erica danielle

The best pizza you could ever have in the coziness of your home. Happy Thursday to you!I came home to Sten and the Cubs game on TV. What a treat! Now I am counting down the minutes until 6:30pm when I get to help Ka tie celebrate her Birthday! We are meeting at Caro Mio. Its a wonderful BY O in the Ravenswood neighborhood. On Monday night I made Thai Chicken Pizza. Wowie Zowie. Please try this recipe. It is to die for. My mom sent it to me last year when we spent our Tuesday nights with Bryce and Ryann (bro and sis in law) switching off cooking and hosting Biggest Loser at each other's houses. I love those memories, they are very dear to my heart. When Drake came along it was more like all of us talking and holding and ooo-ing and aaah-ing rather than watching, but it was still OUR time to always be together. SOOO this was a hit and it will be a hit in your home as well. Here we are right before Sten moved away on Ryann's family boat. Wish we were boating now. On to the p...

Wednesday. Almost to the weekend! What a glorious thing. I have much , muCH , MUCH to look forward to this weekend. Not only am I off 4 days straight. But I get to see a lot of loved ones all at once. Sten and I leave Saturday morning for Pittsburgh, PA! Road Trip! I am overly excited! On the list of things to do in the car includes: 1. listen to pop music and dance 2. play the alphabet game 3. get a REALLY good snack at the gas station 4. figure out our biggest dreams in life, and maybe think of where we want our summer home to be someday. 5. stop at crazy rest stops. 6. drink a red bull 7. eat some candy (but not too much because of my teeth) 8. open up the windows, put on our shades and stick our arms outside. 9. Be together! I get to see this wonderful man: What a Grandpa he is. He loves Jesus, our family, donuts and fishing with all his heart and I love being with him. He always makes me smile. Even just when I think of him. Yesterday I was in a bad mood when I got home. I don...

Finished product in my favorite glass jar. The recipe. The ingredients. The mixer, doing its thing. this is what it should look like before you add the chocolate chips. it should be really heavy, and not too sticky. make it into a BIG log, or 2 small logs... and sprinkle (or spray) a little h2o on the top, so it is smooth and won't crack during baking. fresh out of the oven, i got that fancy "silpat" from my italian friends for our wedding. i LOVE it for biscotti, and cookies... but esp. biscotti. slice the log and lay the pieces flat. pour yourself a cup o joe in your favorite mug and dip away. Here's the recipe-- just in time for my good friend Katie Ekstrom's Birthday. We used to always have these on hand for morning chats in our apartment senior year. I have to give her credit for finding this recipe. Although, I don't know where it came from :( Brown Sugar Biscotti 6 Tbls Butter 2/3 C brown sugar 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla (or a touch more) 1 1/5 tsp ...

It's a beautiful morning in Chicago. My goal was to sleep in until 8a, but I woke up wide-eyed at 5:41a. I've already had a productive morning. I got and spent time doing my devotions and found out it had been too long since I have spent a significant time with God. I am making it my #1 priority this week. Last night Sten and I went to Willow Creek, and it was amazing. I love that church mostly because the heart of the church beats for the ones who are lost. I want to emulate that in my own life. I want to 'be about that' more than I ever have before. Driving home Sten and I couldn't wait for dinner. Before church I prepared everything to make these tasty morsels (from this amazing blog) so I could pop them in the oven when we got home. OH boy are they good! So fun to eat too. Enjoy! Finished product... gooey, Italiany, and perfect. I added the spinach for a little something extra, and omitted the mushrooms because Sten doesn't like them :) First layer: wonto...

Isn't Sten the most adorable man you've ever seen? I was looking a little like it was the end of the day... frizzy hair! That's about the amount of wine the servers would pour in your glass (slightly disappointing) Wine tasting last night was a total success. It was so fun to do this activity with Sten. We sampled 8 different wines with cheese pairings, and one Italian Liqueur- Dumante Verdenoce at the end that I wanted to buy so badly but it was $48.99. That was my very favorite (expensive taste) but I also LOVED Vignalta Fior d'Arranci o- it was a sparkling white & Truth - a peppery red. I have decided that I am missing out on good wines and pairings by never drinking white. So, today at the grocery, Sten and I went out on a limb and bought some pinot grigio. I'll let you know how we like it. I have been baking, cooking and photography for my next posts ALL day. I am SOOO excited to post my makings. What a lovely little Saturday. xoxo. edc

I have not abandoned blogging, but I have worked 52 hours this week. I am going to attribute this to my lack of posts... In other news, I have been looking forward to tonight since Feb. 24th. For my Birthday, Sten bought us wine tasting at the Gourmet Grape. I am SO excited to do this with him and since it is a beautiful day I think we just may have to find a patio to sit at outside after. More to come. xoxo. happy friday. edc

This picture is from when I climbed my first 14er. We left the trailhead at 3am and when we finally saw the sun it was SUCH a welcome sight! monday: check. I really have nothing to show for today. I left for work in such a hurry I completely forgot to put on ANY makeup and I walked out the door with our car keys, which would have been fine ANY other day except for today because Sten was going to take the car into the shop to get a little checkup. Hot. Mess. But God must love me because after what felt like 40 days and 40 nights of pure gray and rain the sky was so blue and the sun was so bright. I needed that today. It's a busy week, month, year... Why does time have to go by so fast? This past weekend was seminary graduation and I thought to myself that is going to be us in 2 years. 2 short years. I already have a list in my head of the things I am going to miss: living on a college campus, getting free pizza when its finals week and having a student id that gets me 5% off at Andy...