Thanks November!

November? Really?

Where'd you come from? How did you get here? 

Well you sure did sneak up on me...

It's hard to believe that two months and 13 days have past since I said "I do," beginning this great new chapter of my life... seems like it was just yesterday. And yet, we've been a very busy Mr. and Mrs. McEliece.

Setting up our new home (and by "home" I mean a sweet little one bedroom apartment in the U-District) has been such a joy. Creating and constructing a beautiful, inviting space that reflects not only our individual personalities, but also our mutual loves has been a wonderful challenge. And inviting it must be, because oh how we do love to entertain!

And this month we're provided with ample opportunities... 

Thanks November!

Not only do we get to celebrate the blessed and bountiful Thanksgiving holiday (promptly followed by the beginning of dun, dun, DUN... NUTCRACKER!!!!), but November is also a month of many many birthdays - my own included.

But there's one very special lady that passed a "milestone," if you will, this past weekend. So Ryan and I took full advantage of our new digs, and our love of food and entertaining to throw a wonderful celebration just for her. Miss Elizabeth "Lizzy" Murphy. You'll just have to look closely at the photos to see which "milestone" it was...

We invited her and one of our mutual friends over and threw a soiree of sorts. Setting the table with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and some of my antique silverware, we definitely classed this evening up.

The menu? I wish I could say it was a Beef Wellington or braised quail on a bed of mashed heirloom potatoes but, well, it wasn't. 

Okay, okay! It was just a roasted chicken with root veggies. I confess! Sounds kinda sad. So under-acheiving for me, I know. But in my yellow Le Crueset it looked pretty darn fancy... er, well, at least I thought so. What do you think?

The best part about this recipe (I take no credit for it... that all belongs to the incredible Alison Wilson) is that it's deceptively and deliciously simple.

Buy a whole chicken. 

Buy a lemon, celery stick and some root veggies... you know... carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes... you get my drift.

 Chop them up.

 Coat the chicken with lots of dried herbs. 

Throw it all together in a dutch oven. 

Put it in the oven. 

Two hours later and voilá! The most delicious roast chicken you'll ever taste! 

You don't even need a side dish! Although we did have a delectable cheese plate for appetizers and a yummy green salad with candied pecans. Gotta get those leafy greens!

It was a lovely night celebrating the sweetest, most wonderful co-worker and friend anyone could ever ask for. What a gift and a blessing she is to me and to so many! So Happy Birthday Lizzy!!! May our Lord richly bless you this year. Blow them candles out girl!!! Just not into your ice cream sundae.

And if you'd like to make Ally's world famous roast chicken recipe here it is. I mean seriously people you can't go wrong...

Ally's Roast Chicken

1 whole chicken

1 whole lemon, sliced in half

1 stalk celery, leaves attached

dried parsley

dried thyme

dried oregano

garlic salt (or garlic powder and kosher salt)

ground pepper

1 yellow onion, quartered

carrots, peeled and cut into chunks*

yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes washed and cubed*

garlic cloves*

*amount and selection varies depending on your personal taste and preference as well as the size of your dutch oven. I say the more the merrier.

1. Preheat your oven to 375˚F.

2. Wash, peel, and cut all veggies making sure that potatoes and carrots are all about the same size (they can be big and chunky if that's what you prefer) so they cook evenly. Set them aside.

3. Rinse chicken and remove and discard giblets from inside the cavity (if you'd like to save them for stock that's fine, just make sure to cook them along with the chicken). 

4. Taking half the lemon squeeze the juice coating entire chicken. Stuff the rind inside the cavity of the chicken along with the celery stalk and leaves. You can cut the rind in to quarters if that helps.

5. Sprinkle and rub in equal parts of dried parsley, thyme, oregano, garlic salt and pepper on all sides of the chicken. Be generous. This is what makes it yummy.

6. Place the chicken breast side up in the dutch oven and surround it with all your cut veggies. Go ahead. Pack 'em in! Cut the remaining half lemon into four wedges and squeeze juices all over veggies and chicken. Toss rinds in the pot and cover with the lid.

7. Place the covered dutch oven in the oven and roast for 2 hours. Check the chicken and if need be, remove the lid and switch the oven to "broil" to brown the skin for a few minutes. (I've never had to do this as mine has always turned out perfectly browned come the end of 2 hours, but you might want to depending on your oven and your taste.)

8. Enjoy!!!!

** A "P.S." to this post...
If you love good food but you're cooking on a budget (like we are) this meal is super economical. We just eye out for when whole chickens are on sale - 99¢ sometimes even 88¢ a pound! - and we buy a couple and keep them stocked in the freezer.
And not only does this recipe yield an incredible chicken dinner, but it's the foundation for so much more. After we're done we leave the leftovers in the pot, cover it with water and simmer it for a few hours, making our own homemade chicken stock for soups and other recipes. We'll just fill an empty (and cleaned) yogurt container and freeze or refrigerate it.
Last night we used the leftover chicken and some of the broth to make the most delicious chicken & veggie soup with carrots, sweet potatoes and kale. It was so delicious and we even have leftovers of that! Like I said, it's the recipe that just keeps on giving. How appropriate for this month. 

Discovering Discovery

Well of course I should've posted these long ago. Funny... Looking back at these photos, it's hard to believe that it was only a few months ago that my very wonderful and talented sister-in-law, Kelsey Cappelletti, took these photos. Feels much longer than that! But I love them so very much and just had to share them with you all. 

There were so many to choose from, and it was quite a challenge to narrow my selection down, but here are a few of my favorites...

And I figured I'd better post my engagement photos before you get to see the wedding ones... Haha! 

This was such a fun day. Kels was incredible. Pregnant with her beautiful baby boy Ethan she spent so much time with us at the exquisitely beautiful Discovery Park - oddly enough one of Seattle's parks I'd never been to before. It was mid-April and still a bit chilly but God provided us with absolutely exquisite weather. 

When talking about our session, and asking about "outfit changes," Kelsey suggested maybe we bring some props. Ryan looked at me with big bright eyes, and his mischievous little-boy grin crept over his face...

"You could bring your pointe shoes!"

Staring back at him with a slightly disdainful, mostly humorous look that said "Are you serious?" I just shook my head. Yeah no.

Instead I decided to focus on something that's brought Ryan and I closer together... our mutual love of great food (of course beautiful presentation is 49% of it... hehe... yes, this is my mother coming out in me). 

Picnic time!!! 

And well, we couldn't have picked a more picturesque setting. Actually we didn't. Kelsey did. Good job sis! We love you so very much.

You can check out more of Kelsey's photos at her website. Just click here. She really is a tremendously gifted photographer. If you doubt my words of praise you can see for yourself... just scroll. Yeah, I might be a little bias, but I'm right. You'll see.

GULP.

Um... er...

(insert awkward silence)

Well this is just embarrassing... 
I mean seriously people.

And by "people" I refer to the 44 unique visitors that have spent an average of 34 seconds reading my blog in the last month. Thank you Google Analytics...
Yet those stats greatly exceed my own expectations. Greatly.

Where do I even start? How do I begin? Like most things (think getting in the car to drive to the gym) the hardest part was just logging in to Blogger. Seeing the date above the last post I wrote, November 8th, 2012, was not only horrifying but humiliating... An extra large slice of humble-pie shoved down my throat.
GULP.
Maybe I should've waited another 13 days to make it a full year hiatus. Nah... Better to just rip the bandaid off, right?

Nearly a year. Well boy has a lot of life happened in that time span!
If it's even possible, the thought of catching you all up on the events that have transpired over the past 352 days seems even more daunting than the task of logging in and writing this post. That could definitely explain the procrastination... not that I'm making excuses or anything... ahem, cough.
Attempting to amp myself up for what I knew would be a pretty painful task, I'd decided to title this post "A New Season," since it's fitting in more than one way. But seeing that the penultimate post I wrote was literally those three words strung together, yeah... that kind of killed that idea/inspiration.



So I'm going to do something that for those of you who know me personally, or have ever received an email from me, or been on a committee with me will not come as a surprise... and will hopefully conjure a couple laughs.




Two words: Bullet Points.

• I turned 28 years old. Officially in my late twenties people. 
• My boyfriend Ryan, myself, and team Photos 4 Homes pulled off an incredibly classy silent auction at the Braevern in November. We auctioned Ryan's fine art photography raising over $3,000 toward building a home in Tijuana, Mexico through YWAM's Homes of Hope program. I baked over 300 bite-sized desserts. It was intense. I have a new-found respect for anyone in that profession. 
  
  
  
  
  
• NUTCRACKER! Need I say more?
• Best Christmas gift? Getting to talk to Ryan on the phone all the way from an oil rig off the coast of Mozambique. Poor guy. Not the way you want or expect to celebrate the birth of Jesus. 
• New Years Eve. While my parents and their friends were out partying, Ryan, myself and his friends Brad & Silvia who were visiting from Brooklyn enjoyed a quiet evening of some seriously good food. Did we make it to midnight? Not a chance. Sad but true.
• Quick trip to Billings, MT with my Momma to visit my Grandma Lolo & Auntie Helen. Man I love the Big Sky!
• My & Ryan's one year anniversary. An underwhelming evening. It's actually a funny story but these bullet points are getting long... 
• Off to NYC!!!! PNB tour to the Joyce Theater to perform Balanchine's Concerto Barocco, Agon and Maillot's Romeo et Juliette. Little did I know how profound a trip this would be... or did I? hehe...
• February 12, 2013. After a beautiful day meandering in Brooklyn, Ryan Michael McEliece asked me, Jessika Christine Anspach, to be his wife under the Brooklyn Bridge!!!!! The second most wonderful day of my life. A magical trip with Ryan, my parents and his wonderful friends Brad & Silvia. Oh and did I mention I bought the wedding dress of my dreams 3 days after he put a ring on it? Yeah...
  
  
  
  
  
• Victoria, B.C. The most comfortable bed I ever slept in, the most stressful performance I ever danced in, and the best fish-eying I ever did. Well, I'm not so sure about the later, but I was successful. And I do call it success when the first run you ever have of the first Agon pas de trois is the performance, and you survive. And I did. Whoa.
• Concerto Barocco, Concerto Barocco, Concerto Barocco!!!! We performed that ballet more times this season than any other ballet. Ever. Okay maybe not Nutcracker... And yet secretly, very secretly I do miss it. Shhhhh!!!! It's our little secret.
• "Frenchy YOU'VE GOT THIS!!!!" was originally said to Liora Neuville, but this became the universal pep-talk that got us all through Swan Lake. It's so very hard. And yet it still feels like a dream every time I get to dance it. I was made to be a swan. Crazy, yes. But did you expect anything less from me?
• The spring brought engagement photos with my oh-so-talented & soon-to-be sis-in-law at Discovery Park. I still can't get enough of them. 

• We built a house! Literally. Eleven of us went down to Tijuana, Mexico to build a house for the sweetest little family - the fruits of our Photos 4 Homes fundraising. And we're going back this spring to build two more! Don't worry... You'll hear more about this in the near future.

• Wisdom tooth extraction. There's a reason this is done when you're in High School. With both my parents gone, I had only Ryan to take care of me. He tooks his duties as fiancé and caretaker very seriously. Especially when I got the flu on top of it all. Not fun.
• PNB's 40th Season ends with a bang! Agon pas de trois (yet another dream come true), Diamonds corps and demis and no concussions! Check. But it wouldn't be complete without just one last movement of Barocco. Praise God I survived the hardest season I've ever danced to date.  It wasn't what I expected it to be. I didn't anticipate having to push through so much physical pain, flirting with the boundary between Ouch and Out. But God truly carried me through it. By His grace alone. He gave me so many opportunities and despite the challenging circumstances I felt He grew me in so many ways this past season.
• Summer 2013 = a baby shower, a bridal shower (hosted by the lovely Deborah Ritner & Nicole Bolling - it was over the top!) & a new little nephew. I am now an aunty Jessika to both little Josie and baby boy Ethan born to my beautiful friend and now sis-in-law Kelsey & her husband Gabe. So very blessed. He is just too sweet!
  
  
  
• PNB goes to Vail, CO to perform at the Vail International Dance Festival. When I said that the tour to Victoria was the most stressful performance experience I've ever had, well... yeah... Looking back that was just God rehearsing me for Vail. "Pinch-hitting" for Russian girls at 9,000ft with 2.5 days notice was... well it was. I think I'm still a little shell-shocked from it all to be honest.There's much much more to that story. But, well... I'm running out of space and would rather just not.
• August was a month of all things wedding-related. Bachelorette weekend with my best ladies relaxing at the cabin, stitching and packaging the last of the 250 moleskin notebooks I sewed for favors. The beautiful nuptials of Leah O'Connor to Mike Merchant and Emma Love to Price Suddarth. And my absolutely exquisite pre-wedding shower hosted by the incredible Jamie Casady at Deru Market. It was girly, dreamy and a wonderful way to celebrate my 28 years of singlehood, sending me along the path that very quickly would lead to the land of wedded bliss.

• September 1st, 2013. I, Jessika Christine Anspach, walked down a beautiful hop-lined aisle toward a driftwood arbor, an oyster shell covered cross, and my best friend and love of my life, Ryan Michael McEliece. And I became his wife. It was a whole weekend full of celebration and it truly was the wedding of my dreams. A perfect day in every single way. A day I wish I could re-live every day. The best day of my life. Hands down. No question. And as my Dad so often says, God was in every single detail. His Presence was so very tangible and we felt His hand of blessing and the warmth of His smile as the sunlight turned in to the candlelight glow from the oyster-shell chandeliers my Momma & Grandpa built that graced the interior of our big white tent. Don't worry. An entire if not multiple blog posts will be devoted to this momentous event once the incredible photos come in.

  

  © Kristen Marie Photography

  

  © Kristen Marie Photography

  

  © Kristen Marie Photography

• Influenza strikes!!!! After a blissful and restful 3 day "honeyweekend" at a cabin a few miles down the road, I returned to work for 2 days and then we went back to my family's cabin to pick up wedding remnants and reminisce on the "Big Day." But come Monday I came down with a fever that despite all my efforts of self-will would not desist. For 10 days. After all was said and done I missed 2 weeks of work and consequently the first Rep of my 10th season with PNB. Not the way I wanted to start the Season let alone married life. God used that time to teach me quite a bit that's for sure. But the silver lining of it all was that I was able to attend PNB's Gala dinner and dance for the very first time with a date! And he just happened to be my husband! What a good and gracious God we have! He truly works all things out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

Well that pretty much brings us here. October. September was a rough month and October has continued in a somewhat similar fashion. I've been really struggling with my health. But praise God He is revealing some of the root problems... gluten being one of them. As with many of the other bullet points above you will be hearing much much more about this in the near future. That is if you're still reading.

So hello again. 

Goodbye for now.

That was definitely a gulp-full. 

just Jessika

Make Music. And Dance.

Yep.
Surreal.

That's pretty much the only word that comes to mind, that describes what last weekend.

No. I take that back.
I can think of another one...
Gift.

This has been a long time coming. Concretely, it's been almost exactly a year since Andrew told me. In fact I believe it was Barret's birthday/return home announcement to my parents... as if having their son move home from NYC after 6 years wasn't good enough news. But looking back on what really and truly culminated in this past weekend and the one to come... well I think it began long before that.

I had on my purple long sleeved floral dress. After all, it did have the best twirl-factor. Bear, a mess of wild curls that poked out his bike helmet, wielded his battery operated light-up sword, fit in his suit of armor: a matching Mikey Mouse sweatshirt & sweatpants. And together we danced in circles around the living room furniture to Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, or Manheim Steamroller, or Mozart - whatever dad had playing on our stereo system. Actually I should revise that statement... I danced. Bear would try to follow me (a near impossible task), would then charge about doing his own thing with the helmet and sword that made "Jjshhzzz" noises every time you swung it, only to give up, making his way to the piano bench. That's where he'd always end up. In front of the black and white keys.
We'd always had that piano in the living room. Purchased because my dad needed something to fill the space in his Spokane home, it came with us when we moved to Bellevue. I wonder if Dad had any idea the life-altering consequence this "space-filler" would have that fateful day he bought it? Probably not. I'm not sure if we (my brother and I) were even a thought then. But God has His ways...

I remember sitting there on that bench with him looking out at the beautiful Katsura trees that draped oh so gracefully alongside that corner of the house. I remember hearing him play. Sometimes we'd come up with tunes together. Sometimes he'd just fiddle away. Most of the songs sounded very "asian." I'm not sure if this is because of the decor in our living room or the fact that we both really like the skinny black keys. At any rate I think the first song Barret ever wrote was a simple picture drawn of the keys he played and its title had something to do with Chinese mountain ranges... He could probably tell you... But even then I was always in awe (and if I'm honest slightly jealous) of his creative ability.
I still am.

The thought of composing music baffles me utterly. To hear a symphony in your head, with all the different instruments and sounds melding together in perfect harmony - each with their own notes, own cadence, own melodies but coming together to form something so rich and multifaceted, yet unified. Nope. I could never ever do that. I can hardly wrap my mind around it. And yet that's what my not-so-little brother does.
I write with words. I speak in dance steps. But he speaks with music. His letters are musical notes and his sentences are melodies and phrases. He punctuates with rhythm and percussion, not semi-colons and ellipses. And just like himself, his music, his composition isn't simple "Mary had a little lamb" nursery rhyme stuff. It's complex. It's deep, soothing, repetitive, and arresting. It's sometimes a bit harmoniously dissonant. A bit oxymoronic I know, but aren't we all?


Well fast forward 20+ years. A ballerina and a composer. Well who'd a thunk it?! God did. He knew. He created both Barret and I. He knit us in our Momma's womb. He gave Barret this incredible gift - to hear music in his head and write it down. He gave me the gift of being able to dance to it. And He gave us parents who encouraged us, supported us and spurred us on to develop and grow these gifts, and for what end? To glorify Him. To be living proof that with Him, nothing is impossible. To do that which He created and purposed us for, being good stewards of the gifts He's given us.
To make music and dance.

So I know that it is not only a fulfillment of my parents dreams, of my dreams but also of God's plan that a year ago Andrew Bartee commissioned my brother to write a score for his ballet. A brilliant ballet (if you can call it that... Andrew calls it a dance party) that would premiere on the McCaw Hall stage during PNB's 40th Anniversary season. A ballet about breaking through barriers. About changing perceptions, expectations and situations. About "arms that work." And I get to dance it. Dance to my brother's music.

It happened last weekend. And it was surreal to say the least. Running to bring my brother on stage... Two Anspachs taking a bow. I tried so hard to relish that moment and yet how quickly it flitted away. Nevertheless it was a gift from my Abba Father. A gift I still get to receive. Not just once, but twice.

So if you don't have plans this weekend come see the Gift played out on stage. Better yet, receive the gifts that God's given both my brother and I to minister to your eyes and ears and most importantly to give Him glory! Thursday through Sunday (but I'll be dancing Thursday night and Sunday afternoon). You can buy your tickets here.

And for your viewing pleasure here's Bear and I doing a duet of our own. Sitting a the piano bench together. Just like the old days. Except now we're old. Well relatively speaking... Enjoy!


Five Easy Pieces - I. Andante from Barret Anspach on Vimeo.