So Many Blogs...

... so little time. I have such a growing list of blogs and images to share and just not enough time to punch them out. A wee-little update will just have to suffice for now. As usual, Wes and I have taken on several fun Christmas projects, and extra hours at work, making the week before we leave quite the busy one. Though I am really in no state to be talking about such things because I am very tired. And well folks, I'm sure even you know that I get very illogical when I'm tired. So while we do have a nice sized to-do list,  right now I will tell you: its 5 miles long (and that's really not true!!).

When I'm tired and stress is looming, I usually cry, and over-exaggerate, and sometimes throw the occasionally pity party. I also like to dream up even more to-dos, pretend that they are pressingly important and feel even more sorry for myself. But this isn't my pity-party. Really. I promise you. If I was partying in pity right now I don't think I'd be sitting here writing about it... no.... I think I'd be crying. And my eyes are tear-free! (I mean as long as you don't include the two that I shed an hour ago.) I really am completely fine. I'm just in a fog... and a full nights sleep will make me feel as good as new.

So, onto more fun things than me being tired... Winter break has been so lovely!!! We went on a wonderful (seriously-- magical!)  date which Wes does a great job recapping on his blog, in this post; some Christmas shopping has ensued as well as some viewing of Christmas movies. We have been enjoying ourselves for sure. And we can hardly wait to come home! 5 days in counting!!!

Countdown

It's FINALS WEEK everyone!!!

I somehow managed to finish my last paper of the quarter lastnight. You can ask Wes how many times I whined: "ooooohhhh myyy gossh...." or "whaaat am I dooooing???" It was for my art-philosophy class. I was writing about an art critic named Clement Greenberg, then I had to relate him to Modernism, and THEN I had to relate those two topics to Kant. Fabulous. and what do you know? I'm bored again already which means I bet you are too!


Moving on...

Tonight is my Art History final, Thursday is my Critical Theory final, and last week I finished up Meaning and Making.

4 days until I'll be on Christmas break! Now back to studying...

and trying my hardest not to daydream about seeing you all in a couple of weeks. ;)

Can't wait! Thanksgiving blog is soon to come.

-Katie

Can I?

So if you talk with me on a somewhat regular basis you will know that I *love* the girls I nanny. And I  have quite a special bond with the 2 year old, seeing as how I have known her since two months of age. You would know that I love them because I talk about them constantly (thank you for listening! - especially you Wes who hears by far more than everyone else!). But my point here is that the internet hears little of this love. On a rare occasion I will share a story or two, but I am very cautious about respecting their privacy, etc. Anyway! my point here is that today my post is about my work. Rather, it is about Miss 2 year old who is changing faster than ever (seriously, today it felt like she got smarter with every passing hour). She has been putting sentences together for a while now, but only recently has she been asking questions, and building bigger sentences. This week her "favorite" phrase has been "Can I..(fill in the blank)..??" Can I RUN? Can I read-a-book? Can I EAT string CHEESE? and on occasion it will simply just be: "CAN I???"

Now prepare for me to get all cheesy on you but this is where I'm going with this. Today while we are eating lunch together instead of mindlessly spewing "Can I?" out of apparent habit, she appeared to be intensely thinking... She then looks at me and says "Can I?..... I can." With a head nod and then continues eating.

And the cheese in this is that I am sitting here all inspired. As I reflect on my day (which wasn't a great one) I'm exhausted, completely overwhelmed with school and life and my ongoing water-works about moving away (that for another day- though really does it need an explanation?) I am inspired by my little Miss. I mean really, I know I'm not alone in saying this... that's one of the beautiful things about having kids right? You see life through new eyes.... you remember the amazingness that lies in all of those little things....

So, I'll say it:

CAN I???? I can. I can finish up two more quarters of school. I will graduate in June. We will move to Europe for a hunk of time. And.... I'll just be.... crying.... every so often. As I think about saying goodbye to this family that I care about. Our apartment. Our walk to the grocery store. Our church. Portland.
hOKAY! Time for bed! ;) Nighty night. I'll be fine because...I can.

Sometimes I get Overwhelmed...

... and last week was just such a time. You know that point in time where excitement meets reality and you feel all tangled up inside? That's me, I'm tangled. I guess it all started a couples of weeks ago when I ran into some stress at the peak of quarter papers and signing up for winter classes. I'll confess, 99% of the time, signing up for classes breaks me. It's always a stressful ordeal... but the reality that I'm speaking of is our moving away from this place, graduating, planning our dreams... its a lot to think about. In fact, I have officially reached the stage in which I start to get all choked up anytime I even think about moving (yes, even now as I type). It's true. I'm starting to feel like we are at the top of a very fast slippery slope. While 7 months sounds like I a lot, my adult self knows that it'll go by so fast, especially with this holiday season right in the middle of it. Anyway, just holding myself together, one cup of coffee and a good night's sleep at a time. And as I was crying to Wes all about it, in the midst of all of his wonderful validation, support, and encouragement he sang this:




How perfectly fitting. Hope the song puts a smile on your face like it did for me! I'm excited to put one foot in front of the other and head on home for Thanksgiving!!!  (Sorry that was SUPER-cheese). But seriously, we can't wait to see you all!

Hoping to post one more blog before we make the drive on Tuesday. We shall see. Happy (almost) Turkey week to you!

To Eggnog, Or not to Eggnog. That is the Question.

Happy Monday to you! This weekend I feel like I officially allowed myself to start thinking about the holiday season. It has just felt too early to be thinking about Christmas trees and all of the other festivities that come with holiday territory. However, now that thanksgiving is (dare I remind you?) ten days away, I figure its about that time. Last year I discovered the yummy-ness that is soy eggnog. I've never truly been a fan of the regular stuff... it's just too sweet. I take one sip and then I'm done. But this... this my friends, is yum. Just plain: YUM.

So, I'll confess, I've been stalking it at the grocery store. Ever time I pass by the dairy items I peek to see if it has arrived, and I am happy to report that it has. Now, I'm determined to wait until after Thanksgiving to purchase it. It just seems too early right??? (Says the girl who just ordered an eggnog latte' at Powell's -- I guess you can forget everything I just said.)

My point here is simply to say: I'm trying my hardest to wait until December to purchase this soy-goodness. If you have a hankering I strongly recommend it.

10 days until Thanksgiving and 8 days until we make the drive home. We can't wait to see you all!!!

Sexy Snotty Nose

I'm not sick again.
And I definitely don't have a pile of used tissues sitting next to my computer right now.
And I most definitely don't sound like Pheobe in this clip.

Dear Santa,

Some people have been asking us about what we would like for Christmas this year. I thought maybe you'd want our list too.

 Wes's List: 
Patagonia Men's Nano Puff Hoody, Medium, Black
REI Venturi Quarter-Zip shirt, Medium, Black
Band of Brothers DVD Series (Whole Set)
Road to Perdition
Whiskey: The Definitive World Guide (hardcover book)
Merrel Trail Glove Cross-Training shoes, size 11, Red
V for Vendetta Graphic Novel
Regions of Scotland Whiskey Tasting Set 
Bushmills 16 Year old Irish Whiskey
Amazing Grace (movie)
 

Katie's List:
 Wildfox Couture, Beach Jumper, black, small
Women's half dome hoodie, medium, black, or navy 
Madewell braided friendship bracelet,  black and white

Hue Travel slippers, size 2, black, red, Red space dye, or planet space dye 
Deborah Lippmann Nailpolish, "happy Birthday" 
Butter London Nailpolish, "The Black Night"
Onitsuka Tiger "Serrano" Sneaker, Size 8, Grey/Coral
Color by Jane Packer
Flower Design by Judith Blacklock
Stella (Perfume) by Stella McCartney (any size)
Fluxus Nomad Scarf in any grey, olive, or blush toned color
 
Gift Cards: Nordstroms, Powells, Sephora, REI, VISA

Wes & Katie's List:
Outdoor Dry Ditty Sacks set of 3 (2 please!)
Nalgene Travel Body Kit Medium
Rick Steves':
Florence and Tuscany 
Amsterdam, Bruges, and Brussels
Spain
Provence French Riviera

Inception (movie)
Any of the Madmen seasons
I Love Lucy Seasons (any except for season 2)
Friends Seasons (any except for seasons 5 and 8)

much love, milk, and cookies,

Katie & Wes

Chicken Chasseur Recipe

Listen up friends! I'm about to share with you one of the best chicken dishes you'll ever have. Whoa, that's a bold statement. But really... I think it might be true. It has all the right qualities of a chicken dish. And we got two different meals out of the amazing sauce. It is simple, only has like 5 ingredients (ok more like 10, but! you are guaranteed to already have at least 4 or 5 of the ingredients in your kitchen), and you cook it all in just one pot. Still not convinced? Let me break it down for you:

 The word "Chasseur" is a french word which usually means a brown sauce consisting of mushrooms, shallots, white wine, tomatoes, and herbs. The recipe Wes found required red wine and I don't believe we used shallots. Anyway, here is the recipe and seriously TRY IT! Super easy and the flavor is divine. 

Curious on how to pronounce it? Have no fear, we'll tell you exactly how: (click the video below. You aren't suppose to be able to see anything. Its just an audio).

The Ingredients Needed: 

1 tsp Olive Oil 

2tbsp butter

4 chicken legs

1 onion chopped

2 garlic cloves crushed

1 to 2 cups (based on preference) of small Crimini or button mushrooms sliced or quartered

225ml of red wine

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 thyme sprigs
500ml chicken stocks

Directions: 

1. Heat the oil and half the butter in a large lidded casserole. Season the chicken, then fry for about 5 mins on each side until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
2. Melt the rest of the butter in the pan. Add the onion, then fry for about 5 mins until soft. Add garlic, cook for about 1 min, add the mushrooms, cook for 2 mins, then add the wine. Stir in the tomato purée, let the liquid bubble and reduce for about 5 mins, then stir in the thyme and pour over the stock. Slip the chicken back into the pan, then cover and simmer on a low heat for about 1 hr until the chicken is very tender. And serve! We served it with mashed potatoes and green beans. 

Because this recipe serves 4 people it made great leftovers for just the two of us. After we ate the chicken we still had a bit of sauce leftover. So we decided to make a soup out of it. It was delicious!! I don't know about you but we love a recipe that can be so versatile. This is what we did to transform the sauce into a soup:

Ingredients:
1 cup veg stock
2 1/2 cups water
2 carrots
2 parsnips
1/4-1/2 lb of this type of egg noodles
2 stocks of celery

Directions:
1. slice your carrots, parsnips, and celery. Saute your celery in a pan with butter until almost tender.
2. Add the stock and water to your pot of leftover sauce and bring to a boil.
3. Once boiling, add your carrots, parsnips, celery and noodles and cook for 7-8 minutes. Or until noodles and veggies are fork tender.
Enjoy!

Wes Cooking

So, as most of you know Wes is no longer in school (he graduated a year ago) but this is the first quarter he hasn't been enrolled in classes. Its strange and so much fun all at the same time. It's amazing what relief I feel just knowing that Wes is more available and that we aren't both in dire need of study time or both stuck with a pile of homework. Life has eased up a bit, our life is still busy but in many ways much less pressing.

And because my school schedule has me on campus until 7pm Mondays and Wednesdays, I come home ready for some food. What does this mean? Well, as you know Wes and I pretty much cook meals together. However, I would say that I am the dominant meal preparer. However, now that I am getting home so late on some of the days Wes has come up with this beautiful thing where he cooks for me. Not only has he offered to take care of the meals (shopping, planning, and preparing) he is so excited about it that he has been looking for recipes on his freetime and has them all bookmarked on his computer in categories. The way it works is I get to choose what type of food I want: Italian, Mexican, German, American, etc and he grabs a recipe from his bookmarked "categories" and I come home to a fun meal.

LUCKY ME! :) Although I unexpectedly didn't have class on Monday (canceled, lucky me!) Wes still took the lead with dinner and told me he was planning on making Chicken Chausseur.

Say Whaaat??

Chicken Chausseur.

Come again??

Chicken Chausseur.

That's right. We had the most amazing Chicken and mashed potatoes dinner the other night. Wes did an amazing job. We ate chicken, gave candy to 4 kids, and watched the first Harry Potter on Halloween!! TALK ABOUT FUN! Recipe and pictures to come!

 our neighbor did some serious decorating.

Happy Halloween from Us!

No longer Halloween weekend folks, it is Halloween! Wes decided to dress up as me this year, and I him...
Just kidding! We are passing out candy as ourselves this year and I'm guessing our group-count as far as trick-or-treaters go is going to be about... 4. This is no surprise. But every year we like to buy candy as if we'll get many more. Oh well, more for us! (ooooops!)

Hope you are all having a lovely night, enjoy your candy!! I know we will!

Happy Halloween Weekend

Have our lives gotten boring? I feel like I used to have such exciting things to post (I mean Harry Potter, and paintings??? You can't get much more exciting than that!!) and these days I feel like I'm talking about pumpkins the same things over and over again.

No, I know we haven't changed a bit... or well, what I mean is, I know we haven't gotten more boring. I think the truth is that we have gotten more busy and in a routine. Three years back my blog posts were different and I was posting every other day because we were moving around a ton, and I was taking exciting brand new art classes, and Portland was brand new. 

I feel like I may have neglected to announce our "Portland-anniversary" this year... maybe I didn't, but if I did... September 12th marked our three-happy-years here. And since I'm always posting about new places we've been or new recipes we've tried, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about our tried-and-true Portland Favorites and what our life really looks like right now.

So here we are in year three and:
Our favorite shared activity 1: Watching Madmen together (Year 1 it was: reading Harry Potter, Year 2: watching Heroes)
Our favorite shared activity 2: Going to Powell's to look at travel books.
Our favorite restaurants are: Avignon Bar and Pok Pok (ok.... Clyde Common too!)
Our "go-to" coffeeshop: Palios (though, honestly we don't spend as much time here)
A favorite coffeeshop: Little t Bakery
Classes I'm taking: Contemporary Art History, Critical Theory (Philosophy of Art), Meaning and Making
Katie's Drink of choice: I love me some red wine. How did I ever not like this stuff? I'm trying to remember...
Wes' Drink of choice: still my whiskey-man, through and through.
Our latest food discovery: The Manila Clams at Pok Pok. Amazing, and so fun to eat!

Ok that's all the update I have time for... Oh and of course pictures!

 

We had a wonderful time carving pumpkins after a trip to the The Pumpkin Patch. More again soon!

The Pumpkin

It is officially pumpkin season and I am in full support. I know it might be a bit cliche' but I am one of those people. Businesses start pushing the pumpkin, and I will consume. Basically, I have become mildly obsessive about all things pumpkin: Pumpkin lattes, Pumpkin bread, Pumpkin seeds, Pumpkin tea, Pumpkin Ale. And today, I got to deliver some floral arrangements to a wedding venue with (can you guess?) pumpkins for vases! (They were gorgeous!!) Yes Pleeeease! This past week we purchased Buffalo Bill's Brewery Pumpkin Ale and its really yummy, I definitely recommend. Also, tomorrow we will be heading out to Sauvie Island with our cousins and Kristen and Max to pick out "The Perfect Pumpkin," then we'll be coming back to our place for carving and pizza.

Pictures of that to come soon! Hope you are all enjoying this new season. Halloween is almost here and  I will be celebrating by studying for midterms and eating passing out candy.
Here is a little video I posted last year of our pumpkin carving fun.




Now.... I think it might be time to crack open a Pumpkin Ale!

A New Scoville

...was born! I am a very proud Aunt to a 5-day-old  Scoville; Sawyer Scoville that is. We can't stop swooning over the pictures. We are so in love and can't wait to meet the little guy. It will be especially fun to watch our other nieces and nephews interact with him at Christmas time. We love being Aunt Katie and Uncle Wes!

Scott and Rebekah we are so happy for you.  We know that right now you are living the dream, what a beautiful thing that is. For any of you who by chance haven't heard the details: Sawyer arrived on his due date, weighing in at 10lbs 10oz. We love you "Sawyer-the- moose!" ;)

A Sick Day

First week back to school and of course I get a bug. I have slept most of the day but am now enjoying Catch Me If You Can while resting on the couch. Wes just came back from the grocery store with all of my junk food comfort food cravings. Happy October 1st to you all!Dr. Pepper is good for you while you are sick... right??? ;)

Ashland/Brookings Trip

Now that Fall has arrived in Portland, I figure its about time I get up the pictures of our final days of Summer. A couple of weeks ago we met up with some Scovilles (Sue, Greg, Scott and Bekah) in Ashland to see a Shakespeare play. Then we headed West to Brookings, OR to stay at a beach house for five days. The vacation was lovely, and a wonderful way to end summer. We loved the Shakespeare play, I've always wanted to go and was happy to be able to check it off the list. Walking around Ashland was really nice too. The house we stayed in felt like a Grandma's house with trinkets and very old, cheesy (or should I say "apple-y" there was quite the apple theme) wall paper throughout. These details made it feel cozy though. The deer in Ashland are quite comfortable with people to. At any given point in the day a deer would be in the backyard or walking down the sidewalk. So lovely.

Here is a picture of the Ashland House:

And here are some pictures of our Ashland fun:

 And after a very large breakfast...

 And a 3 hour drive...

We made it to the beach house in Brookings...

Some beach-combing and clam chowder later and we were picking wild-berries for a berry cobbler...

  
 Yummy food was devoured (including delicious Whiskey-chocolate cake and Lamb Tagine)...


and a good time was had by all...

THEN,

On the drive home to Portland, we spotted Elk on the side of the road. Surprisingly this was our second time on this trip spotting these beauties. The first time it was a group of about 40 elk with a good amount of males present, so the antlers were just gorgeous. Unfortunately we didn't take the time to stop and take pictures. Regretting it the whole trip we were so excited to get the opportunity for a second time. This time there was only one male, but still- gorgeous.

 

So, that concludes our grand beach-house-adventure. We had a wonderful time! Can't wait to be home for thanksgiving celebrating the wonderful season of crunchy golden leaves, and crisp cool weather.

Pumpkin Lattes, Pumpkins, Turkey Basters, and Rain...

September is here! September in Portland is very special to me. It marks the anniversary of our big move up from Sacramento (three years this year), Sunflowers are in full bloom gracing every other yard around town, the Swifts (birds) put on a show every night of the month bringing hundreds of Portlanders together, school starts, and the weather begins to change.

Believe it or not this weekend is the first rain I've seen all summer here in Portland. I'm sure it did rain a couple of days this summer but I think I somehow managed to be gone for those days. Anyway, the rain really has gotten me thinking about fall... not only the rain but the presence of Pumpkin Latte's at Palios, and Turkey Equipment at the grocery store has made me realize that summer is coming to a close. School starts for me next Monday and some butterflies in my tummy have started to flutter. I'm not nervous about school starting, rather quite the opposite. I am very excited, and also am slowly becoming more and more emotional about saying goodbye to Portland. I know we still have 8 months left, but I now know how fast 8 months passes by. I feel like school will start and time will be filled with papers, projects and before I know it I'll be graduating and we'll be moving. We are very excited about the moving though! Europe has been in our conversations daily. Our first month will be spent backpacking, and so we have been watching backpacking videos like this one and dreaming up the best route. We will keep you posted as plans firm up. As for now, I hope you are enjoying the last bits of summer as we are.

Memory Lane

Hi Blog-Family,

I just took a brief trip down Memory Lane (that is, some of our oldest blog posts) and felt like saying I sincerely love our blog and love you! Our blog would be nothing if we didn't have amazing friends and family who genuinely care and support us. Thank you for checking in and reading about our simple lives.

From my computer to yours,

Katie 

Adventures in the Scoville Kitchen

A couple weeks ago Wes and I actually attempted to make: homemade Tortellini with a slow-roasted homemade tomato sauce (not once, but twice!),  Whiskey- Chocolate Mousse, Zucchini bread, and Shashuka all in the same week. (Disclaimer: we didn't consume all of these on our own mind you!) It was a very overwhelming week in the kitchen, and frankly kind of embarrassing to tell you about. Why we attempted to take on so many new recipes in one week, I'm not quite sure of. It was one of those things where we said, "This is what we want to make this week" and so we stuck with it, and never once thought "ehh.... maybe we should pick only one?..." So we set out on a Monday night to make some Pasta dough for Tortellini with our nifty pasta maker that we got for Christmas (thanks Scott and Bekah!). Mind you, this wasn't just our first time making Tortellini, this was our first time making pasta dough. We were inspired to make the tortellini as well as the accompanying homemade sauce because of the recipes we saw on a blog called What Katie Ate. This was dinner... Chocolate mousse was for The Bourbon Intelligencer (Wes' blog), Zucchini bread was made for an event I helped put on in my art class; and the Shashuka was just yummy breakfast on a Wednesday morning.

Unfortunately the tortellini was a complete disaster. I basically translated the wrong amount of pasta flour into our dough mixture, which made for very tough thick dough. :/ So because we failed miserably the first night (seriously, inedible!!), and because we had a lot of leftover ingredients we attempted to make the tortellini again the following night, only this time - the right way! .... aaaaaaand... failed again. :( After our second go around, we felt that either the dough recipe we used wasn't great or we aren't making the dough thin enough. Everything else turned out pretty good though!!

 

 More kitchen adventures to come!

We have been enjoying summer and hope you have been too.