Happy New Year!

Today is the last day of 2012 and I cannot help but to be a little sentimental when it comes to saying goodbye to the best year of my life [so far]. I am usually quite ready to start on the next year and newest journey in my life, but this one is different. Let me explain:

In 2012....

I graduated from Georgia State with my Master's Degree in Health Sciences  

I completed my dietetic internship- 1200 hours of supervised practice

Completed a Master's Thesis- "Point-of-Selection Intervention Using a Digital Menu at a Dining Hall for Southeaster College Freshmen"

Presenting our research:

Moved to the Birmingham, Alabama for my husband's awesome job opportunity!

Our new house in Homewood:

Passed my RD Exam!

Got married to the love of my life, William, and became Mrs. Milne!

With the support of the most wonderful family!

I can't wait for another year of exciting opportunities and adventures. I am so grateful for the amazing friends and family members that continue to support me, and are always there for me through the ups and downs. And for the love of God let's hope that 2013 is a better year for AUBURN FOOTBALL!!! 

When Life Gives You Oranges...

....Make Marmalade

We left Silverhill, William's home, with bags full of oranges, satsumas, and grapefruits.  With that much citrus fruit we had to get creative before they went bad.  And so we made preserves.  This was relatively easy to do, but I will make one suggestion- Make sure you have all necessary equipment.

We bought this mandoline from William-Sonoma with a gift certificate we had from the wedding. I am OBSESSED!  You can slice anything with it!

After slicing the oranges/satsumas, we quartered them.

And then we cooked them adding sugar and lemon zest.  

After cooking them for an hour we put them in jars. Very important to have a jar funnel, jar tongs, and a deep pot.  You boil these jars so that a seal is created and your marmalade stays fresh. We made the mistake of thinking our pots were deep enough and we had to run back to the store to buy a bigger stock pot. 

It such a fun project and we are excited to be able to give some of the marmalade as Christmas gifts.  

We followed Alton Brown's Orange Marmalade recipe.  It was simple, easy, and it turned out DELICIOUS!

Enjoy!

Elizabeth Milne