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.....