Thanksgiving 2013

This year we made more friends and broke bread (and cheese) with them. I played hostess and crafted my finest fall cocktails. The best part of any holiday is spending it in good company, with good conversation, and good cheese. We finished the night off with a backyard bonfire and smores, naturally! 

(My hair still smells like smoke!)

 I made the above spread with, can you believe it, everything from ALDI. Seriously, they've got really good seasonal cheese. 

Here's the spread:

From Left, Brie, Toasted walnuts with salt and truffle oil

Red grapes, honey, basil and tomato cheese, salami

Middle, Smoked gruyere,  Jarlsberg, and soft garlic and herb spread

Bagel chips and wheat crackers.

The above platters were from Anthropologie, Crate and Barrell,  and martini glasses from Dollar Tree. I am quite the savvy shopper. I just have to figure out how I want to cook that butternut squash and that acorn squash. They were so adorable, I just had to. I want to point out that this season, cheese boards are the new dinner plate.

One Bad Apple Martini

1 oz Salted caramel vodka

1/2 oz whipped vodka

1/2 oz vanilla vodka

1&1/2 oz Simply Apple Cider (highly recommend this brand)

Shake over ice and pour into a cinnamon and sugar rimmed glass.

Garnish with a cinnamon sugar apple slice

Pumpkin Pie Martini 

1oz Pumpkin Vodka (or regular)

1 oz whipped vodka

1/2 oz  Irish Cream liqueur

1 tablespoon pumpkin puree

dash of half and half

dash of cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

dash of ginger

Shake over ice and pour into a graham cracker rimmed glass.

Disclosure: I mix according to intuition and taste. Try the above recipes, but adjust according to your preferred alcohol levels,

taste, and guest reaction. When my guests make "yummy noises, "

I know I just made the perfect drink.   

 

 

This morning, I used the 
 pumpkin puree for pumpkin pancakes. De-lish!

Every year there is more and more to be of which to be Thankful! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Baking again!

   New oven alert! Our house has been with out a oven for more than a year. Frankly, I didn't care at first because I was on this raw foods kick. I had just gotten a food processor, and that was my new toy. I felt better because we stopped making that weekly frozen pizza.

My family is visiting for Christmas, and you CANNOT celebrate family holidays without baking and broiling! I mean, how am I going to heat my Honeybaked Ham?

But sometimes you just want to make some cookies, Or a lasagna. Or bake a pizza. Which is what i did after the hubbs installed our newest toy.

 

And the next morning I made Mac and Cheese with Cauliflower. I snuck finely minced cauliflower into the cheese sauce for flavor. You absolutely would not know the difference! I adapted the recipe from Food Babe's Home made Mac and Cheese. I used cheddar, Farmer's cheese, and added garlic powder. For the topping, I added butters cauliflower bits, and broiled at 450 degrees until brown.

 Drizzle a little truffle oil on top, and voila!

What looks like cheese and egg, is mainly cheese, cauliflower and quinoa. It was tasty right out of the oven, and I ate the leftovers for lunch for about a week, even better!

Veteran's Day

  Thanks to all you veterans out there.  I'm thankful for that sacrifice, service, and the VA home loan!

My all time favorite veteran is pictured below. Please excuse the bad iPhone picture of a picture. 

We like to call the young guy below "Teenage Shawn."

Left, Teenage Shawn, right twenty one years later. I wish he had kept the blues.

On a serious note, I have been searching for organizations committed to the metal health and welfare of veterans for which I can volunteer. Check out the HELO Foundation, and see if they are at a University near you!

No candy for my Trick or Treaters

     I'm not a big fan of Halloween, personally. I stress out about what costume to wear and find myself scrambling last minute to throw something together, finding myself to be the most overdressed person at the party. I should have been a bunny or a sexy devil, I think. I'd rather just skip the whole thing.

But...

     I never want to ruin it for anyone else just because I can't get it together. Most people love Halloween if not for the scary, but also, for the candy. I mean, who wouldn't pass up the opportunity for free candy just by knocking on someone's door. Any other day, they'd call the cops. 

      I decided take part in the Trick-or Treat tradition but not hand out candy. I don't feel right about buying junk filled with artificial ingredients, GMOs, and all those empty calories. Most kids are going to get lots of traditional candy anyway, and I don't want to add to the pile. I'm not being a total party pooper, and here's why: I'm giving out stuff way more fun than candy: Glow stick bracelets!!

     I got the idea from Lisa Leake's 100 Days of Real Food Blog along with the idea to get them at The Dollar Tree. I found a tube of 15 for $1. I spent about $8 for my treats, while a variety bag bag of chocolate bars can cost $5 to $10. So let's recap, I'm not supporting the candy industry's tradition of feeding kids junk, but rather adding a little variety to their pumpkin pails (I'm also giving away natural fruit snacks), and saving money in the process! We're all winning all over the place!

     When we were young, my dad would go to the wholesale store and get little packs of treats. He bought mini brown paper bags and my mom would assemble them. One bag would have a mini box of raisins, a sucker, gum, mini chocolate bar, a four pack of peanut butter crackers, and maybe a tangerine. The kids loved our house and there was talk that we had the best loot. I wanna be that house again, but I will trade junk for creativity and fun! 

Plus, we just repainted our house so I don't wanna be egged.

Have a Happy and safe Halloween!!

UPDATE: Both kids and parents thought the glow bracelets were cool! The fruit snacks, since they weren't a name brand like Reeses or Hersheys, weren't as popular. One kid threw it back in the pail! Haha! I'm still going to keep it up!

Family time in Houston

  Shawn and I live no where near family. In fact, for the past two Christmases I've been orphaned, spending Christmas with with other people's family. That's why we need a little getaway, some time for home cooked food, familiar hugs, and Scrabble.

My mom and aunt are Scrabble champs, y'all. They score 50 point words. Playing with them makes you a better player if only for the exposure of their aresenal of tools like word lists and definitions. Did you know that there are two letter word like "za," and "qi?" I didn't, which is why my best move was to add the "s." (Don't lie,  you all did it, too.)

1. Scrabble with my aunt, my sis, and my mom

2. Sweet girl Mochi, in her watch position

3. Sweet dude Kiba, second shift watch

4.Kiba's photoshoot in the garden

5. We sent Kiba to pick up Shawn at the airport

6-9. San Antonia Riverwalk

10. Add your own "T" at Moody Gardens, Galveston

11. Happy Anniversary!

When in Houston

 We returned from Houston, Texas this week from a brief visit with family. My mom and aunt, and cousins were around, and my sister and her husband drove down from Illinois. It was their anniversary. A year ago we celebrated their wedding at Riveria Maya, Mexico. It was my cousin's anniversary, too. Somehow all these things came together. And we celebrated. And we ate.
 
When in South Texas you have to go to Bucc-ee's. It's the fanciest convenience store/ gas station/ deli/gift shop/restroom stop ever. Those guys are changing an industry. Get the Beaver Nuggets, sweet caramel corn puff goodness. My cousin eats them like cereal. Too far for me, but they are delish enough to suspend my disdain for gmo's and junk food in general.

Then there's Kreuz Market in Lockhart, where you order barbecue  from a dark slicing room by the pound. They give you white bread and have a no forks, no sauce policy. I had this fear  that ordering incorrectly would prompt a "No barbecue for you!" but they were pretty nice. People who say "y'all" typically are.

My fav was the sweets: Bite Mararons and Sprinkles Cupcakes. I had the pleasure of Lavender Honey, Rose, Passion Fruit, Sea Salt Caramel,  and Earl Grey marcarons. Literally, all of them. I bought a dozen and ate half because my fam thought they were too fancy. Like overpriced Oreos. Sugar free red velvet and coconut cupcakes are so so good. I cut them in fifths and we sat around and sampled cake like we were getting hitched.

Other notables were the Pho Saigon noodle house. This is the simplest dish to make. I'm glad it's trendy, but come on guys, it's soup. Next door, is PL teahouse, where you can get more than 20 different types of "tea." It was my first Boba, but they really had me a the big straws. Osaka had the most beautiful sushi, and Ocean Palace is a dim sum convention hall. When we're all together we have to go out for Houston's Hawaiian Ribeye, the best steak on the market. There are no pictures. No time. Steak gone.

So it was great to get together and break bread (cupcakes) as a family. Since returning, I've tried to eat like a bird so I can shrink my stomach capacity. 

Bon appetit!

When starting this post, I almost titled it #wheninhouston. I quickly revised that title becuase I can't stand taking or writing in hashtags. I can't stand the word hashtag. If Merriam Webster puts that in the dictionary, I'll start speaking mainly in French or Spanish. So far we're safe:

hashtag

The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above.

1. hostage
2. hastate
3. haystack
4. Halsted
5. Hallstatt
6. Sea Tac
7. hesitate
8. astute
9. sighted
10. stalag
11. Ashdod
12. sachet
13. elastic
14. aussitot

Cheers to seven years: a dateaversary

    Last Sunday marked our seventh year dating anniversary. In tradition with our first date, we went out for pizza. Our first outing was nothing special: we went for a slice to the local college hang out. I didn't even consider it a date. Later on, I realized we should pick a date for our anniversary, and so October 6, it was! I believe life is more interesting with milestones. When I read over this in my old age, I will be pleased that I made our relationship that more interesting. Don't you think? Wait, don't a answer that if the answer is no. I'm sensitive about storytelling.

We refined our tastes in pizza. Seven years require growth. Just becuase I have been eyeing that Barbie dream house store at Sawgrass (It's just so pink!),  doesn't mean I havent grown some in the past seven years.
 I used my four square app to find Piola, a posh pie place in Hallandale after a guitar center stop.
It was international chic and we sat next to a Colombian couple with a rare blue haired chihuahua. I think he made it up, but tiny dogs at dinner do add a chic factor. We've come a long way, baby!

Pic 1: New guitar!
Pic 2: Piola

Pic 3 & 4: Tap 42
P.S. These are all iPhone pics, so they have that dreamy filtered look, which by photography standards, are called out of focus. I blame io7.

Be my (male) guest

 This weekend we had a Shawn's long time friend drove down to hang out with us, so I made him a welcome dresser! Above are this Seagrams 7, some nuts, Neutrogena and Dove for men products. I'm not sure if he used anything, but he enjoyed the welcome!

The hubbs and I enjoy having houseguests. It makes us clean up and get that house in order.
I mean, I never enter our guest bathroom, so it looks like neglect. A little snip of the garden and a flip of the diffuser reeds, and voila! I saw a pin on Pinterest with an apothecary jar full of hotel soaps for inspiration.

We explored our city some more. You may recognize some instagram snaps.

Having visitors makes us realize how lucky we are to live waterside! Seeing the city from inside out, or from the waterways, is a whole new perspective.

 

 Judging by the huge cheesy grins,  there were many, many happy hours.

Above at Rok BRGR, 

Tap 42

Chicken and waffles from ROK BRGR

Happy hour at Blue Martini

Drinks at the Drunken Taco

Cruising on the Water Taxi

and my handsome hubby at Bahia Cabana

Ta ta!

Be my guest

      My friend from North Carolina is visiting tomorrow. We are so excited to have another guest. We've been preparing and over preparing for her arrival. I just wanted the sunroom clear of our junk that we never unpacked, but somewhere along the way, we thought that painting the house, sanding the dresser and re-caulking the tub was necessary. The tub, yes, but having guests makes us really kick it into high gear. 

Especially me. 

I get all hostest with the mostest and I have to out do myself and the rest of the world with every little detail. That's who I am, though. I read dessert table design blogs, wedding blogs, and blogs that tell you how stuff is done. 

Properly done, I tell my husband. Like a lady.


 My inspiration was Anthro Blog's post, Make it happen: Dress up your Guestroom. I gotta say, I did just that.


 I set up the freshly sanded dresser with wine, chocolate, a candle, and fresh flowers. I haven't had fresh flowers in the house since March. They were from Valentine's Day. Please don't judge me.

I couldn't help but to go with a South Florida theme. Her reading material includes Darkly Dreaming Dexter, set in Miami. There are fresh towels, and sea salt soap. Then I thought to throw some Palm Beach in there, so I added a Flamingo wristlet from Lilly Pullitzer. And a Flamingo Keychain because I simply couldn't help myself (I know, I already said that, but really, how fitting are the flamingos!!!)

Sea 'M and Eat 'M chocolates on a Puffer fish dessert plate. I am cracking myself up here.
 I 'd like to be my guest.

 Who's next?

And here's my shopping list:

From the top

Puffer fish plate,  Natural World Collection, Anthropologie, similar here.

Illume Flecked & Fissured Candle, Anthropologie, or here. 

Kate Spade Posy Vase, Macy's

Sea 'M & Eat 'M Sea Chocolates, Palm Beach Confections 

Perpetual Blooms Towels, Anthropologie

Sea Salt Soap, West Elm 

Lilly Pullitzer Flamingo Tech case (perfect beach wristlet), Swell Caroline

Flamingo Key Chain, sold out at J.Crew, similar here.