Smokey Mountains Majesty

{ this is a totally unrelated picture of some trees in my parents' neighborhood..  It was just too pretty not to post }

Every Tuesday my Glafenhein side of the family has a family dinner.  Absolutely love it.  Getting to be around family and eat meals with them is one of the best parts about being back in K-town!  Even better, Wil's GooGoo (grandma) and Papa Bill (granddad) get to drive in from Sevierville for dinner every other Tuesday.  It is such a blessing.

So, yesterday was like every other Tuesday night.  After hours of yummy food, good talks and a good while of lounging on the couch to work off all the food we just ate, people started trickling out.  We started to head out and I could not for the life of me find my phone.  Which is pretty weird because I hardly ever lose anything and am especially good at keeping track of what Wil looses.  So after I look around for a while the whole family starts getting into the search.  Couch cushions were lifted, pots and plates were shifted and steps were traced.  I literally did not know where else to look.  In desperation I would lift up perfectly flat plates off the counter and look under them.   After about 20 minutes of the whole house looking for my phone, someone had a thought that maybe Wil's grandparents took it with them thinking that it was theirs.  (They had left about 45 minutes earlier)  We call them up, and sure enough the accident had been made.  (On a really great side note, Wil's grandmother DOES have an I-Phone and is very tech-savvy in using it, so it was a very easy and honest mistake for her to make- no hard feelings at all)  However, it did mean that my phone was in Seviervill and I was in Knoxville.

Basically, that was a dramatic tale of why I was without my phone for the day.  And ya'll, being completely honest.  I.  Loved.  It.

Now don't get me wrong; I love my phone and am so thankful for the technology that allows me to be connected to the world in an instant and lets me keep in touch with family and friends etc.  But man oh man was it a relaxing and freeing to have no phone for a little bit.

I took a walk and talked with God- instead of my usual reading of emails or texting friends.  I read the Bible without being distracted. I organized my room a little bit.  I made breakfast and enjoyed the view while I ate.  I sang acapella to myself and got a really good laugh out of it.  I had no idea what time it was for a while.  I wasn't worried about missing a call or a text because there was nothing I could do about it.  Man oh man it was freeing.

So, as crazy as it sounds, I am so thankful that GooGoo and Papa Bill accidentally took my phone last night.  God used that time- however short it was- to just bring me back to reality for a little bit and help me breathe a little better.

And while the 2 hour drive today was not exactly ideal, the sky was crystal clear and the landscape was Majestic.  There were a couple of times that I actually said "WOW" to myself in the car and at one point I busted out "OH BEAUTIFUL FOR SPACIOUS SKIES, FOR AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN! FOR PURPLE MOUNTAINS MAJESTY, ABOVE THE FRUITED PLAINS!!"

I literally couldn't help myself.

There was a little weight lifted off my shoulders today that was replaced with a gentle embrace by my Father.  God is so sweet and knew exactly what I needed.

I am so thankful.

Spicy Chicken Pasta

A Few Months ago I pinned a recipe for Spicy Chicken Rigatoni.  The picture looked delicious, and I had every intention of making the recipe.

Well, months later I got around to browsing through my old pins and took a gander at this recipe.  To my excitement I had all the ingredients to make it!  Well, almost all the ingredients... I improvised a few things here and there, but for the most half part I stuck with the recipe.

It was delicious!

*Insert: Delicious looking picture

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the finished meal.  Next time I make it I will be sure and take a picture (because let's be honest, aren't the pictures what we choose our meals by?) but I didn't want to wait to give you all the recipe!  So here is my version of Spicy Chicken Pasta:

3 Chicken Breasts

1/4 Cup Oil

1/2 Tbs Crushed Red Pepper

1/8 tsp Groung Black Pepper

1 Tbs Minced Garlic

1 Cup Marinara Sauce

3/4 Cup Alfredo Sauce

Half a Box of Pasta

Additional 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (for garnish)

1.  Cook your pasta according to the box.

2.  In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add the crushed red pepper, ground black pepper and the minced garlic and saute it long enough for the garlic to carmelize.

3. Add sliced chicken and saute' it until almost fully cooked. 

4. Add both the marinara sauce and alfredo sauce and bring to a simmer.  Cook until the sauce thickens and the chicken is cooked all the way through.

5.  Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the cooked pasta.  Serve and add the additional red pepper for garnish.

6. Enjoy this spicy goodness!

Personal-Size Pumpkin Pies

   Holidays= tons of reasons to bake goodies and lots of people to pass them off to:) This makes me happy, happy because 1. I love to bake and 2. my sweet treats are appreciated and eaten up by neighbors/strangers/kids who at any other time of the year would have suspiciously thought I was trying to poison them because "what kinda crazy lady just gives out free desserts."
   Soooooo- in honor of Thanksgiving and Autumn and Leaves and Pumpkins and yummy tasting things- I present my latest creation:

Personal-Size Pumpkin Pies!

   Yes, they are darling aren't they?  I am pretty impressed with the outcome.  I saw a post on Bakerella's Blog for pumpkin pie bites, which I thought were so cute.  However, the crust is my favorite part of a pie, so I wanted to make some pies with the top crust.  Not just any top crust though, I wanted leaves.  Why?  Because I'm a sucker for leaves (no really, I love them!) and they are festively appropriate for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday!  

   I followed Bakerella's recipe, just made them in a regular cupcake pan rather than a mini-cupcake pan.  I just cut out circles for the bottom crust (not pumpkin shaped like she does) and then used leaf cookie cutters(Maple Leaf Cookie Cutter (Google Affiliate Ad)) to do the leaf crust on top.  Then I baked them in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 350.

   Here are some pictures of the process and the finished product:

   Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Yummiest Chicken Noodle Soup

   Here's to the yummiest in my tummiest chicken noodle soup!!!  The first time I made this recipe I pretty much squealed at how good it was and the fact that I had just created it! (I am by no means a chef.)  And then the next day I proceeded to make a double batch of it so I could eat it for dinner every night the rest of the week!  Hands down the best chicken noodle soup I've ever had.  (Which is saying something because Progresso's and Panera's chicken noodle soup are pretty hard to beat. ) The original recipe is from Allrecipes.com and honestly I wouldn't change a thing about it.  Every time I've made this soup I've changed a little here and there by adding more carrots or onions or spices or celery or chicken etc.  but I just can't beat it;  The original is by far the best.

{Mmmhmmm! It even looks like it smells good!  I was lucky to get a picture before everything was gobbled up!}

P.S.  The recipe calls for salt and pepper to taste, my taste buds desire about a tablespoon of pepper and boy oh boy is it good!  I recommend trying it with lots of pepper!  I also don't add any salt.

P.P.S.  I have made it without sauteing the onions and celery (which also means not using any butter)  and the taste was not that different.  If you are short on time and need it to be easier you can just add the raw onion and celery and the soup will still taste fantastic!

Wedding Food

"Food is essential to life, therefore make it good"  Truett Cathy

   Well said Truett!  And since food was essential at our wedding, we made it good!  Wil and I had all of our absolute favorite foods served: Chick-fil-a chicken strips and nuggets-with Chick-fil-a sauce of course, Mcalister's chicken tortilla soup, Silver Spoon's spinach queso dip, Panera Bread cinnamon crunch bogals (just like the bagels except in little balls), mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, brownies and funfetti cake!  Not only was it a unique way to add character to the wedding, it was cheaper than using a caterer.  Here's the breakdown: (All of these prices are based on serving a little over 200 guests.)

12 trays of Chick-fil-a chicken (7 strips, 5 nuggets) x $70.24 ($64+ $6.24tax) = $842.88

38 quarts of Mcalister's chicken tortilla soup x $7.70 ($6.99 + $.71tax) = $292.60

20 quarts of Silver Spoon spinach queso (chips included) x $14.19 ($12.99 + $1.20tax) = $283.83

Mashed potatoes/Mac and cheese bar $350

Panera Bread cinnamon crunch bogals $111

Coffee/tea/water/flavored creamers  $130

Cheese and cracker trays $130

Food Cost:  $2,140.31

   Our wedding was at a resort, so thankfully they had tables/chairs/plates/cups/silverware/etc. for us to use.  The food was set up at stations using warming/serving trays as well.  (We picked the food up from the restaurants and transferred them to the warming trays.)  We were able to get the tables, chairs, etc for free, so the only added expense was the labor.  $940 went to the servers for room set up/take down, food preparation and service during the reception.  

Food + Labor

GRAND TOTAL:  $3,080.31

This is for a full meal and dessert for a little more than 200 people.*

   Yes, that still is a lot of money, but it is way below average for full meal for a 200 person wedding.  It averages to about $15 per person, and we had plenty of leftovers for the out of town guests to munch on the rest of the weekend!  

* We had a friend make the cake- and she paid for the ingredients as a wedding gift- so that cost is not added into the budget, but at around $1.20 a box you can't go wrong!  (****Please please please use rainbow chip icing with your funfetti cake, its soooo much better than funfetti icing!)

*A couple of our cousins made the brownies for Wil's grooms cake, and they also paid for the ingredients as a wedding gift.