jana's blog

crispy-skinned chicken a l’orange and cauliflower fritters

janajaehnig — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:42:00 +0000

last night i tried two new recipes. the crispy-skinned chicen a l’orange is from the new show $10 Dinners on food network and the cauliflower fritters are from one of my favorite health recipe websites Gina’s Skinny Weight Watcher Recipes.

i started cooking the fritters on a normal non-stick skillet because i was worried they’d fall apart, but i ended up switching to the cast iron skillet, worked much better.

and here is the final plate for dinner. the chicken was amazing, nice and tender. the cauliflower fritters were so tasty, almost like potato pancakes! i had corn on the cob in the fridge that needed to be eaten, so i cooked up some of that as well. the plate doesn’t look too appetizing (i need some green on there), but the food was delicious! and enough for leftovers for lunch today. :)

these pics were taken on my iphone, i thought they’d be okay, but i’m not too happy with them. someday i’ll have that big slr camera i’ve been dreaming about.

backyard updates

janajaehnig — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:19:00 +0000

when i bought my house, the front yard had ugly overgrown plants and the backyard was a jungle of weeds. it was quite obvious that no one had taken care of the landscaping for the year that the house was empty…or really ever. every weekend my wonderful father has been coming out to my house and helping me clear out weeds and prep the dirt for new plants, grass and landscaping (did i mention we live in arizona and its over 100 degrees every day right now?). this week we’re having a landscaper install sprinklers for the grass, and a few drip systems (including one to my future garden!). before all that work gets under way, i thought it’d be good to post some before and in-the-process pics.

this is what my yard looked like when i first moved in.

and this is how it looks now! thanks to mike and my dad, most of the weeds are gone, the land is level and we got curbing and trees put in.

here’s the view from the other side. on that side of the yard is a tipu tree, its supposed to grow quickly and get quite large.

on the left is an orchid tree and on the right is a ficus tree.

my new goal

janajaehnig — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:46:00 +0000

last week i was kindly reminded by my friend angela that i haven’t posted anything since april. its time to change that! a lot has happened since march. the biggest thing being that i bought a new house and moved to gilbert. one of my favorite reality tv personalities, eddie ross (also a former senior style editor for martha stewart), commented on my blog. eek! i also saw the movie julie & julia with my mom this weekend, so i’ve found a new motivation to keep up with this blog thing. if julie powell can get discovered as a writer through her blog by cooking, why can’t i do the same with design? i’m brainstorming a few things to blog about, and since i like lists, here is a list of them:

-design work that i’ve done (obviously), but specifically invitations that i have designed recently
-inspirational finds
-cool things people i know are doing
-meals i cook (i’ve gotten really into cooking, my bf always takes pics of the good meals i make, so i could post those. maybe one day i’ll have a nice slr camera so i can post the fancy shots)
-updates to the house (i better hurry before things get done!)
-places i’ve been

now i need a better name for my blog. this is one area i am horrible at – just ask my editor at work. she knows not to ask me for headline ideas anymore. :) any thoughts on what i should call this wonderful blog? and should i keep the same address? maybe it should be my name? my last name is really hard to spell though…silly german name…

my goal to start with will be three posts a week. someday i’d like to post once a day…

preview: laura & andrew

janajaehnig — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:18:00 +0000

i’ve been spending a lot of time lately on wedding invitations for my cousin laura’s wedding in june. i just finished a sample to send her. laura has a very classic style and the invites definitely imitate that – they are beautiful! above is a sneak peek at the design of the invitations. i’ll post pictures once she has sent the invites out. :)

march baby shower

janajaehnig — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:05:00 +0000

tana, lily and i after the shower

the beautiful cupcakes my mom made

setting up…notice the hanging lanters…i love martha stewart!

such a pretty backyard!

its been a few months since any recent posts. i’ve been kept quite busy with work, a trip in february, wedding invitations for people, looking for and putting an offer on a house and planning and hosting a baby shower in march. above are pics from the baby shower tana, mike’s mom and i hosted for mike’s sister-in-law lily. she’s due april 26th, but the shower was march 7. i designed the invitations and got all the rental equipment from my dad’s company tri-rentals. my mom and i made the cupcakes, although she did the pretty flowers frosted on the top. :) it was a beautiful day for an outdoor event and everyone had a great time! pics of the invitations to come soon!

it takes me back

janajaehnig — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:15:00 +0000

last weekend mike and i went to see slumdog millionaire. it has definitely become one of my favorite movies, i want to go back and see it again! this movie had great music, a great story to tell and amazing shots of one of the most interesting countries in the world. in ’05/’06 i was fortunate enough to go on a month-long study abroad trip to india and spend time in mumbai (where the film took place), aurangabad, pune and ahmedabad. it was one of the most amazing experiences i’ve ever had in my life and this movie brought me back to that. i saw all the slums shown in the movie right outside of the airport, i’ve experienced those crazy busy streets in mumbai, and i’ve given food to a slum child who was begging only to have her come back and ask for money (she was ‘owned’ by a group of adults, just like in the movie). that was one of the most heart-breaking things i’ve ever experienced. i’ll never forget those children in india, i often pray for them. after the movie i immediately went home and browsed through all my pictures. here are a few of my favorites:

this was outside one of the temples we visited. the local school children loved saying hi to the americans and the blonde girl! :)

these are a few of the many slums in mumbai. just so everyone knows, not everyone lives like this. thousands come to mumbai in hopes of making it ‘big’ and end up barely surviving (sort of a hollywood/california thing).

this is Victoria Terminal in mumbai, they showed this in the movie!

this is me at the sun temple at modhera

this is at the gandhi ashram in ahmedabad. school kids loved us, we were swarmed by them everywhere we went. i only had to be rescued by mookesh (our teacher) once when i was swarmed by about 30 nine year old boys at a temple.

i got to ride on an elephant! my teacher stopped the bus in the middle of nowhere and paid that guy to give us a ride…we were a little woried it wasn’t safe, but elephants don’t move fast and mookesh kept and eye on us. :)

our bus broke down in the rural areas outside of aurangabad. this is a local family that passed by us on the road.

me at lonar crater.

this was my absolute favorite day out of the entire trip. we were at the annual kite festival in ahmedabad at a friend of mookesh’s. we flew kites all day and ate amazing food. the family’s hosue we were at was so kind to us. they gave the girls henna tattoos and threaded our eyebrows. they also showed us tons of pictures of indian weddings and explained the traditions to us. at the end of the night the family sang a tradition song for us and showed us a traditional indian dance…then they asked us to show them some traditional american dances and songs! fortunately we had an ipod on us! we did the macarena and sang garth brooks’ friends in low places. :)

cardinals week

janajaehnig — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:01:00 +0000

here in arizona, we couldn’t be more proud of our arizona cardinals making it to the super bowl this sunday! to celebrate, sprinkles is giving away one free red velvet cupcake to anyone who wears their cardinals gear from january 26 – february 1. GO CARDINALS!

chipotle is also celebrating the cards making it to the super bowl by giving away a free burrito this saturday from 2pm – 4pm to anyone wearing red. (arizona locations only)

be mine

janajaehnig — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:42:00 +0000

i can’t believe how quickly we’re approaching february! seems like last week it was christmas. above are a few fun valentine’s day decorating ideas. maybe i’ll try one? my office could use a little love and cheer.
pics via martha stewart

new logo: azbouncepro

janajaehnig — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:47:00 +0000

i recently designed a logo for a phoenix-based bounce house company called azbouncepro. check out their website! they have a wide variety of bounce houses, slides and concessions for kids’ parties. they also have a giant 16′ movie screen for an outdoor movie night on a beautiful arizona evening. :)

2008: the year in pictures

janajaehnig — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:05:00 +0000

{clockwise from top left} new year’s 2008 :: barrett jackson car show :: my good friend leslie turned 21 :: fiesta bowl game…we were in row b! thats one row in front of row one!

{clockwise from top left} with my new toyota prius :: our first valentine’s day together, we went to dinner at zinc bistro and he delivered tulips to me at work :: disneyland with the family for my dad’s 50th birthday :: in tucson when asu basketball beat u of a, go devils!

{clockwise from top left} a c-1 (asu dorms) reunion…kelly came into town for michelle’s wedding :: my 22nd birthday with the girls :: my parents built a brand new house and moved in june…we sold the house that i had lived in for most of my life :: 4th of july in san diego on ocean beach

{clockwise from top left} seattle with my parents in late summer :: the wedding invitations i designed for my brother’s wedding :: my new family :: me and my new sister

{clockwise from top left} all the girls were reunited when ally came up to visit over thanksgiving break :: in new york in front of nbc studios :: at the luminarias christmas event at the desert botanical gardens with chihuly’s glass work :: on ellis island in new york in november

i’m sure 2009 will be filled with as much love, joy and happiness as 2008. happy new years to all!