Want s'more? How can I have some more if I haven't had any yet?

First, I love The Sandlot.

Second, I'm jonesin' for some delicious chocolate and yes it may be because Valentine's Day is this weekend..or it may be because I'm watching a Chocolate Challenge on Food Network. I always get sucked in to the Food Network and whatever is being made.

What's that? There's a wing Challenge? ...suddenly I'm craving some wings...

Sensing a pattern? Yeah, me too.

Anyway, how yummy do these look??

Oh hello mr. truffle

Smores are easy and DELISH, maybe I'll just make smores :)

or smores brownies?!

or smores brulee?!

or chocolate covered strawberries? a classic..

Do you have a favorite easy recipe? I'm a horrible baker but gosh darn it I want to make a yummy, easy dessert that includes chocolate!

One more day then TGIF!!

Weekend Recap + Dear Groundhog, Please Don't See Your Shadow Tomorrow

First of all, holy shizzle Anthropologie has done it again. These outfits will come first and my recap is at the bottom. I can't help but list them before my weekend shmeekend recap, they're much more important. ;)

I sure hope the groundhog doesn't see his shadow tomorrow, I want Spring to come soon!

{All from Anthro}

Alright, now that that's out of the way, this weekend was nice and relaxing. TBF and I enjoyed a delish dinner here on Friday, gymmed it up and made some knock out wings on Saturday and cleaned like a maniac, made some more wings and enjoyed some lovely company with some neighbors while watching the Grammy's yesterday.

Can you tell we enjoyed the wings? Not gonna lie, they were kick ass.

Here is the recipe via Marcela Villadolid from Food Network's new show Mexican Made Easy. They're so easy and so yummy!!

Ingredients

Marinade:

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons ground ancho chile* (or chipotle powder)
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds chicken drumettes

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, add the butter and melt over medium-low heat. Stir in the honey, and cook until the mixture bubbles, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, pecans, ground ancho and garlic powder. Season the marinade, to taste, with salt and pepper.

** Arrange the drumettes on a baking sheet, and brush each with the marinade. Bake until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes. Baste once, halfway through baking time. Transfer to a serving platter and serve hot.

*Cook's Note: The ancho chile is a dried poblano chile. It is also sold as "pasilla" in the US. It is a deep red color, and the flavor ranges from mild to pungent. The rich, slightly fruit flavored ancho is the sweetest of the dried chiles. Anchos are often sold whole and can be stemmed, seeded then ground at home in a coffee or spice grinder. They can also be found at most supermarkets, Latin specialty markets or online.

**Cook's Note: Cover your baking sheet with tin foil for easy clean up and to prevent marinade from burning in the oven.

We did not include the garlic or pecans because neither of us are fans, and it was still so good!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Back to work!

...but not for long! I thankfully have Thursday and Friday off for NYE and NY. Not much, but after having a little break and without many people in the office, I don't have much motivation to work!


How was everyone's Christmas? Mine was splendid. I feel so spoiled. I was right about my homesick feelings, they disappeared as soon as I was home. However I made sure to stop and cherish the moments I had with my family (which was easy to do when we were all laughing hysterically at my dad playing wii bowling).

One gift I received from dad (Santa) was cable and internet for A WHOLE YEAR! What's this mean? I'll be able to watch the Food Network and conveniently have the internet after work and on the weekends. This means I won't have to leave my apartment and go to Argo when I need the internet!! I feel I must note that I didn't have internet and cable previously because A. I have a blackberry (aka internet), B. I'm on the internet all day at my 9-5, C. I don't watch much TV, and D. I thought it'd be a nice money saver if I didn't have it and E. when TBF's over, I feel like we have more quality time to talk and hang out because we aren't distracted by technology. Ya dig?

I also received some fun wine accessories from my brother and sister in law (have any of you used a wine aerator before?? Makes an incredible difference!!!!!) and a gift certificate to one of TBF and my favorite restaurants. Maybe we'll put it toward a New Years dinner?

All in all, great Christmas.


Now folks, I NEED to get back on the wagon and go to the gym. Holy Christmas cookies and coffee cake. More of that to come later...

Next post - potential black dresses for a New Years eve party. Love little black dresses.

Happy Monday!

Weekend Recap

So this weekend FLEW by! The wedding was an absolute blast, but unfortunately downtown Columbus, Ohio itself is totally not. I apologize if anyone is from Columbus, I don’t mean to offend you, I’m just saying..it was prêt-ty boring…(especially on Sundays when absolutely nothing was open).

Also, we stayed at a hotel that was across the street from the capital building where an extremist Tea Party just happened to be occurring. Now, I’m more on the conservative side and I was a bit offended by some of the images they were showing of dead fetuses that were intended to support pro life (yes, I'm pro life as well) and I was a little scared walking past this Tea Party with TBF. As some of you know, TBF is half Chinese, therefore we were getting a lot of strange looks (blonde, white girl walking around with a Chinese, 6 foot male), and even some points and glares, most likely toward the Chinese male who was walking past a predominantly white rally. Needless to say I was a little nervous for our safety so we hurried in and out of Subway (after TBF was told about how our country needs nuclear power by a random woman and after I was asked by an interesting gal for $5 because she was "going into labor"…liar). Lots of different emotions were evoked during that half hour walk to and from Subway past the Tea Party, including, but not limited to, curiosity, humor, fear, confusion, sadness and anxiety. Yikes.

Click on this link if you'd like to see the truck that we saw with a disturbing image of a dead fetus on the front. I googled this image, it doesn't come from my blog or anyone else that I know.

I must note, I know this doesn’t make up the entire community of downtown Columbus, we just happened to be visiting on a particular weekend that didn’t agree with us.

Sooooo yeah, I won't be going back to Columbus, Ohio for awhile..

Anyway, because this weekend was full of traveling and not a lot of relaxing, I have a feeling I’m going to be laying pretty low this week.

The most exciting thing I may do all week is buy a microwave from Best Buy with a gift certificate that is 3 years old, not even kidding (Thanks dad!). TBF found it during my move..score.

So to make this post a bit more light-hearted, here are some saweeeet microwaves!





I believe I’m going to settle on this one, though.

Best Buy

Also, congrats to Melissa who won The Next Food Network Star!! I love her!

Hope everyone's having a lovely week!

Another Wedding Weekend

So I'm home sweet home in central Illinois this weekend for the SECOND wedding in TWO weeks. Not complaining...I ruv weddings :)

Ok I don't know who this is, I found it on Google, but I thought it was too ridiculous not to share...

Ok, I know you're tired of hearing about the damn Ann Taylor dress, but I can't resist sharing this. I made such a friggen fuss over this dress, from when it was going to be shipped, to the sash, to the shoes, and I decided I JUST CAN'T WEAR IT! Don't hate me, let me explain...

Here's why:

• Overall, it's totally not flattering, it's a little big in the waist area
• It was kind of pricey, and for that much moolah, I feel like I should LOVE it and feel wonderful in it...I don't..(I got it with a gift card so I'm hoping I can be easily reimbursed since the item was JUST taken off the site)
• I'm just as sick of talking about it as you are of hearing about it...

TBF and I have spent the morning in mama and papa Freck's sun room watching The Soup and The Food Network. Did anyone see The Soup today/last night?! HILARIOUS! Omigod I love that show.

I'm off to drink some more joe and watch Down Home With The Neelys make country fried steak...

*Before I let you go, here's a little snippet of this morning's convo between TBF and I:

Freck: "Holy cow, it's June 20!?"

TBF: "I know, I don't wanna talk about it.."*

tehe..

Have a lovely weekend!!

Cake Decorating

How awesome would it be to be a cake decorator? In another life, I must have been a cake decorator or a painter. I think the coolest part of having a cake worthy event would be picking out the cake. There are some awesome ones out there!

I really admire all the people who are cake decorators. You're doing something you love. Do you think there are any CD (yep, abbreviated cake decorators) out there who have a degree from a business school and decided to change their career? Jeez, I'd love to do that. I may gain 20893 pounds, but hey I'd be working when I actually want to and I'd have time to go work out and burn off all those calories from the delicious icing. 

I'm addicted to the Food Network's Ace of Cakes and all of the cake Challenges. This weekend there was a marathon of Disney cake Challenges and I couldn't unglue my tooshy from the couch. It was awesome.

How sweet are all of these?

Wrigley Field

I love sushi :)

Old school Nintendo.

Love shoes :)

So cool!

Mmmmmm Oreos :)

Who doesn't love Starbucks?

So realistic!

Love musicals.

So realistic!

Does anyone know of any cooking classes in Chicago? I'd love to do anything from sip some wine and watch someone decorate a cake right in front of me to getting up there myself and attempting to decorate and assemble a cool cake.

Happy hump day!