Caramelized Cajun Chicken

I found this recipe in Southern Living, but made some changes. We made it the other night and really enjoyed it. It is really spicy, but you could cut the cajun seasoning in half to make it more mild. As the recipe reads, I had to suck down a glass and a half of milk to cool off my mouth. Andy on the other hand just kept eating; he loves spicy food! I'm sure that a side of rice would help with the heat. It was really easy to make and didn't require much time or clean-up.

Caramelized Cajun Chicken

• 4 skinned and boned chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning (cut in half for mild heat)

1. Heat a pan over medium high heat. We used a non-stick grill pan. If your pan is not non-stick, you might need some olive oil.

2. Mix the brown sugar and Cajun seasoning in a small bowl.

3. Place the one chicken breast in a gallon sized ziploc bag. Use a heavy pan to beat the chicken to 1/4" thickness; it will thicken back up some when it cooks.

4. Rub both sides of the chicken breast with the brown sugar and Cajun seasoning. Put the chicken in the hot pan.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each chicken breast.

2010 New Year's Letter

Happy New Year! It is hard to believe that it is now 2010; Andy has his 10-year high school class reunion this May!

This past year has been one full of celebrations. Andy’s paternal grandparents, Jim & Norma Walker, both turned 75. Mary’s maternal grandmother, Charline Rodgers, had a large party for her 80^th birthday. Andy’s parents had a party for their 30^th anniversary in which they renewed their vows during a ceremony at their ranch in May.

Mary has been feeling better this year. The doctors changed her medicines at the beginning of the spring. With the improvement from the altered doses, Mary has been able to slowly build up her stamina and strength. In addition to keeping the house running and Andy well fed, she has been able to do a little bit of tutoring this fall and winter.

The effort required for graduate school has ramped up Andy. He has to sequester himself away for a few hours each day to work on homework or research – even when traveling for work. As it turns out, hotel rooms make very quiet study halls. Andy will continue his research this spring and hopes to defend his thesis by the end of 2010. Since he has a few remaining courses, graduation will be around the end of 2011.

We had several short trips this year. When Andy went to South Dakota for some training, Mary visited a friend in Austin. At the end of the summer, we went down to Corpus Christi for a friend’s college graduation. Mary was able to show Andy around her college campus and visit with several of her friends who still live there. On our way home, we stopped off in San Antonio and Austin to say hi to family and friends. Thanksgiving was our major trip for the year. We drove a U-haul trailer to North Carolina where Mary’s sister, Meg lives. In addition to celebrating the holiday, we played with our niece and nephews, Teresa, William, and Peter, put up Christmas decorations, and sorted through Mary’s mother’s stuff.

For our fourth anniversary we went to a New Year’s Eve dance. The night was going great until Andy’s shoe flipped up one of Mary’s toenails. We headed home early but missed the ball drop since we were trying to get a nice picture while all dressed up.

We hope to simplify our lives this year by finishing some major projects, like Andy’s research and thesis and sorting through Mary’s mother’s things. We plan to enrich our minds through education, both at school and on our own and enrich our lives by making more time to spend with each other and with those we love.

Many blessings in 2010,

Andy & Mary

December - The Holidays

We were snowed and iced in for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we sat on our love seat watching Christmas movies on the TV and the snow come down outside our windows. It was amazing to see how large the flakes were and how much snow kept coming down. We really enjoyed having a slow, relaxing time together that evening.

Much of the holiday was spent at Andy's parents' ranch. We worked on lots of projects, spent time with family, and help take down Christmas decorations. We also made a trip up to Lewisville to see my mother. We made it a short visit as she had just gotten into bed.

Andy was thrilled with his presents. We were both very excited about going dancing on New Year's Eve to celebrate our fourth anniversary. We both looked fabulous as we headed off to eat a little bit of dinner before the dance. Everything went well until Andy went forward with his right foot and I went back with my right foot. The result was one of my toenails being lifted up. We didn't investigate how bad the injury was for fear of making it worse. So, we headed home early; my toe has been bandaged since.

We took this picture soon after my toe was injured and right before we walked out the door of the dance to go home. Fortunately, the adrenaline was running high enough that I wasn't feeling too much pain....that would come later.

December - lead up to Christmas

We were back home from North Carolina, and there was more of Mother's stuff to deal with. We had to bring some stuff back with us from Meg's and of course there was everything that we hadn't taken. As I type this most of it is still left to deal with...one project at a time...

Of course, I had missed a few things that Meg wanted us to take to North Carolina with us. So, I mailed that off. Then, it was on to Christmas planning. I had a great surprise for Andy for Christmas. He wanted to hear wonderful music, and I knew that he would love to go dancing.

My plan was to find a fabulous dress so that I had a great outfit for New Year's Eve. His present was finding out that we were going dancing on New Year's Eve and the next day; then, we would go to a reenactment of a medieval Christmas celebration. I finally found the great dress and accessories after many shopping trips.

I also tutored during this time. It was great to have the additional income and someone to help. I also found some new soups for Andy; so it was great to restock the reserves in the freezer!

November - Thanksgiving

We had plans to visit my sister, Meg, in North Carolina. So, we tried to gather all of my mother's stuff so that we could take everything to her in one trip. Andy & I took a trip to my grandmother's shop in Denton to get mother's remaining stuff; we took Andy's dad's truck and full horse trailer. We didn't think that we would need that much space, but it was available. With the help of my grandmother and one of my uncles, we got all of her stuff out of the shop. By the time we drove away, the trailer was packed, front to back, side to side, the bed of the truck was full, and we had stuff in the back seats of the cab. It was soo much more than I expected.

Once home and unloaded, the sorting process began. As I discovered more and more things, I realized that there was no way we would be able to take everything to Meg. So, I took pictures of a bunch of dishes, furniture (and other large items) and her holiday collections. I then uploaded all of the pictures to Shutterfly. Meg and her husband, Greg, were able to look at things through the Shutterfly album. We were able to cut down stuff by at least half; it made a huge difference.

The Thursday before Thanksgiving Andy packed everything in the U-haul trailer. We woke up Friday ready to begin our trip. As we checked everything and loaded the vehicle, Andy discovered that the evening rain had leaked through a small hole in the roof of the trailer. So, he had to repack things in the trailer and wrap them in plastic to protect them should we have to drive through more rain.

Finally, we were driving away from the house, and driving....and driving...and driving. The trip took 2 full days of driving with a stop over in Birmingham, Alabama.

We enjoyed spending time with Meg, William, Teresa, and Peter. We stayed incredibly busy all week long with kids, food, parties, sorting, talking, and decorating. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner (thank heavens Meg knew how to cook a turkey; I knew nothing!). We set a beautiful table with crystal (from Mother's stuff that Meg inherited) and china (our great-grandmother's china that Meg has inherited). Here are a few pictures of our time there.

I grabbed Teresa and William for a quick hug and picture while they helped Andy get the lights ready to put on the outside of the house.

Andy and his diligent helpers preparing the strands of lights for the house

Andy, my monkey, is putting up the lights for the third-ish time. The first time there was a bit of a gap after the second or third strand; he started on fixing that before we asked him to correct it. Yes, my sister and I are both struggle with control and perfection issues...we think it's in a good way most of the time... It was great for us to be able to share some of those moments together while visiting. Thankfully, Andy was already aware of some of my tendencies and took Meg's as par for the course! The second time with the lights going up, Meg and I noticed that he hadn't started them right at the corner of the house (the one in the picture). So, he started over again.

We remembered to grab a picture of all of us right before we left. Andy is holding Peter (1.5 years). Meg is holding William (5.5 years). I am holding Teresa (3.5 years old).

November - my birthday

I had a nice birthday. Andy got me several great organizing gifts. So, now we have more space in our coat closet and a kitchen cabinet. I also got some really cool bags from Container Store to use when I go to the store. They have a little pocket built into the bag that the bag can actually stuff into; it ends up being the size of a fist. They are so neat and convenient. I would recommend going by the store if you are ever in the market for any such bags; I haven't seen anything similar at other stores. I LOVE to organize, and Container Store is a fabulous place to go drool and dream.

Where Have You Been?

I'm sure that you've all asked this question multiple times since I'm only a few months behind. I wish that I could say that one of my New Year resolutions is to blog regularly, but I knew that I would break that rather quickly. All I can say is that I'll try to give some updates....maybe even one a month.

We've been crazy busy!

I'll try to give you some idea of our whereabouts in the subsequent posts.

Letters and Movies

Andy is off to work and finally leaving the laptop with me again.

I have a list of things to do that I thought I would try to tackle. As there was nothing on TV and I wasn't in the mood for a particular movie or soundtrack, I thought I would put something on Netflix as I worked to clean the kitchen. I looked at our watch instantly queue and decided on 84 Charing Cross Road. I added that to the queue a week ago without really knowing anything about it. I unloaded and loaded the dishwasher as the movie buffered and started. I was so quickly drawn into the story and characters that I'm afraid I didn't make it past the dishes; as a matter of fact, there are a few that are left to be washed by hand. The water running and brush scrubbing would have been too loud to hear the movie over. I love when you unexpectedly find a gem. This one had some sweet and some acid, my favorite combination! While this wasn't a film for the ages or a big Oscar contender, it was a beautiful reminder of friendship, generosity, and correspondence (primarily, letter writing).

I think there is something so romantic about letter writing. In these times of texts, emails, and instant messages, no one, me included, writes letters apart from the obligatory thank you note or Christmas letter. I think there is something really special about beautiful scripts, crossed out sections from misspelled words, and more words and care than fit in abbreviated, unpunctuated mass of letters and numbers that form our modern day correspondence. I wish I could say that my feelings would inspire me to send you all hand written letters, but the chance of that happening is slim as I bow to the power of convenience.

May you all encounter a gem in some aspect of your day.

Yea rain...nevermind, rain, rain, go away; come again some other day

What an interesting day we've had!! Once again my sleep patterns are off - I wake up before Andy gets home, stay awake all night, wake Andy up, see him off to work, and then go to sleep. It's been great though to help Andy in the morning; he's a little grumpy and a slow mover in the morning. We also have a pretty clean house, and Andy has had lots of really good food to eat!

Here the story begins.

This morning I made fresh bread so that we could have warm bread to put strawberry jelly on for breakfast. We have several kinds of cheese in our refrigerator that are growing mold - apparently, it is the good kind. To me, mold means that I need cut that off and hurry to use what is left; Andy later said to leave some of the mold and let the cheese age...I raised an eyebrow to that... So, I wanted to try to use the havarti cheese that we have in the refrigerator. I decided that he could have a sandwich for dinner with havarti and gouda (yep, we have that one open as well...no mold though). In my search for something to do with all of the cheeses (yep, there are more). I ran across something that said that Edam cheese pairs well with melons. I perked up and thought we have honeydew melon. So, as the bread rose, I got the melon baller (thanks Correy; Cici and Mary Beth I knew you'd appreciate this) out and went after the slice of honeydew melon. Then, I sliced off some Edam cheese. I put these back in the refrigerator and baked the bread. I pulled the bread out of the oven intending to let it rest and cool for thirty minutes before waking Andy at 5:30.

I start the dishwasher and listen to an audio book while I rest on the couch for a little while. I hear some thunder which upsets the dog and notice a few minutes later that it has started to rain lightly. I suddenly hear some sort of tapping sound that is not from raindrops. When I look around for the source, I see that the cat is walking around the dining room table; he's probably batting at a milk cap. Several minutes later, I still hear the sound; wow, the cat is really going to town with that cap (they are toys for him). Then, I spot the cat, and he isn't playing with anything.

I looked around and quickly spotted water dripping from the ceiling....this is definitely not good! I grabbed a bowl and put it under the leak to collect the water. It was about 5:25 so I went to wake Andy up. I charge in to the bedroom, and tell him that he needs to get up because we have a leak in the ceiling. He jumps out of bed thinking that there is water all over the place and that the ceiling is collapsing in.

He investigated by among other things looking in the attic and turning the water off. While he was in the attic, I was able to hear two different sets of dripping only one of which was the water dripping from our ceiling. Our guess is then that water is coming through the roof. Nothing really seemed to help or explain the situation or that theory. I called and left a message for our landlords. Unfortunately, they only start answering their phones at 9 am. Knowing there was nothing more we could do (especially since the ceiling wasn't dripping anymore), we set about eating our breakfasts at 6:30. To my annoyance, the extra hour of cooling the bread meant it was a little warm but not much. I then headed off to bed while Andy worked on school stuff and waited to hear back from the landlord.

Some men come to check out the situation around lunch time. They see some little holes in the room that they try to patch. They told us that we would have to wait for it to rain again to see if that fixed the problem.

And here the story should end....

During the time that I've been writing this, it started to rain again. While no water has dropped from the ceiling. I could still hear tapping...it sounded rather like a metronome. I guess I was hearing water dripping in the attic from the roof to the ceiling. Oh boy! At least the water hasn't been dripping from the ceiling to the floor! But I'm guessing that the patch either didn't have enough time to set or just didn't work. It should be a fun night since there is a cool front moving through with lots of rain north of us headed southeast.

Sorry for all of the verb tense changes; the post is too long for me to fix them all....

Our Trip to Corpus and the TAMU-CC Summer 2009 Graduation

For several months, we've been planning to go to Corpus Christi to see one of Andy's high school friends, George Mayfield, graduate. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to head back down to my alma matter. I haven't been down in a handful of years. I drove us down through the middle of the night while Andy slept. This allowed us to pick up a frame for my diploma, me to give Andy a mini tour of campus, and us to see some of my friends who now work for the school. I had hoped that we might make it down early enough that we would watch the sun rise on the beach, but we were on 37 just outside of San Antonio for that. So, we headed straight to campus. It was amazing how stagnant the air was when we got out of the car; it was supper hot! For our mini tour, I tried to keep us going from one air conditioned building to another. We didn't see all of the new buildings, but it was amazing how many there were and how they changed the landscape and feel of the campus. In one building, the CI, I even got to help a woman find the building she needed to be in; it did my heart good to jump into Island Ambassador mode all of these years later.

We stopped off at the Round Building and saw several of my IA buddies. We talked for quite a while, but made plans to try to see each other sometime after graduation the next day. I found out while there that one of my friends, Bryan Davis, was receiving his Master's Degree.

Then we headed over the bridge to Bob Hall Pier in Port A. I needed to sleep! We had to figure out a way to set me up so that I wouldn't be too hot. Here is the Walker Beachmobile that we came up with.

We had the car angled so that the breeze blew right through the back seat where I laid out. Unfortunately, I still couldn't get cool enough. So, we called up George and Lauren, who we stayed with. They set up their air mattress, we pulled in to their apartment complex, the guys picked up some pizza from B&J's (I love their pizza; they were one of my spots when I was working on my degree in Corpus.), and then we took a well deserved nap. That evening we headed to Snoopy's (a good seafood place in Port A) for dinner. I was really surprised how long the line was; they told us the wait would be an hour. I don't think it was that long though. The food was good, and it was great to sit out on the porch looking over the water as the sun went down. We hung out with the George, Lauren, and their daughters Samantha (3) and Evelyn (2) for the rest of the evening. When I was falling asleep, Andy decided we needed to head to bed again.

Saturday morning was relaxed. We got ready and headed off to graduation. It didn't start until 1:30, but George had to be there at 12. We knew that we would need to be there early for good seating anyway so we went all together. The girls were both raring to go and were not thrilled that they were being asked to sit! So, I suggested that Andy take Samantha for a walk. After 30 minutes or so, I called him requesting that he switch girls. Evelyn then got her chance to run around. Andy was great about helping the girls use up their excess energy!! The girls were then able to survive the 2 hour long graduation ceremony.

I was thrilled to find out that I knew several people who were graduating! The woman in charge of the Equestrian Team & Club, Catherine Swift, received her Doctorate in Education. As I said earlier, my friend Bryan received his Master's in English. George got his Bachelor's in Business. In the craziness after graduation was over, I ran into someone else who knew me. We talked, but I couldn't for the life of me recognize her. I felt so bad! She even remembered my name, and I couldn't even recognize her face! It wasn't until several days later that I could figure out who she was. Lisa was one of the other flute players in the school band. She was receiving her Master's in Counseling.

We headed back to George and Lauren's apartment for the party that they threw. Several of George's fraternity brother's came to congratulate him. It was lots of fun meeting and talking with these guys.

We packed up our stuff, loaded the car, and met several of my friends for dinner. I got to see Brenda, Bryan, Leigh Ann, Sara (Huerta), and Chris. I didn't get to talk that much with some of them, but maybe we'll see them again in the future. I had a fabulous time seeing everyone!!

We drove that night to San Antonio where we stayed with Cici & Logan. Unfortunately, we got there so late that we didn't actually get to spend time with them. We'll catch up over the Labor Day weekend.

Sunday morning, we met my father for breakfast. He showed us the house that he and his fiance, Margaret, just bought. It's a 1917 house that has some beautiful architectural details. They are cleaning the place up and working to bring the house up to the place they want. As with any old home, there are plenty of things on the honey do lists. They will have a wonderful time showing off the place at any stage though. Then we went over to Stacey (my college roommate) and Einar Phillips's house. We hadn't talked with them in quite a while so it was wonderful to hear all of their news. They have an adorable little puppy who would sit and wag his tail causing him to slide all over the wood floors; it was hilarious! Then, we were off to Austin to stop by Amy & Ricardo's to meet their new baby, Ricardo IV. He's so cute! After a very short stop with them (we stayed long enough for little Richy to fall asleep in my arms), we headed home.

What a whirlwind trip it was!! It was great to see all of these old friends!