Last weekend, Rob and I made dinner - pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes!  Definitely one of my favorites...

I (finally) added these to my recipe cards here and here.  I actually gave a presentation about this meal last August.  For Teaching Assistant training, we had to give a brief presentation to "teach something to the group" - while droning on and on - errr.... excitedly educating - the group about membrane film and adsorption theory was tempting, I opted to go with preparing a home-cooked meal...  

(I was pleasantly surprised at how well this actually went over with everyone!  Most of my fellow TAs promptly suggested we get together for dinner some night.... I saw RIGHT through THAT one!)

Tangent aside!  Just figured I'd let you know the recipes are up!  (Don't get too excited... it's definitely a stretch calling them "recipes"... I feel like I don't quite meet the ingredient quota...)

Yummmmm!!!! :)

A few days ago, I received this little gem:

I know... he's about as subtle as a bomb...

I know he was just kidding but that was all the more reason that I knew I just HAD to make it... you know... out of spite!  Err.... out of LOVE!  :)

The recipe was pretty easy to follow:

It was actually pretty delicious!  And Rob loved it... :)  And I loved that I completely surprised him.


A few things worth noting for the future:

* I didn't have cocoa powder so for the cake batter I just used one square of bakers chocolate - you melt it anyway so it worked just fine!  For the frosting, I just chopped up some semi-sweet chocolate chips and added them instead of the pecans.

* "Frost immediately" might not exactly be recommended.  I was skeptical about putting a buttercream frosting on a pretty warm cake.  And I was totally right to be - a lot of it melted right off the edge.  I threw it in the fridge right away though so I was able to save most of it!

It wasn't all about the cake though!  We had a nice evening together - yummy beef stew for dinner (ok, so it doesn't scream romance... but it's comfort food, people!) and were able to just take a break from studying and spend a little time together.  I gave him a gift certificate for a chocolate-making class for two (can't wait!).  Rob gave me a beautiful new charm for my Pandora bracelet - it's silver with white mother of pearl hearts on it.  Perfect.  :)

I just couldn't wait any longer!  

Rob's mom gave me a waffle iron for Christmas and the need for a late night snack was enough star-alignment for me to break it out!  I'd say the first batch was a huge success. :)

I didn't have any mix on hand so I just found a really basic recipe and it worked just beautifully!  Nothing like spontaneous waffles to cozy-up a chilly night!

Not quite ready to let go of the Thanksgiving season, I had a bunch of the girls (28 to be exact!) over for dinner on Saturday!

We did it potluck style - and everything was DELICIOUS!  I'm starting to think we should do a recipe exchange and put together a cookbook...

Kitchen pose with the food!

Let's seeee.... Krista and Alice made 2 different kinds of sweet potatoes and Kenzie brought mashed potatoes, Megan made green bean casserole, Sydney made the rolls, and I took care of the turkey, stuffing, and Cranberry Love!  Alice, Tiffany, and Kaleigh took care of the desserts for us, too!

Yummmm!!

I had a wonderful time with the girls and it was a great way to spend my Saturday... :)