Summer food: make your tummy happy

I love Monday mornings after a long work weekend. It's so nice to sleep in and drink coffee and catch up on blog reading and watch Hoda and Kathie Lee. The work weekend wasn't too bad. It did include a lot of horrible, awful smells. I'll leave it at that. But we had a potluck yesterday with meatball subs and peanut butter pie and it was amazing.

So this morning I have a confession to make. I like to eat. (Shocker, I know.) And I like to cook. Probably my favorite time to cook is the summer because of all the fresh food. It feels like less work because you just take already delicious fresh foods and put them together to make something really yummy. So I have some pics and links to recipes to share!

1. Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins

Local grown strawberries from a stand on the side of the road: the best ever!

2. Frittata: apple chicken sausage, new potatoes, spinach, onion, parm cheese, and eggs

Happy breakfast to me

3. Margarita pizza: any pizza crust you like (but make it thin!), rub with olive oil and garlic, fresh mozzarella cheese, homegrown tomatoes, and fresh basil

Best summer dinner.

4. Watermelon margaritas

Made from the best watermelon I've had in a long time

(Note: I hate buying watermelons because it's such a gamble. How do you know what it will look like or taste like inside? This watermelon paid off big time.)


5. Peach cobbler: I made this a few weeks ago and Caleb didn't eat any of it. Then I came home from work one day and half of it was gone. He said it was one of the best things I've ever made. Score.

I made another one for 4th of July and ate the last bit of it for breakfast this morning. 

Good things I don't have pictures of:
1. Corn Chowder: so, so, so good. Who doesn't like fresh corn and bacon?
2. Spicy Pasta Salad: Caleb ate this for lunch for like a week and loved it
3. Zucchini Bread: I put in walnuts, cranberries, and chocolate chips. Good stuff.

And finally, a pic of my friend Stephanie with the best peach tea ever.

At this cute little cafe called The Courtyard. I'm pretty sure I drink at least a gallon of this tea when we go there.

And they have amazing food. Homemade strawberry dressing=perfection.

Ok, I'm out to try and be a little productive. We are headed for Kansas City on Wednesday night as soon as I get off of work! So excited for friends, family, and Harry Potter!

Monday Lists

It's storming like crazy this morning. Perfect for sleeping in, drinking tea, and not going anywhere. I'm trying to knock a few things off my to do list (laundry, laundry, more laundry. How two people make so much laundry is beyond me). So this is a blog post of lists. I'm in the middle of a five day off stretch which makes me forget all that is work and nursing. I love it.

1, On Friday, I had lunch and a mani/pedi with Crystal, the wife of Caleb's boss Ben. She is having a baby TODAY and needed an outing before she is trapped inside with an infant and a two year old for the rest of the summer. I took my camera along to snap some pictures of her in her final pregnant days but she was pretty miserable so I spared her. Check out this post from Christmas, she looked pregnant six months ago! We walked around the mall and people looked at her with pitying expressions. Ah, the beauty that is the final days of pregnancy.

I do love red nails.

2. We went out on Crystal and Benny's boat on Friday night. Because that is where a 10-month-pregnant woman should be: on a boat.

Cash looking sweet.

Caleb and I got to wake board some more and we are getting better. Caleb looks like a stud out there.

Hot.

Really, we just love being out on the water. Our new motto: always have a friend with a boat.

3. Caleb had to work on Saturday, which was sad. But I went to the farmer's market and got a ton of good stuff. This inspired a farmer's market dinner menu for the week. I hate wasting food but it's hard to get the best out of produce with only two people. My loot: peaches, nectarines, corn, tomatoes, basil, carrots, zucchini, squash, white onions, red onions, and potatoes.

Farmer's Market Menu

Monday: Corn Chowder, bruschetta

Tuesday: Margarita pizza

Wednesday: Burgers, potato salad, roasted veggies

Thursday: Stuffed Zucchini

Friday: Pasta Salad (for all the leftovers)

Yum. I love the farmer's market.

4. Then I took myself on a shopping trip to the mall in Johnson City. Reason #871 why June birthdays are the best: everything goes on sale in mid to late June. Also, everyone sends you birthday coupons. So you get tons of stuff for cheap-o! Just because I love a good bargain, here is my list of purchases and savings. Because you know you care about sweet deals.

From Bath and Body Works:
Lay it on Thick hand cream (the best hand lotion ever made), a large three wick candle, a medium candle in a tin, a medium aromatherapy candle, and some foaming hand soap. Original price: $56.50. Sale price:  $26.37+$2.50 tax= $28.87. Amount saved: $27.63. Cha-ching.

From Express:
Two Express favorite tee's: originally $24.90 each, on sale for $10, with $15 birthday discount+tax= $5.48. Amount saved: $44.32

From Aerie:
Five bras, seven pairs of undies, one cami: Original price: $250.50. Sale-20% birthday discount+tax=$92.16

Total spent: $126.51. Total saved: $230.29. Seriously awesome.

Ok, I'm off to bask in productivity, listen to Adele, and play Dance Central. Check back tomorrow for a birthday post! And have a great Monday.

Party with the Voths

Three 12 hour shifts: check

All patients still alive as of 7:00pm on October 13th: check

Sleeping in: check

Coffee: check

Discussion with Expedia.com customer service rep: check

Ahh. I had a delightful week of work. But a much better four day weekend with my wonderful parents in town. Yes, they decided to venture into the great land of East Tennessee. We really had a good time. Mostly it was me dragging them and Caleb around to all the things I wanted to do. But they were game. And the hubs pretended to be oh-so-excited to spend the weekend doing lots of fall themed activities. 

Day 1 (Thursday)

I have like 20 antique stores just on my street. We started at the top of the street and worked out way down. We probably shopped for like 3 hours and we didn't even make it into all the stores. Thats how many antique stores there are. Unfortunately, I have no photo evidence of the antique store adventure because Caleb had the camera at work. Don't worry, you are just missing looking at lots of really old junk.

Day 2 (Friday)

My parents and I love a good outlet mall. We have a huge one about a hour away. I thought it would be a good idea to drive down there, mostly because there is a Coach outlet. And I love Coach. (My husband can thank himself for starting this minor obsession.)

The Coach store was insanely busy with crazy women holding like 10 purses.

I didn't buy anything. Sad. Then we went to Johnson City to look at the hospital I work at. So exciting. But we did eat some bbq at this super cute bbq place called The Firehouse. It was delish and adorable and cheap. So many of my favorite things combined! It also provided a great photo op.

My parents. Don't they look great with the fire truck? Also, I used the "antique" effect in editing this pic and I think it looks way better than the original.

Day 3 (Saturday)

The most classic fall day I can think of. This was a great day.

We started with the farmer's market. Because I LOVE the farmer's market.

Delightful.

I love early morning light. Especially the way it shines through those pickled eggs. Mmmmm.

I love pumpkins. Which you would know if you were at my wedding a year ago. I got this little beauty for a whole dollar.

*Side note: See that little circle of weird light in the middle of this pic? I have a really nice camera with two great lenses and I get these sometimes. Can someone please tell me how to NOT get these little reflective light things on my pretty photos?*

Lots and lots of apples. My favorite.

Delicious.

I also purchased a cookbook at the FM. It is called the 2010 Kingsport Farmer's Market Cookbook. I wanted it as a souvenir of Kingsport. It has some great recipes such as "How to cook a possum." Perfect. I was just wondering how I would go about doing that.

Up next: Chick-fil-a breakfast. A Baker Saturday morning tradition. C and I always eat Chick-fil-a breakfast on my Saturdays off. My parents had never experienced the greatness that is the chicken, egg, and cheese bagel.

That is perfection right there.

We had to document such a positive experience.

Next: driving to Rogersville to check out the Kiewit project and to attend "Heritage Days." Thats right, readers. Another festival. SO many things I love in just one day...

The road that takes Caleb to work. I think its super cool.

Peeking through the fence at the tower cranes.

On to Heritage Days...

These mini pumpkins bring back memories of wedding pumpkins...

There were tons and tons of great booths...this was my dad's favorite.
                                                                 

This lady made yarn from Alpacka wool

Mom models a hat made from the yarn.

The alpacka and her dog.

Caleb and the Kiewit booth.

Caleb and one of the Kiewit guy's kid. I just think this is cute.

There was also tons of live music on a stage in the middle of all the booths. This kid was our favorite...by far. 

Amazing tiny child playing the fiddle. He was awesome. And hilarious.

What festival is complete without some festival food? Deep fried oreos=yummmm.

All four of us at Heritage Days.

There are so many great pics, I will probably make a facebook album. But this post is getting pretty long. And we still have one day left to go.

End of Day 3: introducing my parents to sushi. No pics of this, but it was great seeing them fumble with chopsticks and getting their first bite of raw fish. They liked it! Success.

Day 4 (Sunday)

We went to Bays Mountain Park, which is a really cool place very close to where we live. It has a planetarium and lots of animal habitats and fun stuff to see.

After getting in trouble for driving on the bike paths, we finally found a place to park and hiked for a bit. Mostly, it was just beautiful with all the changing leaves and the lake.

Love that.

All in all, it was a great weekend. We loved having my parents here!

Up next: a fabulous weekend with my husband to celebrate one year of marriage...can you believe its been a year? Me either.

Summer in Tennessee

So, I decide to start a blog. Mostly because a. I love reading other people's, b. my bff Cara thinks it would be hilarious, c. I can share pictures and such with people not on facebook like my mom and grandma, and d. because life in Tennessee is funny and just needs to be documented!


We moved June 1st and the move didn't go so smoothly but fortunately we have people like Smilin' Billie to welcome us to Kingsport!

My 24th birthday...a little nonmonumental. I spent the actual day in orientation for my j.o.b. at Johnson City Medical Center! But had a fab weekend celebrating with the hubs at Stir Fry Cafe (YUM) and going shopping!

I made the trek up to Indiana to see my cousin Alex and his beautiful bride Emily tie the knot. My brother was a handsome groomsman.

My inlaws came out for the 4th of July and we watched fireworks from the roof and participated in the Kingsport festivities on the street below.

We also went down to Gattlenburg while they were here and met Smokey the Bear.

I am literally obsessed with the farmer's market. So much cheap, delish, local fruits, veggies, and beef just blocks away from me! We have expanded our palates this summer and I am proud to say my husband will eat the occasional vegetable. The man is also eating peaches like they are going out of style. 

Of course, we took a trip back to KC to meet our new favorite nephew George, courtsey of Zach and Audrey Baker.

We just love this guy. And his parents!

There was a quick overview of our summer. Don't worry, more pictures to come. I am starting to decorate the apartment and can't wait for it to come together!


We miss our friends and family a ton but have been super blessed here in the south. A few blessings:
1. I found and started a job within 3 weeks of being here. Its certainly not perfect but who can complain about finding a job that fast in this economy??
2. Target. Its beautiful, new, and only 10 minutes away. Not kidding, we thank the Lord for this all the time!
3. Our apartment. Probably the coolest place we will ever live. And the location is great. Gorgeous wood floors, high ceilings, roof access, and more. Amazing.
4. Stir Fry Cafe: half price sushi on Saturday nights! Holla!


More blogging to come! Now off to drink my coffee and catch up on Top Chef...mmmm.


I love you all!