it's a great day to celebrate granny

this is one of those glorious weekends 

where not much is 'scheduled'

and things are pretty laid back

yesterday morning anthony worked while i had lunch with a friend and ran errands

we had vodka pasta for dinner (yay indulgences)

today is church (at 4.30 pm. being part of a church plant is awesome that way)

and tonight we celebrate anthony's granny's birthday

(i believe there is brisket involved)

i have a gift to wrap

and worship rehearsal to get to

hope you're having a lovely day

xo

recipe of the week: (rerun.revamped.revised) vodka pasta

i've posted this recipe before, here.

however, i've revised it and made it better as far as we are concerned...PLUS i have pictures this time around :-)

lora's vodka pasta

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 pound hot (spicy) italian sausage (this is quite important!)
1 cup vodka*
1/4 cup chicken stock*
2 28 oz cans fire-roasted italian tomatoes (i use one can of crushed and one can of diced)
seasonings (salt and pepper, italian seasoning, etc) to taste
1/2 - 1 cup heavy cream
1 pound pasta (i prefer a small penne for this recipe)

(*this is the ratio: if you want a thicker sauce go with 3/4 cup vodka to 1/8 cup chicken stock)

heat a stockpot or large saucepan over moderate heat.  add olive oil, butter, onions and spices.  gently saute 3-5 minutes and add garlic

saute another 3 minutes and add sausage to brown. 

 add vodka, and reduce for 2-3 minutes.

 follow with chicken stock and tomatoes and any additional spices you may want to add.  bring sauce to a bubble, and then simmer for about 20 minutes.  i always use this time to prepare the pasta.

 after the pasta is cooked, add the cream.  stir into the sauce and return to a slight bubble, then serve.

and enjoy!

hey, it's ok (tuesday) 1.3

hey, it's ok


...to like quiet toys much more than loud ones
...to be very excited about the new plush throw you are ordering for your living room tonight
...to be happy to go grocery shopping (probably has to do with the healthy fresh and good tasting ingredients i am buying lately. or maybe whole foods pumps happy essential oils into their hvac...either way...)
...to sometimes be tired of dealing with poop from small creatures
...to be reminded by that statement that the litter box needs attention. sigh.
...to be ready to plant seeds and grow herbs and veggies, not to sit through months of cold and yuck.
...to have had great memories of 2011, and to look forward to more goodness in 2012
...to still have your Christmas decorations up.  it's still Christmas until january 6, after all :D
(but no guarantee that we'll take them down that day...)


visit amber to join up with your own list!

it's a great day to try an authentic indian restaurant

my friend natasha and i like to eat
mmm, a lot
and this week she told me that she's discovered a new authentic indian restaurant a few miles away
so, to the lunch buffet we shall head :)

tonight i shall babysit for some regular clients
and then collapse into bed
(if the last couple of nights are any indication, that is!)

may you all have a wonderful weekend...
especially brooke as she kicks her husband's butt in their race ;)
(go #teambrooke!)

may you have many adventures to tell us on monday
if that's what you desire
or many moments of peace and calm
if that's what you crave
and many moments to live in awe
of the life you've been given.

blessings,

hey, it's ok (tuesday) .9

(visit amber for the original)

hey, it's ok

... to wonder if you'll ever get caught up on sleep from the weekend's (good) craziness.

... to look forward to your boss's food network magazine delivery every month...possibly more than she does.

... to have been a little disconcerted to see will i am on sesame street (he was great, by the way...)

... to love the smell of new sharpies and other office supplies.

... to find yourself humming/whistling random kids show songs.  it's annoying, but it's ok.

... to find the irony in the quite overweight woman on npt giving parents advice on how to help their kids eat healthy foods and exercise.  ummm...

it's a great day to get cooking

 

i finally got to cook today: yay!

i know i've mentioned before how i hesitate to cook these days, because i always feel like i'm in the way.

well, over the last few days i've really been resenting that

and i decided to heck with it

i live here

i'll cook if i want to, dammit!

this became even more an anthem this afternoon as i discovered that my olive oil was completely empty

(not because i'd used it...)

and i called anthony to vent 

that i hate feeling like i'm in the way, that i'm annoyed that my stuff (even though labeled) is used without asking, that i sometimes just hate living like this

bless him, he listened

and really, all i needed to do was be mad for a few minutes

i came back home and headed straight for the kitchen

take two, with olive oil this time

and i made my tomato soup, my chicken salad, and reorganized and labeled my part of the pantry

i set a pandora station for worship music

and i even chatted with the nurse who is here today

and i was blissful

:0)

i came back downstairs and went outside to my herb containers

i'd discovered earlier today that some of them had revived

so i bought a few replacements while i was out getting the olive oil

and i dug in the dirt a little and planted the new additions

and i was blissful

and now i'm sitting on my couch

watching tv

blogging

and sipping iced coffee with bailey's creamer in it

and i am blissful

no, things are NOT perfect here

but truthfully, things are never perfect.

and one thing is for sure:

i'm not going to be kept out of the kitchen anymore

as long as i'm not trying to cook while one of the nurses is also cooking for anthony's grandpa

i'm not in the way

and if the nurses don't want to share space

that's not my concern -- they can move to another room for awhile

because i live here too

and dangit, i want to cook! 

 

Fitness Friday: revolution

last year i discovered jamie oliver on a whole new level
 

i'm not sure how many of you watched his show but it was amazing.  and now food revolution has grown to be even more. his commitment to promoting healthier choices in cafeterias across the united states is astounding, and i fully support his efforts.  after all, it won't be too long before i will have children eating in a school cafeteria...i consider my attention to this issue NOW as an investment in their future.

(plus, as an educator, it'd be nice to have the option to walk into the school cafeteria from time to time and get a well-balanced lunch when i didn't have the time or energy to pack one.  i'm speaking in the nearer future for that one...God willing)

today's fitness friday is a little different -- i'm letting someone else do the talking.  a fairly famous someone else, and someone who most certainly doesn't even know this blog exists.  yep, i copied and pasted straight from his website...you can find the direct link to what i grabbed right here.

his philosophy so embodies how i feel about food, and i'll remind myself of that the next time i feel a bit guilty for eating a meal of comfort food :0)

Food philosophy

My philosophy to food and healthy eating has always been about enjoying everything in a balanced, and sane way. Food is one of life's greatest joys yet we've reached this really sad point where we're turning food into the enemy, and something to be afraid of. I believe that when you use good ingredients to make pasta dishes, salads, stews, burgers, grilled vegetables, fruit salads, and even outrageous cakes, they all have a place in our diets. We just need to rediscover our common sense: if you want to curl up and eat macaroni and cheese every once in a while – that's alright! Just have a sensible portion next to a fresh salad, and don't eat a big old helping of chocolate cake afterwards.

Knowing how to cook means you'll be able to turn all sorts of fresh ingredients into meals when they're in season, at their best, and cheapest! Cooking this way will always be cheaper than buying processed food, not to mention better for you. And because you'll be cooking a variety of lovely things, you'll naturally start to find a sensible balance. Some days you'll feel like making something light, and fresh, other days you'll want something warming and hearty. If you've got to snack between meals, try to go for something healthy rather than loading up on chocolate or potato crisps. Basically, as long as we all recognize that treats should be treats, not a daily occurrence, we'll be in a good place. So when I talk about having a 'healthy' approach to food, and eating better I'm talking about achieving that sense of balance: lots of the good stuff, loads of variety, and the odd indulgence every now and then. 

 
(and jamie ;)

Thursday's Ten: a more positive spin

as i typed in response to a comment last night, yesterday's post was published to remind myself as much as anyone that while i choose joy most days, some days are meant for sadness...and that's actually a healthy response as long as i don't wallow in it!

but i like joy.

don't we all?

and so today's list is going to be things that make my heart sing.  things that take me out of the sadness momentarily, and lift me to a higher place.  and some of them may be a surprise...others, probably not.

1.  car rides with friends

there's something about a trip, whether 10 minutes or 10 hours, that opens up conversation in a way that sitting over a cup of coffee or meeting at a movie theater won't do.  maybe it's the sunlight tickling the corners of the car and shedding light on life itself.  maybe it's that moment when darkness has descended on the day and you feel safe to talk about what's real.  i find that those conversations often continue out of the car and onto my couch...and it's a blessed time.

2.  knowing i am loved

i have a Godly man who reminds me of that multiple times daily.  i have his family who not only say it...they show it.  i have my family who loves me in the best way they can.  i have church familIES who minister to my spirit and soul.  i have friends who will drop everything just to be with me.  and i have perfect strangers who have prophesied words of love and grace over me.

those are just a few examples...and they are all reflections of the Father's love

3.  a baby

i told a lady in class tonight "you don't have to operate in the prophetic to know that i'm drawn to babies!"  and it's true.  there's something about snuggling a little one close...something about hearing those giggles (or in finn's case, those fake coughs!), something about the innocence and trust.  i love reading a book, snuggling in, and putting a baby to bed.  there's something so tender and wonderful about those moments -- i consider them sacred.  

and as much as i've loved on everyone else's babes, i am so ready for the day when i rock my own little one before bedtime.

4.  emi

the last few months have made her even sweeter.  i feel like she "checks" on me now -- jumping up on the bed or couch with me when i walk in the door, sometimes even jumping into my lap.  she's never been overly affectionate, so i love those moments

5.  hot coffee

it's been so chilly here lately, and coffee just warms my insides and makes me feel...comfortable.  at rest.

6.  hiking

i haven't done it much lately, and i need to.  sometimes a walk in pure creation, conquering a steep ridge, or just crunching leaves underfoot in a forest is exactly the recharge i need.

7.  the prophetic

i don't pretend to understand it all, and i'm certainly no expert...but going to this class has really highlighted my gifts and given me reassurance and affirmation about areas of my life and personality that i had always questioned.  it's been such an encouragement...and honestly last night's class was the very thing that lifted me -- at least for awhile -- out of the funk i had been in

8.  words

reading your blogs -- they make me laugh, cry, think.  

writing in my own -- it gives me a voice, and stretches me to be more authentic and transparent.  

words like "restore" "refresh" "renew"... they give me hope.

9.  ethnic foods

i'm a fan of thai in particular...but going to experience the food of another region of the world is somehow enlightening to me.  i don't know -- there's something about the experience that reminds me to treat each day as a new adventure.  maybe that's a stretch or corny or something...but i somehow relate the two

10.  music

of course.  it's my language.  it's how i felt God speaking long before i ever realized that He actually does speak.  it's how i've learned to speak back to Him...long before i ever knew that He cared about what i had to say.  and so it's special.  it's amazing.  and i never go through a day without it, in some way, shape or form.

will you join me in sharing what brings you joy?  if you post something on your blog, will you let me know so i can read it?  if you don't post it on your blog...will you share it in a comment?  i think sharing these things will make God smile today...and it'll certainly make ME smile!

:-)

 

Thursday's Ten: The KCMO edition

we had a GREAT trip to kansas city last weekend.
and while i meant to post the trip update earlier in the week
clearly that didn't happen

and so because i'd like to comment on other blogs
and, i dunno, have a life
outside of car shopping
ughhhhh
i thought i'd combine the weekend wrap-up with my thursday's ten this week

hey, it's my blog
i can if i want :)

it began pretty eventfully

1. the plane ride for example. beautiful. for the first hour and 15. the last 45 minutes were spent first circling the greater KCMO area and THEN pummeling through the air in a sickening, treacherous, tumultuous, turbulance. when the flight attendant walking down the aisle immediately stops and buckles herself into a passenger seat, you know you're in trouble.
(and yes, a part of me was wishing for an island crash landing. but alas, we made it safely. all on friday the 13th)

my facebook status upon landing was:

Lora B was definitely on a flight worthy of being on friday the 13th...but she and anthony are safely on the ground in KC.

2. we had a bit of trouble with the rental car (like, we couldn't figure out how to unlock the steering mechanism and turn the key and had to go ask for help like idiots). but once we got on the road we called my brother who had assured me they would be "partying til late". it was nearly 11 when we called. i'm 80% sure we woke him up. so much for late...
so we headed to his ex-wife's, where we were staying, and ended up staying up until 2ish talking. this was the first time anthony had met any of my KC family, and they hit it off.

on our way, however, we stopped by a taco bueno (which anthony had never seen outside of texas and i had never had) and split a quesadilla. this sort of set the tone of the weekend: food, food, food!

3. the next morning, we woke up, showered, and went to oklahoma joe's for barbeque. now, anthony is a HUGE lover of all things bbq. so he had REALLY been looking forward to this one. along with karen, we ate with my niece liz and her partner melissa, and my other niece aimee. scott (my nephew) wasn't able to join us since he was the best man and stuff.
the barbeque was awesome. the company was even better :)

4. after lunch we quickly went back to karen's house and changed. and then ran to hallmark to grab a card (which thankfully i found on the first try). we headed to the church, taking note of one set of directions in particular which prompted the following facebook status from anthony:

Anthony N is driving towards Rainbow Boulevard... Oh, the irony.

the ceremony was tasteful and short, and we visited with "the kids" some more at the reception. headed out when the cake had been eaten :) and gave gaylen our love...with hopes to see each other again before we left.

(anthony, me, tommie, melissa, gaylen, liz, scott and aimee)

5. while we were in kansas city, anthony really wanted to see arrowhead -- where the chiefs play. several people had told us it was a pretty quick drive from where we were, and not too far out of the way. after my iphone took us through the projects and down a street that was closed, i began seeing signs that we were near the stadium -- there were street signs that had pictures of football players on them. i also noted that it was strange, there were also pictures of baseball players...but i supposed that made sense because that's the season we're in.

when we drove onto the grounds, we noticed there was a sign that said "toll plaza ahead". we thought this strange, but didn't think much of it since it was off season...until we saw that there were indeed attendants. anthony at this point said "never mind, just turn around..." to which i replied "uh...i can't..." as we both looked in astonishment as cars began to FLOOD in behind us. what the heck?

we were able to explain our situation to a nice parking attendant, who explained to US that the chiefs stadium is indeed next to the royals stadium. and the royals were playing the yankees in just a couple of hours. he told us that he'd give us a ticket, and as long as we got out of the stadium in under an hour we could get our money back.


we didn't stay an hour. long enough to take 4 pictures and speak to about 13 other parking attendants.

(this experience prompted my facebook status of:

Lora B ‎'s notes to Kansas city visitors: 1. the chiefs and the royals have side by side stadiums. 2. they share a parking lot. 3. it's ill-advised to attempt to visit the chiefs stadium on a day the royals play the yankees. Oops.

6. we left the madness that was the baseball game (by the way, yankees won that night, royals won the next day) and headed down to the plaza. now, kansas city is known as the city of fountains. my mom tells me stories of going to college back in the day and ice skating on them when they froze. something i think is *way* cool, and i totally canNOT picture my mother doing!

i was excited to see some of the fountains, but mostly i was excited to be spending time with my wonderful boyfriend. although our 2 year anniversary is the 21st, we decided to spend saturday evening as our "anniversary date" for two reasons. 1, we were in a new city and thought it would be fun. 2, his birthday is the 17th, and we decided to celebrate his birthday over our anniversary weekend so that he could celebrate in nashville :)

(even starbucks has a fountain...)

7. our first stop? the apple store. the real reason was for me to get a new cable for my iphone (my cable was shot). however, that didn't stop us from playing for awhile. which prompted THIS facebook status from me:

Lora B is out celebrating her anniversary with her wonderful boyfriend...currently playing with ipads at the apple store in the plaza. Dorks? Nah...

8. we took liz and melissa's recommendation of a tuscan restaurant, and went to brio to eat dinner. omgoodness, y'all. if you have a chance to ever eat at a brio (or it's sister restaurant, bravo) please do yourself a favor and GO. i can definitely say that anthony and i plan to go back there next time we visit kansas city!

our waitress was amazing. when we told her we were flying out of town the next day she immediately said "and you don't want leftovers, right?" and suggested not only a meal that we could split, but a soup/salad to go along with it to stretch it out some...and her favorite dessert to top off the night. we LOVED her.

our menu that night consisted of minestrone (me) and lobster bisque (him), both of which we shared--just kept passing the bowls between the two of us
gorgonzola lamb chops
and a dessert trio with chocolate hazelnut cannolis, chocolate chip brad pudding and caramel mascarpone cheesecake

after our dessert we asked her to take our picture. she obliged, and then said

"ok, this kind of looks like your first date. get together or something."

and took another.

(yeah. we hearted her)

after dinner we walked around, took some more pictures, and headed back to karen's (which was an adventure in itself). a couple of fun pictures to note:

there was a diamond store being built or remodeled on one of the streets. on it's temporary walls was a simple question: "kansas city, how do you know you are loved" and surrounding it were answers that people had texted or tweeted in. i thought that was SO cool.

my favorite

anthony's favorite

the one i think is "us"

and us in front of the wall

we also found these romantic streetlights on a bridge, and i decided to snap a picture of the city street just as an older couple strolled by. i LOVED the way this shot turned out. yes, i had romance on the brain, but it was still sweet :)

9. the next morning we went to church with karen, then to lunch at her family's favorite tex-mex place, jose pepper's. the choices were endless!

we both ended up with amazing things (anthony, by the way, chose barbeque chicken quesadillas. told you the boy likes his bbq) and enjoyed chatting with karen, her brother kevin, his wife mary, and their cousin paul.

sadly, we returned home only to throw things in a bag and have a fun little photo session. then we were off to our last stop.

10. my brother had invited us to brunch, but since we were going to church we asked if we could meet later. he then suggested lunch, but i thought that might be a little too much for him to eat brunch AND lunch, so we suggested dessert or coffee. i called him as we were packing and he suggested a gourmet ice cream place. considering the kind of food we had packed in over the weekend, ice cream was about the ONLY dessert that we could have added to the mix, so we gladly agreed and set out.

we ended up at a place called glace, right off the plaza (which we had already fallen in love with). i loved this place--because it had iced lattes, first of all, and i hadn't had any coffee that day. considering it was already 2 pm, i was all set to be pretty grumpy if i didn't get any in me soon!

but the ice cream flavors...omgosh. i settled on strawberry thyme mixed with lavender. and while you may be gagging on the other side of your screen...let me just tell you it was AMAZING.

gaylen and i laughed, because we matched that day...

we really, really enjoyed our visit with gaylen and tommie. since they had been rather busy the day before, anthony hadn't really been able to properly chat with gaylen, and i hadn't been able to size tommie up :) he won me over though, just with his attire. ireland shirt? gets me every time :)
my final status of the weekend was:

Lora B is preparing to board a plane back to nashville...kind of wishing she could stay longer or bring a few people with her...

anthony's the next day was:

Anthony N's weekend was complete Saturday by lunchtime when he got to eat at Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City, where Adam Richman from Man Vs. Food visited for that very show. Add on to that celebrating two years with Lora B.. yes, it was a good weekend :)

so that was our kansas city trip. definitely different, exciting, crazy, wacky, and wonderful. all in all...pretty much the perfect weekend. we're already planning our next trip up there :)