Jen Russum

Best Broccoli!

Best Broccoli!

I grew up hating vegetables. Like I pretty much despised them all except for lettuce and potatoes. And those are hardly vegetables....more like water and starch. My parents never forced me to eat anything, but there was a rule at dinner that you had to try everything on your plate if you wanted dessert. Well, of course, I wanted dessert! Are you kidding me? We were totally an ice cream family and I wanted my chocolate chip mint after dinner. So I made up a silly rule for myself. When my mom would make peas or corn {the two most common veggies served in our house - blech! - still don't like them}, I decided I would eat as many kernels as my age. So if I was seven, I would eat seven kernels of corn and so on... Except I didn't really eat them. I swallowed them like pills with my juice, so I would actually have to taste them! Yes, it's true. But I always got my dessert... Fast forward about 18 years. Micah and I were dating and were on the path to marriage, except there was one problem. I was 25 years old and I still didn't like vegetables. Micah likes vegetables... he wanted to eat vegetables when he got married...he wanted his wife to cook him vegetables...so he set off on a mission to make me like vegetables... and it WORKED! He explained to me that most kids grow up hating vegetables because they are cooked poorly and one bad batch can leave the wrong impression. Vegetables are easy to overcook and busy parents often don't season them properly. Whatever the reason, he explained that I had probably been served gross vegetables growing up {sorry Mom!} and that he was going to show me that they could taste good. We started with broccoli and asparagus. We would steam them, but not overcook them {so they still had a slight crunch}, and season them in lots of different ways. It got the point where I tolerated them. I could eat a small portion for dinner. Then I discovered fresh green beans {preferably the french-style petite kind}. Steam them and add some sea salt, pepper, and garlic and they are GOOD! As in, I actually enjoyed eating a full serving. Whoa. It only took about 26 years. Fast forward, two more years. First year of marriage. I came across a little recipe in Real Simple that changed my vegetable intake forever! This recipe recommended seasoning my broccoli with red pepper and roasting it in the oven! I cannot even tell you how good it is. You must try it for yourself! This is coming from someone who hated vegetables for a QUARTER of a century, so you must believe me. Here is what you do. Preheat your oven to 350. Chop up some broccoli. I always just buy a couple crowns at the grocery store {Super inexpensive! Usually one crown feeds Micah and me; I buy two if we are having guests}. I like my trees as little as possible, because even though I love the taste of this recipe, I still get uncomfortable taking BIG bites of veggies. The bigger trees always go on Micah's plate; the smaller pieces go on mine. Put the broccoli in a small mixing bowl and pour some olive oil over the pieces {maybe 2-3 tablespoons}. Stir the broccoli and oil around until every piece has some oil on it. They don't need to be drenched or anything. Spread the broccoli out in one layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle salt and/or a seasoning salt like Johnny's or Lawry's over every piece. {I use Johnny's and love it!} Sprinkle a little bit of ground cayenne red pepper over broccoli {ideally a little will hit every piece, but you don't want TOO much or it will have a little too much kick}. Pop that tray in the oven for 8-10 minutes {until broccoli turns to a deeper, brighter green}. It helps to stir/flip the broccoli after about five minutes, but it's not necessary. Serve immediately. You will LOVE it! {I bet my mom never thought she would see me put vegetables on my plate willingly!  Ha!} P.S. If you are lazy {like me}, you can skip the bowl step. Just spread your broccoli out on a baking sheet and drizzle a little olive oil over every piece then add the seasonings. I definitely suggest stirring once during baking if you use this method, so the oil gets mixed around a little bit. P.P.S. This exact recipe/method tastes great on asparagus as well! ... Read more

Wordy Birdie

Wordy Birdie

Earlier this summer, I was out shopping with two of my favorite ladies, Anne and Lisa, and I found the inspiration for this project. We were on a mission that evening to find Lisa a cheese board, so we were visiting all the key home stores - Pottery Barn, Crate, West Elm, etc. As we browsed West Elm, I came across this little bird. I liked it, but I made myself a rule when we moved into our apartment last year that I wouldn't buy anything for our home until we had a house we were planning to settle down in. I guess buying a little bird isn't really the same thing as buying a big piece of furniture that doesn't work right in your next house, but I still generally avoid the home stores all together so I don't get tempted. Plus, this little bird cost $10. Not unreasonable, but just not worth it. I decided I could make it.  {west elm}  It only took me two trips to the thrift store to find a bird to suffice for this project. I found the little guy below sometime in June and put him in my closet to work on after all our summer trips. I think he cost $2.00. At first I didn't know if this bird would work. It's bigger than the West Elm bird and made out of heavy glass like a thick porcelain or something, plus he doesn't have legs. But now that I'm done with the project, I love the way he turned out. {before} On my next trip to the thrift store, I scored an old dictionary for 25 cents. That makes the total cost of this project $2.25. That's it! Plus, I'm sure I will use the dictionary again for future projects. So here is what I did: I got out the bird, the dictionary, scissors, a small paintbrush, and a bottle of Mod Podge I already had in my craft box. Other than that I found it helpful to keep a damp cloth on hand to wipe my hands off and clean up Mod Podge drips. Limited supplies = awesome. I cut up lots of definitions from the dictionary. Some bigger pieces with multiple definitions on them and some smaller pieces with just one or two words to fill in the gaps. I then Mod Podged the pieces to the bird, starting at the tail and working forward. The hardest part was wrapping the paper around the edges of the hole in the middle of the bird. However, the more Mod Podge the better at this point. I would just get the paper extremely wet with MP and use my fingers instead of the paint brush to press and mold the paper to the bird in the tricky areas around the edge and anywhere else the bird was very curved. By the time I got done {probably about an hour, maybe a little more} the back of the bird was completely dry and looked great. I gave the face part another layer of MP and let it sit to dry. My favorite part of this project was getting to look through all the words and pick ones I wanted to put on my bird. {I am an English major after all...} Here are some of my favorite words that are now displayed on the bird:adventure, gray, July, Olympic games, plume, bookworm, firework, kite, espresso, tyrannosaurus, tenacious, bicycle, Old Testament  onomatopoeia, midwife, filet mignon And here are a few that just didn't make the cut:temptress, grave, daddy longlegs, firing line, pneumonia, typhoid, KKK And here is my finished little bird, sitting on our dresser. Love him.  I think the options for this project are endless. You can choose any shape of figurine and you can use any type of book pages - an old novel, Bible verses, poetry, whatever strikes your fancy! You should try it! *Linking up with It's Overflowing!* ... Read more

Date Night

Date Night

Micah and I spent some time on our anniversary last month assessing our first year of marriage and making some goals for this coming year {I highly recommend doing this by the way - this discussion is a great yearly tradition!}. One of our goals was to get more consistent about date nights. Up until now we haven't been very committed to going on "dates." It's just the two of us, we have had a decent amount of free time this year to hang out with each other, and everywhere we go seems like a little date because Arizona is still so new to us. Even a trip to a store we've never been to or a drive around a cute neighborhood can feel like a date as we explore our new city. However, there will come a time when we have kids, our schedules will be crazier, maybe money will be tighter, our town will seem familiar and perhaps dull to us, and we will have to be intentional about date night. Before we find ourselves in our mid-thirties with a few kids desperately needing one-on-one time with each other, we figured we should make date night a consistent part of our schedule. Enter our new date night plan... To be honest, once a week is too much for us. I feel like we would make that commitment and then fail at it constantly, especially once the school semester is in full swing each fall and spring. Plus then you have to decide if group events or double dates count as date night or if you need a separate date night on top of that and by that time things are just way too complicated. So here is our plan. We each plan one date a month. Micah plans a date between the 1st and 15th of every month, and then I plan a date between the 16th and the end of the month. This seems really reasonable for us. That way we don't have the pressure of squeezing in date night every week. We know who is in charge of planning the next date. If we do a double date one weekend with some friends, we can do our own date night the following week. We love the plan. And last night was our first night to implement it. The date doesn't have to be big, fancy, or expensive. In fact, it can be free. It can be during the day or evening. There are no rules except that the one in charge plans it ahead of time and it involves carved out quality time with just the two of us. Here is a glimpse into date night #1. Micah planned it and I told him at the end I think it was my favorite date since we've been married (minus the honeymoon of course!). Our night consisted of: delish, inexpensive Mexican food at Julio's Too in Old Town, a walk around Chaparral Lake at sunset where we talked about Micah's job and our house situation for this coming year, and finally ice cream at Sugar Bowl, the old-fashioned ice cream parlor in Scottsdale. I had a mocha milkshake and it was amazing! Our evening was delightful! Micah opened the truck door for me all night long. We got to talk about life and pray together. And we had chips & salsa and ice cream - my favorite food staples in the world. Our cost? About $20 total. Like, I said... best date ever. I am looking forward to many more years of our new date night tradition... {Headed out to dinner after a day at the pool. I want to pretend that our pose was amockery prom pose for fun, but it's not. We are just awkward in adult life.} {at the park}  {Micah took this one!} {Camelback mountain at sunset} {perfect ending} ... Read more