I’ve known Lisa for as long as I’ve known Funnel, and Funnel has known her even longer.  ((I’ve seen pictures of them jumping on a trampoline in prom attire, from probably 7 years ago.))  Lisa is a cool, fun girl.  And our engagement shoot was the first time I met Jeff, and I think he is perfect for her.  Just from the couple of hours I spent with them at Inniswood Gardens, I could see that they have this awesome, fun, playful, crazy-about-you relationship that is just really refreshing to witness. 

I’m so excited to be shooting their wedding in October!

Put-in-Bay ::: South Bass Island ::: Lake Erie.

I haven’t gotten to cook much lately – mostly a combination of Funnel & I being on different work schedules, general busyness, and me being on a special diet that limits what I can eat.  Cooking makes me happy and when I don’t get to do it, I genuinely miss it.

This week, I got to cook us dinner and I tried three new recipes – and loved them all! 

Pioneer Woman’s Ranch Style Chicken
honey-mustard marinated chicken breast, smothered in thick-cut bacon and sharp cheddar.

Black Bean, Corn and Avoacado Salad
I loved the big chunks of avocado in this.  I could eat a whole bowl!

Stovetop Cinnamon Apples
I was craving apple crisp, but this is so much healthier without all the butter and brown sugar that’s in a crisp.  I’ll be making this a lot this fall!

This weekend, I’ll be doing some canning with my mom.  That should fill up my cooking-tank for awhile!

I mentioned in my last post that Funnel suprised me with the Star Wars Cookie Cutter set from William Sonoma.  If that wasn’t  enough, he helped me decorate  a batch of  them last night.  He is a darling, sweet man and I love love love him.

Some pictures of my first go at Star Wars cookies (taken with our little Sony – my fancy camera was out of commission):

May the force be with you!

 * Life has felt a little overwhelming lately, between my job, the photography business and just the general busyness of summer. I know once fall comes,  life will slow down a little bit, so I just need to make it through the next couple of months. I’m also trying to schedule some “Jen time” each week to spend some time doing things that are fun and relaxing – going to Starbucks with a good novel, working on my quilt, or watching Anne of Green Gables for the hundredth time.

* Our air conditioning is dead. It can’t be fixed – it needs to be completely replaced. Since we made it this far into the summer, I think we’re just going to wait until next spring to do it. In this 90 degree weather we’ve had, it’s been a good exercise in being “uncomfortable”. At our bible study on Tuesday night we even talked about how as Americans, we are used to instant gratification and having our every little need  met, whether it is being able to eat whenever and whatever we want, or having our houses and workplaces at the most comfortable temperature. Luxuries that most people in the world don’t have. Funnel & I have been sleeping on a gigantic bed we made in the basement out of two mattresses pushed together. Funnel calls it “camping”.

 * On Sunday and Monday, my parents and doggies came to visit for the 4th of July. We grilled shish kebabs, watched Avatar and went to the Columbus Zoo.  Funnel & I spent Monday evening swimming at his parents’ house.  I love both of our families. 

(Our fourth of July dinner:)

 * Funnel surprised me Tuesday night with the Star Wars cookie cutter set and the Apple Pocket Pie Mold from William Sonoma that I blogged about last week. Total sweet-heart.

 * My pepper plants are starting to sprout adorable little peppers. Still waiting on my tomato plants and my little flower bed to bloom.

 * At the end of the month, we are taking a weekend camping trip with some friends to Put-in-Bay (South Bass Island) where we spent our 2nd anniversary. It’s an awesome little island in Lake Erie and  there’s tons of restaurants &  bars, shops, a winery, putt-putt, and a cave.  Everyone gets around by bicycle or on a golf cart.

One of my favorite things about summertime is strawberries.    I have fond memories of picking strawberries with my mom and our kitchen smelling of strawberries in the summer as my mom made a big batch of homemade jam. I love strawberries in most any form – covered in chocolate, on shortcake, in a berry pie. 

A couple of weeks ago, Meijer was selling five pounds of strawberries for five dollars and I couldn’t resist such a great deal.  I froze most of them for smoothies, but I decided to use some of them for something I’ve heard of but never have tried – Strawberry Soup.

Don’t let the name fool you.  Strawberry Soup is a dessert and a very elegant (but simple and easy) one!  It’s like a smoothie, but richer and creamier.  All you need is a one-pound container of fresh strawberries, and a few other items – light corn syrup, sugar, plain unsweetened yogurt , milk,  lemon juice, and whipped cream. 

Start by halving the strawberries, or quartering them if they are especially gigantic.

Toss them with 1/4 cup of light corn syrup and put them on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 300 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the syrup is thick. 

Let cool, and place them in your food processor (a blender will probably work if you don’t have a processor) and process until pureed.

Add 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of  plain yogurt, 1/2 to 1 cup of milk ( I used skim milk), and 1 tablespoon of lemon or lime juice.  Processs until combined.

Ladle into some pretty bowls or glasses and chill until ready to serve.  Garnish with a dollop of whipped cream.

Recipe by Joy of Baking.

The second Saturday in June, I helped John & Ali of Contrast Images shoot Kyle and Nikki’s beautiful wedding at Hickory Lakes in Pickerington.    The location for their outside ceremony and the formal shots was like some sort of enchanted forest from a fairy tale – just gorgeous.  Super fun wedding, super gorgeous couple, and super fun photographers to do it with! I shot almost all of it with my 5omm lens… being the third shooter gives me a little extra room to play around. 

About a month ago, I was shopping for a wedding gift and the couple had registered at William Sonoma.  The second I set foot in the store, something strange happened to my heart: I fell in love. 

If I could time-travel back four years to the summer that Funnel and I were in the midst of planning our wedding, I would have registered there.   It’s a baking-enthusiast’s dream.

Here’s what I am currently lusting after:

{ Lattice Pocket Pie Mold }

{ Apple Picket Pie Mold }

{ Star Wars Cookie Cutters }

{ Star Wars Pancake Mold }

{ Message in a Cookie Cutter }

{ Sandwich Cookie Cake Mold }

{ Calzone Mold }

{ Cookie Press }

Next time I am at Easton, I’m going to stop by and snag a couple of things… I’m really eyeing the Lattice Pocket Pie Mold and Apple Pocket Pie Mold.

{ I’m taking a small break from the Europe re-cap posts… I’ll get back to those soon with stories of our time in beautiful Roma! }

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Lately, I have felt like I am at a “in-between” place in my life.  Funnel and I will be celebrating four years of marriage this fall, so we aren’t newlyweds anymore, but we also probably won’t be starting our family for a couple of years either.    And now that we have the house and the Europe trip checked off our list, I sometimes feel like I am in a holding pattern, waiting for the next “big thing”.   But I don’t want to have that attitude.  I don’t want to live (waste?) my life like I am  only waiting for the next big thing to come along. 

I saw this in Carolyn Hax’s daily column a few weeks ago:

When I was single, childless and careerless, a friend said, “What are the things you won’t have time for, once relationship/child/job come along? Get busy doing those, and relish them. The day will come when you’ll realize what a gift this waiting time was.”

So I relished. I hiked, I biked, I sewed, I decorated, I read books, I played music, I danced, I hung out with friends, I cruised thrift stores.

It took a long time for the things on my list to come to me. And now I’m so glad I took the opportunities my “waiting time” gave me — because now, I don’t see it as waiting time, but time that I used to enjoy all those things that are now so hard to find time for now.

 Reading that made me realize how lucky we are to have this time to travel and work on projects and pursue a lot of dreams and hobbies we might not be able to once we are parents.   This is a really neat season of our life and I’m sure once we are parents we may miss the freedom and opportunites we have now. 

How I’d like to live this out in the next couple of years:
   – Take all of the Wilton cake decorating courses this coming year
   – Take one of CCAD’s adult art classes this winter
   – Finish up the quilts I started making for our quest bedroom
   – Become better at sewing and cooking
   – Grow vegetables in raised beds next spring & summer
   – Make and can jam, pickles, and tomato sauce
   – Go on another “big” trip in fall 2011
   – Have some fun weekends away with Funnel
   – Finish writing my children’s story
   - Take Yoga classes
   - Schedule “me” time every week, even if it’s just an hour at the coffee shop with a good book

After spending the morning exploring Cortona, Funnel headed back to the hotel for a nap, and I decided to do some shopping in the town square.  I browsed several pottery shops, a textile shop, a couple of art galleries, and some general souvenier shops. 

After a bit, I went back to the hotel to get Funnel, and then we grabbed a late lunch from a little pizza shop.  It had started to drizzle a bit, so Funnel and I ate our pizza under the awning of a hat store.

After the rain stopped we visited a bunch of the stores that I had gone to earlier that afternoon.  We did a little shopping – we bought our moms necklaces and I bought a little plate to hang in our living room from this cute pottery shop:

We had some gelato and enjoyed walking around the town square:

Funnel bought me this Hello Kitty bling from a vending machine that was set right outside a toy store:

We walked a ways down the main road below the town, into the more modern area of Cortona:

It was about dinner time, so we went back to our hotel to freshen up.  For dinner we decided to go back to the same restaurant as the night before.  It had been so good, and we had  talked to someone who had been in town for several weeks who said it was the best restaurant in Cortona. 

For dinner, Funnel and I split bruscetta and Funnel had sausage (he said it was the best sausage he had ever had) and I had this pork with balsamic dressing and peppercorns:

Funnel and I rushed a bit through dinner (much to the dismay of our sweet waiter) because we wanted to catch the sunset over beautiful tuscany.  We climbed the hill to a nice lookout spot (I realized then how out of shape I am) and we got to see the very end of the sunset. 

I was sad that night that we were leaving Cortona the next morning.  Cortona stole my heart – it was my favorite place we had visited, and I wished we had planned more than 2 days there.