success

Last night's dinner was, in the words of my fiance's ancestors, MUY BUENO! ;)

In all seriousness, allow me to humbly state that it might have been one of my best.
I even manned the grill completely on my own while Mr. P was at the hair salon.
*sorry my love, that funny yet completely true detail was just too good to leave out.

Truthfully all credit really needs to be given to the masterminds behind these scrumptious recipes.
The chicken had a glaze that was somewhat sweet but still had a little bite to it.

The arugula corn salad with bacon was my favorite part of the meal.
Probably because it consisted of three of my favorite ingredients: corn, bacon and cumin.


I also must mention that I finally succeeded at grilling corn.
A feat I've tried to master for 2 years folks!
Once it caught on fire and once it was so undercooked I was left wondering if the grill was actually working.
Well yesterday I resisted the urge to take the corn in it's completely blackened husks off the grill after only 10 minutes and allowed them to cook for about 25 minutes.
The end result...perfectly sweet and smoky corn!


Wanna try these recipes?


Check them out here and here!

snickerdoodle

I get anxious if I haven't baked in a few days.
Thus the reason I spend hours weekly browsing food blogs looking for recipes for which I have all ingredients handy.

Two days ago I discovered Simply Recipes and have been hooked since.
In fact, yesterday I based my grocery shopping around some of her recipes that I wanted to try.
For dinner tonight, grilled chicken and arugula corn salad with bacon.
Is it 6:00 o'clock yet?

About an hour ago I was browsing her cookie recipes.
I'm always on the lookout for yummy cookies considering we are having a 'cookie buffet' at our wedding.
I read Elise's recipe for Snickerdoodle cookies and was sold once I realized how easy it was (and that I'd get to use my new stand-mixer)!

Let me tell you my sweets, these are amazing!



Try them.
You can thank me afterwards. :)

sister, target and babies...fun stuff!

Sister came by this morning.
She works most weekdays now so it's always a nice surprise when we get to hang for a bit.
Normally if the sun is shining we'd seize the opportunity to lie by the pool for hours upon end.
However, for the past two days you can feel Fall on it's way in and sun bathing just didn't feel right.

So we did the next best thing.
We went to Target.
You know, to stock up on essentials like butter, ketchup, horseradish. ;)

While there I finally picked up a journal.
I've been meaning to buy one for quite some time.
You see I often daydream about the day Mr. P and I will have babies.
To say that I'm excited to be a mother would be an understatement.
I used to be all awkward around babies, sometimes I'm sure I still am.
BUT I know once we have OUR babies, it will just feel right.
It may sound silly to some but I just really think I was meant to be a mommy.
You know like some people are really talented on the violin or an amazing ballerina?
Well I think I'm going to be an amazing mommy.

Before it's time to birth our youngsters there are lots of exciting things to look forward to.
Like getting married and being newlyweds for a bit. :)

In the meantime I thought it might be nice to begin a journal of sorts.
I'll begin each entry 'dear future baby'.
Hopefully one day our children will want to read this journal.
You know, so they can have a glimpse of the way mom and dad were back before they were 'mom' and 'dad'.

I just finished my first entry and I feel unbelievably happy and at peace.

Happy September friends.
xo

Weekend Update

I was incredibly 'MIA' last week and I apologize.

I like to think my excuse is that I had two 'legit' baby cake orders (YAY!).
But that's not true.
There was however lots going on.
Let me fill you in...

Thursday
Was our second Fantasy Football Draft.
We joined some friends at a hole in the wall bar (those are always the best kind) for wings, beer and football mania.
It was fun and I definitely like my second team (The Tainted Meat Brigade) better than the first team I drafted (Rodgers Dodgers-Aaron Rodgers is my QB!)

Friday
Mr. P and I watched lots of tv, ate a yummy feast of Turkey Burgers and Shrimp Salsa, and went to bed early because we had a big day ahead of us.

Saturday
Woke up really early to drive two hours to Stoneville, NC for what was supposed to be a day of tubing on the Dan River.
NEVER, I repeat NEVER do business with the Dan River Campground.
They didn't have our reservation correct and were short 2 tubing rafts for our group.
Our friends went out to a local Wal-Mart to try and find 2 rafts and arrived back at 11:57am.
The bus left at a few minutes earlier and refused to wait even though the reservation was for 12:00.
It was quite bizarre really.
They also told us there was no public access to the river.
Thankfully a nice gas station employee informed us that there was in fact public access nearby.
We ended up spending a hour or two on a small beach, so the day wasn't a complete wash.


That evening myself, Mr.P, Mr. Barzee, my sister, and future brother-in-law all attended the Edwin McCain show at the new Fillmore.
The show was great, the Fillmore rocks, and it was all in all a fabulous night!

Sunday
Spent way too much time on the couch and ate way too much food!

Today
Applied for passport.
YAY honeymoon!
Now I'm chillin' with my lovely fiance at his office.
I feel pretty cool sitting at desk. ;)
It kinda makes me miss having a "real" job.

Oh and just to prove I really did make LOTS of baby cakes last week here's a couple photos for your viewing pleasure.

s'mores for all my friends

I now spend a large part of my days trying to knock out last minute wedding projects.

One in particular I've been working on for the past few days was our s'mores packets.

Yep, that's right!
We've decided that the two fire pits at our venue will be utilized later in the evening for roasting s'mores.

I was back and forth on whether or not this was a good idea.
Then I went home for a visit and we had s'mores.
It was probably only the second time I've ever had them...let me tell you, THEY ARE AMAZING!
So amazing that I find myself at home wanting to roast them over the stove or a small candle outside.

I'm determined to make the set-up cute so that people aren't standing around in their cocktail attire wondering when the wedding turned into a camping trip.

I want to have individual bags set up with all the s'mores essentials (small hershey bar, marshmallow, graham cracker) so that if a guest wants to participate they just grab a cute little bag, a stick (that my parents have been collecting) and they go to town.

Since we are trying to do everything possible to keep our budget in check I didn't want to have hang tags printed.

So instead for 10 cents a pop I just ordered these kraft tags from Shop for Less.


Then I spent hours searching for a s'more stamp.
My search finally ended with Etsy, no surprise!
This lovely shop owner is customizing the stamp for me so that underneath the s'more man it reads 'enjoy'.


I think these are going to turn out to be just darling.
Don't you?

I'm often hesitant to post decor I've ordered for our reception because for those of you who read the blog and will actually be at the wedding, I want most things to be a surprise.

Well this morning I received an e-mail from Julene, who makes amazing Paper Cuts, with an attachment of the finished piece I commissioned.
I adore it so much I can't resist sharing it with you all.

Not quite sure if any of you remember, but awhile back we (remember my poll?) decided to display a Paper Cut at our 'cookie buffet' favor table that reads 'We Go Together Like Milk and Cookies".

Well take a look at the final product...


Julene is one very talented lady.
I'm in awe!

Check out Julene's blog to see more of her amazing work.

Weekend Update

This past weekend was pretty incredible.

allow me to list a few highlights:

chicken tacos
making baby cakes while watching the cmt top 20 countdown (best way to make baby cakes)
couples wedding shower
breakfast at Toast
trying my gown on for sistah
five guys burger and fries (one of the best meals EVER!)

Best part of the weekend though had to be the shindig at the Ched's.
Miss Chelsea had a graduation party for her fiance, Ted, because he recently graduated with his MBA!
The party was decorated in green and yellow, UNCC's colors.
Like my baby cakes?


Here's a few more photos from the evening...







Hope you folks had a happy little weekend as well.