When Husbands Cook Dinner :)

Last Saturday, my wonderful husband told me that I did not need to worry about dinner because he was going to be the chef for the night. He crafted the delicious O'Hana chicken wings with coriander dipping sauce. He found the recipe in the recipe book that Tim's mom and dad got us for our birthdays at Disney. It is favorite recipes from the Disney Chefs. They were mighty tasty.

Sorry that its rotated, apparently I struggle with getting the right orientation in my pictures...

However, joke is on Mr. Timothy because he did such a good job that now I'm going to expect him to cook for us more often :)

Not too much else is new with us. I had no Diet Coke for a whole week. We are cutting it out so that neither of us gets an ulcer before we are 30 years old. Drinking more water and milk and some juice instead. Hooray for healthier lifestyles!

In other news - I cut my bangs straight again. Huge change, I know.

Well that is all of the excitement in the Hanson household for now.

Budget time of year again...

All of this talk about national budgets and national debt has re-inspired Tim and I to focus more on our budget again. For the first few months that we lived together, Tim and I were very good about keeping track of all of our spending and logging it into an Exel Spreadsheet. We definitely fell off the wagon after Christmas though.

With the wedding out of the way and talk of house hunting in the future, we realized that we needed to get our own debt and budget under control again. When I say get our debt under control, I do not mean to say that we are drowning in credit card debt or anything of that nature. However, I did have quite a bit in student loans. For you nosy folks out there - I am not going to be putting exact numbers in here (I'm not one for sharing). We already have our debt under control - over half of my student loans have been paid off and the remainder will be paid off by July of 2013. The only other debt we are dealing with is a car payment that will also be finished in October of 2013.

Tonight I finished up the new Excel spreadsheet to figure out where all of our income goes every month and where we should be able to cut.  Tim and I tend to over spend in entertainment (on video games, movies, books, etc) and on dining out (which we do on average 2 times a week, if not more). In order to get this in check, we will use a cash and envelope system for both dining out and for entertainment expenditures. At the beginning of each month we will place $100 dollars in 2 envelopes and that will be the money we can spend in each of those categories. Once it is gone, then it is gone. Whatever we do not spend can either be put back into savings or rolled over into the next month.

With the cut backs we should still be able to save some each month, and theoretically by the end of the next twelve months we will have enough put away for a down payment on a house! AAAAHHHH that is exciting stuff!

So, there it is the Hanson Budget plan :)

(P.S. we finally finished painting the trim in the bathroom :)

Fall Food Frenzy!!!

We are 3 months into Happily Ever After, and Tim and I have made some pretty exciting decisions.
First of all, we are starting to look at real estate in Byron :)
Second, Tim is going start his English Masters classes at NIU in the Spring. Yay for moving forward!

All that said, I've been obsessed with fall foods this weekend!
I started my day yesterday with a Pumpkin Spice Latte (yum yum yum), then my mom and I went up to Madison for the Farmer's Market and to do some shopping.
I bought butternut squash and acorn squash, so when I got home I made a loaf of butternut squash bread (recipe featured below - an original one this time :)
I am going to make some Butternut and Acorn Squash soup later this week (I'll post pictures and the recipe once I make it).
 Mom and I also went to Penzey's Spices in Madison (great store) and stocked up on some spices. I found a recipe in their catalog for a Fall Food Skillet, which I made tonight - totally awesome!

 (this is without brussels sprouts, gross.)

Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Apple Skillet

2 lbs boneless skinless Chicken breast, cut into cubes

1/2 tsp Poultry Seasoning

1/2 tsp Penzey's Mural of Flavor (combination of spices with citrus, garlic, and shallots)

8 tsp. olive oil, divided

6 slices bacon, cut into small pieces

3 cups Brussels Sprouts

2 medium sweet potatoes, microwaved or boiled for 4 minutes, then peeled and cubed

2 Golden Delicious apples, cored, peeled, and diced

8 cloves of garlic, diced (or 1.5 tsp Minced Garlic)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp cinnamon sugar

1/2 tsp Penzey's Northwoods Seasoning

2 cups chicken broth

Season the chicken with poultry seasoning and Mural of Flavor. Heat half of the oil in a large, deep, nonstick skillet. Add the chicken and cook over medium heat until lightly browned and cooked through, about 5-7 minutes. Remove the chicken and transfer to a plate.

Put the remaining oild in the skillet, add the bacon and cook until it starts to brown, about 3 minutes. Add the Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 5-7 minutes.  

Add the apples, garlic, cinnamon, cinnamon sugar, Northwoods Seasoning. Stir well and cook about 3 minutes.  

Add half the chicken broth and cook until almost evaporated, about 2 minutes. Return the reserved chicken to the skillet and add the remainder of the broth.

Cook for 2 more minutes and serve. 

Butternut Squash Bread

1 1/2 Eggs

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Oil

1 Cup Pureed Butternut Squash

1 1/2 Cups Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Ginger

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Beat eggs, sugar and oil together

Add squash and stir together

Sift in dry ingredients and stir well

Add vanilla and stir well

Pour into well greased bread pan

Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour

There you have it - the Fall Food Frenzy. Be prepared for more to come as this is my favorite time of year, not just because of the weather, but because of all of the great squash, sweet potato, apple, and pumpkin foods to eat!

Home Improvement – I’ve been watching too much HGTV

I have been lax in my posting lately (surprise surprise), but that is only because I’ve been working on a HUGE project.  Over Labor Day weekend, Tim and I painted our bathroom and the columns in our living room – they both look fabulous!
I learned some valuable lessons from painting.

1.   Patience is a virtue
2.  Reward yourself
3. Plan for extra coats
4. Use a roller whenever possible
5.  If there is a bubble in the preexisting paint – Leave it Alone!
6. Tape extra wide on the ceiling

After we finished our monumental task on Sunday evening we ordered a delicious and well-deserved pizza (even if we still had more work to do on Monday). We still have to finish the trim and touch up some spots, but the bulk of the work is done.


I also learned that if Tim and I can work together and not get frustrated painting in such a small space then we can certainly handle just about any home improvement task you can throw our way! We’re awesome!


In other exciting news, I got to see one of my best friends whom I haven’t seen since the end of 2010 this week (she lives in North Dakota…) so that was also awesome. And we won some serious cash at Mystique Casino in Dubuque, IA on Saturday with Tim’s family (and by serious, I mean like $10). We bet on the dog races, and played some slots, and a couple rounds of roulette – awesome, had a wonderful dinner in Galena – awesome, and watched Citizen Kane – awesome? 

I was going to post pictures, but they are on Tim's phone and I keep forgetting to ask... sorry folks.

Holy Blog, Batman! Two Whole Months!

Ok, so I'm a couple days late posting this - but, whatever. Tim and I have been married two whole months - and it will be two whole decades before we know it! I am happy to say that I am as ecstatic to be married as I was the day I said "I do" :)

It has just been a crazy, fun-filled week!

I've been cleaning and organizing and cooking up a storm.

I bought a cube storage from Target (put together all by myself - aaaand it is still standing thank you). 

 My computer won't let me rotate the image....

I finally tackled the garbage bags full of clothing that were taking over the bedroom floor (sorry, no picture for that)

I made no-bake energy balls (thanks Pinterest),

 meringues, 

 These are a great way to use leftover egg whites!

and I improved my creme brulee recipe! 

Sorry, I'm not posting my super fabulous recipe online...yet...

So, that was pretty much my week in a nutshell. Tim is back in the swing of things at school - and very excited to have a student teacher so he has more time to write :) and Sabrina is just causing trouble as usual.

I'm also reading some fiery books at the moment

Well, until next time....

Putting Our Life in Order

So, there are a few of you devoted readers who may know that neither Tim nor I are very organized... Ok, that may be an understatement - our apartment is about as chaotic as you could imagine.  I like to think it is because we have our priorities straight - we would rather spend time with each other than clean :).

Unfortunately, this strategy is beginning to wear on my sanity. Maybe it is because I grew up with a notorious neat freak (sorry, Mom), but I'm just not used to living in the wake of a tornado.

So, I have come up with a plan, and that plan is to clean and organize the apartment and keep it that way.

Simple, right?  Apparently not.

The more I think about it, the more daunting this task is. So, I'm going to try to tackle it room by room.

Step One: The Bedroom

• Purge the closets - we have more clothes than any two twenty somethings should ever have.
• Put away all of the dirty and clean clothes and get them off the floor (and keep them off!)
• Finish my new DIY jewelry organizer
• Decorate the walls - we have a few posters we want to get and frame
• Put up a couple shelves for odds and ends
• Get the floor cleared off enough to vaccuum...
• ...Vaccuum the floor

Step Two:  The Bathroom

• Find an old CD tower to repurpose and hang on the wall for organizing skin care products, etc.
• Get some shelves for the wall nook by the shower for spare towels
• Paint the bathroom (we have to get permission from the super first...)

Step Three:  The Kitchen

• Finish unpacking the new china from the wedding
• Wash all of the new china
• Clean out the spice cabinet
• Get a binder with plastic sleeves for all of my recipes
• Reorganize the tops of the cabinets

Step Four:  The Living Room

• Get another end table
• Get a silk plant for atop the end table
• Sort through and throw away the stuff behind the couches
• Clean out the entryway closets and make use of our storage locker
• Clean out the desk
• Get all the stuff off of the dining chairs

Whew... That is the master list. I suppose we will have to tackle it one weekend at a time - my goal being to finish it all before Speech season starts. We have until the second weekend in November then.

I'll start with the bedroom this weekend :)

Hopefully each time I post I will have finished  a new task and will have found some fun tip or DIY project to post as well.

Whats in a Name...Change

That which we call a rose would still smell as sweet, yeah yeah yeah. Romeo's last name may not have mattered to Juliet, but it does matter to my husband.  Originally I was just going to hyphenate my name (idea planted by my husband's sister :)) but Tim wanted us to have the same last name so we really felt like a family. He was even ready to take my last name. It turns out my last name was more important to him than it was to me, so I decided to change it (but only if he agreed to wear his wedding band - compromise is a beautiful thing).

So, as of yesterday, everything is official. I finally have all my new cards and IDs (not my passport - I'll deal with that when I need to).  I thought that to change everything was going to be much more complicated than it actually was, but it ended up being relatively simple. Just follow these simple steps.


How to Change Your Name - the Five Step Process
Step One:  get your marriage license - the original, not the certified copy (Social Security Office only takes the original, and order a couple certified copies for posterity's sake
Step Two:  make a list of all the institutions/companies you need to change your name with (for example: Social Security Office, DMV, Bank, Credit Card Company, Student Loans, Netflix, HR at work, etc.) and find out what you will need to provide to each to make the change.
Step Three:  Go to the Social Security Office first then the DMV, you will probably need the new license for the bank and HR at work.
Step Four:  Get to the Social Security Office and the DMV EARLY, unless you want to wait until Death Do You Part.
Step Five:  Once everyone is notified of all the changes you are set :) You can order new checks and cards and all that fun stuff.

So I would, were I not Greenlee call'd,
Retain that dear perfection (Shakespeare said it - not me) which I owe
Without that title.

One Month of the Married Life

Although this post is nearly a week late - we will just pretend that I didn't procrastinate in writing it. Tim and I have been married for a moth now, and holy buckets has it flown by!

We celebrated this momentous occasion in a very fitting manner - we helped my best friend and her wonderful husband celebrate their own marriage! Their wedding was in Valparaiso, Indiana and it was so fun!

Congrats Ben and Elizabeth!

We also celebrated my adorable niece's third birthday this weekend - busy times in the Hanson household!

I've done some major cooking the past two weeks (Tim and I have resolved to cook at home more for the well being of both our bodies and our bank account). Some of the successes include Man Pleasing Chicken (chicken thighs baked in a honey mustard marinade - 1/2 cup Dijon mustard, 1/4 cup maple syrup, and 1 tsp rice wine vinegar), and Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons & Parsley Brown Butter (recipe found below courtesy of Eating Well.com)

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London start tomorrow! Tim and I are going to his mom and dad's for the Opening Ceremony - I'm totally psyched! I love the Olympics! My favorite is Swimming (as long as is isn't the 500m Freestyle or the 400m Freestyle Relay), and Gymnastics takes a close second (not that rhythmic gymnastics crap, though).

Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons & Parsley Brown Butter

Time: 20-30min

1 pound fresh or frozen gnocchi
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium shallots, chopped
1 pound zucchini (about 3 small), very thinly sliced lengthwise (use vegetable peeler or a mandolin)
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley

1. Bring large saucepan of water to a boil. Cook gnocchi until they float. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook until butter just starts to brown, about 2 minutes. Add shallots and zucchini ribbons and cook, stirring often, until softened (2-3 min). Add tomatoes, salt, nutmeg, and pepper and continue cooking, stirring often, until tomatoes just start to break down (about 1-2 min). Stir in Parmesan and parsley. Add the gnocchi and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Nutrition information can be found by following the link to the original recipe at EatingWell.com.

Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons and Parsley Brown Butter

The Dells

Well, my life was a little more exciting this weekend!

Tim and I went up to Wisconsin Dells with my family on Friday and came home yesterday evening. We had 2 action packed days!  Tim went golfing on Saturday with my grandparents, and my mom, stepsister and I went Ziplining (totally awesome!) then we went on a winery tour (also awesome). After all of that fun nonsense we got some dinner and relaxed (what?!?) at the villa. THEN on Sunday we did even more great stuff. Breakfast then mini putting and roller coasters, then painting pottery - pictures to come (I have to wait for my mom to bring it back for me).

The strawberry basil sorbet was delicious!  I put the recipe down below, so if anybody wants to give it a whirl - go right ahead.

This weekend will also be pretty jam packed. Friday morning I am going to officially change my name, and then Tim and I will be driving to Valparaiso, IN for my best friend Elizabeth's wedding! Rehearsal/Rehearsal Dinner/Pre-Wedding Bonfire on Friday, Wedding Saturday, and Post-Wedding Brunch Sunday Morning (and then my niece's birthday party later on Sunday). Whew - it will be busy :)



Strawberry Basil Sorbet

1 lb. sliced and hulled strawberries
2/3 cup sugar (original recipe calls for 3/4 cup, but was too sugary for me)
1/4 cup chopped basil (may add more to taste)
1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Combine sliced and hulled strawberries in a bowl with sugar, and stir to coat all strawberries with sugar. Let sit for at least 1 hour stirring occasionally.
Blend strawberries and liquid, basil, and lemon juice until smooth.
Chill thoroughly.
Follow ice cream maker's instructions for freezing.

Enjoy :)

Posting for the Sake of Posting

Oh, dear readers (Elizabeth - thank you for still reading) I wish I had an intersting update, or an amusing anecdote to share with you, but it seems my life has been rather boring the past week or so.

Lets see here, Tim and I went to my cousins' double whammy graduation party - lots of fun (and I loved being called the newlyweds :).  We had a lovely dinner at Abreo in Rockford to celebrate lasting 2 weeks as a married couple (watch out Kim K and Chris Humphries, if we can make it past your 60 day record, we are golden).

Ummmm, we cleaned the carpet?

Like I said, pretty boring stuff.

I am going to make Strawberry Basil Sorbet this week to take up to Wisconsin Dells for the Radebaugh Family Semi-Annual Dells Extravaganza, and I was thinking about devising an adult beverage to go along with it.... any ideas?

Hopefully the sorbet making goes according to plan, so I can post pictures and the successful recipe later this week!



Here is hoping your lives are more exciting than mine :)

Patience is a Virtue...

That I don't have.

Tim and I have now been married for exactly 12 days, and I have been anxious to get all of the paperwork and name change business out of the way.

As you may have read in my last post, we have been trying to switch my auto insurance, but we found out that the title has to be in my name. Fine, thats cool. So, I got the title from my mom, but then I realized that if I switch it now, then I will just have to change it again once my name gets changed (and I am sure as heck not paying that fee twice), so we decided to wait to do that until after I am officially a Hanson.

Needless to say, I really want to get my name taken care of so I can take care of all of the other stuff after the Social Security office and the DMV (dealing with HR at work, changing my name at the bank, credit card, student loans, health insurance, doctors office, dentist, etc). So, yesterday I decided to try and hammer down why we had not recieved the marriage certificate yet.

I started getting a little panicky when I called the Orange County courthouse and they had no record of the marriage, so I tried the Osceola County courthouse (Walt Disney World is located in both of those counties) and no record there either. At this point, I was a little beyond just panicky and venturing into the territory of total meltdown. So my wonderful Mother-In-Law contacted the officiant for us and found out that the it takes a few weeks for the courthouse (which is Lake County, FL apparently... oops) to process the certificate. Panic Averted thanks to Mom Hanson!

So, now we wait.

All of this is made infinitely more bearable by coming home to a spotless apartment and my wonderful husband cooking dinner for us (Chicken Fajita a la Tim)!

Anyway, have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Homemade Ice Cream: Take 1

For my bridal shower a few weeks ago, I received an ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid mixer from my Aunt Penny and my cousins (awesome, right?). And I have been dying to try it out since I opened it.

Well, I got the ingredients for the French Vanilla ice cream recipe I found in the instruction packet (I included it below) on Monday and I was so excited!  I mixed everything up Monday after work, and then I froze the bowl and chilled the cream mixture overnight. Last night, after work I took the ice cream maker on its maiden voyage.

The results were delicious (although a little too soft/runny in my opinion), and it was a welcome distraction from working out a monthly budget and arranging car insurance (apparently, you can't insure a car on a plan that is separate from the person on the title, and since my car is technically owned by my mom and step-dad ... anyway, its a work in progress thanks to some amazing help from my wonderful Mother in Law :).

Here are some pictures of my latest culinary endeavor and the recipe.

Even Sabrina wanted some :)

Now, I ran the ice cream maker an extra 10 minutes and also froze the ice cream for about 3 hours after I made it before eating it, but it was still a touch runny for my liking, any tips would be most welcome!

French Vanilla Ice Cream

2.5 cups half-and-half

8 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

2.5 cups whipping cream

4 teaspoons vanilla

Dash of salt

 In medium saucepan over medium heat, heat half-and-half until very hot but not boiling, stirring often. Remove from heat; set aside.

Place egg yolks and sugar in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and wire whip to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 30 seconds, or until well blended and slightly thickened. Continuing on Speed 2, very gradually add half-and-half; mix until blended. Return half-and-half mixture to medium saucepan; cook over medium heat until small bubbles form around edge and mixture is steamy, stirring constantly. Do not boil. Transfer half-and-half mixture into large bowl; stir in whipping cream, vanilla, and salt. Cover and chill thoroughly, at least 8 hours.

Once thoroughly chilled and freeze bowl is properly frozen (at least 15 hours in the freezer), assemble the bowl and proper attachments. Turn to STIR (Speed 1). Using a container with a spout, pour mixture into freeze bowl. Continue on STIR (Speed 1) for 15 to 20 minutes or until desired consistency. Immediately transfer ice cream into serving dishes, or freeze in an airtight container.

Recipe courtesy of KitchenAid® Ice Cream Maker Instructions and Recipes

A FairyTale Wedding

Well, here I go again. Fair warning - I'm a terrible blogger. However, I'm really going to try this time.

I really want to document the first year of my Happily Ever After with my amazing husband (a collection of stories, revelations, recipes, pictures, etc.), so I'll start at the very beginning (a very good place to start, right?).


4 Days ago I was fortunate enough to marry the love of my life and my best friend at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida! It was a dream come true (I promise I will stop with the cliches eventually, but don't hold your breath). As with most weddings we started with a plan, but fate had other ideas.

Here was the plan:
The Setting: an outdoor 5:00pm ceremony at the beautiful and serene Sunset Point at Disney's Polynesian Resort with dinner to follow at O'Hana also at the Polynesian.

The Players: 8 guests (10 including ourselves) consisting of the Bride (me), the Groom, the Mother and Father of the Groom, the Mother, Step-Father, Father, and Step-Mother of the Bride, Sister of the Groom and Brother of the Bride were all that there was room for at the planned setting. But to be joined at the reception by the best friend of the grooms sister, the bride's sister in law, niece, step-sister, and aunt.

The Script: a short and reasonably traditional civil ceremony with personalized vows to be read by the Bride and the Groom.

But then...

Fate stepped in and threw an 80% chance of rain at us, so the wedding had to be moved inside. The original "rain location" was Tangaroa Terrace at the Polynesian, but our Fairy Godmother of a wedding coordinator was able to work some magic and get us into Disney's famous Wedding Pavillion. A stunning chapel with grand windows overlooking Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom. Not only was this a much more beautiful location, but we now had room to include the other guests! The other major alteration was that no personal vows were read (it seems that in all of the confusion the officiant forgot that part :) - but he was absolutely great)!

Anyway it was magical and beautiful and we both said "I do," so here we are, old and married.

 The Chapel (where we went and got married)

 "We Do"

 We Did

 And then we ate cake!

Anyway, there it is, the beginning of our Happily Ever After Part. 

Hopefully I can remember to post regularly.....