CSA Bounty-Week 2

This week's CSA produce was delightful!
I didn't take a picture, but our box contained:

*mixed salad greens
*cabbage leaves
*baby spinach leaves
*sugar snap peas (amazing!)
*carrots
*sweet onion
*squash

We turned it into:
-Salads- we've been eating lots of delicious salads
-I used the sugar snap peas, carrots, and onions (with some broccoli, mushrooms, and bell peppers) to make a chicken stir fry that we loved!
-I'm planning to roast the squash and onions early this week for dinner

Until the next box arrives, you'll find us eating lots & lots of salads!!!

Cheekwood

Last Saturday we spent the morning at Cheekwood Art Museum & Botanical Gardens.

They had a train exhibit with model trains & replicas of local landmarks, which was pretty cute!

I snapped only a few shots while we were there...

CSA Bounty-Week 1

We picked up our 1st CSA box this week... *Carrots
*Mixed greens
*Baby lettuce
*Onions
*Squash
*Radishes

We turned it into:

*Several delicious grilled chicken salads

*Silver turtles (grilled hamburger patties, potatoes, & carrots cooked in foil wrapping, hence the term silver turtles) with roasted radishes, squash, & onions and cooked greens

The fresh carrots were by far my favorite. They were just amazing!
The roasted radishes surprised me & were pretty good, especially paired with the squash.

Can't wait to see what next week's box holds!

waffles

I used to always prefer pancakes over waffles hands-down.
Then Chris' mom introduced me to her amazing waffle recipe.

Tarr Waffles

1 3/4 cups of flour
3 tablespoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 beaten egg yolks
1 3/4 cups of milk
1/2 cup of oil
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 beaten egg whites

Beat egg whites until stiff.
Combine other ingredients & mix until smooth.
Fold in egg whites and mix well.
Pour batter onto griddle.

Makes 5-6 waffles, depending upon the size of your griddle.

Maybe you'll become a waffle kind-of girl too!

storing fresh produce

We picked up our 1st CSA box yesterday!!!

It was chock full of delicious fresh produce which quickly led me to the conclusion that I have no knowledge of how to properly store some produce straight from the garden.

Thank goodness for the internet!
I found a great chart for information on prepping, storing, & using garden fresh produce.
You can find it here.

More on our fresh goodies to come...

priceless...

We love our Sadie!
She's such a part of our little family.
She's also quite photogenic!

Chris is often amused by engaging Sadie in what I term "doggie torture" (evidence below).
I guess she doesn't look too tortured!

And in another moment of silliness, Chris put Sadie in the chair (our nice chairs) with him, so here they are chilling together. Chris was so amused with himself & the look on Sadie's face is one of absolute bliss. Not that she has any cares in the world anyway!

P.S. They (mostly Chris) got in trouble for this one after I snapped the pic.

shooting for 100!

I realized that I've been blogging for going on 4 years & I haven't yet wrote 100 posts in 1 year.


So, it's my new goal! (kind of late in the year to be setting such lofty goals, huh?)


I'm aiming for 100 in 2011...guess i better get to writing!

summer of the cicadas...

They're h-e-r-e....the cicadas that is.

Until just a week or so ago, I was entirely unfamiliar with cicadas.

Unfortunately, I have quickly been forced to become all too familiar with them.

Apparently...

*Cicadas are insects that thrive in tropical conditions (I wouldn't typically think of Nashville as tropical, but ok)

*The life-cycle of a North American cicada is 13 years. So, they live in the ground eating on tree roots for 13 years, and then burrow their way out to lay their eggs. They then shed their outer coverings and begin their adult life.

*Cicadas make a loud noise, a mating call, produced by tymbals on their abdomen. They produce one of the loudest insect sounds known.

*Fortunately, cicadas do not sting or bite.

This means...

*There are holes (about the size of a #2 pencil) all over our yard.

*On warm, non-rainy days all other sounds outside are drowned out by the sound of the cicadas.

*When you walk outside, you step all over their crunchy shells they leave behind.

*And worst of all, they apparently like to hover near the ground & hence when running will fly into your legs...GROSS!

Supposedly, the cicadas will be with us for about 6 weeks...yuck!

Atleast we won't have to worry about them for another 13 years.

one reason.

I love my job for so many reasons.

Last night, I was reminded again of just one of these reasons.

Belmont School of Nursing held our pinning ceremony @ 6 p.m. last night.

It was a lovely ceremony that holds so much meaning for our students.

As I sat with the rest of the faculty in the choir loft looking out at the graduates and their families and friends, I was so inspired knowing that I was looking out over 84 soon-to-be nurses...WOW!

I love knowing that as I work with these students that I have the power to impact the way they think about nursing and the care they will provide to their future patients.

It's just one of the many reasons that my job is great!

sometimes it's the little things

like...

squeezing in a morning run before work,

enjoying homemade blueberry pancakes with my co-workers,

getting great deals @ CVS & Walgreen's,

half-price caramel frappacino @ Starbuck's Happy Hour,

a nice chat with Mom,

an evening walk with Sadie,

delicious grilled steaks for dinner...

that make days like today so great!

adventures galore!

We have had some fabulous adventures over the last month and even more fabulous adventures to come over the summer!

To recap...

-Chris' parents & Erin came to visit in early April. In addition to showing them the sights of Nashville, Chris's dad, Chris, Erin, & I went zip-lining along the Harpeth River. It was unbelievably fun!!! We're already imagining our next zip-lining adventure.

-We were home in Atlanta this past weekend celebrating 2 wonderful occasions, Mom's graduation from Brenau (go Mom, MSN, RN, OCN!!!) and Mother's Day. It was a great weekend with lots of fun and celebration.

Between those fun adventures, it's been very busy with the end of the semester upon us.

I've also accepted a PRN position at Baptist Hospital in Nashville. I will be working on an oncology floor, very different from where I was at Duke, but I am nonetheless excited about the opportunity to get back in the hospital and work with patients without too much commitment (only 2 shifts a month, no weekends, no nights, no holidays, no on-call!!!).

We've also been quite busy planning our summer adventures.

-Cheri & Abbey will be arriving on June 9th for the CMA Festival. We've been planning it for quite some time & it's fast approaching. We have 4-day, all-access passes so we're looking forward to lots of great concerts by the river during the day and bigger concerts at LP Field in the evenings. Lots of great music by lots of great country music stars. Definitely can't wait for some sister fun!

-Destination: Stockholm, Sweden. We leave 6/18 & will return on 6/26. Our home base will be Stockholm, but we will take a couple of day trips out from the city to see more of the countryside & the Baltic Sea. Europe, here I come! Here are 2 gorgeous pictures of our destination...

-Destination: Yellowstone. We leave on 7/1 for Jackson Hole, Wyoming where we will meet up with Chris' parents and Erin and head to Yellowstone National Park. Visiting Yellowstone is on my bucket-list, so I'm so excited about the opportunity to go and to go with people who have visited several times before and know the best places to see. We'll return home on 7/7. We're looking forward to it & I'm hoping to capture images half as awesome as these...

Summer, here I come!!!