Our Newest Obsession...

Paul and I have recently started watching The Office. We now have Netflix again and all the seasons of The Office have been at the top of our queue for the past couple weeks now. Our goal was to knock out all four seasons before the season 5 premiere...although we didn't make the deadline (which is tonight) we are dang close. We just finished season 3 and we have season 4 waiting to start when Paul gets home from work tonight! :) (It's EXTREMELY tempting not to watch without him--sitting here all day...) I can confidently say that The Office is the funniest television show I have ever watched--we can't get through an episode without busting a gut at least 4 times. I am now recommending to all our blog followers to watch The Office, if you haven't already. Do whatever it takes to do it--you will NOT be let down. And now, a little preview.

(This will does not contain any plot ruining spoilers.)

In a previous entry I shared that Gracie is growing up soo fast! She is now 5 months old. We played around today and had a little "photoshoot". (She is quite photogenic, fierce. Tyra would be impressed.) I've included a preview of some of my favorites...you can view the rest here.

First Recipe Entry!

Hello! I've been doing some pondering lately, about what I can do to get us to post on this blog more. Most of my day (currently) is consumed by household chores and my favorite one of these chores is cooking and exploring recipes. I've decided that I will now start randomly sharing yummy recipes I find or make with you (this may be more for my enjoyment than yours..)

One of our new-found favorite restaurants to eat at lately is Arizona Pizza Factory. They have excellent gourmet pizza's, cal-zones, pasta, salads, and breads of all sorts. My favorite dish to get from there is the Chicken Penne with Garlic, Sun-dried-Tomatoes, Spinach and Feta. It is absolutely DIVINE! I decided recreate my favorite dish at home last night and it turned out very yummily, and it was VERY simple. My recipe is as follows (by the way, I am not a measuring cooker, so all ingredients are eyeballed..)

What you will need: (will feed 4-6 people, depending on how

much you eat)

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or as Racheal Ray says, EVOO...I will just call it Olive Oil)
  
• Finely Chopped Garlic (I used 6 cloves, I LOVE garlic and since there is no sauce in this dish, the garlic adds LOTS of flavor)
• 2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 Box of Penne Pasta
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder
• Spinach (you can use frozen spinach, or a bag of salad mixture spinach leaves)
• Chopped Sundried tomatoes (if they are dehydrated you will need to re-hydrate them by soaking them in olive oil for a couple hours)
• Feta Cheese (crumbles, or a block cut into cubes)
• 1 Lemon

Directions!

• First, you will need to cook the pasta in salted water. While the pasta is cooking, cut your chicken into bite sized cubes and season with salt and pepper and garlic powder then set aside. Then, use the olive oil from the sun-dried tomatoes and put a spoonful into a small skillet on medium high heat, and about 1/3 cup into a large skillet on medium heat.
  
• In the small skillet, cook the chicken. In the large skillet first add the spinach (if using fresh spinach, allow it to wilt while stirring it). Lightly salt the spinach, then add the garlic and sundried tomatoes along with lemon zest.
  
• When the chicken is done cooking, add it to the large skillet.
  
• Drain the pasta, then add that to the large skillet and squeeze 1/2 of the lemon's juice into it. Mix everything well, then add the feta cheese and mix that too (it won't melt.)
  

Voila. Very very simple and SOOOO tasty.

What's New?

It's been awhile since I've posted, and like Rochelle in the previous post, we're horrible bloggers. But let me update you all a little bit. We had a great time in MI and a huge thanks to all our friends who carved time out to see us. Our friends Mitch and Sunny got married in Korea this year and decided to have an American Reception. The reception was incredible, great food, great friends, great people. Mitch, Sunny, and their band played for us and it was great to see them do what they do best.


We also got a chance to hang out with some friends that we haven't seen since our wedding, well most of them. On top of that, we met some very cool Koreans and I got to see my friend Julie who I haven't seen for like 5 years. She thought Rochelle was pregnant because of Facebook and ended up getting us a card and shirts from L.A. Where she's from. I had to tell her Rochelle wasn't pregnant. She was pretty embarrassed but I thought it was hilarious.



We definitely had our fair share of family and friends time and we were sad to leave some of our best friends in the world. I was able to go down to Indianapolis that Thursday to see some of my closest buddies from college. Two of my best friends Dave and Tyler rode down with me to meet up with my best bud Jesse, Conrad, and our friend Matt. It was a great day of catching up, reminiscing, and watching a vulgar movie, Step-Brothers. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics. On Fri, we spent the majority of the day hanging out with Brian and Bets and their triplets, Jake, Caleb, and Gwen. I'd post pics but they're just too cute for the screen. That night Brian had a show and he asked me to play it with him which I gladly accepted. It was a great feeling to play a show again with one of my closest friends.



That Saturday I got to hang out with one of my best friends from High School Zack! We always have a great time catching up when we can and it was great to see him. Unfortunately our lady friends couldn't be there but we managed to make it through without them. Zack and Steph are getting married in like a year and they are perfect for each other. We had a good time talking about relationships and I'm honored that Zack asked me to be in his wedding and share in their big day! Well, we got to spend Sunday with the in-laws and I wish we had more time with them. We miss them a lot but, we figured we had seen them for a whole week a few months earlier, we should spend some time with my mom. We had a great time with her(the few times we saw each other) and even saw my Grandma for a few. We hung out a little with our Kentwood friends that night and it was off to FL the next day.
Since we've been back not a whole lot has happened.


For about a month now we've been hanging out with some good friends. I've mentioned Shane and Amy before but we've been hanging with 2 other couples as well lately. Aubrey and Nick who have been dating for 3 1/2 years and still aren't engaged, and Josh and Lilly who live in the same place as us so we've gotten pretty close with them. A few days ago we went out to Sanibel beach with them and played frisbee in some gross shores. Labor day we hung out at our place, all 9 of us, including our good friend Noelle who lives across the hall. We had a good time and the girls cheat at every game.


In other news, today Rochelle and I went to VW to look at leasing a car. About a week ago traveling to church my brakes went out. Luckily it's a stick and I could just downshift to slowdown. My buddy Shane helped me fix it but we decided it might be time for a new ride. Well, after about 4 hours at VW we are proud new leasers of a brand new, 2008, 24 miles, Jetta! We're very excited. This is the first new car we've ever owned. We're proud and very thankful to have family back us up on this.




Well until next time(about a month I'm guessing) that's about it...
Grace, Peace, and Love.
Paul