Hibernation In Progress...

Hello and (a very belated) Happy New Year!

So sorry I have been MIA--things have been crazy since Thanksgiving, with the holidays and all of our crazy cold winter weather. We've already had several multiple-inch snows here in Nashville, y'all! One of which was on Christmas Day, so I missed what would've been my very first White Christmas. Talk about bummed.

Other than holidays and freezing weather, here is a VERY short list of things that have happened lately:

• Billy and I drove to and around Texas for Christmas break. We drove from Nashville to...
• Nacogdoches, TX--My brother graduated from Stephen F Austin State University on December 18th with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in some sort of Graphic Arts somethingorother! Then we packed up his apartment (and all of his art crap!) and moved him and his fiancee to...
• San Antonio, TX--I don't know if it was just because it was a few days before Christmas, but it was CRAZY there. The traffic, the crowded stores, ugh. Billy and I did get to spend a lovely little evening on the Riverwalk and stayed at La Mansion. The next day, we did a quick walk through the Alamo (way smaller than I expected!) and then picked my mom up at my brother's apartment and drove to...
• Houston--Pretty much just relaxed and hit up some of my favorite hometown restaurants. We had our actual "Christmas" with the dinner and the presents on Christmas Eve, because on Christmas Day we drove to...
• Midland, TX--Out in the middle of nowhere! But leave it to my brother to cram everything into one holiday break: he and his fiancee Sarah got married on December 27th! The wedding was gorgeous and I took a TON of pictures, but I'm too lazy to post any here now. Sorry. :( The next day, we drove...
• HOME! That was the longest day of my LIFE! Fortunately, since we woke up so dang early, we hit Dallas about breakfast/brunch-time and got to have a quick meal and visit with my college roommate, Jenny, and her husband, Dane. We made plans to HOPEFULLY attend a Fightin' Texas Aggie Football game next fall. I really hope so! Then we made it through Texarkana, Little Rock, Memphis, and finally back to Nashville late that evening. Phew!

After all that we put about 3,000 miles on my car. All of that out-and-about-ing is fully to blame for my current state of home-body-itis. You could not pry me from this house if you tried! But, I've gotten a lot of reading and cooking done, started to plan this year's garden, watched my Aggies put on a good show against LSU at the Cotton Bowl (even though they lost, dang it!), and generally been a big slug. Oh, and we've watched almost the entire series of LOST on Netflix.

I have some great plans for this year, so bring it 2011!! First and foremost, we will be DEBT FREE by this summer, if Murphy's Law doesn't launch into affect and ruin all of my planning. We have already knocked off a big debt item: our car!

I hope everyone is staying dry and warm! I'll be curled up on the couch under a few blankets if you need me...

What's been cookin'...

Here's a little bit of what we've been cooking around here lately...

Zesty Chicken Enchiladas

Recipe out of Real Simple

They are super good. Tangy and zesty from the tomatillos with lots of gooey melted Monterey Jack on top!

A favorite: Roasted Veggie Orzo

an Ina Garten recipe

I think this is all I ate that day. Really hard to stay away from it! Easy recipe and good for a crowd. My friends often say "bring the orzo!" if we're all bringing something for a party.

Potato-Zucchini Pancakes

A Giada recipe

Those were super tasty--would be great for a party, especially a Christmas/Holiday party since there is Rosemary in them. Mmm!

White Bean Dip

This was a recipe out of the Everyday Italian book I've been cooking from. A great, easy little snack to whip up. Just a few ingredients: White kidney beans, lemon, parsley, olive oil, s&p! I've also made the Marinara Sauce out of that book and it's really fresh and full of tomato flavor! I can't wait to try the fried calamari to dip in it. Completely different from the usual spaghetti sauce I make, which has brown sugar in it (somewhere, an italian woman just rolled in her grave...).

I can't believe Thanksgiving is in 2 days! BG's parents are coming up, so it'll just be the 4 of us...and 3 dogs. I'm making my mom's traditional turkey, dressing, and gravy, but I thought I'd mix up the sides and try some Pioneer Woman recipes. I'm going to make the Whiskey Glazed Carrots (had these at a friend's house once, delicious!), Creamy Herbed Potatoes (made these for Easter this year, delicious!), and Green Bean Casserole (this one's different...it has peppers! And bacon!). We got everything from Trader Joe's, even the turkey. Their cornbread is SO good and I can't wait to make the dressing with it again.

I plan on taking lots of pictures of our goodies, so I'll be sure and share them here! And Friday is Christmas Decoration Day! I got some new ornaments and a few other things to change up our decorations this year, so I'll be sure and share that too!

I hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

meg

Updates...

Hi friends! It's been almost a month since my last post...tsk tsk. Things have been pretty busy around here, so here is a quick update on what we've been up to:

• Work, work, work!
• My mom came in town for her birthday and I made her some cupcakes. Happy Birthday Mama! I made her some mini cupcakes.

• I haven't cooked my next Giada recipe yet, but I have been cooking a lot of new things...mainly recipes that I've pulled out of magazines. Some were good, some not.
• Billy and I have been riding our bikes a lot more lately on account of the weather being so nice. So, we can blame the weather for my absence here, right?
• I've been reading a lot. I've read 5 of the 9 Sookie Stackhouse books...and we've joined Netflix, so we're watching a lot of movies.
• Here is something else I have cooked: Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting. The pumpkin cake is a recipe that my grandmother made for years. I'm currently obsessed with small things (mini cupcakes, small appetizers, etc) so I decided to adapt this recipe for smaller amounts. I also tweaked how you put the ingredients together, based on what I've been learning about mixing dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, and sifting your dry goods. These turned out so much lighter than the actual cake, and they were delicious! I'm not knocking my grandmother...what can I say, she was old school!

So that's about all I have to say right now. I'm considering pulling the plug on this little blog...I'm so AWESOMELY BAD at posting regularly. Should I just do a "picture a day" type thing where I just show you what I've cooked that day, or something that we've done? Not sure yet. I'm still working on my photos and cooking/baking. We'll see what I come up with.

Happy Saturday everyone!! Enjoy it!

New project!

It is a GORGEOUS fall day here in Nashville, and I've started a new project. I was really inspired by Julie and Julia and decided that I, too, wanted to cook my way through a cookbook. I have a whole shelf of them that I rarely ever try recipes from, and decided that needed to change!

So, I'll be cooking through Giada de Laurentiis's book, Everyday Italian. We all know I'm a huge fan of hers: I DVR both of her cooking shows and watch them in my down time and I often try the things she cooks on her show. Our favorite pork recipe is actually a Giada recipe!

So here we go. My plan is not very strict. I'll cook when I have time, and try to do 2-3 recipes at a time until that gets too ambitious. The first section of the book is Everyday Antipasti and I've done 2 of those for today. I love that each section has a "cooking from the pantry" section how many of these recipes can be done with little or no special grocery shopping since these are items many of us have in our pantry already. I, myself, actually did have to pick up a few things, but not much. And I don't really feel right about posting the actual recipe, since I'm working from a book, but I bet you could find them on the Food Network website.

The first thing I tried was the Tuna and White Bean Salad.

This was very a light and refreshing, simple recipe. There are only a few ingredients: cannellini beans, tuna (it called for dark meat tuna in olive oil, but I had albacore in water, so sue me), red onion, red wine vinegar, s&p. I've never actually thought to put red wine vinegar with tuna, but I loved the tangy zip it gave the salad. This would be a great light lunch, especially over some arugala or romaine.

The next one I did was the Crostini with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Chickpeas.

I loved everything about this. The texture of the dip is very similar to hummus, which I love, and has the yummy flavor of the sun-dried tomatoes. I didn't have the dried basil or parsley that it called for, so I just used some herbes de provence and I think it tasted great! And then a little garnish with some fresh basil from my garden and some lemon zest. The crunchiness of the baguette complimented the creaminess of the dip very well, and it was easy to make. Who doesn't love just throwing things into the food processor and letting it do its thing? Needless to say, I'll definitely be making this the next time we have people over.

An added bonus to this project is that I'm trying new recipes, of course, but it's also giving me a way to practice with the photography. You can only take so many pictures of the dog.

I have the ingredients for the next one, so I'll probably try that tomorrow.

In other news, I'm down 8 pounds total with Weight Watchers, and Billy and I have started Power 90. The weight's not falling off as fast as I'd hoped, but I think this is really setting me up to live a healthy lifestyle from here on out and it's not so much about losing a bunch of weight quickly. Fad diets never work anyway, so I think this is the right program for me. I love that we are working out again and I feel stronger with every workout.

Billy and I also celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary last Sunday, the 10th! It was extremely laid back--we had friends over and hung out outside around the fire pit. I also made homemade marshmallows and graham crackers, but would you know I did not take a single picture! It was really laid back and we had a great time. We even had thawed out the top tier of our wedding cake and ate a slice for breakfast that morning and it was so good! We didn't do the traditional first anniversary paper gifts, unless you count the concert tickets we bought ourselves. Actually, a few weeks ago we went out to the Prime Outlets in Lebanon, TN and got our gifts together. I got a new Coach purse and Billy got a new Coach wallet and some new Oakley sunglasses.

So anyway, that's what's going on with us right now. Talk to you soon! Enjoy the day!

mg

Our house in the middle of our street...

Today, September 30th, is the 2 year anniversary of the day we closed on and began moving into our home...here she is:

I had no idea that you could fall so in love with a piece of property, but it's possible! Billy and I fell in love with this house the moment we walked into it in 2008 and never looked back. We know it was our "home" immediately.

House, here are a few of the many things we love about you:

• How charming you are, in all of your 90 years (that's right, she was built in 1920!)
• Your beautiful leaded glass front door
• All of your windows
• How you keep us safe and dry
• How you sit up high on a hill
• How you make our friends and family feel like you're their home, too

We also have another anniversary coming next week! Can you guess what that is?

Snack time!

Happy Tuesday! I just wanted to share with you a little snack recipe that I found on the Weight Watchers website. It's for Roasted Red Pepper Dip--but I tweaked it just a bit because the original recipe called for cilantro and I don't really care for that. Whether or not your watching your weight or just want an easy, tasty snack, I urge you to try it! It's super good!

Mmmmmm! Snacks!

Roasted Red Pepper Dip

15 oz. roasted red peppers

1 c. fat-free sour cream

1/4 c. basil

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Put all ingredients into food processor and pulse until smooth. Serve with Stacy's Simply Naked Pita Chips and enjoy!!

I think this would also be a great recipe to take to a party, which I might do in the future so I will have something yummy to snack on without wasting all my points...like I did the other day with our friends' queso dip. Oops! And I'm happy to report that even after a week in NYC, I still lost a pound! I am definitely stepping it up this week and it's been a lot easier since I'm at home.

I hope everyone is having a great week, and that the weather is nice where you are!

House Tour--Master Bedroom

Hey y'all! It's a gorgeous Sunday morning here in Nashville. I LOVE fall here. Although the weather hasn't quite changed yet, I know it's coming and that makes me so happy! Time to get out my fall decorations.

So, I know I said I would write again "tomorrow"...but the very next day I got a crazy email from my boss that they needed me in New York for help on a project! So, all last week I was in NYC. We worked a lot and I actually got a chance to see a lot of the city and even New Jersey; it was a whirlwind to say the least!

Billy and I were talking and he thought it would be a good idea to have pictures of our house for insurance purposes, and it gave me a good reason to get off my lazy butt and take some pictures, and then post them here as promised. I'm actually going to work from the BACK of our house and move forward.

Today, let me show you our master bedroom. The fact that it was actually clean is a miracle in itself, so please enjoy!

Master Bedroom

Sitting area to the right of the bed

Area to the left of the bed. Door on the right is the walk-in closet;

door on the left is the bathroom.

View from the left side of the room.

Vanity and "throne" in the bathroom.

Take a shower, you smell like New Jersey!

- a funny quote from my new work friend from last week's project

Storage and stuff. I can't believe I put this on here!

The paint color is Behr's Quiet Moment, but my friends and I have affectionally dubbed it "Adult Blue". I'm seriously thinking about painting--I want the room to have a peaceful spa-like airy quality, and I'm just not getting that with the "adult blue", and it really doesn't flow with the rest of the house. Maybe I've been spending too much time in hotels, because I really want something light and neutral and clean, much like a hotel room. Some favorites right now are Martha Stewart's Spring Melt for the bedroom and maybe Whetstone Gray for the bathroom. I also like Behr's Ivory Mist. I think we'll try to pop over to to the HD today and get some samples.

The furniture (bed, side tables, and chest of drawers) are all from Haverty's, the Marseille bedroom collection.

The bedding is from Crate & Barrel, the Lindsey Paisley Bed Linens. It's actually on sale right now!

Accessories:

• Lamps on the side tables, curtain rods--World Market
• Curtains--JC Penny (I think! I've had them for a while so I don't really remember!)
• Long mirror over the couch--TJ Maxx Home Goods
• Small round table was my grandmother's
• Metal candle-holder over the bed--Pier 1.
• White shelves in bathroom--Target, from my college apartment.
• "Art" in bathroom, small white bud vases--Ikea

So, there's that. Like I said, I have some plans to change things up in there. If we had the time and the money, I would gut the bathroom and start over--or at least fix some of the things that bother me. We fell in love with the slate tile in the shower when we saw the house and do still love it, but there are other things about the bathroom that are just not functional. Maybe the BG will let me mix it up a bit...yeah, probably not!

mg