Simply Healthy Chicken Dish

I've made this simple, healthy & delicious chicken dish before, but it's become a regular meal in my household. Here's the Chicken with Tender Leeks by Rachael Ray Encore!




As usual, I didn't do the rest of the recipe - just the chicken/leek part, but this time I did a rice pilaf by Zattaran's and some peas...mmm.

Click here for the recipe

Sick Day - Beef & Barley Soup

I was sick last week, but luckily, I had some yummy Beef & Barley soup that my mom maid for me the last time I was home (it keeps well in the freezer). I can't put the recipe up b/c I don't have it...sorry! I do know that it's from a Disney cook book, if that helps. Anywho, I really love these little vintage-y napkins I found while thrifting recently. I think one is hand-embroidered!

Thanks Mom!

Btw...this is weird, but I have to point out...doesn't this piece of barley look like a monkey face or something? Bizarro!

Old-School Doggie-Wash

We went back to my SO's hometown this weekend to visit his mom, and whenever we go back, like a great son, my honey helps out with some chores. We managed to squeeze in an old-school doggie-wash:

"Uh-Oh"


"The Inevitable Shake"


"Ahhhh...Much Better"

Giada's Chocolate-Hazelnut Ravioli

I made Emeril's wonton soup a week or so ago (which I haven't posted yet), and had so many leftover wonton wrappers and no desire to eat any more wonton soup. It was a good thing I remembered drooling over Giada DeLaurentis' chocolate-hazelnut ravioli (click for recipe). I quickly dug out the recipe and got to work. With few ingrediants and little prep or cook time, I had these delicious goodies in no time:



A must-try, chic-sweet for you dessert lovers out there!

On an unrelated note, so sorry for my lack of posts lately. I feel like I'm stuck in that situation that most of you probably have felt before where you have so much going on that you become completely useless. It's amazing that I make it to work, am able to provide food for me and my SO, ship my jewelry orders in a timely manner, and post anything over on SA, but somehow it gets done. Then, there are my other "tasks" that seem to get swept under the rug...or lost on my to-do list...or forgotten in an unusual moment of free time that really isn't free, it's just not being used b/c my head is spinning so fast I can't remember exactly what it is I'm supposed to be doing at the time...I just have that icky feeling that there's something else I should be doing - how's that for a run-on sentence? Perhaps the run-on sentence is an extra description of how chaotic it seems things are right now. I'm in that place where you have so much to do, that you do a little of this and a little of that and none of it is good enough or enough at all to be acceptable. Whoof! I feel better just blogging about it, especially knowing that so many of you out there are in the same situations (or similar enough) and actually understand me, when so many of my normal, non-type-a friends don't. Thanks for reading if you made it this far. :)

The Wreck of Richard and Charlene

I knew several months ago that I'd be going to Charleston, SC for Memorial Day weekend, so when I saw Giada's Weekend Getaways for Charleston (which will air again on June 15th - see web site for details), I tuned in! One of the restaurants especially caught my eye - The Wreck of Richard and Charlene. Located where a trawler, the Richard and Charlene, wrecked during Hurricane Hugo, hard to find, only spread by word of mouth...the place doesn't even look like a restaurant or have a sign...how cool is that? Maybe I've been watching $40 a Day one time too many, but I've been seriously inspired by Food Network to look for the unique eating spots in every city I visit. Not to mention I've always liked eating the foods I can't get back home. I somehow talked my fiance and two of his frat-boy-like friends into going.

Just like Giada said, the restaurant is hard to find and doesn't even have a sign. To the left and right of the location are two shrimping docks (at least I think that's what they are)


Not much to look at from the front, eh? It seems the best places are these "hole-in-the-wall" spots. I believe Giada said to look for the huge anchor in front of the restaurant (far right of the photo)


In the entrance, there are tons of pictures...apparently of friends and family...and a certain celebrity we know and love. They have a picture of Giada with some of the staff and her actual menu. See, here at The Wreck, you are given a paper menu and get to circle your meal of choice with a marker. Your meal is started with a yummy bowl of boiled peanuts, which I love! The menu touts that the Wreck was voted "State's Best Shrimp" - fried shrimp, that is. Of course, I ordered the fried shrimp, and they truly were some of the best fried shrimp I've ever had. I also got to try the grilled shrimp, but I'd definitely go for the fried if you ever eat here.


Here's a picture of the back of The Wreck. You can see their screened-in patio area, which is where you'll be seated if you grab a bite to eat.


I even got a great shot of the sunset from the dock area.

Only downfall of this wonderful spot is that it's a bit old-fashioned so they don't accept credit cards and they don't split checks. Remember to bring your checkbook or some cash and be prepared to figure out your own check if you're splitting the tab. Either way, the billing policy is not enough to keep me from headed back to this local favorite.

The Wreck of Richard & Charlene is a must-see if you're headed to Charleston, SC! Be sure to visit their web site for menu, history, and more info - http://www.wreckrc.com/

Deliciously Unique Dessert at PF Changs

I took my honey for dinner to PF Changs (after he took me to see Pirates of the Caribbean - which was so-so) as a "let's end our vacation / kick off the new week with a treat" treat. I don't know why, but we hardly ever even glance at the dessert menu there. However, this past Monday, we decided to split a couple appetizers and an entree to save room for dessert (guess we were on vacation mode still...lol). We got Wonton Soup, Peking Dumplings (aka Potstickers), Moo Goo Gai Pan, and this fabulousness:

It's called the Lucky 8 and my SO and I were feeling pretty lucky we had ordered it. It's basically Phyllo dough brushed with chocolate, rolled up, deep-fried and served with gooey toffee and heath bar crumbles. You dip the chocolately sticks in the toffee, roll them around in the candy crumbles and voila! A deliciously unique dessert.

Now, I'm a pretty big dessert connoisseur...not so much that I claim to have expertise in the area, but I've eaten out at a lot of restaurants over my lifetime, and I have a huge sweet tooth, so I've seen my fair share of good desserts. Let me tell you, this is one of the best and most unique I think I've ever had...off the top of my head, this is in my Top 5, and that says a lot for anyone who knows me pretty well. For anyone headed to PF Changs any time soon, you simply must try this. If you don't think you can finish it all, our waiter told us (after we had him box two sticks up for us) that we could have ordered a half-order. Oh well...you live, you learn, right?

Giant Sugar Cookies a la Martha Stewart

This weekend, I finally remembered to buy some sour cream to make the yummy-looking "Giant Sugar Cookies" I've been wanting to make from the Issue 41 Everyday Food. I even got to use my vintage Pyrex mixing bowl (very carefully, of course):



I've been trying out different sugar cookie recipes for awhile now and out of four batches, these are the best! If you subscribe to Everyday Food, I highly recommend trying this recipe out - it's on the last page.

Mine ended up a little more well-done than I had intended - I guess some ovens bake faster, even when you shorten the smallest time by two minutes! Watch your cookies! :)

If you don't subscribe, there are a couple other recipes on MarthStewart.com - click here for one

Leftover Spaghetti Sauce = Baked Ziti Dinner

My sister came into town Friday night and after a bit of indulging at the French bakery, I decided to keep dinner simple with spaghetti. After making tons of sauce on Friday, though, I had plenty left over this weekend and I thought...hey, I should use this instead of freezing it. What can I make with leftover spaghetti sauce, I wondered. Aha! One of my honey's faves - baked ziti!






I added a can of tomato sauce to the leftover meat sauce b/c I like my ziti kinda saucy. Meanwhile, I cooked some ziti pasta - I just eyeballed how much would go with the sauce. When the pasta was done, I drained it and added it to the sauce, mixed and poured into a glass casserole dish. I topped the pasta with mozzarella cheese and baked for about 20 minutes - till the cheese was slightly browned on top. I made my favorite garlic bread recipe - a Rachael Ray recipe - to complete the meal. Well, bread and a new Martha Stewart recipe - Giant Sugar Cookies from Everyday Food issue 41.

Chic Homemade Lunch a la Martha Stewart

I've been subscribing to Martha Stewart's latest mag - Everyday Food - so far so good. After weeks of eating turkey sandwiches for lunch in an effort to save money during the day, I've been on the lookout for some good, new lunch recipes. I decided to try my first Everyday Food recipe - Chicken Club Salad:

I decided to substitute Bibb lettuce for the pictured Romaine. It came out pretty good, although I will say you need to watch your bacon if you prepare it a la the recipe - it will burn if your oven cooks too quickly! I made a second batch of bacon for day 2 of the Chicken Club Salad lunch and microwaved it over a sheet of paper towel for 2 minutes - they came out nicely, took less time, and made less mess.

I'd definitely give this one a try if you're thinking about it - but I will definitely cut the chicken into smaller bites next time or possibly even shred it (or use rotisserie chicken...hmmm) - the possibilities are endless!

Where Have I Been?

Ok, so sorry for the delay...I'm sure (or maybe hoping) that a couple of you noticed that I haven't been posting hardly at all lately. You're probably (maybe) wondering where on earth I've been.

Well, I've been super busy the last 3ish weeks with two back-to-back craft shows:

My friend and I each setup a table at a couple shows around town. This is a photo from day one of the first show - it looks nice doesn't it? The weather was actually ridiculously hot...actually I'd say painfully hot, but we still had a pretty time and had a pretty good show. The second show was another story altogether - it rained the entire first day, then was windy the second and to make matters worse, people were shopping for cheap junk jewelry (think imported from overseas less than $10 crapola) so we hardly sold anything. :( We still had a good time, though, and met some interesting people, so not too shabby overall.

Look, the cotton candy matches my dress!

Warning - Don't Sign Up For BMG!

Just a quick warning to my friends to not sign up for BMG, based on the horrible experience I just had about...oh 5 minutes ago. I decided to finally redeem some of my free CD's, so I added the 4 that I wanted and went to the cart to checkout. I selected the Free CD drop down list and selected that I wanted to redeem 4.

I clicked the Update Your Cart button...nothing happened. Hmm...I clicked it again...again, nothing happened. I guess there's a bug in the system? I didn't get any error messages. Well, maybe I'll click Submit Order, and I'll get a page where I get to validate my order looks correct.

I click the Submit Order button - I get "Thank you, your order has been placed and a confirmation email has been sent...yada yada." But wait, I wonder, how will they know where my order is going? Oh, silly me, I forgot that I setup the Express Checkout...and yet they still don't display the shipping address...why? That should be on the screen so you can confirm.

I go to my email...surely there the order has been updated so I'm not being charged for all these freakin' CD's. No...my order is still $60! Ouch...I just wanted to redeem my free CD's.

Ok, I'll call the company, I think. I search the customer service page...no phone number...listed...ANYWHERE! What the...? Luckily, I do a google search and find this site (click here). Here's the BMG phone number: 317-692-9200 (just in case the other web site ever closes or whatever). Coincidently, the site also has Columbia House's phone number.

So, I call the phone number and get someone on the phone who tells me that the CD's I ordered are "Premium Titles", which means that you cannot redeem them for free. Huh? How am I supposed to know what a "Premium Title" is? I don't remember seeing that these aren't available to be redeemed for free! "Click on the info button for the CD and it tells you there," she says. What info button? I never found one...I can only assume she meant this one - Sales Exempt:

After you click Sales Exempt, you get a little pop-up that says, "Already specially priced, not part of regular sale, or available as a bonus or free selection, or free with Music Points." Now, how on earth was I supposed to know I had to check that little link to see if the CD was ok to redeem for my Free Music?

Oh ok...my bad. Well, let me cancel my order, I say. No...can't do it. I ask to talk to the manager...still can't do it. I just placed this order, literally 3 minutes ago...I can't cancel it!? Nope. No can do.

FINE...I want to cancel my membership. But, you have 8 free CD's they say. I know that though...I just feel so deceived, and so tricked into spending $60 when I expected to spend $10, that I don't even want them. Much like breaking up with an A-hole who has some of your stuff at their apt...sometimes you just have to "cut your losses," as a good friend once told me. BMG could have easily displayed bolder messages to alert people that these CD's are not available to be redeemed for free, but instead, they try to hide this fact and trick their customers into buying CD's they don't want to buy. If I wanted to pay money for these CD's, I'd go to Best Buy, or a used CD store, where they are much, much cheaper.

It doesn't end here...

Well, I tell them I want to cancel my membership and update my shipping address since it's wrong. They say they can cancel my membership, but they can't update the shipping address. What? You can't just change the address? No can do. Why not? I just can't do it b/c blah blah blah...something about the shipping and billing address being different (which the order confirmation doesn't say). I mean, I understand if the order has already been processed ...or shipped...that you can't change the address, but it hasn't even hit the system yet! It's been 4 minutes! You can't change it? Nope.

FINE! BMG, you stink! I'm never using your service again, and I'm warning my friends!

Sorry for the rant, friends, but I do want to pass on what I feel is an important warning.

Comfort Food-Inspired Dinner

I'm getting ready for a craft show this weekend, but with all the eating out I've been doing lately, I wanted to make something simple, but tasty. I decided to try one of those recipes on the sides of the Campbell's Soup cans I always see. This is the chicken and rice bake - recipe on the Cream of Chicken soup can:


You stir the soup with water, rice and onion powder, then top with the chicken, then bake for 45 minutes. How simple is that? It was a real crowd-pleaser too...or an SO-pleaser, since I just cooked for two. I just served the chicken and rice with frozen, mixed veggies. I think the meal took about 10 minutes prep time total. per request of my SO, this one's going in the regular rotation.

I don't know why, but I also decided to make sugar cookies...from scratch. I used a Fanny Farmer recipe to make these:


They didn't really flatten and smooth out quite like I thought they would, but they were darn tasty! Looks can only count so much...as long as it tastes good, I don't care!

Easy Shrimp Dinner

My SO and I have a favorite shrimp recipe by Rachael Ray - 4 Minute Spicy Garlic Shrimp. It's super simple and super delicious. Although, I did forget the fresh parsley. If you try this...def don't forget the parsley!

Since the shrimp are so easy to make...especially since I got easy peel and my SO was sweet enough to do the peeling for me...I decided to make something special for the side. Using new baking ware, I made scalloped potatoes and just steamed broccoli for a nice, healthy side. Mmmmmm!

Vintage Book - Under the Lilacs

Lookie what I found thrifting:

Under the Lilacs - a book by Louisa May Alcott. I guess since I never read Little Women, I didn't realize this was the same author. I just figured I'd found some random, obscure vintage book, but I guess this one is actually pretty famous. I read a couple reviews on Amazon, and apparently people who like Little Women will probably also like this book. I suppose the fact that this book is written by the same author would make one gather that conclusion, but you never know.


Anywho, I'm not sure exactly how old this book is, but it's about to fall apart...lol. However, I love the vintage binding and the darling drawings throughout. I wonder if the new version still has them? (the images, of course, not the binding)

"Orange and Maroon Effect" day

Remembering the victims killed this past Monday and their family and friends for Virginia Tech's "Orange and Maroon Effect" day

Cottage-y Fabric

Ahhhh...my lovely, always covered dining room table. Here you see it completely covered in a plethora of pink and turquoise. The flowers are for a craft show booth display - I always have lots of flowers in my jewelry displays - and the fabric is to make my first quilt. Yea...not sure when that's going to happen, as hectic as things have been around here, but one day, these lovely fabrics are going smack dab into a handmade quilt...par moi! I got these fab, plastic turquoise plates from Tar-jhay this past weekend...I think I'm going to try to work them into my display, as well, especially since turquoise is my "official" business color. :)

Easter Dessert

Forget Easter dinner...after having given up dessert for Lent, I baked a cake instead of a chicken and booooyyyy was it tasty!


To offset all the cake I knew I'd be eating, we just had a simple chicken dinner on Sunday, but tonight, I decided to splurge a little bit. Not to mention, I just happened to be on the side of town with a Fresh Market, so I had to take the opportunity to get a nice big piece of steak:


I also made garlic-y, herb-y mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. I used a creamy cheese, like Rachael Ray uses all the time, and toasted baguette slices to enjoy the leftover cheese spread. Mmmmmmmmmm! Top it off with a nice glass of red wine, and I'm pretty satisfied with the start to my week! :)

My Pink & Green Swap Goodies Are Here!

Yay! My Pink & Green Swap goodies are here! Check out all the cool stuff I got from my swap buddy, Christina:

Super cute teacup, adorable, porcelain egg-holder, yummy candy, pretty pink tin bucket, craft goodies, party napkins, fun fabric remnants, unique teapot, adorable handmade pillow with button accents

It's all so wonderful! Thanks Christina for doing such a good job! I love it all! Now, I just hope you like yours as much as I like mine!

Thrift Jackpot!

I hit the thrift jackpot this weekend! I found lots of "firsts" to add to my thrift collection, like this apron:

After seeing everyone else's awesome vintage apron finds all the time, I was starting to wonder if I would ever find any. This weekend, I hit up a new Goodwill, and this one was so nice, clean, and best yet - organized! All the fabrics, scarves, bedding, and other fabric goods were all nicely hung up, so I thrifted quite a few nice fabric finds.

I also found my first vintage tin! Lookie! Ooh, and a vintage, cottage-chic style floral pillowcase...

Isn't it adorable? I also found some pink fabric napkins - a set of 4, actually.


I also found these awesome fabric thrifts - a purple/yellow/white/green tablecloth and a set of 3 placemats in a yellow color that almost matches the tablecloth. Also, a sheer table runner, which I think I'm going to use for my booth displays when I do craft shows.

I think I'll be visiting that Goodwill every weekend now!

"Normal" Dinner

See! Sometimes I make normal, "lazy-day" meals:

I just don't normally take pictures of them...lol

I fed me and my SO for less than $10 with this meal - Barbeque baked chicken, mac & cheese, and steamed broccoli

Cheap and tasty...always a good combo! Even you bachelors out there can make this (Nic-Nic - you readin?) ;)

Bead Shopping

I went bead shopping today with one of my friends who also makes jewelry. We spent nearly 2 hours perusing hundreds of thousands of different kinds of beads, and it was so much fun! I wasn't supposed to buy anything b/c I did my accounting for my jewelry biz and I didn't make a profit last year :( but I just couldn't resist. If you've ever read my other blog, then you'd know I'm quite the shopaholic. I probably should have just not gone, but now that I'm back home with my beautiful beads, I'm glad I went.

Here's what I bought:



Coral, amazonite, freshwater pearls, citrine, garnet, chalcedony...oh the beautiful beads! For anyone who hasn't been to a bead store, you may not know that the beads are usually sold on strands, temporarily strung onto fishing line or string...just in case any of you were thinking the beads looked like jewelry already. :)

These are pendants made with actual butterfly wings:


Now to decide what to play with first. Which strand(s) would you like to see made into jewelry first?