Saint Arnold's Pub Crawl

Friday night a bunch of us went on a Saint Arnold's Pub Crawl. We started it off with Dinner at Freebirds, then headed to Front Porch in Midtown to meet up with the Saint Arnold's folks. It ended at Little Woodrow's and some rock, paper, scissors. Chelsea ended up as the winner for the night, congrats girl!!! We should really get you a prize:)

I still don't know how they consider that to be 1/2 a burrito. I was so full, I could barely drink my first beer.


First Saint Arnold's of the Night






Last Stop of the Night:)


Matt beating James


Me Beating Derick


Chelsea's the Champion of the Night!

Ben and Gabrielle's Wedding

Our good friends, Ben and Gab, got married a month ago (where does time go) in St. Augustine, FL. My husband was in there wedding and I had fun taking advantage of the open bar. Here are some photos that I took of there big day.

Photography Podcast

I listen to two photography podcasts each week. They really help me think about what I want to photograph and they keep me up to date on the latest photography news. If you are into photography and want a great podcast to listen to check out TWIP Photo and Photofocus.

Rice University

I went on a photo walk this weekend (May 1st) on my day off. I decided to go to Rice University hoping for some good photo ops, but I really don't think architecture photography is my thing. Maybe if I was at UF and the buildings had meaning to me, or I was in Europe on vacation, taking photos of buildings would be fun. I still haven't quite figured out what I want to focus on, hopefully I will figure that out soon.

Here are 3 images that I took this weekend.

8 Posts in 1 Day!!!

I know, it looks like I went on a blogging spree. But really I just transferred all of my posts from my old blog to blogger. I wanted something easier for me to blog and post pictures and hopefully this is it. I might change blogs a couple of more times, but just stick with me:)

3 Years Together

Yesterday, Matt and I celebrated our 3 years together. I can’t believe all of the things we have done in 3 years. We got married, finished our undergraduate degrees, I got my masters, and we got jobs and moved to Texas. I don’t think we ever thought we would be in Texas when we first started dating, but here we are. It is starting to grow on us though. We went to a restaurant called The Fish for dinner and then we walked across the street for dessert. The crepe was extremely yummy!!!

Photography Class

I am in the middle of taking a photography class at the Houston Center of Photography. It has forced me to learn all of the millions of settings on my camera. We walked around the neighbor yesterday and these are my 2 best ones. They are nothing really to special, just me playing around.

Laure and Rob's Wedding

My wonderful friend Laure got married on Feb. 21st. She had a beautiful wedding in Gainesville, FL. The weather was perfect, her dress was very glamours, and the Groom had a wide grim on his face the entire time. You could not ask for a better wedding then theirs (well maybe my own...LOL). So here are some pictures I took of her big day.

Matt's Birthday

My husband’s birthday was this weekend, the 22nd. For his actually birthday we just stayed in, watched the Magic game, and I picked him up wings (his favorite food). Friday night we went to dinner with some friends. The pictures are from us playing bulls**t before we went out to Rice Village.

Home Made Pizza

So I absolutely love pizza. I think I love it a little to much because I always want it. I think I could eat pizza everyday of the week. But unfortunately my husband has high cholesterol so he doesn’t eat anything dairy, so cheese pizza is out. So I started making our own at home, and the great thing is it can be made faster than a delivery guy could make it to our house. I can make half of the pizza with non-dairy veggie cheese and the other half with real cheese for me. It is the best of both worlds!

So what you need -
Pizza Dough - at Whole Foods it is in the freezer next to the pizzas and at some other stores it is in a refrigerator
Toppings - we just use veggies such as onions, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, and spinach, but anything you like will work
Pasta Sauce - I just use past sauce because we always have some in the refrigerator
Olive Oil
Shredded Cheese - any kind you like will work
Salt
Cooking Spray

Coat the bottom of a baking pan with cooking spray. Spread out the pizza dough. Brush on olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Spoon on a spread out pasta sauce so that there is a thin layer. Add toppings, then sprinkle on cheese. Bake at the temperature and time that the pizza dough package says. Only takes about 20 minutes, then you are enjoying hot pizza.

Onion, Mushroom, and Spinach Quesadillas

I love making these quesadillas. They are really easy and taste just as good without chicken as they do with. Also I love making these because there is so much good stuff in them you barely need to use any cheese in them unlike traditional quesadillas that have a ton of cheese.








Ingredients:
olive oil
salt
pepper
1 large onion, sliced
8 ounce mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
2 handfuls of baby spinach
2 tortillas (I use flourless sprout tortillas)
part skim shredded mozzarella cheese
cooking spray

In a large skillet on medium heat add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper, and saute for about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute until all of the liquid from the mushrooms is gone and the mushrooms and onions start to brown (about 5 minutes). Add the spinach and cook until it is wilted (about 2 minutes).

Lay out the 2 tortillas and add about 1/2 cup of cheese on each of them. Add half of the onion mixture on half of one of the tortillas, then fold over side. Repeat on second tortilla.

On a large skillet over medium to high heat, spray cooking spray and put on quesadilla. Heat till cheese is melted and then flip to other side. Repeat to second quesadilla.

Note: If you want to add chicken, add pre cooked chicken after the mushrooms and warm, then add spinach.

Beer and Onion Braised Chicken Carbonnade

I got this recipe from from the January issue of Bon Appetit magazine, but I did make a few changes. It is really good and chicken thighs are cheap. You can double the recipe for more people.

Prep time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
serving: 2

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
ground allspice
salt
pepper
1 large onion, thinly sliced
3 teaspoons brown sugar
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 cup dark beer (I like Saint Arnold’s Stout, but any dark beer will work)
1/2 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
pasta (any kind you have on hand, make enough for 2)

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet (one with a lid) over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, and allspice on both sides. Add chicken to skillet until brown (about 3 minutes) then flip to other side and brown. Transfer to a plate.

Add onions and 2 teaspoons of brown sugar and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cover and saute until golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Mix in bay leaves, mustard, and remaining brown sugar. Add chicken, then beer, broth, and red wine vinegar. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer covered for 10 minutes. Turn water on for pasta to make sure it is done around the same time. Uncover skillet and simmer until sauce thickens, turning chicken occasionally, about 20 minutes.

Serve over pasta and you are done. Very easy!

First Post!

This is my first blog entry of the New Year, 2009 here I come, and as a married women. I am starting this blog to hopefully keep our families informed of our lives here in Houston, TX. Also I plan to post recipes and photos from my new Canon Rebel XSi DSLR camera that Matt got me for Christmas.

Some of the pictures that I am adding will be of New Years and some of the first photos taken with my new camera.

Here are some flowers outside our apartment.



We moved to Stafford which is right outside Houston, TX.

Here are some pictures from New Year's Eve. We played Rock Band all night long. We almost missed new years because we were rocking out.