Did you got lost in a spell of Adele this fall? No? Just me? 
In all seriousness though, I really can't blame my lack of posting on Adele though. I can, however, blame it on a number of other things - including teaching a new class, taking on another club, taking a graduate class at Northeastern, and settling into new school year routines. But so many things have happened over the past six months and I am thrilled to have a little bit of time this break to update the blog and prep some posts for the new year!
We have made a ton of progress on our house - and had actually made some of that progress when I last posted. We have painted most of the house, added bookshelves to the living room, and re-did the entire den. There are still some more projects to undertake in those rooms and so they aren't 100% done, but they are looking significantly better than they did six months ago. 
Overall, we have settled into being homeowners - complete with all of the strangeness that comes with saying those words. Over the next few weeks, I'm hoping to wrap up some end of the year items (book lists, one little word, and new year planning) and get you all caught up with the progress in the new house. In the meantime, I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season and getting excited for all of the new and wonderful things heading your way in 2016!
Happy holidays from our family to yours!

When I first started blogging in the fall of 2011, I had a terrible point and shoot camera, and a kitchen with absolutely no natural light. While I still have a kitchen with absolutely no natural light (Dear Future House, If you could help me out with this issue, that would be awesome!), I do have a much better camera and a continued love for a delicious pulled pork sandwich, so I decided to remake these pulled pork sandwiches from three years ago. This version is still super easy - there's only 3 ingredients! - and is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

To make the dish, you will need pork tenderloin (which tend to come in packages of 2), 16 oz. root beer and barbecue sauce (8-16oz). 


Place the pork tenderloin into your crockpot, and then pour the root beer over it. 

Cook on high for 3 hours (or on low for 6 hours and 15 minutes). When cooked, remove from the crockpot and shred the tenderloin using two forks.



Keeping the crockpot on the warm setting, return the shredded pork to the crockpot as you shred it.

Once you have fully shredded the tenderloin and returned it to the crockpot, add in the barbecue sauce and cook on low for additional 25 minutes.


When it's all done, serve it on warm buns with extra barbecue sauce or mayonnaise, and enjoy with coleslaw (I put some on my sandwich) or a summer salad. If you'd prefer to be a little healthier, you could definitely make these in whole wheat or lettuce wraps! This makes 6-8 sandwiches, depending on how loaded each sandwich is - and leftovers are great to add to salads or to baked potatoes for a quick and easy lunch!

Last weekend, I spent my Saturday at an incredible blogging event - Wayfair's Home for the Holidays! This event, hosted by Boston Bloggers and Wayfair, was a fantastic day of events all geared towards bloggers, managing content, and cultivating friendships - new and old!

beautiful home for the holidays swag

beautiful tree with beautiful gifts from Wayfair

The day kicked off with an opening session about content from Christiane Lemieux and Heather Armstrong and then led into 4 amazing workshops - complete with SEO pointers, table setting with Abby Larson, and a few awesome DIY projects! 

in the seo session - helpful and well done!

do i spy a pendant banner?

and a basket full of awesome crafting tools?

part of the tablescape that I helped to create!

eee! loved playing with the table setting!

We enjoyed a delicious lunch from Kitchen Surfing and ended the day with an awesome cocktail party sponsored by Andegavia wines and left with a parting gift from Wayfair. The offices were incredible, the sessions were inspiring, and as always - spending time with my fellow Boston Bloggers was so much fun! 

so delicious!

signed cookbook from Jeremy Sewall and a delicious glass of andegavia wine

my super fun gift from Wayfair!

The conference was such a blast and so inspiring! I'll be posting more in the next few weeks about table settings and DIY holiday season crafts! You can also look forward to a fun series featuring my new gift from Wayfair!
How are you getting ready for the holidays? Starting to decorate? Planning new traditions? Thanksgiving - and the official start of the season - is less than 2 weeks away!

I began writing a post about my blogging habits a few days ago, and then stopped to think about it for awhile. The next day, I was flipping through bloglovin and saw that Grace Bonney at Design Sponge had written a post on blogger burnout after seeing a NYTimes article about it, and that Alissa at the Adored Life had written an a post on blogging too. It felt good to know that I'm not the only one going through and thinking about these different things, and both women helped me to better formulate my thoughts and decide exactly how to communicate how I'm feeling about blogging, and about life in general. 
Over the past year or so, my level of blogging slowed from nearly every day to barely publishing posts more than a few times (at most) each month. From time to time, I'd blog a bit more than I had been, but it never stuck and soon other busy parts of my life took over and it was back to blog silence. I missed blogging a lot, but despite that, I still couldn't get myself back to the blog on a regular basis and after a lot of thinking and soul searching and all out not blogging, I think I've figured out what was stopping me from blogging. One part has to do with my focus, and the other part has to do with how I'm working and blogging.
First, I think that I began to focus too much on the "Recipe" part of Forever and a Recipe and when I didn't feel as though I had tons of recipes to deliver, I stopped blogging. But I didn't start this blog just so that I could post recipes, I started it so that I could post about projects I was working on and adventures that Josh and I (and then Nashville!) found ourselves on. But, as I've gotten older and I have grown, so too has this blog (happy 3rd blog birthday to me!). I need to allow the blog to evolve and stop stifling my own creativity in an attempt to keep it what it was when it first started. It doesn't need to be what it was when it first started and I am excited to see where this new blog adventure will take me.
Secondly, and this is equally if not more important, I stopped working smart. I am a highly organized person, I wake up every day at 5:15 and sort things in the apartment, I get to school by 7 every morning and prepare to teach my classes in 3 different classrooms. I stay after school every day til 3:30 or so, and then I take Nash to the park for an hour before heading home. I make dinner around 6 and I'm in bed every night by 9 or 10. The problem here is this: what is happening between dinner and bedtime? It has become this huge black whole of wasted time. I'm so tired from the day that it's all I can do to make dinner before becoming a lump on the couch for the rest of the night. Occasionally I get some grading done, or some reading, but more often than not, I'm watching mindless television (read: Seinfeld and Chopped) and being unproductive. And in doing so, I feel like I'm failing.
For the record, I'm not saying that being unproductive is always a bad thing. I need to be able to come home after long days and relax - relaxing is a major positive in enjoying and living life. But, and this is a big but, I shouldn't be so tired each and every day that every single night is an empty void. I need to start working smarter, not harder, each day. I already work hard - I work for each of my students in and out of school, I volunteer for clubs and community service and I work to keep my family going. But this work shouldn't drain or exhaust me every single day, especially because I love what I'm doing. I wake up each morning excited to get out of bed and see what the day holds, but that excitement is long gone by 7 pm and it's all that I can do to watch Jeopardy! before crashing into bed. 
And so, I'm making an effort towards working smarter. It's about using my organizational skills to work better. It's about finding ways to be smarter about each day so that I'm not finding myself going weeks without talking to my best friends and so that I can make time to feel like a human being at night. It's about finding ways to use my time wisely so that I can teach and blog and be the best wife that I can be. It's about finding ways to succeed so that I don't feel like I'm missing out on other opportunities and adventures and so that I don't feel as though I'm failing. 
I'm sure this won't happen overnight - real success never does - but I am hopeful that I can start creating good habits to help me overcome this feeling of failure. I am excited about this next step. I am excited to re-focus and re-organize, to re-prioritize and re-energize, and to re-engage - in blogging and in life. 

Over the past few months, a friend or family member would occasionally comment about my lack of blog posts. And it's true - I completely disappeared from blog life. I haven't posted since April, but it hasn't been because I haven't wanted to. I was just insanely busy and while I love blogging, and I love the creative outlet that it gives me with all of you - I couldn't give up something I was doing outside of blogging to make blogging work. Now though, with six weeks of summer (that could be a song title, I think) ahead of me - I am excited to include blogging in my plans again! 
Life this Spring somehow got even more amazing than it had been - I taught a winter school class, enjoyed being showered with love at my shower and by my bridesmaids and best friends in Vegas, finishing up my first year of teaching (where did the time go???) and finally, getting married to my best friend and going on the most incredible honeymoon to France and Italy. 
Our wedding was incredible - everything I dreamed it would be. The day went by in such a blur (just like everyone said it would), but the feeling of love from family and friends was a constant throughout the day. We took dance lessons and our first dance went off without a hitch and we loved our band and the food - though we didn't eat all that much - was delicious! We had family in from Florida and Canada and Kansas, and friends from as far as California (and Kansas too!). We were truly blessed to dance the night away with our favorite people.

Right after "I Do!"

Our first honeymoon selfie - on top of the Arc d'Triumphe looking out to the Eiffel Tower!

The honeymoon was just as wonderful - we started our trip in Paris (the picture above is from our first day!) and then went on to spend time in Florence, Tuscany and Rome! We ate incredible food, fell in love with far away places and had some amazing adventures. We also took over 1000 pictures - so I'll be doing updates in waves over the next few weeks. If you want to check out our instagram pictures of the wedding and honeymoon, everything we posted is tagged with #joshandsara - so definitely check them out! If you don't have instagram, but want to see the pictures, it's super easy to get it. Just download the app on your phone and create a username. Then search for me @foreverandarecipe to add me (I'm private because of teaching if you don't request to add me) or just search for the label #joshandsara to see Josh's and anyone else's pictures! 
Next week, I'll be back with blogging full time - recipes and wedding recaps, summer adventures and summer reading, honeymoon recaps and apartment updates. For now, I hope that you all have a fantastic Wednesday! I know I'll be enjoying mine being productive at home and starting the name change process while Nashville and I enjoy this rainy day inside! 

Linking up with Belle in Boots!

Wow, October was a whirlwind of a month - both in my personal life and in blogging life! On the blogging life front, I hit my all time highest monthly page views - over 16,000 in October! Considering that I also blogged the least I've blogged in the past two years, this was amazing to me, but not totally surprising because I have a couple of posts (the ranch house pork chops and the bold ranch house pork chops) that have taken off. So, a big thank you to each and every one of you who helped me reach this incredible blogging milestone!
On the personal life front, I officially finished my second month of teaching and it feels like every single day is busier than the last! From lesson planning to grading - I have been incredibly busy! I've also been doing some wedding planning and trying to do more than just go to school, come home and go to sleep - and fitting it all in has been a bit exhausting to say the least. 
As the year progresses, I can definitely feel myself getting stronger as a teacher and my planning and time management is getting stronger - so much so that I'm able to take a little more time for myself and read some of the stacks of books I have that I'm dying to read! 
With this new month getting underway, I wanted to catch you up with my life over the past couple of months and thought that the best way to do so would be with a little photo journal for you right here - enjoy!

picture descriptions, top to bottom, left to right: graduating with my masters from northeastern! / celebrating brad and laura's wedding with josh / train ticket home after a fun weekend in ny & nj (incl buying my wedding dress!!) / senator ted cruz reading green eggs and ham on live tv / delicious dessert creation / spray painting fun! / nash enjoying some fall weather / cleaning out the closet from my childhood bedroom / aunt joan & nash!

photo descriptions, top to bottom, left to right: birthday books from the man that knows me better than anyone / a happy birthday surprise from kate and her period 1 class / my very broken phone pre-birthday dinner / sleepy puppy times 2 / reading (and finishing!) allegiant in just a couple of days - and it was amazing! / nash the giraffe for halloween / josh and nash looking up at the statehouse / making a batch of turkey chili for lunch

photo descriptions, top to bottom, left to right: freestyle paint nite in boston with some good friends - josh painted fenway and i made a circus / shake shack for josh's birthday / pre-wedding selfie from saturday night / the beautiful bride and groom at the end of an incredible night

These past couple of months have been insanely busy, but also insanely exciting and fun. From buying my wedding dress and getting deeper into wedding planning to celebrating Jordan and Nick's wedding just this past weekend, celebrating my birthday and celebrating Josh's birthday, and trying to soak up every moment of this gorgeous New England fall - I am so blessed to be living this amazing life! 
Hope you're all having an amazing start to this month - I'll be back on Wednesday with a review of October's READ THIS! selection and to announce November's pick! Have a wonderful Monday!

Happy Wednesday - and happy 500th blog post to me!!! I am about to celebrate my second blogiversary and I am so excited to have hit my 500th blog post - and I'm posting on schedule this week so that makes it a little extra sweet!
Today, I'm really excited to share with you my new favorite recipe - tortilla chicken with peach salsa. To be honest, lately I've been in a little bit of a dinner rut. So tired from school each night, we've been ordering in more than usual, or I've been merely dumping marinade over meat and serving it with rice. When I was driving home the other night, I was trying to think of a way to liven up grilled chicken with peach salsa, and I came up with tortilla chicken.

All you need to make this is peach salsa (we use Trader Joe's peach mango salsa - it is incredibly delicious) and tortilla chips. And the chicken. Seriously, that's it - 3 ingredients.

4-5 heaping tablespoons of peach salsa, or 1/4 to 1/2 cup, plus more for garnish 2 cups of tortilla chips 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Then, place the peach salsa in a bowl. Coat each piece of chicken so that it is covered in the liquid salsa. Set aside.


In a food processor, pulse 2 cups of tortilla chips until they turn into finely pulsed crumbs.


Place the crushed tortilla chips on a flat surface and roll each chicken breast in the crushed chip crumbs. The salsa on the chicken will allow the tortilla crumbs to stick to the chicken breast.

Place in a shallow baking dish and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. 

Once done, remove from the oven and garnish with a few heaping tablespoons of peach salsa.



I didn't serve this with a side, since the peach salsa is quite filling and it was definitely a satisfying amount of food. I love Trader Joe's and I'm so glad I've been able to find a new way to use my favorite salsa!

Happy Monday! On Friday, I wished you all a happy relaxing weekend - and my weekend was not very relaxing! I did spend some time getting lost in a good book, bought a few new tops and new shoes, and watched a Say Yes to the Dress marathon, but most of my weekend was spent hard at work. 

this is as organized as a desk gets after a very long weekend of work

I finished lesson planning for both of my first units - in Freshman World History (The Roman World) and Sophomore Modern World History (The Age of Absolutism) and prepped all of my handouts, outlines, and project information for the next month. I am officially organized and ahead of the game and ready for a slightly more normal teacher existence.

To help me with this new busy lifestyle, I'm going to be changing the schedule of the blog. Instead of planning on posting every day Monday through Friday, I will be posting Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

I hope you'll stick and around and check for new posts on Monday, Wednesday & Friday, with occasional posts on Tuesdays and Thursday!

Are you good at dealing with stress? I have to be honest with you - sometimes I am, but sometimes I'm really not. I tend to get stressed and pretend I'm not at all. If it's short term stress, this usually works okay, but when it's one little bit of stress on top of another, sometimes I get cranky and sometimes I take that stress out on other people and things. Like Josh, or the dog, or our laundry. Normal? Probably not (or maybe so?), but either way, I think I need some more ways to combat stress in my life. Especially now as I embark on the busiest last few days of my life - and of the end of my Master's program.

I can be quite good at procrastination and this past quarter in school has been an excellent example. I was so busy with work and taking three classes and starting to plan a wedding and you know, trying to find some time to actually live life, that the best course of action at the time was to just take each day at a time. This worked really well until about 5 days ago when I realized that I have to get all but one (the learning narrative) of the things you see on that list above done by Wednesday at 11:59 PM. 
I know I can do it - and I will do it - but by the time Thursday morning rolls around, I'm bound to be pretty ready to crash and more stressed than usual. And so, for the next few days, the blog is going silent. On purpose. Typically when I don't post, the worry from that adds to my overall stress and just makes it worse. So this time, the break is intentional - but don't worry it isn't for too long! I will be back to blogging on Monday, July 1, and I can't wait to share with you some home updates (balcony reveal, anyone?), some new recipes, and some wedding planning updates! 
I hope you all have a wonderful end to the month of June, that you're surviving the heat if you're in New England, and that you'll take a moment to relax and de-stress if you can! And of course, if you have any tips for beating stress - or ways to soak up a little relaxation - I'd love to hear about them! See you next week!

Good Morning! Do you see this beautiful desk? Do you see how everything is neat and organized and has a space? And how everything is in its space?  
Well, I too have a beautiful desk, and I took have a space for everything, but unfortunately right now, at this moment, none of it is really where it's supposed to be. Between chairs that need to be re-upholstered and painted, items that need to be put on Craigslist, pictures that need to be taken, books that need to be read and papers that need to be written, and all of the other non-house work that needs to be done - I have found myself in an impossibly busy situation.   I am not going to lie to you or make it seem easy and breezy - my life right now is stressful. It's busy, which is a truly great thing and I am so happy that I am able to have all of these amazing things in my life right now. But I am also getting a new lesson in time management and learning to take one day at a time, plan thoroughly, and sort of just hope for the best sometimes.   My question for you, on this gorgeous Fall Monday morning is this: How do you cope with stress? Do you eat a little chocolate? Hit the gym extra hard? Veg out with a good book or a good movie one night a week? I'd love to know your secrets for destressing - sometimes other people have the best strategies! I also hope that you'll forgive me if posts are a little late going up this week, or if the lighting in pictures isn't the best - as I get used to this busier schedule over the next few weeks - I promise that things will get back to normal!   I hope that you have a great Monday and a great start to your week!