My First Bravo!

At work we give the patients and employees the opportunity to recognize an employee for a job well done with a certificate called a Bravo. It comes with a $5.00 gift certificate for the cafeteria too which is pretty much a complete meal down there.

Today I got one (my first one) from a manager!

Here's what it said:

"While rounding on a post op patient both the patient and family stated that you were amazing! Thank you for providing and promoting a commitment for great patient care"

Signed TF, Manager - OR

I started out my shift with that and had a wonderful day, all of my patients were wonderful, thankful, and stable! (most important) one of the days I am happy to be a Nurse!

Sesame-Orange Shrimp and Chicken Stir-Fry

I made this last night to take into work with me. We were pot-lucking because it was Tracy's last night (sad! Tracy we will MISS you!!!)

Anyway The Ladies enjoyed it. I hope you do as well....

Sesame-Orange Shrimp and Chicken Stir-Fry
Source: Cooking Light Magazine ~ June 2009

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (I didn't have ground so I substituted fresh and minced it)
• 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Red (Cayenne) Pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 (14 oz.) can fat-free low sodium chicken broth

Stir-Fry

• 2 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
• 12 oz. skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 cups chopped broccoli florets
• 1 cup chopped carrot
• 1 cup snow peas, trimmed
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, cooked and peeled
• 3 cups hot cooked long-grain rice

What now?

1. Whisk together all ingredients for the sauce together in a medium size bowl. Set aside.
2. To prepare stir-fry, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a LARGE (I used the largest skillet I had) non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add Chicken to pan, stir-fry for 5 min or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove cooked chicken from pan, and set aside
3. Add another 1 tablespoon oil to pan. Add chopped broccoli, carrot, peas, onion and garlic and cook for 5-8 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
   
4. Add cooked chicken and shrimp to skillet, and add prepared sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens to desired consistency.

Serve Immediately over Cooked Rice

Movie Review - The Hangover

Last night I went with a bunch of people from my church to see the new movie The Hangover directed by Todd Philips who also directed Old School. When I originally saw the previews for this movie I passed it off as another senseless guy comedy with no substance that wasn't worth the money to go see.

I was right on all accounts except the last, this movie was absolutely hilarious! Definitely worth the money!

The plot is simple. Guy getting married in two days, Guy and three friends go to Vegas for a night of drunken foolishness, Guy's friends wake up the next morning in a trashed apartment and no one can remember what happened the night before, oh and said bachelor is no where to be found!

The 4 main actors in this movie play beautifully off of each other, and Heather Graham has a cameo as (you guessed it) a Vegas Stripper.

If you have any interest in seeing this movie I would recommend seeing it in theaters. I think that sitting in a theater with 50ish other people all laughing their butts off makes the movie even more enjoyable. Go into to it prepared. It is a GUY's movie, drunk nights in Vegas with everything that goes along with it.

Bring a sweater, it came in useful when I had to muffle my laughter because I was laughing so hard!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I made these yesterday to bring to work tonight. One of my good friends at work is leaving to move home closer to her parents with her husband. I wanted to bring in something sweet for her and I know she likes peanut butter. The "cookie base" is different than what I usually use for cookies but it was good just the same. If you like peanut butter, you will love these cookies!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
Source: Heather Drive

Ingredients:
- 2 cups + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 12 tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
- 1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 - 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips ~ I used 2/3 c.
- 1/2 - 1 cup peanut butter chips ~ I used 2/3 c.

Directions:

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. Either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips to taste.

4. Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the dough into a ball. Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough’s uneven surface. Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

5. Bake until the cookies are light golden grown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (18 minutes was WAY too long for mine), rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with a side metal spatula.

Makes approximately 18 large cookies.

My Good Friend Brian and his Photography

I have known Brian pretty much FOREVER. He was the guy that introduced me and my husband back in 7th grade (yes people, 7th grade) and he was Kyle's best man at our wedding *picture below*

He had just told me that his photographic hobby has become a real passion for him! Since the beginning of this year he had talked to me about photography and he said that he wanted to start taking more pictures and experimenting with different techniques. Last month he got a really nice camera (Cannon Rebel XSI...nice!) Now I would love to someday get a SLR camera and learn a little more around taking good quality pictures. (for some reason that goes hand in hand in my head with "I want to be able to take beautiful pictures of my babies, when i have them!). But for now I am good with my Cannon point and shoot that kyle got me for Christmas (it's pink thank you very much)

Anyway I am excited to see what he comes up with this summer. I will post some of his work as soon as he sends me some to look at. He did some engagement sessions for one of his friends last month and he is taking some photography classes this summer.

Good Luck Brian!
*I'm like a proud mom haha!*

It's nice when someone you love is happy and passionate about something, in some way it makes me more happy and passionate about life!

Final Blog Redesign

*PHEW*

I have finally settled on a blog design that I really like, thanks to the good people at Our Blogger Templates. This is the uniting of everything that I needed in a layout. Now I will just change the colors and the header as time goes on.

I want to start updating my recipe index. Is there anything you guys want to see on the blog?

Thank You Card

This is my first *real* card project. I made some other Cards when I got my cricut expression a few weeks ago but since I have been spending more time on the internet researching different techniques I decided to try a new card (especially since I wanted to try my new stamp) I haven't decided to send this one out or to keep it for posterity, since I count this as my first *real* card.


Ta Da!

*this is my "signature" for the back of the card*

New Work Space

This was my weekend project. I needed something new to store my scrapbooking supplies and my desk was in dire need of replacement. It came from Rhode Island and even then I didn't really like it. It was one of those computer desktop desks and since I have a laptop there was a lot of unused space. Plus Kyle put a few holes in it when he was putting it back together, but that's another story. ha ha. So ikea got a lot of my money but I am VERY happy with the wardrobe, it has a lot of space, looks good and is really sturdy. I think it will last me awhile. The table was another ikea purchase. I just wanted a large workspace and this fit the bill perfectly.

This is the Wardrobe Closed....




and OPEN!!!!!



Wardrobe and table. My next task is getting a decent chair,
that is a stolen kitchen chair and isn't tall enough