Life Lately

Let's talk about life lately.

For starters, I took a seminary teaching class and taught the scriptures to teenagers.
It was challenging, but also wonderful.
The students... I can't even.
I was the witness to tiny miracles every day.
I focused several hours of each day on Jesus Christ.
And let me tell you, there's nothing bad about that.

And now I'm finishing my last final,
and maybe making homemade  stockings and preparing for mini Christmas tomorrow morning.
[mini-Christmas with creamed eggs, stockings with oranges in the toes, and our baby tree was my only holiday request]
It will be epic, and there will be pictures, and I will-be-and-am-already giddy for it.

But you know, as unfortunate as finals are,
our schedules have been more flexible and we've been able to eat dinner together!
Typically Jay's break before he heads to the library for the night falls before I get off work,
so dinner together has been kind of a rarity this semester.
Needless to say, I've liked being back in my cooking groove.

In honor of it all, here are some of my favorite recipes I've collected
from some of my favorite cooking blogs over the last few years.
They're a little "weird", but even my husband likes them.
...and he may or may not be just slightly picky.































Broccoli Cream Pesto, people.
Don't be fooled by the weirdness of broccoli over pasta,
just... well trust me. And make sure you peel the outers of the broccoli off.

I know I said my husbands kind of picky, and let's clarify another thing: no leftovers. Like, ever.
That means I am the queen of eating all said leftovers around our house.
But he ate this for dinner guys... and liked it. Then he. ate. the. leftovers.
I'm sure this cauliflower, walnut, whole wheat combo has you wondering how that's even possible.
I wonder that myself, actually.
But it works. Truly, it does.
[I take it a little light on the feta and lemon just because I prefer to keep the nutty integrity of it all.]
But do as you will- Smitten Kitchen does it again. That woman is a genius.

And this one. We really like this one in the Winters household.
It was discovered while looking for new ways to use avocado-
because who doesn't like a good avocado?
We aren't big fans of canned tomato sauce around here,
so we first tried a homemade alfredo kind of thing on top of the chicken before the avocado.
It was really good, but I almost barfed.
Let's think about the 3 richest things you could top a chicken with-avocado. cheese. alfredo.
So I modified the next time and simmered together some tomatoes, garlic, and a touch of cream.
Whir it in the blender. presto.

I hope this gives you a little something to at least think about cooking in your off-time.

Merry Christmas.
And all of the other Merrys and Happys too.