grateful.

As I described in my last post, Danny and I (naturally) spent much of the holiday cooking. I decided that it would be fun to document it! So I made this little video for us. Hope you enjoy it!

I've been thinking about last year's Thanksgiving, this Thanksgiving, and next year's Thanksgiving. Each has been and will be so different. Last year I was in Scotland, celebrating Thanksgiving in a pub with some of my dearest friends. This year I am in Utah, celebrating with my lovely family. Next year I will be in San Francisco, celebrating with my darling fiancé. Life is pretty crazy, huh? I'm so grateful for all the craziness.

We had such a wonderful holiday. It was filled with yummy comfort food, tons of movies, and mini dance parties. I am so thankful for this season that reminds me of how truly blessed I am and to be grateful for the big and little things. Like warm socks. And apple butter. That stuff is important too right? :)

So on that note, I think I'll take this quote by John Milton and make it my new motto: "Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world."

some photos from the holiday ...

For my family's Thanksgiving feast Danny and I helped out by making seven different dishes. Are you ready for the list?

+ sausage, apple, walnut stuffing

+ basic stuffing

+ brown sugared sweet potatoes with marshmallows

+ southern cornbread 

+ garlic green beans

+ apple butter pumpkin pie

+ apple pie

It was quite the undertaking, so much so that we started the night before! But of course, we had so much fun! 

Here are a few pictures from the cooking ... 

And a few pictures at dinner ...

Hope everyone had a yummy, fun, relaxing and safe holiday spent with their loved ones!

thanksgiving eve

as you might imagine, danny and i have big plans for thanksgiving. we've spent the last two days planning our dishes and getting the ingredients. of course that meant we had to get some peppermint hot chocolate while we worked. 

my mom is making the turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce and we're making the rest of the feast! including a special dish that uses the spiced apple butter. :) we've chosen some really tasty sides. i can't wait to share the recipes with you! and of course some pictures ... 

until then, happy cooking!

p-i-z-z-a

did you ever watch those mary-kate and ashley olsen "you're invited" party videos? i remember one where they made pizza and put everything in their fridge on it. and sang about it.

i've been wanting to make homemade pizza for quite some time now. and last saturday seemed like the perfect time - so danny and i got to it!

it was a pretty good first run - we definitely learned a few tricks! like, put the dough directly onto the pan instead of trying to slide it on while totally ripping it apart. yep, that happened.

not bad, eh? i'm excited to try out different toppings in the future. and to learn how to spin the dough around in the air like a boss.

because she is the best friend ever, ahlin brought me & leslie jamba juice smoothies on tuesday when she found out we were writing papers. 

i had the new apple cinnamon cheer one. [so good!] it was such a nice surprise and definitely gave me a much-needed boost.

thank you, ahlin!

p.s. a sweet post about lady who gave random acts of kindness in her community to celebrate her birthday. very inspiring. :)

dinner & dessert

wanna see what danny and i made for dinner and dessert last friday night?

dinner = braised pork chops with cherry sauce + garlic red mashed potatoes + blackberry salad (courtesy of my mom!)

dessert = lemon mousse with raspberry sauce

all of it was SO good. cherries are like my favorite thing ever soo ..... we'll be making this again. :)

treat yo'self!

the universe decided to love me today.

when i woke up this morning i had an email with the following subject line: "treat yourself [insert other unimportant words here.]"

of course i immediately thought of donna and tom (parks and recreation).  in one of the episodes they take a whole day (once a year) to treat themselves -- to whatever they want, just for the heck of it! they call it, "treat yo'self".  best thing ever right?

anyway, i figured i'd had an abed (community) moment where my real life collided with television: donna and tom had sent me that e-mail so that i would treat myself today. because, let's be honest -- after completing my last (and hardest) midterm of the semester, that kind of action needed to be taken.

i didn't go crazy like tom and donna, but i did 'treat myself' to a pumpkin smash smoothie from jamba juice.  something i'd been craving all season. but, it didn't stop there.  jamba decided to treat me too with a free chocolate chip cookie (after taking a 30 second survey)!

so if, like me, you've already had a super stressful week (and it's only wednesday), take it from me -- treat yo'self!

homemade apple pie

let's get one thing straight: i love pie.  like seriously love it.  and for a long time now i've wanted to make a pie.  so i started small.  over the summer i made a blueberry pie using pre-made pie dough -- just to get my feet wet.  more recently i've wanted to make a pie all-completely-totally from scratch.

naturally, i recruited danny into this little project of mine.  and because he's the bee's knees, he became just as excited as i was, immediately writing his grandma for her famous "perfect pie crust" recipe.

soon the plans of one pie turned into three.  we decided we would make an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and a cherry pie (my absolute favorite), all from scratch by the end of the year.

over the weekend, we made our first one: apple pie.

using danny's grandma's perfectly flakey pie crust, paula deen's apple pie filling, and my grandma's apples, we made quite a delicious pie!  so much so that we'll probably make another one (along with pumpkin) for thanksgiving. :)

dressing up

for halloween this year we had a little family party at my parents' house.  it was so much fun - i love celebrating any sort of holiday! all of us (the kids, that is) dressed up, too!

danny and i dressed up like chuck bass and blair waldorf from gossip girl. and just so everyone knows, danny was just as into it as i was. let us not forget how much he loves gossip girl. 

allie's family dressed up as cowboys and indians. it was adorable. and hannah and jake were baseball players. do i know which ones? of course not. #iknownothingaboutbaseball

the night included: pizza, halloween candy, sparkling cider, pumpkin pie, and "it's the great pumpkin, charlie brown" ... you could say the night was a major success. :)

at the duck pond

Sometimes, when our schedules allow, Danny comes and hangs out with me and my nephew, Mark, on Thursdays and Fridays. One of these Thursdays we decided to take Mark on a walk to the duck pond. He loved it! 

We also taught Mark how to crunch leaves -- a must during Autumn.