One year ago.

Today marks one year of having the best fiancé in the world. 

It was my fall break at law school, and we were taking advantage of the week off to get away to Chicago. While we had talked about getting engaged quite a while before taking this vacation, I didn't expect anything to happen because I knew Andrew doesn't love flying. There's no way, I thought, that he'd want to worry about the plane and the proposal over the same trip. 

We spent our first day wandering Chicago and eating pizza; the next day, after a rainy afternoon at the Chicago History Museum and a Chelsea Champions League game at Fado, we came back to our hotel to get ready for dinner at The Publican. The plan, as far as I knew it, was to have dinner there and then head out to Gilt Bar for fun drinks afterwards. It was awful outside: rainy, blustery, and cold. Since The Publican was a ways from our hotel, we took the bus over; while I didn't know what was going to happen, looking back on it now, I can't imagine how nervous Andrew must have been, as he had the ring in his pocket the whole time! 

After an incredible meal (including duck hearts, maybe the most memorable and delicious dish I've ever had), Andrew had the restaurant call a cab. Apparently, he told the driver of his plan and real destination, but when we got inside the taxi, I just assumed we were going to the bar; not knowing exactly where it was helped keep the surprise up until the very end. 

The cab let us out near the Michigan Avenue Bridge, a place with one of the best views of the city along the river. The rain had calmed down, it was only sprinkling, and we were the only people out on the bridge. At that point, I realized we probably weren't walking to the bar, and started to get really excited. As we walked onto the bridge, I knew what was going to happen. There, with no one out at all but us, Andrew asked me to marry him (and he did get down on one knee, even though it had been raining!). It was perfect, romantic, and made me the happiest I've ever been. We walked to the Wrigley building to step in from the rain, and the wonderful phone calls home began; I learned that everyone already knew, and had kept the secret from me. I'm still impressed that I never found out! 

So much has happened since that rainy night; we're in a new city, Andrew's in his Ph.D. program, I've graduated and passed the bar. I can't think of anyone else I would want to experience this with, and I'm so lucky to be Andrew's fiancée. 

Love you, duzhe, Driy, and I can't wait to marry you! 

Happy weekend, friends! 

Pumpkin doughnuts.

Andrew and I have yet to find a doughnut place we love in Milwaukee. When we first moved here, we went on a scouting adventure in an attempt to search for a bakery or store that would have our favorite doughnut available: maple long johns. And do you know who makes the best ones? Lunds. I never would've guessed that Lunds (a grocery store near our old apartment) would be our favorite place to go for doughnuts; I have no idea why I love these so much, but oh my goodness, they're so good. We've shopped around at the grocery stores and bakeries here but haven't found anything close to the maple ones from home. Sure, there are lots of regular doughnuts: chocolate glazed cake doughnuts, vanilla long johns, and even the fancier crullers; some might even argue these are better than Lunds. Nope. I don't believe you. 

This morning, I was trying to figure out what to do with my leftover pumpkin from when I made bread last week. Browsing online, I happened to come across this recipe; pleasantly surprised that I had almost everything on the ingredient list, I decided that these looked simple enough to make and could, just maybe, satisfy my craving for my maple doughnuts, at least for long enough until we're home next week. 

The recipe was really easy to follow. I only changed the glaze a bit, by reducing the amount of powdered sugar to 2/3 cup and adding some whole milk to create a smoother consistency. The tiny doughnut holes are the best - they remind me of the "munchkins" we used to get at Dunkin' Donuts when we were little.

I was also able to get more than nine doughnuts out of the recipe; I don't know if this is good or bad...and while they didn't quite taste like our maple favorites, they're a sweet fall treat that will be great with coffee over the next few days. 

P.S.: more pumpkin recipes here! 

Seven brides.

Wedding websites have always been a weakness of mine. This was recently made particularly clear by the amount of time I spent gushing over all the newest wedding gowns on the runways of NYC's fall bridal market last week. It doesn't matter that I've already found and fell in love with my own dress, not at all. I will be one of those women that obsess over wedding dresses for years to come, and I'm ready to admit it now.

Below, some of the trendiest, prettiest, and frilliest gowns from bridal fashion week, with lots of lace and sleeves, (thank you, Princess Kate), pleats, and tulle. Whether you love them or think they're completely ridiculous, because some really, truly are, I'm fascinated nonetheless.

Photo by Dan Lecca for Vera Wang

Photo by Thomas Iannaccone for Amsale

Photo by George Chinsee for Marchesa

Photo by George Chinsee for Marchesa

Photo by John Aquino for Monique Lhuillier

Photo by George Chinsee for Douglas Hannant

Photo by George Chinsee for Rivini

Photos via:
Huffington Post (top); Women's Wear Daily Bridal Collections Fall 2013 (runway shots; see the designers' full lines here, too).

MN Mondays: Turkey Day 5k.

This is a bit of a different MN Monday post; the others have all been about places we love or favorite activities of ours back home. This one, though, is all about something new that I'm looking forward to...this year, on Thanksgiving morning, my sister and I will be running the Turkey Day 5k!

A quick confession: I don't run. At all. At least not until deciding to do this race. I felt like I needed some motivation to push myself at the gym, and my sister had mentioned doing this run. This brings us to today, exactly 38 days to Turkey Day. So far so good, I think; running gets easier each time I'm out.

The course looks like fun, especially as we get to run by the river, the Guthrie Theater, and through downtown. It'll be a fun way to see some of my favorite places when we're home for Thanksgiving. No word  yet on whether we'll be dressing up as turkeys or if we'll run while carrying one...yes, apparently people actually do this:

Any advice from Turkey Day veterans, or running advice in general? It'll be an early morning (and hopefully one without snow), but it should make for a good start to one of my favorite holidays of the year!

*Photos via Mill City Times 2011 Turkey Day 5K

Cranberry-pumpkin bread.

When my mom was in town a few weeks ago, we decided we were going to make our cranberry-pumpkin bread. To our dismay, we couldn't find fresh cranberries in any of the stores. How could this be, I wondered; we were in WISCONSIN, cranberry country, after all! Disappointed in WI's lack of fresh cranberries (especially because, as my mom reported, MN stores had already been carrying the bright red berries for a few weeks), we gave up our search. 

Earlier this week, as I was shopping for ingredients for our stew, I happily came across several bags of cranberries nestled in between stacks of carrots. I immediately texted my mom to let her know of my discovery, and added the bread to our "to-make" list for the following day. 

We found this bread recipe quite a few years ago, on Thanksgiving Eve, as we were getting ready to host our family for dinner. As was our tradition, every Wednesday before Thanksgiving my aunt would come over to our house, we'd eat shrimp, apples, and brie, and prepare for the next day's meal. This particular evening, we were pouring over cookbooks and magazines to find out if there were any new dishes worth trying; this bread was one of them. We decided to tweak the original recipe just slightly, and have been following our version (reprinted below) ever since. It's so easy, fast, and tastes just lovely, very Thanksgiving-y. I'm craving turkey and stuffing just thinking about it. 

Cranberry-pumpkin bread.

1 1/8 C sugar

1/2 C pumpkin

1/3 C oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 Tbsp vanilla

1 1/8 C flour

1/2 C chopped pecans

1/2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 Tsp baking soda

1/4 Tsp salt

1 C chopped fresh cranberries. 

Makes 1 loaf.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; spray loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, eggs, and vanilla, mixing well. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine remaining bread ingredients except cranberries. Make a well, then pour the pumpkin mixture into the center. Using a wooden spoon, slowly blend, mixing until dry ingredients are well combined. Fold the cranberries into the batter.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf pan; bake, 55 minutes to one hour, or until tester comes out clean. Remove the loaf pan from the oven, and place on a wire rack to cool about 10 minutes before removing the loaf from the pan.

The recipe can easily be doubled to make two loaves, which we'll usually bake on Thanksgiving morning, saving one for dinner and snacking on the other throughout the day. If you make two loaves, the bread freezes well, so you can hide one away for later. Or, better yet, make both, keep one, and take the other over to a friend's house to share!

Happy weekend baking!

A full day in the kitchen.

Thanks to the lovely care package Andrew's mom sent (it's true: I LOVE magazines, especially cooking ones! THANK YOU!), I was inspired to cook and bake all day. The other day, we talked about how the weather was calling for a warm and hearty stew, given that the high temperature just barely made it to 50 degrees. Of course, when we make stew, we have to make bread, as well. So, plenty of pots and pans later, here's a quick recap of all that our kitchen churned out yesterday: 

A fresh loaf, using the Artisan Bread in Five recipe for dough (here's the link to forming a two-pound loaf!).

A beef and Guinness stew, which we decided was our favorite one we've ever made.

Cranberry-pumpkin bread! I'll post the recipe later, but it's been a family favorite for many fall seasons now! 

The apartment smelled so, so good coming in from outside! It was an entire afternoon of baking and cooking delight, but today, it's time to run off all those lovely treats (only 42 days left until Turkey Day 5K!). What is everyone up to today? 

For the kitchen: spice jars.

For those that know me, it'll come as no surprise to you that I like things organized. Part of the fun (yes, to us it's fun) of moving in to our new place was getting to organize everything from scratch: setting up our bookcases, folding everything neatly into the closets, and arranging our spices, baking supplies, and cooking utensils into their neat, non-cluttered new home. 

That being said, our pantry does not (AT ALL) look like this one below. 

In all likelihood, ours will never look like this (and really, whose does?) but we're determined to keep our pantry organized. While the space we have now is much more carefully set up than in our previous kitchen, we're not finished yet. Currently, we're on the hunt for spice jars that don't take up too much room in the pantry and are wide enough to easily accommodate a tablespoon. We don't want a pre-filled revolving rack, but would prefer individual jars so we can fill them up with our own spices. Tangent time: the Whole Foods in Milwaukee recently stopped having their spices available in bulk...not cool, Whole Foods, not cool. I hate having to spend $8.00 on a jar of a more exotic spice when we only need a teaspoon of it for a specific recipe. I think a lot of people are discouraged from experimenting with new flavors and tastes because of the fact that they'd have to buy a full jar and use so little of it, concluding, in the end, that it wouldn't be worth it at all. 

Alright, tangent over. 

As we continue to search for the perfect spice jars, here are some inspirations and ideas from around the web. Readers, what do you do? Any solutions to suggest for us? 

Photos via: Pinterest, Houzz, and Etsy.