So this is the new year...

... and I can't wait to see what adventures it brings. There is just something so inspiring about a new year. It just feels as if anything can happen and you can become whoever you want to be. One of my favorite traditions that Brett and I do is every New Years we make a list of goals and adventures. Most are things we want to try to accomplish in the following year but some are life goals as well. It is fun to sit down and dream together as well as remember the things we accomplished in the previous years. One of our unofficial mottos for our life is we want to try to have some kind of adventure every week. An adventure can be as big as visiting a new place to as small as trying a new food. I thought it would be fun to share some of the things we put on our list this year.

Sew curtains for our apartment

Become debt free

Walk across the Brooklyn bridge

Explore all the 5 NYC boroughs

DC cherry blossom festival

Go Skydiving

Read the whole bible

Visit Martha's Vineyard

Blog more

Finally see Shakespeare in the park

Be able to run 3 miles in 30 minutes

Stick to a budget

Eat vegetarian 5 days a week

Try to eat primarily organic

Go to Coney Island

Visit/explore all the states within 5 hours of us

Go to Canada

Complete the top chef cooking school

Bake almost all my own bread

Learn photography

Go to a Yankees game

Visit Lancaster

Go on more dates

Read 12 book

Learn Banjo

Get at least 70% on APFT

Hang out with guys more

Craft more

This is going to be a big year for us and I cannot wait!

cool weather and warm kitchens

It is starting to feel like fall around here. The weather is cooling off - though we didn't have much of a summer - and I am in the mood to start cooking again. While I love the warmth and adventures that summer brings there is nothing like cooking a warm meal when it is cool outside. Fall is my favorite season with all the beautiful colors and abundance of food. I plan to make the most of it, picking apples and pumpkins and whatever else I can find to pick. I also want to learn how to bake. I feel fairly confident in the kitchen when it come to cooking. Not afraid to try a new recipe or add a little of this or that, but baking is a whole different game. With baking you have to be precise, no just throwing things together - at least not at first. So expect some more baking recipes on here.

To start the season, I made a Tres Leche Cake (a spanish 3-milk cake). Brett has been asking for one and while browsing a new blog I found a delicious recipe for it. As I have never had Tres Leche before I am not sure if mine tasted right, but I thought it was good and everyone who tried it said it was authentic. Check out this blog for the recipe and if you have some time (it's long), read her story of how she meet her husband. I have never been one to read romance novels but I was completly enthraled in her story. I started reading it durning my lunch break and had trouble staying on task at work because I wanted to keep reading.

So other than baking and reading blogs what have I been up to?... Oh yea, we moved into our new apartment, my parents came to visit, and I ran my first 5k! As you can tell, life has been slow at the Hartford's :) The apartment is great and I will post picture soon, but right now it is still a disaster and we are slowing getting the apartment set-up to fit our life.

Having my parents here was wonderful. We were tourist for the weekend and completely wore ourselves out. We visited a vineyard, tasted chocolate in Hershey, PA, saw the statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, ran a 5k for Africa, accessorized and worked on the apartment a bit, and ventured all around NYC. Not bad for a 4 day weekend.

Now it is time to get ready to go on a hike with some friends from our life group. I will leave you with some pictures of our recent adventures.

My wonderful parents

Brett in Hershey

The wall of names at Ellis Island

Exchange students with Elvis

My running buddy

Team Hartford

Life group + Nate

summer eats and travels

One of my favorite food bloggers, Matt Bites, posted this recipe for pasta with a fresh tomato sauce. It is very tasty without being heavy at all. A refreshing dinner for hot summer days.

Angel Hair with Fresh Tomato Sauce

garlic - Matt's recipe called for one clove but we both agreed that 1 or 2 more would be good
4-5 very ripe good size tomatoes (approx. 3 lbs?)
juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon
a bit of salt and pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
olive oil
1lb angel hair pasta

Mash the garlic or put it through a press, and then further mash it into a paste with a bit of salt.

Chop up 2/3 of the tomatoes. Grate the remaining tomatoes on the large holes of a box grater over a good size bowl. Reserve the pulp and juices but discard the skin.

Mix together the tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice and zest, salt, and pepper. Put aside until pasta is done - at least 10 minutes.

After making the sauce, boil the pasta according to direction. Drain and immediately toss with the tomato sauce. Sprinkle with basil, olive oil, and a bit of salt.

Enjoy!


Here are some pictures from our trip to Virginia for the 4th. My goal for this summer is to visit as many states around our area as we can.

We stopped in hersey just to grab a bite to eat. I hope to go back soon and do the chocolate tour!

Finally made it to Virginia!

1st year anniversary and getting in shape

Hello out there I am posting from Virginia. We are traveling down to a family reunion for Brett's side of the family.

Life has been pretty good for us lately. Last weekend was our 1 year anniversary. We had a completely unplanned but fantastic day to celebrate last Saturday. The plan was to visit a vineyard in NY but last minute that morning a friend of Brett's told us to switch our plans and go to this one in west/middle NJ. It ended up being a really fun tour and tasting and we bought a bottle of their famous and fantastic blueberry wine.
As we were leaving we GPSed looking for a place to grab a bite to eat and saw there was a Sonic about 20 minutes away in PA. Now we would usually not get so excited about Sonic but there are none around where we live and we had really been missing it. Sonic became our anniversary dinner and we finally were able to use a gift card a friend had given us a year ago for our wedding.
While eating Brett started messing with the GPS and found that the oldest drive movie theater in America was only 20 more minutes away. Of course we had to go. That evening it was showing UP and The Proposal. We had already seen UP but it is such an amazing movie, I had no problem seeing it again and The Proposal was not bad either.
Overall it was a great day spent having a carefree and wonderful road-trip with my husband and I don't think I could have asked for a better anniversary day or 1st year.

So what else has been happening?
Our garden is growing wonderfully. We have one tiny bell pepper, the carrots are about 2" long, and the squash have tons of blossoms all over them. Looks like we should get a pretty good crop this year.

I have started running and actually enjoy it. Something I thought would never happen. My mom had told me about this program, couch to 5k, and then about a week later my church organized a charity run to purchase a rig in Africa. We are currently involved in building wells but by getting this rig we will be able to drill a well a week! I told my friend Bek about the program and together we are training for the run. What is pretty cool is from my mom telling me about the program, and Bek and I telling everyone else, there are now people all over the world doing the couch to 5k program and encouraging each other.

Along with getting myself in shape our life group is all doing the Financial Peace University together. It is a program by Dave Ramsey that teaches you how to handle your money. He is big on getting out of debt and then never getting in debt every again. He teaches about using cash for most of your spending and never using credit cards or loans again. It should be a good class and I have already learned a lot in just our first week.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

taking pictures of myself in the rear view mirror

the scary 1 lane road we took to get the vineyard

tasting some wine

who knew our trip would be so biblical

our view of the movie

the first bits of summer

Many things have happened since I last posted

* Summer is in full swing here but it has rained too much for us to completely appreciate it.

*We traveled to Orlando for Memorial Day weekend to see Brett's brother graduate and as a nice little trip for Brett's birthday. He loved seeing all his friends and I even was able to surprise him by getting them all together for a rock climbing day at a place he use to go to when he lived down there.

*My dear old Dell laptop finally crashed. This was both a pro and con - I used that laptop for everything including my job. Luckily I had backed up all work files just the day before, unfortunately I hadn't backed up my personal files in a really long time. I was very sad to say goodbye to my Dell but we decided to go ahead and get me a MacBook. So I am typing this from my beautiful new laptop and couldn't be happier.

* Our garden is growing wonderfully. We finished planting the tomatoes and peppers. I can't wait for everything to grow, then I can eat fresh salsa and fresh produce.

* We got to see Hillsong United preform in NYC.

* Pasta party part 3 was had at our apartment last night. We had great food, great friends, and a new fun game that Bek taught us. Overall I think it was a success and I am sure there will be many more to come.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

* And probably my favorite thing is the new (to us) bikes that Brett and I got last weekend. A local elementary school was doing a fundraiser where people donate bikes. They then sell them all for $10, regardless or size, age, or condition. Brett and I managed to acquire two vintage road bikes for $20! They both need a tiny bit of work, but for not much more money we are going to have some amazing bikes to cruise around the lake. I absolutely adore mine. It is from Nottingham, England, and based on my research is from the 60s or 70s. I think it is actually worth something like $300. One brake line is stuck and it needs new tires since they are all dried out but other than that is great. Here are a couple photos from the day we bought them. I will post more after I get her all cleaned up.

april showers

Spring is slowly beginning to creep in up here. Yesterday and today will be around 70° before the rain brings it back down for a bit. We are taking full advantage of these two beautiful days and spending as much time outside as we can. Yesterday after work we grilled dinner and today when Brett gets home we are going on a hike!

So far the month of April has been wonderful, a bit soggy but wonderful. We are starting a community garden with a few other couples in our life group. We tried to get a plot at an already established community garden but it was full. Brett’s parents are letting us use a bit of their backyard, so a couple of weekends ago Sim, Bek, Brett, and I started getting it all set up and ready to plant. Since it was jus grass before, we had to start from scratch. We rented a tiller and picked up all the necessaries - soil, fertilizer, seeds, etc. – and got to work. We now have a garden or at least a big mud pit with a fence around it. There are tons of deer around here, which are gorgeous to watch but not so good for a garden. It is crazy what all you have to do to try to keep deer away. Along with our fence, we also got some deer repellant, let’s hope they work. We are waiting until it stays warmer and stops raining for a couple of days to begin planting. I am so excited to have fresh produce this summer.

As I mentioned in my previous blog last weekend we flew to the Midwest to visit family and friends. It was great to be “home” and wished I could have had a few more days. I loved seeing everyone in Oklahoma. Rebecca made me an apron that she copied from one that used to belong to her grandma. It is so fun and will surely make my heart happy every time I wear it to bake. I received a whole collection of fantastic new-to-me music and am slowly working my way through it all. Being in Lawrence with my family was amazing as well. I love my husband, life, and friends here in NJ but hate being so far away from my parents. It was great to cook Easter dinner with them, hang out and watch movies in the evenings, drink lots of tea and coffee, and listen to my mom play the piano. :) Between times with my family, we had the opportunity to spend some time with local friends and see Brett’s grandparents.

Overall, it was an amazing trip and so far has been a wonderful month of April.
(Garden photos barrowed from Sim, Oklahoma pictures from Amanda.)

Very start of the garden.
While the boys were renting the tiller Bek and I started getting the grass up.

It was so muddy

Building the fence to keep the deer out.

Rebecca blowing bubbles

Trying to teach Brett how to play the piano

Cooking with my mom

rhode trip

Well March may have started like a lion, but it is indeed finishing up beautifully. Brett and I were given a free night stay at a Hampton inn and chose this past weekend for our getaway. It was a much needed break from life and a relaxing way to celebrate my birthday. We decided to go to Rhode Island. We wanted to be near the cost and figured we could conquer the whole state in our two day getaway.

The trip was fantastic. Brett and I drove up Saturday morning and spent most of Saturday in Providence. We went to the Roger Williams Zoo & Park. There we got to see a bunch of animals as well as ride an old carousel. We then drove around Providence for a bit before heading to Newport. Sunday morning we did part of the cliff walk before heading downtown to grab some lunch. Afterwards we did a tour and wine tasting at a local vineyard before heading home. It was crazy to see how different this vineyard was compared to the one we visited in Italy. We hope to visit as many vineyards as we can during our travels.

So, that was my fantastic birthday with my wonderful husband. Along with a great time away from all the commotion, he also gave me a collection of Rogers and Hammerstein movies. My mom is a huge Rogers and Hammerstein fan and she passed her love of the musicals on to me. Oh and speaking of moms, I get to see mine in just over a week. We found a really great deal on plan tickets and are flying to the Midwest next Wednesday. I can hardly wait. I haven’t seen my family or friends since I got married last summer. We plan to spend most of our time in Kansas but are driving down to Oklahoma on Thursday to hang out with all those fun people for a day. Clear your schedule Thursday night. We are all eating Namaste and watching free Randy’s movies!

That is all from me for now. In case you didn’t notice, I have decided to combine my two blogs. If you see a random blog that doesn’t quite fit, then you will know why.

Starting out our adventure

Brett crawled into some children's play area thing




A small part of the cliff walk


I loved the wrought iron