a simple pasta salad

sorry i was mia last friday. sometimes i cook really easy stuff throughout the week that requires no recipe. which means no post. whoopsie!
but i’m back this week and i have a super easy pasta salad that goes great with any main dish!
my favorite to pair it with is a nice, juicy steak! mmm mmm mmm!

my uncle robert is actually the one who taught me how to make this, so i give the credit to him! thanks scuncle!!

what you’ll need:
1/2 bag of spiral noodles {i use multi-colored to add some color}
1 cucumber
2 roma tomatoes
1/2 onion
1 cup zesty italian dressing
1 small can of sliced black olives
salt & pepper to taste
optional: 1 small can of sliced green olives. 

 

{one} cook your spiral noodles per the directions on the packaging.

{two} dice up your tomatoes, cucumber and onion….thennn….

{three} mix it all together and add your can of olives!

{four} your noodles should be done so strain them and run them under cold water.

{five} add the noodles to the veggie mixture, add the dressing and stir it up!

now you have a delicious side that will go well with any main dish you cook up! oh especially for some cookouts! yumm!!!

have a swell friday!

always,
-chef jess

get to know me tag…and an announcement!

these tags bring me back to my myspace days and i love it! plus it gives my readers a little inside scoop on me, to get to know me better! i saw this on someday sunny, you can read kaily’s answers {here}, and i thought why not! this week was kind of boring for my blog so i needed some filler stuff! i also have a pretty big announcement BUT you’ll have to read all the way to the end to see what it is! it’s a good one!

here we go! 

my favorite things (reality tv)

so i know i’ve already done one for my favorite tv shows but those are all fictional!
here are all of my reality tv shows that i love. or as cale calls them, my trashy tv.

{19 kids & counting}
i loveeee this show! all of the girls are gorgeous…and have great hair. i find their lifestyle very interesting. who am i to judge a family based on their beliefs? if they can support all of these children then why not have a crap ton? their religion in it’s entirety is very interesting…they can’t hold hands until they are engaged and their first kiss is on their wedding day! that is some will power!

{sister wives}
much like 19 kids & counting i am very interested in this lifestyle. i love how “normal’ they are though. how they cope with the whole sex part is beyond me but hey if the man isn’t marrying his daughters or any children… be you brah. do i think it has a little to do with him having a big ego? maybe, but if his wives are happy and not cooped up on a ranch then again who am i to judge?

{real housewives}
alllll real housewives! beverly hills, atlanta, new jersey, and the oc are my favorites…wait did i just name all of them? cale loathes this show. he thinks i’m poisoning my brain, i mean, i am but i’m also entertained.

{teen mom}
i had jaz the same year that 16 & pregnant first aired, so the “teen moms” that came in the next series were my age and jaz was the same age as their babies. i love watching where other teen moms ended up especially one that completely wrecked her life by selling her vagina. idiot.

{the first 48}
cale & i are obsessed with this show. we catch ourselves screaming “MOTIVE”! well.. more like i scream it and cale just laughs at me. i know when someone’s guilty, i can see it in their eyes. serious.

what are your favorite reality tv shows? please tell me i’m not the only one who watches these!

always,
-jess

our weekend adventures

before i start this post i just want to say…

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, CALE!!!

dirty thirty! yikes, my man is getting old, you guys. soooo kidding! {kinda 😉 }
how did i get so lucky to find you floatin’ a river in a state that you don’t even live in! i love you for all the good you have brought into mine & jaz’s life. you are by far the best thing that has ever happened to us. thank you for everything you do to make me feel like a queen. i love you forever & for always, honey. i can’t wait to be your mrs. 

friday

we FINALLY found girl scout cookies! needless to say, we stocked up.

saturday

after dance, jaz & enjoyed some bbq. meh, not my fave but it’ll do.

i recently ran out of my foundation so i just had to make a sephora run. brushes get me in trouble.

i have a problem. waaaaatttt? i needed some things…

…see no biggie. just some of my favorite basics. i had to switch back to biolage shampoo & conditioner because cale said my hair smelled like wet dog when i used living proof. {sad face}

before jaz had to scurry off to bed we watched one of my favorites…tarzan! it still makes me laugh out loud. i haven’t seen the brandon frasier one in forever! that’ll have to be next weekend.
then when mina & cale went to bed i stayed up {which is rare} and watched all of the “getting to know” teen mom specials! i had just had jazmyne when this show came out so all of their babies are the same age as jaz and i swear, i’m just a brown version of maci bookout. we have the exact same story. can’t wait for it to start in march!

oh oh, i almost forgot this one! i very seldom get the love snuggles from lulu. so when i do, i take a stupid amount of pictures until she gets fed up with a camera being in her face and jumps off. doesn’t she look just thrilled?

sunday

it’s the day before cale’s birthday! he wanted piggies in a blanket so birthday boy gets what birthday boy wants!

these two are finally getting along! and by “getting along” i mean lulu makes him her bitch. poor chandler.

we had to make a quick run to get some new fishies {preslee don’t you dare say a word} but i didn’t have time to blow dry my hair. so this is what the public had to endure. super attractive!

the first little guy reminds me of the shrimp on finding memo that eats all the bacteria off, anyone…no?
look we found nemo! just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming!
okay…what the hell is this thing? i have never seen these before! creepy!!!

---

cale’s birthday surprise! 

today is cale’s big dirty 30! so i wanted to do something really nice that i knew he wouldn’t be suspecting. i’ve never really been a huge sushi fan, or any kind of fish fan for that matter. but since moving to seattle i have become infatuated with it. fish that is {salmon, cod, lobster, etc} sushi however has taken some time. any who cale loves it! like…LOVES IT! so i decided to set up a surprise birthday dinner with some of our closest friends at one of the best sushi restaurants in downtown seattle, japonessa.

{via paperlesspost}
i created this from a simple template online and sent it out via email. how cute is this? it’s a little sushi roll! paperless post is awesome and i would absolutely recommend it to anyone inviting guests via email. super easy to make and manage!

do you know how hard it is to keep a secret from this man? the last surprise i tried doing for him, he ruined. i can’t get anything past this guy! because i knew that he would know exactly where we were going if he could see, i made sure to blindfold him for the entirety of the ride there.

blindfold is still on!

surprise!! all of our closest friends were waiting for us when we walked in to the restaurant! this group right here is what we call the beardly folk. also, the bottom picture is supposed to be of them “mean-muggin” i think cale needs to work a little more on the mean mug and not so much on the constipated face.
***all of these dapper fellows including 3 others will be the handsomest groomsmen! don’t shave the beards guys! ***

yummmmm! this was only a portion of everything we got! after this, i am the biggest fan of sushi now! i also had a seaweed salad…oh my goodness, so good!!

how cute is my fiancé? super cute!

happy birthday, honeybun. here’s to spending all of your birthdays together.
i love you!
…now get out of bed because i know that’s where you’re reading this and make sure jaz isn’t late to school! 😉

---

sorry for the super long post today guys but it’s obviously way more special than an ordinary “our weekend adventures”. it was a great weekend full of great weather…again!

what did you do this weekend?

always,
-jess

welcome to our home. pt. 1

**i’ve been getting a lot of questions about where my comment button is and it’s ↑↑ actually on top of my posts in the right hand corner. it looks like a little thought bubble. super confusing, i know but i can’t change it. meh.**

happy sunday!
i know most of america is undergoing a horrible cold weather freakout, BUT seattle is stepping up it’s game and giving us so much sun! it hit 60° yesterday! it was awesome! sooo sorry for those of you that are neck deep in snow. yikes!

on to the post!
i know i promised this a lonnnng time ago and i honestly thought i would get to it sooner but we’ve been crazy busy y’all! i also didn’t know how i wanted to do it. either one huge post or maybe 2 or 3 little posts. i decided to do 2 parts.

here’s a little back story on our casa. technically, it belongs to cale & cale only. he had already had his house for 3 years before jaz and i moved up here. his own little bachelor pad! and that’s exactly what it was! cale is completely modern where as i am more traditional and like to make my house pretty with lots of decor. needless to say things changed when i moved in {sorry honey} i mean seriously y’all, he had his nintendo games framed and that’s what was on the walls in the living room. haha BACHELOR PAD!

the only thing we bought that he didn’t have {or that i didn’t like haha} was a living room set {coffee table, end tables and a buffet} we aren’t going to buy all new furniture until we move into a new house that we will be buying a couple years after the wedding. i can’t wait! it’ll be a clean slate for me to have fun with!

alright friends, welcome to our humble abode!

where all the magic happens… the kitchen. 

this is the before. do you see what i mean about modern stuff? yep, that’s a knife man, a buddha butter thing, gnome salt & pepper shakers and a rock statue pepper grinder. the wine glass holder wasn’t there when i moved in either but that was one of the first projects we did.

and after.

 

i got everything {minus the wine glasses & wine} pictured here from homegoods. that place is my jam! 

we usually don’t have that many flowers up there but it was valentine’s day when i snapped these. there is however, always a fresh bouquet up there.

we don’t have a dining room, we have a very small house. but we do have an extended bar that we put three stools under and that serves as our dining room.
i am not an open floor plan kind of girl. and this is an open floor plan house. so i had to separate the kitchen and the living room somehow and these were the perfect way to do that! before, we just hand some simple pendants that were very small.

where i spend my sundays… the laundry room.

sorry for the awful grainy picture, this is a cropped pic-stitch of an instagram picture. eep! so bare right? also, who the hell puts up those top shelves? unless you’re an amazon woman there is no way any woman is reaching up there. i once put my foot through the hood of the kitty’s littler box because i was climbing on top of the washer & dryer to reach my detergent. not cool.

thanks to good ol pinterest, i came up with this! my man is such a handy man and i love it!

on to the master

nothing special but it’s ridiculously comfy. going to sleep is by far my favorite thing to do.

in part 2 i’ll share the living room, jazmyne’s room, and cale’s man-cave.
hope y’all enjoyed a little look into our seattle suburb home.
i love house tours so let me know if you’ve posted home tours before! i would love to hop on over to your blog and check them out!

 always,
-jess

late president’s day post

hi pretties.

this past weekend jaz & i were lucky to have monday off for president’s day. woohoo! poor cale had to work though…boo! boeing never gives them the usual holidays off, maybe it’s because they give him like 2 weeks off at christmas…wth is that! i digress.

it was a beautiful day in good ol’ seattle, again! so we decided that we would take a trip into the city {we live on the outskirts} to have some fun in the sun.

also note that almost all of these pictures were taken by jaz. actually all of the pictures that are not of her she took. atta girl, right??

we wanted some big noms so we went and had some vietnamese. yes, the sun may have been out but it was still pretty chilly, so i got some phó and jaz had some stir fry. look, she has finally figured out the chopsticks!

after lunch we headed over to gas works park. i’m telling y’all the day was absolutely gorgeous!! look at that skyline.

sorry for the dark pictures, but jaz did a great job of getting all of seattle in the background which is really all that mattered.
i am still so obsessed with these paige boyfriend jeans! i got them a size bigger than i usually would because i really wanted that boyfriend look…however {!} the waist is so huge and unlike her other jeans, these stretch out…a lot.

cheesy…

super cheesin’ & i can’t see because…sun! yay vitamin d!

this wasn’t supposed to be an outfit shoot but it was too pretty to pass up this gorgeousness.
if you live in seattle, just a forewarning, the hill part of gas works park is fenced off. i think they might be re-soiling the whole place, i dunno. we may or may not have squeezed through a crack…not without some other company though, so i didn’t feel too bad.

after gas works we went and had some molly moon ice cream. i haven’t had it yet and jaz is always down for some sugar.

and finally after ice-cream we stopped at a camera store and i bought a new lens…i’m in love! it’s just a pancake lens but it allows so much more light in and i love love love! my kitty cats make for good subjects.

i’ll link outfit details at the very end.
this was a different post than my usual but i couldn’t let all of jazmyne’s pictures sit in my computer. she did such a great job!

and with that, we bid you farewell. until next time!

blouse // {here}
paige jimmy jimmy boyfriend skinny // {here}
steve madden pumps // {here}
michael kors watch // {here}
kendra scott elle earrings // {here}

wedding countdown:

8 months!

has it already been a month?! my goodness! people weren’t lying’ when they said these months would fly by! we have gotten so much taken care of this last month. i know i said in our last post that february wouldn’t be too eventful…yeah, i lied.

don’t forget to check out our wedding website // {andersoneverafter,com}

previous wedding countdowns // {10 months}   {9 months}

this month we:

• booked an incredible videographer! i’ll list all my vendors at the end of the post.
• booked our wedding flights. well actually we booked the majority of our flights this year. one of my best friend’s getting married a couple weeks before us and i’m a bridesmaid! so we booked that flight, our flights down right before the wedding, OUR HONEYMOON FLIGHTS, and next to book are my dress fittings and our bachelorette/bachelor parties. hello frequent flyer miles!
• applied for our passports! technically i applied & cale renewed. we needed passports because….
• WE BOOKED OUR HONEYMOON! ARUBA, THE ANDERSONS ARE COMING FOR YOU!!
  •  this is literally a picture out of a room at the resort we booked! again, i will mention all vendors at the end!
• my wedding bands came in! woop woop
• we ordered cale’s band, too!

vendors:

all you bride to be’s read carefully! i would of course recommend all of my booked vendors to you because…well they are awesome, duh! why would i want to be selfish and not want another bride to have the best wedding she could with these outstanding vendors! that would be just plain mean! i am not a jealous bride, i do not care if i have the exact same vendors as another bride because i know i have my own taste, and unless you were asking my coordinator EXACTLY what my wedding looks like, then you should have no problem because i’m sure your wedding will be just as gorgeous! i still have a few more to book, like hair & make-up, fancy departure transportation, night-of hotel and a surprise for our guests.

• venue – {villa antonia}
• wedding photographer – {stephanie hunter photography}
• engagement/bridal photographer – {misty sims photography} you can check out our engagement shoot {here}
• wedding coordinator – {kristin catter events} -aka- our lifesaver
• string trio {ceremony} – {terra vista strings}
• dj {reception} – {dj brian weber} 
• cupcakes – {sweet treets bakery}
• caterer – {sterling affairs catering}
• florist – {visual lyrics floral artistry}
• linens – {marquee event group}
• officiant – {scott payne – the knot tyer}
• videographer – {spinning leaf films}
• honeymoon resort in aruba – {bucuti & tara beach resorts} we booked the tara suite…omg!
• wedding dress – {blush bridal lounge}
• engagement ring/wedding bands – {shane company}

that’s it for now as far as vendors but we’ll keep y’all posted!
here’s just a few more pictures that our little jazmina took!

y’all will learn that we are just a bunch of goons, jaz included.

see ya next month!

-jess & cale

our weekend adventures

friday

friday was boring and i was pooped so i just laid in bed and read this book. unfortunately, it still hasn’t captured my attention yet and i’m on chapter 5. eep! i hope it picks up soon!

saturday {valentine’s day!} 

look at all the goodies we woke up to!

cale got me the most hilarious card from etsy! “couples that fart together, stay together.” how awesome is he!? haha we now have so many fresh flowers in the house and i love it! we decided not to go big this valentines day because, well… we have a big extravagant wedding we are paying for OURSELVES. lol so roses and sugar wafers {i’ve been missing my papa lately} for me and lots of candy and a big ol’ balloon for him.

later in the morning/afternoon we were invited to go celebrate our dear friend’s birthday. happy birthday, misha! y’all should go check out her blog… {emerald city diaries}!!

dangggg E, so sorry for interrupting playtime with uncle cale! y’all, i can’t get enough of this precious baby girl!

on a different note… you see those veins popping out of my hand? ya, those things hurt! they usually only pop out when i eat too much salt but this time it was unprovoked. anyone else have this problem? am i dying? i must be dying.

after the birthday soiree, we went to our favorite steakhouse. we waited for an hour & forty five minutes, but it was well worth it! look at how they serve their cocktails! i wanted to steal the mini vase thing! it’s so cute!!

dinner was delectable! oh my goodness! filet mignon and garlic shrimp…uhm yes please!

sunday

i sometimes think that i’m super woman and can drink 5 mimosas without paying for it the next day. yeah, i’m not superwoman. so a big breakfast was necessary sunday morning.

if you live in seattle…did you go outside?!?!! it was absolutely gorgeous! thank you for the sun seattle! lulu quite enjoyed herself.

this was my life. laundry on laundry on laundry. bleh

but at least i had a helper!

whew! it was a jam-packed valentine’s weekend! and jaz & i have off today for president’s day woohoo! let’s see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into!

what did you and your special valentine do?

oh oh!!! in case you missed it…

…go check out my valentine’s day inspired outfit! {here}

always,
-jess

soft colors on valentine’s day.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! 

so i had originally bought this dress for my rehearsal dinner that’s in 8 months…like 5 months ago! haha! i like to get ahead of myself sometimes. but it was screaming my name from my closet, “wear me…wear meeeee!” so i caved.

i almost always go for a softer color rather than a bold one. so this blazer was the perfect touch against this pristine white dress!

banana republic dress // similar {here}
h&m blazer // similar {here}
nude pumps // {here}
mega cheap necklace // {here}
kate spade earrings // {here}

—follow me on instagram {link is in my sidebar} for more #ootd’s that don’t make it on here! or just to keep up with our crazy lives 🙂 —

hugs and big kisses on this mushy gushy day!
-jess

homemade chipotle bowls!

this is my all time favorite thing to make! mainly because i’m obsessed with chipotle but also because it’s relatively easy. i say relatively because it’s a lot of multi-tasking.

here we go! hope y’all enjoy!

what you’ll need:
2 medium sized steaks {sirloin or tri-tip}
however many shrimp you think you need. {i am the only one who eats shrimp in mine, cale is allergic, so i only needed a few}
2 cups white rice {cook according to it’s packaging}
2-3 bunches of cilantro
1 large tomato
2 large avocados
1 jalepeño
1 medium onion
1 green & red bell pepper
1 can black beans {if you prefer pinto…then use pinto!}
2 tbsp creole seasoning
1 tbsp chili powder
2-3 limes
1 bag of pre-chopped romaine lettuce
salt & pepper to taste

{one} you’ll want to start your rice first as this takes the longest. i only have a family of 3 so i only needed to make 2-4 servings. i used 2 cups of rice and that was plenty for us.

{two} dice up the steaks you chose. i like to use actual steaks because i find that the meat is more tender than the pre-cubed steak that you can buy at the store. i added a little bit of olive oil to both the steak and the shrimp. add 1 tbsp of the creole seasoning and 1/2 tbsp of chili powder to each of the meats you are cooking. add salt & pepper to taste.

{three} cut your bell peppers into thin slices and cut half of your onion the same and sauté with some olive oil until soft.

{four} meanwhile, while all of the goodness is cooking away, go ahead and start on your guac & pico. i usually don’t go all out with this guac like i normally would because i am making a separate pico de gallo. so all i used for this was obviously the avocados, a lime and some cilantro. super easy!

{five} after the guac, make your pico de gallo. all the while, stirring your meats and veggies. for the pico i used; 1 tomato, the other half of the onion, cilantro, a jalepeño, lime juice and salt.

{six} your rice should be done at this point, so now you will need to squeeze 1 lime and 1 bunch of chopped cilantro into the rice. you may need to add some salt, depending on your preference.

{seven} get those beans a’cookin’!

{eight} for the lettuce, i grabbed a bag of pre-chopped romaine lettuce and chopped it even more. i hate iceberg lettuce so i would definitely not recommend buying that.

{nine} here’s what my spread looked like…kind of like the chipotle bar, right?!

are y’all ready to go down the line… pretend you’re at chipotle…

white or brown rice? oh i’ll take white, please. 

what kind of meat? steak and shrimp, thank you!

oh wait wait…can you add some veggies to that. yeah that’s good thanks.

{out of order…sorry} black or pinto beans? black beans please.

mild, medium or hot? mmm let’s do the mild.

anything else? lettuce and guacamole please. guacamole is ex..YES, IT’S FINE! thank you…

a glorious, homemade chipotle bowl. simply delicious!

always,
-chef jess