Pasta Salad Lan will Actually Eat!

Well, the title says it all. I love pasta salad. Lan is picky. So, when he asked me to come up with a healthy recipe for Saturday lunch a while back, I suggested a pasta salad. He complied, as long as we could serve it at room temp. Apparently that was his big complaint about pasta salad in general.

So, I made up this recipe. This is really how every pasta salad starts, and this one is not so different than any other one out there.

Holloway Pasta Salad - 4 servings

(food styling is not my forte, unfortunately)

2 c pasta, uncooked

1 c fresh broccoli florets

1 c red bell pepper, chopped

1/4 c red onion, copped

1 c tomato, chopped (1 medium)

1/2 c green onion, chopped (I used 3)

1/4-1/2 c mozzarella cheese (your preference)

1/2-3/4 c Italian dressing

2 c chopped, grilled chicken

1. The chicken - we marinaded in Italian (overnight is always best) and grilled the chicken. You could season or marinade however you want

2. Cook pasta (al dente- always), and drain (don't rinse!)

3. Chop all your veggies and chicken

4. Mix veggies, chicken, and cheese

5. Add dressing slowly until you reach the amount you like (we overdressed ours when we made it- take it slow!)

6. Serve

Enjoy! Maybe your picky eaters will eat this too.

Up next - MORE recipes and an important life update. Get excited.

Love from Houston,

L and J

Pioneer Woman Comes to Houston

I have been promising this post for a number of weeks to a number of you (watch for it tomorrow, next week, when I get home..). Oops. Here it is, finally!

Those of you who know me well know that I LOVE the Pioneer Woman. Her cookbook changed my life. That may be a little dramatic, but I love it! And even though Lan won't admit it, he does too, because he benefits from her tasty recipes.

Out of all the cookbooks I own, this is the one that I cook from most often, and have tried the most recipes from. I think it's because she includes so many pictures. I like that. You should buy one! You will love it.

Anyway, she just wrote a really cute children's book, and was coming to Houston for a book signing. SO, I knew I couldn't miss it. Unfortunately, it was Mother's Day weekend, so all of my friends here had plans. But Lan, being a dutiful husband, came with me.

We were able to get a line ticket and leave and come back, which was handy. All in all, we waited about an hour. Not too bad!

The line was long!

The Pioneer Woman signing my cookbook! We also got one for Lan's mom. The whole time in line, I was trying to decide what I wanted to say to her, but I froze when I got up there! I was starstruck :)

Me with the Pioneer Woman! We're practically best friends now.

After we took our picture, she asked me if I came alone, so I said, no, my husband is here with me. I pointed Lan out, and Lan said, "I just came to hold the purse" (which he was doing at the moment). She said, "Aww, what a good husband he is! You should take a picture of that!" So there you go. Lan is a good husband, says Pioneer Woman :)

Upcoming blog posts include lots and lots of recipes and big news! Get excited!

Love from Houston,

L and J

My Best Friend's Wedding

So, my best friend, Sarah, got married a few weeks ago (yay!) to her soulmate, Tray. Out of all the couples I know, these two are perhaps the best suited for each other - they are so alike! Sarah and I graduated together, and became even closer friends in our early college days. We lived together our Junior and Senior years and grew even closer :) I have so many fun memories of my college years that involve Sarah!

She is such a blessing in my life! She's one of those friends who always has the right thing to say, and can always, always cheer you up when you're down. I love her and I'm so happy she's my friend! May you live many happy married years together.

Disclaimer - All of these pictures were generously provided by my good friend Angela (aka - my wedding weekend photographer). Thanks Angela!

Me with Sarah at her bridesmaids event at Tokros! We got manicures!

Me and Sarah at the Rehearsal Dinner

Getting ready the morning of the wedding

Me and Katye taking a little break after pictures

Me with the bride - isn't she stunning??

There's a backstory on this one... Several years ago, at our annual Tacky Christmas party, we took the most amazing candid picture ever (it seems that I don't have a copy, or I'd post it here). This is an attempted recreation of that photo - wedding style :)

I love ya'll!

These girls are part of our small group in high school. I loved having these girls to go through junior high and high school with - I'm glad we are still friends today!

Me and Lan at the reception!

Me and Raysha at the reception (photo courtesy of Raysha's cell phone!)

The happy couple leaving :)

Coming up for us - Lan's parents are visiting, my meet and greet with Pioneer Woman(!), my $5 dinner challenge, and future Holloway plans. Get excited.

Love from Houston,

L and J

Newlywed Retreat

First, I need to give some background. We go to a newlywed Sunday School class at church. We love it! We've met a lot of really great friends through the class, and we think it's been a great blessing for our marriage. The class covers typical newlywed topics - finances, conflict resolution, needs, etc.

The class hosts an annual retreat in Red Top, TX, and we have been hearing about the retreat for a while now - everyone said it was a highlight of the class, and we shouldn't miss it, so we didn't!

The retreat was awesome. It was held at a really nice retreat center in the country. It was beautiful and so relaxing. We learned a lot, grew our marriage, and got to spend a lot of one on one time with our Bible Study friends and new friends!

It was great fun!

Our room! We were the second couple to sign up, so we got the second best room at the retreat center. It was huge! And could have slept a ton of people (with one regular bed and 2 day beds). Highlights of the room- king size bed and our own bathroom! Our house was the only one that had rooms with their own bathrooms.

Our house, the garden house!

The garden. So peaceful!

The main house, where we had all our sessions.

Lan and I on the last day. This was a really cool vine tunnel. Very romantic!

Me with our friend Christine. She and her husband, Kirby, rode with us to the retreat. They live close to us, and are so fun to be around!

There are lots of exciting posts to come! Stay tuned :)

Love from Houston,

L and J

We Ran a 5K

Those of you that have known me for a long time know that I ran cross country in high school. It wasn't my favorite thing ever, but I did enjoy the benefits that came along with it (being fit, for instance).

When Lan and I got married, we committed to working out together 3 times a week (Lan does much more alone, I stick to the minimum 3...). Since we don't have a gym membership (not worth the money), my workout of choice is running. Lan also enjoys running (he's been an avid runner since high school).

As a little extra motivation, in January, we decided to run in a 5K our church was sponsoring, benefitting Aid Sudan. We signed up, and started training (well, sort of). Neither of us care about being the fastest ones on the track, but our goal was to run the whole way without stopping (something I rarely did in high school XC). So, we ran. A lot.

The race was terribly early a couple weekends ago and I'm happy to report that we both ran the whole way! Lan ran it about 30 seconds faster than I did.

We both got passed by a pregnant woman running with a stroller with a small child inside AND a woman running with a double wide stroller with TWO children inside, but such is life. We ran the whole way and are happy.

Another goal of ours was not to finish last, which we also accomplished! We both finished in the middle of our age groups.

The 5K is over now, but we're still running together. It was fun to train and work towards a goal together, and we can't wait to do it again!

Love from Houston,

L and J

Happy Birthday Memaw!

I am blessed to have two amazing grandmothers in my life! Yesterday, my Memaw Dowdle celebrated her birthday. Every time I talk to her, she always tells me that she's been reading my blog and enjoys reading about all the fun we're having ("you just sound like you're always having a big time") and all the food I'm cooking for Lan ("you sure do cook a lot").

Me with Memaw at my Pajama Wedding Party Brunch the day before my wedding.

Memaw loaning me my something old on my wedding day. I wore her beautiful gold wedding band.

So, Memaw, I hope you are reading this! Happy Birthday! You are so special to me. I love you, and I'm so glad you're in my life.

:) Jennifer

The Busiest Weekend of my Life

March is Houston Rodeo time (yeah, Lynn and Mom, I'm behind!), and I have been looking forward to going to the Rodeo for some time! It's a pretty big deal! And, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, lots of big names in country music come to Houston and play during the rodeo. For our very first rodeo experience, we decided to go see Jason Aldean play.

As is our usual custom, we also decided that we would pack as much into this weekend as possible! Friday night, we went to Katy to help our friends Jonah and Anne Marie load up their U-Haul for a move to The Woodlands. We got there a little late (oops!) and caught the tail end of the packing that day, but we helped them unload the next day in The Woodlands. Also on that Saturday, we looked at a few neighborhoods in that area, and went to a crawfish boil at our friends Chris and Marley's. THEN, at the end of the day, we went to Gallery Furniture and bought a recliner for Lan (this has been in the works for some time, and I am happy Lan finally has his fancy new recliner!).

So, you get the idea, it was a busy weekend. AND to top it all off, the Jason Aldean concert was on Sunday. So, after church, we ate CPK for lunch then headed to the Rodeo with our friends Aaron and Emily.

When you go to the rodeo, there's so much more to it than just the rodeo! There are lots of exhibits and animals and there's a carnival... there's a lot. So Emily and I really wanted to see some of the animals (namely the baby chickens) before we went to the rodeo, so Lan and Aaron dropped us off and we got to see some of the animals.

You could go in here to see cows and sheep! (See next two pictures)

The chickens!

The incubator! You could wait here to see chicks hatching. The three little blobs in the upper left hand corner are newly hatched chicks!

Baby Chicks in action!

The rodeo was... quite the experience. It was really cool! I had never seen anyone ride a bull or do barrel racing before, and we went on the last day of the finals, so we got to see the best of the best compete! And, it was held in Reliant Stadium, where they held the final four this year.

Rodeo opening parade

The rodeo began with a prayer (which I really liked) and the national anthem (complete with a really impressive fireworks show! Confession: I got a little teary eyed. What can I say? I love America). Then, the competitions.

This is one of the cowboys riding a bronc bareback!

Then, they had a competition called "Mutton Busting," and basically what happens in this competition is they strap little kids to sheep and the kids try to hold on for as long as they can. This was my favorite :) The little kids were really cute, and it was really funny. They kept interviewing the kids during the afternoon, and they have some pretty interesting practice methods! Most of the kids said they practiced on their dog, and one little girl said she practiced on her brother. I think she misunderstood the question :)

After all this, Jason Aldean played!! We all really enjoyed his concert and had a fun time people watching during it... Jason also had fireworks, and his stage rotated (how cool is that??).

Some pictures from the concert...

Needless to say, we had a great time and look forward to rodeo time next year!

Upcoming blog posts for us include our 5K, our Newlywed Retreat, and future plans! Stay tuned.

Love from Houston,

L and J