Italian Crunch Grilled Cheese

Ahh, what a week!  After a 6 year search, I  found curtains for the dining room.  They are just what I have been looking for all this time!  So stay tuned for a dining room make-over...well is it really a make-over if the room is the same as it was when we moved in + dining room table?  In any case, so excited!  Then right after that happened, we ended up seeing the Lego movie and tried out a new restaurant in town during an impromptu date night.  Both excellent!

Pasta with Meat Sauce

Happy Friday!!  This has been a great week!  I am loving the work I am doing at a local health department, the weather is nice (for now), and I have been pottery painting twice!  And let's not forget--it's spring!!  This weekend I hope to get a head start on some crafty things I have been wanting to do.  Should be fun!

Fruit and Chocolate Cereal Bars

It's Spring Break!  Normally, I would be very excited for this little break, but this week I was even more excited because I started my first field practicum for my doctoral program.  I know, nerdy.  But I left my job to finish my degree about 6 months ago now, and I must say that I miss contributing to projects that will be used for something more than just giving me a grade. So, this week instead of sleeping in and being lazy, I have headed off to a local health department, and it has been a great experience!  Well, everything except the 7:30am daily start time. I am definitely  not a morning person...I may or may not have taken a 3+ hour nap today when I got home.  

Carnitas

I am excited to share with you today one of my favorite recipes--carnitas.  I especially love this recipe because it is a quick and easy crock pot recipe, perfect for those busy days we all have.  Get everything ready and in the crock pot, set it in the morning and come home to some great food (and a house that smells amazing)!

St. Patrick's Day Wreath

Just when I thought spring might be coming our way, Mother Nature throws us yet another "Snowmageddon".  Well, at least that is what the weather men were predicting.  And to be clear, this would be a Southern Snowmagedden...which would be equivalent to a normal winter day in my home state of Pennsylvania.  Turns out we didn't get nearly as much snow and ice as was being predicted, but it was still enough to turn the roads into a mess, especially given that the state was already running low on salt.  The result?  A snow day!!  And I was glad for it as the highways were not plowed at the time I would have had to leave to go to class.  

Ah, what to do on a snow day?  I caught up on some work, and then I made a new wreath!  

Vanilla Cake with Buttercream Icing...and R

I start this blog post with a statement I never ever thought I would be writing...or saying...or thinking. This week I wrote my first computer program (in R)!! That's right, the girl who used to tell people that her husband did "computer stuff" has written code that actually works, although I'm not really convinced it does anything important. And even more inconceivable is the fact that I LIKED IT. That's right! I liked staring at my computer screen trying not to destroy the computer for the 5 hours it took me to write about 10 lines of code (give me a break people, I'm a beginner). So as to not bore you much more with my nerdiness (and if you want to hear more about that, just ask my brother. He loves to make fun of his nerd sister!), I will keep this short.  I am taking a class in bioinformatics this semester, which deals with methods to organize and analyze the massive amounts of data that come out of genetic studies, and it was our first assignment.  We'll see how the rest of the semester goes.    

Oh, and I also did a pretty good job decorating a really yummy cake!  More on that after the break!

Billy Joel and Brownies

My husband is a huge Billy Joel fan. He has been to now four Billy Joel concerts, including the Billy Joel and Elton John concert, which quite frankly, makes me a little jealous. So when I heard that he was on tour again and coming to our hometown, I knew we would be going! We were lucky enough to get tickets to the concert for Christmas, and headed up to Pittsburgh this past weekend to see the concert with my sister and brother-in-law. Now, I am nowhere near as big of a fan as my husband, but I definitely know and like his music. I must say that this concert was excellent. He sounded great and even added in some humor. My favorite part was during "Piano Man" when I swear every person in the stadium was singing. It was really like no "audience now you sing the song lyrics" I had ever experienced before. It was really pretty cool. And, of course, it was nice to get to spend time with James, my sister and her husband. We always have so much fun together!

I had been wanting to try this red velvet-cookies and cream brownie recipe for a while, so I decided to make and bring them with us to share! This way I got to try a new recipe and could ensure that I would not eat the entire pan (it's been known to happen)! They were definitely a hit!