The Endearing Ways of Boys and Girls

As I was looking through my pictures, I came across this picture that I took this last spring of my nephew and the girl who lives behind us. I hope this picture warms your heart as the weather gets a little colder outside.

Can we do it?!

So... wedding budget = $2000 (excluding dress)
Can we do it?
I think so.
Our guest list is immediate family only and the reception hall and chapel are one and the same.
If worse comes to worst, we can just serve our families pasta during the reception and leave disposable cameras on the tables.
:-)
Time to get creative.
Any suggestions?

Cheesy Bacon Wild Rice Soup

Tonight (today? 3am), I made a soup to divide up into containers and take with me to work this week. I work nights and so cooking all of the time drains me a little. Besides, it's just me. If I cook a big meal for myself, I'm bound to have leftovers for work. :-)

I'd type out the recipe on here, but I'm not sure if I'd be going against a copy-write law. It's from the book A Taste of Autumn, a Gooseberry Patch cookbook... Gooseberry Patch makes my favorite cookbooks!

It has onions, bacon, wild rice, half and half, cream of potato soup, and shredded cheese in it. Yum yum!

Here are a couple of pictures:

How it Happened

The proposal story

I have been dating Michael since the end of February/beginning of March time frame. We don't have an exact date or so of when we started dating, but we were pretty exclusive from the very beginning.

Michael deployed last month, but thankfully we've been able to talk almost every day on the webchat thing. Well, the week before last we were talking and he was buying Christmas presents for his son, Gabe, online. He told me that he was sending my Christmas present too, so if a box came, not to open it. Pretty ordinary, right?

Last Wednesday a box came and, as promised, I didn't open it. I left it unopened on my bed and went to work Wednesday night. Thursday morning, when I came home from work, Michael and I got on the webchat and were having a very normal conversation. A little bit through the conversation, I remembered that there was a box on my bed, so I showed him the box while saying "look what came today."

Michael- "Aren't you going to open it?"
Me- "You told me not to."
Michael- "It's okay, because I'm watching."

That is not an unusual response to me. If anyone has ever received a present early from me, they know that I made them open it early too. Because of that, his wanting me to open the box didn't raise any suspicion.

So.. I opened the box. Inside the box was a bubble wrap bag. Inside the bubble wrap bag was something wrapped in gold striped tissue paper. Holding the ends of the tissue paper together was a seal... a jewelry store seal. As soon as I saw the seal, I put it down and just looked at Michael.

Michael- "Aren't you going to finish opening it?"
Me- "A-a-are you suure?"
Michael- "Oh yes"
To which Michael proceeded to encourage me throughout opening it. I'm one of those meticulous present-openers, so I'm sure I drove him crazy with my neatly pulling up all the tape and unwrapping without tearing. Not to mention, I was a bundle of nerves so I was going even slower...

Inside of the gold striped tissue paper was something wrapped in really pretty dark purple marbled wrapping paper with a red gossamer ribbon tied in a bow. Inside that was a red box with a lid. Inside the box with the lid was a jeweler's box. And inside the jeweler's box... well... you've seen the picture.

So I sat there, staring at the ring. Without looking up at him I asked (of all things) "Can I try it on?"
Michael- "No"
Me (looking at him now)- "What?"
Michael- "Well, I want to be able to ask you first."

The way he said that made it seem like he was telling me I would be holding on to the ring, without trying it on or anything, until he gets home from deployment and asks me himself. Disappointing, yes, but understandable.
"Oh, okay" I say as I look back at the ring.

Michael- "Will you look at me"
So I look at him.
"Angela Christine Drouin.."
My breathing stops.
"Will you marry me?"

I thought I said yes. I was screaming yes in my head. Apparently, though, I wasn't saying anything intelligible. Just smiling a crazy wide smile while my eyes were welling up with tears.

Eventually I got the yes out and put the ring on my finger and, from what I remember, asked him if this means we're engaged. "Yes" he laughed.

So I was proposed to, via Skype video chat and the UPS, from Iraq at 3:31am on Thursday, November 12th. And you know what? I wouldn't change a thing. Other than, of course, I'd like him home. I can wait, though. He's got a lot of built-up excitement and joy waiting for him.

And no, we don't have a date. We just got to the point where we absolutely know, without a doubt, that we are going to marry each other. "When" will have to wait. For now.

:-)

Chicken Fricassi

Or, as referred to by my mom, Chicken Frick-n-Frack! I think my mom got this from one of her many cookbooks, but I really can't recall which one and so I'm not going to be able to give credit. This is really good for a lot of food with little money. My mom was the only one with a stable job while I was growing up and she had 6 mouths to feed. This recipe is simple, inexpensive, and my mom fed all 6 of our mouths with some left over! (Ingredients are in bold. This is a slow cooker meal.)

4 bone-in chicken thighs
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp paprika (or until flour looks pink)
dash white pepper (optional.. i always forget it)
at least 1 tsp salt

Mix up in gallon sized ziplock (or whatever is handy) and shake chicken in it to coat.

1 tbsp light oil
1/2 cup an onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped

Heat pan to medium-low heat. Add oil to coat pan. Add onion and celery and cook until semi-tender. Scoop out and set aside. Add more oil to recoat pan. Lightly crisp chicken in pan; DO NOT COOK THROUGH.

2 small cans (10 3/4 oz each) cream of chicken soup

In a crockpot, add 1 can cream of chicken soup.. Lay chicken on top. Lay onions and celery on top of that.
In a bowl or measuring cup, add second can of soup and 1 can's worth of water. Mix up and pour in crockpot to cover everything.
Cook on high for 1 hour.
Reduce to low and cook for 6 hours.
Do not remove lid while cooking.

When time is up, use tong to grab chicken bones. If meat does not fall off the bone, recover and cook on high for 1 more hour.

Stir up contents of crock pot and serve over wide egg noodles (or preferred choice of base, i.e. potatoes, rice, ect.)

Sorry about the lack of pictures for this. I was going to wait until I made it and post it with pictures, but a very good friend of mine wanted to use it and link back to this recipe for anyone who read her blog. So... perhaps I'll post pictures another day and link back to this recipe in the post.

Ooo Daring

So... I've been reading everything on The Daring Kitchen website and have decided that eventually, I want to become a member. I don't want to do it now because I'm not sure about certain financial things yet. Perhaps I will join for New Year's. :) Won't it be great to start the year off with a food challenge that I have to do every month? This would mean that I'd have to join in December so that I can start of the challenge in January.

Anyway... so it's official; Michael and I are engaged. I will write the story out on another entry, but I've got a lot going on right now.

Bye for now!

OH MY

This morning, at 3:31am CST, something amazing happened to me...

This is my mom and my sweet niece, Abigail. I just thieved these from my sister-in-law's facebook. This is the happiest I've seen my mom in a photograph in.. well... forever. I just thought I'd share because it's one of the most darling things to me.

This picture was taken down in Florida, where the majority of my family is. I will probably not make it down to Florida for a long while.


Abigail in Mississippi with my grandfather.

New car! Well.... first car, too.

Oh the joys of rent-a-car aka leasing.

2010 Toyota Corolla

My nephew got in it, took a big whiff, and said "It smells like new, Auntie Angie."

Yes. It smells like "new". :-)

It'd be nice if I could actually afford to buy a car, but I'm pretty thankful that I was able to lease something. No, I don't feel I'm throwing my money away; I get to use it for 3 years, don't I?

The Box

This, my friends, is the box..

The box that holds a symbol of my future in it. I don't even want to open it yet. I'll get over-excited.

That is all for now. I have a box.

Oh yes... and I just found buttercream in my hair...

Getting to Hope You Like Me

This is my first blog post of, hopefully, many. I do seem to have a problem keeping track of blogs I start, but perhaps this one will be different!

Let's start with a little about where I am in my life right now:

I recently moved up to Minnesota from warm and sunny Florida. Quite a drastic change in temperature and in the locals. Ya know?

My boyfriend/unofficial fiance (he wants to do things right, with rings and all) is currently deployed overseas with the United States Marines (Oorah!).

I'm currently- trying to buy my first car (why did I wait so long?!); looking at houses, via the internet, with my man; working full time as the baker at a wonderful little wedding cake shop in Edina, MN; feeding my addiction to hair/makeup/food magazines; figuring out how to tweet; and daydreaming about the future.

My interests include (but are not limited to):
Talking to/about the love of my life
Being the first one to use a new bottle of shampoo
Babies
Homemade candies
Homemade cakes
Homemade cheese
Homemade bread
Homemade clothes
Homemade anything, really
Baking
Cooking
Crafting
WW2 era things
Prohibition stories
The sociological side of history
Farms
Beekeepers
Honey
Holidays
Hospitality

There is a lot more, but you get the gist. I look forward to blogging about tips, fun stuff, and the general goings-on! Happy 5th of November!