Spiced Shrimp With Green Beans and Lime

This year is flying by, tomorrow is DECEMBER, weren't we all just trying to figure out new year's resolutions? Its been a good year for us, in some ways I'm sad to see it end but am looking forward to what 2011 has in store for us!

We haven't been very good at trying new recipes lately, but tried this one from Real Simple magazine and really liked it! We followed the recipe pretty closely, anytime I can get a vegetable into a main dish its a win-win to me!

Spiced Shrimp With Green Beans and Lime

• 1 cup white rice
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 pound green beans, halved crosswise
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, thinly sliced
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds shrimp
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/4 cup lime juice

Directions

1. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Fluff with a fork and fold in the cilantro.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add the green beans, garlic, jalapeños, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and black pepper. Cook, tossing frequently, for 3 minutes.
4. Season the shrimp with the chili powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper and add to the skillet.
5. Cook, tossing occasionally, until opaque throughout, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and serve over the rice.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We have had a great day with my side of the family. We started the day with homemade waffles, and then had a Thanksgiving feast - ham and turkey, and all the trimmings. My new green bean recipe was no good, but everything else was wonderful, and we had a good time working together to make all of the food.

We used our good china and sat at our new dining room table :). Our first time to host a Thanksgiving is a success!

This evening a cold front came through, making it a great night to stay in and play cards and watch football.

Thanksgiving

Today is my last day of work for the week. :) I am taking tomorrow off to get ready for Thanksgiving, and for the first time ever we're hosting at our house. We are so excited!!

We'd originally wanted to have both sides of the family over - with our 8-person table we finally have room for all of the adults. There were some plan changes so it will only be my side of the family, and it will still be a great time. It will be a bit strange not having my brother and his wife with us, but we are so thankful he found a great job for himself and with technology (voice over IP) we are able to talk to him fairly regularly, making it easier.

My parents are bringing a few dishes, and we making a few dishes for our feast. It makes it easier on everyone to split it up. I'm hoping that all of the dishes turn out ok, we're making some of our staples - turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes - and trying some new dishes - mashed potatoes from scratch (I usually use a box), and a new green been recipe.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving, and remember all that we should be thankful for this year and every year. I love Thanksgiving and hate that it always gets overshadowed by Christmas preparations. I am guilty of it too, I found a couple of Christmas gifts while I was out running errands last weekend, this is THE earliest I've ever started shopping. The rest of this week I will enjoy being with family and really taking time out to see all that we have to be thankful for.

Kevin is back in school and couldn't be happier. It makes me very happy to see him doing something he enjoys and also reminds me just how much work school can be when I get that thought in my head thinking maybe I should go back.

I can get my fix by helping Kevin with his program. This weekend I read one of his papers before he turned it in and last week I read a book review he'd had to write for one of his other classes. It helps him because I can find a few small errors that he won't see because he's read it over so many times, and it helps me to better understand what he's studying (I also get to learn a little bit about history in the process). I know he's reading all the time and writing lots of papers, but realized I'm not really sure what he's studying. I pick up books for him at the library and get lost in the TITLES of some of them. It is also very easy to tell in our book piles which are "Carol books" and which are "Kevin books".

We refer to his classes by a shortened version of the names. His 3 classes this semester are: British, Texas, and History of Darwinism. The first two are pretty self-explanatory, the third one I'm still trying to understand. No matter how much or how little I understand of what he's studying, he's loving it - and from the feedback he gets from his professors doing very well at it!

This year, in addition to what I'm always thankful for - good health, family, friends - I am thankful that we found a program that he enjoys and that we are at a place in our lives where he could quit his job to pursue his studies.

You know you're an adult when..

...you set up a safe deposit box. We've been needing to get one for a while, but never took the time to do it until Saturday. I'll feel better having some of our 'important papers' out of the house. I know I've been an adult for quite some time now, but certain projects and paperwork bring it home more than others.

Ren Fest and Rockets

Its a bit late, but here's my recap of our fun-filled weekend last weekend. I really wish I'd had the extra hour of sleep, but will try to make good use of it when we go off DST this weekend. I will miss the light in the evenings but am glad to not get up and head to work in the DARK!

The weather finally turned cooler and more like fall so we took the opportunity to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival. You have to stay flexible on the dates you can go and luckily my sister's schedule was flexible too so we made the trek out there (with a Shipley's stop on the way), and had a great day. The main thing I wanted to do while we were there was to see the birds of prey show, and we were able to see it. It was a great show - entertaining and educational, I cannot believe how acrobatic some of the birds are. Most of the birds were rescued so hearing how they came to be part of the show was an interesting addition to the show. One of the first birds we saw looked like it was going to hunt some live squirrels rather than the bag the handler had, I was worried we (and the kids around us) were going to get a real education on how mother nature works, but luckily for us it finally went for the bag it is trained to get. The handler told us the squirrels have been caught before, but since these birds were raised in captivity they don't know what to do with them....lucky for the squirrels! After the show we wandered around some more, shopped a bit, and got lost in the maze (annoying teenage girls - I do NOT need you to tell me how to get out, I paid my money to be lost in the maze for a bit and you yelling at me to 'turn left' is just annoying).

My sister tried out one of the games you could play - quite a bit of physics to it!

I also got my empanada fix...mmmm

Once we were worn out (and dusty - its so dry!) we headed back home.

Laura and I changed clothes really quickly and headed back out again - this time to the ROCKETS home opener! Unfortunately they didn't win (and haven't had a win yet), but we had a great time, even got a free t-shirt! They had cardboard cut-outs of the players that you could take photos with, I barely come up to Yao's ELBOW!

Sunday was much more low-key, since we were worn out from all the fun on Saturday. We made homemade chili and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. Rather than get up and down all night long to get the door, we just sat on the driveway to hand out candy, the weather was great and it was much more pleasant to do it that way.

Birthday celebrations keep going

Kevin says that girls like to celebrate their birthdays for at least a week, and I can't really disagree because I DID celebrate my birthday all of last week. Halloween was the end of my birthday week (and the month in which my birthday falls), but I've found a way to continue celebrating. CSN stores has asked that I do another product review. I am so excited, I get a $35 gift certificate to use on an item from one of their 200+ stores(!). They have everything from contemporary coffee tables to shoes and handbags and everything in between.

I've hosted giveaways for them previously, and did a product review several months ago. I am still loving the kitchen items we bought from CSN for my last product review - the garlic press is my favorite, no more peeling garlic cloves for this girl!

I am planning to get something for me, the shoes are calling my name, and will post a review - be on the lookout for it!

I'll also post a recap of my full-of-fun busy weekend, lots of excitement.

Tonight we'll be watching the Houston Texans play in Monday Night Football! BEAT THE COLTS!