Homemade Queso Blanco Dip: The Best Stuff on Earth

Whenever we have friends come over for dinner, I always feel the need to fool them that "oh I cook like this all the time!" Just kidding, I totally don't own up to that. I do get motivated to really cook food and to start from scratch. Last night we had some friends coming over and we had some tasty tacos complete with homemade queso blanco sauce. I've always wanted to make this from scratch since the canned stuff is pretty sub par. My heart gets weak for anything with queso sauce. It always means that whatever it's slathered on, is bound to taste 10x better. We also got to use our sweet little server that they got us for our wedding! Gifts in action!

There are lots of different ways you can cook this stuff. I saw lots of recipes where you do it on the stove and some were microwaved. I've had them both ways, but I was short on time and decided to go the quick and easy microwave way. Honestly, I think it tastes the same whether you microwave or use the stove. Stovetop recipes will have you standing in front of the pot constantly stirring so the cheese doesn't burn. When you're cooking things at the same time, this make it extra hard. I would've burned it for sure! I finally found this recipe that I pinned on Pinterest and followed it exactly other than cutting the recipe in half. Here's the full recipe. You'll definitely have leftovers! Here it is:

1.25 lb of White American Cheese (I also used Land O'Lakes and it was delish!) cut into cubes

You can find this at the deli counter, I had the lady slice it so all I had to do was rip it into little pieces instead of cutting

1/4 cup of diced green chiles (these come in a cute little tiny can)

2 pickled jalapenos, chopped

This is what's giving it some kick! The more you put in, the spicier it gets.

1 ounce of pickled jalapeno juice

This measurement stressed me out, I just poured some juice from the can of pickled jalapenos (above).

2/3 cup of whole milk

We only had 2%, and I wasn't about to buy milk that we wouldn't drink otherwise. Use whatever milk you have on hand.

1/2 a cup of cold water

A pinch of cumin (optional)

We threw this in. Also, this measurement stressed me out.

1. Throw all the ingredients into a microwave safe bowl. I used a medium sized measuring cup which worked really well since it does bubble up quite a bit and I could pour it out easier.

2. Microwave on high for 5 minutes, stopping every minute (or so) to stir. You'll notice it's really watery at first, but it firms up once it's out of the microwave and fulled mixed.

3. Serve and enjoy! We poured it all over everything...our tacos, our chips. Only the best way to eat it!

Easy Oatmeal Apple Crisp

Pinterest is seriously my best friend for finding new and easy recipes. Fall graced itself with either an early arrival or a preview of the awesome cool weather we'll be getting soon! Because of the weather, I was feeling inspired to make something fallish for our last Harvest Launch team meeting a few weeks ago, but I wanted it to be fresh, not from the freezer. I also wanted it to be EASY! I pinned this gem while I was on just about every wedding blog known to man trying to plan my own wedding. Here's the recipe:

6 medium apples, pared and sliced (I used gala but I heard Honeycrisps from Whole Foods are super sweet and good!)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/3 cup softened butter or margarine

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup of oatmeal flakes

3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease baking dish (I used a 9 x 13) with additional butter.

Cut your apples. I went ahead and cut mine twice so they were more bitesized.

Cut your flour into the softened butter until well mixed. Then add the other ingredients and mix thoroughly. 

Sprinkle yummy goodness topping over your apples. I will say that I found that I needed more topping since it didn't cover the apples. I just took the remainder of the butter and added in a little bit of everything (oatmeal, nutmeg, cinnamon, flour, brown sugar, etc.)

Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the apples are bubbling.

I've already made this recipe twice, and it's been a hit! Serving warm with vanilla ice cream is a MUST!

Wedding & Honeymoon Highlights

 

So, Ryan and I have officially reached our 2 month mark of marriage! It has flown by and yet at the same time we both feel like we've been married for WAY longer. We love not having to say goodbye to each other at night, watching an episode or two of Big Bang Theory (our latest obsession) before we go to bed, making dinner together and having "our" place to share.

I completely neglected to blog about our wedding/ honeymoon! So, here's my quick attempt at recapping two of the most memorable events in our life thus far:

The wedding was simply 100x better than I could've imagined. I had several awesome and creative helpers who made the reception look amazing, vendors who were phenomenal at what they do, and the best wedding guests a girl could ask for. We loved having family all together, literally seeing everyone off their feet and dancing, and just had such a blast celebrating with each other and so many others. It will forever be a day that I treasure and look back on as such a blessing. Jesus even held back the nasty storm looming during the ceremony by about 20 minutes. We got really lucky!

Now, I know that most girls get very caught up in the whole wedding planning process and the actual wedding day itself. BUT I was super pumped about the honeymoon! It's like the icing on the cake after the wedding! Ryan and I love traveling so we couldn't wait to cross the pond and see so many awesome places.

We flew into Rome after a long overnight flight. It was 10 a.m. there but our bodies felt like it was 3 a.m. We both didn't get much sleep on the way over, maybe about an hour. I confess I spent many of those hours I could've been sleeping, reading Hunger Games instead. All we wanted to do was sleep! But, like every other hotel, you can't check in until after 2. We only had that day to check out Rome before we left on our cruise so after finally getting into our room, showering, taking a 30 minute nap and running after the shuttle like crazy tourists, we made it to heart of Rome. We saw as much as we could--the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, and may other ruins that were just hanging out in the middle of the city. We definitely want to go back to see more since we felt like we missed a lot.

I must say, after being hesitant to go on a cruise for our honeymoon, it was such an awesome way to see some pretty awesome places in Europe. We quickly found out which places we liked and want to come back and visit longer (everywhere in Italy) and some places we would never have to visit again (France). The Norwegian Epic was an intense boat packed with countless enterainment and food options. There was never a shortage of things to do. We can't wait for the next cruise we go on...now we have to go on an Eastern Mediterranean cruise, right Ryan?? ;)

Here were some highlights:

-We got lost in the airport for a good 45 minutes trying to find the hotel when we arrived.

-Fanta from abroad tastes 10x better than it does in the States. It's not as sweet.

-We almost got picked to be on the boat's Newlywed Game. I was mortified.

-I learned how bad Ryan's snoring really was :)

-Florence had the best food and was the cutest town we went to. Unfortunately, we were so directionally challenged that we couldn't find Michaelangelo's David sculpture even though we were one street down

-We walked Barcelona by ourselves and probably covered at least 8 miles of ground trying to see Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas

-We met at least 8 other couples that were on their honeymoon. They were easy to spot :)

-France.....was not our favorite. The people were rude, the food wasn't great and if you don't know French you're not worth their time of day. They did have good shopping however!

-We learned that we liked edamame after being shown how to eat it by 2 Japanese ladies who didn't speak a lick of english. They looked at me like I was crazy for not knowing and kept asking where I was from.

-I finally got to enjoy a nice glass of sangria and tortilla espanola in Barcelona...I always knew I'd come back just to eat it!

-We bought lots of beautiful ceramic goodies in Amalfi and then they plumetted to the ground in peices from the bus. It was terrible luck and we were so bummed.

Okay this is getting long, but long story short we are enjoying each other and married life! As scary as it is to jump into a huge life-long commitment, I couldn't ask for a better partner to be walking through life with.



Ryan + Shannon // Wedding Highlights from Josh Gooden on Vimeo.

Today's the Big Day...

Ryan,

Today's the day! The day two of us as individuals will join together as ONE team. I am humbled and thankful that the Lord has brought us to this moment in his perfect timing. There are lots of fun things that I love about you:

-That we both get excited about every season of the Bachelor/Bachelorette (#teamjef!)
-That we both can ALWAYS find room for Sweet Frog
-That we both love to eat food, very selective food I might add!
-That we both love to give and serve others
-That you love pedicures, not ashamed!
-That you can't grow a beard
-That you would rather wash the dishes by hand
-That you have a love for highschoolers that I will never understand
-The way you laugh
-The way you fold your t-shirts and sweaters
-The way you smell (when you're clean!)
-The way you hug

It's in those small things that my love for you spills over the criteria of the typical "perfect man". There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord gave you these qualities, these quirks, these strengths to be ready to team up with me. I can't wait to see you today, to celebrate with you, to commit to you and to officially be "Team Shaughnessy". I can't wait to experience the adventure of life we're about to embark on, for the people we'll encounter and the places we'll go and see but most of all, to do it together. I love you!

AH WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!

-Your Bride

Changing Times

I haven't posted in a LONG time! Life has been flying by and sometimes I forget to stop and look around at what's going on. Ryan and I are in our final month and a half of wedding planning. It's all starting to feel a little more real. I can't tell you how excited I am to see everything all put together, our friends and family celebrating with us and just to experience marriage as a whole. It's crazy to think that it's almost here!

In other developments:

-We found our sweet humble abode! We'll be living in Vienna near the Orange line so that Ryan's commute is a breeze. He's currently living there now and loving the fact that he can just walk to the metro. We really lucked out with this space too! It's got a lot more square footage than we thought we could initially afford and is so light and airy! Don't get me wrong, it's definitely tiny--a little over 800 or so square feet. You're probably thinking to yourself, that's not a lot of space at all, but up here that's HUGE for the location and the price we're paying for rent. We're spoiled with a little loft space that opens up the living room and makes it feel a lot less small than it actually is. The Lord truly provided. It's been fun to slowly make it a home, I love the decorating!

-We're joining a new church! This is something that the Lord has so graciously allowed us to become involved in and we're so excited to be used by Him. Ryan and I had been really wrestling with a lot of things regarding our current church for several months. We LOVE the people that we've met there, which made the idea of leaving so much harder. Now if you follow @shaughnessy22 on twitter, you will remember that Ryan took a several month hiatus from Twitter. One day out of the blue, Ryan decided to get back on the Twitter train and that day he saw a tweet from @hbcfairfax. So long story short, Ryan meets with the pastor of this new church plant coming to Fairfax, hears his vision for the church and tells me we should consider joining this team to launch the church. I was skeptical at first and thought there was no way that we would actually be doing this. Nonetheless, here we are and so pumped! Thank you Jesus for using social media to reach into our hearts and to call us to help build your church. It NEVER ceases to amaze me how the Lord works and it is by far through his will that we are in such a humble position. If you're looking for a church in the Fairfax area, I would encourage you to check out Harvest Bible Chapel of Fairfax on September 9, our official launch date!

-We're both going through some job transition. Ryan switched to a rotational job position about 2 months ago that will have us in the area for at least 3 years. After that, we're moving South! Just kidding, we'll see! He's currently working at the Department of Homeland Security HQ and will be switching to another department every year until he graduates from this program. He's also going back to school to get his MBA. Would you ever have thought that my Ryan would be going to business school? Love it!

I just went through my first salary/promotion negotiation last week. I received a job offer from a competitor firm and my current firm fought really hard to keep me. They worked with me to figure out some additional responsibilities that I could take up and feel like I'm moving in a career direction I want to go. I will be leading the marketing efforts of one of our industry groups and couldn't be more excited for such a big jump in responsibility. In any place I've worked, I've always made it my goal to have a work ethic that reflects Christ. So all you new college grads out there, work hard and aim to be indespensible. Don't think that your assistant or associate-level job will get you no where. You never know what building blocks you're setting up!

So those are all the major changes that are going on or have gone in the future Shaughnessy house! If there is anything that I've learned from going through all of this life change is that HE never changes (Hebrews 13:8). Being a person who is SO resistant to change, I haven't always reacted the best to all of this. Something that I've realized is that Christ has called us to a life of change. Romans 12 talks about how we are to be constantly renewing our minds. The Christ-centered life dictates change and a constant working effort towards making Him the center of this changing life. I'm still learning this the hard way. Change is good and necessary and we have the Lord as our anchor, the unchanged and the immovable to sustain us through life's uncertainites. I'm thankful that I can know that and claim that.