My Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my blog followers!

I am in love with the song "My Valentine" by Paul McCartney. It has beautiful lyrics, and is obviously appropriate for the day. If you haven't heard it, check it out soon.

I'd also like to send some extra love to my valentine, whom is a little under the weather today.


Despite B's coughing and sniffling, I am still planning on putting together a seafood feast for him to enjoy this evening.

On Tonight's Menu:
Salad Course: Wedge salad w/ crumbled blue cheese & bacon
Soup Course: Lobster bisque w/ garlic crustinis
Main Course: Crab cakes, tomato & garlic mussels, salted baked potatoes, & herb roasted carrots
Dessert Course: Chocolate orange mousse

On a side note, this is what I woke up to this morning...


The 4 inches on the right and left side of the bed are where B and I sleep. Those dogs have taken over our bed!

Enjoy the day!

Settling In...

Well, we have officially lived in our house for 12 days, and I am absolutely in love with it. Although we were unpacked and organized in 2 short days, I took last week off from work (my first full 5 days away from work EVER!) and had a staycation. It was such a wonderful week, but now I am craving a vacation to a sunny destination. My week went something like this:

Monday: Searched for the perfect color of turquoise pillows to accent our master bedroom comforter. I ended up finding them at Pier 1. They were marked at 20% off, and I was able to use my 20% off coupon on top of that, making them a great price overall. They were exactly what I was looking for :)

Tuesday: Headed out by myself for a day of shopping. I went to the Christmas Tree Store, Garden Ridge & Old Time Pottery. Words can not express my love for OTP. Everything is so inexpensive, and they have a wide variety of styles to suit any one's tastes. For dinner I decided to make up a recipe in order to get rid of the eggplant I had sitting in my fridge. I coated the eggplant in flour, pan fried it in olive oil, and served it on top of penne rigate with homemade tomato sauce. It was easy, healthy, and very tasty!

Wednesday: Spent the morning at the gym with my mom, then treated her to a light lunch. We spent the rest of the day cleaning around the house, taking the dogs for a run, and talking about anything & everything. I love her.

Thursday: Ran some errands with B's Aunt. Later, she and her partner came over for dinner, and I made a 4 course meal. We had fondue as an appetizer, followed by a Ceasar salad, creamy chicken & mushrooms with angel hair pasta & garlic green beans, and finished with chocolate bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream & an orange sauce. It was all delicious, if I do say so myself, and they stayed until midnight dancing in our kitchen and playing scrabble. They are a riot!

Friday: I treated my Dad to lunch in exchange for his assistance hanging up hooks and shelves. Two of my girlfriends then came over that evening for a few cocktails, followed by sushi at our favorite restaurant. We were supposed to go out afterwards, but we decided to stay in and relax at my house. Lame, I know ;)

Saturday: B and I headed downtown Indy to explore the Superbowl festivities. It was insane. There were so many people, lots of great food, and even better entertainment. We had a blast!

We followed up our evening by eating at a fabulous restaurant where I experienced the best sweet potatoes of my life. I have a weird obsession with sweet potatoes, and these made me very, very happy!

Sunday: SUPERBOWL! Not that I am a huge sports fan, and I definitely didn't care about either of the teams, but I am always ready to cook/entertain for my family and friends. We had 3 couples over that evening, and the menu was as follows:

• Cream Cheese Wontons


• Stuffed Baked Potatoes


• Hooters Wings w/ Blue Cheese


• Queso & Tortilla Chips


• Baked Macaroni Bites


• Vegetable Platter


• Chocolate Chip Chunks

Now that my vacation is over, I am catching up on things at work, and already looking forward to the weekend. Hope everyone has a happy Thursday!

Winding Down...

Well, we are officially closing on our house in 2 weeks! Because the current owners are moving out the weekend after our Friday closing, we wont get to move for another 3 weeks, but we are both so excited. And anxious. And nervous. And just about every other emotion you can imagine. I'm sure that's normal, right? And I also suppose I should start packing even if our new house is 6 minutes away from my current location :) I have already done so much shopping, and have just about everything we need for the house. Of course, being the cheap person I am, it was all severely discounted, given to us, or some items were even found at Goodwill.

I have been so swamped at work lately, that I have not had any type of a social life. I have 2 huge projects due at the end of the month, which have caused me to work ridiculously long hours. Luckily, I will be taking off a full 5 days for the first time in my life upon moving into our new house. I have never taken off a full work week, and know I will still be checking my email and taking calls from home. I can't completely give up my career for a full week!

Here's my office in all its glory. I am on the second floor to the top!

Next weekend I am having a Girls Night Out with my 2 best friends, which is definitely needed. AND, tomorrow we are being nerds and attending the Home and Garden Show to check out landscaping/fencing options. I also have a groupon for a delicious, hip restaurant to top off our day.

Also, my current annoyance is the excessive amount of people at the gym. I am so sick of waiting for a treadmill, elliptical, cycle, etc. Please go away new resolutioners! Those of us who have been dedicated to the gym for so many years are sick of you taking up space and texting/talking on the phone/or barely moving while you are on a machine!

P.S. I know it is only Friday, but I have planned our meal for Sunday, and am so excited to indulge! I am finally going to try my crock pot recipe for baby back ribs (a once a year treat for us), along with a side of southern style coleslaw, salt encrusted baked potatoes and sweet corn. ::DROOL:: Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

"A charming woman is a busy woman." -Loretta Young

Good morning, blog followers! It has been awhile since I have posted, so I thought I should update you all on a few things...

The bf and I still haven't heard anything regarding the offer we put on the short sale house. Yes, it has almost been 3 months. We are continuing our house hunt, but because his lease is up at the end of January, we would like to have something finalized by the end of this year. We are looking at multiple houses this weekend, so we will see what that brings.

I have been doing a lot of fall cooking, and love the rich, hearty recipes that accompany this season.

Here are a few of my favorite dishes as of late:

Vegan Stuffed Peppers with Mexican Flautas

Tortilla Soup with Avocado and Cilantro

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

The stuffed peppers were vegan, and turned out delicious. I also make tortilla soup quite frequently because I LOVE all of the flavors, and can add as much or little hot sauce as I like. Finally, the pumpkin cookies are the perfect accompaniment to your Thanksgiving dessert table. They are full of flavor and perfectly fluffy. I found the recipe here...http://www.nutmegnanny.com/2009/11/24/pumpkin-cookies-with-brown-butter-icing/

I have been super busy this fall, and am sure things will get even more busy as the holiday season approaches.

In the past 30 days I have done the following...

Visited B's family in Wisconsin and had a fun alcohol-free night of celebrating Wisconsin's win against Nebraska.

Gone to the baptism of B's first nephew wearing the cutest outfit I have ever seen (a Ralph Lauren onesie & shoes I bought him)!

Golfed at a country club for the first time, and surprisingly didn't do too bad.

Visted Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland to see my dad's side of the family...I literally shopped until I couldn't see my toes from all the bags I was holding. Did I mention Times Square was extra insane with the Occupy Wall Street Protestors there?

And, my adorable pup, Tinky, attended his first dog costume party (dressed as a turtle) where he partied with Peyton Manning's dog, Presley.

Duke also dressed up...as a fat pumpkin.

In conclusion, life is busy, but really good. I am getting excited for Christmas, and can't wait to get more kitchen gadgets for our house, and other decorating things. Tis the season!

Italian Dinner, Upcoming Vacation, Food Trucks

Well, it is finally Thursday. This week has seemed to drag on and on. After work today I am taking photos with a friend to submit in a contest. The photos are supposed to accentuate your eyes, and all proceeds go towards the campaign for preventing blindness. If you feel inclined, you can vote for me at https://www.360photocontest.com/page/viewIndex/secure/on/contestId/108/clear/1 as soon as I submit my photo.


These past few weeks have been a whirlwind, and I find myself rarely at home, and always going to bed way too late. You only live once, right?! Here are few updates:

-It has been 1.5 months, and we still have not heard anything back regarding the short sale house. We did, however, find another house we are very interested in. This house is located in the same neighborhood as the short sale property, and we concluded that we would wait 2 more weeks, and then consider putting an offer on the other house.

-My mom's birthday was last week. On Sunday, I made a big fat Italian dinner for my parents, B & myself. The menu included:

Appetizers: Mozzarella Tomato Tartlets, Olives Imported from Italy
Entrees: Chicken Parmesan, Tomato Basil Pasta
Sides: Ceasar Salad, Garlic Parmesan Breadsticks
Desserts: Raspberry Torte, Limone Biscotti

Everything turned out delicious, and I set up the table using Italian fabrics/products. It was a cuter version of this...



-I, along with my mom, will be visiting my dad's mother who lives in Pennsylvania the second week of October. We will be staying at my half-sister's (yes, that is a real word. she is my dad's daughter from his first marriage) house in Maryland. We are going up for a 4 day weekend, and we will be spending all day Saturday in New York. I am so excited to see my family, shop, & eat some delicious cuisine!

-My latest obsession in the world of food are food trucks. Food trucks are relatively new to Indy and to my knowledge, there are 12 trucks. Although they aren't always inexpensive, they serve up a variety of dishes and flavors, and are always made right to order. To date, I have tried 2 trucks, Scratch and West Coast Tacos. I have decided to do a reveiw of sorts, and will report back more after I attend the Food Truck Fest on October 7.

I ate at the Scratch truck a few weeks back. I had the spicy chicken cone and hand cut fries, with basil lemonade. I was impressed that the menu had such a variety of options such as a burger topped with arugala & gorgonzola cheese, a BLT with pancetta, and a pork meatball sandwich. The chicken cone was very good, but I felt it could have used some more greens or rice, or something else besides chicken in a tortilla shell. The french fries were served piping hot, and the lemonade was very good, even if it was basil flavoring instead of fresh basil. All in all, I would give this truck a B+, and am definitely looking forward to trying more of their fresh creations.

A co-worker and I ate at West Coast Tacos yesterday afternoon. I settled on the sesame chicken burrito, and my friend got the pulled pork burrito. Overall, I was quite disappointed. Although I enjoyed the spicy flavor of the burrito, both of our burritos were very dry, and needed to be topped with a salsa or sour cream. I was also disappointed that there were so few options available. There were 4 different types of burritos, but they offered up no side dishes or interesting drink options. I had high hopes for this truck, but because of the well combined flavors, I would still give them a C+.


Well, that is all for now. Back to work I go! Stay tuned next week for some quick and healthy recipes!