Happy Holidays 2010!

Hi everyone!  We hope you had a fabulous holiday season!  We had a blast and have some pictures to share (more on the way soon!).  Click below to follow the link...

Holidays 2010

Happy Holidays!

We are getting excited here for the holidays and have a holiday video to share with you all.  Enjoy!!!

Love, Lauren, Bryan, and Bruno

CLICK HERE!!!

Catching Up

Well, it's been a crazy past couple of weeks.  School is officially on break (kind of, but I still have SPU work to do even though it's technically winter break) and Bryan is on his last day of his Holiday Party Madness at work.  Since my Thanksgiving post, we have had Erin, Matt, Josh, and Joey in town to celebrate the Seahawks win over the Panthers (haha), hunted for and put up our Christmas Tree, Blitzen-sat, and I have attempted three desserts/cookies in the past 30 hours and have failed at two of my attempts.  The gingerbread cookies turned out alright, though.  I'll share that recipe later! :-)

Anyway, I don't have any pictures of our finished tree uploaded yet, but here are some other fun pictures!  Hope you are all having a Happy Holidays and have lots of fun festive festivities planned for the next week!

After the game... and those Panthers fans are still smiling somehow!

This was maybe going to be a Christmas Card Photo, but the angle makes me look nearly 3 times Bryan's size! :-)

Me directing traffic in a really cool hat

Awww... Us and our third tree together.  

Lauren's Cooking Dinner, really?

Yes, really.  Bryan has been slammed at work and my official quarter at SPU ended Wednesday, so I feel like a free woman (but in all actuality, I have just as much work to do right now as before, but it still feels better)!  And, in honor, I am listening to Christmas music and making a baked ziti (well, penne)....  It's not fantastically impressive, but it's good and easy (and it makes enough to feed a small army, but oh well).

Hope you are all well!

Baked Penne
not sure where I got it from... Mom was this one from you?
- 16 oz penne pasta, cooked
- Olive Oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb mild italian sausage
- "generous pinches" of salt, pepper, dried oregano, thyme and rosemary
- 28 oz fire roasted crushed tomatoes
- Shredded mozzarella (at least one cup)

Preheat oven to 350F
Heat olive oil in pan and saute garlic until fragrant, about 2 min
Add sausage and brown.  If lots of fat, drain.
Add generous pinches of salt, pepper and herbs, stir to coat beef
Add crushed tomates, bring mixture to a boil and simmer 5 minutes
In a baking dish, layer:  splash of meat sauce, half of the pasta, half of the meat mix, 1/2 cup mozzarella (ish), rest of pasta, rest of meat, 1/2 c mozz (ish
Bake 30 minutes or until cheese looks yummy!  Enjoy!!

Apple McTurnover

An old recipe entered here for archiving sakes

Apple McTurnover with Whipped Cream

(Our own concoction)

2 apples, peeled and sliced

brown sugar (enough to coat apples, ~1T)

sugar (enough to coat apples, ~1T)

cinnamon (enough to coat apples, 2 pinches)

2 T butter

one sheet puff pastry

freshly whipped cream

- Preheat oven to 375

- Toss together apples, sugars, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

- Add butter to apple slices and microwave until butter melts (short spurts so it doesn't explode!)

- Spread out puff pastry in 8"x8" baking dish and pile apple slices in middle

- Wrap pastry around slices

- Bake until pastry is golden brown and flaky

- Top with whipped cream and Enjoy!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Note: This is a recipe we posted awhile ago, but I wanted to catalog it as an actual post

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Majorly adapted to get my cookie fix today because our pantry was a little lacking.  However, I'll put the real recipe down because my cookies were only so-so... but still cookies :-)

From the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

   

1 stick + 6 T unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1 3/4 c. packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 t. vanilla extract

3 c. all purpose flour

1/2 t. salt

2 1/2 t. baking soda

8 oz chocolate chips

(very approximate, and I used dark chocolate)

- Preheat oven to 325

- Mix butter and sugar with electric mixer and cream until light and fluffy

- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition

- Turn mixer to slow speed and beat in vanilla

- Add flour, salt, and baking soda; mix well until smooth dough forms

- Stir in chocolate chips

- Drop onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or not)

- Bake until golden brown on edges

- Cool a few minutes on baking sheet, transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

- Try to wait until they won't burn your mouth to enjoy

- Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!

Hi All!  We hope you had a great Thanksgiving!  We had a great trip to Charlotte.  We ate and drank to our hearts content, really enjoyed catching up with family, and got out on the golf course twice!  Thank you all for a fabulous trip- it was great to see you!

This time of year really makes us consider our lives and how lucky we are to have everyone of you in our lives.  Thank you all for everything- we are giving many, many thanks for our supportive, loving, and amazing family and friends.

Love, Lauren and Bryan

A Toast to... Everything!

Enough food to feed an army... or 20 people!

Aunt Sue and her Donut Cake

Happy Holidays! :-)

Snow!

Woke up this morning to snow on the ground and snow falling down!  Unfortunately, school is still in session, but at least it's SNOWING!!!!! :-)

A feast for the ages

We were inspired by the recent foodie magazines and the upcoming holidays to cook a feast today!  Well, let's say Bryan cooked the feast today- but I was the sous chef :-)

The feast: Bone-in pork roast with cranberry chutney, a side of celery root and apple puree with an apple galette to finish.  Bryan has been slaving away all day and now, it is just time for us to wait until it is all done cooking and enjoy!  I'll be adding the recipes after we try them to make sure they're good first! :-)

One other bonus of the day: It SNOWED!!! YAY!!!!  Nothing is really sticking, but it's been wonderfully cold and flakes have been falling all day long.

Happy snow and holidays!

Love, Lauren & Bryan

Uh Oh.

I know we are in trouble.  No need to tell me about it.  It has been a REALLY long time since we've (I've) written.  The past few months have been completely nuts for us.  School has kept me ridiculously busy between student teaching full time and my full time masters program at SPU....  Bryan's been worked to the bone lately, too- so much for a slow November at TnT!  Anyway, as I begin to get in a rhythm with school, I hope to get to sharing more of our lives with you.  The only problem with that is that we've been too busy to do anything incredibly exciting!  However, I have taken some pictures, so all is not lost.  Hope everyone is doing well- we are definitely surviving, but looking forward to some time off soon!
Love, Lauren and Bryan

Luckily, Bryan still has time to cook me fabulous meals.  I am one lucky gal.

Two Sundays ago, we took a ferry ride down to the Gig to visit Mom and Dad

The one benefit of waking up early enough to see the sunrise.  A beautiful sunrise!

Bryan attempted No-Shave November, but made it a week.

Need I say more?  HAPPY 90th AUNT TRUDY!

Georgette, Aunt Trudy, and Grandpa at Aunt Trudy's Birthday Party

Mom and Dad celebrating a friend's wedding with the Hags (Kevin and Molly)

Wow

Honestly, I am so amazed that they are getting those Chilean miners out.  Trapped since AUGUST.  2 out so far- they are showing a live video feed on some of the local news websites.  Absolutely amazing- there is some hope in the world!

Mercer Island Seniors

So, when Bryan turned 30, he was invited to join a new indoor soccer team in a Men's 30 and over league.  One of my coworkers from Omeros, Rene, was on this team and he said they wanted a guy with "young legs" to join the team.  So for the past few months, Bryan is playing for the Mercer Island Seniors!  YAY!  And on top of it all, they have amazingly cool uniforms...

Go Team!

PS- I am adding a new chocolate chip cookie recipe b/c on a (very!) rainy day in October, everyone needs a chocolate chip cookie.

Football, oh football

Today we made it by 9:50 am to our favorite Sunday morning hangout (at least during football season when the Panthers aren't on TV), the Rocksport.  It wasn't very crowded yet, so we were able to get a good booth by the TV playing the Panthers and promptly ordered bloody mary's and eggs with bacon (thank you KLB!).  Mom and Dad met us for the 4th quarter of the Panthers game; afterwards we headed home for the Seahawks.  With the football we watched today from our two teams, we could have used fifty bloody mary's to get us through the day of interesting football playing....

Other than that, things are really busy for the both of us.  Bryan's work is hitting an end of season boom, and he has been working like a madman.  My student teaching got finalized this past week and I am officially a student teacher intern at Aviation High School; I'm so excited, but quite busy running around between a general science class (not officially interning in this one, but am still doing most the work), chemistry class, and pre-calculus class.  If you want to hear about my trials at the school, I've been blogging about them on my school blog.  It's been super fun, but I have been exhausted!!

We also wanted to send our best wishes Georgette who had a big scare this week....  But is recovering like a champ!  We love you!

Anyway, hope you are all doing well and recovering from bad football today.  Or hopefully your team did well! :-)  We're making some dessert tonight, so I'm updating our "what we are eating" page.

Take care and talk to you soon!

Love, Lauren and Bryan

Trying Something New!

Hi all,
So we're trying something new with our blog- Pages!  These are links to other info.... beginning with "What we're eating"!  I thought I would add new recipes that we've made lately for fun :-)

Let us know how you like it and other pages you think we should add!

It's not finalized yet, but...

I had a great observation at Aviation High School today.  I really don't want to get my hopes up, but the ball appears to be rolling for an internship there.  Check out the website HERE.

I'll keep you updated once I know more!

We did it!!!

Yay!!  Half Marathon #3 is under our belts.  Yesterday, Sarah and I, with a great band of supporters (Mom, Dad, Bryan and Devin) trudged our way through 13.1 miles of Woodinville and Bothell in the Super Jock and Jill Half Marathon.  It was a pretty good course except for one MONSTER hill through the UW Bothell Campus.  We made it though, and are quite happy to be done!
My thighs are telling me today, though, that I ran 13 miles yesterday.  Oooh baby, I'm a little sore!  And for some strange reason my right shoulder is sore, too..... weird!  Anyway, thanks all for your support whether you were there cheering, helping us carb load the night before (Uncle Mark and Aunt Sue), or sending us well wishes from across the country!
Here are some photos from yesterday (arranged from start to finish- great photos Dad!):

Yahoo!  Until next time!

One Week Left....

Until Sarah and I brave it once again and run our 3rd half marathon together.  Come and cheer us on!  Monday, Sept 6th at Redhook Brewery!

Here are some inspirational pictures I have found from runs past...

Kristen, it's not too late to fly up and JOIN US!!!!!!!

It's great to have a cheering squad- we're excited to get Dev this time too!

We were excited to be done, but even more excited for the McDonalds milk shake and fries awaiting us!!!

Is it Fall already?

Good morning and happy weekend!  We have been waking up to Fall these past two mornings and all day it has definitely felt like football season is around the corner.  I think it's also the football games on TV making it feel like October already, but it's been a bit brisk out!

Bryan and I have been having some fun this week (I'm done with school for the "quarter")- we went to the Seahawks game on Saturday night, helped with a water-main leak-turned-redo-the-garden project Sunday, went to the sounders game, and have cooked some meals at home.  During the day, I've been having a blast and Bryan's been working hard :-) I've played golf with Grandpa, gone out to lunch with my old coworkers, and had an amazing day with mom yesterday!

Still no student teaching assignment for me, yet.  I got a "Don't Panic" email from the coordinator the other day, so I'm not too worried, but she also said I might not hear before the start of school.  Which is super frustrating- how long have they been working on this?  I know it's a big responsibility for a teacher to take on, but it'd sure be nice to hear about where I'll be for a year before September!  But, oh well... if I'm not placed yet, I'm going to shadow the first day of school at Stadium (Dad's old digs) with a chemistry and math teacher, so at least I'll have that experience!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend planned!  Bryan and I are going to my good friend from high school's (Justin's) wedding tonight and will be going to my friend Charlie's baby's one year birthday party Sunday.

I haven't been good at taking pictures lately, sorry, so nothing good to add!

Love, Lauren & Bryan

Hello All!

So, needless to say it's been a little busy here in the Hamilton house.  Awesome, but busy.  Here's a summary.

First, the man is 30!  Happy Birthday Bryan!  We had so much fun for his birthday.... so many special guests, too!  Garrett and Kenzie came first, surprising Bryan at work with a fake complaint!  Erin and Matt came six hours later, waking Bryan up in the middle of the night!  Then, Kristen flew in from AZ to help celebrate, too!  WHAT A PARTY!

Thank you all for helping us celebrate... whether you flew in, drove hours, drove minutes, just showed up (Bruno), or sent good thoughts.  It was such a good feeling to have a great group there to help celebrate a great guy.  It really meant so much to us.  Thank you.

Also, school has started for me!  It's been a great experience so far.  I'm really enjoying being a student again and am really, really excited to get into the classroom.  I should be there within a month, but still don't know my student teaching assignment school yet.  I'll be in both math and chemistry classrooms, but don't know where yet.  Boo!  I'll definitely let you know once I get my assignment.  As part of our certification process, we are tracking just about everything we do on a professional blog.  If you want to check me out, click here.

What a summer!  Hope you are all staying cool.  Our nifty thermometer says it's only 75 in our house right now, but that's the main floor.  I'd say our upstairs hasn't been below 80 for the past five days.  I'm beginning to think it might be worth it to get air conditioning for the one or two weeks a year it gets HOT here.  Ugh.

Anyway, here are some pics to help capture what we've been doing lately.  You can find the many pics that were taken here (and plenty of others from the summer, too).  Hope you are all well-

Lots of love and thanks,
Lauren and Bryan

Our appetizer at Flying Fish on Bryan's actual bday, a whole fried rockfish

Lauren, Bryan, Kenzie, Garrett, Erin and Matt at the Flying Fish on Bryan's Bday

Sarah, Kristen and I at the party

Shaved Zucchini Salad

Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts

A good new salad that keeps me hoping some summer weather will come back soon!

Adapted from Bon Appetit August 2010

1/3 c. olive oil

2 T. lemon juice (fresh tastes yummy)

1 t. kosher salt

1/2 t. pepper

1/4 t. red pepper flakes

One big zucchini, ends trimmed (perfect for a side salad for two)

1/2 c. ish chopped fresh basil

1/4 c. ish pine nuts, toasted (adds a lot to salad actually)

Parmesan Cheese

- Whisk oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes in a small bowl

- Using vegetable peeler, working from top to bottom, slice zucchini into ribbons and place into a large bowl

- Add basil, nuts, and dressing.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  It was great to let it sit and soak up the dressing for 20 min or so.

- Grate parmesan over top of salad (we grated and it tasted fantastic)

An Invitation

T! H! I! R! T! Y!

Bryan's Turning 30!

Come help him celebrate his leap into a new decade!!!!!

Saturday, August 7th

6:15 pm

BBQ at our house:

5413A Fauntleroy Way SW

Seattle  98136

What to bring? Yourself, your significant other, anyone else I forgot to add to this email and...

A fun or funny (yet "family appropriate"... ahem) picture of Bryan or you and Bryan

I know there are some good ones out there!  Hope to see you all Saturday!  

PS- If you could let me know if you think you'll be able to make it so we can make sure to have enough food, that'd be great!

Picture Examples:

(Two beached seals here)

Yikes, It's been awhile....

Hi all, sorry for the delay! I know I left it on a cliff-hanger with work and left you all hanging for three weeks. Well, it ended up great. The last day was very sweet- I got many thoughtful gifts and cards, and had a lot of fun at my goodbye party. As we were wrapping up the party, Greg, the CEO, came running into the room because he wanted to be there but was stopped up. We kept the party going for another hour. It was really sweet.

And boy, has it been nice to be done! I've spent the last three weeks doing nothing and doing a lot at the same time. I got sunburned the first week (after the rain filled fourth of july fiesta), played golf and hung out with family and friends the second week, and have spent this week partly on vacation with Bryan and partly organizing and getting our house the office ready for school! Four bags of clothes, purses, wallets, shoes, etc to goodwill! Here are some highlights...

Kristen came to visit for my birthday and the fourth of July weekend!

Brett, Georgette and Grace also made the trip up for the 4th

Just a funny picture :-)

Our good friend, Lauren, got married!

We went on vacation to Alderbrook Resort on Hood Canal for a few days after the wedding

A bloody mary with a crab claw!

Hope you all are doing well and getting some good sun (unless it's over 110deg like in Phoenix!)!!! 

Love, Lauren & Bryan

Two more days!

Ah, the end is near! Yay!!

The early part of the week has been trying and fairly crazy, but yesterday evening I stayed late to finish up all the actual work I have left to do so these next few days can just be me organizing and having fun. A day of meetings today (exit interview this morning) and then tomorrow will be here!

I'm sure tomorrow I'll begin to get sad when saying goodbye, but for now, I'm just ready to get to that point tomorrow! Thanks for all your good thoughts- I think it really helped this week.