Instant Pot: Italian Wedding Soup

This maybe the easiest recipe I have ever made in the Instant Pot. I have had this annoying lingering cold and being able to come home and throw this together quickly was a huge plus for us last night. It was really delicious too!

What you need~
3 celery ribs washed and diced
3 carrots washed and diced
1 large onion diced
4 garlic cloves minced
8 cups of chicken broth
1 pound of frozen meatballs
1 cup pasta acini di pepe
6 ounces of spinach (chopped)
Nature's seasoning (to taste)

Start by dicing up the celery, carrots, onion and garlic. Put them in the pot with the meatballs, pasta and 4 cups of broth with seasoning. Seal Instant Pot and set to pressure cook for 8 minutes. When done quick release the pot. Add the remaining 4 cups of broth and spinach. Season if you feel like you need more and serve. Super easy and quick. This was done in less than 45 minutes.

Ready for pressure cooking steps.

Never used this pasta before. I liked it in the soup.

Meatballs and pasta. Yum!

I mean hello beautiful!

This soup was light and refreshing in a time when most of our meals become really heavy this time of year. This will be made again in our house for sure.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Restoring Hope Gala

Over the past couple years whenever my company has a meal planned I always take the leftovers to St.John's homeless shelter or the Micah center here in Green Bay. I was asked to attend their gala this year benefiting them. It was really inspiring and the speaker Nic Sheff was very candidate with us. I took some pictures of the event that I wanted to share below. I did bid on silent auction items and won a basket filled with honey (like a year supply) and a cool pottery bowl.

They had a martini luge. I did not partake but looked really cool.

Nic Sheff the speaker. His book and his fathers were turned into the movie Beautiful Boy.

They played a raffle game called heads or tails and it was super funny.

The St. John's choir. Some of the members stay at the shelter or are helpers there.

I was in the front at table 5. Good view of the stage and the Capital One people were kind.

These giant letters were super cool.

Start of the event.

I really enjoyed learning about this event and the people.

I cannot wait to work with St. John's and the Micah House more in the future. They are an awesome organization.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Garlic & Parmesan Chicken Drumsticks

These. Are. Amazing.
I had an extended weekend to go see Chris Stapleton (voice of an angel) and was able to do a little cooking which you know I love. These are actually not that crazy hard to make and they were packed with garlic/butter yumminess. The process uses my instant pot but you could easily bake these the entire time it would just take FOREVER which I am not a fan of. The sauce is what is really the superstar here it makes these lip smacking good!
 

What you need~
1 large family size pack of chicken drumsticks (about 16 pieces)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup chicken broth or water

For sauce~
8 cloves of garlic (minced)
4 tablespoons of butter melted
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt

To finish~
Parmesan cheese (about 1 cup)

Optional first step-
Remove the skin off of the chicken. This not only makes it healthier it just for me makes the chicken taste better. Unless I am deep frying the skin I am not a big fan. I remove this by pulling the skin down with a piece of paper towel and off the bottom bone joint.

 Once you do this place the chicken pieces in a large bowl and season with the seasonings (garlic/onion powder, salt and pepper). Place the trivet in the instant pot and pour the cup of broth in the bottom. Layer in the seasoned chicken pieces. Set the instant pot to pressure for 6 minutes. While that is going pre-heat the oven to 525 degrees F. Get a big sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Once the instant pot is done do a quick release of the pressure and remove the chicken drumsticks back into a large bowl (wash the bowl after using with the raw chicken from before). I then minced the garlic, melted butter, olive oil and salt in my food processor before pouring over the chicken drumsticks in the giant bowl. Toss the chicken around and then place on the sheet pan spaced apart. I then use the remaining sauce to baste the chicken before placing in the oven for 15 minutes. Check after 15. I decided to cook mine for 20 before removing from the oven. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of those beauties before eating them up. Perfect for a party!

Here are some pictures that will make your mouth water!

This is after the instant pot. It partially cooked them.

Ready for the oven!

Yep. Hello. Yum!

I hope you take some time to cook this week or do something that brings you joy. Tonight soup!

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Travel Adventures: Sir Elton John

Wow. I mean I have had hit or miss luck with older performers that abused their bodies to the brink in the past couple years. So I went into this trying to be open minded to what Elton was going to be like or not be like if you will. He blew me away. The set, the costumes, the sound quality in this venue it was outstanding.  Not to mention Elton can still sing and bang on those ivory keys on like top professional levels people. Did I mention his piano moved across the stage? It was awesome to watch. I think the biggest surprise was the three drum kits which just set off the best background to the piano. I was really blown away by that. I am happy that I was able to experience part of his farewell tour. Some of the songs touched on his past and he paid respect to his fans on numerous songs. I really enjoyed myself. We also experienced some of the newer restaurants in the area before the show and had excellent cocktails.

Highlights below:

We started our day at my favorite coffee place in De Pere-- Exchange. That crepe!

Once we parked in the museum parking lot only $15 people! We walked over to some of the new restaurants in the area. Punch Bowl Social is cool I like the one in MN so I thought it would be fun to show Ryan what it is all about. Loved the hummus plate and punch I got!

 We then stopped in at the Tavern at Turner Hall which is not new but is to us. I loved my little gin drink and the atmosphere in this tavern. I would come back but sit at a table the bartender was a tad too chatty with us.

We then stumbled across a little gem of a taco place with air stream trailers for bars. How cool!  We had some tasty guacamole and a margarita before going to see Elton!

 We had to stand in line for a short time then made it inside the venue. Took like 15 minutes tops which was not bad at all. Such a great show. Some pictures. Stop over to my Instagram or Facebook to see videos of some of the performances. Loved it!

We are on a concert tour this week. This Thursday Chris Stapleton!

Stay tuned....

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

The Family Tattoo: Jupey

I find myself to be drawn to good art much like most people I like pretty things. I also happen to like to collect a very specific type of art on my body tattoos. I started my collection when I was 18 years old and honestly did not know much about this art medium. I openly admit that as my first tattoo is a poorly done lion on my back I named Leo. Now everyone has to start somewhere and while my lion is not the best quality it reminds me to seek out better artists as much as possible for my future collecting. My second tattoo was a learning experience as well because I was very specific on what I wanted leaving the artist (who is amazing by the way) little room for creativity and I simply did not listen to him when he told me numerous times to go with black ink and not brown as it would fade. Guess what it totally did over the years. Recently though in the past 3 years I hit the art jackpot for collecting true art with Greg at Endless Expansion Tattoo. You can look here to see my amazing owl back piece which I named Willow he did for my 30th birthday. Recently my grandfather Jupe past and I knew I wanted to expand on my wrist tattoo Greg started almost 10 years ago with the brown ink. That tattoo was for myself and my grandmother Emer. I thought this is the perfect time to speak to Greg and come up with a family tattoo that I can look at daily and will bring me piece and joy in my hard moments. This piece named Jupey is my latest collection of art and my first color piece. I sit here typing it as it is healing I have to hold my hand in a strange angle to type but I am okay with that. I wanted to get my thoughts on the tattoo process out on paper. I often get told "I do not like tattoos but I like yours." I always find this comment interesting because I do not get these tattoos for other people I get them for me and honestly I often feel uncomfortable explaining the meanings of my tattoos to people. Do you walk into someones house and ask them to describe all the art on their walls? I will say this about my most recent addition. For me this is my most personal tattoo yet. My lion was for myself to bring me strength, my owl for myself to help me feel more free and be myself... This tattoo is the only memorial tattoo and family tattoo I will ever get. It brought me great peace to meet with Greg and throw all of my jumble of ideas at him and for him to create an art piece out of my thoughts and dreams. I came into the shop on Thursday a bit worried my vision would not translate to Greg because I often have too much going on in my head but he was able to illustrate what my heart needed for healing and forward movement in the most beautiful way. Let me be very clear I actually hate being tattooed. It is hard for my to sit still for so many hours (5 hours this time), I have zero pain tolerance and I complain a lot through the healing process. But I do it for the art and the fact I get to keep this with me till I die and I love that about this art medium.  This art piece I call the family tattoo because pieces of it are for my Grandpa Jupe (the bird), my Grandmother Emer (the butterfly) and many other small flowers remind me of dear family members... I saw the clover and think of my husband, the flowers for my mom and Ryan's mother. It's funny that I gave Greg complete freedom here with this piece and it just fits what I needed and wanted so well. I highly recommend Greg by the way he is always gentle and very professional. His art is breathtakingly beautiful and I just trust his vision when I collect a piece from him.

In closing I know this was a bit of a wall of text. I hope when you see someone with a tattoo you learn to appreciate what it takes to sit through that process for that art in the future and learn to not always ask what they all mean all the time. Just appreciate the art for what it is. Here are some pictures of my tattoo courtesy of Greg at Endless Expansion.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Pink Pumpkin 5K 2019

I have done this event before but not in Green Bay. I found out only two days before registration closed that this event was going on in my area so I had to quickly try to rally some people into a team and go. I will say the event itself was not planned the best and their website left some things to be desired in the form of any sort of directions. Now that we have attended once though I know what to expect next year and we can grow our team even more. In the confusion we ended up with 4 Diane Kielar pumpkins in memory of Ryan (my husband's) mother who passed. Which was funny. Here are some pictures from the event.

Since we were walking in memory of Diane they did pumpkins for her which was lovely. They are so cute!

3/4 pumpkins. We lost one somewhere along the line. They are now on our porch. They were a workout to get to the car parked in a ramp!

Karyssa (an agent on my team at work) pictured right and her Mom. Both survivors!
YEY!

The whole crew!

Ryan and I with his mom's pumpkins.

Breast cancer awareness & screenings is a big deal. I had a scare earlier (I am okay!) this year during a breast exam and it made me happy that I get looked at yearly just in case. You can never be too careful ladies & MEN make sure you get your screenings!

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

The Perfect Cup of Tea

I have an addiction. I openly admit it. My Grandma's best friend Carol turned me onto tea as a child when everyone else my age was getting into coffee everything and soda. I never turned back and I am not a bit mad about it. I am often asked what type of tea I drink and I will tell you it is rarely green tea. There is nothing wrong with green tea but I prefer my tea black. DARK and strong like you would drink a coffee topped with a small amount of honey. Now I will switch to white or green tea as well and I have been known to enjoy an oolong. I hope my terms have not overwhelmed you if you do not drink tea. It's funny because I often talk to people who tell me they do not like tea and I wonder where that comes from. Have you tried all the lovely types of tea and many ways it is served to know that. A lot of Europe and I know my heritage of Britain drink a lot of tea. It makes me sad that we do not do that in the states. I often wonder why that is? Is it because most of the tea bags we buy are icky and the dust at the bottom of bins of wonderful loose leaf tea. If you cannot tell I prefer to brew my tea loose and not bagged if I can. I actually made a delightful pot of (black) Earl Grey tea with lavender for breakfast today. I can be counted to have a pot a day or more. I switch to white or green that have less caffeine than black in the afternoon. I have an electric kettle at home and two tea pots I use to steep my tea. Yum!

I want to challenge you to go out and try some tea. Herbal, Chai, Earl Grey even a good Green Tea!

Some pictures of my favorite pots of tea I have over the years.

My newest tea pot (Amazon) and hand me down mugs from my grandparents.

Another mug from my grandmother. :)

Tea-- Earl Grey

The highlight of my tea drinking life. Tea service at the Grand Hotel.

Yummy Chai a favorite of mine!

Iced Chai is delicious too.

My tea set up at home. We actually have a beverage cart for our tea and coffee needs.

Thank you Katelyn for this fun mug!

This is my art mug Ryan got me for Christmas last year. Made by a local artist.

Thank you for this insanely awesome mug Maggie.

I use this mug at my friends cabin. Cute!

In closing try tea. Try all the kinds! Find something you love there is so much out there in the world.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily