A Wonderful Wednesday

Today was an exciting day!  It started out like any other, but then I went to get the mail (one of my favorite activities), and there was a package waiting for me!!!  Inside was a graduation present from one of my favorite Sugar Land families, the Dianiska's:

The card says, "the future's lookin' pretty bright" :)

Inside the pineapple box was a gift card to one of those stores that I go in all the time but never buy anything because it's wayyyy too expensive...Williams Sonoma!!! I was SO jazzed, and I've been pondering what I should get ever since.  So thank you thank you to KK and her family!  After my mail adventure I went to work out at our lovely apartment gym.  Luckily I was the only person in there today (last time I went to work out there was a 6-year-old on the elliptical machine and a guy wearing jeans on the treadmill--who wears jeans to work out?), so I got to watch what I wanted on the TV and didn't have a denim-clad weirdo watching me do crunches.  After the gymbo I hit the showers and then went to get my oil changed.  That part wasn't very exciting.  I think oil changes and stuff like that are so dumb.  Why do I have to spend 40 ducks for some smelly guy to change my oil when I could be spending it on something way more fun...like Whole Foods goodies.  Oh well.  When the smelly guy was done probing around in my car I went to the grocery store to get supplies for dinner and the rest of the week.  Once I got home I started dinner and watched So You Think You Can Dance (aka the best show on Earth).  Then Austin got home and came bearing gifts!!!

Yay for clean water!!!

Our tap water here is, well, disgusting, so we've been buying water bottles, but we figured a Brita water pitcher would be a lot more economical.  And it has that pretty green top!  Two presents in one day...it felt like Christmas up here in Dallas.

Tonight for dinner I made a recipe out of one of my favorite cookbooks:

Austin got me this for Christmas last year, and I <3 it!

Here's what I made in case any of y'all are interested...

Lemon Basil Chicken 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/3 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

8-10 basil leaves, chopped

the zest and juice of 2 lemons

1 teaspoon salt

4 chicken breasts

salt and pepper

1 whole lemon, cut into 8 wedges

Here are all of my ingredients laid out:

I made roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes on the side, so that's what those 2 things are doing there...

Directions:

In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the garlic.  Cook for 1 minute, and then take off the heat.  Add the wine, oregano, basil, lemon zest and juice, and salt.

Pour this little pan of love into a 9x13 pyrex dish, and put the chicken in there as well, making sure both sides are covered with the sauce.  Sprinkle the chicken liberally with salt and pepper, and then tuck the lemon wedges in between the chicken.

Stick this in a 400 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes (depending on how big your chickies are), and take it out when the chicken is done (I only had to cook mine for about 31 minutes).  After you take the pan out of the oven cover with foil and let sit for 10 minutes.  Then serve these puppies up!  

Like I said...I made some roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes for side dishes.  Both were easy peasy. For the mashed potatoes I just cut some small potatoes in half:

Then put them in a large pot.  I covered them with water (the most important thing that I've learned about making mashed potatoes is to let the potatoes heat at the same rate as the water...don't ever add potatoes to boiling water--it makes them taste gross), let the water come to a boil, and then let them cook for about 10-15 minutes.  As soon as you can stick a fork in them and it feels tender they are dunzo.  I drained the taters, and then mashed them up with a fork.  You can use a potato masher, but I don't gots one of those. Once they were all mashed up I added about 3 tablespoons of butter, a splash of milk, and some salt and pepper.  I mixed that all up, and bada boom I had some mashed potatoes baby!

For the asparagus I snapped off the ends of a bundle, and then lined then up on a foil-lined baking sheet. I drizled a little bit of EVOO on top and then sprinkled on some garlic salt, salt, and pepper.

Pop these guys into a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, and you'll have some crunchy asparagus!  Here's what my plate looked like after I was done cooking all this stuff up:

YUMM :) My tummy is happy now.

Alrighty, I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Wednesday as I did.  Tomorrow night I have to work, and then it's the weekend baby!  We don't have any plans right now, but I'm sure we'll cook something up :)