Singing With My Wife

For those of you who don't know, Beth and I led worship for "big church" this past Sunday with the Stillpoint band. Paul was teaching so I subbed for him on the music front. I just wanted to reflect via blog on how much fun I had. I love playing for the youth, don't take this out of context...but this past Sunday was one of the most fun times I've ever had playing with a band. This is almost COMPLETELY due to the fact that Beth sang with me. She has such an amazing voice and she sang so well Sunday. I pretty much love my life!

Ok, that's it. How do you guys think we did?

Seriously, though

Has it really been since February 20th since I last posted? Wow, I really neglected this thing. Maybe it's cause I should be working, not posting blogs. What's even sadder is that I have kept up with this better than I've kept up with posting new pictures to the site. Someone with web know-how and time needs to take over that task. Please let me know if you are interested.

I don't have anything good to say. Nothing even remotely interesting. Hmm...I guess that's why I never post.

Our Valentine's

Beth and I have not once been able to spend a Valentine's Day together. While we were dating she was always in College Station and even when she wasn't, something always came up. This year was no different. Ironically enough, she was in College Station doing a career fair for her company. It was sad, that our first year of marriage, we didn't get to spend V-Day together. But I knew she would be back on Saturday and I wanted to do something extra special. After reading Box's post on cooking, you might just think this is a repeat of that, but not so much. You also might not be able to grasp just how special it is for someone like Box or myself to cook. What you don't realize is that neither of us had ever cooked a meal in our lives (except maybe Mac & Cheese). Beth, in particular, is very much into cooking. She is a fantastic cook and very knowledgeable. She frequents shows like Top Chef, Iron Chef America, and more. If I was going to impress her, I had to go all out. That I did. I also wanted to cook it in her presence so she knew it was all me. In order to pull that off, I had to do a practice run. Last Thursday I went to my friend Jesse's house for this "trail run". He and his wife just moved here from Dallas for him to attend culinary school! He's pretty much the bomb when it comes to cooking. So he showed me the ropes and it ended up being the best quality lunch break I've ever taken!

So now onto the menu!

Appetizer:

• Goat Cheese Toast Point - This consisted of a really good rye bread toasted in the oven topped with an orange marmalade sauce, goat cheese, and an herb salad (fennel, dill, basil, parsley, & arugula). This was absolutely amazing...tastes SO good.

Main Course:

• Cocoa Crusted Filet - Filet Mignon with a dry rub mixed from Ghirardelli dark chocolate powder, ancho chili powder, and salt & pepper. I pan-seared the filet to a medium rare.
• Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes - Self explanatory, just a fancier and more delicious way of making mashed potatoes
  
• Asparagus - Cooked with cocoa nibs, almonds, diced garlic & shallots, and chicken stock. A way to make anyone enjoy their vegetables!
• A dried cherry reduction was a sauce served throughout the whole main course, it went pretty good with everything.
  

Dessert:

• Chocolate Mousse - Chocolate mousse with homemade whipped cream and sliced strawberries!

Wow, I'm really hungry now that I'm talking about all this. Anyway, she was blown away and it was awesome. Hopefully I can top this next year. I'm sure if we get to spend the actual V-Day together, it will probably increase my chances of being able to top it.

Youth Band

Box and I have this crazy idea to start a youth band. What do you guys think? Who has hidden talents that I'm not yet aware of.

So far I know that Jake plays bass/piano, Devin plays drums, Ben plays drums, and that's all I know. Give me your contact info.

We wouldn't be playing every week...it would just be too difficult, but I definitely would want to do once a month or something. A big question for everyone is, what style is acceptable? I really like to rock and with the band I'm not sure I would ever use my acoustic guitar, only electric. But would you guys enjoy it? Could you worship to it?

Give all thoughts and feedback you can think of.