Posted by Jenna on Apr 15, 2010 in
General,
Recipes Last night I tried a new recipe for supper – skillet penne with Italian sausage and spinach – it was delicious! Not only does this recipe taste great, but it doesn’t make a huge mess and you only use one skillet!
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound Italian sausage (hot or sweet)
3 cloves garlic (minced or pressed through garlic press)
2 1/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 1/4 cups water
8 ounces penne pasta
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (chopped)
6 oz. fresh baby spinach
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
Heat oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add sausage, breaking it up with a spoon, and cook until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Stir in broth, water, penne, tomatoes, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Increase heat to high and cook, stirring often, until penne is tender and liquid has thickened, 15 to 18 minutes.
Stir in spinach, handful at time, and cook until wilted. Off heat, stir in Parmesan and nuts. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.
I added some extra cheese to ours last night because we like lots of cheese and I don’t think I used as much spinach or tomatoes as it calls for because Matt isn’t a big fan of those items. I also served it with garlic bread.
ENJOY!
Posted by Jenna on Apr 5, 2010 in
Family,
General Friday night as we were leaving the rehearsal a storm was blowing in and brought lots of rain and wind with it. Unfortunately, when we woke up Saturday morning, that rain had turned to sleet and snow and the beautiful blue sky and sunshine we had seen all week was gone. It was about 30 degrees with a 25-30 mph north wind and we knew we were going to FREEZE that evening in our dresses.
you can see the accumulation of snow on the roof of my parents’ house…their front steps were slick with ice
sleet under the tree and on the wooden swing…I thought this was the 1st day of Spring?!
I felt so sorry for Jillie because she had been praying all week long that God would provide warmth and sunshine on Saturday…but alas, the sleet and snow came. The weather wouldn’t have really been a big deal because the wedding was inside, but we were planning to take pictures outside prior to the wedding…mother nature had another plan. We had to change our plans at the last minute, but I think the pictures turned out beautifully.
Even though the weather wasn’t what she wanted, she thoroughly enjoyed every minute of her special day.
Wedding Morning…”I’m the Bride” coffee cup in hand!…She’s so happy!
The first thing we did on Wedding Day was have a bridal luncheon for Jillie at the home of the family she nannies for. Sara is such a sweet lady and loves Jillie so much and decided throw and “Lingerie Lunch” for Jillie and all of her family (girls only!) the morning of the wedding! The food was great, the company was great, and she got lots of great little gifts!
all of the delicious food!
cousins…Rachel, Jenna, Maggie (holding Elizabeth – the baby Jillie keeps), & Emma
After the Lingerie Lunch it was time for the Bridesmaids to start getting ready for the wedding and the aunts and guys started working at the ballroom. By late afternoon we were all in the dressing room in the building where the ballroom was to do make-up, hair touch-ups, and put on our dresses. We took pictures before the wedding, which was nice so we had plenty of time to enjoy ourselves at the reception.
Matt and I finally got an updated picture of ourselves!
I’d say we clean up pretty nicely…
There’s tons more wedding pictures that I want to post, but I’m waiting on my copy of the CD of pictures from the photographer…Jillie should be getting that to me soon…I hope!
Posted by Jenna on Apr 5, 2010 in
General My latest breakfast obsession is fruit smoothies. Matt mixes them up for me at night and then blends them up for me in the morning right before I walk out of the door and they are quite delicious while I’m driving to school.
Here’s what we use:
4 ounces 2% milk
4 ounces acai pomegranate juice
1 regular size bag frozen mixed berries
Like I said, we (and by we, I really mean Matt) mix it up at night before going to bed and let it sit in the fridge and then blend it all up in the morning right before leaving the house. This makes 2 smoothies…but you could easily half the “recipe” for just 1 smoothie. You could also use fresh fruit if you wanted to, but then you’d need to add ice to the mixture when you blend it up. I like the frozen fruit because that means I can make these any time of the year, not just when berries are in season. You could also add bananas or peaches to it if you wanted, but I’m not a big fan of either of those, so I just stick with the berries.
Posted by Jenna on Apr 5, 2010 in
General I tried a new recipe Sunday morning for Easter lunch with Matt’s family…Buttered Rosemary rolls from the Pioneer Woman. They were so simple and delicious! You use frozen dinner rolls, let them rise for a few hours, brush on some butter, sprinkle on some fresh rosemary, brush with a little more butter, sprinkle with a touch of sea salt, and bake at 400 for about 15 minutes. I did some in an iron skillet and then some others in a muffin tin and I think the ones out of the iron skillet were better because they were the “pull apart” kind of rolls…if that makes sense. I’m telling you…they’re delicious…and so is everything else the Pioneer Woman makes!
I literally stood in front of the oven and watched these thing puff up and brown…my mouth was watering the whole time!
Posted by Jenna on Apr 1, 2010 in
Family,
General Friday night we spent a couple of hours running through the ceremony to figure out the best way to do things. As usual when we all get together, we had a blast!
I think we only had to run through the ceremony 3 times before we had it all figured out…not too bad for as many people as we had. It helped that all of the girls had been in weddings before.
If I had to pick the hit of the evening, it would definitely be a toss up between the adorable flower girls (2 of the little girls my sister is a nanny for) or Bailey (my cousin’s boyfriend) stepping in and being the bride for my sister during the rehearsal, since it’s bad luck for the bride to actually walk down the aisle before the wedding day. The little girls were absolutely precious and did a great job rehearsing with us all 3 times and Bailey was a great “bride”!
everything is set & ready to go! …so pretty…
all of the girls lined up waiting to practice walking down the aisle
the flower girls…so precious!
Bailey made such a good bride!…haha
we got the little girls putting their hands on their hips & saying that everything was “FABULOUS!”…it was hilarious!
After finalizing all of the plans for the ceremony, we headed over to Little Italy for the rehearsal dinner. We had a delicious meal with great family and friends! The food was excellent and everybody enjoyed getting to relax and visit before the wedding day.
Jillie also gave all of the bridesmaids our gifts for being in the wedding. Jake’s mom made each of us a beautiful necklace and pair of earrings to wear in the wedding. Jillie bought antique broaches from the antique stores and his mom made them each into a necklace…they were fabulous with our dresses!
After the rehearsal all of the girls got slushies and hung out at our cousin’s house since all of her ACU roommates were gone on spring break. We had our last girls’ night before Jillie got married and we spent a few hours just laughing and talking and remembering old times! I love my family!
Posted by Jenna on Mar 23, 2010 in
Family,
General My spring break this year was officially renamed “Jillie’s Wedding Week”. I spent the weekend and Monday here at home running last minute errands, cleaning house, doing laundry, and packing so I could leave for Abilene on Tuesday to help with all of the final wedding preparations before the big day arrived.
I left Tuesday morning and picked up Jillie’s dress at the bridal salon in Waco where we have both purchased our dresses…such a great little store! After stopping at the bridal shop…it was on to Abilene…only 3 more hours!
It was a very busy week. We have a tradition in our family to give cookies as wedding favors, so we had cookies to bake. We also had to put together baskets for the hotel rooms where all of the out of town guests would be staying. We had to finalize and print the programs. The flowers were being delivered on Thursday and then we had boutonnieres and bouquets to make, as well as the centerpieces for the tables and the arrangements for the front of the ballroom where the ceremony would be held. Oh yeah…and cakes to make…haha.
Family began arriving Wednesday, so luckily we had help!
Jillie requested Linzer cookies for her wedding, so we baked 130 cookies and then filled them with raspberry jam…they were delicious!
setting up our workspace…
there were cookies EVERYWHERE!
Aren’t they pretty?
The flowers arrived from Ecuador Thursday morning…three shades of roses and hundreds of stems of Bells of Ireland. After spending some time in water, they brightened up and were gorgeous!
the Bells of Ireland
the roses…we bought pink one’s later to add to the bouquets
Nana and Monica (grandmother & aunt) starting on the boutonnieres
Beth (another aunt) starting on the cakes!
That’s the wedding week…in a nutshell…the rehearsal and wedding day will be posts of their own. I will have to wait for the photographer to finish the wedding pictures to post stuff from the actual wedding since I didn’t have my camera with me as I stood up there next to my sister. Rehearsal coming soon though!
Posted by Jenna on Mar 15, 2010 in
General After Jillie’s shower in Beaumont a couple of weekends ago, Jillie, Rachel, Monica, my mom, and I drove from Beaumont to Houston to see John Mayer in concert at the Toyota Center. We are all huge fans of him and completely enjoyed one of our girls’ nights before Jillie gets married this weekend. The concert was a.w.e.s.o.m.e. and we had a blast. Our boys (husbands, fiances, and boyfriends) were upset they didn’t get to go, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying ourselves.
Posted by Jenna on Mar 15, 2010 in
Random My computer had been on the fritz for several months and after Matt determined that the hard drive was going bad, we decided that it was probably time to look at getting me a new one. I wanted something smaller, that was more portable for travel and could easily be used in the kitchen for cooking. We heard about Dell’s new Inspiron 11z and realized it was perfect for me. It’s small…about 12 or 13 inches and super light weight, but just as powerful as a full size laptop and run Windows 7 and all of the programs I need like a champ! I’m a big fan of my new machine!
Posted by Jenna on Mar 9, 2010 in
General Jillie had another wedding shower this past weekend in Beaumont at Monica’s house on Saturday morning and we had an absolute blast. My mom and sister drove in from Abilene on Friday afternoon and I drove to Beaumont to spend the weekend with the girls Friday right after school was released. We had dinner at the Crawfish Hole in Winnie with Nana and Papa and everybody and then spent the evening decorating for the shower. We stayed up until about 1:00 AM decorating and laughing and having a good time and finally crashed before the shower the next morning.
Jillie’s last shower was absolutely perfect. The food was wonderful and she and Jake got lots of great gifts! We had a great time.
the beautiful bride-to-be
Nana did an AMAZING job on all of the flowers!
sisters ; )
cousins…those of us who were there…
Amelia & Elise…beautiful little girls
all of the gifts!
After the shower we headed out for a late lunch with the whole family and all went our separate ways.
Sunday was another busy day with more wedding showers, this time for my cousin’s fiance, Autumn. They got TONS of great gifts and we are really excited for them to be getting married in just a couple of months.
It was a wonderful weekend…we also went to the John Mayer concert…but that’s a post reserved for itself!
Posted by Jenna on Feb 23, 2010 in
General A couple of weekends ago I took a Friday off of work and got a substitute to cover my classes so I could leave early for my sister’s bridal shower in Abilene. It was great to see my family and we definitely had LOTS of fun together.
We were able to drop off my bridesmaids dress for the wedding to be altered…the place was pretty shady and smelled awful, but apparently she’s a great seamstress, so I guess it was worth the experience. We also spent some good, quality girl time shopping for shoes 
and dresses to wear to all of the wedding events coming up in the next few weeks.
Jillie’s first bridal shower was Saturday morning. We all got up early and congregated in the bathrooms to get all dressed up for the big event. We had so much fun!
my sister – the beautiful bride to be
My mom & sister
The cousins…who were at the shower…there’s MANY more of us!
all of the loot for the soon-to-be newlyweds!
Shower #1 or the “Abilene Shower” was a huge success and we all had a blast being together for the weekend. Can’t wait for shower #2 in Beaumont…just a couple more weeks!
