Stromboli, Soup, and Cookies

This week I have been trying some new recipes, and found a few worthy of sharing...

Easy Stromboli

Chicken Broccoli Tortellini Soup

Pink Lemonade Cookies
Ingredients for Cookies
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (12 oz) can frozen pink-lemonade concentrate, thawed, 1 1/2 c. (reserve 1/2 c. for the icing)
8 drops red food coloring
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. grated lemon zest

Ingredients for the Icing
1/2 c. reserved thawed pink-lemonade concentrate
1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest
2 c. confectioners' sugar
coarse white decorating sugar

1. Cookies: Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl. Combine 1 cup of the lemonade concentrate with food coloring in a small bowl. Beat butter and granualated sugar in a large mixer bowl on medium speed, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, add flour mixture alternately with the lemonade mixture, in 3 additions, beginning and ending with the flour; mix until just combined. Stir in zest. Cover; refrigerate until firm, 3 hours or overnight. (Dough will be sticky.)
2. Place oven racks in upper and lower third of oven. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 4 large baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick foil. Flour hands, then roll 1 rounded tablespoon of dough at a time into small balls. Place 12 balls on each prepared baking sheet, 6 inches apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
3. Icing: Beat reserved 1/2 cup lemonade concentrate, lemon zest, and confectioners' sugar in a mixer bowl on medium speed until smooth. Spread icing on cookies. When icing is almost set, sprinkle with coarse white decorating sugar.

A Conference and an Interview, All in One Weekend

This past weekend was the Family Medicine conference in Asheville. Cody, of course, enjoys going to the conference, but our favorite part about these conferences are that they are close to some of our college friends. Once again, we stayed with our friends, Amy and Elliot, who are always so gracious to share their home whenever we are in Asheville.

We left Greenville on Thursday night; we stayed with my parents and drove up to Asheville on Friday morning. On Friday after I dropped Cody off at the conference, I met up with Kelley, a friend of ours from Greenville whose husband was also attending the conference, to do a little bit of shopping. We found some great deals, but also enjoyed just browsing the mall together with her daughter, Sophie. Amy and Elliot cooked dinner for us, and then we spent the rest of the night playing a marble game we all love--Aggravation. The guys and girls had a competition with this game that lasted the entire weekend!

On Saturday morning, Elliot's mom bought us tickets to a fundraiser pancake breakfast at Applebee's. It was very yummy....and we had a hilarious waitress! Cody went to the conference, so Amy and I went out for a little bit of shopping and spent the rest of the morning just lounging around. The four of us were supposed to meet up with Pam and Mike in Dillsboro to go out to eat dinner, see the luminaries, and exchange gifts; however, we got a little surprise--snow! There wasn't a whole lot, but it was definitely beautiful coming down, and it made us all a little nervous to be driving so far to Dillsboro, especially at night. Luckily, Cody got out of the conference earlier than expected, so we all met in Waynesville (only 1/2 the distance) for lunch. We all had a wonderful time together! It just never lasts long enough! When we returned to Elliot and Amy's house, we played several more games of Aggravation. (I'm sorry to say that the girls did not win the competition this time...we'll beat them next time!)

Cody, Elliot, and Mike


Amy, Pam, and me


Sunday was a busy day for us. We ate breakfast with Amy and Elliot, drove to Taylorsville to go to church with my mom and dad, ate lunch at the church Christmas luncheon, visited with my granddaddy in Hickory, visited with Cody's mom and dad, and headed to Winston-Salem for Cody's last interview. We checked into our hotel and then went to eat dinner with some of the residents. The residents were very nice, and gave us a good first impression of the residency program at Wake Forest.

I dropped Cody off at his interview on Monday morning. I was supposed to meet up with Christina, but unfortunately she got sick and was not able to come. So, instead, I went back to the hotel to read a while before heading out to go shopping. (Can you see a theme??? Shopping almost everyday this weekend. Yes, I like to shop!) I picked up Cody from his interview in the afternoon, we went back to Taylorsville to pick up Hershey at my mom and dad's, and then we drove back to Greenville.

Cody felt that his interview went really well, and he was very impressed with the residency program. We are going to have to sit down to really hash out the pros and cons of this program with the one at Brody so that he can make a confident decision. It is such a relief to have all the interviews complete. (I don't know how some people do as many as 20 interviews for other specialties.) Cody will turn in his rank list in February, and Match Day is in March. Please continue to remember us in our prayers as this chapter in our lives will soon be coming to a close.

The Spirit of Christmas

Hershey and I went to the post office today, because I needed to get stamps to mail off our Christmas cards. The post office on Memorial wasn't open, so I had to drive to the one in Winterville. When I got there, the line was about 15 people long, and moving very slowly. Come to find out, there was only one register open because the other one was broken. If you just needed stamps and if you had the correct change or were paying with a check, they could help you immediately so you wouldn't have to stand in line. Well, I never carry cash with me, and, of course, I didn't have my check book. The woman behind me asked me how many stamps I needed, and she bought me a book of stamps so I wouldn't have to stand in line to pay with my credit card. What a nice surprise! This woman did an act of kindness that was definitely unexpected and unnecessary--the true spirit of Christmas. Her generosity was not only recognized and appreciated by me, but many of the people in line also noticed her act of kindness. May God bless this woman, whoever she may be, and may we all remember her kindness and pass it on to someone else...

Our Thanksgiving Holiday

Cody and I have so much for which to be thankful--our marriage, our family, Hershey, a nice place to live, great friends, good health, more "things" than we ever need, a great church family, and of course, much more food than we can eat....

The Thanksgiving holiday was full of all the things we are thankful for. Our parents both came to our house for Thanksgiving lunch. (We had leftovers galore.) We had a great time talking and playing games.

Using our China for the First Time


The Food


Getting a Full Plate


Cody and his mom went Black Friday shopping at 4:30 a.m. I, with the help of my dad, had a hot breakfast cooked for everyone by the time they were back from shopping. We had country ham, bacon, eggs, biscuits, gravy, hashbrowns, chocolate chip banana bread, coffee, and juice.

Not only does Thanksgiving mean a time of thanks, but, to me, it also means the start of the Christmas season--my favorite time of the year. After our parents left on Friday, we spent the rest of the afternoon decorating for Christmas. Hours were spent getting boxes of decorations out of the attic, placing them in the appropriate spots around the house, decorating our tree, and putting the empty decoration boxes back up in the attic. Our tree has many special ornaments--I have a ton that I received growing up, we have some that we have given each other or that we received from our parents, there are a few that commemorate special moments in our lives--like our first Christmas together, and a small collection of ornaments that we picked up at the places we have visited since we have been married. Some people like theme trees that are all matchy-matchy, which I think are very pretty, but I couldn't imagine Christmas without our personalized tree.

Our Living Room


On Saturday, Cody put up icicle lights on the outside of the house. He doesn't particularly like heights, but he was so brave to go so high on the ladder to even put the lights on the tall peak of our roof. They look so good! I spent most of Saturday wrapping presents. (By the way, I am 99% done with my Christmas shopping!)

Christmas Lights!


To end our great Thanksgiving holiday, we got to visit with a dear friend of ours from high school. Kristina came to eat lunch with us on Sunday, and she spent most of the day just hanging out. It was the perfect way to end the weekend!

Kristina and Mel