Flat Bread

This was amazing. You can find the original recipe here. Per my usual, I strayed from the original recipe and incorporated what I had on hand, but it was absolutely delicious.

I first took a pizza dough I had made a few days before. You can find my pizza crust recipe here or you can use your own, or you can buy a refrigerated one in the grocery store. The possibilities are endless! (They're actually not endless, there's three).

Spread the pizza dough out on a cookie sheet.

Cover have of the pizza dough in an herb goat cheese.

Fold the pizza dough in half onto itself.

Cover the top with the remaining herb goat cheese.

Top with some parmesan cheese and vegetables (I used tomatoes and onions because that's what I had)

Brush a little olive oil on the top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes.

Cut into slices and serve with warm marinara sauce.

These basically taste like the best breadsticks you will ever have.

Instagram

I just recently downloaded Instagram during my vacation in Georgia. For the most part, my thoughts are really conflicted. Part of me thinks I am just taking a photo and lowering the quality with some sort of filter, but another part of me can't quite help loving the pictures it creates. As I've already mentioned - I didn't take nearly enough photos on vacation, but here's a few, instagramized.



cornhole, baby. 

roasting marshmellows

climbing stairs

smile!

My former roomies!

All together now

More cornhole - with a helper

Riding a toy gator with a new friend

cows

Holding hands is such a treat

playing in the sand

relaxing by the water

a night out

gator time

The View

Once again, I'm rushing and can't really get my mind right. But I just need to stop a moment and talk about.....this view. Can you imagine waking up to this every morning. Completely breathtaking. I did not take nearly enough pictures during my stay in Georgia but this is one photo I'm glad I snapped. I figure if I can't have this view I better capture it!

And, another conversation from our stay, this one took place after a few (and a few more for some) drinks at Jordan's on Friday night:

Amanda: Oh my gosh! I am so drunk!
Me: Well you hold your composure so well (full of sarcasm on that one, considering she was pacing around the house)
Katie: And you never mention how you feel.
Amanda: Well, actually, I feel pretty drunk.
Jordan: (laughs in background)

Running Behind

I really don't have time for much of an update but I'm addicted to blogging ( I know, it's official - enroll me in some sort of class) so I wanted to put out some sort of update. I had a fantastic time with these ladies relaxing on a Georgia lake this weekend and already can't wait until I see them again!

And just a little background on this picture.

Me: Richard, can you take a picture of us? Just press that little shutter button.
Richard: (takes picture) Here you go.
Me: (quickly scans picture mostly looking at myself in the picture)- (pass the camera around to everyone) - (watch everyone look only at themselves and then quickly decide whether they like the picture or not)
Me: I think its so funny how everyone just looks at herself in the photo and then says its good without paying attention to anyone else.
Katie: Oh yeah! Of course. Is there anyone else in the picture? Let me see it again?

Martin Has All The Moves

I recently rediscovered this video after way too long. If you've seen this already - watch it again, you'll be sure to chuckle. If you haven't, then you should definitely watch this immediately. The picture is kind of dark and grainy but its totally worth looking through poor lighting. It's videos like this one that remind my why I married Martin in the first place (not that I need reminding, he's amazing!) But that confidence, you can't just find that anywhere. And those moves! Watch this video and tell me you're not impressed.

Ginny!

Although Ginny couldn't join us in Georgia this week (they don't reccommend flying when you're 37 weeks pregnant!) she's definitely with us in spirit.

Ginny and I became great friends when we shared an apartment junior year and even closer when we shared a room in our apartment senior year. I'm so glad I got to know Ginny and have her in my life. I remember when we decided to live together junior year I really didn't know her at all she was just a friend of Jordan's who also needed a place to live. I remember running into her in Target one day and both of us just sort of stalling around like we really should talk to each other since we're going to live together but what do we talk about???

Things got much smoother after that conversation and we've never looked back. Ginny was an amazing friend in college and since college she's continued to amaze me both with her thoughtfullness and her amazing relationship with her husband which I greatly admire. In college, as my roommate, Ginny was one of my closest confidantes and I was lucky to have her just a few steps from my desk/bed/living area at all times.

Miss Jordan

If I were asked to describe the quintessential Southern girl, I would probably just describe Jordan. Everything about her just seems to ooze Southern hospitality and charm. She even has a cute Southern accent. It's only fitting that she's our host for the weekend. And even more fitting that she has planned a huge BBQ in our honor.

When I first "met" Jordan in college I didn't really meet her at all. Rather I heard about this amazing girl who could carry four five gallon pails full of milk at one time. Jordan, I hope you always list that as your greatest life accomplishment, because - it's badass! Jordan and I started to spend more time together sophomore year and decided to live together junior year when our friendship really took off. We had an amazing time hosting dinners, toy parties, and lots of other fun events at our cottage.

The thing I love about Jordan is she is the friend that is always there for you. Though we've been pretty touch and go about keeping good contact since graduation, I always know Jordan is just a phone call away when I really need a friend.

Jordan, thank you so much for welcoming us into your home! You are an amazing friend!

Katie Mason

Katie Mason is one of my other college roommates that I am fortunate enough to be spending time with this weekend. I should preface this by saying that her name is actually not Katie Mason but is now Katie Epstein. I am just having a really hard time adjusting. Katie Mason flows off the tongue so smoothly and, although she is one of my closest friends, I almost always call her by both her first and last name together.

Katie and I didn't really get to know each other until sophomore year of college. And really, the end of sophomore year.  I mean, sure, we passed each other here and there and our circles certainly brushed very closely, but we never really became close friends until I joined the same professional agriculture sorority as Katie was already a member. In the next two years we went from acquantiances that happened to hang out with similar people and frequent the same parties to practically inseperable. By senior year we had our schedules so jam packed that people used to joke that if you didn't jump onto our schedule right away Saturday morning you would miss us for the whole day.

Even though college ended a while ago, I still consider Katie one of my closest friends. And I know I definitely didn't give this speech at her wedding because I was just way too busy repeating I just love you and Mike together  over and over again. But Katie, you're great, and I'm so glad to have you as a friend.

Amanda Ann

While I'm in Georgia soaking up the sun, drinking wine and catching up with my amazing college roommates I figured I'd schedule a few posts dedicated to said roommates, so you can know just how amazing they really are. So first up: Amanda Ann.

If you've ever been to college, you can relate to the feelings of the first week. The excitement of finally living on your own mixed with the anticipation of what's in store for your future mingled with the giddiness you are feeling over the number of attractive boys you are seeing (where were these people growing up?) and all slightly clouded by the fear you're trying to suppress that you won't make any friends. So, of course, you make friends with everyone. When it's time for dinner, you head to the dining hall with your entire floor. When someone is headed to campus, you walk with them. You need friends and while you're delirious with the amount of freedom that you're enjoying for the first time in your life (I can eat whatever I want for dinner??? I can fill this entire mini-fridge with keystone light?? I can stay out as late as I choose to??) you also don't want to be so free that you're a loner.

So, when my hallmate Danielle found out I was also a Communications major, she suggested we walk to our first class together. Perfect!

Danielle: Ok. I'm ready to go. We are also going to meet another girl, Amanda, she lives downstairs on the third floor. I met her at a Long Island picnic before school started.
Me: All right. Great.

From day one we were friends and we watched each other grow from girls into woman as four years slipped so quickly through our fingertips. Whatever phase we were in whether it was crush crazy, serious boyfriend, I just need someone to kiss tonight, or guys suck - we were always there for each other. Through the sake bombs, the games of beer pong, the flip cup tournaments, endless games of never have I ever and even one peed through pair of pants (sorry Amanda!) we remained friends. Through the prelims, the papers and the cramming we supported each other. And through the dreams, the hopes, the someday careers we did and still push each other.

Oh Amanda, my strawberry blonde friend, I wish I had given this speech at your wedding! Oh well. I'm sure we're having a blast in Georgia!

Ruffle Skirt

I wore this outfit to church the other week solely for the reason that Ingrid just helped my figure out how to wear this ruffle skirt that I got on sale and was so excited about, but then that I couldn't figure out how to make it look good in an outfit. Well, Ingrid fixed that!

I mentioned the ruffle skirt to her on our vacation in Florida and we decided we would play around with some outfits when we got to New York. Then Ingrid had to wait in the airport on Wednesday from our arrival time of 5:30AM until her departure time of 2:30PM. Needless to say she had some time to kill and I received a voicemail from her around noon saying she had been doing some research on ways to wear ruffle skirts and thought she had a few great options.

When we met up again in New York we immediately scoured my closet and put together a pretty cute outfit, if I do say so myself. I needed to wear it before winter came to a complete close and I would be forced to think up a whole new way to wear this skirt, hence the wearing it to church a few weeks ago. Aubrey also wore a dress to church that week that I wanted to get in one last time before summer hits and she never fits into it again but by the time this photo was taken she had already changed back into sweats.

Comments

Just a little note about comments. I get REALLY excited when someone leaves a comment. Like, irrationally excited. So if you ever read a post and it causes some sort of thought or emotion to cross your mind (hopefully positive - whoever wrote what type of mother would teach that to her children in response to the very hilarious story of my niece saying suck it instead of suck it up. That person can probably refrain from commenting). But all the rest of you, comment away. It will definitely make me smile

Ice Ice Baby

When Ingrid was detailing to us her expectations for her weekend in western New York she mentioned that she Just wanted to get black out drunk. Just for one night. Just go to the bar and get black out drunk. You know, for freedom. Luckily for her, we didn't have much of a problem making that happen.

And lucky for everyone else in the bar, it was karoke night.

Ingrid impressed everyone when her stelar performance of Vanilla Ice. Seriously, this girl no every single word, no need for the prompter. It was aweing and I'll admit I am was extremely slightly jealous.

I somehow had the self restraint to save everyone's ears from my tonedef belting into a microphone, but I did obviously have no issues with belting it out on my own.

Funny Pins

I don't really ever pin anything funny on pinterest. It's not that I don't like funny things, I mean, I married Martin - clearly I love to laugh. But I usually pin food and home decor things that I really like. If you looked at my pinterest pages you would probably think I'm a grandma or something.....SURPRISE! I'm in my twenties!

Anyway, the point I'm getting to here, is a friend of mine, Amanda Flansburg pins some really funny stuff. I'm not sure if she reads this blog or not but if you do, Amanda, Bravo! You really make me laugh. Below are a few funny ones I found on her page, but you should probably just go here and look at them all yourself.

The Diaper

We've had a few incidents with the diaper recently. We learned that when filled with water they get really really big. I wouldn't reccomend letting your child go swimming in a diaper. Something like this pictured above will result. Forgo the diaper all together and just let your child go nude.

Of course, if you let her go in the nude...she probably won't want to get dressed ever again.

And just a few other recent diaper incidents for your endless pleasure:

1. While in Florida we ran to Walmart to print some photos and get a frame to hang our memories on the wall of the Florida Home. I wasn't really thinking straight or prepared at all when we left and I ran out of the house with Aubrey, but without a spare diaper. While Ingrid and I were standing in the jewelry department speaking with an associate about Ingrid's massive sunburn I started to feel very warm on my side. I pulled Aubrey away from me to find that she had peed on me!

2. Martin: (changing Aubrey's diaper in the morning) Umm. Jenna!? Can you come here? Now!
Me: Why what's up.
Martin: There is something all over the place!
(I enter the room to find her diaper has exploded in the night and the little tiny particles that fill the diaper are covering everything).

3. My mom and dad went shopping while I was at work one day. I came out to say hi to Aubrey and was carrying her around and hugging and kissing her and in general just loving up on her for the brief moment I was with her when.......wait for it....she peed on me. AGAIN.

That's all for now, but I think that's probably plenty of diaper disasters for one month!

Kitchen Sink

On our last day in Florida, Mr. Panek...I mean Jim, not sure what I should write on here? took us on a tour of different Disney hotels. We went swimming in the hotel pools, ate lunch and in general just took in all the details. Before I go any further...THE DETAILS. I mean, Disney seriously knows what they are doing when it comes to details.  In the Animal Kingdom Lodge, there is a drummer playing African tribal music in the lobby, there are actually animals from Africa in the backyard, the employees are all from Africa, and even the bannisters look like little sticks from a jungle. In the wilderness lodge - the chandeliers are teepees!, there's a babbling brook running through the lobby and they've even pegged everything down to the fact that people that stay there probably listen to country music and that's what is blasting at the hotel pool (sidenote: while walking through that pool area Aubrey decided she needed to break it down and set down her sippy cup and just started dancing. She really is my daughter!) I would say the only hotel that they maybe missed a detail was Beaches and Cream. And the only reason I say that is because we were eating lunch there and it's supposed to look like an 50s Malt Shop....but Ingrid's reaction was more like this: What are they wearing? If I had to wear that outfit I would kill myself. I mean, what is the theme even? Colonial?

After pigging out on tons of fresh salsa and lots of delicious grilled meals on our vacation I was feeling a little like I had eaten way too much by the time Tuesday rolled around. So when we decided to have lunch at Beaches and Cream I was feeling pretty good about myself when I ordered a grilled vegetable sandwich. And even better about myself when I got fruit, instead of fries, as my side. And still better when the meal appeared and the portions were pretty manageable. Finally, I'm going to leave this meal and not feel stuffed. And then the conversation drifted to ice cream and how Beaches and Cream has a kitchen sink which is literally a kitchen sink bowl filled with 8 scoops of ice cream and every single topping in the joint. It's like a heart attack in a bowl. Ryan was telling Martin, Ingrid and I (we were at a seperate table from the rest) how last time he and three other guys had gotten a kitchen sink and they could barely finish it. We were looking around to find a similar bowl to compare the size.

Ryan: Oh, they're making one back there now. We'll see it in a minute when they bring it out.

Perfect!

Then the waitress came over to take our plates:
Was everything okay? Can I get you anything else? They already ordered you dessert.

....They already ordered you dessert. You could have wiped the collective dropping of our faces up with a rag as we all realized at the exact same moment just who was going to have to eat that kitchen sink they were so busily making behind the counter.

And moments later our fears were confirmed when the sirens starting echoing through the restaurant (seriously, there is literally sirens) and our kitchen sink was served.

Needless to say, I also felt stuffed at the end of that meal.

Deep

Did I mention how close these two were during our Florida trip? Seriously, if two people ever had each other's back....it was these two. Even when Martin claimed he was the best co-pilot ever and we asked him to take us to the onion fields via orange groves and he took us in the opposite direction to Disney through the city, Ryan still called him an amazing co-pilot.

And when there was some sort of vulture like animal circling over the house next door, you can bet these two were all over checking out the situation.

Ryan: I don't know if I could live here full time.
Martin: I could in the winter.
Ryan: It would be like being on full time vacation, except you still have to go to work everyday.
Martin: That's deep.

Friday Evening

Love the view of this little girl holding my hand as we stroll across the yard.

There's really nothing more fulfilling than seeing Aubrey love all animals, especially bovines.

That cat probably weighs as much as her, but she was determined to pick her up. Luckily, the cat was a good sport about being attacked by a toddler.

Chickens, is there anything cooler?

Cauliflower Pizza

This is another recipe I found on Pinterest. I've been meaning to make it for a while now and finally got around to it on Tuesday night. For some reason I kept thinking it was going to be really involved and a lot of work, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was neither. Here's the link to the original recipe.

And here's my primitive take on it:

The recipe calls for 1 cup of cooked riced cauliflower. The recipe does a great job making it clear that to rice cauliflower all you have to do is stick in the food processor briefly. It doesn't do a great job explaining that 1 cup of raw cauliflower does not equal 1 cup of cooked cauliflower. I ended up cooking the cauliflower twice and I still feel like I was on the light side of cauliflower. I would probably cook three cups of riced cauliflower next time around.  Also, it;s kind of amazing to me that you can just cook the cauliflower in the microwave with no water.

1 cup of shredded mozzarella for the crust. I didn't really measure this, but just grated about some cheese. I don't think it was quite a cup. Probably more like a half.

1 egg, beaten. I found out that when they say beat an egg, they mean with a whisk and not a paddle.

Some seasonings, garlic...oregano....I'm not really too sharp on the herbs because I completely forgot to add them to my crust mix. I'm sure things would have been better had then been in there, but they weren't and the pizza was still good.

Bread crumbs. I ended up throwing a few bread crumbs in here. I didn't measure....at all. I just thought the mixture was a little too gooey and liquidy so I dumped some in. They worked out really well.

All right, while you were mixing that crust together you preheated the oven to 450 degrees, right?

Spread the crust out onto a pan, spray with a little oil (this supposedly helps browning) and pop in the oven for 15 minutes. Except I got really worried about it burning because it just seemed so thin  so I cooked it for more like 9 minutes.

Pull it out and top with sauce, cheese and toppings.

Pop it back in on broil and cook until cheese melts (3-4 minutes)

If any vegetables need to be cooked they will need to cook seperately, because they aren't in the oven long enough to cook. I didn't want to deal with cooking vegetables seperately so I decided to forgo mushrooms and onions and instead used olives and banana peppers which didn't need cooking.

You'll need to eat this with a fork...but it's really delicious.

Enjoy!

Say My Name, Say My Name

Probably no one other than my mom will find this very exciting, but I defnitely feel like its a major milestone. Aubrey can say her name! She now has her name, daddy, doggy, teddy, and dolly mastered (even though the subsequent four all sound very similar and it takes a trained ear to tell the difference). Anytime she wants to be lifted she will pretty consistantly say up. She can also say mommy, hi, and does a pretty incredible jiberish that she seems to completely understand.

Also, I really hope you started singing the Destiny's Child song when you read this post title....I know I did.

Tennis!

For some reason or other, tennis is a sport that I didn't really know that much about. I never really knew the rules or how to keep score ( I knew there was some love in there.....but if love equals zero that seems a little counterintuitive) and I pretty much just play under the "hit the ball over the net whereever it lands" type of rules. But.....we played a lot of tennis in Florida and now I'm pretty familiar with all the rules.

And knowing the rules is really a curse. I used to think I knew how to serve because I could consistently get the ball over the net. Then I learned that you have to not only get the ball over the net but also get it in the first half of the court on a certain side -  forget about it! With rules like that I'd like to play it a little more like ping pong, you only score when you're serving (I know, I know, that wouldn't work because only one team would have an opportunity to serve each game...trust me..I learned the rules. I just think that rule would really help to alleviate my poor aiming problem. A LOT.)

Martin and I have basically decided we need to get really good at tennis this summer so on return trips to Florida we can conquer the court, something we most certainly did not do this time around.

The Pose.

I love this yellow cardigan. I wear it all the time. I think it makes any outfit magically happy.

One of my best friends from college used to always stand in front of a mirror like this before we would go out at night. I won't say who it was but hopefully she, and everyone else who lived with us, can chuckle about this pose.

And then I decided, same pose but with a hand-me-down coat from said poser.