Puff Pancake

A thunderstorm woke me up early Sunday morning, so I decided to make a nice breakfast before church.  I received my Taste of Home Simple and Delicious magazine last week, and it had a recipe for Puff Pancakes that I wanted to try.  The recipe called for a topping of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, but I modified it a bit because I didn't have any blueberries or raspberries.  I topped our puff pancake with strawberries, peach slices, and banana slices.  It was really yummy :)  And, it was quick and easy to make!  I guess that's why it's called Simple & Delicious!

Josh gave this recipe a thumbs up and said it was definitely a keeper!  Here's the recipe:


Puff Pancake

2 Tbsp. butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup millk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

Topping:
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 peach, sliced
1 banana, sliced
1/4 cup sugar

Place butter in a 9-inch pie plate, and place in a 425 degree oven until melted.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk.  In another bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.  Whisk into egg mixture until blended.  Pour pancake mixture into pie plate.  Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until sides are brown and crisp. 

Combine sliced fruit and sugar in bowl, and spoon over pancake.  Dust pancake with confectioners' sugar if desired. 

Josh's New Favorite Movie

Guess what movie has been playing quite frequently at our house lately? 

True Grit was released on DVD June 7, and of course, Josh bought the DVD on June 7.  He warned me that morning that he would be a bit later that night because he HAD to go buy the movie.  Apparently, so did quite a few other people because he had to visit two Wal-Marts two get it!  I'm not sure how many times he has watched it completely, but he has been watching it A LOT! 

Josh is a big John Wayne fan, so he was excited when he heard that True Grit was being remade.  He was not convinced, however, that it would be as good as the John Wayne version.  He bought the book and made sure to read it before the movie came out in December, and then took me out on our "Christmas date" to see the movie.  It wasn't the most romantic date I have ever been on, but True Grit is a pretty good movie. 

Pin the Lips on Josh

Yesterday, I received a funny picture in my inbox and it made me laugh out loud!  My graduate school advisor was taking pictures off her iPhone and sent me a picture from a bridal shower that the lab group hosted for me last summer.  To my surprise, the girls had planned this surprise shower with yummy food and funny games.  They managed to get a picture of Josh and cut out red lips from construction paper.  Each person was blindfolded and had to pin the lips on Josh!  It is a great memory I have of our wedding festivities :) 

Josh's New "Hobby"

Josh has always enjoyed trying new kinds of beer and often mentioned that he would like to try brewing his own someday.  This interest grew when we went to visit our friends, Jessica and Jaron in St. Louis last summer.  Jaron brews his own beer and gave Josh a few brewing tips as well as a few taste-tests during our visit!  Needless to say, Josh was determined to try his hand at home brew, but was too busy with work and wedding planning to get started.  So for Christmas, I decided to get him a home brewing kit and ingredients for his first batch.  Josh was pretty excited and anxious to get the first batch going.  He invited his friend, Kyle, over to help, and then two weeks later they bottled it!

This looked pretty gross to me, but the boys assured me that it will taste good.

 Josh and Kyle deep in thought trying to figure out the directions.

In just a week or so, the first batch should be ready to taste.  Josh is anxious to invite his friends over to have a “man night” J

Our “Firsts”

Wow!  We have been married for over one month and this is our first blog update…sorry!  The five weeks since our wedding have been jam-packed with travel for work, travel to visit our families, arranging and rearranging our townhouse, and getting ready for Christmas!  The past 37 days have been full of “firsts” for us as a married couple.

1. Our first international travel experience together.  We enjoyed seven wonderful days in Punta Cana at the Paradisus Reserve Resort.  Josh did an excellent job planning the honeymoon!  Our daily routine consisted of eating breakfast, laying on the beach, sometimes swimming, eating lunch, lying by the pool, afternoon snack/drinks poolside, napping, and then getting ready for dinner.  Needless to say, it was very relaxing!  In addition to all of the relaxing, we did go on a few “excursions” off of the resort to see the landscape of the Dominican Republic and experience Dominican culture.  We have lots of fun memories J 

2.   Thanksgiving – only two days after arriving home from the honeymoon, we traveled to Illinois to visit both of our families. We had a nice time looking at wedding snapshots and telling stories from Punta Cana…and enjoyed lots of good food! 

3.  The only bad thing about Thanksgiving weekend was catching the flu.  We both had the flu – not fun!

4.  Christmas tree!  We purchased our first Christmas tree from a local tree farm a few weeks ago.  Although we were warned, we did not realize just how much the drought had affected Christmas trees!  It took us a while to find a tree that was actually green, but we were successful!  For a moment, we both thought we might have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  In addition to the real tree in our living room, we also put a small fake tree by our front door that is decorated only in orange and blue.  Go Illini!

5.   Our first Christmas letter written together as a married couple…we finished it in the nick of time to arrive before Christmas!

I am sure there are many “firsts” that I haven’t even realized and of course, many more to come!  We are enjoying our time together and slowly finding a home for all of the wonderful wedding gifts.  Our wedding pictures were finished recently, so we have had a great time laughing and reliving our special day.  Marriage is truly a blessing.  We are looking forward to visiting our families for the holidays and perhaps making a few Christmas traditions of our own. 

Merry Christmas!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog!  We are excited to begin this new chapter in our lives together and glad to share bits and pieces with you.  Living in another state, we thought this blog would be a great way to keep in touch with our family and friends.  Please check back early and often as we share the destination of our "surprise" honeymoon, wedding stories, and the day-to-day happenings of two loyal Fighting Illini fans living in the land of Hoosiers!  God bless!