The good news about being so absent lately is that I have an abundance of new material to yap away about. I guess the most obvious material would be the fact that Zach and I decided to get hitched back in September.
The wedding was in Orlando, Florida September 18th. It was a great day. Everything was perfect, and no I am not referring to the devine coming together of months of planning and crafting cute little do-dads. I am referring to the spending of quality time with all the people we care about most in the world and those that care about us (minus the few that were unable to make it and dearly missed).
Here are some highlights from the day in case you are interested and have not been assaulted with Lindzachary wedding photos too much already via the magic of facebook.
We did a private yoga class the morning before the wedding:
Rehearsal dinner, a backyard BBQ (Sonny's BBQ, that is) at Zach's parent's home:
The ceremony:
The portraits:
The reception décor...tables had names instead of numbers like "Jeff Goldblum: Zach kind of looks like him, Lindsey Kind of likes it.":
The party:
A couple if insider trading secrets from the day include:
The call to go through with the outdoor ceremony was made when it was still raining outside at 3:30pm for a 5:30pm ceremony. We had grandmothers on both sides of the family praying for sunshine, and boy did we get it. The weather was beautiful, and the rain from the whole first part of the day actually made the area nice and cool for the ceremony.
For pre-wedding gifts, Zach gave me a beautiful necklace with a thin gold chain and a garnet stone. I will wear it to any wedding I ever go to. I gave him a leather-bound book with blank pages and “Weissmueller” pressed into the leather on the cover. We wrote our vows in there and will write a little something to each other in there each year on September 18th.
We put ourselves through about 5 weeks of pre-marital counseling sessions in the months leading up to the wedding. I know this sounds like TMI, but I genuinely enjoyed our time doing it, and would recommend it to anyone. I know it is not for everyone. It was just really nice to talk to a neutral third party about our relationship. It is kind of a rare experience because if you think about it, anyone you or your partner might go to for wisdom or advice will have some sort of angle, bias or be sensitive to certain things they already know about you. It was really interesting to talk with someone who was a blank slate with us.
Planning a wedding out of state is not so bad. I know it sounds like it would really complicate things, and it certainly did. But there is something to be said about keeping your distance from the location of the wedding for the entire time you are engaged. It definitely keeps things in check since it is kind of impossible to get carried away when there are some things you just cannot physically accomplish from the opposite side of the country. The downside was that I definitely missed out on some fun wedding-planning related outings you tend to take with bridesmaids and family, but we managed to squeeze most of them in during the days I was in town to work on wedding things. The other stipulation (and it is a big one) is that I had a dream team of Orlandonites led by the mother of the groom herself that made the personal style of the wedding possible. I also had the worlds best wedding coordinator (if-you-are-having-a-wedding-in-florida-call-me-and-i-will-put-you-in-touch-because-you-cannot-do-it-without-her-I-don’t-think).
While the details of the bachelorette party shall remain under wraps, I will say there was a 3am (approximately) Domino’s pizza delivered to the house where we were staying. While I loved the whole bachelorrette party, my favorite part was sitting around the kitchen table with about 8 girls sharing one pizza giggling about the events of the evening. A slice never tasted so good.
We did not hire a videographer (pictures were more important to us), but our friend, Case, did record just our vows during the ceremony.
We wrote our own vows. They took up the majority of the ceremony. It was my favorite part of the day.
I am pretty proud of the fact that the "single lady" who "caught" my bouquet in the bouquet direct pitch, I mean toss, will in fact be the next to marry. We look forward to returning to Orlando for Rachel and Chris' wedding later this year. You're welcome.
Succotash has catapulted to the top of my list of favorite side dishes. So when Food Network Mag had a recipe using it, I decided to make the whole meal, including the delicious-looking pepper-jack stuffed chicken breasts. The whole meal is just, well, pretty. This meal looks more intense than it really is. It doesn't take long to prepare, and the payoff is really nice. Plus, succotash keeps in the fridge for a good week to serve as a side dish for other meals so make a bunch.
This recipe is from over a year ago in the magazine, and my husband was not even my husband when I made this meal. It must have been over the summer. Yikes it has been a long time since I have written. I have since made this and my previous succotash recipe using frozen edamame instead of lima beans. I have to say is superior to the limas. Edamame is a rich and buttery bean packed with all sorts of good-for-you stuff. Just make sure the frozen edamame are not in the pods, but peeled. They should be lose in the bag. They look and feel exactly like lima beans, but they have a deeper green color (similar to the color of green beans) and more flavor.
Chicken:
4 ounces pepper-jack cheese, shredded
2 cups baby arugula, roughly chopped
2 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts (12 ounces each)
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for brushing
Kosher salt
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons Cajun spice blend
Vegetable oil, for the grill
Succotash:
1 cup frozen lima beans, thawed (I like to substitute frozen peeled edamame)
1 medium yellow summer squash, diced
2 cups corn kernels
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
4 strips of bacon (I added this part, but believe me it makes it even better!)
Juice of 1 lime (I did not use this since I was using bacon, but you should use this is you don't add the bacon)
Instructions:
Combine the cheese and arugula in a bowl. Cut a deep 2-inch-wide pocket in the thickest part of each chicken breast with a paring knife. Stuff with the arugula mixture. Brush with olive oil and season with salt and the Cajun spice blend.
Preheat a grill to high and brush the grates with vegetable oil. Grill the chicken until blackened and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 155 degrees F, 8 to 10 minutes per side. Transfer to a cutting board.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over high heat or if you are using bacon, just cook it until crisp (the fat from the bacon will serve as the "oil" in this case) --- then take out the bacon and crumble it up, leaving the grease in the pan. Add the lima beans, squash and corn, season with salt and cook until the squash is just tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and crumbled bacon and cook 2 more minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lime juice (if you did not use the bacon).
Slice the chicken and serve with the succotash.
