Wells Wedding

This past weekend, we drove over to Jonesboro, Arkansas for the wedding of friends from college, Robert and Hilary Wells. It was a really fun night!

My hubs and I color-coordinated. We love to do that :)

You can't tell anything about my cute new Anthropologie dress from these pics. But, here's what it looks like:

It makes me feel like I'm in the 50s. Love it.

Anyway, it was so great to see some great college friends:

Kappa Sig brothers!

Mr. Phil Brick, our dear, dear friend. We love ya, Phil!

Oh yes, and Corny was there. Brother Corn. Brandon. Crazy. 

All of the above.

He is so funny and silly. We heart him.

Caleb and Samantha. They like to color-coordinate, too :)

 

Cute Meredith and Will.

Dear Mere, let's be BFFs. Sincerely, Ken.

Corn was up to crazy antics on the dance floor.

Heck, we were all up to crazy antics on the dance floor!

It was a great wedding and I am ashamed to have no photos of the bride and groom. What was I thinking?!

We loved seeing and catching up with lots of our U of A friends. It was so fun to hear many of them say "oh my gosh, I read your blog!" So, here's a shout out to all of you!!!

Congrats, Robert and Hilary!

*Spicy* Latin Baked Chicken

Some like it hot, folks.

While this chicken may look harmless, I can tell ya that it packs a punch.

And I loved it.

This was our second new recipe from the menu to make this week. It comes from Cooking Light, but I made a few slight adjustments.

Spicy Latin Baked Chicken
(click here for printer-friendly version)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fresh lime juice (takes about 2 limes)

3 Tbsp less-sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp minced chipotle chile in adobo sauce (in retrospect, I should have seeded these)

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Spanish or Yellow Rice

Preheat oven to 400

Measure out the first 4 ingredients, and put in a bowl:

Stir to combine.

Add the chicken and toss to coat. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Arrange chicken, without marinade, in a broiler pan coated with cooking spray (which I did not have, so I used a cookie sheet, which was fine, but not ideal).

Stick in the oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, blend the remaining marinade to make it smooth. This is where an immersion blender is extra handy!

Once it's smooth, place in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, cook 3 minutes.

This step seemed a little annoying to me, but I obliged.

I think it ultimately just made the sauce spicier! Next time, I doubt I'll boil it.

The chicken should be coming out of the oven soon. Flip the chicken over. Baste it with half of the sauce mixture. Stick it back in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove, flip again, and baste with remaining sauce. It goes back in the oven for 10.

Ahhhh! Black! See why my cookie sheet is not ideal? The sauce ran all over it and burnt up to a crisp. The chicken was perfectly fine, but scrubbing that later was not fun! Luckily it all came off.

So, now it's done! During this whole process I had yellow rice going on the stove:

The chicken was hot! And yummy! 

At first, Keith didn't think he could handle it (he is not a fan of spicy), but he ended up eating almost 3 chicken breasts, so I'd say he liked it!

Easy Creole Shrimp

This creole shrimp recipe I made last night was fantastic!

It was the first item on our weekly menu that I made, and found it to be so simple and surprisingly delicious.

The recipe comes from Kraft, and I must say I'm impressed. It made the perfect amount for 2 people with no leftovers and minimal clean up. 

Creole Shrimp

(click here to download the printer-friendly version)

Here's what you need:

1 lb of large raw frozen shrimp, thawed*

1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning

1/4 cup Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (fresh only, people)

*I only had a 10 oz bag of shrimp and it was fine. I didn't change the portion on the rest of the ingredients, either. Maybe that's why our shrimp was so flavorful! And 10 oz was perfect for the 2 of us.

First, pour the 1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning over the thawed shrimp.

Stir it around to coat.

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the dressing and garlic.

Cook and stir for one minute.

Stir in the shrimp.

Cook and stir for 3-5 minutes. I would occasionally flip them over, too.

You'll know they're almost ready when most of the liquid has evaporated and the shrimp is starting to brown.

Sprinkle the chopped, fresh parsley over the top of the shrimp. This is what really makes it!

I served ours over some brown & wild rice. This handy bag of rice is ready in literally 90 seconds. For a meal this fast, it was so convenient!

We loved it! I was surprised that I could taste the Italian dressing and at how well it blended with the Cajun seasoning and garlic. Yum! Thanks, Kraft!


PS- This is the first recipe I'm trying out Google Docs for my printer-friendly recipes. I'm still researching better options, so let me know if you think this one works okay. Once I pick a format, I'll make printer-friendly docs for all the recipes on the blog. It may take forever, but I'll get there!

Menu Monday 6/28

Here's what I've got on the menu this week at our house:

These are all new recipes in the Jones home, so we'll see how it goes!

Top Left: Latin Baked Chicken (Cooking Light). I'm serving this with some Spanish rice and King's Hawaiian Rolls.

Top Right: Quick Creole Shrimp (Kraft). Pairing this with some brown or wild rice, not sure yet what we'll be in the mood for.

Bottom Left: Carrie's Marinated Steak Kebabs (Country Living), and a side salad.

I'm hoping one of these will be good enough to post with full recipe on here! Stay tuned...

And All That Jazz

Come on, Babe
Why don't we paint the town?
And All That Jazz

I'm gonna rouge my knees
And roll my stockings down
And All That Jazz.

On Friday night, I went to see Chicago, the Broadway musical, with my sweet friend Jessica at the Orpheum in Downtown Memphis.

The Orpheum is a fabulous, beautiful theatre.

We were so excited! Neither of us had seen the show before.

Jessica drove over from Little Rock and we enjoyed wine and appetizers at home before heading to the 8:00 show.

I think we've decided to be Broadway buds and see all the good shows together.

And, let me tell 'ya, Chicago was excellent! The music, the dancing, the cast. Great stuff!

It put me in the mood to watch the movie again!

Picture time afterward. We were waiting for our chauffeur, Keith!

Lovin' Broadway! I think Jessica could have been in the big plays!

Hooray for a fun time with a great friend!

We stayed up till 2:00 am catching up. I have missed my girl and our heart-to-hearts.

On Saturday, we went to our favorite, The Beauty Shop, for lunch and then went shopping at Anthropologie. What a fun girl's day! Love you, Jess.

Recipes = Organized!

Hello blogland.

I have an exciting new feature for those of you that like my recipes! Been working on it the past couple of nights.

Look up, right above this post.

(Because a post without a picture is lame)

(ps That's part of my office behind me)

(pss I look like a fool)

Yes, there is a list of new pages! Home, About Me, Recipes, Contact.

The exciting part is the Recipes page. Organized all nice and neat by category. With links to all of my recipes. How bout that? Like it? Happy? Helpful? Suggestions?

I know it's not earth-shattering, but it's part of my 3-step process to improving my recipe post process. Sounds like I'm in some sort of therapy right? Hah! Maybe I am...

Next up: Printer-friendly recipes. Watchout!

McShan Wedding!

This past Saturday, Keith and I attended the Memphis wedding of a very special couple:

Courtney and Kyle McShan!

Kyle is a recent graduate of dental school and his wife is a recent graduate of PT school. They're both smart cookies! Courtney and I have become really close over the last few months, so being at their wedding was just wonderful.

Isn't her dress fab!!??

I just loved her yellow candy bar!

And I liked everything in the jars. I had to resist the urge to fill up like 8 sacks full.

Love the cake!

Every single layer on that thing was different. YUM!

Me and the bride.

She was a knockout!

Keith with Dr. Daniel Holsinger, dentist at your service. He's a put-a-smile-on-your-face-kind-of-a-guy. Daniel also loves it when he makes the blog :) You're well on your way to fame, my friend.

Me with my favorite person in the room. Favorite person in my life. Thanks for squeezing my hand at their wedding during the vows. You're such a sweetie!

Congrats again, Courtney and Kyle! We cannot wait for you guys to get back from the honeymoon so we can catch up! Another double date lunch? Love ya'll!