a strange first

i made my first ever chicken dish! thats right, i have never made a chicken dish. i have made chicken enchiladas before, but for some reason i do not think that counts. this was the first actual legit chicken dish and it was amazing! it involved many ingredeints that do not usually let me down, broccoli, heavy cream, tomatoes, parmesan and herbs. i am really excited to make it again.

it was herb-rubbed grilled chicken with creamy orzo and i found it on annie's eats. the flavors were absolutely perfect! i actually did not even measure out the majority of the ingredients. my one recommendation is to be very careful when opening the orzo package, at least if it is the archer farms brand. you should probably just use scissors. i unfortunately found this out the hard way because i was too lazy to walk two yards and get scissors. i tried to open the package with my hands and the orzo flew everywhere!!! it also did not help that i for some reason do not own a broom. this means that i had to pick up each individual orzo pasta by hand! it was essentially like throwing rice all over the floor. i will be using scissors next time and so should you.

one thing i loved about this dish was that it also tasted really good as leftovers. i did not even get tired of eating it!

love.

the air is crisp again!

i have been welcoming my favorite season and month of the year by sprucing up my place with lovely autumn details. i love them all so very much and i love coming home in the evening and seeing them. it's absolutely perfect!

beautiful flowers and pumpkins!

an amazingly scented candle! (autumn festival by yankee candle) i seriously love autumn scents more than anything. i probably should have bought multiple.

 pretty table decorations! and candy of course. why would anyone not have candy?!?!

my amazing spider candelabra!

and now for a few lovely things from the past few weeks.

after nearly killing my basil plant due to lack of light it has come back flourishing and i have been able to pluck off leaves multiple times to make dishes a bit more delicious!

i would love to have a pale pink vespa. and it looks beautiful in front of those worn down garage doors.

i finally actually ate at cool greens! for some reason i didnt get the hummus pizza i had been dying for for the past month or so, but this wrap was delicious and a very good decision.

nothing is better than having a beautiful plant to admire while putting a presentation together.

brad and i ventured to indulge in one of my favorite foods that i had been neglecting for far too long, pho! pho ga to be exact.

 a great weekend away in dallas for ou/tx (boomer sooner!). i feel like i really needed it. and it was lovely!

i know this picture is weird, but it brings back hilarious images to my mind of dancing and other adventures. mainly hearing people scream "oh no! its the weirdo!" at the sight of brad haha!

 love.

i am thankful to be back

i had a huge freak out towards the end of the week last week. (even my word of the day on friday, axiomatic, couldnt save me) i feel that each of you can relate or at least understand how tramatic it was. basically, i somehow got locked out of all my google accounts. email, reader and even my blog! it was horrible! my first thought was "omg if someone stole my password they now have access to all of my banking information!" my second thought was "omg how will i ever get back into my blog?! it could be ruined forever!" and then i decided to try and calm down and come up with a solution. well, it was impossible to reset my password. google would not even let me do that! when i realized the reality of the situation i felt like i had to give up, but not before trying to save the blog of course. luckily firefox decided to keep me logged in so i was able to create a new google account and make myself a second author. at least that way i would be able to update. the whole thing was very irritating regardless of the author addition. i waited a few days and decided to try to reset my password again and guess what, it worked!!!! i freaked out for days for no reason! i am just super excited that all is resolved. i even deleted the second author in celebration!

and with that, i will leave you with an image of my dad bowling. because he came up and visited me this weekend and survived the student section in extreme heat. we had a great time. we won the game. he helped me get things situated for the ASHP midyear meeting in december. all was grand, great and enjoyable! unfortunately i failed to take any pictures because i was too busy shielding myself with an army themed flag.

i LOVE splenda in tea. thank you alisha. and thank you entire pot of tea i just drank. just please let me get to sleep tonight!

love.

monthly macaroni 6

i have become seriously behind on my macaroni and cheese that it feels nearly impossible to catch up! however, i will still try! i know i am calling this macaroni 6, but i made the caprese macaroni and cheese again in order to prove i'm not actually a failure at it. maybe i should have named it a redo of number 4, but i chose not too. but guess what the important part is?! it turned out perfectly perfect! no lumpy rubber bands or anything! and because of that, i feel like i have even more reason to blame it on the kraft cheese. i seriously will never use it again. i was also excited to use my new baking dish once again. i fall in love with it more each time i use it!

just look at that basil! im pretty much only excited about it because i plucked those leaves from my very own basil plant that i grew from seeds! i almost killed it in the initial stages, but it has come back pretty strong. and for that, i am proud!

i dont feel like i need to go into too much detail since i wrote about it last time. basically, it is very delicious and not rubber bandy! i just really love the caprese flavor. i may start making it in sandwich form. i am super glad i made it again without a failure!

love.

craving adventure

my life recently has been filled with irritations, but i can feel them going away as each day passes. thank goodness for that! twelve more work days are left in the clinic which means i am almost twelve days closer to having another rotation down. this will make four completed months out of the six that i have before i finally get a much needed break.

"For me, the adventures of the mind, each inflection of thought, each movement, nuance, growth, discovery, is a source of exhilaration."

~Anais Nin

thank you anais for helping me modify my views on adventure. soon i will be able to have what i would consider to be a real one. 2 months 16 days!

i love being able to see people i have not been able to see very often. i loved every minute i got to spend with them and we got to pretend we were german! woo hoo!!!

there is nothing i love more than being hungry and having free food handed to me like halloween candy. perfect way to satisfy my stomach and purse all in one try!

i am posting this picture not only because i love alisha, but because i realized it had been months since i posted a picture of people. crazy of me! i guess my main focus has been choosing what wonderful thing i can eat in order to drown out the exhaustion i have due to rotations. i wore my tulip skirt to the first game and it was perfect! i just wish you could see it in the picture. and also wish that i would remember to take pictures with people instead of only food. oh well, we all have things we need to work on!

it feels like football season was forever ago. i am so happy to be welcoming it back! the only thing i could ask for that would make it better is espn. or have a tv. the tv part is the first step.

this was one of the greatest dinners ever! laying in bed watching a movie while eating bread with brie and hummus. i then continued to bring brie for lunch until my wee brie wheel was all gone (it only took one day haha). i will soon be purchasing more!

love.

lets just stuff our faces with amazingness

alisha and i were hungry one night and decided to make ourselves a delicious gourmet dinner. we decided on artichoke ravioli from smitten kitchen before realizing how much time and work went into it. it may have taken us 3 hours to make, but it was well worth it! 

this ravioli is definitely the greatest accomplishment in my cooking endeavors thus far in my life and i am super glad that alisha was there to experience it with me! i can tell that we will be making ravioli in the future. dare i say it's possibly more delicious than macaroni?!

part of the filling for the ravioli: onion, artichoke, parmesan, parsley and other seasonings. i did fail to get a lemon while at the store, but it was really delicious regardless!

alisha came up with the fun idea to make them into different shapes. she made squares, triangles and circles! you also do not need a pasta maker for this step. im sure it would make it much easier, but a simple rolling pin worked for us. however, a wine bottle did not.

i also specifically bought the most beautiful and amazing baking dish just for this occasion! it is perfect and makes the food look even more delicious. it will become my new macaroni baking dish! once i get back on the macaroni wagon of course.

you always need bread and oil when eating italian food! and i got to use some of my grandmothers plates. perfect!

bringing it out of the oven was extremely exciting. the anticipation to try homemade ravioli took over me like i cant even explain. part of it may have been due to the fact that we had been cooking for 3 hours and i was starving, but part of it was also the fact that i was scared we spent all that time making a failed dish.

i cant even explain how wonderful that first bite was. basically, it was amazing! in fact, just writing this is making me have a craving.

it was the perfect and most delicious lunch to bring the work the following days. if you get a chance, i suggest you try it out. you wont be disappointed!

love.

"for the rest of my life...

whenever the sky is gray,

i'll remember that the blue's still there above the clouds,

and the sun's still shining.

~pauline fisk

i had a week filled with studying, being scared out of my mind and all around roughness all last week and pretty much the half week before. i did my best to appease the situation by helping myself mentally focus by having some sort of food or drink in hand at nearly all times. basically, i filled my week with delicious things. very delicious things!

cupcake from cuppies and jo. probably some of the most amazing topping on a cupcake ever! 

very delicious tea. i also fail to remember what kind it was but will not forget the package

blackberry maple cupcake from sara sara cupcakes. the actual cake part was superior to the one from cuppies and jo, but i must say that i did miss the sugar surge from the first ones frosting.

i have tried very hard to not become a coffee addict, but it seems to be happening. thanks alisha. and thanks to myself for not having much self control. at least bought some splenda for if i continue this trend. i guess that makes it better....

on an exciting note, at least that i find exciting, i finally saw eat pray love last night and loved it! my main complaint is that she did not cry on the floor properly. other than that, my desire to spend a significant amount of time in an indian ashram has significantly grown. and i think i need a home in bali or somewhere equally as exotic and beautiful!

love.