Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Dinner Party

Last Friday Rachel came over and helped me make an amazing dinner for our friends Sarah, Sean, Austin, and Tom. I made pot roast (my Mom's recipe - awesome!) with carrots, green beans, and mashed potatoes. The guys got me a nice cookbook for Christmas so we were determined to make a dessert from the book. Rachel followed the recipe for mocha pecan pie exactly but it never set up right and ended up looking more like chocolate soup.

Thankfully I had a dessert in reserve. It was a recipe I made up out of my love for nutella. If you've never tried nutella, you need to - fast! It can be found in the grocery store next to the peanut butter.


Here's the recipe for Nutella Mousse Cups:

1/2 cup Nutella
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
2 tbs Godiva chocolate liqueur
1 cup whipped cream, whipped
3 tbs powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
12 pre-made (or homemade) chocolate dessert cups
chocolate shavings (opt)
two pints raspberries (opt)

Mix nutella and cheese together until blended. Mix in liqueur. In a separate bowl whip cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until whipped cream stands on its own. Gently fold in nutella cheese mixture until incorporated. Spoon or pipe into the dessert cups. If desired, sprinkle shaved chocolate over the mousse and decorate with raspberries.


It's delicious! One of my friends liked the golden raspberries so much, he ate all the raspberries off two cups and left the chocolate. A girl would never do that ... ;-)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Concert at the National Cathedral

A couple of weeks ago my friend Tom and I went into DC to see a concert at the National Cathedral. It was a spectacular concert and lots of fun to get dressed up. We also enjoyed walking around the National Gallery of Art and taking some really fun pictures. I can't wait to go explore the museums when the weather is better!

Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball


My friend Regan invited me to the Texas State Society Inaugural Ball last night and it was a blast! There were probably 10,000 Texans packed into this beautiful hotel in DC. Many famous country acts performed and Regan and two-stepped and waltzed the night away. Here are a few pictures from the event.


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Friday, January 2, 2009

New Year's Eve 2008


Me and Sean

Margaret and me

I wanted to post a few pictures from NYE 2008. I spent the evening with the aggies, Rachel, Margaret, and a whole bunch of people I didn't know. They were all super nice,though, and it was fun getting to know some new people here in the DC area.


Me, Tom, and Rachel

Me and Rachel

I bought a really special dress to wear for NYE at Ralph Lauren. I paid way too much for the dress but I guess I was just psyched to find such an awesome dress and shocked even more to discover that some how I am a size 2 at Ralph Lauren?! We'll see how long that lasts ... :-)

Thursday, January 1, 2009

2008 Review

So here we go ... 2009 is now upon us and it's time for me to list my New Year's Resolutions. But first, I thought it would be fun to list my 2008 resolutions and see how I did.

1. Run in the Cherry Blossom 10 mile : I ran the Cherry Blossom in 9 hours 37 minutes, and I also ran the Army 10 mile in 9 hours 38 minutes.
2. Blog at least once a week : I had 50 posts for 08, so pretty close
3. Do my bible study everyday and not all on the day before I meet with my small group : Well, I had good intentions, but I have to confess that I cut it close a couple of nights
4. See some touristy stuff in DC, since I live 12 miles from the Smithsonian : I took many trips into DC this year and I look forward to many more!
5. Stick with my money management plan so I can save some for a rainy day : Definitely paid down a lot of my debt in 08
6. Spend less money at Coach : UMM, really didn't do so well here, seeing as how I am moonlighting at Coach. However, because I have a discount now, I'm really saving money, right?!
7. Learn how to play my guitar : I learned how to play my guitar and even played a song for my Dad when my family visited at Thanksgiving
8. Learn a new song on the piano : This one will have to rollover to 09

So all in all, I think I did a pretty good job in 08. It was fun setting goals and being able to accomplish them. I have a pretty good list for 09, so let's see how far I get on this one.

1. Learn conversational Spanish
2. Take belly dancing lessons
3. See a volcano when I'm in Hawaii in February
4. Run the Cherry Blossom 10 mile in 90 minutes
5. Train for the marine corps marathon and try to run it in October (or at least the half)
6. Visit another country
7. Continue my guitar lessons and learn a new song on the piano
8. Visit Annalise in the summer so she can show me Moab
9. Keep following where the Lord leads me spiritually, emotionally, relationally, geographically ...

So that's the list. 2008 was a great year and the Lord blessed me so much by surrounding me with amazing friends and family. I look forward to 2009 and what comes my way.

Stay tuned!