Homemade Green Bean Crispers

Whenever I go out with family or friends to Applebee's I always, allwaaays, order the green bean crispers.  They are kinda healthy right? Since they are green beans and all.... 

This Christmas Eve I set out to make my own version of these tasty (deep fried) hors d'oeuvre's!

Ingredients:

• Green beans
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• Salt & Pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 heavy cream
• Panko bread crumbs (or Italian)

Directions:

• On one plate mix together flour, garlic powder, paprika, onion powder and a dash of salt and pepper and set aside
• On another plate, crack your two eggs and whisk with heavy cream
• On your third and final plate mix your breadcrumbs with some salt and pepper
• Take your fresh green beans and snap off the ends.  Boil a pot of water and blanch the green beans for a minute, turn down the water and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.  Strain the hot water and run green beans until cold water to stop the cooking
• For the purpose of convenience I cooked the green beans in the deep fryer but these can be done in a pan on the stove with some oil
• First drudge the green beans in the flour mixture, then move them to the egg mixture and lastly coat with the bread crumbs.  
• Stick a small handful into the deep fryer at a time and keep an eye on them.  They cook very quickly. I'd say about a minute, maybe two max, but I removed them from the oil once they had turned golden brown

Dipping Sauces:

Applebee's serves these green bean crispers with two dipping sauces and so since I was making them, I figured I'd go ahead and try to make my own!  

Barbecue Ranch Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

• Ranch dressing
• Barbecue sauce

Directions:

• I made this by taste but basically you want to have a 2 to 1 ratio.  So two parts ranch, one part barbecue sauce!

Horseradish Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

• Mayo
• Onion Powder
• Ketchup
• Paprika
• Garlic Powder
• Horseradish

Directions:

• I also did this by taste but I started with about a half a cup of mayo, a tsp of ketchup, a tbsp of horseradish and then seasoned with the above spices!

Enjoy cooking!

 

A few Christmas favorites...

A few Christmas favorites 

For my family, Christmas has never been about the presents.  Christmas is more about love, family and Jesus.  As far as gifts go though, I'm notoriously hard to surprise.  Throughout the year I tend to save my money to a ridiculous extent and rarely buy myself things...so around the holidays and my birthday, I sort of have a wish list.  This year I did my best to let me family & friends surprise me and I could hardly contain my excitement Christmas morning.  My parents surprised me with new sunglasses, a J.Crew necklace, a new watch & wallet from Fossil and my little brother bought me those gorgeous earrings!  Brought such a smile to my face on Christmas morning and I totally felt lame when all I had bought my little brother was the football he asked me to buy him!!!  My favorite gifts to watch people open were for my parents.  My little brother and I went ahead and planned a whole date night for them and paid for it.  Watching them open that was really sweet.  My dad also bought my mom a new ring which was just lovely.  

What were your favorite gifts to open or watch others open this year?

What does Christmas mean to you?

It's hard to sum up what Christmas means to me.  It's of course about Jesus and faith but it's also about family and love.  There is so much magic this time of year and I can hardly contain my excitement!  Here are a few of my favorite quotes about Christmas:

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." - Charles Dickens

"My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others.  Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?" - Bob Hope

"Christmas, children, is not a date.  It is a state of mind." - Mary Ellen Chase

 "Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." - Norman Vincent Peale

"And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forest and mountains and oceans--and all that live and move upon them.  He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself." - Sigrid Undset

How gorgeous is this little Nativity set up?  We have a beautiful Nativity set that my mother had saved and bought my great grandmother when she was 18.  I'd like to save and do the same for my momma next year!

What does Christmas mean to you?  

Just a note: I'll be back after Christmas!  I hope you all have a blessed holiday and I look forward to continuing this lovely relationship with all of you in the New Year!  Thank you all so so much for reading From Scratch.  It means the world to me :)

Happy hunting!

The other day my family and I went to a town nearby that is full of history.  It is a section of a town that has its original buildings/barns from the 1800's that have been converted into antique shops.  They have a lovely little cafe that we always eat at and I ended up buying a tiny chalkboard that they would use in old schoolhouse's and a tiny pocket Bible that had some cool mementos folded into the pages.  I absolutely love antiques.  There is something so special about owning something that was once loved before!

Because that's what humans do

Breakups are earth shattering.  Especially when you have spent a significant amount of time with that person...when you loved that person.  Very little provides solace because your heart hurts so terribly.  There is so little that can be said to help sooth the pain.  It feels like you will never, no matter how hard to try, love someone again.  You're already exhausted by the idea of trying.  Sometimes that is the worst part of the whole thing; the unwillingness to try again. My aunt once said one very important thing to me that I have not since forgotten:

"No matter how much your heart is breaking, it will repair itself and you will love again because that is what humans do."

Truer words have never been spoken.  

Sparkly flats and circle scarves

We had a relatively warm day on Saturday and so my family and I got up and spent the day at a small town nearby that is full of antiques!  I'm not typically one to mix something a little dressier with something more casual, but I've started to branch out a bit and loved this little combo.  I was always into the circle scarf trend...even when they weren't cool, I was walking around with my crazy big American Apparel circle scarf!  This tan circle scarf was a secret Santa gift from a friend at work and these addoooorable shoes come from Old Navy! Comfy, casual and super chic :)

A perfectly trimmed tree

Each year my mom works tirelessly to put up our tree and each year I look forward to coming home to it. What do your trees look like?  I'd love to see them!

Well it's Tuesday...and SEPTEMBER!

I'm so excited it's September I can't even begin to describe it to you...but it's also Tuesday, which for most of us feels like Monday so today also sucks.

Anyway.  Typically on Tuesday's I will post another part of The Anxiety Diaries but since I really thought today was Monday we will just have to be behind a day this week.  Bare with me...it's been a loooongggg weekend.

To catch you all up, my uncle got married this weekend!  He and I are only four years apart (I am the oldest granddaughter in the family) and so this weekend was particularly amazing because I've grown really close to his wife these past couple of years.  She's such a fantastic person and I am in total awe of their relationship.  Watching her walk down the aisle and seeing how happy she was (the minute she saw him she started waving really big and I think we all basically melted and died) was so heartwarming.  I'm SO happy for them.

Here's a recap:

On Thursday evening I drove home to my parents house, which was a nice, brief visit until they informed me I needed an oil change before I drove to Buffalo (5 hours away.)  So on Friday I woke up as early as I could to go wait on the damn oil change line and then got in my car and drove alone to Buffalo for the first time...go me.  I guess it's kinda weird to say I am proud of myself for making the drive, but I am really proud of myself.  I also pumped my own gas for the first time and who knew that could be so empowering?!

I stayed with one of my aunts and uncle's this time around as opposed to my grandparents and this was obviously exciting because I had a weekend of sleepovers with my 4 and 7 year old cousins.  I have a lot of younger cousins and it's hard living far away from them.  I got to read the girls some books before bed on Friday night and it's moments like those where I just want to pack my bags and move to Buffalo (I am really considering this.)  It's just hard to feel like you miss all of those moments with all of them when you are so far away.  We read and talked about their days and laughed about things that wouldn't be funny to an adult but were in that moment because it made them happy.  It was a fantastic night.

Saturday started the madness as it was the rehearsal dinner and what not.  They ended up renting a boat to take everyone out for dinner and it was just beautiful! It was an absolutely great way to celebrate.

Sunday was, of course, the wedding.  I did my hair based on one of the hair tutorials posted on The Small Things Blog and it came out fan-freaking-tastic.  Her tutorials are so easy and great!  I wish I had pictures of my hair but with the craziness of the day I really didn't get to take pictures of myself.  Hopefully I will get to show you all more once their wedding photos are up.  They had a really short but so so so sweet ceremony which worked out perfectly because it had started to rain during cocktail hour but that passed and the reception itself turned out fantastic.  After the wedding (which was a blast because it's my family and we throw great parties) the whole bridal party, my grandparents, aunts...family....etc went to a bar in downtown Buffalo...no I'm not kidding.  There was an after party after THE party in which my whole family pretty much attended.  I'm newly 21 so I think in a way this was one of my favorite parts.  Buffalo has such a great downtown area and it was such a good time.  Needless to say, it's still blowing my mind that I was in downtown Buffalo in the wee hours of the morning and somehow rolled out of bed and made my way back to New Jersey....Also, bruises?  Where did you come from?!

Pictures!!!

The best little helper around!

Largest wedding party...ever!

The Bride!

Also, a few favorite photos from before school started to finish off this recap!

Things I've learned in July

For as fast as July felt like it went, it also feels like it has been so long.  I think in between the craziness that July brought, it also had some phenomenal lessons.

1.  I am not ready to have kids.  This is obvious I guess, since I'm not married or whatever and I'm only 21...but July made me really aware of this fact.  At the beginning of the month Tim and I took a trip to Buffalo to visit my family and I have a ton of little cousins under the age of 7.  It doesn't take long to realize how much of a handful kids really are, even if they are cute as a button.  I just remember looking at Tim and saying "we should wait until we are 1,000 years old."

2.  I shouldn't drink caffeine.  Sometimes I like to test my limits with this stuff but all it does is make me anxious.  

3.  4th of July is a pretty fun holiday.  4th of July, for obvious reasons, is a pretty decent holiday, but growing up we never put much focus on it.  This year, maybe it was because we were on vacation and I was with family, but 4th of July was really good.  

4.  I miss my family in Buffalo.  Since we've already been on the subject of Buffalo I feel like it's safe to just throw out there the fact that I really miss my family.  I don't think this was new information to me, but this vacation made it particularly hard to leave.  I love being around the little cousins and my aunts, uncles and grandparents.  I feel so in my element when I'm there and you throw Tim in the mix and I'm just sold.  

5.  Fast food is both a good and awful idea.  A couple weeks ago Tim and I were feeling spontaneous and were like "omg...let's get Burger King" and for two people who never eat fast food we didn't think it was a bad idea.  And it wasn't a bad idea until like an hour later when both of us were on the couch dying.  

6.  Sometimes it's nice to spend money on yourself.  I've been saving these bullets in my phone for the whole month and for the life of my I can't remember why I put this one.  I hate spending money...but I guess there's a point to it.  I'm generally the type of person that likes to give to other people.  I love how happy it makes them, but every once in a while it's nice to give to yourself.  

7.  Life isn't perfect, neither am I.

8.  Growth is important.

9.  Turning 21 isn't so bad.  It's nice to be able to order a drink in public!

Some random thoughts this Wednesday

First, let me start this by saying that Blogger and I have a bone to pick.  I just finished writing a great blog post for you guys about something I signed up for and poof...computer error...gone...I tried getting it back, but it's nowhere to be found and I've got to say, I'm pretty bothered by it.

Rather than trying to pick my brain to rewrite that exact post right this minute, I figured I'd move on to something else!! Bare with me...things are about to get random...

• Today, I had to go to the bank and mail three things so I of course bought three stamps.  Two of the pieces of mail already had stamps on them and that sorta annoyed me but now I have extra stamps.  This is one of those weird "you lose, but you also kinda win" moments.
• While running those errands of mine I happened to notice that the local Hallmark store was going out of business.  What?! SAD.  I have no idea why this is bothering me so much, but it is guys.  I live in a pretty small town and am pretty far away from the mall or any other really big shopping complexes.  My mom and I have been going to this Hallmark store since I was a very little girl since it was right next to the local grocery store.  It kind of took me by surprise to see something that I'm so used to being there...well, leaving I guess.  I went in and the women were all talking about how sad they were and that they guess it was time to retire and I left feeling pretty sad about the whole thing.
• This morning I came home from Tim's to a big box on my bed from my girlfriend Maura.  We lived together at the beginning of the summer and I always used to laugh at her Pillow Pet's.  Well, thanks to Maura, I now have a big pink Pillow Pet of my own and I couldn't help but burst out laughing when I tore this box open.  It maaaaddddeee my day!  Along with the Pillow Pet was a handwritten letter and a Winnie the Pooh (my favorite, ever) birthday card.  I was blown away.  It was just so kind and I really feel lucky and blessed to have a friend like her.
• Where the heck did July go?! I've never had my birthday sneak up on me like this...I have to go back to school in less than a month and that makes me feel bleh.
• My dad is so handy and just made thisfor my desk and I'm just obsessed...

That's it for now!  Thanks for hanging in there while I got that off my mine.  See you tomorrow morning :)

Wedding wear

I love love love, LOVE weddings.  Watching two people so in love make that commitment to each other just gets me every time.  This summer Tim's sister is getting married and then roughly three weeks later, my uncle is getting married as well!  So, while my mind is of course is on the lovely couples and their impending nuptials, I can't help but obsess over what to wear!

I'm that type of girl that dresses for comfort.  If I don't feel comfortable in it, it will show.  I will tug and pull and grab at the dress the entire night and I'll be asking Tim a million times, "are you sure I look good in this?!" Even though I think I dress for comfort, realistically I typically don't.  So, this time around, the goal is to find something that I feel comfortable in.  Something I can eat in and dance in and overall, just enjoy the love in.

When shopping for weddings, what do you all typically buy?  Help a girl out!!

Here are some options I am thinking of!

Click on image for bigger view!!!

Our trip to Buffalo

I have been going to Buffalo, NY since I was a little girl.  My grandparents, aunts and cousins have lived there my whole life and each trip meant time to spend with my family.  I've always appreciated my grandparents home because of the chaos.  I love the idea of a big family with a house that's always open for people to come and go...and that's their house in a nutshell.  Last summer I was excited to bring Tim so that he could meet my family, it was important to me...and a little nerve wracking ;)  It could not have gone any better, they loved him.  By the end of the trip...I was chop liver to all the little cousins in the family.

This summer we were so excited to see everyone again and were super eager to jump in the car and make that 6 hour drive.  Five days later, it's time to reflect on what was a perfect trip.

There was an outstanding circumstance that seemed to change the trip for us a little bit while we were there but my family really went above and beyond to make sure we had a great time.  I really enjoy Buffalo because it gives me a chance to spend time with my family, but I really loved this trip because of the time it gave me with Tim.  We had such a phenomenal time together guys...I can't even begin to tell you.  We really like to dote on each other and this vacation gave us the opportunity to really do so.  Were that couple that just enjoys doing things for each other, you know like making the other a cup of coffee and making sure they have everything they need just to relax.  I don't mean to brag, but Tim is so phenomenal and I for sure already knew that but this vacation was just the cherry on top.  He really made sure I was perfect at all moments of the day, he was just great guys...so great that I really can't find the words.

Just enjoy the pictures...I'm all sorts of jumbled with my words right now ;)

 First off...Tim is so great with all my baby cousins.  I don't have pictures of even half of them considering there are like 1,000.  This little girl right here...looooovvvves him and watching them together just, ugh, I can't.  It perfect.

 "Look guys I made batman!'

 I have no idea how this little picture thing happened...but it showed up on my phone...so cool?

 On Saturday we got out of the house a bit and went to Elmwood Village for some breakfast and a farmer's market!  Food was great :)

I didn't take nearly enough photos this time and I'm totally kicking myself in the butt for it, but it is what it is!

This was a seriously perfect vacation <3