Sushi, Please! (Easy, Home Dinner!)

Hello, Everyone!! I'm finally back in blogging action! It's been a whirlwind of two weeks, but I'm glad to say I've gotten everything back on track and I'm settled again! You see, Franklin and I joined my family on a 5 day vacation to Turks and Caicos--which was fabulous!!

 Snorkeling in the Caribbean!

 About to board a boat for a sunset cruise!

You can't see it here, but we're posing with an Iguana on a little island outside of Turks and Caicos called Iguana Island! So cool!

When we got home I caught a bad bug that lasted, more or less 5 days. Getting caught up after a trip is hard enough, but add feeling sick to it and I definitely needed an extra week to get caught up at work and at home!

When I started feeling a bit better, Franklin and I were already missing our amazing island getaway and really wanted sushi for dinner. I was still pretty fatigued and our budget was running thin, so we decided to try to have gourmet sushi at home! We hopped in the car and headed to Central Market, where we picked our two favorite rolls. (I love CM sushi because it's all natural (if you pick the rolls without imitation crab meat--no thanks, gluten!) and it's always fresh! Plus their sauces aren't as sugary as some sushi places' sauces are!) I wanted our dinner to feel like we had gone to a real sushi place, so I grabbed a bag of frozen edamame and we checked out.

At home I made the edamame. It's SUPER easy and SO healthy!

You take a bag of organic, frozen edamame and boil the beans in water for 10 minutes, drain them and eat them! THAT'S IT!

I sprinkled sea salt and garlic salt on top for some flavor and placed them in a bowl next the the sushi (I arranged the rolls to make them look pretty while the edamame was boiling.

Here's the finished product! Looks fancy, huh?

Overall, this meal took me 20 minutes to make (that includes the drive to Central Market and back!) Talk about EASY! And it felt so nice to have a sushi meal this nice

B's Dinner

I often call all of the shots in the kitchen and at the grocery store, I love being able to choose which vegetables and meats to use and often come up with each nights meal while peering into our refrigerator. But every now and then my sweet husband really has his eye and stomach set on a certain meal and tonight is one of those nights.
For weeks B has been seeing Kraft's latest commercial for their new Fresh Take's 'Mix-Coat-Bake" mixes and calls me into our living room each time, with out fail, so I can see "just how delicious" it looks, he's so fun! I eventually broke down and bought the darn mix and am giving it a try tonight. As a disclaimer I SO do not care for pre-packaged anything but I love my husband and maybe I just need to get over myself. Maybe not. Maybe just every now and then. I'll let you know what I decide.

I do have to say that this whole process is terribly easy though. 

Home Sweet First Home!

I promised a post all about our new home, so here it is! It's amazing to see the changes! It's definitely still a work in progress, though! (I'm spending a lot of time on Pinterest, trying to get inspired to landscape and install window treatments!) Nonetheless, here it is! Our little abode!

Here's what it looked like when we bought it!

We bought our house in August from a family whose grandparents designed it, built it and raised their parents in it. The grandchildren all lived in Oklahoma and, since their grandmother passed away 12 years ago, it just sat there vacant for over a decade. The home was originally built in 1953 and was filled with that 1950’s charm! Unfortunately, nothing had been updated since (except for a little redecorating in the late 70’s, early 80’s—we guessed because of the wood paneled rooms) so it needed A LOT of work! You could tell the home was loved, and was once filled with the happiness of raising a family there… I loved that about it.

Vanilla Honeycomb Cupcakes (and a little Bee-wisdom!)

Today, I was looking through my old iPhone pictures and found some cupcakes I had made a while ago. 

These cupcakes were for a poem project in college. We had to pick a poem and reenact it through some form of art. I chose the art of baking, of course, and my classmates seemed to like that idea too! The poem I picked was Emily Dickinson's Number 97:

                                    To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee—

                                    One clover, and a bee,

                                    And reverie

                                    The reverie alone will do

                                    If bees are few.

I like this poem because it reminds me of baking too--all you need are the right ingredients and PLENTY of patience. So, to test that patience, I made a beehive out of cupcakes. I made little vanilla, honey-soaked cupcakes with jelly bean and almond bumblebees and boy were they GOOD! I got an A... I really needed that A, too.

Sweet Potato Risotto

I love risotto. Everything about it is ridiculously delicious and comforting - It takes a little time and patience but the end result is well worth it. What better than risotto on a cozy Sunday evening? I say nothing. Here is my Sweet Potato version:

You see I had already eaten half of my bowl before I remembered to try and take a decent picture. It's that yummy.

Okay so you're going to need one whole sweet potato, a big whopping one, that is fully cooked and cubed before you start. You'll also need 1 cup of arborio rice, lots of garlic and fresh rosemary and 5 cups of vegetable or chicken broth - your choice.

Fun Felt Friday

Hello all you wonderful readers! It's Cassie Jo! This past week I've been so swamped at work and crafting it up for my nephew's birthday that I've barely had anytime to myself. Hallelujah it's Friday!

Hop on over to my sister's blog to see what I've been up to!

Jack's Felt Lunch!

Hope your weekend is wonderful and refreshing!

~Cassie Jo

Wedding Day.

Happy Friday, Everyone! I figured I’d make today’s post a little more focused since my last post was such a shmorgishborg of a gajillion different life-altering decisions jam-packed into a few paragraphs. So, today’s post is about 1 thing—1 BIG thing. My wedding day.

2011 for a Murphy

So I am writing to you all over a bowl of roasted balsamic brussel spouts – heavy on the shaved parmesan and cracked pepper – delicious right? They could easily be my guilty pleasure (recipe to follow). B is at the Baylor men’s basketball game so I’ll take advantage of this little slice of time to update you on the Murphy’s 2011.

December 2010 – January 2011 consisted of a graduation from Baylor (mine & Channy’s), Christmas with B’s family here in Waco and I landed my first job selling advertising space here at a local city magazine – I was thrilled and it was a great learning opportunity but I could only hack the cold-calling for about 8 months and have been at a local boutique ever since.

 Here I am with Jam and Dad – I miss them so much.

February 2011 - I welcomed my first niece, she’s adorable and thankfully lives within driving distance, which makes visits frequent - which makes me a happy Sassy (that’s what my 3 nephews call me).

Chandler's Year In Review

If you told me that your 2011 was crazier than mine, you’d probably be incorrect. Now, this doesn’t mean that your life isn’t crazy, because we all know it is… this just means that if I had taken on one more major life-changing load in 2011, I’d burst. I’d literally burst. You’ll see why:

First let’s start with Baylor graduation—December 18, 2011. I moved to Dallas right after (to be close to my boyfriend, Franklin) and got my first job. This job—as a recruiter at a public accounting firm—required that I travel 3 out of 5 days a week. Needless to say, I was all over the place. The deep freeze of February in Dallas mixed with taking two 10 year olds and an 8 year old to Disney World for a weekend (ultimate birth control!) left me and Franklin both exhausted! This gets us to March, and you’re probably thinking—“Wow. 

That’s not crazy at all, Chandler… That’s life.” Well…

On March 12^th, Franklin proposed. It took me no time to say yes! It was the most special, wonderful day of my life (to that point!) He surprised me with all of our closest family and friends—so of course Cassie Jo was there! From that moment on, I was whisked away into wedding planning bliss!

 Franklin and I at The Driskill Hotel--where he proposed!

 My reaction when I saw Cassie at the party afterwards!

We’re Back!!

Ladies and Ladies… Incredible news… TWO DOMESTIC DIVAS IS BACK!! I know we took a year-long hiatus, but now we’re back in the swing of things and better than ever. We have a new design, a year of semi-adulthood under our belts and plenty, we mean PLENTY of fun moments and milestones to share with you all!

This time, we’ll each be blogging twice a week. That way, there will be lots of ideas, recipes, moments, laughs and love to go around!

So spread the word! Chandler and Cassie Jo are blogging again!! (And we’ve got a lot to catch you up on!)

So let’s start…