Wedding Stress

August 2008 - Oh Liv, how we've changed!

I have been inspired, by an extraordinary woman, to write about life.  Olivia is one of the most brave, strong, and loving person I have ever met.  If you have the time, read her blog, #cancersucks.  We went to dinner for one of our sorority sister's birthdays and she made the comment about my lack of blogging, whoops! She told me to write about my personal life more rather than cooking! Who'da thunk it? So here it goes.

The past four days have been so unbelievably and incredibly stressful.  Aside from worrying about things like where Caleb is going to work or what Optometry schools I will get in to, we have this HUGE party to plan... our wedding!  I have been planning this day for the past 13 months, but like every other girl, it really has been my entire life!  I have an array of motions running through my mind at all hours of the day.  I'm stressed, pumped, nervous, excited, and about 100 others!  Now, I'm not nervous about the marriage part.... it's more the perfectionist in me that wants everything to go smoothly.  I have planned everything down to the T that my hopes are that on August 4 I will have to do nothing but worry about looking pretty :).

So what is there to stress about when planning for the big day? Especially two weeks before? EVERYTHING.  I almost completely changed the menu on Monday, I did change the timeline of the reception on Tuesday, and I spent yesterday calling places in Chattanooga to book things like waxing, ring cleaning and sauntering together, picking up tuxes, getting my eyebrows done, getting a MASSAGE! There, I said it, I'm doing something for me to not think about the wedding for one hour next week! Not to mention that I have changed my mind about what to get Caleb about every day the past 395 days... and now I just have no clue.

Don't get me wrong, I'm surrounded by amazing people helping me, my parents (mostly helping me not to stress...) his parents, Caleb, Kristian... the list goes on.  But man oh man, who knew it was going to be this much work! It's like having another job all together!  I don't know if it's nerves or what, but I have not been eating much this week! I'm just never hungry! Now, if you know me... you know that I AM ALWAYS hungry! Caleb said that its just being in my head too much and my mind is thinking about too many other things to worry about eating.  Don't worry though, I'm not turning anorexic or anything, I'm just down from 6 meals/snacks a day to 4... But it is less than usual! But seriously, stop worrying, I'm eating a banana as we speak! Just because I'm not hungry, doesn't  mean I'm not eating :). 

Another thing to stress about? Not stressing too much that I cause zits! Talk about running around in circles, stressing about stress? Yep, that's me.  Over and out because I'm getting married in 9 days!!!

Griller's Dream

I have been inspired to blog once again!  Tonight I made one of the most amazing, grilled meals EVER... and when I say "I made it", what I really mean is I could not have done this meal without Caleb.  What an amazing sous chef, and future husband (12 days to go!).  After watching The Next Food Network Star, Caleb and I were yet again inspired to try a new and exciting meal... Two hours later, one of the best meals of our lives!  Nothing like a hard two hour meal to de-stress a girl after a long day of wedding planning... at work :)

Since I was not prepared, I do not have step by step pictures, and honestly, there were WAY too many steps to try that. But man oh man what a feast!

We enjoyed Bobby Flay's, Grilled Butterflied Trout; Melissa D'Arabian's Grilled Potato Salad; Grilled onions (green and white); and Gina Neely's Turnip Greens.  Whew, was that a mouth full! Oh boy was it!

Its hard to pick a favorite, but the potato salad was absolutely to die for!  I started by preparing the grilled potato salad.  First, cut up and boil the red potatoes for 8 minutes, then add the diced sweet potato.  While that is boiling for another 8 minutes, mix up 1/4 cup mayo, 1 tbs dijon, 2 tsp onion powder, 2 tsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne.  Now I am a baby and don't like things too spicy, but this cayenne was AMAZING! So after the potatoes are boiled and cooled you add them to this mixture and then grill them 1-2 minutes on each side.  Then you add them to the delicious green onion bacon vinaigrette, basically red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, olive oil, and bacon grease YUM!

For the trout, we didn't even marinate it in anything, just grilled it and afterwards topped it with a delicious home-made parsley-lemon butter.  

Turnip greens, even easier: in a dutch oven, add olive oil and butter. Sautee your onions, garlic, turnip greens.  Add a mixture of dijon mustard, chicken stock and white wine.  Top with red pepper flakes and let simmer until almost all of the liquid has evaporated.  I add a few diced tomatoes at the end for extra flavor and color... not too mention Caleb loves it.

For the most obvious, the onions, just put them on the grill top, season with salt and pepper, and eat as if they were potato chips!  I'm telling you, as hard as this meal was, it was 100 times more mouth watering. 

It was so smokey and hot in the apartment we decided to enjoy this feast on the patio to get some fresh air. I'm telling you this was last meal of your life worthy...

If you are having a rough day, or a boring one and truly enjoy bringing mouth-watering happiness to your man, make these potatoes!  We were both wary about the sweet potato, in fact, we didn't even get them the first time to the grocery store, but after reading the reviews, it was difficult not to be tempted. 

And for the grand finale, Caleb made this delicious dessert.  He used his second favorite new toy, the Magic Bullet (his new espresso machine is his most favorite).  He blended blueberries, strawberries, heavy cream, and powdered sugar.  Not too much heavy cream, just enough to make it decadent.  He poured that into a nice bowl and plopped a nice scoop of vanilla bean ice cream into it.  Talk about amazing... He really knows the best way to my heart!  I could have had about 3 more bowls of this stuff, but alas, I must fit into the tiniest of dresses in just 12 days!

Don't worry, I blog about the wedding, the honeymoon in Jamaica and our lives to come full of good food and full stomachs.