pickle

month 5
month 4

month 3

month 2

month 1

You are a little chunk of a baby.  

You are precious.

Growl on baby girl.


We love you.


***look for a post with the patterns coming soon, I had so many requests I will just make them available to all!***

tricks

I both love and hate this trick.  Mostly love.


But it does make me nervous.



Have a great Saturday!

a cough and a toot.

At the end of this week our beauty will be one month old.  I literally CANNOT believe it.  Here are some clips of the first month of her little life.  And yes, that is a toot at the end, I'm a proud momma.



Dear Time,
Please slow down.
Love,
The Murphy Family


(music: little sack of sugar by elizabeth mitchell)

Garden Roses and Pecan Chicken

What is it about fresh flowers in the house that just makes everything alright? I have learned that simply buying fresh flowers makes you want to keep your home cleaner. Like you want to make your home worthy of these beauties.

I've always thought that roses were sort-of cheesy. But I found these Garden Roses at our grocery and I fell in love. They are so feminine and they look like something I would want to either eat or lay my head on. I can't decide.

We had the best chicken ever the other night. I mean really. I decided to try this recipe because after John went on the guys weekend with my Dad, Pawpaw, and my brothers. He came come raving about a dinner he had in the mountains at the restaurant on the top of Mount Pisgah in Asheville. He said he had Pecan Crusted Chicken.

Whoa! Fancy Shmancy!

I considered this a challenge; I had to make it better than what he had. There was much success. This recipe just rocks. All I would say is add some more cinnamon! (and maybe some more sugar too...)

Recipe:

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 pinch white sugar
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

(OH! Paula!)

Directions:

1.In a small bowl, mix the eggs with the milk. Put aside.

2.In a medium bowl, mix together flour, seasoning, cinnamon, pecans, sugar, and salt and pepper.

*I used a hammer and smashed the pecans in to little bits so it stuck to the chicken better!

3. Dip the chicken in the egg mix, and press in the pecan mix.

4. Fry in hot olive oil until golden, about 5 to 10 minutes. Check to make sure the pecans don't burn. Place on paper towel to drain.

Well, I'm off to make my husband watch "Baby Mama" with me. Ooooo oooooooo. We are going to have a race to the bedroom and then count to three as we hurl ourselves backwards on to our luxurious down comforter and a mountainous pile of 9 pillows. We are just little kids in big bodies.

Meatloaf. Meatloave. Meatlove.

Now, I'm no Chantal Stacy but I do like to be in the kitchen.

John's co-worker sent us his wife's recipe for "The Ultimate Meatloaf" Now, let's be honest, when most of us hear "meatloaf" we go running in the other direction. It's because meatloaf sounds like every leftover your mother ever had,and all of them going in to one dish. But trust me, this is no ordinary meatloaf.

So, I decided to try to defeat the stereotype of this peculiar dish. I wanted to make cooking a little more fun so I put on the 1962 movie "If a Man Answers" with Sandra Dee and Bobby Darrin. (who were real life lovers if you didn't know. I didn't know until today. So that automatically makes the movie even cooler.) I watched this movie about a year ago with my dearest friend Lisa Z. and I immediately fell in love with it. It contains some of the best advice about love I have ever heard. So, we are going to call this

"Meatlove not Meatloaf"

So, here is what you will need to make this savory entrée.

1 cup of finely chopped onion

1 – 2 celery rib, chopped fine

1 Tbsp minced garlic plus garlic salt

1 carrot, chopped fine (several mini carrots)

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

2 tsp Worscestershire sauce

2/3 cup ketchup

1 to 1 ½ lbs of ground beef

1 to 1 ½ lbs Ground Chicken

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

2 large eggs, beaten slightly

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

Our humble kitchen, pre operation meatloaf.

Here is what you do...

In a large heavy skillet cook the onion, garlic, celery, and carrot in butter, over moderate heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Cover and stir occasionally until the carrots are tender, about 5 more minutes. Stir in salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/3 a cup of ketchup. Cook for 1 more minute.

In a large bowl, combine the meats, eggs, bread crumbs, vegetables, and parsley. Form into a loaf and put into a rectangular baking pan with 2 inch high sides. Cover loaf with remaining ketchup.

Bake meat loaf in oven for 1 hour @ 350 degrees.

While I am waiting for this meaty thing to cook I sit down to finish the movie. John comes home from work and he watches the rest of the movie with me. The best part is about to happen as Chantal is getting ready to marry Eugene. Chantal's brilliant French mother, Germaine who is played by Micheline Presle, comes to her daughter and Chantal says that she is nervous to get married because she doesn't want to be dissapointed. Germaine then says,

"If you come to love and say please me,care for

me, fulfill me. You will be disappointed. It is

what YOU bring to love that matters.

Don't you disappoint love!"

You really must see how Micheline says it, it is simply magical. So, isn't that how love goes?

Effort.

Responsibility.

Accountability.

That is what I have seen to be true thus far in my 2 short months of marriage. Just like meatloaf doesn't make itself neither does a marriage. (of course unless all of the leftovers and elements combine in your refrigerator overnight...ew.) We can't expect to partake in a relationship if we aren't willing to do the work, measuring out the right amounts of discipline, patience, compromise, love and SO much more.

Really, this movie is a MUST SEE. If you want to borrow it let me know. It also teaches you how to train your husband to do just what you'd like him to, French women really know how to deal with the male species.

Here was the finished product.

Meatloaf or love...whichever you prefer.