Friday, December 18, 2009

The Proposal

A year ago today Nick proposed to me!  I know that may be keeping a lot of anniversaries but I figured the first year it warrants a mention.  It was a lot of fun thinking about and preparing for the wedding, and these first few months of marriage have been great!  Last year at this time there was snow on the ground, an exciting and rare sight for Bridgetown, and he proposed to me as we were on our way to a very nice dinner.  Although I was expecting the question, I was not thinking it would come at that exact moment.  I was completely swept up in the excitement of things and had the hardest time concentrating on the menu long enough to decide what to order.  That night I had the most delicious spaghetti of my life.  The next day my head was in a flurry.  I spent the morning calling friends and family and flipping through wedding magazines, the day culminated with Nick's work Christmas party.  I was introduced to and congratulated by everybody.  Tonight actually is the Christmas party again.  I am looking forwards to it; I assume it will be a little more casual this time but I am no less happy!   

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Salt and Pepper My Mango

Mr. Johnson and I invented a new drink.  We called the M.I.A. inspired drink Salt and Pepper My Mango.  While it is a compilation of everything tropical we imagined M.I.A. to drink, its name originates from the line in the song Sunshowers.  And yes, it does have salt and pepper.  First we were after recreating the Rubicon, it just sounds so delicious when she sings "I was sippin' on a Rubicon, thinkin' 'bout where I come..." After further research we realized that the name Rubicon is already in use.  It is a tropical fruit drink, similar to a fruitier Capri Sun that can be found in England.  As well as the name of an ancient Italian river that flowed into the Adriatic and is famous for being crossed by the Roman army.  What other river is famous solely for being crossed?  This obviously had no correlations to the drink we were about to invent and so the  mango and jalapeno-infused rum drink took on a more literal name.  All in all I think we discovered a gem, or at least came very close.  I am not going to disclose the recipe now. One, because it may undergo improvements and two, because some of you reading this may be trying it over the Christmas vacation and we wouldn't want to take all of the mystery out of it would we?

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Oh Christmas Tree. Oh Chistmas Tree...

We have a lovely wreath hung given to us by my parents, and our Christmas tree is all set up!  It was fun setting up the tree together for the first time.  Each of us had slightly different takes on tradition and they blended together in a fun way.  The night we got the tree I made Butternut Squash Soup served with homemade bread.  For desert I made a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake which seemed to fit the occasion.  Very classic and colorful.  Here are some pictures.


 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Crafting Martha Stewart Style

With Christmas approaching, I am excited.  Excited about the general season and about making our apartment look festive.  I took on a craft.  Cinnamon bird ornaments.  I made a dough that resembles gingerbread cookie dough in the consistancy and the aroma, but it is much more durable with the additive of glue.  I guess it helps having the architecture student's proficiency with the x-acto knife (and the abundent stash of tacky glue in the hall closet) because cutting out these birds to the level of detail Martha indicated was a sinch.  Decorating with glitter followed.  They turned out beautiful!  The awesome part was I didn't do this all on my own.  I prepped the dough, and decorated several to fill my tree, but I also organized the craft for the girls to do at Thanksgiving.  I was really excited when my aunt suggested I bring the supplies and set up the craft so my grandma, other aunts and cousins could decorate their own cinnamon birds after Thanksgiving dinner.  It was great, everyone really got into it.  I had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving and I felt like I contributed to the fun.