Fresh (Greek Pita Pizza)

So...it's been a while.  

 

First, we remodeled our kitchen (yay!) and I wasn't able to cook or bake for almost 12 weeks. 

Then, I had a beautiful new kitchen.

Then, I woke up one morning to take the exam to get certified to administer chemotherapy.  This is a certification that I've wanted to get since I started nursing school.  A friend from work and I took the class together, driving up to North Jersey to this tiny little community hospital and sitting in a freezing cold room with no windows through boring lectures about side effects and IV access and tumor lysis syndrome.  And on the morning of the last day of the class when we were to sit for the exam, I took another test of my own.  

Turns out, we have a Hennebaby 2.0 on the way!!

Spicy Saturday BBQ (Spicy Pork Burgers)

Baby Watch, Day 173:  Last week we found out that Hennebaby is a boy!!  So now it's time to paint the nursery, buy some furniture and start our collection of blue baby blankets.  :-)

In other news:  since putting together our grill last summer, I've been looking for new things to try on it.  Hubby would be content with Bubba burgers and hotdogs, but I was feeling a little creative this Saturday.  We had an impromptu cookout with our besties, and in a mini-panic over what I should make, I turned to the mountainous pile of recipes ripped out of magazines that's been sitting on my kitchen table, waiting to be filed and put again in my Binder O' Recipes.  

Tortellini Love (Santa Fe Chicken Tortellini)

School is almost over.  In 15 more days, I will have successfully completed the requirements (I hope) to graduate this program, sit for the NCLEX and become a Registered Nurse.  We are soooooo close.  I can feel it.  I can taste it.  I can see it.  Over the past few weeks, my classmates and I have been stumbling around, exhausted, overworked and stressed to the max.  Now, this is changing a little.  We smile a little bit more.  We look at each other with the fondness that you feel for people with whom you realize your time is short.  Our time is short, both with each other and in our busy days. 

Because of this, I've been trying to cook things that are easy and self-contained.  I'm a fan of the casserole.  The one pot meal.  The one bowl brownies.  If it can be scooped onto my plate and eaten together, I'm a fan.  Who wants to fuss with side dishes?