Really, South Carolina?

The picture below was my view driving to work today.....are you serious?!?!!! 

Bring back the 60 degree weather!

I had to get out my ice scraper.....yes, the one that is still in my trunk from my Philly days

Philly Pretzels!!!!

I know...I know.... it's been a while since my last post. Tonight I made homemade soft pretzels and two words...SO GOOD. I just finished them about an hour ago, and we are already through half of the pretzels. Looks like from now on I'll be doubling this recipe! I have to give credit to Annie's Eats, a blog I'm currently obsessed with! Below I've listed Annie's recipe with my pictures: 

Ingredients:

For the dough:
1½ cups warm water (110-115° F)
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. kosher salt
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
22 oz. all-purpose flour (about 4½ cups)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for greasing the bowl

For finishing:
Cooking spray
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp. water
Pretzel (or kosher) salt

Directions:
To make the dough, combine the water, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on low speed to dissolve the yeast.  Add in the flour and melted butter and mix just until the dough comes together.  Switch to the dough hook and knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth and clears the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes.  Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly greased with vegetable oil, turning once to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, about 50-55 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 450° F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot. In the meantime, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll a segment out into a 24-inch long rope. Twist the pretzel into the traditional pretzel shape and place onto your baking sheet. 

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 or 2 at a time, for 30 seconds.  Remove from the water with a slotted skimmer and return to the baking sheet.  

Once all the pretzels have been boiled, brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with salt.  Bake in the preheated oven until dark golden brown, about 12-14 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Finished Product!

These pretzels were seriously so good! Go ahead and make them right now!

Pajama Run

Tomorrow is my last major event for the Fall Season (with the exception of two small things coming up in december...)! Here's a sneak peak at my outfit for the 5K Pajama Run. No...unfortunately, I won't be running....just "supervising." I put that in quotes because the wonderful people at Knology Cable Company do all of the hard work for this event! If you want to register, you can still do so at www.knology.com/pj5k. 

I might have bought these from the little girls department at Target....

I'll make sure to post some pictures after the run....should be some great costumes!

DIY #2 & #3....all in one night!

This has been such a productive week! Tonight I finished my second and third do-it-yourself projects and my bedroom is really starting to come together. The first project I tackled tonight was a jewelry board that hangs on the wall. Before this, I had my jewelry hanging from a small screen that was displayed on my dresser.....not a pretty sight.....I have to say, this looks so much better!!

Finished product!

The project was super simple. I took a small piece of plywood (actually, I made Colin cut me a piece of plywood....see below) and wrapped it with quilting batting and then fabric. I used my trusty staple gun to secure the fabrics to the back of the plywood. For a little decoration, I used some basic white ribbon and upholstery nails. So easy and pretty!!

Colin has turned into my personal carpenter!

Project #2 for tonight was re-doing the frame below. I should have taken a picture of the original, but it was basically a bright blue leather. I took my fabric (yes...this is leftover from the headboard project) and used a glue gun to secure it to the back of the frame. I had to include the flowers in this picture...I picked them up from Rosebank Farms on my way back from a meeting at The Sanctuary on Kiawah Island. The greenery in the flowers is actually basil....how unique?!!!

Tonight's DIY #2 and pretty flowers from Rosebank Farms

Another Night, Another New Recipe!

Tonight's new recipe was chicken marsala, one of my favorite dishes to order at a restaurant. Even though I've ordered chicken marsala probably a thousand times, I've never had it homemade. This is the kind of recipe that I expected to be fairly difficult.......but it was so easy!! Check out the recipe below from 
All Recipes , I'll definitely be saving this one.

*I made a few changes to the recipe. I didn't feel like buying sherry just for tonight, so I just added one cup of Marsala wine. I also thickened the sauce by taking one cup of the hot marsala wine sauce and mixing two tablespoons of flour, then whisking it together with one tablespoon of butter. After the mixture is smooth, I slowly stirred it back into the chicken mix. Lastly, I served the chicken over a tiny bit of pasta. Turned out delicious! 

Chicken Marsala with Pasta

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour for coating
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded 1/4 inch thick
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup Marsala wine
• 1/4 cup cooking sherry

Directions

1. In a shallow dish or bowl, mix together the flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium heat. Place chicken in the pan, and lightly brown. Turn over chicken pieces, and add mushrooms. Pour in wine and sherry. Cover skillet; simmer chicken 10 minutes, turning once, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

Sunday Night Dinner

For the past few weeks I have been on a quest to learn and try new recipes. I figure...I am almost 26 years old, it is time to learn how to cook! Today's attempt was a white chicken chili and jalapeno cheddar cheese corn bread.

I found a crock pot recipe for the chili that included chicken, white beans, jalapenos, green & red peppers, onion, cumin and oregano. After mixing everything together, I cooked the mixture in the crock pot for about eight hours while we went to O'Malley's to watch the Eagles game. Unfortunately, the chili turned out to be more like a soup....but I guess it still turned out okay. Not too sure if I would make it again though.

White chicken chili before cooking

Now....on to the most successful part of the meal! I have never made corn bread before, but it jalapeno and cheddar cheese just sounds too good to pass up! The recipe was super easy and turned out really delicious. I'll definitely be making this one again!

Yummm! Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Corn Bread!!

Event Season

While I was catching up with Meredith on the phone today, we started talking about what I like to call "event season." For some reason, my work calendar is incredibly lopsided with about fifteen events going on from September-November and only 3-4 during the Spring. At this point, I only have three (four...one just added for the first week in Dec.) more events for the season and I couldn't be more excited to have my weekends back! Anyways, I figured I would share pictures from some of my events to let everyone know what I've been up to for the past few months while I've been ignoring your calls.

The Jerry Zucker Ride for Hope benefits local cancer groups and I sit on the Board of Directors. Above is a picture of George Hincapie, an olympic cyclist and good friend of Lance Armstrong. 

15th Annual Golf Tournament- This is one of my largest events and definitely takes about the entire summer to play. Every year, the tournament is hosted by the beautiful Turtle Point Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort. 

Tanger Outlets Fit for A Cure 5K Run- Colin went and ran while I volunteered.....and ended up winning 1st place for his age group! I'm sure that medal made waking up at 6AM on a Saturday worth it....

Taste of Charleston is one of the best volunteer days. Our volunteers help with the Annual Waiter's Wine Race where waiters from restaurants around town compete for the prize of Charleston's Best Waiter. That's Aparna in the picture above, measuring wine to determine a winner.

Those pictures are just a small selection of some of the events I have put together this Fall. Coming up this weekend I have another tennis tournament and a 5K run next weekend....the end is in sight!!!!

"Today is Epic"

Today's celebration of the Starbucks Holiday Cup calls for a Venti!

My First DIY Project!

For a few years now, I have been searching the internet for ideas for an inexpensive headboard. I've searched Pier 1, Pottery Barn, Ikea....all the usual suspects and couldn't find anything even close to my price range.  About two years ago I came across a DIY project for a tufted fabric headboard that looked relatively easy to put together.

Well....two years later, and I finally have a finished project! The entire thing took Colin and I about six hours to put together (including two separate trips to Lowes, a dinner break and a little bit of a battle with the buttons). I followed step by step directions by Centsational Girl that I found a few months ago. The only change that I made was to use a foam mattress pad instead of foam panels, which ended up saving me probably about $30. Total project costs were probably around $70!

Kitchen was turned into our workshop

Finished product!

The Murph

Send bail $$$, Murph is locked up!

Baby Murphy

;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

she's watching you......