Goulash

My Hunka Hunka Burning Love and I had dinner at our mentors' house last week and were told a great story. They have 5 grown children, but often growing up they would not only have brinner (breakfast for dinner) they would also have "clean out the fridge" nights where everything came out and everyone could eat from the buffet of leftovers.

One night the dad decides to not only have "clean out the fridge" night, but he decides to make "Goulash" and literally stuck it all in one pot. When all the kids sat down for dinner eyeing this bowl of mush in front of them, his selling point was... "it has melted cheese on top!" What kid doesn't love a bowl of mystery as long as there's cheese on top?!

As I listened to this story and laughed, to my delight I also thought, "oh no, goulash cannot have a bad name it is soo delicious" (or at least the recipe I stole from a dear friend). It's not so much a clean out the fridge thing though as a, I have to go to the grocery and get everything.

So here it is: Goulash 

1 red onion
1 butternut squash
2-4 zucchinis (yellow and green)
2-4 red and green peppers (or other colors if you like)
4 cans chicken and/or beef broth (I like 2 of each and reduced sodium)
1ish LB Spicy Italian sausage (ground beef, not kielbasa style)
2-4 chopped tomatoes
goat cheese
cilantro
and all of these spices

First: It helps if you chop all the veggies first, but sometimes I just make sure the squashes are all cut and then continue cutting as I cook. So, chop all the veggies. In a big pot over medium heat with olive oil saute the onion then add the butternut squash. The squash takes the longest to cook, so the smaller the pieces the better. 

Once the squash has cooked a good bit, maybe 10 min (or enough time to cut the zucchinis) add the zucchinis. Maybe 5 min add 1 can of broth, allow to cook maybe another 5 min, add the peppers, cook 5 min, add more broth. This is not a very specific science, so add veggies and broth as you see fit. 

Second: While the veggies are cooking, in a separate pan brown the Italian sausage, drain and add to the veggies. When you add the sausage all the broth and veggies should be in the pot. Add all the spices and allow to simmer 5-10 min. The spices have no measurements and the amount you use depends on how spicy you like your food. In order from least dashes to a lot I use: salt, curry, pepper, chili, cayenne, cumin. (I use a lot of cumin) I usually save the salt until the end so I can figure out if I need it at all, just a dash or a large dash.

You have to make sure you re-hydrate after chopping all those veggies, it's seriously a workout.
Tony made me hold so he could get his drink in the photo. He said his whiskey felt left out.

Lastly: Scoop into a bowl, top with goat cheese and cilantro, eat and ENJOY! You don't need to worry about making a side of veggies because the thing is chock full of 'em. Delicious as leftovers. YUMM YUMM YUMM!

Thank You, Ashley!

A dear friend of mine, we'll call her CB, is having a baby in March. Another dear friend, we'll call her Super, got married on Jan 24th. It just so happened that both of these dear friends run in the same circle as all my other best friends... (you following?) Since all our friends would be in town to celebrate the bride, Super, I thought, well let's have a baby shower for CB, and see just how much celebrating we can do in one weekend.

CB already has most everything she needs for the little baby girl that will join their family, so there was really no big ticket item we could all go in on. Instead, we all chipped in some mullah and got her a large gift card to Babies R Us for her to spend as she finds the need (probably on diapers and wipes once the baby is here). So we got her some diapers and wipes to start the show and I decided I'm make her a baby quilt to wrap it all up in. 

What I haven't mentioned is that I decided this 2 weeks before the shower... good idea? Definitely! BUT only if you have a friend like Ashley!! THANK YOU, ASHLEY!

Exhibit A                                                                                                     Exhibit B

First, Ashley gave me the majority of the little fabric squares, she helped me pick out the others at the fabric store, as well as let me know how much I'd need of each and picked out the batting. When I got home I hypothetically placed all the squares where I thought they looked best (Exhibit A). I figured out how big the squares would have to be, given how the lady at the store cut the material, I didn't have much choice. I'd probably still be sitting there in Exhibit B if it weren't for Ashley.

Did I mention this was my first quilt? Ok, I kinda did another one, but that was 10 years ago, my mom held my hand the whole time and I wasn't patient enough so it turned into a pillow (It was also all by hand, where for this one I used the sewing machine... sooo much faster).

Exhibit C

Ashley helped me figured out how big the middle white sections needed to be, then based on how large the entire front was she helped me figure out how big I needed the back and border. Exhibit C is where I should have pinned the squares starting in the middle and working out rather than lining them up on one end. Don't look too closely at the final product... the squares totally don't line up... but this is homemade with love. Did I mention this was my first quilt?

Ashley showed me how to pin the front, batting and back together to do the actual quilting. Luckily, I do already know how to use a sewing machine, so she was off the hook on that element.

Waahaaa Laaahaaa!! The final product, done in 2 days... who needs 2 weeks? All in all, I think it turned out pretty cute. Did I mention this is my first quilt?

I've totally got the quilting bug now, so if anyone needs/wants one, just let me know. I promise, I learned some vital lessons and yours hopefully won't have as many errors love marks.

Cannot wait to meet baby girl Catalino!!!

Christmas in Review

My Hunka Hunka Burning Love and I just celebrated our second Christmas as a married couple. Any adult can understand that the holidays can be a very trying, exhausting and stressful time. We, like everyone else, have also found this to be true, but I think we're making large strides in just a short time and learning how to take advantage of time with our families and eliminate as much negativity as possible.

This year we got to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the visit from Santa Clause three times. We started at my parents' house with everyone home... Mom, Dad, Chris, Erica, Hunter, Skyler, Emmie Lu, Kase, ME, Adele, My HHBL, me (that's 12 in case you were counting). We had Christmas early so my oldest brother could be back home so his kiddos could wake up in their own beds Christmas morning.


We visited Christmas Town at Busch Gardens.

...So we embraced it!

We got photo bombed...

Most parents don't really get a vacation either at the beach in the summer, or during the holidays. The kids are fighting, jumping into large puddles in the swamp or babies are crying. However, I'm not too worried for the loss of vacations, as long as my niece Skyler is around. She is the sweetest and kindest little 6 yr old I've ever met. She can handle two 2 yr olds (with very strong personalities) like it's nothing. I'm so excited to see how her caring heart will continue to grow with her.

We also got to celebrate WILZAR Christmas with all of us. 10 Wilsons (one not photoed) and 12 Luzars makes for 22 Wilzars. Now that all "the kids" are parents with their own kids and we scatter the map from Virginia to Florida it's a little more difficult for us all to be together, but this year was a true Christmas Miracle! We tried to figure out when Wilzar Christmas started and while we couldn't completely decide, it's been at least 20 years... and counting.

After Christmas in the Burg we headed to My HHBL's parents' home for our 2nd Christmas, followed by our 3rd and final Christmas in our own town and our own home. (Don't get the wrong idea, we weren't alone - we got to celebrate actual Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my mom, dad, Kase, ME, Adele and my Aunt Beth).

So now 2 days into 2015, I'm hoping and praying for a great...ok I'll settle for even just a good year. We have one year of marriage under our belts, there's only 1.5 years left of law school, my HHBL is currently in SE Asia and will be for the next two weeks, one of my best buds is getting married in late January, another best bud is having a baby, another one is having twins (yikes!) and who knows what other fun and exciting things await us in 2015... CHEERS!

Take Comfort

A dear friend's family recently had a very sad and heart breaking tragedy occur. As a group of people surrounded her, religious affiliations mostly unknown, many of them had similar words of comfort, "I don't believe God wills things like this, everything happens for a reason." At first I found it perplexing that this group of people, with different levels of belief in God, would all find solace in believing that terrible things don't just happen to innocent people for no reason. Is this because they want comfort in a world where evil exists or because it's actually true?

As I thought about this more it dawned on me that many of the phrases and sentiments we use to comfort and console one another, Christian and non-Christian alike, are very basic and biblical principles. Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." My friends are right, God doesn't want or cause terrible things to happen, his desire is for us all to prosper and to live with hope. It amazes me that while our Nation continues to take God out of everything the word of the Lord still infiltrates our everyday language and lives.

Whether someone is churched or not, the Bible has proven itself so real by the fact that even people who do not know the Lord are using his words to relate with one another. This really shouldn't surprise me all that much, the Bible tells us that this is true, Psalm 19:1-4, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." Then in the New Testament we're told again, Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." The glory of the Lord is all around us. You don't have to go to church or have heard a single word from the Bible. He made the world a beautiful, complicated and wondrous thing to reflect his image and his nature so that all men may know him. Whether those friends realize it or not, they are testifying to the reality that God is real and active in our lives.

I'll close with a line that one of my favorite pastors usually says after he's finished reading the scripture, "this is the word of the Lord, it is given to us in love, and it is absolutely true."

Giving Thanks

My family has never taken on the ever infamous Thanksgiving tradition of going around the table and saying what we're thankful for. Perhaps it's just hard enough getting us all to sit at the same time, maybe it's because saying grace takes long enough and we're gluttons who just want to eat the delicious hot meal before us or maybe by the time dinner gets around we're all just too exhausted from sitting on the couch watching football the day of cooking. Regardless of the reasoning, this year I'd like to take a bit of time and really reflect on what I'm truly thankful for and could not imagine my life without.

• Jesus' immense love, saving grace and unending mercy.


• My Hunka Hunka Burning Love


• Living so close to family and getting to be a regular presence in the life of growing nieces.


• Other family members who aren't close, but are willing to drive a really long way, with three kids, to celebrate and spend time with us.


• My mother's willingness and diligence in reading my blog posts immediately upon publishing and letting me know of all the words I misspelled or misplaced punctuation what a great job I did. And everything else she does to love me and who she is.


• Obviously the usuals: health; a warm house; food on the table; freedom; wealth (we don't have much, but we have much more than many others).


• Friends with whom to celebrate, cry, rejoice, play and talk into the night.


• A job


• The gift that is delicious food


• Laughter and games


• Blaring out and singing along to Christmas music with my HHBL


• A warm, cozy and comfortable bed where I like to snuggle up and pretend I'm in the clouds.

Some of these things are a little more fun than the dramatic line "truly thankful and could not imagine my life without", but none the less they are what make up the small things in life that I do not care to take for granted.

Happy One Year Anniversary, My HHBL!

HURRAY, WE DID IT! WE MADE IT A WHOLE YEAR!

And what a year it has been!!

My Hunka Hunka Burning Love started his first year of law school on top of our first year of marriage; it was the first year for a lot of things...

 My HHBL killed our first Christmas tree

We won the Olympics

Our first "honeymoon" to San Diego

We sold a car, we bought our first car

We celebrated with friends



We welcomed the newest member and first grandchild to the Greene family

Baby mama in blue, baby papa in purple, baby Layla in pink.

 We tried loved our families well



  
My HHBL joined my family for our beach vacation for the first time
 
We took some great road trips
 
We went to a wedding at an aquarium with a private sea lion show and a beluga whale

We successfully found our way through a mystery corn maze (in 30 minutes)

My HHBL had shoulder surgery

Baby, I love you to the moon and back and am so grateful and thankful that we've made it one year and that we have 75, if we're still alive, but remember, I get to die first, left to go.

XOXOXOXO

Happy Autumn

Photo/art credit to Katie Daisy.

As of Monday, September 22 at 10:29 p.m. autumn is officially here! I LOVE FALL! It is my favorite season by far. My favorite used to be spring, and I can't really pinpoint why that has changed, but nevertheless it has. I still love spring though. I want two weeks of summer, for the beach, two weeks of winter, for Christmas and New Years, and then I want the rest to be split between fall and spring!

Things to love about Fall!

• Apple picking
• First fires in the fireplace
• Snuggling under warm blankets
• The colors changing on the leaves - The Blue Ridge is an incredible place to see this
• The crunch of leaves beneath your feet
• Pumpkin patches and a corn maze
• Pumpkins and mums on people's doorsteps
• Burberry perfume - it is fall in a bottle. One spritz and you're cuddled up on the couch; eating something warm; smelling fires, deep tanons of red wine and brightly colored crisp leaves
• Brunswick stew, chili (red and white), jambalaya, gumbo, etc.
• Football and tailgates
• My Hunka Hunka Burning Love's birthday
• Going on walks with my HHBL and handing him every beautiful leaf, so that by the end he has an entire bouquet of the richest reds, oranges and yellows
• The bright, chilly breeze across your cheeks and through your hair
• Wearing scarves!

Welcome Fall, I'm so glad you're here!