High Five for Friday

I'm late again. Not surprised the time, huh?  Well not much has been happening around here this week, as the semester is coming to an end and I'm trying to be a good student and prep for finals (also not happening as much as it should). I'll have a month off from school, and I've pretty much "booked" all my weekends and have a long list of things I'd like to do with my free time!  But before I get too excited about that, let's talk about this week:

1. One of the things I'd like to do while off is to bake and decorate sugar cookies. I follow several blogs on this and it looks so fun and pretty! So after wasting a large amount of my life mulling over these beauties, I ordered myself a variety of (cheap!) cookie cutters and have big plans for them over the break!

2. Our sweet tooth kicked in after dinner on Thursday, and instead of our usual Steel City Pops outing, we decided to try something else (gasp!): Edgewood Creamery. They had lots of flavors of ice cream, and after sampling a few, I selected Special Praline and Jesse got Chocolate Raspberry. They were both a-mazing! I believe  they make there own waffle cones , which is exactly what I was craving.

3. Friday was the last day of class for Spring semester!!!

4. As  I've mentioned before, we are involved with a Community Group through our church.  Whenever we are digging into the Scripture for the week and trying to understand the meaning of it or what is going on at that time, a few people have study Bibles and are always like, "Well, this is a reference to Romans Job 2:4," for example, and we will turn there and it often brings clarity to what we are currently reading. So, we bought a study Bible and it arrived this week. It is HUGE, and we weren't sure how to use it at first with all of the numbers and letters sending you various places to look. But we got the hang of it, and I think it will be a great resource to help us understand the Bible better while we study.

5. A friend shared these videos with me, and they are quite hilarious. If you are a cat or dog owner, you can relate. Enjoy here and here!

High Five for Friday

Happy Friday everyone!

1.  First on the list this week is some SUPER good news for us to share with you. It should have it's own post, but for the sake of time (and preventing me from rambling) the update on Jesse's job status is in: they did NOT ask him to move to a site. He is here to stay in Birmingham for at least a few more years.  This did come with news that he is moving out of his now, temporary, position into another position, which means more training, etc, but we are definitely praising the One Most High for working things out for us.

2.  One of our exams this week was offered on two separate days (rare), and I chose to take it on the earlier day, leaving me with Thursday and Friday pretty much free from school.  It was nice to wake up later, enjoy my coffee, and relax, without the next thing to study looming overhead.  Which freed me up for number 3.

3.  Jesus Culture with Kim Walker-Smith came to Birmingham last night! As soon as I heard the news on the radio we immediately decided to go.  They have become a favorite band of ours. Their music is simple but they are so talented, especially Kim's voice. It was it Boutwell Auditorium, which is a bowl-shaped arena with a stage at one end. It took me back to the days of church group youth conferences. And it felt so good to be worshiping with a room of thousands of other believers. We did realize however, that we don't know many of their newer songs, but they were beautiful as usual.  If you're not familiar (or even if you are) take a listen here , here, and here to some of my favorites.

4.  Today we got to meet the incoming first year optometry students with a nice lunch and picnic dinner. They looked so young and innocent.  They just don't know what they are about to get themselves into.  But it was only a short time ago that I was there too. All of this hard work will pay off one day!

5.  I did a Pinterest spoof a few weeks ago, but we finally found a spot for it this week and hung it on the wall. It is at the end of the hall and is a nice reminder which can be seen as we walk in the door.

Earth Day 2013

Today is Earth Day, and today my car just happens to be loaded down with all of our recycling from the past... few months. I'm short on time, and wish I could elaborate more.  For more information please read last year's post HERE (apparently I made an oops last year and messed up scheduling my post, so you may have missed it then), and enjoy the facts below:

Treat our Earth better to make it a happier place.  We can all do our part! Again, see last year's post on our efforts to protect our environment and be more responsible with what we use and throw away.  I honestly don't know how many of the above numbers are true... how many steel cans can power a TV for a certain amount of time, but what inspires me to recycle the most is thinking of the amount of trash that we, as Americans, produce each day! And all of that goes to the landfill.  Once it's taken "away" from our homes we don't think about it anymore. But, the truth is that it still exists, and will for a very long time. Piles and piles of it - plastic, metals, etc.  We are a society of convenience and disposable products, but there are many things that can be reused or at least recycled so that the materials can be used again. Think about your trash and your purchases - how long you can keep it or how many times you can use it before it becomes trash.

From Our Kitchen: Me and Trisha

Me and Trisha Yearwood go way back.  There was a time in my life when I wanted to be cowgirl.  I loved going to the annual Crenshaw County Rodeo, and wanted a horse.  There is even photographic evidence of me in full on cowgirl gear "riding" around the yard with my stick pony. Hat and all.  Well, during this time I also had a mega-crush on Billy Ray Cyrus (I would have never broken his achy-breaky heart), and I watched a LOT of CMT (that's Country Music Television), especially the weekend morning countdowns.  My all-time favorite country song (I'd go so far as to say even to this day) was Trisha's "She's in Love with the Boy."  In case you've forgotten, please take a moment to reminisce:

  (my favorite line 2:53 through 3:23)

So, why all of this country music talk?  I had a pork loin that I thawed for a dinner this week, but I wasn't sure what to do with it (besides my go-to herb and bake).  Then I decided I wanted to throw it in the crock pot and have a magically ready dinner waiting for us when we returned from school/work, so I looked for recipes and immediately came across "Trisha Yearwood's Crock Pot Pork Loin."  I figured since Trisha didn't let me down back in 1995 she wouldn't let me down now.

Click HERE for my version of Trisha's Crock Pot Pork Loin
(which you can print if you'd like).

It was fall-apart tender, and I enjoyed the gravy it made from the cooking liquid.  Gravy is not something I cook very often, maybe because it's somewhat reserved for special meals like Thanksgiving, but it's so easy to whisk together (literally), especially at the end of this dish.  The pork would be delicious without the gravy, but it definitely adds to it. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 to 3 lbs of pork loin, I used a package from Sam's Club which contains two 1 - 1 1/2 lb loins, and this recipe turned out just fine!  I realize my picture is not all that beautiful.  The recipe suggested skimming out the bits of pork from the liquids before turning it into gravy, but I just omitted that step (for the lack of a proper strainer) and continued on. Tasted great, looks a little weird. (Pardon that.)

I believe I remember hearing that Trisha had a cookbook at some point in the recent past, but I never looked into it.  This dish was a success.  One I'll add to the books to throw into our meal "rotation."  So I may have to check out more of her recipes.  Often, southern cooking is full of lots of bad things, but this one is pretty decent - no salt or butter. Just a few ingredients to make the pork flavor shine.

Thanks Trisha!

I should also mention that I rarely use the crock pot for meals, even though I love coming home to a fully cooked dinner that's ready to eat! (As in, today when I opened the door the smell of yummy pork smacked me in the face and I was a bit overjoyed for a few seconds because I had kind of forgotten that I had prepped it this morning... which took all of five minutes or less!)  I know there are plenty of cookbooks out there just for crock-pot meals, but they give me the impression that throwing any meal into the crock pot turns out wonderfully delicious, and I just don't believe them.  Do you have any crock-pot favorites?  Share your recipe or a link to it in the comments section!

High Five for Friday

A quick round up of the High Five of this week before bedtime!

1. Our optometry class ordered our first round of equipment this week!  A little closer to feeling like "real" doctors! Come July I will be rolling around a case full of diagnostic tools (most of which I probably won't know what to do with at that point)!

2. So I'm kind of cheesy and would like to make a "Bucket List."  I have one in my mind, but I forget things. And as you know, I love to make lists, so I was on the hunt for a cute journal to write everything down in.  Thanks to the wonderful world of Etsy, I found this one.  Jesse and I plan to use it together. It has 4 separate sections, so we will both have an individual-based bucket list in separate sections, and then fill the other two up together.  I also chose this style book because it is loose enough to fill with pictures and small memorabilia as we complete each item.  So when we're old and gray we can look back on all of these awesome things we did together.  (Aawww...)

3. Every now and then a new optometry club, called the Private Practice Club, meets on campus. I missed the first meeting, but thanks to my friends raving about the wealth of information they obtained, I attended the second meeting, and I am SO glad I did.  The speaker was a very inspiring and successful optometrist and businessman who encouraged us to write out our vision of how we want to practice one day.  He did this himself as he started his practice from scratch, making a mission statement for his office and all his decisions are made to fulfill this vision.  He spoke quite the truth when he explained that right now as students is the time that the reasons we wanted to be here in the first place are most fresh on our minds, and it's now when we need to analyze our vision for ourselves and our future practices so that we never lose sight of our initial purposes and goals.  So, I need to add that to my bucket list...or to-do list, I guess.

4.  We enjoyed a fun game/dinner night last night with our friends Mike and Kelsey playing "Ticket to Ride" (which helped brush me up on a little geography).  They have a vast game closet. They are awesome.

5. Wisteria is blooming!  It is beautiful, and almost gone. Sometimes happiness is just that simple.

Introducing - a new kitchen gadget

I love fruit. Almost every fruit I know. And probably some I don't know, I just haven't tasted them yet to find out how much I would love it.  This doesn't mean that we always have fruit in the house. We'll go spells with lots of fruit filling the fridge and sometimes without it.  It's those spells of "without" that make me realize how delicious fresh fruits are. Then I buy all the fruit in sight (apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, sometimes a grapefruit or mango,...those are the usuals) and we try to eat it all before it goes bad (we are not always successful).

But my favorite of all favorites is pineapple. And I never buy it. Ever. I've just never cared to attempt to cut away that dangerous looking thick skin, and the pre-cut containers are just too expensive. Now realize, I'm talking FRESH pineapple. For those of you kids who think the canned stuff is the same thing - think again (or if you think you don't like pineapple because you don't like what you've tasted out of a can). You have NO idea what you are missing out on!  I've eaten plenty of the canned so-called "pineapple" in my life, but once you have a bite of real pineapple you will forever be changed.  You should run to the store right now (after you finish reading this, of course), buy one, and taste it in all of it's juicy, sweet glory.

So where am I getting this deliciousness if I don't buy it myself?  You might find me gorging on it at any sort of party or shower where it is present. Or picking it out of a fruit bowl (no shame). 

But recently I came across an article reviewing a pineapple slicer. Maybe I'm late to the kitchen gadget game, but I didn't know such a thing existed that would allow me such easy access to my beloved fruit. I thought about purchasing one, but the one I had read about was $20 and I just wasn't sure it was worth it. Not too long after that I was at a friend's house and she had fresh pineapple (Lord bless her) which she had sliced quickly with her handy pineapple slicer!  Exposure #2 (now I'm really wanting one). Previously mentioned pineapple slicer got added to the Amazon wishlist. Not too long after that I was checking up on my deal websites and there, right before me, was a deal for a pineapple slicer for no more than 6 bucks.  Thanks to Amazon, free shipping, and some man in Hong Kong my pineapple slicer was on it's way! (Slowly, but surely.)

Last weekend while grocery shopping at Aldi pineapples were 99 cents (what?!), so I got one in hopes that the slicer would arrive in time before I had to figure out how to hack into it. When it arrived this past weekend I immediately came back from the mailbox, washed it, and put it to the test.  And this is what happened:

I prepped my station: cutting board, knife to cut off the top, and the slicer.

Then I lined up the core with the center circle of the slicer.

Then I basically screwed in the slicer with just a little pressure.

Next, I pulled out the slices:

Then took off the handle and released the rings:

Chop, chop, chop. Ready to eat! And eat, I did.

One of the best $6 I've ever spent.  Even looking through the ones Amazon offers there are all kinds - plastic, stainless steel, ones with interchangeable cutting rings for various sized pineapples, some that slice and then another attachment that quickly cuts the whole stack into wedges (who knew?!). So check them out for yourself if you're interested. Or keep an eye out on this one and see if the price drops again to score it for cheap. 

What do you think? Do you like pineapple, too? Or do you have another fruit obsession? Do you have this handy slicer?

High Five for Friday

Well guys, my birthday week is rounding out (officially over now that I've taken longer to post). A celebration of another year has come and gone.  I'm another year older, another year wiser, another year... ok, enough of that.  But seriously, I am so thankful for all of the birthday wishes and cards that I received yesterday.  This was my first year with a smartphone and the Facebook App and it was really sweet to have my phone buzzing all day with birthday love.

How about the High Five of the week:

1.  Obviously my birthday. Quite the highlight, if I do say so myself.  Not much actually happened because the majority of the week leading up to it consisted of 4 exams. But they all were over on my birthday so I just enjoyed being able to relax after that.  Husband did spoil me with this (which I may have picked out myself.... and may have carried before my actual birthday):

I'm in lurve.

2.  For some reason I was in a burger mood, so birthday dinner was at MugShots Bar and Grill. It was our first time there, as well as our friend Mike who came along with us.  With the 3 of us we conquered the appetizer, but the enormous (and delicious) burgers got the best of us. Well, the best of Mike and me; Jesse somehow managed to down it all.

Excuse the blurriness. Believe me, we were looking fly.

3.  Last night we got all dolled up and had dinner with optometry school friends and their significant others. They were headed to the Eye Ball (our school's semi-formal type dance party) afterwards, and we were losers who didn't go, but instead enjoyed a movie night cuddled on the couch (... I might have fallen asleep at some point). But it was fun to get dressed up for dinner and we had a great time chatting outside of class. On our way home we decided to make a spontaneous pit-stop at a gelato place only to find out their freezer that holds all the gelato we've heard such wonderful things about was broken!  So we, over-dressed as we were, grabbed a latte and an enormous chocolate cupcake and stayed a while listening to the band in the corner beautifully sing some worship songs.

4.  Since I'm not following the rules High for for FRIDAY, anyway, I'll add this bit in from last Friday: Steel City Pops opened a new location, and of course we couldn't go without celebrating it with them.  (Plus pops were only $1!) You guys know how much we love this place, so I am SO happy for their success and the fact that they are thriving enough to expand.  It just goes to show when you make a product and make it right (with lots of passion), it pays off.

5.  Because most of what you hear comes from me and my girly-ness, I'll throw this one in for Jesse's sake:  he spent last weekend and some during the week sprucing up his car (he would not say it like that), sound-proofing it a bit. This involved removing ALL of the inside panels from the doors to the back of the hatch, applying all of the sound-dampening materials, and putting it all back together again.  (He has more patience than me.)  The results were good - less road noise comes in which lets you hear the sound system better. Success!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  I'm off to finally be productive with studies!