Cocktail Sauce, Slices of lemons, and Ice Cold Coca-Cola. 

you can just see the humidity in the air from all that boilin! felt just like the south!

HOW TO COPE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT.

look, I already look kind of homeless and it's not so bad.

sometimes your husband gets laid off, and sometimes you need to do things that keep you from being depressed while taking a break from near constant job hunting.

 here are things we've been doing instead of crying:

well for starters, I've been cooking/baking a lot. Like almost every night. And I'm sure better housewives (and mothers) than me would scoff at that, but I mean I've been going HARD in the kitchen. Like I am getting in trouble because we have too much leftovers.

For example, I've made this (as pictured above). and this. and this to go with these. and this. and these.

And most of it was with the help of my lovely new kitchenaid!

Which I'd like to point out was pretty much free.

We spent almost 5 days straight in the house in attempt to find a job for Taylor and also save money, obviously. BUT yesterday we caved and decided to go see The Dark Knight Rises. DON'T WORRY, it was the super matinee so it was only 5.50 a ticket. And Batman is my favorite so I had to go, finally.

It was sooo grood.


To supplement our income and also to be nice we have been dog sitting for the family that I "nanny" for while they are out of town for the week. It sure is different having  TWO regular sized shedding dogs in our house on top of my sassy little virtually shed free cotton ball. But they are really sweet and Lux likes to boss them around and make sure they don't get on the couch and they think she is an idiot, but strangely, they are also scared of her. Also they are basically in love with Taylor.

the boss

lily and ella

And then today we decided to plant some flowers in our ugly back yard.

IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL I MIGHT NEED TO HAVE A GARDEN PARTY!! and get some G.D. garden lanterns.

If you're wondering how the job search is going, it's going well. I mean not well in the sense that we have any specific leads but there are plenty of jobs for Taylor to apply for. In fact, so far I've compiled a list of about 80. And that was a list I made while being picky about locations. Currently Tayl is thinking about switching to teaching so we're trying to get more information about doing that. So if anyone knows anything about becoming a teacher in the state of Georgia (for someone with a Masters Degree), holla at us.

All of your kind words and prayers and helpfulness and well wishes are GREATLY appreciated. We love you all! We're gonna be okay. Probably. But if not, I think I could find a way to make a cardboard box a home. I'm resourceful.

Hey, I just made this.

Hey, I just made this. And it was crazy (delicious) so here's the recipe. So make it, maybe?

Click Here: http://www.food.com/recipe/snickers-salad-62855

Here are some more delicious chicken themed recipes I've tried lately

The World's Best Chicken (not quite the best)

Slow Cooker Chicken Caesar Sandwiches

Rotel Chicken Spaghetti

You're welcome.

wifed up wednesday: best pizza dough ever + DIY Fat Sticks!

yo yo yo. so today i am bringing to you a fail-proof pizza dough recipe which I found on pinterest from the website  "Lauren's Latest".  Unfortunately this blog post will not help you lose weight and it's really long but I've got TWO recipes up in here and I promise it will be worth your time. If you're into this sort of thing.

She has a pretty awesome and easy tutorial to follow if you click that link above, BUT I made you a tutorial too. They really aren't that different except a couple of things. FIRST, her tutorial is using a kitchenaid stand mixer, which I am poor and do not have, so mine involves a hand mixer with dough hooks. SECOND, her recipe on the tutorial for the garlic cheese breadsticks, is different from mine, I made some adjustments as I don't really love garlic or handling things such as garlic or onions.

Here is what Lauren said you need to know about this pizza dough:

"{1} I use warm water-not hot, not cold. Pleasantly warm. Yeast likes warmth. And I don’t ever use a thermometer because thermometers are annoying for this kind of stuff. Don’t over think this step. If it feels nice and warm like baby bath water, then you’re good. {2} I use honey- I seem to get better results with honey. I don’t know why. You can use sugar if you prefer. {3}Bread flour- you must must must use bread flour. Bread flour means more gluten. More gluten means chewy crust. Chewy crust = good. The end. {4} Knead, knead, knead. Kneading means gluten! And we all know what gluten means. Knead  your dough for 6 minutes pretty please. {5}Use a pizza stone if you have one. Put it in your cold oven, and then crank that baby up to the hottest temperature it will go to. For me, it was 500 degrees. That will really give you a crispy bottom, like you get at the restaurants"


So, this is the third time I've made this recipe. I want to tell you that I know for a fact that it is the best. I know this because 1) Taylor loved it, and he is SO particular, and he never likes homemade pizza dough. 2) April and I tried a couple other recipes and none beat this one.

Let's get started, first, here's what you'll need:
[this makes about 1lb of dough. which is enough for two 12-inch pizzas]

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (You have to use active dry and not fast rising, it makes a difference)
1 tablespoon honey (or sugar, like Lauren I also used honey)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons  olive oil
3 cups bread flour (give or take 1/2 cup depending on head and humidity)

In a large bowl, add the yeast and honey (or sugar) to a cup of warm water. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes until the yeast starts to bubble and foam so you know it's alive. Pour in the salt and oil then add about half of the flour.

This the part where if you have a stand mixer you can use it to do all of the work. Other wise, pull out your dough hooks for your hand mixer. (Just so you know the first time I made this, I didn't realize that I had dough hooks so I just used the regular egg beaters to initially get the flour incorporated then I hand kneaded it to avoid burning up the motor. It was a pain in the butt, but it worked.)

Then gradually add the rest of the flour until the dough is at the right consistency. It should be slightly tacky but it shouldn't stick to your fingers when you touch it. When you get here it's time to KNEAD!! Knead for 6 minutes with either your hand mixer or stand mixer or your hands. After I discovered my dough hooks, I kneaded with those and then kneaded for an extra minute with my hands, just to cover my bases.

Once you are done, the dough should be smooth (like a baby's butt!) and easy to work with.  Lightly grease the bowl so the dough doesn't dry out and cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise 1-2 hours.

While you are waiting, clean up your mess right away. It makes life easier. it also makes you seem like an awesome wife. ...or husband.

Then you're done and you can do whatever you want with the dough. You can also keep it in the fridge for a few days until you're ready to use it and I haven't tried to, but I'm sure you can also freeze it.

Today, we're going to make what I like to call "Fat Sticks" fat sticks are cheesy bread sticks that they serve at the pizza place (Roy's Pizza, formerly: FAT JACK'S) in my hometown. Sometimes when I'm homesick and reminiscing, I think of them and drool. This recipe is pretty close, and I kind of made it up.

Ingredients

1/2 of the pizza dough you just made
1/4 pound of grated mozzarella cheese (let's be honest, you can be much more generous w/ cheese if you want)
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder (or more if you like garlic, or you could use minced garlic if you want)
salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees with your pizza stone in the oven. (If you don't have a pizza stone, you can just flip a cookie sheet upside down.)

Prepare your dough on some parchment paper (makes it easier for transferring to stone or cookie sheet) and flatten it out to about 12 inches (if can be a circle, a square, a heart, a misshapen blob, it doesn't matter.)
*Here's a fun tip, if you're a poor newlywed without a rolling pin, you can just just use a round cup instead. That's what I do, because every time I go to buy a rolling pin the cheap ones are out of stock and then only have the 20 dollar ones.

In a small bowl melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave. (about 10-15 seconds on high should do it) once butter is melted add the oregano, garlic powder, and salt&pepper to butter and stir. then dump the butter mixture onto the flattened dough and spread it all over that baby. (i recommend doing this when you make pizza too, it makes the crust better)

 

Then sprinkle the cheese all over and pop it in the oven for about 9-10 minutes or until bubbly and golden (I think you'll know when it's right.) Let it cool about 2 minutes before serving. Serve with marinara or my personal fave, ranch.

So, I accidentally bought reduced fat mozzarella (don't do this! gross.) and it did not cook pretty. I refuse to show an unappetizing picture of this. So I'll so what it's supposed to look like instead.

                             

Let me know how you like it!

sippin on juice and juice.

here's what we're up to.

recently we watched this movie (it's available on netflix and huluplus)







And needless to say, we were inspired. not only were WE inspired, but the entire Giddens clan was inspired. some pulled out and dusted off their old juicers and others bought brand new ones.  We wanted to get our juice on. 
this weekend while we were in Valdosta celebrating Kendall & Laney's first birthdays, we tried out some juicing as a family. 
here's some testimonials:
April: "It's actually pretty delicious."
Nana: "I think you could just blend and it would be just as good."
Pop: "Can I juice a honey glazed ham?"
Thomas: "No way, I'm not juicing. I don't eat food!"
Jamie: "I'm pregnant. Where's the bacon?" 
John: "I'm going full force on a juice fast. Next stop, total health transformation."
Angie: "John, get me a Dr. Pepper. STAT." 
Alex: "Taylor bribed me with money to drink some mean green juice. I would have done it for free."

As for Taylor and I, we're trying it out. Slowly. We borrowed nana and pop's Jack Lalane juicer and Taylor tried it out last night. I actually, really don't mind the juice, but it always comes out warm and I like my beverages to be icy cold. So I went ahead and tried out this smoothie recipe (which I found on, of course, PINTEREST) in the blender which proved to be satisfying and delicious:
1/2 Cup Frozen Peaches1/2 cup frozen mango2 bananasa couple of handfuls of fresh spinachIcea little bit of water to help blend
Blend, and enjoy.
Super easy, super delicious.
Anyway, back to the juicing. Juicing is fun, and it's super good for you. The guy in the movie went on 60 day juice fast and did nothing but juice. He lost 80 pounds and was able to completely wean himself off of his autoimmune disease meds. I'm not sure that we will ever get to the point where we go total juice, but I would really like to see us get into juicing regularly. we only get this one body and i want to start taking better care of it. 

FRESH BEETz

I'm not totally loving the juice yet though, but I feel like there are so many options out there that maybe I will find something that I like, or maybe it's like beer and I will eventually acquire the taste for it. I know Taylor is pretty excited about juicing and I think it's important to support him. It would probably be really hard for him if i was eating bacon and chocolate while he's trying to be healthy. 
if you are interested in trying out some of the juice recipes that we're all trying, you can click HERE!

party in our house and our mouths.

Yesterday was Taylor's Birthday. To celebrate, I attempted to throw him a party on Saturday, which ended up being really small, but also really fun. Niki came to stay from Atlanta and Thomas came up from Valdosta. We also had some new friends from our ward come over.

On the actual Birthday, we didn't really have a party. But I gave him some gifts and made him a roast. Gifts which included, Birthday Chex. Get it? 

It just so happens that it was also Lux's birthday. We didn't really do anything for her except she wore her snuggie like a boss and I kept calling referring to her as "birthday." I also gave her a bone. She only cared about the bone.

Now to the most important part of this blog post. There was this recipe I found on pinterest for Caramel Buttermilk Syrup that claimed that it would change my life. Well it was not kidding. I decided to finally make it tonight and just have breakfast for dinner.

The recipe is super simple and can be found by clicking: here. 

Just as a warning, this is not healthy at all, in any way. But the holidays aren't about eating healthy are they?

I swear I wasn't trying to be trendy by storing it in a mason jar, that's just all I had.

Taylor has been on this kick of taking pictures of things I cook for him.

It could be because he's worried that my kick of cooking things will fade.

After I made this I was getting my panties in a bunch stressing about how it was too runny, but it thickens up as it cools. I'm probably gonna make this for the fam this weekend for Christmas festivities. I just want everyone to try it once. 

In other news, not having a dishwasher kinda sucks. The only plus side is that it forces us to keep up on our dish washing. Because I HATE dirty kitchens. I hate food mess. So if you have a dishwasher, don't take it for granted. 

she bes domestic.

I have been working on living room decor since we moved in. The search for throw pillows/fabric to make throw pillows has been nothing short of a nightmare. Until recently. I found some fabric at Ikea when we stopped there on our way out of Atlanta. (I didn't even know they had fabric) and then I found some mustard throw pillows at world market for only 10 bucks. Then I found some aqua-ish damask-ish fabric at Joann for the long pillow.

Using my sewing machine has been a little bit of a nightmare cause my presser foot lifter broke in half (even after we glued it.) so even though making pillows should be a simple task, even for a sewing noob like me, it took like 3 days and a couple of cut up fingers. BUT ALAS, I have finished.

the color isn't very good cause this is a cell phone picture.

the pink a little bit darker than that.

I won't lie to you though, those pillows look like a 5 year old made them. but they work for now so it's fine.

in other household news, we finally got our crock pot which I may have already mentioned, and so I went a little crazy with the whole "LET'S SLOW COOK!" kind of thing.  I've made pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, chili (from scratch!), a Sunday roast, and the list will continue on. Tomorrow I am making this http://pinterest.com/pin/82542605640025936/

And I actually really love using the Crock Pot. It's been fun. Especially since we don't have a dishwasher and there are less dishes to wash. I'm not going to go into super detail but I just wanted to share a recipe with you if you ever feel like slow cooking. Cause that is what my life is now, getting excited about crock pot recipes.

This one is Taylor's Faaaavorite

Crock Pot Chicken

In the bottom of a crock pot melt 1/2 cube butter

Add 4 chicken breasts, thawed.

2 packets dried italian dressing mix

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

Garlic as desired

Let it cook for anywhere from 4 to 5 hours, and about an hour before serving add 1 pkg of cream cheese and 1 regular sized sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice or noodles.

I know I should have taken a picture of it but it looked like vomit, it was delicious though.

Also, just as an added bonus, I would like to share with you the most simple recipe of all time. Whenever I would tell people about this they were like, "yeah, I already knew that" so I think it was one of those things that everyone knew but me, but I'm gonna share it on the off chance that someone out there was like me. And apparently this is a weight watcher recipe, just what I heard.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

In a mixing bowl combine the following:

1 package spice cake mix

1 package chocolate chips

1 15 oz can of pumpkin

Preheat oven to 375. Drop spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. bake 8-10 minutes.

Keep an eye on these because they look pretty much the same in dough form as they do cooked. Since they are so cake-like you can stick a toothpick or a fork in them to check if they're done. That's what I do.

today is a happy day.

Before I give a little update about the weekend events. I wanted to share some good news!

This may not seem like a big deal to anyone since I haven't really kept people totally informed about how Taylor's job was really going to work. His job was supposed to entail "extensive traveling", which was sad for me, but it was fine, because he had a job. Until I learned that it could mean we would have to live in other places for extended periods of time. This made me sad because all I really want is to have stability, and a place where we call home. So we weren't totally sure if we would get to LIVE in Savannah.

BUT today, we found out that his boss has decided to basically switch Taylor and another guy's job responsibilities so Taylor will mostly work at the office in Savannah! This might sound like a bummer to people who like to travel but this makes me REALLY happy. Especially because this decision was based on the fact that Taylor is married and the other guy is not, so he is more flexible. We are so blessed that Taylor found a job that pays well, has great benefits, and are understanding of family being important.

Anyway, back to our regular scheduled programming...

So Taylor's sister, April got here on Wednesday (she's still here). And then my cousin, Mallorie got here on Friday (she flew home on Monday). It's really great to have some familiar faces around!

Ever since we got married, Taylor has had a hard time letting go of the fact that we do not participate in Young Single Adult activities at church. So when he found out his sister was going to be in town during the big YSA Homecoming Dance in Birmingham (UK, not Alabama) he was ALLLL over that. So Taylor dragged us all up there on Friday night.

It was a little awkward being married at a YSA dance, but meh. We all had fun.

On Saturday morning we headed over to Salisbury to see Stonehenge. It was basically everything I expected it to be. BUT it was really cool to be able to say that we saw Stonehenge. Also, the weather wasn't ideal, but we had to pay money to look at rocks, so we were gonna make it count.

this picture makes me LOL.

After Stonehenge we stopped at restaurant called Little Chef. From what I gather, the restaurant is similar to Waffle House, but obviously not the same. When I ordered pancakes with a side of eggs the waitress thought it was weird, and I in turn, thought she was weird. Mallorie and Taylor got some delicious posh hot chocolate.

THEN we headed off to Oxford to explore the Castle. Which in all honesty, was pretty lame. Especially because we didn't even get to go to into the crypt like they normally let you. But they said we could come back for free, so at least that.

the view from the top of the tower was gorgeous though.

On Sunday after Church, we decided to take a drive through a couple of the Cotswold villages. 

that is a SLUG. GROSS.

And then we even stepped into a church for an Evensong service.  SO MUCH CHURCH IN ONE DAY!

After Evensong we headed home so that I could make dinner.

I don't really want to talk about dinner because it was a huge embarrassing failure. I tried to make this: Coconut Chicken with Apricot Sauce

But because of a tiny mistake, it changed the entire course of the dinner outcome. and I ended up making what I now call Accidental Apricot Chicken Pastry.

Everyone claims to have enjoyed it, but I think they were being nice. It was edible but not delicious. But oh well, no one starved.

 I WILL REDEEM MYSELF AND MAKE THE RECIPE THE RIGHT WAY THOUGH.

Until next time...