How to cook an Easter ham in a hospital

Well, really you could cook this ham anywhere. But I cooked it in a hospital. And to be completely honest with you, it was insanely delish.

What you need for your Easter Ham (Adapted from All Recipes):

- a spiral cut ham (mine was about 9 lbs, bone in)

- approximately 2 cups brown sugar

- a crock pot

-a *60cc syringe (or a for-real baster)

- tin foil

*a cc is a now unapproved abbreviation for ml. Just fyi.

My crock pot was small than my ham. So the lid didn't fit well. But a little jimmy-rigging fixed it right up. I put most of the brown sugar in the bottom of the crock pot, jammed the ham in there, patted the rest of the brown sugar on the ham, and covered it tightly with foil.

I cooked it on high for about an hour, than turned it down to low. After a total of almost 4 hours, I uncovered it to see this. Mmmm. (I did NOT uncover it for the first several hours, this is important when using a crock pot.)

I stole borrowed a (clean) 60cc syringe and basted my ham with the amazing brown sugar liquid from the bottom of the crock pot. In case you haven't seen me for awhile, you can see that I now have 20 chins. And no hair.

But don't worry, I still have high cheek bones. I basted it about every half hour for the next hour, still covering tightly with foil in between.

It smelled insanely good. Insane.

After a total of about 5 hours cook and basting time, I finagled it onto this awesome Crate and Barrel serving platter that I got for my wedding. (That I have used a total of three times now.) I syringed approximately 180cc of brown sugary liquid onto the ham. I also may have drooled on it at this point. (I kid, coworkers.)

It was basically falling off the bone. Ah-mazing. It served about 15 people with leftovers to be had.

And we ate basically for the rest of the day. All the good things you should eat with an Easter ham: deviled eggs, hash brown casserole, green bean casserole, coleslaw, rolls, and chess bars. I felt slightly ill in my workout this morning. So worth it.

My favorite quote from the weekend, after dead-lifting a man off the floor with my coworker: "You girls should do wrestling- you could tag team it."


Yep, I'm that awesome. And yes, I did fill out a full fall report. Second favorite quote? The next day, the same patient says, "I thought about getting out of bed by myself, but then I remembered what happened yesterday." Thank you, kind sir. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

As much as I hate spending my holidays in the hospital, I know that I am right where I'm supposed to be.
I am so blessed to cook a ham for coworkers, pick people up off the floor, and serve a risen Savior.

"He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come and see the place where he lay." Matthew 28: 6

Happy Easter!

Well hey 2012! How bout some taco soup?

Happy New Year! Yep, I realize this blog was a little MIA over the last couple weeks. But no fears, the Tennessee documentation has not ceased! We had a fun New Year's celebration with some friends, some sushi, and some fireworks. It was a good time. The best  part though, was that we both had the whole weekend off and got to spend some good time together. (FYI: don't got see Mission Impossible 4 in the IMAX if you are afraid of heights and you want to keep your Twizzlers down.)

But now its January. I literally just got done taking down Christmas decorations. I like to hold onto the holidays as long as possible. The best part of January is the fact that you can make some resolutions/goals/lists. And I do love a good list. I think resolutions are a tiny bit silly but making a list and a plan is super appealing to me. So I do it. 

So here are my 2012 resolutions, in list form. There is a theme. See if you can guess it.

1. Lose 5 lbs in the month of January. And every month after that until I reach my goal weight. Which shall not be disclosed at this time.

2. Give up all soda during the week. 

3. Go to the gym on all my days off. 

4. Eat at least 2 fruits and 2 vegetables every day.

5. Food journal it up!

6. Scrapbook and organize all my wedding and honeymoon things. Since I've been married for two years now and I'm not moving a bin full of that stuff anywhere else.

Yeah, these are super simple. But they need to be. Or else I won't do them at all. I was further motivated in my health driven resolution theme after I had the following exchange with the housekeeper at the hospital the other day:

Me: "Good morning!"

Housekeeper: "Hey, how are you?"

Me: "Good!"

Housekeeper: "Girl, you are really putting on some weight, aren't you?"

Me: "Umm...yeah...I guess so??" (walking away quickly)

HA. Don't worry, my feelings are unscathed. But honestly, who points that out? Thanks, housekeeper!

I have still been going to the personal trainer (who swears he can tell I'm losing weight...) and he has been attempting to help me with my basic food choices. Which include eating breakfast, not drinking soda, and not eating carbs and dairy at night. Which is super hard for me. Because when I get home from work around 8pm, all I want to eat is a bowl of cereal. Or three. But this taco soup recipe fits the bill, is delicious, and so easy! It's a Weight Watcher recipe that I got from my sweet coworker, Lynn. And it is only 2 points per cup. Amazing! And I maybe lie to my husband and say it's chili. And forget to tell him that it's kinda healthy. Oops. Get your taco soup on, New Year's resolutioners.

Taco Soup

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped

3 cans beans (any beans you want...drain kidney beans but leave all other undrained)

1 can corn, undrained

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can chopped mild green chilies, undrained

1 small (8oz) can tomato sauce

1 pkg taco seasoning mix, dry

1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch buttermilk dressing mix, dry

Brown beef and onion, drain. Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low all day. (I start that crock pot at 6am and don't even worry about it till 8pm, works great!)

This time I used 2 cans chili beans and 1 can black beans. I mixed in a cornbread muffin and put a dollop of plain Greek yogurt on top. Yum.

Oh, and I'm getting my scrapbook on. Starting right now. As soon as I fold the laundry.

Happy New Year!

Holiday Food Goodness: drinks, cookies, general yum

Ok, I did a fair amount of cooking/baking around the holidays. Not quite as much as last year, since being in Kansas for over a week took out a chunk of December. But I still got some done!

I did three kinds of cookies this year:

1. Peppermint chocolate cookies (aka Thin Mints!) I did these last year and they were delish. I never took any pics of the final product! But I did last year, so check it.

2. Pecan Pie Bars (recipe HERE): Caleb and I both thought these were ok, but they were the favorite of all his coworkers.

3. Cream Cheese Filled Snickerdoodles (recipe HERE): These were our favorite by far. We kept most of them for ourselves.

I also made these yummy little turtles the other day. I went ahead and finished them off today because they were haunting me and my weight loss. So eating them was the only rational thing to do. They are so darn good! And super easy.

I learned to make these from a kid I babysat. Here's what you need:
1. A bag of rolo candy
2. A bag of mini pretzels
3. Pecan halves (I got the small bag from the baking section)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Throw the pecans on a cookie sheet and roast for about 6-7 minutes. While they are roasting, lay out the pretzels on a different cookie sheet. Place an unwrapped rolo candy on each pretzel. Bake in the oven for about 4 minutes or until just melted. Immediately squish a pecan half into each rolo/pretzel combo. Let cool. (If you can!) Give them away so you don't eat them all yourself.

Next up, Cranberry Sangria. We had this on Christmas Eve. Really light and refreshing with all the heavy food.

What you need:
1 bottle white wine (I used a really cheap Chablis Blanc)
25 oz sparkling cranberry juice (I used 3 8 oz cans since my Target didn't have any bottles)
1 apple, chopped or sliced
1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1 sprig rosemary

Mix it all up, let it sit for a hour or so in the fridge, enjoy! Pretty sure this would be good with just the wine and cranberry juice.

(Recipe from HERE This blog has much prettier pictures!)

I also made the Pioneer Woman's Cornbread dressing with sausage and apples for Christmas Eve. It was yummy but time consuming.

And I made Simply Recipes' Cranberry glazed turkey meatballs for our work potluck on Christmas Day. Pretty delicious as well, but I would recommend serving immediately as opposed to reheating the next day.

In the spirit of food and Sandra Lee, here is my Christmas tablescape:

Yes, my wedding photo is in it. It just seemed to look good, ok? I am kind of in love with the plaid tablecloth I got at Target. I saw them on sale for 50% off today, so you should go pick one up!

I love holiday food. Which is why the personal trainer killed me with a walking lunge/arm curl combo today. Thanks, Chris.

Christmas Eve festivities

Do you ever have a day that you think is never going to end? I did. Yesterday. I got floated to the ER to help with overflow and I was wayyyyy out of my element. Around 10:30, I was like wow, this day is never going to end, I'm going to be down here forever, I'll probably get so old that I'll become a patient here and then die down here in the ER because the hospital is so full that they will never find a room for me. How sad. Sometimes I'm a little dramatic. Fortunately, I had the awesome new nurse I'm training to help me. (Thanks Chelsea!) Oh, and the day ended. And I went home and had wine and Chex mix for dinner while watching Boy Meets World with my hubby. Ah, the good life.

Anyway, I wanted to share our Christmas Eve. Because it was wonderfully fun this year. I had to work on Christmas Day, so we celebrated a day early. And it helped that we celebrated with our families a couple weeks ago...I think both Caleb and I had a much easier time with being away from home this year.

We woke up and opened stockings and gifts. Did your mom ever make you take a picture displaying all your gifts? Mine did. I thought the pics were dumb, but now whenever I see them they are hilarious.

I got massively spoiled this year by my honey. Also note my trendy new hairstyle.

Caleb's main gift is missing from this pic. He is getting a gun. (So crazy, I know. Tennessee, what have you done to us?) It is currently being shipped.

We spent the day hanging out, watching Christmas movies, and cooking. Then we went to dinner at Stephanie and Logan's, where they had some ugly Christmas sweaters waiting for us.

Logan was carving the roast and cut his thumb. Right after making a joke about cutting his thumb. Classic.

The food was amazing. I believe the roast is blood free.

Group photo shoot with the Christmas tree.

And we played a few rousing rounds of Settlers of Catan. Probably one of the best ways to spend a Christmas Eve.

One last great photo of Logan with one of his stocking stuffers, straw goggles!

Thanks Slogans, for a super fun Christmas eve! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!


For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be on his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
(Isaiah 9:6)

Christmas in Kansas City

I made it through work this week! That means two days off before and after Christmas. Except I get to work Christmas Day. Aren't you jealous? Now I'm just waiting for the sweet hubs to get home and thought I would share some highlights from our Christmas trip to the 913. We celebrated a little early since Kiewit was flying us back to KC for par-tays. I mean...meetings.

I had a really great seat on the first plane and a really crappy seat on the second one.

We did a little Crown Center ice skating and general Christmas merriment with Caleb's family. We also enjoyed some Jack Stack. I love you, bbq. And here's something honest: I love to ice skate. Everyone was ready to go and I was like "but I just warmed up!"

We had "Christmas" with both sides of the family, since we will be hanging out here in Tennessee for the actual holiday. The most fun was watching George. We seriously love that guy. Caleb's dad got some KU tickets and gear for Christmas. We force our love of the Jayhawks on everyone around us! Baby June, guess where you are going to college?

My dad got a grill for Christmas. He was super pumped. I also made him grill our Christmas dinner but he didn't seem to mind!

I love my parent's Christmas tree, it always looks exactly the same as I remember it from when I was a kid.

We also babysat for George and June one night. Caleb was a jungle gym and his keys were the best toy ever.

June cried most of the time. So we just snuggled her and kept her out of bed. Oops. Sorry to mess up the sleep training...

We had SUCH a good time with our families! It's always hard to leave. Hopefully someday soon we'll be back for good!

Last sip of Boulevard Wheat in the airport before catching our flight back...

I got an early Christmas present from the hubs...a macro lens. So expect so close up pics soon...

Giving Thanks

So I am finally getting around to my Thanksgiving post...I almost skipped it, but I love Thanksgiving and honestly can't afford to NOT reflect on what I'm thankful for. So here is my list, with a few pics of recent happenings.

1. I am so thankful for my j.o.b. I have worked a whole freaking lot this year and I am so grateful for the opportunity to do that. I love my coworkers and my patients (ok, most of them). Sometimes I hate the hours, the poop, and the crazy people. But I love getting to help people through some of the toughest times in their lives.

B-12 is my favorite shot to give. Because its pink. Duh.

2. I am so so thankful for all the awesome friends we have. We have so many great friends here in Tennessee and actually spread all over the place. We spent Thanksgiving evening with Logan and Stephanie and our favorite nerd game, Settlers of Catan. Logan cooked a killer turkey. It was amazing.

3. Both of our families pretty much rock. So thankful for supportive, loving families! We met up with Caleb's fam in Nashville for Thanksgiving weekend. We shopped till we dropped, people. It was real.

And we saw my sweet cousin, Nicole while we were there. Tessa, Nic, and I got our shop on. L.o.v.e. this pic.

4. My darling husband. He is my favorite person on this earth. I got him a Thanksgiving card since I had to work all day. (Don't worry, he was fine with shooting guns with his buddies all day.)

5.  The little things that make my days good...coffee, Kathie Lee and Hoda, convos on the way home from work with my momma, laughing at silly tv shows with my hub, going out for lunch with Stephanie,  emails from my Grandma, a good butt kicking at the gym, Michael Buble's Christmas album, Instagram, and a tiny glass of wine at the end of the day.

6. And of course, the amazing fact that God send his Son to die for me. Wonderful, amazing, and the huge truth that gets forgotten in the little happenings of daily life.

That's my list! I would like to share that I am officially a Tennessean as of today. I switched my driver's license over. Caleb is switching his too. Why? So that we can legally buy a gun in the state of Tennessee. Oh Tennessee, what have you done to us?

(Oh, I really heart Instagram. Can you tell?)

Kansas City goodness

This post is a little belated since I got back from Kansas City late Saturday night. I was going to post on Sunday but then I was hanging out with my hubby all day. I worked on Monday and Tuesday (and it was a little crazy). Yesterday I was going to post, and then after spending most of the day shopping, I realized I should probably clean. I did buy three pairs of shoes at Target though. On sale. And they are super cute.

Anyway, our trip to Kansas was a success. We went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter, which was amazing. Caleb did make our group stand in line outside the theater starting at 7pm. It was really, really, really hot. I should have taken pictures of all the hilarious costumes people were wearing but I just wasn't in the mood. I was too dang hot. But the movie was seriously awesome. And they had butterbeer, which was super hilarious.

Butterscotch schnapps, cream soda, and a glow stick.

We spent the weekend hanging out with our families and celebrated Caleb's mom's birthday! We had a birthday cookout and spent the evening watching George do funny baby things. Because we are all obsessed with George.

Tell me this picture doesn't make you smile.

Caleb had to leave on Monday (boo work) and drove the whole 12 hours by himself. My husband is a rockstar. I got to stay for the rest of the week and spent lots of time hanging out with my family and friends. My parents celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary last Friday and we headed out to the Royals to brave the heat. We got some shady seats and loaded up on buck night goodies, so it was a good time.

27 years, people.

We also saw our all time favorite player, Johnny Damon. I like to call him Johnny D. And we cheered for him even though he was playing against the Royals and we love the Royals. Johnny D. played for the Wranglers (a previous Royals Double A team) when we lived in Wichita and we loved him. We have loved him throughout his major league career, long hair, and two wives.

Johnny D., you can totally get 3,000 hits. I believe in you.

Not only was it buck night, my parent's 27th anniversary, and Johnny D. day, it was also firework night.
I do love some good fireworks.

Saturday was my last day in Kansas. Kerry and I headed out to George's first birthday party. It was freaking hot. I am a committed aunt.

He is starting to walk!

It was so hot, the candy all melted. The kids didn't seem to mind though.

Layne, the other birthday boy, sucking melted gummy candy out of the package.

Birthday boy with his parents and super cute cake.

Kerry and I took some notes for our future children's bday parties as we sweated it out. (By future, I mean distant future.) So so cute! Check out Audrey and Jami's blogs here and here!

BFF pic (minus Cara! We love you Cara!)

I had a wonderful week but was so happy to get back to my hubby. I love Kansas City. And my man.

I hope you are having a wonderful week! This is my last day off before my work weekend so I'm trying to spend it getting some stuff done and not thinking about work! Happy Thursday!

Why 4th of July in East Tennessee is so great...

Seriously people, the fourth of July is possibly my favorite holiday: blowing things up, eating food, enjoying summer, hanging out with friends and family. This year I continued my hot streak of never working on the 4th: major bonus points, America. And here in Tennessee, you can embrace your inner redneck. Which is why it is so great.

We started off our holiday weekend with some shooting. The guys brought all their guns out and shot them at targets and clay pigeons and loved every second of it. I even participated. And got a very lovely sunburn out of the experience. But don't worry, it only adds to the southern appeal.

We are obviously pros by now.

Sunday night we headed out to our friend Michael Durbin's homestead to shoot off a few fireworks. Once all the guys had compiled their loot, this is what it looked like.

Tonight's gonna be a good, good night.

We shot off fireworks from 9-midnight, non stop. We had all kinds of goodness going on and I'm actually kinda surprised no one got hurt. (There may have been a few minor mishaps, but don't you worry.)

On Monday(after suffering minor hearing loss from all the guns and fireworks and smelling like delicious smoke mixed with bug spray) we headed to a pig roast. I don't know what kind of horrible blogger I am but I do not have a picture of the pig being roasted. But it was kinda windy and spitting outside so I left the camera in the car and just stared in awe at the pig on the smoker. I didn't eat any of it. Its head was still on there. Just sayin'.

After the pig roast, we headed back from some quality Kingsport celebrating with our friends Stephanie, Logan, Tess, and Nate. Kingsport really does it up right, our street is lined with food vendors and bouncy houses and they set up a stage and have lots of bands come and serenade the Kingsportians. (One band was called the Westbound Rangers. Quality.) We got our fill of funnel cakes, kettle corn, hot dogs, and lemonade. Then we took the par-tay out on our rooftop to watch fireworks. Which was actually pretty cool because you could see all the other cities fireworks shows from up there. Gorgeous.

Nice fireworks photos thanks to Caleb

We ended the night with some sparklers in the alley, because that's how we do it.

Perfect 4th of July weekend! Channeling our inner redneck and the American spirit. Perfect.

I look tense on the roof because standing that close to the edge makes me nauseated.

This is how I prefer to remember Tennessee: smelling funnel cakes, getting a perfect view of a fireworks show, and cuddling up to my honey.