The calm of cooking.

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted, I do believe. I have just been getting back into the groove of working and whatnot. I am going to begin doing some PRN work at a pediatric clinic here a couple of days after school. I'm excited about that! It will be some extra money and will give me something to do while my guy is at work during the week.

I tend to not get super creative with cooking when it's only for myself, but when Sayer has been here, I've been experimenting a bit more :). Here are a few of the new things I've made in the last few weeks:

These are some stuffed peppers. I've made them before with some spiced sausage I got from the farmer's market. This time, I used bison meat we bought at the local farmer's market. I love that place! I spiced it up with a variety of things and then cooked it with some sauteed onions and garlic. After that, I cooked some quinoa. I combined all of that together with some chopped tomato, Rotel, and shredded cheese. I threw them in some green peppers I had blanched, and then put them in a pan with some water in the bottom to continue steaming them. I topped it with a bit more shredded cheese and cooked them for around 20 minutes. Voila!

My Southern gentleman and I had a sweet tooth on this night, so I whipped out a quick (I'm talking twenty-five minutes total) monkey bread for dessert. I just grabbed a can of buttermilk biscuits, melted some butter and syrup with some cinnamon and sugar, and put some nuts in there. Yum yum.

My guy's mom came over on Wednesday night for dinner and church :). I made blackened salmon with a salad and some croissant rolls. The salmon rub was a mixture of brown sugar, cayenne, cumin, chili powder, garlic, and some other stuff. The salad I made was one that I had had at a wedding a few years ago--I haven't stopped thinking about it since! It was a mixture of baby spinach and arugula, blue cheese crumbles, pear slices, cashews, and a strawberry poppyseed vinaigrette. The croissants were just canned--ain't nobody got time for making those by hand! Anyways, we got some good girl time in, and it was a fun night :).

For Thursday night, I wanted to make Sayer a treat. I feel like I get in a rut cooking fish and chicken the same ways, so I have been researching new things to do (hence, the blackened salmon haha)! I generally keep a couple different kinds of fish, chicken, and some other kind of meat (most recently, bison) in the freezer. I like to mix it up.

For this, I took some frozen salmon fillets and thawed them out. After chopping them up, I mixed them with some bread crumbs, some homemade Cajun seasoning (thanks, Pinterest!), some green onions, and some mayo. Then, I formed them into patties and started to fry them up in some coconut oil. To put on top of it, I made some lemon garlic aoili. It was super simple! Just some mayo (I added sour cream), some lemon juice, and some minced garlic.

Saysay likes a hearty meal, so I made some homemade steak fries to go with it. I just cut up some potatoes and rubbed them down with some olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and stuck them in the oven.

I took the extra potatoes and diced them up. Then I sauteed them with some onions and green peppers so that he could use them for breakfast in the morning! Since Sayer's been working away during the week, I have been loving the time I get to spend with him over the weekends.

Cooking calms me. Cooking for others makes me happy. To quote one of my favorite movies--Julie and Julia--this resonates with me: "I love that after a day when nothing is sure, and when I say 'nothing' I mean nothing, you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It's such a comfort." 

Well, I suppose that's enough for now. My guy and I are having a nice chat about church and God while he is on the road, and I don't want to be distracted (even though I'm not the one driving lol). I think if I'm going to keep cooking, I should probably get some new (nicer) plates. I only have ones with shamrocks on them, and I kind of feel like it detracts from the food (or how I want it to look). Luckily, my guy got me a Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift card for my birthday. New plates and wine glasses for me! Woo woo! Am I too domestic for a *gulp* twenty-five year old? C'est la vie. ;)

Love, y'all!

Off and runnin'...

School has started back up! It was so nice to see all of the students again today. It's the little things like getting an unexpected hug from a student that make it all worthwhile :).

This past weekend was a lot of fun. My guy got back last Thursday, and we spent the weekend hanging out with friends and family. It was one of his cousins/our friend's birthdays on Saturday, so we went to a birthday party--coincidentally, for his twin sons--and then to BWW for din din. After that we went bowling. I may or may not have thrown the ball backwards once or twice. We all decided to give up on trying and just have fun, so there was some yoga bowling, backwards bowling... just a bunch of different types of bowling going on.

Tonight, I think I'll make a pretty basic meal of chicken, quinoa, and veggies. Mmmmm mmm mmmmmmm. I'll leave you with some pictures of my vacation that I forgot to post earlier. Maybe I'll have something more exciting to say when I've wrapped my head around my to-do list. I'll just be here... making data forms and working on papers and watching The Pioneer Woman. Yea, that's still a thing ;).

Cross in the Woods Church in Indian River, MI. 

This place is so magical. 

Can you tell it's a Snapchat? No? Good. Mum taught me to play Cribbage!

STOP LOOKIN' AT ME SWAN. (But seriously, he was chasing us.)

Small World Update: One of the new SLP's in my district is from a town an hour and a half away from my hometown in Michigan. ALSO, she is friends with one of the hockey players who used to live with me and is now like part of our family. CRAY. 

Love, y'all!

It's a small world, after all.

Well, work starts back up tomorrow. I have to say that the summer flew by; however, I really couldn't have asked for a more perfect, relaxing vacation. I went to Michigan multiple times--I spent more of my summer there than down South. Let's be honest, that was my intention when taking a job at a school versus a hospital (also, the hilarious kids!). Mission accomplished, I suppose! I will put some pictures from my vacation throughout this post to break up the text (in no apparent order). I try to leave faces out in case people don't want to be shown; sorry about that! This post is longer than usual, and I know I hate just staring at words!

My uncle threw his washer directly onto the box latch. That won't happen twice!

Camping was perfect, if not more low-key than usual. We just hung around and went on the boat nearly EVERY day. Is there a more perfect way to spend a Northern Michigan summer?? I think not. I already miss my family, pup, and the mild temperatures (even though camping was exceptionally warm this year), but it is definitely nice to be back at my own house. With my toiletries. And AC. Ahhhhh....

 Airport staple: morning Bloody Mary :).

So Thursday (i.e., the day I flew back to Arkansas), I had one of those days where one must shake her head and go, "What a small world." As in, the lady sitting next to me on the plane and I sat there saying, "Wow, what a small world," for a good five minutes. That's not an exaggeration. Here's what happened:

A day on the Mullet Lake sandbar. 

The day started out like any other day of travel out of the Milwaukee airport. (SIDEBAR: THERE IS A FANTASTIC BOOKSHOP IN THAT AIRPORT IF ANYONE HAPPENS TO TRAVEL THROUGH IT. AND BY FANTASTIC, I MEAN FANTASTIC). Anyways, I go to board my flight from Milwaukee to Atlanta. I walk on the plane and the flight attendant asks how I am. I respond that I'm great and ask him the same question. He responds with, "Well, I'm fantastic now that you're here, beautiful! Love your braids! They look beautiful." (I had my hair braided so that it would dry and  be wavy by the time I reached my final destination. Yes, I looked like the Wendy's girl grown up. Braided hair, don't care). I smiled and took my seat. I ended up being seated next to two girls who were almost EXACTLY my age. The flight attendant walks up to us to offer refreshments and says, "Wow! Are y'all traveling together? Bachelorette party?! Girls' WEEKEND!?" (there seemed to be a direct correlation between the increasing altitude and his pitch and volume). We all replied that, no, we were not traveling together and had never met. This seemed very amusing to him as he continued to comment on what an odd coincidence it would be for all of us to be seated next to each other. That got us talking.

A different day on the Mullet Lake sandbar.

The middle girl was headed to North Carolina to see her boyfriend and dog. She was a physical therapist (well, in PT school) with a four-hour layover. The girl in the aisle was a speech pathologist (well, in SLP grad school). I am a speech pathologist. She was headed to somewhere in southern Georgia for a wedding and she had a forty-five minute layover. I also had a forty-five minute layover. We were very concerned about our forty-five minute layovers because--as anyone who has traveled through the ATL airport before knows--that place is cray. We had approximately nineteen minutes from landing to when our next planes began boarding. We flagged down our ever-complimentary flight attendant to ask his opinion on whether we would get to our terminal on time for our next flights. Also, Delta will check where your arrival and departure gates are, so we wanted to be prepared in the event that we needed to book it when we landed. We gave him our flight codes for our connecting planes and he looked at us, deadpan, and said, "Oh, ladies. You're screwed. You'll never make it." Silence.

DELICIOUS donuts in Kenosha, WI.

"OMG I'm kidding! You'll be fine!" He then proceeded to look up our flights and call us combinations of "sweet things", "beautiful", and "pretty lady". He once referred to me as "my angel by the window". He looked like a combination of that Carson guy from Queer Eye and Billy Idol. He might have been wearing eyeliner. Anyways, the other SLP and I were flying out of the same terminal, so at the end of our flight we said goodbye to our new-found PT friend and our eccentric flight attendant, and booked it for our next terminal. Once there, we said goodbye and headed to our respective departure gates.

My parents' beautiful front lawn on a 70 degree day (dad would want me to say we were gone for ten days so the lawn wasn't tended to).

 So, I'm walking down the terminal at the BUSIEST AIRPORT IN THE COUNTRY, and I see a familiar face. I call a name and the person looks over, says "woah! Mia?", and tells me he will be right back. That his departure gate is immediately next to mine. My dad is a hockey coach, and it turns out that the coach for the university he used to work at was flying out from the gate next door. I mean, I run into someone I have known well for YEARS, who is a family friend, and he happens to flying out in the next gate... in ATLANTA. What are the odds? Anyways, we chat and catch up and hug and he flies to the Keys, and I fly to Arkansas. Oh, also my plane was delayed. So I suppose I hadn't needed to worry about making it to my gate anyways. C'est la vie; I got my cardio in! Onward to Arkansas.

THIS CAR IS ON FIIIRRREEE. But seriously. That car was in FLAMES in Milwaukee.

In the plane to Arkansas, I got to talking to the lady seated next to me. She was going to visit a friend and had never been to the area. I was seated next to some chatty Cathy's on this trip, but I didn't mind; I can be a chatty Cathy sometimes too. So anyways, we get to talking about things and find out we are both from Michigan. She is from Grand Rapids, but now lives in Indiana. She is a recently retired para-pro who had a TERRIBLE year. Her husband passed away in a freak accidence, then her father passed away, then they wouldn't give her health insurance... there were some other things in there too. I sat there in awe of this woman who was in such great spirits, going to see a Def Leppard concert with a friend, telling me that God has a plan in everything, and that she was thankful for what she did have. Sorry for the run-on sentences, but this woman was really inspirational. Anyways, we get to talking about her most recent trip to Mackinac Island (at the exact same time I was camping in Indian River twenty minutes away) and how she went on a horseback trip around the island. I told her that I knew the family who owned the horses when I was in high school, and named who may have been working. Sure enough, one of the girls I used to hang out with sometimes was her tour guide. A woman on a plane on the way to Fort Smith, Arkansas had just had an island tour with a girl I knew from high school. We both sat there discussing our similar stories and getting to know each other and saying, "What a small world" over and over. And it is. It's a beautiful, exciting, unexpected, small world.

Aw, look. There's the front of my parents' house. This picture makes me happy when I miss Michigan.

I got home and my Southern gentleman took me out for my birthday (belatedly). We had a fantastic night and a great weekend together. He recently left for his job in Oklahoma, but he'll be back on Thursday :). I already can't wait. He's pretty dang cool. With work starting back up, my weekdays are going to fly anyway.

The Fryer Dudes doing their fryer thaaang. Can anyone say, "most delicious fish ever?" I just did.

I read Ree Drummond's book about how she met her husband, and it was adorable. I may or may not be (I AM) watching her TV show right now. Ugh, I'm a woman obsessed. The other thing I am obsessed with right now: my new Kate Spade agenda. It's adorable and rose-colored and gold and makes me feel better about life. All is right with the world. (I also read Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn--girl is nuts. I am in the process of finishing I am Pilgrim right now. Great read if you like mysteries!).

Burtt Lake sandbar! Are we keeping tally of boat days? My dad and I figured it was at least 7/10. Not bad!

 Camping with some fantastic people (it's dark enough that you can't really see faces, right?). 

The Ore Dock in Marquette. How can an eyesore be so beautiful?

Love, y'all!