Jessica

Remembering my Wedding

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I don’t have pictures yet, but the day that Chuck and I got married is very special to me and there are a number of things that I do not want to forget. I have a lot of thoughts, and not a lot of ability to make them cohesive right now so this is just going to be a bulleted list.

I cried the day before and leading up to it, but was somehow able to hold it together during the actual ceremony. My mind seemed to run through thoughts quickly but also move so slow.
I helped the girls finalize their flowers, I just loved that I got to do this, since I originally wanted to do all the flowers myself. It’s funny how things work out.
I loved my make up & Hair from Brittany at Saratoga Debut. It was totally weird feeling since I’m not one to really wear make up, but I really loved the way I looked.
Waiting to come up stairs was the worst; I had that whole butterflies in the stomach feeling, and I kept crying. (thank god for fake eyelashes)
I don’t remember walking down the isle. Not one single thing from the time I saw Chuck’s face until when I kissed my dad on the cheek is remembered.
I couldn’t get the right words out for part of it. We were supposed to say we will for parts, but all I could manage was yes. I don’t know why this was but it got the point across.
Chuck kept smiling at me, at our minister Snake. It was that smile that made me fall in love and I kept thinking that.
Snake was the most serious I have ever seen him. He did great.
Chuck wouldn’t turn his hand so I could put the ring on. The only snaffoo (spell?) of the entire day. I’ll take it.
Our first kiss was perfect.
My Maid of Honor’s speech made me cry, and Shecky’s speech made me cry of laughter…poor Chuck.
My brother smiled more than I think I have ever seen him smile and my sister danced for the whole entire night! I was so happy that my siblings had a good time. As the only kids I was afriad they would be bored.
I saw family members cut loose like never before. I mean seriously my step can dance!!
I felt so much love I can’t even describe it. The whole place was just gushing with the stuff.
Planning may have been a struggle, but it was well worth it. I loved every minute of it. I’m even a little glad Chuck talked me into the whole big wedding thing. It was an experience I will never forget.
Getting back to the hotel room and taking a shower was the best feeling ever.
Realizing Chuck was asleep mid sentence was adorable.
Ordering room service for breakfast while thumbing through our cards was awesome.
Being called by new last name is crazy.

Meal Plan 10.4.15

By Jessica

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This is a meal plan based on the real recipes that I cook at home during the week. We are settling back into normalcy now that the wedding is over, and tackling numerous house projects that we want to get done before winter. This week’s plan takes full advantage of fall harvests that are coming in all around us right now. I hope you are enjoying it as much as we are!

Monday – Late Summer Vegetable Beef Stew

Tuesday – Orecchetti with Bacon Clams & Kale

Wednesday – Crock Pot Roast Chicken with Braised Cabbage and Carrots

Thursday – Apple Pork Chops with rice & Steamed Broccoli

Friday – Detox Chicken Soup w/ Leftover Chicken

Our Honeymoon in Wine Country, NY

By Jessica

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I’ve been a married lady all of about 2 weeks now. The whole idea of being married is still settling in on me. Wedding pictures are forthcoming I promise, but today I want to talk about the honeymoon.

We stayed at the Savanna House on Seneca lake, in the honeymoon sweet. It was absolutely delightful. The whole thing was the size of a small apartment decorated in the shabby chic style that really reminds me of NY, Finger Lakes style. When we entered the room there were lavender scented candles alight, and tranquil music playing. It was absolutely perfect! What’s better is that the masseuse arrived about 2 minutes after we did, starting this honeymoon off right. We ended the night pretty early with a bottle of cider that was a wedding gift, cheese crackers and veggies that I had brought for snacks throughout the week.

After a hearty breakfast at a local diner we ventured to Pulteney Square and then did the Keuka Lake Wine tour. We finished off the day by ordering an obscene amount of Chinese food and a nice long bath.

In case you are wondering these are the wineries we visited: Bully Hill, Keuka Vineyards, Heron Hill, Dr. Frank’s Wine Cellars, Deep Root, & Yates Cellars.

The next day we ventured to Watkins Glen for breakfast at Glen Mountain Bakery and a short hike that deserves its own post (coming soon).

Lunch was burgers at the Village Marina. Which put us into a food coma enough to take a nap. Since most winerys close at 6 and we woke up at 5:30 we decided to hang out in our sweet, read and find a nice place for dinner. We decided on Nonna’s Trattoria in Geneva. It was classic Italian food, that was delicious, another food coma ensued.

The following day we chose a few wineries along Seneca Lake, and Cayuga Lake to hit as we made our way back to pick the Brody Monster.

The wineries that we visited on this part of the trip included: HJ Wiemer Winery, Pompous Ass Winery, Red Newt, Wagner Winery, Lamoreaux Landing, and Sheldrake Point.

With puppy in tow we finally made it back to our favorite camping spot for a few days to finalize the week.

I couldn’t ask for a more perfect honeymoon. I think Chuck enjoyed it as well. It was simple, easy, and perfectly romantic, as well as very us. We also ended up coming home with about 2 cases of wine, so I think we did alright.

If your interetested to see what else NY wine country has to offer check out my Wine Country Bucket List.

Recently

By Jessica

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Well I don’t think that for once I actually need to say what a whirl wind this month was. I think you guys got the jist of it lately, but I’m going to give you a run down of all the awesome events that transpired in September.

It started off busy with wedding preparation and planning.

We did make time on labor day to go canoeing and enjoy a little relaxing time together.

The following weekend we celebrated a friends 30th birthday with a huge surprise party that was a ton of fun!

Then is was the week of the big day. There was a lot of last minute preparation happening, followed by partying…obviously.

The honeymoon immediately followed, don’t worry a recap is forthcoming.

My September was pretty darn great, how was yours?

Blue Apron Review & Thai Chicken Burgers

By Jessica

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This is a review of Blue Apron & their Thai Chicken Burger Recipe. I was not compensated by Blue Apron for this review.

Recently a couple friends of ours, we shall call them the Birdtails (long story unimportant story) offered Chuck and I the opportunity to try out Blue Apron. Apparently after you receive a few deliveries you can then let someone else try it out for free, which is a pretty cool way for them to build business if I do say so myself. I wasn’t planning on reviewing it, but I really want to share this amazing burger recipe so I figured it was only fair.

I like to cook so this was never really something that interested me however with the wedding coming and all the crafts that I had going on I thought that it would a good time to try it out. For that purpose it worked out great. I didn’t have to meal plan or grocery shop and everything comes premeasured, with instructions so food life was pretty easy. Most of the recipes were pretty good, especially these burgers, which we will get to soon. However I did have a few qualms; while all the packaging is recyclable it’s still a lot of packaging, and my environmentalist heart just can’t stomach that. The other thing was the delivery times, wed, thurs, fri, or sat for my area just doesn’t work the end of the week is always tough for us, because we travel or go to my parents for dinner, so I’d prefer a Monday or Tuesday delivery. I also think that the recipes available might be a little too much for a picky eater, there aren’t any plain Jane recipes here folks, this is geared toward foodies. As you can probably tell my gripes are few for the huge benefit that comes from the service, and the awesome food that results.

So now that the review is out of the way let’s talk burgers.

I absolutely loved these burgers, like can’t stop thinking about them, must make them again soon, they might be my favorite burger ever, kind of love. I was not expecting this. In fact I was expecting to hate these. You see lemon grass and I don’t generally get along. I’ve had it in tea, and occasionally in food, and every time after a few tastes, my stomach does a back flip and it takes everything I have not to throw it up (sorry; truth). My feelings for cilantro aren’t far off, while cilantro doesn’t make my stomach flip, I can only handle a small amount before it takes over my taste buds and the rest of the dish is ruined. In this case though I was piling it on! It was all just so good together. So amazingly wonderfully good!

Now the hoisin mayo is the stuff that dreams are made of in burger world. A two ingredient simple sauce that really brings the whole burger together. Its hard to say what my favorite part of this burger was, everything went so perfectly together and the overall flavor was spot on.

Now I do have to note I changed up the recipe a bit because of my apprehension, so this is my version of the Blue Apron Recipe.

Blue Apron Thai Chicken Burgers

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 4 Servings

Ingredients

1 inch piece of ginger grated (about 2 tablespoons grated ginger)
1 stalk of lemongrass grated (about 2 tablespoons grated lemongrass)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of oil – seperated
1 ½ lb ground chicken
1 ½ cup panko bread crumbs
2-4 teaspoons sriracha (add to taste)
4 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
¼ cup mayo
2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
Bunch cilantro, stems removed
1 tomato, sliced thin
4 buns

Instructions

In a large pan heat 2 teaspoons of oil over medium high heat. Add the ginger, lemongrass, and garlic. Cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until the mixture becomes aromatic. Remove from heat and place in a large bowl to cool.
Lightly wipe out the pan. And make the Hoisin mayo by whisking together the hoisin sauce and mayo until well combined. Set aside.
When the lemongrass, garlic, ginger mixture has cooled add the ground chicken, breadcrumbs, sriracha, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Using your hands mix the ingredients until well combined and then begin to form the mixture into patties about ½ inch thick.
In the same pan used earlier heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium high heat. Add the burgers to the pan and cook for 3 ot 5 minutes per side, until browned and remove from heat.
Toast the buns if desired in the same pan before assembling burgers with burger, slice of tomato, cilantro, and hoisin mayo.
Serve immediately.

More Burger recipes:

Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers

Thai Ground Chicken Salad

Chicken Caesar Buger

Jessica

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