it was a sunny sunday afternoon

happy valentine's day

 (we hope it was a great one!)

oven bbq chicken and other yummy goodness

If you have never cooked and/or eaten anything from The Pioneer Woman, you haven't lived. 

Seriously.

The woman believes in butter. Need I say more? Oh, and she is also hilarious and takes mouth-watering photos of the food she makes. 

Last night, I simultaneously watched Julie and Julia and cooked some food from off The Pioneer Woman's website. The results were that I discovered a new favorite quote, and that the food looked (okay, and tasted) so good that I had to whip out my camera to capture it. 

These potatoes were divine. As in, I may-or-may-not-have-danced-around-the-kitchen-when-I-first-tasted-them kind of divine. Here is the recipe, but in reality I didn't really follow it. I would offer one hint: make sure to not go over the 15 minutes recommended before moving the spuds around...otherwise they will break up (like mine did). Of course, you can always eat the mangled ones before you serve them if this does happen...so maybe just ignore what I just said and go ahead and break those potatoes up! 

I don't even know what to say about this chicken other than, "Yuuuuuuuummmmmmm". I made a homemade BBQ sauce for it (get the recipe here) and it was literally the best thing I tasted all day long. I made the sauce (oh, and gluten-free brownies...but that is a recipe for another time) earlier in the day so it was all ready for me to put together in the evening.  The recipe for this Oven BBQ Chicken is also from The Pioneer Woman. (Seriously! The woman is a genius!) I think the only piece of advice for this would be to definitely let it cook until the sauce starts to brown. I think if I would have left it in a few minutes longer it would have been even more perfect.

I also steamed some broccoli to go along with dinner. Not only does cooked broccoli taste yummy (though the smell is seriously horrendous) but the final product of this plate looked impeccable (at least in my mind).

Drizzle some of the extra sauce from the pan over that chicken. You won't regret it. I promise.

Well, there you have it: Homemade BBQ Sauce, Oven BBQ Chicken, and Roasted Potato Wedges. A dinner fit for kings! 

"You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure - and when I say nothing, I mean nothing - you can come home and know absolutely sure that if you add chocolate to egg yolks and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It's such a comfort." -Julie and Julia

a forever type of love

There are so many types of love in this world. There is the middle-school girl type of love, where pink glitter is the best thing since sliced bread. Then there is the high-school girl type of love, where the quarter-back on the football team is your soulmate. Then there is the college girl type of love, where coffee is your true love and sleeping is better than chocolate. But then, somewhere down the line, hopefully there is the type forever of love where you meet and marry a person who will be your best friend for life, and will stand by you no matter what. 

Alongside the types of love that play a role in your life, there are some moments in life that change you forever. A few months ago, I experienced one of those moments. It was the moment I stood at the back of the funeral home and watched as my Grandma laid her hand on the coffin, looked into my Grandpa’s face one last time, and then slowly turned and walked away. 

It was a heartbreaking moment. But it would have been even more painful if we hadn’t known that Grandpa was with Jesus right then. And it would have been even more difficult if we wouldn’t have had all the amazing memories from Grandpa’s time on this earth. 

The love between my grandparents was a thing of beauty. I really don't know how else to describe it. They fit each other perfectly. They cried together and laughed together, and supported each other throughout everything. Their marriage was a living example of “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness in health, to love, honor, and cherish, until death us do part.” 

It was only three days after celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary that Grandpa went home to be with the Lord. The path leading to that day was long and painful for all of us, but especially for Grandma. The furthest away I have ever lived from my grandparents is two miles. But for the last 8 years, I have lived about 50 yards from their house. Living that close, I have been able to witness first hand the way Grandma cared for and loved Grandpa through the broken hip, the bouts with pneumonia, the terrifyingly low sodium levels, and the moments when he didn’t remember who we were.

This spring, on the way home from the ER after one of the really hard days, Grandma said something that I will never forget. She was telling me about how, when she was a little girl and her family moved out from Ohio, they didn't plan to stay in this area but ended up visiting some people and then just never left. I told her that I was glad they had decided to settle here. She replied, "Me too. Otherwise I never would have met Grandpa.”

The kind of love my grandparents shared is the real deal. It’s not the type of love that gets a college girl out of bed simply because she wants coffee. It’s the forever type of love where, even on the very worst of days, you don’t turn your back on the person you’ve pledged your life to. Watching this love play out in my grandparents lives has been an amazing example to me, but so has watching the affect my Grandpa’s death has had on my Grandma. The burden of missing him is made light by the knowledge that she will see him again in heaven someday soon, because Jesus came and died on a cross in a moment that changed us all, forever. And that right there, is the best type of love. 

Elijah & Emily

It may come as a shock to you, but I am an introvert. To me, meeting new people is equivalent to a little kid being forced to eat brussels sprouts: it’s awful while it lasts, but most of the time it turns out well. 

That’s how it was when I met Emily. At the time it was rather uncomfortable (randomly being introduced at church because we were both photographers and both attended the same school), but she ended up turning into a very good friend, and we have shared plenty of fun photo adventures since then. 

I was beyond excited when I heard that she was engaged, and even more so when she asked me to take their engagement photos. They were such a fun couple to photograph, and I can’t wait to watch them say “I do” in just a few short months. 

I hope you enjoy this snippet from our session! (And if you have a favorite, let me know in the comment section at the bottom of the page.) 

Eli & Emily, thank you for letting me be a part of your story. I am praying for you as you head off on the crazy awesome adventure called marriage, and I have full confidence that God is doing and will continue to do amazing things in your lives! 

Real Talk: College

Dear Professor,

You may not know me. I am the girl who slips into the back corner just as class is starting, and bolts for the door as soon as you said, “see you on Friday”. 

Or, you may know me by name and yell “hello” from across the amphitheater during the cold hours of the morning as I rush to my 8am class.  

Either way, I want you to know that you have made a difference. A huge difference. It is not in vain; those late nights and hair pulling as you try to figure out a way to convey your topic to me and my classmates. You are changing lives and helping to build up the next generation of leaders, parents, and more importantly, Christians. 

I sat in your classroom today, and I realized that I am going to be sad to walk across the stage in May. Not sad to be done with the deadlines and papers and hundreds of pages of reading, but sad to be done learning from you. 

You have taught me that math doesn’t have to be synonyms with tears and anger and pain. You have taught me that history isn’t boring and stale, but rather full of life and humor and intriguing facts. You have taught me how to ask questions about the Bible and dig deeper and deeper to find the answers. You have taught me to not shy away from hard questions and hard answers. You have taught me that poetry isn’t just people throwing various misspelled words together, but rather the most beautiful of songs. You have taught me how to tackle a ten page research paper in a way that doesn’t require no sleep and an ulcer from too much caffeine. 

Whether you couldn’t pick me out of a line-up, or I say hello to you on a regular basis, I want to thank you. Thank you for changing the way I view life. Thank you for having an infectious passion for the subject you are teaching. Thank you for making the leaving of this place a bittersweet (and sometimes downright sad) event. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for doing what you do. 

Sincerely,

The girl at the back of your classroom

monster cookies

Today I made cookies. But not just any cookies...these were gluten-free monster cookies (rawr). And, because I had extra time, I decided to grab my camera and photography my process to share with all you lovely people. 

 First, I mixed up the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and baking soda.

Then, while the butter was melting, I drank coffee (of course). 

 And since the butter still wasn't ready, I snapped a shot of this (nearly empty) bag of cookies my best friend gave to me last night. (I promise it was mostly empty when I got it.) These cookies are seriously so good though...if you ever need a gift for a chocolate-loving-gluten-avoiding person (*cough* me *cough*) these will do the trick.

 A word to the wise...add the chocolate chips after the hot butter. Otherwise you will have chocolate cookies with no chunks of chocolate. (Or you could just add some chips before and some after and have super-duper chocolate-y cookies.)

 Mix that dough up and then throw it on a (greased) cookie sheet.

This was my first batch to put in the oven, and since I couldn't remember how much they spread out, I gave them plenty of room. They really don't spread out any, so go ahead and cram them on the sheet. 

 Don't bake them much longer than 10 minutes. I repeat: Do not bake them much longer than 10 minutes. They may not look done, but they are. Trust me. Give them a bit to cool completely and they will be perfectly gooey and amazing instead of as hard as a rock (like they would be if you left them in over like 11.59384893 minutes).

 If you don't feel like waiting till the cool completely, go ahead and enjoy them while they are warm and gooey and they fall apart in your hand. (Yum)

There you have it! Now go make me proud and bake some of these delicious things.

Monster Cookies

3 eggs
0.5 lb brown sugar
0.75 tsp vanilla
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp baking soda
0.5 cup butter
0.75 lb peanut butter
4.5 cups oatmeal
0.75 cup chocolate chips

Combine. Make balls of dough, then flatten. Bake at 350F for 10-12 min.