Five years ago today I posted this photo on Facebook:

And two years ago today we went from close friends to being nearly inseparable. I’m going to be disgustingly sappy, but I’m so thankful I found everything I ever dreamed of and more all rolled into one amazing guy. And he’s mine.

Here’s a photo from the first night we went out in public as a couple. Steph and Nathan just got engaged so we went to The Lift and Fong’s to celebrate (where else?).

Here we are at Welch Ave. Station in Ames (again … where else?). One thing I love about Mark is that I’m not the only one geeking out over 80s tunes when he’s around. Full-on belting occurs when “Come on Eileen” or “Take on Me” is played.

February 2010 — Night of the Living Prom — this is our Billy Idol pose. Rock.

New Year’s 2011 (man I looked bad with RED red hair!). This is an ill-advised hair moment for both of us. Advised by who? Me. Of course. I kept dying my hair red while telling Mark he should grow his out again because it’s so cute … [thanks to Justin for the pic!]

Spring 2011 (I may have put this one in just because I love my hair and earrings combo here). For the record, I LOVE BEARDS. I didn’t like facial on men before I fell in love with Mark. Now I realize that fur on the face makes the man.

And at Steph and Nathan’s wedding in May of 2011 (yeah we came full circle here!). Thanks to Kelly for this pic. I included this because Mark looks awesome in a suit and I absolutely adored the flowers we got to carry.

July 2011. Last photo of us together … most likely because we haven’t gone out forever. Mark bought a car in August and I’ve been pretty much worked to the bone since July. We’ve been hitting up La Fuente like nobody’s business, but otherwise have pretty much spent our nights at home with Netflix and Buffy, Kevin Arnold and zombies.

Happy two years, babe. I hope we have many many more.

Share on Facebook

Last month was crazy. Here is a sneak peek at things that happened before I get to blogging about them …

… Mark’s brother Nick’s birthday in Stillwater …

… Mark’s 25th birthday in Chicago …

… awesome new fabric …

… moving …

… a really awesome project for Drake …

... and LOTS and lots of food.

(asian lettuce wraps)

(chicken strips with honey mustard and sweet corn)

(kung pao chicken)

(stovetop creamy mac and cheese made with REAL cheese)

(chicken, broccoli and mushroom alfredo with pappardelle’s tomato cracked pepper pasta)

(tomato, basil and chevré pizza)

so hopefully I will have some time to share these experiences with you!  And of course all the recipes.  I will also try to start sharing points plus numbers with you at the suggestion of Kelly.

Share on Facebook

I just spent all of last week MOVING. Again. I know.

The house I was living in sold, so I was given 30 days to skedaddle. Moved in with my boyfriend and his roommate (who I was planning on moving in with ANYWAY come August) and now we have a pretty sweet setup.

I’m not going to post pictures of their place before. They would be forever ashamed. But here’s what we’ve got going now. Also I have to point out that we have like 11 game systems between the 3 of us. Yeah. It’s pathetic.

After combining pillows, we have ELEVEN pillows on our bed. There is no room for people. Or a dog. The good news is that since Mark’s bed is a full size, we can build the pillows up on the side to make it a queen. Kidding. But seriously. Also, we’re thinking of painting his red and blue furniture a more grown-up color … like a taupe, black or brown.

Girlie stuff + boy stuff. And I now have access to my all-in-one printer. It was on the tippy top of my desk before and I didn’t use it at ALL in my last place. My summer project (amongst many) is to scan in all of my photo albums and digitally archive them so I don’t have to cart them around with me for EVERY move. You know what that means? More installments of Time Warp Saturday.

Um. Our kitchen is awesome. Just saying. By some strange coincidence Mark and I had the same set of canisters, so now we’ve got tons of stuff all canistered-up. On the stove is this month’s batch of Mark’s marinara sauce.

And more kitchen. In the crock pot is a pot roast experiment. If successful, I will blog about it. On the wall: artwork by Kim Kullmer.

So that’s about it. For the next 4-5 months anyway. We are moving on July 31 to our new 3-bedroom and I get my doggie back. (BTW I did not mention that Barney is with my parents because we can’t have animals here)

Share on Facebook

I suggest those of you with weak gag reflexes skip this post.

Today is my one-year-anniversary with my fabulous beau.  I can’t believe it’s been a year, yet it seems like we’ve been together forever. If I made a list of everything I could ever dream of having in a man, Mark would be all of those things — plus many more that I never would have thought of. He is amazing, and together we are unstoppable.

I’ll spare all the gushy details, and instead, clobber you with disgustingly cute photos (in ascending order of course)

October 29, 2006 — just friends. And he’s giving me bunny ears. AND we totally have the same freaking haircut. If we end up together, our kids will have amazingly gorgeous hair.

October 2010 — my 25th b-day — not together yet, but here are my boys Mark and Matt

October 2010 — Our first appearance in public as a couple … with the most gorgeous couple EVER, Nathan and Steph

December 2010 — Mark’s undergraduate commencement

January 2010 — um yeah.

February 2010 — Night of the Living Prom — this is our Billy Idol look.

May 2010 — not sure what we’re doing. But it’s cute.

June 2010 — at our friend Malachi’s wedding reception or the after party party.

July 2010 — up close and personal. And such.

Also July 2010 — Mark’s b-day trip. Right after I chopped my hair off.

October 2010 — at El Bait Shop

Here’s to many more happy years *hopefully* together.

Share on Facebook

Last weekend, my beau attempted some Giada cooking. He’s kind of in love with her, and who could blame her? She’s beautiful, Italian, and knows how to cook. Plus, she’s short and sweet like me.

He made her Linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil using whole wheat pasta. It was fabulous! It was like having our own little Italian restaurant.

Lovely parsley

The finished product … YUM!

Share on Facebook

Warning: These are in no way shape or form healthy. But, they are awesome. And amazing. And fabulous.

Mark decided that instead of pizza, that we’d do something a bit different and make calzones.

Holy lord look at those fillings … soooo yummy!

I don’t have a recipe per say, but I do have a small how-to.  Use whatever dough recipe and sauce recipe you want. Also, you can add as much or as little of the ingredients as you want. I’d be interested in any suggestions for additional ingredients.

1. Make pizza dough and separate into softball sized balls.
2. Roll out each ball to about 1/4 an inch thick.
3. Gather your fillings. We used mozzarella, onion, fresh spinach, cottage cheese, italian seasoning, pepperoni, italian sausage, tomato and tomato sauce.
4. Mix fillings together in a large bowl.
5. Scoop 1-1.5 c of your filling into the middle of the dough.
6. Fold in half. Fold the bottom edge over the top edge and crimp to seal.
7. Cut a couple slits in the top of the calzone.
8. Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 30-40 minutes, or until crust is golden and cheeses are melted.

Share on Facebook

Mark was challenged last weekend. The task: make dinner without going to the grocery store.  He could only use what I had in the apartment.

Could he do it?

Was there really any question? This kid knows his stuff. He pulled through. And in a fancy way.

I’m not including a recipe this time because we’re going to refine it with all the changes we talked about during dinner, but it was still amazingly delicious. The list of ingredients included: lasagne noodles, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fontina cheese, basil, italian chicken sausage, garlic … I think that might have been it. Not sure what order. He made a sauce of some sort out of the cheeses and rolled the lasagne noodles around the sausage. I added the basil towards the end (I LOVE BASIL. Especially fresh basil).

My addition to dinner was the garlic toast. I actually used rye bread instead of my normal wheat. I will share a recipe for that (so you don’t walk away feeling cheated!)

Calee’s Garlic Toast

(recipe is per slice of bread — because I may or may not just make one piece occasionally)
1 slice bread (I like Sarah Lee 45 Calories and delightful)
1.5 T olive oil
italian spices
1/2 t minced garlic (or less if you’re into that)
2 T parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400°.  Mix all ingredients except the bread.  Pour or spread onto the slice of bread. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until toasted.

Share on Facebook

I’ve decided to steal a pun we came up with at work and use it on my blog. Wonder-Bred.  It makes sense.

Anyway, it’s another installment of Wonder-Bred Italian Boy ™ Cooks. Again — he came up with the idea and I executed.  It was my turn to cook since he made an awesome pizza a few days before and since he made an awesome brunch, which I will blog about tomorrow in my Sunday Brunch post.

I was making chicken fajitas and Mark came  up with the idea of adding a side of rice and “Mexi-fying” it.  I was pretty skeptical. I don’t like corn in things, but he was adamant about adding it.

So. I. Did.

It was awesome!

Without further ado, here’s the recipe.

Mark’s “Mexify-ed” Rice

1 15 oz can Rotel Tomatoes with chilies
1 15 oz can sweet corn
1 c brown rice
1/2 t cumin
1 t butter

In a medium-sized sauce pan, combine all the ingredients (do not drain tomatoes or corn). Stir, while bringing to a rolling boil over medium/high heat.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes, or until rice has absorbed all of the liquid and is tender. Serve warm with cheese, salsa and sour cream, or as a side dish.

In case you’re curious, I may or may not have made dinner wearing my Ziggy Stardust t-shirt and my awesome custom-made Megadeth apron (the Dave Must-apron).

Share on Facebook

Hey all!

My boy likes to cook and I thought it’d be a cool feature to share his creations (with instructions) once or twice a month.

I shall call this segment: Wonder Bread Italian Boy Cooks.

For those of you who don’t get that, my boy is about as Italian as white bread. Wonder bread that is. He’s got the last name and the recipes. Not to mention he’s an amazing cook and comes up with crazy delicious meals on the fly.

So without further ado, this is installment #1 of Wonder Bread Italian Boy Cooks.

Sorry guys, I promise from now on I’ll have better photos. I did just buy a new digital camera! This was kind of an on-the-fly decision to add this feature, so the photo isn’t great, but it was YUMMY.

Everything from the Garden Pasta

Ingredients:

1 full chicken breast (both sides of the breast)
4 T olive oil (reserve 2 for the end)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 lbs assorted vegetables — he used:
1 small yellow zucchini squash, sliced
1 small green zucchini, sliced
1 red pepper, julienned
1 green pepper, julienned
1 yellow pepper, julienned
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 small package mushrooms, whole
1/2 c red wine
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
italian seasoning to taste
Cooked whole wheat pasta

Directions:

Heat 2 T olive oil over medium heat in a large pan. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to oil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook through and remove from pan. Set aside.

Add veggies to pan. Saute while stirring until onions start to get glossy and see-through. Add half of the red wine. Keep stirring and sauteing for 15 more minutes or until veggies have cooked through.

Add the rest of the red wine, the additional 2 T olive oil, both cans of tomatoes and the chicken. Sprinkle with some Italian seasonings. Cook for 15 minutes more. Toss with the cooked pasta and serve with parmesan cheese.

Share on Facebook

I spent the whole weekend in Ames since it was graduation weekend and the BF FINALLY graduated. We went out Friday AND Saturday. I managed to squeeze in an hour-long run/walk yesterday while he was doing the big graduation ceremony (I didn’t go since I couldn’t sit for that long)…and we went to Applebee’s with his family for supper (mmmmmm huge ass apple walnut salad!)…and then we watched StepBrothers until super late last night. I got up early today but wasn’t very productive at all (it’s after 7 PM!!). 

First, I spent most of my morning putting together a 5K training plan for one of my BFFs, Adria. I convinced her to run a 5K with me in September or October and she’s up for it. Updates on that will follow.  I’m finishing up the program and will be hopefully sending it to her tonight so she can start on it.

Secondly — the obvious — I spent most of my afternoon moving my blog (formerly runningchimes.wordpress.com) here and doing a quickie design that will suffice for now until I get time to do a real design and redo my portfolio. I’ve been paying $10 a month for this domain, I might as well get SOME use out of it!

Finally, I spent a lot of the evening listing some things on my etsy store, re-figuring some prices and retagging some items. I’ve got quite a bit of design up. My store got some traffic the other day when I posted that black prom dress that I’ve decided I’ll never be able to squeeze into.

Unrelated: I had decided not to work out today, but then re-decided that I should. AND if I do, I get to eat the ice cream that I have in the freezer. Don’t worry — it’s just a single serving. I plan to do a half hour of biking since I haven’t biked for a while and then some strength training and stretches. Maybe 45 minutes of biking. We’ll see. I plan to go at 8 PM. That’s later than usual, but I’ve got a new rule: something is better than nothing!  I have a hard time working out late, but I figure biking easy for 30 minutes is better than sitting on my ass for 30 more minutes. 

Anyway, that is all. I shall be posting more crafty stuff hopefully and more running stuff. I need to take some photos of my crafts and post them here, facebook and on etsy. Also, I’m going to probably start using the nike+ again this week since I can run 1 mile consecutively. I’d like to know what my pace is…just for s&g’s.

Finally: Shout out to PerpetualSpiral (whose real name I don’t know…which I feel bad b/c she’s pretty awesome) — fellow craftster and twitterer.  She’s always got some kind words and praise for me!  Yay for tweeps that I’ve never met in real life.

Share on Facebook