Time Marches On

It feels great to be back to blogging after a six-month hiatus.  A lot has happened during the time since my last post, which I recap (with photos galore!) below.

I last blogged on August 12, 2011. 

On August 20, H and I moved out of our beloved Brighton to Boston’s South Shore.   Here I am “tail-gating” our move (aka, sitting on the back of my brother-in-law’s pick-up truck, eating a heated-up Amy’s frozen pizza off of the edge of a plate because the utensils were all packed away):

I had a second bridal shower, thrown my by mother-in-law and bridesmaids, on September 10.  Check out some of the awesome vegan fare they had for me!

Fruit salad in a beautiful bowl:

Hummus and veggie wraps:

Roasted corn salad atop tomatoes, and pickles (of course!):

All washed down with a chocolate raspberry vegan cookie:

My cookie even came complete with a warning to protect it from well-intentioned omnivore dessert-seekers:

Haha!

I spent the next five weeks shuttling back and forth between Boston and New Jersey every single weekend in preparation for my wedding.  On one of those weekends, I was a bridesmaid in the wedding of my best friend.  The following two weekends were the Jewish High Holidays; I went to synagogue by day and stayed up late into the night with my amazing parents and fiance hand-making wedding favors and placecards.  I actually had my final dress fitting on Yom Kippur, while fasting (it fit great).  I chose and ordered my cake and flowers just one week before the event.  I even bought my veil the day before the wedding, on the way to our rehearsal dinner! It was a whirlwind time!!

On October 16th, I married the most wonderful man in the world 🙂

We spent a magical week on Cape Cod for our honeymoon, then returned to reality.  I busied myself with my job search and with preparing for our upcoming move to the MetroWest suburbs of Boston (yes, we moved twice in three months.  Who doesn’t?).

A week and a half before our move, I found out I passed the bar!!

We moved on November 12th.  I swore in to the bar on November 15th:

Thank goodness we were able to locate our suits amongst all the boxes and suitcases!

I changed my name.  I looked for work.  I found a temporary position as a lawyer in downtown Boston, which started December 1st.  Then there were the holidays, and New Years. 

Friends and family came to visit and stay with us (we have real guest bedrooms now after all!). The Patriots had a fantastic season, which we followed avidly (though it didn’t end the way we wanted). We had stay-cations and surprise parties for big events like Valentine’s Day and somebody’s 30th birthday…

Now here we are.  It’s March.  I can hardly believe it!  So much has happened in such a short time in my life.  There have been a lot of adjustments–I’m no longer a student, I live in the suburbs, and, well, I’m somebody’s wife, to name a few–but life is good and I’m enjoying it one day at a time.

And I am so excited to be back to blogging!!!

I have been cooking tons. Now that H and I are both working full-time, I’m learning the ins and outs of menu planning, make/prep-ahead meals, and most importantly, packing lunches!  It’s been really fun (not to mention delicious) and I cannot wait to share some of the great new recipes I’ve found and time-saving techniques I’ve learned.  I hope you will enjoy them!

Great Green Glob of Garden Goodness

Sorry that my “I’ll post tomorrow” became “I’ll post a week later”…it’s been a crazy week!  I am trying to get myself organized to move up to Boston next weekend, plus my parents and sister were away for a few days so I was the woman of the house–I spent tons of time cleaning, taking care of Farley and Bailey, and cooking up a storm!  I will have to do a separate update with all of that good stuff 🙂  Alot of it involved the use of our garden jewels, so you see, it all ties together!

The stars of our garden this summer are definitely the cucumbers, but the tomatoes which are now proliferating will soon give them a run for their money!  Here are some pics of our beautiful cucumbers:

Dad cutting from the vine (look how big the leaves are!!)

A beauty

A basket of goodness

These cucumbers are delicious!  We’ve actually found that the smaller ones are yummier because the bigger ones have alot more seed density.  But yesterday I made a fantastic snack out of one of these; I just sliced it up and tossed the slices with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, oregano, and salt.  Soooooo good!

On to the tomatoes!  We have a few different varieties and have already had a bunch of ripe ones, but right now most of the crop is green, and I have a feeling within a few weeks we are going to be inundated all at once…but I’m not complaining!

A lovely cluster on the vine, almost ready for picking

A beefsteak, which still has some growing to do…it’s going to be huge!

We also have been feasting on our Swiss chard!  Our favorite way to prepare it is sauteed with a drop of olive oil and some roasted garlic.  Oh, I just love it and can’t get enough of it!  Here is Dad snipping some for one dinner last week:

And lastly, or should I say, soon to come, is our squash.  The leaves are gigantic and we have lots of flowering going on (see picture below) but the plants have yet to produce any fruit, so we shall see!

The garden makes me so happy! 🙂

Blooming

My family has a little garden patch in our backyard which in the past has yielded mixed results. We’ve had pretty decent tomato harvests in the past though! Anyway this year everything is looking uncharacteristically good (no offense, Daddy!), and so yesterday I took some pics to share…

Here is my dad posing (though he doesn’t look like he is…he’s a natural) with a hoe!

Here is the front view of the garden patch (though it’s looking a little busted right now…don’t know what happened to those two slats on the gate but we’d better fix it fast or the rabbits shall be much happier than we…)

And here are our crops!!!

Basil (we have two plants, can you tell which is the older one?): one of my top 5 favorite herbs, and one which I am SO excited to use in recipes very soon

Tomatoes (we have a few varieties, but these beefsteaks are the first to bear fruit this year)

Lovely Lavender

Peas

Swiss Chard

Cucumbers

We are also in the market for some squash seeds and plan to plant them for a fall harvest… 🙂

I think it’s so amazing what can come out of the earth, and watching it happen in front of my eyes only increases my amazement!