A really good sandwich

Sometimes, all I want for dinner is a really good sandwich. They're easy and filling, and you can just add a simple side dish and call it a night.

Enter:  Pioneer Woman's Marlboro Man sandwich. I've been wanting to try it ever since I saw her make it on her show. Plus, I knew with 100% certainty that Anderson would like love it.

The Pioneer Woman

We just did the original version with nothing but meat and onions, and it totally lived up to my expectations. I may have just been really hungry, but I couldn't stop saying "yum" the whole time I was eating (which is really bad manners when you're the cook, but it was just the two of us).

Anderson fired up the grill and roasted some corn on the cob, which we covered in butter and rolled in Parmesan cheese. Have you tried this? If you haven't, it's the best way to eat corn. No lie. (Thanks to my friend Scotty for introducing me to this.)

I'm already dreaming of the next time we make this sandwich and adding either swiss cheese or provolone.

A new year

Source: Jose Villa Blog via Joy Thigpen

Happy (late) New Year everyone!

We spent ten days over the Christmas holiday traveling to Anderson's hometown and then my hometown to spend time with our families. It was wonderful seeing everyone and getting to spend some quality time with them.

But after such a long time away from home and work, it was pretty hard getting back in the swing of things last week. I concentrated on unpacking, cleaning, doing laundry, and putting away Christmas decorations, so the blog took some time off.

I know it's a little late, but I figured I'd write down some of my goals for 2012. They're not really resolutions...just some things I'd like to do this year. And I think I'll be better about tackling them if I put them out there for everyone to see:

• Drink more water (that's not in the form of sweet tea).
• Make our house more colorful.
• Read. Read. Read. First on my list is One Thousand Gifts.
• Paint our master bathroom and the entryway off the garage. The dark green is starting to drive me crazy.
• Grow a fruit or vegetable in our backyard. I'm not sure what will grow back there, but it's time to make that space good for something other than Lucy's poops.
• Go camping. We registered for a tent when we got married. It's been 3 years...time to break that puppy out.
• Sew a piece of clothing and something that requires a zipper. My sewing skills are still very basic, so this one's a little intimidating.
• Host a party. We're not big entertainers, but I really want to host some sort of party and go all out with the decorations, food, favors...everything.
• Visit these canyons.
• Last, but not least, take a vacation...a trip for just the two of us that involves a travel agent and/or plane tickets.  

Only 5 more days!

Via Revelment

My favorite thing to do lately is turn off all the lights in our house except for our tree and the garland on our bookcase and sit in my comfy chair wrapped in a comfy blanket. It's the best. Christmas trees and lights really should be a year-round decoration.

Saturday Snapshot: Our Christmas tree

Finally, a picture of our tree in all of its blue and brown glory...

O Christmas Trees

Here's a round-up of some of my favorite ideas for decorative trees, using those styrofoam cones you can find at the craft store. And I'm hoping to get pictures of our real tree up very soon.

1. Yarn Christmas Tree from Pretty Ditty
2. Fabric Wrapped Trees from Landee See, Landee Do
3. Twine Wrapped Trees from The Thrifty Crafter
4. Moss Covered Christmas Trees from Posy the Porcelain Pig
5. Yarn Wrapped Trees with pom-poms from One Pearl Button
6. Crepe Paper Trees from Creative Chaos

Christmas table

On Monday I left work at 5:15 p.m., drove home like a mad woman, and baked 48 red velvet cookies with cream cheese icing for a cookie exchange that started at 6:30 p.m. It was craziness. Picture me juggling 2 boxes of cake mix, 4 eggs, 3 baking sheets, 3 cooling racks, and a tub of icing...all the while kicking myself for waiting until the last possible minute to do this.

Of course, I was 15 minutes late to the party, and the cookies looked like a hot mess since the icing didn't have time to set. In fact, as I was driving there, I almost turned around and went home (twice) because my cookies looked so pitiful in their ziploc bags smeared with icing.

For anyone who hasn't been to a cookie exchange, the general idea is that everyone brings 6 bags containing 6 cookies each. And you bring an extra dozen on a plate for people to sample. Everyone walks around and tastes the cookies, and then you pick 6 bags to take home. So you come with 36 cookies and leave with 36 cookies of different types.

I was so embarrassed, but I didn't want all that work and stress to go to waste, so I made myself go in. It ended up being fine. I wasn't the only one who was late, and the cookies tasted good even though they didn't look great. AND...I did come home with some pretty tasty cookies made by other people.

All of that to say that this time of year is full of fun yet stressful events, which keep me from blogging as often as I want.

And now for the purpose of this post...to share some pics of our Christmas table decorations.

The runner is extra wide mesh ribbon. We used it to decorate our tree, and we had some leftover. I just laid it over the same curtain panel that I had on the table for fall. Everything else (the trees, ornaments & picks) I've bought on sale after Christmas over the past couple of years.

Our colors are pretty non-traditional...browns, coppers, champagne, and very, very light teal. It's hard to get an idea of how they look together in this picture, but they look good in person. I'm not sure why I like brown so much, I just do. Can't get enough of it.

Christmas tree hunting

We got all of our Christmas decorations up yesterday, including our tree. It didn't take us long to pick one out, but we probably should have spent a little more time looking around. Once we got it home, we realized it was a little crooked. Oh well, maybe we'll get it right next year.

I figured my green flannel shirt was appropriate for bringing home a Christmas tree, even though we didn't actually chop it down. (And I have no idea what I'm doing with my hand. I think I had sap on my fingers.)

Hopefully, I'll have more to share about the rest of our decorations later this week.