Beef and Other News on the Homefront

I love beef. Hopefully most of you know that by now. However, this delightful piece of protein is not something I desire to consume since becoming pregnant. Ahem, what did I say? Pregnant? Yes, you read that correctly, I am pregnant and due April 20! What a subtle way to sneak this HUGE news into a seemingly normal blog post. Hehe. Well, more on baby W and the havoc he/she is wreaking on my body later. Back to beef.

Did you know that the protein in beef helps you maintain a healthy metabolism? Even better news though is the growing body of evidence that the protein in beef may be helpful in preventing chronic diseases such as Type-2 diabetes and osteoporosis.

Back to baby now. I have known for about the past eight weeks about the delightful changes happening in my uterus and since the discovery I have been terribly sick with what I call "all day sickness" as opposed to morning sickness. I have been sick all day, almost everyday. Hope is dawning though, this past week has been semi-normal but I did stay home today. I am thankful for the end result and am praying for joy and endurance through the yucky days.

I hope all is well with you and yours! Eat some beef now:)

Three Strikes

I want to preface this post by saying I love my husband. I think he's the best husband in the world. (I hope everything thinks the same thing about their husbands too!) This post is about him - his ability to fix things and his ability to make me laugh.

Two weekends ago we set out to repair a few items at our rental house. We refer to the rental house as our Chateau - it makes us feel hoity toity. It's actually the house that I first bought when I moved to Buckeye to teach four years ago. We feel fortunate to have found renters willing to pay what we wanted without negotiation. Renters who pay in cash. And renters who so far have taken good care of the house. Aside from these blessings, renting the Chateau has involved a few small headaches along the way. These headaches have been caused by us though - I could have been more ambitious about moving all my stuff this summer while I had time. However, I waited until we found renter's to make the final move which also coincided with my first week of school. With that said, a few things needed fixing and we didn't have time PRIOR to the renters moving in. Hence, the story of three strikes at the Chateau.

Strike one - the food disposal didn't work. Is that what it's even called? You know the thing that grinds nasty food scraps in your sink? I can never remember what to call it. Anyway it didn't work so Kelly set out to replace it. The broken disposal was on so tightly though that he ended up banging and twisting the thing to get it out. In the process though he sliced his finger pretty darn good. At one point I thought he cut his chin too because he had blood dripping off his chin after swiping his chin.

Strike two - there was a partially installed ceiling fan in a guest bedroom. When I say partially I mean that it was hanging by wires from the ceiling. Kelly eventually got this bad boy installed, and without slicing any body parts open. However, when he carried the broken ceiling fan outside to throw in the trash our renter's dogs bit him. They were Taco Bell dogs at that - Chihuahuas.

Strike three - as I mentioned before we made the final move in haste. We had to leave behind my washer and dryer although our renter's planned to use their own. We removed the dryer without a problem. Kelly turned off the valves on the washer and began unscrewing the lines from the back of the washer. Before we knew it the cold water line was spraying water all over the place - in Kelly's face, on the laundry room shelves, at the door, on the tile etc. Everywhere but where we wanted it. I eventually opened the door into the garage so Kelly could spray water outside until he managed to kink the line and stop the water.

We eventually got the water cleaned up and drove away - wet from the water incident, and a little beat up after making repairs. Okay, let's be honest, Kelly was a little beat up. While everything was happening I just kept quietly telling myself that someday we'd laugh about this. Thankfully we did afterwards. And this my friends, is why I love my hubby. I love his patience, handiness and sense of humor.

The Heisman Strong Arm

We have been married two and a half months and have enjoyed each second immensely! I thought it was about time I tried to make an honest effort to get in touch with my blogging self and post my version of how I met my husband got to this point. And never fear, my husband will make an appearance as a guest blogger and post his side of the story too! I had planned on posting both of these before the wedding but I figured better late than never since lots of you have asked for our story...

I remember meeting Kelly for the very first time - I had heard lots about my husband in advance so I was expecting him to be very nice and have really pretty eyes. Everything I had heard about him was confirmed in the first moment we met - he was really nice and his eyes were amazing. The morning we met was at a workshop for my students at school; Kelly was presenting information on showing sheep! I thought about the possibility of dating Kelly for a millisecond but quickly shoved that thought aside as I began taking pictures of the workshop that morning.

Later that next week Kelly texted me and asked if I wanted to grab coffee or go to dinner sometime. I said yes without hesitating thinking "what do I have to lose?" We went to a La Placita, a local Mexican restaurant, where we continued to go about once a month for dinner for the next seven months. Kelly says that I gave himthe Heisman strong arm, that I just kept pushing him away. But seven months after we met I finally agreed to truly date Kelly and not just have dinner once a month. All during this proces of slowly getting to know him, his character, sense of humor and commitment to family and faith became very apparent. I was working through my own "issues" though - I had become very content being single and had never really been intent on marrying someone. I think my sub-conscious knew what a good catch Kelly truly was so I was struggling with the fact that this relationship had good long term potential.

That first week in October 2010 we grabbed coffee on a Friday evening and then Kelly had to work a 48-hour shift. He was letting the Ag department borrow his sheep again for yet another workshop. That evening while having coffee Kell told me several times to make sure that I checked out the sheep the next day. I thought he was crazy for telling me this because I was of course going to do that without being told! That next day brought a huge surprise - Kelly had shorn his first note to me in the wool of his eight sheep that we had borrowed. The message read "Katy's the best and prettiest 2!" I was shocked - and delighted.

The month of October went by quickly and I became very intrigued and very "into" Kelly - I couldn't get enough time with him. After what I consider our first real date (how can that be...eight months into things?) we sat in my driveway talking for several hours. I got out of the truck and the little voice in my head told me that I could marry him. I wrote him a note that evening telling him this very thing.

After working through some issues our relationship progressed rapidly althought I kep telling everyone that we were just talking things slowly. I don't know when we started talking marriage but by the time January rolled around we were talking about when Kelly would ask my dad for my hand in marriage. The three day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend came and went and Kelly missed his chance to ask my dad when we visited my family that weekend. He ended up driving up a week later to ask my dad for my hand in marriage and then we were engaged a few weeks later.

It was the night of the FFA Pie Auction and Potluck - after a rvery romantic dinner with 60 of my closest FFA members and their families, we headed home to enjoy a delightful apple pie and watch a movie. I was so set on watching this movie that it cracks me up that Kelly humored me all while having that ring in his pocket. I was exhausted after the movie but Kelly seemed like he wanted to talk so I listened. He was being very thoughtful and serious and I just had no clue why this was necessary at 11:30pm at night. Kelly seemed distracted so I looked up and he was texting - or so I thought. After asking him what he was doing he told me that he sent me a picture. I opened the text up on my phone and there was a picture with another shorn message - "Katy will you marry me?" I couldn't have been happier or more surprised in that moment because I did not expect the question then. I obviously said yes and two days later I gave Kelly the letter I wrote to him back in October after our first "real date."

Happy Earth Day

I just wanted to send a little shout out to all the original stewards of the land - farmers and ranchers. Happy Earth Day....enjoy the picture of a beef promotion currently being used on electronic billboards in Phoenix. {Great job Lauren!}

BEEF. Good for the Plant; Good for you.

Engagement Photos

We took engagement photos over spring break - we headed to the Raven Golf Club at Verrado (yes Verrado is in Buckeye!). Ryan Neville was our photographer and he will also be the photographer at our wedding. Here are some of my favorites!

Wanna win $25,000?

I know I do!

The National Beef Cookoff is calling all home cooks and entertaining enthusiasts to submit their favorite beef recipes for a chance to win $25,000!

Four category winners will receive $3,000 in cash! The four categories are:

• The 5:30pm Dinner Crunch - this category will focus on easy-to-prepare beef recipes for busy weeknight meals using ingredients commonly found at home.
• Retro Recipes Revived - home cooks can improve and modify an American classic or old time family recipe to be more convenient, healthier, or both for today's busy family.
• Fuel up with Beef - recipes in this category will feature convenient and healthy beef recipes using one of the 29 Lean Beef Cuts for people with busy lives.
• Stir Crazy Solutions - create a unique stir-fry recipe using one of the 29 Lean Cuts of Beef along with fresh vegetables and grain ingredients.

Please share this info with friends and family who are great cooks! May the best cook win!

Peanut Butter Cup Cake

If you love the symphonic union of peanut butter and chocolate, get ready for this bad boy. It is delightful!

Ingredients
1 devil's food cake mix (I go for the $1 boxes - since I'm not saving calories on this, I figure I should save some cash while I shop.)
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups chopped peanut butter cups (plus more for garnishing)
8 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup peanut butter

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two 9-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Line with wax paper and coat paper.
• In a large bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk, and vegetable oil on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes. Scrape down sides after 1 minutes. Fold in 2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups.
• Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Cool cakes completely.
• Place chopped dark chocolate in a medium bowl. Bring cream to a boil and then pour over chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate melts. Add peanut butter and whisk until smooth.
• Trim each cake layer so the tops are flat. Place one layer on a cooling rack and pour 1 cup frosting on top. Spread evenly with spatula. Add second layer and pour remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Smooth out with spatula.
• Allow frosting to set for a minute and gently press remaining chopped peanut butter cup pieces all over top of cake. Place in refrigerator for about an hour to set. Remove and serve.

This recipe was pirated from the Bakerella blog.