Happy Leap Day!!

Today marks one week that I gave up desserts for Lent... OMG I am counting down the days until Easter (33.) I would kill someone for a cookie right now.

Someone got a special Leap Day Treat from his fiance today! How sweet of me to make him a surprise when I couldn't eat any myself.

Little Old Lady

Oh hello, it's my thirteenth birthday!! I got a shiny new name tag so I can be returned to my owners in case I decide to surprise everyone and run away! I've been thinking about making a run for it if my dad doesn't impulse-buy me a new and bigger bed soon anyway. I prefer to upgrade at least twice a year.

Shutters

I saw this at a lamp shade booth in Sugar Magnolia and thought it was such a creative idea! The shutters looked like they were drip painted a million different colors which SEEMS like it may be easy to do. I love all of the symmetry. I'm sure you could find shutter just like these at Charles Phillips Antiques. Inspiring!

Good Eats

Here are some things that Katherine and Joe have been eating lately, since I know how curious you all are...



A most beautiful homemade cake that Joseph received for Valentine's Day... the only day that my heart shaped cake pans leftover from Aunt Gloria's birthday seem normal.

This cake broke the hand mixer! Extreme!

 Barefoot Contessa's Perfect Roast Chicken.... mine wasn't exactly perfect, but I'm working on it.

Also working on getting some kitchen string and making better knots! whoops

"We need to eat this sausage we bought at the farmer's market before it goes bad" breakfast:

Apple-cinnamon flavored sausage locally made in Oxford - it was so good, and you could really taste the apple and cinnamon

How cool are my egg poachers!

The heart-attack special

Our Friday night dinner:Honey-Thyme roasted carrots

Roasted vegetables, steak, champagne from Jonathan and Libby, AND we didn't have to go out to the bars with our friends! Best night ever!

Favorite Meal Ever

Here is a picture of my very favorite meal on the planet. Volta chicken stew and feta pimento dip. I eat it approximately once a week but I could eat it for every meal. I hope to find a way to re-create this dip before I leave Oxford, or I will be having serious withdrawals.

YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM

Sophia Grace and Rosie Strike Again

Kate

Via

Christmas Gift

This is my new favorite thing, a painting of the bay that Mrs. Granade gave me for Christmas! I'm obsessed. It is hanging above my other favorite thing - tiny deer antlers from an antique store in Oxford (sorry animal lovers!)

Skinny Mac and Cheese

I planned to make a skinny mac and cheese recipe from Skinny Taste, so I emailed myself the recipe- knowing that Joe would be in class with his computer when I was making it and I could use my phone. Well, Joe's Internet does not want to work lately, and it decided to go out just as I was looking for the email!

Easy and delicious

So, I had to go from memory (scary) and invent my own recipe. I got a lot of it right, but created my own measurements and additions (garlic, cayenne, goat cheese, forgot the onions..) It turned out pretty great!

I ate it for lunch today and added ham...it was amaaaaaazing.

Here is the original recipe:

Skinny Baked Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

12 oz high fiber elbows like Ronzoni Smart Taste

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp light butter

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup minced onion

2 cups skim milk

1 cup fat free chicken broth (vegetarians use vegetable broth)

8 oz (2 cups) Sargento shredded reduced fat sharp cheddar

salt and fresh pepper to taste

12 oz fresh broccoli florets (I used pre-cut bag)

1/8 cup grated parmesan

1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

cooking spray

Directions: Cook pasta and broccoli together in a large pot of salted water, according to package directions for al dente (or slightly under cook 2 minutes). Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 375°.

In a large, heavy skillet, melt butters. Add onion and cook over low heat about 2 minutes, add flour and cook another minute, or until the flour is golden and well combined. Add milk and chicken broth and whisk, raising heat to medium-high until it comes to a boil; cook about 5 minutes or until the sauce becomes smooth and thick. Season with salt and pepper.

Once the sauce is thick, remove from heat, add cheese and mix well until cheese is melted. Adjust salt and pepper to taste, add cooked macaroni and broccoli and mix well. Pour into prepared baking dish. Top with grated cheese and breadcrumbs. Spray a little more cooking spray on top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, then broil for a few minutes to get the breadcrumbs golden.

Happy Mardi Gras!

It's easy to forget about Mardi Gras now that we don't live in Mobile, but we are still representing in Oxford!

We went home to the Thalians party this weekend and had a good time at the Courtyard Manor. Joe was ambitious and walked to see the parade, but I was lame and didn't want to go because it was about to rain and I am deathly afraid of watching the parades at The Garage. One word - violent! I spend the whole parade in the fetal position on the ground crying because I am so scared. He had fun at the parade and I had fun at the party with my friends - and no one got injured!

At the party with Bryan and Carrie Ann!

Not sure who I can credit this amazing photo to!

Cheese Connoisseur

Kroger likes to label their cheeses in extreme abbreves, so I usually have to look the name up online to find out what I am enjoying. No such luck this time, google has failed me. This cheese will have to remain as : RUSL DN OLVO SWTZRLND. I can obviously guess the OLVO = olive (there are olive pieces inside, and SWTZRLND = Switzerland (tough one!) If you have any clues, feel free to make a guess. I really liked this cheese!

Yummy!

FLASHBACK to...Christmas!

I skipped right over this for some reason, so here you go! Here are some pictures from Christmas Adam:

Our Dirty Santa party at Jody's house

This year, the Jensen newlyweds joined us for the fun at Turtleneck Christmas!

I liked getting one million congratulations on our engagement! Very fun, and a very late night.

The next day, Brianne met me in the morning to go to Baby Day 2011. She was only in town for the weekend and wanted to see everyone and their new additions, so we got them all in one place and had a ball! I have a feeling that baby day will be even bigger next year!

Babies are an arm workout.

Corkcicle

via

This is the most wonderful invention! Especially if you are lazy and don't like going to the refrigerator when you need more wine...

The corkcicle at work! Thanks Santa!

Ole Phil

Does that groundhog EVER have good news????

"Six more weeks of winter, wah wah wah"

via

How funny are these?!

Clarksdale, MS, Round Two

We had quite a big time last weekend. Friday night, we celebrated Brittany's birthday with a party at Meredith's and then went to see Tyler at the Round Table.

Saturday, we had a date with the party bus, and went back to Ground Zero in Clarksdale, MS. The bus is a LOT more pleasant in the winter, and it seems to actually have a working heater!

Lauren learned a sweet new pool trick from some lurker:

I met the owner who forced the band to give me a 'shout out' - which was quite unnecessary! There are some very interesting characters in Clarksdale who sure like to have a good time.

Bill and Charleson jamming with the band

As usual, I went to sleep on the way home and we got back to Oxford around three... Sunday = worthless.

Frittata

I made my first frittata! I really just wanted to use my quiche dish. It was quite delicious and had broccoli, cheese, and green onions inside. I figured that you could throw anything in there that you wanted, but we didn't really have very many options! Next time, there will be ham involved.

Six eggs, a cup of milk and whatever else you want! 350 for 45 minutes

I also made these brownies with oreos inside. Seems like a great idea, but the whole time I just wished that it was a regular brownie.

Not all of your ideas are awesome, Pinterest!

Graceland

Before Christmas, Joe and I took a trip to Memphis to go to Elvis' house, Graceland. It was so cool to see the house left exactly the way that Elvis had it. I was pretending that we were buddies and he invited me over. We weren't allowed upstairs, which really ticked me off, and I almost bolted up there to get a peek. WHAT is so secretive up there?!?!?!?!?! Why did they have to tell me I wasn't allowed, because I probably wouldn't have cared if they didn't. Ugh.

His Christmas decorations were up too!

The Jungle Room! In the words of Mr. Ryan.."sick"

There were some super intense Elvis fans that kept hogging the good views and having "moments" all the time. I thought they were going to have a meltdown when we got to the gravesite.

Bffs

After leaving Graceland, I am obsessed with Elvis. I am dying to get a record player and some Elvis records. I made a fantastic discovery that XM has an Elvis station, and it is now a pre-set in the Prius!

You know you love it

Can't Win 'em All

We got together to watch the final playoff game for the Saints, which turned out to not have a happy ending. Black and Gold won't be winning the Superbowl this year. Christine went into mourning for a few days, but hopefully she has moved on :)

In true Oxford fashion, our friends cared about the loss for a good two minutes...and then were on to making margaritas and forcing us to go to the bar.

So professional!

Which turned into late night at Sean's house, and the cops came. hahahahahha. Luckily, Sean "dealt with it."

Anyone who is not in college would think we are drinking Red Stripe!

Law school people sure know how to have a good time. Do they ever sleep??? Joe and I were out of commission all day Sunday, of course.