Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Wednesday's Weekly Home Decor Obsessions...

curtains
Obsessed with these curtains...For my Bedroom! (West Elm)
I know I have put them up once before, but I need to just suck it up and purchase them!
That is what a night of babysitting will get me. :)  

LOVE!
Teal Shower Curtain - $19.98 (Lowes)

Wine Box Garden-cute
Courtesy of Pinterest : Wine Box Herb Garden! ...
It doesn't help that my husband is a Wine Rep and can get me all the Wine Boxes I want...and All the Wine I can DRINK!  :)

Love these colors
SPRING COLORS....Love this because it makes me Happy! (Pinterest)

breakfast nook
Kitchen Breakfast Nook! A Bright & Happy Place....
I think we could pull this off in our New Kitchen! (Pinterest)

It's also my 2 year Anniversary Today!

March 21st, 2010

Rehearsal Dinner - Bulow Plantation near Johns Island, SC 
   


Wedding Ceremony and Reception - Pepper Plantation

 





Happy Anniversary...I love you Grant!  :)

 




 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

It's A Grown-Up World....

My To-Do List is never ending....I start one at work, then I start another one when I get home.  I mean, do they ever really end.....or just get worse from here?!?

Yesterday I marked off a BIG item on my To-Do List.....Change the Cabinets & Counter Tops before it's tooo late!  You can ask Grant, Georgia (Our Realtor), or Carroll (Our Home Sales Manager), what my thoughts are about Uba Tuba Counter Tops.  I am just not a fan!  (If you have them, sorry to offend. :)) I don't know what it is about the Green & Black that pop out at me and say...."What are you thinking here?!?", but I am definitely an Ivory, Brown, Baby Blue, Baby Yellow type of person...and not an Uba Tuba type of person.  So, I had to cave and get what I wanted!  I mean, I am the one who is gonna live with it from here on out if I made the wrong decision.....Grant could care less.  He just wants to make sure that I am making the right FINAL decision.  

So, based on the little options that we have for counter tops and cabinets....Black w/ Pink, Black w/ Green, White w/ Black, and Ivory w/ Brown....I should have been able to make this decision from the beginning.  It is just so hard when they make you decide on everything you want right then and there.  I don't like feeling under pressure about BIG decisions like that...I mean that is a lot of money that we are talking about!

So, the Final decision has been made...and the dotted line has been signed, again:
Santa Cecilia

Now the question stands....What color Cabinets do we go with??
My options are: Top Row....# 5 Across - "Milk Chocolate Brown",  or Bottom Row.... #1 Across "Tan" or #6 Across "Redish Brown".  

Let me know your thoughts...I would love to hear your feedback!  


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Mexican Vegetarian Chile Rellenos & Margarita Cupcakes....Yum!

Last week I made some yumminess that I thought I would share with my readers....
Vegetarian Chile Rellenos and Margarita Cupcakes. 

Chile Rellenos
 4 Poblano Chili Peppers
1 bag on instant rice
2 cups of vegetable broth
1/2 large white onion
1 small can chopped green chili
1 can pinto beans, drained
2 cups mozzarella or your favorite cheese
Toppings Optional: Chopped Tomatoes, Cilantro, Red Onions, Avocado, Sour Cream, Salsa

Boil 2 cups of vegetable broth & 2 cups water in a large pot.  Once it comes to a boil, 
Add 1 - bag of instant rice.  (We used brown rice, but you could use white)....Cook rice per instructions on the box.


Meanwhile turn the oven on boil, and place your poblano peppers onto a sheet pan covered in aluminum foil.  Keep a close eye on them and rotate as needed.  You want them to brown up a little and for the skin to blister. - Approximately 10 minutes.


Dice 1/2 of a large white onion....heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet.  Add the diced onion, 1 small can of green chiles, & 1 can of pinto beans, drained.  


Once your onions have began to caramelize, remove from heat and add your cooked rice.  Stir the mixture well.  You can also add some pulled rotisserie chicken or cooked ground beef if you would like, but we enjoyed ours without any meat.


Remove the peppers from the oven once they have browned and bubbled....turn your oven down to 400 degrees. Place your peppers into a ziplock bag to sweat, or once they have cooled down, slowly pull the skin off the peppers.  You will also need to deseed and remove the stems from each pepper.  


Lay out each pepper onto an aluminum foil covered sheet pan.  I cut our 2 peppers in half and made 4 open face peppers, but you can cover your peppers back up, if you would like.  Top with mozzarella or your favorite cheese :)...and place back into the oven until the cheese melts.  Approximately 5 minutes


Chop up the toppings of your choice....We cut up fresh tomatoes, red onions, cilantro, and my favorite avocado.  


Wahhhla!  Sorry its a pretty bad picture... but it was YUMMY!!

Now onto dessert....Margarita Cupcakes.  My friend, Ashley, from Georgia-Pacific gave me the recipe for this one, so I have to thank her for this. :)  **You can also sub the margarita mix for champagne and make Pink or Blue Champagne Cupcakes (great idea for a baby shower)!!

Margarita Cupcakes
1 box white cake mix
1 1/4 cups margarita mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 egg whites
5 - 7 drops green (I found a new neon green) food coloring


Bake at 350 for 17 - 22 minutes


Easy Homemade Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup margarita mix 
(you might need add a little more if it doesn't come to the "frosting" consistency)
2 tsp vanilla extract
7 - 10 drops green (neon) food coloring

Garnish: Limes, Sugar Crystals, Edible Pearls, Etc.  


A little trick on icing your cupcakes.  Fill a sandwich size ziplock with your homemade icing...make sure to zip it closed tight (my icing had the tendency to ooze out the top).


Cut off a small tip on the bottom corner of your bag to create your own pipping bag.  Then start icing your cupcakes, one by one.  



I topped off each cake with a small slice of a lime to give it the feel of a real margarita.  You could also add a little rock salt on top if you want to get festive.  


Ta Da!  Deliciousness in a little tip cup.  
What is your favorite flavor of cupcake?!?!


Monday, March 12, 2012

Busy Busy.....

Wow....time flies when your BUSY!  Well, March 1st hit here in Charleston and we can officially say that spring has sprung and with it comes lots of events, planning, and a very long to do list.  

Home Front Re-Cap......

February 25th
  

 February 28th





March 6th


March 7th


March 12th
(This is what happens when you go out of town for the weekend!)

Can't believe they did this much in two weeks....And we still have two more months!
Estimated Due Date: May 24th. :)

Tomorrow I hope to get some recipes and pictures of this weekends Road Trip to Atlanta.  I am so busy at work that I don't even have time to check my personal email let along blog anything. :(  I hope to get them out soon, because some of the recipes were YUMMY!

Have a great Monday...and Happy Birthday Kathryn! :)









Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Charleston Wine + Food Festival

Holy Cow this weekend was CRAZY, but my favorite time of year......CHARLESTON WINE + FOOD FESTIVAL!  Going on Lucky # 7 of celebrating the best chefs and wines in one weekend and one of the best cities in America...Charleston!  If you have never experience what this weekend is all about, you need to start planning for 2013!

After wrapping up a SOAKING Wet MS Walk on Saturday morning....it was back to the apartment for me to catch a few ZZZ's before "Hitting the Streets" of Charleston at the Visitor's Center Bus Shed.
Set-Up...Before Guests Arrived
This year I had to opportunity to work with the festival's Volunteer Coordinator, Georgia Nettles, to assist as the Volunteer Captain for the Festival After Hours Event at the Bus Shed.  It consisted of a wide variety of street performers, Quiana Parler and Friends, Local Food Trucks, Restaurant "Street" Vendors, Wine & Liquor Distributors, Graffiti artists, and so much more.

Street Performers and Lots of Eatin' & Drinkin' going on!
Grant and I lucked up and found VIP passed to the Saturday evening After, After, Party!  This was an invite only event that took place at my all time favorite restaurant, FIG!  Even though we missed out on happenings, we still had a good time just being there with the "VIP's"....hahah!  We followed up this party with a stop by Halls Steakhouse to visit with an old friend of ours, Robbie, who works for Halls as the Wine Sommelier.

Sunday was spent sleeping in and catching up on as much sleep as possible before the Tasting Tents. I was offered tickets to attend and Grant was of course, working the event pouring up some wines!   It was a great time.....I met up with my friends Megan and Jennifer who "toured" the tents with me.  We went from table to table tasting wine after wine after wine, and food after food after food.  I mean, what else could you ask for!  :)
Duck Confit served with Risotto and Micro greens (I gave my duck to Jennifer ;))
And then of course we found our way to the BBQ, Blues, and Brews event at the Maritime Center down by the Aquarium.  It was a little bit chilly, but we had a great time for the short period of time that we attended.  Again, we found tickets......I have no idea how.....but we got in and enjoyed the Lowcountry Bluegrass Band the Bushels and lots and lots of BBQ.  I enjoyed the Grilled Swordfish and Macaroni and Cheese. YUM!  Cupcake also provided a Chocolate Sea Salt Cupcake that was pretty yummy. :)



All in all it was a GREAT weekend!!  Being that it rained, two out of the three days, I think we all had a great time and it was another successful year for the Charleston Wine and Food Festival.  Can't wait to get more involved for what 2013 has to bring!  See you next year. :)


Friday, March 2, 2012

Walking Along....

Can you picture yourself walking 50 miles in 3 days?  You could if it was for a good cause!

This morning was the start to the MS Challenge Walk right here in Charleston, SC.  The walk started at 6:45am this morning with breakfast and transportation from Wild Dunes, Isle of Palms to the Citadel downtown for the start of the race.

And their OFF....walking from Downtown Charleston to Sullivan's Island Fish Fry Shack.  
Tomorrow we will be up again at 4:00am to get the participants from Wild Dunes to Long Point to complete Day 2 of the 50 mile walk.  Challenge yourself and go out for a walk today!
Challenge Walk MS: Charleston Challenge map
You can do whatever you put your mind to....Help fight to end MS!