Grill Pan

I recently mentioned that I received a grill pan for my birthday from my parents. I love it and it has expanded my cooking portfolio. I was in Trader Joe's last week and I saw some peppers that inspired me to make a fajitas kind of dish. George loved it so it is now in my repertoire of dinners....along with tortilla soup, bruschetta, chicken pot pie, and a few others :) Does anyone else feel like they make the same meals over and over?! Or is that just me???

There's not really a recipe b/c I make it up as I go, but here are some rough guidelines: I put the steak (I used sirloin from Trader Joe's), peppers, onions, cilantro, garlic, fresh lime juice, fresh lemon juice, jalapeno (George likes spicy), and mixed Mexican seasoning mix of some sort (cumin, pepper, salt, chili powder, onion powder, etc) in a ziplock and stored in the fridge overnight. When you're ready to cook, use a grill pan, if you have one! I just put some olive oil on the grill pan and once heated, I dump the contents of the ziplock onto the pan. We like the meat well done so it takes about 15 minutes. By then, the peppers and onions are just right (a little burnt is what I like)!

That's it! It is simple, but so delicious! I serve it with black beans (with a squeeze of fresh lime juice) and corn or flour tortillas on the side (but tortillas are not necessary if you're looking to cut calories). The best part is that it makes great leftovers for lunches....and since packing lunches was a resolution this year, that is important :)

Florence

Oh my gosh, I have had a terrible cold for the last couple of days. It started with a sore throat over the weekend and on Monday it got so much worse. Monday also happens to be one of the days that I have a full day of work and then school from 6-10. I didn't think I was going to make it through work, nevertheless school, but somehow I did. After school, I literally came in the door and walked right up to bed. Today, was pretty bad too, but I was able to lay low and get my work done from home. Hopefully the worst of it is behind me! Before this week, I hadn't had a cold for almost a year....which is a record for me, so I knew I was due for one.

As of today, my parents are in Florence. My best friend, Brittany, did a summer abroad in Florence while in college and frequented a pizza place called Gusta Pizza. When George and I were traveling around Europe, we stopped in Florence and hit up Gusta Pizza upon her recommendation. We also told my cousin, Gabe, and his wife, Katie, about it and they went. AND, of course, today my parents went. It has been so long that I can't remember what exactly made it so good, I just remember that it was good.

Here are some pictures from the Amalfi Coast....my mom described the area as breathtaking. It is incredible in pictures so I can only imagine what it is like in person!

Hannah, The Musician

I was able to download the videos of Hannah's solo and ensemble for you all to check out. The first one is just a picture. The second one is her solo (with piano accompaniment) and the third is Hannah's sextet (with 5 other French Horn players from Mountain View)....

Leaving Rome

Hi All! I have another update from my parents -- mostly pictures. So far, they have spent all of their time in Rome. Today, they headed from Rome to the Amalfi Coast. I wasn't really sure where that was so I googled it and found this:

Looks quite a bit south of Rome (3 hours by car). The views along the coast are supposed to be beautiful (duh, I know). After 2 days at the Amalfi Coast, they head up to Florence for 2 days and then onto Cyprus. Here are some pictures of the rest of their time in Rome:

My Dad looking very Euro :)

Trevi Fountain (I hope he wished that his daughter, Heather, was in Europe too!)

The Pantheon

Gorgeous View of Rome with St. Peter's Basilica in the background

National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II (museum too)....

I believe this is the entrance to the Vatican...

Yesterday, Hannah had her regional audition as well as solo and ensemble. She had a solo, a horn trio, and a horn sextet. She got a rating of superior in all three! AND she made 2nd chair French Horn in the regional orchestra! WoooHooo, go Hannah! I was there for everything but the trio and have some videos to post for you all later today or tomorrow.

Now, I need to focus on taking my online Economics test..................

When in Rome

Hello from Rome! Not me (I wish), but my parents. My mom and dad flew out on Tuesday morning and landed Wednesday morning in Rome. I will try to post updates as I get them. Here's a quick note from my mom with some great pictures:

Hi all, made it safe and sound. Quite an ordeal to get to the hotel, train and then we had to find the right bus!! Anyway here now. All the flights worked out great. We both slept about 5-6 hours, so feeling pretty good at moment. Cloudy and rainy and about 45-50 degrees.

George and I went to Rome during our 2008 Europe trip. Hard to believe that was almost 5 years ago. I remember that the Colosseum was one of the most impressive things that I saw throughout Europe. The history behind it is fascinating!

For old times sake, here are two of my blog posts from when we were in Rome:

http://heatherexploreseurope.blogspot.com/2008/09/when-in-rome.html

http://heatherexploreseurope.blogspot.com/2008/09/rome-pictures.html

I'm SOOOO happy that I blogged that trip/semester in Spain. It is very fun to go back and read through our adventures while traveling and my experience studying abroad.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, my Grandma Clark cooked me some delicious Chicken French tonight. Here is the recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/maries-chicken-french-43269

Cabin Weekend

I am sitting on the couch, relaxing, after a fun weekend at the cabin. We drove up on Friday night and came home this afternoon so it was just a short trip. Emily, Brian, Terrisa, Paisley, Brent, Chrissy, Carrie, Charlotte, George, Nick, and I all went up. Brian, Brent, and Carrie did some skiing on Saturday at Sunrise and the rest of us just hung out and relaxed. Here are a few pictures:

George, Nick, Paisley, and I went up the neighborhood rec center for a bit (had the entire place to ourselves) and played some games. George crushed me in ping pong. Paisley was keeping score for the boys.

The girls were chatting...

While the boys were playing a board game called "Knights of Catan"...

Also, George and I booked another trip to New York City for our anniversary! We are going February 14-18. I can't wait to do some more exploring....and try more delicious restaurants! :)

Birthday Weekend

I mentioned it in my last post, but I can't get over how cold it has been here. I'm talking in the high 20s at night. That's not the Arizona I know! It is actually a nice change, but I think I'm ready for it to warm up a bit. 

I had a great birthday on Sunday. We started out the day with church at The Grove with Brian and Terrisa. Immediately after church we went to George's parents and enjoyed lunch and visiting. Anna got out some of George's old stuff from elementary school (school projects, writing, assignments, etc). We were dying at some of the stuff he and the other kids wrote. One of the funniest things was a project where George had to describe himself. His description of himself was "funny, good, lazy".....yep, that pretty much sums him up! HAHA! Seriously, what 2nd grader describes themself as lazy?! This other assignment was called "Piggy Tales" and basically all of the kids had to write a story about pigs (I guess they were learning about pigs). So, this one kid in the class writes a huge story that is exactly the same story as the movie Forest Gump. Literally, everything was the same, except he called the characters Piggy Gump and Piggy Jenny. Hilarious!

Anyway, after a good laugh there, we headed to the Grimaldi's at San Tan for some pizza with my entire family. Their pizza is my favorite! Afterward, we headed back to our house for some presents and Creme Brulee Cheesecake, compliments of my mom. I got some great stuff including a really awesome drink dispenser from Sur La Table (one of my favorite stores) and a grill pan (we don't have a grill so it is going to come in handy). 

And....some pictures! My dad converted Emily's old bedroom into a man cave. I was over at there house the other day and took some pictures of it. I'm lucky he let me in!

Thank Goodness It's Friday!

As the title of this blog says, TGIF! Wednesday felt like Friday to me so it was obviously a looong week.

It is freezing outside right now (45 degrees or so at the moment). The high was only 52. And it will literally be freezing tonight with temps in the high 20s. So, I believe it may be warmer in Rochester, NY than it is here this weekend. If only we had precipitation in the forecast. Everyone would freak out if it snowed here (including myself). I remember that it did snow once 4 or so years ago, but it didn't make it to the ground.

I was driving through our neighborhood yesterday and realized that the leaves had changed colors. It looks very much like Fall with the yellows and oranges. Just a few months late, but I'll take it!

We probably need to cover our plants tonight. I wonder if we have enough sheets....

It has gotten much easier to update my blog since I got my new computer. The pictures from my phone automatically sync to my computer. Before, I had to email them to myself, open them all, and then save them. It was a pain to post pictures. Hopefully I will be able to keep up the more regular blog posts.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. My birthday happens to be this weekend so I'm sure I will have a good one :)

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

I am winding down and doing a few minutes of browsing before going to bed, so I thought I would take a moment to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Grandma Warren!!! :) As mentioned before, she is a reader of mine so she will see this shout out.

Also, I wanted to share what I believe to be an excellent birthday idea for a friend or family member. A few years ago for one of my Grandma's milestone birthdays, all of her family put together what we called "Kind Notes". The idea was actually found on some website or blog. Basically, everyone's instructions were to write a note(s) of some kind to her. They could be about anything; no rules really. Examples were, "Remember the time we.....?" or "I love the way you....." or "my favorite thing about you is...." We collected all of the notes and put them into a big jar for her. Anyway, just wanted to share because it is gift that many, many people can contribute to. It is free and way more meaningful than anything you could spend money on. And now, maybe someone will stumble across my blog and get the idea!

My parents are going to Italy and the island of Cyprus in a few short weeks. Talk about JEALOUS, huh? George and I were talking the other day about how we are getting the travel bug. I love planning for a trip and a big trip, out of the country, is the best kind to plan for! Dad- are you and mom going to do a blog? I know mom did that when she went to the UK a few years ago.

Time for bed........

Back to School

I started back to school yesterday. This quarter I am taking Marketing and Economics. I am very excited about the Marketing class. The professor seems awesome plus I have a natural interest in the subject matter (my Bachelors degree is in Marketing). My schedule this quarter is Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6-10PM. I can't decide if I like the Mon/Wed schedule or the Wed/Sat schedule better. It is super rough going to class on Monday nights, but it is nice knowing that the weekends are free!

We saw the movie, Zero Dark Thirty on Saturday night. It is scheduled to come out this weekend, but George found one theater in Scottsdale that was playing it early. The movie is all about the tracking down of Osama Bin Laden and his compound in Pakistan as well as the actual raid on the compound. I thought the movie was very well done. It kept my interest the entire time -- I definitely recommend it to you!

I believe I mentioned it already, but for Christmas my siblings and I decided to get some professional pictures taken for my parents as their Christmas gift from all of us. We hired Rilie Dee Photography (same photographer as our wedding) and she did a great job. Emily posted a bunch of the pictures on Facebook, but I know that I few of my readers are not on Facebook (or maybe not friends with Emily on FB) so I will share some on here. If you click on the pictures, you should be able to get a bigger image of them (ya know...in case you want a close up of ME!) :)

I love this one of Paisley! George and I brought our "shoe basket" to carry some stuff and it ended up working out perfectly for some fun pictures of her. In the picture below she was playing "peek a boo" and popped up just in time for Rilie to snap the picture.

 I love that one of Hannah and Jeremiah too! Emily is so photogenic (her eyes always photograph so beautifully)....

Here Brian and Terrisa were doing "one, two, three, weeeeee...." with Paisley. This was snapped right before the "weee"! 

Happy New Year!

Back to reality! I am having a hard time getting back in the groove after a 9+ days off! I could get used to having so much free time, sleeping in everyday, and doing whatever....

George wasn't able to take that much time off because his work is very busy this time of year, but he has been getting the weekends off lately which we both have been liking!

Sarah, Ian, and my Aunt Lesley visited us last week and it was great having them. Some of the highlights were dinner at Pane Bianco followed by dessert at the Sugar Bowl in Scottsdale, Jumpstreet (super fun indoor trampoline place), a stupid yet fun group game that we played on Christmas (don't know the name of it), and, of course, some post-Christmas shopping! My parents, Sarah, Ian, Aunt Lesley, and Hannah enjoyed a day trip up to the Grand Canyon on Friday as well. It was the Harts first time up there and they were glad they went. 

George and I both worked on New Year's Eve, but we had yesterday off. We had a small New Year's Eve party at our house with friends and siblings (can't believe it is 2013)! On New Year's day, George and I put some mileage on our bikes and rode around Gilbert and to Oregano's for lunch (and no, we didn't get a pizza cookie). Nick also joined us for the bike ride.

As for resolutions, George and I did spend some time discussing ours yesterday. Here are mine: 1. Work out! (duh, isn't that everyone's). With school and work, I have stopped the focus on working out and that bothers me. AND, I did go on a run yesterday and today on George's parents' old treadmill that they recently gave to us (we set up a work-out area in our garage so it couldn't be more convenient...no excuses). 2. Spend daily time in the Word! To be painfully honest, I have never been good about doing that consistently and again, that bothers me. I purchased a women's bible study book to help guide me. 3. Pack lunches for work....I know I am preaching to the choir here, but buying lunches can add up! We always have leftovers from dinner so that one shouldn't be too hard. 

On top of those three, I would like to do the following in 2013: read more, keep my blog up, try some new restaurants, decorate our bedroom and guest bedroom, visit Washington, DC and NYC (again, love it there), visit Boston (that will happen b/c we already booked a cruise out of there in July), meet some more neighbors....I'll stop there! 

Anyone else want to share their resolutions??? I'll leave you all with some pictures....

Hopefully we sent one of these to everyone, but just in case, here is our 2012 Christmas card. I am very particular about my Christmas card selection. I love picking up the design, paper, wording, and picture!

Terrisa, Chrissy, and I went on a walk last Friday morning with their girls (Charlotte is the bundled up one). It cracked me up because Terrisa went to go hold Charlotte and Paisley put her hands on her forehead and said, "No, nooo...." She didn't want to share her mommy. She joined the two of them in Terrisa's chair :)

Here are a couple of pictures from Jumpstreet (the trampoline place). It was hard to capture pictures b/c everyone was jumping all over the place. I believe this is Jeremiah. 

The "jumpers"! 

 The Harts on Christmas morning. It was great to have them!

George and I on Christmas morning and our gift for Paisley. I was so excited about this little shopping cart. I bought little, Paisley-size groceries to go in it.