Mmmmmmm...

The last few weeks I have been really paying attention to dinner time and what I was cooking. Josh's new job is allowing him to actually be home for dinner these days and earlier than 8pm so I am back in my cooking mode. :) I really love to cook. It has it's trying times with a one year old but I still love it. Here is a recipe that I made last night and boy oh boy!!!!! It is good!!!! Different than the "usual" mexican food I make and so fresh tasting!

Pork Carnitas Tacos

Recipe and photo by For the Love of Cooking
Recipe adapted from Noble Pig and Martha Stewart's Everyday Food

2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch pieces

4 garlic cloves, crushed

Sea salt and ground pepper, to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1/2 cup milk

Corn tortillas, warmed

Fresh cilantro, chopped

Red onion, thinly slice

Guacamole

Sour cream

Cotija cheese, grated

Lime wedges

In a large Dutch oven over high heat, combine pork, garlic, sea salt, pepper, and 8 cups of water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a medium low and simmer covered for 45 minutes. Drain well. In the same Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add pork, 1/2 cup fresh orange juice and 1/2 cup milk then cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated and pork has browned, about 8 to 12 minutes. The pork will start browning after liquid has evaporated. Season well with sea salt and pepper, to taste. Serve carnitas in corn tortillas with cilantro, red onion, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, cotija cheese and fresh lime wedges. Enjoy.

This may sound a little overwhelming but while the meat was cooking that 45 minutes I did everything else. Cut all the toppings up and made the guacamole. I served it with black beans and fresh guacamole. It was even great for Cade. He loves black beans and then I made a little cheese taco for him and he dipped that in his sour cream and guacamole.

Guacamole

(basic structure and photo courtesy of For the Love of Cooking.net, changed it up a little)

3 large ripe (soft but not mushy to the touch) avocados

1/4 red onion, diced

6 cherry tomatoes, diced

1 small handful of chopped cilantro

2 clove of garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, diced finely (if you want it spicy)

Sea salt to taste

1-2 limes juiced to taste (forgot to add to the picture)

Josh said this was the best guacamole he might have ever had! It really is good!!! I'm glad because tonight Cade and I are going out of town for the next few days so Josh will have leftovers to eat. :)

Enjoy!!!!

Fresh start and a fresh coat of paint

So I have decided in my very early midlife crisis that I want a totally different design then what I currently have in my house. Well I say that but actually when I was cleaning out a bunch of stuff I came across my house book of stuff that I like when we were building this house and all the pictures are similar to this look. So I have always loved this look just didn't realize how much until now. I want WHITE, WHITE and more White. I want CLEAN! I want LIGHT! I want FRESH! So I have started painting all the walls and trim. It actually is rather easy since I already got rid of most of our stuff in my de-cluttering rampage I had just a few weeks ago. :) Here is some of my inspirations.....

(unfortunately don't know the source of these pics, if they are yours they are WONDERFUL.)

Yearning for New beginnings...

I have never been in a similar place as I am now in my life.

Change doesn't scare me like most people.

I actually yearn for it sometimes.

Currently I am yearning for it but differently than ever before.

Usually I have an idea of where, what or when I want change to happen. Now, I have no idea. You know when you decide to go off to college you know where you are going. When you change jobs you know what you are going to be doing.

Everything in our life has been at a stand still for both Josh and myself.

Until now.

The first change is happening and I know there is more to come.

Josh is changing jobs.

He has decided to consult on his own instead of with the company he has currently been with for almost 6 years now. It is a major change in a lot of ways but in some ways not really a change at all. He will still be doing the exact same thing as before but with a different title and different people.

Josh and I both feel like the last few years have been going by so fast and we got lost in the day and day stuff. When I first met him he was so ambitious and I was instantly attracted.

We went from possibly living in China to living in Holliday, Tx.

I'm not saying that is bad at all, just one extreme from the other. Obviously getting married and having kids changes your goals or at least can redirect them. I think that we both got off our goals all together so that is why we feel like we are questioning our whole life and where we want to go.

We are anxious about this first piece of the new puzzle.

Excited to see what happens next.

I am de-cluttering my house and my head.

Like I said in a previous post, Parenthood changes everything. It definitely has us re-defining our happiness and what we want out of this time we have here on earth. Our ambitions have been re-ignited but in a different way then say when we graduated college. We know what we want but we don't.

I think God is toying with us. :)

We both yearn for change and he is just giving us a little taste with Josh's new job.

He is keeping us on the edge of our seats.

This crossroads has brought us closer together and we have even a stronger relationship than before.

God works wonders.

Maybe this was his goal all along.

We both believe that everything happens for a reason and God won't put more on you than you can handle.

Rain, rain, rain

Rain can be heavy, cold and hard to see through but when it stops and the clouds part it is a glorious, lifting, bright feeling full of freshness and renewed sunshine.

Date night this week was much needed!!

Boy oh boy do I love thee!! :)

Things are starting to look clearer...

For any mother out there you can probably understand where I am coming from when I say "becoming a mother changes EVERYTHING!" It is the most wonderful thing on earth by far. The love you have for something so small and so instantly can't be anything more than a miracle from God. This last year my view on "life" has changed drastically. This last few months my view has changed even more. I have always been that type of person who goes, goes, goes and have managed to keep that up until lately. I seriously thought that our "crazy" life was normal but I think I was living in denial. I can't explain what hit me upside the head but I am ready for a change. I don't feel like I have missed out on things but I have definitely not felt them and really took them in like I should. My little boy is already 15 months old! He is growing up so super fast and if I don't slow down and simplify my life I am going to end up missing or forgetting. We are blessed that I get to stay at home and be a full-time mother and a wife and that is now my goal. I have to learn that I can't say "yes" all the time, I can't be at all events and I can't do everything alone. I am obsessed with making people happy but really the only people I need to worry about making happy is myself and my family. In the last few months I have been questioning my "country life" and thought that it was making my life more complicated. I thought that if we moved back to the city that everything would be perfect. I would have everything at my fingers tip and it would just be easier. In the last few days after a lot of crying, talking and evaluating our life things are starting to look clearer. It doesn't matter where I live if I continue to live this 90 mile an hour lifestyle. It isn't healthy for me physically, emotionally and definitely isn't healthy in my relationships. I am tired of doing things half-ass around the house just to get by, I'm tired of scrambling around like a chicken with my head cut-off to get household chores done and most importantly I'm tired of always feeling tired and unfinished. I want to start and end every day knowing that I worked hard, played harder and loved unconditionally the two most important men in my life. I know God has a plan for us and we will follow him where ever he takes us but right now, today, it is here in Holliday, Tx.