My New Job

Today I received an official offer from my new employer Fidelity Investments. It is located in Westlake, TX, about 15 minutes from where we currently live. The corporate headquarters where I will be working is located on over 300 acres, complete with a dozen 'fidelity' branded long-horns. This is what the place looks like:

Kelsey and I are way excited. The light has appeared at the end of the 5-month unemployment darkness. We have learned a lot in these past months, and we are very grateful for the support we have received from friends and family. In short, we have a lot to be grateful for. I am smiling.

Can't Think of an Interesting Title...

We have done fun things lately, but haven't taken many pictures, so if you're not into reading... sorry.

First, Grant is getting ready for a big backpacking trip in Big Bend National Park.He's going with a few friends from the ward and they'll be hiking about 11 miles a day for three days. I wish I could go (although I'd probably die...) but with school and work, it just won't work out. But I have been helping Grant get ready for his trip. He has new boots that aren't broken in yet so we have taken to going on what I call "urban hikes." There are few places close by that allow for real hiking, so we have been hiking around the town instead. Our first walk was to a friends house, about a 7 mile round trip. Our second trip was to Chipotle (of course) and beyond, an 8 mile trip. It's been lots of fun to go on adventures together. Additionally, it has been quite an adventure because Texas is not exactly pedestrian friendly...

Second, I am still technically doing Kelsey's Cooking Course. The meals for these two weeks aren't quite as adventurous as the last. I included quite a few tried and true recipes: Potato Soup, White Chicken Chili, and Pizza. There are also a few new recipes: Overnight Rolls, Baked Chicken Casserole, Chicken Quiche, Oven Baked Carrot Fries, etc; but not as many as before.

Today, we had Potato Soup and Overnight Rolls. The potato soup was good-- it's one of our favorites and I make it fairly often. However, I had never made rolls before. These turned out great! I was skeptical because I grew up eating "Nana's rolls" but these were nearly as good! One more victory and one more recipe under my belt. I feel like I learn something new with every recipe I make. I don't have many memorized, but I'm getting a feel for where I can take liberties with a recipe, so that is good.

In addition, things are looking good on the job front for Grant! He had a great interview this week and got a call saying they want to "move forward with the hiring process." Nothing is final but it looks good! I'm proud of him and how hard he has been working!

I'm going to eat another roll now!

Success!

While I have improved on my recipe following skills, I don't have much experience putting a whole meal together. I can make some excellent main dishes, but unfortunately, that is usually the only thing that ends up on the table. So I challenged myself and made three new recipes for dinner yesterday.

All my recipes came from the same book: Essential Mormon Celebrations. What a funny cook book name. The main dish was called Missionary Chicken: Chicken breasts (and I did slice these in half like you mentioned, Jill! I didn't do a good job, but it was better than the pounded version!) covered in a sour cream/cream of chicken sauce, topped with Parmesan cheese and baked in the oven. My two sides were Holiday Rice: a fairly basic rice but topped with parsley & tomatoes; and Honey Glazed Carrots. After starting the meal, I realized I didn't have enough carrots (of course) so I changed the recipe to Honey Glazed Random Vegetables and added broccoli and zucchini.

It turned out great! Grant said, "I could get this at a restaurant & think it was great!" Grant was very proud of me and I was very proud of myself! Grant couldn't stop eating for me to take the picture so I got his hand in it. (Well, that's a lie... he hadn't started yet. But I'm sure that would have been the case if I had waited to take the picture.)

After all that success, I decided I needed a break. So we ate bread from our bread machine and it was wonderful. It was the first time we had made it since we moved to Texas and with one bite, we instantly missed good ole Wymount Terrace. Good times.

Call Me Pounder... Chicken Pounder...

The cooking course is going well. That doesn't mean that all of the recipes have gone well... but nothing has turned out inedible yet! Anyone in my family can tell you (and give multiple embarrassing examples) that when cooking I have a tendency to either mix things up or make gross calculation errors. Luckily, I haven't substituted salt for sugar in a few years.... or months.

On the menu earlier this week was Lemon Chicken Italiano. It wasn't too complicated: coat chicken in flour, fry on the stovetop, place on bed of marinara sauce & top with a lemon sauce. Of course, I downsized the recipe from 6 or 8 chicken breasts to two. Amazingly, I calculated right and everything was fine. Well, everything except one small thing was fine. The first step in the recipe told me to pound the chicken breasts until they were thin.

First of all, we buy the giant chicken breasts from Costco: utterly unpoundable. Second, I don't own a chicken pounder of any kind! (Yes, mom, I know that's not what it's called :) Third, my chicken pounder-less chicken pounding was less than enthusiastic, because I'm afraid of upsetting the neighbors with pounding noises... (They used to bang on the ceiling if we were even a little bit loud).

So, I struggled for a while with these:

My chicken remained huge and didn't cook all the way through in the frying pan. Thus, instead of having two lovely pounded chicken breasts in the pan, it looked like this:

It wasn't bad, but not too great either. Next time, I'll be sure to give the chicken breasts a good pounding and season a bit more as well.

Kelsey's Cooking Course

I have nearly three whole weeks before I start my next semester of school. Determined to not let these three weeks go to waste, I have a master plan that will both keep me busy and keep me learning. (I have approximately 47 new hobbies that I would like to master...) I have created "Kelsey's Cooking Course," with Kelsey (and the internet) as teacher, Kelsey as pupil, and Grant as judge . It's kind of like "Julie & Julia" except I have no rules so that if I fail I won't feel too bad...

For starters, I planned out the next two weeks of meals (roughly) and went shopping for all the ingredients I'll need for those meals. If all goes as planned, we won't have to grocery shopping again for two weeks. Considering my chronic forgetfulness, that would be a miracle.

I included a bunch of new recipes: Lemon Chicken Italiano, Sweet & Sour Meatballs, Honey Glazed Carrots, and Lemon Pepper Broccoli; a few oldies but goodies: Pizza and Fajitas; and a few twists on old favorites: Red and White Mostaccioli, Holiday Rice, and Overnight Rolls.

I'm two days in and have now cooked/baked/made five recipes. Two oldies: German Pancakes and Sugar cookies; Three newbies: Minestrone (Leslie's recipe), Popovers, and Sweet & Sour Meatballs. The Minestrone was great! The recipe made tons so we'll be eating the leftovers for a while. Luckily it's really good so we'll definitely finish it.

I didn't realize it until I started making them, but the Popovers had the exact same ingredients as German pancakes, just in different amounts. Baked in muffin tins, they make for an easy, portable version of German Pancakes. We ate them with strawberry jam and froze the leftovers for later.

And ten minutes ago I pulled the Sweet & Sour Meatballs out of the oven. For some reason, I love meatballs and meatloaf, and other types of unidentifiable meat dishes... These are great too. Here is the recipe, in case you're a fan of balls of meat like me. Oh, and I halved the recipe... 72 meatballs is a LOT.

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

2 lbs. ground beef

2 teaspoons salt

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 cup soft bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk

1 recipe Sauce for Meatballs (see below)

Combine all ingredients except sauce, in a large bowl. Form into balls, using level tablespoon as measure. Place on a greased baking sheet and cook at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until cooked through. Makes about 72 meatballs.

Sauce for Meatballs:

2 cups ketchup

1 cup grape jelly

Mix ketchup and grape jelly in a small saucepan. Warm briefly over medium heat. Pour sauce over cooked meatballs. To serve, keep warm in small Crock-Pot or serving dish on warming tray. Can be made a day ahead and reheated.

Not an attractive picture... but that's what they looked like when I was done.

In addition, I write notes under all the recipes I make so I can remember them. For this one I wrote: 12/31/09- Made for New Years Eve Party-- yummy and easy. Halved the recipe, Made them half the size and cooked for 8 min.

Yay for eating!

Home for the Holidays

Since our parents live in different places we switch off with our families each Christmas. We spent last year in Denver with the Tanners so this year we were in Boise with the Petersons. We did lots of fun things but of course, forgot to take pictures for nearly all of them. So here are some highlights:

-It was the biggest Christmas we've ever had as far as numbers go. Five Petersons + Two husbands + Two grandparents= nine people.

-We went to a Steelheads game and Grant saw one of his friends from high school that he hadn't seen in years.

-We ate TONS of food.

-We found out Lindsay and Taylor are having a baby!

-We stayed up late on Christmas Eve and all the kids slept in the same room. It's been a tradition since we were little to sleep in the same room and I was afraid it might fall apart with marrieds joining the family. I prevailed. Well at least until "Dino" McFarland shows up.

-We got some great presents: Grant's presents seemed to be camping themed: a huge internal frame backpack, ready-to-eat meals, a headlamp, etc. My presents seemed to be accessory themed: shoes, hats, tights, a headband, etc. In addition we have some Christmas money to spend. Grant is forcing me to spend a certain amount because if he doesn't, it will all go into savings.

This is one of my new pairs of shoes. I'm in love.

Of course, we also made chocolate covered pretzels with the cousins. The Logsdons and Freeneys come over and everyone has a different task. Older kids (Petersons) are on dipping duty while younger kids are on sprinkle duty. This year I helped Molly graduate to dipping duty-- she was a natural. Somehow, I didn't get pictures of any completed pretzels...

All the little cousins sported their bag aprons.

Reindeer Grant was at the stove.

Their attention lasted about 12 pretzels lengths...

We also played a ton of Mario Kart Wii and my skills are much improved. I have nearly mastered the manual drift. (This has been a long time coming). Robbie, Grant and I each have our own specialty races. For example, I am a master at Peach Gardens, thank you.

However, if you ask Grant what his favorite part of the trip was, he would say the skiing! We were so excited to get out on the mountain and it was the perfect day up at Bogus. Grant was a little skeptical of the resort because he's grown up skiing Colorado and Utah powder. But it was beautiful and the snow was pretty good too.

The boys in the back of the truck heading up to Bogus. I was the only girl which made for an interesting trip. Boys like to go fast and do crazy things so Dad stayed behind with me and helped me carve my turns.

This is a picture of the road that made me throw up every weekend when I was younger. The good part: I get the front seat, no questions asked!

The clouds covered the valley that day but the mountain was clear. It was more beautiful than this picture could possibly show.

At the top.

A beautiful picture to end a long post about a wonderful vacation.

It's the Happiest Season of All

Right NOW at the Tanner house (apartment) we are Christmas-ing. We bought an advent calendar at our local Goodwill store and everyday we open a new box to find a new Christmas activity to do!

We have done lots of things so far including: Watched a Christmas movie, looked up the symbols of Christmas, read the Christmas story in Luke, sent Christmas postcards to missionaries, whistled our very own rendition of "Silver Bells," and lots more! Tonight we are decorating stockings with puffy paints, and making snowflakes, snowmen (out of marshmallows), and chocolate covered pretzels!

Of course, our tiny little 3 dollar tree is lit and we are listening to Christmas music as well! What a wonderful time of year!