Recipes

I meant to share this last week, but between the weekend’s festivities and this week’s events, it slipped my mind.
Anyway, I’ve started another blog (I know, you’re thinking…another blog?  Is she crazy?) but hear me out first :)
Since I’ve started cooking, I wanted a way to organize the recipes I’ve tried as well as the notes I’ve made for each one and I thought a blog would be the perfect way to archive and organize recipes :)
Anyway, my new blog is http://www.mesinthekitchen.blogspot.com.  I’m not planning on updating this blog on any sort of schedule…just when I try out a new recipe :)  So add me to your readers if you’d like to see what I’m attempting in the kitchen :)  Right now I’m adding some recipes that I shared on here a while back just to keep track.
Anyway, I just wanted to share in case you wanted to try out some of the foods I’ve talked about making :)

Sorry…

Sorry!  I have been a bad blogger this week!! For the first time in a long time, my calendar was pretty free this week and I was planning on taking advantage of my free time and playing catch up around the house.

On Monday right as I was about to head to class, I got a phone call from a friend telling me that the father of one of our mutual friends, Lauren, had passed away.  Now, I would be sad for anyone of my friends to lose their father, but this case it was especially hard because I was close to him as well.

You see, my friend Lauren and I met during our Freshman year when we were both on the Avanti Orientation Team.  We became fast friends and spent a great deal of time together.  Lauren was originally from Brentwood and her family was pretty well off.  However, they were the sweetest and most welcoming family I have ever met as they have always adopted all of the “friends” into their family.

Sophomore year, Alabama went to play in the Music City Bowl in Nashville and since Lauren lived close by, she invited us to their New Year’s Eve party after the game. 

The party was fabulous and I had the opportunity to meet her parents, Mrs. Sherri and Hoff-rock (long story behind the name, but that’s what he was known as).  This family LOVES to party and have fun and I will always have fond memories of Hoff-rock belting out a tune on the karaoke machine (which was a routine thing for him). 

They were the perfect host and hostess and invited me back on many occasions and although I didn’t get to see them again until a few year’s later when Lauren got married, they greeted me like they had seen me the day before.

When I heard the news that he had passed away, I was shocked.  He was only 54 and in the best shape of his life and they still weren’t quite sure what happened to him.  I was devastated to hear that the world lost such a wonderful man, but even more so that Lauren lost her father because I cannot imagine losing mine. 

Crystal and I immediately started making plans to head to Nashville the following day for visitation and the funeral.  Although I NEVER do anything spontaneous, I never thought twice about not going. I quickly threw a bag together and headed off bright and early the next morning to meet Crystal at her home in Birmingham to head toward Nashville.

The drive was absolutely beautiful and Crystal and I discussed how much we wished this was just a trip to visit La, but we couldn’t help but think of the reason of our visit.  We tried to think of all the fond memories we had of him to try to counteract our grief.

As much as I loved seeing Lauren and her family, I HATED seeing them under these circumstances.  Just seeing them sad (because they were always the fun-loving family) just broke my heart and we all shared hugs and lots of tears.

After visitation, Mrs. Sherri had everyone over to her house and it was the traditional Hoffman party (without Hoff-rock of course :( )  Everyone was laughing and joking around sharing the fun memories of the Hoffman parties and Mrs. Sherri kept saying “This is the way Bill would have wanted it”…everyone laughing and having a great time. 

The funeral was beautiful and the perfect representation of Hoff-rock.  The massive turnout alone was a true testament to how well liked this man was.  We all sang beautiful songs (because he LOVED music), laughed (because everyone had a funny story about Hoff-rock), and cried (because the world just lost a wonderful man). 

We got home Wednesday evening I’ve had to scramble to play catch up on some stuff (but I wouldn’t have missed going to the funeral for anything).  Since I’m finally caught up and can post about this without breaking into tears, I wanted to share.

Please keep the Hoffman family in your prayers as they mourn this terrible loss.

Alabama vs. Tennessee a.k.a “Rocky Block”

Every college has their rivals and we faced one of our biggest this weekend.  I won’t go into the nitty gritty details of the game (if you’d like, you can read the analysis of one of my former coworker’s here.)

Anyway, before the game, we did our normal registration and tunnel duties and I managed to snap this picture of one of my favorite views of the stadium.

 The entrance to the “tunnel” from the team’s locker room.

We knew this would be a big game because 1.) We are number 2 in the country so everyone is out to get us, 2.) It is SEC…need I say more? 3.)  It is Tennessee and they usually play their best against us (this time was no different, but I’ll get to that in a minute).  The game got off to a fairly slow start minus a few awesome plays here and there.  Here are Rebecca and I smiling and happy during one of the many commercial breaks (thanks CBS) near the beginning of the game.

Little did we know…

As the game rolled on, we continued to struggle.  We were never down, but we didn’t put up many points either (we didn’t even score a TD).  As much as I love my former recruit Leigh, I hate to see him having to make ALL of the points (although I’m glad he was on his game!) This is horrible to say, but there were a few times during the game that I was just in a daze because we weren’t doing ANYTHING.

That definitely changed about middle of the 4th quarter.  Because of some of our mistakes, Tennessee had the ball as the clock got closer and closer to zero as we were only up by 2 points.  Unfortunately they got all the way down to field goal range so with seconds left, everything was riding on one kick.  Now, mind you, the guy had already missed one and we had blocked one so we were hoping that one of those two would happen again, but we (or at least I) was terrified that this wouldn’t go our way and that our road to the National Championship would end here on our home field, against our rivals.  I seriously felt like I was going to cry, throw up, and have a heart attack all at the same time.  I couldn’t speak…all I could do was stand there and wring my hands and watch (or attempt to).

And I’ll just let you watch for yourself!

I could watch that clip over and over.  I get chill bumps and I tear up every time I watch it!

I have never in my life heard that stadium so loud (Not even the Iron Bowl last year)!  You can’t really see the play in this fan video here, but you can hear the change in volume and of course probably the loudest Rammer Jammer you will ever hear!

Rebecca and I (along with everyone else in the stadium I’m sure) were jumping up and down, crying, and screaming all at the same time.  Everyone in the recruiting section was high-fiving and hugging each other!  It was a great feeling!

Seconds after the win! Can’t you see the excitement? ;)

Rebecca, Megan, Kayla, and I celebrating the win!

I was shaking so much I couldn’t get a clear picture!

and one more for the road ;)

Not a pretty win, but that play will probably go down in Alabama history (not to mention make it in a Daniel Moore print…I’m voting for Rocky Stop as the title ;))  Plus, a win’s a win :)

Roll Tide!! :)

Just call me Martha Stewart ;)

Just kidding…I’m no where near the queen of cooking and crafts :)

I did however have a very Martha Stewart type day!  I started out my day by doing some apartment organization (armed with my trusty label maker of course ;)).  After I got bored to a good stopping point, I started searching the web for recipes for dinner.  I found some and then headed out to do a little shopping. 

First stop was here:

which along with Michael’s, is a store I could spend hours in.  For that reason, I never go in there just to “look”, but instead, I decide what I am going to buy before I even step foot in the door.  Before I tell you what I went for, I have to give you a little background :)

Anyway, ever since Alex bought me my first handpainted martini glass our second Christmas together (you can see it along with the other glasses he’s bought me in this post.)  I love martini glasses anyway, but when it comes to hand-painted glasses like mine from Lolita, I can’t resist.

Back to my Hobby Lobby trip:

I have been dying for a new craft project and since Alex has his own business venture of selling wine themed products (You can check it out and buy some of his products here.), I wanted to do something wine related for him to sell.  So, I decided to dabble a little bit in painting wine glasses.  So my trip to Hobby Lobby was to get paint to try it out (which I did…I’ll get to that later :))

After Hobby Lobby, I headed to the grocery store to get all my ingredients for my meal.  Since I’m not a big cook, I don’t have all of the kitchen “staples” so when I do cook, my shopping cart is usually full of those staples like spices and the such.

Anyway, I was very hesitant about trying out not 1, but 3 new recipes, but I decided I’d try it anyway, and I’m so glad I did, because believe it or not….they were all amazing!  Check out the meal below! :)

Penne with sausage, caesar salad, and homemade cheesy garlic bread.

  Peach mug pies for dessert :)

I was pleasantly surprised in both cases!  Alex, who usually has an expensive palate, went back for third helpings and even asked to keep some of the leftovers….always a good sign :)

Both were inspired from Sandra Lee’s recipes on her new show, Money Saving Meals, but I actually strayed away from the recipes in both cases, so I am very happy they turned out well!

Since I’ve already had several people asking for the recipe, I’ll post the original and my adapted version here a little bit later :)

Until then, have a fabulous Friday!

Thankful Thursday

In keeping with my new goal of taking some time listing what I am thankful for, here’s what I’m thankful for this week!  However, this week I am only doing one because it is a long one :)

My cohort/fellow doc students – When I was in undergrad, I developed a close knit group of friends (partly because we took EVERY class together) so anytime I felt like I was drowning, I would call them because I knew that they would understand (being that they were probably in the same boat).  I was the only one of my friends that went straight back to school to get my master’s degree, and although I did make a few friends along the way, I didn’t necessarily call on them or even really need them for support.  However, when I went straight into my doctoral program, I was terrified.  I had one friend from my master’s degree (we’d had 1 class together) and my advisor and that was it…needless to say, it was terrifying.

Anyway, one thing I really love about the doctoral program is the support system that doc students provide for each other.  No matter what program you’re in, it seems like the fears of doc students are all the same.  I have of course developed friends in my program, but I also wonderful support of friends in other programs.  Whether it be with a phone call, Facebook comment, or e-mail…my doctoral friends always seem to come through when I need them.

Just this week, I received a phone call from a new friend I met at a workshop last week and we spent an hour chatting on the phone about graduate school.  She was so sweet and encouraging, and although she didn’t know I was feeling a little down before she called…that phone call made my day :)

I love my all of my friends, but when it comes to doc drama…it is always nice to have someone who really understands what you’re going through!

Happy Thursday

!

Weight Loss Wednesday

Okay, I know I’m behind on updating but I can’t seem to stay well enough to go work out these days!  Thankfully, I have not gained any weight, but I am feeling a little more flabby :(  I worked out tonight so I feel much better!

Anyway, to get me back in the swing of things, I updated my workout playlist on my iPod (I seriously cannot do anything without some good music! :)).  I’m so excited about tomorrow’s workout just so I can listen to my music :)

My workout playlist is pretty long (like 50 songs) just because I like a wide selection but these are my top 10 according to the play count (and I can’t argue, these are the songs I tend to change it to if I need that extra motivation :))

1. Krazy – Pitbull
2. Single Ladies - Beyonce
3. Breakin Dishes - Rhianna
4. Lose My Breath – Beyonce (When I taught hip hop, I choreographed a dance to this and it is still one of my favorite songs/routines!)
5. Chico Snap – So South (I added this song to my collection thanks to Zumba class!)
6. Right Round – Flo Rida
7. Feedback – Janet Jackson
8. B.O.B – Outkast
9. Fire Burning on the Dance Floor – Sean Kingston
10. I Know You Want Me – Pitbull

Do you have certain songs that get you motivated to exercise?

Thankful Thursday

I got this idea from the Visbal Family Blog, which by the way…please keep them and their sweet daughter Hailey in your prayers!

Anyway, I saw this and I thought it was such a great idea.  As part of my Motivation and Emotion in Education class that I’ve mentioned before, we are talking a lot about positivity and how it effects education.

We recently read this book by Barbara Frederickson (click on the picture to go to Amazon and read more about it) as a jump start to our look into positivity in education.

It is a pop psych book so it is an easy read, but it also has a great deal of research to back up her theories, so I highly recommend it!

Anyway, she has an ideal positivity ratio of 3:1 (I won’t go into how she finds that, but you can read it in the book ;)), but basically you should have 3 positivity to 1 negativity.  Anything above that would lead to the “Pollyanna” effect and below that would be overly negative.  The way you find out your positivity ratio is by taking a “quiz” every day and track your results in the back of the book or on the corresponding website.  Over time, you’ll begin to see your positivity ratio develop.

In her book she also talks about different ways to increase your positivity which includes anything from meditation to creating a toolbox of “happy things” (that’s not the word she uses, but that’s how I see it) of things that you can mentally pull out in times of crisis.  I have started building my little toolkit by building inspiration boards, much like I do for event planning, but for personal goals in my life (education, health, career, etc).  We’ve only been tracking our positivity for a week, but mine has definitely gone up.

Our professor wants us to continue to track our positivity, but change up our methods.  One of the methods is to meditate and keep a journal of what you are thankful for. When I saw that blog post on the Visbal’s blog, I thought this would be the perfect way to do it.

So as part of my regular posting (because as you can tell, I don’t keep up with these meme’s too well), I’m going to try and add this in just for myself and my class.

So for my inaugural post, here are the things I am thankful for this week (Although there’s lots to be thankful for, I’m starting out with two and I’ll add on more as the weeks go on):

1. My professors/mentors –I have been blessed with some amazing professors (and mentors) in my program.  Because it is a smaller program, you get to know the few professors really well when you have them for numerous classes.  I’ve already talked about my amazing advisor, but just this past week, I worked with another amazing professor on a research proposal that we submitted to hopefully be able to present at a conference this summer.  After my confidence was shot because of my last situation, it is nice to have people who back you up and have confidence that you can be successful.
2. Alex – Sometimes, I don’t think I give the boy enough credit.  I usually get too wrapped up in the general relationship drama that I forget why I adore him.  Because my weekend plans changed, I ended up getting to spend some much needed time with him this past weekend and there were times I really realized how lucky I am to have in my life.  Whether it is just him being goofy to make me smile, sending sweet text messages, to letting me get my way on certain things (like my sappy movies or dinner).  Even though I give him a hard time about being a boy and driving me up the wall (because what guy doesn’t sometimes ;)), I don’t know what I would have done without him…he definitely keeps me sane :)

What are you thankful for this week?

Kids Say the Darndest Things

After teaching kindergarten for a year, I got used to all of the cute sayings.  When I stepped foot into a third grade classroom to sub today (which happened to be right across the hall from my SEW classroom from this summer!), I didn’t expect too many “cute” conversations.  Boy, was I wrong!

The class was great.  There were a few that were a little rowdy, but according to the other teachers, they have problems with them on a daily basis.  It was a huge change from K in that I could give them work and not have literally sit there with them to do it.

Anyway, when lunch rolled around, I was sitting with them at the table and one of the girls noticed my rings (I usually wear four: my diamond ring from Alex and a “matching” ring - today it was my black diamond ring- on one hand, and my class ring and diamond from my grandmother on the other).  She commented on how pretty and sparkly they were and then she said, “Miss Slaten, are you married?”.  Of course I said, “No, sweetie I’m not” and she said “Well, with those rings, you should be!  Let me guess, you’re waiting on the perfect guy?”.  I laughed and said “I guess so” and she replied as seriously as she could, “Well I’m going to work on finding you one today and you guys can get married tomorrow!”

If only it were that easy…;)

What Have I Been Up To?

Okay, so I’ve finally had some time to catch up on some of my posting.  As always, I put them on their respective dates (just for my memory :)) so I’ll put all the new updates here so you can find them a little easier:)

* Note:  These posts are not quite finished, but I’ll add the links here when they are :)

• 9/12 – We had a great home opener against FIU!
• 9/23 - I got a new hot water heater (finally!)
• 9/26 – Alabama “hog-tied” the Arkansas Razorbacks
• 9/29 – We kicked off our new mentoring program*
• 10/3 – I had the amazing opportunity to be involved with a local ballet performance.*
• 10/4 - Alex was brave enough to take me to the shooting range.

And most recently….

• 10/10 – I got to watch Alabama beat Ole Miss with some of my favorite people

Beyond that, I should be caught up…finally! Have a fabulous Monday!

Bama vs. Ole Miss Weekend!

What a weekend!!  Although my original plans were completely shot (I’ll get to that in a minute), it ended up being a wonderful weekend!!

One of the interns from school sent me a message on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, asking if I wanted to meet her and some friends in Pelham on Friday to paint at Sips n Strokes.  Since I haven’t seen her since she finished up her internship in December (and she was one of my favorites), I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to catch up.  Josh had gone home on Wednesday since it was fall break, and I opted to wait, go paint on Friday night, and then head home after that.  Well, Mother Nature had other plans!

Minutes after I walked out the door on Friday evening, the bottom fell out.  Not your typical rain shower…it was full on, pouring rain and the wind was blowing like crazy.  I could barely see as is, but managed to get to the gas station to get some gas (and get soaked thanks to the wind).  If I didn’t have plans, I would have turned around and gone home to wait it out, but since I had already paid for the class, I was determined to go.

Of course traffic was absolutely horrible and took me about 30 minutes to cover about 2 miles.  Thankfully I had left a little early, but I was really afraid I was going to be late since traffic seemed to be getting worse instead of better.  While I was sitting in traffic, my dad called and told me to go ahead and turn around and go home…he said it wasn’t worth driving in the weather and that he would give me the money so I wouldn’t have to worry about that aspect.  I ended up taking his advice and turning around and going back to my apartment.  After talking to mom, we decided it was probably better if I just stayed here as it was supposed to rain the rest of the weekend.

Anyway, it worked out well because Alex and I got to spend some much needed time together, I got to relax, and I got to see one of my dear friends on Saturday for the game :)

Normally Alex and I watch the away games at Alex’s or Josh’s (since they both have big Tv’s), but my sweet friend Lauren called and said she was watching the game at a local restaurant/sports bar and invited us to go, so we did.  We got to enjoy good food, good company, and of course a great game :)

Lauren and I

Alex and I

   The girls – Ashley, Lauren, and I

One last picture of Alex and I (too bad the lighting was bad! :( )

I hope you had as wonderful of a weekend as I did! :)

New template!

You’ll notice that my blog is all decked out for Halloween…kind of!  I designed this background and banner and realized I didn’t put anything Halloween related except for the colors (and of course the Halloween photo of Alex and I).  Oh well, I’m pretty happy with it despite the lack of Halloween paraphernalia (which I might add later :))

Let me know what you think!

Love!

Maegan

Update:  I finally added some Halloween stuff.  I’m not too sure if I like it, so don’t be surprised to see this changed a million times :)

The Big Reveal…

I eluded to a new project in my life and I wanted to share more details with you!

I just wanted to let you know that I have a new blog/website in the works! Classy & Fabulous will still be my main blog of course, but I wanted to start another one to share more about one of my passions:  event planning.

Some of my friends (and Alex) have tried to get me to start an event planning business.  Unfortunately, with my life all out of sorts right now, I don’t really have the funds or the time to do it right now or at least not to that extent.  In the mean time, I do want to start collecting ideas in one spot so that in the future, I can possibly open my own business or at least do it for fun on the side! :)

I started my event planning blog a while back but haven’t really done much with it until recently.  I’ve been gradually trying to add some things and I have some fabulous Halloween posts ready to up in a couple of weeks.  I have also created a website to go along with the blog that is currently under construction as I’m trying to decide what purpose it should serve.

To get my feet a little wet when it comes to event planning, I am working on adding an “online party consultation” service.  Basically, if someone needs just a little extra inspiration, they can pay for this service (still working on the fees but it will be less than 30 dollars to start off) and I will scour the web and various resources and send all of the information in a word document.  I will “consult” them on anything from decorations to menu/drink recipes and will even construct a party timeline if needed.  I felt by doing this, I would not only make a little money, but I would also be able to to plan parties without all of the time, travel, and of course money to put into a full fledge business.

I’ve been working on both the past couple of weeks, but I’m not quite ready to give out the website link just yet, but as for the party planning blog, you can find me at

http://www.classyandfabulousevents.blogspot.com

(What can I say…I love the title of my blog ;))

I have not added the party consultation link yet, but I’ll be sure to blog there when I do! :)

In the meantime, check it out and let me know what you think and of course, if you need any party advice, let me know and I’ll do my best to help you out!

Just wanted to share!