Beginnings of Warmer Months

Hi Everyone! I am posting on time this month! Things have been laid back but fun this month. Nate and I celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary. It certainly doesn't feel like that long. When I think back on how many times we have moved in these two years, though, it seems a little bit longer. Haha. We went to P.F. Chang's for dinner. I hadn't been there since I was in high school and Nate and never been. To say that it was SO good is the understatement of the year. I love a place that gives me enough food for lunch for the next couple of days. We then came home and watched "The King's Speech". That is an excellent movie. Nate gave me a cookbook called Make the "Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods" by Jennifer Reese. Nate's aunt Lynn told me about this book and she was right on when she said that it was really good. It is not just a cookbook that tells you what is more thrifty to make or buy. It explains what the hassle of each task will be and in many of the recipes she humorously explains how she came to her conclusion. When I have a bigger kitchen, this book is going to be used so much, it may fall apart.

 A couple of weekends ago I had the privilege to attend the Women's Leadership Institute Conference. I worked for WLI when I was in college at Concordia in Mequon. Going to this conference meant that I was able to see many close friends of mine and to meet and become friends with some great women. Seeing friends from out of town is amazing and exhausting. A great exhausting, though. We were up late both nights, one of which was daylight savings. I still don't think I have caught up on sleep but I know that it was completely worth it.

Because things are warming up here, it means that things are getting busier at Tower Tee. They have added back their summer shifts, so Nate is working more. He enjoys his work there and has recruited 2 more seminary students to work there, too. Tower Tee is becoming more Lutheran by the day.

I tried another great new recipe from Pinterest. I have never been much of a soup girl but lately homemade soups are very intriguing to me. This is a potato soup. Potatoes are, let's face it, one of God's great gifts to this earth along with cream cheese, buffalo wings, bacon and chocolate. I should stop that list now before it gets even longer. I love food too much. Back to the recipe. This may be the easiest recipe, ever. Using a crock-pot naturally simplifies things, but this one hardly takes any preparation before that.

Source for recipe and photo: http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/2011/03/outback-aint-got-nothin-on-me.html

Ingredients:

• 1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns 
• 3 14oz. cans of chicken broth 
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup 
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped 
• 1/4 tsp. ground pepper 
• 1 pkg. cream cheese (Using Fat Free Cream Cheese is a bad idea in general, but in this case because it won't melt.) 

In a Crock-pot, combine everything EXCEPT for the cream cheese. Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat. About 1 hour before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted. Serve with cheese, sour cream, bacon bits (I made bacon and crumbled it, bacon bits aren't as good), green onions or whatever else you might like to top it with.

Baseball season is starting soon. Nate is getting very excited for his Yankees and I am ready for the Cardinals to defend their World Series title. It will be different for the Cards this year without Albert Pujlos and Tony LaRussa but change is good sometimes. Go Cards!

Please continue to pray for us and our seminary friends as Call Day quickly approaches. Changes are a-coming.

That is all for now. God is good!