O' Brother where art thou?

After several days of going out to eat, I was craving a comforting meal at home. One that was (mostly) made by my own hands.

With my fancy new cutting board (Thanks Coral!) and new paring knife, I got to work. I sliced up one nectarine, pluot and some blueberries.


Added a little bit of each of these. Mostly the malibu rum!



Finally used the wine opener Andy got me for Christmas! And set out to make sangria. While the sangria flavors were blending, I got to work on dinner.


This is totally not made by my hands, I know. I had a craving for mashed potatoes so I decided to be lazy and crazy. I bought a small package of premade taters from Fresh & Easy. (Did I seriously just write taters?) I grated some pepper jack cheese.



And mixed the two together on the skillet just like I'm sure Bobby Flay would never do.

Meanwhile Andy mixed up red onions, bell peppers and chicken sausage in another skillet.

And we had dinner! This was a great meal for us because it means we have lunch for tomorrow. I loved the potatoes with the pepper jack cheese mixed in, it was a little spicy!

The sausage, onions and bell peppers would have been superb in a warm garlic roll. If only someone (me) wasn't trying to lose weight!

And I busted out the sangria. I love using nectarines in sangria! As you can see, the nectarines aren't nearly wine soaked enough. The sangria will be perfect tomorrow night after a long day at work.

I used- one bottle of cheapo cabernet sauvignon, 2 glugs bacardi, 2 glugs dark rum and a heaping amount of malibu rum. Then I stirred in a cup of blueberries, one nectarine, one pluot, 1/2 tbsp simple syrup and half a bottle of Wyder's Raspberry Cider. Oh and a splash of pineapple juice. It's not as carbonated as some sangria's I've had out but I like it that way. Homemade sangria is so simple to make.

And simpler to drink!

Something that's on my mind: So many people have asked me if being married is different than when Andy and I were just "dating." I feel like it might be weird of me to say but being married to him isn't that different! Maybe because we've lived together for three years? I still continue to love him more everyday and we are still best friends. That hasn't changed. Putting a label on our commitment to each other just solidifies things. I'm thrilled that we are married and I'm even more thrilled that we are happy!

So for you married folks out there--Do you think being married is way different than when you were dating?