John and Rebekah Get Hitched

So, I'm behind. This post is dedicated an event that happened a whole 3 weeks ago (oops!). Sorry for the delay!

A few weeks ago, we got to go to Memphis for John and Rebekah Harrleson's wedding. John is one of Lan's closest friends. I met Rebekah early on in college, through a couple of my Chi O friends, Laura and Erica. When I started dating Lan, he was living with John, and John and Rebekah were also dating, so I really got to know her during this time. Especially in the beginning, when I was still getting to know Lan and his friends, it was such a comfort to have Rebekah, a familiar face, around. Rebekah is an amazing, Godly woman, and I know God has great things in store for her marriage!

Needless to say, we love John and Rebekah and were so honored to be a part of their wedding weekend! The wedding was beautiful, and Rebekah was a stunning bride. John, you are a very lucky guy!

Some pictures from the weekend... Sadly, I think I had my camera on a bad setting ALL WEEKEND, so these are all blurry :( I am very, very bummed, but I wanted to share anyway...

The best part of going back to the wedding for me was getting to see old friends! For those of you not lucky enough to know them, these are two of my best friends from college, Erica and Laura. I love and miss you both terribly! Please come to Houston :)

Me with Laura Gullet, another college friend! She stayed at Lori's with me while we were in Memphis, so we got to have lots of quality bonding time!

Me with the bride at the rehearsal dinner! So beautiful, I hate it's blurry. She just posted a much better version of this picture on FB, if you're interested. Her camera was 10 times better than mine.

Me with the most handsome boy I know :)

Friends at Lori's!

Lan and I at the reception.

Me with Erica, the maid of honor, at the reception!

Me with the beautiful bride!

Friends at the reception :)

Another one of me and Lan.

Us with Lori, big sis and matchmaker extraordinaire!

That concludes my pictures! I wish I had taken pictures at brunch on Sunday. We went through Oxford on the way home and I got to see Lindsay, my best friend from Junior Miss!

We had an amazing weekend, and it was so refreshing to see all our college friends in one place! We must do this again soon :)

John and Rebekah, congratulations! You will love being married. Please come visit us soon.

Luckily, this weekend promises to be freer than the past couple weekends, so hopefully you'll be hearing from me again soon - I have lots more updates!

Love from Houston,

L and J

A Texas Weekend

I often tell Lan that I don't think we do enough "cool things." There are a lot of unique things that we can do in Houston, and we want to do more of them, so last weekend (well, weekend before last.. I'm behind), we did just that!

Friday was "Go Texan" day, which basically just kicks off the rodeo. As an added bonus, employees at both mine and Lan's companies got to "dress like a Texan" to work. I had never seen so many cowboy hats in one place.

On Friday night, we went downtown for dinner with our friend Emily. Lan had told me about Spaghetti Warehouse before, and I had always pictured a fast food type place, but it was actually a nice restaurant! It was in a really cool building downtown, that is supposedly haunted. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about Spaghetti Warehouse's paranormal activity, but there were some ghost tour brochures there. We opted out.

Me with Lan at Spaghetti Warehouse

On Saturday night, we went to the BBQ Competition at the Houston Rodeo. If you've talked to me in the last month, you know that I was really excited for this! I love food and a BBQ Competition just sounded cool. It wasn't what I was expecting, but we had fun!

It was kind of a mix between tailgating and Bulldog Bash, except for much bigger. There were tents and people everywhere! Regular entry got you into general places, but there were also private tents. A lot of these belonged to businesses that would give out tickets to their tent to their customers. We got lucky and got into one of these tents! And let me just say, the BBQ in this tent was delicious.

This is the private tent we went to.

Another cool part of the night was the live music. There were some Texas country bands playing the night we were there (the big country acts play later in the rodeo- this was the kick off weekend).

The stage at the BBQ Competition

There was also a carnival! I don't know what it is about carnivals/fairs, but they have always sounded fun to me- maybe it's the cotton candy and funnel cake. You know how I feel about sweets. Admittedly, these types of things can be kind of a rip off (why does it cost so much to buy tickets???), but we had fun anyway. Lan had fried cookie dough (just as delicious as it sounds) and I had cotton candy. Then, we splurged and rode the ferris wheel. It was pretty cool.

Views of the carnival/fair area.

View from the top of the ferris wheel.

Needless to say, we had a fun-filled weekend! There are lots of fun things to do in Houston. :)

Up next for us... John and Rebekah's wedding (yay!) and Jason Aldean concert at the rodeo.

Love from Houston!

L & J

Lake Weekend

Last weekend, we went to Lake Livingston with our Bible Study friends. This trip has been in the works for a while. One of our friends' parents (Dustin's) live on Lake Livingston, so we planned a visit!

If you know me, you know I love being around the water-- beach, river, lake, I love it all, so this weekend was really fun for me. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful, and we had such a relaxing time!

We watched movies, played games, hung out outside, went fishing, went for a boat ride, had a fish fry and made a bonfire (with smores, of course). That sounds like a lot, but mostly we just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company.

We had a great time, and can't wait to visit again in the summer!

Some pictures from the trip (courtesy of Broadstreet Photography-- yes, we have professional photographer friends!)...

Ladies fishing, part 1

Ladies fishing, part 2!

Me and Lan- fishing as a team! (Mainly because I got bored... to me, fishing is only fun when you catch something)

The group, silly picture :)

The group, real picture

Up next for us... Rodeo Kick Off - BBQ Cookoff!

Love from Houston,

J & L

February Came Fast

I had been thinking that it had been a while since I had posted, but I didn't realize exactly just how long it had been (oops)!

We haven't been up to anything exciting, really, just life. Last night, we celebrated Valentine's Day by going to eat hibachi! Yum! It was different than hibachi I've eaten in Mississippi. I don't think I liked it quite as much (the yum yum sauce definitely wasn't as good!), but it was still yummy. And, actually, the portions were way bigger. Anyway, the date was a success- and we finished it of by going to TJ Maxx, haha.

This week we also bought in on a pretty cool Groupon for the area. I am always interested in trying new restaurants, but we always seem to go to the same places. This week, we bought a gift certificate for a middle eastern restaurant that I'm really pumped about! I've been really missing Shahrazads (or Desert Rose, or whatever it is now) in Starkville, so this is perfect! Hummus, here we come.

Other things we have coming up include the rodeo! Woo hoo! The Houston Rodeo is a really big deal. Lots of big names in country music come - Trace Adkins, Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean.. you get the idea. So we're planning to go see Jason Aldean, AND we're going to go to the World Championship BBQ Contest in a couple weeks ($10 gets you entry, a BBQ plate, and a Texas country concert). I'm more excited about the BBQ Contest than I am the concert, I think! Haha.

Well, that's my update. I'll leave you with a Valentine's recipe... This is the first dessert I ever made for Lan and was his request for this Valentine's.

Heath Bar Cake

German Chocolate Cake (we use Duncan Hines, and make it exactly like it says on the box)

Straw

1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Liquid Caramel (we get the kind that you squirt on ice cream)

Heath Bar Chips

Whipped Cream (homemade recipe below)

1. Make cake, and let it cool some.

2. Take a straw, and punch holes all over the cake (this helps the liquid settle into the cake)

3. Mix equal parts of sweetened condensed milk and liquid caramel (I normally use about 1 1/2 cups of liquid, but increase or decrease that amount based on how soaked you want your cake- my dad uses the whole can of sweetened condensed milk, but I can't handle that much!)

4. Pour over the cake and let it soak.

5. Refrigerate when the liquid has settled in.

6. Right before serving, top with whipped cream, heath bar chips, and drizzle with caramel.

Sorry I don't have more exact measurements! This is one of those "little bit of this, little bit of that"/"use whatever looks good" recipes. Keep it refrigerated.

Homemade Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Whip until it thickens to whipped cream consistency. I normally make it in advance and stir/whisk before using. Refrigerate. Yields 2-3 cups.

Love from Houston!

-L & J

Skiing Adventures

First, a shout out is in order. I wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS to the recently-engaged Lori, matchmaker extraordinaire, and Greg, our favorite fun-loving pianist. We love you both and wish you every happiness!

For those of you who didn't know, Lan and I went skiing last weekend in Keystone, CO with some of our friends from our Sunday School Class/Bible Study. It was super fun!

Lan and I both have similarly low amounts of athleticism, so we fell down a lot (my only saving grace was that I also water ski). Let me just say, it's a lot harder than it looks, but once you get the hang of it, it's not that bad.

We stuck to the easy runs (greens), only venturing out to harder runs (blues), when they were short and we were promised that they weren't very steep. We weren't interested in gaining lots of speed. We just liked taking it easy and enjoying being in God's oh so beautiful snow-filled creation.

As an added bonus, we got to spend some time with our Mississippi buddy Tray in Denver. We had a fun day with you, friend! Thanks for showing us around!

Will we go back? Sure, but it will be a while. Per our pre-marriage mountain vs. beach agreement, a beach trip comes next :)

Some cool pictures from our trip (a FB album is also on the horizon):

Those of you who are close to Lan will appreciate this one...

On the top of the mountain

Our group at the top of the mountain!

You should know that taking pictures with your skis on takes large amounts of skill (that we don't have)

Exhibit A. Kudos to Dallas and Ashlee who know how to "ski pose" graciously.

We took a short detour to take some snow pictures!

My favorite picture of us from the trip! This is Lake Dillon. Frozen. With snow on top.

We parked illegally on the side of the road for this one. So worth it.

I know what you're thinking. "Is that a sleigh made of ice?" Why yes. Yes, it is.

Us enjoying our fabulous steak dinner the last night.

At breakfast on our last morning in Colorado.

Us in Downtown Denver.

Lan and Tray in Downtown Denver.

AND a scenery picture for good measure.

The end!

Love from Houston,

J & L

Christmas - in 200 words or less

Well, I'm behind again. And tonight, Lan is having a boys night, so I'm writing TWO blog posts. That's right, TWO. Here it goes.

Christmas went as quickly as it came. It was basically a lightening fast blur of lights, driving, and family. I didn't really know what to expect out of this Christmas - lots of people to see, places to be, and not a lot of time to do it in. Despite the time crunch, Christmas was awesome. We got to see both of our immediate families, we got to see nearly all of Lan's extended family, and half of mine. Now that's what I call successful!

After Christmas, Lan got to go watch the Bulldogs dominate the Egg Bowl, and I got a visit from my college buddy Ashlyn (friends since bid day!). It was nice to have some girls time. We went shopping (lots of shopping), out to eat, on a tour of our area, AND to our church on Sunday. Plus, we viewed our very own fireworks show, courtesy of the (many) folks down the street! Thanks for visiting, friend!!

Okay. That's as condensed as I can make Christmas/New Years. Next up, Ski Trip!

Love ya'll!

J & L

Fried Catfish!

I'm confident in the kitchen, but not when it comes to fried food. It's pretty intimidating! The whole "I could burn my apartment down if this goes wrong" thing is pretty scary, BUT I've had some frying success since July. I've gotten pretty good at Pioneer Woman's fried chicken, and I just tried fried catfish, and boy was it good, so I wanted to share the recipe with you.

Not the greatest picture ever, but you get the idea- it's yummy! (Even if I did make ginormous hush puppies)

Daddy's Hush Puppies (a family favorite)

1 whole onion (finely chopped)

1/8 cup oil (just a dab)

3/4-1/2 cup Self Rising Flour

3/4-1/2 cup Corn Meal

(you want equal parts of flour and corn meal)

1 Egg

Salt and Pepper generously

Milk

1. Beat egg

2. Add dry ingredients (this includes onions)

3. Add milk until it reaches a thick pancake consistency (or cake batter consistency- it'll be

kind of thin)

4. Fry -- I don't have good instructions for this, but tonight I fried them with the oil at 375.

They don't take long, just let them fry until they are golden brown and flip them in between.

Fried Catfish (I adapted this from a recipe on Food Network.com)

3/4 cup Yellow Cornmeal

1/8 cup All-Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons Seasoned Salt

1/3 teaspoon Ground Red Pepper

1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper

4 Catfish Filets

Oil for frying

1. Mix all the seasonings, cornmeal, and flour together.

2. The original recipe didn't call for this, but I seasoned the filets with seasoned salt and

pepper before dredging. I also cut the catfish into smaller pieces.

3. Dredge filets in the cornmeal mixture.

4. Fry -- with the oil at 375 degrees, I did about 2 minutes per side.

Another tip for frying-- I use my dutch oven for frying, and I don't go too crazy on the oil. I can't tell you the exact amount but I think it's probably around 3/4" or so. With the dutch oven, too, you can put the top on while your frying-- but beware, that makes it get a lot hotter in the pot, so you don't want it on high heat or anything when you do that. And I generally never put it on high heat when I'm frying- it just gets the oil too hot, I think (but this is a frying novice speaking, here). Be careful!

I hope ya'll enjoy these recipes :) We sure did!

Love from Houston,

J & L