A few of my favorite(and Least) things!

Living in Rochester has had its good things and bad things. I like to be positive so we'll start with the good things first.
1. Moose's new puffy vest. I take him on walks everyday on the Erie Canal trail (which is #2) and since it has gotten cold I've worried about him being too cold. So I remedied the situation. Side note: he hates it and Ryan is too embarrassed to be seen with him with it on.
2. The Erie Canal Trail. It's beautiful and a fun walk next to the canal with pretty views.
3. Our ward. Our ward is a spanish speaking and ASL(american sign language) ward. So there is always someone signing everything in front, and a missionary translating spanish in the back. The spanish speakers wear headsets. But when they give a talk or pray or bare a testimony it is translated over the pulpit, which I love. There is always something exciting going on!
4. Being closer to my family and some of Ryan's family!
5. This hot chocolate is simply magical. I've been in a big hot chocolate phase lately and the trips to starbucks were getting a little ridiculous and mcdonald's has been nothing but disappointing since they changed their Mc cafe. So when I came across this little gem the other week I was hooked. It's incredible.
6. I'm the only blonde every where I go. And after living in Utah with a sea of golden it has been fun.
7. Wegman's! This is a grocery store here which is heaven! I can't explain why in such few words you would just have to go to experience it yourself.
8. Strangers are quite friendly, when I'm at Wegman's people strike up conversations with me all the time. The other day a lady and I chatted for 20 minutes about which dinner rolls she buy and how concerned she was that I was not buying the Kosher bagels instead of the regular ones.
9. All the fun traveling we get to do!
10. Our apartment. It is tiny and so easy to clean.

And now the not so favorites....
1. Our apartment. Did I mention it was tiny? And there is always a new mystery smell in the hallway.
2. The accent! It drives me bonkers, I want to tell people how much more intelligent they would sound and attractive they would look sans the accent. I realize how bratty this sounds but you would too if you heard it everyday.
3. No one uses their blinkers.
4. There is no good Mexican food.
5. I'm so far away from my hair stylist, Oh Roni how I miss you and for more reasons then just my hair.
6. I have no friends besides Ryan and Moose.
7. I miss my little nieces in Utah, oh and their parents too. I feel like they will forget all about me.

Bills

This week we went to the Buffalo Bills vs Detroit Lions game! It was a lot of fun and we went early enough to participate in some tail gating. Unfortunately for me, unless you like hot dogs, sausage links, philly cheese steaks, or other italian meats there isn't a lot to eat. We witnessed the Bills first win of the season, although from what I've heard the Lions aren't too much competition. It was still exciting and we had awesome seats! I decided the next place we live needs to have an NFL team cause I could get super into the whole tailgating thing and make myself some good season ticket holder friends!


By this time in the game all my treats were gone, it was raining and my attention span was gone. Apparently, the girl behind me had eaten all her treats too.

P.s the other day my husband made fun of me for referring to them as "treats" although I can't remember a time when I did not refer to them as such.

A Catch Up, A Sneak Peak, and an Awesome Recipe

I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would share a few tidbits about what's been going on. Ryan's work sent him to Los Angeles to work as a sponsor for a huge Adobe convention. He had a lot of fun, learned a ton, met some cool famous people, and most importantly won us some awesome swag! He won a new droid, which means I am the proud new owner of his old droid, and a google tv! I have not a clue what a google tv is capable of but Ryan assures me it will be cool. He got to meet Martha Stewart, and William Shatner,from star trek! I'm sure the computer nerds went nuts, they could have paraded in the Victorias Secret Angels and nobody would have even noticed in a giant conference full of computer nerds. While he was in CA, Moose and I made our way down to Ohio. I morph into a little kid when I walk in those doors, let my mom make me hot chocolate and do all the things for me that I am more than capable of doing myself, but she just does everything better! I was able to go to Sean's last soccer game, which was sad but so fun to watch him play. My dad and I also convinced my mom to let us take Sean's senior pictures. We had so much fun doing it, much to Sean's dismay I'm sure. He was a good sport and after some editing I think they turned out quite good.








Next, I have been on a quest for quite some time to find a copy cat recipe for The Cheesecake Factory's chicken madeira recipe. It's Ryan's favorite! And I was sure I could make it and probably with 1/6 of the calories. I think I have succeeded!

Ashley's Chicken Madeira

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 boneless chicken breast
8 asparagus spears
4 slices mozzarella cheese

Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups fresh sliced mushrooms
3 cups Madeira wine
2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Cover chicken breast with plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thick.
2. Sprinkle each filet with salt and pepper.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in frying pan over medium-high heat.
4. Saute fillets 4-6 minutes per side until done and browned just a bit.
5. Remove from pan and wrap in foil to keep warm while you make the sauce.
6. In chicken pan add olive oil and sliced mushrooms; saute for about 2 minutes.
7. Add Madeira wine, beef stock, butter, and pepper.
8. Bring to boil then reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes until reduced to about 1/2 original volume. When sauce is done it will be thick, and brown.
9. While sauce is reducing, bring a pan of water to boil.
10. Add salt to water at boil; blanch asparagus (3-5 minutes). Drop asparagus in ice water to halt cooking.
11. Set oven to broil.
12. In baking dish arrange chicken, cross 2 asparagus stems over each piece of chicken and top with a slice of cheese.
13. Broil until cheese melts.
14. Put chicken on plate.
15. To serve, top with 3-4 tablespoons sauce on each piece.

***As much as I searched I could not find madeira wine, so I did some research and it is pretty comparable to marsala wine so I just used that!