New Cookbooks: New Meals for the New Year.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! I have to say this year was great, spending the Christmas Eve in Niagara Falls, and Christmas Day between my parents' and Corey's parents'. I received two cookbooks that I'm really excited to tell you all about.


First up is The Crockin' Girls Slow Cookin' Companion: Yummy Recipes from Family, Friends, and Our Crockin' Community

What a book! I've already looked through it three times, and the recipes, pictures, everything about this book is fantastic! Easy recipes (all for the slow cooker/Crock Pot), some with just a few ingredients, and they all sound delicious! A few recipes I have made before thanks to Pinterest, from different authors/recipe creators, but they are definitely ones I would eat again. Like White Spaghetti, for instance. Cream cheese, an Italian dressing packet, cream of chicken soup, and all with pasta and chicken. And all in the Crock Pot. What a wonderful invention that Crock Pot is!

I've already started planning which recipes I want to try first - 2013 is going to be our "year of the slow cooker." With the 11.6 inches of snow we have right now, I definitely pulled the slow cooker out at 9am and threw everything together for a pot roast. Corey and I started The West Wing on Netflix from the very first episode, and we're just relaxing while dinner cooks itself. Doesn't get much better.

Next we have My Year in Meals by Rachael Ray 

Flip the book over, and you have My Year in Cocktails by John Cusimano, Rachael's husband, and mixologist.

The recipes by Rachael are phenomenal as usual (she's my favorite Food Network personality/chef). An awesome feature of the book is a calendar, which lists day-by-day which meals that she prepared (for a whole year)!

The most exciting recipes so far (it's a big book to flip through) are the pizzas. I quickly flipped through the book on Christmas night, so I'll be getting to it soon, bookmarking all the delicious dishes I can't wait to try and share with you.

So what new cookbooks are you cooking from right now, or looking forward to cooking from?

Chelsea

In the arms of the angels, I will find some comfort here...

Updated: Crunchy Oven-Fried Cheese Ravioli (and good news)!

So first for the good news, I'm HIRED (pending stellar recommendations -- which I have). I'll give more details tomorrow when I have them. Let's just say I'm super excited!

...So we're all experiencing desert-like temps, I'm hardly in the cooking mood. But with a full freezer and cupboards (very grateful for that), I thought I should definitely make something at home tonight.

Here goes: Crunchy Oven-Fried Cheese Ravioli from How Sweet It Is. I know, right? So good. The update to this post will be pics and instructions, and of course, how it tastes. I'm using Wegmans brand frozen Beef Ravioli (not a ricotta fan). So - - enjoy the A/C, pool, fans, or the heat, if you're crazy a summer-lover.

*Update: July 18

Ravioli didn't happen last night. At 7pm I didn't have enough room in the sink for a strainer, so the dishes got washed and I ran to the pizza shop and bought a $1.25 ball of dough. After running into Wal-Mart, the dough was starting to warm up, so by the time I got home, we were ready to stretch the dough. We made a white pizza with regular pepperoni and 2% mozzarella. It was delicious, and it was 8pm. Sometimes dinner doesn't always go as planned, but it was delicious, and we were all happy.

Still waiting to hear on the job! : )

Chelsea

Happy (first Monday in) July! History Lesson.

As I sit on my couch drinking a Diet Coke (I know it's 10AM), watching back-to-back episodes of The Bachelorette before tonight's hometown dates, (don't you just LOVE Emily Maynard?), I thought I'd blog a bit about July 4th. Here's a non-traditional history lesson on the 4th of July. Or if this were a yearbook, let's call it "4th of July...through the years."

1776 - The Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

1802 - In West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens.

1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.

1804 - Nathaniel Hawthorne is born.

1817 - In Rome, New York (semi-close to Rochester) construction begins on the Erie Canal.
 (How many of you know the Erie Canal song)? We'll let The Boss teach you a lesson if you don't.

 

1826 - Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams die on the same day. (3rd and 2nd POTUS, respectively), on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

1827 - Slavery is abolished in New York State!

1831 - "My Country 'Tis of Thee" was written for 4th of July festivities in Boston, Mass. James Monroe, 5th POTUS, dies.

1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published. (See I told you, non-traditional, but fun-to-know facts nonetheless. Thanks, Wikipedia).

1872 - Calvin Coolidge, 30th US President, is born.

1886 - The French offer The Statue of Liberty to the United States. ( I love all the NY-related facts on here)!

1910 - Gloria Stuart (Older Rose Dawson/Rose DeWitt Bukater from Titanic) is born. 

1918 - Twin sisters "Dear Abby" and Ann Landers are born.

1939 - Lou Gherig announced his retirement from Major League Baseball.

1943 - TV Journalist Geraldo Rivera is born.

1960 - The 50-star American Flag debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Yay, Hawaii)!

1971 - Koko, the gorilla who learned American Sign Language, is born.

1997 - NASA's space probe, Pathfinder, lands on Mars.

2004 - The cornerstone of The Freedom Tower is laid on the site of The World Trade Center, in New York City.

2009  - The Statue of Liberty's crown re-opens for public viewing; the first time since September 11, 2001.

Corey brings an engagement ring to the July 4th Fireworks, but instead proposes exactly one week later, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at John F. Kennedy Park.

Well, thanks for sticking around for the "Fun Facts of the Fourth." We're hosting a family and friends party for roughly 14, and I'll be sharing a pulled pork recipe, photos of the fun and fireworks, and then putting my feet up on the 5th. What's everyone else doing? Enjoy the holiday, folks!

Introduction and The End of 2011.

Welcome to Life and Love in New York. We are The Cashers, recently married on October 1st, 2011 in Upstate New York. You may remember the old blog, or you may have just stumbled upon the site, but we hope you stay awhile and follow our stories, recipes, home improvements, Holiday fun, and more. 

Since our wedding was the most recent large event in our lives (besides our first married Christmas!), our first post will recap the best day we've both had. Ever.

 

 

Our Church. Lovely, isn't it? Father Kennedy performed a beautiful ceremony; lots of friends and family, purple argyle socks, one crying maid of honor, and tons of happiness.

 The bridal party, and Corey and I (Chelsea) in the center. My cousins, sister, and BFF forever, Emily look beautiful. Corey's friend, brother, and my cousin, also look very handsome. This photo was taken in a bar next to the Church; a place we visit from time to time and we had some great photos taken here!

 After a lovely wedding and fun reception, Disney World was our honeymoon destination. This is us ecstatic, in line for a Monsters Inc. show after days of no sleep, a plane ride to Florida, and me telling Corey we had to go on as many rides as we could the minute we arrived. : )

I also celebrated my 25th birthday! This lovely dessert is from Le Cellier steakhouse in the Canada section of Epcot. Yum!
 

 This was in front of the Boardwalk Hotel, our favorite place to visit. There was an ESPN-themed restaurant with giant TVs with NFL and MLB on each one, and I won a t-shirt for knowing a random fact about Jim Kelly, even though we're not Bills fans.

 Cinderella. We loved Downtown Disney!

We gave both of our grandmothers this photo. They loved it.

Stay tuned friends, family, and visitors! We can't wait to share all of our happenings with you! Coming this week: homemade pizza crust from The Pioneer Woman, and what we're looking forward to in 2012.

Chelsea