Sunday, June 29, 2008

Kristyn & Katie's Amazing-Wives-Twice-Baked-Potatoes

Now I won't be claiming anytime soon that I am any sort of a great cook. But I like to consider that I am learning. Very slowly. Ever since Matt & I started Body For Life back in February we've been cooking considerably more and I've started to semi-enjoy it. Back a few months ago Katie & I decided that we wanted to better ourselves as wives (like we could get anymore amazing) and host a little dinner party like amazing wives do. Katie thought we should try twice-baked potatoes and so we found a random recipe on the internet....
Meet Katie! Hello Friend:)
This is what we came up with, yum!!
And since Sundays are "Eat Whatever You Want!" days for our new lifestyle tonight we had a little bit of a random cook out again with, listen to this menu, twice-baked potatoes, lasagna, garlic bread, mussels, and fried walleye. Random? Yes. So here is my second attempt at what I now pretty much looove. My beautiful TBPs.
Luckily for less-skilled cooks like me these babies are not an exact science and are actually pretty easy to make.

Katie & Kristyn's Twice Baked Potatoes Ripped Off From Random Internet Recipes and Made Into Yummiliciousness!

3 large baking potatoes

1/2 cup of milk (or sort of a splash in my case)

About 6 oz. of sour cream because I just sort of dumped part of an 8 oz. tub in :)

4 tbsp. of butter (or whatever is left in the bowl by the toaster)

About a half a bag of shredded Chedder Cheese

Half Package of Bacon (cooked n' crumbled)

Some green onions or onion salt if you're lazy like me sometimes

Salt, Pepper, & Garlic to taste (and if you feel like getting adventurous try a little cayenne pepper, celery salt, or whatever you find in the spice cabinet that sounds like it might work with a potato :)

Sea Salt & Olive Oil

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees

*Pour a little olive oil on the potatoes and rub some sea salt on them, wrap in tin foil, and bake for 1 hour

*Slice potatoes in half the long way and spoon out the yummy insides. Save the skins (so they look like boats). Mix the insides with the milk, sour cream, butter, half of the cheese, half of the bacon, and whatever spices from above.

*Spoon the potato mix back into skins and sprinkle with the remaining cheese, bacon, and onion.

*Cook for an additional 15-20 minutes and serve!

YUM!!!!!!!!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

If you woke up this morning it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.

For the last 6 months it's become a tradition that when Matt & I are actually together in the same state we watch 24. We watched the 1st season over last Christmas break and you can tell about how many breaks we've had together since then because we just started Season 5 last night. And since I finally get to see my husband for the first time in over a month this week I'm suggesting that instead of waiting for a new blog update you stop by Family Video and start watching some serious television in the form of Mr. Bauer saving the world one torture session at a time.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Check-Out Line & My Travel List

Tonight, while on a late night grocery run with Katie, I did something I have never done. I bought a magazine completely on impulse and not while in the airport. I was putting my I-can't-believe-the-price-of-wheat food items through the check out when I saw this little gem and decided I wanted it regardless of price or need. Now I don't usually fall for published complications claiming to have all the best of whatever but this baby is full of really beautiful photographs of really random cool places and my travel list just wouldn't let me pass it up.
From a pretty early age my parents took my family on fun vacations and ever since then I've been bitten by a pretty potent version of the travel bug. My husband and I share a love for traveling and have been some pretty cool places together (Paris, Rome, London, Aruba, Curacao, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Martin, Barbados, Venezuela, Antigua, Puerto Rico, Mexico....)

We vowed before we got married that while we were young we would make traveling a priority so I have started my "travel list" and when I cross these off my list I'm sure I'll be able to come up with some new ones. And hopefully my LIFE "Dream Destinations" will give me some more ideas :)

First off, Hawaii. We're planning this stop for sometime in the next year hopefully!

A few Europe trips...

*Italy (we've been to Rome and a train ride through the Alps but there is still plenty more to see!)

Switzerland, Austria, & Germany (Matt has been to these countries and I'm dying to go!)
Ireland (the Hogan motherland :)
Barcelona!
Greece
The British Virgin Islands (if I win the lottery this trip would include Petit St. Vincent or Peter Island but if not the Grenadines, Virgin Gorda, St. John, one of those will do :)
A South African Safari
New Zealand (Matt's brother is studying abroad there for a semester and I am jealous!)
Banff/Glacier National Park
A Moorings Private Caribbean Sailing Trip with the whole family!

And some others on the list...Fiji & Bora Bora / Oregon Coast & Vancouver / Key West, Florida / Belize / Charleston, SC / Savannah, GA / New York City / Yellowstone

So let's hear what everyone else's list includes, we're always up for new ideas!

And sorry my fellow traveler Ashley, Grand Forks is not going to make this list due to...the fact that we'd rather see you in one of the above locations instead :)

Sunday, June 22, 2008

The Problem of Pain

I enjoy thinking on an everyday basis. Some days this enjoyment is fulfilled when I feel as though I pondered somewhat in depth how a girl like Samantha Brown ever got the job on Passport to Europe. Such an amazingly cool job for such a nails across a chalkboard bunny rabbit kind of woman. But some days, when I'm feeling less jealous of Samantha Brown and more insightful on the world I enjoy pushing my thought process beyond the dimensions of the Travel Channel and into the dimensions of philosophy, apologetics, and the joys of having to read the same page 4 times just to understand the first sentence. I'm not sure why anyone would actually consider this enjoyable but I'll simply chalk it up to some DNA from my father who adores the History Channel, American Idol, Classic Westerns, and the Bachelor. My nucleic acid is just a little twisted.

So, in an effort to feed my need for torturing my brain cells with a little deep thought time without Jack Handey, I'm diving into a book by C.S. Lewis: The Problem of Pain. I read Mere Christianity a few years ago and have been wanting to read more by Lewis ever since when my husband suggested that we tackle this little piece of work together. So far it's taken me about a week to get through the introduction and first chapter with lots of internal "wow's" in between. He really packs a punch when it comes to looking at our selfish view of God and how convenient we can make God for ourselves. How pain in the world does not negate a good God but in fact supports and glorifies Him. I even highlighted a bunch of stuff just in the first 10 pages.
So I decide tonight that I'm going to go back through what I've highlighted so far to reprocess the thoughts of what I've read. And, as usual, my little book just like my keys, my purse, and my life are nowhere to be found. I swear to God and everyone in my family that I put things in logical LOGICAL places. And somehow in the end I find them in really logical places.

The logic I'm refering to must be some subconcious motive in hiding things from possible burglars that might ransack all my possessions. I'm deducing (logically) that my 1 second thought process goes something like this: I'm holding something in my hand that I don't want to hold anymore. Let me put it in a logical place. One that right now makes perfect sense to me considering I am currently looking at a nook and cranny that will not cross my mind for another 48 hours. Good idea, I'll put it here.

Clearly my brain was so engrossed in the complexities of Mr. Lewis that I had no circuits left to keep track of him. So for now, until I find my little book, I'll leave you with a quote that I sadly had to look up on the internet.

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
-C.S. Lewis "The Problem of Pain"

Maybe my brain is telling me I just need to stick with the Travel Channel for tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Nashville Wedding Photographer

Nashville wedding photographer, Kristyn Hogan, documents the beauty, the life and the story of weddings and people in Nashville and destinations worldwide.