they are that good

Feast your eyes on my new favorite snack dinner side dish!

GARLIC ROASTED POTATOES

We were in charge of bringing some kind of potato dish to our community group dinner the other night. Andrew found the recipe and I did the cooking. It was a hit. They scraped the pan clean that night.

Sooooooo....

We had to make them again because they were THAT good. And this time we were in the kitchen together.

Now go get yourself a 3 lb bag of those cute, little red potatoes. Rinse them real good.

Quarter them up.

Over on the other counter....take out a big bowl and pour in a 1/4 cup of good olive oil,

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper,

and 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt.

Now for the fun part. Enter garlic! Please tell me you love the cousin to the onion! Andrew wouldn't touch it when we first got married, but luckily he has quickly acquired a taste for the good stuff. When you are out buying your red potatoes, be sure to pick up a garlic peeler if you don't already own one. It makes life so much easier when you are peeling 6 {yes, 6!} cloves of garlic. The clove comes out all pretty like. A garlic press will also be quite helpful, so add that to your grocery list. You're going to peel and press 6 cloves of garlic into the big bowl.

Then you're going to mix it all up and make it look gorgeous. Like this.

Go on back to the other counter and pick up your quartered potatoes and put them all into that big bowl. 

And mix everything up really, really well. Don't leave one, single potato uncovered. And be sure that you don't have all the garlic hanging out in one place. Spread the love!

Dump them out into a roasting pan. Be sure to get every last drop, speck, and particle from that bowl into your pan! Then spread everything out and cover that pan with the oil mixture and potatoes.

Now you're going to stick them in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour. Set the timer for 20 minute intervals because you're going to want to make sure to flip the potatoes to ensure even roasting. 

Now on Saturday night I popped them in the oven and went to read on the couch. While I was learning and relaxing the hubby was up to something...

He told me that he was going to get chicken for the grill when he left for the store. So I naturally assumed he was out there grilling chicken, but that was not the case, my friends, that was not the case.

He was grilling these bad boys. And let me tell you something...that steak nearly changed my life. It was sooooooo good! {Please notice the Master Griller's perfectly proportioned and skilled diamond sears on the steak. Oh yeah!}

Then when the hour was up I took these beauties out of the oven.

And this is how we dined on Saturday night. Better {and cheaper} than any steakhouse in town. 

After Saturday evening, I maybe might have been seen snacking on those potatoes a lot. Maybe. 

If you maybe might want to snack on them, too, then go here for the recipe.  It called for parsley, but we left it out. To each his own.

Happy Roasting!

you're welcome

A few weeks ago I hosted my sister's bridal shower. I made these delicious chocolate covered peanut butter truffles and it would be rude of me not to share the recipe because they.were.incredible.

Here's what you'll need:

1 cup creamy peanut butter {I used Jif.}
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
6 ounces semisweet chocolate {word to the wise -- get a whole lot more than that.}

Mix the peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar well...it needs to be really creamy. Try not to make as much of a mess as my friend and I did when we made them; insert Ethel and Lucy moment here.





Line a baking pan with wax paper.

Do yourself a favor and get a melon scooper. It's perfect for portion size

 and it's makes the balling go a whole lot smoother and quicker.

We had to get a bit creative here because the baking pan wouldn't fit in my freezer. I ran to the garage to get some cardboard boxes and we cut them to fit the freezer shelves to give our wax paper support. The peanut butter balls need a good 30 minutes to freeze well. When it comes time to dip the peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate you are only going to want to take a few out of the freezer at a time because they get gooey fast. Once they are gooey there is no easy way of giving them a proper chocolate dipping.  

Once they have been dipped into melted chocolate place them back onto wax paper on a baking pan and place them in the fridge. These do not have to stay refrigerated, but they tasted better and lasted longer if they did.

I put the truffles in these cute little boxes that I found on clearance at Michael's, spruced them up with a bit of ribbon, and placed them in the entryway/exit for people to enjoy as a thank you gift for coming to the shower.  

Evidence as to why I received many a phone call after the shower to a.) find out if they were homemade and to b.) find out if I'd be willing to share the recipe.

FYI in order to fill all of those favor boxes I had to triple the recipe. And to be completely honest I have no idea how much chocolate we went through, but it was a lot more then what the recipe called for for sure.

These were so delicious! I am happy to do a taste test when you whip up your own batch.

dates and decor and dresses

Last weekend seems like SO long ago already! Anyhow, last weekend Andrew and I went on another date. We went to our favorite burger joint. (Boring in the sense that it's a chain and you could go to a thousand other blogs in the blogosphere and find out about cooler, hip one-of-a-kind burger joints, but nonetheless awesome and true -- Five Guys knows how to make a burger.)

And right next door is one of the greatest cupcake establishments to hit a shopping center in these days of cupcake trendery -- Misha's Cupcakes. SO GOOD!!!

And then I stepped foot inside a Home Goods store for the first time in my life and I will never be the same again. It.was.awesome. I wanted to spend oh so much money, but instead I spent 15 buckaroos on this fantastic shadow box frame. I've been wanting one for wedding mementos, but never found one that had quite the right look and size. Then voila. There it was on a shelf all by its lonesome at Home Goods. Andrew and I came home, got down our wedding stuff, and within 20 minutes this baby was hanging above my vanity/desk in our room. It makes me really happy. I've stopped and stared at it a lot this week. I've had to factor it into my getting-ready-for-the-day time so that I don't run late. Our sweet pastor from Tampa who married us sent us his sermon notes for our ceremony. I placed a page of his notes along with the program front and interior page, and a picture I found in a box of extras from the photographer.

After we hung my new favorite piece of decor on the wall, we sat down to watch a movie (and all of the special features on the BluRay, which were so interesting) and eat our cupcakes. It was a great night. I've been wanting to blog about that everyday since, but have not had the chance to do so!

On a completely different note: You should go check out this blog that I recently discovered for 2 reasons...one, it's cute and I like it and you might also. And two, she's giving away an awesome dress from the Shabby Apple and it could be yours or mine!

On another completely different note: This weekend my hubby and I are visiting friends and family. And we will be welcoming our first nephew into the world and I am STOKED!!! Isn't it crazy how much love we can muster up for a sweet, little baby we haven't had the privilege of meeting yet!? I cannot wait to hold him, and to spend some quality time with his big sister and mama. His dad is pretty great, too.

The Laundry beckons and I must go attend to it. (The scary part is that there is more in the hamper AND the washer AND the dryer.) My motto: The sign of a happy social calendar and fulfilled life is a large laundry pile.

the day of luuuuurve

I know that there are a million people who think that Valentine's Day is really dumb. I know Hallmark, Target, Godiva, and florists love the suckers who fall into the trap. I know a lot of people think that the day brings on this awful pressure for guys to be the romantics they may not be and the women who want that romance let it be known to their men that they have great expectations. {Enter the 485 men at Publix at 7am feverishly reading the 7 cards left over.} And I'll give it to you...the holiday that claims there is one special day to declare love has its' absurdities and we ought to be romancing and wooing our One and Only's every day. With that said...I still love Valentine's Day! What's so bad about boxes of chocolates in the shape of hearts and loads of cards to choose from with BRIGHT PINK envelopes! Hey, I know it's Valentine's Day everyday in my house...but I will always love the 14th of February.  

On the Day of Love I spent some time assembling wedding invitations for my sister. Such fun!

I also received this beauty! Which I was not expecting even though I had been gushing about it for days! We don't normally do gifts on Valentine's Day so I was thrilled when I heard the hubby say that I had one waiting for me. Our friend, Rachel, has a very talented sister who makes and designs jewelry. I love, love, love her stuff and her style. I usually want pretty much everything she lists and whenever I see that my favorite pieces have been sold I feel so sad! So imagine my heart break when this necklace was gone within days of it first being listed...little did I know! All of Rebecca's jewelry is handmade, one of a kind. Check her stuff out at Spencer Morgan Designs!

I tell you we don't do gifts and then I tell you about our gifts. Confusing, right? Look, Andrew is always giving me things, surprising me, giving into me (I might be persistent and persuasive, a little) and doing things for me. With all of that in mind, I decided I would surprise him with a gift. A few weeks ago Em over at Today's Letters posted about the neatest thing! She and her husband had received a tiny letter that was made by the company Leafcutter Designs. I loved it so much that I decided to send one to my Valentine and to give him a clue in it about his real gift...a segway tour. He's always wanted to ride one of those things and since I want to be his adventurous sidekick I bought us tickets.

For dinner I decided to try making something he really likes to order at restaurants. This is the quicker and cheaper version of that sort of thing since I was trying to pinch the pennies. It's a french dip sandwich. I found the recipe I really wanted to make over at Pioneer Woman {love her}, but had to try this recipe from Rachel Ray due to time and money and was not disappointed at all. SO DELICIOUS! But next time I have 40 bucks burning a hole in my pocket I am going with the Pioneer Woman! (For the record...I am assuming that huge slab of meat in her pictures cost about 30 bucks...but I could be wrong and it could be cheap...I didn't even go look in the meat section when I went to the grocery store...feel free to enlighten me.)

Happy Love Day!



have you heard of that little place down south?

This morning the hubby and I got out of bed and got going pretty early. There are only 3 things in this world that can get me out of bed bright eyed and bushy tailed early in the morning. (I am SO not a morning person.) Those three things are:

1. A trip to the happiest place on earth

2. Christmas morning

3. And driving 25 minutes south to pick up some world famous cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven down in the Redlands of South Florida

Here in South Florida we have quite the gem. In a city known for it's high fashion, fancy cars, night life, and strange interesting people, this place sticks out and is a diamond in the rough. I have been going there since I was a kid and I hope to take my kids there some day, too. Have you been to Knaus Berry Farm? Please say you have, and if you can't say that, then please make it a goal for you and yours in 2011. You won't regret it!

It doesn't look like much from the outside...but as you can see there is a line forming outside and this picture was taken 20 minutes before they opened the doors.

At Knaus Berry Farm you can enjoy the bakery, home grown produce, and the best strawberry milkshake in the 305. You can also go there and pick your own tomatoes and strawberries when they are in season and thriving. I love that!  

They also sell delicious jams and jellies. This year I am investing in their honey.

And here you have 2 dozen beautiful, hot cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven.  

We immediately went to my parents house to surprise them and my sisters with the best.breakfast.ever.

You can read a little bit more about Knaus Berry Farm here. And look at way cooler pictures here since my camera is not of the awesome kind.

As I finish writing this I am fighting the urge to go eat one of those cinnamon rolls right now. It's so late!

Must.wait.til.morning.