My Best Friend

I have a confession. Even though I don't plan to get married for quite some time, I LOVE weddings! I think a girl especially, spends her whole life planning her wedding. There is something beautiful and magic about each and every unique wedding. It seems like every one I know is either getting married or just got engaged. It's summer time and wedding fever for most people is in the air! As I said before, I want to wait til after I finish school to get married, but lucky for me the idea of weddings and my wedding obsession in general hasn't scared Kyle off yet. =) Over time he's learned to shrug his shoulders when I come up with crazy ideas and say his famous line "Whatever you say dear." Most times that line makes me want to scream into a raging fit at him haha (maybe not quite that intense) but when it comes to wedding planning he is right, other than him refusing to show up at a wedding that involves purple, whatever this dear says goes! Hopefully I don't see myself being a bridezilla in my future! Just kidding of course ...

Anyway while searching through my usual wedding blogs/sites today at work I have come across the most beautiful inspiring "vintage garden backyard wedding." Lately I've been on a ho-down kick in which my wedding consists of ribs (yes I know, I'm a veghead) corn on the cob, beer, beans, taters and all the fixins. I pictured my friends and family drinking beer and square dancing through the night (trust me, it's a lot prettier in my head and pictures than I just made it sound in words). But this budget friendly vintage garden wedding has given me new and inspiring ideas for something much more romantic! I'm not sure what kind of food would go with this theme BUT enjoy ...

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Read all bout her wedding here. It's beautiful!!!

Rainy Night in Georgia

After spending a million hours trying to recreate my blog once I accidentally deleted my entire layout I don't even feel inspired to write a real entry today. So here's to a rainy memorial day weekend!! [I think rain is Mother Nature's way of INSISTING that I invest in rain boots!]

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Fly Away Home

At my dad's work he's spent the past few months basically taking care of a male and female goose (as much as I want to call them Ricky and Lucy, it hasn't seemed to catch on so for now we'll call them Mr. and Mrs. Goose). He started off just randomly feeding them some leftover bread, now they're eating Nature's Own bread and drinking fresh Dasani water out of a clean bowl. People come to his work just to visit the geese and he's had more than one person buy him bird seed for the geese. He can whistle and Mr. and Mrs. Goose will come running. A while back, Mr. and Mrs. Goose lost their babies, they will still eggs but we think something ate them. However, although we read online that geese only lay eggs once a year, Mrs. Goose magically laid more eggs. For the entire month or however long it was that Mr. Goose was being a jerk and not letting Mrs. Goose off her nest, my dad thought she was having some kind of fake "pregnancy". Turns out ... there were BABIES!!! Last week I got a phone call for with the news. It's kind of crazy how obsessed the entire Wilson family is becoming with these geese. =)

Now my dad is in charge of an entire flock. He's now feeding all of them bird seed and bread and making sure they have plenty of fresh water. Yesterday we pulled up to see them because I hadn't seen the babies yet and someone  let their child TAKE A BABY!!! We pulled up at the moment that the kid was running back into her car stealing one of the baby geese. Why would you ever allow your child to do that? My dad pulled up and maybe not so kindly told the people to give him the baby. The rest of the Goose family was already turning around heading back to the water because they thought there was nothing they could do to save the baby. The kid gave the goosling (I'm pretty sure that' snot the proper term for baby goose) back to my dad and Mr. and Mrs. Goose allowed him to set the baby back on the ground by them and they all as a happy (and traumatized) family waddled back to the water. Hopefully those people aren't coming back any time soon. They stole the baby right from it's parents, it was horrible! =( 

We want to put a sign up that says don't touch the geese but we're not sure how to make it water proof without spending lots of money. Hopefully if someone sees a sign they might think twice before touching! But as for now the family is all back together, Mr. and Mrs. Goose and baby geese are happy and the Goose Whisperer (aka my Dad) still remains the "flock leader". Who knows, maybe he'll be building a plane and flying them further south (Fly Away Home) haha but for now here's some pictures of the family!!

On another note, I'm attempting to work my gardening skills. We live in an apartment so right now I only have these mini plants. There are marigolds and ... something else (I'm already starting out as the worst gardner ever) but we'll see how it goes!

Update: Someone (we assume the same people) came back at night and took one of the baby geese. What jerks! 

Way You Love Me

I think one of my new favorite blogs is Today's Letters. I absolutely love her writing style and the pictures she posts. There's nothing super fancy about it and it's so easy and charming to read. This blog inspired me to point out the little things I love about Kyle. So now I will write him a letter of my own. However you should definitely check her blog out, she writes 1 sentence letters to everything she loves throughout her day. I didn't want to copy that style so I just chose one thing, well person to write a letter to. 

Dear Boyfriend, 

In the past 5 days you've called me your lobster and your goose [both of with one mate for life] and told me you loved me more than chocolate [aka YELLOW] cake and 100 pounds of crab legs. You listened to me gossip about someone shooting my Chuck Bass and just shook your head and when I assumed a 30 ot 6 was a 24 pack, not a type of gun. You didn't get annoyed as I fidgeted through 2 1/2 hours of Robin Hood and you stayed in the fetal position for an entire 60 seconds rather than just tucking in your shirt trying to get Tyler to guess TUCK for pictionary/charades. I knew there was a reason I picked you!! =)

Love, Me

Killer Tofu

First off, check out this cute Vegan site [The Flying Vegan]

Ok now to the original post:

Yay I can cross 1 thing off my list! Last night my family had chicken fingers and fries and as I've written before I don't eat meat (unless it's a hot dog at the Braves game or Varsity catering at Kyle's grad party). Hot dogs are my veg head weakness. Anyway, that's beside the point. My cousin Melissa (over at nunnally family fun) saw cooking tofu on my 23 before 24 list and sent me this delicious tofu recipe. I'm not much of a cooker and tofu is much harder than it looks to cook perfectly BUT my dish (pictured below) turned out surprisingly well. Maybe tofu cooking is in my future ... ha I highly doubt it. But I figured I needed to post things I'm crossing off my list. Not sure what I'll cross of next, hopefully something fun! But for now enjoy the tofu picture and I'll post the recipe too!! Happy Friday!!!!

Crispy Tofu & vegetables

2 cups snow pea pods (8 oz)

1 12-16 oz package light, reduced fat, or regular extra firm tub-style tofu, drained

3 Tbsp reduced-sodium teriyaki sauce or soy sauce

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

2 tsps toasted sesame oil

1 medium red sweet pepper, cut into thin strips

1 medium yellow sweet pepper, cut into thin strips

8 green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces

2 tsp cooking oil

1 Tbsp white or black sesame seeds, toasted(optional)

 

1. Remove strings and tips from pea pods. Set aside.

2. Cut tofu crosswise into eight 1/2" slices. Arrange slices in a single layer in a 2 quart rectangular baking dish. Pour 2 Tbsp of the teriyaki sauce over tofu; turn slices to coat. Let marinate at room temperature for 15 minuntes.

3. In a shallow dish combine cornmeal and red pepper. Drain tofu, discarding marinade. Carefully dip tofu slices in cornmeal mixture; press gently to coat both sides. Set tofu slices aside.

4. Pour 1 tsp of the sesame oil into a large nonstick skillet. Preheat over medium high heat. Stir fry sweet pepper strips for 2 minutes. Add pea pods and green onions; stir fry for 2 to 3 more minutes until crisp-tender.

5. Remove skillet from heat; stir in remaining 1 Tbsp teriyaki sauce. Transfer vegetable mixture to plate; cover to keep warm. Wipe skillet clean.

6. In same skillet heat remaining 1 tsp sesame oil and cooking oil over medium high heat. Cook the coated tofu slices for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until crisp and golden brown, using a spatula to turn carefully. Serve tofu slices over vegetable mixture. If desired sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Life is a Highway

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Newgravy and I haven't made any lists in a WHILE (besides our funny hatelist on facebook which is not positive enough to post on my blog) =) Our negativity is all in good fun. So today I'm going to make a 23 before 24 list. As I wrote a few posts ago, I just turned 23. There is a ton of stuff I'd LOVE to do before I turn 24. I'm already 13 days into 23 and haven't done one of them. Maybe if I make the list I'll be more productive!?

23 before 24

  1. Graduate college (so I'll actually be 24 when I graduate BUT it'll be a few days after my       birthday so this is my only cheater goal, I'll be taking finals on my birthday or near it)

  2. Buy a fancy pair of jeans and get them tailored to fit perfect

  3. Revamp my wardrobe/style (including shoe collection)

  4. Make some kind of tofu recipe

  5. Go on at least 15 new dates with Kyle (not our same regular restaurants, movies, sports       games)

  6. Take more pictures of my parents

  7. Learn how to properly use a curling iron without just being able to make my hair flip out

  8. Attempt to water ski again

  9. Buy Kelly Cutrone's book If You Have to Cry Go Outside (have I ever mentioned on here     she is my complete PR/power girl inspiration!)

  10. Bake my dog treats

  11. Redo my bedroom in "grown-up" colors

  12. Help plan a themed party

  13. Make a dish for Thanksgiving

  14. Document an entire day in my life in camera

  15. Take my dog to walk up Kennesaw Mountain again

  16. Have a batting average over 500 by the end of the season

  17. Go visit Mark in Tallahassee

  18. Run/Fast Walk a marathon

  19. Find new places in Atlanta to play trivia

  20. Make my family start recycling

  21. Go to Nashville (after it's fixed from the floods) =(

  22. Go to a flea market/find new thrift stores to check out

  23. Volunteer for a charity (I will take any charitable suggestions)

Woo 23 is a lot more than I thought. Even if I get half of these done, I will be happy!

Carry On

So it's finals week and I'm feeling VERY uninspired to blog! Today I had 3 tests and one more on Wednesday. Then only 3 more semesters (which feels like a lifetime) to go! I'm pretty sure my bestie NewGravy has used this picture in a blog before but I LOVE it and it remaining calm and carrying on through my week of tests!! Hopefully next week's blogs will be more inspiring but as for now this is about all I have =)

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