It's my favorite day of the year.

Yesterday was wonderful.

I made my very first Thanksgiving Dinner without Mom!

Spencer and I spent the day in the kitchen and made a wonderful feast! I have been so excited for this day to come. Thanksgiving has always been my very favorite holiday! The day devoted to spending it entirely with the people I love most and eating great food ALL-DAY-LONG no other holiday is better than this one! : )

This year I tried some new recipes from this blog and they turned out almost perfect. My big fear of having a dry turkey did not happen, it was delicious! We had so much fun making this and we even got started on some wedding decorations too while waiting for the food to cook!

I am so thankful for the many ways Heavenly Father has blessed me in my life: for loving parents who have always been so supportive of me. for my wonderful fiancée, i love him. for my brothers who have been my biggest examples in life. for my faith in God and knowing He has a plan for each of us. for my job. for my heater working in my car this winter. for my dear friends and for cell phones and computers that connect me to them. for my big kitchen. for good music, oh how i love thee. for chocolate. for the beautiful mountains i get to see everyday. for my freedom and safety in this country. I feel so happy and so lucky!

Our Feast!

Spencer made his first Turkey too

The Turks

He will be my Husband in 99 days!

Apple-Pear Pie with Shooting Stars and Cat cut outs (may remind you of this pie : ) )

Best Night Ever!

Ladies and Gents I am sooo excited to announce that I will soon be Mrs. Carlyn Marie Flanagan!!! I truly feel like the happiest and Luckiest Girl in the world.

Tonight my Best Friend became my Fiance!!!

Carly's Citchin'

Last month I decided to give myself a little challange for the holiday season.

Since Spencer and I absolutely LOVE Thai food I decided to learn to make it. Because this is my blog I feel I can brag and say we have pretty much mastered that over the past 8 months when I first tried it. So what's next?

Soup! I love soup a lot and with it starting to get cold, coming home and eating a bowl of soup is one of my favorite things. My challenge is to make a new soup each week. I would love to learn to master this too.

Tonight was my third week and I made my favorite so far! Dannielle requested I make Corn Chowder. I've been wanting a potato soup. SO I did a few modifications to this soup done by my favorite cooking gals at Our Best Bites.

3 Tbs butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 C flour
4 1/2 C low-fat milk
2 C chicken broth
3 Chicken Breast shredded
1 1/2 C Frozen Corn

4 medium baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds) baked
2 C grated cheddar (or sharp cheddar) cheese, divided
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Melt butter in a stock pot over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 30-60 seconds until fragrant. Add flour to pan. Slowly add milk a little at a time while whisking constantly to eliminate lumps. Whisk until smooth and then add chicken broth. Bring soup just to a simmer and heat until thickened, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Once soup is thickened, turn heat down to medium-low. Add in shredded cooked chicken. Add frozen corn. Cut potatoes in half length-wise and use a spoon to scoop out potato flesh into the pot. Use a wooden spoon to smash potatoes, breaking up large clumps. Add 1 1/2 C grated cheese and salt and pepper and stir until cheese is melted. Remove pan from heat and Add additional salt and pepper to taste.

I really enjoyed this one and Spencer went back for seconds too so thats always a good sign to me! : ) I'm excited about these leftovers this week!

If you have any favorite soup recipes you love to make send them my way! It's gunna be a Looong Winter!

M.F.E.O.

I came across this video of Zooey Deschanel and her husband Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie today and I just LOVE this song!!! The original was done by The Seekers in the 60's ENJOY!!!

Best Coast

Tonight WE went to see Best Coast at Urban Lounge in Salt Lake. They put on a great show!!! Spencer and I got free tickets from the fantastic Slowtrain Record Store. Knowing we were of 10 people there who got in free, there should have been waaay more people at this show! Utahns missed out tonight!