February Delights List

February Delights List by oykristen // 1. Anthropologie Celestial Coaster Kit // 2. Essie Resort Fling // 3. Anthropologie Capri Blue in Hibiscus Teakwood // 4. Mrs. Meyers Basil Room Freshener // 5. Anthropologie Eloise Chiara Hand Towel // 6. Pottery Barn Essential Egyptian Cotton 300-Thread Count Sheets // 7. Shop Terrain Hanging Glass Terrarium // 8. West Elm Gallery Frames // 9. Kate Spade New York Gardens of Paris Earrings // 10. Anthropologie Palmer Towels // 11. Shop Terrain White Robe Hydrangea // 12. Barnes and Noble The Message Remix New Testament // 13. Urban Outfitters Plum & Bow Chenille Diamond Pillow //   

February Delights.

February is all about refreshing. It's ever so cold outside, you're spending most of your time indoors, and as you look around... you notice things. The dingy cotton towels. The pilling bed sheets. The musky scent coming from your closet. In combination with a good spring clean, your home could also use a mini facelift. Nothing too drastic, but all those essential items that you use everyday... when was the last time you updated them? Linens, towels, candles; just a few refreshing upgrades can make you feel great about the space you live in. Because winter isn't over yet, but your home doesn't have to remind your of the winter blues.

I shopped around and found some awesome, affordable items to upgrade my apartment. Sheets and towels are a big one (these look great in my bathroom), since I think our building's community laundry machines tend to wear really hard on our linens. All of you who have your own washer & dryer, please look up and say a quick thanks to the God above. YOU ARE LUCKY. For the rest of us slummin' it in city paradise, we have to find other ways to dampen the odd odors that reek in from the neighbors "recreational hobbies".

This room freshener is a great, inexpensive find, and this candle (my sis gifted it to me for Christmas) makes a world of difference. I've even updated my bible reading with this modern-text version of the New Testament. Don't forget to refresh your soul, people. This is an inside/outside spring cleaning! A clean coat on the nails and a few well-placed plants (try to hang this terrarium indoors!) will certainly round out this "I'm ready for you, Spring!" attitude.

Here's to a minty-clean February!

Taste: Artichoke Pesto Farfalle

Artichoke Pesto Farfalle.

Happy Superbowl weekend! I always try to think of something festive to make that doesn't lead with a zillion bad calories. Why is Superbowl food so, well, unhealthy? We're mixing it up this weekend with a ridiculously good pasta. Bless you, Giada, you've done it again.

This Artichoke Pesto Farfalle is a twist on this recipe from Giada's Feel Good Food. I've swapped a few ingredients: farfalle pasta for orzo, diced tomatoes instead of cherry, subtracted the corn (I have a thing about corn), added in pine nuts, that sort of thing. Also, my sister made this the other night, and she added shrimp for a bit of protein. She says it was a hit! The possibilities are endless, but this is a good recipe to have on hand... plus, it's kind of Spring-y, which is always nice when I'm staring out the window at the eternity of snow. At least I can trick my taste buds into thinking that we are almost into warm weather season :-) So...goooooo (insert your team here)!

Ingredients:

- 1 lb. Farfalle pasta (or whatever kind of fancy pasta you prefer!)

- 1 12-oz. jar Artichoke hearts (you could also use frozen, just make sure they're thawed before you cook)

- 2 cups diced Tomatoes (you can use fresh or canned, but if they're canned, make sure you drain them completely before using)

- 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

For the Pesto:

- 3/4 cup Olive Oil

- 1/4 cup Walnuts

- 1/4 cup pine nuts (optional, but I just love them)

- 1/2 fresh flat-leaf Parsley

- 1/2 cup fresh Oregano

- Grated zest of 1 lemon

- 1/4 cup fresh Lemon juice (basically the juice from an entire lemon)

- 1 clove Garlic, smashed

- 1/2 tsp. Salt

- 1/2 tsp. Pepper

Method:

1. Cook your preferred pasta to al dente. Drain and set aside.

2. For the pesto, combine the following ingredients in your food processor: 2 cups of the artichokes, the walnuts, parsley, oregano, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, salt & pepper and olive oil.

3. Pulse all the ingredients until blended smoothly. You might have to stop and scrape the sides of the bowl to blend everything evenly. This should take a few minutes. Set pesto aside.

4. Chop the remaining artichoke hearts into 3/4-inch pieces and add to the pesto. Add in the (drained) diced tomatoes and parmesan cheese.

Ta da! Your ridiculously delicious dinner is served. The dish itself is so pretty to look at with all the colors, but like I said, you can dress it up a bit more with your preferred protein. I think this is a great option to have on hand on game day, when you might have more than a few (hungry) dudes showing up at the house. Now you have something healthier to serve than chips and queso :-)

Yum yum yum. I want to eat this all over again.

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

Here We Go!

Photo Credit: Nancy Hostetler

Feeling Grateful. And Hungry.

Oh life. Needless to say, I've been feeling a lot over the past several months. Nausea, exhaustion, cravings, yes. Crazy dreams and outbursts of sweat, sure. A ravenous appetite for bacon, it's true. But we will get to all of that. Even more than all of those things, I've been equally enamored with reflection and planning ahead for the future. It's amazing how a teeny, tiny second line on a test can cause you to evaluate everything - the home you live in, the career choices you've made, the relationships in which you invest. It's an incredible rush and also a daunting responsibility. I'm supposed to be ready to raise another human, but WOW I feel pretty inadequate to do so. I feel like I don't know enough bible verses. Or how to soothe a crying anything.

I'm sure everyone feels this way at first. I hope.

I just want to say thank you. I'm so grateful to everyone for the well-wishes and congrats on our little one, coming in August! Stevie and I are super excited and feeling really blessed. I'm currently at 13 weeks and still feeling rather puny, but I'm holding onto hope (shout out, E!) that the next several weeks will bring all the relief the second trimester promises. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement - it really means a lot!

Since this is the biggest change of our lives, I want to share about this journey here on the blog. Have no fear, all of you who loathe "mommy bloggers"! I don't intend to focus soley on pregnancy/baby-related topics. I still cook. Audition. Write. I still explore my city (well, let's be honest... I've been a couch potato for 3 months. I have high hopes to return to normal life again and explore!) Stevie and I still have aspirations to travel and goof off. Our obsession with visiting our families a million times a year will only be compounded by the fact that now, we have another reason to! All good things.

Thank you again for sharing in our joy. We are feeling the love :-)

Our Next Adventure.

An Adventuresome Timeline.

Stevie and I have been on a LOT of adventures since we've been together. When I think back over all the trips and moves we made together, my head swims through a messy wonderful kaleidoscope of memories. As we look forward to what is coming next, I can't help but smile at our milestones:

2006:

- Moved across the country in a hippie-ish caravan of our brothers, sisters, cousins and friends. We saw penguins in Tennessee, marveled at the Grand Canyon, bathed in the Colorado River (epic mistake), mountain biked in Moab and finally found our way into the city of Redding, Ca.

- Encountered Jesus in a whole new way during our time in ministry school. Life changer.

- Got engaged at Christmastime in Atlanta's Centennial Park.

- Trekked to Kenya together. We watched Nacho Libre with the Masai in the middle of the Masai Mara National Reserve. Not to mention, we saw some crazy big animals.

2007:

- Got married on a sunny southern plantation in the wonderful month of June.

- Went to Ecuador. Fell in love with the Andes.

- Went garage sale-ing on the weekends. Cuz that's a wild Saturday while living in Redding.

2008:

- Attempted to uproot the Redwoods and take them with us when we journeyed back across the country a year later. Moved back to Atlanta.

- Stevie got a job.

- I went to college.

- We made the best friends of our life.

2010:

- Had the pleasure of creating sweet music with some of our favorite people.

- Ate a lot of family dinners. Because, you know, we could. (Hi Mom!)

2011:

- Stevie got accepted into Harvard Business School

. Whoa. He's so smart.

- I figured out a way to work and go to school in Atlanta. While living in Cambridge. (Someone please pound a sarcastic "That was easy" Staples button)

- Made more best friends.

2012:

- Stevie went to India with his classmates to play with multi-million dollar diamonds. "For school purposes". I whined the entire time he was gone. LIKE THE GIRL I AM.

- Discovered the glory of Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and all things Maine.

- Surfed in Puerto Rico. Where I performed mild surgery on my husband because he stepped on an urchin.

- I graduated! Go Owls!

2013:

- Stevie graduated! Go...Crimson??

- We took off to Europe for a month and had the trip of our life.

- Moved to New York City.

And now? Well...

Oh Baby.

Here we go... and we are thrilled! Bring on this next adventure!

Taste: Green Apple & Bacon Grilled Cheese

Mmm. Bacon.

I've got another recipe for you this week! Since it's FREEZING outside (literally, its well below freezing temperatures today), I've been inside a lot, cooking and baking up a storm in my mini-kitchen. This is SUCH a great recipe, and so stinkin' easy. I don't claim that it's the healthiest, but we all like to veg out a bit when it's arctic outdoor, right? This is rich and comforting and indulgent, and isn't that a little bit necessary during the howling-cold month of January? Pair this with a nice tomato soup and an evening all to your Netflix, and you could battle me for the hibernation crown of glory. I invite you to try it.

Ingredients:

- 2 slices of whole-wheat bread

- 2 slices of cooked bacon

- 2 slices of mozzarella cheese (although I suspect gruyere or Vermont cheddar would be to die for, too)

- 1/2 green apple, sliced thinly

- 1 tbsp. butter

Don't love the idea of apple on your grilled cheese? Sub in one of these additions in its place:

- Avocado (to die for!)

-  Portabello Mushrooms

- Roasted Eggplant

- Mustard

- Prosciutto (my mouth is watering here)

- Sliced Tomato

- Artichoke Hearts

Method:

1. You've made grilled cheese before, right? For those of you too healthy to make this on a weekly monthly basis, I'll give you a quick refresher. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil in a skillet, and turn heat to medium-low. The lower the temp, the slower it cooks, but this is how you achieve the coveted oozing-cheese situation.

2. As the pan heats up, butter one side of each slice of the wheat bread.

3. Thinly slice half of your green apple (my husband likes this with a red apple, too, so pick your fave and go for it!)

4. Once the pan is heated, place the first slice of bread, butter-side down, into the pan. Place a slice of cheese on top of the bread, then layer the slices of bacon (broken in half), and then the slices of apple. Finish with another slice of cheese and then top the layers with the other side of the bread (butter side up).

5. Let the sandwich cook for 2-4 minutes per side, or until the bottom is golden-brown (just watch to make sure you don't burn it.)

6. Flip it. Repeat. Stop drooling.

7. Inhale sandwich. The end.

Cheesy Delicious.

If you would pay for it at Panera, then it is worth attempting to re-create, right?

Stay warm, friends!