This week on "The Husband"

If you know me at all, you know I l-o-v-e LOVE "The Bachelor". Stacey and I get together and watch it every Monday and the boys usually tune in with us (even though they say they're just eating dinner and hanging out. They secretly love it!) Austin always adds his two cents in on the drama and his favorite thing to do is call everybody by their first name and last initial like they do on the show. Random I know. I'm sure us watching it is ruining brain cells but it is such a guilty pleasure.

This weekend, Austin planned a fun date for Saturday. I had Saturday School but before I left he told me to go look on our door step. There was my "date card". Hilarious! It read just like a Bachelor date card with a cheesy mystery message about what we'll be doing that day. Ha! So fun!

After school got out, I got dressed and he surprised me by heading to an authentic family run Italian market called Jimmy's. You must try it! We grabbed the best sandwich I've ever had and he had a picnic basket all set up. We took our basket and sandwiches to the Dallas Arboretum and enjoyed the gorgeous day. After having Jimmy's, wine, and girl scout cookies on the lawn of the amphitheater, we went shopping at Northpark and then had dinner at Blue Fish. It was one of the best days!

In the end, I got "the rose". Or in this case, the roses. Honestly, the most fun and funniest dates I've been on in a long time! Thanks Husband Austin. You give Bachelor Brad a serious run for his money!

A whole lotta love!

We celebrated the love holiday by preparing a delicious steak and lobster dinner with sauteed mushrooms, baked potatoes, and wedge salads. Happy V-day!

Love the Burchett's! Happy 30th Scotty B!

Love dancing with my fun friends while waiting for our turn to bowl

Love my friends! Can't wait for book club (and book club part 2) next week

I love cooking!

Eggplant Gratin. Here's the link to the recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/eggplant-gratin-recipe/index.html

I love the Pioneer Woman! She came to Dallas for a book signing on Valentine's Day.

She is so darn cute!

I love going to Ninfa's to kick-off Baylor Sing Weekend

I love impromptu photo shoots! Here we are posing for cheesy DDD composite photos on campus. Baby Chambers even got its own composite pic. We are NERDS!

I love Baylor University

What a LOVE-ly week!

What's Cookin?

Tonight is all about staying warm and not working too hard to eat something delicious. A staple in our house is Southern Living's Easy Chicken and Dumplings. Enjoy! We did.

Easy Chicken and Dumplings:

1 (32 oz.) low sodium chicken broth

3 cups of shredded cooked chicken

1 can of reduced fat cream of chicken soup

1/4 tsp of poultry seasoning

1 (10 oz. can) refrigerated jumbo buttermilk biscuits

3 celery ribs, diced

2 carrots, diced

Bring first 4 ingredients to boil over med high heat. Cover, reduce to low, and simmer for 5 minutes. Increase heat to med high and return to low boil. Roll out biscuits and cut into 1/2 inch strips. Drop strips, one at a time, into the boiling mixture. Add in carrots and celery, then cover and simmer for 15-20 min. Stir occasionally to prevent the biscuits from sticking. Southern comfort at its best.

It was even so cold tonight that the pups had to bust out their matching sweaters. Thanks Queen!

Mission Accomplished

Look who accomplished a New Year's resolution and it's only February... ME! I am so glad that I can check this off my list this year. I learned so much at my class but hope that I never have to use what I learned. I truly think that everyone should be certified. I feel so much more confident in case of a bad situation plus hello, look at the picture. Wouldn't you trust your life in these hands?

My awesome and funny instructor, Nurse Jarboe

Ok, maybe we shouldn't be the first people you call for help.

I'm on a roll. On to my next New Year's resolution...better posture! I just wish there was a class. I need some accountability. Maybe I'll sign up for an Emily Post's etiquette and posture class. Wish they had that at Las Colinas CC like cotillion circa 1994. Shout out Dick Chaplin!

What's Cookin'? Special Edition

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Well what's cookin's is Jaio Zi, chinese dumplings. Last night we celebrated with our annual new year's tradition of making homemade chinese dumplings to ring in the new year. The Chambers came over and brought yummy Pei Wei and Tsingtao beer and joined our assembly line. Jared kind of thought the forced labor was not all that necessary to celebrate the new year, but he joined in and did great! :)

Austin getting the pork filling ready

Preparing the dough

Dough ready to make disc

Jared hard at work

The assembly line begins

Excellent job Chambers! Jared is very focused.

The finished product

The silk on the table is Austin's 30 day old silk that Grandpa Teng sent from China

Ready to eat

And for dessert...dragon biscuits. Or at least, there supposed to be dragon biscuits. :)

And as we ended the night, it started snowing. Beautiful!

Introducing...What's Cookin'?

Thank you Irving ISD for giving me 2 wonderful snow days. Much needed! Today was all about staying in and being lazy, making yummy grub, mid day naps, catching up on some reading and watching Step Brothers. Priceless! Gracie even gets to stay warm with us the next few days and keep Harley company. Today (due to all my extra free time) I decided to start a new blog segment I like to call, "What's Cookin'?" So here is what's cookin' today.

Breakfast: Pancakes

• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 3 T sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups of milk, room temperature
• 3 T unsalted butter

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. In another bowl, beat the eggs and then whisk in the milk and vanilla. Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Whisk the butter into the milk mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and whisk until a thick batter is just formed. Keeping the skillet at medium heat, ladle about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the skillet.

Dinner: Baja Pork Tacos.

I made these a few weeks ago and Austin has been asking for them ever since. You must try these! They are from my new favorite blog, Chocolate Broccoli. Check it out! YUMMY!

Baja Pork Tacos

Dry rub:

1 T salt

1 T black petter

1 T cumin

1 T chili powder

1/4 T cayenne pepper

Pork:

1 1/2 lbs. lean pork tenderloin

3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth

2 (5 oz.) cans of chopped green chiles

2 (14.5 oz) cans of Rotel

1 T garlic powder

1 T chipotle seasoning (I like Mrs. Dash)

Mix the dry rub ingredients in small bowl. Sprinkle dry rub all over the pork roast, pressing into the pork. Cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight (or at least 2 hours).

Remove plastic from pork and lay into the bottom of the Croc*Pot. Combine broth and next 6 ingredients and pour into Pot and tightly cover with aluminum foil then lid. Roast on HI 6 hours or on LOW 8-10 hours--until fork tender and shreds easily. Remove pork from Pot and place into large bowl; shred. Using a slotted spoon, dish out remaining tomatoes and chiles from the Pot and mix into your shredded pork. To Assemble: Spoon 1/4 cup pork onto warmed corn tortilla, sprinkle with desired toppings. I like pico, guacamole, and monterrey jack cheese. ENJOY!!!