2015 in Review, part 1

We started out the year using my resolution of making new recipes and found favorites:

Painted our bedroom so it doesn't look like Barney anymore :)

My niece, Chloe, was born :)

Made these delicious cupcakes for Tim's coworker's birthday and confirmed my love for baking.

 In February I lost my job due to Tim and I standing up for myself (long story about my boss lowering me to part time but telling me I was not allowed to tell Tim about it as well as him never taking out taxes in my checks. Tim called him out on it because that's serious and very illegal. And I was fired.). I am so relieved that I don't work there anymore. Everything seriously happens for a reason.

Losing my job meant God gave me a month to find the perfect job. I was also able to focus on hosting my sister's baby shower and spend a lot of time finding myself again. You don't realize how much a horrible job is sucking the life out of you until you don't work it anymore. I was able to go to the library and read, bake, hang out with my sister/niece/nephew, and really focus on happiness. It was exactly what I needed.

 I finished Gilmore Girls during this time also and ate a lot of healthy ice cream made from frozen bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate :)

I got my most likes on an Instagram picture of a pizza that looked amazing but really didn't taste that great. No one needs to know...

Made apple crostata for the first time with Marshalls Abroad's recipe

After a month, I found the perfect job for me right now. I'm a receptionist at a dentist in town, where each day is started out with a smile and a "good morning" from everyone. I love working with optimistic people and people who really care about you. Also, it's only three minutes from my house and I get Fridays off :)

Celebrated mother's day with a homemade fruit bouquet :)

 Tim and I went to our first wedding as a married couple. We actually had a ton of fun, but Tim hates hates hates getting his photo taken. We really are happy! Tim was just ready to be home and in sweat pants. In this picture, we still had the reception to go to haha

 We remodeled our entryway-I'll post on this soon!

I planted our garden :) Chock full of peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, and herbs! 1/2 of which didn't harvest in time before the snow :( Next year I'll figure it out!

 Tim and I had a date day and found an arcade we'd never been to :)

I got new glasses :)

 Made my mom's recipe for strawberry shortcake but added orange zest whipped cream on top.

 Put together a shed in our backyard to house Tim's new....

 enduro!!! We had a lot of fun taking trips on it this summer :)

 I got my first tattoo (see previous blog post in case you're wondering why the heck I'd get a tattoo of my cat-this photo is also just of the stencil)

 I also checked off a box on my bucket list when Tim and I saw Dave Matthews Band!!!

We found a cute little cupcake shop (my numero uno place to find when traveling to new cities!)

 Made homemade raspberry syrup for our pancakes!

 We also had my niece and nephew visit for a few weeks this summer, it was so much fun!

I helped out on my friend's food truck a few times!

Part 2 coming soon!!! I have WAY too many pictures and things I want to remember!

Saturday White Bread

These are the kind of weekends that I love. Friday I spent most of the day relaxing. Actually, I take that back, I had to go to the store because I was out of....tampons...it always seems like I run out of them all at the same time, so I went to the store and bought three huge boxes of light, regular, and super tampons. Thank goodness I'm WAY over being embarrassed about buying stuff like that. So yes, it was a day of relaxing, but part of the day was spent laying on the floor in pain...

Saturday and today were spent doing absolutely nothing. Seriously. I haven't even done laundry yet, and we probably have like four loads to do. I woke up early both days and was able to spend each morning by myself for about five hours before Tim woke up. I love mornings like that! I make myself a couple cups of tea and a breakfast of veggies and sunny-side-up eggs with toast. I then proceed to look at pinterest, blog, read books, and listen to music. I wish I could start every day like it!

One of my goals this year is to pursue my passion of baking. I enjoy so much those days when I know I've got something raising in the kitchen and when those smells start coming from the oven (delicious smells, of course), mmmmmmm...then seeing the finished product. I just take so much enjoyment out of baking, so why not do it more often?!

This is going to be my year to learn the terminology of baking and put my knowledge to use. I also want to bless people with my baking. I don't know how many times I've thought, "Oh! I should make this dinner for someone else, it's so good!" Or those recipes that make two loaves of bread, I should give one away. 

Especially this bread. With this jam. SO good.

I'd post this recipe; however, it's like three pages long in the book. It is definitely a bread that takes all day to make, but about 6 1/2 hours of it is rising time. It's so worth it. 

Found in "FLOUR WATER SALT YEAST", by Ken Forkish