Guatemala and Life

It is so great to hear about all of your lives!! I got really excited when I saw Nanette's Guatemala pics so I thought I'd post a couple of my own. I was there for 7 weeks this summer with a volunteer organization and I had tons of crazy adventures every day! Between mudslides, out of control bus rides, a kitchen gas fire, robberies, death threats, food poisonings, etc. I am just happy to be back alive. But I really loved every minute of that place.. The first picture is me buying my favorite things in the world...bananas! (which come in many varieties in Guate) The next one we are building a stove out of adobe for that lady. And the last are some cute girls in one of the villages where we worked. So much fun!

A week or so ago I moved to Washington DC. Between work and trying to drive here, I am either stressed or lost most of the time! It's good to be here but I am hoping I won't be out here too long. I miss you all!

Food for Thought

Last night I made Chicken Breasts Parmesan and it was really good. It was easy, and quick to make as well. I'm too lazy to copy the recipe down, but I found it on KraftFoods.com, so here's the link to the recipe if you're interested.

http://www.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?s=recipe&m=recipe/knet_recipe_display&u1=keyword&u2=chicken,%20bread%20crumbs&u3=**8*12&wf=9&recipe_id=50320

If you haven't been to kraftfoods.com, you should! It's great for people who cook a lot or even a little! I am a member, or whatever, and it is pretty cool. I have a recipe box there and I get emails from them once in a while about favorite recipes, tips, etc. On their website they show you pictures of almost all the recipes, and ideas for side dishes, drinks, and desserts to go along with the recipe. I would also suggest allrecipes.com. I am also a common user of their recipes. The cool thing about them is that they have ratings of each recipe, so you know if it worked and was good, or whatever they wanted to say about it.

So those are my ideas about food! I am the type that likes to mix things up a lot--I like to try a few new recipes each week to make it interesting otherwise I get bored! Enjoy!

Reminder

Hey guys. I'm sure all of you are smart enough to know this already...but I wanted you all to be safe! Christine asked for updated addresses but make sure you email her your address rather than post it on here. This is a website that anyone can look at and you don't want to give that kind of info away! So...don't post anything like that on here! :) I made it so that only those registered for this blog can post comments. But I can't make it so that this website can be viewed by only us. So...keep that in mind.

Also...since everyone is posting exotic vacations I guess I'll post a couple of China! For those that don't know...we went to China in June and had an awesome time. I would recommend it to anyone! Attached is a picture of us at the Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, and Shanghai at night. It's probably the neatest skyline ever! There was even a building that was under construction that had lights on it! It was pretty awesome! So that's our cool trip! Hopefully everyone is doing well. I tried a new recipe Monday night so that I could post it on here...but it wasn't that good. So I won't post it! But if I find a good one I'll definitely let everyone know!
Love ya, Karen

My life

Hi all-Karen, beautiful idea. I actually was wondering if people could update me with their addresses, I am working on keeping that updated, especially as everyone is moving. If you haven't changed it for some time, don't worry about it I am sure I have a current address. Umm, quick update for me, I only have 7 weeks left of pregnancy and can't wait to be done! I am still throwing up every single day and it stinks (i guess it is a little better than the 6 times a day that i was at before). I will be done with work in 4 weeks and that will be great. Seth takes his big GMAT test this week (entrance exam for business school) and that will help give us an idea where we will be in january (Seth graduates in December) anyway, that is a quick update. Talk to everyone later

Hey everybody

Hey guys I hope that everyone is doing great! I am not sure if I am even doing this right, Sometimes the computer confuses me! Karen this is awsome! I don't have much to say except if everyone has a time when we would like to get together for a date night or what not let me know because well I would like to play!
Things are good in my life and I will send cute pics later.
love Kate

Friend's Updates

Friend's Updates

Hey all! Just thought I would say hello. Hope everyone is happy and doing well. Nicole and Nannette, your pictures are awsome. I'm jealous of your traveling. Love you all!

Europe

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Europe in May! As part of a graduation gift my parents took me, Justin, and my sister Emily. We started in Austria and went to Slovenia, Italy, and Germany.

The first picture is Lake Bled in Slovenia. This picture was taken from the balcony of our hotel room! This lake is one of the prettiest I've ever seen (they don't allow motor boats onto it).

The next picture is of us at the Neushwanstein Castle in Germany. This was one of the coolest things that we saw on our trip! The rooms in this castle were AMAZING!!! It is called the Sleeping Beauty castle because it is the castle that Disneyland patterned theirs after.

And lastly is a picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We walked up the circluar staircase to the top. It's quite the experience with your balance feeling completely off as you climb the stairs!

We had a really great time on our trip, besides all the time we spent in the car driving! We saw many museums, palaces, castles, caves, beautiful scenery, churches, and ate lots of gelato!

Cottage Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

Prep Time: 30 min. Cook Time: 30 min. Ready in: 1 hr. Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 Skinless, boneless chichken breast halves
-boiled and shredded
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 (7 oz.) can chopped green chile
1 (1 oz.) pkg. taco seasoning mix
1/2 C. sour cream
2 c. cottage cheese
1 tsp. salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
12 (6 in.) corn tortillas
2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 (10 oz.) can red enchilada sauce

Directions:
1. To make meat mixture: heat oil in medium skillet over med. high heat. Add chicken, onion and green chile peppers and saute until browned, then add taco seasoning and prepare meat mixture according to package directions.
2. To make cheese mixture: in a medium bolw mix wour cream with cottage cheese and season with salt and pepper; stir until well blended.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
4. To assemble enchiladas: heat tortillas until soft. In each tortilla place a spoonful of meat mixture, a spoonful of cheese mxture and a bit of shredded cheese. Roll tortialls and place in a lightly greased 9x13 in. baking dish. Top with any remaining meat and cheese mixture, enchilada sauce and remaining shredded cheese.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

***I tried this recipe the other day and it was pretty good!! I made a few changes: I used a 4 oz. can of green chiles, used no peppers (I don't like it too spicy!) and I used flour tortillas instead of corn because I don't like corn tortillas! They are great the day you make it and also as leftovers.

Guatemala

Since I don't have any cute baby pictures to post, here are a few from our trip to Guatemala in May.
The first picture is of Jared, Jen (his sister), and I at Guatemala's largest market. It was insane how many people there were!
The second is of us at the top of a Volcano.
The third is of the seafood soup that I ordered for dinner. There was a whole crab in the soup. Not pictured is the whole fish head and barely dead shrimp that were included.


Nanette

Manicotti ingredients, readable

Great, easy manicotti

Hi everyone! I hope that you are all doing well! I think that this blog was a great idea! I have a really good, easy manicotti recipe that I'll post. (Can you believe that I cook???)
I got it off of a manicotti box, and it is really good!

1 package (8 oz) Manicotti, uncooked
1-1/2 cups (14 oz jar) marinara sauce
2 Tbs olive or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano leaves
2 cups yellow and green pepper strips
2 cups (8 0z.) shredded mazzarella cheese, divided
1 cup onion slices
3 1/2 cups (two 15 oz. containers) ricotta cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup sliced zucchini
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In skillet, heat oil, add peppers, onions and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat until soft, about 5 minutes; add zucchini, sauce, and one-half basil and oregano. Cook 3 minutes; spreat 1/2 cup in 13x9x2-inch baking dish. In bowl, stir toghether 1 cup mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, egg, Parmesan cheese, remaining basil and oregano. FIll pasta tubes with ricotta mixture; place in dish. Pour remaining sauce over pasta; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 F 40-50 minues. Makes 7 servings.

Notes: In the recipe, it says to cook the manicotti before you fill it. However, if you do that they are almost impossible to stuff. If you follow the above directions, you don't have to cook the manicotti. Just fill the hard tubes with the cheese mixture, and tubes will get soft cooking in the oven

Also, we could never eat all of the manicotti that this calls for. Instead, I make the whole recipe, stuff all the manicotti tubes, but store half in the freezer. They stay good frozen for up to 2 months. Then, each time I make it, I make the same amount of sauce that it calls for in the whole recipe, and it is extra saucy and good. However, when you cook the frozen pasta, it has to cook for 1 1/2 hours.

Hope all is well with everyone!!
Nanette

Great idea!

This will be fun for all of us to keep in better touch! I hope you are all doing well--it was fun seeing a bunch of you at wedding receptions last week.

Hi!

I think this is such a fun idea! Tonight I'm going to try a new recipe and if it's good then tomorrow I will have to post it here for everyone to see! I think this will be a really fun thing and a good way to keep in touch and hear about what's going on. I hope everyone is doing well! And I look forward to seeing lots of posts!!

Hi all

Hi my friends. I created this blog so that we can all keep in touch whenever we want to. Also...Nicole and I started the recipe sharing and I haven't been great at keeping up at it. So, we can now post our recipes on here and share them that way. I have seen a few blogs and I think they are great ways to keep in touch and to share photos and news of what is happening. I would love to see photos of the new babies that are born (and photos of them as they get older) and hear new announcements whenever. You can give this web address to anyone you feel like sharing it with. I will be adding everyone to this blog so that we can all publish posts so if you want to be able to write on here you are going to have to get an account and you will get an email about it. If you have any questions on anything let me know! Oh...and you can always just come onto this website and read whenever you have a spare moment and see the updates on whoever writes!
Love you all, Karen