Chef Boyardee-way

Ashley
Jarrett

I recieved an email late last night from J - the subject line? Chef Boyardeeway The content? Copy and paste this to our blog as my frist entry!!! The 3 exclamations obviously show his enthusiasm. Then my phone goes off again. Blackberry Messenger - J - So I dont really know how to blog so I just sent you a microsoft word document (is there any other kind of word document?) that I want you to copy and paste to our blog so it can be my first entry. He obviously was very serious about getting this blog posted. But silly him to think he could send me his blog and I would just cut and paste it in there without sharing my 2 cents with you all as well :)

So……. I have never posted anything on our blog before and I decided that tonight was the night to break me in fresh.  That’s because I did something that my lovely amazing, smart, beautiful, sexay wife would never believe!  Well……. two things:

1)       I ate pork, and

2)       I cooked the pork that I ate!

Now, you might think that this is no big deal, but in fact, I hate pork (except bacon.  I LOVE me some bacon)(He's stretching the truth.. he often eats port chops, tenderloin AND pulled pork... OH! and ribs.. so although in his mind he "hates" pork, he actually just doesnt like ham or sausage).  And I hate cooking pork, or anything, more than that!  (When I moved in we agreed that he would cook twice a month... inevitably this doesn't ever happen, and when he is in charge of dinner, its of the frozen assortment - pizza, lasagna, etc.)

I got inspired on Saturday night when Ashley and I went on a date to Kenny’s Italian Kitchen in Addison.  The first thing our waiter said to us was, “Oh my gosh, I am so nervous.  You are the bald asshole from Masterchef!”  (What he really said was "I was so nervous when I saw you over at the bar waiting at your table, I thought you were that bald asshole from that show with Gordon Ramsey, but clearly you're not") For those of you who don’t know, my true doppelganger is Gordon Ramsey’s sidekick on the television show Masterchef.

So to prove that cooking is my destiny and to show off my amazing culinary skills, I present you with my homemade Sweet & Spicy Pepper Pork Chops (I marinated the pork for him days before and insisted he could make this on his own)!

Step 1 – The Ingredients

 

Step 2 – My amazing knife skills on the vegetables and parsley

Step 3 – Frying the pork chops (I hope this pan has since been cleaned out and not sitting on the stove top still..... Jarrett?!)

Step 4 – Sauté the bell peppers and cherry peppers

 

Step 5 – If I have learned anything from Masterchef, or all of those Food Network shows that I watch with Ash, it’s all about the presentation!

 

Step 6 – All gone!

I never cook anything, EVER, but I have to say that was an amazing dish!  And I can’t believe I did it all by myself (I didn’t even slice my finger open this makes me cringe! or cause a massive fire!)

So, in closing, I can’t wait to make this delicious dish for my beautiful wife.  The good thing is that I have 14 days to perfect it before she will be home!  But I do hope they go by fast.  I miss you and love you baby!

I dont think he meant for this to be posted, but its in the MICROSOFT word document so I am just following instructions

PS:  You will be so proud of me.  I am being self sufficient and eating more than just frozen pizzas every night!

Love,

Your Handsome Hubby

Even though I poke fun, I really am proud of him for not only cooking, but cooking something out of his comfort zone! Maybe by the time I get home he will have learned enough dishes to actually cook twice a week!!!!

J&J: Bridal Shower

I was privleged enough to help plan Miss Jordan Erwin's bridal shower with her MOH, Jackie & her other bridesmaids, Roxanne and Jeanette. After a few months of planning, the event was finally here! ((warning: this post contains LOTS o pictures))

The skinny:

Who: Miss Jordan Erwin's family and family friends

What: Bridal Shower!

Where: Maudee's Tea Room Dallas

When: 7.23.11

Why: Because our Bride-To-Be deserves the best!

I saw invitations on Etsy, which inspired the below:

We found the favors on Etsy as well, a new favorite vendor for me! Favor Box Bakery

The white = vanilla, lavender = strawberry (the bride's favorite!), and eggplant = chocolate

What's inside you ask??? Cupcake Mix with directions to make your own frosting -YUM!

None of my pictures show off the label that well - so here's a large and in charge version. She helped perfect match the invitations! LOVE!

I attempted to be a florist... nothing like R.Love Design but not too shabby! We tried to stick with JoJo's wedding theme with the mason jars!

For the Tables

For the Cake Table

 The cake table all put together! ((Love the J ♥ J letters? I do! Compliments of Miss Jackie!))

The ridiculously perfect cake. Cozy Cakery is absolutely amazing!
[she made the cake for my bridal shower, and also our groom's cake. Always delicious to the eye & pallet. If you would like her contact information, please let me know!]

Our little love birds :)

The Set-Up

Jordan & the Bridal Party

Jordan's family & family friends table with the Bride

Jordan with the Dunaway family/friend/Lally table:

JoJo & her Flower Girls! So presh!

Beautiful Bride opening gifts! They got some GREAT stuff!!!

My little gift helper - adorable!

 l.o.v.e. this lady

All the girlies!

Getting good practice!

The Bride with her Momma, Hannah!

& with both Moms!

MOH! Jackie & Jordan

Soon to be Sisters!

Jo Jo & Roxanne (who is so amazing that she flew in from NY for this event!!!)

Jordan & Jeanette

Fab 5

Thank you thank you to everyone who was able to come out and celebrate Jordan! It was a fantastic afternoon - we cant wait for the next event! XoXo

Starting Tomorrow

I will be gone for 16 days... living at the below:

Before you start getting jelly, or thinking to yourself "why is she conplaining?!", I will be working. And yes, to answer your next question, ALL 16 days. There is no such thing as a day off while on program. So if you are feeling sorry for me, or miss me, or just want to make my day; emails are much welcomed, FB-ing is accepted, texts are encouraged, and snail mail is also available (you can find it here).

I shall see you all come August... late on August 8th, to be exact.

J&J: Wedding Festivities Begin!

I am so excited to say that the Justin & Jordan (J&J) Wedding Activities

officially start this weekend!

I cannot wait to celebrate this beautiful Bride Saturday at her Bridal Shower

hosted with love by her Bridesmaids.

Details to come!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly... & The Okay

The Good:

J&I were going to go out to one of my faves, Fireside Pies, but for reasons you'll see below, we decided to stay in and try out our culinary skills. We made Bobby Flay's Pizza Dough Recipe and had a pizza cook-off! The only thing about the dough that I changed, was that I added italian seasoning to the dough - it was delicious!

We both got our hands dirty.

While the dough was rising we got our toppings together.

J's selections: Jalapenos, yellow, orange, green bell peppers, hot cherry peppers, onions, garlic, basil, italian seasoning, and red crushed peppers.

My selections: Garlic, yellow, orange, green bell peppers, spicy itlaian sausage, onions, basil, mushrooms, italian seasoning, and red crushed peppers.

J's Pizza

I inhaled before taking my first bite and instantly started coughing - this pizza was ON FIRE!

 My Pizza:

On Friday night, I requested a movie.. there isnt a lot out right now, so J so kindly surrendered to my love for children's movies, (I swear the Blockbuster peeps think we have children) and brought home Diary of a Wimpy Kid. J did allow me to start the movie in our room without him, and he'd be "right in". After about my third or fourth out loud laugh (which doesnt happen much when I watch TV/Movies), my curious man came to bed and made me start the movie over.

We both enjoyed the movie so much, we opted to stay in Saturday night and get the second movie from the series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules. Not as funny; however still good. Now I'm wondering if my kindle needs to provide a home for these books... is that embarrassing?????

The Bad:

Oooohhhh, Casey Anthony has re-joined the free world.. Good luck, girl, good luck!!

The Ugly:

USA women's soccer vs. Japan... 2 defensive breakdowns, and a terrible showing in PKs. I think this picture explains it all.

Although, we all should be so so proud of our ladies - they did an amazing job and represented our country and our women SO, so well!

And not to put only our ladies on blast - how old is this guy?! Clearly senile!

The Okay:

Dessert attempt #2 (If you missed my first entry, you can catch up here).

Razz-Ma-Taz Bars ((I added Lemon... duh))

We all know that I love raspberry.. anything raspberry really. And I love raspberry and lemon together.. so when I saw this recipe, I decided to add in the juice of 1 lemon.

They are edible. There's a start. They do taste good. Thats my second plus. My negative, the texture... they cant be cut into bars.. it turned out more like mushy than bar-y? But after J tasted it, he requested a plate-full; therefore its somewhat a succes? We'll go with just Ok.

Have a fantastic week!!