Lemon...the official summer ingredient.

I have never been a huge fan of lemon-flavored dishes...until this summer. The obsession started with the Lemon Baked Pasta I blogged about recently. Lemon adds such a nice light flavor which is perfect for hot summer days. Here is my latest lemon dish. I tweaked a recipe I found in a magazine...

Lemon Chicken
3-4 chicken breasts . 1/3 cup flour . lemon pepper . 4 tbsp butter . 2 tbsp olive oil . 1/4 cup chicken broth . 1/4 cup lemon juice . 1/4 cup whipping cream . corn starch as needed . 1 lemon, cut into slices . 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Slice chicken breasts in half and flatten using meat mallet. Season chicken with salt and pepper or lemon pepper, if desired. Mix flour with lemon pepper and dredge chicken, shaking off excess flour. Heat 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add half of the chicken and cook 3-5 minutes on each side or until chicken is cooked. Remove chicken. Add 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp oil and melt. Add remaining chicken, cook until done, and remove. Add lemon juice, chicken broth, and whipping cream to skillet. Heat, stirring to remove seasoning from skillet. Add corn starch as needed to thicken sauce. Once thick, add lemon slices, 2 tbsp butter and parsley. Mix until butter has melted. Serve over chicken and pass out from delicious overload.

We are finishing up our house painting project. Well, I guess technically Ryan is finishing it up as I type this. However, I did paint all of the shutters by myself on my only day off in between jobs. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures tomorrow!

Brinner!!!

Tonight, we had Brinner for Dinner! We can't take credit for the term "brinner"....saw it on Scrubs last night:) And I think we love Brinner just as much as Turk does. If you are reading this, hopefully you watch Scrubs and know who Turk is....

So our Brinner menu:

Parmesan Herb Hashbrowns
Egg Toast
Bacon

Parmesan Herb Hashbrowns:
1 30 oz bag frozen hash browns . 1 cup parmesan cheese . 1 tbsp chopped rosemary . 1/4 cup chopped parsley . 1/4 cup chopped green onions . salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together. Cook according to hashbrown package. Done:)

Egg Toast
2-3 tbsp butter . sliced bread . eggs . salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in skillet. Using a cup, cut a circle out in the middle of the bread. Place bread in skillet and cook in butter for approx 1 min. Crack egg inside hole. Salt and pepper the egg and let it cook for 1 minute or until set. Flip toast and cook until egg is done...or however done you prefer:) This is a recipe from my Pioneer Woman cookbook!

Bacon
Hmmm.....I am hoping this one required no explanation.

Ryan and I ate this meal way too fast for pictures to be taken...but trust me, it was beautiful AND delicious.

Today was my first day at the new job......and it went really well! Even though I miss my old work family, I am very excited about the possibilities this new job holds.

Good night from the McCormicks!

Best Friends

I have been so blessed in my life to have so many people I can refer to as "best friends." Now some may have mixed feelings about this. How can you have more than 1 BEST friend? It's definitely possible. Just look at my wedding pictures:) Here is a fun fact...I had 12 bridesmaids. That's right. 12. Why you ask? Because I am lucky enough to have that many people in my life who I consider to be so special to me. I can't really explain this strange phenomenon...I just embrace it.

Today's post will be about one of my my best friends, Lauren. Lauren is one of my co-workers at the hospital. We met when she started almost 2 years ago. When we first started working together, we noticed that we had very similar styles as therapists and I suppose that is what started our friendship. One day I was going through a little bit of a rough patch and spilled all the gory details to Lauren. I think we were both surprised at the super personal details I felt comfortable enough to share with her. And our friendship grew from there. Lauren's friendship is so valuable to me because it is so comforting to have a friend who you know will never judge you or think differently of you, regardless of what comes out of your mouth. We are able to laugh at ourselves and each other together. If one of us does something to upset the other one, we actually will talk about it that same day. I will say, this is a very strange component to a female friendship. Friday was my last day working at the hospital. While I am so excited about the new journey waiting for me at my new job, I will miss seeing my friend so often. Thank goodness we both have Verizon or our husbands might be upset with the cell phone bills...

When I discovered the Pioneer Woman, I shared her wealth of recipes with Lauren. And now...Lauren is becoming a devoted follower as well! On my last day at work, Lauren gave me the most awesome gift ever...The Pioneer Woman cookbook!!! I love love love cookbooks and this one is quickly becoming my favorite! Later this week I am going to try out her Creamy Rosemary Potatoes...


So Lauren..thanks for making work so much fun. Thanks for sharing the "cute" patients and laughing with me over the "crazy" patients. Thanks for being the voice of reason when I lost my mind. And thanks for losing your mind too so I don't feel like the crazy one:) I'll never forget "Billy Girl" and her "dadders." I'm pretty sure having to complete a swallow eval around crazed family members and in between BMs and visits from the neurologist will always be on my list of Top 5 memories at SRMC. And while people may think you are someone's daughter, you have the wisdom of a 102 year old:) And thanks for the cookbook...I've already read it through 3 times:)

Does absence make the heart grow fonder?

I didn't realize how many people read this little blog until I started getting emails last week asking where my latest post was. I must say, I feel loved:) Life has been so busy lately that the blog has gone on the back burner, and for that I am sorry. To make up for lack of blogging....here is a monster blog!

Our latest culinary favorites...

I recently discovered a new marinade that we love! I've used it for chicken and pork so far and we have yet to be disappointed. Here it is:

Combine 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp dijon mustard, and a handful of chopped rosemary in a large ziploc bag. Season your meat with salt and pepper, then place in the bag. Move the meat around until covered in the marinade, then refrigerate for 30 minutes. We have been grilling our meat and it has been amazing!

I have also found a new favorite summer pasta recipe...thanks to my best friend, the Pioneer Woman. This Baked Lemon Pasta has such a light taste that is perfect for summer....and it goes well with the above marinade:)


House Tour continued...

It's about time for some new house pics, so here we go! Today will be a bedroom/bathroom tour. First up...the master bedroom! We haven't done too much with this room yet...but here it is so far. I still need to hang curtains of some kind and I would love a huge mirror at some point.


Our bathroom is also still a work in progress, but it functions:)


Ahh, the infamous "Arts and Crafts Room." I plan on painting the walls at some point...just not sure what color.
The computer desk is one of my most favorite pieces of furniture. It was actually Ryan's dining room table that I painted white. Pottery Barn sells a piece that is very similar that I loved, but could never afford. It provides a great surface for big craft projects too...


We got very lucky with our guest bathroom. Everything was updated before we moved in! We just added the shower curtain, towels, and crown hooks. I am still searching for some kind of shelving unit to hang on the wall ...



I love these crown hooks. They were a Hobby Lobby find and they are great for hanging towels on.
House Projects...

We have started a new painting project...the shutters. Here is the current, super drab shutter color.



Here are a few of our color options....feel free to vote! Picking a color for shutters is more difficult that I thought. The colors are navy, black, light blue, and sage green. I'm sure the neighbors are loving this rainbow look:)


Our front courtyard area has a gate entrance. The gate was the awful, faded redish pinkish color.


We spray-painted it today and I love the outcome! Apparantely this warm weather has gotten us in the mood to fix up all kinds of things around the house.


And to end this super long post....our new doors! I completely forgot about taking pics of the old doors...but they don't matter anymore:) We are so happy with our new doors! They really make the house look better!

I love the storm door! The middle is interchangeable so we can have a full glass panel or a full screen panel!

It's hard to tell a huge differene in pictures with the new back door. The old door had an old, rusty aluminum frame. The new door has a beautiful, white frame. This was definitely a good update for our house!
Well, I think this blog has enough information to make up for lack of blogging lately. More to come!