Hoppin & Pickin

It's a Friday Party Y'all!

I'm linking up with Bethany at Maryland Pink and Green for the Blog Hop Today.  I have met some really awesome bloggers through her hop, and hope to meet more today!

Today is also Kristin's over at Windy Populars Pick of the Patch, were we get the chance to share our favorite post from the week.  She is also having a Fall Festival next week, so you will totally want to check that out!  Looking back over the week, I have to say that I loved all my posts.  I think my Fall Flowers post was fun, and showcases my developing photography skills.  I'll be sharing how I planted my pansies this week.

I'm also sharing how much we are enjoying using our new kitchen over at Kelly's Korner, too.

Hope y'all have a great weekend! 

Go Gators!

Cookin in our New Kitchen

A few short weeks after we finished our kitchen remodel this summer, a pipe burst in our house and flooded the whole darn place.  I didn't get to enjoy cooking in my new kitchen for a few months, but now that we are back home, we are cookin up a storm!

Today for Kelly's Show Us How you Live, I want to show off all my hard work and our NEW kitchen!!

Our kitchen went from this:

To This:

 Fresh coats of paint on the walls and cabinets, new hardware, new ceramic tile floor, granite counter tops, white subway tile back splash, crown molding to top off the cabinets, new stainless steal appliances, deep sink and faucet, new plantation blinds, refreshed outlets and switches and a nice new light fixture to top it off!

 

We love it, and love making good food to eat, too!  Josh made us taco salad for dinner tonight.

 Hope y'all have a great weekend!  I'll be visiting with my family for all my cousin's pre-wedding festivities!

Can't wait for the bridesmaid luncheon and Mexican Party at the family lake house! Of course I will be trying to sneak in the Gator game if possible.

As always Go Gators, beat those LSU Tigers!

Fall Flowers

So my back porch went from this:

To this:

In a few short months. 

When we first moved into the Marriott after our house flooded, I would come back home at least twice a week to water my plants.  This lasted for a little less than two months.  I blame the construction workers for storing lots of things on our porch AND the fact that we had no floor for some period of time.  Well, I did have some surviving basil-ha!

Enter my fun floral friend who loves cooler temps.  The pretty Pansy.  I stopped by my favorite locally owned garden center after work and got busy weeding and planting when I got home.

 All I needed was a flat of these lovelies and a nice glass of vino for my fall planting session.

 My Pansies with the cool October sky in the background.

A little up close look at these beauties.

 Oh and with that surviving basil?

 I made a pesto sauce for my angel hair for dinner.  Didn't have pine nuts, so swapped out walnuts, it worked out well.

A pinch of kosher salt a few garlic cloves, walnuts, a few bunches of basil, some parm and EVOO-yum yum yum.

 My creation with a side of corn bread.  I've decided to embrace that my cooking style has developed into north meets south, Jewish meets Baptist.  It's working for me.

Fall Fun

Much to my surprise, the Monday after we moved back home from the Great Thompson Flood debacle I had a package waiting for me AND my October issue of Southern Living in the mail box.  Double Bonus.

My package was an amazing spa basket sent as a thank you gift for hosting Gwen's baby shower.  What a thoughtful thank you. 

I put all those products to use right away.  What could be better than a spa night and flipping through the latest issue of SL while having my back massaged (we have a machine from Brookstone).

Also something fun going on in our household is Date Your Mate.  A super fun series that Kristin over at Windy Populars is featuring.  Each week she posts great ways to date your husband and show him how much he means to you. 

Yesterday's idea was to hide Hersey kisses all over the house, and the more your husband finds the better his date would get. 

Josh would be returning from a business trip, so I sent him an email to prepare him for the task. 

When you get home tonight, there will be Hersey kisses hidden around the house for you.  First for every kiss you find, you get a kiss from me.  Second, wrappers can be collected and turned in for the following:

# of Kisses Found:         Earnings:
1-5                               Quick snack together
5-8                               Movie and Popcorn at Home
9-12                             Candlelit Dinner at Home-your choice
13-16                           Dinner and Dessert at home-your choice
17-20                           Dinner, Dessert, and Massage
21-25                           Dinner, Dessert, Massage, and ???
Good luck!

This man was on a mission.  I thought when he got home last night from a long day of meetings and flights he would jump on the computer and then flip on Fox News.  Not at all, he scoured the house for kisses, and was very proud of all his findings.  I do still have a few hidden in tricky spots.  I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying these creative ways for us to do neat things for each other, it's so fun!  Thanks Kristin!

Hosting a Baby Shower

So I'm a little behind most of my friends in the baby department, but in my defence I'm still practically a newly wed.  That doesn't mean that I'm not trilled when I hear the great news AND always looking for an excuse to throw a party.  When one of my besties, Gwen, announced she was expecting the first thing I said was that I wanted to host a baby shower in her honor...  Well maybe the second or third thing I said, I'm sure there was some squealing and many congratulatory phrases involved prior to baby shower hosting. 

I co-hosted with my friends Lauren and Jessica - who held down the fort in Florida with important decisions like venue, menu, etc while I came up with the invitation and decor in VA. 

We decided to host the soiree at one of the mother-to-be's favorite brunch spots.  An eccentric beach cafe, where we had to work with the environment, aka there was lots of crazy stuff there.

With this in mind, I went with a simple motif.  Green swirls, white Daisey's and highlights of blue.

I did pack all my decorations in a suitcase and flew them down to FL - in what I referred to as a party in a bag.  My husband even let me check my party in a bag, which is strictly against his no checking bags (except for ski and golf trips) policy.

The Room

Menu & Favor

Flowers

Banner - also will be hung on the front porch when the little one arrives

The Gifts

Mother-to-be AND the best cake

Gwen received lots of beautiful and thoughtful gifts

And some funny one's!

Our beautiful friend and soon to be mother.

Her aunt made this by hand.

 The hosts and mommy!

We had such a wonderful time, and I can't wait to throw another party sometime soon!

Gastronomical Journeys

It all started Friday night, when Josh decided it was his destiny to beat his Call of Duty game on our new PlayStation 3.  Not really the Friday night I had in mind, I knew it would be next to impossible to break the gaming trace he had entered into.  I figured it was a chance for me to read a good book and went upstairs to see what could be downloaded from the library for our e reader.  Not realizing that there would be a waiting list for most of the books that I thought up to read, I had to get a little creative.  That's how I found my new literary love, Calvin Trillin.  He is incredibly talented, and finds such creative ways to share his love of food with his audience.  I am having trouble putting down Alice, Let's Eat, and am looking forward to reading many more of his works!

I was up with the sun on Saturday morning to volunteer with the Junior League of Washington DC at the Capital Area Food Bank.  The first of many Saturday morning volunteer shifts to come.  I loved every minute of it, and was so glad to know that I was helping people in the area with a little extra food to get them trough tough times.  We made 750 bags of food to go to Welfare recipients in DC.  That totaled four and a half pallets of boxes!

Saturday afternoon, we prepared some football party foods and my friend, Jen, and I decided to have our own personal Octoberfest after a trip to the Fairfax County FallFest.  A corn dog was my choice for my fair food, and I gladly shared my cornmeal crusted meat on a stick with my hungry husband.

Luckily, I Octoberfested myself out of commission during the second quarter of the Florida, Alabama game.  I spent the remaining quarters on the sofa in the formal living room, while everyone else subjected themselves to much pain watching the Gators get it...BAD.

Molly also decided she needs a Pottery Barn Kids chair.  For those wondering, the broom is a strategic measure to keep Jen's overzealous, but completely lovable dog, Aslan, at bay.  No we don't hit him with it.  He just has this unnatural fear of brooms that we unmercifully take advantage of.

Sunday morning, Josh's first request was for me to make him breakfast.  Not knowing anything we had other than eggs, I think I whipped up something nice.  Dunkins Coffee, Belgium Waffles, Potato Pancakes, fried eggs for him and scrambled for me.  It was a real pleasure to prepare a meal in our kitchen.  I've missed that these past few months.  The first question out of my Jewish husbands mouth was, why didn't you make grits?  Strangely, I thought he may appreciate potato pancakes more, but I was sadly mistaken.  Next time I know to stick to my southern roots.

 

Pick of the Patch

I'm jumping in with Kristin for the pick of the patch today, I'm all about the blog parties this week.  Be sure to check out the Tour de Dining Room below-have a great weekend!