Trip to Italy

For this month's travels, we went to Rome, Italy!! We dined on some very authentic pasta (me copying the recipe from the super Italian restaurant The Cheesecake Factory haha). Again, forgot to take pictures (which is too bad cuz I even plated them really well), but here's the recipe!

Louisiana Chicken Pasta

First, CHICKEN

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 6 skinless boneless chicken breast halves

• 3/4 cup bread crumbs

• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• 1 cup milk

• 2 tablespoons flour

Directions:

1. Wash and drain chicken breasts. Pound until very thin, as thin or thinner then 1/4-inch thick (the thinner the chicken breasts the better).

1. Mix breadcrumbs, flour, and Parmesan cheese together. Place milk in dish for dipping.

1. Dip chicken in breadcrumb mixture and then in milk and then back in breadcrumbs.

1. Place in fry pan that the oil has been heated and fry at medium high temperature until golden, crisp, and cooked through. Add more oil as needed. Remove and drain chicken. Keep warm.

Second, SAUCE

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped

• 1 small red bell pepper, chopped

• 3/4 small red onion, chopped

• 3 whole garlic cloves, minced

• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

• 1 1/4 pints whipping cream

• 1 cup low-salt chicken broth

• 4 tablespoons fresh basil, thinly sliced

• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• 1 package bow-tie pasta

• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced

• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add yellow and red bell peppers, mushrooms, and onion to same skillet and saute until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes.

1. Add minced garlic and crushed red pepper to skillet and saute 2 or 3 minutes.

1. Add whipping cream and chicken stock. Simmer until sauce re-heats and thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.

1. Add basil and 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese to sauce, stirring to incorporate. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low, simmer. Sauce will reduce and thicken.

1. Meanwhile, cook bow-tie pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain and return to pot. Add sauce and toss to coat.

1. Place pasta with sauce on plate, and top with chicken breast. Serve, passing additional Parmesan separately.

After our meal, we watched Roman Holiday! Neither of us had seen it before, but it's Audrey Hepburn, so we knew it'd be good :)

15 Days 'til Christmas

Well, with 15 days til Christmas, I thought I'd post some pictures of the Christmas decorations we put up with Tommy's sisters the day after Thanksgiving...

We can't wait for Christmas to come even though we still aren't sure if Tommy will have to work on Christmas day or not and haven't made any Christmas plans...but we are super grateful he has a job that he may be working on Christmas day and we're enjoying the wonderful Christmas season while it's here :)

Cooking Up Some Pie

So, for Thanksgiving this year, I was in charge of pie and I maybe went a little overboard...I made 3 pumpkin pies, 2 strawberry cream pies, 1 apple pie, and 1 caramel apple pie. They were all a pretty big hit, so I was happy with my work. Especially since I've never made apple pie before (but it's Tommy's favorite, so I had to). This is the second year in a row that I've made the pumpkin pie with a pecan crust and I'm a big fan, so I thought I'd share the recipe...

Pecan Pie Crust

Ingredients

1 cup pecans
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1.4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 stick cold, unsalted butter cut into bits
1/2 tsp. salt
raw rice for weighting the shell

Instructions

1. In food processor, coarsely grind pecans with sugar; transfer to a bowl. In food processor, blend together flour, butter, and salt until coarse like meal; add to pecan mixture.
2. Add 3 tablespoons ice water, toss until mixed and press dough onto bottom and up the side of a 9-inch pie plate. Crimp edge; prick with fork and chill 30 minutes.
3. Line crust with foil, fill foil with rice, and bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 7 minutes. Remove rice and foil carefully and bake crust 5 more minutes; cool.

And here are some pie pictures for you to enjoy...though I did forget to take pictures of my last 3 pies.

Showering Baby

Baby McLaughlin is feeling very blessed this week with lots of presents and love rolling in. As you know, I stink at taking pictures and have none to offer of the baby shower, but I have had a few requests for pictures of the sweet presents we got, so...your wish is my command:
Here's a shot of the way cute quilt that Aunt Cheryl made for us. I absolutely LOVE it, we show it off to everyone that comes over. Also, you can see in the corner our fancy diaper genie that Ryan and Jenny got for us:

Here we have some stinkin' cute burp rags that Cheri got embroidered for us with cute Harry Potter themes:

Great-Grandma McLaughlin got us a car seat that we absolutely love and we topped it this week with the cutest cars eat cover ever made (courtesy of Aunt Mae):

Aunt Mae also sent us these booties...maybe I'm over using the words "cute" and "love," but are these not the cutest booties you've ever seen? Everyone freaks out over how cute they are every time I show them off:

At the baby shower, everyone helped us build up Oliver's book collection. Look at how well-read he's going to be! haha

On an unrelated note..since most of our nursery crafts are over, we've moved on to some Christmas crafts...this week I worked on making a wreath for our front door and an advent calendar for counting down the days until Christmas (though we aren't putting any of them up until Friday so we can give Thanksgiving its proper celebration).

30 Weeks, Only 10 Left!!

Trip to India

So, for our anniversary this year, I gave Tommy a passport around the world for monthly dates to different countries. So far, we've visited France and China, and this weekend we went to India. For our trip we ate some very authentic chicken tikka masala and naan. (I meant to take pictures of all the stages of cooking, but whoops...I forgot! I'll still give you the recipe though because it is really really good (thank you to Brianna for letting me borrow a recipe from her India-inspired food cookbook)).

• Chicken Tikka Masala

  Marinade:

  • 1 cup plain yogurt • 1 tablespoon lemon juice, from 1 lemon • 1 teaspoon ground cumin • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper • 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper • 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger • 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste • 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

  Sauce:

  • 4 long skewers • 1 tablespoon butter • 2 cloves garlic, minced • 1/2 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped • 2 teaspoon ground cumin • 2 teaspoons paprika • 1 teaspoons salt, or to taste • 1 teaspoon garam masala • 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce • 1 cup heavy cream • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

  Directions:

  1. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and salt. Stir in chicken, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. 2. Preheat a grill for high heat. 3. In a large heavy skillet over medium heat melt butter. Saute garlic and jalapeno for 1 minute. Stir in cumin, paprika, salt, and garam masala. Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes. 4. Lightly oil the grill grate. Thread chicken onto skewers, and discard marinade. Grill until juices run clear, about 5 minutes on each side. 5. Add grilled chicken to the sauce mixture and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter, and garnish with fresh cilantro. Serve with garlic naan. Yields: 4 servings Note: This makes a medium spice chicken tikka masala. If you like it spicy, add an extra teaspoon of cayenne pepper and the whole jalapeno pepper.

  
  

  Naan

  Ingredients:

  • 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees) • 1/4 cup white sugar plus 1 tablespoon • 3 tablespoons warm milk (110 degrees) • 1 egg, beaten, room temperature • 2 teaspoons salt • 3 1/2 to 4 cups bread flour • 2 tablespoons minced garlic • 1/4 cup butter, melted

  Directions:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of sugar; let rest 10 minutes until foamy. 2. Add remaining sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Mix with the dough hook on medium-low until thoroughly combined and smooth, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. 3. Punch down dough and knead in garlic until combined. Pinch off small handfuls of dough, about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. 4. Preheat grill to high heat and lightly oil grate. Roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepare. Serve warm. Yields: 14 servings

  
  

  After we ate, we watched The Bucket List. Now, I know what you're thinking...what does The Bucket List have to do with India? Well, they go there in the movie, duh. Haha, originally we were going to watch The Jungle Book (which was much more applicable), but I couldn't find it ANYWHERE, so we settled on The Bucket List (wish that Blockbuster was still a thing, because I bet they would've had it for me).

Monkey Bread

This is my favorite breakfast item three times a year: General Conference Sundays and Christmas morning. I've gone through many different monkey bread recipes in my quest for the best one and I finally found my favorite. So here it is, my favorite monkey bread recipe...

Monkey Bread

Ingredients:

1 tube Pillsbury Grands buttermilk biscuits
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
1/2 C. maple syrup
1/3 C. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions: 

1. Spray a fluted pan with non-stick spray (since I don't actually own a fluted pan, I just use my cake pan...). Combing melted butter and syrup in a small bowl. In another bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
2. Place about half of the syrup mixture in the bottom of the pan and sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture on top.
3. Lay the biscuits on the bottom of the plan overlapping the edges to form a ring (since I don't use a fluted pan, I cut the biscuits in half and layer them around the pan and then fill the middle).
4. Top biscuits with the remaining syrup and brown sugar mixtures.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 1 minute in the pan and then invert bread onto a serving platter. And then you're ready to enjoy!!

Nursery Crafts

Tommy and I have been dedicating our weekends to getting the nursery ready. We're not quite done with everything yet (we have 4 things left on the to-do list), but here's what we've got so far in our Harry Potter-themed nursery...

 Here's a shot of the bookcase I painted gold to match the bedroom light switch. We also cut out the letters on the bulletin board to spell "Oliver" and have a small collage collecting of all of the pictures we have of baby so far.

 On the bookcase, you'll notice this little guy...Tommy and I went with Jenny and Ryan to Color Me Mine for FHE a couple of weeks ago. Tommy made a pumpkin for us to use as our trick-or-treat bowl and I made this owl to hold pacifiers in the baby's room.

Here we have the mobile that Tommy and I made to go above the crib. We got these skeleton keys and super glued feathers on the keys. Then Tommy hung the keys with fishing line to make it look like the keys were flying all by themselves. 

 Our next craft was taking these old books of my grandma's and mod podging scrapbook paper onto their covers with letters cut out to spell out "Oliver". I debated a lot over how to execute this one, and I am really happy with how they turned out. Tommy cut out all the letters for me since I cannot work with an exacto-knife to save my life (we even used Harry Potter font to make the stencils).

Now all we have left is to find a cool broomstick to hang a curtain from for the window and then we have to finish the bedding for the crib (plus get a mattress for the crib...). When it's all done, I'll post a picture of the light switch we painted and some pictures we are planning on putting on the wall after baby has arrived and we've actually taken the pictures I plan on putting up there. And then the nursery will be all ready!!

Gender Reveal Party

After we found out what we are having, we decided to have a party to reveal the gender to our Provo friends. I am so, so ticked at myself for not taking a single picture during the party, but what do you do?
For the party, we melted different chocolates, peanut butter, and caramel for dipping (thank you pinterest for teaching me how to make my own fondue). It was a big hit with everyone, especially Devin who spent his whole time standing next to the fondue jars. And everyone got really excited when I pulled out the Henry Winehart rootbeer and cream soda, it was very fancy! After we did some eating and mingling, everyone asked to watch our ultrasound video so they could guess what we are having (I swear, they really asked to see it...it wasn't my idea at all!) It was fun to watch it with everyone and point out all the different parts (at least the ones we could remember). They best parts were the audible gasps when we pointed out the beating hear, the little fists and feet, and the profile shot...

After everyone put in their guesses, we gave them all these way cute and yummy candy bars wrapped in gold wrapping (courtesy of RaeAnn) with the below notes inside revealing our baby's gender.

Then we played some funny games and continued to snack :) It was, strangely, the first party that Tommy and I have ever thrown since we've been married and I think it was quite successful! It was so fun to share our excitement with our friends. Now that we know we're having a boy, we are busy getting the nursery all decorated and ready and making our wish list for baby stuff, which is very exciting! I love shopping for my baby!! Hopefully all my crafts pan out like I imagine so we can have a way cute Harry Potter themed nursery

4 Weeks to 20 Weeks

Happy Anniversary

This weekend Tommy and I went to Park City to celebrate our anniversary. We forgot to bring the camera...so, once again, I took basically no pictures...but it was a very fun weekend!! We went to a really fun, eclectic restaurant for pizza (since we had pizza for lunch on our wedding day)...

After lunch, we went to an outlet mall for some shopping. I got two sweaters at Ann Taylor for 65% off and we got Tommy some new jeans and a leather jacket that were on sale for a gazillion percent off!!! After we were sufficiently exhausted from shopping, we hung out at our hotel. We were looking through a magazine of restaurants to find a fancy place for dinner and Tommy saw a Brazillian restaurant there that had coxinhas, so we HAD to go there...look at how happy he is with his coxinhas and guarana :)

Then we walked around main street in Park City. It's such a cool city! I kept telling Tommy I felt like we were in Colorado or Montana cuz it felt so different than Utah. We got to see some cool galleries and shops, though we were way bummed because the cool bookstore was closed when we got there. We had a way fancy dinner at a steakhouse and saw these two older couples who were also staying at our hotel for their anniversary and they were kind of crazy, but super nice and excited for us celebrating our first anniversary. After dinner we went swimming and played banana-grams (my anniversary present)!!
It was a very fun weekend and very exciting to celebrate our one year anniversary!

My Navel Orange

Well, we're at 15 (and a half) weeks, and now we have a navel orange-sized baby :) I think (knock on wood) that this week I am pretty much past the morning sickness, and it is so nice to not feel nauseous constantly. The downside is that I have had a really bad cough for the last three weeks, but today I think I only coughed like 10 times, so I am hoping that I am getting over that, slowly but surely.
I feel like I am getting super anxious to buy things for the baby. We just bought the dresser/changing table for the nursery all set up and that's exciting. I also got a free car seat cover, but Tommy says it is pretty girly so I am trying to rain myself in on buying things that may not be the right gender haha. I am super excited for my prenatal appointment next week cuz then we get to make an appointment to find out the gender.
On a different note, Tommy and I are going to Park City over the weekend to celebrate our one year anniversary. I am so excited I can hardly wait til the weekend! I can't believe we've been married for a whole year. In some ways, it seems like it went by so fast, but in other ways it feels like we must have been married longer than that haha.

Can't Wait for BM!!

That's right, Tommy and I are having a baby!! I figure I can announce it on my blog since we have officially told all of our family and the Facebook world, so everyone already knows :)
Here's my "baby bump" after we first found out we were pregnant (when BM was the size of a poppy seed, which is what I have on my finger)












And here is the first ultrasound we got of our baby! We had our last appointment a week ago and got to hear baby's heartbeat, which was pretty darn exciting.

We just got back from the big Blodgett family reunion last weekend where we told my whole family the good news (along with Alisha and Ashley). It was a fun (and too short) weekend...I got to show Tommy Hamilton and we got to hike Blodgett Canyon, go to the cemetery, and have the traditional Blodgett family talent show.






Here's a picture of Tommy and me after our hike. I'm wearing the shirt we used to announce that we were pregnant...it says "Baby Loading...Arriving in January"

Top 5 Things I Love About Our New Apartment

5. Our wood flooring and REAL tile in the kitchen and bathroom :)

  Here's the view from the front door when you first walk in...

And here's the view from the bathroom door...

4. Our extra bedroom

There's not a lot in there, but I already love the extra space. And there's plenty of space for the air mattress for when we have a visitor...hint hint.

3. The many, many kitchen cabinets and plentiful counter space. We even have some empty cabinets; I feel like my dad!

2. The DISHWASHER!!!! Woohoo!

And, the number one thing I love about our new apartment....
1. The washer and dryer in our huge bathroom!!!!

Now, for real, come visit us :)

Carlsbad, CA

Well, I still have no pictures because Tommy and I always seem to forget about those darn things, but Tommy keeps bugging me about how I haven't been posting and, since we did have a pretty eventful weekend, I thought I should probably post...
For Tommy's grandparent's 50th anniversary, they invited the whole family down to Carlsbad, CA, for a week of fun in the sun :) So, last Saturday, Tommy and I drove with his aunt and uncle and their 3 boys down to Las Vegas on our way to California! We stayed one night there and Tommy and I did some babysitting while his aunt and uncle went to see Celine Dion. The next day, we packed up again and drove to Glendale, CA, where we met up with Tommy's parents and two youngest sisters (sadly Monica couldn't come down, so we missed her :( ). While Tommy's sisters went to Hollywood to see if they could spot Justin Beiber's house, Tommy and I walked around Glendale a little, went swimming and hot tubbing, and played in the hotel's fitness center. The next day we drove to Carlsbad to meet up with the whole Burnside clan. We stayed at the same resort that Tommy and I stayed in for our honeymoon, so it was pretty fun to be back. Over the next couple days we went to the beach (it was a five minute drive away from the hotel), went on some walks to look at the beautiful city, did a little shopping (and a lot of eating out), swimming  at the hotel pool, and Knott's Berry Farm! We love Knott's Berry Farm :) We went on all the rides (and we went on the Silver Bullet 5 times...that one is my favorite) and we got to see some of mine and Tommy's favorite shops (including a shop where you get to watch someone do some awesome glass blowing and, of course, the jam store!). We also saw a funny stunt show in the "Wild Wild West."It was a way fun trip and super exhausting (I kept falling asleep at like 9:30).
It was sad to say goodbye to California and to Tommy's family, but now we're back in Provo and, guess what? We're getting packed up and ready to move in a week and a half to our new apartment!! We're so excited!

Work, Work, Work...

I have a lot of work related news to report, it feels like, so I thought I'd do a blog post about it...
So, Tommy recently got a new job at Northstar Alarm Services. Basically, he calls/emails/and sends letters to people who are behind on their payments and tells them to PAY UP! Okay, maybe that's not exactly what he tells them, but basically. He likes it a LOT more than his job in American Fork and it's WAY closer (we use to have to fill up the car every week and a half if we were lucky, now we can go three weeks!). He has really been liking it there and they love him there!! Proud wifey moment: One of Tommy's coworkers said to me "We always have to work really hard when Tommy gets there so that he doesn't show us all up, but then when he leaves we can slack off." haha! Well, they won't have a lot of slack-off time anymore because Tommy's boss increased his hours :)
Work for me has also been pretty eventful...I got promoted to a captain in catering, I got a job writing articles for Orange Soda, Inc. (a marketing company), I got a job cleaning a condo once a week, and I just got home from a job interview at Shirley's Bakery! The Orange Soda job is probably the most exciting because it's in my field, but I can work from home and work whenever I have time! It's great! And it will look great on my resume when I look for an editing job. The cleaning job is just a nice side job that I'm doing for a friend of ours. He just bought a condo and wants to keep it nice so that he can rent it out and make money and whatever, but I like it because I get payed $13 an hour to do what I do at home for free! I'm also excited for the Shirley's job because catering has been s-l-o-w the last couple of weeks, so if I get the job at Shirley's than I'll probably quit catering. Which will be a little sad since I've worked there for two and a half years, but then also not very sad because I've worked there for two and a half years (do you get what I did there? funny, right?).
Anyway..those are our jobs!! Yay us!

Christmas Break

The last three weeks have been super eventful for the McLaughlins!! We went up to Malta for Christmas Eve and Christmas day to celebrate with my sisters and my dad. It was so exciting to shop for Tommy; I think this year was the most excited I've been to see someone open the presents I picked out for them! I also think this was the first year in a long time that I've had trouble sleeping the night before Christmas because of excitement...Tommy and I woke up at about 5:30 and played Bejeweled until Thomas woke up at 7:30. On Christmas day Tommy went snowmobiling with all of the guys and he loved it! He bragged to everyone about it all break.
When we got back to Provo, we had one day off before Tommy's family came into town. They were here for a full week which we filled with yummy food, movies, shopping, and sledding. On New Year's day we went sledding and Kati sledded into one of those long sprinklers they use on farms and got a concussion :( Poor Kati was super shocked and really worried they would never be able to repair her chipped tooth! We got to see them the next evening though and, even though we had to wheel her in a wheelchair, she was in great spirits.
We also hung out with Jenny and Ryan a lot over the break. We all went and played laser tag, made some dinners together, went hot tubing, and went shooting. Tommy was so excited all week to go shoot Ryan's guns and he absolutely loved it; he already wants to go again!

And that was our Christmas break!!