Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Summer Fixings

When I get a day off from work I enjoy baking and cooking. I have been making dinner for my aunt, uncle, and myself once a week. It has been a lot of fun. The first meal I made for them was zucchini bread, couscous salad, and sauteed chicken in mustard-cream sauce. It was a lot of fun to make and tasted delicious! 
The zucchini bread recipe I used was from Glorious Treats. The bread was insanely delicious! I couldn't stop eating it. The recipe makes enough for 2 small loaves. We ate one loaf and I took the other one into work and it was gone within minutes. 
These are all the ingredients I used to make the zucchini bread. The only ingredients out of the ordinary that I had to buy were zucchinis and nuts. Pretty simple ingredients besides those two things! I used my aunt's Cuisinart food processor to chop up the zucchini into fine shreds. The Cuisinart was wonderful. 
I blended the zucchini bread batter in my aunt's KitchenAid mixer. Someday hopefully I will have my own KitchenAid mixer and Cuisinart food processor! 
This is what the zucchini bread batter looks like when it is ready to be baked! Doesn't look to appetizing now but trust me it will be when it is done! 
I got my couscous recipe here. I did not add red pepper, parsley, or feta. Feta can be very expensive! It tasted wonderful without it. 
I made sauteed chicken in a mustard-cream sauce. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart here. I used chicken broth and did not have tarragon so I used another spice instead. Hope you enjoy these recipes. The zucchini bread was by far my favorite!!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Light Up the Sky

Currently listening to: Lift Me Up by The Afters

I absoultely LOVE this song. A friend of mine introduced me to The Afters when I was in high school. I hadn't really heard their stuff since high school. But they recently just came out with the album Light Up the Sky. The band wrote this song as encouragement that God is always with them and will always lift them up. One of the band member's favorite inspirational verse is Psalm 23. 

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Prov 2:1-6

Since I have moved down to Tennessee I have been trying out different churches. This past Sunday I went to The Journey. Little did I know that the band All Sons and Daughters originated from that church! How cool! I love listening to All Sons and Daughters. I was with a couple of friends who had spoken with one of the band members via email. We went up and talked with her after service. It was so neat to talk to one of the lead singers of the band. And it was just crazy to me that I was going to go to that church and didn't even know that that is where that band originated from and that they play there every Sunday! Love those little secrets that are hidden around Nashville. 

My favorite All Sons & Daughters song by far is this one: 
This is the band live at their home church in Franklin, TN 
called The Journey. So honored to have met the lead singer
 Leslie. She was so nice and down to earth!

All Sons & Daughters
The Afters

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Cousin Brunch








Had a lovely day off of work today. I spent the day with my cousins and their families. After church we went out to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. It was so much fun to be with both my cousins and my cousin's little daughter. She is six months old and just the cutest little thing! She was making all sorts of faces during lunch so I tried to get her picture while she was still for a few seconds. The last pic above is my other cousin's new house. It is so cute! I am so blessed to be able to be around my family now.  

xo
Rach

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Hello Franklin!





I moved down to Franklin, Tennessee yesterday. I absolutely love it so far! I have a job at the new Drury Plaza Hotel in Franklin. I am looking forward to being a part of the opening team. Franklin has a lot of history and great little boutiques. There are also some neat pubs and restaurants. I can't wait to try some of them out!