El Yum: MMPs - Mustard Mashed Potatoes

Last night I did something epic.

On a whim and because I did not have any horseradish I put mustard into the mashed potatoes.

I had a craving for steak, so I marinated two big fat juicy new york strips.   I also happened to have some fingerling potatoes and some green beans.   I washed the fingerling potatoes and put them in water and boiled 'em up skin and everything.

For some reason I was craving horseradish yesterday, but there was none in a 15 mile radius around me so I had to come up with something.   Mustard was the something.

I added to my mashed fingerlings:

1 tbls of mustard (the grainy kind)

1/4 cup of sour cream

3-5 tbls of butter

1/3 cup of milk

salt and freshly ground pepper ( a lot)

2 dashes of garlic salt

The freshly ground pepper and the grainy mustard did something together.   Whatever it was, it was good.

The Barn, Chris & Jess, Friends, & Photography

Hi.

I used to take pictures.

At this present moment in my life I do not take pictures.

I would very much like to remedy this situation by doing two things.

1. Getting a camera that works well and takes good pictures.
2. Having one of my photographer friends teach me how to actually use the camera.

You see we have had lots of wonderful people over to the Barn these last few weeks and I have absolutely not one single picture to document the occasions!  Isn't that terrible?

We had Kyle and Jana over to spend the night several weeks ago.     Then the next night we made pizza for Silva and Stephen.    Then Wednesday through Monday Sheridan and Wes stayed with us and we cooked everything imaginable.    Then Saturday morning Kyle and Jana came and stayed with us until Monday.   Friday and Saturday I was also in Angela Mattix's gorgeous and fabulous wedding.   Sunday night Natalie and Jonathan had all six of us (Me, Chris, Sheridan, Wes, Kyle, and Jana) over for 4th July salmon, fireworks, and swimming.

All these amazing wonderful people.  All that amazing and wonderful food.   And not one single picture to document any of it.   SO much sadness.

We need to remedy this :)

What's the deal, man?

The deal, man, is this:  About 4 weeks ago I got a big spider bite on the back my leg, also known as the upper thigh.

This is what happened.   It was a Friday afternoon and I had gotten off work a little early.  Which is extremely typical in the oil business.   We were having Chelsea and Stephen Morris over for dinner and their pointer puppy Reese.   You see their pointer puppy is a 7th generation bird dog who comes from a long line of award winners.    This was a big deal you see because our mutt pointer puppy also wants to be a bird dog and I wanted both dogs to fetch stuffed birds out of the pond.

 I went to petsmart and bought two stuffed chickens suitable for water fetching.  I also bought some mosquito fogger at HEB because it is like the swamp land out in Magnolia right now and I knew if we wanted to spend anytime outside I needed to fog for mosquitoes.

Picture me in a purple sundress with a dish towel wrapped around my face fogging for mosquitoes around the pond.     I had full make up on and curled hair.    While I was fogging I was also picking up a few dog toys out in the front yard.   I picked up G's A&M Frisbee and found about 10 brown spiders underneath.   Normal people would be afraid and run away, but apparently I am not normal.    I absolutely HATE snakes, frogs, and lizards.    Spiders and bugs don't bother me too much, so I just sprayed them with the bug killer and stepped on a few with my Steve Madden sandal and moved on.

Apparently I messed with the wrong spiders because they decided to mess with me.     The scary thing about spiders is you do not know when they bite you.    When I got undressed for bed that night I noticed this huge whelp on the back of my leg, and I thought to myself man those mosquitoes are getting bigger by the year.    Thankfully I rubbed some tea tree oil on the back of my leg which I really think helped it from not taking over my entire leg.

The next morning Chris and I got up about 7:45 in the morning because I wanted to run.    I put on my running clothes and went down stairs to find Chris drinking coffee and having his quiet time.   By this time the back of my leg was hurting pretty badly and I had about a 5 inch by 3 inch bright red hard whelp which was surround by a massive pink circle that encompassed the entire back of my leg.

STILL I was unfazed.    I showed Chris, "Look, honey, at the back of my leg.   Don't you think that is cool?   Ok, I am going to go running now."

Chris:"What do you think happened, dear? "

Jess: "Well, it must be a spider bite.   I saw some brown spiders yesterday and I stepped on a couple and sprayed them with mosquito fogger.   I am going to go running now."

Chris: "Please go get in the car we are going to the emergency room."

Jess: "I really don't think that is necessary.  I will just rub some benadryl on it, and it will be fine.   I am going to go running now."

Chris: "Do you know what a brown recluse looks like?"

Jess: "No, I have never heard of one.  I am going to go running now".

Chris: "GET IN THE CAR."

Jess: "I have not had any coffee yet, we cannot go to the emergency room."

Chris calls his Dad and my Mom and determines that he is going to take me to my Dad's doctor in Tomball who happens to take walk-ins on Saturday morning.   Chris puts me in the car with my pink Nike mug full of coffee.

Jess:  "I am just going to go running real quick and then you can take me to all the emergency rooms you want to."

Chris's Dad had just sent him an email about brown recluses, so Chris was majorly concerned that I had got bitten by a big bad spider.   But he would not tell me what brown recluses did to you so I was completely clueless and was unconcerned.

We get to the doctor in Tomball and they take one look at my leg, which is throbbing and hurting really bad by this time, and send me straight back to see the doctor.

The doctor comes in and takes a good look at my upper thigh and says ....

Doctor: "If you had waited until Monday I would have had to put you in the hospital."

Jess: Blank Stare

Doctor: "You do not need surgery.   You do not need to get anything cut out.  You do not need to get anything drained.  But it looks at though you have a massive infection on the back of your leg.   We will never know what kind of spider bit you, although it does not look like a brown recluse because you still have the flesh on that back on your leg."

Jess: "Brown recluses take the flesh of your leg?"

Chris:  breathing deep sighs of relief and texting all family members and friends who are worried.

Doctor: "So I am going to give you two massive antibiotics, hydrocodine, and two ointments.  If your leg is still red on Monday then I will have to admit you to the hospital to put you on a drip."

Jess: "I hate antibiotics.  Is it absolutely necessary for me to take those?"

Doctor: "Well spiders tend to have nasty things in their mouth which apparently this spider transferred to you.    You are either fighting strep or staff, so it is really important that we kill the infection."

At this point I realized that this spider bite was a big deal and conceded that I would take the antibiotics.

Chris sweetly takes me to CVS and gets my prescriptions, then he takes me to the organic farmers market in Tomball, and then gets me Chick Fil A.  

I go home and take the antibiotics.   The antibiotics make me feel SO bad that all I can do is lay on the couch.    I could not work the first 3 days of that week and could only work half days the last two days of the week.   It was SUPER terrible.    But the antibiotics worked and the back of my leg is totally fine.


Needless to say the spider bite threw me off my game and blogging became the last thing that needed to be done.    So please forgive me.   I promise to catch y'all up on everything we have been doing these last few weeks.

What dreams are made of

Dreams are made up of amazingly designed and functional kitchens.   Kitchens that will house families.  Kitchens that inspire cooking.   Kitchens that keep families together.  Kitchens outfitted with the largest kitchen tables possible.   Forget that large dinning room table.   Put it in the kitchen.   Conversations will be started.  Lives will be changed.

I really like the idea of this kitchen:

I like this kitchen because it is organized functionally and not perfectly.   There is a MASSIVE difference.  Kitchens will stay clean if they are organized functionally, and cooking will be done with smiles and ease.    

I am not a perfectionist.   I am not an organizer.   I have fully embraced this about myself.   I always wanted to be one of those OCD perfectionist because everything they had and did was always so clean.  But as time told I realized that I was the opposite of this personality.   I like functional, comfortable, realistic organization.    

The kitchen pictured above is definitely not designed perfectly.   There needs to be some serious counter top space to the right and left of the gas stove.    But I love the feel of this kitchen.   Meals are made in this kitchen.  Family and friends gather and talk in this kitchen.

The wifie mama orchestrates the home from this kitchen.   It is awesome.   One day I will have my dream kitchen.  One day.

Love

Yesterday was our two year anniversary.   

We spent the weekend celebrating at the Westin Galleria Hotel.

On Friday night we ate at Star Pizza, and we watched Sherlock Holmes.

On Saturday morning we had french pressed coffee in bed.

We also celebrated at Nordstroms and J Crew.

( this was Chris's first shopping experience at Nordstroms, and his life is forever changed)

We laid out by the hotel pool.

We then ate at La Vista

I ate this:

And we drank this:

The we went back to the hotel and watched It's Complicated.

The next morning we slept late and drank more french pressed coffee in bed and had wonderful conversations about life.

We determined that year two of marriage brings with it a comfortableness with each other that year one simply does not have.   You simply trust one another so much more.

We then went and ate at Yao Ming's Chinese restaurant for lunch.

Chris wore this:

And I drank some of this:

All is all it was the most fantastic Houston weekend.   

It is amazing how you can spend the whole weekend with the person you are most in love with, and then still miss them when they go to work on Monday morning.

How I met Mr. Hill: Edition 3

I believe this weekend Mr. Hill will be giving his side of the story on how we met.   So stay tuned ....

I will continue with my side :)

As I remember we had this amazing conversation where I was rendered speechless and light headed and Lauren Lust had declared to the world that I would marry this man Chris Hill.

You see Lauren Lust, Wes Whitney, and Daniel Weizel all had this communication class together that particular semester.  It is also possible that the beautiful Sheridan Murphy also had that class with them.  Sheridan let me know if this was the same class!  I believe the very next day as I was getting off the bus on campus all three of them ran up to me, accosted me, and told me that I was going to marry Chris Hill.   Then they ran off and left me standing there bewildered and a little angry.

The next three weeks were all quite interesting.    Later on that same week Kristi and Lauren sabataged me at the Chi O house with Chris in tow.    I tried to act a little aloof but I was already totally smitten.   Chris and I began talking on instant messenger.   Yeah - we totally exchanged AOL im names.   My username shall remain a secret forever and ever.

Chris and I started talking via the computer and facebook and email.    Then I invited the entire Lone Star Verde over for Fratty Friends Friday at the sorority house.    This is week two after Chris and I had our three hour conversation.   We served pizza that Friday and it was a ton of fun.   Chris stayed after to talk to me as I was having a few problems with Mr. Boy from freshman year.

You see during this whole two week period of Chris and I recognizing that each other existed in the world.   Mr. Boy from freshman year had come back on the scene and thought that he wanted to date me again.    I was so very confused, and feeling lots of pressure to make a decision about which boy to choose.   This particular Friday marked the weekend before I was so to have FIVE tests the following week.    In fact ALL FIVE test fell on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of that next week.

I was feeling a little pressured by Mr. Boy and feeling TONS of pressure about my tests.    I sat Chris down in the sorority house and told him about all of my troubles.    He instinctively gave me some great advice about Mr. Boy.   Which of course I cannot remember.   He did not muddle or munipulate, he was just very honest and wise.   He was confident and not threatened at all by Mr. Boy.    This greatly attracted me to him.

Mr. Boy made several phone calls later on that afternoon as I was trying to study.   He very much felt that we needed to date again and was putting the pressure on me.    Chris being the studly man that he was sensed that I was under duress and made an executive decision.    He called me and said that I was to put on some super comfy clothes, gather up my books, and wait for him to pick me up.   He had cleared all non-studiers out of the Lonestar Verde, made coffee, and had even gotten some blue bell ice cream.

Chris came and picked me up and took me to his house to study.    Matt Sloan was there too and together the three of us studied in peace all night.   Chris protected and provided.   Mr. Boy was still calling and pressuring.

The next week I took my tests after being well studied thank to Mr. Hill.   But I was still confused about Mr. Boy.   Chris and I were definitely friends, and were definitely not dating yet.  I could tell that Chris was being supremely careful and cautious and was not about to make any sudden moves.

[  Little did I know that Chris Hill had taken Mr. Boy out to dinner DURING my accounting test and gave him a good talking to. ]

My Cowboy Daddy was drilling in Papau New Guinea at the time that all this was going down, so I was not able to talk to him much.    But I was in some desperate need of some good fatherly advice so I gave him a call and was able to get him on the phone.   I quickly explained the situation and he said one thing and hung up the phone.   He said "God leads and Satan pushes".

Instantly I knew what to do.   I called Mr. Boy up and set up a meeting in the park.   As we walked around the track I told him that it was time for me to be fought for, pursued, and cared about.   I put up that challenge and told him what I wanted.

After a summer of spending time with the Lord and talking to my Dad I suddently knew who I was and I  was no longer willing to compromise anything for that.   I wanted to present myself wholly in a relationship and not leave out the deep love I had for Jesus, or any of the opinions I had about life.

This definitely awoke something deep inside of Mr. Boy that I believe he had been searching for.   But, I had already made up my mind.   I told Mr. Boy that I did not want to date him, and that I just wanted to be friends with Chris Hill.

Mr. Boy was very confused.  FRIENDS?  I said yes, just friends.   Chris Hill had so intrigued me that I was content being just friends with him without any promise of a future.    God had stirred something deep inside of me and I was willing to risk my heart for Mr. Hill.   Mr. Boy was not happy about that at all.  Especially since when he and I had been dating the previous year he had confided in Chris about our relationship.   Chris had no idea who I was at the time.

After our conversation I went over to the Lone Star Verde with Kristi and Lauren.   Chris and his friend Brian Cooper had just gotten back from dancing at the Hall and were eating What A Burger (which I had always thought was Water Burger growing up).   Chris paid no attention to me at all.  This was mostly because his entire hosue of roommates had been pestering him that we were going to get married.

So I sat there on his couch, while he was ignoring me, thinking to myself "I have just sacrificed the relationship that I had wanted so badly for YOU."   I seriously think Chris said nothing to me that night.

More to be continued later on this weekend

Mr. Boy update:  later on that year God did some awesome and amazing things with Mr. Boy.   I believe he went on to meet his future wife that year.   They are happily married now and quite an amazing couple.

El Yum: Two Different Kinds of Pizza

Since I just posted the best pizza dough recipe I thought I would also tell y'all about the two different kinds of pizza we make in the Hill Household.

The first kind of pizza we make is just good old pepperoni.   Chris and I are pizza enthusiasts but we most love plain old pepperoni.    The foundation of a good pepperoni pizza is lots of sauce.   Of course this is all our  own opinion.   Pizza is very personal, so if you do not like lots of sauce then please do not be offended. BUT - before you totally make up your mind about that at least try lots of my favorite sauce.

I do not make my own sauce.  Praise the Lord.   But I absolutely love and adore and cherish Cento pizza sauce.   This can of sauce is on the pasta isle next to the expensive cans of special Italian tomatoes.   It is about $1.50 - $1.99 a can.   I promise that it totally makes the homemade pizza experience worth all the hard work.    If I were you I would just go ahead and pour that whole can of sauce on your pizza dough.

(Please note that this is not the fully prepared pizza sauce I love, this is just what a Cento can looks like.)

I have recently discovered that it is much better to grate your own mozzarella.    It melts so much better.
Cover your pizza in a good amount of mozzarella and then any of the following toppings: Hormel natural and uncured pepperonis,  mushrooms, banana peppers, turkey Italian sausage, bell peppers, black olives, or Roma tomatoes.   Sometimes Chris and I just do pepperoni and sometimes we get a little more creative.   Seriously y'all pizza is about the dough and the sauce.

The next pizza is Margarita pizza courtesy of my friend Elizabeth Meeh.   She made this pizza for Lauren and Matt's couples shower that she so wonderfully hosted.   Of course I spied something wonderful being made and paid close attention.  

All you need for this is:
Homemade pizza dough
Pesto
Fresh mozzarella sliced thinly
3-4 Roma tomatoes
A dash or two of garlic salt

Liz spread the pesto over the dough.   I would say a good 1/2 a cup to 2/3 a cup depending on how much you think you want, or how large you have rolled your dough out.   She then covered the pizza in the sliced mozzarella and then covered it in the sliced Roma tomatoes.    Then she lightly lightly sprinkled the top with garlic salt and brushed some olive oil on the crust.    I bake this pizz in a 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes.   I promise you will not burn the cheese.

Then prepare yourself for some amazing awesomeness.   This is truly an amazing recipe.   Chris, my meat eating husband,  absolutely LOVES LOVES LOVES this pizza.

There you have it.   Two great pizza recipes to spoil your loved ones with.   A homemade pizza and some good beer or wine while watching a movie = a great "Art of Staying In" date which was coined by the one and only Julie Prothro.

El Yum: The Best Pizza Dough

Tonight I am making pizza with some of my high school, and now real life, besties.

I made 3 balls of pizza dough this morning.  Two for for the four of us, and one for Chris and his sister Heritage.

In the Hill House pizza is very much a nostalgic thing.   Pizza means romance, comfort, love, and is always the best conclusion to a long hard day at the office.    Ever since I got married I have been on a pizza mission.    A pizza mission to make the best homemade pizza.

I finally found the best pizza dough recipe, and I finally figured out the whole yeast thing!   I thought I would share since it only took me a year and half to figure it all out!

If I was super cool I would post pictures of the pizza dough making process.   But I am at work and access to pictures and a kitchens is limited --- even on my lunch break!

This recipe is from williams and sonoma where they also sell the best pizza stones.

Here's the deal though: I use the ingredients in this recipe but I do not follow the directions.

Here are the ingredients you need:

1. 2 tsp of active dry yeast, or 1 yeast packet.
2. 1 tsp of sugar
3. 1 cup of warm / hot water
4. 2 cups of bread flour
5. 1 1/2 tsp of fine salt (no kosher salt)
6. 1 tbs of olive oil

Turn your water facet on to hot and let the water run until the water is hot.   How hot you ask?   Hot enough that it stings your finger a little when you hold it under, but not so hot that you cannot hold your finger under.  In short not scalding but fairly hot.  In a large glass bowl pour in your yeast and sugar, the take a cup of the hot water and very slowly pour the water in.   Then take a small whisk and gently stir until all the yeast and sugar are dissolved.   Then leave the yeast, sugar, and water mixture alone for TEN minutes.    No longer and no less because during that TEN minutes the yeast will eat up the sugar and start to get frothy on top.   If no froth appears after ten minutes then you have killed your yeast and you will need to start over.    NOTE:  if you follow the water facet technique you should not kill your yeast, and you should be able to dissolve it.  It is a fine line folks!

After the ten minutes is over pour in your 2 cups of bread flour, then your 1 1/2 tsp of salt, and then the olive oil.    

The williams and sonoma recipe says to use your kitchen aid stand mixer with the bread hook attached.   But I have found that if you do this you tend to over knead the dough.   What I do is just mix everything in the glass bowl with a wooden spoon.   Stir until all the flour is mixed into the dough.   The dough will be fairly sticky, but that is exactly what is supposed to be.    Then lift your dough out of the bowl and pour another tablespoon of olive oil into the bowl.   Then cover then dough in the olive oil, and then cover the bowl with a clean dish towel.

It is important that you leave the dough in a warm a dark place.    Depending on how fluffy you want your pizza - let the dough rise for about 1-2 hours.   

If you would like your dough sooner than that --- heat up your toaster oven -- place a towel over the top of it --- and then place the bowl with the dough in it on top of that.    The dough will rise in about 45 minutes.

On a clean surface sprinkle a good handful of the bread flour and put your pizza dough on top.   Carefully coat the ball of dough and begin to knead for about 2 minutes.    Then roll your pizza dough out!

If you let the pizza dough rise for two hours then it will make two pizzas.  If you use the 45 minute method then you will be able to make one large pizza.

 ( Please excuse the weird formatting on this page.   I have no idea what is going on ).