thanksgiving vacation

I'll be on a hiatus for Thanksgiving and preparing for my capstone presentation (!!!) this week. Blogging will resume next Thursday.

Have a great Thanksgiving, and don't kill yourselves trying to get the best deals on Black Friday.

recipe: pork chops with apple cider gravy

Have you guys heard of Plated? It's a food service that delivers fresh ingredients to your door once a week based on recipes that you've chosen from their weekly menu. I discovered Plated back in February, and every couple of months I'll treat myself to something from them.

I don't want to give away the entire recipe for this, but I wanted to share it with you because it was easily the best thing I've ever ordered from Plated. I'm not giving away the salad today, and I'm keeping the ingredients and directions to a minimum, but with a little cooking knowledge you should be able to recreate this without too much trouble.

pork chops with apple cider gravy

Boneless pork chops
Shallot
Apple cider
Apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Finely chop the shallot. Pat the pork chops dry and season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium-high heat with olive oil until cooked through, and then let rest on a plate. Keep the pan juices, and saute the shallot in them. Once the shallots are translucent, add the apple cider and vinegar. Reduce heat and stir occasionally until the gravy reduces.

Serve with an awesome salad and enjoy…and check out Plated for more awesome weekly recipes to order.

the post-thanksgiving thanksgiving

Johnny and I have a tradition of having our own little Thanksgiving the weekend after the big day. We travel to both of our families on Thanksgiving, so it's nice to have our own little meal after a hectic day. It looks like we'll be doing our holiday on Saturday this year, because we can't miss the big USF/UCF football game (and my last home game as a student…ever) that Friday.

Usually we just reheat some of the leftovers we got from families, but this year I'm thinking about starting some of our own traditional dishes. My Thanksgiving food repertoire is sorely lacking outside of a mean green bean casserole, so this helps me start prepping for the day we host our own Thanksgiving meal. I won't be tackling a turkey this year, but my side dish game will definitely step up after this.

the tentative menu

Pan-Roasted Herb Chicken Thighs
Brussel Sprouts Gratin
Goat Cheese & Quinoa Swiss Chard Rolls (no link because this is going to be a Sarah original)
OR Kale & Goat Cheese Mashed Sweet Potatoes (if the swiss chard rolls fail)
Roasted Root Vegetables

That's a lot of food for two people, and we're going to have leftovers for dayyyyys, which is always a good thing. I like that every recipe exudes so much fall, but isn't the traditional green beans, mashed potatoes, and turkey meal. After two of those in one day we'll need something new. If we need a dessert after all of that, I'll definitely open up a Publix pumpkin pie (baking isn't my thing).

Lots of cozy food and football and loved ones…what more could you ask for?

Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions or recipes that are outside of the traditional box?

currently: november

feeling excited about finishing a class tonight

wishing it was already tomorrow

waking up to a lovely sunrise every single morning

having brownies for breakfast, thanks to leftovers from a work lunch

seriously obsessed with reading for pleasure

eating better, but still need some work to get back to where I was over the summer

drinking all the gingerbread lattes (peace out, PSL)

enjoying Florida finally getting on the "It's Fall" bandwagon

looking ahead to having a re-do this weekend

loving Gilmore Gils binges with wine

still doing very little in terms of my capstone project. Oops.

appreciating Johnny for always being there for me

waiting anxiously for the day I walk across that stage (one month from today!)

thinking about the GRE already

looking for a dog to add to our family

wondering how much better holiday season will be this year without me in my "I hate my job" funk of 2013.

making an impossible decision

This weekend, Johnny and I adopted an adorable four year old hound named Watson. He's such a sweetheart and so loving, but in the last two days it has become painfully clear that we are not the people who can take care of him the best. He needs someone who can be with him all day, every day and help teach him basic things. Unfortunately, he is a puppy still, and we are not the best people for him right now.

Making the decision to take him back has been the hardest thing I've ever done, by far.

Watson, I want you to know that I love you but that we're not the best place for you to thrive in.

book review: #GIRLBOSS

Sophia Amoruso, the founder and CEO of Nasty Gal, released #GIRLBOSS earlier in 2014. I'm all about girl power business books, so I dove head first into what turned out to be a celebration of Sophia's unorthodox route to success. Don't get me wrong, I love it when people follow the less traveled route to success, but for me a lot of this book just wouldn't work in my life. Obviously I wasn't expecting Lean In round 2, but I was hoping for a little more substance in Sophia's book, such as really getting an understanding of business acumen and jargon when you're not a school-trained business person.

#GIRLBOSS is a fun, quick read, and it does have some nuggets of information for the younger crowd out there who haven't started their careers yet. However, if you're in a my position this book is a good chance to see business from a different perspective, which is always good.

Either way, do yourself a favor a check out this book.

november garden update

Finally, the hot weather has ended and my plants get a break!

Last month was relatively uneventful. We lost zucchini and squash (which I've had trouble growing from the beginning), added orange and lime trees, and watched the eggplant make a comeback (it comes up to my chin now!).

We've had pepper from our chili pepper plant and tomatoes from the cherry tomato plant. I even have three more ripening now, which is crazy to think about since I have terrible luck with tomatoes (maybe it was the weather).

The strawberries are trying to hang on, but I might swap that out for a blueberry bush instead. The swiss chard is finally getting big. I'm letting it go until the leaves are large enough to make swiss chard and goat cheese rolls. The aloe is becoming a monster that will be very useful come next summer. The crepe myrtle started dropping it leaves this weekend with our weather change.

And the best news of all? Our whitefly population has signifigantly decreased with steady work and a couple nights near 40*F. Yes!

While I still want to experiment with new plants, I feel like we've finally found what works for us right now. I love sitting outside in my garden in the mornings.

goals for november

You guys, I've been so lazy this last month. It's terrible. All I've wanted to do is read (non-school) books, eat pasta, and watch Sons of Anarchy. Even now I'm sitting on the couch under a blanket, waiting on pizza, and watching the NYC Marathon. Yes, I'm literally watching people run.

Needless to say, I only met one of my October goals. I need to get out of this funk asap.

goals for november

Continue to read for pleasure. It sounds counterproductive, but my school activities are winding down and I'm nearing graduation. Reading for pleasure helps keep my stress down and gives me something outside of binge-watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix.

Cook three times a week. Preferably not pasta.

Run. I have a 5k right after Thanksgiving, and the weather is finally perfect.

Spend time outdoors every night I'm home. Because I totally didn't do this last month.

The laziness will go away with the time change and the cooler weather, I just know it will.

PS: The picture is my class notes for my capstone project. We're so close to being done.