Excitement beyond words...

So as a side note, now that the word is out...this weekend was also a very monumental weekend for my family.  My sister gave birth to the cutest little girl in the whole entire world.  Saturday night while I was in Cali my parents texted me that she had gone into labor and was at the hospital, so for the next couple of hours I kept checking my phone constantly to see if they had any updates/news. After quite some time I received news that Rose Madeline was born in Raleigh in the middle of the night.  Although she came a week early she is healthy and well at 6 lbs.  This was my parent's first grand kid so it is so cool to think that they became grandparents, I became an aunt and she became a mommy for the first time!!!

I cannot wait to get to go up to Raleigh to meet my beautiful niece in the coming weeks and see my sister transform into a wonderful parent.  It seems like just yesterday we were sharing a room growing up.  I cannot even explain my excitement, joy, and happiness that she and Doug received such a blessing in their lives and am looking forward to seeing little Rose grow up.  I guess this is a great excuse for me to go shopping :) 

Seriously, could she be any cuter!

Crock Pot Time!!!

So this past Friday, I had been traveling all week so it was time to do some home cooking.  Since I traveled all week and was leaving again Saturday, I had to do something that was easy but amazing.  Joe had a pork loin in the fridge so I searched some recipes, and before I knew it, I found something I had all the ingredients for and it looked amazing!  I'm going to brag on Joe a bit, and he did want to do a date night Friday since I was traveling so much, and even brought be flowers and asked me in the cutest way, but after a long week of work we wanted to spend quality time together without a restaurant environment.

Love coming home to this!

So, with that, below is the pork loin crock pot recipe that I decided to make instead of date night.  I cooked it long enough to where it started falling apart when I tried to cut it so it ended up being pulled pork, which was quite all right with me!  The sauce is amazing and we ate it all.  This was served with mashed potatoes.

Crock Pot Brown Sugar Balsamic Pork Loin
Pork
2 lbs boneless pork loin

1 tsp ground sage

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 TBS crushed garlic

1 cup water

Glaze

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 TBS cornstarch

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions
1. Combine sage, salt, pepper and garlic.
2. Rub seasonings over roast.
3. Put roast and water in crock pot.
4.  Cook roast on low for 6 to 8 hours.
5. Meanwhile, combine ingredients for glaze in a small sauce pan.
6. Heat over medium until mixture thickens, stirring occasionally.
7. About one hour before roast is done brush roast with glaze.
8. Brush roast another 2 times in the last hour.
9. Serve with remaining sauce on the side.

 

Traveling the US, one week at a time...

This past week was quite a crazy week for me!  I hadn't traveling in a couple weeks so it was time to get back on the road and meet with customers, so early Monday morning I hopped on a flight to Chicago for some meetings Monday and Tuesday.  It was such a quick trip that was full of meetings so I didn't even get to see Agatha, and Tuesday evening I hopped on a flight to Baltimore.  Baltimore was a short trip too, with a full day of meetings Wednesday.  The highlight of this trip is that I got to see my lovely college roommate that lives a bit outside Baltimore.  We had amazing food at Waterfront Kitchen where we sat outside and enjoyed the harbor and beautiful weather.  I hadn't seen Caiti in quite some time and it was SOOOOOO good to catch up and see her!  It is so crazy how much life changes in just a couple of years!

Baltimore on a Beautiful Day

I flew into Atlanta on Thursday, just in time for GAMEDAY at Tech!!!!  Right before we left for the game we FINALLY mailed out our save the dates, so they should be arriving soon if they have not arrived yet!  We had a Thursday night game so of course after Joe got off work we headed to campus to tailgate and watch the game!  We ran into so many friends while tailgating and enjoyed spending time outside in the beautiful weather!  It is perfect tailgate/football season weather here in Atlanta.  The first half of the game we watched from the student section with some swimmers.  Although I only know a select few of the swimmers left on the team, it was great seeing them.  At halftime we headed up to the upper level to see Joe's parents.  We ended up staying up there and ran into my most avid blog reader/fan, Lane :)  Although the game didn't end quite like we had hopped, we had a blast.

Friday went by too quick, with a lot of work to do to follow up from the weeks travels and getting ready for the following week.  Before I knew it, it was time to cook dinner and then take a long walk with Joe and Rox.  Dinner was a crock pot brown sugar balsamic pork loin that I will post the recipe for later.  It was absolutely amazing!  Joe and I took a long walk after dinner around Chastane Park and then it was time to get packed for the weekend!

Saturday morning was an early morning as I headed to the airport to fly to California!  I have meetings in California all week, so since a great friend from college, Kristen, lives in Anaheim, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to explore some of Cali.  The day started off absolutely amazing when I got upgraded to first class for the 4 1/2 hour flight.  They served me breakfast and more snacks than I could ever eat.   I got a lot of work done on the flight, because what else would I do on such a long flight, and watched The Great Gadsby.  I could get use to this kind of treatment.  Due to the time change I got to Kristen's place around 11:30 or so, and we laid around for a bit before heading out for our afternoon hike.  We went to Peter's Canyon which is pretty much the desert.  We were feeling inspired and mapped a 6 mile hike, with no water (because I forgot mine at her house).  The hike was absolutely beautiful with a lot of hills and hot weather, but when we got to the finish we were glad to be done!  After getting home and showering we went to Kristen's coworker's house for drinks/food and before we knew it, it was late and time for bed (especially due to the time change).

Peter's Canyon Hike

We were both up and at it early in the morning and started the day with an amazing breakfast.  After breakfast we headed out for the day.  We started at Huntington Beach where we enjoyed some relaxation on the beach.  From there we headed to New Port Beach where we saw the cutest houses and relaxed on the beach a bit more before heading to Crystal Cove State Park for our hike for the day.  This hike was through the hills and we got some beautiful views of the water below and the hills surrounding us.  Once we were all done we walked just under 4 miles in beautiful weather that was a bit cooler than the day before.  The loop we did was an uphill hike the first half as you made it to the top of the hills then back down through the valleys so it was great to see the change in scenery.

Crystal Cove

Crystal Cove Hike

Beach Hopping in Cali

After the hike it was time to make it to the final destination of the day, Laguna Beach.  This is Kristen's favorite beach, and I now know why.  We grabbed an early dinner at a waterfront restaurant, OceanView Bar & Grill where we grabbed some amazing drinks and then for dinner split Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos and the Seafood Pasta which were both great!  I'm not sure which one I would order again if we went back.  After that we walked down the beach a bit and relaxed then watched the sun set into the water.  Laguna is so pretty because it has more of the rocks and boulders on the beaches making it beautiful to watch the sun set.  After the sun went down we headed to grab some gelato and had some amazing flavors.  I got green apple/lemon which reminded me of my many travels in Europe and Kristen got Oreo/Peanut butter Chocolate, and we pretty much ended up splitting both so that we could get the fruity and the sweet flavors.  Then it was time to head back and call it a night early so that we were both prepared for the week of work ahead of us.  I couldn't have asked for a better two days in Cali and I am so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing friend to host me.  I love the lifestyle here and quite frankly wouldn't mind living the beach lifestyle (some day!).  So now, it's time for a week of work out here in Cali before heading back to Atlanta late Friday night.  Happy Week Everyone!!!

Beautiful Sunset at Laguna

Fun Filled Weekend...

This weekend was supposed to be a relaxing weekend where we wouldn't do much.  I guess we should have known that the weekend wouldn't be relaxing but it was amazing to say the least!  The most exciting part of this weekend was that Joe FINALLY asked his groomsmen to be in his wedding party!  It took him some time, but with save the dates going out it was about time for him to ask :)  I am super excited to see their grooms gifts and will post both the grooms gifts and bridesmaid gifts on the next post! So now, for the actual events of the weekend...

We also ordered Thank You notes for the wedding this weekend.  One thing that I would suggest to everyone, is if you are creative, use Vista Print.  They have already made designs, but they also have blank designs where you can upload your own design.  I love doing creative stuff, so I was obviously going to try to design my own.  After making the save the dates and saving a TON of money, I knew we would try to do the rest.  Thank you notes don't have to be intricate, so we took it upon ourselves to design our own.  After it was all said and done, we got 250 thank you notes for right at 50$!  Can't beat that deal!  I'll let you know how they look!

Friday night was actually a relaxing evening where we cooked dinner at home and cleaned the house a bit.  After dinner we relaxing until Meredith and Andy came to visit.  It was so good seeing them even though it was for just a little bit!  We called it an early night because we knew it would be an early morning.

Hanging out with my favorite little girl!

Saturday morning, Joe was supposed to play tennis so we got up early and headed to Kennesaw.  Of course, after driving 45 minutes, it was raining so the matches were pushed back to Sunday morning.  It was nice that they were canceled because then we headed home and changed before heading to GT for the game.  We parked at 8th street and started the walk to the stadium making plenty of stops along the way.  First stop was a surprise stop running into Casey, a college friend of mine that was in town for music midtown!  It was so random and awesome seeing him even if it was for about 0.2 seconds!  After that we stopped by the swim team tailgate for a bit and chatted with swimmers (the senior class is the last class I know) before heading to Joe's parents tailgate.  There we at yummy Biscuits & More and relaxed for a bit before braving the trek in the rain to the bridge to see Ilia and Barnes.  Of course it was pouring but we hung out there for a bit before getting some tickets for cheap and heading to the game!  We were super hard core and sat through the rain cheering our Jackets on for the first half of the game!  It rained the whole entire time, so at half time we made the executive decision to walk to Rocky Mountain to finish up watching the game.  After the long trek back we made it to Rocky Mountain, soaked, and excited to see Tech starting off the second half much better than the first!  It rained so hard that our rain jackets started absorbing water because they were so wet!  Needless to say we were happy to be inside, but even there it was freezing.  We cheered on the Jackets to victory then headed home for a warm, long nap!  After nap time, Tareq and Reza came over and we headed to Ivy for a bit before going to Waffle House for a late night snack.  It was a low key night, but fun to not do anything too crazy.

Tech Game!!!!

Sunday morning came quick, and Joe headed out to play tennis while I cleaned the house and made desert.  My parents were driving down from Greenville to see our house for the first time so we wanted it to be perfect!  After some cleaning, I went and swam for the first time in FOREVER and survived a full 1650 yard swim!  To say the least it was much easier than the open water swim Ag talked me into while I was up in Chicago a while back.  I got home just in time to buzz my parents in, then we had fun catching up, showing them our house, and baking desert for dinner.  They also brought us 7 huge plants to put in our house and on our rooftop that we are so excited to place around the house!  Some while go on the rooftop while others will stay inside until next spring!  We have placed them in our desired spots and we are very happy with the color and homeyness it adds to our place!  Around 4, Joe's parents came down to have dinner at our place and we had an amazing time up on the rooftop grilling out, watching the Falcons, and just spending time with our famillies. Before we knew it, it was time for my parents to go back to Greenville and Joe's parents to go home.  It was a perfect end to the weekend and I am so glad that my parents finally got to see our new home!  Below, you will find the amazing new desert I made, which is a combination of cookie dough and cheesecake and is super easy to make!  Now it is time to pack since I hit the road early in the morning and travel up to Chicago and Baltimore next week!  Enjoy the desert!

Family dinner with my parents and future in-laws!

Just watching the Falcons Game!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 325°. Butter a 9″-square baking pan. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving enough to extend over the sides. Butter the parchment paper.
Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter until crumbs are moistened. Stir in chocolate chips.
Press crust mixture into bottom of pan and 1 inch up sides. Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool.

Cookie Dough:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used miniature)

Using an electric mixer , mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth. Decrease mixer speed to low and add flour. Mix just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Shape into teaspoon size balls. Chill while making cheesecake filling.

Filling:
10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar just until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended.
Pour batter into baked crust. Drop cookie dough balls over the top of the filling.
Bake about 30 minutes, or until set but still wobbly in center. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

For chocolate topping, melt 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave (I melted them in a ziplock bag in the microwave). Add about 1/2 tablespoon of butter if necessary to make chocolate smooth. Drizzle over top of bars. Once the pan feels cool to the touch, chill the bars completely in the fridge overnight before cutting.

Using the edges of the parchment paper, remove bars from pan. Cut into bars and serve.

YUMMY DESERT!

Baked Pasta with Spinach, Ricotta, and Prosciutto!

It has been quite some time since I have made a pasta dish, and this week Joe requested that I make one, so of course I wanted to try something new that was a little less heavy than most pasta dishes are!  I love me some pasta but sometimes alfredo sauce, etc. is just way too creamy!  So, I set out to find a recipe that I would love.  Of course, it had spinach and ricotta in it so it had to be good!  Prosciutto is a food that I haven't eaten often here in America, but I absolutely LOVE every time I go back to Slovenia.  To my surprise, the Kroger down the street from us had a huge wheel of prosciutto that reminded me so much of Slovenia and it was VERY good.  So with that, here is a "skinny" version that incorporates so many good flavorful ingredients!  I'm sure you can substitute to prosciutto with other meets if you would like! Enjoy!

Baked Pasta with Spinach, Ricotta, and Prosciutto
Ingredients

• 1 pound gemelli (or other pasta, I use whole wheat)
• 1/2 lbs prosciutto (I used a lot because I love it so much but you can use less)
•   1packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess moisture
• 2 cups milk (I used Almond Milk and it worked just fine)
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook pasta a few minutes less than package instructions suggest. Cut prosciutto into thin strips.
2. 
   
   In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, toss pasta with spinach, half of prosciutto, milk, ricotta, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Top with remaining prosciutto and Parmesan. Bake until golden, 30 to 40 minutes.

Switching up the side dishes...

So in the past, Joe and I would constantly eat rice and potatoes with any of our meat meals.  Don't get me wrong, I love rice and potatoes, but it gets boring.  I am not a huge cooked veggie fan so we always had to have something else with our meat and it just wasn't enough variety.  So, the newest, latest and greatest super food is Quinoa.  I had never had it before but hey why not give it a try.  We had it in the past a couple of times and it was good, but never fantastic unless it was cooked in a very specific way.  I just didn't know enough to improvise and make my own recipes.  Below, you will find what I am sure will be a very regular part of our meals from now on.  It is amazingly tasty, and healthy!

Quinoa with Spinach and Feta (taken off of Self.com and modified for my taste)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 avocado, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup chopped spinach
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta

Directions:

Warm oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Sauté garlic and onion until onion is translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add quinoa, stirring constantly, 3 minutes. Add stock; cover and simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat; let sit 5 minutes. Serve fluffed with a fork and tossed with avocado, tomatoes, spinach and feta.

So this recipe serves 4 and has about 340 calories per serving.  Let me tell you, a serving is HUGE and you really don't even need to eat a full serving. Enjoy!

A week/weekend full of visitors!

This week was the first week I was not traveling for work so I was excited to have a relaxing weekend working from home.  It turned out to be quite the opposite.  After the internet going down on Monday, I went up to WIKA to get some work done and do a couple of meetings.  Monday night, we were having visitors, so after work, it was time to clean the house and get dinner ready!

Monday and Tuesday, Deck and Kayla, two friends and fellow athletes at Tech were staying with us while they looked for apartments in Atlanta.  They finished up their apartment search around 6:30 or so on Monday and headed to our place.  After a house tour, it was time to start cooking dinner.  Amanda, another track runner at Tech also lives down the road from us, so we invited her to join us for dinner!  We kept dinner simple, serving hamburgers, brats, asparagus, and stuffed mushrooms.  The stuffed mushroom recipe can be found here...SPINACH ARTICHOKE STUFFED MUSHROOMS.  We had so much fun relaxing, eating, and drinking some amazing wine up on the rooftop!  Before we knew it, it was time for bed.

Tuesday went by quick, and before I knew it, we were cooking dinner again!  Joe had to pick up some interviewees from the airport at 7 so he stopped by for appetizers and we planned on a later dinner.  For our appetizer we went with brie and blueberry jelly wrapped in a croissant.  It is incredibly simple and you will find the recipe below:

Brie Croissants:

Ingredients:
Brie Pinwheel
1 packs croissant dough
1 to 1 1/2 cups jelly of your choice
Club crackers

Directions:

Spread out the croissants and pinch together the seams to make a square.  Put the Brie in the center of the square/rectangle, then spread out desired amount of jelly on the top.  Pull up corners and encase the brie with the croissants.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes (until croissant looks golden brown).  Serve warm with club crackers.

For dinner, we were making shrimp with mango salsa on the grill and it was amazing.  Here is the recipe...SHRIMP WITH MANGO SALSA.  It was so much fun having people to cook for and relax with after work, that we were sad to see Deck and Kayla go on Wednesday, but luckily they are moving in tomorrow!!!!  I am super excited to have some new neighbors :)

Wednesday evening Joe brought by some work colleagues for drinks at our place before we headed out for an experience of a lifetime when going to Johnnies Hideaway.  It is literally the most crazy places I have seen and I can now say I have been there, and most likely will never return until I am more appropriately aged!

Thursday evening was another night Joe brought by some work colleagues, but this time, Amanda had come into town so we talked our way out of going out.  Instead, we started the process of making ice cream cookies and baked a couple batches of cookies to stick in the freezer to complete on Friday.

The week went quick since I was taking Friday off for my hair and makeup trial.  Amanda came into town late Thursday evening to come with me to my hair and make up trial and since it was up in Roswell, we had an earlyish morning before heading up there.  Although I am still not 100% sold on what my hair will look like, it was such a fun experience, and then Kellie Ann and Amanda enjoyed a day of girl time!  After a long day we were ready to come home and relax and cook dinner/finish up some ice cream sandwiches before getting ready for the evening (Ice Cream Sandwich Recipe).  It was girls night Friday night, and Courtney had come into town at around 5 so we were ready for a good time.  Blaine, a coworker of mine, was joining us as well so after it seemed to be appropriate time to head out to the bars, we went to Ivy for some dancing and fun!  At Ivy, we were pleasantly surprised to meet up with Sam and Dem who were in town for the weekend!!!  We danced the night away and had such an amazing time and I cannot wait to do it again soon!  After leaving Ivy it was time for some yummmmmmy Waffle House hash browns before walking home.

BFFFFFFFFFF

He came :) :) :)

LOVE THESE GIRLS!

Amanda had to leave Saturday morning, so after she headed home, Courtney and I went for a long walk before going to Rocky Mountain Pizza to watch the Tech game with Sam, Mike V, and Nick!  Although we might have watched about 4 minutes of the game, it was a VERY entertaining time!  After getting home from watching the game, it was time for me to be a bit productive for the day and address save the dates!  After a couple hours of addressing save the dates, we realized that we were all VERY tired from the weekend so we headed up the the rooftop to hang out and enjoy the wine we had picked up at Mac's earlier in the day.  It was an early bed time for us since we all got sleepy, but we LOVED that Mike V came to visit and entertain us for a bit!

Sunset on the rooftop

Sunday was a relaxing day where Joe and I slept in!  After a lazy morning, we headed up to Joe's parents house to watch the Falcons game and eat dinner since we had not seen them in quite some time!  It was nice to have a little more relaxed day after such a crazy week and weekend and I am looking forward to one more week working from home before I hit the road traveling again!  So, with that, expect some new recipes this week!