My Blog List

Friday, August 31, 2012

Where has this summer gone?!

What happened?  I feel like this has been the FASTEST. SUMMER. EVER.  Seriously, this summer should get a speeding ticket!! :)  But here we are, the last part of the summer is coming to a close (tear) and at least I can say that the summer of 2012 will go down as one of the best (and busiest) so far. 

Here are some of the memorable things that happened over the summer......
 
My super cute nephew, Ryan,  turned 2: 
 

We got MARRIED (I know, you thought I would forget to add that one)
 


We honeymooned in Savannah and Tybee Island, GA

Had a wonderful family beach trip in Sunset Beach, NC.  One of my favorite places in the world!





 
I went to Ft. Lauderdale for a really great conference with the March of Dimes
 
We headed back down to Tybee for our two month wedding anniversary
(I forgot to take pictures on this trip I so we will just go with a standard "toes in the sand" picture here)
 
We spent time with some great friends

And I got to go BACK to the beach with one of my BFF's, Rebecca!
 
Check out those smoky eyes.  FIERCE.  :)  We actually got a little help from this blog post http://www.maskcara.com/2012/07/date-night-makeup/ .  It has inspired me to start using some new products and have a little fun when it's time for a girls night/date night or something special. 
 
William has been working hard all summer on his new business, W. Walker Environmental.  I am so proud of him and all of the time and effort he has spent and continues to spend on making it a success.  We certainly have a lot of work ahead of us, but so far I couldn't be more excited for him on making his dream a reality. 
 
You know what they say "The greatest risk in life is not taking one."  Well, I know in our case, with great risk comes great reward.  Please think about us and say a little prayer that everything continues to go smoothly!
 
We have had a great summer full of fun, family, friends and excitement. 
 
 Now-WHO'S READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!?!   
 

 
 
 

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Wedding showers

As I mentioned in my last post, we had an exciting second half to our weekend that included TWO wedding related activities.  The first was a shower thrown by the Rogers-one of our favorite couples!  They actually introduced William and I about five years ago at a tailgate and their whole family was in our wedding! 

Here they are:
This picture doesn't really do their daughter, Elizabeth, justice though.  She's SUPER cute and fun. AND they are expecting another daughter the end of this fall.  Clark. Is. In. Trouble.  Poor guy.
Well, anyways, back to the shower....we were celebrating one of William's buds from his college days, Jeff Tarpley. 

Here he is with his sweet fiance, Susie.
Sorry to be using all of these photos from the wedding-they're the most recent ones I have!  The shower was a great time.  We played cornhole, had a few beers and caught up with friends.  We didn't want to leave!  BUT we had to because we had an engagement party to go to for Adam and Amanda. 

Check out this cute couple:
Hey?! Check it out-ANOTHER picture from our wedding :)  But doesn't everyone just look so nice?!  They had a super fun fiesta catered by Moe's (where they met years ago) at Adam's parents beautiful home on the lake.  It was great to catch up and celebrate with them as well. 

Weddings are just such fun.  Maybe it's because I just finished my own, but there is just something about two people deciding that they want to spend their lives together that warms your heart. 

You can just feel the love and happiness surrounding them and who isn't a fan of that?  People who don't like weddings confuse me.  Here is a list of things I like about weddings:

1. God
2. Love
3. Friends
4. Family
5. Dancing (what-what!!)
6. Cake
7. Free Booze (just keepin' it real people)
8. Getting to make lists like this that don't include bills to pay, to-do work items or chores

I mean COME ON-it is a GOOD TIME!  And who is all about having a good time and celebrating love?! THIS GIRL! 

Happy Wedding Kelley's and Tarpley's!  We love you guys!



Monday, August 13, 2012

Weekend Wrap-up

We had a great weekend spent with some of our favorite people.  With everyones busy lives and schedules it is often hard to find the time to get together.  In fact, we had to put our dinner on the calendar about a month in advance in order to find a convenient evening for all of us!  So Rebecca & JT (the Swygerts) were able to finally come over and check out our new house and stay for dinner Friday night! 
Meet the Swygerts:

I decided that I would try to theme our dinner by cooking a cuisine that I am totally addicted to but haven't really prepared much of at home-THAI!  We have a restaurant down the street called Mai Thai and I am completely obsessed.  So I borrowed a wok from my friend and coworker, Amanda-(thanks, girl!) and got to work.  For our appetizer I made homemade shrimp potstickers.  Fresh chopped shrimp, ginger, garlic, green onion, bok choy and soy sauce all wrapped in a wonton wrapper.  We fried the bottom to start the cooking process and then steamed to finish cooking them. I was so proud of my little creations! 

This was the before pic:




The main entree was drunken noodles-my absolute fave from Mai Thai.  The meal itself actually contains zero alcohol, but gets its name because it is spicy enough to make you drink a lot and/or it's something you want to eat a lot of when you're intoxicated.  Well, intoxicated or not I can assure you this dish is something you need to try.  I crave this dish at least once a week these days.

Finding some of the ingredients you need in the regular grocery store might prove to be tough so I started off with a trip to the Asian Market close to my office.
Here it is :)




Drunken Noodles Ingredients:
*All measurements are approximate (as many of you know I don't really measure while cooking very much-it just adds to my dish pile and who wants more of those to clean?!)

1 medium red bell pepper (sliced)
1 medium green bell pepper (sliced)
1 small onion (sliced)
2 cups snow peas
3 green onions (minced)
4-5 garlic cloves (minced)
1.5-2lbs Sirloin sliced thin
1/2 lb flat wide rice noodles
1/4 cup thai basil (chopped)

Sauce:
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tsp. sugar
3-5 tbsps. Sambal Oelek
2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar

Directions:
Chop veggies and combine sauce ingredients so that when ready to cook everything is prepped and ready to go.  I used a sirloin steak-tender and pretty inexpensive.  In order to slice it thin it helps to throw in the freezer for a bit before hand.   

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the rice noodles. This specific brand said for 6-8 minutes.  While the noodles boil, saute the garlic and green onion in a little vegetable or canola oil over medium-high heat.  After a few minutes add the snow peas, onions and bell peppers.  Making sure vegetables are tender but still crisp, take them out of the pan and add the beef. 

The wok gets pretty hot and the beef is sliced thin so this doesn't take very long, maybe 2-3 minutes.  Once the beef is cooked through remove and add to reserved vegetables. Add the noodles and fry a little and pour over the sauce along with the basil.   Combine your meat and vegetables with the noodles and toss all together and you're done!  I went a little easy on the chili paste so we served a little Sriracha (my favorite hot sauce) on the side for anyone wanting extra heat.  It was pretty darn good if I do say so myself!  AND besides the prep work, the actual dish only takes about 15 minutes or less to prepare and I don't know about you...but that's a win in my book! Don't forget to take a cute pic while you're cooking:


Of course we didn't forget to take a picture while standing over a hot burner but I forgot to take a picture of the final product.  Here's what the finished product will look like-thanks google images!:


There are so many variations that can be made to this dish too.  Spice level can vary, vegetables can be added or omitted and you could certainly make this with other proteins or completely vegetarian.  This might not be the most authentic Thai preparation but it sure did satisfy my craving :)

We had a great time with the Swygerts catching up and trying some adventurous cooking.  Rebecca (Swygert) even made a coconut cream pie to compliment the meal.  DELICIOUS! We look forward to more regularly scheduled dinner dates soon! 

We had even MORE fun this weekend with TWO wedding showers.  More to come on that in my next post!  Until then, here's a fun picture of Rebecca and I from our wedding.  We're singing "Call Me Maybe," one of our favorite, yet way overplayed, summer songs.  Don't we look totally devoted to our performance?  Hilarious.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

We did it!

Well-we've joined the world of blogging! It's something we, who are we kidding, I have been thinking about for a while.  I guess I should start by introducing us.  Rebecca and William, the Walkers.  

Here we are on our honeymoon in Savannah, Ga.


We recently got married and bought a house and now we are working on making that house a home.  You're probably wondering what's with the name. Whisks and Waders?  Well, William loves to fish!

Look at that catch!!!


And I love to cook.......
Yum, right?! 

Well I hope you'll follow along through our journey as husband and wife, wading through what life throws at us and whisking up some delicious meals as we go along.  Thanks for stopping by! More to come soon.....