The HoneyMoon

The next day after staying at the Hotel Lucia ( www.hotellucia.com ) very cool, I surprised Jill with our honeymoon destination of Whistler, BC. We flew out Monday afternoon to Vancouver and then took a 2 hour shuttle to the Hilton hotel which was a ski in / ski out hotel in the main village. We enjoyed celebrating the new year on our balcony with fireworks shooting off of the mountain. The week was filled with lots of lounging around, warm fires, morning coffee, sampling as many restaurants as possible, snowboarding, and finally zip lining through an actual "rain forest". We had a great time and are already planning our return some day.

Darla's New Blog!

Hey everybody...check out Darla's new blog!

www.darlaschmunk.blogspot.com

Convince her to keep on posting...we want to know what they're up to in Fall River. :)

-J

Weekend Fun

Just thought I'd share a little about our weekend. Started out Friday night with making a delicious meal from a recipe that my mom sent me. Here's the recipe...I would highly recommend it.

TOFU PARMIGIANA

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano, divided
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1 (12 ounce) package firm tofu
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS

• In a small bowl, combine bread crumbs, 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon oregano, salt, and black pepper.
• Slice tofu into 1/4 inch thick slices, and place in bowl of cold water. One at a time, press tofu slices into crumb mixture, turning to coat all sides.
• Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook tofu slices until crisp on one side. Drizzle with a bit more olive oil, turn, and brown on the other side.
• Combine tomato sauce, basil, garlic, and remaining oregano. Place a thin layer of sauce in an 8 inch square baking pan. Arrange tofu slices in the pan. Spoon remaining sauce over tofu. Top with shredded mozzarella and remaining 3 tablespoons Parmesan.
• Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 20 minutes.

Saturday we both woke up super early for some reason and so decided to go to the 8:30am early service at Loma Linda University Church. Karl Haffner spoke (used to be the pastor up at Walla Walla, but now out at Kettering in Ohio) and concluded the North American division's Week of Prayer here at Loma Linda. Every day this week we had chapel and a different pastor or president of an Adventist College spoke each day. After church we made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, and invited Trevor and Leah over. Then the four of us went rock climbing on Mt. Rubidoux. I really need to get some rock climbing shoes! So much fun, but every other turn I had to borrow Leah's shoes. It was a beautiful day and not even very windy. Lots of people hiking and climbing and bouldering on Mt. Rubidoux. For those of you who aren't familiar with the area...Mt. Rubidoux is in Riverside, kind of behind the Mission Inn. They are planning some very nice upgrades to the facilities in the near future. That evening the four of us decided to see CLOVERFIELD!!! Yikes....so fun, so exciting...I screamed twice....had to close my eyes to stop the dizziness....but I would definitely recommend it if you like those kinds of disaster type movies like I do! At the theater we ran into Jen & Mike, Mike's bro Jared, and their friends Melissa, Glen, and Jon.

Finally, today we went to Jenece & Brenden Hanks' wedding at the Azure Hills SDA Church. Very nice and simple wedding with tasty Thai food catered. There were only two people in their bridal party (her sister and his brother) and the reception was in the fellowship hall. They did something really nice that I've never seen before...they took communion together in front of the congregation and then had both of their immediate families come onto the platform and offered prayer together in a big circle. After the wedding we headed over to Byron and Tracey's house to watch the NFC Championship game (so sad that the Packers lost) and ate some pizza and popcorn and root beer. Now we're just chilling at home once again and Nathan is breaking in his new demo download on the Xbox while I delay studying. (I have all day tomorrow :) MLK day)

Hope the weekend was as good for you as it was for us.
-J

Dinner on Jan. 10

Well, I'm learning to play housewife and what better way to start than to think about planning meals? Lately my schedule has been conducive to this way of life... Our days have been going something like this: wake up, eat breakfast and drink coffee together, Nathan leaves for work and I walk to school around 8am, I'm in class until noon, come home for lunch or scam a free lunch while listening to some presentation at school, then either go to lab or clinic or start studying (often with Kay-Kay). This time at home studying allows me to start preparing dinner while memorizing bacteria, drugs, or other unappetizing subjects. Nathan then arrives home around 7:20 on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and 6:20 on Fri. We then sit down to a tasty dinner together (often at our lovely new coffee table) and possibly watch a show that we've recorded or perhaps a football game. Finally, I usually grab my notes again and Nathan turns on his new Xbox 360 and we alternate chatting, studying, and playing games. Good times. Wish I could play more games :)

Anyway, where was I going with this post? Oh yes, I tried out a new recipe last Thursday night and I had forgotten to post it...very tasty. Got it out of "New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant"-Nathan says his mom gave him this "recipeasel" that we have thoroughly enjoyed. So, here's the recipe:

PASTA VERDE
2 Tbs. olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
3 cups coarsely chopped raw spinach
1 cup ricotta cheese (9 oz.)
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tb. fresh basic (1 tsp. dried)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp. nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt to taste
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. pasta (fettucine, spaghetti, or egg noodles)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Saute the onions and garlic in the oil until the onions are translucent. Rinse the washed, chopped spinach in a colander and then add it, still damp, to the onions. Cover the pan. When the spinach is wilted and still very bright green, puree the sauteed vegetables with the other sauce ingredients at medium speed in a blender or food processor. Cook and drain the pasta. Toss the sauce with the hot, drained pasta in a warm bowl. Serve immediately, garnished with grated Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!
-J