Happy New Year!!!

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Martha Stewart Recipe Box

Happy New Year!!! This year has been wonderful, crazy, stressful, busy and scary all at the same time.    This year I became Mrs. Latter - yep that's right I'm no longer Courtney Greer I'm now Courtney Latter.  Still sounds a little weird but I'm getting used to it.  Probably the biggest shock was that it was easier than I expected.  I know weird right?  Honestly though, people had me completely freaked out.  I kept hearing "the next 5 years will be the worst years of your life, but don't worry you'll be fine after that".  I was honestly so freaked out that the week before the wedding I kept having to tell myself "it's ok, they say that's only 5 years, just look forward to year 6".  All I can say now, is that if this is "hard" then year 6 is going to be awesome!!!!  I love that Shale and I are so compatible and that he supports every passion I have.  During this year I also had the wonderful privilege of figuring out some of my passions in life.
 I've realized that I am in love with cooking, my heart breaks for orphans, and I find more fulfillment in discipleing college age girls that I ever thought I would.  Due to this I have started 2 blogs and I love being able to have an outlet for sharing with my friends.  Thank you to everyone who reads either of my blogs.  I love each of you and the fact that you put up with my ramblings about orphans in India, girls who need mentors, or the best way to roast a turkey.  However, as a gift to you this year I want to share some of my favorite things along with a great recipe.  I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

10 Favorite Things of 2010 (7 websites, 3 recipes)

1. Southern Hospitality Blog  This is a southern girls dream.  Pages after pages of fabulous DIY ideas.  Basically a southern living magazine in a blog.  I have to give it to the talented Rhoda it didn't take me very long to fall in love with this blog.
2. Hip2Save I have to admit that in my passion to cook I often find that leaves me needing to buy more items for the next recipe I want to try out.  As a newlywed this year I found it very hard to make my monthly "grocery budget" without going over.  Luckily my mom sent me to hip2save.com and it really helped me out a lot.  I don't have to cut coupons and then match it up by searching through websites and ads, I just go over to Collin's page and she already has it matched up for me.  Now all I have to do is  clip the coupons and wait for the best deals.
3. ActionsAndTruth Ok so maybe I'm a little partial because he's my husband but honestly Shale constantly challenges me to keep God first, others second and myself last.  I love that every time I read his blog I'm more convicted to fall deeper in love with God than I've ever been before!!!
4. HealthyThoughtsRN What's better than a best friend/roommate/healthy freak that keeps you on track?  This girl is awesome and I often find myself so envious of her and her willpower to stay fit.  I love reading her blog because she's like the in-your-face/I-love-you challenging fitness coach you wish you always had.  I know it sounds like a weird combination but trust me, read her blog, you'll be motivated to get yourself off the couch and do something.
5. MyNextStepOfFaith My best friend and long time accountability partner has such a sensitive heart.  If you want to read a blog about someone answering God's call on their life while they have no clue why or how, this is a must read.   Currently Caitlin is moving to NYC to follow a call to help refugees from India and then she's possibly on to India after that.  This is a blog of her journey, the destination is not yet known.
6. ChallengeYourPath Of course I had to put my other blog on here.  Not because I think everyone should read it but simply because this is a list of my favorite blogs.  This blog is one of my favorites because I love writing in it.  I love that I can have an outlet for a passion I'm not sure what to do with yet.  I'd love for you to check it out! 
7. AshleyMcCormick I went to school with Ashley and she was my photographer for my wedding.  She was so amazing and made us feel so at ease.  I love being able to check her blog and see the lovely photos she has posted that week. 
8. Roast Chicken Because this is just the perfect recipe for throwing in the oven any night of the week and it always turns out perfect (another plus is you can save money and use the bones to make chicken stock... recipe for that is here) 
9. Cake Truffles Because I love having people over to my house and this is something simple I can make that makes a lot and everyone loves.  I've now made them with German Chocolate Cake (german choc cake mix, coconut pecan frosting, semi sweet chocolate), Funfetti Style (funfetti cake, vanilla frosting, white chocolate) and Apple Spice style (apple spice cake, cream cheese frosting, white chocolate).  
10. Cinnamon Honey Almond Butter Because I love to run and I love to have this after I run.  After all the main reason I run is so I can eat and I love this snack!

Things I hope to accomplish in 2011

1. Learn to sew - my mom gave my sisters and I sewing machines and I'm trying to get the hang of this
2. Do at least 2 DIY projects - to help shape up our home (my first one will probably be this as I just got the okay from the husband to pull up the carpet on the stairs)
3. Continue to invest in the 3 girls I mentor and pray about someone else. I also want to make sure that each of these girls moves on to invest in someone else
4. Run another half marathon because I honestly miss my long saturday morning runs alone with my thoughts.
5. Increase my prayer life - I have a friend who when they wake up in the middle of the night they immediately assume it is because God wants them to pray for someone.  I don't think like that and I wish I did.  My goal for this year is to increase my prayer life by taking advantage of the moments like this that I have every day.
6. Blog more - not necessarily on this blog but on my blog that deals with orphan advocacy.  If I feel so strongly that God wants me to do something about this then I need to make sure that I'm following Him and at least advocating.
7. Not settle for lukewarm, middle of the road living -  I want to make sure that I'm passionate about what I do and that I do it with everything in me so that I might bring glory to God through my daily life.  

And now for the recipe....

Turkey Noodle Soup (from scratch)

Ingredients:

Roast Turkey (see here for ingredients)

2 celery ribs

2 carrots

1 onion (or leftover onion parts)

3 cloves of garlic

1 TBSP thyme powder

dash of salt and pepper

2 bay leaves

water

1 box of whole wheat noodles (I like to use the rotini kind that look like corkscrews)

Before Hand:

Roast a turkey (the recipe I always use is listed here)

use turkey as you would like, save all bones and make sure you save enough meat to add to your soup as you like

Make the stock:

in a stockpot saute together celery, carrots, and onions

add to this bay leaves, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, turkey bones and enough water to cover

Bring to a boil

reduce to simmer and simmer for 3 hours

after 3 hours strain the stock and save the broth but discard the bones and leftover veggies (I like to strain it through a big strainer first, dump out the leftover items and then re-strain the broth through a fine mesh seive)

set aside broth (stock)

To make soup:

rinse out your stockpot from above

add stock, 1 box of noodles, and any leftover turkey you have to the pot

add enough water to cover all the noodles once they cook (the noodles will at least double in size)

Ta-da homemade turkey noodle soup that tastes amazing.  Plus since you made everything you are able to control the amount of sodium, added fat (which I don't add any!), etc...

This makes A LOT of soup so I like to make it and take it to work to share or have at a party.  It really is a great money saver too as you don't have to buy much.

Want to know my secret tip?  I learned to make stock a while back at a Publix cooking class and the instructor told us to make sure to save ANY scraps we have while cooking.  The papery peel on the onion, the carrot shavings, the top of the celery stalks, etc... Then keep these items in a ziplock bag in your freezer and use them for stock and you won't have to go out and buy celery, onion, garlic, etc... So for me this was a completely free meal because I already had everything.  Gotta love that!

HMMMM... thinking my next post should be some stock recipes what do you think? Good idea?