So I have been cooking a LITTLE bit... not as much as I should be. Here are some photos from the last few weeks.

First a visit to the Falls Church Farmers Market... 

And some yummy meals made with farm fresh ingredients... 

Linguine with Pancetta and Sautéed Cherry Tomatoes p. 208

Heirloom Tomato w/ burrata Cheese Salad p. 128

Old-Fashioned Blueberry Muffins p.537

Our FAVORITE French Toast  (made once a week)

Cinnamon French Toast p. 493

Chicken Thighs w/ Creole Mustard-Orange Sauce p.280

Here are the meals that I am planning on making for the remainder of our week.

Wednesday
- Chicken Piccata p.255
- Peas w/ Roasted Onions & Mint p.461

Thursday
- Pasta w/ Pecorino Romano & Black Pepper p.212

Friday 
- Garlic-Roasted Shrimp w/ Red pepper & Smoked Paprika p.352

Saturday (going to the farmers market)
- Four-Herb Omelet p.502
- Roast Chicken w/ Cumin, Paprika & All-Spice p.286
- Saffron Couscous w/ Peas & Chives p.228
- Blueberry Crisp w/ Cinnamon-Streusel Topping p.655

Sunday
- Tomato-Mozzarella Pizza w/ Phyllo Crust p.181
- Milk Chocolate Fondue w/ Strawberries p.660

Weekend plans

With all of my packing last night I did not get to my weekend menu but for tonight we will be having :

Grilled Chicken w/ Chimichurri Sauce p. 254

Guacamole

Mexican Rice

After work I will run by the grocery store to get my ingredients and also by Home Depot to buy a few more moving boxes. I think that with each visit I am going to by 3 of each of the sizes (Small, Medium, large) and once those are packed up I will make another visit to our nearby Home Depot... this will let me pack everything up in small chunks and not feel overwhelmed by the amount of boxes in my house... At what point did I accumulate so much STUFF???

Also, tonight I want to plan out what we will be eating for the remainder of the weekend. With the exception of fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs I would really like to use things that we currently have in the house.

Saturday

After a yummy breakfast with Emma and Matt I would like to spend an hour going through a few things in the attic. Currently, we have a HUGE attic space and it is used as a catch all and it is completely unorganized!

After my hour of organizing/packing I want to take Emma to University Mall to see Shrek Ever After and we need to do a little back to school shopping / get our back to school haircut.

Of course we will have our usual Saturday night movie night and this will most likely involve a movie about a dog...

Sunday

I would like to have some pool time and show Matt the new sofa that I would like to get for the house.

Monday

Matt and I will be taking off from work and we will be taking Emma to...

She really wants to go to Disney World and we are thinking about taking her next Spring but before we make the commitment I want to see how she will handle Busch Gardens! It should be a GREAT day and  I will be sure to take a ton of photos!

Pork Chops w/ Chili Maple Sauce

Tonight as promised I made Pork chops w/ Chili Maple Sauce p. 404.

The recipe is really for pork medallians but right now Matt and I are trying to eat the food from the deep freezer. We really want to minimize the stuff that we will have to move over to the new house. I also made some homemade potato chips... A very yummy dinner! and super fast and easy to accomplish while I was busy... PACKING

Yes, I started packing today. One the way home from work I stopped by Home Depot to pick up some moving boxes (their on sale this week) and I grabbed a large roll of bubble wrap for photos/artwork/decorations. I've completed 10 boxes from the spare bedroom and my plan is to use this room for box storage and pack a little bit up of the house up each day! Tomorrow I'm going to break down the bed finish up the room... with the exception of the closet which is currently full of my work clothes.

Cooking...

So this post originally started with the goal to cook 500 recipes within a year from:

 

The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh

I hate to admit it but I have failed... 

Towards the end of winter I hit a major road block and it has become a struggle to cook out of this cookbook. Each week I plan a menu and buy all of my groceries and proceed to massively fail at my follow through.

I'm currently at 387 recipes so with only 113 to go I've decided to renew my little project. Tonight I will post my menu for the remainder of the week along with photos of the pork chops that I will be making for dinner!

Emma's Plans

I am SOOO excited to be planning Emma's new room. She is very opinionated about what she wants in her new room and has in fact been planning for this for months!

She would like a LOFT bed with a desk and bookcase under it... here is what our look board is currently looking like for Emma's room... (Yes, I do have a look board for EVERY room in the new house... I'm a planner)

Emma found the PB Teen loft bed in a magazine and fell in LOVE with it... I however was not in love with the $1799 price tag when it comes to a bed for my 6 year old! Especially when she does not even need a new bed. I found the plans for the same exact bed on a WONDERFUL website Knock-Off Wood. This website is amazing! They already have all of the measurements figured out and give you step by step instructions!

This is going to be one of the first big projects that Matt and I will be completing in the new house!

Home inspection follow up...

Our realtor says that he likes it when it rains during a home inspection. It allows for you to see how the house handles the water... I'm sure that we can all agree that we do NOT like it when trees fall on our cars during the home inspection...

Matt and our agent were on the screened in porch talking about the rain. Matt was contemplating moving his car up to the driveway because a few small limbs were starting to break off the trees around the house... and CRASH... **insert MULTIPLE bad words here**

This is the view from the driveway... at this point I was thinking that maybe my car was far enough away... The little Silver prius is our agents car (bought TWO weeks ago) the hood and drivers side of the home inspectors van was crushed by the largest part of the tree trunk.

And I turned The corner at the end of the drive ways and found this...

Yes... that little sliver of red through all of those branches is my Escape

And from the Side... After climbing through all of the branches (in my work clothes)

After a lot of cutting we were able to get the cars out... Thanks to the wonderful Fairfax County Fire Department

I should hear from my insurance company today... On a positive note we were able to meet a few of our future neighbors and they were all so kind and helpful.

And in home news... we will be meeting with the seller today to go over a few things.

Home Inspection Tomorrow!

After 7 LONG months I am so happy to say that we are under contract for this home and scheduled to close on September 17th!

The house is extremely close to where we are currently living and even a little closer to my parents.

The only negative is that Emma will be changing schools for first grade : ( We have LOVED Beech Tree and I'm sad that she is no longer in that school zone. Not only were the teachers amazing but there were such GREAT girls in her class with wonderful parents! Luckily we are still in the area and will be able to have play dates and I've just signed Emma up for fall soccer with the same group of girls from her old school. Ehhh old school... I hate the sound of that!

On a more positive note... we will be doing our home inspections tomorrow! This is going to be a bit of a family affair. Matt and I will both be taking off early to attend the inspection and while Matt is following the certified inspector around my dad and I will be mapping out the house. My dad is an architect and I'm going to put his skills to use and have him draw a "blue print" of the home... I think that this will be helpful for SO many projects that we will be undertaking before moving in. Righ now my mind is focused on purchasing blinds, purchasing living room furniture and planing the layout of all of our new rooms! I LOVE home decorating so this is going ot be a blast!!

I would also love my dad's input/help with the addition that we are considering for the house! This will be a few years down the road but Matt and I have some big plans for the house. It is a place that we can see ourselves in for the long run and I could not be happier!

A new addition to the Fleming Family!

Last weekend Matt and I drove down to Savannah, GA to meet the newest Fleming!

WILLIAM ALAN FLEMING!

He is so adorable and I will let the photos speak for themselves. On Saturday evening we went out on a golf course so all of the guys could practice their game and Emma and her cousin Claire could run around. The lighting was perfect and I managed to get some great shots of the happy Fleming Family!

Here is a new family picture!

And a few of the always cute Claire!