It's Beginning to Look A Lot like Christmas!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving! We got to visit both of our families, plus, we watched the greatest Iron Bowl EVER! War Eagle!!! One more game to win in the hopes of making it to the national championship :) After we got back home on Saturday, we put on some Christmas music and put up our Christmas decorations. I have been SO excited about this Christmas season since it's our first Christmas as a married couple. Here is the product of our work:

Our Christmas Tree

Fireplace Mantle (can't wait to get a fire going!)

The two together :)

Brazilian Shrimp Soup

This weekend, Jonathan and I did a whole lot of relaxing and a whole lot of nothing. We did hang out with our friends Sara and Robby, and we also went to see Harry Potter 7, which was great. Tonight, I made this delicious soup from the fantastic blog, Annie's Eats. As usual, her recipe didn't disappoint. Now, I'm not sure if it's actually an authentic Brazilian recipe (my good friend and classmate Lila would know), but it tasted just like something you would get in a restaurant. It had a subtle tropical flavor due to the coconut milk and cilantro, but it was still very savory. It was simple to make, too! You must give this a try:

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
¾ cup long-grain rice
½ tsp. red pepper flakes
1 ¾ tsp. salt
1 ¾ cups canned crushed tomatoes
5 cups water (I used 4 cups chicken broth, 1 cup water)
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk (I used the light version)
1 ½ lbs. medium shrimp, peeled and cut in half horizontally
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped (don't skip this...it makes all the difference!)

Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 7 minutes. Add the rice, red pepper flakes, salt, crushed tomatoes, and chicken broth/water to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, for 10 minutes or until the rice is almost tender. Stir in the coconut milk. Return the mixture to a simmer, then stir in the shrimp. Simmer just until the shrimp are cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the pepper, lemon juice and cilantro. Serve immediately.

Deliciousness in a bowl :)

Auburn wins the SEC West!

Yay! What a great end to a good week. Tonight, we went to a couple from our small group's house to watch Auburn play Georgia. We had a wonderful time and were so proud to be Auburn Tigers! Atlanta, here we come :) I made these chocolate peanut butter covered brownie balls, and they were a HUGE hit. Everyone kept coming back for more. Here's a picture:

(Recipe at the end of this post)

In other news, both Crest/Oral-B and Phillips Sonicare decided to be generous to us dental students this week. Here's all the SWAG (a reference to Michael on The Office who calls free stuff, "Stuff We All Get"...love that show!)
And here's the recipe for the brownie balls:

-1 box of your favorite brownie mix (Word to the wise: choose something without chocolate chips in the mix; it gets really messy when you're trying to form into balls)
-2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
-1/4 cup peanut butter

Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Bake until toothpick comes out nearly clean, and cool for about 20-25 minutes. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out a chunk of brownie and form it into a ball. Continue rolling until brownies are gone. Place balls on wax paper and freeze for a couple of hours.

Place chocolate chips in a double boiler or melt in the microwave, then stir in peanut butter until smooth. Roll brownie balls in chocolate and place back on wax paper to cool. Can serve chilled or at room temperature (I thought they tasted better at room temperature).

Mini Pumpkin Butterscotch Muffins

Well, I survived one of the craziest couple of weeks of school in a long time. In the past two weeks, I've had 5 tests, on top of clinic and lab work. Thursday night, my brain could cram no more information in, so I decided to use up the extra pumpkin I had left over from the double layer pumpkin cheesecake. I found this recipe from allrecipes.com, so I decided to whip it up:


1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 (6 ounce) package butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease mini-muffin pan with cooking spray. Sift together the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk together the eggs, butter, and pumpkin in a separate bowl. Mix the flour mixture with the egg mixture. Stir in the butterscotch chips; pour into each cup of the muffin pan to about 3/4 full. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

Note: I cut the recipe in half because I didn't need 48 mini muffins.

These were delicious. Jonathan and I aren't huge butterscotch fans, but we both really liked this recipe!

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

This week, my clinic rotation got canceled, so I get to go home early in the afternoons if I choose. Most days, I'll probably hang around the school and do lab work, but today, I headed home for a little rest and relaxation (I'm still recovering from a nasty upper respiratory tract infection). Since cooking relaxes me more than anything, I ran by the store to grab the ingredients for this tasty treat. I love fall and I love pumpkin, so this seemed like something appropriate to make. Plus, it was really easy and delicious! Here's the recipe (modified from allrecipes.com):

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened (I used one fat-free and one light)
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch ground cloves (I didn't have any, so I omitted this)
  
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar, and beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 1/4 cups of this mixture and spread into bottom of pie crust; set aside.

Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir until smooth. Carefully spread over batter in the crust.

Bake for 55 minutes, or until center is almost set. Cool completely, then refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Serve with Cool Whip on top.