South Carolina or Bust

If you know anything about my husband, you will know that weddings are not his favorite thing.  So when we got the invitation in the mail and saw the ceremony was in South Carolina, you can guess the answer I expected to receive.  But he said, without giving it a second thought, "We are going."  It was a wedding invitation to our dear friend, Jordan Harris', wedding.  He and Matt became friends in college when they were in the same service club, and he also did a fantastic job singing in our wedding.

Jordan met his super cute wife while they were camp counselors at a Christian camp in Texas, and they are absolutely adorable together.  We are so excited to have been there for their big day and wish them a lifetime of happiness as they open this new chapter in their lives.

You could tell that Katie and Jordan had thought about every detail.  The minute we arrived at the hotel, we received a gift bag with some yummies and a map of the city with pamphlets of the attractions of the city.

When we made it into town, we were starving.  All we had to do was walk out of our hotel and take a stroll down main street.  With our map in hand, we searched for a brick oven pizza place that Jordan and Katie had mentioned was Katie's dad's favorite pizza place in the city.  Believe it or not, this plate was completely empty when I was finished. And, yes, Matt had his own pizza.  I am not ashamed!

On Main Street, they had all of these statues that were of famous people to the area.

They had a sweet, little ice skating rink.  This looked like a city favorite!

There was a beautiful city park that was along the river with waterfalls and large grassy areas.  I am so jealous!  

The entire city was so active.  Everyone was running, biking, or dog walking.  It was so refreshing!  I can no longer use the cold weather as an excuse...

They had this amazing cable bridge that ran over the river.  Now, not many things do get to me, but heights is one of them.  I walked across the bridge, but I made Matty take most of the pictures.  He is so brave!

This is what I call wedding food!  When I asked for the steak, I didn't realize it would be so massive.  It was delish!

It was so good to see our sweet friend and meet his beautiful bride.  They were giddy with delight throughout the entire ceremony, and I almost melted when I saw Jordan's face as Katie walked down the aisle.  It was truly a precious moment.

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.  For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.

Isaiah 61:10

No One Likes a Mr. Sniffles!

I have found it!  The one recipe I make for anyone, including myself, who is feeling under the weather.  It was my go to recipe for when my mom had to have an abrupt surgery, when Matty undergoes sinus season, or when you are trying to break up those heavy holiday meals.  I discovered it in my Giada at Home cookbook (yes, I do have more than one cookbook.  I actually have a whole collection, but like I have said before, Giada at Home is my favorite.)  I have tweaked it slightly, but I certainly cannot take credit for it.  This is Lemon Chicken Noodle Soup!

This really is one of the most perfect soup recipes.  You have all of the vitamins from the veggies, the substance of the pasta, the protein from the chicken, the comfort of the broth, and the zing of the lemon.  I don't want to sound like I am begging or demanding, but you HAVE to try this!

The star players: 1 lemon, 2 stalks of celery, 3 carrots, 1 onion, 4 cups of chicken broth, 1 cup of small pasta, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley, and 2 chicken breasts.  You can use left over rotisserie chicken or cook up some fresh!

Get your soup pot and drizzle 1-2 TBSP of olive oil on the bottom.

While the oil is heating up, dice up your veggies.  I peeled the carrot before I chopped it.  Try and not cry while cutting the onion.  It gets me every time.  For a recipe trying to get rid of a Mr. Sniffles, I sure created a Mrs. Sniffles.

Let your veggies tender up around 5-8 minutes.  Soup just isn't soup with crunchy vegetables.

Once the vegetables have tendered up, add your bay leaf, along with some salt and pepper.  Lots of pepper!  It clears the sinuses.

Zest your lemon into the pot and add the juice being careful not to get any of the seeds in your soup.

Pour in your broth.  I use unsalted so you can control the salt content.  Add in your chopped chicken breasts.  Let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes.  

Add 1 cup of short pasta.  Giada breaks up some whole wheat spaghetti which is very delicious, but I didn't have any on hand so I used Ditalini.  If you want to make it for any little ones, this is a great time to whip out those little star pastas.  No one should grow up without chicken and stars.

Cook the pasta according to the package's directions.  While the pasta is cooking, wash and chop your parsley.

For the grand finale add your parsley.  You will be better in no time!

Lemon Chicken Noodle Soup

1-2 TBSP of olive oil

3 carrots, peeled and diced

2 stalks of celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 bay leaf
1 cup of short pasta
4 cups of chicken broth
2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
salt and pepper
1/2 bunch of chopped flat leaf parsley

Drizzle the olive oil into your soup pot.  Add your vegetables and allow them to soften for 5-8 minutes.  Put the bay leaf, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper into the pot.  Add the 4 cups of chicken broth and chopped chicken breasts and let your soup simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Add the 1 cup of dry pasta to your soup and let it cook according to the package's directions.  Before you serve, sprinkle in the chopped flat leaf parsley.  Soup's on!

Rosemary Turkey Burgers

A few months ago, I was out to eat with some of my dearest friends, and we got to talking about how much we love love love burgers.  Each of us have our own dietary issues such as gluten allergies or not eating red meat.   I decided to throw out my recipe for Turkey Rosemary Burgers.  It is a burger, yes, but this burger is on a different level.  It is my go-to dinner if we are having friends over.  Some people feel that when they are having friends over for dinner that it needs to be super fancy to impress the people.  I have found when I do this, the atmosphere is stuffy and uncomfortable.  This is why I like to serve burgers.  Everyone feels at ease when they see a burger and this recipe is definitely a crowd pleaser.

Rosemary Turkey Burgers: I got this idea from my Giada at Home cookbook, which is probably my favorite cookbook of all time.  I have mentioned it before with my Pasta Ponza post, and I have another post in the works for my go-to soup recipe.  I tend to take the recipes and tweak them until I get them the way I like them.  Everything Giada makes is easy, delicious, and very beautiful, so I highly recommend picking up a copy of her cookbook.

Defrost 1 lb of ground turkey.  Giada uses ground chicken, but for some reason it is difficult for me to always find ground chicken at my local Kroger.  You can use whichever one you like better.

This recipe require just a few easy ingredients: Mayo, garlic, salt, pepper, and lots of fresh rosemary.  First of all, I hate mayonnaise.  I am not a big condiment girl to begin with, but mayo is my least favorite.  The only reason I even have mayo is for this recipe...the only reason.  Second, I love rosemary!  It is probably my favorite and most used herb.  This recipe gives me a chance to display my prized herb from my garden.

Add salt and pepper to your ground turkey.  Please use less salt than I have displayed!  I got a little carried away.  You really do not need much seasoning since you have the fragrant rosemary and the hint of garlic.

Give your rosemary a rough chop

The smell will hit you and you will feel like you are in a forest...but without the durn mosquitos!  

Add 2 minced garlic cloves and 2-3 tablespoons of mayo.  I also got carried away with the mayo!  I typically get 92% turkey with 8% fat (for which this much mayo would be okay), but this time accidentally got 85/15 and the excess mayo was not necessary.  If you add too much mayo, the burgers don't stick together well when you are cooking them. 

Add a few tablespoons of mayo to a separate bowl.  To the mayo, add 1 TBSP of minced rosemary and 1 minced garlic clove.  Sprinkle in some salt and pepper.

Instead of regular buns, I tend to use wheat Kaiser rolls.  They are more filling than regular buns.  I do not like people leaving my house hungry!

Form your burgers.  I leave a little indention in the middle of my burgers.  It is a little trick I learned from Food Network.  It makes nice flat burgers instead of rounded tops.  I do not know how; it just works!

Slather your buns with the mayo mixture

Throw your burgers on the grill/grill pan.  Let the burgers cook until they have reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  While the burgers are cooking, I throw the buns on the middle of my grill pan and toast them.  The mayo kinda browns up and you can't even tell that is what it was...thankfully!  Whew!  Let me re-emphasize: Mayo...not my fav...

Ta Da... My favorite way to eat a burger.  It looks impressive, but it is still just a burger.  Your company and you will love it!  You can add any of the usual things to enhance your burger.  We usually add spinach, provolone cheese, and a slice of tomato.  If you are like my hubby, you can add lots and lots of ketchup :)

I typically serve these burgers with some sort of potatoes.  This time it was my baked fries.  Wash your potatoes.  I know it looks like a lot of potatoes, but they go quick!

The key to baked fries is to cut them really thin.  Make thin lengthwise cuts down your potatoes.

Then make thin strips out of your potatoes.

Since Matt and I try to keep our sodium low, we have to enhance the flavor of our fries with other seasonings.  Fresh herbs are great for this, but my plants were running low at this time, so I made the executive decision to use dried herbs.  Here I used rosemary, oregano, salt, black pepper, and 2 minced garlic cloves.  I know this looks like a lot, but I haven't mixed it in yet.  I use about 2 TBSP of vegetable oil to make them crispy.  

The last important thing is to make sure you do not crowd your baking sheet.  If you do, the potatoes will steam instead of crisping up.  I lay down some tin foil to make clean up super easy then I spray the foil with Pam to keep the fries from sticking to the pan.  Bake them at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  You can turn them halfway, but I always forget and they still turn out yummy!

Rosemary Turkey Burgers

1 lb of ground turkey, defrosted

3 TBSP of minced fresh rosemary

3 garlic cloves, minced

5 TBSP of mayonnaise

4 Hamberger buns or Kaiser rolls

Salt and pepper

Preheat your grill or grill pan to medium high heat.

Mix ground turkey with 2 TBSP of rosemary, 2 garlic cloves, 3 TBSP of mayo, and salt and pepper.  Form burgers and place on grill.  Cook until the burgers reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

In a separate small bowl, mix together 2 TBSP of mayo, 1 TBSP of rosemary, 1 minced garlic clove, and salt and pepper.  Slather the buns, tops and bottoms, with the mayo mixture.  Grill the buns on low heat until toasted.

Assemble your burgers and enjoy!

For There Your Heart Will Be

As many of you know, we recently had a devastating event occur for my Milling family.  Early Sunday morning around 4:00 am, I received a call.  It was an unknown number, but since my husband was away on a hunting trip, I thought maybe he was calling me to say 'hello' before he went out for the day.  When I answered the phone, I was surprised to hear my father-in-law's voice.  Immediately, I knew something was very, very wrong.

"Emilee, This is David.  The house is burned down.  Everything is gone.  We lost everything.  I am calling you from a neighbor's house because we do not have phones.  We barely escaped with our lives."
The reality of what I am hearing hits me hard.  "What?  What do I need to do?"
"I...I don't know.  I don't know."
"Do you know what caused it?"
Pause "Yes...I put out a space heater for the cats..."

Over the following few minutes, I try and get in touch with Matt.  I had not heard from him the night before which is unusual, but this made me think his battery was dead on his phone.  After calling several numbers, I get in touch with him and deliver the terrible news.  One of the reasons I love my wonderful husband is that he never panics.  I always feel so safe with him because no matter what happens, he keeps a level head and knows the best course of action.  He is a true leader and I wish I had the strength he has.

Needless to say, we were all very much in shock the day that it happened, but I can't help but see God's hand in this situation.  Although the fire alarms did not go off, Mrs. Lisa and Mr. David made it out safely.  All of their pets are safe and sound.  Even though the rooms were burned and the ceiling caved in, money, checkbooks, credit cards, driver's licenses were found and untouched.  Even though the destruction was devastating, the things we care about most are safe.

I was brought into a reality check this week.  The point of my entire blog is not about yummy food, growing my herbs, or any of this material stuff.  It should be about having our hearts in the right place and treasuring the right things. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21

As always, we appreciate your continued prayers for us during this time.  It means more to us than you may ever know.

Busy Day Dinner

Just a short blog post today!  I feel like lately I have been so busy, I haven't been able to take a second to breathe.  I have found that being an adult by definition means you have ten or more things thrown at you in a day and you have to find a way to balance everything.  Every one of us is faced with these challenges, whether you be a student, working professional, or a stay at home mother.  With our busy lives, it can be so easy to cave and pick up a fast food, heavily processed meal for dinner.  Try out my easy calzones!  You could finish them in less time than it takes to drive to your local Wendy's, sit in line, pay for your food, and head home.  This is a recipe I found years back that is super simple, kid-friendly, and very delicious.

I like to cover my cookie sheets with tin foil because it makes clean up so easy!

Unroll premade pizza dough.  This is Pillsbury's new whole wheat crust.  It is so yummy!

Cut it into 4 rectangles

Lets make our filling!  Pour about 1/4 cup of Ranch salad dressing into a bowl.  I used Light Ranch but feel free to use the real stuff or if you are really good, the Fat Free.

Add 1/2-3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and mix together.  If you have one on hand, I like to add 1 diced tomato to the mixture.  

Put 1-2 slices of deli ham on each dough rectangle

Divide the filling among your calzones

Fold the calzones in half and crimp the edges with a fork

Bake according to the dough's packaging instructions.  You may need to add a few minutes to make sure the  dough gets cooked through.

I served our calzones up with some raw fruit and veggies.  A side salad would also be a great side!  These calzones are so versatile, and you can use whatever you have on hand.  I have even made them with broccoli, cheese, and ham or breakfast calzones!  When you are making these for just you and your hubby, the other two calzones make a perfect lunch for the next day.  I hope you enjoy!