I Just Finished Reading...

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It was good, but it was so sad. I am not at all in the mood for sad right now, either! Ryan moved back to St. Louis and my sisters are in Europe for 2 weeks, so coming home after a day at work is pretty empty-feeling. Anyway, the part of the book that stood out the most were how strikingly realistic the characters were. It was very well written. I had picked up about 5 books before this that ended up sucking....is that not the most frustrating thing? It drives me nuts! Off topic again, sorry...I liked this book and I might read it again if I feel like being melancholy, but it's quite the tearjerker.

What are you reading right now?

Quizzing the Day Away

So I took the "What Kind of Bride are You?" Quiz at Beliefnet. Here are my results:

The Off-Beat Bride: You are someone who dances to her own beat and wants a wedding to reflect that. You see your wedding and a special and personal creation and intend to put your signature touch on every part of it. Because you are so creative and have so many ideas, you probably are an independent operator and would not enjoy hearing the input of others about what you should do or how you should do it. In fact, you probably want to just surprise them all with the result. Since you will probably be paying for it yourselves, you have some assurance of being able to create what you want on your own.

I'd say this is pretty much accurate. Ryan and I are not paying for the wedding ourselves--if we were we would be getting married in like, 5 years. I do enjoy hearing the input of others because I am so indecisive, so it's helpful! The rest is spot on.

What kind of a bride are you? Did the results surprise you?

The Great Bouquet Mock Up of 2009

For my bouquet, I basically want white hydrangeas. That's pretty much the extent of it. I clandestinely "borrowed" some hydrangeas from a vacant house down the street...I know, totally wrong, but it's not for sale and no one lives there.

Anyway, I picked about 4-5 blooms. The hydrangea plants were not in good shape, as they haven't been watered at all this summer. I stripped the stems of leaves, first.







I didn't do anything fancy like angling the blooms....I just kind of stuck them together. I wound some ribbon around the stems, and voila.

Are you underwhelmed? Because I am. It looks so.....underwhelming. I really want to do the bouquets myself, but I don't think this is going to cut it. I will say though, that I made these Saturday morning and kept them in water, drug them over to my mom's and manhandled them, and they still looked really nice by Sunday afternoon. At least I know they'll hold up!

To be fair, I need to try this again with floral tape. I think that would've helped quite a bit. I still think it's missing something, though.

What do you think?

The Polish Heritage Center

Let me just start this off by saying that Ryan and I are not Polish. We're Italian, Belgian, Dutch, Irish and Native American, but we are not Polish.

Thankfully, the Polish Heritage Center in St. Louis could care less how Polish you are. They'll let you rent their hall regardless of where you originated. Here is a view of the hall from the back wall:

These are the windows on the side of the hall:

And this is the stage:

This is a veiw of the back of the room:

For $1100, you get the use of the hall for 9 hours, and you have to be out by 1 a.m. This is fine, because I don't think Ryan and I can stay up that late anyway. The fabulous thing about this hall is that we can bring in whatever caterer we'd like, as well as provide the alcohol ourselves! This will save us boatloads, I think, considering that the cheapest price we've seen for a bar is $12/head. Also, the couple who is in charge of renting the facility is lovely. They were wonderful, and were very accommodating of us being late (oops!).

When we started looking at halls, I really gravitated towards rooms that had natural light (the other ones felt like caves) and hardwood floors (I just love them). Who knew I'd get all picky about that, right? It got to the point where if the hall didn't have those 2 qualifications, I thought it was ugly. It's stupid, I know, because who actually pays attention to the floor? Probably only me. And it's going to be DARK out for most of the reception....so who cares if there are windows or not? Needless to say, the pragmatic part of my mind took a vacay whenever we talked about halls. I wanted window and hardwood floors, end of story.

Anyway, I'm 99% sure we will be booking this hall. Ryan is graciously going to check out one more location this week, since I am stuck in my hometown, so if that doesn't work out...then the Polish Heritage Center is where we will be putting on our boogie shoes next July!

I had to do quite a bit of digging to find this hidden gem. Was your reception venue easy to find?

Wonton Ravioli

I made spinach and ricotta raviloi the weekend before last, but I deviated from the recipe so much that I'm not even going to post it! This recipe is super easy and very accomodating of variations, so don't feel like you have to stick to it 100%.

Ingredients:

Frozen spinach, thawed, drained, chopped (do not skip the draining part, or you will have some watery ravioli!)

Wonton Wrappers

Ricotta Cheese

Garlic powder

Parmesan Cheese

Sauce (I used marinara, but I'm sure a cream sauce would be good too)



Mix the ricotta (I used about 1 cup for about 20 ravioli), parmesan (to taste, I used maybe 1 tablespoon), and spinach (I used about 2 cups) in a bowl. Add garlic powder and mix.



Place about 1 teaspoon of filling on a wonton wrapper, and wrap it up. Wet edges with water or egg white to make sure the sealing sticks. (You can wrap it hundreds of different ways. Ryan made his look like little presents, and I just went for a plain triangle).



Boil ravioli for 4-5 minutes. Be sure that you don't crowd the pot or ravioli will stick together.





Draining the spinach.




Wonton wrappers! They have very little fat in them, and are very light.

Ryan's wrapped ravioli.

I drowned mine in marinara, it was really good. Ryan and I were on the hungry side, and these were not particularly filling. The next time I make them, I am going to add some seasoned and cooked ground turkey or chicken, to make it a more substantial meal.

What have you cooked lately?

How Many of Me

You should check out How Many of Me. Go ahead, it's fun! You type your name in and verify that you are over 13 years of age, and it tells you how many peolple share a name with you. It ranks your last name in terms of popularity. For instance, my maiden name is the 58,856th most popular last name. There are 430 people with my last name in the country. Isn't that neat!

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I am the only person with my name. Unfortunately, when I get married, I will be the 114th person with that name. Also, my married name is the 173th most popular last name in the country. Who knew!

So how many people share your name? What about your married name?

Wedding Planning Extravaganza

I just got to St. Louis, and Ryan and I are having a wedding planning extravaganza today. We're meeting with a photographer, a caterer (we're doing a tasting with them), and we are viewing two different venues.

Maybe today we can set a date!!!

I'll have lots to tell you all about, I am taking plenty of pictures.